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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.

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At least 541 records · Page 30

Anomaly Detection in Power Quality at Data Centers

The goal during my internship at the National Center for Critical Information Processing and Storage (NCCIPS) is to implement an anomaly detection method through the StruxureWare SCADA Power Monitoring system. The benefit of the anomaly detection mechanism is to provide the capability to detect and anticipate equipment degradation by monitoring power quality prior to equipment failure. First, a study is conducted that examines the existing techniques of power quality management. Based on these findings, and the capabilities of the existing SCADA resources, recommendations are presented for implementing effective anomaly detection. Since voltage, current, and total harmonic distortion demonstrate Gaussian distributions, effective set-points are computed using this model, while maintaining a low false positive count.

Grichine, Art↗

SLS Ambassador Program

Overview of the agency’s plans for deep space exploration: (1) NASA has a phased approach to ensure our nation’s leadership in space exploration, beginning in Earth orbit, developing our skills in lunar space, and extending those skills and technologies to a human mission to Mars. (2) Currently, NASA is commercializing low-Earth orbit using commercial companies to transport supplies and scientific experiments to the ISS. NASA is working closely with them to launch American astronauts to the station from American soil soon. (3) ISS is our platform to better understand living and working in space. NASA paved the way for commercial companies to take over that work so that we could focus on human exploration of deep space. (4) NASA will establish a Lunar Orbiting Platform – Gateway to establish an outpost near the moon. It will enable us to get to Mars in a step-by-step fashion, with lessons learned in each phase of the process informing the next steps. SLS is the only launch vehicle with the power to get Orion and an in-space propulsion system to an orbit and a speed capable of enabling travel to the moon and beyond.

Lindstrom, Marcia↗

Measuring the Effectiveness of Human Autonomy Teaming

Human-Automation Teaming (HAT), is now recognized as a promising solution to the problems of humans managing increasingly complex work systems. A human-automation team can be defined as the interdependent coupling between one or more human operators and one or more autonomous systems requiring collaboration and coordination to accomplish system and task goals (e.g., Langan-Fox et al., 2009). In this conception, automated agents are considered team members that can operate at various levels of automation, be focused on one or more human-information-processing stages, and the interactions with human operators may be adaptable, adjustable or mixed initiative. We investigated some metrics for assessing HAT effectiveness in a demonstration of a HAT tool used by ground station operators in a Reduced Crew Operations project that was conducted at NASA Ames Human Automation Teaming Laboratory. In this paper, we focus on operator metrics of HAT effectiveness, specifically workload and operator behaviors.

measurements↗

Physical Model of Immune Inspired Computing

Artificial Immune System is a rapidly growing field of information processing and computing based upon immune inspired paradigns of nonlinear dynamics. This paper introduces stochastic models which mimic the phenomenology of basic functions of immune systems such as self-nonself discrimination, self-repair, predator-prey pursuit, and reproduction.

Immune↗

Microbial Characteristics of ISS Environmental Surfaces

The microbiome of environmental surfaces from the International Space Station were characterized in order to examine the relationship to crew and hardware maintenance. The Microbial Observatory (ISS-MO) experiment generated a microbial census of ISS environments using advanced molecular microbial community analyses along with traditional culture-based methods. Since the “omics” methodologies generated an extensive microbial census, significant insights into spaceflight-induced changes in the populations of beneficial and/or potentially harmful microbes were gained. Surface samples were collected from several ISS surface locations from three flight opportunities, and were returned to Earth via the Soyuz TMA-14M or the Space X Dragon capsule. In addition to cultivation methods, viable microbial burden, iTag-based sequencing, and metagenome analyses were carried out. The cultivable microbial bioburden differed by location and sampling event. Exploring the ISS environmental microbiome revealed presence of opportunistic pathogens and antibiotic resistant microbes. Genes involved in ATP binding cassette transporters, two component systems, and beta-lactam resistance were among a diverse set of metabolic and genetic information processing pathways. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) of 50 ISS strains exhibiting resistance to various antibiotics was carried out. The antibiotic resistant genes deduced from the WGS were compared with the resistomes generated directly from the gene pool of the environmental samples. Two unique Aspergillus fumigatus strains isolated from the ISS were characterized and compared to the experimentally established clinical isolates Af293 and CEA10. A virulence assessment in a neutrophil-deficient larval zebrafish model of invasive aspergillosis indicated that both ISSFT-021 and IF1SW-F4 were significantly more lethal compared to Af293 and CEA10. The findings from this Environmental “Omics” project should be exploited to enhance human health and well-being of a closed system. In other words, the ISS-MO research aims to "translate" findings in fundamental research into medical practice (pathogen detection) and meaningful health outcomes (countermeasure development).

Perry, Jay↗

The State of Cryptolib – The Open-Source Satellite Cryptography Library

What state would the world be in if all internet traffic was unencrypted? Imagine an alternate universe where you can plug a packet sniffing device into your home internet and capture the web traffic of the entire world. It seems obvious that this scenario is less than desirable. If we would not allow this for the internet, why would we allow this in the space domain? With the advent of open-source ground stations, commercial off the shelf hardware, and ground stations as a service, the barrier to entry for space communications is rapidly lowering. New players enter the space realm everydayevery day, and the presence of tools to allow apprentice evildoers the ability to exploit satellite communications is on the horizon. Not only are legacy missions at risk, but future missions are as well - particularly lower budget science missions with more stringent sciencesize, weight, and power constraints. that may find it difficult to utilize hardware-based encryption solutions. In terms of Civilian Aerospace, NASA Standard 1006 generally directs that missions "shall protect the command stack with encryption that meets or exceeds Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140". Fortunately, the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) has published an international standard on Space Data Link Security. The combination of these two forces has resulted in CryptoLib - an open-source, C-based, encryption library that aims to be CCSDS SDLS compliant. CryptoLib is designed to support smaller missions on a tight budget that may be subject to the more stringent command link encryption requirements. Additionally, CryptoLib serves as an underpinning in JPL's Key Management & Cryptography (KMC) suite and is also designed to function as a 'drop-in' for smaller missions. CryptoLib is in active development and currently provides Telecommand (TC), Telemetry (TM), and Advanced Orbiting Systems (AOS) encryption and decryption capabilities with a variety of encryption and authentication schemes. This presentation will report the latest features, current status, and future plans for CryptoLib.

open-source encryption↗

The State of CryptoLib – The Open-Source Satellite Cryptography Library

What state would the world be in if all internet traffic was unencrypted? Imagine an alternate universe where you can plug a packet sniffing device into your home internet and capture the web traffic of the entire world. It seems obvious that this scenario is less than desirable. If we would not allow this for the internet, why would we allow this in the space domain? With the advent of open-source ground stations, commercial off the shelf hardware, and ground stations as a service, the barrier to entry for space communications is rapidly lowering. New players enter the space realm everydayevery day, and the presence of tools to allow apprentice evildoers the ability to exploit satellite communications is on the horizon. Not only are legacy missions at risk, but future missions are as well - particularly lower budget science missions with more stringent sciencesize, weight, and power constraints. that may find it difficult to utilize hardware-based encryption solutions. In terms of Civilian Aerospace, NASA Standard 1006 generally directs that missions "shall protect the command stack with encryption that meets or exceeds Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140". Fortunately, the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) has published an international standard on Space Data Link Security. The combination of these two forces has resulted in CryptoLib - an open-source, C-based, encryption library that aims to be CCSDS SDLS compliant. CryptoLib is designed to support smaller missions on a tight budget that may be subject to the more stringent command link encryption requirements. Additionally, CryptoLib serves as an underpinning in JPL's Key Management & Cryptography (KMC) suite and is also designed to function as a 'drop-in' for smaller missions. CryptoLib is in active development and currently provides Telecommand (TC), Telemetry (TM), and Advanced Orbiting Systems (AOS) encryption and decryption capabilities with a variety of encryption and authentication schemes. This presentation will report the latest features, current status, and future plans for CryptoLib.

open-source encryption↗

Two mechanisms for the spontaneous emergence, execution, and reprogramming of chemical logic circuits

A key question in origin-of-life research is how primitive life or life-like systems obtained reusable and reprogrammable machinery of processing information to respond to various environmental and internal stimuli. One strategy to approach this question is to view living systems as universal chemical computers. This approach focuses upon uncovering how reusable and reprogrammable chemical NOT, AND, and OR logic gates could appear under prebiotically possible scenarios where simple chemicals and second- or lower-order reactions are more frequent than macromolecules and higher-order reactions. In this article, we theoretically model two generic mechanisms of forming Boolean gates based on geochemically plausible reaction systems that could have preceded complex biopolymers. The mechanisms exploit simple bistable autocatalytic systems to encode binary variables and use heterogeneous dilution rates to differentially activate or deactivate autocatalysis in different reactors. We found that NOT, AND, and OR gates, as well as more complex logic circuits, can spontaneously arise from connected, well-mixed flow reactors based on (i) catalysis by a heterodimer between mutually inhibitory autocatalysts or (ii) selectively permeable tunnels connecting reactors. Our results suggest that simple machinery can support the prebiotic emergence of complex chemical logic circuits and provide new guides for experimentally actualizing chemical computation.

Zhen Peng↗

Cogeneration technology alternatives study. Volume 2: Industrial process characteristics

Information and data for 26 industrial processes are presented. The following information is given for each process: (1) a description of the process including the annual energy consumption and product production and plant capacity; (2) the energy requirements of the process for each unit of production and the detailed data concerning electrical energy requirements and also hot water, steam, and direct fired thermal requirements; (3) anticipated trends affecting energy requirements with new process or production technologies; and (4) representative plant data including capacity and projected requirements through the year 2000.

Source record↗

On the management and processing of earth resources information

The basic concepts of a recently completed large-scale earth resources information system plan are reported. Attention is focused throughout the paper on the information management and processing requirements. After the development of the principal system concepts, a model system for implementation at the state level is discussed.

Skinner, C. W.↗

Selection of informative parameters of vibroacoustic processes

The problem of selecting informative parameters of vibro-acoustic processes and the construction of apparatus for their determination are discussed. It is assumed that the processes being investigated are structurally uniform and either purely random or contain not very many determinative components.

Koshek, L. N.↗

The Information Adaptive System - A demonstration of real-time onboard image processing

The Information Adaptive System (IAS) program has the objective to develop and demonstrate, at the brassboard level, an architecture which can be used to perform advanced signal procesing functions on board the spacecraft. Particular attention is given to the processing of high-speed multispectral imaging data in real-time, and the development of advanced technology which could be employed for future space applications. An IAS functional description is provided, and questions of radiometric correction are examined. Problems of data packetization are considered along with data selection, a distortion coefficient processor, an adaptive system controller, an image processing demonstration system, a sensor simulator and output data buffer, a test support and demonstration controller, and IAS demonstration operating modes.

Thomas, G. L.↗

Image-plane processing of visual information

Shannon's theory of information is used to optimize the optical design of sensor-array imaging systems which use neighborhood image-plane signal processing for enhancing edges and compressing dynamic range during image formation. The resultant edge-enhancement, or band-pass-filter, response is found to be very similar to that of human vision. Comparisons of traits in human vision with results from information theory suggest that: (1) Image-plane processing, like preprocessing in human vision, can improve visual information acquisition for pattern recognition when resolving power, sensitivity, and dynamic range are constrained. Improvements include reduced sensitivity to changes in lighter levels, reduced signal dynamic range, reduced data transmission and processing, and reduced aliasing and photosensor noise degradation. (2) Information content can be an appropriate figure of merit for optimizing the optical design of imaging systems when visual information is acquired for pattern recognition. The design trade-offs involve spatial response, sensitivity, and sampling interval.

Huck, F. O.↗

A data and information system for processing, archival, and distribution of data for global change research

Work on this project was focused on information management techniques for Marshall Space Flight Center's EOSDIS Version 0 Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC). The centerpiece of this effort has been participation in EOSDIS catalog interoperability research, the result of which is a distributed Information Management System (IMS) allowing the user to query the inventories of all the DAAC's from a single user interface. UAH has provided the MSFC DAAC database server for the distributed IMS, and has contributed to definition and development of the browse image display capabilities in the system's user interface. Another important area of research has been in generating value-based metadata through data mining. In addition, information management applications for local inventory and archive management, and for tracking data orders were provided.

Graves, Sara J.↗

Neural processing of gravity information

The goal of this project was to use the linear acceleration capabilities of the NASA Vestibular Research Facility (VRF) at Ames Research Center to directly examine encoding of linear accelerations in the vestibular system of the cat. Most previous studies, including my own, have utilized tilt stimuli, which at very low frequencies (e.g., 'static tilt') can be considered a reasonably pure linear acceleration (e.g., 'down'); however, higher frequencies of tilt, necessary for understanding the dynamic processing of linear acceleration information, necessarily involves rotations which can stimulate the semicircular canals. The VRF, particularly the Long Linear Sled, has promise to provide controlled pure linear accelerations at a variety of stimulus frequencies, with no confounding angular motion.

Schor, Robert H.↗

Optical correlators for automated rendezvous and capture

The paper begins with a description of optical correlation. In this process, the propagation physics of coherent light is used to process images and extract information. The processed image is operated on as an area, rather than as a collection of points. An essentially instantaneous convolution is performed on that image to provide the sensory data. In this process, an image is sensed and encoded onto a coherent wavefront, and the propagation is arranged to create a bright spot of the image to match a model of the desired object. The brightness of the spot provides an indication of the degree of resemblance of the viewed image to the mode, and the location of the bright spot provides pointing information. The process can be utilized for AR&C to achieve the capability to identify objects among known reference types, estimate the object's location and orientation, and interact with the control system. System characteristics (speed, robustness, accuracy, small form factors) are adequate to meet most requirements. The correlator exploits the fact that Bosons and Fermions pass through each other. Since the image source is input as an electronic data set, conventional imagers can be used. In systems where the image is input directly, the correlating element must be at the sensing location.

Juday, Richard D.↗