In 2025, Artemis III is scheduled to land astronauts on the moon for the first time in over 50 years.
This time, we are going to the lunar south pole, an unexplored region with dangerous, changing constraints.
As missions become more complex, how will mission planners obtain the foresight and confidence to plan lunar spacewalks for Artemis?
This is ASTRA, the Automated Spacewalk Task & Route Advisor.
ASTRA is a tool that guides EVA planners through their process by providing optimized paths as a starting point for path creation and refinement.
With ASTRA, users build confidence, crystallize their arguments, and prepare to advocate their decisions to their peers.
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Product Designer & Technical Lead
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This product design was the capstone deliverable for Carnegie Mellon MHCI in partnership with NASA Ames Research Center.
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January - August 2023
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Myself, Jessica Fortunato, Siriveena Nandam, Joanie Lam, and Sara Lian
Design
Off-Nominal Notifications
Live view enables planners to see where astronauts are, and monitor how they are progressing along their EVA.
In the sidebar, map data layers enable planners to see relevant data mapped geospatially, like elevation, topography, and illumination. A timeline overview provides critical temporal information in close proximity to the map.
As EVA planners learn of plan changes verbally, over comms. ASTRA integrates this information seamlessly into the map view with a notification layer.
Selection & Optimization
When beginning from an off nominal notification, ASTRA will open a new tab and pre-select the new waypoint, as well as the waypoints from the original path.
Once all waypoints are chosen, planners choose an optimization function in the top bar. These optimization functions enable algorithmic generation of paths based on rigid constraints, such as elevation, shadow coverage, and time.
Path Recommendations
Once the optimization function has generated viable paths, it displays them alongside the original path.
A comparison table shows each path’s relevant data, like path visibility and total distance. This format allows a quick scanning of values, and easy comparison by columns.
The table also highlights each value’s differences from the original. Color coded warnings also indicate when the change may be a cause for concern.
Path Refinement
A well designed path requires a human touch. It requires an expert’s judgment, and an experienced understanding of nuanced astronaut behavior.
To accommodate this, ASTRA hands off the final path changes to the user.
To ensure well-informed and safe changes, the user can utilize data layers and predict forecasted shadow positions with a timeline.
Send Off
The Send Off screen serves to summarize the decision making process for the user, and prepare them to advocate for their newly designed path.
Through the process of generating, selecting, and refining a path, the EVA planner has built an understanding of why they believe this path to be the best option to move forward with.