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The Ultimate MUD...
Aug. 24th, 2000 12:16 pmWhen Shuttle astronauts return to Earth and are interviewed on TV, or appear with August Persons at press conferences and photo opportunities, they invariably pay tribute to the training teams that helped prepare them for flight. Such kudos generally go unnoticed by the average viewer, who - if he or she thinks about it at all - probably envisions a few individuals standing around, helping crew members get suited up for ascent.
Building 5 at the Johnson Space Center houses the SSTF, the Space Station Training Facility. This includes areas designed to mimic various parts of the International Space Station, as well as a neighboring room that houses the simulation training team. Simulations are exercises that are designed to transport both the crew and the flight control team to an imaginary point in time (and space) during a flight, so that all involved can experience what is supposed to happen during the flight, as well as some things that are not supposed to happen.
In effect, what occurs is that all of the systems used during a flight - consoles, computers, networks, voice loops, and so on - are interconnected to create a virtual world. Computers receive telemetry from other computers that are pretending to be space vehicles hurtling around the planet in low earth orbit. Other computers crunch vast amounts of data to create a realistic model of how things ought to behave in space. If a fan fails, then the sensor that measures air flow from that fan must show reduced or no air flow. If the fan is supposed to exhaust air from an enclosure containing equipment, the temperature sensor for that enclosure must begin to show a rising temperature. If the temperature gets too high, then the equipment in the enclosure must switch itself off, and so on.
One could view the whole thing as an elaborate MUD, filled with puzzles ("Sensors indicate a slow leak. How do we find it?"). In a way, it is, except the stakes are much higher. Screw up some, and experimental results become worthless. Screw up some more, and the crew has to abandon the station and return home prematurely. Even more extreme screwups are possible, with even more extreme outcomes, described by euphemistic phrases such as "loss of station" and "loss of crew." The purpose of simulating flights is to hammer out the `gotchas' that invariably hide in any complex engineering design, and to give the flight team experience in how the whole shebang works and in developing workable solutions whenever one of those `gotchas' rears its ugly little head.
Simulations are carefully scripted by the training team, who weigh the ramifications of all malfunctions (or `mals', in the jargon of flight controllers) that will be thrown at the flight team. Simulations go by names such as "Shock," "Scream," "Quake," and "Tsumani," all vaguely menacing. During simulation "runs," the training team observes how the flight team handles the mals. They sit in the SSTF computer room, a windowless facility with no wall clocks and up to four computer screens in front of each work station. After all the dust settles, everyone - trainer and trainee - huddles together for a debrief to discuss what went right and what went wrong, and how to avoid the second category in the future.
Last night, I participated in a so-called joint simulation with Moscow. During this sim, flight control teams in both Houston and Moscow worked a portion of the flight designated as "3A" on the current assembly sequence. The purpose of a joint sim is the same as for a normal sim, except that the trainers are also exercising the ability of the respective flight control teams to work together, to communicate, to share information, to propose workarounds, in short: to work as a single team in pursuit of a common goal.
It is, I think, this aspect of the space program that keeps me at this job. The ISS, in my view, could justify its existence simply on the basis of providing a reason, a purpose for people of different countries and cultures - former enemies, no less - to cooperate. One successful joint sim is worth more than all of the hosannas and holier-than-thou pronouncements that encourage people to be Good because it's the Right Thing To Do.
Sure, flying humans in space and deriving technological benefit from the space program are important, and impressive, and provide August Persons with photo opportunites, but the long-term benefit of international cooperation in pursuit of something bigger than either "side" is the only road, in my opinion, to peace.
Cheers...
Building 5 at the Johnson Space Center houses the SSTF, the Space Station Training Facility. This includes areas designed to mimic various parts of the International Space Station, as well as a neighboring room that houses the simulation training team. Simulations are exercises that are designed to transport both the crew and the flight control team to an imaginary point in time (and space) during a flight, so that all involved can experience what is supposed to happen during the flight, as well as some things that are not supposed to happen.
In effect, what occurs is that all of the systems used during a flight - consoles, computers, networks, voice loops, and so on - are interconnected to create a virtual world. Computers receive telemetry from other computers that are pretending to be space vehicles hurtling around the planet in low earth orbit. Other computers crunch vast amounts of data to create a realistic model of how things ought to behave in space. If a fan fails, then the sensor that measures air flow from that fan must show reduced or no air flow. If the fan is supposed to exhaust air from an enclosure containing equipment, the temperature sensor for that enclosure must begin to show a rising temperature. If the temperature gets too high, then the equipment in the enclosure must switch itself off, and so on.
One could view the whole thing as an elaborate MUD, filled with puzzles ("Sensors indicate a slow leak. How do we find it?"). In a way, it is, except the stakes are much higher. Screw up some, and experimental results become worthless. Screw up some more, and the crew has to abandon the station and return home prematurely. Even more extreme screwups are possible, with even more extreme outcomes, described by euphemistic phrases such as "loss of station" and "loss of crew." The purpose of simulating flights is to hammer out the `gotchas' that invariably hide in any complex engineering design, and to give the flight team experience in how the whole shebang works and in developing workable solutions whenever one of those `gotchas' rears its ugly little head.
Simulations are carefully scripted by the training team, who weigh the ramifications of all malfunctions (or `mals', in the jargon of flight controllers) that will be thrown at the flight team. Simulations go by names such as "Shock," "Scream," "Quake," and "Tsumani," all vaguely menacing. During simulation "runs," the training team observes how the flight team handles the mals. They sit in the SSTF computer room, a windowless facility with no wall clocks and up to four computer screens in front of each work station. After all the dust settles, everyone - trainer and trainee - huddles together for a debrief to discuss what went right and what went wrong, and how to avoid the second category in the future.
Last night, I participated in a so-called joint simulation with Moscow. During this sim, flight control teams in both Houston and Moscow worked a portion of the flight designated as "3A" on the current assembly sequence. The purpose of a joint sim is the same as for a normal sim, except that the trainers are also exercising the ability of the respective flight control teams to work together, to communicate, to share information, to propose workarounds, in short: to work as a single team in pursuit of a common goal.
It is, I think, this aspect of the space program that keeps me at this job. The ISS, in my view, could justify its existence simply on the basis of providing a reason, a purpose for people of different countries and cultures - former enemies, no less - to cooperate. One successful joint sim is worth more than all of the hosannas and holier-than-thou pronouncements that encourage people to be Good because it's the Right Thing To Do.
Sure, flying humans in space and deriving technological benefit from the space program are important, and impressive, and provide August Persons with photo opportunites, but the long-term benefit of international cooperation in pursuit of something bigger than either "side" is the only road, in my opinion, to peace.
Cheers...
