Mission Control is collaborating with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to demonstrate autonomous on-orbit computing using AI in a federated system.
The collaboration is a result of NASA’s New Observation System (NOS) program and NASA’s JPL wanting to demonstrate its Federated Autonomous MEasurement (FAME) concept through the program.
NASA describes NOS as follows, the “program seeks to involve the coordination and integration of various instruments located at different vantage points from NASA and non-NASA sources, including in orbit, airborne and even in-situ sensors to create a more dynamic and complete picture of a natural physical process.”
For JPL this means demonstrating “these concepts leveraging the proliferation of commercial platforms in Low Earth Orbit.”
In the case of Mission Control, their Mission Persistence on the LEMUR-2-KRISH satellite launched in June is an example of a commercial satellite participating in the decentralized system as an independent node.
Mission Control said “the collaboration directly supports JPL’s Federated Autonomous MEasurement (FAME) demonstration, which showcases how onboard AI analysis and orchestrated cross-tasking can enhance the agility, autonomy, and scientific value of future space systems.”
Dr. Andrew Macdonald, Mission Control’s Director of AI and Autonomy, mission manager for Persistence. said, “Mission Control is proud to support JPL in advancing intelligent mission coordination and pushing the boundaries of what is possible with autonomous space technologies.”
JPL plans to expand the FAME demo to seven spacecraft by the spring 2026, 20 by late 2027 and they hope to stretch that number to 60 satellites by mid-2028.