Autonomous Logistics Technologies for Space Exploration: Experiment Results and Design Considerations

The ability to autonomously track and manage assets in space or at a planetary exploration site holds the potential to greatly improve multiple aspects of space missions. At the International Space Station (ISS) everything from food and clothing to tools and experiments is currently managed manually or tracked using simple bar-coding techniques, often at the expense of time and accuracy. An autonomous system, based on radio-frequency identification (RFID) or related technologies, could save precious time, increase planning accuracy, increase safety, and even amplify science returns for extended exploration missions. However, these benefits must be weighed against overall system complexity, mass, and other issues such as ease-of-use and astronaut training. Such trades hinge on the requirements for the system in question: What technologies can and should be used? What kinds of applications should be included? At what level should assets be tracked? Suitable answers to these kinds of questions demand actual hardware/software development and field-testing.