Is space the final frontier for AI? NASA to reveal Kepler's latest AI backed discovery

Kepler, launched in 2009, has discovered numerous planets (exoplanets) outside our solar system, some of these exoplanets could also support life. In the year 2014, the telescope began a major mission called K2, which hunts for more exoplanets while studying other cosmic phenomena. The Kepler mission has previously come up with huge discoveries, and has surprisingly estimated that the universe includes numerous planets that could support life.

This recent breakthrough was carried out with the help of Google’s Artificial intelligence, which analyzes the data coming from Kepler. With the help of Google’s AI, NASA expects to cut down the time required to choose a planet, which shows possibility of life. This is nothing short of the stuff they show on Christopher Nolan’s famous movie Interstellar, where Joseph Coop, an astronaut, goes in search of other planets to colonize as sustaining life on Earth becomes increasingly difficult. After decades of research and exploratory missions to far flung planets the research team arrives at 3 potential candidate planets for most likely suitable for human life. An AI backed Kepler could have saved that team time in narrowing down the list of planets with potential to find life. In short, the AI backing will ease out tasks for the scientists by allowing them to brush through the data sent by the telescope and easily pick up planets that might seem interesting to them for further exploration.

NASA said that Paul Hertz - director of NASA’s astrophysics division, Christopher Shallue - a senior Google software engineer, Jessie Dotson - Kepler project scientist, NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, and two scientists would be part of the upcoming conference. Very little is known about the conference itself as NASA is tight-lipped about this press release headlined cryptically as, “NASA’s press release states that machine learning “demonstrates new ways of analyzing Kepler data.”

Let’s keep our enthusiasm intact for the disclosure of Kepler’s latest breakthrough this Thursday...To watch the conference live on Thursday, stream into NASA’s official website.

Until then, here are some ways we think AI could assist humans with space exploration:

• Processing Data collected in space: The ENVISAT satellite collects 400 terabytes of data per year. As time advances, the count may reach 720 terabytes a day. In order to process this data, scientists have created a network of computers. Each computer receives a small data packet and processes it with the help of AI, before regrouping the data packets back together. Using this data, scientists would be able to track the activities taking place with respect to the Earth’s atmosphere, keep track of solar activity, and so on.
• Rapid communications to and fro the earth:  While talking to astronauts or computers orbiting around the earth, it takes less than a second for a radio wave to send signals to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS). Also, the time delay is different for different satellites and planets. Thus it isn’t feasible to relay commands for each action from the Earth. With the help of AI we can have on-board computers, which will think for themselves and adjust the communication time frame accordingly.
• Machines will walk through the planet to see if the possibility of life exists: Not all planets are suitable for humans to walk on. And even if they were, given the journey time for a mission, it may not always be practical to have humans do the on-ground study themselves. For instance, the moons of Jupiter--specifically Ganymede and Europa are interesting places to find life, due to the presence of vast liquid water oceans. However, the intense radiation fields around Jupiter are sterile for human survival. Hence, expeditions to find possibility of life on planets other than the Earth, can be carried out by machines with the help of AI. NASA is in the process of developing a robot called Robonaut for the International Space Station. Eventually, the expectation is that Robonaut would carry out risky spacewalks while astronauts manage it from the safety of inside the space station.

There are many other ways how AI can be used to guide our space explorations. Scientists are still in the process of finding out unique ways in which AI can assist them in their space missions.