Description: This Phase II Mission Operations Digital Twin (MODT) proposal aims to enhance mission awareness, immersion, and collaboration of the flight control team and other stakeholders, like never before. Train like you fly, and fly like you train is a popular motto in the Mission Control Center (MCC), and with MODT the goal is to plan, train and fly (operate) as if you are really there. To accomplish this, MODT Phase II focuses on three major thrusts. The Digital Twin Portal provides the access point for the MODT platform as well as the window through which mission awareness is communicated to the entire team. This will be expanded significantly in Phase II to include the MCC Big Board. That is, the main screen in MCC that provides mission visualization as well as status of key systems or activities. The Virtual Mission Workspace will be a key contribution from Phase II. It provides the ability for users, operators, flight directors and stake-holders to tap into ongoing mission activities and customize their own interface (displays/VR/AR) according to their own interests and responsibilities. Finally, the Mission Decision Analysis capability is the architecture that makes it possible to create, simulate and analyze any mission scenario. In Phase II, event management and asset behavior programming will give users full control to define scenarios, and new optimization functionality will assist with planning and training applications. This combination of the Portal, Workspace, and Analysis functionality gives the entire mission team unprecedented access to visualize, monitor and interact with mission events. As demonstrated in Phase I, and developed further in Phase II, MODT also connects the visual digital twin of the environment and systems, to the data, documents, and other key information needed by operators for effective and efficient team decision-making. MODT will meet the needs (and wish-list) from the flight control team for Artemis and beyond.

Benefits: NASA’s plans for the Gateway and Artemis program, including lunar surface in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) systems, will directly benefit from the Mission Operations Digital Twin concept.The proposed project is directly aligned with the objectives of NASA’s Human Health, Life Support, and Habitation Systems as well as Exploration Destination Systems which call for development of a framework for an integrated training design that supports skill acquisition, retention, and transfer and Operations Effectiveness.