ISS emergency scenarios and a virtual training simulator for Flight Controllers Thomas Uhlig a,n , Frank-Cyrus Roshani a , Ciro Amodio a , Alessandro Rovera b , Nikola Zekusic c , Hannes Helmholz d , Matthew Fairchild a a Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt, German Space Operations Center, Münchner Str. 20, 82234 Wessling, Germany b ALTEC S.p.A., Corso Marche 79, 10146 Torino, Italy c LSE SPACE GmbH, Argelsrieder Feld 22, 82234 Wessling, Germany d Technische Universität Berlin, Audio Communication Group, Einsteinufer 17c, 10587 Berlin, Germany article info Article history: Received 11 January 2016 Accepted 4 August 2016 Available online 5 August 2016 Keywords: Human spaceflight Flight Control Team Emergency Mission control Simulation Virtual reality abstract The current emergency response concept for the International Space Station (ISS) includes the support of the Flight Control Team. Therefore, the team members need to be trained in emergencies and the cor- responding crew procedures to ensure a smooth collaboration between crew and ground. In the case where the astronaut and ground personnel training is not collocated it is a challenging endeavor to ensure and maintain proper knowledge and skills for the Flight Control Team. Therefore, a virtual 3D simulator at the Columbus Control Center (Col-CC) is presented, which is used for ground personnel training in the on-board emergency response. The paper briefly introduces the main ISS emergency scenarios and the corresponding response strategy, details the resulting learning objectives for the Flight Controllers and elaborates on the new simulation method, which will be used in the future. The status of the 3D simulator, first experiences and further plans are discussed. & 2016 IAA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Operation of a manned platform in space like the International Space Station (ISS) requires concepts for emergency cases [1]. The procedures which are available for those cases are designed for maximum crew autonomy to avoid critical dependencies on communication equipment and hence on the link to Mission Control. However, in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) regime with ne- glegtable communication delays the Mission Control Center can still provide a valuable support to the emergency response of the on-board astronauts. For that reason not only the astronauts need to be extensively trained in the various emergency response strategies, also the Flight Control Teams need training in it. The first level here is classroom training, which conveys the theoretical knowledge and contains first walk-throughs of the procedures. The second level is simulations, during which the Flight Control Team is put into a real control room in a real operational context with simulated data stream and commanding with trainers role- playing the astronauts, who read down a pre-scripted scenario. The difficulty here is that the trainer is in many cases not the expert in the on-board emergency handling, since they are in some setups not involved in the corresponding crew training, so imitating the crew during the simulation is difficult; and involving a real astronaut in the simulations is often difficult due to their busy schedules. At the Columbus Control Center (Col-CC) in Oberpfaffenhofen/ Germany, one of the five main control centers for the ISS [2],a novel virtual reality simulator was developed for emergency si- mulations, which allows one to also “play” the crew part of the scenario. With that approach, the “crew” can also be played by a corresponding Flight Control Team member, which increases the fidelity of the simulation, since a proven expert in the emergency field is now also involved in the “on-board part”. For that person it has the additional training effect that also the crew part of the emergency is reinforced and an even better and more integrated understanding of the response strategy is acquired. 2. ISS emergency response Beside medical emergencies [3], which are of low relevance for the Flight Control Team due to the fact that they are not directly involved, there are three major technical emergencies defined for the International Space Station. A fire can directly endanger the Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aa Acta Astronautica http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2016.08.001 0094-5765/& 2016 IAA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. n Corresponding author. E-mail address: thomas.uhlig@dlr.de (T. Uhlig). Acta Astronautica 128 (2016) 513–520