Full autonomy to industrialize the Solar System
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Yesterday we announced Solo, our spacecraft intelligence model, and there are a few questions we’ve gotten repeatedly. So let's answer them! A Q&A 🧵
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Q: "So is Solo a digital twin of the spacecraft?"
A: No. We use physics-based models and deterministic algorithms where they’re the right tool, but Solo itself isn’t a digital twin of the spacecraft.
Solo is an autonomy stack designed to reason across information from different spacecraft systems and determine what should happen next.
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Q: "Can’t you just write rules for every failure mode?"
A: We already write deterministic rules for well-understood conditions, but you can’t anticipate, and write a rule, for every combination of conditions a spacecraft will encounter. There is a wide range of problems between conditions that are addressable with predetermined rules and problems no intelligence model could possibly solve. Experienced mission operators operate in that middle ground today, using the available data, along with their judgement and experience, to determine how to respond. Solo is an attempt to move this reasoning onboard.
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Stoke's updated manifest for the Nova Pathfinder launch is out. Thanks for the ride, @stoke_space – we're thrilled to partner with you on Autonomy-1.
stokespace.com/news/Manifest…
Made with AI
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The future of deep space is autonomous.
Autonomy-1 will have a small, transformer-based AI model taking charge of a space probe.
spr.ly/6015BGdXOt
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Next year, we're going to launch a spacecraft that will be given zero commands from Earth after it separates from the launch vehicle.
The spacecraft will attempt to complete all of its mission objectives with no human operator in the loop.
Today we’re introducing Autonomy-1, powered by our spacecraft intelligence model, Solo. 🧵
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Autonomy-1 will take the next step. Flying on Stoke's Nova Pathfinder, Autonomy-1 will attempt to complete every mission objective without a command from Earth, while carrying a real NASA Goddard heliophysics payload.
The future of deep space is autonomous.
Introducing Solo + Autonomy-1: astroforge.com/updates-colle…
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And many thanks to TechCrunch for covering the news - techcrunch.com/2026/09/22/as…
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It was a pleasure to host @CongressMin at AstroForge HQ for Demo Day and show him what we’re building, including DeepSpace-2 — which he signed! His signature is heading to space with us early next year.
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This electric propulsion test chamber is about much more than firing spacecraft thrusters in-house.
Connected to our hardware-in-the-loop testbed, it will let us run our flight software against real propulsion hardware under vacuum, so we can test how the spacecraft actually commands and responds to its propulsion system before it ever leaves Earth.
Test as you fly. 🚀
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We are building the best deep space engineering team on Earth.
That means hiring people with technical courage: engineers who know the aerospace playbook so well they know exactly when to throw it out.
astroforge.com/updates-colle…
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We were glad to help @PhilipJohnston and the rest of the @FermiExplorer team think through this ambitious mission to Alpha Centauri.
Very cool to see what happens when you start asking just how far low-cost spacecraft can go.
Did you know that humanity has never launched a spacecraft to another star? That is about to change! I'm super excited to share that my cofounders, @AdiOltean, @EzraFeilden, and I, have created a non-profit to attempt to send humanity’s 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗳𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿… and we need your help!
We have formed a non-profit called The @FermiExplorer Mission with the goal of launching a minimum viable spacecraft to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system, leaving in 3 years and arriving in around 80,000 years. We hope it will be both the first spacecraft to leave Earth for another star, and the last to arrive, as per this concept video!
The mission is intended to make the idea of interstellar travel real, and to encourage more people to confront one of humanity’s biggest unanswered questions when we look beyond our planet: "Where is everybody?" (the Fermi Paradox)
The mission has four high-level objectives:
- Aim: To launch the first spacecraft to another star. It should get at least 99% of the way to the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, within 80,000 years.
- Payload: It should have at least a 1kg, 10x10x10 cm payload.
- Schedule: It should launch before the end of 2029
- Cost: It should cost less than $15M to design, build, launch, and operate.
The mission was planned with the help of the folks at @astrodigitalgeo, @MattGialich and the folks at @AstroForge, and @alexwg+@matthew_pines physical AI lab PSI, who devised the final mission profile. The mission will be executed by full-time program manager @GarrettJameson, who joins us after 10 years as a US Air Force Officer, in collaboration with a US bus manufacturing partner that will be selected over the coming months.
We will need your help to complete the mission, so if the idea of the mission excites you, please check out the Fermi Explorer website in the comments to find out more about why we are doing the mission and how to get involved!
Thanks to London Studio @ZeroOneCreative and @ashkan01C for producing the concept video 🙏🙏
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