Simulation Builder, Analysis, and Development (SimBAD) Toolkit for Human Spaceflight Operation Training using the SpaceCRAFT Simulation Platform

Abstract

As the scope of human spaceflight continues to expand, the Human Systems Integration (HSI) developed to support complex missions must be robust and efficient. This risk has been outlined in the Human Research Roadmap (HRR) as the "Risk of Adverse Outcomes Due to Inadequate Human Systems Integration Architecture"[1], short name HSIA. One of the most critical elements of any human spaceflight mission is training, which prepares flight operations teams with the resources necessary to carry out that mission. As more distant destinations such as the Moon or Mars are targeted for human spaceflight, ensuring crew have the tools they need to overcome new types of challenges will be a significant focus when developing new training infrastructures. With the nature of such missions, there are several knowledge gaps associated with HSIA that motivate investigating how training should be carried out on such missions. This research focuses on studying these gaps and using the findings to create a conceptual demonstration for a tool that can be used to assist in the training infrastructure that supports future spaceflight missions. This tool is called the Simulation Builder, Analysis, and Development (Sim-BAD) tool, which is a User Interface (UI) that utilizes the Space Collaborative Real-time Analysis and Flight Toolkit to build virtual training environments. There are four main objectives that incentivize the development of this tool, the improved collaboration between groups in the flight operations team, a training framework that is capable of being packaged on board a spacecraft, a framework that accounts for dynamic mission parameters, and a heightened level of autonomy for crew on missions. These objectives have been driven by the findings from an examination of current spaceflight training methods, previous research on training for future missions, and elements of the HSIA risk that pertain to training.The SimBAD tool was designed with features that were motivated by these objectives to effectively create a virtual training facility. These features allow the user to control the environments, systems, procedures, events, and evaluations that are constructed together inside a virtual simulation. Giving this control to users as well as access to the environment through Virtual Reality ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are a lot of people who helped make this thesis something that I could realistically complete. First of all is Dr. Gregory Chamitoff, without whom I would not have had the guidance, support, and inspiration to pursue this degree. Working with him has been a great experience and I'm grateful for all the opportunities that he helped make sure I was able to take advantage of. To all of my colleagues at the ASTROLab, I also have to give some credit, especially because of the many countless nights I spent pestering people on Slack with questions I had. Specifically Connor, Patrick, Alex, Elise, Colton and Trevor. I would also like to thank my committee, Dr. Nancy Currie-Gregg and Dr. Ana Diaz Artiles for doing helping guide m...