Artificial intelligence and space power systems automation

Various applications of artificial intelligence to space electrical power systems are discussed. An overview is given of completed, on-going, and planned knowledge-based system activities. These applications include the Nickel-Cadmium Battery Expert System (NICBES) (the expert system interfaced with the Hubble Space Telescope electrical power system test bed); the early work with the Space Station Experiment Scheduler (SSES); the three expert systems under development in the space station advanced development effort in the core module power management and distribution system test bed; planned cooperation of expert systems in the Core Module Power Management and Distribution (CM/PMAD) system breadboard with expert systems for the space station at other research centers; and the intelligent data reduction expert system under development

Exploring the Privacy Concerns in Permissionless Blockchain Networks and Potential Solutions

In recent years, permissionless blockchains have gained significant attention for their ability to secure and provide transparency in transactions. The development of blockchain technology has shifted from cryptocurrency to decentralized finance, benefiting millions of unbanked individuals, and serving as the foundation of Web3, which aims to provide the next generation of the internet with data ownership for users. The rise of NFTs has also helped artists and creative workers to protect their intellectual property and reap the benefits of their work. However, privacy risks associated with permissionless blockchains have become a major concern for individuals and institutions. The role of blockchain in the transition from Web2 to Web3 is crucial, as it is rapidly evolving. As more individuals, institutions, and organizations adopt this technology, it becomes increasingly important to closely monitor the new risks associated with permissionless blockchains and provide updated solutions to mitigate them. This paper endeavors to examine the privacy risks inherent in permissionless blockchains, including Remote Procedure Call (RPC) issues, Ethereum Name Service (ENS), miner extractable value (MEV) bots, on-chain data analysis, data breaches, transaction linking, transaction metadata, and others. The existing solutions to these privacy risks, such as zero-knowledge proofs, ring signatures, Hyperledger Fabric, and stealth addresses, shall be analyzed. Finally, suggestions for the future improvement of privacy solutions in the permissionless blockchain space shall be put forward.Comment: Accepted to be published in: 2023 IEEE International Conference on Smart Information Systems and Technologies (SIST). \c{opyright} 2023 IEE

Autonomous Payload Operations Onboard the International Space Station

Operating the International Space Station (ISS) involves many complex crew tended, ground operated and combined systems. Over the life of the ISS program, it has become evident that by having automated and autonomous systems on board, more can be accomplished and at the same time reduce the workload of the crew and ground operators. Engineers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville Alabama, working in collaboration with The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory have developed an autonomous software system that uses the Timeliner User Interface Language and expert logic to continuously monitor ISS payload systems, issue commands and signal ground operators as required. This paper describes the development history of the system, its concept of operation and components. The paper also discusses the testing process as well as the facilities used to develop the system. The paper concludes with a description of future enhancement plans for use on the ISS as well as potential applications to Lunar and Mars exploration systems

An Autonomous Power Controller for the NASA Human Deep Space Gateway

Autonomous control of a spacecraft is an enabling technology that must be developed for deep space human exploration. NASA's current long term human space platform, the International Space Station which is in Low Earth Orbit, is in almost continuous communication with ground based mission control. This allows near real-time control of all the vehicle core systems, including power, to be controlled by the ground. As the focus shifts from Low Earth Orbit, communication time-lag and bandwidth limitations beyond geosynchronous orbit does not permit this type of ground based operation. This paper presents the ongoing work at NASA to develop an architecture for autonomous power control system and a vehicle manager which monitors, coordinates, and delegates all the onboard subsystems to enable autonomous control of the complete spacecraft

Design and Implementation of a Distributed Middleware for Parallel Execution of Legacy Enterprise Applications

A typical enterprise uses a local area network of computers to perform its business. During the off-working hours, the computational capacities of these networked computers are underused or unused. In order to utilize this computational capacity an application has to be recoded to exploit concurrency inherent in a computation which is clearly not possible for legacy applications without any source code. This thesis presents the design an implementation of a distributed middleware which can automatically execute a legacy application on multiple networked computers by parallelizing it. This middleware runs multiple copies of the binary executable code in parallel on different hosts in the network. It wraps up the binary executable code of the legacy application in order to capture the kernel level data access system calls and perform them distributively over multiple computers in a safe and conflict free manner. The middleware also incorporates a dynamic scheduling technique to execute the target application in minimum time by scavenging the available CPU cycles of the hosts in the network. This dynamic scheduling also supports the CPU availability of the hosts to change over time and properly reschedule the replicas performing the computation to minimize the execution time. A prototype implementation of this middleware has been developed as a proof of concept of the design. This implementation has been evaluated with a few typical case studies and the test results confirm that the middleware works as expected