Machine Learning for Mars Exploration

Risk to human astronauts and interplanetary distance causing slow and limited communication drives scientists to pursue an autonomous approach to exploring distant planets, such as Mars. A portion of exploration of Mars has been conducted through the autonomous collection and analysis of Martian data by spacecraft such as the Mars rovers and the Mars Express Orbiter. The autonomy used on these Mars exploration spacecraft and on Earth to analyze data collected by these vehicles mainly consist of machine learning, a field of artificial intelligence where algorithms collect data and self-improve with the data. Additional applications of machine learning techniques for Mars exploration have potential to resolve communication limitations and human risks of interplanetary exploration. In addition, analyzing Mars data with machine learning has the potential to provide a greater understanding of Mars in numerous domains such as its climate, atmosphere, and potential future habitation. To explore further utilizations of machine learning techniques for Mars exploration, this paper will first summarize the general features and phenomena of Mars to provide a general overview of the planet, elaborate upon uncertainties of Mars that would be beneficial to explore and understand, summarize every current or previous usage of machine learning techniques in the exploration of Mars, explore implementations of machine learning that will be utilized in future Mars exploration missions, and explore machine learning techniques used in Earthly domains to provide solutions to the previously described uncertainties of Mars.