RESEARCH

THE PURPOSE OF THIS RESEARCH IS TO STUDY THE FEASIBILITY OF PROVIDING ON-LINE ASSISTANCE TO SPACE SCIENTISTS USING AN EXPERT SYSTEM. IN PHASE I, THE RESEARCHPROCESS WILL BE EXAMINED IN TERMS OF HOW ADVANCED COMPUTER SCIENCE TECHNIQUES CAN BE USED TO PROVIDE SUPPORT IN INFORMATION MANAGEMENT, DATA RETRIEVAL AND ANALYSIS. WE WILL STUDY THE LANGUAGE STRUCTURE NECESSARY TO SUPPORT SUCH AN EXPERT SYSTEM, AND WILL DEVELOP A SMALL-SCALE PROTOTYPE. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS RESEARCH IS THAT IF EXPERT KNOWLEDGE IS SPACE RESEARCH CAN BE CAPTURED AND CODIFIED, IT CAN BE USED IN AN EXPERT SYSTEM TO CONDUCT RESEARCH ON DATA TO BE OBTAINED FROM SPACE. EXPERT SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN SHOWN TO BE EFFECTIVE IN ASSISTING PRACTITIONERS IN SEVERAL FIELDS. AS THE SPACE STATION IS BEING PLANNED, IT IS APPROPRIATE TO STUDY A COST-EFFECTIVE MEANS USING PRE-EXISTING EXPERT KNOWLEDGE TO SUPPORT THE ANALYSIS OF THE LARGE VOLUME OF SCIENTIFIC DATA THAT WILL COME FROM SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN SPACE. IN THIS RESEARCH PROJECT WE WILL DEVELOP A LANGUAGE, FORMULATE RULES, AND DEVELOP A SMALL-SCALE PROTOTYPE EXPERT SYSTEM TO ASSIST A SPACE SCIENTIST IN CONDUCTING A SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH PROGRAM. THE CONCEPTS THAT WILL BE DEVELOPED WILL HAVE A BROAD APPLICABILITY IN RESEARCH IN PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND REMOTE SENSING.