Remote Agent may be but a mere experimental technology on next year's scheduled launch of DS1, but NASA clearly has big plans for it – including the idea that it may someday help create a livable atmosphere on Mars.
In the immediate future, scientists developing Remote Agent are trying to get the system on other unmanned flights including Deep Space 3, which is intended to create an interferometer for detecting Earth-like planets. Two crafts will be equipped with optical units and will reside in space 1 kilometer apart. The third craft, located somewhere in between the optical units, will capture the reflections from these lenses to turn the system into a large telescope. Remote Agent could help the system sniff out other habitable planets, searching for a wobbles and stars that denote gravitational pull.
But on Mars missions scheduled for 2001, 2003, and 2005, the goal will be finding a way to live off of the land on Mars. Although discussions for getting Remote Agent on these flights are in the early stages, researchers working on this autonomous system believe it would be suited to the missions' goals of sampling the atmosphere – and generating fuel. For manned missions to Mars, craft will need a fuel source on that planet to enable its return, said Brian Williams, leader of the intelligent autonomous systems group at NASA's Ames Research Center. Remote Agent could help create one.
At the same time that fuel is being generated – from a mixture of hydrogen transported to the planet with atmospheric carbon dioxide – oxygen and water are generated as byproducts, which could create a habitable environment. Williams sees Remote Agent's fault operational module as a key component in the effort to sustain life on the arid planet.
