LM-8 BPA factory test and checkout plan
Factory cold flow and engineering acceptance tests of LM-8 lunar landing module
Source record↗
SEARCH · Engineering Papers
Results for “test plan”
Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Manned space flight network testing for Apollo
Test plan for checkout and qualification of Apollo manned space flight network systems
Network analysis↗
Development of the XV-15 tiltrotor research aircraft - Lessons learned
The initial ground rules that guided the decision process during the initial stages of the XV-15 tiltrotor aircraft development are reviewed and reevaluated. A full flight-envelope nonlinear simulation mathematical model is outlined, along with the advantages of a multiaircraft program. Direct involvement of government engineers in all aspects of the program is considered to be beneficial, while the ejection-seat test requirement is not. Utilization of existing components - a rotor, transmissions, and engines - is analyzed, and emphasis is placed on integrated system test plans responsible for producing two reliable aircraft through a complete checkout of the aircraft subsystems before the start of the fligth program. Wind-tunnel and fatigue test requirements are presented, and the decision to go with an all mechanical control system design is addressed.
Schroers, Laurel G.↗
Development and Testing of a High Stability Engine Control (HISTEC) System
Flight tests were recently completed to demonstrate an inlet-distortion-tolerant engine control system. These flight tests were part of NASA's High Stability Engine Control (HISTEC) program. The objective of the HISTEC program was to design, develop, and flight demonstrate an advanced integrated engine control system that uses measurement-based, real-time estimates of inlet airflow distortion to enhance engine stability. With improved stability and tolerance of inlet airflow distortion, future engine designs may benefit from a reduction in design stall-margin requirements and enhanced reliability, with a corresponding increase in performance and decrease in fuel consumption. This paper describes the HISTEC methodology, presents an aircraft test bed description (including HISTEC-specific modifications) and verification and validation ground tests. Additionally, flight test safety considerations, test plan and technique design and approach, and flight operations are addressed. Some illustrative results are presented to demonstrate the type of analysis and results produced from the flight test program.
Orme, John S.↗
Supporting NASA Science with High-Altitude Long-Endurance Aircraft
NASA Earth Science and Aeronautics researchers have been involved in development and use of High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) since the 1990's. The NASA Environmental Research Aircraft Sensor and Technology Program (ERAST) demonstrated the promise of HALE aircraft for providing observations while also proving the importance of triple-redundant avionics to improve system reliability for large unmanned aircraft. Early efforts to develop an operational HALE capability for earth observations languished for nearly two decades owing to insufficient solar panel efficiency, battery power density, and light-weight, yet strong, materials. During this time NASA researchers focused on using the Global Hawk to demonstrate the utility of providing diurnal measurements over severe storms (ie. HS3) and to track stratospheric water vapor transport (ATTREX). Recent significant commercial investments are now leading to the realization of a long-held goal of week- to month-long sustained observations and measurements from the stratosphere. In addition to a historical review of NASA use and interest in HALE aircraft, this paper will present current concepts for exploiting current and planned HALE aircraft capabilities including in situ characterization of atmospheric composition and dynamics as well as imagery collection. NASA researchers anticipate HALE will provide a useful means to test smallsat instruments and components. Observations from HALE-based instruments might also provide useful gap-filler observations to flagship satellite missions where the repeat time doesn't allow for measurements of quickly changing phenomenon. HALE will likely also provide measurements and communications relay to facilitate other aircraft in multi-aircraft campaigns. We will also report on progress towards a NASA-funded flight test planned for summer 2019 of a solar-electric vehicle designed to carry 7kg (15lbs) for 30 days at 20km altitude.
earth observations↗
Saturn ib mission plan and technical information checklist, volume ii
Saturn IB mission planning - testing, measuring, configuration and instruments for Saturn S- IB STAGE and Saturn S- IVB stage
MISSION PLANNING↗
ATD-1 Avionics Phase 2: Post-Flight Data Analysis Report
This report aims to satisfy Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration - 1 (ATD-1) Statement of Work (SOW) 3.6.19 and serves as the delivery mechanism for the analysis described in Annex C of the Flight Test Plan. The report describes the data collected and derived as well as the analysis methodology and associated results extracted from the data set collected during the ATD-1 Flight Test. All analyses described in the SOW were performed and are covered in this report except for the analysis of Final Approach Speed and its effect on performance. This analysis was de-prioritized and, at the time of this report, is not considered feasible in the schedule and costs remaining.
Scharl, Julien↗
Avionics test bed development plan
A development plan for a proposed avionics test bed facility for the early investigation and evaluation of new concepts for the control of large space structures, orbiter attached flex body experiments, and orbiter enhancements is presented. A distributed data processing facility that utilizes the current laboratory resources for the test bed development is outlined. Future studies required for implementation, the management system for project control, and the baseline system configuration are defined. A background analysis of the specific hardware system for the preliminary baseline avionics test bed system is included.
Harris, L. H.↗
Helicopter Flight Test of a Compact, Real-Time 3-D Flash Lidar for Imaging Hazardous Terrain During Planetary Landing
A second generation, compact, real-time, air-cooled 3-D imaging Flash Lidar sensor system, developed from a number of cutting-edge components from industry and NASA, is lab characterized and helicopter flight tested under the Autonomous Precision Landing and Hazard Detection and Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) project. The ALHAT project is seeking to develop a guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) and sensing system based on lidar technology capable of enabling safe, precise crewed or robotic landings in challenging terrain on planetary bodies under any ambient lighting conditions. The Flash Lidar incorporates a 3-D imaging video camera based on Indium-Gallium-Arsenide Avalanche Photo Diode and novel micro-electronic technology for a 128 x 128 pixel array operating at a video rate of 20 Hz, a high pulse-energy 1.06 μm Neodymium-doped: Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (Nd:YAG) laser, a remote laser safety termination system, high performance transmitter and receiver optics with one and five degrees field-of-view (FOV), enhanced onboard thermal control, as well as a compact and self-contained suite of support electronics housed in a single box and built around a PC-104 architecture to enable autonomous operations. The Flash Lidar was developed and then characterized at two NASA-Langley Research Center (LaRC) outdoor laser test range facilities both statically and dynamically, integrated with other ALHAT GN&C subsystems from partner organizations, and installed onto a Bell UH-1H Iroquois "Huey" helicopter at LaRC. The integrated system was flight tested at the NASA-Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on simulated lunar approach to a custom hazard field consisting of rocks, craters, hazardous slopes, and safe-sites near the Shuttle Landing Facility runway starting at slant ranges of 750 m. In order to evaluate different methods of achieving hazard detection, the lidar, in conjunction with the ALHAT hazard detection and GN&C system, operates in both a narrow 1deg FOV raster-scanning mode in which successive, gimbaled images of the hazard field are mosaicked together as well as in a wider, 4.85deg FOV staring mode in which digital magnification, via a novel 3-D superresolution technique, is used to effectively achieve the same spatial precision attained with the more narrow FOV optics. The lidar generates calibrated and corrected 3-D range images of the hazard field in real-time and passes them to the ALHAT Hazard Detection System (HDS) which stitches the images together to generate on-the-fly Digital Elevation Maps (DEM's) and identifies hazards and safe-landing sites which the ALHAT GN&C system can then use to guide the host vehicle to a safe landing on the selected site. Results indicate that, for the KSC hazard field, the lidar operational range extends from 100m to 1.35 km for a 30 degree line-of-sight angle and a range precision as low as 8 cm which permits hazards as small as 25 cm to be identified. Based on the Flash Lidar images, the HDS correctly found and reported safe sites in near-real-time during several of the flights. A follow-on field test, planned for 2013, seeks to complete the closing of the GN&C loop for fully-autonomous operations on-board the Morpheus robotic, rocket-powered, free-flyer test bed in which the ALHAT system would scan the KSC hazard field (which was vetted during the present testing) and command the vehicle to landing on one of the selected safe sites.
Roback, VIncent E.↗
(abstract) Pluto Integrated Camera-Spectrometer (PICS): a Low Mass, Low Power Instrument for Planetary Exploration
The concept we describe is an integrated instrument (a Pluto Integrated Camera-Spectrometer -- PICS) that will perform the functions of all three optical instruments required by the Pluto Fast Flyby Mission: the near-IR spectrometer, the camera, and the UV spectrometer. This integrated approach minimizes mass and power use. It also forced us early in the conceptual design to consider integrated observational sequences and integrated power management, thus ensuring compatible duty cycles (i.e., exposure times, readout rates) to meet the composite requirements for data collection, compression, and storage. Based on flight mission experience we believe that this integrated approach will result in substantial cost savings, both in reworking instrument designs during accommodation, as well as in sequence planning and integration. Finally, this integrated payload automatically yields a cohesive mission data set, optimized for correlative analysis. The presentation will provide details of the PICS instrument design and describe the fabrication and testing of the integrated SiC structure and optics at SSG Inc. Final integration and test plans for the prototype will also be described.
Pluto↗
David Florida Laboratory: Support for mobile satellite communications
The comprehensive integration and environmental (including RF) test facilities of the Canadian Space Agency's David Florida Laboratory (CSA)(DFL) were used extensively for the MSAT Program. Following a description of the facilities, the paper outlines their application to the qualification of the two MSAT satellites following an overview of the test plan. Particular emphasis is given to passive intermodulation measurement (PIM) demands, which for the MSAT satellites, contributed to the need to extend the anechoic chamber. The extended chamber was also used for an EMC test and SAR signature test of the RADARSAT satellite. The DFL's facilities are being used for additional aspects of mobile satellite communications. One shielded anechoic Extra High Frequency (EHF) chamber and associated test equipment are employed predominantly for measuring the performance of the IRIDIUM satellites' Engineering Model Gateway Moveable Antennas (EM)(GMA). Other chambers are used for testing aeronautical antennas on behalf of Inmarsat. Still others combine thermal and PIM testing. The paper concludes with a review of the test requirements of evolving satcom missions such as Inmarsat Aero-1.
Dumoulin, Jean-Guy↗
Comparison of Resource Requirements for a Wind Tunnel Test Designed with Conventional vs. Modern Design of Experiments Methods
The factors that determine data volume requirements in a typical wind tunnel test are identified. It is suggested that productivity in wind tunnel testing can be enhanced by managing the inference error risk associated with evaluating residuals in a response surface modeling experiment. The relationship between minimum data volume requirements and the factors upon which they depend is described and certain simplifications to this relationship are realized when specific model adequacy criteria are adopted. The question of response model residual evaluation is treated and certain practical aspects of response surface modeling are considered, including inference subspace truncation. A wind tunnel test plan developed by using the Modern Design of Experiments illustrates the advantages of an early estimate of data volume requirements. Comparisons are made with a representative One Factor At a Time (OFAT) wind tunnel test matrix developed to evaluate a surface to air missile.
DeLoach, Richard↗
Applications of Fracture Mechanics to Quantitative Accelerated Life Testing of Plastic Encapsulated Microelectronics
Accelerated testing must address the failure mechanisms active within the devices undergoing tests in order to assess lifetimes in a meaningful way. The assumption of constant temperature, thermally activated lifetime, based upon the Arrhenius assumptions, does not always provide the necessary understanding to interpret accelerated tests in microelectronics. Plastic encapsulants, dielectric polymers, and underfill materials are subject to delamination and cracking with thermal cycling. Crack propagation during use environment exposure, drives the potential for failure of microelectronic devices and is therefore a necessary focal point in qualification and life testing. This paper reviews the available research in the application of fracture mechanics to this class of problems in microelectronics including relevant test data. In addition, useful acceleration factor models are derived for polymer crack propagation based on principles of linear elastic fracture mechanics. Further, a simple approach to estimating the minimum temperature cycling ranges, necessary to propagate a crack, is also presented. Finally, a methodology of applying acceleration factors to develop testing plans is shown, with an example in spaceflight for a cubesat in low Earth orbit. Overall, this is a paper that shows a useful and appropriate process for creating physics of failure based life testing for delamination and cracking failures in microelectronic polymers in a temperature cycling environment.
Accelerated testing↗
Booster aerodynamic heating: Test support
Several technical areas were encompassed in providing support for booster thermal environment test work. These areas included: (1) cavity flow heating, (2) rarefied flow heating, and (3) impulse operated model research and testing. Cavity flow heating problems were studied with respect to the proposed altitude control motors for the space shuttle. Available literature on this subject was reviewed and analytical predictive methods were summarized for use in planning testing work. Rarefied flow heating data was reviewed and correlated. The study showed the importance of considering rarefied flow conditions in launch thermal environment prediction. Impulse operated model research and testing was conducted to provide a basis for understanding and designing such models for booster thermal environment testing.
Engel, C. D.↗
Lunar Simulants, Analogues, and Standards: Needs and Realities for Mission Technologies Development
Integration of In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) capabilities into missions present both challenges as well as benefits for future missions to the Moon and Mars. However, since ISRU systems and capabilities have not flown, mission planners have been hesitant to include ISRU capabilities in mission critical roles, thereby significantly reducing the benefits that ISRU can provide in mission mass and cost reductions. For ISRU systems to provide products and services to 'customers' such as life support, propulsion, and power systems, close development of requirements, hardware, and operations between ISRU and these systems are required. To address these development and incorporation challenges, NASA and csA initiated a series of analog field test demonstrations at sites in Hawaii. Two tests completed in November of 2008 and February of 2010 have demonstrate all the critical steps in operating ISRU systems on the lunar surface at relevant mission scales as well as integration with power and propulsion systems. The third field test planned for July 2012 will demonstrate that a mission to the lunar poles to locate and characterize ice and other volatiles is possible in a highly integrated mission with multiple space agencies. These analog field tests have shown that not only are ISRU systems feasible at relevant mission scales, that they can be successfully integrated into mission architectures.
Sibille, Laurent↗
Measurements of Integration Gain for the Cospas-Sarsat System from Geosynchronous Satellites
The GOES-R satellite is the first satellite to use a standard straight bent pipe transponder with no on-board re-modulation to support Search and Rescue (SAR) operations. Here, we report on the link measurements with a high fidelity satellite transponder simulator made up of satellite EDU (Engineering Design Units) components using an uplink from a beacon simulator and received by a GEOLUT (GEOsynchronous satellite Local User Terminal). We also report on the first ever measurements showing the performance gain obtained by the signal integration performed by the GEOLUT. In addition, a simulator made of commercially available off-the-shelf components assembled to develop the test plan was found to perform very close to the high fidelity simulator. In this paper, we describe what message integration is, how it is implemented in the particular satellite receiving station model used for this tests, and show the measured improvement in message decoding due to this integration process. These are the first tests to quantify the integration gain and are the first tests on the new SARSAT standard for the bent pipe (no onboard re-modulation) repeater used in GOES-R. An inexpensive satellite simulator to run test scripts built from off the shelf components was also found to have the same performance as a high fidelity simulator using actual satellite EDUs.
Klein-Lebbink, Elizabeth↗
Measurements of Integration Gain for the Cospas-Sarsat System from Geosynchronous Satellites
The GOES-R satellite is the first satellite to use a standard straight bent pipe transponder with no on-board re-modulation to support Search and Rescue (SAR) operations. Here, we report on the link measurements with a high fidelity satellite transponder simulator made up of satellite EDU (Engineering Design Units) components using an uplink from a beacon simulator and received by a GEOLUT (GEOsynchronous satellite Local User Terminal). We also report on the first ever measurements showing the performance gain obtained by the signal integration performed by the GEOLUT. In addition, a simulator made of commercially available off-the-shelf components assembled to develop the test plan was found to perform very close to the high fidelity simulator. In this paper, we describe what message integration is, how it is implemented in the particular satellite receiving station model used for this tests, and show the measured improvement in message decoding due to this integration process. These are the first tests to quantify the integration gain and are the first tests on the new SARSAT standard for the bent pipe (no onboard re-modulation) repeater used in GOES-R. An inexpensive satellite simulator to run test scripts built from off the shelf components was also found to have the same performance as a high fidelity simulator using actual satellite EDUs.
Klein-Lebbink, Elizabeth↗
Development and Testing of the Orion CEV Parachute Assembly System (CPAS)
The Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) is an element of the Constellation Program that includes launch vehicles, spacecraft, and ground systems needed to embark on a robust space exploration program. As an anchoring capability of the Constellation Program, the CEV shall be human-rated and will carry human crews and cargo from Earth into space and back again. Coupled with transfer stages, landing vehicles, and surface exploration systems, the CEV will serve as an essential component of the architecture that supports human voyages to the Moon and beyond. In addition, the CEV will be modified, as required, to support International Space Station (ISS) mission requirements for crewed and pressurized cargo configurations. Headed by Johnson Space Center (JSC), NASA selected Jacobs Engineering as the support contractor to manage the overall CEV Parachute Assembly System (CPAS) program development. Airborne Systems was chosen to develop the parachute system components. General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GD-OTS) was subcontracted to Airborne Systems to provide the mortar systems. Thus the CPAS development team of JSC, Jacobs, Airborne Systems and GD-OTS was formed. The CPAS team has completed the first phase, or Generation I, of the design, fabrication, and test plan. This paper presents an overview of the CPAS program including system requirements and the development of the second phase, known as the Engineering Development Unit (EDU) architecture. We also present top level results of the tests completed to date. A significant number of ground and flight tests have been completed since the last CPAS presentation at the 2007 AIAA ADS Conference.
Lichodziejewski, David↗