The pursuit of Earth-independent spaceflight demands safe, intelligent systems capable of autonomous decision-making far from ground control. This presentation explores how decades of spaceflight experience—especially current efforts to enable human missions beyond low-Earth orbit—offer valuable insights for the autonomous vehicle industry. By examining advanced onboard intelligence, resilient sensor fusion, and real-time safety protocols developed for deep-space missions, we’ll highlight key strategies for building fail-operational systems. The talk connects the challenges of human space exploration with those of safe autonomous driving, emphasizing the need for robust autonomy when real-time external guidance is limited or unavailable.

In this presentation, you will learn

• How Earth-independent autonomy parallels autonomous driving system challenges
• Techniques for onboard decision-making without external intervention
• Lessons in fault tolerance and mission safety under extreme conditions