Communication software design for telescience

Summary form only given. An emerging discipline called telescience utilizes robotics, computers, communications, controls, and signal processing for the performance of scientific experiments in remote locations. The future Space Station Freedom and Manned Lunar Base are likely telescience candidates. NASA´s Office of Space Science and Applications initiated a program using a user-oriented rapid-prototyping testbed approach to investigate the potential of telescience for space applications. Two of the testbeds, designed and constructed for the NASA program, use an identical teleoperation architecture. The first investigated the teleoperation of an astrometric telescope and the second demonstrated the teleoperation of a remote fluid-handling laboratory. The teleoperation configuration includes an operator who inputs telecommands and views telemetry and scientific data at a remote commanding computer (RCC). The RCC sends the telecommands to and receives the data from a local controlling computer (LCC). The main focus of the work reported is the design goals and functional description of the generic communications software for the LCC system