Integration of an Earth-based science team during human exploration of Mars

NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) is an underwater spaceflight analog that provides a true mission-like operational environment for aquanauts living in the Aquarius undersea habitat for up to several weeks at a time. During these analog missions, aquanauts go out on multi-hour extravehicular activities (EVAs) and use buoyancy effects and added weight to simulate different gravity levels. The NEEMO 21 mission was undertaken in July of 2016. During this mission, the effects of several operations concepts (ConOps, defined as operational design elements that guide the organization and flow of hardware, personnel, communications, and data products through the course of a mission implementation) and a communication latency of 15 min oneway light time (OWLT) were studied in six aquanaut test subjects. These “Mars” aquanaut crewmembers conducted scientific exploration of the reef surrounding the Aquarius habitat while interacting with an “Earth-based” science team (ST) that was located topside. The ST provided guidance to the aquanauts throughout the EVAs across the 15 min communication latency. Exploration EVA traverses and timelines were planned in advance based on precursor data. During these 4-hr EVAs, the aquanauts completed science-related tasks, including pre-sampling surveys and marine-science-based sampling. Objective data included task completion times, total EVA time, crew idle time, translation time, ST-assimilation time (defined as time available for the ST to discuss, review, and act upon incoming data from the aquanauts). Subjective data included acceptability, simulation quality, and capability assessment ratings and associated comments. Additionally, feedback from both the crew and the ST were captured during the post-mission debrief. Each ConOps tested was found to provide advantages and disadvantages and it is likely that each will be used during the exploration of Mars. The choice of ConOps for Mars' EVAs will likely be dependent on the science objectives of that EVA balanced with the associated operational costs (such as human and rover transport cost).