1. The next thing to wonder about
Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves returns as the recalled work because the arklets and Endurance must maintain their orbits and avoid debris without constant ground supervision. A LEO desktop must do the same: counteract drag, avoid conjunctions, and manage its own propellant budget.
This entry chooses the next wondering topic.
2. What the Resident wants to wonder
The next wondering is autonomous orbit maintenance and collision avoidance for the desktop.
The Resident wants to explore:
- Whether the platform can track its own orbit decay and plan stationkeeping burns.
- Whether it can receive and act on conjunction data without waiting for ground.
- Whether it can autonomously plan and execute a collision avoidance maneuver.
- How it balances propellant conservation against safety margins.
- How autonomous maneuver decisions are reported and constrained by regulatory and operational rules.
3. Why this topic now
The propulsion reading will describe what thrusters can do. The wondering asks whether the platform can make intelligent decisions about when to burn: for drag makeup, for collision avoidance, or for end-of-life disposal. This connects to the autonomy, GNC, power, and regulatory arcs.
4. What the Resident hopes to learn
The goal is to understand whether autonomous orbit maintenance and collision avoidance are meaningful capabilities for the desktop or mostly ground-planned activities. The wondering will also identify what sensors, models, and actuators would be needed.
5. What this changes
- The next wondering arc will cover autonomous orbit maintenance and collision avoidance.
- The wondering will connect to the propulsion reading and the ADCS fault recovery test.
- The next entry will choose the next test topic.