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Knowledge Cartography pp 381–399Cite as

Human-Agent Knowledge Cartography for e-Science: NASA Field Trials at the Mars Desert Research Station

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Part of the book series: Advanced Information and Knowledge Processing ((AI&KP))

Abstract

This chapter describes the sociotechnical embedding of a knowledge cartography approach (Conversational Modelling) within a prototype e-science work system. This was evaluated over two 2-week field trials, simulating collaborative Mars-Earth geological exploration. We believe this work is the first demonstration of a knowledge mapping tool embedded within a human/software multiagent work system, with humans and agents reading and writing structures amenable to agent understanding and autonomous agent execution, and human understanding, annotation and argumentation. Secondly, in terms of the applied problem, we have demonstrated how human and agent plans, data, multimedia documents, metadata, discussions, interpretations and arguments can be mapped in an integrated manner, and successfully deployed in field trials which simulated aspects of mission workload pressure.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Interactive web exports of the maps in this chapter, plus other materials, are presented on the project website: www.kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/coakting/nasa

  2. 2.

    Extra-Vehicle Activity is work performed by an astronaut outside the space craft.

  3. 3.

    NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission is an ongoing unmanned Mars exploration mission, commenced in 2003, which sent two robotic rovers Spirit and Opportunity to explore the Martian surface and geology.

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Acknowledgments

Large scale e-science of this sort takes a lot of effort from many people. This project was funded in part by a NASA Research Announcement (NRA) through the Information Systems’ program Human-Centered Computing project, Mike Shafto selecting officer. This work was part of NASA Ames’ Mobile Agent Project, with William J. Clancey as overall Principal Investigator and Maarten Sierhuis as overall Project Lead. Project members are civil servants and contractors at NASA-Ames in California and Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. Satellite network services were funded by the NASA Research & Education Network (NREN), and supported by researchers from NASA Glenn Research Center in Ohio. The United Kingdom’s EPSRC funded the Advanced Knowledge Technologies consortium, of which the CoAKTinG Project is part: www.aktors.org/coakting. We are grateful to colleagues at the Open University’s Knowledge Media Institute: Al Selvin for his contributions as an RST Facilitator and with assisting in our reflections on this role, and Michelle Bachler for programming Compendium. Our thanks to Kevin Page (University of Southampton) for support with the Meeting Replay tool. We are grateful to Shannon Rupert (MiraCosta College, now New Mexico State University), and the team at State University of New York at Buffalo: Stacy Sklar, Brent Garry, Abigail Semple, Melissa Farley, Brett Burkett, Kyle Fredrick, and Shannon Kobs. Our thanks also to the Northern California Mars Society mission support volunteers including especially Frank Crossman, as well the MDRS coordinator, Tony Muscatello, and the flight surgeon, Tam Czarnik, provided essential services during the 2 weeks at MDRS. Please see http://www.marssociety.org/MDRS/fs03/ (Crew 29: April 25– May 8, 2004) and http://www.marssociety.org/MDRS/fs04/ (Crew 38: April 3–16, 2005) for the complete listing of mission participants, daily log entries and photographs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human-Centered Computing, NASA/Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, 94035, USA

    Maarten Sierhuis

  2. Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, MK7 6AA, UK

    Simon J. Buckingham Shum

Authors
  1. Maarten Sierhuis
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  2. Simon J. Buckingham Shum
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maarten Sierhuis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

    Alexandra Okada

  2. Connected Intelligence Centre, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

    Simon J. Buckingham Shum

  3. Sheffield Hallam University Centre for Science Education, Sheffield, United Kingdom

    Tony Sherborne

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Sierhuis, M., Shum, S.J.B. (2014). Human-Agent Knowledge Cartography for e-Science: NASA Field Trials at the Mars Desert Research Station. In: Okada, A., Buckingham Shum, S., Sherborne, T. (eds) Knowledge Cartography. Advanced Information and Knowledge Processing. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6470-8_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6470-8_17

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-6470-8

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