Carnegie Mellon University (alumnus), PhD
Carnegie Mellon University (alumnus)
Carnegie Mellon University (alumnus)
Carnegie Mellon University (alumnus)
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NASA plans to send humans to Mars as early as the 2030s. Such a complex and expensive undertaking is justified by the fact that only humans have the unique set of abilities inherent to scientific exploration. A team of four graduate students from Carnegie Mellon’s Master of Human-Computer Interaction program took a user-centered design approach to identify breakdowns in current processes used in the practice and execution of extraplanetary exploration. Through a combination of secondary research, co-design, body storming, and ethnographic research including interviews and field studies, they found that current operational procedures constrain the human abilities of physical agility, adaptability, and perceptiveness. This effectively ignored the advantage of human agency over robotics. They used this insight to prototype a solution designed to streamline mission operations. This prototype was then tested against the goal of allowing team members to focus on leveraging their unique human abilities to deliver higher scientific return.
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INTRODUCTION
Our Mission: Help Humans Explore Mars
In January 2016 the NASA Ames HCI group delivered a design prompt to Team Scoria, a capstone project team of four graduate students from Carnegie Mellon’s Master of Human-Computer Interaction program. The Ames stakeholders were interested in developing a tool to help guide humans as they perform geologic exploration on the Martian surface in future human-staffed missions to Mars. They pointed the capstone team to the current “cue card” system as inspiration — this system is comprised of wrist-based cue-cards that give astronauts step-by-step directions on how to complete tasks in space. The paper cue cards were used during the first trip to the moon, and they are still used today on the International Space Station. The Ames team was interested in how digitizing these cards might increase the amount of information they contained, thus increasing exploratory abilities (Carr, Schwartz, and Rosenberg, 2002).
Understanding the Case For Sending Humans To Mars
Although these cue cards are now used during space walks on the International Space Station, the last time they were used for extraplanetary exploration was in 1972 when Apollo 17, the last Apollo mission, landed on the moon. Since then various projects within NASA have been working toward the opportunity to continue this planetary science work either on the moon or further on to Mars. Projects of this type that presented the most relevance to the Scoria team’s work fell into two categories:
Rovers
NASA has been sending spacecraft to Mars since 1965 when it sent the Mariner 4 spacecraft to fly by the planet for the first close-up images of the Martian surface. Since then it has sent multiple rovers to perform a variety of tasks including: biology experiments searching for signs of life; mapping the entire Martian surface, atmosphere, and interior; conducting initial field geology; analyzing soil and rock samples for organic compounds. The current work of rovers on the Martian surface will help inform future human-staffed missions to the planet. Even now they are transmitting photographs and spectral images so that scientists on Earth can scout out the most promising locations for potential human exploration.
However, the precedence for sending humans to Mars is much different than the reasoning for the Apollo program. The competitive nature of the space race provided ample motivation for multiple landing missions. A mission to Mars, however, will be much more focused on scientific data collection from the start. As a result, NASA is investing for high-quality scientific return from studying the geology of the planet. There is also the added skepticism over sending humans to Mars when there is already so much to be learned from the rovers being sent there.
Team Scoria learned that while many scientific processes are better off being programmed into a standard and repeatable set of instructions, field geology is an exploratory science in which human perception and insight are great assets. In geology, priorities need to change on the fly and human instinct can inform those changes to obtain impactful results. Field geologists call this type of dynamic reprioritization “flexecution”. [Hodges and Schmitt, 2011] It is the human ability to quickly switch between execution and discovery, between set procedures and exploratory instinct. This is a key element in arguing for a human-staffed mission to Mars. In light of this, and as a human-centered design team, the Scoria members identified the preservation of these abilities as a guiding motivation during the design process.
Analog Missions
Sending humans into space is a monumental task, whether it be to the ISS, the moon, an asteroid, or Mars. To test protocol NASA divides the preparation into smaller problem spaces, explored through several analog missions on Earth. These analog missions practice for missions in space while also collecting valid scientific data here on Earth. (Lim, 2010). Examples include:
- NEEMO: based off the Florida Keys, this mission deploys aquanauts to an underwater habitat, utilizing buoyancy to simulate the gravitational reduction that astronauts face.
- D-RATS: This Arizona-based analog focused on testing space suit ergonomics, field equipment, communication protocols and the use of a vehicle in a desert habitat.
- HERA: This three-chamber habitat studies the effects of isolation and confinement on the mission members’ physical and mental health.
- BASALT: This team of geologists and engineers traverses Idaho and Hawaii lava fields to study the geology of basalt, a rock that is also found in abundance on Mars. They also simulate the future Martian team structure and communication protocols between team members.
Figure 1. Checklist card carried by Michael Collins during the Gemini 10 mission, July 18-21, 1966. On view at the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Defining The Users
In traditional human-centered design it is important to research and test products with users in their environment. This was obviously not possible for the Scoria team since there are currently no astronauts on Mars to observe or test with. As a result of this, the Ames group and Scoria team decided together that the best opportunity to design for Mars while also testing with users would be to partner with the BASALT analog mission team. The goal would be to create a tool for BASALT team members to use during analog mission execution. These missions already provided a rich environment in which to test new ideas around what technology, operations protocol, and team structure should be used in space exploration. By choosing to partner with the BASALT team the Ames and Scoria members were able to move away from speculative to applied design.
APPLYING ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH PRACTICES TO HARD TO ACCESS USER BASES
Acknowledging Research Challenges
Overcoming the challenge of identifying the users only presented more challenges for the Scoria team. The team convened with its CMU and Ames advisors to plan out a research and design roadmap. In doing so the group identified the following challenges that would need to be addressed if the team wanted to adhere to user-centered design principles.
- Gaining access to users. The BASALT team was dispersed across the U.S. and would only come together twice for exercises during the capstone project timespan. These exercises provided the best opportunity for ethnographic field observation. However, the Scoria team would only have a few days each time to shadow the users. They were also limited on how close they could shadow the users, so as not to obstruct the BASALT team’s own data collection process during the exercise
- Misaligned timelines. The BASALT mission team was still in the early planning stages of its mission when the Scoria team kicked off research, which resulted in a misalignment of timelines. The Scoria team would not be able to conduct the foundational research of observing the team performing a mission in the field until months into the research process. The Scoria team would have to move forward with other methods of foundational research while maintaining flexibility so as to fold in research from the field work at a later point.
Preliminary Research on The Protocol and Tools of Human-Staffed Space Missions
To better understand the problem space the Scoria team performed an initial literature review and set of interviews with geologists and NASA scientists. The purpose of this early-stage research was to develop a comfortable familiarity with the domain. This broad approach provided a informational foundation upon which the team then built a more finely-scoped research roadmap.
The History And Utility Of Exploration Aids
The Scoria team first reviewed existing literature covering past NASA research on the various designs and prototypes of procedural aids (including cuff checklists, cue cards, and digital devices) (Hersch, 2009). This review helped the team develop a general understanding of why astronauts use cue cards for exploration and the history of their use. From there, they strategized a research plan to solve the remaining unanswered questions around how the design of cue cards impact mission operations. To answer these questions the team conducted a series of expert interviews with NASA scientists and engineers, all of whom had either designed or used some form of cue card exploration aid.
They talked to Trevor Graff, Project Manager of Advanced Explorations Group at Johnson Space Center. In helping plan NEEMO analog missions, Graff had found that the historic text-heavy design of NASA cue cards supported procedural execution, such as following safety protocol and ensuring correct documentation. However, they did a poor job of supporting exploration activities — he observed that crew members spent too much time focusing on the text of the cards and not enough time observing the environment around. He redesigned the cards to include visual and graphical information. This approach was adopted by other analog missions to help crew members with introductory scientific training complete complex scientific exploration (Graff, 2016).
They then talked to David Coan of Johnson Space Center Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Office and NEEMO 20 Aquanaut. Coan worked with ISS astronauts to design spacewalk support materials. He had used Graff’s redesigned cards himself as an aquanaut during the NEEMO 20 mission. He said the image-heavy design helped guide him in performing marine science, and that the biggest breakdowns were related to the human factors of dealing with laminated cards becoming slippery when used underwater.
Finally they talked to Darlene Lim, BASALT Principal Investigator and FINESSE analog mission Deputy Principal Investigator. Lim emphasized mission constraints, specifically communication delays. These delays can have a significant effect on the interactions between team members. To work amongst such constraints, Lim emphasized that mission teams must be able to balance competing priorities. To achieve this goal, she focused much of her time as BASALT PI working to ensure constant communication between all members of the analog mission.
Figure 2. At any given moment the delay for any communications to travel one-way between Mars and Earth is between a 3- and 23-minute delay. The BASALT team recreates this in analog missions by instituting a false delay of 15 minutes for communications between the Mars surface and Earth Mission Control teams. Illustration by Scoria team members.
The Operational Protocol Of A Mars Geologic Exploration Mission
Each NASA analog mission follows a specific set of operational protocols to meet the dual goals of replicating the constraints of an actual space mission and performing valid scientific observations. Protocol can differ depending on the mission focus. Via the literature review and interview with Lim, the Scoria team began to understand the complex procedural structure their users would be operating within. Anything the Scoria team designed would have to fit seamlessly within these pre-established and well-researched protocols.
The BASALT mission follows the same team structure and protocol that NASA intends to use for Mars explorations. The team structure is comprised of three main roles (outlined in Figure 3):