A Shared Vocabulary for Crew–AI Interaction in Spaceflight: System Categories, Autonomy Levels and Communication Protocols (Conceptual Note)

Crews on long missions will work with AI systems that run the spacecraft, support experiments, give medical advice and keep company. This conceptual note proposes a small ontology for crew–AI interaction: four system categories, a five-level autonomy scale, four interaction protocols and an emergency classification, each term defined once and versioned so that reports, training and design documents can refer to the same things, including during delayed communication. It has not been tested with astronauts and makes no claim about any specific space programme.