Evaluation of the Space Shuttle Cockpit Avionics Upgrade (CAU) Displays
In 1999, NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) initiated a Cockpit Avionics Upgrade (CAU) project to increase shuttle mission safety by improving the crew's situation awareness, reducing their workload, and improving their performance. The primary focus of the project was a complete redesign of the current cockpit displays. To determine the effectiveness of the redesigns, a human-centered evaluation was conducted in the Shuttle Mission Simulator (SMS) at NASA JSC in 2003 and 2004. Measures of crew situation awareness, workload, and nominal and off-nominal task handling performance were made in a series of simulations of off-nominal flight situations during the dynamic flight phases of ascent and entry. The redesigned display formats yielded dramatic increases in situation awareness, reductions in workload, and improvements in performance.
Autonomous mission operations
NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems Autonomous Mission Operations (AMO) project conducted an empirical investigation of the impact of time delay on today's mission operations, and of the effect of processes and mission support tools designed to mitigate time-delay related impacts. Mission operation scenarios were designed for NASA's Deep Space Habitat (DSH), an analog spacecraft habitat, covering a range of activities including nominal objectives, DSH system failures, and crew medical emergencies. The scenarios were simulated at time delay values representative of Lunar (1.2-5 sec), Near Earth Object (NEO) (50 sec) and Mars (300 sec) missions. Each combination of operational scenario and time delay was tested in a Baseline configuration, designed to reflect present-day operations of the International Space Station, and a Mitigation configuration in which a variety of software tools, information displays, and crew-ground communications protocols were employed to assist both crews and Flight Control Team (FCT) members with the long-delay conditions. Preliminary findings indicate: 1) Workload of both crewmembers and FCT members generally increased along with increasing time delay. 2) Advanced procedure execution viewers, caution and warning tools, and communications protocols such as text messaging decreased the workload of both flight controllers and crew, and decreased the difficulty of coordinating activities. 3) Whereas crew workload ratings increased between 50 sec and 300 sec of time delay in the Baseline configuration, workload ratings decreased (or remained flat) in the Mitigation configuration.
Effects of Equipment Dimensions on Liquid Mixing Time of Bubble Column with Draft Tube
The liquid mixing time of a bubble column with a draft tube is experimentally studied. The diameter and height of the column, the diameter and length of the draft tube, and the mode of sparging gas were changed and the liquid mixing time was measured.The lengths of bottom and top clearances have significant effects on the liquid mixing time. The liquid mixing time increases with increasing column aspect ratio of height to diameter. The liquid mixing time of the bubble column with a draft tube is longer than that of a standard bubble column when the column aspect ratio is relatively high. The liquid mixing time has a minimum when the diameter ratio of draft tube to column is 0.5 to 0.6. These effects of equipment dimensions are expressed by an equation. In the experiment using different solutions, the liquid mixing time becomes shorter with increasing liquid surface tension, or with increasing liquid viscosity.