Based on the amount of data collected for any given NASA mission or project, it’s no surprise that AI is an enabling technology. AI is primarily used today to help with the detection of “things” and model enhancement. At NASA, AI is leveraged to monitor regions of space and automatically detect if something interesting just happened or is going to happen. Based on collected data and scientific models that describe a physical process, AI can be exploited to make scientific models more robust and reliable by enabling wider parameter exploration. 

NASA is just scratching the surface in its use of AI for mission enhancement and enablement. The amount of data collected on a spacecraft to finetune humanity’s understanding of solar physics and derived models is massive, amounting to tens, if not hundreds of TBs per day. In fact, it’s impossible to analyze all of this data simply due to its size and the limited computing capabilities on a spacecraft hundreds of miles away, all but forcing NASA to prioritize sending certain types of telemetry data down to earth, which vary depending on the mission. This presents opportunities for AI to be utilized on board satellites, rovers, planes, or balloons.