Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “service oriented architecture”

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.

At least 55 records · Page 3

In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance (ISSA) Concept of Operations

Emerging operations involving Urban Air Mobility (UAM) poses a challenge to safety assurance and accessibility to the NAS. In particular, the public has a low tolerance for risk in aviation and the current NAS tends to be labor-intensive with limited ability to scale up for UAM. In response to this landscape, NASA is collaborating with industry to define an In-time Aviation Safety Management System (IASMS) Concept of Operations (ConOps) for a scalable UAM along with a service-oriented architecture. This architecture would better focus safety investments for technological solutions that overcome safety related barriers for emerging operations. By working with industry, consensus can be reached on desirable system traits that are based on integration of data and leverage increasingly autonomous and automated systems. These complex systems can identify anomalies, precursors, and trends that together enable more proactive management of operational risks.

Ellis, Kyle↗

In-time System-wide Safety Assurance (ISSA) Concept of Operations and Design Considerations for Urban Air Mobility (UAM)

Emerging operations involving Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), such as Urban Air Mobility (UAM), pose a challenge to safety assurance and to accessibility within the National Airspace System (NAS).In particular, the public has a low tolerance for risk in aviation and the current NAS tends to be labor-intensive with limited ability to scale up for UAM. In response to this landscape, NASA is collaborating with industry to define a Concept of Operations (ConOps) for In-time System-Wide Safety Assurance (ISSA) for scalable UAM involving a service-oriented architecture. This architecture focuses safety investments for technological solutions that can overcome safety related barriers for emerging operations. By working with industry, consensus can be reached on desirable system traits that are based on integration and fusion of data and leverage increasingly autonomous and automated systems. These complex systems can identify anomalies, precursors, and trends that together enable more proactive management of operational risks. AAM and UAM elevate the need for risk management in relation to increasing density and heterogeneity of vehicles and operations. Whereas safety in today’s NAS is built on a history of programs and technologies that react to incidents and accidents, AAM presents an opportunity to leverage that experience and its implications and proactively integrate safety into the earliest designs of vehicles and systems. In a perfect world AAM and UAM would not be inherently dangerous but until then ensuring the highest quality of safety requirements is the bridge to mitigating risks.

In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance↗

Cyberinfrastructure for Aircraft Mission Support

Forth last several years NASA's Airborne Science Program has been developing and using infrastructure and applications that enable researchers to interact with each other and with airborne instruments via network communications. Use of these tools has increased near realtime situational awareness during field operations, resulting it productivity improvements, improved decision making, and the collection of better data. Advances in pre-mission planning and post-mission access have also emerged. Integrating these capabilities with other tools to evolve coherent service-oriented enterprise architecture for aircraft flight and test operations is the subject of ongoing efforts.

Freudinger, Lawrence C.↗

Autonomic Computing for Spacecraft Ground Systems

Autonomic computing for spacecraft ground systems increases the system reliability and reduces the cost of spacecraft operations and software maintenance. In this paper, we present an autonomic computing solution for spacecraft ground systems at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), which consists of an open standard for a message oriented architecture referred to as the GMSEC architecture (Goddard Mission Services Evolution Center), and an autonomic computing tool, the Criteria Action Table (CAT). This solution has been used in many upgraded ground systems for NASA 's missions, and provides a framework for developing solutions with higher autonomic maturity.

Li, Zhenping↗

Lessons Learned from Engineering a Multi-Mission Satellite Operations Center

NASA's Small Explorers (SMEX) satellites have surpassed their designed science-lifetimes and their flight operations teams are now facing the challenge of continuing operations with reduced funding. At present, these missions are being reengineered into a fleet-oriented ground system at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). When completed, this ground system will provide command and control of four SMEX missions and will demonstrate fleet automation and control concepts. As a path-finder for future mission consolidation efforts, this ground system will also demonstrate new ground-based technologies that show promise of supporting longer mission lifecycles and simplifying component integration. One of the core technologies being demonstrated in the SMEiX Mission Operations Center is the GSFC Mission Services Evolution Center (GMSEC) architecture. The GMSEC architecture uses commercial Message Oriented Middleware with a common messaging standard to realize a higher level of component interoperability, allowing for interchangeable components in ground systems. Moreover, automation technologies utilizing the GMSEC architecture are being evaluated and implemented to provide extended lights-out operations. This mode of operation will provide routine monitoring and control of the heterogeneous spacecraft fleet. The operational concepts being developed will reduce the need for staffed contacts and is seen as a necessity for fleet management. This paper will describe the experiences of the integration team throughout the reengineering effort of the SMEX ground system. Additionally, lessons learned will be presented based on the team s experiences with integrating multiple missions into a fleet-based automated ground system.

Madden, Maureen↗

Lessons Learned from Engineering a Multi-Mission Satellite Operations Center

NASA's Small Explorers (SMEX) satellites have surpassed their designed science-lifetimes and their flight operations teams are now facing the challenge of continuing operations with reduced funding. At present, these missions are being re-engineered into a fleet-oriented ground system at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). When completed, this ground system will provide command and control of four SMEX missions and will demonstrate fleet automation and control concepts. As a path-finder for future mission consolidation efforts, this ground system will also demonstrate new ground-based technologies that show promise of supporting longer mission lifecycles and simplifying component integration. One of the core technologies being demonstrated in the SMEX Mission Operations Center is the GSFC Mission Services Evolution Center (GMSEC) architecture. The GMSEC architecture uses commercial Message Oriented Middleware with a common messaging standard to realize a higher level of component interoperability, allowing for interchangeable components in ground systems. Moreover, automation technologies utilizing the GMSEC architecture are being evaluated and implemented to provide extended lights-out operations. This mode of operation will provide routine monitoring and control of the heterogeneous spacecraft fleet. The operational concepts being developed will reduce the need for staffed contacts and is seen as a necessity for fleet management. This paper will describe the experiences of the integration team throughout the re-enginering effort of the SMEX ground system. Additionally, lessons learned will be presented based on the team's experiences with integrating multiple missions into a fleet-automated ground system.

Madden, Maureen↗

Cloud Computing for Mission Design and Operations

The space mission design and operations community already recognizes the value of cloud computing and virtualization. However, natural and valid concerns, like security, privacy, up-time, and vendor lock-in, have prevented a more widespread and expedited adoption into official workflows. In the interest of alleviating these concerns, we propose a series of guidelines for internally deploying a resource-oriented hub of data and algorithms. These guidelines provide a roadmap for implementing an architecture inspired in the cloud computing model: associative, elastic, semantical, interconnected, and adaptive. The architecture can be summarized as exposing data and algorithms as resource-oriented Web services, coordinated via messaging, and running on virtual machines; it is simple, and based on widely adopted standards, protocols, and tools. The architecture may help reduce common sources of complexity intrinsic to data-driven, collaborative interactions and, most importantly, it may provide the means for teams and agencies to evaluate the cloud computing model in their specific context, with minimal infrastructure changes, and before committing to a specific cloud services provider.

cloud computing↗

Systems Architecture for Fully Autonomous Space Missions

The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is working to develop a revolutionary new system architecture concept in support of fully autonomous missions. As part of GSFC's contribution to the New Millenium Program (NMP) Space Technology 7 Autonomy and on-Board Processing (ST7-A) Concept Definition Study, the system incorporates the latest commercial Internet and software development ideas and extends them into NASA ground and space segment architectures. The unique challenges facing the exploration of remote and inaccessible locales and the need to incorporate corresponding autonomy technologies within reasonable cost necessitate the re-thinking of traditional mission architectures. A measure of the resiliency of this architecture in its application to a broad range of future autonomy missions will depend on its effectiveness in leveraging from commercial tools developed for the personal computer and Internet markets. Specialized test stations and supporting software come to past as spacecraft take advantage of the extensive tools and research investments of billion-dollar commercial ventures. The projected improvements of the Internet and supporting infrastructure go hand-in-hand with market pressures that provide continuity in research. By taking advantage of consumer-oriented methods and processes, space-flight missions will continue to leverage on investments tailored to provide better services at reduced cost. The application of ground and space segment architectures each based on Local Area Networks (LAN), the use of personal computer-based operating systems, and the execution of activities and operations through a Wide Area Network (Internet) enable a revolution in spacecraft mission formulation, implementation, and flight operations. Hardware and software design, development, integration, test, and flight operations are all tied-in closely to a common thread that enables the smooth transitioning between program phases. The application of commercial software development techniques lays the foundation for delivery of product-oriented flight software modules and models. Software can then be readily applied to support the on-board autonomy required for mission self-management. An on-board intelligent system, based on advanced scripting languages, facilitates the mission autonomy required to offload ground system resources, and enables the spacecraft to manage itself safely through an efficient and effective process of reactive planning, science data acquisition, synthesis, and transmission to the ground. Autonomous ground systems in turn coordinate and support schedule contact times with the spacecraft. Specific autonomy software modules on-board include mission and science planners, instrument and subsystem control, and fault tolerance response software, all residing within a distributed computing environment supported through the flight LAN. Autonomy also requires the minimization of human intervention between users on the ground and the spacecraft, and hence calls for the elimination of the traditional operations control center as a funnel for data manipulation. Basic goal-oriented commands are sent directly from the user to the spacecraft through a distributed internet-based payload operations "center". The ensuing architecture calls for the use of spacecraft as point extensions on the Internet. This paper will detail the system architecture implementation chosen to enable cost-effective autonomous missions with applicability to a broad range of conditions. It will define the structure needed for implementation of such missions, including software and hardware infrastructures. The overall architecture is then laid out as a common thread in the mission life cycle from formulation through implementation and flight operations.

Esper, Jamie↗

Transforming Our SMEX Organization by Way of Innovation, Standardization, and Automation

NASA's Small Explorer (SMEX) Flight Operations Team (FOT) is currently tackling the challenge of supporting ground operations for several satellites that have surpassed their designed lifetime and have a dwindling budget. At Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), these missions are presently being reengineered into a fleet-oriented ground system. When complete, this ground system will provide command and control of four SMEX missions, and will demonstrate fleet automation and control concepts as a pathfinder for additional mission integrations. A goal of this reengineering effort is to demonstrate new ground-system technologies that show promise of supporting longer mission lifecycles and simplifying component integration. In pursuit of this goal, the SMEX organization has had to examine standardization, innovation, and automation. A core technology being demonstrated in this effort is the GSFC Mission Services Evolution Center (GMSEC) architecture. The GMSEC architecture focuses on providing standard interfaces for ground system applications to promote application interoperability. Building around commercial Message Oriented Middleware and providing a common messaging standard allows GMSEC to provide the capabilities necessary to support integration of new software components into existing missions and increase the level of interaction within the system. For SMS, GMSEC has become the technology platform to transform flight operations with the innovation and automation necessary to reduce operational costs. The automation technologies supported in SMEX are built upon capabilities provided by the GMSEC architecture that allows the FOT to further reduce the involvement of the console, operator. Initially, SMEX is automating only routine operations, such as safety and health monitoring, basic commanding, and system recovery. The operational concepts being developed here will reduce the need for staffed passes and are a necessity for future fleet management. As this project continues to evolve, additional innovations beyond GMSEC and automation have, and will continue to be developed. The team developed techniques for migrating ground systems of existing on-orbit assets. The tools necessary to monitor and control software failures were integrated and tailored for operational environments. All this was done with a focus of extending fleet operations to mission beyond SMU. The result of this work is the foundation for a broader fleet-capable ground system that will include several missions supported by the Space Science Mission Operations Project.

Madden, Maureen↗

Using object-oriented analysis to design a multi-mission ground data system

This paper describes an analytical approach and descriptive methodology that is adapted from Object-Oriented Analysis (OOA) techniques. The technique is described and then used to communicate key issues of system logical architecture. The essence of the approach is to limit the analysis to only service objects, with the idea of providing a direct mapping from the design to a client-server implementation. Key perspectives on the system, such as user interaction, data flow and management, service interfaces, hardware configuration, and system and data integrity are covered. A significant advantage of this service-oriented approach is that it permits mapping all of these different perspectives on the system onto a single common substrate. This services substrate is readily represented diagramatically, thus making details of the overall design much more accessible.

Shames, Peter↗

A Distributed Trajectory-Oriented Approach to Managing Traffic Complexity

In order to handle the expected increase in air traffic volume, the next generation air transportation system is moving towards a distributed control architecture, in which ground-based service providers such as controllers and traffic managers and air-based users such as pilots share responsibility for aircraft trajectory generation and management. While its architecture becomes more distributed, the goal of the Air Traffic Management (ATM) system remains to achieve objectives such as maintaining safety and efficiency. It is, therefore, critical to design appropriate control elements to ensure that aircraft and groundbased actions result in achieving these objectives without unduly restricting user-preferred trajectories. This paper presents a trajectory-oriented approach containing two such elements. One is a trajectory flexibility preservation function, by which aircraft plan their trajectories to preserve flexibility to accommodate unforeseen events. And the other is a trajectory constraint minimization function by which ground-based agents, in collaboration with air-based agents, impose just-enough restrictions on trajectories to achieve ATM objectives, such as separation assurance and flow management. The underlying hypothesis is that preserving trajectory flexibility of each individual aircraft naturally achieves the aggregate objective of avoiding excessive traffic complexity, and that trajectory flexibility is increased by minimizing constraints without jeopardizing the intended ATM objectives. The paper presents conceptually how the two functions operate in a distributed control architecture that includes self separation. The paper illustrates the concept through hypothetical scenarios involving conflict resolution and flow management. It presents a functional analysis of the interaction and information flow between the functions. It also presents an analytical framework for defining metrics and developing methods to preserve trajectory flexibility and minimize its constraints. In this framework flexibility is defined in terms of robustness and adaptability to disturbances and the impact of constraints is illustrated through analysis of a trajectory solution space with limited degrees of freedom and in simple constraint situations involving meeting multiple times of arrival and resolving a conflict.

Idris, Husni↗

Navigation Architecture for a Space Mobile Network

The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) Augmentation Service for Satellites (TASS) is a proposed beacon service to provide a global, space based GPS augmentation service based on the NASA Global Differential GPS (GDGPS) System. The TASS signal will be tied to the GPS time system and usable as an additional ranging and Doppler radiometric source. Additionally, it will provide data vital to autonomous navigation in the near Earth regime, including space weather information, TDRS ephemerides, Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP), and forward commanding capability. TASS benefits include enhancing situational awareness, enabling increased autonomy, and providing near real-time command access for user platforms. As NASA Headquarters' Space Communication and Navigation Office (SCaN) begins to move away from a centralized network architecture and towards a Space Mobile Network (SMN) that allows for user initiated services, autonomous navigation will be a key part of such a system. This paper explores how a TASS beacon service enables the Space Mobile Networking paradigm, what a typical user platform would require, and provides an in-depth analysis of several navigation scenarios and operations concepts. This paper provides an overview of the TASS beacon and its role within the SMN and user community. Supporting navigation analysis is presented for two user mission scenarios: an Earth observing spacecraft in low earth orbit (LEO), and a highly elliptical spacecraft in a lunar resonance orbit. These diverse flight scenarios indicate the breadth of applicability of the TASS beacon for upcoming users within the current network architecture and in the SMN.

Data Relay↗

Navigation Architecture For A Space Mobile Network

The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) Augmentation Service for Satellites (TASS) is a proposed beacon service to provide a global, space-based GPS augmentation service based on the NASA Global Differential GPS (GDGPS) System. The TASS signal will be tied to the GPS time system and usable as an additional ranging and Doppler radiometric source. Additionally, it will provide data vital to autonomous navigation in the near Earth regime, including space weather information, TDRS ephemerides, Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP), and forward commanding capability. TASS benefits include enhancing situational awareness, enabling increased autonomy, and providing near real-time command access for user platforms. As NASA Headquarters Space Communication and Navigation Office (SCaN) begins to move away from a centralized network architecture and towards a Space Mobile Network (SMN) that allows for user initiated services, autonomous navigation will be a key part of such a system. This paper explores how a TASS beacon service enables the Space Mobile Networking paradigm, what a typical user platform would require, and provides an in-depth analysis of several navigation scenarios and operations concepts.

Satellite↗

Recent Developments in Hardware-in-the-Loop Formation Navigation and Control

The Formation Flying Test-Bed (FFTB) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) provides a hardware-in-the-loop test environment for formation navigation and control. The facility is evolving as a modular, hybrid, dynamic simulation facility for end-tc-end guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) design and analysis of formation flying spacecraft. The core capabilities of the FFTB, as a platform for testing critical hardware and software algorithms in-the-loop, are reviewed with a focus on many recent improvements. Two significant upgrades to the FFTB are a message-oriented middleware (MOM) architecture, and a software crosslink for inter-spacecraft ranging. The MOM architecture provides a common messaging bus for software agents, easing integration, arid supporting the GSFC Mission Services Evolution Center (GMSEC) architecture via software bridge. Additionally, the FFTB s hardware capabilities are expanding. Recently, two Low-Power Transceivers (LPTs) with ranging capability have been introduced into the FFTB. The LPT crosslinks will be connected to a modified Crosslink Channel Simulator (CCS), which applies realistic space-environment effects to the Radio Frequency (RF) signals produced by the LPTs.

Mitchell, Jason W.↗

Implementation of Field-Oriented Control in Joint Actuator Electronics for Satellite-Servicing Robotics

NASA’s OSAM-1 (On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing 1) is a robotic spacecraft designed to extend the life of a satellite. Launching in 2026, the OSAM-1 servicer will use a robotic arm to grasp, refuel, and relocate Landsat 7. In order to accomplish the various servicing operations, including the critical auto-grapple capturing operation, the robot arm uses active compliance and visual servo control loops. These sophisticated control algorithms are enabled by the high performance Joint Control Boards (JCBs). At the core of the robot arm control architecture, the JCBs employ field-oriented control (FOC) to accurately commutate and efficiently control joint actuator torque. FOC offers numerous benefits over other current control methods, allowing the JCBs to achieve the high bandwidth and performance required by the outer control loops. As an added benefit, a torque feed-forward term allows the FOC loop to simulate microgravity actuator performance during ground testing. In this paper, a FOC implementation for space robotics applications and an end-to-end actuator calibration process are discussed.

Sam Zhao↗

Automation Hooks Architecture Trade Study for Flexible Test Orchestration

We describe the conclusions of a technology and communities survey supported by concurrent and follow-on proof-of-concept prototyping to evaluate feasibility of defining a durable, versatile, reliable, visible software interface to support strategic modularization of test software development. The objective is that test sets and support software with diverse origins, ages, and abilities can be reliably integrated into test configurations that assemble and tear down and reassemble with scalable complexity in order to conduct both parametric tests and monitored trial runs. The resulting approach is based on integration of three recognized technologies that are currently gaining acceptance within the test industry and when combined provide a simple, open and scalable test orchestration architecture that addresses the objectives of the Automation Hooks task. The technologies are automated discovery using multicast DNS Zero Configuration Networking (zeroconf), commanding and data retrieval using resource-oriented Restful Web Services, and XML data transfer formats based on Automatic Test Markup Language (ATML). This open-source standards-based approach provides direct integration with existing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) analysis software tools.

Lansdowne, Chatwin A.↗

CMC Property Variability and Life Prediction Methods for Turbine Engine Component Application

The ever increasing need for lower density and higher temperature-capable materials for aircraft engines has led to the development of Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMCs). Today's aircraft engines operate with >3000"F gas temperatures at the entrance to the turbine section, but unless heavily cooled, metallic components cannot operate above approx.2000 F. CMCs attempt to push component capability to nearly 2700 F with much less cooling, which can help improve engine efficiency and performance in terms of better fuel efficiency, higher thrust, and reduced emissions. The NASA Glenn Research Center has been researching the benefits of the SiC/SiC CMC for engine applications. A CMC is made up of a matrix material, fibers, and an interphase, which is a protective coating over the fibers. There are several methods or architectures in which the orientation of the fibers can be manipulated to achieve a particular material property objective as well as a particular component geometric shape and size. The required shape manipulation can be a limiting factor in the design and performance of the component if there is a lack of bending capability of the fiber as making the fiber more flexible typically sacrifices strength and other fiber properties. Various analysis codes are available (pcGINA, CEMCAN) that can predict the effective Young's Moduli, thermal conductivities, coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE), and various other properties of a CMC. There are also various analysis codes (NASAlife) that can be used to predict the life of CMCs under expected engine service conditions. The objective of this summer study is to utilize and optimize these codes for examining the tradeoffs between CMC properties and the complex fiber architectures that will be needed for several different component designs. For example, for the pcGINA code, there are six variations of architecture available. Depending on which architecture is analyzed, the user is able to specify the fiber tow size, tow spacing, weave parameter, and angle of orientation of fibers. By holding the volume fraction of the fibers constant, variations in tow spacing can be explored for different architectures. The CMC material properties are usually calculated assuming the component is manufactured perfectly. However, this is typically not the case so that a quantification of the material property variability is needed to account for processing and/or manufacturing imperfections. The overall inputs and outputs are presented using a regression software to rapidly investigate the tradeoffs associated with fiber architecture, material properties, and ultimately cost. This information is then propagated through lifing models and Larson-Miller data to assess timehemperature-dependent CMC strength. In addition, a first order cost estimation will be quantified from a current qualitative perspective. This cost estimation includes the manufacturing challenges, such as tooling, as well as the component cost for a particular application. Ultimately, a cost to performance ratio should be established that compares the effectiveness of CMCs to their current rival, nickel superalloys.

Cheplak, Matthew L.↗