MEETING THE CHALLENGES OF OPERATIONS TRAINING IN AN INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT

摘要

This paper examines the challenges present when teams distributed across several countries, but who areinvolved in the operations of a single spacecraft, are to be trained. Several missions, mostly but not entirelyconcerned with the International Space Station (ISS) programme, have training requirements with an internationalcontext. These include Columbus, the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) and the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV).Such international training situations present particular challenges compared with normal operations training. Thispaper explores some of these challenges, and presents potential strategies to address them, based on experiencegained within the ATV programme.The ATV mission has many operational phases, some of which need training at an international level. Thesephases include:1. rendezvous, when ATV makes its initial approach to the ISS2. docking, the final approach and mating with the ISS3. refuelling, when ATV transfers fuel supplies to the ISS4. reboost, when ATV adjusts the ISS orbit5. debris avoid manoeuvres, when ATV moves ISS to avoid space debris or other objects which couldcompromise crew safety6. undocking, when ATV leaves the ISS at the end of its missionThe international training programme for ATV includes on-console simulations, paper simulations and othertraining exercises. The on-console simulations make use of three high fidelity simulators, based in three locations.The simulators in Moscow & Toulouse, France are interconnected, and coordinated in real time with the simulatorin Houston. The simulators include realistic modelling of ATV including flight software (in Toulouse) and ISSRussian Segment including flight software (in Moscow), and are coupled together by a wide area network,controlled from the Columbus Control Centre in Germany.The challenges of organising such international training include:1. meeting the training objectives for multi-control centre interfaces2. communication and culture3. information exchange4. planning, in particular dealing with the impact of external constraints5. scheduling, taking into account multiple sites and time zonesThis paper examines how these issues were addressed during the ATV-1 and ATV-2 training campaigns, andpresents improvements proposed for ATV-3 and following missions. In particular, this paper examines means ofcommunication, particularly during training preparation, and methods ensuring the necessary information exchangesbetween all parties. It includes an analysis of the effectiveness of the simulation planning, and lessons learned forthe future.