Why is an asteroid-mining company letting AI fly its spacecraft?

Deep-space communication delay makes onboard decision-making useful when a spacecraft must react before Earth can answer.

1. Sensors detect a fault or unexpected condition and compare it with tested operating limits.
2. Onboard software chooses only among actions permitted for that situation, such as adjusting attitude or entering safe mode.
3. The spacecraft records its observations and decisions so mission control can review them when communications catch up.
4. Engineers should test rare failures, define hard stop conditions, and keep high-consequence actions behind explicit safeguards.