Abstract
This panel addresses the topic of human-centered automation in a very different context—manned missions to deep space in which predominantly autonomous systems must control the crew's life-support systems most of the time. The Mars spacecraft and its inhabitants are totally dependent on the proper operation of thousands of control loops and pieces of equipment to maintain the delicate, unbuffered homeostasis of their remote existence. Mission success hangs on a thread that depends on a successful partnership, or symbiosis, between crew and machines, which exceeds anything ever required of ground systems. The need for a new approach to human-centered automation is not a “frill” in future Mars mission, but rather a sine qua non of survival. Thus the challenge is design: Can we design systems intended to operate in a predominantly autonomous mode, without a human backup, that are sufficiently safe such that human travel into deep space is possible? Further, when such systems reach their inevitable limits, can they be designed such that a crewmember, neither an operator in any traditional sense nor a software engineer, can understand what happened and repair or modify system operation?
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