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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2023

Computer Human Interface Challenges in Space Exploration

NASA’s plans to return humans to the Lunar surface require overcoming a variety of challenging technical and operational obstacles. In 2022, NASA formed the Extravehicular Activity (EVA) and Human Surface Mobility (HSM) Program (EHP) at the Johnson Space Center with responsibilities including development of space suits and surface mobility systems for Lunar missions. This program includes a Technology Development and Partnerships office chartered to identify high priority gaps in capabilities for Lunar surface mobility and to coordinate resources to close those gaps. This presentation details the EHP technology roadmap for “Informatics and Decision Support,” a subset of spacecraft avionics focused on effective and autonomous crew interaction with spaceflight systems. The gaps, grouped into displays, audio systems, and information technology infrastructure, are largely driven by the unique interaction requirements for human spacecraft and the severe radiation environments beyond low earth orbit. The roadmap identifies ongoing activities and paths to technology infusion into Lunar spacecraft. NASA is seeking input on the content and ideas for alternative paths to gap closure. Closing these gaps is important to successful human operations on the Lunar surface and vital to NASA’s long-term goal of human missions to Mars.

Spacecraft Displays↗
NASA NTRS2002

Science and Observation Recommendations for Future NASA Carbon Cycle Research

Between October 2000 and June 2001, an Agency-wide planning, effort was organized by elements of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to define future research and technology development activities. This planning effort was conducted at the request of the Associate Administrator of the Office of Earth Science (Code Y), Dr. Ghassem Asrar, at NASA Headquarters (HQ). The primary points of contact were Dr. Mary Cleave, Deputy Associate Administrator for Advanced Planning at NASA HQ (Headquarters) and Dr. Charles McClain of the Office of Global Carbon Studies (Code 970.2) at GSFC. During this period, GSFC hosted three workshops to define the science requirements and objectives, the observational and modeling requirements to meet the science objectives, the technology development requirements, and a cost plan for both the science program and new flight projects that will be needed for new observations beyond the present or currently planned. The plan definition process was very intensive as HQ required the final presentation package by mid-June 2001. This deadline was met and the recommendations were ultimately refined and folded into a broader program plan, which also included climate modeling, aerosol observations, and science computing technology development, for contributing to the President's Climate Change Research Initiative. This technical memorandum outlines the process and recommendations made for cross-cutting carbon cycle research as presented in June. A separate NASA document outlines the budget profiles or cost analyses conducted as part of the planning effort.

McClain, Charles R.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Comparisons of some large scientific computers

In 1975, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) began studies to assess the technical and economic feasibility of developing a computer having sustained computational speed of one billion floating point operations per second and a working memory of at least 240 million words. Such a powerful computer would allow computational aerodynamics to play a major role in aeronautical design and advanced fluid dynamics research. Based on favorable results from these studies, NASA proceeded with developmental plans. The computer was named the Numerical Aerodynamic Simulator (NAS). To help insure that the estimated cost, schedule, and technical scope were realistic, a brief study was made of past large scientific computers. Large discrepancies between inception and operation in scope, cost, or schedule were studied so that they could be minimized with NASA's proposed new compter. The main computers studied were the ILLIAC IV, STAR 100, Parallel Element Processor Ensemble (PEPE), and Shuttle Mission Simulator (SMS) computer. Comparison data on memory and speed were also obtained on the IBM 650, 704, 7090, 360-50, 360-67, 360-91, and 370-195; the CDC 6400, 6600, 7600, CYBER 203, and CYBER 205; CRAY 1; and the Advanced Scientific Computer (ASC). A few lessons learned conclude the report.

Credeur, K. R.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Employing Earned Value Management in Government Research and Design - Lessons Learned from the Trenches

To effectively manage a project, the project manager must have a plan, understand the current conditions, and be able to take action to correct the course when challenges arise. Research and design projects face technical, schedule, and budget challenges that make it difficult to utilize project management tools developed for projects based on previously demonstrated technologies. Projects developing new technologies by their inherent nature are trying something new and thus have little to no data to support estimates for schedule and cost, let alone the technical outcome. Projects with a vision for the outcome but little confidence in the exact tasks to accomplish in order to achieve the vision incur cost and schedule penalties when conceptual solutions require unexpected iterations or even a reinvention of the plan. This presentation will share the project management methodology and tools developed through trial and error for a NASA research and design project combining industry, academia, and NASA inhouse work in which Earned Value Management principles were employed but adapted for the reality of the government financial system and the reality of challenging technology development. The priorities of the presented methodology are flexibility, accountability, and simplicity to give the manager tools to help deliver to the customer while not using up valuable time and resources on extensive planning and analysis. This presentation will share the methodology, tools, and work through failed and successful examples from the three years of process evolution.

Simon, Tom↗
NASA NTRS2018

Earned Value Management (EVM) Implementation Handbook

The purpose of this handbook is to provide Earned Value Management (EVM) guidance for the effective application, implementation, and utilization of EVM on NASA programs, projects, major contracts and subcontracts in a consolidated reference document. EVM is a project management process that effectively integrates a project?s scope of work with schedule and cost elements for optimum project planning and control. The goal is to achieve timely and accurate quantification of progress that will facilitate management by exception and enable early visibility into the nature and the magnitude of technical problems as well as the intended course and success of corrective actions.

Planning Package↗
NASA NTRS1985

Overview od STS ground operations/orbiter turnaround STS-1 through STS-7

A review of STS-1 processing is presented as a reference for Shuttle processing time and the magnitude of the associated modifications, discrepancies, technical requirements, and ground systems activities. STS-1 processing provided the basis from which a plan to perform operational turnaround was established. Turnaround processing for Launch and Landing are treated separately to depict more clearly the progress made to reduce turnaround time and manhours expended. Turnaround time was reduced from 187 days for STS-2 to 60 days for STS-7 and landing turnaround was reduced from 14 days to 5 days. Modifications were reduced from 114 to 51. Requirements changes for launch readiness verification were reduced from 536 to 107. Special tests or inspections were reduced from 292 to 52. Anomalies resolved concurrent with processing were reduced from 13,000 to 4,000. Integration in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) is about 10 percent of the flow, and Launch Pad operations comprise 40 percent of the turnaround. The work force has matured and has demonstrated the capability to perform planned and contingency operations. The turnaround program is fast approaching the goal of becoming operational.

Schwartz, R.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Spacelab: An International Success Story

Spacelab is a European-developed and U.S.-operated space laboratory carried in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Orbiter. This story of the Spacelab Development Program traces the program from the origin of the Spacelab concept, describing negotiations and agreements for European participation and the role of Europe and the United States in system development, operational capability development, and utilization planning. It also considers the joint management structure, coordination, and experience in solving management and technical interface problems. The book is not an exhaustive historical treatise, but an informative and readable story of the evolution and technical accomplishments of this unique program in manned space flight and of some of the unusual political and human interest aspects of the program from the viewpoint of one of the key participants.

Lord, Douglas R.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Gravitational wave searches using the DSN (Deep Space Network)

The Deep Space Network Doppler spacecraft link is currently the only method available for broadband gravitational wave searches in the 0.01 to 0.001 Hz frequency range. The DSN's role in the worldwide search for gravitational waves is described by first summarizing from the literature current theoretical estimates of gravitational wave strengths and time scales from various astrophysical sources. Current and future detection schemes for ground based and space based detectors are then discussed. Past, present, and future planned or proposed gravitational wave experiments using DSN Doppler tracking are described. Lastly, some major technical challenges to improve gravitational wave sensitivities using the DSN are discussed.

Nelson, S. J.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Battery and Fuel Cell Development Goals for the Lunar Surface and Lander

NASA is planning a return to the moon and requires advances in energy storage technology for its planned lunar lander and lunar outpost. This presentation describes NASA s overall mission goals and technical goals for batteries and fuel cells to support the mission. Goals are given for secondary batteries for the lander s ascent stage and suits for extravehicular activity on the lunar surface, and for fuel cells for the lander s descent stage and regenerative fuel cells for outpost power. An overall approach to meeting these goals is also presented.

Mercer, Carolyn R.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Atmospheric Reanalyses-Recent Progress and Prospects for the Future. A Report from a Technical Workshop, April 2010

In April 2010, developers representing each of the major reanalysis centers met at Goddard Space Flight Center to discuss technical issues - system advances and lessons learned - associated with recent and ongoing atmospheric reanalyses and plans for the future. The meeting included overviews of each center s development efforts, a discussion of the issues in observations, models and data assimilation, and, finally, identification of priorities for future directions and potential areas of collaboration. This report summarizes the deliberations and recommendations from the meeting as well as some advances since the workshop.

Rienecker, Michele M.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Avionics Architectures for Exploration: Ongoing Efforts in Human Spaceflight

The field of Avionics is advancing far more rapidly in terrestrial applications than in spaceflight applications. Spaceflight Avionics are not keeping pace with expectations set by terrestrial experience, nor are they keeping pace with the need for increasingly complex automation and crew interfaces as we move beyond Low Earth Orbit. NASA must take advantage of the strides being made by both space-related and terrestrial industries to drive our development and sustaining costs down. This paper describes ongoing efforts by the Avionics Architectures for Exploration (AAE) project chartered by NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Program to evaluate new avionic architectures and technologies, provide objective comparisons of them, and mature selected technologies for flight and for use by other AES projects. The AAE project team includes members from most NASA centers, and from industry. It is our intent to develop a common core avionic system that has standard capabilities and interfaces, and contains the basic elements and functionality needed for any spacecraft. This common core will be scalable and tailored to specific missions. It will incorporate hardware and software from multiple vendors, and be upgradeable in order to infuse incremental capabilities and new technologies. It will maximize the use of reconfigurable open source software (e.g., Goddard Space Flight Center's (GSFC's) Core Flight Software (CFS)). Our long-term focus is on improving functionality, reliability, and autonomy, while reducing size, weight, and power. Where possible, we will leverage terrestrial commercial capabilities to drive down development and sustaining costs. We will select promising technologies for evaluation, compare them in an objective manner, and mature them to be available for future programs. The remainder of this paper describes our approach, technical areas of emphasis, integrated test experience and results as of mid-2014, and future plans. As a part of the AES Program, we are encouraged to set aggressive goals and fall short if necessary, rather than to set our sights too low. We are also asked to emphasize providing our personnel with hands-on experience in development, integration, and testing. That we have embraced both of these philosophies will be evident in the descriptions below.

Goforth, Montgomery B.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Asteroid team

The purpose of this task is to support asteroid research and the operation of an Asteroid Team within the Earth and Space Sciences Division at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The Asteroid Team carries out original research on asteroids in order to discover, better characterize and define asteroid properties. This information is needed for the planning and design of NASA asteroid flyby and rendezvous missions. The asteroid Team also provides scientific and technical advice to NASA and JPL on asteroid related programs. Work on asteroid classification continued and the discovery of two Earth-approaching M asteroids was published. In the asteroid photometry program researchers obtained N or Q photometry for more than 50 asteroids, including the two M-earth-crossers. Compositional analysis of infrared spectra (0.8 to 2.6 micrometer) of asteroids is continuing. Over the next year the work on asteroid classification and composition will continue with the analysis of the 60 reduced infrared spectra which we now have at hand. The radiometry program will continue with the reduction of the N and Q bandpass data for the 57 asteroids in order to obtain albedos and diameters. This year the emphasis will shift to IRAS follow-up observations; which includes objects not observed by IRAS and objects with poor or peculiar IRAS data. As in previous year, we plan to give top priority to any opportunities for observing near-Earth asteroids and the support (through radiometric lightcurve observations from the IRTF) of any stellar occultations by asteroids for which occultation observation expeditions are fielded. Support of preparing of IRAS data for publication and of D. Matson for his participation in the NASA Planetary Astronomy Management and Operations Working Group will continue.

Matson, D. L.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Space Station Furnace Facility Management Information System (SSFF-MIS) Development

This report summarizes the chronology, results, and lessons learned from the development of the SSFF-MIS. This system has been nearly two years in development and has yielded some valuable insights into specialized MIS development. General: In December of 1994, the Camber Corporation and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) were contracted to design, develop, and implement a MIS for Marshall Space Flight Center's Space Station Furnace Facility Project. The system was to be accessible from both EBM-Compatible PC and Macintosh platforms. The system was required to contain data manually entered into the MIS as well as data imported from other MSFC sources. Electronic interfaces were established for each data source and retrieval was to be performed at prescribed time intervals. The SOW requirement that predominantly drove the development software selection was the dual-platform (IBM-PC and Macintosh) requirement. The requirement that the system would be maintained by Government personnel influenced the selection of Commercial Off-the-shelf software because of its inherent stability and readily available documentation and support. Microsoft FoxPro Professional 2.6 for Windows and Macintosh was selected as the development tool. This is a software development tool that has been in use for many years. It is stable and powerful. Microsoft has since released the replacement for this product, Microsoft Visual FoxPro, but at the time of this development, it was only available on the Windows platform. The initial contract included included the requirement for capabilities relating to the Work- and Organizational Breakdown Structures, cost (plan and actuals), workforce (plan and actuals), critical path scheduling, trend analysis, procurements and contracts, interface to manufacturing, Safety and Mission Assurance, risk analysis, and technical performance indicators. It also required full documentation of the system and training of users. During the course of the contract, the requirements for Safety and Mission Assurance interface, risk analysis, and technical performance indicators were deleted. Additional capabilities were added as reflected in the Contract Chronology below. Modification 4 added the requirement for Support Contractor manpower data, the ability to manually input data not imported from non-nal sources, a general 'health' indicator screen, and remote usage. Mod 6 included the ability to change the level of planning of Civil Service Manpower at any time and the ability to manually enter Op Codes in the manufacturing data where such codes were not provided by the EMPACS database. Modification 9 included a number of changes to report contents and formats. Modification 11 required the preparation of a detailed System Design Document.

Meade, Robert M.↗
NASA NTRS1988

The proposal entry processor: Telescience applications for Hubble Space Telescope science operations

The Proposal Entry Processor (PEP) System supports the submission, entry, technical evaluation review, selection and implementation of Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observing proposals. The PEP system is described concentrating on features which illustrate principles of telescience as applied to the HST. These principles are applicable to other observatories, both space and ground based. The PEP proposal forms allow a scientist to specify scientific objectives without becoming needlessly involved in implementation details. The Remote Proposal Submission System (RPSS) allows proposers to submit proposals electronically via Telenet, SPAN, and other networks. The RPSS performs syntax and sematic checks on proposals. The PEP uses a fourth generation database system to store proposal information and to allow general queries and reports. The Transformation subsystem uses an expert system written in OPS5 to cast a scientific description of an observing program into parameters used by the planning and scheduling system. The TACOS system is a natural language database which supports the proposal selection process. Technical evaluations for resource usage and duplicate science are performed using rulebased systems.

Jackson, Robert↗
NASA NTRS1980

Satellite power system (SPS) concept definition study. Volume 3: Experimental verification definition

An evolutionary Satellite Power Systems development plan was prepared. Planning analysis was directed toward the evolution of a scenario that met the stated objectives, was technically possible and economically attractive, and took into account constraining considerations, such as requirements for very large scale end-to-end demonstration in a compressed time frame, the relative cost/technical merits of ground testing versus space testing, and the need for large mass flow capability to low Earth orbit and geosynchronous orbit at reasonable cost per pound.

Hanley, G. M.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Solar dynamic technology status for Space Station Freedom application

The objectives of this presentation is to emphasize the (1) rationale to incorporate solar dynamic (SD) systems onto Space Station Freedom (SSF) as the power demand increases onboard SSF, (2) SD technical progress made through the SSF Program, (3) areas of further technology development, and (4) future plans for SD system development. The SD status summary is presented in graph form.

Zernic, Michael J.↗
NASA NTRS1992

The lunar community church: Contributions to lunar living and to evolution of ethical and spiritual thinking

Should religious institutions get interested in lunar settlement? Would their participation make positive contributions or would it discourage creative diversity and interfere with science and good technical judgement? Among the spacefaring nations of today, religion is distinctly separated from the governments that plan and pay for space exploration. However, as we move off the Earth, our art and philosophy will follow our science and technology. Spiritual thinking will follow as part of our culture. It is time to consider in what ways this can occur constructively. Transport of religious values to a lunar base may have positive effects in two ways. First, the social structure of a 'community church' as found in today's United States, supports its members psychologically. Mutual psychological and social support will be needed in a lunar community. Second, our space pioneers will experience a unique view of the universe which may, in their philosophical discussions, forge new ideas in the spiritual realm.

Allton, J. H.↗