As NASA missions become longer and more scientifically complex, so will the ongoing participation of and cooperation between individuals in many different locations. At the same time, human/machine interactions will become increasingly complex.

The goal of the collaborative and assistant systems research is to design new information technologies and collaboration tools that facilitate the process by which NASA engineers, scientists, and mission personnel collaborate in their unique work settings. The research activities in this area focus on applying information management, artificial intelligence, and computer-supported cooperative systems that are more usable, augment human cognition, and facilitate the specialized work of distributed teams in NASA mission settings.