Mission planning and data integration on the international space station program

Abstract

There are several concepts of long duration mission planning for manned space exploration. Experience gathered on space station programs shows that data integration is an essential part of preparations for space flight operations and, particularly, of manned mission planning. Proper data structure as a result of the data integration is the key to successful space mission planning and operations. Ten years on the MIR program and seven years on the ISS program have been devoted by the author to systematize planning data and develop integrated mission planning applications based on a concept. An increased emphasis has been placed on information sharing and knowledge management over the past few years on the International Space Station Program (ISSP). The demand to share knowledge both within and outside organizational boundaries has brought collaboration to the forefront on the program and spawned a variety of new architectural solutions that facilitate information distribution and knowledge acquisition. Combining the experience gathered on the space station programs along with lessons learned this paper evolves a planning-centered approach based on the data integration in terms of the NNED2 (no need to enter data twice) principle. The approach and integrated data architecture give rise to an enabling collaborative process that facilitates the creation, capture, and dissemination of information that creates corporate memory.