---
title: "Robust Periodic Planning and Execution for Autonomous Spacecraft"
authors:
  - "Barney Pell"
  - "Erann Gat"
  - "Ron Keesing"
  - "Nicola Muscettola"
  - "Benjamin D. Smith"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1997/178"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1997/0178.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1997
pages: "1234-1238"
track: "Planning and Scheduling"
keywords:
---

# Robust Periodic Planning and Execution for Autonomous Spacecraft

Barney Pell, Erann Gat, Ron Keesing, Nicola Muscettola, Benjamin D. Smith

*Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 1234-1238.

## Abstract

The New Millennium Remote Agent (NMRA) will be the first on-board AI system to control an actual spacecraft. The spacecraft domain raises a number of challenges for planning and execution, ranging from extended agency and long-term planning to dynamic recoveries and robust concurrent execution, all in the presence of tight real-time deadlines, changing goals, scarce resource constraints, and a wide variety of possible failures. NMRA is one of the first systems to integrate closed-loop planning and execution of concurrent temporal plans. It is also the first autonomous system that will be able to achieve a sustained, multi-stage, multiyear mission without communication or guidance from earth.