{"id":864951,"date":"2025-08-14T21:04:39","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T02:04:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/14\/a-satellite-just-used-ai-to-make-its-own-decisions-in-space-and-nasas-stoked\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T21:04:39","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T02:04:39","slug":"a-satellite-just-used-ai-to-make-its-own-decisions-in-space-and-nasas-stoked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/14\/a-satellite-just-used-ai-to-make-its-own-decisions-in-space-and-nasas-stoked\/","title":{"rendered":"A satellite just used AI to make its own decisions in space \u2014 and NASA\u2019s stoked"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For the first time, a satellite has used onboard AI to autonomously decide where and when to capture a scientific image \u2014 all in under 90 seconds, with no human input.<\/span><\/p>\n

The technology, called Dynamic Targeting, was tested by NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) earlier this month. It was installed aboard a briefcase-sized satellite built and operated by UK-based startup Open Cosmos, and carried a machine learning<\/a> processor developed by Dublin-based firm Ubotica.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the test, the satellite tilted forward to scan 500km ahead of its orbit and snapped a preview image. Ubotica\u2019s AI quickly analysed the scene to check for cloud cover. If the skies were clear, the satellite tilted back to take a detailed photo of the surface. If clouds obscured the view, it skipped the shot \u2014 saving time, storage, and bandwidth.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can be smart about what you\u2019re taking pictures of, then you only image the ground and skip the clouds,\u201d\u00a0 said Ben Smith of JPL, which funds the Dynamic Targeting work. \u201cThis technology will help scientists get a much higher proportion of usable data.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Brian Quinn, chief strategy officer at Ubotica, said that until now, satellites have merely acted as passive data collectors. They image whatever happens to be beneath them and beam all that data \u2014 useful or not \u2014 back to Earth. Scientists then sort through the backlog.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes post-processing, which could be days later, to say, \u2018Hey, there was a fire. Hey, there was a harmful algal bloom\u2019,\u201d<\/span> said Quinn in an <\/span>article<\/span><\/a> published on NASA\u2019s website earlier this year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

NASA, Ubotica, and OpenCosmos say the system could also be expanded to spot wildfires, volcanic eruptions, and severe storms faster than ever before from space<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The recent test builds on previous partnerships involving the three parties. In 2021, Ubotica demonstrated real-time AI cloud detection aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as part of a broader research collaboration with JPL. Then, in 2024, <\/span>Open Cosmos launched HAMMER<\/span><\/a>, an AI-powered satellite equipped with a hyperspectral camera and Ubotica\u2019s machine learning processor. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Si\u00f4n Geschwindt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the first time, a satellite has used onboard AI to autonomously decide where and when to capture a scientific image \u2014 all in under 90 seconds, with no human input. The technology, called Dynamic Targeting, was tested by NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) earlier this month. It was installed aboard a briefcase-sized satellite built<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":864952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26071,26361,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-864951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-decisions","8":"category-satellite","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}