Lunar Science Real-Time Operations and Mission Systems Integration Definitions and Practices From NASA's VIPER Mission

Mission system design for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission began with focusing on building key components including a solar-powered rover and the ground data system for operating it on the Moon for 100-Earth-days. The VIPER mission would be designed to support teams of people on Earth and a robot on the Moon carrying out a scientifically planned search for water ice, over a distance of 20 km. Initially, within the mission system design the involvement of VIPER’s science team (VST) was noted as “the science customer” - a designation and acknowledgement of a key workgroup in the mission. The VST’s work support needs, for a science work system, however, had not yet been defined by the VST in terms of systems and architecture. As the VST’s Science Operations team conducted research to develop a science operations system and architecture for VIPER’s science mission activities they found the science system needs for supporting real-time lunar science were greater than that which was designated in the mission system for the science customer. They decided to focus on developing the science operations system via ongoing integration rather than establishing a separate science component that later would be adjoined to the mission system. VIPER Science Operations enacted integration as an ongoing work practice; integration was a carried out as a regular activity that required schedule and agenda planning to be carried out on a daily and weekly basis, and adjustments in accordance with other workgroups’ activities. The work of integrating requires including and maintaining a greater number of considerations in the short-term work plan such as scheduling and product considerations (e.g., goals, interface features, networks, workspace build, mission simulations) and human relationships. In the long-term, ongoing integration approach can yield benefits that include fewer system conflicts, which can be avoided by learning of conflicts during development when they can be addressed. In addition to lunar science operations development and training with the VIPER Science team, integration included working with VIPER Mission system’s operating software workgroup, as well as the workgroups for rover drivers, planning and timelining, mission systems engineering, testing and training, and mission workspace preparation. This paper shows the work of integration as a process during the pre- surface operations development stage and highlights some examples of mission enhancing decisions that resulted from this integrated approach.