Crew members on the recent NASA HI-SEAS and HERA Analog Missions have been using the Ames mobile mission planning tool, Playbook, along with mission controllers. As with previous analogs, such as NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) and BASALT (Biologic Analog Science Associated with Lava Terrains), Playbook allows crew members execute a operational timeline and to create and edit their own activities on the fly, allowing studies on crew autonomy to figure out what the crew needs to successfully execute future deep space exploration missions.
Playbook has been adapted to support time-delayed communications for these analog missions, simulating lunar (a couple of seconds) or martian (5-15 minutes) conditions. Crew members can use the built-in chat feature, and can send photo, and video for faster and more efficient communication. The Playbook planning tool has heritage back to the Mars Exploration Rover mission, the Phoenix Mars Lander mission, the Mars Science Laboratory, and the International Space Station (ISS) crew activity planning by ground controllers. It was designed to require minimal training and optimized for use on mobile devices including iPads and iPhones but also runs on regular computers and laptops.
You can see Playbook in action at the 8:10 mark on this video on the
CBC News Youtube channel.
