How are remote agents used?

There aren't very many remote agents in use on spacecraft. DS1 is the first to use a remote agent for just about all of its controls. Since Remote Agent on DS1 is there primarily to be tested, it will only be on for a tiny portion of the entire trip and won't do anything more than routine flight maintainance. This test will be called the Remote Agent Experiment (RAX). Other agents on spacecraft have had more involved roles. The Mars rover that was part of the Mars Pathfinder mission was partially an agent. Since there was such a large time delay between the time the rover might hit an obstacle and when the human on Earth could react to it, the rover had to have some knowledge of what to do in case there was an emergency and also how to avoid smaller hazards. Thus, the human rover driver was indicating which direction he would like the rover to go and the rover was deciding how to get there.

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What are the advantages of remote agents?
When is Remote Agent on?
How does a remote agent work?
What is a remote agent?
How will Remote Agent be tested?

What are the dangers of remote agents?
Why don't we just send astronauts on deep space trips?