On 23 August 2023, at 12:32 UTC, The Chandrayaan-3 touched down on the lunar south pole region on the moon. A monumental milestone for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), and for all of aerospace technology.

India is now the fourth country in the world to successfully execute a soft landing  on the moon behind:

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Soviet Union’s Luna-9 - January 1966

United States’ Surveyor 1 -  May 1966

China’s Chang'e 3 - January 2013

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The use of artificial intelligence  was integral to this achievement. The A.I on board controlled the Chandrayaan-3 lander’s, computers, guidance, and navigation systems. These advanced systems allowed the craft to land autonomously.  

However, even though Artificial Intelligence has only been in the public eye for the past decade or so, its been utilized in aerospace long before.

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1998: NASA launched Deep Space 1, a tech demo spacecraft. On   was dubbed “Remote Agent”. It was the first Artificial Intelligence system to have unsupervised control over a spacecraft.  It could diagnose and repair any faults that would arise while flying. Without its instantaneous bug-solving abilities , computer Nicola Muscettola says, it would have taken days to come up with new solutions to bugs.

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2004: The Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, land on Mars. The rovers use a software system called MAPGEN to help plan their daily activities. MAPGEN is based on the Remote Agent technology. The MAPGEN software system uses the Remote Agent technology to help the Spirit and Opportunity rovers plan their daily activities, such as where to drive, what rocks to study, and what experiments to conduct.

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2007-Ongoing: The Stardust spacecraft returns to Earth with samples from the comet Wild 2. The Stardust spacecraft uses an AI program called Stardust@Home to help identify dust particles in the comet sample. Stardust@Home is a citizen science project that allows volunteers to help analyze data from the Stardust spacecraft. The project uses an AI program to identify dust particles in the comet sample. Volunteers can then help to classify the dust particles and learn more about the comet's composition.

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2011: The Kepler space telescope is launched. Kepler uses an AI program called Robovetter to help identify exoplanets.

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2012: The Curiosity rover lands on Mars. Curiosity uses A.I software called “Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science” (AEGIS) and a  variety of other  AI programs to help it navigate, explore, and conduct experiments. These programs include autonomous navigation, identifying targets to investigate, and determining atomic makeup of rocks.

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2018: The Parker Solar Probe is launched. Parker Solar Probe uses an AI program to help it navigate through the solar corona and adjust its heat shield to avoid getting melted by the sun.

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2022: The Perseverance rover lands on Mars. Perseverance uses a variety of AI programs to help it navigate, explore, and collect samples. Perseverance uses an updated verison of AEGIS to identify rock samples from long distances. It also supports software updates, so the technology can keep  improving while the rover is deployed.

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This is only a handful of how A.I has impacted aerospace technology. Over the past years, A.I has seen a huge increase in responsibility in commandeering all kinds of spacecraft. The high-tech landing of The Chandrayaan-3 is simply a culmination of the decades of progress NASA and other aerospace organziations have done to incorporate Artificial Intelligence.

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