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NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) is developing a process to be employed in critical applications. The framework assesses levels of Trust and assurance in microelectronic systems. The process is being created with participation from a variety of organizations. We present a synopsis of the framework that includes contributions from The Aerospace Corporation.
Monitoring the effects of water availability on vegetation globally using satellites is important for applications such as drought early warning, precision agriculture, and food security as well as for more broadly understanding relationships between water and carbon cycles. In this global study, we examine how quickly several satellite-based indicators, assumed to have relationships with water availability, respond, on timescales of days to weeks, in comparison with variations in root-zone soil moisture (RZM) that extends to about 1 m depth. The satellite indicators considered are the normalized difference vegetation and infrared indices (NDVI and NDII, respectively) derived from reflectances obtained with moderately wide (20–40 nm) spectral bands in the visible and near-infrared (NIR) and evapotranspiration (ET) estimated from thermal infrared observations and normalized by a reference ET. NDVI is primarily sensitive to chlorophyll contributions and vegetation structure while NDII may contain additional information on water content in leaves and canopy. ET includes both the loss of root zone soil water through transpiration (modulated by stomatal conductance) as well as evaporation from bare soil. We find that variations of these satellite-based drought indicators on time scales of days to weeks have significant correlations with those of RZM in the same water-limited geographical locations that are dominated by grasslands, shrublands, and savannas whose root systems are generally contained within the 1 m RZM layer. Normalized ET interannual variations show generally a faster response to water deficits and enhancements as compared with those of NDVI and NDII, particularly in sparsely vegetated regions.
There is an increasing need to fly Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Airspace System (NAS) to perform missions of vital importance to national security and defense, emergency management, science, and to enable commercial applications. However, routine access by UAS into the NAS remains unrealized. The UAS community needs routine access to the global airspace for all classes of UAS. Based upon that need, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) Integrated Aviation Systems Program (IASP) UAS Integration in the NAS Project identified the following goal: To Provide research findings, utilizing simulation and flight tests, to support the development and validation of Detect and Avoid (DAA) and Command and Control (C2) technologies necessary for integrating UAS into the NAS. Because this is such a broad reaching challenge facing the UAS community, the UAS-NAS Project recognizes the importance of working together with others in Industry and Other Government Agencies to overcome the technical, operational, and public perception barriers.
There is an increasing need to fly Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Airspace System (NAS) to perform missions of vital importance to national security and defense, emergency management, science, and to enable commercial applications. However, routine access by UAS into the NAS remains unrealized. The UAS community needs routine access to the global airspace for all classes of UAS. Based upon that need, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) Integrated Aviation Systems Program (IASP) UAS Integration in the NAS Project identified the following goal: To Provide research findings, utilizing simulation and flight tests, to support the development and validation of Detect and Avoid (DAA) and Command and Control (C2) technologies necessary for integrating UAS into the NAS. Because this is such a broad reaching challenge facing the UAS community, the UAS-NAS Project recognizes the importance of working together with others in Industry and Other Government Agencies to overcome the technical, operational, and public perception barriers.
This research proposal aims to investigate the unique molecular adaptations exhibited by Arabidopsis Thaliana, specifically focusing on the Cape Verde Islands (Cvi-0) ecotype, in response to microgravity conditions. The study examines data from NASA’s Open Science Data Repository and applies a multifaceted RNAseq analysis pipeline using tools in the UseGalaxy.org open platform. Through transcriptomic analysis, differential gene expression patterns were identified in Cvi-0, revealing an absence of heat shock protein (HSP) upregulation and an upregulation of Rubisco Activase (RCA) and chloroplast-related pathways. To test the hypothesis that these adaptations may contribute to Cvi-0’s increased adaptability in microgravity, a three-fold experimental design is proposed. Four experimental groups will be cultivated under simulated microgravity and ground control conditions, including Cvi-0, Col-0, and genetically modified Col-0 with silenced HSP genes, and genetically modified Col-0 with upregulated RCA gene. Growth parameters will be measured to assess plant resilience, and RNA sequencing will provide transcriptomic data for pathway analysis. Anticipated outcomes include improved markers of plant health (mass, growth, etc.) of Cvi-0 in simulated microgravity and enhanced resilience in genetically altered Col-0 variants, providing insights into potential mechanisms of adaptation. This research would bear significance for space agriculture, nutrition for extended space missions, and sustainable terrestrial crop enhancement. Moreover, the insights gained could reshape crop engineering on Earth, enhancing robustness to climate induced stresses and bolstering global food security. The proposal’s trajectory blends scientific curiosity with practical applicability, forging a path towards sustainable food production and improving human exploration beyond our planet.
The science community is interested in improving their ability to respond to rapidly evolving, transient phenomena via autonomous rapid reconfiguration, which derives from the ability to assemble separate but collaborating sensors and data forecasting systems to meet a broad range of research and application needs. Current satellite systems typically require human intervention to respond to triggers from dissimilar sensor systems. Additionally, satellite ground services often need to be coordinated days or weeks in advance. Finally, the boundaries between the various sensor systems that make up such a Sensor Web are defined by such things as link delay and connectivity, data and error rate asymmetry, data reliability, quality of service provisions, and trust, complicating autonomous operations. Over the past ten years, researchers from the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC), General Dynamics, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), Cisco, Universal Space Networks (USN), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Naval Research Laboratory, the DoD Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office, and others have worked collaboratively to develop a virtual mission operations capability. Called VMOC (Virtual Mission Operations Center), this new capability allows cross-system queuing of dissimilar mission unique systems through the use of a common security scheme and published application programming interfaces (APIs). Collaborative VMOC demonstrations over the last several years have supported the standardization of spacecraft to ground interfaces needed to reduce costs, maximize space effects to the user, and allow the generation of new tactics, techniques and procedures that lead to responsive space employment.
As communication and networking technologies advance, networks will become highly complex and heterogeneous, interconnecting different network domains. There is a need to provide user authentication and data protection in order to further facilitate critical mission operations, especially in the tactical and mission-critical net-centric networking environment. The Autonomous Information Unit (AIU) technology was designed to provide the fine-grain data access and user control in a net-centric system-testing environment to meet these objectives. The AIU is a fundamental capability designed to enable fine-grain data access and user control in the cross-domain networking environments, where an AIU is composed of the mission data, metadata, and policy. An AIU provides a mechanism to establish trust among deployed AIUs based on recombining shared secrets, authentication and verify users with a username, X.509 certificate, enclave information, and classification level. AIU achieves data protection through (1) splitting data into multiple information pieces using the Shamir's secret sharing algorithm, (2) encrypting each individual information piece using military-grade AES-256 encryption, and (3) randomizing the position of the encrypted data based on the unbiased and memory efficient in-place Fisher-Yates shuffle method. Therefore, it becomes virtually impossible for attackers to compromise data since attackers need to obtain all distributed information as well as the encryption key and the random seeds to properly arrange the data. In addition, since policy can be associated with data in the AIU, different user access and data control strategies can be included. The AIU technology can greatly enhance information assurance and security management in the bandwidth-limited and ad hoc net-centric environments. In addition, AIU technology can be applicable to general complex network domains and applications where distributed user authentication and data protection are necessary. AIU achieves fine-grain data access and user control, reducing the security risk significantly, simplifying the complexity of various security operations, and providing the high information assurance across different network domains.
The purpose of this experiment is to establish the difficulty associated with securing an intravenous (IV) catheter in place in microgravity flight and the techniques applicable in training the Crew Medical Officer (CMO) for Space Station Freedom, as well as aiding in the selection of appropriate hardware and supplies for the Health Maintenance Facility (HMF). The objectives are the following: (1) to determine the difficulties associated with venipuncture in a microgravity environment; (2) to evaluate the various methods of securing an IV catheter and attached tubing for infusion with regard to the unique environment; (3) to evaluate the various materials available for securing an intravenous catheter in place; and (4) to evaluate the fluid therapy administration system when functioning in a complete system. The inflight test procedures and other aspects of the KC-135 parabolic flight test to simulate microgravity are presented.
NASA ESDIS has been moving a variety of data ingest, distribution, and science data processing applications into a cloud environment over the last 2 years. As expected, there have been a number of challenges in migrating primarily on-premises applications into a cloud-based environment, related to architecture and taking advantage of cloud-based services. What was not expected is a number of issues that were beyond purely technical application re-architectures. We ran into surprising network policy limitations, billing challenges in a government-based cost model, and difficulty in obtaining certificates in an NASA security-compliant manner. On the other hand, this approach has allowed us to move a number of applications from local hosting to the cloud in a matter of hours (yes, hours!!), and our CMR application now services 95% of granule searches and an astonishing 99% of all collection searches in under a second. And most surprising of all, well, you'll just have to wait and see the realization that caught our entire team off guard!
The design of a packet switch incorporating a minicomputer to control and process data packets in a communications system has been reported. This paper proposes a design which uses a 6500 series microprocessor to realize the functions of a message switch in order to evaluate the viability of microprocessors in this application. The proposed design realizes the functions of header analysis, packet security, error control and line prioritization. The system hardware and software are presented together with a brief description of operation.
Infrared (IR) light filters developed by Lake Shore Cryotronics Inc. of Westerville, Ohio -- using SBIR funding from NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Langley Research Center -- employ porous silicon and metal mesh technology to provide optical filtration even at the ultra-low temperatures required by many IR sensors. With applications in the astronomy community, Lake Shore s SBIR-developed filters are also promising tools for use in terahertz imaging, the next wave of technology for applications like medical imaging, the study of fragile artworks, and airport security.
Approximately 2-3 billion metric tons of soil dust are estimated to be transported in the Earth's atmosphere each year. Global transport of desert dust is believed to play an important role in many geochemical, climatological, and environmental processes. This dust carries minerals and nutrients, but it has also been shown to carry pollutants and viable microorganisms capable of harming human, animal, plant, and ecosystem health. Saharan dust, which impacts the eastern United States (especially Florida and the southeast) and U.S. Territories in the Caribbean primarily during the summer months, has been linked to increases in respiratory illnesses in this region and has been shown to carry other human, animal, and plant pathogens. For these reasons, this candidate solution recommends integrating Saharan dust distribution and concentration forecasts from the NASA GOCART global dust cycle model into a public health DSS (decision support system), such as the CDC's (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's) EPHTN (Environmental Public Health Tracking Network), for the eastern United States and Caribbean for early warning purposes regarding potential increases in respiratory illnesses or asthma attacks, potential disease outbreaks, or bioterrorism. This candidate solution pertains to the Public Health National Application but also has direct connections to Air Quality and Homeland Security. In addition, the GOCART model currently uses the NASA MODIS aerosol product as an input and uses meteorological forecasts from the NASA GEOS-DAS (Goddard Earth Observing System Data Assimilation System) GEOS-4 AGCM. In the future, VIIRS aerosol products and perhaps CALIOP aerosol products could be assimilated into the GOCART model to improve the results.
There is an increasing need to fly UAS in the NAS to perform missions of vital importance to National Security and Defense, Emergency Management, and Science as well as commercial applications (e.g. cargo transport). To enable integration of UAS into the National Airspace System, several critical technical barriers must be eliminated, including: Separation Assurance/Sense and Avoid - the uncertainty surrounding the ability to interoperate in ATC environments and maintain safe separation from other aircraft in the absence of an on-board pilot. Human Systems Integration - lack of standards and guidelines with respect to UAS display information as well as lack of Ground Control Station (GCS) design requirements to operate in the NAS. Certification - lack of airworthiness requirements and safety-related data specific to the full range of UAS, or for their avionics systems or other components. Communications - lack of standard, certifiable data links and aviation safety spectrum to operate such links for civil UAS control communications.
With the help of satellites, the Earth's environment can be monitored from a distance. Earth observing satellites and sensors collect data and survey patterns that supply important information about the environment relating to its affect on human health. Combined with ground data, such patterns and remote sensing data can be essential to public health applications. Remote sensing technology is providing information that can help predict factors that affect human health, such as disease, drought, famine, and floods. A number of public health concerns that affect Earth's human population are part of the current National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Earth Science Applications Plan to provide remotely gathered data to public health decision-makers to aid in forming and implementing policy to protect human health and preserve well-being. These areas of concern are: air quality; water quality; weather and climate change; infectious, zoonotic, and vector-borne disease; sunshine; food resource security; and health risks associated with the built environment. Collaborations within the Earth Science Applications Plan join local, state, national, or global organizations and agencies as partners. These partnerships engage in projects that strive to understand the connection between the environment and health. The important outcome is to put this understanding to use through enhancement of decision support tools that aid policy and management decisions on environmental health risks. Future plans will further employ developed models in formats that are compatible and accessible to all public health organizations.
Advancing water security in overallocated river basins globally requires consistent and reproducible information on consumptive use of water that can anchor the development of data-driven solutions to the challenge of balancing water supply and demand. OpenET is a fully automated system for field-scale (30 m), satellite-based mapping of evapotranspiration (ET) at daily, monthly and annual timesteps. OpenET currently provides spatially contiguous data throughout the 23 westernmost states in the continental US, and includes both current information as well as multi-year timeseries of ET. The OpenET consortium has implemented an ensemble of satellite-based ET models (ALEXI/DisALEXI, eeMETRIC, PT-JPL, geeSEBAL, SIMS and SSEBop) on Google Earth Engine, which provides a shared computing platform for collaboration on processing of data from Landsat and other satellites, land cover and meteorological inputs, leading to increased consistency and accuracy across the ensemble of models. Earth Engine also facilitates hosting and distribution of data via open data collections and an application programming interface. We provide updates on the OpenET framework, open data services and data access tools, approach to geographic expansion, recent accuracy assessments, and describe how a user-driven design approach has facilitated successful applications of OpenET data for a wide range of water resource management activities. Applications to date include: use of ET data to improve quantification of ET and consumptive use in Oregon, Utah and the Upper Colorado River Basin; streamlining of water use reporting requirements in the California Delta; support for calculation of water budgets for the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in California; and integration into decision support tools for irrigation management. The use cases demonstrate how satellite-derived ET data that are easily accessed and seen as broadly accepted can accelerate adoption of innovative water management practices at scale, and support advances in the sustainability of water supplies. Uptake and use of data by the OpenET science community has also led to advances in our understanding of the impacts of landcover change, irrigation intensification and wildfire events on hydrology and the water security.
The Sampling and Caching Subsystem (SCS) onboard the Mars2020 rover includes a coring drill that can perform coring, abrasion, and regolith collection operations. The coring drill requires a chuck mechanism to allow for the changing of the bits needed to perform sampling. The chuck mechanism must be capable of securely connecting a bit under drilling, rover slip, and pullout loads, but also readily release a bit after application of these loads. The Mars2020 chuck consists of a ball lock mechanism that allows for robust engagement and release of bit assemblies that is preloaded to ensure a secure, stiff connection between the bit assembly and the rest of the corer. To prevent jamming, the chuck incorporates rollers to preload the ball lock. The rollers are mounted onto a flexured cam that minimizes changes in internal mechanism loads that result from thermally induced dimensional changes, further mitigating the potential for jamming. The chuck mechanism is moved between engaged, disengaged, and loose chuck positions by rotating the cam with a gearmotor that incorporates a magnetic detent brake that prevents inadvertent mechanism motion under design loads. Ongoing testing is occurring on the qualification model in a dirty environment while coring and abrading rocks in a Mars representative environment.
The threat of crop disease on food security and agriculture is projected to escalate, leading to reduced crop yields, global economic loss, and endangered food availability to vulnerable populations. Early identification of plant disease is crucial to combatting the crisis but traditional manual methods for disease detection are laborious and may miss early signs of infection. The proposed solution suggests equipping a drone with a hyperspectral camera to collect images and analyzing the data with neural networks trained to flag and classify infected plants. This approach offers a faster, more accurate, and potentially more cost-effective alternative to current practices. While the expensive and complex nature of hyperspectral imaging (HSI) may be an obstacle to the adoption of the drone, rapidly advancing technologies compounded with rental-based usage may make these tools simpler, cheaper, and more accessible to a wider audience. The research further discusses the potential for automated flight paths and the expansion of disease detection to a broader range of crops.
Operating a large, space power system requires classifying the system's status and analyzing its security. Conventional algorithms are used by terrestrial electric utilities to provide such information to their dispatchers, but their application aboard Space Station Freedom will consume too much processing time. A new approach for monitoring and analysis using adaptive pattern techniques is presented. This approach yields an on-line security monitoring and analysis algorithm that is accurate and fast; and thus, it can free the Space Station Freedom's power control computers for other tasks.