NASA Formal Methods

As NASA and the world look to exploration opportunities beyond low Earth orbit, several challenges have been identified. Spacecraft and other assets that will extend human presence beyond the vicinity of Earth will have unprecedented requirements for autonomy. These systems will be subject to new environments, latent and decreased communications bandwidth, sparse logistics support, and complex system requirements. New systems, such as vehicle system management, closed-loop environmental control and life support systems, and internal robotic caretakers, are proposed to close the technology gap between the current state of the art and future exploration needs. Current approaches to integration, testing, verification, and validation are likely to be insufficient to assure the operation of these vehicles and assets given their safety-critical functions. This panel will explore the challenges NASA is currently facing in the development of these systems, particularly from the standpoint of certifying the integrated system for human spaceflight.