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Console Log Keeping Made Easier - Tools and Techniques for Improving Quality of Flight Controller Activity LogsAt the Marshall Space Flight Center's (MSFC) Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC) for International Space Station (ISS), each flight controller maintains detailed logs of activities and communications at their console position. These logs are critical for accurately controlling flight in real-time as well as providing a historical record and troubleshooting tool. This paper describes logging methods and electronic formats used at the POIC and provides food for thought on their strengths and limitations, plus proposes some innovative extensions. It also describes an inexpensive PC-based scheme for capturing and/or transcribing audio clips from communications consoles. Flight control activity (e.g. interpreting computer displays, entering data/issuing electronic commands, and communicating with others) can become extremely intense. It's essential to document it well, but the effort to do so may conflict with actual activity. This can be more than just annoying, as what's in the logs (or just as importantly not in them) often feeds back directly into the quality of future operations, whether short-term or long-term. In earlier programs, such as Spacelab, log keeping was done on paper, often using position-specific shorthand, and the other reader was at the mercy of the writer's penmanship. Today, user-friendly software solves the legibility problem and can automate date/time entry, but some content may take longer to finish due to individual typing speed and less use of symbols. File layout can be used to great advantage in making types of information easy to find, and creating searchable master logs for a given position is very easy and a real lifesaver in reconstructing events or researching a given topic. We'll examine log formats from several console position, and the types of information that are included and (just as importantly) excluded. We'll also look at when a summary or synopsis is effective, and when extensive detail is needed.
Document ID
20030001568
Acquisition Source
Marshall Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Scott, David W.
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL United States)
Underwood, Debrah
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2002
Subject Category
Documentation And Information Science
Meeting Information
Meeting: Space Ops 2002 Conference
Location: Houston, TX
Country: United States
Start Date: October 9, 2002
End Date: October 12, 2002
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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