September 6, 2022- December 16, 2022
Marshall Space Flight Center- Enhance Timeline Modeling and Simulation for Human Landing Systems
Final Goals of your Project/s:
In an effort to return to the moon, modeling, simulation, and timeline analysis are being performed to develop timelines for governing crew and vehicle activities. Stateflow Timeline Execution and Development environment (STEDe) provides these capabilities. STEDe uses states in a plant-controller system created in Simulink to represent activities. These activities are plotted over time to create a visual timeline. The timeline can be exported to a power point or excel sheet and given to other teams on an as-needed basis. STEDe is a way to automate the representation of off-nominal contingency scenarios and shows a “Rule Checker” to make sure all crew and vehicle needs are being met.
Describe what you did during the internship:
My project included the front-end development of two graphical user interfaces (GUIs). During the first few weeks of my internship, I was working on a GUI that represents mission phases as a knob, and twisting that knob changes the mission phase duration. I worked on building out rules of how mission phases affect one another; for example, showing how increasing the duration of one mission phase decreases the duration of another. I also worked on reformatting the GUI to include both crewed and uncrewed mission phases, whereas before the GUI only included crewed mission phases. There were also smaller capabilities added so the user could better see the names and duration of mission phases on the timeline.
The rest of my internship focused on improving the user interface of the STEDe GUI. STEDe illustrates activities through a table and various plots. The table was reformatted to match the Excel sheets given by the Mission Planning Team. More information was added to show activities that include burns, the flight day of the activity, and if the crew was wearing a suit. The user now has the ability to zoom in on mission phases and flight days in the timeline plot and can see activity titles. Finally, I built out the Rule Checker to show the needs of the crew based on medical operation documentation.
Did you achieve your goals? What were the results?
Yes! I would say I achieved the goals of my internship. I was able to get great feedback from multiple individuals before the end of my internship, and I was told the capabilities I implemented were helpful. The first app I worked on is ready to be sent to the Mission Planning Team leader, who is the end user. The second app I worked on has a clear path going forward to becoming a standalone .exe GUI that no longer requires Simulink.
Describe positive lessons learned:
The biggest positive lesson I learned is to be confident in the decisions I make. Oftentimes, I would be told a capability to be implemented, but I was given a lot of freedom as to how I wanted to implement it. Early on, I got a little nervous about implementing new things in the GUIs and speaking up about my ideas, but by the end, I grew a lot more confident.
Describe negative lessons learned:
I was working fully remotely for my internship which I learned was not for me. I enjoyed some aspects of working remotely, but I do better in an in-person/hybrid environment. I’m still very grateful for the experience because I wouldn’t have known my preference prior to this internship.