Advanced Crew Terminal - "A Generic Framework for the realisation of 
         System and Payload crew terminals"

Leslie P. Gale
Leslie.Gale@nlnwgfsc.origin.nl
Origin/BSO

Co-authors:	Mikael Wolff (ESA/ESTEC)
		Bernard Fontaine (SAS)
		Bob Visser (NLR)
		Rudi Potze (CRI)

Abstract:
Building upon experience gained in a number of ESA studies, BSO as lead with
partners CRI (DK), SAS(B) and NLR (NL) have developed a concept called the 
Advanced Crew Terminal(ACT). ACT provides a generic solution for the development
and utilisation of crew and ground terminals for system and payload operations.
ACT capabilities cover mission preparation and mission execution.
ACT has been developed for ESA/ESTEC as part of a generic framework for 
crew operations.

For mission execution ACT is directed towards supporting crew in the
performance 
of their tasks and provides a number of features which include:
- multi-media documentation and help facilities;
- synchronised operation between onboard and ground terminals;
- multi-media interaction between crew onboard and the ground based 
  experts for telesupport;
- remote payload operation;
- role, task and procedure management (Timeline schedule);
- multi-media supported procedure execution;
- updating of ground prepared procedures and documentation during the mission.

For mission preparation, the flexibility and capabilities offered by ACT provide
a cost effective solution to terminal development. Payload and system
terminal developers can concentrate on the mission specific applications.
ACT provides
tested and reliable services to simplify development activities, reducing
development time, risks and costs.  
Services include: communication protocols and management, payload 
interfacing, logging, housekeeping, graphical annotation, 
procedure authoring, and multi-media support. Further, ACT is based upon 
low cost technology that emphasises the use of commercial laptops for flight
computers, commercial desktop computers for ground based (mission
preparation and execution) and COTS(commercial of the shelf) products.

The project has, through a demonstration, shown the use of the ACT services
in the development of crew terminals for onboard system, onboard payload and 
ground operations in a manned space mission scenario.

The paper will present:
- the results the ACT project which have led to the provision of 
  generic services;
- lessons learnt from the demonstration;
- planned extensions which include Speech Recognition;
- future trends.