Real-time health monitoring
Update awareness of internal condition while the mission is executing.
Solutions / Machine self-awareness
Operational Self-Awareness
AstraSense™: real-time health intelligence for mission decisions.
We’re developing AstraSense™ to connect diagnosis, prognosis and remaining capability with mission decisions—helping machines recognize health changes and assess when to continue, adapt, slow down or stop.
Electrified-aviation research and development is supported through NASA SBIR Phase I and Phase II contracts.
AQFM™: our shared intelligence foundation, in development.
The operational challenge
Condition can change while the mission is running.
A machine needs to reason about its current capability as degradation or damage develops. Real-time health evidence must reach the mission decision loop in time to reassess the next action.
The AstraQua approach
AstraSense™: awareness from the inside.
Operational self-awareness connects condition, capability, prognosis and uncertainty. AstraSense contributes this context to AQFM’s mission reasoning, supporting decisions within defined limits as machine health changes.
Capability focus
Actionable PHM in the mission loop
Development focus. Availability and validation are program-specific.
Our safety-focused engineering approach defines operating boundaries and testable behavior across AQFM. Health information supports capability assessment; safe operation still requires platform integration, testing and validation.
Degradation insight
Identify developing degradation or damage and its implications for capability.
Fault diagnosis
Interpret health evidence and uncertainty to assess potential faults.
Fault prognosis
Assess how condition may evolve over the remaining task and recovery options, within validated data and model limits.
Capability and readiness context
Connect health evidence with what the machine may still be able to do under current demand and constraints.
Mission planning and replanning
Inform continuing, reducing demand, task reassignment, return and recovery decisions while the mission is underway.
Workflow and intended value
How it works
A connected decision workflow
Sense internal condition. Diagnose and assess likely evolution with uncertainty. Reason about capability against mission demand, route and recovery constraints. Replan within program-defined authority, then monitor whether the updated plan remains feasible. This is a continuous process as condition and mission demand change.
Intended operational value
Better context. More informed action.
- Machine self-awareness that stays connected to mission reasoning.
- Health evidence that changes task, route and recovery decisions.
- A traceable explanation of why a mission continues, adapts or ends.
NASA SBIR-supported development
Advancing AstraSense Through NASA SBIR
AstraSense™ is being advanced through NASA SBIR Phase I and Phase II contracts addressing health-management challenges in hybrid-electric and all-electric aviation. NASA’s support is for research and development, not commercial endorsement, certification, or flight approval.
Phase I · Technical foundations
AstraSense: AI-Driven Health Predictions for Sustainable Aviation
Contract 80NSSC25C0144
Phase II · Continuing development
Advancing real-time health awareness, diagnosis, and prognosis for electrified aviation.
Contract 80NSSC27C0006
How this connects to AQFM
One intelligence foundation
The role within AQFM
AstraSense contributes system health and operational self-awareness to AstraQua’s broader architecture. AQFM is the shared intelligence foundation in development. The aim is to connect what a machine observes with what it can still do—so mission reasoning and fleet coordination can account for both.
Explore the context
Self-awareness across autonomous systems
- Aircraft and AAM: use propulsion and energy condition to assess mission continuation, return feasibility or a contingency recovery option.
- Satellites and spacecraft: use subsystem health to replan tasks, reduce demand or assess a validated fallback mode.
- Humanoids and quadrupeds: account for actuator, battery and sensor condition when adapting a task or returning to a recovery point.
- Mobile and industrial robots: reassess workload, route, task allocation and recovery as capability changes.
Return is one candidate action, not an unconditional response. The integrated system must assess whether the route and recovery option remain feasible, with operator authority and fallback behavior defined for the application.
These are application and evaluation opportunities. Each deployment requires relevant data, interfaces and validation. All seven Mission Lab demos include an illustrative AstraSense decision workflow using synthetic health evidence.
MiningWildfire ResponseOffshore and Maritime OperationsSmart ConstructionSearch and RescueLunar and Space OperationsAdvanced Air Mobility
Explore Mission Lab simulations →Questions, answered
What to know
What is AstraSense™?
AstraSense is the specialized health-intelligence agent. AQFM is the broader intelligence foundation in development, connecting specialized capabilities for individual autonomy and coordinated missions. Operational self-awareness here means knowledge of condition, capability and uncertainty, not consciousness.
Why does AstraSense need real-time health information?
Its purpose is to support decisions while the machine is operating. Condition, capability and uncertainty can change during a mission, so reasoning needs current health evidence to reassess tasks, replan and evaluate return or recovery. Maintenance can use the same evidence after the operational decision.
How does this relate to predictive maintenance?
Predictive maintenance and PHM can already provide continuous monitoring and prognosis. AstraSense’s development focus is to connect health evidence with remaining capability and the mission decision: continue, reduce demand, reassign work, return or recover. Maintenance planning can use the same evidence. The distinction is the operational decision being supported; each integration still needs validation.
Which systems are relevant?
Robots and autonomous systems whose condition affects operation. We assess the subsystem, available data and intended decision to define a suitable evaluation. NASA-supported development specifically addresses electrified aviation.
Is AstraSense certified or flight qualified?
No such claim is made here. NASA SBIR contractual support does not imply certification, flight approval, production readiness, or validation of every capability.
What can be evaluated today?
Contact AstraQua to review program-specific evidence, development status, data requirements, and evaluation scope. Mission Lab simulations are not evidence of AstraSense deployment or fault-prediction performance.
Technical perspective
Explore the thinking behind this capability
Reasoning based on Health-Aware Autonomy: Why Diagnostics Is Required for Real Decision-Making →
Build the evaluation around your mission
Which health changes should alter your mission?
Evaluate one subsystem and the mission decision its health should inform. Agree the available signals, fault cases and capability limits, then review diagnosis, prognosis uncertainty and the resulting continuation or recovery recommendation.