AI/NLP technologies applied to spacecraft mission design

In this paper we propose the model of a prototypical NLP architecture of an information access system to support a team of experts in a scientific design task, in a shared and heterogeneous framework. Specifically, we believe AI/NLP can be helpful in several tasks, such as the extraction of implicit information needs enclosed in meeting minutes or other documents, analysis of explicit information needs expressed through Natural Language, processing and indexing of document collections, extraction of required information from documents, modeling of a common knowledge base, and, finally, identification of important concepts through the automatic extraction of terms. In particular, we envisioned this architecture in the specific and practical scenario of the Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) of the European Space Agency (ESA), in the framework of the SHUMI project (Support To HUman Machine Interaction) developed in collaboration with the ESA/ESTEC - ACT (Advanced Concept Team). © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.