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International Space Station life support hardware is controlled mainly from the ground by executing standard operating procedures. While some on-board software exists for safety purposes, most commands are sent from ECLSS ground controllers to achieve mission objectives. This will prove unwieldy for extended operations with increasing time delays. This paper presents a new approach to encoding standard operating procedures that provides a path to greater autonomy in life support operations. Software tools will allow for adjustable automation of procedures from either the ground or on-board. The Cascade Distiller System (CDS) being tested at NASA Johnson Space Center is used as an example system.

NASA exploration missions require a small group of humans to live in hostile environments for extended time periods. Under such circumstances it is necessary to provide automated regenerative life support systems that can be managed by a few people. The Distributed Collaboration and Interaction (DCI) System ensures safe, effective operations with such automated systems by aiding humans in supervising and using control automation while working remote from the physical system. In this paper we describe DCI and present the results of using it to assist control engineers remotely supervising an automated water recovery subsystem during a ground test at JSC.