The design of efficient ground software tools

This paper describes the role of human-computer interaction (HCI) design in the development and deployment of mission systems. We make the argument that more broad application of HCI methods and practice will be necessary to complete the ambitious objectives of future missions. In particular, the introduction of increased autonomy, reduction of ops personnel, increasingly tactical nature of surface operations, and more distributed mission ground operations present unique challenges that must be met with sound HCI-driven solutions. We describe a case study from where solid underlying technology was hindered by lack of attention to HCI issues, and describe how this is being remedied moving forward. Future missions will require planning processes to be much more efficient (orders of magnitude) than what was achieved for the Mars Exploration Rovers mission (2003). The case study focuses on the critical shift from the MAPGEN software used for tactical activity planning on MER to SPIFe, now base-lined for the Phoenix 2007 and MSL 2009 missions. MAPGEN added automated planning functionality (Europa) to the APGEN manual planning tool. SPIFe provides a next generation interface designed specifically to take advantage of an automated planner. The design of SPIFe is based on hundreds of hours of observation and operations experience on MER. This paper examines how key HCI lessons learned are being fed forward into this new set of planning tools, SPIFe and Europa 2.