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At least 325 records · Page 18

Lunar-Ultraviolet Telescope Experiment (LUTE) integrated program plan

A detailed Lunar Ultraviolet Telescope Experiment (LUTE) program plan representing major decisions and tasks leading to those decisions for program execution are presented. The purpose of this task was to develop an integrated plan of project activities for the LUTE project, and to display the plan as an integrated network that shows the project activities, all critical interfaces, and schedules. The integrated network will provide the project manager with a frame work for strategic planning and risk management throughout the life of the project.

Smith, Janice F.↗

Environmental projects. Volume 15: Environmental assessment: Proposed 1-megawatt radar transmitter at the Mars site

The Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex (GDSCC), located in the Mojave Desert about 64.5 km (40 mi) north of Barstow, California. and about 258 km (160 mi) northeast of Pasadena, California, is part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Deep Space Network (DSN), one of the world's larger and more sensitive scientific telecommunications and radio navigation networks. The Goldstone Complex is managed, technically directed, and operated for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. Activities at the GDSCC support the operation of six parabolic dish antennas located at five separate sites called Deep Space Stations (DSS's). Four sites, named Echo, Mars, Uranus, and Apollo, are operational for space missions, while the remaining Venus Site is devoted to research and development activities. The Mars Site at the GDSCC contains two antennas: the Uranus antenna (DSS 15, 34 m) and the Mars antenna (DSS 14, 70 m). This present volume deals solely with the DSS-14 Mars antenna. The Mars antenna not only can act as a sensitive receiver to detect signals from spacecraft, but it also can be used in radar astronomy as a powerful transmitter to send out signals to probe the solar system. At present, the Mars antenna operates as a continuous-wave microwave system at a frequency of 8.51 GHz at a power level of 0.5 MW. JPL has plans to upgrade the Mars antenna to a power level of 1 MW. Because of the anticipated increase in the ambient levels of radio frequency radiation (RFR), JPL retained Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories (BPNL), Richland, Washington, to conduct an environmental assessment with respect to this increased RFR. This present volume is a JPL-expanded version of the BPNL report titled Environmental Assessment of the Goldstone Solar System Radar, which was submitted to JPL in Nov. 1991. This BPNL report concluded that the operation of the upgraded Mars antenna at the GDSCC, with its increased potential electromagnetic radiation hazards and interferences, would have no significantly adverse biological, physical, or socioeconomic effects on the environment. Thus, a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) is appropriate in accordance with local, State, Federal, and NASA environmental rules and regulations.

Source record↗

The virtual library: Coming of age

With the high speed networking capabilities, multiple media options, and massive amounts of information that exist in electronic format today, the concept of a 'virtual' library or 'library without walls' is becoming viable. In virtual library environment, the information processed goes beyond the traditional definition of documents to include the results of scientific and technical research and development (reports, software, data) recorded in any format or media: electronic, audio, video, or scanned images. Network access to information must include tools to help locate information sources and navigate the networks to connect to the sources, as well as methods to extract the relevant information. Graphical User Interfaces (GUI's) that are intuitive and navigational tools such as Intelligent Gateway Processors (IGP) will provide users with seamless and transparent use of high speed networks to access, organize, and manage information. Traditional libraries will become points of electronic access to information on multiple medias. The emphasis will be towards unique collections of information at each library rather than entire collections at every library. It is no longer a question of whether there is enough information available; it is more a question of how to manage the vast volumes of information. The future equation will involve being able to organize knowledge, manage information, and provide access at the point of origin.

Hunter, Judy F.↗

Innovative Educational Aerospace Research at the Northeast High School Space Research Center

Northeast High Magnet School of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is a proud sponsor of the Space Research Center (SPARC). SPARC, a model program of the Medical, Engineering, and Aerospace Magnet school, provides talented students the capability to successfully exercise full simulations of NASA manned missions. These simulations included low-Earth Shuttle missions and Apollo lunar missions in the past, and will focus on a planetary mission to Mars this year. At the end of each scholastic year, a simulated mission, lasting between one and eight days, is performed involving 75 students as specialists in seven teams The groups are comprised of Flight Management, Spacecraft Communications (SatCom), Computer Networking, Spacecraft Design and Engineering, Electronics, Rocketry, Robotics, and Medical teams in either the mission operations center or onboard the spacecraft. Software development activities are also required in support of these simulations The objective of this paper is to present the accomplishments, technology innovations, interactions, and an overview of SPARC with an emphasis on how the program's educational activities parallel NASA mission support and how this education is preparing student for the space frontier.

Audra Luyet↗

BioSIGHT: Interactive Visualization Modules for Science Education

Redefining science education to harness emerging integrated media technologies with innovative pedagogical goals represents a unique challenge. The Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC) is the only engineering research center in the area of multimedia and creative technologies sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The research program at IMSC is focused on developing advanced technologies that address human-computer interfaces, database management, and high-speed network capabilities. The BioSIGHT project at is a demonstration technology project in the area of education that seeks to address how such emerging multimedia technologies can make an impact on science education. The scope of this project will help solidify NASA's commitment for the development of innovative educational resources that promotes science literacy for our students and the general population as well. These issues must be addressed as NASA marches toward the goal of enabling human space exploration that requires an understanding of life sciences in space. The IMSC BioSIGHT lab was established with the purpose of developing a novel methodology that will map a high school biology curriculum into a series of interactive visualization modules that can be easily incorporated into a space biology curriculum. Fundamental concepts in general biology must be mastered in order to allow a better understanding and application for space biology. Interactive visualization is a powerful component that can capture the students' imagination, facilitate their assimilation of complex ideas, and help them develop integrated views of biology. These modules will augment the role of the teacher and will establish the value of student-centered interactivity, both in an individual setting as well as in a collaborative learning environment. Students will be able to interact with the content material, explore new challenges, and perform virtual laboratory simulations. The BioSIGHT effort is truly cross-disciplinary in nature and requires expertise from many areas including Biology, Computer Science Electrical Engineering, Education, and the Cognitive Sciences. The BioSIGHT team includes a scientific illustrator, educational software designer, computer programmers as well as IMSC graduate and undergraduate students.

Wong, Wee Ling↗

NASA Planetary Surface Exploration

Managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is the lead U.S. center for robotic exploration of the solar system. JPL spacecraft have visited all known planets except Pluto (a Pluto mission is currently under study). In addition to its work for NASA, JPL conducts tasks for a variety of other federal agencies. In addition, JPL manages the worldwide Deep Space Network, which communicates with spacecraft and conducts scientific investigations from its complexes in California's Mojave Desert near Goldstone; near Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia. JPL employs about 6000 people.

Hayati, Samad↗

Issues in Defining Software Architectures in a GIS Environment

The primary mission of the Pan-American Center for Earth and Environmental Studies (PACES) is to advance the research areas that are relevant to NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program. One of the activities at PACES is the establishment of a repository for geographical, geological and environmental information that covers various regions of Mexico and the southwest region of the U.S. and that is acquired from NASA and other sources through remote sensing, ground studies or paper-based maps. The center will be providing access of this information to other government entities in the U.S. and Mexico, and research groups from universities, national laboratories and industry. Geographical Information Systems(GIS) provide the means to manage, manipulate, analyze and display geographically referenced information that will be managed by PACES. Excellent off-the-shelf software exists for a complete GIS as well as software for storing and managing spatial databases, processing images, networking and viewing maps with layered information. This allows the user flexibility in combining systems to create a GIS or to mix these software packages with custom-built application programs. Software architectural languages provide the ability to specify the computational components and interactions among these components, an important topic in the domain of GIS because of the need to integrate numerous software packages. This paper discusses the characteristics that architectural languages address with respect to the issues relating to the data that must be communicated between software systems and components when systems interact. The paper presents a background on GIS in section 2. Section 3 gives an overview of software architecture and architectural languages. Section 4 suggests issues that may be of concern when defining the software architecture of a GIS. The last section discusses the future research effort and finishes with a summary.

Acosta, Jesus↗

Proposal for a Joint NASA/KSAT Ka-band RF Propagation Terminal at Svalbard, Norway

This slide presentation discusses the placement of a Ka-band RF Propagation Terminal at Svalbard, Norway. The Near Earth Network (NEN) station would be managed by Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) and would benefit NASA and KSAT. There are details of the proposed NASA/KSAT campaign, and the responsibilities each would agree to. There are several reasons for the placement, a primary reason is comparison with the Alaska site, Based on climatological similarities/differences with Alaska, Svalbard site expected to have good radiometer/beacon agreement approximately 99% of time.

Volosin, Jeffrey↗

Space Telecommunications Radio System STRS Cognitive Radio

Radios today are evolving from awareness toward cognition. A software defined radio (SDR) provides the most capability for integrating autonomic decision making ability and allows the incremental evolution toward a cognitive radio. This cognitive radio technology will impact NASA space communications in areas such as spectrum utilization, interoperability, network operations, and radio resource management over a wide range of operating conditions. NASAs cognitive radio will build upon the infrastructure being developed by Space Telecommunication Radio System (STRS) SDR technology. This paper explores the feasibility of inserting cognitive capabilities in the NASA STRS architecture and the interfaces between the cognitive engine and the STRS radio. The STRS architecture defines methods that can inform the cognitive engine about the radio environment so that the cognitive engine can learn autonomously from experience, and take appropriate actions to adapt the radio operating characteristics and optimize performance.

Briones, Janette C.↗

The South/Southeast Asia Research Initiative (SARI) Update and Meeting Objectives

Land Use/Cover Change (LU/CC) is one of the most important types of environmental change in South and Southeast Asian countries. Several studies suggest that LU/CC in these countries is in large part driven by population growth and economic development. In the region, changes that are most common include urban expansion, agricultural land loss, land abandonment, deforestation, logging, reforestation, etc. To address the research needs and priorities in the region, a regional initiative entitled South Southeast Asia Regional Initiative (SARI) has been developed involving US and regional scientists. The initiative is funded by NASA Land Cover, Land Use Change program. The goal of SARI is to integrate state-of-the-art remote sensing, natural sciences, engineering and social sciences to enrich LU/CC science in South Southeast Asian countries. In the presentation, LU/CC change research in SARI countries will be highlighted including the drivers of change. For example, in South Asia, forest cover has been increasing in countries like India, Nepal and Bhutan due to sustainable afforestation measures; whereas, large-scale deforestation in Southeast Asian countries is still continuing, due to oil palm plantation expansion driven by the international market demand in Malaysia and Indonesia. With respect to urbanization, South and Southeast Asian countries contain 23 megacities, each with more than 10 million people. Rapid urbanization is driving agricultural land loss and agricultural intensification has been increasing due to less availability of land for growing food crops such as in India, Vietnam, and Thailand. The drivers of LUCC vary widely in the region and include such factors as land tenure, local economic development, government policies, inappropriate land management, land speculation, improved road networks, etc. In addition, variability in the weather, climate, and socioeconomic factors also drive LU/CC resulting in disruptions of biogeochemical cycles, radiation and the surface energy balance of the atmosphere. The presentation will also highlight SARI collaborative activities with space agencies, universities and non-government organizations including data sharing mechanisms in the region.

Research↗

Propulsion Control Technology Development Needs to Address NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Goals for Thrusts 3a and 4

The Commercial Aero-Propulsion Control Working Group (CAPCWG), consisting of propulsion control technology leads from The Boeing Company, GE Aviation, Honeywell, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce, and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Glenn Research Center, has been working together over the past year to identify propulsion control technology areas of common interest that we believe are critical to achieving the challenging NASA Aeronautics Research goals for Thrust 3a: Ultra-Efficient Commercial Vehicles - Subsonic Transports, and Thrust 4: Transition to Alternative Propulsion and Energy. This paper describes the various propulsion control technology development areas identified by CAPCWG as most critical for NASA to invest in. For Thrust 3a these are: i) Integrated On-Board Model Based Engine Control and Health Management; ii) Flexible and Modular Networked Control Hardware and Software Architecture; iii) Intelligent Air/Fuel Control for Low Emissions Combustion; and iv) Active Clearance Control. For Thrust 4a, the focus is on Hybrid Electric Propulsion (HEP) for single aisle commercial aircraft. The specific technology development areas include: i) Integrated Power and Propulsion System Dynamic Modeling for Control; ii) Control Architectures for HEP; iii) HEP Control Verification and Validation; and iv) Engine/Airplane Control Integration. For each of the technology areas, the discussion includes: problem to be solved and how it relates to NASA goals, and the challenges to be addressed in reducing risk.

Propulsion Control↗

NASA Integrated Network Monitor and Control Software Architecture

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Communications and Navigation office (SCaN) has commissioned a series of trade studies to define a new architecture intended to integrate the three existing networks that it operates, the Deep Space Network (DSN), Space Network (SN), and Near Earth Network (NEN), into one integrated network that offers users a set of common, standardized, services and interfaces. The integrated monitor and control architecture utilizes common software and common operator interfaces that can be deployed at all three network elements. This software uses state-of-the-art concepts such as a pool of re-programmable equipment that acts like a configurable software radio, distributed hierarchical control, and centralized management of the whole SCaN integrated network. For this trade space study a model-based approach using SysML was adopted to describe and analyze several possible options for the integrated network monitor and control architecture. This model was used to refine the design and to drive the costing of the four different software options. This trade study modeled the three existing self standing network elements at point of departure, and then described how to integrate them using variations of new and existing monitor and control system components for the different proposed deployments under consideration. This paper will describe the trade space explored, the selected system architecture, the modeling and trade study methods, and some observations on useful approaches to implementing such model based trade space representation and analysis.

Next Generation Uplink↗

Ecology Based Decentralized Agent Management System

The problem of maintaining a desired number of mobile agents on a network is not trivial, especially if we want a completely decentralized solution. Decentralized control makes a system more r e bust and less susceptible to partial failures. The problem is exacerbated on wireless ad hoc networks where host mobility can result in significant changes in the network size and topology. In this paper we propose an ecology-inspired approach to the management of the number of agents. The approach associates agents with living organisms and tasks with food. Agents procreate or die based on the abundance of uncompleted tasks (food). We performed a series of experiments investigating properties of such systems and analyzed their stability under various conditions. We concluded that the ecology based metaphor can be successfully applied to the management of agent populations on wireless ad hoc networks.

Peysakhov, Maxim D.↗

Textual and Network Analysis of Title 14 CFR Part107 Waivers

Context: The management of hazards in small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) operations is not as well defined as today's commercial operations despite sUAS widespread use. FAA Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 107 waived operations' provisions, which manage hazards for higher risk operations that require approval, can offer insight to organizations establishing UAS Programs in managing their own operation hazards. Aim: We seek to understand how the Title 14 CFR Part 107 waived operations manage hazards. Method: We used the constant comparative method to identify hazard mitigation textual categories from provisions and use networks to assess the dispersion of provisions and the identified categories across issued waivers. Results: Eight mitigation categories and twenty-four sub-categories were identified. Most provisions present in waivers are mostly reused in one waiver. Conclusion: While there is a broad range of provisions to control for hazard mitigations in the Title 14 CFR Part 107 issued waivers analyzed regulations, they require case-by-case modifications.

Urban Air Mobility↗

Communications among data and science centers

The ability to electronically access and query the contents of remote computer archives is of singular importance in space and earth sciences; the present evaluation of such on-line information networks' development status foresees swift expansion of their data capabilities and complexity, in view of the volumes of data that will continue to be generated by NASA missions. The U.S.'s National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) manages NASA's largest science computer network, the Space Physics Analysis Network; a comprehensive account is given of the structure of NSSDC international access through BITNET, and of connections to the NSSDC available in the Americas via the International X.25 network.

Green, James L.↗

Parallel processing for scientific computations

The main contribution of the effort in the last two years is the introduction of the MOPPS system. After doing extensive literature search, we introduced the system which is described next. MOPPS employs a new solution to the problem of managing programs which solve scientific and engineering applications on a distributed processing environment. Autonomous computers cooperate efficiently in solving large scientific problems with this solution. MOPPS has the advantage of not assuming the presence of any particular network topology or configuration, computer architecture, or operating system. It imposes little overhead on network and processor resources while efficiently managing programs concurrently. The core of MOPPS is an intelligent program manager that builds a knowledge base of the execution performance of the parallel programs it is managing under various conditions. The manager applies this knowledge to improve the performance of future runs. The program manager learns from experience.

Alkhatib, Hasan S.↗

Computer network environment planning and analysis

The GSFC Computer Network Environment provides a broadband RF cable between campus buildings and ethernet spines in buildings for the interlinking of Local Area Networks (LANs). This system provides terminal and computer linkage among host and user systems thereby providing E-mail services, file exchange capability, and certain distributed computing opportunities. The Environment is designed to be transparent and supports multiple protocols. Networking at Goddard has a short history and has been under coordinated control of a Network Steering Committee for slightly more than two years; network growth has been rapid with more than 1500 nodes currently addressed and greater expansion expected. A new RF cable system with a different topology is being installed during summer 1989; consideration of a fiber optics system for the future will begin soon. Summmer study was directed toward Network Steering Committee operation and planning plus consideration of Center Network Environment analysis and modeling. Biweekly Steering Committee meetings were attended to learn the background of the network and the concerns of those managing it. Suggestions for historical data gathering have been made to support future planning and modeling. Data Systems Dynamic Simulator, a simulation package developed at NASA and maintained at GSFC was studied as a possible modeling tool for the network environment. A modeling concept based on a hierarchical model was hypothesized for further development. Such a model would allow input of newly updated parameters and would provide an estimation of the behavior of the network.

Dalphin, John F.↗

Solutions Network Formulation Report. NASA's Potential Contributions in Remote Quorum Sensing and the Management of Harmful Algal Blooms

This candidate solution proposes to use the night-imaging capabilities of the HSTC from SAC-C and of the HSC from SAC-D/Aquarius to detect bioluminescent events associated with HABs (harmful algal blooms). Once detected, this information could be fed to the NOAA CSCOR (Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research) Harmful Algal Bloom Event Response Program, which acts quickly to fund the mobilization of research teams and to engage local agencies in a response. The HSC/HSTC data can serve as input to the HABSOS decision support system to provide information on location, extent, and duration of HAB events. Society will benefit from improved protection of the health of humans beings, aquatic ecosystems, and coastal economies. This work supports coastal management, public health, and homeland security applications.

Fletcher, Rose↗