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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Scheduling Position, Navigation and Time Service Requests from Non-dedicated Lunar Constellations

This paper presents a centralized scheduler that satisfies user requests for Position, Navigation, and Time (PNT) services from an ad-hoc, non-dedicated orbital constellation around the Moon. Traditional, dedicated GNSS networks provide service 24/7, which allows users to acquire localization services at-will. For ad-hoc networks, a coordinated schedule is needed to ensure Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees for user localization, while satisfying non-dedicated assets’ usage constraints. This scheduler bridges this coordination gap by leveraging Mixed Integer-Linear Programming (MILP) to schedule this “as-needed” localization service while respecting the constraints on each asset. In upcoming decades there is expected to be a substantial increase in Lunar missions. Many of these missions will feature low-cost surface assets near the moon’s polar regions and small-sat science missions in orbit. Most missions need PNT capabilities to ensure safe operations and meet their science objectives, but low-cost missions may not be able to support the large power, mass, and weight that a weak GNSS or DSN based navigation solution would entail. Asset localization has been demonstrated using a decentralized extended Kalman Filter (DEKF) in the previously presented Lunar Autonomous PNT System (LAPS). Within the LAPS simulation environment, a module has been developed to generate the coordinated user-asset schedules described above; this Service Scheduler Module (SSM) allows for complete end-to-end testing of the entire system. Within SSM, a user service request consists of a location on the Lunar surface, a cumulative service duration, and a window in which service must occur. SSM takes as input these requests and the LAPS-predicted positional degree of precision as the QoS for each available set of orbital assets. A simple, baseline MILP model is formulated to provide the highest-precision service balanced across all requests. To reflect the non-dedicated nature of the constellation, this baseline model is augmented with additional asset-specific load capacity constraints or availability constraints. The load capacity constraints limit total time spent providing service, and the availability constraints reflect blockout times or availability windows when the assets are not otherwise occupied. SSM outputs two schedules: the user schedule to indicate their service times and expected QoS, and a satellite schedule to be transmitted to the orbiting constellation, describing when each non-dedicated asset provides PNT service. SSM is predominantly implemented in MATLAB and allows the use of any MILP solver to generate the resulting schedules. This paper describes the SSM - LAPS interface, how the output of LAPS is used to construct the MILP, and how SSM provides user localization service while satisfying constraints. It will also demonstrate the tool’s flexibility for formulating schedules for the end user and the constellation, focusing on scenarios that match real-world proposed missions. It will detail how SSM can be used to compare the addition of load capacity constraints, satellite availability constraints, and QoS guarantees for the users. Finally, we describe how SSM can be used to support the design of the ad-hoc constellation itself. The resulting integrated capability will support the design of future ad-hoc Lunar PNT networks, enabling high-quality, low-cost Lunar exploration

Swarm↗
NASA NTRS2008

NASA Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle Upper Stage Overview

By incorporating rigorous engineering practices, innovative manufacturing processes and test techniques, a unique multi-center government/contractor partnership, and a clean-sheet design developed around the primary requirements for the International Space Station (ISS) and Lunar missions, the Upper Stage Element of NASA's Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV), the "Ares I," is a vital part of the Constellation Program's transportation system. Constellation's exploration missions will include Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles required to place crew and cargo in low-Earth orbit (LEO), crew and cargo transportation systems required for human space travel, and transportation systems and scientific equipment required for human exploration of the Moon and Mars. Early Ares I configurations will support ISS re-supply missions. A self-supporting cylindrical structure, the Ares I Upper Stage will be approximately 84' long and 18' in diameter. The Upper Stage Element is being designed for increased supportability and increased reliability to meet human-rating requirements imposed by NASA standards. The design also incorporates state-of-the-art materials, hardware, design, and integrated logistics planning, thus facilitating a supportable, reliable, and operable system. With NASA retiring the Space Shuttle fleet in 2010, the success of the Ares I Project is essential to America's continued leadership in space. The first Ares I test flight, called Ares 1-X, is scheduled for 2009. Subsequent test flights will continue thereafter, with the first crewed flight of the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), "Orion," planned for no later than 2015. Crew transportation to the ISS will follow within the same decade, and the first Lunar excursion is scheduled for the 2020 timeframe.

Davis, Daniel J.↗
NASA NTRS2016

The Geoscience Spaceborne Imaging Spectroscopy Technical Committees Calibration and Validation Workshop

Calibration is the process of quantitatively defining a system's responses to known, controlled signal inputs, and validation is the process of assessing, by independent means, the quality of the data products derived from those system outputs [1]. Similar to other Earth observation (EO) sensors, the calibration and validation of spaceborne imaging spectroscopy sensors is a fundamental underpinning activity. Calibration and validation determine the quality and integrity of the data provided by spaceborne imaging spectroscopy sensors and have enormous downstream impacts on the accuracy and reliability of products generated from these sensors. At least five imaging spectroscopy satellites are planned to be launched within the next five years, with the two most advanced scheduled to be launched in the next two years [2]. The launch of these sensors requires the establishment of suitable, standardized, and harmonized calibration and validation strategies to ensure that high-quality data are acquired and comparable between these sensor systems. Such activities are extremely important for the community of imaging spectroscopy users. Recognizing the need to focus on this underpinning topic, the Geoscience Spaceborne Imaging Spectroscopy (previously, the International Spaceborne Imaging Spectroscopy) Technical Committee launched a calibration and validation initiative at the 2013 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) in Melbourne, Australia, and a post-conference activity of a vicarious calibration field trip at Lake Lefroy in Western Australia.

Ong, Cindy↗
NASA NTRS2008

NASA Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle Upper Stage Overview

By incorporating rigorous engineering practices, innovative manufacturing processes and test techniques, a unique multi-center government/contractor partnership, and a clean-sheet design developed around the primary requirements for the International Space Station (ISS) and Lunar missions, the Upper Stage Element of NASA's Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV), the "Ares I," is a vital part of the Constellation Program's transportation system. Constellation's exploration missions will include Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles required to place crew and cargo in low-Earth orbit (LEO), crew and cargo transportation systems required for human space travel, and transportation systems and scientific equipment required for human exploration of the Moon and Mars. Early Ares I configurations will support ISS re-supply missions. A self-supporting cylindrical structure, the Ares I Upper Stage will be approximately 84' long and 18' in diameter. The Upper Stage Element is being designed for increased supportability and increased reliability to meet human-rating requirements imposed by NASA standards. The design also incorporates state-of-the-art materials, hardware, design, and integrated logistics planning, thus facilitating a supportable, reliable, and operable system. With NASA retiring the Space Shuttle fleet in 2010, the success of the Ares I Project is essential to America's continued leadership in space. The first Ares I test flight, called Ares I-X, is scheduled for 2009. Subsequent test flights will continue thereafter, with the first crewed flight of the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), "Orion," planned for no later than 2015. Crew transportation to the ISS will follow within the same decade, and the first Lunar excursion is scheduled for the 2020 timeframe.

McArthur, J. Craig↗
DOE OSTI2020

Agent-Based Coordination Scheme for PV Integration (ABC4PV)

Renewables and especially photovoltaics (PV) have benefitted significantly from a host of incentives and policies targeted toward enhanced integration and adoption of specific energy technologies. However, with the push to move forward into a subsidy-free market framework, behind-the-meter residential PV applications have generally struggled to retain their value (unlike utility scale and commercial projects) [1]. This project focused on developing control-theoretic solutions aimed at improving the integration and interaction of behind-the-meter residential PV with other distribution system assets (controllable and non-controllable) to enhance the integrated value of residential PV. To this end, a suite of decentralized control methodologies have been developed to enable effective coordination and control of behind-the-meter residential load customers’ PV, battery storage systems (BSS), controllable loads and other similar assets within a distribution feeder. This interaction aims at procuring energy savings and, thus, energy bill savings. The main source of savings is drawn from reducing the effect of demand charge pricing and is realized at the feeder level, assuming community level interaction and management among the aforementioned assets. Optimal control of the assets is implemented with a distributed optimization methodology, leveraging consensus-based algorithms. The results gathered from the optimal control simulations demonstrates that the savings can be duly achieved and the algorithm decision times (to dynamically control asset set points, for example) are fast. As for the overall efficiency of PV+BSS systems, to procure energy savings from curtailment of the demand charge pricing effects, the optimal control is set up so as to minimize the variance of the load for all customers, throughout a feeder and throughout time in a rolling horizon scheduling with model predictive control. The control takes into account inter-temporal electrochemical storage (battery) degradation costs: specifically, we have developed a long-term lifetime model for the BSS that weighs in the effect of the degradation factor in the dispatch formulations, thus, a considerable operating cost that affects energy decision making. The levelized cost of energy (LCOE – redefined for the purpose of quantifying asset integration effectiveness through the customers’ energy cost) is shown to be below the threshold set for the combined PV+BSS topology of $ 0.14/kWh for multiple cases of PV penetration all the way up to 50%, provided that a policy of shared ownership of and savings is in place. Further, the LCOE calculated for the case before the deployment PV+BSS systems is also achievable, i.e. the deployment of PV+BSS, if planned and scheduled optimally. will have no effect on customers’ energy costs. From the control methodology viewpoint, the developed consensus-based algorithms are shown to converge for a wide range of problem cases (spanning normal operating scenarios and contingencies), guaranteeing dispatch solutions under forecasting errors, communication break-downs and cyber-security attacks. The proposed control solutions are scalable and real-time implementable, with dispatch computations and device set-point updates converging in less than 2s in most practical instances of the above events.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS1975

Tug fleet and ground operations schedules and controls. Volume 1: Executive summary

This study presents Tug Fleet and Ground Operations Schedules and Controls plan. This plan was developed and optimized out of a combination of individual Tug program phased subplans, special emphasis studies, contingency analyses and sensitivity analyses. The subplans cover the Tug program phases: (1) Tug operational, (2) Interim Upper Stage (IUS)/Tug fleet utilization, (3) and IUS/Tug payload integration, (4) Tug site activation, (5) IUS/Tug transition, (6) Tug acquisition. Resource requirements (facility, GSE, TSE, software, manpower, logistics) are provided in each subplan, as are appropriate Tug processing flows, active and total IUS and Tug fleet requirements, fleet management and Tug payload integration concepts, facility selection recommendations, site activation and IUS to Tug transition requirements. The impact of operational concepts on Tug acquisition is assessed and the impact of operating Tugs out of KSC and WTR is analyzed and presented showing WTR as a delta. Finally, cost estimates for fleet management and ground operations of the DDT&E and operational phases of the Tug program are given.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2010

Automated Derivation of Complex System Constraints from User Requirements

The Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC) located at the Marshall Space Flight Center has the responsibility of integrating US payload science requirements for the International Space Station (ISS). All payload operations must request ISS system resources so that the resource usage will be included in the ISS on-board execution timelines. The scheduling of resources and building of the timeline is performed using the Consolidated Planning System (CPS). The ISS resources are quite complex due to the large number of components that must be accounted for. The planners at the POIC simplify the process for Payload Developers (PD) by providing the PDs with a application that has the basic functionality PDs need as well as list of simplified resources in the User Requirements Collection (URC) application. The planners maintained a mapping of the URC resources to the CPS resources. The process of manually converting PD's science requirements from a simplified representation to a more complex CPS representation is a time-consuming and tedious process. The goal is to provide a software solution to allow the planners to build a mapping of the complex CPS constraints to the basic URC constraints and automatically convert the PD's requirements into systems requirements during export to CPS.

Foshee, Mark↗
NASA NTRS1992

Integration and use of Microgravity Research Facility: Lessons learned by the crystals by vapor transport experiment and Space Experiments Facility programs

The Crystals by Vapor Transport Experiment (CVTE) and Space Experiments Facility (SEF) are materials processing facilities designed and built for use on the Space Shuttle mid deck. The CVTE was built as a commercial facility owned by the Boeing Company. The SEF was built under contract to the UAH Center for Commercial Development of Space (CCDS). Both facilities include up to three furnaces capable of reaching 850 C minimum, stand-alone electronics and software, and independent cooling control. In addition, the CVTE includes a dedicated stowage locker for cameras, a laptop computer, and other ancillary equipment. Both systems are designed to fly in a Middeck Accommodations Rack (MAR), though the SEF is currently being integrated into a Spacehab rack. The CVTE hardware includes two transparent furnaces capable of achieving temperatures in the 850 to 870 C range. The transparent feature allows scientists/astronauts to directly observe and affect crystal growth both on the ground and in space. Cameras mounted to the rack provide photodocumentation of the crystal growth. The basic design of the furnace allows for modification to accommodate techniques other than vapor crystal growth. Early in the CVTE program, the decision was made to assign a principal scientist to develop the experiment plan, affect the hardware/software design, run the ground and flight research effort, and interface with the scientific community. The principal scientist is responsible to the program manager and is a critical member of the engineering development team. As a result of this decision, the hardware/experiment requirements were established in such a way as to balance the engineering and science demands on the equipment. Program schedules for hardware development, experiment definition and material selection, flight operations development and crew training, both ground support and astronauts, were all planned and carried out with the understanding that the success of the program science was as important as the hardware functionality. How the CVTE payload was designed and what it is capable of, the philosophy of including the scientists in design and operations decisions, and the lessons learned during the integration process are descussed.

Heizer, Barbara L.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Mission Planning for Robotic and Human Exploration

Mission planning for spaceflight is a complex challenge for ground operators managing robotic or human missions. It requires integrating the needs of various disciplines and creating an effective, efficient, and safe plan to execute. NASA uses specialized tools to meet planning requirements and constraints. This talk will provide an overview of spaceflight mission planning as well as the software tools the Human-Computer Interaction Group has built to support scheduling and planning. Also, it identifies the future scheduling and planning challenges for human Mars missions and how we leverage Earth Analogs to learn about Mars operations.

Scheduling and planning↗
NASA NTRS2015

Integrated Test Approach

This paper describes a testing methodology undertaken on the Facilities Development and Operations Contract (FDOC) by Lockheed Martin. The methodology was defined with the intent of reducing project schedule time to enable NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) to be able to deliver the Mission Control Center (MCC) 21 project as quickly as possible. 21 represents the 21st century where NASA JSC is updating its control center with new technology and operational concepts in order to support NASA customers wanting to use control center assets to support space vehicle operations. In collaboration with the NASA customer, a new test concept was conceived early during MCC21 project planning with the goal of reducing project delivery time. One enabler that could help reduce delivery time was testing. Within the project, testing was performed by two entities, software development responsible for subsystem testing and system test responsible for system integration testing. The MCC21 project took a deliberate review of testing to determine how it could be performed differently to realize an overall reduction in test time to support the goal of a more rapid project delivery.

Cotton, Will↗
NASA NTRS2011

Full-Scaled Advanced Systems Testbed: Ensuring Success of Adaptive Control Research Through Project Lifecycle Risk Mitigation

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Dryden Flight Research Center completed flight testing of adaptive controls research on the Full-Scale Advance Systems Testbed (FAST) in January of 2011. The research addressed technical challenges involved with reducing risk in an increasingly complex and dynamic national airspace. Specific challenges lie with the development of validated, multidisciplinary, integrated aircraft control design tools and techniques to enable safe flight in the presence of adverse conditions such as structural damage, control surface failures, or aerodynamic upsets. The testbed is an F-18 aircraft serving as a full-scale vehicle to test and validate adaptive flight control research and lends a significant confidence to the development, maturation, and acceptance process of incorporating adaptive control laws into follow-on research and the operational environment. The experimental systems integrated into FAST were designed to allow for flexible yet safe flight test evaluation and validation of modern adaptive control technologies and revolve around two major hardware upgrades: the modification of Production Support Flight Control Computers (PSFCC) and integration of two, fourth-generation Airborne Research Test Systems (ARTS). Post-hardware integration verification and validation provided the foundation for safe flight test of Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion and Model Reference Aircraft Control adaptive control law experiments. To ensure success of flight in terms of cost, schedule, and test results, emphasis on risk management was incorporated into early stages of design and flight test planning and continued through the execution of each flight test mission. Specific consideration was made to incorporate safety features within the hardware and software to alleviate user demands as well as into test processes and training to reduce human factor impacts to safe and successful flight test. This paper describes the research configuration, experiment functionality, overall risk mitigation, flight test approach and results, and lessons learned of adaptive controls research of the Full-Scale Advanced Systems Testbed.

Pavlock, Kate M.↗
NASA NTRS2004

IpexT: Integrated Planning and Execution for Military Satellite Tele-Communications

The next generation of military communications satellites may be designed as a fast packet-switched constellation of spacecraft able to withstand substantial bandwidth capacity fluctuation in the face of dynamic resource utilization and rapid environmental changes including jamming of communication frequencies and unstable weather phenomena. We are in the process of designing an integrated scheduling and execution tool which will aid in the analysis of the design parameters needed for building such a distributed system for nominal and battlefield communications. This paper discusses the design of such a system based on a temporal constraint posting planner/scheduler and a smart executive which can cope with a dynamic environment to make a more optimal utilization of bandwidth than the current circuit switched based approach.

Plaunt, Christian↗
NASA NTRS2017

A Virtual Laboratory for Aviation and Airspace Prognostics Research

Integration of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), autonomy, spacecraft, and other aviation technologies, in the airspace is becoming more and more complicated, and will continue to do so in the future. Inclusion of new technology and complexity into the airspace increases the importance and difficulty of safety assurance. Additionally, testing new technologies on complex aviation systems and systems of systems can be challenging, expensive, and at times unsafe when implementing real life scenarios. The application of prognostics to aviation and airspace management may produce new tools and insight into these problems. Prognostic methodology provides an estimate of the health and risks of a component, vehicle, or airspace and knowledge of how that will change over time. That measure is especially useful in safety determination, mission planning, and maintenance scheduling. In our research, we develop a live, distributed, hardware- in-the-loop Prognostics Virtual Laboratory testbed for aviation and airspace prognostics. The developed testbed will be used to validate prediction algorithms for the real-time safety monitoring of the National Airspace System (NAS) and the prediction of unsafe events. In our earlier work1 we discussed the initial Prognostics Virtual Laboratory testbed development work and related results for milestones 1 & 2. This paper describes the design, development, and testing of the integrated tested which are part of milestone 3, along with our next steps for validation of this work. Through a framework consisting of software/hardware modules and associated interface clients, the distributed testbed enables safe, accurate, and inexpensive experimentation and research into airspace and vehicle prognosis that would not have been possible otherwise. The testbed modules can be used cohesively to construct complex and relevant airspace scenarios for research. Four modules are key to this research: the virtual aircraft module which uses the X-Plane simulator and X-PlaneConnect toolbox, the live aircraft module which connects fielded aircraft using onboard cellular communications devices, the hardware in the loop (HITL) module which connects laboratory based bench-top hardware testbeds and the research module which contains diagnostics and prognostics tools for analysis of live air traffic situations and vehicle health conditions. The testbed also features other modules for data recording and playback, information visualization, and air traffic generation. Software reliability, safety, and latency are some of the critical design considerations in development of the testbed.

LVC-DE↗
NASA NTRS2010

Planning and Execution for an Autonomous Aerobot

The Aerial Onboard Autonomous Science Investigation System (AerOASIS) system provides autonomous planning and execution capabilities for aerial vehicles (see figure). The system is capable of generating high-quality operations plans that integrate observation requests from ground planning teams, as well as opportunistic science events detected onboard the vehicle while respecting mission and resource constraints. AerOASIS allows an airborne planetary exploration vehicle to summarize and prioritize the most scientifically relevant data; identify and select high-value science sites for additional investigation; and dynamically plan, schedule, and monitor the various science activities being performed, even during extended communications blackout periods with Earth.

Gaines, Daniel M.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Electrifying Airport GSE: Monte Carlo Grid Impacts

Airports globally are shifting from ICE-powered to electric Ground Support Equipment (eGSE) to enhance efficiency, reduce operational costs, and improve operator health. Leveraging predictable routes, flat terrain, and low operational speeds, airports provide ideal conditions for electrification. This study evaluates freight GSE electrification at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), USA, using the Agile@ platform, which integrates three analytical methods: Freight Facility Model (FFM), Activity-Structure-Intensity-Fuel (ASIF), and Monte Carlo simulations. Results from 10,000 simulations indicate modest but critical increases in electricity demand and significant variability in GSE energy consumption. These insights emphasize the importance of data-driven scheduling, targeted maintenance, and strategic infrastructure planning. For high-uncertainty scenarios, airports are advised to deploy buffer energy storage systems (battery banks), implement demand-response charging strategies, schedule flexible workforce shifts, and prioritize proactive maintenance-particularly for equipment with higher operational uncertainty, such as tug tractors with trailers. Agile@ thus offers a robust, scalable, and data-driven framework to optimize long-term GSE planning and enhance reliability across diverse airport environments.

Bose, Ranjan [ORNL] (ORCID:0009000791026327)↗
NASA NTRS1975

NASA/ESA CV-990 spacelab simulation

Due to interest in the application of simplified techniques used to conduct airborne science missions at NASA's Ames Research Center, a joint NASA/ESA endeavor was established to conduct an extensive Spacelab simulation using the NASA CV-990 airborne laboratory. The scientific payload was selected to perform studies in upper atmospheric physics and infrared astronomy with principal investigators from France, the Netherlands, England, and several groups from the United States. Communication links between the 'Spacelab' and a ground based mission operations center were limited consistent with Spacelab plans. The mission was successful and provided extensive data relevant to Spacelab objectives on overall management of a complex international payload; experiment preparation, testing, and integration; training for proxy operation in space; data handling; multiexperimenter use of common experimenter facilities (telescopes); multiexperiment operation by experiment operators; selection criteria for Spacelab experiment operators; and schedule requirements to prepare for such a Spacelab mission.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1987

Computer Programs for Spacecraft Maneuvers

Multiple-encounter, multiple maneuver voyages analyzed in detail. Report describes ADAM (Advanced Analysis of Maneuvers) system, integrated collection of computer programs to aid design and analysis of maneuvers for deep space voyages involving multiple maneuvers and multiple encounters with planets and moons. Used in planning Galileo mission and used in both planning and operation of Voyager mission. Modularity of ADAM allows use of entirely new models, algorithms, trajectories, and maneuvering schedules. Characteristic great asset when spacecraft does not perform as planned.

Chadwick, Clyde↗