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At least 631 records · Page 35
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2010

Factors Influencing Scanning for Alerts

Aircraft pilots (like operators in many domains) are required to monitor locations for rare events, while concurrently performing their everyday tasks. In many cases, the visual parameters of the alert are such that it is not visible unless directly fixated. For this reason, critical alerts should be designed to be visible in peripheral vision and/or augmented by an audio alarm. We use the term "conspicuity" to distinguish the attention-getting power of a visual stimulus from simple visibility in a single-task context. We have measured conspicuity in an experimental paradigm designed to test the N-SEEV model of attention and noticing (Steelman-Allen et al., HFES 2009). The subject performed a demanding central task while monitoring four peripheral locations for color change events. Visibility of the alerting stimuli was measured separately in a control experiment in which the subject maintained steady fixation without the central task. Thresholds in the dual-task experiments were lower than would be expected based on the results of the control experiment, due to the fact that the subjects actively sampled the alert locations with fixations while performing the central task. Locations of high-frequency alerts are generally sampled more often than locations of low-frequency alerts, and alert location sampling in general increases with practice, presumably because the demands of the central task are reduced.

Mulligan, Jeffrey B.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Evidence Report, Risk of Inadequate Design of Human and Automation/Robotic Integration

The success of future exploration missions depends, even more than today, on effective integration of humans and technology (automation and robotics). This will not emerge by chance, but by design. Both crew and ground personnel will need to do more demanding tasks in more difficult conditions, amplifying the costs of poor design and the benefits of good design. This report has looked at the importance of good design and the risks from poor design from several perspectives: 1) If the relevant functions needed for a mission are not identified, then designs of technology and its use by humans are unlikely to be effective: critical functions will be missing and irrelevant functions will mislead or drain attention. 2) If functions are not distributed effectively among the (multiple) participating humans and automation/robotic systems, later design choices can do little to repair this: additional unnecessary coordination work may be introduced, workload may be redistributed to create problems, limited human attentional resources may be wasted, and the capabilities of both humans and technology underused. 3) If the design does not promote accurate understanding of the capabilities of the technology, the operators will not use the technology effectively: the system may be switched off in conditions where it would be effective, or used for tasks or in contexts where its effectiveness may be very limited. 4) If an ineffective interaction design is implemented and put into use, a wide range of problems can ensue. Many involve lack of transparency into the system: operators may be unable or find it very difficult to determine a) the current state and changes of state of the automation or robot, b) the current state and changes in state of the system being controlled or acted on, and c) what actions by human or by system had what effects. 5) If the human interfaces for operation and control of robotic agents are not designed to accommodate the unique points of view and operating environments of both the human and the robotic agent, then effective human-robot coordination cannot be achieved.

Zumbado, Jennifer Rochlis↗
NASA NTRS2011

Managing Toxicological Risks: The Legacy of Shuttle Operations

Space toxicology greatly matured as a result of research and operations associated with the Shuttle. Materials offgassing had been a manageable concern since the Apollo days, but we learned to pay careful attention to compounds that could escape containment, to combustion events, to toxic propellants, to overuse of utility compounds, and to microbial and human metabolites. We also learned that flying real-time hardware to monitor air pollutants was a pathway with unanticipated speed bumps. Each new orbiter was tested for any excess offgassing products that could pollute the air during flight. In the late 1990s toxicologists and safety experts developed a 5-level toxicity rating system to guide containment of toxic compounds. This system is now in use aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Several combustion events during Shuttle Mir and also during Shuttle free-flight impelled toxicologists to identify hardware capable of monitoring toxic products; however, rapid adaptation of the hardware for the unique conditions of spaceflight caused unexpected missteps. Current and planned combustion analyzers would be useful to commercial partners that wish to manage the risk of health effects from thermal events. Propellants received special attention during the Shuttle program because of the possibility of bringing them into the habitable volume on extravehicular activity suits. Monitors for the airlocks were developed to mitigate this risk. Utility materials, such as lubricants, posed limited toxicological problems because water was not recovered. One clearly documented case of microbial metabolites polluting the Shuttle atmosphere was noted, and this has implications for commercial flights and control of microbes. Finally, carbon dioxide, the major human metabolite, episodically presented air quality problems aboard Shuttle, especially when nominal air flows were obstructed. Commercial vehicles must maintain robust air circulation given the anticipated high density of human occupants.

James, John T.↗
NASA NTRS2011

STS 134, 135 and 26S Return Samples: Air Quality aboard Shuttle (STS-134) and International Space Station

This is a very limited set of samples on which to perform an air quality assessment. However, based on these samples, we have no reason to believe that nominal ISS air is unsafe to breathe. We must continue to be vigilant when dealing with nominal atmospheres in ISS. New, unmanned modules require special attention when the crew first enters. Carbon Monoxide Accumulation aboard ISS: Beginning in late 2008 the nominal concentrations of CO began increasing gradually (Figure 1). The results from samples returned on this flight indicate that the CO concentrations, after dropping in late 2009, have cycled upward and then settled back to concentrations near 2 mg/m3. In any case, these changes are well below the 180-day SMAC for CO, which is17 mg/m3. There is no threat to crew health. Carbon Dioxide: This anthropogenic compound has drawn much attention recently because of the possibility that it could contribute to the effects of intracranial hypertension experienced because of spaceflight-induced fluid shifts. From now on we will maintain a plot (Figure 2) of carbon dioxide concentrations ( SD) by averaging the values found in the 3-5 mini-GSC samples taken each month in diverse locations of the ISS. This will enable us to estimate the average exposure of crewmembers to carbon dioxide during their stay aboard the ISS. In general, concentrations are being maintained below 3.5 mmHg. Figure 1

James, John T.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Fairing Well: Aerodynamic Truck Research at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center

In 1973 engineers at Dryden began investigating ways to reduce aerodynamic drag on land vehicles. They began with a delivery van whose shape they changed dramatically, finally reducing its aerodynamic drag by more than 5 percent. They then turned their attention to tracator-trailers, modifying a cab-over and reducing its aerodynamic drag by nearly 25 percent. Further research identified additional areas worth attention, but in the intervening decades few of those changes have appeared.

Gelzer, Christian↗
NASA NTRS2011

Reusable Solid Rocket Motor - Accomplishment, Lessons, and a Culture of Success

The Reusable Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM) represents the largest solid rocket motor (SRM) ever flown and the only human-rated solid motor. High reliability of the RSRM has been the result of challenges addressed and lessons learned. Advancements have resulted by applying attention to process control, testing, and postflight through timely and thorough communication in dealing with all issues. A structured and disciplined approach was taken to identify and disposition all concerns. Careful consideration and application of alternate opinions was embraced. Focus was placed on process control, ground test programs, and postflight assessment. Process control is mandatory for an SRM, because an acceptance test of the delivered product is not feasible. The RSRM maintained both full-scale and subscale test articles, which enabled continuous improvement of design and evaluation of process control and material behavior. Additionally RSRM reliability was achieved through attention to detail in post flight assessment to observe any shift in performance. The postflight analysis and inspections provided invaluable reliability data as it enables observation of actual flight performance, most of which would not be available if the motors were not recovered. RSRM reusability offered unique opportunities to learn about the hardware. NASA is moving forward with the Space Launch System that incorporates propulsion systems that takes advantage of the heritage Shuttle and Ares solid motor programs. These unique challenges, features of the RSRM, materials and manufacturing issues, and design improvements will be discussed in the paper.

Moore, D. R.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Fracture - An Unforgiving Failure Mode

During the 2005 Conference for the Advancement for Space Safety, after a typical presentation of safety tools, a Russian in the audience simply asked, "How does that affect the hardware?" Having participated in several International System Safety Conferences, I recalled that most attention is dedicated to safety tools and little, if any, to hardware. The intent of this paper on the hazard of fracture and failure modes associated with fracture is my attempt to draw attention to the grass roots of system safety - improving hardware robustness and resilience.

Goodin, James Ronald↗
NASA NTRS2012

Using Total Lightning Observations to Enhance Lightning Safety

Lightning is often the underrated threat faced by the public when it comes to dangerous weather phenomena. Typically, larger scale events such as floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes receive the vast majority of attention by both the general population and the media. This comes from the fact that these phenomena are large, longer lasting, can impact a large swath of society at one time, and are dangerous events. The threat of lightning is far more isolated on a case by case basis, although millions of cloud-to-ground lightning strikes hit this United States each year. While attention is given to larger meteorological events, lightning is the second leading cause of weather related deaths in the United States. This information raises the question of what steps can be taken to improve lightning safety. Already, the meteorological community s understanding of lightning has increased over the last 20 years. Lightning safety is now better addressed with the National Weather Service s access to the National Lightning Detection Network data and enhanced wording in their severe weather warnings. Also, local groups and organizations are working to improve public awareness of lightning safety with easy phrases to remember, such as "When Thunder Roars, Go Indoors." The impacts can be seen in the greater array of contingency plans, from airports to sports stadiums, addressing the threat of lightning. Improvements can still be made and newer technologies may offer new tools as we look towards the future. One of these tools is a network of sensors called a lightning mapping array (LMA). Several of these networks exist across the United States. NASA s Short-term Prediction Research and Transition Center (SPoRT), part of the Marshall Spaceflight Center, has access to three of these networks from Huntsville, Alabama, the Kennedy Space Center, and Washington D.C. The SPoRT program s mission is to help transition unique products and observations into the operational forecast environment. SPoRT has been collaborating with the Huntsville National Weather Service (NWS) Office since 2003 and has since included several other offices to better implement LMA observations into real-time applications. Much of that work has focused on the LMA s ability to detect intra-cloud lightning in addition to cloud-to-ground lightning strikes. Combined, these observations are called total lightning. With total lightning observations, NWS offices can enhance their situational awareness and improve severe weather warnings. Just as importantly, the observed intra-cloud flashes often precede the first cloud-to-ground strike by a few minutes. SPoRT and its partner NWS offices are working to develop visualizations and applications to better utilize these data. However, there is a drawback. The LMAs have a short range of no more than 200 km. This is being addressed with the next generation geostationary satellite, GOES-R, which will boast the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM). SPoRT, in conjunction with NOAA s GOES-R Proving Ground, is working to prepare the end user community for the GLM era using the LMA observations as a demonstration tool. Working collaboratively with our NWS partners, SPoRT is working to determine how best to integrate these future observations to improve both severe storm warnings and lightning safety.

Stano, Geoffrey T.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Learning by Viewing - Nobel Labs 360

First of all, my thanks to the Nobel Lindau Foundation for their inspiration and leadership in sharing the excitement of scientific discovery with the public and with future scientists! I have had the pleasure of participating twice in the Lindau meetings, and recently worked with the Nobel Labs 360 project to show how we are building the world's greatest telescope yet, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). For the future, I see the greatest challenges for all the sciences in continued public outreach and inspiration. Outreach, so the public knows why we are doing what we are doing, and what difference it makes for them today and in the long-term future. Who knows what our destiny may be? It could be glorious, or not, depending on how we all behave. Inspiration, so that the most creative and inquisitive minds can pursue the scientific and engineering discoveries that are at the heart of so much of human prosperity, health, and progress. And, of course, national and local security depend on those discoveries too; scientists have been working with "the government" throughout recorded history. For the Lindau Nobel experiment, we have a truly abundant supply of knowledge and excitement, through the interactions of young scientists with the Nobelists, and through the lectures and the video recordings we can now share with the whole world across the Internet. But the challenge is always to draw attention! With 7 billion inhabitants on Earth, trying to earn a living and have some fun, there are plenty of competing opportunities and demands on us all. So what will draw attention to our efforts at Lindau? These days, word of mouth has become word of (computer) mouse, and ideas propagate as viruses ( or memes) across the Internet according to the interests of the participants. So our challenge is to find and match those interests, so that the efforts of our scientists, photographers, moviemakers, and writers are rewarded by our public. The world changes every day, so there is no one way to go, and everything is an experiment - sounds scientific, yes? I think our partnership with Volker Steger in the Nobel Labs 360 is one of the most interesting I have seen. Computer viewers can see our scientific habitats and begin to experience being there in person, panning a viewpoint up, down, and all around us, and seeing or hearing explanations of what we are doing.

Mather, John C.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Crew Roles and Interactions in Scientific Space Exploration

Future piloted space exploration missions will focus more on science than engineering, a change which will challenge existing concepts for flight crew tasking and demand that participants with contrasting skills, values, and backgrounds learn to cooperate as equals. In terrestrial space flight analogs such as Desert Research And Technology Studies, engineers, pilots, and scientists can practice working together, taking advantage of the full breadth of all team members training to produce harmonious, effective missions that maximize the time and attention the crew can devote to science. This paper presents, in a format usable as a reference by participants in the field, a successfully tested crew interaction model for such missions. The model builds upon the basic framework of a scientific field expedition by adding proven concepts from aviation and human spaceflight, including expeditionary behavior and cockpit resource management, cooperative crew tasking and adaptive leadership and followership, formal techniques for radio communication, and increased attention to operational considerations. The crews of future spaceflight analogs can use this model to demonstrate effective techniques, learn from each other, develop positive working relationships, and make their expeditions more successful, even if they have limited time to train together beforehand. This model can also inform the preparation and execution of actual future spaceflights.

Love, Stanley G.↗
NASA NTRS2014

A Framework for Land Cover Classification Using Discrete Return LiDAR Data: Adopting Pseudo-Waveform and Hierarchical Segmentation

Acquiring current, accurate land-use information is critical for monitoring and understanding the impact of anthropogenic activities on natural environments.Remote sensing technologies are of increasing importance because of their capability to acquire information for large areas in a timely manner, enabling decision makers to be more effective in complex environments. Although optical imagery has demonstrated to be successful for land cover classification, active sensors, such as light detection and ranging (LiDAR), have distinct capabilities that can be exploited to improve classification results. However, utilization of LiDAR data for land cover classification has not been fully exploited. Moreover, spatial-spectral classification has recently gained significant attention since classification accuracy can be improved by extracting additional information from the neighboring pixels. Although spatial information has been widely used for spectral data, less attention has been given to LiDARdata. In this work, a new framework for land cover classification using discrete return LiDAR data is proposed. Pseudo-waveforms are generated from the LiDAR data and processed by hierarchical segmentation. Spatial featuresare extracted in a region-based way using a new unsupervised strategy for multiple pruning of the segmentation hierarchy. The proposed framework is validated experimentally on a real dataset acquired in an urban area. Better classification results are exhibited by the proposed framework compared to the cases in which basic LiDAR products such as digital surface model and intensity image are used. Moreover, the proposed region-based feature extraction strategy results in improved classification accuracies in comparison with a more traditional window-based approach.

Light Detection & Ranging (LIDAR)↗
NASA NTRS2015

The Evolution of Failure Analysis at NASA's Kennedy Space Center and the Lessons Learned

The United States has had four manned launch programs and three station programs since the era of human space flight began in 1961. The launch programs, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Shuttle, and the station programs, Skylab, Shuttle-Mir, and the International Space Station (ISS), have all been enormously successful, not only in advancing the exploration of space, but also in advancing related technologies. As each subsequent program built upon the successes of previous programs, they similarly learned from their predecessors' failures. While some failures were spectacular and captivated the attention of the world, most only held the attention of the dedicated men and women working to make the missions succeed.

metallography↗
NASA NTRS2016

Identification of Fixations in Noisy Eye Movements via Recursive Subdivision

When solving problems, multi-person airline crews can choose whether to work together, or to address different aspects of a situation with a divide and conquer strategy. Knowing which of these strategies is most effective may help airlines develop better procedures and training. This paper concentrates on joint attention as a measure of crew coordination. We report results obtained by applying cross recurrence analysis to eye movement data from two-person crews, collected in a flight simulator experiment. The analysis shows that crews exhibit coordinated gaze roughly one sixth of the time, with a tendency for the captain to lead the first officers visual attention. The degree to which crews coordinate their gaze is not significantly correlated with performance ratings assigned by instructors; further research questions and approaches are discussed.

signal processing↗
NASA NTRS2017

An Unobtrusive System to Measure, Assess, and Predict Cognitive Workload in Real-World Environments

Across many careers, individuals face alternating periods of high and low attention and cognitive workload, which can result in impaired cognitive functioning and can be detrimental to job performance. For example, some professions (e.g., fire fighters, emergency medical personnel, doctors and nurses working in an emergency room, pilots) require long periods of low workload (boredom), followed by sudden, high-tempo operations during which they may be required to respond to an emergency and perform at peak cognitive levels. Conversely, other professions (e.g., air traffic controllers, market investors in financial industries, analysts) require long periods of high workload and multitasking during which the addition of just one more task results in cognitive overload resulting in mistakes. An unobtrusive system to measure, assess, and predict cognitive workload could warn individuals, their teammates, or their supervisors when steps should be taken to augment cognitive readiness. In this talk I will describe an approach to this problem that we have found to be successful across work domains including: (1) a suite of unobtrusive, field-ready neurophysiological, physiological, and behavioral sensors that are chosen to best suit the target environment; (2) custom algorithms and statistical techniques to process and time-align raw data originating from the sensor suite; (3) probabilistic and statistical models designed to interpret the data into the human state of interest (e.g., cognitive workload, attention, fatigue); (4) and machine-learning techniques to predict upcoming performance based on the current pattern of events, and (5) display of each piece of information depending on the needs of the target user who may or may not want to drill down into the functioning of the system to determine how conclusions about human state and performance are determined. I will then focus in on our experimental results from our custom functional near-infrared spectroscopy sensor, designed to operate in real-world environments to be worn comfortably (e.g., positioned into a baseball cap or a surgeons cap) to measure changes in brain blood oxygenation without adding burden to the individual being assessed.

workload collection↗
NASA NTRS2018

Sulfidization Contemporaneous with Oxidation and Metamorphism in CK6 Chondrites

As the most oxidized chondrites and a group of carbonaceous chondrites spanning the range of petrologic types, CK chondrites occupy an extreme in our understanding of the origin and evolution of chondritic parent bodies. With the proposed linkage of CV and CK chondrites and the suggestion that differentiation of a postulated CV-CK asteroid could have differentiated to form a core and established a magnetic dynamo, CK chondrites are receiving considerable attention. Most of this attention has focused on the similarities between CK3 and CV3 chondrites and the origin of each. We have previously argued that melting of an oxidized core could produce a magnetite-sulfide core, rather than the more conventional metal-sulfide core. In this work, we focus on CK6 chondrites to understand the origin of the most highly metamorphosed members of the group as representative of the material that might differentiate to form such an oxidized core.

McCoy, T. J.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Design and Development of Responder: a Notification-Acknowledgment Android OS Phone Application

This paper discusses the design and development of the Android phone application Responder and how it assists Flight Operation Team (FOT) members in handling alerts from a Short Message Service (SMS) text message and email based notification system. The FOT needed a simplified and more powerful tool for receiving, storing, and acknowledging notifications sent from the ground systems automated notification software called Attention! (Registered Trademark). The previous system was to rely on a text message application that comes on a phone. This way was slow, inefficient, and did a poor job of keeping FOT members informed on the state of a situation when multiple notifications are being sent out by Attention! (Registered Trademark). Responder is designed to provide easier viewing and acknowledging of multiple messages. It gives the user a quick look at all recently received messages in an organized and clean manner that prevents notifications from being lost during a large burst of messages. It makes it easier to find and review old messages received and Responder was designed to give the user more flexibility in setting up how and what alerts will notify them when they are received by the phone. Since the implementation of Responder the FOT members are more informed and are able to focus more on problem solving the reason a notification was received then trying to keep up with sending cumbersome acknowledgements over text message or email. Responder is only able to receive and send SMS text messages but by using email to text services provided by the cellular carrier it is able to send and receive emails.

notification↗
NASA NTRS2017

Satellite Contributions to Climate Change Studies

This year, well-deserved attention has been given to longtime NASA employee Katherine Johnson (Figure 1) for her crucial calculations for the flights of the Mercury and Apollo astronauts in the 1960s-attention that has come through the best-selling book Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly and the Oscar-nominated movie based on the book. Johnson is still alive, now 98 years old, and has relayed how thrilled she was with her NASA job and the privilege it afforded her of being part of the grand enterprise of sending human explorers into space. I too, for the past 38 years, have been thrilled to be a part of NASA and to have the privilege to be a participant in one of NASA's other grand enterprises, this one being to use satellites to observe Earth from space, monitor and analyze its changes, and benefit humanity through the knowledge obtained.

Climate Change↗
NASA NTRS2016

Cross Recurrence Analysis as a Measure of Pilots' Coordination Strategy

When solving problems, multi-person airline crews can choose whether to work together, or to address different aspects of a situation with a divide and conquer strategy. Knowing which of these strategies is most effective may help airlines develop better procedures and training. This paper concentrates on joint attention as a measure of crew coordination. We report results obtained by applying cross recurrence analysis to eye movement data from two-person crews, collected in a flight simulator experiment. The analysis shows that crews exhibit coordinated gaze roughly 1/6th of the time, with a tendency for the captain to lead the first officer’s visual attention. The degree to which crews coordinate their gaze is not significantly correlated with performance ratings assigned by instructors; further research questions and approaches are discussed.

cross recurrence analysis↗