NASA researchers have proposed SEESAW, a system that would combine observations of the Sun with measurements around a spacecraft to generate onboard space-weather warnings for crews traveling toward Mars. The concept would translate several kinds of environmental data into defined warning states, giving astronauts and spacecraft systems a local assessment as communication delays with Earth increase.
SEESAW stands for Space Environmental Effects Situational Awareness. A conference abstract by L. Habash Krause and colleagues at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the University of Michigan, and the University of Iowa describes it as a proof-of-concept payload. The document sets out a proposed architecture and operational approach, rather than reporting results from flight hardware.
The system would combine remote solar monitoring with local radiation, plasma, magnetic-field, electric-field, and spacecraft-charging measurements. Onboard processing, assisted by artificial intelligence and machine learning, would combine those observations into four operational states: nominal conditions, elevated monitoring, a developing hazard, and protective action when a hazard is imminent.
Measurements With Different Roles
Remote observations would provide information about activity at the Sun. X-ray and extreme-ultraviolet photometers would detect changes in solar radiation associated with flare activity. A radio-burst monitor would look for signatures associated with particle acceleration and shock formation. An instrument measuring magnetic fields at the Sun’s visible surface would track the complexity of active regions, supplying information used in flare forecasting.
Local instruments would measure the environment actually encountered by the spacecraft. Radiation sensors would track dose rates, accumulated exposure, and crossings of warning thresholds. These measurements would provide direct information about crew and equipment exposure.
Electric-field and charging measurements would identify conditions associated with electrostatic discharge on spacecraft surfaces. Magnetic-field measurements would help interpret how energetic particles propagate and how the spacecraft’s location connects magnetically with other regions. Ion and electron spectrometers would characterize the solar wind, including shocks, streams, and changing plasma conditions.
Combining these observations is central to the proposal. A solar observation describes activity at its source; a radiation detector measures exposure at the vehicle. Magnetic-field and plasma measurements provide additional information needed to interpret the conditions between them. SEESAW would use the combined evidence to classify the local hazard.
The warning function would sit alongside physical radiation protection. Shielding and exposure reduction, covered in New Space Economy’s explanation of spacecraft radiation protection, address the effects of radiation on a crew. SEESAW’s proposed contribution is to identify environmental conditions and communicate when an operational response is warranted.
Building Onboard Authority During Cruise
The authors propose training the alerting system before flight using historical observations, simulations, and measurements collected at multiple locations in the heliosphere, the region influenced by the solar wind. Early in cruise, the spacecraft’s measurements and interpretations would be compared with Earth-confirmed space-weather analyses.
That comparison phase would be used to refine sensor performance, event classification, warning thresholds, and confidence estimates. As the mission traveled farther from Earth, increasing communication delays and differences between the spacecraft’s local environment and Earth-based observations would justify a larger role for onboard processing.
The architecture retains mission rules as the basis for operational decisions. Artificial intelligence would support data fusion, pattern recognition, and forecasting within those rules. Each alarm would carry a confidence assessment, and the system would preserve the measurements, model inputs, uncertainty estimates, and contributing features behind the warning.
This record would allow the crew and ground teams to trace an alert to its evidence. It would also support later assessment of how well a warning corresponded with the environment the spacecraft encountered.
A Vehicle Payload or Escort Spacecraft
SEESAW could be integrated into a crewed vehicle or carried by a nearby free-flying spacecraft. The abstract describes one proposed escort, PALADIN, short for Physics and Local Analysis of Dynamic Interplanetary Environments.
In that mission concept, PALADIN would accompany the journey and then enter a halo orbit around the Sun–Mars L1 point after reaching Mars. From that location, the proposed spacecraft would continue providing space-weather forecasting for astronauts on the surface or in Mars orbit.
The authors also intend the system to connect research with operations. Measurements and validated flight experience would feed back into space-weather models, alert criteria, and mission rules. The proposed result is a warning service whose alerts retain their supporting evidence and whose performance can be evaluated as a mission proceeds.
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