Moving off the Planet
Moving off the planet will be defining moment of this century as landing on the Moon was in the last. For that to happen-for humans to go where humans cannot go-- simulation is the sole solution. NASA supports simulation for life-cycle activities: design, analysis, test, checkout, operations, review and training. We comtemplate time spans of a century and more, teams dispersed to different planets and the need for systems that endure or adapt as missions, teams and technology change. Without imagination such goals are impossible. But with Immagination we can go outside our present perception of reality to think about and take action on what has been, is and, especially what might be.Consciously maturing and imagined, possibly workable, idea through framing it to optimization to design, and building the product provides us with a new approach to innovation and simulation fidelity. We address options, analyze, test and make improvements in how we think and work. Each step includes increasingly exact information about costs, schedule, who will be needed, where, when and how.
NASA is integrating such thinking into its Exploration Product Realization Hierarchy for simulation and analysis, test and verificaton, and stimulus response goals. Technically NASA follows a timeline of studies, analysis, definition, design, development and operations with concurrent documentation.
We have matched this Product Realization Hierarchy with a continuum from image to realization that incorporates commitment, current and needed research and communication to ensure superior and creative problem solving as well as advances in simulation. One result is a new approach to collaborative systems. Another is a distributed observer network prototype using game engine technology bringing advanced 3-D simulation of a simulation to the desktop enabling people to develop shared consensus of its meaning.
Biography of Priscilla Elfrey
Priscilla Elfrey initiated and is lead for development of the Augmented Collaborative Environment (ACE) system for space exploration and the NASA-wide Modeling and Simulation Team. She also leads Kennedy Space Center simulation technology outreach as liaison to the National Center for Simulation, SimSummit, member of international program committees of the Society for Computer Simulation International (SCS) and Chair of the Space Community Forum of the Simulation Interoperability and Standards Organization. She initiated and was project director for what is now the National Center for Simulation and co-chaired a Florida state university system committee on digital media. She has spoken and presented numerous papers at simulation and other technology conferences in Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Canada and the US. She participated in the development of the Intensive Education Program in Advanced Logistics (IEPAL)-- an international exchange program-- funded by the European Union and the US Department of Education. She was NASA Executive Development Officer and, later, KSC technical advisor in Spacelab and Experiments division, and both Advanced Projects and Public Affairs offices. Prior to NASA, she was a senior administrator at Yale University, associate dean of Yale College and a fellow of Calhoun College. She conducted training and organizational development independently and at NASA, Yale, New York University, the American Arbitration Association, the American Management Association, and for other civic and professional organizations. She directed dramatics and was a founder of two off-off Broadway theatres and later produced award winning NASA videos on commercial use of space and wrote and produced public broadcasting television forums on simulation. A graduate of Barnard College at Columbia University in English and American studies, she did graduate work in dramatic literature at Columbia, media and linguistics at NYU, studied training at Moreno Institute and Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and film through Women in Film and at Valencia and Rockport. She is the author of The Hidden Agenda, Recognizing What Really Matters at Work published by John Wiley and Sons. She writes on simulation for the general reader and is a Fellow of the Center for Electronic Communication at Florida Atlantic University. She and her husband, John, live in Florida.
