ALBERT

Description: Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert RATS) is a multi-year series of hardware and operations tests carried out annually in the high desert of Arizona on the San Francisco Volcanic Field. These activities are designed to exercise planetary surface hardware and operations in conditions where long-distance, multi-day roving is achievable, and they allow NASA to evaluate different mission concepts and approaches in an environment less costly and more forgiving than space.The results from the RATS tests allows election of potential operational approaches to planetary surface exploration prior to making commitments to specific flight and mission hardware development. In previous RATS operations, the Science Support Room has operated largely in an advisory role, an approach that was driven by the need to provide a loose science mission framework that would underpin the engineering tests. However, the extensive nature of the traverse operations for 2010 expanded the role of the science operations and tested specific operational approaches. Science mission operations approaches from the Apollo and Mars-Phoenix missions were merged to become the baseline for this test. Six days of traverse operations were conducted during each week of the 2-week test, with three traverse days each week conducted with voice and data communications continuously available, and three traverse days conducted with only two 1-hour communications periods per day. Within this framework, the team evaluated integrated science operations management using real-time, tactical science operations to oversee daily crew activities, and strategic level evaluations of science data and daily traverse results during a post-traverse planning shift. During continuous communications, both tactical and strategic teams were employed. On days when communications were reduced to only two communications periods per day, only a strategic team was employed. The Science Operations Team found that, if communications are good and down-linking of science data is ensured, high quality science returns is possible regardless of communications. What is absent from reduced communications is the scientific interaction between the crew on the planet and the scientists on the ground. These scientific interactions were a critical part of the science process and significantly improved mission science return over reduced communications conditions. The test also showed that the quality of science return is not measurable by simple numerical quantities but is, in fact, based on strongly non-quantifiable factors, such as the interactions between the crew and the Science Operations Teams. Although the metric evaluation data suggested some trends, there was not sufficient granularity in the data or specificity in the metrics to allow those trends to be understood on numerical data alone.

Description: NASA has been analyzing a number of mission concepts and activities that involve low-latency telerobotic (LLT) operations. One mission concept that will be covered in this presentation is Crew-Assisted Sample Return which involves the crew acquiring samples (1) that have already been delivered to space, and or acquiring samples via LLT from orbit to a planetary surface and then launching the samples to space to be captured in space and then returned to the earth with the crew. Both versions of have key roles for low-latency teleoperations. More broadly, the NASA Evolvable Mars Campaign is exploring a number of other activities that involve LLT, such as: (a) human asteroid missions, (b) PhobosDeimos missions, (c) Mars human landing site reconnaissance and site preparation, and (d) Mars sample handling and analysis. Many of these activities could be conducted from Mars orbit and also with the crew on the Mars surface remotely operating assets elsewhere on the surface, e.g. for exploring Mars special regions and or teleoperating a sample analysis laboratory both of which may help address planetary protection concerns. The operational and technology implications of low-latency teleoperations will be explored, including discussion of relevant items in the NASA Technology Roadmap and also how previously deployed robotic assets from any source could subsequently be used by astronauts via LLT.

Description: The Mars Society s Desert Research Station (MDRS) Rotation 38, April 3-17, 2005, was dedicated to field tests of NASA's Mobile Agents EVA communications system. MDRS provided an excellent, cost-effective venue for bringing together eighteen scientists and engineers from NASA Ames and Johnson Space Center, in an intensive two weeks of system integration and experiments. The Mobile Agents architecture and collaborative engineering methodology provides a flexible toolkit for configuring extravehicular activity (EVA) components, visualizing and formalizing EVA plans, and automating key supervisory functions.

Description: NASA scientists in MDRS Crew 49 (April 23-May 7, 2006) field tested and significantly extended a prototype monitoring and advising system that integrates power system telemetry with a voice commanding interface. A distributed, wireless network of functionally specialized agents interacted with the crew to provide alerts (e.g., impending shut-down of inverter due to low battery voltage), access md interpret historical data, and display troubleshooting procedures. In practical application during two weeks, the system generated speech over loudspeakers and headsets lo alert the crew about the need to investigate power system problems. The prototype system adapts the Brahms/Mobile Agents toolkit to receive data from the OneMeter (Brand Electronics) electric metering system deployed by Crew 47. A computer on the upper deck was connected to loudspeakers, four others were paired with wireless (Bluetooth) headsets that enabled crew members to interact with their personal agents from anywhere in the hab. Voice commands and inquiries included: 1. What is the {battery | generator} {volts | amps | volts and amps}? 2. What is the status of the {generator | inverter | battery | solar panel}? 3. What is the hab{itat} {power usage | volts | voltage | amps | volts and amps}? 4. What was the average hab{itat} {amps | volts | voltage} since 〈#〉 {AM | PM)? 5. When did the {generator | batteries} change status? 6. Tell {me I 〈person〉 | everyone} when{ ever} the generator goes offline. 7. Tell {me | 〈person〉 | everyone} when the hab{itat} {amps | volts | voltage} {exceeds | drops brelow} 〈#〉. 8. {Send | Take | Record} {a} voice note {(for | to} 〈person〉} {at 〈time〉}. This research demonstrates the principles of design in the context of use, investigating requirements through experimental use of prototype systems in an analog setting, and use of MDRS as a research facility for designing and implementing new systems.

Description: The Pavilion Lake Research Project (PLRP) is a unique platform where the combination of scientific research and human space exploration concepts can be tested in an underwater spaceflight analog environment. The 2015 PLRP field season was performed at Pavilion Lake, Canada, where science-driven exploration techniques focusing on microbialite characterization and acquisition were evaluated within the context of crew and robotic extravehicular activity (EVA) operations. The primary objectives of this analog study were to detail the capabilities, decision-making process, and operational concepts required to meet non-simulated scientific objectives during 5-minute one-way communication latency utilizing crew and robotic assets. Furthermore, this field study served as an opportunity build upon previous tests at PLRP, NASA Desert Research and Technology Studies (DRATS), and NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) to characterize the functional roles and responsibilities of the personnel involved in the distributed flight control team and identify operational constraints imposed by science-driven EVA operations. The relationship and interaction between ground and flight crew was found to be dependent on the specific scientific activities being addressed. Furthermore, the addition of a second intravehicular operator was found to be highly enabling when conducting science-driven EVAs. Future human spaceflight activities will need to cope with the added complexity of dynamic and rapid execution of scientific priorities both during and between EVA execution to ensure scientific objectives are achieved.

Description: Habitability: Subsurface environments may preserve records of habitability or biosignatures, with more stable environmental conditions compared to surface (e.g., smaller variations in temperature and humidity) and reduced exposure to radiation; Lava tubes are expected on Mars, and candidates are observed from orbit; Few detailed studies of microbial populations in terrestrial lava caves; Also contain a variety of secondary minerals; Microbial activity may play a role in mineral formation or be preserved in these minerals; Minerals can provide insight into fluids (e.g., pH, temperature).