AI in Space and Satellites Quiz

Answers and explanations appear as you take the quiz.

1. Why can Mars rover commands not be controlled like a real-time joystick?
   • Radio signal travel takes minutes each way and the delay varies with Earth–Mars distance
   • Mars has no radio relay hardware
   • The rover has no onboard computer
   • The rover communicates only through visible light
2. What does ESA’s Φsat-2 onboard cloud-detection application do with obscured Earth images?
   • It reconstructs all missing ground pixels with certainty
   • It filters images obscured by clouds so clearer images can be prioritized for downlink
   • It routes images to a Mars rover
   • It turns every image into a weather forecast
3. What is the purpose of SpaceX Starlink’s autonomous collision-avoidance system discussed in the FCC order?
   • To classify galaxies from telescope images
   • To select SuperCam science targets on Mars
   • To maneuver satellites in response to conjunction risks with other space objects
   • To filter clouds from Earth-observation images
4. How does NASA define the goal of avionics radiation-hardness assurance?
   • Guaranteeing software contains no bugs
   • Removing the need to test hardware in radiation environments
   • Increasing radio signal speed between Earth and Mars
   • Ensuring space-system electronics meet design specifications after radiation exposure
5. What does NASA’s LSTM-based spacecraft software catalog entry identify as its purpose?
   • Detecting anomalies in spacecraft telemetry with machine-learning methods
   • Generating satellite images from text prompts
   • Choosing water-treatment chemical doses
   • Predicting wildlife species from camera-trap images
6. Which astronomy task does NASA’s supervised-learning example apply to TESS observations?
   • Scheduling drinking-water pumps
   • Classifying transiting exoplanet candidates
   • Detecting gunshots in forest recordings
   • Predicting tax return accuracy
7. What science target can NASA’s AEGIS system select autonomously for a rover instrument?
   • A future Starlink collision maneuver
   • A water-demand forecast for a city
   • A target for a remote-sensing instrument such as Perseverance’s SuperCam
   • A crop-weed label for an Earth farm
8. What does Perseverance’s AutoNav system do when planning a drive?
   • Controls the rover continuously from Earth in real time
   • Selects tax records for anomaly audits
   • Filters every cloud from Earth-observation images
   • Builds a 3D terrain map, identifies hazards and plans a route around obstacles