Executive Summary

Astronauts will be facing many new challenges during their mission to Mars. They will have to operate at a much higher level of autonomy than they are used to during their current types of mission. The relation between the Earth-based mission control and the astronauts will change dramatically. Instead of the usual detailed operational plans, the astronauts must be prepared to accomplish a mission that is stated only in terms of "what" needs to be realised; the astronauts themselves need to work out the steps how to realise the goals that are set for them.

During their missions, astronauts have to process a vast amount of information coming from diverse sources in order to assess the situation, and they have to predict how the environment in which they have to operate will change in reaction to their actions. Given the complexity of that environment, and the small margin for error, it is clear that the astronaut’s mental load is a major concern.

An electronic assistant is proposed that supports the astronauts during their activities. The assistant should help the astronaut to: (i) assess the situation; (ii) determine his or her next actions in solving a problem by generating alternative solutions or by evaluating the different approaches available to the astronaut; and (iii) to safeguard the astronaut from failures during the execution of a plan.

Our proposal describes a user centred development process that will establish the requirements and design of such an electronic assistant, the Mission Execution Crew Assistant (MECA). The MECA concept will be defined taking the astronaut’s cognitive processes as a starting point. We envision a ubiquitous computing environment that supports the crew at any time and place. The various MECA processes reside both at the facilities and in the equipment that the astronauts use during their missions, and in the Astronaut’s Digital Assistant (ADA). In a typical scenario, an in-situ MECA health-management process signals the presence of an imminent equipment failure to an astronaut’s ADA. The ADA, working together with the astronaut, establishes the root of the failure and derives a repair plan that will compensate for the failure. Assuming that this particular repair requires at least two astronauts, the ADA contacts the crew’s captain with an update about the equipment’s health status and a request to allocate an additional astronaut having the appropriate skills. It is up to the captain and his or her ADA to further organise the re-planning and (re-)scheduling of the rest of the crew.

The implementation of the MECA concept requires the application of emerging technologies such as multi-agent system technology, automatic planning and scheduling, and model-based health management.

Our proposal describes in detail the process that defines the MECA concept in terms of the requirements and a design. It also describes the refinement of this MECA concept by building a proof of concept demonstrator operating in an environment consisting of real and simulated equipment. The MECA concept will be evaluated on both technical and human factors parameters. Given the unprecedented high degree of crew-autonomy, we find the astronauts’ level of trust in the technology and gained situational awareness particular important parameters to evaluate.