(May 10, 2010)

On May 10, two astronauts, a veteran undersea engineer and an experienced scientist embarked on the 14th NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) undersea analog mission. The NEEMO 14 mission is using software called the Science Planning Interface for Exploration (SPIFe, pronounced Spiffy) designed to reduce the number of people needed to achieve mission goals dramatically. SPIFe was designed by the Human Computer Interaction group at NASA's Human Systems Integration Division.

The crew will conduct a series of extravehicular activities (EVAs), simulating activities that astronauts would be likely to perform during missions in space. For the first time, this mission is evaluating autonomous crew operations using SPIFe. This will include periods of time when there is limited communication between the crew and the mission control center, much like what would happen during missions to Mars. Jack Li and Jessica Marquez of NASA's Human Systems Integration Division are presently in Key Largo supporting the SPIFe system deployment. This deployment is based on joint work on planning systems by NASA's Human Systems Integration Division and NASA's Intelligent Systems Division.