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NASA NTRS2013

National Report on the NASA Sounding Rocket and Balloon Programs

The U. S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Sounding Rockets and Balloon Programs conduct a total of 30 to 40 missions per year in support of the NASA scientific community and other users. The NASA Sounding Rockets Program supports the science community by integrating their experiments into the sounding rocket payloads, and providing both the rocket vehicle and launch operations services. Activities since 2011 have included two flights from Andoya Rocket Range, more than eight flights from White Sands Missile Range, approximately sixteen flights from Wallops Flight Facility, two flights from Poker Flat Research Range, and four flights from Kwajalein Atoll. Other activities included the final developmental flight of the Terrier-Improved Malemute launch vehicle, a test flight of the Talos-Terrier-Oriole launch vehicle, and a host of smaller activities to improve program support capabilities. Several operational missions have utilized the new Terrier-Malemute vehicle. The NASA Sounding Rockets Program is currently engaged in the development of a new sustainer motor known as the Peregrine. The Peregrine development effort will involve one static firing and three flight tests with a target completion data of August 2014. The NASA Balloon Program supported numerous scientific and developmental missions since its last report. The program conducted flights from the U.S., Sweden, Australia, and Antarctica utilizing standard and experimental vehicles. Of particular note are the successful test flights of the Wallops Arc Second Pointer (WASP), the successful demonstration of a medium-size Super Pressure Balloon (SPB), and most recently, three simultaneous missions aloft over Antarctica. NASA continues its successful incremental design qualification program and will support a science mission aboard WASP in late 2013 and a science mission aboard the SPB in early 2015. NASA has also embarked on an intra-agency collaboration to launch a rocket from a balloon to conduct supersonic decelerator tests. An overview of NASA's Sounding Rockets and Balloon Operations, Technology Development and Science support activities will be presented.

Eberspeaker, Philip↗

NASA NTRS2005

Transition to Operations Support at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center

The Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) is a multi-agency partnership, which aims at the creation of next generation space weather models. The goal of the CCMC is to support the research and developmental work necessary to substantially increase the present-day modeling capability for space weather purposes, and to provide models for transition to the rapid prototyping centers at the space weather forecast centers. This goal requires close collaborations with and substantial involvement of the research community. The physical regions to be addressed by CCMC-related activities range from the solar atmosphere to the Earth's upper atmosphere. The CCMC is an integral part of the National Space Weather Program Implementation Plan, of NASA's Living With a Star (LWS) initiative, and of the Department of Defense Space Weather Transition Plan. CCMC includes a facility at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, as well as distributed computing facilities provided by the US Air Force. CCMC also provides, to the research community, access to state-of-the-art space research models. This paper will focus on a status report on CCMC activities in support of model transition to operations at US space weather forecasting centers. In particular, an update will be given on past and present transition activities, on developments that address operational needs, and on future opportunities for transition-to-operations support.

Hesse, M.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Advanced Supported Liquid Membranes for CO2 Control in Extravehicular Activity Applications

Developing a new, robust, portable life support system (PLSS) is currently a high priority for NASA in order to support longer and safer extravehicular activity (EVA) missions. One of the critical PLSS functions is maintaining the carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the suit at acceptable levels. Although the Metal Oxide (MetOx) canister has worked well, it has a finite CO2 adsorption capacity. Consequently, the unit would have to be larger and heavier to extend EVA times. Therefore, new CO2 control technologies must be developed to meet mission objectives without increasing the size of the PLSS. Although recent work has centered on sorbents that can be regenerated during the EVA, this strategy increases the system complexity and power consumption. A simpler approach is to use a membrane that selectively vents CO2 to space. A membrane has many advantages over current technology: it is a continuous system with no theoretical capacity limit, it requires no consumables, and it requires no hardware for switching beds between absorption and regeneration. Unfortunately, conventional gas separation membranes do not have adequate selectivity for use in the PLSS. However, the required performance could be obtained with a supported liquid membrane (SLM), which consists of a micro porous material filled with a liquid that selectively reacts with CO2 over oxygen (O2). In a current Phase II SBIR project, Reaction Systems has developed a new reactive liquid, which has effectively zero vapor pressure making it an ideal candidate for use in an SLM. The SLM function has been demonstrated with representative pressures of CO2, O2, and water (H2O). In addition to being effective for CO2 control, the SLM also vents moisture to space. Therefore, this project has demonstrated the feasibility of using an SLM to control CO2 in an EVA application. 1 President

Wickham, David T.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Advanced Supported Liquid Membranes for CO2 Control in Extravehicular Activity Applications

Wickham, David T.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Large Space Systems Technology, 1979

Items of technology and developmental efforts in support of the large space systems technology programs are described. The major areas of interest are large antennas systems, large space platform systems, and activities that support both antennas and platform systems.

Ward, J. C., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Glass sample preparation and performance investigations

This final report details the work performed under this delivery order from April 1991 through April 1992. The currently available capabilities for integrated optical performance modeling at MSFC for large and complex systems such as AXAF were investigated. The Integrated Structural Modeling (ISM) program developed by Boeing for the U.S. Air Force was obtained and installed on two DECstations 5000 at MSFC. The structural, thermal and optical analysis programs available in ISM were evaluated. As part of the optomechanical engineering activities, technical support was provided in the design of support structure, mirror assembly, filter wheel assembly and material selection for the Solar X-ray Imager (SXI) program. As part of the fabrication activities, a large number of zerodur glass samples were prepared in different sizes and shapes for acid etching, coating and polishing experiments to characterize the subsurface damage and stresses produced by the grinding and polishing operations. Various optical components for AXAF video microscope and the x-ray test facility were also fabricated. A number of glass fabrication and test instruments such as a scatter plate interferometer, a gravity feed saw and some phenolic cutting blades were fabricated, integrated and tested.

Johnson, R. Barry↗

NASA NTRS1991

SRB Environment Evaluation and Analysis. Volume 2: RSRB Joint Filling Test/Analysis Improvements

Following the Challenger accident a very comprehensive solid rocket booster (SRB) redesign program was initiated. One objective of the program was to develop expertise at NASA/MSFC in the techniques for analyzing the flow of hot gases in the SRB joints. Several test programs were undertaken to provide a data base of joint performance with manufactured defects in the joints to allow hot gases to fill the joints. This data base was used also to develop the analytical techniques. Some of the test programs were Joint Environment Simulator (JES), Nozzle Joint Environment Simulator (NJES), Transient Pressure Test Article (TPTA), and Seventy-Pound Charge (SPC). In 1988 the TPTA test hardware was moved from the Utah site to MSFC and several RSRM tests were scheduled, to be followed by tests for the ASRM program. REMTECH Inc. supported these activities with pretest estimates of the flow conditions in the test joints, and post-test analysis and evaluation of the measurements. During this support REMTECH identified deficiencies in the gas-measurement instrumentation that existed in the TPTA hardware, made recommendations for its replacement, and identified improvements to the analytical tools used in the test support. Only one test was completed under the TPTA RSRM test program, and those scheduled for the ASRM were rescheduled to a time after the expiration of this contract. The attention of this effort was directed toward improvements in the analytical techniques in preparation for when the ASRM program begins.

Knox, E. C.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Australian Soil Moisture Field Experiments in Support of Soil Moisture Satellite Observations

Large-scale field campaigns provide the critical fink between our understanding retrieval algorithms developed at the point scale, and algorithms suitable for satellite applications at vastly larger pixel scales. Retrievals of land parameters must deal with the substantial sub-pixel heterogeneity that is present in most regions. This is particularly the case for soil moisture remote sensing, because of the long microwave wavelengths (L-band) that are optimal. Yet, airborne L-band imagers have generally been large, heavy, and required heavy-lift aircraft resources that are expensive and difficult to schedule. Indeed, US soil moisture campaigns, have been constrained by these factors, and European campaigns have used non-imagers due to instrument and aircraft size constraints. Despite these factors, these campaigns established that large-scale soil moisture remote sensing was possible, laying the groundwork for satellite missions. Starting in 2005, a series of airborne field campaigns have been conducted in Australia: to improve our understanding of soil moisture remote sensing at large scales over heterogeneous areas. These field data have been used to test and refine retrieval algorithms for soil moisture satellite missions, and most recently with the launch of the European Space Agency's Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, to provide validation measurements over a multi-pixel area. The campaigns to date have included a preparatory campaign in 2005, two National Airborne Field Experiments (NAFE), (2005 and 2006), two campaigns to the Simpson Desert (2008 and 2009), and one Australian Airborne Cal/val Experiment for SMOS (AACES), just concluded in the austral spring of 2010. The primary airborne sensor for each campaign has been the Polarimetric L-band Microwave Radiometer (PLMR), a 6-beam pushbroom imager that is small enough to be compatible with light aircraft, greatly facilitating the execution of the series of campaigns, and a key to their success. An L-band imaging radar is being added to the complement to provide simultaneous active-passive L-band observations, for algorithm development activities in support of NASA's upcoming Soil Moisture Active Passive (.S"M) mission. This paper will describe the campaigns, their objectives, their datasets, and some of the unique advantages of working with small/light sensors and aircraft. We will also review the main scientific findings, including improvements to the SMOS retrieval algorithm enabled by NAFE observations and the evaluation of the Simpson Desert as a calibration target for L-band satellite missions. Plans for upcoming campaigns will also be discussed.

Kim, Edward↗

NASA NTRS1995

Reusable, extendible flight software for a planetary spacecraft prototype testbed

As part of the 'Faster, Better, Cheaper' paradigm for NASA missions, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is developing a Flight System Testbed for prototyping and early integration of future planetary missions. This paper describes the development of a set of reusable, extendible spacecraft flight software to be used as a basis for prototypes in the testbed. This effort has focused on identification and implementation of functions which are common across multiple missions. This effort has also developed an intertask messaging system which supports modification of existing functions, additions of new functions, and porting to various computation and input/output (I/O) architectures. This paper also identifies a number of other JPL activities which support standardization and reusability of planetary spacecraft designs.

Krasner, Sanford M.↗

NASA NTRS2009

Relay Sequence Generation Software

Due to thermal and electromagnetic interactivity between the UHF (ultrahigh frequency) radio onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which performs relay sessions with the Martian landers, and the remainder of the MRO payloads, it is required to integrate and de-conflict relay sessions with the MRO science plan. The MRO relay SASF/PTF (spacecraft activity sequence file/ payload target file) generation software facilitates this process by generating a PTF that is needed to integrate the periods of time during which MRO supports relay activities with the rest of the MRO science plans. The software also generates the needed command products that initiate the relay sessions, some features of which are provided by the lander team, some are managed by MRO internally, and some being derived.

Gladden, Roy E.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Policy issues in interconnecting networks

To support the activities of the Federal Research Coordinating Committee (FRICC) in creating an interconnected set of networks to serve the research community, two workshops were held to address the technical support of policy issues that arise when interconnecting such networks. The workshops addressed the required and feasible technologies and architectures that could be used to satisfy the desired policies for interconnection. The results of the workshop are documented.

Leiner, Barry M.↗

NASA NTRS2016

Tracking and Establishing Provenance of Earth Science Datasets: A NASA-based Example

Information quality is of paramount importance to science. Accurate, scientifically vetted and statistically meaningful and, ideally, reproducible information engenders scientific trust and research opportunities. Therefore, so-called Highly Influential Scientific Assessments (HISA) such as the U.S. Third National Climate Assessment undergo a very rigorous process to ensure transparency and credibility. As an activity to support the transparency of such reports, the U.S. Global Change Research Program has developed the Global Change Information System (GCIS). Specifically related to the transparency of NCA3, a recent activity was carried out to trace the provenance as completely as possible for all figures in the NCA3 report that predominantly used NASA data. This paper discusses lessons learned from this activity that trace the provenance of NASA figures in a major HISA-class pdf report.

Ramapriyan, Hampapuram K.↗

NASA NTRS1984

The human role in space. Volume 3: Generalizations on human roles in space

The human role in space was studied. The role and the degree of direct involvement of humans that will be required in future space missions, was investigated. Valid criteria for allocating functional activities between humans and machines were established. The technology requirements, ecnomics, and benefits of the human presence in space were examined. Factors which affect crew productivity include: internal architecture; crew support; crew activities; LVA systems; IVA/EVA interfaces; and remote systems management. The accomplished work is reported and the data and analyses from which the study results are derived are included. The results provide information and guidelines to enable NASA program managers and decision makers to establish, early in the design process, the most cost effective design approach for future space programs, through the optimal application of unique human skills and capabilities in space.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1985

Extended mission life support systems

Extended manned space missions which include interplanetary missions require regenerative life support systems. Manned mission life support considerations are placed in perspective and previous manned space life support system technology, activities and accomplishments in current supporting research and technology (SR&T) programs are reviewed. The life support subsystem/system technologies required for an enhanced duration orbiter (EDO) and a space operations center (SOC), regenerative life support functions and technology required for manned interplanetary flight vehicles, and future development requirements are outlined. The Space Shuttle Orbiters (space transportation system) is space cabin atmosphere is maintained at Earth ambient pressure of 14.7 psia (20% O2 and 80% N2). The early Shuttle flights will be seven-day flights, and the life support system flight hardware will still utilize expendables.

Quattrone, P. D.↗

NASA NTRS1991

IDEF3 formalization report

The Process Description Capture Method (IDEF3) is one of several Integrated Computer-Aided Manufacturing (ICAM) DEFinition methods developed by the Air Force to support systems engineering activities, and in particular, to support information systems development. These methods have evolved as a distillation of 'good practice' experience by information system developers and are designed to raise the performance level of the novice practitioner to one comparable with that of an expert. IDEF3 is meant to serve as a knowledge acquisition and requirements definition tool that structures the user's understanding of how a given process, event, or system works around process descriptions. A special purpose graphical language accompanying the method serves to highlight temporal precedence and causality relationships relative to the process or event being described.

Menzel, Christopher↗

NASA NTRS1994

Integrating planning and reactive control

Our research is developing persistent agents that can achieve complex tasks in dynamic and uncertain environments. We refer to such agents as taskable, reactive agents. An agent of this type requires a number of capabilities. The ability to execute complex tasks necessitates the use of strategic plans for accomplishing tasks; hence, the agent must be able to synthesize new plans at run time. The dynamic nature of the environment requires that the agent be able to deal with unpredictable changes in its world. As such, agents must be able to react to unanticipated events by taking appropriate actions in a timely manner, while continuing activities that support current goals. The unpredictability of the world could lead to failure of plans generated for individual tasks. Agents must have the ability to recover from failures by adapting their activities to the new situation, or replanning if the world changes sufficiently. Finally, the agent should be able to perform in the face of uncertainty. The Cypress system, described here, provides a framework for creating taskable, reactive agents. Several features distinguish our approach: (1) the generation and execution of complex plans with parallel actions; (2) the integration of goal-driven and event driven activities during execution; (3) the use of evidential reasoning for dealing with uncertainty; and (4) the use of replanning to handle run-time execution problems. Our model for a taskable, reactive agent has two main intelligent components, an executor and a planner. The two components share a library of possible actions that the system can take. The library encompasses a full range of action representations, including plans, planning operators, and executable procedures such as predefined standard operating procedures (SOP's). These three classes of actions span multiple levels of abstraction.

Wilkins, David E.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Solar Dynamics Observatory Launch and Commissioning

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) was launched on February 11, 2010. Over the next three months, the spacecraft was raised from its launch orbit into its final geosynchronous orbit and its systems and instruments were tested and calibrated in preparation for its desired ten year science mission studying the Sun. A great deal of activity during this time involved the spacecraft attitude control system (ACS); testing control modes, calibrating sensors and actuators, and using the ACS to help commission the spacecraft instruments and to control the propulsion system as the spacecraft was maneuvered into its final orbit. This paper will discuss the chronology of the SDO launch and commissioning, showing the ACS analysis work performed to diagnose propellant slosh transient and attitude oscillation anomalies that were seen during commissioning, and to determine how to overcome them. The simulations and tests devised to demonstrate correct operation of all onboard ACS modes and the activities in support of instrument calibration will be discussed and the final maneuver plan performed to bring SDO on station will be shown. In addition to detailing these commissioning and anomaly resolution activities, the unique set of tests performed to characterize SDO's on-orbit jitter performance will be discussed.

O'Donnell, James R., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS2017

SPHERES: Synchronized, Position, Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites: SPHERES/Astrobee Working Group (SAWG)

SPHERES/Astrobee Working Group (SAWG) Quarterly meeting. Membership includes MIT, FIT, AFS, DARPA, CASIS, SJSU, and NASA (HQ, KSC, JSC, MSFC, and ARC)Face-to-Face, twice a year Purpose: Information sharing across the SPHERES community Program office shares National Lab Facility availability Status of resources (batteries, CO2 tanks, etc.), Overall Calendar (scheduled Test Sessions, up mass return), and Updates on new PD, Investigations, and ISS infrastructure. Provide the SPHERES community (PD, investigators, etc.) with up-to-date information to determine opportunities to use the NL Facility Discuss proposed changes updates to SPHERES Nat Lab which may be required to support a specific activity or research. Discuss specific support requests made to the ISS Office.

Benavides, Jose↗