proceedings). With eight conferences behind us now, we have a reasonably clear view of the progress and future of AI in space-related applications.
The early conferences were dominated by papers on expert systems, reflecting not only the level of development of AI practitioners in the space business in those times but also the widespread belief that expert systems were the essence of AI. The later conferences matured rapidly and have increasingly exhibited a broader scope, with applications of the various AI techniques, such as genetic search, as well as applications of fuzzy logic and artificial neural networks.
Each year, papers submitted to the Goddard AI conference exhibit an increase in the sophistication of both the problems described and the solutions proposed. This would seem to imply that the range of solved problems is also growing, even though work on the tough problems, such as autonomous robotic control, image classification, and intelligent information systems, continues year after year.
The Goddard conference and the conference papers published in Telematics provide a record of, and a window into, progress in this field. Work presented at the conferences over the years has tracked AI research trends and undoubtedly (and properly) will continue to do so in the future.
Of late, neural networks have become particularly prominent in space applications and are highlighted in this special issue. The other topics in this issue center on space applications of artificial intelligence in monitoring/control, knowledge engineering, and intelligent data bases.
The conference best paper award went to Craig Lindley for his paper entitled "Autonomous Satellite Architecture Integrating Deliberative Reasoning and Behavioural Intelligence", in which a "layered competency" model for autonomous spacecraft is proposed. This paper and all of the papers selected for this special issue are directed toward solving important outstanding problems related to applications of AI in present or future space systems, research, or exploration.
By the time of publication of this special issue, the deadline for receipt of abstracts