A Customer View of Goal-Based Operations for Human Space Exploration

Abstract

Goal-based operations, a form of operations that involves specifying what should be accomplished, as opposed to how operations are carried out, has the potential to significantly enhance human space exploration in a number of areas in both ground and space operations. Realizing this potential will require addressing several challenges, ranging from practical feasibility to operational reliability and user acceptance. We intend to provide a customer perspective and help address some of the challenges by: (1) highlighting general and specific challenges and opportunities that are consistent with human space exploration and that emphasize how goal-based operations might be of practical benefit to the human space exploration program; and (2) exploring ways to help increase confidence in goal-based operations. A strategy for building such confidence must consider: (a) incremental implementation of goal-based operations for increasingly ambitious operations leading eventually to high level goal-based operations, (b) the role of systems modeling in technology acceptance and infusion and (c) automation assessment tools for understanding how trust is developed, such as the Function-specific Level of Autonomy and Automation Tool (FLOAAT) developed by NASA/Johnson Space Center. We explore several challenges and opportunities for the near-term (International Space Station mission operations), the midterm (human lunar missions), and the long-term (human Mars missions), that illustrate the potential benefits of goal-based operations.