An assistant in the loop: how the KnownX Mission Companion works with the engineer
Abstract
The KnownX Mission Companion is an AI assistant built into KnownX MPT. It sits in a panel beside the simulation, is given the state of the mission that is open, answers questions in plain language, and prepares changes to the mission. It does not apply them: each change is presented as a proposal that the engineer applies or dismisses. This paper describes the principles behind that arrangement, the information the Companion works from, the actions it may propose, how proposals are checked and reviewed, and how the Companion treats questions of accuracy.
1. Why an assistant in a planning tool
Much of the time spent in a mission planning tool goes on two things: finding out what the current state of the mission is, and translating an intention ("raise the orbit after the second pass") into the settings that carry it out. Both are well suited to an assistant that can read the mission and knows what the tool can do.
An assistant is only useful in engineering work if the engineer stays in control of the result. The Companion was designed around that requirement.
2. Design principles
| Principle | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| It works from the mission, not from memory | With every message the Companion is given the current state of the open mission, and it quotes figures from that state with their units. |
| It proposes; the engineer decides | A change is presented as a card to apply or dismiss. Nothing in the mission changes until the engineer applies it. |
| It can only propose what the tool can do | Proposals are drawn from a fixed list of workspace actions, each with an allowed range of values. |
| It checks a request against the spacecraft | Before proposing a burn it works from the propellant, mass, specific impulse and thrust available, and says when a request cannot be met. |
| It does not overstate | It reports the validation status of a run as the workspace shows it, and says when it does not know. |
3. What the Companion is given
The same information the engineer can see in the workspace at that moment:
| Area | Content |
|---|---|
| Mission | Name, simulation clock, whether time is running, time rate |
| Standing | Model fidelity and validation status of the run; which force models are active |
| Objects | Each body and spacecraft, what it orbits, its mass and speed |
| Propulsion | Throttle, propellant remaining and capacity, dry mass, specific impulse, maximum thrust |
| Plan | Each mission sequence step, its time and its status |
| Outlook | The predicted trajectory and any closest approach: miss distance, time and relative speed |
The mission context pane of the Companion panel shows a summary of this, so the engineer can see what the Companion is working from.
4. What it may propose
Actions fall into three kinds, according to what they affect.
| Kind | Examples |
|---|---|
| Views only | Select an object, change the camera mode, show the trajectory prediction, enter presentation mode |
| Changes to the run or the plan | Add, edit or remove a sequence step; set the throttle; latch the engine; pause; set the time rate; switch drag on or off; set drag coefficients; start or stop a telemetry recording |
| Changes that discard work | Reset the run, clear recorded telemetry, switch the zonal terms (which restarts the run) |
Some things are deliberately not on the list. The Companion cannot leave the workspace on the engineer's behalf, and it is instructed not to describe capabilities the simulator does not have, such as targeting an orbit automatically.
5. The review step
- The engineer asks for a change.
- The Companion replies in words, explaining what it is proposing and why, and prepares the actions.
- Each action is checked against the range of values that action accepts. An action outside its range is refused and never shown as a card.
- The proposal appears under Proposed action, marked as requiring review and not applied. A plan of several steps is presented as one proposal.
- The engineer applies it or dismisses it.
An applied proposal runs on the same engine, through the same commands, as a change the engineer makes by hand. There is no separate path for changes that come from the Companion.
6. An example exchange
The exchange below is an illustration, using the avoidance scenario from the help tutorials. Actual wording varies.
| Engineer | How close do we get to the other vehicle? |
| Companion | States the closest approach from the mission context: the miss distance, the time it occurs and the relative speed. |
| Engineer | Plan a prograde burn at T+90 for 45 seconds at full throttle. |
| Companion | Confirms the propellant available covers a 45-second burn, explains the step, and adds a card: a sequence step at T+90 s, 45 s long, attitude prograde, engine on, throttle 100%. |
| Engineer | Reads the card and applies it. |
| Workspace | Adds the step. The conjunction assessment replays the plan and reports the new miss distance. |
7. Accuracy and validation
The Companion does not decide whether a result is accurate. The validation status of a run is set by the workspace and passed to the Companion as a fact; it repeats that status as given. When asked whether a result can be relied on, it directs the engineer to the Validation Center, where propagation can be compared with published data for a real satellite.
It also knows that a run at a very high time rate uses a longer physics step, and does not present results from such a run as a statement of accuracy.
8. Connection and data
The Companion needs an internet connection and an activated licence. When the engineer sends a message, the message, the conversation in that session and the mission context described in section 3 are sent through KNOWN's service to an AI model provider, which produces the reply. The licence identifies the request, and KNOWN records the amount of use per licence. Nothing is sent when the Companion is not used. The privacy policy gives the details.
9. Scope
- The Companion works on the mission that is open; it does not act across scenarios or files.
- It proposes actions from the list in section 4. Capabilities outside KnownX MPT's own scope are outside the Companion's too.
- It is an aid to the engineer's judgement and does not replace review of a plan.
10. Further reading
- KNOWN Corporation, KnownX MPT Help: Mission Companion.
- KNOWN Corporation, Digital mission engineering for Low Earth Orbit, KX-WP-001.
- KNOWN Corporation, Propagation accuracy: validation method and results, KX-TN-001.
- KNOWN Corporation, Privacy policy.