Findings

Scientists were not able to communicate plans in a language engineers could use

From our interviews with MER sequence engineers and Phoenix science plan integrators (SPIs) we observed considerable tension between science and engineering planning groups. This tension occurred when science intents were not communicated using vocabulary that sequence engineers and plan outliners could translate into concrete plans. Engineers often did not understand the reason behind science initiatives and many scientists were hesitant to interact with planning software and were often unaware of engineering constraints.

 

Specialized tools created fragmented planning workflow

Across many of the missions, we observed that several domain-specific tools were used throughout the planning process. These specific tools only addressed one part of the mission planning process. For instance, RSVP was used on the MER mission for writing rover sequences but the issues such as resource modeling of the rover were addressed by another tool called Maestro. An individual would first resource model a template sequence in Maestro and then write the actual sequence in RSVP. Although these tools were designed to be used one after another, they were so domain specific that there was a workflow gap between these programs in the planning process. The direct result was that homemade tools were used to bridge this gap and generic tools were used to address cross-domain issues in the planning process.

 

Ongoing local problem solving required immediate communication

Members of the engineering team on Phoenix often had to ask urgent questions to science team members. Engineers had difficulty understanding scientists’ requests and tracked down scientists to ask questions. Scientists were not always at their computers or telephones, and they would often not respond to emails for many hours. “It was frustrating”, the engineer said, “because you knew there was someone who could answer your question right away, but they weren’t available.” If the question could not be answered in a timely manner, sequence engineers would be forced to drop part of the plan because it could not be completed in time to uplink to the spacecraft.