The Virtual Mission Control Room
The Virtual Mission Control Room
All authors
Abstract
Mission Control Rooms (MCRs) have barely changed since the beginning of the space era - experts sit at workstations arranged in rows with various displays and audio equipment. After more than 70 years, it's time to dare something new. Today, it is neither necessary nor advisable to force people to physically be in the same room to work together. We need to create new ways of collaboration. Our idea is to move the MCR into the virtual reality. Each virtual MCR (VMCR) user can configure their own virtual MCR including an individual workspace and display setup. The VMCR includes several conventional displays and video-walls, as well as 3D models of different planets and orbiting spacecrafts including their attitude, ground track and vision cone. The user may move freely and interact with the VMCR by real walking or head movements, gesture recognition, control keys, and audio commands. Several users may collaborate and interact, using integrated audio connections and avatars. In addition, the VMCR implementation will also support multiple standard tools of collaboration, e.g., shared whiteboards and an integrated subsystem to record audio and video as well as screenshots and notes for documentation. Working together in VR will not only be immersive and interesting, but also productive.
JMU - Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
- Germany
felix.sittner@uni-wuerzburg.de
- Early Technology Development
Benefits of a Virtual Mission Control Room (VMCR) setup:
Furnishing or redesigning a conventional mission control room is expensive and time-consuming, while a decent VR workstation can be set up quickly using off the shelf components. A virtual scene can be adapted easily, quickly and with almost no additional cost, to match an individual operator's needs and preferences. Further, virtual reality enables new and interactive means of data visualization, which will be used to support intuitive understanding and situation awareness.
Development objectives:
We aim to create a solution that frees operators from the need to travel to and stay within the same physical MCR but recreates the experience of collaborating within a real MCR as close as technically possible. We plan to create a completely usable prototype, providing an adaptable collaborative virtual environment that is suitable for operation and monitoring of satellites. The prototype will consist of frontend and backend software, of which the backend will provide the server-side aspects of secure communication, data handling and storage, while the frontend provides the client-side communication and user interface. All developed systems will include API definitions, e.g., for coupling the prototype with another ground station backend, as well as, operator and user manuals.
Development plan:
The backend and frontend development is carried out in parallel, with regularly integration sessions and testing of the integrated features. All features marked with (*) are largely implemented, as they were the topics of BA and MA thesis and internship projects.
WP 01 Backend:
- Security + Infrastructure: (2PM)
- Secured server, remote login and sub network setup
- User authentication and authorization
- Spacecraft simulation connection
- Backend setup scripts + documentation
- Telemetry backend: (1PM)
- Telemetry database (*)
- Telemetry structure to database mappings (*)
- Raw telemetry packet logging
- Telecommand backend: (1PM)
- Telecommand input logging
- Telecommand validity checking
- Outgoing telecommand logging
WP02 Frontend:
- VMCR scene and assets:
- VMCR scene design (*)
- Virtual scene 3D modelling (*)
- 3D spacecraft position + orientation visualization (*)
- VMCR avatar design, modelling + motion mapping (2PM)
- Collaboration tools integration (voice-chat, shared clipboards, ...) (2PM)
- Telemetry frontend:
- Telemetry display design (*)
- Telemetry display integration (*)
- Telemetry history search interface (*)
- Telemetry display gesture control (1PM)
- Telecommand frontend:
- Telecommand interface design (2PM)
- Telecommand interface implementation (2PM)
- Searchable telecommand history display (2PM)
- Adapting existing features for multi user environment (3PM)
- Developer documentation + user manual (2PM)
We dedicate a large amount of time to usability testing and GUI improvement, as our previous experience with VR interface design has shown, that users immersed into a virtual environment can be more easily annoyed or distracted by small design details. These "small" details can determine whether the use of the virtual environment is perceived as interesting and pleasant or unnecessarily tedious.
WP03 Integration, Testing + Improvement: (5PM)
- Telemetry frontend usability testing (single user)
- Telemetry frontend adaption
- Telecommand frontend usability testing (single user)
- Telecommand frontend adaption
- Collaboration test (2 - 4 users)
- Virtual Reality
Our department develops concepts and software for nano-satellites and has already been involved in several satellite missions. For example, we have developed the data management software for the satellite bus of TET, as well as rover software for PTS' Mission to the Moon. Currently we operate a conventional MCR from which our students monitor and control their satellite models in the testbed.
We have already developed and deployed an HMD setup for monitoring and remote control of quad-rotors, where several users can connect to a ground station via Oculus Rift, optionally wireless, and access video streams and telemetry data. A GUI can be used to configure whether and how the different data sets are visualized and displayed. In contrast to the normal multi-monitor setup, the much better immersion makes working with the HMDs distraction-free and very popular.
After the positive experience with our VR-HMD control station for quad-rotors, we started planning a Virtual Mission Control Room for satellite operation and monitoring of our upcoming 3U cube sat mission InnoCube. We already developed a concept of how to implement a working Virtual Mission Control Room prototype and to evaluate its usability. And multiple students' BA thesis have covered aspects of the aimed functionality, e.g. by creating interactive VR scenes and data displays.
As we developed the proposed concept ourselves and independently there are no known relevant IP constraints.
- 2. improvement in cost efficiency
- 3. faster adoption of innovative technology
- Applications (including Earth observation, navigation and telecommunication)
- Enabling & Support (including space transportation,technology and operations)
2nd Round idea
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- Nov 2, 2021
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