Plus: Why AI can't replace boots on the ground
| By Dan Robitzski
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The United States is sitting on the potential to set the standards for space operations for the foreseeable future, according to a commentary article by NASA program manager Ashok Prajapati. That's thanks to NASA's Core Flight System (cFS) open-source flight software framework, which plays a role in nearly all major NASA initiatives. To solidify that lead, he wrote, it's time for policymakers, military partners and the broader space ecosystem to leverage NASA technology.
"The United States has an extraordinary opportunity — one that will not remain open indefinitely. As space programs proliferate globally, the nation that establishes the dominant software standard for spacecraft operations gains durable influence over interoperability, mission collaboration and the norms of behavior in space for decades to come," Prajapati wrote. "NASA, through cFS, has built that standard. The world has begun to adopt it."
But, he added, "standards are not self-sustaining," and require "stewardship, sustained development and cross-sector collaboration."
You can read the full article here.
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Earth observation constellations have allowed for greater environmental, agricultural and deforestation monitoring than ever. But an article by MosaiX co-founder and Director of Strategy Priscilla Moulin offers a word of caution: No amount of technology or automation can replace boots on the ground and human intervention.
"Today's orbital tech is incredible, but there are several limitations," Moulin wrote. "AI models are limited by what they're trained on. And while they're excellent at detecting changes in forest cover from satellite imagery, they cannot accurately determine intent or causality, and they don't take into account complex local dynamics or on-the-ground realities."
If the goal is to stop deforestation, overreliance on automated ground coverage alerts could do more harm than good, Moulin argued.
"If a company panics at a false AI alert and immediately cuts ties with a supplier or a smallholder cooperative, the technology has failed its mandate. This path of least resistance — supply chain exclusion — might instantly clean up a corporate spreadsheet and create an illusion of compliance, but it fails to solve the problem."
See the full article here.
| | | |  | | Satellite image of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. Credit: NASA | | | | | | SpaceNews is committed to publishing our community's diverse perspectives. Whether you're an academic, executive, engineer or even just a concerned citizen of the cosmos, send your arguments and viewpoints to opinion (at) spacenews.com to be considered for publication online or in our next magazine. If you have something to submit, read some of our recent opinion articles and our submission guidelines to get a sense of what we're looking for. The perspectives shared in these opinion articles are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent their employers or professional affiliations. | | | | |
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