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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

New Tools for Automating Arcjet Sample Recession Tracking and Analysis

Arcjet Computer Vision (arcjetCV) has been significantly upgraded to enhance accuracy and performance in tracking material recession and shock-material standoff in test videos. These improvements include integrating new machine learning models, developing a specialized edge detection class, and incorporating a more comprehensive training dataset. These upgrades have refined the software’s ability to automate time-resolved recession tracking, making it more precise and reliable for analyzing complex physical processes. In parallel, a new tool called STARscan (Spatial Targeting and Alignment Rig for Scanning) is being developed to capture detailed 3D surface data before and after testing. By comparing these pre- and post-test scans with arcjetCV’s automated video analysis results, users can achieve a more comprehensive assessment of material recession. This method enables cross-validation of results, improving confidence in the analysis of tested materials. The expanded capabilities of arcjetCV have been successfully demonstrated on videos from various facilities, including the NASA Ames arcjets, UIUC’s PlasmatronX, and the VKI Plasmatron. It has been adopted as a new standard for in-situ recession tracking by the Mars Sample Return Project and Orion. ArcjetCV’s improved efficiency and accuracy are critical for reducing testing uncertainties and validating heatshield material performance under extreme conditions. The software’s user-friendly graphical interface ensures ease of use, enabling seamless processing and precise analysis of arcjet videos, providing deeper insights into material behavior in hypersonic environments. ArcjetCV is now available on both PyPI and Conda, allowing easy installation via "pip install arcjetCV" or through the Conda package manager, ensuring broad accessibility and streamlined deployment for users across various platforms.

Ablation↗

NASA NTRS2011

Final Report: MaRSPlus Sensor System Electrical Cable Management and Distributed Motor Control Computer Interface

The success of JPL's Next Generation Imaging Spectrometer (NGIS) in Earth remote sensing has inspired a follow-on instrument project, the MaRSPlus Sensor System (MSS). One of JPL's responsibilities in the MSS project involves updating the documentation from the previous JPL airborne imagers to provide all the information necessary for an outside customer to operate the instrument independently. As part of this documentation update, I created detailed electrical cabling diagrams to provide JPL technicians with clear and concise build instructions and a database to track the status of cables from order to build to delivery. Simultaneously, a distributed motor control system is being developed for potential use on the proposed 2018 Mars rover mission. This system would significantly reduce the mass necessary for rover motor control, making more mass space available to other important spacecraft systems. The current stage of the project consists of a desktop computer talking to a single "cold box" unit containing the electronics to drive a motor. In order to test the electronics, I developed a graphical user interface (GUI) using MATLAB to allow a user to send simple commands to the cold box and display the responses received in a user-friendly format.

data cubes↗

NASA NTRS1993

Wide-bandwidth high-resolution search for extraterrestrial intelligence

A third antenna was added to the system. It is a terrestrial low-gain feed, to act as a veto for local interference. The 3-chip design for a 4 megapoint complex FFT was reduced to finished working hardware. The 4-Megachannel circuit board contains 36 MByte of DRAM, 5 CPLDs, the three large FFT ASICs, and 74 ICs in all. The Austek FDP-based Spectrometer/Power Accumulator (SPA) has now been implemented as a 4-layer printed circuit. A PC interface board has been designed and together with its associated user interface and control software allows an IBM compatible computer to control the SPA board, and facilitates the transfer of spectra to the PC for display, processing, and storage. The Feature Recognizer Array cards receive the stream of modulus words from the 4M FFT cards, and forward a greatly thinned set of reports to the PC's in whose backplane they reside. In particular, a powerful ROM-based state-machine architecture has been adopted, and DRAM has been added to permit integration modes when tracking or reobserving source candidates. The general purpose (GP) array consists of twenty '486 PC class computers, each of which receives and processes the data from a feature extractor/correlator board set. The array performs a first analysis on the provided 'features' and then passes this information on to the workstation. The core workstation software is now written. That is, the communication channels between the user interface, the backend monitor program and the PC's have working software.

Horowitz, Paul↗

NASA NTRS1977

Infrared Imagery of Shuttle (IRIS). Task 1

Assessment of available IR sensor technology showed that the four aerothermodynamic conditions of interest during the entry trajectory of space shuttle can be accommodated by an aircraft flying parallel to the orbiter reentry ground track. Thermal information from the sides of the vehicle can be obtained with degraded performance (temperatures below 800 K) by flying the C-141 aircraft on the opposite side of the shuttle ground track and in the direction opposite that which is optimum for lower surface viewing. An acquisition system using a 6.25-cm aperture telescope and a single indium antimonide detector were designed to meet the acquisition requirements and interface with the 91.5-cm telescope with minimum modification. An image plane system using 600 indium antimonide detectors in two arrays which requires no modification to the existing telescope was also designed. Currently available components were used in a data handling system with interfaces with the experimentors station and the HP2100 computer.

Chocol, C. J.↗

NASA NTRS1992

The need for GPS standardization

A desirable and necessary step for improvement of the accuracy of Global Positioning System (GPS) time comparisons is the establishment of common GPS standards. For this reason, the CCDS proposed the creation of a special group of experts with the objective of recommending procedures and models for operational time transfer by GPS common-view method. Since the announcement of the implementation of Selective Availability at the end of last spring, action has become much more urgent and this CCDS Group on GPS Time Transfer Standards has now been set up. It operates under the auspices of the permanent CCDS Working Group on TAI and works in close cooperation with the Sub-Committee on Time of the Civil GPS Service Interface Committee (CGSIC). Taking as an example the implementation of SA during the first week of July 1991, this paper illustrates the need to develop urgently at least two standardized procedures in GPS receiver software: monitoring GPS tracks with a common time scale and retaining broadcast ephemeris parameters throughout the duration of a track. Other matters requiring action are the adoption of common models for atmospheric delay, a common approach to hardware design and agreement about short-term data processing. Several examples of such deficiencies in standardization are presented.

W. Lewandowski↗

NASA NTRS2015

Java Architecture for Detect and Avoid Extensibility and Modeling

Unmanned aircraft will equip with a detect-and-avoid (DAA) system that enables them to comply with the requirement to "see and avoid" other aircraft, an important layer in the overall set of procedural, strategic and tactical separation methods designed to prevent mid-air collisions. This paper describes a capability called Java Architecture for Detect and Avoid Extensibility and Modeling (JADEM), developed to prototype and help evaluate various DAA technological requirements by providing a flexible and extensible software platform that models all major detect-and-avoid functions. Figure 1 illustrates JADEM's architecture. The surveillance module can be actual equipment on the unmanned aircraft or simulators that model the process by which sensors on-board detect other aircraft and provide track data to the traffic display. The track evaluation function evaluates each detected aircraft and decides whether to provide an alert to the pilot and its severity. Guidance is a combination of intruder track information, alerting, and avoidance/advisory algorithms behind the tools shown on the traffic display to aid the pilot in determining a maneuver to avoid a loss of well clear. All these functions are designed with a common interface and configurable implementation, which is critical in exploring DAA requirements. To date, JADEM has been utilized in three computer simulations of the National Airspace System, three pilot-in-the-loop experiments using a total of 37 professional UAS pilots, and two flight tests using NASA's Predator-B unmanned aircraft, named Ikhana. The data collected has directly informed the quantitative separation standard for "well clear", safety case, requirements development, and the operational environment for the DAA minimum operational performance standards. This work was performed by the Separation Assurance/Sense and Avoid Interoperability team under NASA's UAS Integration in the NAS project.

unmanned aircraft systems↗

NASA NTRS1993

EOS ground data systems: A description and interface overview

The Earth Observing System (EOS) is planned as a space-based measurement system, earth-science research program, and data and information system (EOSDIS). It will consist of several high data rate spacecraft with multiple earth sensing instruments which provide investigators with a thorough, longterm view of the earth's environment. Up to seven spacecraft may be supported at once, either in operational, checkout, or testing phases; and the average data rate from the EOS satellites in orbit at any one time is expected to be from 18 to 60 Mbps. Providing the data processing and flight operations support for EOS will be the EOSDIS Core System (ECS). The ECS will command and control the spacecraft; process and store the EOS data; provide access to the data for years; and support researchers. The data processing aspects of the ECS consist of a collection of Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAAC's) which perform the product generation, data archive and distribution, and information management services. Flight operations aspects will be provided by the EOS Operations Center, by instrument control centers, and by widely distributed instrument support terminals. The communications and system management aspects will be provided by the EOSDIS Science Network and the System Management Center. In addition to the EOS satellite data, other data sets from earlier earth science missions are also to be added to designated DAAC's. Other ground data systems which will provide support to EOS for acquiring, transporting, processing, and distributing the transformed spacecraft data are currently being defined or are being upgraded for the EOS era. These systems include the Space Network consisting of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS), the TDRSS Ground Terminals, and the Network Control Center as well as the night Dynamics Facility, the EOS Data and Operations System, and EOS Communications. This paper briefly describes data handling by the ECS, the support data systems, their interfaces, and their roles.

Smith, Gene↗

NASA NTRS2010

Overview of the Graphical User Interface for the GERMcode (GCR Event-Based Risk Model)

The descriptions of biophysical events from heavy ions are of interest in radiobiology, cancer therapy, and space exploration. The biophysical description of the passage of heavy ions in tissue and shielding materials is best described by a stochastic approach that includes both ion track structure and nuclear interactions. A new computer model called the GCR Event-based Risk Model (GERM) code was developed for the description of biophysical events from heavy ion beams at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL). The GERMcode calculates basic physical and biophysical quantities of high-energy protons and heavy ions that have been studied at NSRL for the purpose of simulating space radiobiological effects. For mono-energetic beams, the code evaluates the linear-energy transfer (LET), range (R), and absorption in tissue equivalent material for a given Charge (Z), Mass Number (A) and kinetic energy (E) of an ion. In addition, a set of biophysical properties are evaluated such as the Poisson distribution of ion or delta-ray hits for a specified cellular area, cell survival curves, and mutation and tumor probabilities. The GERMcode also calculates the radiation transport of the beam line for either a fixed number of user-specified depths or at multiple positions along the Bragg curve of the particle. The contributions from primary ion and nuclear secondaries are evaluated. The GERMcode accounts for the major nuclear interaction processes of importance for describing heavy ion beams, including nuclear fragmentation, elastic scattering, and knockout-cascade processes by using the quantum multiple scattering fragmentation (QMSFRG) model. The QMSFRG model has been shown to be in excellent agreement with available experimental data for nuclear fragmentation cross sections, and has been used by the GERMcode for application to thick target experiments. The GERMcode provides scientists participating in NSRL experiments with the data needed for the interpretation of their experiments, including the ability to model the beam line, the shielding of samples and sample holders, and the estimates of basic physical and biological outputs of the designed experiments. We present an overview of the GERMcode GUI, as well as providing training applications.

Kim, Myung-Hee Y.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Overview of the Graphical User Interface for the GERM Code (GCR Event-Based Risk Model

The descriptions of biophysical events from heavy ions are of interest in radiobiology, cancer therapy, and space exploration. The biophysical description of the passage of heavy ions in tissue and shielding materials is best described by a stochastic approach that includes both ion track structure and nuclear interactions. A new computer model called the GCR Event-based Risk Model (GERM) code was developed for the description of biophysical events from heavy ion beams at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL). The GERM code calculates basic physical and biophysical quantities of high-energy protons and heavy ions that have been studied at NSRL for the purpose of simulating space radiobiological effects. For mono-energetic beams, the code evaluates the linear-energy transfer (LET), range (R), and absorption in tissue equivalent material for a given Charge (Z), Mass Number (A) and kinetic energy (E) of an ion. In addition, a set of biophysical properties are evaluated such as the Poisson distribution of ion or delta-ray hits for a specified cellular area, cell survival curves, and mutation and tumor probabilities. The GERM code also calculates the radiation transport of the beam line for either a fixed number of user-specified depths or at multiple positions along the Bragg curve of the particle. The contributions from primary ion and nuclear secondaries are evaluated. The GERM code accounts for the major nuclear interaction processes of importance for describing heavy ion beams, including nuclear fragmentation, elastic scattering, and knockout-cascade processes by using the quantum multiple scattering fragmentation (QMSFRG) model. The QMSFRG model has been shown to be in excellent agreement with available experimental data for nuclear fragmentation cross sections, and has been used by the GERM code for application to thick target experiments. The GERM code provides scientists participating in NSRL experiments with the data needed for the interpretation of their experiments, including the ability to model the beam line, the shielding of samples and sample holders, and the estimates of basic physical and biological outputs of the designed experiments. We present an overview of the GERM code GUI, as well as providing training applications.

Kim, Myung-Hee↗

NASA NTRS2001

Photochemical Phenomenology Model for the New Millennium

The "Photochemical Phenomenology Model for the New Millennium" project tackles the issue of reengineering and extension of validated physics-based modeling capabilities ("legacy" computer codes) to application-oriented software for use in science and science-support activities. While the design and architecture layouts are in terms of general particle distributions involved in scattering, impact, and reactive interactions, initial Photochemical Phenomenology Modeling Tool (PPMT) implementations are aimed at construction and evaluation of photochemical transport models with rapid execution for use in remote sensing data analysis activities in distributed systems. Current focus is on the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) data acquired during the CASSINI flyby of Jupiter. Overall, the project has stayed on the development track outlined in the Year 1 annual report and most Year 2 goals have been met. The issues that have required the most attention are: implementation of the core photochemistry algorithms; implementation of a functional Java Graphical User Interface; completion of a functional CORBA Component Model framework; and assessment of performance issues. Specific accomplishments and the difficulties encountered are summarized in this report. Work to be carried out in the next year center on: completion of testing of the initial operational implementation; its application to analysis of the CASSINI/CIRS Jovian flyby data; extension of the PPMT to incorporate additional phenomenology algorithms; and delivery of a mature operational implementation.

Bishop, James↗

NASA NTRS2013

Real-Time Multimission Event Notification System for Mars Relay

As the Mars Relay Network is in constant flux (missions and teams going through their daily workflow), it is imperative that users are aware of such state changes. For example, a change by an orbiter team can affect operations on a lander team. This software provides an ambient view of the real-time status of the Mars network. The Mars Relay Operations Service (MaROS) comprises a number of tools to coordinate, plan, and visualize various aspects of the Mars Relay Network. As part of MaROS, a feature set was developed that operates on several levels of the software architecture. These levels include a Web-based user interface, a back-end "ReSTlet" built in Java, and databases that store the data as it is received from the network. The result is a real-time event notification and management system, so mission teams can track and act upon events on a moment-by-moment basis. This software retrieves events from MaROS and displays them to the end user. Updates happen in real time, i.e., messages are pushed to the user while logged into the system, and queued when the user is not online for later viewing. The software does not do away with the email notifications, but augments them with in-line notifications. Further, this software expands the events that can generate a notification, and allows user-generated notifications. Existing software sends a smaller subset of mission-generated notifications via email. A common complaint of users was that the system-generated e-mails often "get lost" with other e-mail that comes in. This software allows for an expanded set (including user-generated) of notifications displayed in-line of the program. By separating notifications, this can improve a user's workflow.

Wallick, Michael N.↗

NASA NTRS2016

An Independent Orbit Determination Simulation for the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

After arriving at the near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu in late 2018, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will execute a series of observation campaigns and orbit phases to accurately characterize Bennu and ultimately collect a sample of pristine regolith from its surface. While in the vicinity of Bennu, the OSIRIS-REx navigation team will rely on a combination of ground-based radiometric tracking data and optical navigation (OpNav) images to generate and deliver precision orbit determination products. Long before arrival at Bennu, the navigation team is performing multiple orbit determination simulations and thread tests to verify navigation performance and ensure interfaces between multiple software suites function properly. In this paper, we will summarize the results of an independent orbit determination simulation of the Orbit B phase of the mission performed to test the interface between the OpNav image processing and orbit determination software packages.

Orbit↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

AMMPER: a user-friendly agent-based model that recapitulates simple metabolic responses of yeast to deep-space radiation

For humans venturing to deep space, radiation exposure poses a major health risk. Fundamental research into the biological effects of space radiation are essential for enabling exploration, and the first experimental organisms we send to deep space will be microbial. Yet there are many ways in which microorganisms are likely to experience the effects of high-energy particle radiation (such as Galactic Cosmic Rays) differently from multicellular animals, partly due to the simple fact that microbes are small and unicellular-- less likely to get hit in the first place, and less likely to communicate damage between cells. Computational modeling can aid in designing experiments and predicting the biological effects of radiation, but thus far particle radiation models have not focused on microbes. Here we present the latest developments in AMMPER, the Agent-based Model for Microbial Populations Exposed to Radiation. Originally written in 2021, AMMPER is a Python-based model that incorporates radiation track data from NASA's RITRACKS software and simulates the growth, damage, and death of yeast cells in 3D. It is now freely available as an open-source package on NASA's GitHub repository. Recent improvements include the ability to simulate the dynamics of alamarBlue, a color-changing redox dye commonly used to track metabolic activity in microbial spaceflight experiments. We demonstrate that a simple blue-pink-clear transition model is able to recapitulate key features observed in empirical data from ground studies. AMMPER also includes a new graphical user interface and introductory tutorial to facilitate ease of use by a wider audience. AMMPER can help us to understand how spatially heterogeneous particle radiation damage at the single-cell level can translate to growth differences at the population level, ultimately allowing us to better interpret experiments using microbes as model organisms and how well their results apply to humans.

yeast↗

NASA NTRS1983

RF front end interface and AGC modification

Preliminary results indicate that the new front end automatic gain control (AGC) combination perform satisfactorily. Side by side bench tests with Trimble 10A and Texas Instruments 9900 LORAN-C receivers have proven that the proper time differences are being obtained. Further optimization of the AGC circuit will occur as software to track all of the stations in a LORAN-C chain is developed. The AGC circuit was designed to sample up to six separate LORAN-C stations. Along with expanded station tracking software, a more sophisticated search routine is also under development. A printed circuit board for the AGC is planned and will be enclosed with the RF front end in a sealed enclosure to reduce interference from the other digital circuits of the microcomputer.

Yost, S. R.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

ArcjetCV: A New Machine Learning Application for Extracting Time-Resolved Recession Measurements From Arc Jet Test Videos

Arc jet Computer Vision (ArcjetCV) is a software application built to automate analysis of arc jet ground test video footage. This includes tracking material recession, sting arm motion, and the shock-material standoff distance. This provides a new capability to resolve and validate new physics associated with non-linear processes. This is an essential step to reduce testing, modeling, and validation uncertainties for heatshield material performance. ArcjetCV uses several types of machine learning (convolutional neural net: CNN, decision tree: DT, k-means unsupervised clustering: KM) to automate the video processing pipeline. These include inferring the start/stop of time segments of interest (1D CNN), measuring the time-dependent 2D recession of the material samples (2D CNN, DT), measuring the time-dependent shock standoff distance (2D CNN, DT), and post-processing cleaning of the recession data (KM). The software also provides a graphical user interface for ease of use. The results of using this tool on arc jet videos show non-linear time-dependent effects can be important for certain materials.

machine learning↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

ArcjetCV: Automating Arc Jet Analysis

Arc jet Computer Vision (arcjetCV) is a software application built to automate time-resolved recession tracking of edges in test videos, specifically for tracking material recession and the shock-material standoff. This provides a new capability to resolve and validate new physics associated with non-linear processes and an essential step to reduce testing, modeling, and validation uncertainties for heatshield material performance. ArcticCV uses several types of machine learning (convolutional neural net: CNN, decision tree: DT, k-means unsupervised clustering: KM) to automate the video processing pipeline. These include inferring the start/stop of time segments of interest (1D CNN), measuring the time-dependent 2D recession of the material samples (2D CNN, DT), measuring the time-dependent shock standoff distance (2D CNN, DT), and post-processing cleaning of the recession data (KM). The software also provides a graphical user interface for ease of use. The results of using this tool on arc jet videos show non-linear time-dependent effects can be important for certain materials and characterizing certain failure modes.

Recession tracking↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

ArcjetCV: a new machine learning application for extracting time-resolved recession measurements from arc jet test videos

machine learning↗

NASA NTRS1990

RF/optical interference design for optical intersatellite links

A design approach for the RF/optical link interface for a data relay satellite is described. The flexibility of forward and return links in future data acquisition satellites in handling varying missions and data rates to 1 Gbit/s is considered. Attention is focused on requirements for the NASA Tracking and Data Acquisition System. System components are described including the return link multiplexer, the return link transmultiplexer, the forward link multiplexer, the forward link demultiplexer, and the frontside/backside switch. Ping-pong buffers, which provide rate buffering for each input data stream, are discussed and justification bits, which handle variations due to Doppler shift and local oscillator variation, are considered. The time-division multiplexed streams consist of a unique synchronization word for frame synchronization, and control words associated with each data burst to identify the presence or absence of a justification bit. Redundant data paths are described for both forward and return data streams.

Garlow, Ronald K.↗