System design considerations for human-automation function allocation during lunar landing

A desire to advance humanity's presence in space prompts the need for improved technology to send crew to places such as the Moon, Mars, and nearby asteroids. Safely placing a crewed vehicle on and in any landing condition requires a design decision regarding the distribution of responsibilities between the crew and automation. In this thesis, a cognitive process model is used to determine the necessary automated functionality to support astronaut decision making. Current literature lacks sufficient detailed knowledge regarding astronaut decision making during this task and observations of astronauts landing on the Moon are not readily available. Therefore, a series of human-in-the-loop experiments, one of which was conducted with the NASA Astronaut Office at Johnson Space Center, have been conducted to examine the changes in performance due to differing function allocations, trajectory profiles, and scenario operations. The data collected in the human-in-the-loop study has provided empirical data that has informed the cognitive process model, the requirements analysis, and provided insight regarding cockpit display usage and information needs. The proposed system requirements include design guidance for assisting astronauts during both nominal and off-nominal landing scenarios.Ph.D