About the ASH project
The European Commission funded project IST-1999-10859 ASH
(Access to Scientific Space Heritage) has developed the virtual_control_room
. The ASH project started on January 1st 2000 and lasted for 2 ½ years.
The virtual_control_room is a vision of a future learning environment.
Here school classes can plan and carry out virtual space missions.
Students get involved by playing the roles of scientists, engineers,
and mission control managers. The virtual_control_room emphasises the
importance of collaboration between students for achieving results.
New Virtual Reality technologies and simulation tools provide a powerful
user interface, which enhances the learning experience.
The virtual_control_room groups students on ‘islands’ placed around a
large central screen. This concept provides a modular, scalable
and flexible learning environment offering new pedagogical opportunities.
About the project partners
The partners together provided the knowledge and research capabilities
necessary to carry out the project. Each partner had a clearly defined
role in the project that reflected their expertise.
The planetarium partners, Europlanetarium, Royal Observatory, and Tycho Brahe Planetarium , provided
knowledge about user groups, information mediation and creation of
accessible content.
The three technical partners - DELTA, Space Applications Services, and Technical University Vienna - each provided
different expertise and technologies necessary to implement the system and mission.
DELTA Danish Electronics, Light & Acoustics (Denmark)
Role: (CO) Project management; Overall system implementation and integration;
CSCW tools. Experience: Management experience from European Projects;
System Analysis; Virtual Classroom; Computer Supported Collaborative Work tools.
Contact by Email
Space Applications Services (Belgium)
Role: (CR) System requirements; Simulation of physical models; Procedure
execution system (script based). Experience: Space system engineering;
Command and control Systems; Computer Assisted Learning. Contact by Email
Technical University Vienna, Institute of Computer Graphics/Imagination Computer Services (Austria)
Role: (CR) System specification; VR presentation and manipulation system
for interactive collaboration (Open Inventor from SGI);
Models and animations. Experience: VR systems; Models. Contact by Email
Europlanetarium Genk (Belgium)
Role: (CR) User trial and evaluation; Experience: Dissemination of Astronomy. Contact by Email
Royal Observatory of Belgium (Belgium)
Role: (CR) Specification and development of scenarios; Evaluation of scenario's.
Experience: Astronomy research; Dissemination of Astronomy. Contact by Email
Tycho Brahe Planetarium Copenhagen (Denmark)
Role: (CR) Requirements identification; Evaluation of scenario's.
Experience: Dissemination of Astronomy; Control Centre trials. Contact by Email
