Trying to Live Without Your Synchronous Communication, is One Long Sleep Dep. Mission
Sprint 10: Measuring Success & Finalizing Deliverables
“The stars don’t look bigger, but they do look brighter.” — Sally Ride
Touchdown confirmed!
You’ve landed on our last Medium post! (It feels a bit strange to say that — this project has been a constant in our lives since January!) Sprint 10 has been all about fine-tuning our prototype and wrapping up our final research endeavors.
Throughout this summer, we’ve brainstormed, planned, and conducted ~15 usability tests, 10 feedback sessions, and 10 simulated missions. And in just a little over two weeks, we will be presenting all of this work to the AMES Research Center during our summer presentation.
Well, let’s not *delay* the inevitable. Suit up, it’s time to leave the Hab one last time and explore Sprint 10!
Final Prototypes 📐
Our designers have been working hard on adding all the features we had planned on including to our prototype and completing the design system. (You don’t want to know how many Figma components and variants they’ve had to make!)
Operational Readiness Test(s) 🏃🏽♀️🤳🏼💻
“You’re not insane, you’re an astronaut.” — SIM 4 Participant
At the end of the Capstone project, NASA generally requires that the prototype be deployed in an Operational Readiness Test (ORT) which acts as a final field test that is used to validate the design. Instead of one single ORT, we have been running multiple simulated missions with the coded chat interface to validate some of the core features of our prototype.
Our final simulated mission was this past Friday, and we’ll be spending the remainder of our time analyzing the situational awareness, cognitive load, and psychometric data that we were able to collect!
Next Steps 🚀
While this may be the end of the road for Team Chronos, we believe it’s just one step in Playbook’s path to Mars. We hope that the work that we’ve done and the data that we’ve gathered throughout these past 8 months will be valuable for the Playbook team and NASA moving forward. Who knows what Playbook and deep-space communication will look like in 20 years?
Chronos Communication 🛰️
If you’ve been following our Medium posts, then you’ve surely noticed our very creative titles! If you haven’t already figured out which songs have served as inspiration for them, here’s the key:
Sprint 1: Started from the Bottom (2013), Drake
Sprint 2: Up Down (Do This All Day) (2014), T-Pain
Sprint 3: Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (1967), Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell
Sprint 4: SOS (2019), Avicii
Sprint 5: I Can’t Get No (Satisfaction) (1965), The Rolling Stones
Sprint 6: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (1967), The Beatles
Sprint 7: Hey Brother (2013), Avicii
Sprint 8: Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours (2005), Stevie Wonder
Sprint 9: Stairway to Heaven (1971), Led Zeppelin
Sprint 10: I Want You Back (1969), The Jackson 5
Acknowledgements
Even though we have a couple more weeks until our official last day, we would like to thank everyone who has supported us throughout this incredible journey.
And a big shout out to everyone who has been following our Medium updates — we really appreciate all your support! Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions or comments. ❤
Signing off,
Chronos
Chronos Acronym Dictionary
AI: Artificial Intelligence
ARC: Ames Research Center
BASALT: One of NASA’s analog mission project to design and develop elements of future missions that could send humans to conduct science and exploration on Mars
CAPCOM: Capsule Communicator
CCTV: Closed Circuit Television
CDMS: Command & Data Management Systems Officer
CDR: Commander
CDS: Central Data System
DCS: Display & Control Monitor
ESA: European Space Agency
EVA: Extra-Vehicular Activity
F/C: Flight Controller
FD: Flight Director
HERA: Human Exploration Research Analog
IMF: In Flight Maintenance
INCO: Instrumentation & Communications Officer
IVA: Intra-Vehicular Activity
JSC: Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
KSC: John F. Kennedy Space Center
MCC: Mission Control Center
MD: Mission Director
MS: Mission Specialist
MSCI: Mission Scientist
NEEMO: NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operation
ORT: Operational Readiness Test
SA: Situational Awareness
SME: Subject Matter Experts
Opinions expressed are solely our own and do not represent the views or opinions of The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
