Enabling Astronaut Self-Scheduling using a Robust Advanced Modelling and Scheduling system: an assessment during a Mars analogue mission

TL;DR

This paper evaluates a decision-support system called Romie that enables astronauts to autonomously plan and adapt their schedules during Mars analogue missions, addressing communication delays in future planetary exploration.

Contribution

It introduces Romie, a novel Robust Advanced Modelling and Scheduling system designed for astronaut self-scheduling in Mars-like conditions, tested during a simulation mission.

Findings

Astronauts successfully used Romie for self-scheduling tasks.

The system effectively handled uncertainties and unforeseen events.

Novice planners managed to create near-optimal schedules.

Abstract

Human long duration exploration missions (LDEMs) raise a number of technological challenges. This paper addresses the question of the crew autonomy: as the distances increase, the communication delays and constraints tend to prevent the astronauts from being monitored and supported by a real time ground control. Eventually, future planetary missions will necessarily require a form of astronaut self-scheduling. We study the usage of a computer decision-support tool by a crew of analog astronauts, during a Mars simulation mission conducted at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS, Mars Society) in Utah. The proposed tool, called Romie, belongs to the new category of Robust Advanced Modelling and Scheduling (RAMS) systems. It allows the crew members (i) to visually model their scientific objectives and constraints, (ii) to compute near-optimal operational schedules while taking uncertainty into account, (iii) to monitor the execution of past and current activities, and (iv) to modify scientific objectives/constraints w.r.t. unforeseen events and opportunistic science. In this study, we empirically measure how the astronauts, who are novice planners, perform at using such a tool when self-scheduling under the realistic assumptions of a simulated Martian planetary habitat.