CREATING A PATH TO LIGHTS-OUT OPERATIONS

In October 1996, NASA-Goddard held a workshop on autonomous, or ''ligh ts-out,'' operations. Although it focused primarily on automation adva nces that would eliminate direct human participation in some space ope rations activities, the workshop also addressed approaches and technol ogies that would reduce operations costs. The session brought together mission implementers, who shared their experiences and their anticipa ted needs, and technologists rc?ho identified the technologies they, b elieve will bad to advanced mission operations approaches. This report synthesizes how the operations of future space missions might be engi neered, from the ideas and experiences of the workshop speakers. Parti cipants also discussed ideas about reengineering current missions and described the many tools that are currently available for improving op erations. In addition to the authors, workshop organizers included: To m Bagg, TCBIII Systems Analysis; Carolyn Buford, Saj Durani, William M ackey: Silvia Romero, and Charisse Sary, Computer Sciences; Kathy Kell er, Jorge Scientific; Stephen Mayer anti William Oran, AlliedSignal Te chnical Services; and Douglas McNulty Stanford Telecommunications. Ful l proceedings of the workshop can be accessed at http://talos.stel.com /nasa.