Nuclear safety and hazards aspects of RIFT flight operations
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Rives, J. M.↗
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Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Air Vehicles, Integrated Flight Systems and Airspace Operations and Safety
This presentation provides an overview of the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate and SBIRSTTR topics for ARMD's programs and project.
ARMD↗
X-33 Telemetry Best Source Selection, Processing, Display, and Simulation Model Comparison
The X-33 program requires the use of multiple telemetry ground stations to cover the launch, ascent, transition, descent, and approach phases for the flights from Edwards AFB to landings at Dugway Proving Grounds, UT and Malmstrom AFB, MT. This paper will discuss the X-33 telemetry requirements and design, including information on fixed and mobile telemetry systems, best source selection, and support for Range Safety Officers. A best source selection system will be utilized to automatically determine the best source based on the frame synchronization status of the incoming telemetry streams. These systems will be used to select the best source at the landing sites and at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center to determine the overall best source between the launch site, intermediate sites, and landing site sources. The best source at the landing sites will be decommutated to display critical flight safety parameters for the Range Safety Officers. The overall best source will be sent to the Lockheed Martin's Operational Control Center at Edwards AFB for performance monitoring by X-33 program personnel and for monitoring of critical flight safety parameters by the primary Range Safety Officer. The real-time telemetry data (received signal strength, etc.) from each of the primary ground stations will also be compared during each nu'ssion with simulation data generated using the Dynamic Ground Station Analysis software program. An overall assessment of the accuracy of the model will occur after each mission. Acknowledgment: The work described in this paper was NASA supported through cooperative agreement NCC8-115 with Lockheed Martin Skunk Works.
Burkes, Darryl A.↗
AH-1S communication switch integration program
The C-6533/ARC communication system as installed on the test AH-1E Cobra helicopter was modified to allow discrete radio selection of all aircraft radios at the cyclic radio/intercommunication system switch. The current Cobra-fleet use of the C-6533 system is cumbersome, particularly during low-altitude operations. Operationally, the current system C-6533 configuration and design requires the pilot to estimate when he can safely remove his hand from an active flight control to select radios during low-altitude flight. The pilot must then physically remove his hand from the flight control, look inside the cockpit to select and verify the radio selection and then effect the selected radio transmission by activating the radio/ICS switch on the cyclic. This condition is potentially hazardous, especially during low-level flight at night in degraded weather. To improve pilot performance, communications effectiveness, and safety, manprint principles were utilized in the selection of a design modification. The modified C-6533 design was kept as basic as possible for potential Cobra-fleet modification. The communications system was modified and the design was subsequently flight-tested by the U.S. Army Aeroflightdynamics Directorate and NASA at the NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California. The design modification enables the Cobra pilot to maintain hands-on flight controls while selecting radios during nap-of-the-Earth (NOE) flight without looking inside the cockpit which resulted in reduced pilot workload ratings, better pilot handling quality ratings and increased flight safety for the NOE flight environment.
Haworth, Loran↗
Space-Based Range Safety and Future Space Range Applications
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space-Based Telemetry and Range Safety (STARS) study is a multiphase project to demonstrate the performance, flexibility and cost savings that can be realized by using space-based assets for the Range Safety [global positioning system (GPS) metric tracking data, flight termination command and range safety data relay] and Range User (telemetry) functions during vehicle launches and landings. Phase 1 included flight testing S-band Range Safety and Range User hardware in 2003 onboard a high-dynamic aircraft platform at Dryden Flight Research Center (Edwards, California, USA) using the NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) as the communications link. The current effort, Phase 2, includes hardware and packaging upgrades to the S-band Range Safety system and development of a high data rate Ku-band Range User system. The enhanced Phase 2 Range Safety Unit (RSU) provided real-time video for three days during the historic Global Flyer (Scaled Composites, Mojave, California, USA) flight in March, 2005. Additional Phase 2 testing will include a sounding rocket test of the Range Safety system and aircraft flight testing of both systems. Future testing will include a flight test on a launch vehicle platform. This paper discusses both Range Safety and Range User developments and testing with emphasis on the Range Safety system. The operational concept of a future space-based range is also discussed.
Whiteman, Donald E.↗
Enhancing the usability of CRT displays in test flight monitoring
Enhancing the usability of Mission Control Center (MCC) CRT displays stands to improve the quality, productivity, and safety of flight-test research at the NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility. The results of this research suggests that much can be done to assist the user and improve the quality of flight research through the enhancement of current displays. This research has applications to a variety of flight data monitoring displays.
Granaas, Michael M.↗
Integrating Test Results With Analysis to Improve Safe Separation Flight Tests
Although extensive ground testing, utilizing both the Captive Trajectory system (CTS) and grid method, generally precedes flight testing of new aircraft/weapon combinations, the flight test results often do not match the wind tunnel predictions. These discrepancies are generally attributed to model scale, wind tunnel test errors and Reynolds Number effects, and may have been the cause of several previous aircraft/weapon incidents. The paper describes the procedure used at the Naval Air Warfare Center, Aircraft Division, Warminster (NAWCADWAR) during the early phases of wind tunnel testing and analysis, as well as subsequent flight testing to validate the predicted trajectories. This approach is designed to improve the safety of the flight tests for the critical portions of the aircraft envelope.
Flight Testing↗
Microbial Monitoring of Pathogens by Comparing Multiple Real-Time PCR Platforms for Potential Space Applications
The International Space Station (ISS) is a closed environment wi~h rotations of crew and equipment each introducing their own microbial flora making it necessary to monitor the air, surfaces, and water for microbial contamination. Current microbial monitoring includes labor and time intensive methods to enumerate total bacterial and fungal cells with limited characterization during in-flight testing. Although this culture-based method has been sufficient for monitoring the ISS, future long duration missions will need to perform more comprehensive characterization in-flight, since sample return and ground characterization may not be available. A workshop was held in 2011 at the Johnson Space Center to discuss alternative methodologies and technologies suitable for microbial monitoring for these longterm exploration missions where molecular-based methodologies, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), were recommended. In response, a multi-center (Marshall Space Flight Center, Johnson Space Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Kennedy Space Center) collaborative research effort was initiated to explore novel commercial-off-the-shelf hardware options for spaceflight environmental monitoring. The goal was to evaluate quantitative/semi-quantitative PCR approaches to space applications for low cost in-flight rapid identification of microorganisms affecting crew safety. The initial phase of this project identified commercially available platforms that could be minimally modified to perform nominally in microgravity followed by proof-of-concept testing on the highest qualifying candidates with a universally available test organism, Salmonella enterica. The platforms evaluated during proof-of-concept testing included the iCubate 2.0(TradeMark) (iCubate, Huntsville, AL), RAZOR EX (BioFire Diagnostics; Salt Lake City, Utah) and SmartCycler(TradeMark) (Cepheid; Sunnyvale, CA). The analysis identified two potential technologies (iCubate 2.0 and RAZOR EX) that were able to perform sample-to-answer testing with cell sample concentrations between SO to 400 cells. In addition, the commercial systems were evaluated for initial flight safety and readiness, sample concentration needs were reviewed, and a competitive procurement of commercially available platforms was initiated.
Birmele, Michele↗
Safety of Spaceflight Participants Aboard Suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicles
The anticipated advent of the U.S. Government sponsoring human-tended research on commercial suborbital flights necessitates the establishment of safety review procedures for federal agencies to allow government-sponsored spaceflight participants (SFPs) aboard these vehicles. Safety practices for National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) personnel aboard aircraft, orbital rockets and platforms, and a non- NASA vehicle, the Soyuz, are summarized. The valuable “Recommended Practices for Human Space Flight Occupant Safety,” published by the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA-AST) in 2014, are summarized. Medical recommendations for operationally critical flight crewmembers, published by the Aerospace Medical Association Commercial Spaceflight Working Group, are reviewed. FAA-AST approved SFP training available at three U.S. commercial companies is summarized. Activities of ASTM International Committee F47 on Commercial Spaceflight, formed in 2016, are reviewed. Finally, safety comparisons are made with another challenging environment, deep sea submersibles.
space transportation↗
Active Learning with Rationales for Identifying Operationally Significant Anomalies in Aviation
A major focus of the commercial aviation community is discovery of unknown safety events in flight operations data. Data-driven unsupervised anomaly detection methods are better at capturing unknown safety events compared to rule-based methods which only look for known violations. However, not all statistical anomalies that are discovered by these unsupervised anomaly detection methods are operationally significant (e.g., represent a safety concern). Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) have to spend significant time reviewing these statistical anomalies individually to identify a few operationally significant ones. In this paper we propose an active learning algorithm that incorporates SME feedback in the form of rationales to build a classifier that can distinguish between uninteresting and operationally significant anomalies. Experimental evaluation on real aviation data shows that our approach improves detection of operationally significant events by as much as 75% compared to the state-of-the-art. The learnt classifier also generalizes well to additional validation data sets.
anomaly detection↗
NASA Research Being Shared Through Live, Interactive Video Tours
On June 2, 2000, the NASA Glenn Research Center Learning Technologies Project (LTP) coordinated the first live remote videoconferencing broadcast from a Glenn facility. The historic event from Glenn's Icing Research Tunnel featured wind tunnel technicians and researchers performing an icing experiment, obtaining results, and discussing the relevance to everyday flight operations and safety. After a brief overview of its history, students were able to "walk through" the tunnel, stand in the control room, and observe a live icing experiment that demonstrated how ice would grow on an airplane wing in flight through an icing cloud. The tour was interactive, with a spirited exchange of questions and explanations between the students and presenters. The virtual tour of the oldest and largest refrigerated icing research tunnel in the world was the second of a series of videoconferencing connections with the AP Physics students at Bay Village High School, Bay Village, Ohio. The first connection, called Aircraft Safety and Icing Research, introduced the Tailplane Icing Program. In an effort to improve aircraft safety by reducing the number of in-flight icing events, Glenn's Icing Branch uses its icing research aircraft to conduct flight tests. The presenter engaged the students in discussions of basic aircraft flight mechanics and the function of the horizontal tailplane, as well as the effect of ice on airfoil (wing or tail) surfaces. A brief video of actual flight footage provided a view of the pilot's actions and reactions and of the horizon during tailplane icing conditions.
Petersen, Ruth A.↗
Initial Demonstration of the Real-Time Safety Monitoring Framework for the National Airspace System Using Flight Data
As new operational paradigms and additional aircraft are being introduced into the National Airspace System (NAS), maintaining safety in such a rapidly growing environment becomes more challenging. It is therefore desirable to have an automated framework to provide an overview of the current safety of the airspace at different levels of granularity, as well an understanding of how the state of the safety will evolve into the future given the anticipated flight plans, weather forecast, predicted health of assets in the airspace, and so on. Towards this end, as part of our earlier work, we formulated the Real-Time Safety Monitoring (RTSM) framework for monitoring and predicting the state of safety and to predict unsafe events. In our previous work, the RTSM framework was demonstrated in simulation on three different constructed scenarios. In this paper, we further develop the framework and demonstrate it on real flight data from multiple data sources. Specifically, the flight data is obtained through the Shadow Mode Assessment using Realistic Technologies for the National Airspace System (SMART-NAS) Testbed that serves as a central point of collection, integration, and access of information from these different data sources. By testing and evaluating using real-world scenarios, we may accelerate the acceptance of the RTSM framework towards deployment. In this paper we demonstrate the framework's capability to not only estimate the state of safety in the NAS, but predict the time and location of unsafe events such as a loss of separation between two aircraft, or an aircraft encountering convective weather. The experimental results highlight the capability of the approach, and the kind of information that can be provided to operators to improve their situational awareness in the context of safety.
Real-time Safety Monitoring↗
An Impact-Location Estimation Algorithm for Subsonic Uninhabited Aircraft
An impact-location estimation algorithm is being used at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center to support range safety for uninhabited aerial vehicle flight tests. The algorithm computes an impact location based on the descent rate, mass, and altitude of the vehicle and current wind information. The predicted impact location is continuously displayed on the range safety officer's moving map display so that the flightpath of the vehicle can be routed to avoid ground assets if the flight must be terminated. The algorithm easily adapts to different vehicle termination techniques and has been shown to be accurate to the extent required to support range safety for subsonic uninhabited aerial vehicles. This paper describes how the algorithm functions, how the algorithm is used at NASA Dryden, and how various termination techniques are handled by the algorithm. Other approaches to predicting the impact location and the reasons why they were not selected for real-time implementation are also discussed.
Bauer, Jeffrey E.↗
Agent Architecture for Aviation Data Integration System
This paper describes the proposed agent-based architecture of the Aviation Data Integration System (ADIS). ADIS is a software system that provides integrated heterogeneous data to support aviation problem-solving activities. Examples of aviation problem-solving activities include engineering troubleshooting, incident and accident investigation, routine flight operations monitoring, safety assessment, maintenance procedure debugging, and training assessment. A wide variety of information is typically referenced when engaging in these activities. Some of this information includes flight recorder data, Automatic Terminal Information Service (ATIS) reports, Jeppesen charts, weather data, air traffic control information, safety reports, and runway visual range data. Such wide-ranging information cannot be found in any single unified information source. Therefore, this information must be actively collected, assembled, and presented in a manner that supports the users problem-solving activities. This information integration task is non-trivial and presents a variety of technical challenges. ADIS has been developed to do this task and it permits integration of weather, RVR, radar data, and Jeppesen charts with flight data. ADIS has been implemented and used by several airlines FOQA teams. The initial feedback from airlines is that such a system is very useful in FOQA analysis. Based on the feedback from the initial deployment, we are developing a new version of the system that would make further progress in achieving following goals of our project.
Kulkarni, Deepak↗
International Cooperation in the Field of International Space Station (ISS) Payload Safety
In the frame of the International Space Station (ISS) Program cooperation, in 1998, the European Space Agency (ESA) approached the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with the unique concept of a Payload Safety Review Panel (PSRP) "franchise" based at the European Space Technology Center (ESTEC), where the panel would be capable of autonomously reviewing flight hardware for safety. This paper will recount the course of an ambitious idea as it progressed into a fully functional reality. It will show how a panel initially conceived at NASA to serve a national programme has evolved into an international safety cooperation asset. The PSRP established at NASA began reviewing ISS payloads approximately in late 1994 or early 1995 as an expansion of the pre-existing Shuttle Program PSRP. This paper briefly describes the fundamental Shuttle safety process and the establishment of the safety requirements for payloads intending to use the Space Transportation System and International Space Station (ISS). The paper will also offer some historical statistics about the experiments that completed the payload safety process for Shuttle and ISS. The paper 1 then presents the background of ISS agreements and international treaties that had to be taken into account when establishing the ESA PSRP. The detailed franchising model will be expounded upon, followed by an outline of the cooperation charter approved by the NASA Associate Administrator, Office of Space Flight, and ESA Director of Manned Spaceflight and Microgravity. The resulting ESA PSRP implementation and its success statistics to date will then be addressed. Additionally the paper presents the ongoing developments with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The discussion will conclude with ideas for future developments, such to achieve a fully integrated international system of payload safety panels for ISS.
Heimann, Timothy↗
Analysis and moving base simulation of transition configuration management aspects of a powered lift aircraft
A study aimed at the implementation of a configuration management flight control system is reported. The system is designed to take the guesswork out of, and improve the operational safety of, transition flight in the region from cruise to STOL. Potential improvements in the trim configuration management aspects of the transition process are described.
Johnson, W. A.↗
Aviation Data Integration System
During the analysis of flight data and safety reports done in ASAP and FOQA programs, airline personnel are not able to access relevant aviation data for a variety of reasons. We have developed the Aviation Data Integration System (ADIS), a software system that provides integrated heterogeneous data to support safety analysis. Types of data available in ADIS include weather, D-ATIS, RVR, radar data, and Jeppesen charts, and flight data. We developed three versions of ADIS to support airlines. The first version has been developed to support ASAP teams. A second version supports FOQA teams, and it integrates aviation data with flight data while keeping identification information inaccessible. Finally, we developed a prototype that demonstrates the integration of aviation data into flight data analysis programs. The initial feedback from airlines is that ADIS is very useful in FOQA and ASAP analysis.
Kulkarni, Deepak↗