What We Did Last Summer Depicting DES Data to Enhance Simulation Utility and Use

At Kennedy Space Center (KSC), an important use of Discrete Event Simulation (DES) addresses ground operations .of missions to space. DES allows managers, scientists and engineers to assess the number of missions KSC can complete on a given schedule within different facilities, the effects of various configurations of resources and detect possible problems or unwanted situations. For fifteen years, DES has supported KSC efficiency, cost savings and improved safety and performance. The dense and abstract DES data, however, proves difficult to comprehend and, NASA managers realized, is subject to misinterpretation, misunderstanding and even, misuse. In summer 2008, KSC developed and implemented a NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) project based on the premise that visualization could enhance NASA's understanding and use of DES. The Premise Expanding the use and utility of simulation in creating and maintaining massively complex systems demands advances in technology, as well as interoperability among data, simulation, hardware and humans. Less obviously, perhaps, it requires communicating findings in a clear, consistent and effective manner. We must ensure that others can see, accurately and immediately, exactly what we want the simulation to show them. Our goal is to elicit insight that supports understanding and better decision-making. Through inattention or ignorance of the challenges inherent in visual communication, we may, instead, confuse or discourage the viewer. This is important when simulation addresses complex systems and serious hazards and situations involving time, money, and potential loss of equipment, missions and lives. This also suggests that universally accepted standards for visual communication of such simulation are not merely a nicety but a necessity. [1] At the John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, simulation supports ground processing that may include check-out, assembly, test, integration, evaluation, training, launch and landing. Problem as Given The project focused on the KSC ground processing DES for the NASA Constellation program and its two spaceships in development: ARES I and ARES V. Ares I is the vehicle that will allow Orion, the crew exploration vehicle, to return humans to the Moon to stay and, then, in time, go on to Mars and beyond. Ares V, Constellation's cargo launch component. is a heavy lift spacecraft to support human and automated missions. Simulation, including discrete event simulation (DES), is essential at every stage of the operation. We believed that visualization would add to our understanding of DES that mathematically represents KSC ground processing as a chronological sequence of events. With DES, KSC engineers and scientists can simulate ground operations of missions to Space, enable them to assess facility utilization, analyze systems and plan operations as well as experiment and predict potential outcomes. This is designed to support planning, operations, testing and improvement. However, the DES model of ground processing operations over 15 years is dense and abstract. It is difficult to understand, even by its creators. The potential for misunderstanding is a serious concern. Data visualization, it was believed, could play an important role in making data more useful and accessible to a broader audience. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20110011341 2018-03-25T19:48:28+00:00Z