Job analysis and collaborative training for spacecraft operators in future control rooms

Abstract

Identifying relevant skills to fulfill the daily tasks and responsibilities of a satellite controller will be a critical competitive advantage for the future. There is a widely used group of methods to analyze the content of a job and its needed activities. From a human factor point of view a job analysis is the best practice to identify the most difficult, frequent, and important tasks that make up the job as satellite controller. Our attention was focused on the questionnaire of the Fleishman Job Analysis Survey (F-JAS). With the support of DLR´s Aviation and Space Psychology Department, DLR GfR´s Human Resources Department tailored the job profile of spacecraft controllers for the first time by a scientific study to the needs of future satellite operations. But as jobs and tasks are changing constantly because of changed working environments and new technologies like automation, this requires new thinking about personnel selection and a reconsideration of the training process for spacecraft operators in future control rooms.