Operations lessons learned from conducting payload teleoperations utilizing Internet technology

摘要

The feasibility of constructing a low-cost, generic ground system capable of supporting remote payload operations at geographically dispersed investigator sites was considered. ^The effort utilized Internet technologies protocols, Java, Web browsers, Internet telephony, and security tools to implement such a teleoperations system (TOPS). ^A 'remote operations testbed' utilizing a variety of Internet connection services was developed to evaluate the performance of the teleoperations tools over the public Internet. ^TOPS was successfully used to monitor a crystal growth furnace experiment for eleven days on the STS-87 Shuttle mission in November 1997 from NASA centers, corporate offices, and residences. ^Commanding capability was added for a remote ground demonstration of a prototype crystal growth facility in May 1998. ^The research found that the approach can work for certain classes of payloads while maintaining security over the Internet. ^Java is suitable for this type of application, and significant advantages of Java were observed, including code portability, programmer productivity, and JavaBean component reuse. ^The approach provides the basis for new remote ground teleoperations systems sufficient for low-rate telemetry, semi-autonomous payload classes in the Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC) era. ^(Author)