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At least 361 records · Page 20

Connecting Projects to Complete the In Situ Resource Utilization Paradigm

Terrain Identify specifics such as slope, rockiness, traction parameters Identify what part of ISRU needs each Physical Geotechnical Hardness, density, cohesion, etc. Identify what part of ISRU needs each (e.g., excavation needs to know hardness, density; soil processing needs to know density, cohesion; etc.)Mineral Identify specifics Identify what part of ISRU needs each Volatile Identify specifics Identify what part of ISRU needs each Atmosphere Identify specifics Identify what part of ISRU needs each Environment Identify specifics Identify what part of ISRU needs each Resource Characterization What: Develop an instrument suite to locate and evaluate the physical, mineral, and volatile resources at the lunar poles Neutron Spectrometer Near Infrared (IR) to locate subsurface hydrogen surface water Near IR for mineral identification Auger drill for sample removal down to 1 m Oven with Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer to quantify volatiles present ISRU relevance: Water volatile resource characterization and subsurface material access removal Site Evaluation Resource Mapping What: Develop and utilize new data products and tools for evaluating potential exploration sites for selection and overlay mission data to map terrain, environment, and resource information e.g., New techniques applied to generate Digital Elevation Map (DEMs) at native scale of images (1mpxl)ISRU relevance: Resource mapping and estimation with terrain and environment information is needed for extraction planning Mission Planning and Operations What: Develop and utilize tools and procedures for planning mission operations and real time changes Planning tools include detailed engineering models (e.g., power and data) of surface segment systems allows evaluation of designs ISRU relevance: Allows for iterative engineering as a function of environment and hardware performance.

Paradigm↗

Estimation of Canopy Water Content in Konza Parry Grasslands Using Synthetic Aperture Radar Measurements During FIFE

This paper presents the development of an algorithm to retrieve the canopy water contents of natural grasslands and pasture from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) measurements. The development on this algorithm involves three interrelated steps: (1) calibration of SAR data for ground topographic variations, (2) development and validation of backscatter model for cross-polarized ratio. The polarimetric radar data acquired by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory AIRSAR system during the 1989 First International Satellite land Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP) Field Experiment (FIFE) used for this study. The SAR data have been calibrated and corrected for the topographical effects by using the digital elevation map of the study area.

canopy water contents algorithm Konza Konza Parry ↗

Assessments of Physiology and Cognition in Hybrid-Reality Environments (APACHE)

NASA is planning to return to the Moon in the mid-2020s as a stepping stone to Mars missions in the 2030s. Spacewalks, or extravehicular activities (EVAs), performed on the Moon and Mars will differ in a variety of ways from those that have been performed in decades past. NASA has identified multiple risks to human health and performance associated with a crewed mission to Mars, especially those associated with exploration EVAs which are expected to be a primary mission activity. Crew may be expected to conduct up to 24 hours of EVA per person per week, where the likelihood of injury and/or mental mistakes are increased compared to ground-based training or current microgravity EVAs and the consequences of which can be catastrophic. Current test environments for exploration EVA research and technology development are large, costly facilities that are limited in their availability or capabilities. Spacesuit testing in a reduced gravity environment such as NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, while a good representation of the crew’s physical workload during exploration EVAs, typically has small datasets and is difficult to integrate physiological sensors or other types of crew performance measures. Meanwhile, scientific field-based testing such as NASA’s Desert Research and Technology Studies offers an operationally relevant environment for exploration EVAs, particularly for cognitive workload, but is also limited by small datasets, lack of a pressurized spacesuit, and obtrusive measures. The limitations of current analogs for exploration EVAs identify a need for a new test environment that can approximate both the physical and cognitive demands associated with exploration EVAs to enable rapid, controlled, and repeatable evaluations of human health and performance risks of exploration missions. In response, the Human Physiology, Performance, Protection, and Operations Laboratory (H-3PO) at NASA Johnson Space Center has developed a hybrid reality exploration EVA analog named the Assessments of Physiology And Cognition in Hybrid-reality Environments (APACHE) to address these limitations using a combination of virtual, physical, and hybrid reality techniques. The APACHE facility resides at NASA Johnson Space Center and serves as a large “sandbox” for EVA research and simulation. At its center is a roughly 15x20ft space surrounded by a 14” tall sandbox partially filled with lunar regolith simulant to emulate the physical feeling of walking on a planetary surface and to allow for simulated geology operations. Nearby, a curved passive treadmill (Skillmill Connect, Technogym, Fairfield, NJ) and an omnidirectional treadmill (Infinadeck, Infinadeck, Rocklin, CA) are included to enable exploration of these large virtual environments while also imposing the physical demands, representative timelines, and cognitive burdens required to navigate and traverse these distances during exploration EVA. A 6DOF motion platform is used to simulate rover operations and supports various human performance evaluations and associated risks. Lastly, APACHE can support two extravehicular (EV) crewmembers working in tandem. A computer workstation is located nearby and also supports an intravehicular (IV) crewmember as part of a full mission simulation. The IV crewmember has direct video and audio communication with the EV crew in VR to provide operational and procedural support. The software used in APACHE was created by the JSC Engineering Directorate, in partnership with Buendea, powered by a custom Unreal Engine 5 (UE5.3, Epic Games) project. APACHE currently utilizes the HTC Vive Pro Eye in a wireless configuration for VR simulations. There are two virtual environments that subjects can explore within APACHE, a Lunar and Martian surface. The virtual Lunar surface was created from LIDAR data of the Lunar South Pole to create roughly 16 sq km of explorable terrain. The virtual Martian surface contains roughly 400 sq km of explorable terrain derived from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter LIDAR data of the Jezero Crater. The immersion and related cognitive burdens of conducting a planetary EVA is simulated through a series of EVA-relevant tasks performed in the VR environment, using these high-fidelity visual representations. Additionally, APACHE includes biosensor driven informatics, such as real-time heart rate monitoring and/or derived values from model simulations, for active monitoring by the EV crew and added cognitive demand. A “Wizard of Oz” control panel enables test operators to activate contingency events such as simulated spacesuit malfunctions, loss of communications, and/or limited visibility. Embedded performance measures such as accuracy, completeness, and execution time have been developed for various exploration tasks to objectively quantify crew performance during an EVA and compare impacts to performance when different environmental stressors, both physical and cognitive, are added to or removed from the simulation. Additionally, validated cognitive and operational performance measures such as the Digit Symbol Substitution Task have been recreated and embedded in VR for direct and relatively unobtrusive measurement of motor perception. The APACHE environment currently supports multiple research studies at NASA. Examples include the CHAPEA project, a series of simulated year-long missions on Mars by a 4-person crew; and the CO2 Contingency Walk Back Study, an investigation of elevated CO2 exposure on crew performance during a contingency EVA scenario. APACHE also provides a test environment to support the development of the Crew State and Risk Model, which is a collection of individualized, mathematical models of crew physical and cognitive state; and the Personalized EVA Informatics and Decision Support system, an operational tool for flight controllers, and eventually a self-reliant Martian crew, to make biomedically-informed decisions in real-time to optimize the EVA planning and execution with respect to crew health and performance. Some technical challenges associated with developing the APACHE environment, as well as current limitations, include VR limitless natural walking with a hybrid spacesuit simulator, optimizing performance for wireless PC VR streaming while maintaining a high degree of visual fidelity, and the integration of various physiological (metabolic masks) and psychometric (eye tracking) sensors with the VR headset.

Human Performance↗

Rover Slip Validation and Prediction Algorithm

A physical-based simulation has been developed for the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission that applies a slope-induced wheel-slippage to the rover location estimator. Using the digital elevation map from the stereo images, the computational method resolves the quasi-dynamic equations of motion that incorporate the actual wheel-terrain speed to estimate the gross velocity of the vehicle. Based on the empirical slippage measured by the Visual Odometry software of the rover, this algorithm computes two factors for the slip model by minimizing the distance of the predicted and actual vehicle location, and then uses the model to predict the next drives. This technique, which has been deployed to operate the MER rovers in the extended mission periods, can accurately predict the rover position and attitude, mitigating the risk and uncertainties in the path planning on high-slope areas.

Yen, Jeng↗

Detection of regional air pollution episodes utilizing satellite data in the visual range

A comparative analysis of satellite-observed haze patterns and ground-based aerosol measurements is carried out for July 20-23, 1978. During this period, a significant regional air pollution episode existed across the northeastern United States, accompanied by widespread haze, reduced surface visibility, and elevated sulfate levels measured by the Sulfate Regional Experiment (SURE) network. The results show that the satellite-observed haze patterns correlate closely with the area of reported low surface visibility (less than 4 mi) and high sulfate levels. Quantitative information on total aerosol loading derived from the satellite-digitized data, using an atmospheric radiative transfer model, agrees well with the results obtained from the ground-based measurements.

Bowley, C. J.↗

Wildland inventory and resource modeling for Douglas and Carson City Counties, Nevada, using LANDSAT and digital terrain data

The potential of using LANDSAT satellite imagery to map and inventory pinyon-juniper desert forest types in Douglas and Carson City Counties, Nevada was demonstrated. Specific map and statistical products produced include land cover, mechanical operations capability, big game winter range habitat, fire hazard, and forest harvestability. The Nevada Division of Forestry determined that LANDSAT can produce a reliable and low-cost resource data. Added benefits become apparent when the data are linked to a geographical information system (GIS) containing existing ownership, planning, elevation, slope, and aspect information.

Brass, J. A.↗

Assessment of Error in Aerosol Optical Depth Measured by AERONET Due to Aerosol Forward Scattering

We present an analysis of the effect of aerosol forward scattering on the accuracy of aerosol optical depth (AOD) measured by CIMEL Sun photometers. The effect is quantified in terms of AOD and solar zenith angle using radiative transfer modeling. The analysis is based on aerosol size distributions derived from multi-year climatologies of AERONET aerosol retrievals. The study shows that the modeled error is lower than AOD calibration uncertainty (0.01) for the vast majority of AERONET level 2 observations, ~99.53%. Only ~0.47% of the AERONET database corresponding mostly to dust aerosol with high AOD and low solar elevations has larger biases. We also show that observations with extreme reductions in direct solar irradiance do not contribute to level 2 AOD due to low Sun photometer digital counts below a quality control cutoff threshold.

AERONET↗

Pluto: Fluidized Transport of Tholins by Heating of the Subsurface

New Horizons images of Pluto show evidence of the transport of the colored non-ice component across the surface, with substantial accumulations in some areas of low elevation. The non-ice component is presumed to be tholin produced in the atmosphere as a precipitating aerosol, in the surface ices by photolysis or radiolysis, or both. We model the surface layer of N2 ice with varying amounts of incorporated tholin particles to explore the heating within the ice that occurs by the solid-state greenhouse effect. We find that in plausible models of the contaminated N2 surface ice the triple point temperature (63.15K) is reached at a depth of approximately less than 1m. At that depth the confining pressure of the ice column is much less than the triple point pressure (12.52 kPa), so N2 should convert to the gas phase, exerting pressure on the overburden. When the gas pressure exceeds the strength of the confining ice, a breakout on the surface will occur, fluidizing fragments of ice and its contaminants that are then free to flow downhill, rafted on entrained gas, similar in some ways to the pyroclastic volcanic phenomenon known as nuée ardente. The digital elevation map of Pluto made from stereo images shows some surface regions that may have been stripped of the N2 layer, exposing H2O ice (presumed to be bedrock) below, with a corresponding accumulation of dark material that was that was the previously entrained particulate tholin. Accumulations of tholin are found associated with some of the fossae, and some cover preexisting topography to depths of up to a few hundred meters.

New Horizons↗

Digital adaptive control laws for the F-8

NASA is conducting a flight control research program in digital fly-by-wire technology using a modified F-8C aircraft. The first phase of this program used Apollo hardware to demonstrate the practicality of digital fly-by-wire in an actual test vehicle. For the second phase, conventional aircraft sensors and a large floating point digital computer are being utilized to test advanced control laws and redundancy concepts. As part of NASA's research in digital fly-by-wire technology, Honeywell developed digital adaptive flight control laws for flight test in the F-8C. Adaptation of the control laws was to be based on information sensed from conventional aircraft sensors excluding air data. The control laws were constrained to use only existing elevator, rudder, and ailerons as control effectors, each powered by existing actuators. Three adaptive control laws were successfully designed using maximum likelihood estimation, a Liapunov stable model tracker and a self-excited limit cycle concept. The maximum likelihood estimation design was selected as the most promising because of its capability to identify more than surface effectiveness parameters. The adaptive concepts, the control laws and comparisons of predicted performance are described.

Hartmann, G. L.↗

Automatic terrain elevation mapping and registration

Optimum radar illumination geometries for stereoscopic analysis of surface topography are determined. Correlation and image processing experiments on synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data for improved information extraction are conducted. Model of the geometry of the multiple SIR-B views of the Earth are developed the sensitivity of the derived terrain altitude data to the various system parameters is established. The limits of accuracy of terrain data achievable with shuttle imaging radar (SIR-B) are derived. Algorithms for matching multiple SIR-B images to generate digital terrain maps are developed. Finally, the use of such terrain maps in geometric correction and registration of SIR-B and LANDSAT Thematic Mapper data is demonstrated.

Ramapriyan, H. K.↗

Digital Image Correlation Techniques Applied to Large Scale Rocket Engine Testing

Rocket engine hot-fire ground testing is necessary to understand component performance, reliability and engine system interactions during development. The J-2X upper stage engine completed a series of developmental hot-fire tests that derived performance of the engine and components, validated analytical models and provided the necessary data to identify where design changes, process improvements and technology development were needed. The J-2X development engines were heavily instrumented to provide the data necessary to support these activities which enabled the team to investigate any anomalies experienced during the test program. This paper describes the development of an optical digital image correlation technique to augment the data provided by traditional strain gauges which are prone to debonding at elevated temperatures and limited to localized measurements. The feasibility of this optical measurement system was demonstrated during full scale hot-fire testing of J-2X, during which a digital image correlation system, incorporating a pair of high speed cameras to measure three-dimensional, real-time displacements and strains was installed and operated under the extreme environments present on the test stand. The camera and facility setup, pre-test calibrations, data collection, hot-fire test data collection and post-test analysis and results are presented in this paper.

Gradl, Paul R.↗

Simulation development of a forward sensor-enhanced low-altitude guidance system

The requirement to operate aircraft at low-altitude near the terrain is common in the military community and essential for helicopters. The risk and crew workload in this flight regime is severe, with navigation, guidance, and obstacle avoidance demanding high attention. A guidance system relying on digitized terrain elevation maps has been developed that employs airborne navigation, mission requirements, aircraft performance limits, and radar altimeter returns to generate a valley-seeking, low-altitude trajectory between waypoints for display to the pilot. This system has been flight demonstrated to 150 ft above ground level altitude, and is primarily limited by the ability of the pilot to perform obstacle detection and avoidance. In this study, a wide field of view forward sensor has been modeled and incorporated in the guidance system for the purpose of relieving the pilot of the obstacle avoidance duty. The results of a piloted, motion-based simulation of this enhanced low-altitude guidance system is presented. Simulated flights to 50 ft altitude in the presence of obstacles were demonstrated while maintaining situational awareness and close tracking of the guidance trajectory.

Zelenka, Richard E.↗

Design of a nonlinear adaptive filter for suppression of shuttle pilot-induced oscillation tendencies

Analysis of a longitudinal pilot-induced oscillation (PIO) experienced just prior to touchdown on the final flight of the space shuttle's approach landing tests indicated that the source of the problem was a combination of poor basic handling qualities aggravated by time delays through the digital flight control computer and rate limiting of the elevator actuators due to high pilot gain. A nonlinear PIO suppression (PIOS) filter was designed and developed to alleviate the vehicle's PIO tendencies by reducing the gain in the command path. From analytical and simulator studies it was shown that the PIOS filter, in an adaptive fashion, can attenuate the command path gain without adding phase lag to the system. With the pitch attitude loop of a simulated shuttle model closed, the PIOS filter increased the gain margin by a factor of about two.

Smith, J. W.↗

Pioneer Venus Sounder Probe Solar Flux Radiometer

The Solar Flux Radiometer aboard the Pioneer Venus Sounder Probe operated successfully during its descent through the atmosphere of Venus. The instrument measured atmospheric radiance over the spectral range from 400 to 1800 nm as a function of altitude. Elevation and azimuthal measurements on the radiation field were made with five optical channels. Twelve filtered Si and Ge photovoltaic detectors were maintained near 30 C with a phase-change material. The detector output currents were processed with logarithmic transimpedance converters and digitized with an 11-bit A/D converter. Atmospheric sampling in both elevation and azimuth was done according to a Gaussian integration scheme. The serial output data averaged 20 bits/sec, including housekeeping (sync, spin period, sample timing and mode). The data were used to determine the deposition of solar energy in the atmosphere of Venus between 67 km and the surface along with upward and downward fluxes and radiances with an altitude resolution of several hundred meters. The results allow for more accurate modeling of the radiation balance of the atmosphere than previously possible.

Tomasko, M. G.↗

NASA Tech Briefs, August 2012

Topics covered include: Mars Science Laboratory Drill; Ultra-Compact Motor Controller; A Reversible Thermally Driven Pump for Use in a Sub-Kelvin Magnetic Refrigerator; Shape Memory Composite Hybrid Hinge; Binding Causes of Printed Wiring Assemblies with Card-Loks; Coring Sample Acquisition Tool; Joining and Assembly of Bulk Metallic Glass Composites Through Capacitive Discharge; 670-GHz Schottky Diode-Based Subharmonic Mixer with CPW Circuits and 70-GHz IF; Self-Nulling Lock-in Detection Electronics for Capacitance Probe Electrometer; Discontinuous Mode Power Supply; Optimal Dynamic Sub-Threshold Technique for Extreme Low Power Consumption for VLSI; Hardware for Accelerating N-Modular Redundant Systems for High-Reliability Computing; Blocking Filters with Enhanced Throughput for X-Ray Microcalorimetry; High-Thermal-Conductivity Fabrics; Imidazolium-Based Polymeric Materials as Alkaline Anion-Exchange Fuel Cell Membranes; Electrospun Nanofiber Coating of Fiber Materials: A Composite Toughening Approach; Experimental Modeling of Sterilization Effects for Atmospheric Entry Heating on Microorganisms; Saliva Preservative for Diagnostic Purposes; Hands-Free Transcranial Color Doppler Probe; Aerosol and Surface Parameter Retrievals for a Multi-Angle, Multiband Spectrometer LogScope; TraceContract; AIRS Maps from Space Processing Software; POSTMAN: Point of Sail Tacking for Maritime Autonomous Navigation; Space Operations Learning Center; OVERSMART Reporting Tool for Flow Computations Over Large Grid Systems; Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of Particle-Laden Temporal Mixing Layers; Projection of Stabilized Aerial Imagery Onto Digital Elevation Maps for Geo-Rectified and Jitter-Free Viewing; Iterative Transform Phase Diversity: An Image-Based Object and Wavefront Recovery; 3D Drop Size Distribution Extrapolation Algorithm Using a Single Disdrometer; Social Networking Adapted for Distributed Scientific Collaboration; General Methodology for Designing Spacecraft Trajectories; Hemispherical Field-of-View Above-Water Surface Imager for Submarines; and Quantum-Well Infrared Photodetector (QWIP) Focal Plane Assembly.

Source record↗

The development of an earth resources information system using aerial photographs and digital computers

Analytical photogrammetry demonstrated that automatic three dimensional mapping of forest terrain was technically feasible. The examples were black and white photography at scales of 1:10,000 and 1:24,000. The major improvement in terrain modelling was the addition of the capability of joining small quadrangles together to form one large model about equal to the effective area of the pair of photographs. Improvements of somewhat lesser importance include: (1) the use of up to 16 grey levels; (2) the elimination of several coordinate transformations; and (3) the annotation of three-tone hysocline maps with elevations.

Amidon, E. L.↗

Boreal Canopy Surfaces from Spaceborne Stereogrammetry

Surface elevation estimates from high resolution spaceborne image (HRSI) stereogrammetry are used to examine fine-scaled structure of boreal forest canopies. These data can depict detailed spatial patterns of vertical forest structure at remote sites across the circumpolar domain where these estimates would otherwise be unavailable. This work examines where these estimates are most effective at describing vertical forest structure to explain which canopy surfaces they represent. We evaluated the variation in canopy surface estimates captured from four general types of HRSI digital surface models (DSMs) across the full range of boreal canopy cover.

Paul M Montesano↗

Rectification of terrain induced distortions in radar imagery

This paper describes a technique to generate geocoded synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery corrected for terrain induced geometric distortions. This algorithm transforms the raw slant range image, generated by the signal processor, into a map registered product, resampled to either Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) or Polar Stereographic projections, and corrected for foreshortening. The technique utilizes the space platform trajectory information in conjunction with a digital elevation map (DEM) of the target area to generate an ortho-radar map with near-autonomous operation. The current procedure requires only two to three tie-points to compensate for the platform position uncertainty that results in translational error between the image and the DEM. This approach is unique in that it does not require generation of a simulated radar image from the DEM or a grid of tie-points to characterize the image-to-map distortions. Rather, it models the inherent distortions based on knowledge of the radar data collection characteristics, the signal Doppler parameters, and the local terrain height to automatically predict the registration transformation. This algorithm has been implemented on a minicomputer system equipped with an array processor and a large random-access memory to optimize the throughput.

Kwok, Ronald↗