AI To Power China's Mission To The Edges Of The Solar System

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Here are seven current news headlines from around the world, categorized and written in a journalistic style: • Space Exploration

: NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover Discovers Evidence of Ancient Lake on Mars (NASA, USA) - A team of scientists has discovered a large lake on Mars that existed around 3. 5 billion years ago, according to data collected by the Perseverance rover. • Renewable Energy

: China's Solar Power Capacity Surpasses 220 GW, Becoming World Leader (Xinhua, China) - China has become the world's largest solar power market, with a total installed capacity of over 220 gigawatts, "according to the National Bureau of Statistics." • Infrastructure

: Japan Unveils Plans for $1. 4 Trillion Infrastructure Development Project (Nikkei, Japan) - The Japanese government has announced a massive infrastructure development plan worth over $1. 4 trillion... aimed at upgrading the country's transportation networks and promoting economic growth. • Environment

: EU Proposes New Rules to Reduce Plastic Waste in the Ocean (European Commission, EU) - The European Union has proposed new regulations to reduce single-use plastics and increase recycling rates... in an effort to combat marine pollution. • Technology

: New AI-P

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HELSINKI — Researchers are examining how artificial intelligence technologies could support a planned Chinese mission to the boundaries of the solar system, according to a new paper.

Artificial intelligence can help with the unique challenges of missions to the edge of the solar system, according to the paper, which include an unknown environment, complex mission dynamics, diverse scientific payloads, uncertain exploration targets, long detection distances and long communication delays with limited data rates.

AI can enhance autonomy and reduce dependence on Earth through assisting data processing, autonomous perception and decision-making and efficient computing, according to authors from institutions including the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), China's Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL), and the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST). The paper was published in the Journal of Deep Space Exploration.

Chinese space officials have previously stated that a mission to the head and tail of the heliosphere is being considered, with the aim of reaching a distance of 100 astronomical units (with 1 AU equivalent to the average Sun-Earth distance) by 2049. A longer-term goal is to reach a distance of 1,000 AU by the end of the century.

The mission, according to previous reports, would see the pair of radioisotope thermoelectric generator-powered spacecraft journey towards the head and tail of the heliosphere, using flybys of Jupiter and potentially visiting other planets and Kuiper belt objects in the outer solar system. Science goals include studying interplanetary dust, the interstellar medium, and phenomena such as Anomalous Cosmic Rays and the "hydrogen wall" at the boundary of the solar system and interstellar space. Tentative payloads include a range of optical cameras, dust and particle analyzers, a spectrometer and magnetometer.

The China National Space Administration officially organized and launched the demonstration of the implementation plan for a solar system boundary exploration project in 2020, and plans to study the mission were included in China's most recent space white paper in 2021. Solar system boundary exploration was noted in a long-term space science roadmap published in October.