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NASA NTRS2025

Localization of Ad-Hoc Lunar Constellations in Communication Failure Modes for Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy

As Lunar missions increase in complexity, inspired by NASA’s Artemis Program, they will require reliable and sufficient Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) capability to support the upcoming Lunar users. The navigation service should also be compatible with the smaller platforms, like CubeSats, being sent by the public and private sectors. A non-dedicated, ad-hoc Lunar navigation constellation can provide PNT services on-demand using the non-dedicated swarm assets. Swarm members cooperatively and autonomously localize themselves with minimal interaction from Earth, freeing up valuable bandwidth and ground segment resources. The autonomous localization of Lunar constellations utilizes neighbor two-way intersatellite link (ISL) measurements in a distributed extended Kalman filter (DEKF) system to minimize operating costs. Because the decentralized Lunar PNT system relies on relay communication amongst the agents, network failures or loss of assets among ad-hoc Lunar constellations may impact localization performance. This study presents an evaluation of localization performance under increasing levels of network degradation. A simulation of an ad-hoc Lunar PNT swarm is augmented to include system faults and the impacts of intermittent and permanent failures on localization performance are evaluated. We investigate three potential causes of network degradation: single spacecraft loss, multiple spacecraft loss, and antenna failure. The numerical assessments from the simulation show that the LPNT system under study, based on an autonomous decentralized concept of operation, is highly robust and resilient to communication failures. Minor faults, such as single spacecraft loss, solar interference, technical malfunctions, message delays, and antenna outages, have minimal impact on state estimation, with only a 4.47% and 3.75% degradation in median position error for assets and a representative ground user, respectively, compared to an ideal communication scenario. However, major faults, such as hardware failures or meteor strikes leading to the loss of multiple spacecrafts, are more concerning. The permanent loss of three spacecraft results in a more severe performance degradation, with median position error increasing by 23.3% for assets and 11.7% for a representative ground user, despite the Lunar PNT system remaining functional.

Yeji Kim↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Distributed Vision Sensing of Small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems in Urban Traffic Corridors

The NASA Advanced Air Mobility mission will enable widespread low altitude passenger travel, cargo delivery, and a variety of public services through the development of Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) operations. Ensuring safe, autonomous operations in densely populated environments requires careful consideration towards hazards including other aircraft, infrastructure, and evolving weather. Small Uncrewed Aerial Systems (SUAS) present a unique hazard to UAS operations as they share airspace and may be readily operated in a non-cooperative fashion. This work investigates distributed sensing of SUAS traversing an air traffic corridor in an urban setting. This work develops a distributed vision detect and track strategy at NASA Langley Research Center. Three nodes, each with at least one global shutter camera, are distributed around a traffic corridor to surveil flight operations for two SUAS performing low altitude flight operations. Each node is equipped with a GPS and cellular modem to enable timestamping and remote control of acquisition. Node one faces a traffic roundabout with buildings in the background and achieves 99% surveillance coverage for two SUAS against building and tree backgrounds at ranges 50 to 130m. The second node points down Langley Boulevard with trees and buildings in the background and achieves 99% coverage at separation distances between 70 and 180m. The analysis for the second node is limited to ranges below 180m due to low contrast against dark, tree backgrounds. Finally, the third node points down Langley Boulevard from another perspective and achieves 99% coverage at ranges 60m to 200m against mostly building with a few sections of trees in the background.

Chester V Dolph↗
NASA NTRS2007

A Contrast in Use of Metrics in Earth Science Data Systems

In recent years there has been a surge in the number of systems for processing, archiving and distributing remotely sensed data. Such systems, working independently as well as in collaboration, have been contributing greatly to the advances in the scientific understanding of the Earth system, as well as utilization of the data for nationally and internationally important applications. Among such systems, we consider those that are developed by or under the sponsorship of NASA to fulfill one of its strategic objectives: "Study Earth from space to advance scientific understanding and meet societal needs." NASA's Earth science data systems are of varying size and complexity depending on the requirements they are intended to meet. Some data systems are regarded as NASA's "Core Capabilities" that provide the basic infrastructure for processing, archiving and distributing a set of data products to a large and diverse user community in a robust and reliable manner. Other data systems constitute "Community Capabilities". These provide specialized and innovative services to data users and/or research products offering new scientific insight. Such data systems are generally supported by NASA through peer reviewed competition. Examples of Core Capabilities are 1. Earth Observing Data and Information System (EOSDIS) with its Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs), Science Investigator-led Processing Systems (SIPSs), and the EOS Clearing House (ECHO); 2. Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) Science Data and Information System (TSDIS); 3. Ocean Data Processing System (ODPS); and 4. CloudSat Data Processing Center. Examples of Community Capabilities are projects under the Research, Education and Applications Solutions Network (REASON), and Advancing Collaborative Connections for Earth System Science (ACCESS) Programs. In managing these data system capabilities, it is necessary to have well-established goals and to measure progress relative to them. Progress is measured through "metrics", which can be a combination of quantitative as well as qualitative assessments. The specific metrics of interest depend on the user of the metrics as well as the type of data system. The users of metrics can be data system managers, program managers, funding agency or the public. Data system managers need metrics for assessing and improving the performance of the system and for future planning. Program managers need metrics to assess progress and the value of the data systems sponsored by them. Also, there is a difference in the metrics needed for core capabilities that tend to be more complex, larger and longer-term compared to community capabilities and the community capabilities that tend to be simpler, smaller and shorter-term. Even among community capabilities there are differences; hence the same set of metrics does not apply to all. Some provide data products to users, some provide services that enable better utilization of data or interoperability among other systems, and some are a part of a larger project where provision of data or services is only a minor activity. There is also a contrast between metrics used for internal and external purposes. Examples of internal purposes are: ensuring that the system meets its requirements, and planning for evolution and growth. Examples of external purposes are: providing to sponsors indicators of success of the systems, demonstrating the contributions of the system to overall program success, etc. This paper will consider EOSDIS, REASON and ACCESS programs to show the various types of metrics needed and how they need to be tailored to the types of data systems while maintaining the overall management goals of measuring progress and contributions made by the data systems.

Ramapriyan, Hampapuram↗
NASA NTRS1983

Satellite fixed communications service: A forecast of potential domestic demand through the year 2000. Volume 3: Appendices

Voice applications, data applications, video applications, impacted baseline forecasts, market distribution model, net long haul forecasts, trunking earth station definition and costs, trunking space segment cost, trunking entrance/exit links, trunking network costs and crossover distances with terrestrial tariffs, net addressable forecasts, capacity requirements, improving spectrum utilization, satellite system market development, and the 30/20 net accessible market are considered.

Kratochvil, D.↗
NASA NTRS1991

SEI power source alternatives for rovers and other multi-kWe distributed surface applications

To support the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI), a study was performed to investigate power system alternatives for the rover vehicles and servicers that were subsequently generated for each of these rovers and servicers, candidate power sources incorporating various power generation and energy storage technologies were identified. The technologies were those believed most appropriate to the SEI missions, and included solar, electrochemical, and isotope systems. The candidates were characterized with respect to system mass, deployed area, and volume. For each of the missions a preliminary selection was made. Results of this study depict the available power sources in light of mission requirements as they are currently defined.

Bents, David J.↗
NASA NTRS2024

Optimal Control Allocation for Distributed Electric Propulsion in a Series/Parallel Partial Hybrid Powertrain

The SUbsonic Single Aft eNgine (SUSAN) Electrofan is a NASA concept jet transport aircraft with a 2040 entry-into-service date. It utilizes electrified aircraft propulsion (EAP) to enable propulsive and aerodynamic benefits to reduce fuel usage, emissions, and cost. The powertrain consists of a single thrust producing, boundary layer-ingesting (BLI) turbofan gas turbine engine (GTE) with generators driving a series/parallel partial hybrid EAP system. The architecture includes 16 underwing contrarotating BLI fans, eight on each side, in a mailslot configuration. The 16 fans run on power extracted from the GTE through four 5 MW motor/generators connected to the Low-Pressure Spool, and a single 1 MW motor/generator on the High-Pressure Spool. The distributed fans can be used by the flight control to augment or replace the rudder function. At top of climb, the power extracted from the GTE for the fans is boosted by batteries. The design provides redundancy, and the capacity for boost means that the fans are designed to be able to provide additional thrust when necessary. These features can be leveraged in case of a fan or generator failure. This paper sets up the optimal control problem of setpoint determination for individual fans in the distributed propulsion system, accounting for electrical string efficiencies, saturations, and failures. The solution minimizes power consumption while maintaining thrust and torque on the airframe for maneuvering. Additionally, thrust that would have been lost due to temporary fan speed or power saturation is optimally redistributed to maintain overall desired thrust and torque on the aircraft. The power extraction range constraints derive from the gas turbine engine design and the small amount of variation allowed for the engine to maintain operability. The problem formulation allows the number and location of fan failures for which the thrust and torque can be maintained to be investigated, which has implications for certification. Simulations of a coordinated turn utilizing the distributed electric propulsion for yaw rate control under different failure scenarios demonstrate the robustness of the powertrain design to failures and help define its limitations.

Distributed Electric Propulsion↗
NASA NTRS2003

CORBASec Used to Secure Distributed Aerospace Propulsion Simulations

The NASA Glenn Research Center and its industry partners are developing a Common Object Request Broker (CORBA) Security (CORBASec) test bed to secure their distributed aerospace propulsion simulations. Glenn has been working with its aerospace propulsion industry partners to deploy the Numerical Propulsion System Simulation (NPSS) object-based technology. NPSS is a program focused on reducing the cost and time in developing aerospace propulsion engines. It was developed by Glenn and is being managed by the NASA Ames Research Center as the lead center reporting directly to NASA Headquarters' Aerospace Technology Enterprise. Glenn is an active domain member of the Object Management Group: an open membership, not-for-profit consortium that produces and manages computer industry specifications (i.e., CORBA) for interoperable enterprise applications. When NPSS is deployed, it will assemble a distributed aerospace propulsion simulation scenario from proprietary analytical CORBA servers and execute them with security afforded by the CORBASec implementation. The NPSS CORBASec test bed was initially developed with the TPBroker Security Service product (Hitachi Computer Products (America), Inc., Waltham, MA) using the Object Request Broker (ORB), which is based on the TPBroker Basic Object Adaptor, and using NPSS software across different firewall products. The test bed has been migrated to the Portable Object Adaptor architecture using the Hitachi Security Service product based on the VisiBroker 4.x ORB (Borland, Scotts Valley, CA) and on the Orbix 2000 ORB (Dublin, Ireland, with U.S. headquarters in Waltham, MA). Glenn, GE Aircraft Engines, and Pratt & Whitney Aircraft are the initial industry partners contributing to the NPSS CORBASec test bed. The test bed uses Security SecurID (RSA Security Inc., Bedford, MA) two-factor token-based authentication together with Hitachi Security Service digital-certificate-based authentication to validate the various NPSS users. The test bed is expected to demonstrate NPSS CORBASec-specific policy functionality, confirm adequate performance, and validate the required Internet configuration in a distributed collaborative aerospace propulsion environment.

Blaser, Tammy M.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Eleven Countries, an Integrated Spacecraft: the Story of International Collaboration that Built the Orion Spacecraft and Powered the Success of the Artemis I Mission

The quest to return humans to the Moon in the next step towards humanity's exploration of space is more alive than ever. After a great deal of achievements, failures, and lessons learned, the Artemis I mission set o to the Moon on November 16, 2022, with the goal of testing a new rocket, the Space Launch System, and a new spacecraft, Orion: designed, assembled, and tested across two continents, and 11 countries. Behind this mission, decades of experience with the International Space Station, Autonomous Transfer Vehicle operations, and many other program collaborations built the know-how on how to succeed together in the toughest environment | deep space. The Artemis I mission proved to be an incredible success, meeting 161 total mission objectives, including 21 developed during the flight based on outperforming spacecraft. It was also a case-study in international collaboration, given that ESA, NASA, and industry partners Airbus and Lockheed Martin for the first time had to design, build, test, and fly a fully integrated human-rated spacecraft, with most critical functions dependent and interconnected across U.S. and European systems. The U.S.-built Orion Crew Module and Crew Module Adapter and European-built European Service Module (ESM) shared critical interfaces and commodities, from propulsion, avionics, active/passive thermal, electrical power generation, storage and distribution to the software that managed it all. In this paper, we will describe relevant aspects of the integrated spacecraft design, providing context for the challenges that the team faced in all phases required to get Orion ready to fly, and provide a direct account of how the joint team formed, trained, and supported the operations of the successful Artemis I mission. We will also explore the evolution of the partnerships, given that these allow a multi-national e ort to sustain the program production, share costs, leverage a broader base of engineering expertise, and build more diverse capabilities over the long haul to support the Artemis goals and objectives. Lastly, we will cover critical lessons learned and how the Orion Program has implemented these in preparation of the next Artemis missions to repeat the success of Artemis I. The purpose of this paper is to document knowledge we gained and lessons we learned through the development of an integrated Orion spacecraft, since it is imperative we build on this now, at the dawn of the Artemis Program, an international endeavor to push human space exploration.

Deep Space Exploration↗
NASA NTRS1978

Delay decomposition at a single server queue with constant service time and multiple inputs

Two network consisting of single server queues, each with a constant service time, are considered. The external inputs to each network are assumed to follow some general probability distribution. Several interesting equivalencies that exist between the two networks considered are derived. This leads to the introduction of an important concept in delay decomposition. It is shown that the waiting time experienced by a customer can be decomposed into two basic components called self-delay and interference delay.

Ziegler, C.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Delay decomposition at a single server queue with constant service time and multiple inputs

Two networks consisting of single server queues, each with a constant service time, are considered. The external inputs to each network are assumed to follow some general probability distribution. Several interesting equivalencies that exist between the two networks considered are derived. This leads to the introduction of an important concept in delay decomposition. It is shown that the waiting time experienced by a customer can be decomposed into two basic components called self delay and interference delay.

Ziegler, C.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Summary report of the Turbulence Committee

The effects of atmospheric turbulence are discussed. Aircraft design and aircraft operations are reviewed. Turbulence in terms of intensity and scale in design considerations was examined. Turbulence models were used in the form of discrete gusts, spectral distributions, and probability distributions. Various aspects of the design and operations problems, simulation and training factors of pilots, and weather services and forecasts are reported.

Elderkin, C. E.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Analysis of FDDI synchronous traffic delays

The Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) high-speed token-ring protocol provides support for two classes of service: synchronous, to support applications which require deterministic access to the channel, and asynchronous, to support applications which do not have such stringent response-time requirements. The purpose of this paper is to determine how to set ring parameters to support synchronous traffic most efficiently. Both theoretical results and results obtained from a simulation study are presented.

Johnson, Marjory J.↗
NASA NTRS1992

A demonstration of centimeter-level monitoring of polar motion with the Global Positioning System

Daily estimates of the Earth's pole position were obtained with the Global Positioning System (GPS) by using measurements obtained during the GPS IERS (International Earth Rotation Service) and Geodynamics (GIG'91) experiment from 22 Jan. to 13 Feb. 1991. Data from a globally distributed network consisting of 21 Rogue GPS receivers were chosen for the analysis. A comparison of the GPS polar motion series with nine 24-hour very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) estimates yielded agreement in the day-to-day pole position of about 1.5 cm for both X and Y polar motion. A similar comparison of GPS and satellite laser ranging (SLR) data showed agreement to about 1.0 cm. These preliminary results indicate that polar motion can be determined by GPS independent of, and at a level comparable to, that which is obtained from either VLBI or SLR. Furthermore, GPS can provide these data with a daily frequency that neither alternative technique can readily achieve. Thus, GPS promises to be a powerful tool for determining high-frequency platform parameter variation, essential for the ultraprecise spacecraft-tracking requirements of the coming years.

Lindqwister, U. J.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Land-mobile-satellite fade measurements in Australia

Attenuation measurements were implemented at L-band (1.5 GHz) in southeastern Australia during an 11-day period in October 1988 as part of a continuing examination of the propagation effects due to roadside trees and terrain for mobile-satellite service. Beacon transmissions from the geostationary ETS-V and IPORS satellites were observed. The Australian campaign expanded to another continent our Mobile Satellite Service data base of measurements executed in the eastern and southwestern United States regions. An empirical fade distribution model based on U.S. data predicted the Australian results with errors generally less than 1 dB in the 1-20 percent probability region. Directive antennas are shown to suffer deeper fades under severe shadowing conditions (3 dB excess at 4 percent), the equal-probability isolation between co- and cross-polarized transmissions deteriorated to 10 dB at the 5 dB fade level, and antenna diversity reception may reduce unavailability of the system by a factor of 2-8.

Vogel, Wolfhard J.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Data Distribution Satellite

The Data Distribution Satellite (DDS) is described in terms of its role in providing space-data and communication services for the National Research and Education Network. The DDS is envisioned as a processing link in the microwave network that would connect academic, industrial, and government institutions to a high-data-rate service of space data. The general need for science communications is assessed, and it is shown that the data potential exceeds the available spectrum. The DDS could act as a bridge between terrestrial facilities the space network, and other space platforms to provide efficient access to space science data. Government demand for this type of data is high suggesting that the DDS could make use of hopping beams to provide more data at reduced costs.

Stevens, Grady H.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Overview of NASA Glenn Aero/Mobile Communication Demonstrations

The Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field (GRC) has been involved with several other NASA field centers on various networking and RF communications demonstrations and experiments since 1998. These collaborative experiments investigated communications technologies new to aviation, such as wideband Ku satcom, L-band narrowband satcom, and IP (Internet Protocol), using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components These technologies can be used to distribute weather and hazard data, air traffic management and airline fleet management information, and passenger cabin Internet service.

Brooks, David↗
NASA NTRS2004

Overview of NASA Glenn Aero/Mobile Communications Demonstrations

The Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field (GRC) has been involved with several other NASA field centers on various networking and RF communications demonstrations and experiments since 1998. These collaborative experiments investigated communications technologies new to aviation, such as wideband Ku satcom, L-band narrowband satcom, and IP (Internet Protocol), using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components These technologies can be used to distribute weather and hazard data, air traffic management and airline fleet management information, and passenger cabin Internet service.

Brooks, David↗