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At least 469 records · Page 26
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1985

A knowledge based software engineering environment testbed

The Carnegie Group Incorporated and Boeing Computer Services Company are developing a testbed which will provide a framework for integrating conventional software engineering tools with Artifical Intelligence (AI) tools to promote automation and productivity. The emphasis is on the transfer of AI technology to the software development process. Experiments relate to AI issues such as scaling up, inference, and knowledge representation. In its first year, the project has created a model of software development by representing software activities; developed a module representation formalism to specify the behavior and structure of software objects; integrated the model with the formalism to identify shared representation and inheritance mechanisms; demonstrated object programming by writing procedures and applying them to software objects; used data-directed and goal-directed reasoning to, respectively, infer the cause of bugs and evaluate the appropriateness of a configuration; and demonstrated knowledge-based graphics. Future plans include introduction of knowledge-based systems for rapid prototyping or rescheduling; natural language interfaces; blackboard architecture; and distributed processing

Gill, C.↗
NASA NTRS1989

The Space Station Freedom - International cooperation and innovation in space safety

The Space Station Freedom (SSF) being developed by the United States, European Space Agency (ESA), Japan, and Canada poses novel safety challenges in design, operations, logistics, and program management. A brief overview discloses many features that make SSF a radical departure from earlier low earth orbit (LEO) space stations relative to safety management: size and power levels; multiphase manned assembly; 30-year planned lifetime, with embedded 'hooks and scars' forevolution; crew size and skill-mix variability; sustained logistical dependence; use of man, robotics and telepresence for on-orbit maintenance of station and free-flyer systems; closed-environment recycling; use of automation and expert systems; long-term operation of collocated life-sciences and materials-science experiments, requiring control and segregation of hazardous and chemically incompatible materials; and materials aging in space.

Rodney, George A.↗
NASA NTRS1994

The Astroculture (tm)-1 experiment on the USML-1 mission

Permanent human presence in space will require a life support system that minimizes athe need for resupply of consumables from Earth resources. Plants that convert radiant energy to chemical energy via photosynthesis are a key component of a bioregenerative life support system. Providing the proper root environment for plants in reduced gravity is an essential aspect of the development of facilities for growing plants in a space environment. The ASTROCULTURE(TM)-1 experiment, included in the USML-1 mission, successfully demonstrated the ability of the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics porous tube water delivery system to control water movement through a rooting matrix in a microgravity environment.

Tibbitts, Theodore↗
NASA NTRS1997

By Hand or Not By-Hand: A Case Study of Alternative Approaches to Parallelize CFD Applications

While parallel processing promises to speed up applications by several orders of magnitude, the performance achieved still depends upon several factors, including the multiprocessor architecture, system software, data distribution and alignment, as well as the methods used for partitioning the application and mapping its components onto the architecture. The existence of the Gorden Bell Prize given out at Supercomputing every year suggests that while good performance can be attained for real applications on general purpose multiprocessors, the large investment in man-power and time still has to be repeated for each application-machine combination. As applications and machine architectures become more complex, the cost and time-delays for obtaining performance by hand will become prohibitive. Computer users today can turn to three possible avenues for help: parallel libraries, parallel languages and compilers, interactive parallelization tools. The success of these methodologies, in turn, depends on proper application of data dependency analysis, program structure recognition and transformation, performance prediction as well as exploitation of user supplied knowledge. NASA has been developing multidisciplinary applications on highly parallel architectures under the High Performance Computing and Communications Program. Over the past six years, the transition of underlying hardware and system software have forced the scientists to spend a large effort to migrate and recede their applications. Various attempts to exploit software tools to automate the parallelization process have not produced favorable results. In this paper, we report our most recent experience with CAPTOOL, a package developed at Greenwich University. We have chosen CAPTOOL for three reasons: 1. CAPTOOL accepts a FORTRAN 77 program as input. This suggests its potential applicability to a large collection of legacy codes currently in use. 2. CAPTOOL employs domain decomposition to obtain parallelism. Although the fact that not all kinds of parallelism are handled may seem unappealing, many NASA applications in computational aerosciences as well as earth and space sciences are amenable to domain decomposition. 3. CAPTOOL generates code for a large variety of environments employed across NASA centers: MPI/PVM on network of workstations to the IBS/SP2 and CRAY/T3D.

Yan, Jerry C.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Maximally Expressive Task Modeling

Planning and scheduling systems organize "tasks" into a timeline or schedule. The tasks are defined within the scheduling system in logical containers called models. The dictionary might define a model of this type as "a system of things and relations satisfying a set of rules that, when applied to the things and relations, produce certainty about the tasks that are being modeled." One challenging domain for a planning and scheduling system is the operation of on-board experiment activities for the Space Station. The equipment used in these experiments is some of the most complex hardware ever developed by mankind, the information sought by these experiments is at the cutting edge of scientific endeavor, and the procedures for executing the experiments are intricate and exacting. Scheduling is made more difficult by a scarcity of space station resources. The models to be fed into the scheduler must describe both the complexity of the experiments and procedures (to ensure a valid schedule) and the flexibilities of the procedures and the equipment (to effectively utilize available resources). Clearly, scheduling space station experiment operations calls for a "maximally expressive" modeling schema. Modeling even the simplest of activities cannot be automated; no sensor can be attached to a piece of equipment that can discern how to use that piece of equipment; no camera can quantify how to operate a piece of equipment. Modeling is a human enterprise-both an art and a science. The modeling schema should allow the models to flow from the keyboard of the user as easily as works of literature flowed from the pen of Shakespeare. The Ground Systems Department at the Marshall Space Flight Center has embarked on an effort to develop a new scheduling engine that is highlighted by a maximally expressive modeling schema. This schema, presented in this paper, is a synergy of technological advances and domain-specific innovations.

Japp, John↗
NASA NTRS2008

LED Device Illuminates New Path to Healing

Among NASA s research goals is increased understanding of factors affecting plant growth, including the effects of microgravity. Impeding such studies, traditional light sources used to grow plants on Earth are difficult to adapt to space flight, as they require considerable amounts of power and produce relatively large amounts of heat. As such, an optimized experimental system requires much less energy and reduces temperature variance without negatively affecting plant growth results. Ronald W. Ignatius, founder and chairman of the board at Quantum Devices Inc. (QDI), of Barneveld, Wisconsin, proposed using light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as the photon source for plant growth experiments in space. This proposition was made at a meeting held by the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics, a NASA-sponsored research center that facilitates the commercialization of robotics, automation, and other advanced technologies. The Wisconsin group teamed with QDI to determine whether an LED system could provide the necessary wavelengths and intensities for photosynthesis, and the resultant system proved successful. The center then produced the Astroculture3, a plant growth chamber that successfully incorporated this LED light source, which has now flown on several space shuttle missions. NASA subsequently identified another need that could be addressed with the use of LEDs: astronaut health. A central concern in astronaut health is maintaining healthy growth of cells, including preventing bone and muscle loss and boosting the body s ability to heal wounds all adversely affected by prolonged weightlessness. Thus, having determined that LEDs can be used to grow plants in space, NASA decided to investigate whether LEDs might be used for photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT).

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2010

Ares V: Progress Toward Unprecedented Heavy Lift

Ares V represents the vehicle that will again make possible human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. The Ares V is part of NASA s Constellation Program architecture developed to support the International Space Station (ISS), establish a permanent human presence on the Moon, and explore it to an extent far greater than was possible with the Apollo Program. Ares V will carry the lunar lander to orbit where it will join the Orion crew spacecraft, launched by the smaller Ares I launch vehicle. Then the Ares V upper stage will send the Orion and lander to the Moon. Ares V is also intended to launch automated cargo landers to the Moon. The Ares vehicles are designed to employ the proven technologies and experience from the Space Shuttle, Delta IV, and earlier U.S. programs, as well as sharing common components where feasible. The Ares V is in an early stage of concept development. However, commonality allows it to benefit from development work already under way on the Ares I, including the first stage booster, and upper stage, J-2X upper stage engine. This paper will discuss progress to date on the Ares V and its potential for freeing payload designers from current mass and volume constraints. Progress includes development progress on Ares I elements that will be shared by the two launch vehicles. The Ares I first stage recently completed a successful test firing of Development Motor 1 (DM-1). The J-2X engine is proceeding with manufacturing of components for the first development engines that will be used for testing. Several component-level tests have been completed or are under way that will help verify designs and confirm solutions to design challenges. The Ares V Earth departure stage will benefit from the Ares I upper stage development, including design, manufacturing, and materials testing. NASA is also working with government and industry to collect data on flights and testing of the operational RS-68 engine and potential upgrades. The Ares V team continues to evaluate technical options, vehicle configurations, and operations concepts for the Ares V. The team recently completed a Fall Face-to-Face meeting that served as a stepping-stone to the Systems Requirements Review (SRR). This four-day meeting served as an information exchange for the various teams at several NASA field centers and supporting contractors.

Sumrall, Phil↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Reducing Barriers in Space Weather Research and Operations with Next-Generation Simulation Services at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC)

Space weather forecasting capabilities are becoming increasingly important to the health of advanced technological infrastructure. The Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC, https://ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov) serves as a key liaison in the US space weather program between the research and operations communities by providing a wide range of tools and capabilities that help to evaluate, compare, exercise, and archive the results of simulations of a growing list of space weather models. With its unique toolset, CCMC supports space weather research and model development that advances our understanding of space weather phenomena and improves forecasting skill, while also facilitating development of space weather applications and deployment of operational capabilities. Guided by experience from over 20 years of providing simulation services, feedback from its research, operational and educational users world-wide, recommendations from CCMC Advisory Group and Programmatic Review Panel, the CCMC has begun work on the next generation system for its simulation services and model output archives. The new system has been envisioned to employ state-of-the-art technologies and standards to provide a user-oriented experience while improving ease of access, transparency, interoperability with partner systems, and enhancing reliability by incorporating advanced automation for performance monitoring and intelligent failover. In the presentation, we will give an overview of the current CCMC ecosystem and discuss updates to some of the key services of the system, including Runs-on-Request, Instant Runs, and Continuous Runs. We will also describe how a planned expansion and standardization of data archival activities will enhance the role of CCMC as a world-class provider of heliophysics information for the research and analysis of space weather. It is our hope that this evolution of the services can further reduce the barriers and burdens on researchers, forecasters and decision makers who rely on CCMC for their daily research and operations.

Space Weather↗
NASA NTRS1992

Improvement in the control aspect of laser frequency stabilization for SUNLITE project

Flight Electronics Division of Langley Research Center is developing a spaceflight experiment called the Stanford University and NASA Laser In-Space Technology (SUNLITE). The objective of the project is to explore the fundamental limits on frequency stability using an FM laser locking technique on a Nd:YAG non-planar ring (free-running linewidth of 5 KHz) oscillator in the vibration free, microgravity environment of space. Compact and automated actively stabilized terahertz laser oscillators will operate in space with an expected linewidth of less than 3 Hz. To implement and verify this experiment, NASA engineers have designed and built a state of the art, space qualified high speed data acquisition system for measuring the linewidth and stability limits of a laser oscillator. In order to achieve greater stability and better performance, an active frequency control scheme requiring the use of a feedback control loop has been applied. In the summer of 1991, the application of control theory in active frequency control as a frequency stabilization technique was investigated. The results and findings were presented in 1992 at the American Control Conference in Chicago, and have been published in Conference Proceedings. The main focus was to seek further improvement in the overall performance of the system by replacing the analogue controller by a digital algorithm.

Zia, Omar↗
NASA NTRS2004

Space Station Biological Research Project (SSBRP) Cell Culture Unit (CCU) and incubator for International Space Station (ISS) cell culture experiments

The CCU and Incubator are habitats under development by SSBRP for gravitational biology research on ISS. They will accommodate multiple specimen types and reside in either Habitat Holding Racks, or the Centrifuge Rotor, which provides selectable gravity levels of up to 2 g. The CCU can support multiple Cell Specimen Chambers, CSCs (18, 9 or 6 CSCs; 3, 10 or 30 mL in volume, respectively). CSCs are temperature controlled from 4-39 degrees C, with heat shock to 45 degrees C. CCU provides automated nutrient supply, magnetic stirring, pH/O2 monitoring, gas supply, specimen lighting, and video microscopy. Sixty sample containers holding up to 2 mL each, stored at 4-39 degrees C, are available for automated cell sampling, subculture, and injection of additives and fixatives. CSCs, sample containers, and fresh/spent media bags are crew-replaceable for long-term experiments. The Incubator provides a 4-45 degrees C controlled environment for life science experiments or storage of experimental reagents. Specimen containers and experiment unique equipment are experimenter-provided. The Specimen Chamber exchanges air with ISS cabin and has 18.8 liters of usable volume that can accommodate six trays and the following instrumentation: five relocatable thermometers, two 60 W power outlets, four analog ports, and one each relative humidity sensor, video port, ethernet port and digital input/output port.

NASA Center ARC↗
NASA NTRS2013

Large-Scale Spacecraft Fire Safety Experiments in ISS Resupply Vehicles

Our understanding of the fire safety risk in manned spacecraft has been limited by the small scale of the testing we have been able to conduct in low-gravity. Fire growth and spread cannot be expected to scale linearly with sample size so we cannot make accurate predictions of the behavior of realistic scale fires in spacecraft based on the limited low-g testing to date. As a result, spacecraft fire safety protocols are necessarily very conservative and costly. Future crewed missions are expected to be longer in duration than previous exploration missions outside of low-earth orbit and accordingly, more complex in terms of operations, logistics, and safety. This will increase the challenge of ensuring a fire-safe environment for the crew throughout the mission. Based on our fundamental uncertainty of the behavior of fires in low-gravity, the need for realistic scale testing at reduced gravity has been demonstrated. To address this concern, a spacecraft fire safety research project is underway to reduce the uncertainty and risk in the design of spacecraft fire safety systems by testing at nearly full scale in low-gravity. This project is supported by the NASA Advanced Exploration Systems Program Office in the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. The activity of this project is supported by an international topical team of fire experts from other space agencies to maximize the utility of the data and to ensure the widest possible scrutiny of the concept. The large-scale space flight experiment will be conducted on three missions; each in an Orbital Sciences Corporation Cygnus vehicle after it has deberthed from the ISS. Although the experiment will need to meet rigorous safety requirements to ensure the carrier vehicle does not sustain damage, the absence of a crew allows the fire products to be released into the cabin. The tests will be fully automated with the data downlinked at the conclusion of the test before the Cygnus vehicle reenters the atmosphere. The international topical team is collaborating with the NASA team in the definition of the experiment requirements and performing supporting analysis, experimentation and technology development.

Combustion↗
NASA NTRS1985

Human factors in cockpit automation: A field study of flight crew transition

The factors which affected two groups of airline pilots in the transition from traditional airline cockpits to a highly automated version were studied. All pilots were highly experienced in traditional models of the McDonnell-Douglas DC-9 prior to their transition to the more automated DC-9-80. Specific features of the new aircraft, particularly the digital flight guidance system (DFGS) and other automatic features such as the autothrottle system (ATS), autobrake, and digital display were studied. Particular attention was paid to the first 200 hours of line flying experience in the new aircraft, and the difficulties that some pilots found in adapting to the new systems during this initial operating period. Efforts to prevent skill loss from automation, training methods, traditional human factors issues, and general views of the pilots toward cockpit automation are discussed.

Wiener, E. L.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Human factors in space telepresence

The problems of interfacing a human with a teleoperation system, for work in space are discussed. Much of the information presented here is the result of experience gained by the M.I.T. Space Systems Laboratory during the past two years of work on the ARAMIS (Automation, Robotics, and Machine Intelligence Systems) project. Many factors impact the design of the man-machine interface for a teleoperator. The effects of each are described in turn. An annotated bibliography gives the key references that were used. No conclusions are presented as a best design, since much depends on the particular application desired, and the relevant technology is swiftly changing.

Akin, D. L.↗
NASA NTRS1986

A radar data processing and enhancement system

This report describes the space position data processing system of the NASA Western Aeronautical Test Range. The system is installed at the Dryden Flight Research Facility of NASA Ames Research Center. This operational radar data system (RADATS) provides simultaneous data processing for multiple data inputs and tracking and antenna pointing outputs while performing real-time monitoring, control, and data enhancement functions. Experience in support of the space shuttle and aeronautical flight research missions is described, as well as the automated calibration and configuration functions of the system.

Anderson, K. F.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Software-implemented fault insertion: An FTMP example

This report presents a model for fault insertion through software; describes its implementation on a fault-tolerant computer, FTMP; presents a summary of fault detection, identification, and reconfiguration data collected with software-implemented fault insertion; and compares the results to hardware fault insertion data. Experimental results show detection time to be a function of time of insertion and system workload. For the fault detection time, there is no correlation between software-inserted faults and hardware-inserted faults; this is because hardware-inserted faults must manifest as errors before detection, whereas software-inserted faults immediately exercise the error detection mechanisms. In summary, the software-implemented fault insertion is able to be used as an evaluation technique for the fault-handling capabilities of a system in fault detection, identification and recovery. Although the software-inserted faults do not map directly to hardware-inserted faults, experiments show software-implemented fault insertion is capable of emulating hardware fault insertion, with greater ease and automation.

Czeck, Edward W.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Microencapsulation of anti-tumor, antibiotic and thrombolytic drugs in microgravity

Encapsulation of cytotoxic or labile drugs enables targeted delivery and sustained release kinetics that are not available with intravenous injection. A new liquid-liquid diffusion process has been developed for forming unique microcapsules that contain both aqueous and hydrocarbon soluble drugs. Microgravity experiments, on sounding rockets (1989-92) and Shuttle missions STS-52 (1992) and STS-56 (1993) using an automated Materials Dispersion Apparatus, produced multi-lamellar microcapsules containing both Cis-platinum (anti-tumor drug) and iodinated poppy seed oil (a radiocontrast medium), surrounded by a polyglyceride skin. Microcapsules formed with amoxicillin (antibiotic) or urokinase (a clot dissolving enzyme), co-encapsulated with IPO, are still intact after two years. Microcapsules were formed with the drug so concentrated that crystals formed inside. Multi-layered microspheres, with both hydrophobic drug compartments, can enable diffusion of complementary drugs from the same microcapsule, e.g. antibiotics and immuno-stimulants to treat resistant infections or multiple fibrinolytic drugs to dissolve emboli. Co-encapsulation of enough radio-contrast medium enables oncologists to monitor the delivery of anti-tumor microcapsules to target tumors using computerized tomography and radiography that would track the distribution of microcapsules after release from the intra-arterial catheter. These microcapsules could have important applications in chemotheraphy of certain liver, kidney, brain and other tumors.

Morrison, Dennis R.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Directional Solidification of Mercury Cadmium Telluride in Microgravity

Mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) has been directionally solidified for ten days in the Advanced Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (AADSF) on the second United States Microgravity Payload Mission (USMP-2). A second growth experiment is planned for the USMP-4 mission in November 1997. Results from USMP-2 demonstrated significant changes between microgravity and ground-based experiments, particularly in the compositional homogeneity. Changes were also observed during the microgravity mission which were dependent on the attitude of the space shuttle and the relative magnitudes of axial and transverse residual accelerations with respect to the growth axis of the crystal. Issues of shuttle operation, especially those concerned with safety and navigation, and the science needs of other payloads dictated the need for changes in attitude. One consequence for solidification of MCT in the USMP4 mission is the desire for a shorter growth time to complete the experiment without subjecting the sample to shuttle maneuvers. By using a seeded technique and a pre-processed boule of MCT with an established diffusion layer quenched into the solid, equilibrium steady state growth can be established within 24 hours, rather than the three days needed in USMP-2. The growth of MCT in AADSF during the USMP-4 mission has been planned to take less than 72 hours with 48 hours of actual growth time. A review of the USMP-2 results will be presented, and the rationale for the USMP-4 explained. Pre-mission ground based tests for the USN4P-4 mission will be presented, as will any available preliminary flight results from the mission.

Lechoczhy, Sandor L.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Requirements, Verification, and Compliance (RVC) Database Tool

This paper describes the development, design, and implementation of the Requirements, Verification, and Compliance (RVC) database used on the International Space Welding Experiment (ISWE) project managed at Marshall Space Flight Center. The RVC is a systems engineer's tool for automating and managing the following information: requirements; requirements traceability; verification requirements; verification planning; verification success criteria; and compliance status. This information normally contained within documents (e.g. specifications, plans) is contained in an electronic database that allows the project team members to access, query, and status the requirements, verification, and compliance information from their individual desktop computers. Using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) database software that contains networking capabilities, the RVC was developed not only with cost savings in mind but primarily for the purpose of providing a more efficient and effective automated method of maintaining and distributing the systems engineering information. In addition, the RVC approach provides the systems engineer the capability to develop and tailor various reports containing the requirements, verification, and compliance information that meets the needs of the project team members. The automated approach of the RVC for capturing and distributing the information improves the productivity of the systems engineer by allowing that person to concentrate more on the job of developing good requirements and verification programs and not on the effort of being a "document developer".

Rainwater, Neil E., II↗