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NASA NTRS1990

NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Program, 1990, Volume 1

The 1990 Johnson Space Center (JSC) NASA/American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Summer Faculty Fellowship Program was conducted by the University of Houston-University Park and JSC. A compilation of the final reports on the research projects are presented. The topics covered include: the Space Station; the Space Shuttle; exobiology; cell biology; culture techniques; control systems design; laser induced fluorescence; spacecraft reliability analysis; reduced gravity; biotechnology; microgravity applications; regenerative life support systems; imaging techniques; cardiovascular system; physiological effects; extravehicular mobility units; mathematical models; bioreactors; computerized simulation; microgravity simulation; and dynamic structural analysis.

Bannerot, Richard B.↗
NASA NTRS1990

NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Program, 1990, volume 2

The 1990 Johnson Space Center (JSC) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Summer Faculty Fellowship Program was conducted by the University of Houston-University Park and Johnson Space Centers (JSC). A compilation of the final reports on the research projects is presented. The following topics are covered: the Space Shuttle; the Space Station; lunar exploration; mars exploration; spacecraft power supplies; mars rover vehicle; mission planning for the Space Exploration Initiative; instrument calibration standards; a lunar oxygen production plant; optical filters for a hybrid vision system; dynamic structural analysis; lunar bases; pharmacodynamics of scopolamine; planetary spacecraft cost modeling; and others.

Bannerot, Richard B.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Terrestrial polarization imagery obtained from the Space Shuttle - Characterization and interpretation

An experiment to measure the polarization of land, sea, haze, and cloud areas from space was carried aboard the Space Shuttle in September 1985. Digitized polarimetric and photometric imagery in mutually perpendicular planes was derived in the red, green, and blue spectral regions from photographs taken with two synchronized Hasselblad cameras using type 5036 Ektachrome film. Digitization at the NASA Houston Video Digital Analysis Systems Laboratory permitted reduction of the imagery into equipolarimetric contours with a relative accuracy of + or - 20 percent for comparison to ground truth. The Island of Hawaii and adjacent sea and cloud areas were the objects of the specific imagery analyzed. Results show that cloud development is uniquely characterized using percent polarization without requiring precision photometric calibration. Furthermore, sea state and wind direction over the sea could be inferred as well as terrestrial soil texture.

Egan, Walter G.↗
NASA NTRS1992

High-resolution space-shuttle polarimetry for farm crop classification

A significant advance is reported in imaging the polarimetry of a terrestrial area of earth located along the Mississippi River near New Madrid, Missouri. Color imagery was obtained with twin Hasselblad cameras with mutually perpendicular polarization analyzers. Digitization of the imagery in three colors (red, green, and blue) was accomplished at the Johnson Space Center Video Digital Analysis System Laboratory, Houston, Texas. A ground resolution of 80-90 m was achieved in the high-resolution imagery. Percent polarization was superior to photometry for recognition and characterization of farm crops such as rice, milo, cotton, and soybeans and of fallow areas. Statistical analyses of the percent-polarization data permit a unique classification of crops. Atmospheric effects may be deduced. Space-shuttle window distortion and viewing angle-sun geometry must be taken into account in analyzing the data.

Egan, Walter G.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Fifth Annual Workshop on Space Operations Applications and Research (SOAR 1991), volume 1

More than 110 papers were presented at this Symposium, sponsored by the U.S. Air Force Phillips Laboratory, the University of Houston-Clear Lake, and NASA JSC. The technical areas covered were Intelligent Systems, Automation and Robotics, Human Factors and Life Sciences, and Environmental Interactions. The U.S. Air Force and NASA programmatic overviews and panel discussions were also held in each technical area. These proceedings, along with the comments and suggestions made by the panelists and keynote speakers, will be used in assessing the progress made in joint USAF/NASA projects and activities. Furthermore, future collaborative/joint programs will also be identified. The symposium proceedings includes papers covering various disciplines presented by experts from NASA, the Air Force, universities, and industry.

Krishen, Kumar↗
NASA NTRS1992

Acquisition and use of Orlando, Florida and Continental Airbus radar flight test data

Westinghouse is developing a lookdown pulse Doppler radar for production as the sensor and processor of a forward looking hazardous windshear detection and avoidance system. A data collection prototype of that product was ready for flight testing in Orlando to encounter low level windshear in corroboration with the FAA-Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR). Airborne real-time processing and display of the hazard factor were demonstrated with TDWR facilitated intercepts and penetrations of over 80 microbursts in a three day period, including microbursts with hazard factors in excess of .16 (with 500 ft. PIREP altitude loss) and the hazard factor display at 6 n.mi. of a visually transparent ('dry') microburst with TDWR corroborated outflow reflectivities of +5 dBz. Range gated Doppler spectrum data was recorded for subsequent development and refinement of hazard factor detection and urban clutter rejection algorithms. Following Orlando, the data collection radar was supplemental type certified for in revenue service on a Continental Airlines Airbus in an automatic and non-interferring basis with its ARINC 708 radar to allow Westinghouse to confirm its understanding of commercial aircraft installation, interface realities, and urban airport clutter. A number of software upgrades, all of which were verified at the Receiver-Transmitter-Processor (RTP) hardware bench with Orlando microburst data to produce desired advanced warning hazard factor detection, included some preliminary loads with automatic (sliding window average hazard factor) detection and annunciation recording. The current (14-APR-92) configured software is free from false and/or nuisance alerts (CAUTIONS, WARNINGS, etc.) for all take-off and landing approaches, under 2500 ft. altitude to weight-on-wheels, into all encountered airports, including Newark (NJ), LAX, Denver, Houston, Cleveland, etc. Using the Orlando data collected on hazardous microbursts, Westinghouse has developed a lookdown pulse Doppler radar product with signal and data processing algorithms which detect realistic microburst hazards and has demonstrated those algorithms produce no false alerts (or nuisance alerts) in urban airport ground moving vehicle (GMTI) and/or clutter environments.

Eide, Michael C.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Wildfire and MAMS data from STORMFEST

Early in 1992, NASA participated in an inter-agency field program called STORMFEST. The STORM-Fronts Experiment Systems Test (STORMFEST) was designed to test various systems critical to the success of STORM 1 in a very focused experiment. The field effort focused on winter storms in order to investigate the structure and evolution of fronts and associated mesoscale phenomena in the central United States. This document describes the data collected from two instruments onboard a NASA ER2 aircraft which was deployed out of Ellington Field in Houston, Texas from February 13 through March 15, 1992, in support of this experiment. The two instruments were the Wildfire (a.k.a. the moderate resolution imaging spectrometer-nadir (MODIS-N) Airborne Simulation (MAS)) and the Multispectral Atmospheric Mapping Sensor (MAMS).

Jedlovec, Gary J.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Results of prototype software development for automation of shuttle proximity operations

A Rendezvous Expert System (REX) was implemented on a Symbolics 3650 processor and integrated with the 6 DOF, high fidelity Systems Engineering Simulator (SES) at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The project goals were to automate the terminal phase of a shuttle rendezvous, normally flown manually by the crew, and proceed automatically to docking with the Space Station Freedom (SSF). The project goals were successfully demonstrated to various flight crew members, managers, and engineers in the technical community at JSC. The project was funded by NASA's Office of Space Flight, Advanced Program Development Division. Because of the complexity of the task, the REX development was divided into two distinct efforts. One to handle the guidance and control function using perfect navigation data, and another to provide the required visuals for the system management functions needed to give visibility to the crew members of the progress being made towards docking the shuttle with the LVLH stabilized SSF.

Hiers, Harry K.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Low-frequency source parameters of twelve large earthquakes

A global survey of the low-frequency (1-21 mHz) source characteristics of large events are studied. We are particularly interested in events unusually enriched in low-frequency and in events with a short-term precursor. We model the source time function of 12 large earthquakes using teleseismic data at low frequency. For each event we retrieve the source amplitude spectrum in the frequency range between 1 and 21 mHz with the Silver and Jordan method and the phase-shift spectrum in the frequency range between 1 and 11 mHz with the Riedesel and Jordan method. We then model the source time function by fitting the two spectra. Two of these events, the 1980 Irpinia, Italy, and the 1983 Akita-Oki, Japan, are shallow-depth complex events that took place on multiple faults. In both cases the source time function has a length of about 100 seconds. By comparison Westaway and Jackson find 45 seconds for the Irpinia event and Houston and Kanamori about 50 seconds for the Akita-Oki earthquake. The three deep events and four of the seven intermediate-depth events are fast rupturing earthquakes. A single pulse is sufficient to model the source spectra in the frequency range of our interest. Two other intermediate-depth events have slower rupturing processes, characterized by a continuous energy release lasting for about 40 seconds. The last event is the intermediate-depth 1983 Peru-Ecuador earthquake. It was first recognized as a precursive event by Jordan. We model it with a smooth rupturing process starting about 2 minutes before the high frequency origin time superimposed to an impulsive source.

Harabaglia, Paolo↗
NASA NTRS1992

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Summer Faculty Fellowship Program, 1992, volume 1

The 1992 Johnson Space Center (JSC) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Summer Faculty Fellowship Program was conducted by the University of Houston and JSC. The program at JSC, as well as the programs at other NASA Centers, was funded by the Office of University Affairs, Washington, DC. The objectives of the program, which began nationally in 1964 and at JSC in 1965, are (1) to further the professional knowledge of qualified engineering and science faculty members; (2) to stimulate an exchange of ideas between participants and NASA; (3) to enrich and refresh the research and teaching activities of participants' institutions; and (4) to contribute to the research objective of the NASA Centers. This document is a compilation of the final reports 1 through 12.

Bannerot, Richard B.↗
NASA NTRS1992

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Summer Faculty Fellowship Program, 1992, volume 2

The 1992 Johnson Space Center (JSC) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Summer Faculty Fellowship Program was conducted by the University of Houston and JSC. The program at JSC, as well as the programs at other NASA Centers, was funded by the Office of University Affairs, NASA Headquarters Washington, DC. The objectives of the program, which began nationally in 1964 and at JSC in 1965, are (1) to further the professional knowledge of qualified engineering and science faculty members; (2) to stimulate an exchange of ideas between participants and NASA; (3) to enrich and refresh the research and teaching activities of participants' institutions; and (4) to contribute to the research objective of the NASA Centers. This document contains reports 13 through 24.

Bannerot, Richard B.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Proceedings of the 16th NASA Propagation Experimenters Meeting (NAPEX 16) and the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) Propagation Studies Miniworkshop

The NASA Propagation Experimenters Meeting (NAPEX), supported by the NASA Propagation Program, is convened annually to discuss studies made on radio wave propagation by investigators from domestic and international organizations. NAPEX 16 was held on May 29, 1992 in Houston, Texas. The meeting was organized into two technical sessions. The first session was dedicated to slant path propagation studies and measurements. The second session focused on Olympus propagation measurements and results. Following NAPEX 16, the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) Miniworkshop was held to review ACTS propagation activities with emphasis on ACTS hardware development and experiment planning. Eight technical papers were presented by contributors from government agencies, private industry, and university research establishments.

Davarian, Faramaz↗
NASA NTRS1993

Repository-Based Software Engineering Program: Working Program Management Plan

Repository-Based Software Engineering Program (RBSE) is a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sponsored program dedicated to introducing and supporting common, effective approaches to software engineering practices. The process of conceiving, designing, building, and maintaining software systems by using existing software assets that are stored in a specialized operational reuse library or repository, accessible to system designers, is the foundation of the program. In addition to operating a software repository, RBSE promotes (1) software engineering technology transfer, (2) academic and instructional support of reuse programs, (3) the use of common software engineering standards and practices, (4) software reuse technology research, and (5) interoperability between reuse libraries. This Program Management Plan (PMP) is intended to communicate program goals and objectives, describe major work areas, and define a management report and control process. This process will assist the Program Manager, University of Houston at Clear Lake (UHCL) in tracking work progress and describing major program activities to NASA management. The goal of this PMP is to make managing the RBSE program a relatively easy process that improves the work of all team members. The PMP describes work areas addressed and work efforts being accomplished by the program; however, it is not intended as a complete description of the program. Its focus is on providing management tools and management processes for monitoring, evaluating, and administering the program; and it includes schedules for charting milestones and deliveries of program products. The PMP was developed by soliciting and obtaining guidance from appropriate program participants, analyzing program management guidance, and reviewing related program management documents.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1993

The repository-based software engineering program: Redefining AdaNET as a mainstream NASA source

The Repository-based Software Engineering Program (RBSE) is described to inform and update senior NASA managers about the program. Background and historical perspective on software reuse and RBSE for NASA managers who may not be familiar with these topics are provided. The paper draws upon and updates information from the RBSE Concept Document, baselined by NASA Headquarters, Johnson Space Center, and the University of Houston - Clear Lake in April 1992. Several of NASA's software problems and what RBSE is now doing to address those problems are described. Also, next steps to be taken to derive greater benefit from this Congressionally-mandated program are provided. The section on next steps describes the need to work closely with other NASA software quality, technology transfer, and reuse activities and focuses on goals and objectives relative to this need. RBSE's role within NASA is addressed; however, there is also the potential for systematic transfer of technology outside of NASA in later stages of the RBSE program. This technology transfer is discussed briefly.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1990

Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics in Space

The Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics Panel met on 29-30 Aug. 1988 at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas to discuss pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic implications of space flight and make recommendations for operational and research strategies. Based on the knowledge available on the physiological changes that occur during space flight, the dependence of pharmacokinetics on physiological factors, and the therapeutic requirements for future space missions, the panel made several recommendations for research. It was suggested that using medications available with a large (wide) therapeutic window will avoid unforeseen therapeutic consequences during flight. The sequence for conducting research was outlined as follows: (1) identify ground-based simulation models (e.g., antiorthostatic bed rest) for conducting pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic research; (2) estimate parametric changes in these models using pharmacologic agents that have different pharmacokinetic characteristics and a narrow therapeutic index; (3) verify these findings during flight; and (4) develop and identify appropriate and effective drug delivery systems, dosage forms, and regimens. The panel recommended gaining a thorough understanding of the pharmacokinetic deviations of medications that have a narrow therapeutic index (e.g. cardiovascular drugs and sedative hypnotics) in order to ensure safe and effective treatment during flight with these agents. It was also suggested that basic information on physiological factors such as organ blood flow, protein composition and binding, tissue distribution, and metabolism by hepatic enzymes must be accumulated by conducting ground-based animal and human studies using models of weightlessness. This information will be useful to construct and identify physiologically based pharmacokinetic models that can provide valuable information on the pharmacodynamic consequences of space flight and aid in identifying appropriate therapeutic regimens.

Putcha, Lakshmi↗
NASA NTRS1992

An experiment in vision based autonomous grasping within a reduced gravity environment

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Reduced Gravity Program (RGP) offers opportunities for experimentation in gravities of less than one-g. The Extravehicular Activity Helper/Retriever (EVAHR) robot project of the Automation and Robotics Division at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, is undertaking a task that will culminate in a series of tests in simulated zero-g using this facility. A subset of the final robot hardware consisting of a three-dimensional laser mapper, a Robotics Research 807 arm, a Jameson JH-5 hand, and the appropriate interconnect hardware/software will be used. This equipment will be flown on the RGP's KC-135 aircraft. This aircraft will fly a series of parabolas creating the effect of zero-g. During the periods of zero-g, a number of objects will be released in front of the fixed base robot hardware in both static and dynamic configurations. The system will then inspect the object, determine the objects pose, plan a grasp strategy, and execute the grasp. This must all be accomplished in the approximately 27 seconds of zero-g.

Grimm, K. A.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Measurement of volatile organic chemicals at selected sites in California

Urban air concentrations of 24 selected volatile organic chemicals that may be potentially hazardous to human health and environment were measured during field experiments conducted at two California locations, at Houston, and at Denver. Chemicals measured included chlorofluorocarbons, halomethanes, haloethanes, halopropanes, chloroethylenes, and aromatic hydrocarbons. With emphasis on California sites, data from these studies are analyzed and interpreted with respect to variabilities in ambient air concentrations, diurnal changes, relation to prevailing meteorology, sources and trends. Except in a few instances, mean concentrations are typically between 0 and 5 ppb. Significant variabilities in atmospheric concentrations associated with intense sources and adverse meteorological conditions are shown to exist. In addition to short-term variability, there is evidence of systematic diurnal and seasonal trends. In some instances it is possible to detect declining trends resulting from the effectiveness of control strategies.

Singh, Hanwant B.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Design of a reading test for low vision image warping

NASA and the University of Houston College of Optometry are examining the efficacy of image warping as a possible prosthesis for at least two forms of low vision - maculopathy and retinitis pigmentosa. Before incurring the expense of reducing the concept to practice, one would wish to have confidence that a worthwhile improvement in visual function would result. NASA's Programmable Remapper (PR) can warp an input image onto arbitrary geometric coordinate systems at full video rate, and it has recently been upgraded to accept computer-generated video text. We have integrated the Remapper with an SRI eye tracker to simulate visual malfunction in normal observers. A reading performance test has been developed to determine if the proposed warpings yield an increase in visual function; i.e., reading speed. We will describe the preliminary experimental results of this reading test with a simulated central field defect with and without remapped images.

Loshin, David S.↗