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At least 667 records · Page 37

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS1989

Advances in space robotics

The problem of the remote control of space operations is addressed by identifying the key technical challenge: the management of contact forces and the principal performance parameters. Three principal classes of devices for remote operation are identified: anthropomorphic exoskeletons, computer aided teleoperators, and supervised telerobots. Their fields of application are described, and areas in which progress has reached the level of system or subsystem laboratory demonstrations are indicated. Key test results, indicating performance at a level useful for design tradeoffs, are reported.

Varsi, Giulio↗

NASA NTRS1975

Design of automatic startup and shutdown logic for a Brayton-cycle 2- to 15-kilowatt engine

The NASA Lewis Research Center is conducting a closed-Brayton-cycle power conversion system technology program in which a complete power system (engine) has been designed and demonstrated. This report discusses the design of automatic startup and shutdown logic circuits as a modification to the control system presently used in this demonstration engine. This modification was primarily intended to make starting the engine as simple and safe as possible and to allow the engine to be run unattended. In the modified configuration the engine is started by turning the control console power on and pushing the start button after preheating the gas loop. No other operator action is required to effect a complete startup. Shutdown, if one is required, is also effected by a simple stop button. The automatic startup and shutdown of the engine have been successfully and purposefully demonstrated more than 50 times at the Lewis Research Center during 10,000 hours of unattended operation. The net effect of this modification is an engine that can be safely started and stopped by relatively untrained personnel. The approach lends itself directly to remote unattended operation.

Vrancik, J. E.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Low Power Transceiver

One of the FREESTAR experiments, the Low Power Transceiver (LPT) experiment is a low-power, lightweight software programmable transceiver prototype technology demonstration that is being developed by NASA as a low-cost S-band spacecraft navigation and communication device. The LPT prototype receives Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite signals for spacecraft navigation support and provides both forward and return, low-rate data communications links to the Merritt Island (MILA) and Dryden Flight Research Facility (DFRC) ground stations and to the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). The experiment is designed to demonstrate the system's ability to do simultaneous communications and navigation, as well as multi-mode communications and reconfiguration. LPT is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and sponsored by NASA/HQ Code M. The LPT experiment consists of one thermally conductive box containing the electronics stack, three S-band antennas and one L-band antenna. The LPT payload uses general Orbiter services, including power control, command, and telemetry provided through the HHC avionics. On-orbit, the LPT payload will be primarily operated via direct communications between LPT and ground stations (MILA, WLPS, or DFRC) and/or TDRSS, with backup command and telemetry capability provided via the hitchhiker avionics and remote Payload Operations Control Center. During operations, LPT will utilize high Sband frequencies for communications. The LPT TDRSS (and GN) forward link (uplink) frequency is 2106.40625 MHz and their TDRSS (and GN) return link (downlink) frequency is 2287.5 MHz (utilizing Left-handed Circular Polarization to work with the TDRSS MA system). Two standard switch panel switches will be utilized to prohibit inadvertent operation of the antenna. An additional inhibit will be provided through the HH avionics power relay to the LPT.

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NASA NTRS2009

Microstrip Antenna for Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture and Sea Surface Salinity

This compact, lightweight, dual-frequency antenna feed developed for future soil moisture and sea surface salinity (SSS) missions can benefit future soil and ocean studies by lowering mass, volume, and cost of the antenna system. It also allows for airborne soil moisture and salinity remote sensors operating on small aircraft. While microstrip antenna technology has been developed for radio communications, it has yet to be applied to combined radar and radiometer for Earth remote sensing. The antenna feed provides a key instrument element enabling high-resolution radiometric observations with large, deployable antennas. The design is based on the microstrip stacked-patch array (MSPA) used to feed a large, lightweight, deployable, rotating mesh antenna for spaceborne L-band (approximately equal to 1 GHz) passive and active sensing systems. The array consists of stacked patches to provide dual-frequency capability and suitable radiation patterns. The stacked-patch microstrip element was designed to cover the required L-band center frequencies at 1.26 GHz (lower patch) and 1.413 GHz (upper patch), with dual-linear polarization capabilities. The dimension of patches produces the required frequencies. To achieve excellent polarization isolation and control of antenna sidelobes for the MSPA, the orientation of each stacked-patch element within the array is optimized to reduce the cross-polarization. A specialized feed-distribution network was designed to achieve the required excitation amplitude and phase for each stacked-patch element.

Ramhat-Samii, Yahya↗

NASA NTRS2020

Hybrid Electric MC-12 Ground Testing Plan Chapter

In the commercial aviation world, hybrid/electric propulsion is a promising technology for fuel, emissions, and noise reduction in support of the challenging goals established by 2050 EU Flightpath/SRIA, NASA ARMD Strategic Implementation Plan, and the US Air Force ATTAM programs. Ongoing results indicate operational benefits are possible in those three technical areas. Considering military applications, hybrid/electric propulsion may yield further significant improvements by enabling new, unorthodox mission capabilities. Potential benefits are expected in the areas of vehicle signature reduction (lower noise, lower exhaust signature), usage in enhanced flight environments, minimized human-in-the-loop workload by offering a platform compatible with future goals of autonomous operations facilitation, maintenance cost reductions, and performance burst/dash energy. Additional synergies are likely when used in conjunction with energy weapons. Some potential areas of mutual interest could include, dusty operations capability, remote supply capability, extended surveillance, dispatch able power, fuel-flexible vehicles, and autonomous rescue equipment. Many of the key technologies that have been demonstrated in ground operation must now be qualified for altitude conditions. We expect to have many flight qualified powertrain systems over the next decade for military planners to choose from for new future battlefield capability. This requires new flight-weight and flight-efficient powertrain components, fault tolerant power management, and electromagnetic interference mitigation technologies. Moreover, initial studies indicate some combination of ambient and cryogenic thermal management and relatively high bus voltages when compared to state of practice will be required to achieve a net system benefit. Developing all these powertrain technologies within a realistic aircraft architectural geometry and under realistic operational conditions requires a unique electric aircraft test bed. The MC-12 surveillance aircraft is an ideal military aircraft for demonstrating some of the benefits of incorporating hybrid electric propulsion. This report details an approach for full-scale ground-based altitude testing the hybrid electric MC-12 powertrain through a full flight profile.

military electric aircraft propulsion↗

NASA NTRS1988

Time-delayed operation of a telerobot via geosynchronous relay

Operation of a telerobot is compromised if a time delay of more than a few hundred milliseconds exists between the operator and remote manipulator. However, the most economically attractive way to perform telerobotic functions such as assembly, maintenance, and repair in Earth orbit is via geosynchronous relay satellites to a ground-based operator. This induces loop delays from one-half to two seconds, depending on how many relays are involved. Such large delays makes direct master-slave, force-reflecting teleoperated systems infeasible. Research at JPL on a useful telerobot that operates with such time delays is described.

Wilcox, Brian H.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Project summary

California Polytechnic State University's design project for the 1990-91 school year was the design of a close air support aircraft. There were eight design groups that participated and were given requests for proposals. These proposals contained mission specifications, particular performance and payload requirements, as well as the main design drivers. The mission specifications called for a single pilot weighing 225 lb with equipment. The design mission profile consisted of the following: (1) warm-up, taxi, take off, and accelerate to cruise speed; (2) dash at sea level at 500 knots to a point 250 nmi from take off; (3) combat phase, requiring two combat passes at 450 knots that each consist of a 360 deg turn and an energy increase of 4000 ft. - at each pass, half of air-to-surface ordnance is released; (4) dash at sea level at 500 knots 250 nmi back to base; and (5) land with 20 min of reserve fuel. The request for proposal also specified the following performance requirements with 50 percent internal fuel and standard stores: (1) the aircraft must be able to accelerate from Mach 0.3 to 0.5 at sea level in less than 20 sec; (2) required turn rates are 4.5 sustained g at 450 knots at sea level; (3) the aircraft must have a reattack time of 25 sec or less (reattack time was defined as the time between the first and second weapon drops); (4) the aircraft is allowed a maximum take off and landing ground roll of 2000 ft. The payload requirements were 20 Mk 82 general-purpose free-fall bombs and racks; 1 GAU-8A 30-mm cannon with 1350 rounds; and 2 AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles and racks. The main design drivers expressed in the request for proposal were that the aircraft should be survivable and maintainable. It must be able to operate in remote areas with little or no maintenance. Simplicity was considered the most important factor in achieving the former goal. In addition, the aircraft must be low cost both in acquisition and operation. The summaries of the aircraft configurations developed by the eight groups are presented.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1972

Detection of ocean chlorophyll from earth orbit

Calculations were made of the magnitude of the optical signature of ocean chlorophyll available to any remote sensor in earth orbit. It was desired to ascertain whether commercially significant concentrations of chlorophyll-A pigments in the ocean would produce a sufficient optical signal at orbital altitudes to operate optical remote sensors, such as those planned for the earth observatory satellite, on clear and hazy days. It was also desired to explore the effect of solar altitude on these optical signals. The best orientation was desired for the field of view for a remote sensor in orbit in order to optimize its ability to detect ocean chlorophyll.

Duntley, S. Q.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Investigation on experimental techniques to detect, locate and quantify gear noise in helicopter transmissions

A robotic system to automate the detection, location, and quantification of gear noise using acoustic intensity measurement techniques has been successfully developed. Major system components fabricated under this grant include an instrumentation robot arm, a robot digital control unit and system software. A commercial, desktop computer, spectrum analyzer and two microphone probe complete the equipment required for the Robotic Acoustic Intensity Measurement System (RAIMS). Large-scale acoustic studies of gear noise in helicopter transmissions cannot be performed accurately and reliably using presently available instrumentation and techniques. Operator safety is a major concern in certain gear noise studies due to the operating environment. The man-hours needed to document a noise field in situ is another shortcoming of present techniques. RAIMS was designed to reduce the labor and hazard in collecting data and to improve the accuracy and repeatability of characterizing the acoustic field by automating the measurement process. Using RAIMS a system operator can remotely control the instrumentation robot to scan surface areas and volumes generating acoustic intensity information using the two microphone technique. Acoustic intensity studies requiring hours of scan time can be performed automatically without operator assistance. During a scan sequence, the acoustic intensity probe is positioned by the robot and acoustic intensity data is collected, processed, and stored.

Flanagan, P. M.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Pressure-Transducer Simulator

Simulation circuit operates under remote, automatic, or manual control to produce electrical outputs similar to pressure transducer. Specific circuit designed for simulations of Space Shuttle main engine. General circuit concept adaptable to other simulation and control systems involving several operating modes. Switches and amplifiers respond to external control signals and panel control settings to vary differential excitation of resistive bridge. Output voltage or passive terminal resistance made to equal pressure transducer in any of four operating modes.

Simon, Richard A.↗

NASA NTRS1980

A study of a space communication system for the control and monitoring of the electric distribution system. Volume 1: Summary

It is technically feasible to design a satellite communication system to serve the United States electric utility industry's needs relative to load management, real-time operations management, remote meter reading, and to determine the costs of various elements of the system. A definition of distribution control and monitoring functions is given. Associated communications traffic is quantified. A baseline conceptual design in terms of operating capability and equipment is described, important factors to be considered in designing a system are examined, and preliminary cost data are provided. Factors associated with implementation are discussed and conclusions and recommendations are listed.

Vaisnys, A.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Applications of airborne remote sensing in atmospheric sciences research

This paper explores the potential for airborne remote sensing for atmospheric sciences research. Passive and active techniques from the microwave to visible bands are discussed. It is concluded that technology has progressed sufficiently in several areas that the time is right to develop and operate new remote sensing instruments for use by the community of atmospheric scientists as general purpose tools. Promising candidates include Doppler radar and lidar, infrared short range radiometry, and microwave radiometry.

Serafin, R. J.↗

DOE OSTI2023

Cyber Framework for Steering and Measurements Collection Over Instrument-Computing Ecosystems

We propose a framework to develop cyber solutions to support the remote steering of science instruments and measurements collection over instrument-computing ecosystems. It is based on provisioning separate data and control connections at the network level, and developing software modules consisting of Python wrappers for instrument commands and Pyro server-client codes that make them available across the ecosystem network. We demonstrate automated measurement transfers and remote steering operations in a microscopy use case for materials research over an ecosystem of Nion microscopes and computing platforms connected over site networks. The proposed framework is currently under further refinement and being adopted to science workflows with automated remote experiments steering for autonomous chemistry laboratories and smart energy grid simulations.

Al Najjar, Anees↗

NASA NTRS2014

Enabling a Science Support Structure for NASAs Global Hawk UASs

In this paper we describe the information technologies developed by NASA for the Winter/Spring 2013/2014, and Fall 2014, NASA Earth Venture Campaigns, Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) and Airborne Tropical TRopopause EXperiment (ATTREX). These campaigns utilized Global Hawk UAS vehicles equipped at the NASA Armstrong (previously Dryden) Flight Research Facility (AFRC), Edwards Air Force Base, California, and operated from there, the NASA Wallops Flight Facility (WFF), Virginia, and Anderson Air Force Base (AAFB), Guam. Part of this enabling infrastructure utilized a layer 2 encrypted terrestrial Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) that, at times, spanned greater than ten thousand miles (AAFB <-> AFRC <-> WFF) and was routed over geosynchronous Ku band communication Satellites directly to the aircraft sensor network. This infrastructure enabled seamless hand off between Satellites, and Satellite ground stations in Guam, California and Virginia, so allowing simultaneous Aircraft Command and Control and Science operations from remote locations. Additionally, we will describe the other elements of this infrastructure, from on-board geo-enabled databases, to real time communications directly from the instruments (in some cases, more than twelve were carried, and simultaneously operated, on one aircraft) to the researchers and other interested parties, world wide.

Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN)↗

NASA NTRS2021

3D Cloud Tomography and Droplet Size Retrieval from Multi-Angle Polarimetric Imaging of Scattered Sunlight from Above

Tomography aims to recover a three-dimensional (3D) density map of a medium or an object. In medical imaging,it is extensively used for diagnostics via X-ray computed tomography (CT). We define and derive a tomographyof cloud droplet distributions via passive remote sensing. We use multi-view polarimetric images to fit a 3Dpolarized radiative transfer (RT) forward model. Our motivation is 3D volumetric probing of vertically-developedconvectively-driven clouds that are ill-served by current methods in operational passive remote sensing. Currenttechniques are indeed based on strictly 1D RT modeling and applied to a single cloudy pixel, where cloud geometrydefaults to that of a plane-parallel slab. Incident unpolarized sunlight, once scattered by cloud droplets, changesits polarization state according to droplet size. Therefore, polarimetric measurements in the rainbow and gloryangular regions can be used to infer the droplet size distribution. This work defines and derives a framework for afull 3D tomography of cloud droplets for both their mass concentration in space and their distribution across arange of sizes. This gridded 3D retrieval of key microphysical properties is made tractable by our novel approachthat involves a restructuring and partial linearization of an open-source polarized 3D RT code to accommodate aspecial two-step iterative optimization technique. Physically-realistic synthetic clouds are used to demonstrate themethodology with rigorous uncertainty quantification, while a real-world cloud imaged by AirMSPI is processedto illustrate the new remote sensing capability

Schechner, Yoav Y.↗

NASA NTRS1973

Remotely manned systems: Exploration and operation in space; Proceedings of the First National Conference, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif., September 13-15, 1972.

Free-flying teleoperator systems are discussed, giving attention to earth-orbit mission considerations and Space Tug requirements, free-flying teleoperator requirements and conceptual design, system requirements for a free-flying teleoperator to despin, and the experimental evaluation of remote manipulator systems. Shuttle-Attached Manipulator Systems are considered, together with remote surface vehicle systems, manipulator systems technology, remote sensor and display technology, the man-machine interface, and control and machine intelligence. Nonspace applications are also explored, taking into account implications of nonspace applications, naval applications of remote manipulators, and hand tools and mechanical accessories for a deep submersible. Individual items are announced in this issue.

Heer, E.↗

NASA NTRS1980

A study of a space communication system for the control and monitoring of the electric distribution system. Volume 2: Supporting data and analyses

It is technically feasible to design a satellite communication system to serve the United States electric utility industry's needs relative to load management, real-time operations management, remote meter reading and to determine the costs of various elements of the system. The functions associated with distribution automation and control and communication system requirements are defined. Factors related to formulating viable communication concepts, the relationship of various design factors to utility operating practices, and the results of the cost analysis are discussed The system concept and several ways in which the concept could be integrated into the utility industry are described.

Vaisnys, A.↗

NASA NTRS2009

Monitoring and Controlling an Underwater Robotic Arm

The SSRMS Module 1 software is part of a system for monitoring an adaptive, closed-loop control of the motions of a robotic arm in NASA s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, where buoyancy in a pool of water is used to simulate the weightlessness of outer space. This software is so named because the robot arm is a replica of the Space Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS). This software is distributed, running on remote joint processors (RJPs), each of which is mounted in a hydraulic actuator comprising the joint of the robotic arm and communicating with a poolside processor denoted the Direct Control Rack (DCR). Each RJP executes the feedback joint-motion control algorithm for its joint and communicates with the DCR. The DCR receives joint-angular-velocity commands either locally from an operator or remotely from computers that simulate the flight like SSRMS and perform coordinated motion calculations based on hand-controller inputs. The received commands are checked for validity before they are transmitted to the RJPs. The DCR software generates a display of the statuses of the RJPs for the DCR operator and can shut down the hydraulic pump when excessive joint-angle error or failure of a RJP is detected.

Haas, John↗