Advanced Space Learning Lessons Testing Software Aboard CAPSTONE™ Spacecraft
WESTMINSTER, CO, 15 August 2024 – The CAPSTONE satellite after completing its primary navigation and Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) mission continues to be an on-orbit test platform to experiment with critical technologies needed for future cislunar missions. Advanced Space is using CAPSTONE to test multiple autonomous capabilities. The first experiments performed on CAPSTONE tested the functionality of the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS™) software—these efforts are still ongoing. Following CAPS, Advanced Space uplinked a SigmaZero machine learning model, which was developed for IARPA to classify anomalies with spacecraft navigation. The latest experiments Advanced Space has performed on CAPSTONE validated Advanced Space’s Neural Networks for Enhanced Planning (NNEP). NNEP is a Machine Learning (ML) application that calculates and validates optimal maneuvers without humans in the loop. It’s one of the key applications in Advanced Space’s Autopilot suite of on-orbit tools to enable autonomous operations. (more…)