Stetson, Cartee, Emery Present Papers at IEEE Aerospace Conference

Aerospace Programs employees Gary Cartee, Mark Emery, and Howard Stetson recently attended the 2011 IEEE Aerospace Conference in Big Sky, Montana, where they presented technical papers they co-authored with NASA counterparts.  The papers presented were all directly related to the technical work these employees have performed at the Marshall Space Flight Center on the Constellation Ares I Project. The papers had to be accepted for presentation at the conference by a rigorous peer review.

Howard Stetson was the lead author of the “The HAL 9000 Space Operating System.”  Stetson presented the main body of the paper and conducted the Question and Answer session while NASA employee and co-author Angie Haddock presented the introduction.  NASA employees Craig Cruzen and Gary Knickerbocker were also co-authors.

Stetson’s paper was the only technical paper at the conference that had a design reference mission (DRM) for Long Duration Human Space Exploration and an “enabler” for such missions as well as the potential risk mitigation of permanent Loss Of Communication (LOC) with Earth-based assets during the mission. Stetson described a novel design of an integrated series of intelligent executive software engines that can control systems and subsystems that together become an “intelligent operator” onboard a spacecraft.

Cruzen (NASA) and co-author Cartee (TBE) presented a second paper, entitled “Utilizing Virtual Missions to Achieve Real Operations Savings,” based on work done during the Constellation Program’s virtual mission activity.  The paper concentrated on the MSFC launch vehicle tasks and described preliminary mission integration schedules, operations requirements, and deliverables developed for the Ares I vehicle.  It also described several off nominal events simulated as part of the virtual mission.  The paper concluded by assessing the virtual mission concept and suggesting ways to make it even more effective. 

NASA employee Ray Shaughnessy and co-author Emery (TBE) presented a third paper entitled “Ares I Design for Operability.”  It documented the past and current design phases and the supporting processes, tools, and methodology for designing operability into the Ares I launch vehicle.  The content addressed key operability requirements, system readiness activities, international launch vehicle benchmarking activities, operability assessments, and lessons learned.

All the papers received very high marks for originality and innovation.  TBE authors expressed how honored they were to be selected to represent MSFC’s Mission Operations Laboratory at the prestigious conference and noted their appreciation to NASA and contractor management for their support.