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At least 379 records · Page 21
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2010

Preliminary Investigation of Civil Tiltrotor in NextGen Airspace

Presentation intro: Tiltrotor aircraft have long been envisioned as being a potentially viable means of commercial aviation transport. Preliminary results from an ongoing study into the operational and technological considerations of Civil Tiltrotor (CTR) operation in the Next Generation airspace, circa the 2025 time-frame, are presented and discussed. In particular, a fleet of CTR aircraft has been conceptually designed. The performance characteristics of this CTR fleet was subsequently translated into BADA (Base of Aircraft DAta) models that could be used as input to emulate CTR aircraft operations in the ACES and AvTerminal airspace and terminal area simulation tools. A network of nine North-Eastern corridor airports is the focus of the airspace simulation effort; the results from this airport network viII then be extrapolated to provide insights into systemic impact of CTRs on the National Airspace System (NAS). Future work will also be detailed as to attempts to model the systemic effects of noise and emissions from this fleet of new aircraft as well as assess their leveraged impact on public service missions, in time of need, such as major regional/national disaster relief efforts. The ideal outcome of this study is a set of results whereby Next Gen airspace CONOPs can be refined to reflect potential CTR capabilities and, conversely, CTR technology development efforts can be better informed as to key performance requirement thresholds needed to be met in order to successfully introduce these aircraft into civilian aviation operation.

Young, Larry A.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Feasibility of a Networked Air Traffic Infrastructure Validation Environment for Advanced NextGen Concepts

Abstract-Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) applications reliant upon aircraft data links such as Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) offer a sweeping modernization of the National Airspace System (NAS), but the aviation stakeholder community has not yet established a positive business case for equipage and message content standards remain in flux. It is necessary to transition promising Air Traffic Management (ATM) Concepts of Operations (ConOps) from simulation environments to full-scale flight tests in order to validate user benefits and solidify message standards. However, flight tests are prohibitively expensive and message standards for Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) systems cannot support many advanced ConOps. It is therefore proposed to simulate future aircraft surveillance and communications equipage and employ an existing commercial data link to exchange data during dedicated flight tests. This capability, referred to as the Networked Air Traffic Infrastructure Validation Environment (NATIVE), would emulate aircraft data links such as ADS-B using in-flight Internet and easily-installed test equipment. By utilizing low-cost equipment that is easy to install and certify for testing, advanced ATM ConOps can be validated, message content standards can be solidified, and new standards can be established through full-scale flight trials without necessary or expensive equipage or extensive flight test preparation. This paper presents results of a feasibility study of the NATIVE concept. To determine requirements, six NATIVE design configurations were developed for two NASA ConOps that rely on ADS-B. The performance characteristics of three existing in-flight Internet services were investigated to determine whether performance is adequate to support the concept. Next, a study of requisite hardware and software was conducted to examine whether and how the NATIVE concept might be realized. Finally, to determine a business case, economic factors were evaluated and a preliminary cost-benefit analysis was performed.

McCormack, Michael J.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Active Vibration Reduction of Titanium Alloy Fan Blades (FAN1) Using Piezoelectric Materials

The NASA Glenn Research Center is developing smart adaptive structures to improve fan blade damping at resonances using piezoelectric (PE) transducers. In this paper, a digital resonant control technique emulating passive shunt circuits is used to demonstrate vibration reduction of FAN1 Ti real fan blade at the several target modes. Single-mode control and multi-mode control using one piezoelectric material are demonstrated. Also a conceptual study of how to implement this digital control system into the rotating fan blade is discussed.

Choi, Benjamin↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Flight Testing of In-Time Safety Assurance Technologies for UAS Operations

Ongoing research at NASA is driven by a strategic plan defined by the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate and a vision for future In-Time Aviation Safety Management Systems (IASMS) as described by the National Academies. In both visions, system safety awareness and provision are expanded through increased access to relevant data; integrated analysis and predictive capabilities; improved real-time detection and alerting of domain-specific hazards; decision support, and in some cases, automated risk mitigation strategies. One primary research focus is to develop means by which more timely (i.e., “in-time”) actions may be taken to mitigate precursors, anomalies, or trends that are observed during operations. In this paper, we describe such means as a collection of Services, Functions, and Capabilities (SFCs) that are supported by an underlying information system. For example, an integrated risk assessment capability is envisioned that continuously monitors safety-related metrics and margins and recommends timely operational changes. Assessment functions and/or services can be based on data analytics and predictive models derived from heterogeneous data sets that span relevant indicator metrics and their time histories. Likewise, on-board functions can identify and reduce susceptibility to precursor conditions that have led (and can lead) to aircraft loss-of-control or out-of-control accidents. This paper summarizes development and testing of such an information system tailored to hazards anticipated for future highly autonomous flight missions near and over densely populated areas. Testing is accomplished via simulation and by using small, unmanned aircraft operating over a test range at NASA’s Langley Research Center. Flight plans and test scenarios are defined to emulate several use-cases, including package delivery; reconnaissance; fire management; and urban air taxi vertiport operations. Two test phases are summarized with Phase 1 occurring in (2019-2020) and Phase 2 ongoing (2021-present). Results focus on SFC performance, technology readiness level assessment, and requirements discovery/validation. Companion papers are cited throughout for additional details on the recent testing.

safety management↗
NASA NTRS1997

Dynamic Reconstruction and Multivariable Control for Force-Actuated, Thin Facesheet Adaptive Optics

The Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT) under development at the University of Arizona takes a new approach in adaptive optics placing a large (0.65 m) force-actuated, thin facesheet deformable mirror at the secondary of an astronomical telescope, thus reducing the effects of emissivity which are important in IR astronomy. However, The large size of the mirror and low stiffness actuators used drive the natural frequencies of the mirror down into the bandwidth of the atmospheric distortion. Conventional adaptive optics takes a quasi-static approach to controlling the, deformable mirror. However, flexibility within the control bandwidth calls for a new approach to adaptive optics. Dynamic influence functions are used to characterize the influence of each actuator on the surface of the deformable mirror. A linearized model of atmospheric distortion is combined with dynamic influence functions to produce a dynamic reconstructor. This dynamic reconstructor is recognized as an optimal control problem. Solving the optimal control problem for a system with hundreds of actuators and sensors is formidable. Exploiting the circularly symmetric geometry of the mirror, and a suitable model of atmospheric distortion, the control problem is divided into a number of smaller decoupled control problems using circulant matrix theory. A hierarchic control scheme which seeks to emulate the quasi-static control approach that is generally used in adaptive optics is compared to the proposed dynamic reconstruction technique. Although dynamic reconstruction requires somewhat more computational power to implement, it achieves better performance with less power usage, and is less sensitive than the hierarchic technique.

Grocott, Simon C. O.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Acquisition and Pointing for Mars Optical Access Link

Optical characteristics can potentially benefit "access" links at Mars when transmitting data from surface to orbiting assets because of the higher gain and modulation bandwidth, compared to radio frequency (RF). Furthermore, higher bits/kg/W can be realized with low mass and power optical systems, enabling the streaming of high definition imagery. In this paper we present a conceptual design for a low complexity, autonomous optical communications link for returning data at 50-200 Mb/s from the Martian surface and for lower forward data rates of 50 kb/s to the surface. The pointing control is simplified by widening the transmitted laser beams (0.5 - 2.0 mrad) for the short distance (400-1200 Km) links. Link acquisition is based on the orbiter transceiver (OT) "blind"-pointing a laser beam to illuminate the lander transceiver (LT) on the surface. The LT acquires the link with a spectrally-filtered wide-field-of-view camera and subsequently tracks the orbiter transceiver with a two-axis, stepper-motor-actuator, to send back a laser modulated with high-rate data to the orbiting asset. The system design also has a provision for the OT transitioning from blind-pointing to closed loop tracking once it acquires the signal from the lander transceiver. Results from successful ground-based demonstrations performed at JPL, in which the pointing rate required to track an orbiter was emulated by mounting both transceivers on rotating stages, and in which we transmitted live video and pseudo-random data streams, are presented.

Optical Communication↗
NASA NTRS2002

Method and system for training dynamic nonlinear adaptive filters which have embedded memory

Described herein is a method and system for training nonlinear adaptive filters (or neural networks) which have embedded memory. Such memory can arise in a multi-layer finite impulse response (FIR) architecture, or an infinite impulse response (IIR) architecture. We focus on filter architectures with separate linear dynamic components and static nonlinear components. Such filters can be structured so as to restrict their degrees of computational freedom based on a priori knowledge about the dynamic operation to be emulated. The method is detailed for an FIR architecture which consists of linear FIR filters together with nonlinear generalized single layer subnets. For the IIR case, we extend the methodology to a general nonlinear architecture which uses feedback. For these dynamic architectures, we describe how one can apply optimization techniques which make updates closer to the Newton direction than those of a steepest descent method, such as backpropagation. We detail a novel adaptive modified Gauss-Newton optimization technique, which uses an adaptive learning rate to determine both the magnitude and direction of update steps. For a wide range of adaptive filtering applications, the new training algorithm converges faster and to a smaller value of cost than both steepest-descent methods such as backpropagation-through-time, and standard quasi-Newton methods. We apply the algorithm to modeling the inverse of a nonlinear dynamic tracking system 5, as well as a nonlinear amplifier 6.

Rabinowitz, Matthew↗
NASA NTRS1993

Determination of the mass properties of a manipulator

Space applications for telerobotics requires a manipulator that is robust to the large payload variations that occur in a zero-g environment. One approach to provide the required performance for this large payload variation is to provide inertial decoupling to the controller. The equations to generate the required joint torques can be obtained in several manners but the independent parameters required to perform the calculations are difficult to obtain. This presentation consists of an overview of the inertial decoupling control system and discusses how to reduce the inertial parameter set to a minimum and obtain the required parameter set to a minimum and obtain the required parameter vector using sensed joint positions and torques. In addition, as telerobotic technology becomes more prevalent in the space environments the ability to emulate the effect of zero-g in a one-g environment is critical in learning how to perform tasks in space. To emulate the zero-g environment it is necessary to remove the effect of gravity on the manipulator by determining the feedforward joint torques. A subset of the algorithm developed to obtain the decoupling parameters is used to obtain the gravity offload parameters. These parameters are used to eliminate the effect of gravity. The algorithm is validated on Martin Marietta/NASA Langley's, 7 Degrees-Of-Freedom (DOF) Flight Telerobotic Servicer Hydraulic Manipulator Test Bed. A video portraying actual results of the algorithm is provided.

Goldenberg, Stewart↗
NASA NTRS2014

Carbon-Temperature-Water Change Analysis for Peanut Production Under Climate Change: A Prototype for the AgMIP Coordinated Climate-Crop Modeling Project (C3MP)

Climate change is projected to push the limits of cropping systems and has the potential to disrupt the agricultural sector from local to global scales. This article introduces the Coordinated Climate-Crop Modeling Project (C3MP), an initiative of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) to engage a global network of crop modelers to explore the impacts of climate change via an investigation of crop responses to changes in carbon dioxide concentration ([CO2]), temperature, and water. As a demonstration of the C3MP protocols and enabled analyses, we apply the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) CROPGRO-Peanut crop model for Henry County, Alabama, to evaluate responses to the range of plausible [CO2], temperature changes, and precipitation changes projected by climate models out to the end of the 21st century. These sensitivity tests are used to derive crop model emulators that estimate changes in mean yield and the coefficient of variation for seasonal yields across a broad range of climate conditions, reproducing mean yields from sensitivity test simulations with deviations of ca. 2% for rain-fed conditions. We apply these statistical emulators to investigate how peanuts respond to projections from various global climate models, time periods, and emissions scenarios, finding a robust projection of modest (<10%) median yield losses in the middle of the 21st century accelerating to more severe (>20%) losses and larger uncertainty at the end of the century under the more severe representative concentration pathway (RCP8.5). This projection is not substantially altered by the selection of the AgMERRA global gridded climate dataset rather than the local historical observations, differences between the Third and Fifth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP3 and CMIP5), or the use of the delta method of climate impacts analysis rather than the C3MP impacts response surface and emulator approach.

climate change↗
NASA NTRS2003

High Voltage Solar Array ARC Testing for a Direct Drive Hall Effect Thruster System

The deleterious effects of spacecraft charging are well known, particularly when the charging leads to arc events. The damage that results from arcing can severely reduce system lifetime and even cause critical system failures. On a primary spacecraft system such as a solar array, there is very little tolerance for arcing. Motivated by these concerns, an experimental investigation was undertaken to determine arc thresholds for a high voltage (200-500 V) solar array in a plasma environment. The investigation was in support of a NASA program to develop a Direct Drive Hall-Effect Thruster (112HET) system. By directly coupling the solar array to a Hall-effect thruster, the D2HET program seeks to reduce mass, cost and complexity commonly associated with the power processing in conventional power systems. In the investigation, multiple solar array technologies and configurations were tested. The cell samples were biased to a negative voltage, with an applied potential difference between them, to imitate possible scenarios in solar array strings that could lead to damaging arcs. The samples were tested in an environment that emulated a low-energy, HET-induced plasma. Short duration "trigger" arcs as well as long duration "sustained" arcs were generated. Typical current and voltage waveforms associated with the arc events are presented. Arc thresholds are also defined in terms of vo!tage, (current and power. The data will be used to propose a new, high-voltage (>300 V) solar array design for which the likelihood of damage from arcing is minimal.

Schneider, T.↗
NASA NTRS2004

High Voltage Solar Array Arc Testing for a Direct Drive Hall Effect Thruster System

The deleterious effects of spacecraft charging are well known, particularly when the charging leads to arc events. The damage that results from arcing can severely reduce system lifetime and even cause critical system failures. On a primary spacecraft system such as a solar array, there is very little tolerance for arcing. Motivated by these concerns, an experimental investigation was undertaken to determine arc thresholds for a high voltage (200-500 V) solar array in a plasma environment. The investigation was in support of a NASA program to develop a Direct Drive Hall-Effect Thruster (D2HET) system. By directly coupling the solar array to a Hall-effect thruster, the D2HET program seeks to reduce mass, cost and complexity commonly associated with the power processing in conventional power systems. In the investigation, multiple solar array technologies and configurations were tested. The cell samples were biased to a negative voltage, with an applied potential difference between them, to imitate possible scenarios in solar array strings that could lead to damaging arcs. The samples were tested in an environment that emulated a low-energy, HET-induced plasma. Short duration trigger arcs as well as long duration sustained arcs were generated. Typical current and voltage waveforms associated with the arc events are presented. Arc thresholds are also defined in terms of voltage, current and power. The data will be used to propose a new, high-voltage (greater than 300 V) solar array design for which the likelihood of damage from arcing is minimal.

Schneider, Todd↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Internal Architecture of the Common Habitat

The core stage liquid oxygen tank of the Space Launch System can be manufactured as a habitat instead of as a propellant tank, with a common design such that it is equally suitable for use in 0g, 1/6g, 3/8g, 1g, or variable artificial gravity. This Common Habitat can be the central element of a human spaceflight architecture that encompasses the Moon, Mars, and other destinations within the inner solar system. The Common Habitat is specifically used within an alternative architecture study (that is not part of the current NASA baseline) as the core habitation element within a Lunar Basecamp, Mars Basecamp, and the Deep Space Exploration Vehicle. The Common Habitat internal architecture applies a design philosophy to separate crew functions according to deck. The lower deck is reserved for private functions. It includes eight private crew quarters and four waste and hygiene clusters – each with a private waste management compartment, private full body hygiene compartment, and foyer/clothes changing area. The mid deck is primarily allocated to mission-related working functions. It includes an exercise facility, fabrication / maintenance / repair facility, physical science laboratory (physics, geology, and astronomy), and life science laboratory (biology and human research). The mid deck also has four external hatches, clocked one every 90 degrees, centered on the vehicle vertical centerline. Each hatch has a 60-inch tall by 40-inch wide opening with the mid deck floor 16 inches below the bottom lip of the hatch opening. The upper deck is primarily allocated to group or social functions. It includes a large galley, wardroom with projector and display screen, plant growth chambers, bulk stowage, command and control station, medical facility, hygiene compartment, and vehicle subsystems. A Vertical Translation System, based in part on results from a GrabCAD public challenge, enables crew and equipment traverse between habitat decks in 0g, 1/6g, 3/8g, and 1g. A 40-inch by 60-inch vertical translation corridor ensures that anything that can fit through the external hatches can also be moved from deck to deck. The system includes three component systems: a deploying floor to safety barrier system that folds down to become a traversable floor when vertical translation is not in use and deploys to become a safety barrier during vertical translations; a folding ladder that stows in the ceiling when not in use; and an elevator platform that can attach to the ladder for cargo or incapacitated crew member transport. This system is complemented by a Horizontal Translation System, also based in part on the same GrabCAD challenge, provides for horizontal crew translation in microgravity but requires no vehicle reconfiguration for fractional or whole gravity operation. It relies primarily on gecko-inspired grippers, originally developed at Stanford and NASA JPL, attached to footwear to enable crew to emulate walking. Some handrails are also strategically placed throughout the Common Habitat to aid translation in both gravity and microgravity environments.

Common Habitat↗
NASA NTRS2022

Europa Clipper Payload Verification and Validation: Avionics-Instrument Interface Test Campaign

NASA's Europa Clipper mission will investigate Jupiter's icy moon Europa using a payload suite consisting of nine instruments to address a range of scientific objectives concerning Europa's habitability. As the project proceeds past its Critical Design Review, confidence is being built in the system's ability to achieve mission objectives through the implementation of a rigorous payload verification and validation (V&V) program. As part of this payload V&V program, instrument box-level testing was performed by the payload team to verify select instrument-avionics interface requirements. This testing was performed at JPL using the avionics testbed's Bulk Data Storage Emulator (BDSEM) with visiting instrument Test Models. This paper summarizes the Data Link test campaign involving roughly four days of functional testing per instrument, including planning, testing methods, types of issues found, and the requirement closure process. Detail is also provided on the development, deployment, and validation of a standardized analysis tool used in data reviews. This testing verified requirements related to commanding rates, loss of link, packet format, clock counters, loopback test capability, and SpaceWire jitter and skew margins. Additional risk reduction testing of basic commanding, counter behavior, science data collection and transfer, and interface swapping was also performed. Because the BDSEM venue was not originally designed to be a run for record venue, the process of characterizing venue fidelity and establishing suitability for requirement closure using data collected in this venue will also be addressed.In order to close requirements, an extensible tool was developed to post-process instrument command and telemetry data from their original binary to a human-readable format and give visibility to errors detected within the data, such as packets with Cyclic Redundancy Check errors. This tool, called payload-packet-parser, is a Python 3.9 command line tool built using a variety of open-source Python libraries. Payload-packet-parser was designed to support parsing command and telemetry packets for all Europa Clipper instruments and additional analysis tools were developed for verification of specific information interface requirements. This test campaign, including post-processing using a single parsing and verification toolset, allowed for early interface testing, alleviating testing burdens on instrument teams and buying down risk on the instrument-avionics interface by finding hardware and software issues and idiosyncrasies prior to integration with system test venues. Over twenty issues were discovered across the payload, resulting in software updates and instrument rework well in advance of any system impacts. This paper concludes with an assessment of benefits and costs of this type of testing and lessons learned.

Montanez, Leticia↗
NASA NTRS2021

A Distributed Approach to High-Rate Delay Tolerant Networking Within a Virtualized Environment

The High-Rate Delay Tolerant Networking (HDTN) project has taken a distributed service-based approach to the development of a highly efficient delay tolerant networking (DTN) implementation. Through the analysis of many DTN implementations, system and mission requirements as well as the DTN protocol specifications, HDTN has worked to infuse modern computing technologies into the NASA approach to interplanetary networking. The initial use case of the HDTN software runs on a hypervisor representative of the International Space Station (ISS) DTN Gateway. In this scenario, multiple emulated payloads will send science data through HDTN to a mission operations center. HDTN will provide store and forward capability as well as network flow management. This paper discusses the infusion path of cognitive networking technologies in the NASA SCaN networks using the DTN architecture and protocols as the basis for cognitive routing and network management capabilities. HDTN has been developing the Bundle Protocol encoding and decoding mechanisms and messaging framework that can be used as the basis for integrating DTN with various learning and decision-making processes. The concepts of distributed computing, network virtualization, software defined networking and delay tolerant networking are basic building blocks which will further the development of cognitive networking. In addition to discussion of the HDTN software development and testing, this paper examines the role that each of these technologies play in the evolution of the current state of space networking into an intelligent network of networks.

Delay Tolerant Networking↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Distributed Approach to High-Rate Delay Tolerant Networking Within a Virtualized Environment

The High-Rate Delay Tolerant Networking (HDTN) project has taken a distributed service-based approach to the development of a highly efficient delay tolerant networking (DTN) implementation. Through the analysis of many DTN implementations, system and mission requirements as well as the DTN protocol specifications, HDTN has worked to infuse modern computing technologies into the NASA approach to interplanetary networking. The initial use case of the HDTN software runs on a hypervisor representative of the International Space Station (ISS) DTN Gateway. In this scenario, multiple emulated payloads will send science data through HDTN to a mission operations center. HDTN will provide store and forward capability as well as network flow management. This paper discusses the infusion path of cognitive networking technologies in the NASA Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) networks using the DTN architecture and protocols as the basis for cognitive routing and network management capabilities. HDTN has been developing the Bundle Protocol encoding and decoding mechanisms and messaging framework that can be used as the basis for integrating DTN with various learning and decision-making processes. The concepts of distributed computing, network virtualization, software defined networking and delay tolerant networking are basic building blocks which will further the development of cognitive networking. In addition to discussion of the HDTN software development and testing, this paper examines the role that each of these technologies play in the evolution of the current state of space networking into an intelligent network of networks.

Rachel Mary Dudukovich↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Continuous Spacecraft Communications via Make-Before-Break Antenna Array Beam Steering

Active phased array (APA) antennas can electronically form multiple beams to track several targets simultaneously. Spacecraft equipped with these antennas can achieve continuous communications through a constellation of relay satellites by forming a second beam to an upcoming relay satellite before the spacecraft moves beyond the current relay’s line of sight. These make-before-break operations have utility for streaming critical data without gaps. Using characterization data from a commercially-available APA-based satellite communications terminal, we simulate performance from low-Earth orbit to a representative geosynchronous relay satellite system at Ka-band. Average data rates of 3 Mbps are achievable with a minimum rate of 0.8 Mbps during worst-case handovers. We prototype the beam-splitting algorithm in the terminal hardware and evaluate its performance in an antenna range. In an over-the-air test emulating a handover between two relays we observe error-free data in the combined telemetry stream.

active phased array antennas↗
NASA NTRS2003

Active Control of High Frequency Combustion Instability in Aircraft Gas-Turbine Engines

Active control of high-frequency (greater than 500 Hz) combustion instability has been demonstrated in the NASA single-nozzle combustor rig at United Technologies Research Center. The combustor rig emulates an actual engine instability and has many of the complexities of a real engine combustor (i.e. actual fuel nozzle and swirler, dilution cooling, etc.) In order to demonstrate control, a high-frequency fuel valve capable of modulating the fuel flow at up to 1kHz was developed. Characterization of the fuel delivery system was accomplished in a custom dynamic flow rig developed for that purpose. Two instability control methods, one model-based and one based on adaptive phase-shifting, were developed and evaluated against reduced order models and a Sectored-1-dimensional model of the combustor rig. Open-loop fuel modulation testing in the rig demonstrated sufficient fuel modulation authority to proceed with closed-loop testing. During closed-loop testing, both control methods were able to identify the instability from the background noise and were shown to reduce the pressure oscillations at the instability frequency by 30%. This is the first known successful demonstration of high-frequency combustion instability suppression in a realistic aero-engine environment. Future plans are to carry these technologies forward to demonstration on an advanced low-emission combustor.

Corrigan, Bob↗