Digital Futures Lab Completes UC’s First Design-Led NASA Grant

Representing the first ever design-led NASA grant awarded to UC researchers, the Future Mobility Design (FMD) Lab worked to bring human-centered insights into the design of next-generation spacecraft communication systems.

When astronauts travel into deep space, they won’t be able to rely on constant communication with Earth. Missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond will require spacecraft that can identify problems, respond to unexpected failures, and help crews stay focused on the mission instead of troubleshooting.

Their work centered on a system called GRAMS (GRaceful Architecture for Mitigation of System failures), a cognitive architecture designed to locate problems, alert the right crew or subsystem, and map solutions to unexpected issues. By combining the engineering of autonomous systems with the design focus on human interaction, the project bridged fields that collaborate all too rarely, showcasing the power of interdisciplinary research to create solutions that are both technically rigorous and usable in real-world contexts.

Unlike traditional systems that are designed for known risks, GRAMS is built for “unknown unknowns.” Its networks are structured for graceful extensibility, allowing it to identify and mitigate problems in ways that support both spacecraft operations and crew decision-making. The approach represents a shift toward truly autonomous systems that can share the cognitive workload of deep-space missions.

This kind of framework need not be constrained to deep-space environments. The same principles that help astronauts troubleshoot spacecraft systems could one day guide patients through complex healthcare interfaces or hlp cities adapt transportation networks in real time. In each case, the challenge is the same: aligning advanced technology with human decision-making in high-stakes environments.

Although the project’s details remain confidential, the methodologies developed by the FMD Lab extend beyond space. The same human-centered frameworks can improve mobility systems, healthcare access, and sustainable urban planning, underscoring the interdisciplinary value of research at Digital Futures.

With this project, the FMD Lab has positioned Digital Futures, and UC more generally, as a partner for future NASA and Department of Transportation collaborations, signaling the expanding role of design research in solving technical and human challenges of exploration. For UC and Digital Futures, the project highlights how bringing together design, engineering, and technology-driven research can solve problems once thought to belong to a single field.