AstroForge is putting AI in command of its next spacecraft
AstroForge will fly Solo, an in-house transformer stack, to autonomously control a spacecraft.
Asteroid-mining startup AstroForge built Solo, an in-house transformer-based control stack, after failing to recover its Odin deep-space spacecraft. Solo combines traditional control algorithms, subsystem models, and a layer trained on about 2,500 sensors. It is set to fly in shadow mode on DeepSpace-2, launching with Intuitive Machines by the end of 2026, ahead of a NASA-backed Autonomy-1 mission planned for 2027 on Stoke Space's first rocket. Founded in 2022, AstroForge has raised $56 million; two earlier prototypes missed most objectives.
- Solo blends classical control with a transformer trained on spacecraft sensors.
- Lost contact with Odin pushed AstroForge toward onboard autonomy.
- Shadow-mode flight is planned on DeepSpace-2 before a 2027 mission.
- The startup has raised $56 million after two troubled prototypes.
- Products
- SoloOdinDeepSpace-2
- Organizations
- AstroForgeNASAStoke SpaceIntuitive Machines
- AI models
- Solo
From the original article
3 min read at techcrunch.com
Autonomy-1 will have a small, transformer-based AI model taking charge of a space probe.
By Tim Fernholz · techcrunch.com
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