Constellation C3I Crew-Ground-Experimenter-Developer Collaboration Services

The Command, Control, Communications and Information (C3I) environment will be significantly different for Constellation than for Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS). Missions will operate not only in Near Earth round-trip latencies (RTLT) of seconds but also Near Mars RTLT of 10 to 40 minutes. New classes of collaboration services are required to support the spectrum of Constellation missions and infrastructure. Integrating popular collaboration tools such as Groove Virtual Office on Constellation C3I space-based components and networks will be a major innovation. This project proposes experimental use in SBIR Phases II/III of ISS flight and ground capabilities to demonstrate new collaboration services for use in the Constellation program. These new space-based and terrestrial services will greatly improve communications among all Constellation personnel over current techniques. The approach includes: 1) Integrate instant messaging, e-mail, transcription, etc. with voice and video communications; 2) Design for automation and autonomy of space-based Constellation components; 3) Evolve development collaboration services into mission collaboration services over time; 4) Promote new collaboration standards, interoperability, standardized interfaces, and modularity; 5) Adapt the collaboration architecture to the ground and space networks and frameworks. Client-server, peer-to-peer, or a hybrid architecture may be most suitable.