06-05-2025
NASA next-gen control room experiment at KSC aims to make sure humans work at their best
Imagine monitoring a robot working more than 200,000 miles away on the lunar surface — a stressful job, and one that requires operators to be on the ball at all times while in small control room for hours on end.
For a future robotic moon mission known as IPEx, the goal is to get the design of this small control room right, and enable operators to be alert and at their best.
Right at Kennedy Space Center, a Florida Tech professor and her team are exploring what is called the next generation control room. Debbie Carstens is the director of Human Factors: Aeronautics, Safety, Sociability, Interfaces, Stress & Training (HF ASSIST) Lab at Florida Tech, and after having worked at Kennedy Space Center years ago, she's back on familiar grounds.
For these mock up tests of the control room, operators will be watching and controlling the rover, which is located in a dust bin — a sandbox like mockup of the lunar surface — inside Kennedy Space Center. Meanwhile, a simulation operator can see what the rover is doing and what is going on in the control room. The simulation operator monitors how the team handles difficult situations and if there are factors which impede performance.
The mission may be an experiment now, but it will not be for long. The purpose of this investigation is looking into what factors will be most impactful for what's called the Next Generation In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Pilot Excavator (IPEx) Control Room final design.
Simply put, the control room will be for used for the NASA IPEx mission, which is a robotic mission that will dig and carry regolith on the lunar surface, searching for resources for future human and robotic missions. IPEx is expected to travel to the moon by the end of the decade.
Therefore, there is a need to get the control room design right before the mission flies to the moon. Operator performance is critical to mission success, and the right environment can make or break the mission.
"Of course humans work best when they're most engaged," said Carstens. She explained the need to keep everyone vigilant in downtime because even when everything is going well, a situation could arise. For example, out of nowhere the rover could easily get stuck and the team would have to problem solve to free it.
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So what factors go into making the control room more effective for human performance?
The control room itself is 588 sq ft., which is approximately the size of a studio apartment. The simulated mission studies last five days, but will be much longer once the mission is flying.
And the employees will be working demanding 13-hour shifts, five days a week. The team will rotate on breaks every two hours, to keep their minds sharp.
"They rotate every two hours. It's all for safety," said Carstens. "We want to optimize human performance, human safety, and efficiency."
Carstens knows the need to get the design right, even down to where the employees can take a break. The rest area has something known as balance zones, where the team can get in quick exercise to relieve workday stress. There is also a food area, with a vending machine which offers healthy options, and a water dispenser.
The IPEx control room at NASA Kennedy Space Center.
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As for mission monitoring, it's the little things, such as font size, menu navigation, color usage, and even where someone sits, which factor into optimizing productivity. Carstens explained that color usage can optimize focus. And the computer screens aim for the the cleanest layout possible, meaning no useless files or icons.
What does a next generation NASA control room look like?
As for room layout, there are four 75-inch main screens in the front of the room. However, everyone in the room has a different task, making it tricky. What is projected on these main screens might be critical to someone but not others.
"What is one person's clutter, may be one person's information — but at the same time we don't want it like a garage sale," said Carstens. To solve this, displays are able to send alerts before information is pulled up on the screen.
Each operator has their own desk and monitor, with the room consisting of two rows of desks. Each desk has its own lighting, which is great for adaptability in a primarily dark room. Carstens compared it to an air traffic control room. Little natural light comes in as blinds cover the windows.
Carstens explained that desks are close to each other, and while one would think that would be distracting, it actually proved to be good for problem solving when the rover is not behaving as planned.
"They really liked it, because they were able to so easily brainstorm," she said.
There are also white boards where operators can walk over and jot down their ideas.
One issue still in the works is room temperature, as it is very difficult to meet everyone's exact temperature preference. Carstens explains that its similar with any household or even riding in a car with others. It's hard to make everyone feel comfortable all the time.
As for keeping everyone up to speed, shifts overlap twice: one hour in the beginning and one hour at the end so information can be shared.
"They are making sure that critical information gets passed on to the next team member. So that way they can, by overlapping, get the next person up to speed," said Carstens.
Until the mission flies, the room will see continuous improvement based on what's learned. And others are learning from the mock mission already, even visiting to get ideas and make suggestions.
"We want everything to go as smooth as possible," said Carstens.
Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at bedwards@ or on X: @brookeofstars.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: NASA, Florida Tech experiment with moon mission next-gen control room
