Author: vitorcherulli

NASA has spent decades collecting enormous volumes of information from satellites, spacecraft, Earth observations, simulations, and scientific missions. The challenge today is no longer just gathering that data — it is finding meaningful connections across systems that store it in different ways. To address that, the agency is turning to artificial intelligence.

AI is becoming a core tool for NASA researchers and engineers, helping them search, analyze, and link datasets that would otherwise take weeks or longer to process. Anna Steers-Smith, NASA’s senior advisor on AI, said the agency views AI as a tool for exploration and discovery, not as an end in itself. The push comes as NASA prepares for increasingly complex missions that will generate far more data than before.

AI Supports Artemis II Planning

NASA has already applied AI tools during planning for the Artemis II mission. The tools help teams combine information from different sources to support safety recommendations and risk-mitigation scenarios. Troy LeBlanc, chief information officer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, noted that analyzing information from multiple sources traditionally took experts weeks. AI tools were able to complete parts of that work in seconds.

Assisting Mission Control

The agency is also exploring AI support for Mission Control. At Johnson Space Center, NASA has developed a prototype AI agent for SPARTAN flight controllers, who oversee the International Space Station’s power and thermal-control systems. The proposed assistant would help controllers navigate large volumes of information while leaving real-time decisions in human hands.

Making Earth Science Data More Accessible

NASA is working with Microsoft on tools that make complex Earth science datasets easier to explore. Earth Copilot and Hydrology Copilot allow users to ask natural-language questions of NASA data. Hydrology Copilot, developed with NASA’s Hydrological Sciences Laboratory, works with information such as precipitation and soil moisture.

These tools could help users investigate drought conditions, flood risks, and other water-related issues without needing specialized knowledge of NASA’s data systems. AI is also being used in weather forecasting: foundational models trained on decades of Earth science data and physical models can identify and simulate weather patterns more quickly. Processing satellite information closer to where it is collected could also speed up responses to floods and similar events.

Searching Lessons Learned From Past Missions

NASA’s AI work goes beyond active missions. The agency has experimented with AI agents that search its public database of lessons learned from decades of programs and missions. A NASA-wide data and AI hackathon attracted more than 500 employees, far exceeding expectations. Other projects included machine-learning tools for assessing forest-fire severity.

The bigger opportunity for NASA lies in connecting information accumulated across generations of missions. As future projects become more complex — including plans associated with a potential Moon Base — AI could help scientists and engineers make better use of information that might otherwise remain difficult to search, compare, or analyze.