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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1981

The Earth Resources Data Project

The Council of State Planning Agencies, in consultation with the National Governor's Association and NASA, initiated the Earth Resources Data Project to encourage the appropriate application of cost-effective science and technology to state natural resources issues and problems. This project was established to provide a focal point for identifying those issues associated with state use of remote sensing and related technology. One project goal is to elevate to the consciousness of state policy and program officials new technologies, such as LANDSAT, by association with major issues to which policy officials are attuned. The project assists the coordination between the states and NASA and promotes communication on those issues. A related project objective is to encourage technical assistance opportunities for states that will promote better use of remote sensing and natural resources data in state programs.

Harwood, P.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Project management techniques for highly integrated programs

The management and control of a representative, highly integrated high-technology project, in the X-29A aircraft flight test project is addressed. The X-29A research aircraft required the development and integration of eight distinct technologies in one aircraft. The project management system developed for the X-29A flight test program focuses on the dynamic interactions and the the intercommunication among components of the system. The insights gained from the new conceptual framework permitted subordination of departments to more functional units of decisionmaking, information processing, and communication networks. These processes were used to develop a project management system for the X-29A around the information flows that minimized the effects inherent in sampled-data systems and exploited the closed-loop multivariable nature of highly integrated projects.

Stewart, J. F.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Aeronautical technology 2000: A projection of advanced vehicle concepts

The Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB) of the National Research Council conducted a Workshop on Aeronautical Technology: a Projection to the Year 2000 (Aerotech 2000 Workshop). The panels were asked to project advances in aeronautical technologies that could be available by the year 2000. As the workshop was drawing to a close, it became evident that a more comprehensive investigation of advanced air vehicle concepts than was possible in the limited time available at the workshop would be valuable. Thus, a special panel on vehicle applications was organized. In the course of two meetings, the panel identified and described representative types of aircraft judged possible with the workshop's technology projections. These representative aircraft types include: military aircraft; transport aircraft; rotorcraft; extremely high altitude aircraft; and transatmospheric aircraft. Improvements in performance, efficiency, and operational characteristics possible through the application of the workshop's year 2000 technology projections were discussed. The subgroups also identified the technologies considered essential and enhancing or supporting to achieve the projected aircraft improvements.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1986

The SIMRAND methodology: Theory and application for the simulation of research and development projects

A research and development (R&D) project often involves a number of decisions that must be made concerning which subset of systems or tasks are to be undertaken to achieve the goal of the R&D project. To help in this decision making, SIMRAND (SIMulation of Research ANd Development Projects) is a methodology for the selection of the optimal subset of systems or tasks to be undertaken on an R&D project. Using alternative networks, the SIMRAND methodology models the alternative subsets of systems or tasks under consideration. Each path through an alternative network represents one way of satisfying the project goals. Equations are developed that relate the system or task variables to the measure of reference. Uncertainty is incorporated by treating the variables of the equations probabilistically as random variables, with cumulative distribution functions assessed by technical experts. Analytical techniques of probability theory are used to reduce the complexity of the alternative networks. Cardinal utility functions over the measure of preference are assessed for the decision makers. A run of the SIMRAND Computer I Program combines, in a Monte Carlo simulation model, the network structure, the equations, the cumulative distribution functions, and the utility functions.

Miles, R. F., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Spaceborne Imaging Radar Project

In June of 1985 the Project Initiation Agreement was signed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the NASA Office of Space Science and Applications for the Spaceborne Imaging Radar Project (SIR). The thrust of the Spaceborne Imaging Radar Project is to continue the evolution of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) science and technology developed during SEASAT, SIR-A and SIR-B missions to meet the needs of the Earth Observing System (EOS) in the mid 1990's. As originally formulated, the Project plans were for a reflight of the SIR-B in 1987, the development of a new SAR, SIR-C, for missions in mid 1989 and early 1990, and the upgrade of SIR-C to EOS configuration with a qualification flight aboard the shuttle in the 1993 time frame (SIR-D). However, the loss of the shuttle Challenger has delayed the first manifest for SIR to early 1990. This delay prompted the decision to drop SIR-B reflight plans and move ahead with SIR-C to more effectively utilize this first mission opportunity. The planning for this project is discussed.

Herman, Neil↗
NASA NTRS1986

Penetration of sunlight into a canopy - Explicit models based on vertical and horizontal leaf projections

The projections of leaf areas onto a horizontal plane and onto a vertical plane are examined for their utility in characterizing canopies for sunlight penetration (direct beam only) models. These projections exactly specify the penetration if the projections on the principal plane of the normals to the top surfaces of the leaves are in the same quadrant as the sun. Inferring the total leaf area from these projections (and therefore the penetration as a function of the total leaf area) is possible only with a large uncertainty (up to + or - 32 percent) because the projections are a specific measure of the total leaf area only if the leaf angle distribution is known. It is expected that this uncertainty could be reduced to more acceptable levels by making an approximate assessment of whether the zenith angle distribution is that of an extremophile canopy.

Otterman, J.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Aircraft engine hot section technology: An overview of the HOST Project

NASA sponsored the Turbine Engine Hot Section Technology (HOST) Project to address the need for improved durability in advanced aircraft engine combustors and turbines. Analytical and experimental activities aimed at more accurate prediction of the aerothermal environment, the thermomechanical loads, the material behavior and structural responses to loads, and life predictions for cyclic high-temperature operation were underway for the last 7 years. The project has involved representatives from six engineering disciplines who are spread across three work sectors (industry, academia, and NASA). The HOST Project not only initiated and sponsored 70 major activities, but was also the keystone in joining the multiple disciplines and work sectors to focus on critical research needs. A broad overview of the project is given along with initial indications of the project's impact.

Sokolowski, Daniel E.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Toward an expert project management system

The purpose of the research effort is to prescribe a generic reusable shell that any project office can install and customize for the purposes of advising, guiding, and supporting project managers in that office. The prescribed shell is intended to provide both: a component that generates prescriptive guidance for project planning and monitoring activities, and an analogy (intuition) component that generates descriptive insights of previous experience of successful project managers. The latter component is especially significant in that it has the potential to: retrieve insights, not just data, and provide a vehicle for expert PMs to easily transcribe their current experiences in the course of each new project managed.

Silverman, Barry G.↗
NASA NTRS1989

ECUT (Energy Conversion and Utilization Technologies) program: Biocatalysis project

The Annual Report presents the fiscal year (FY) 1988 research activities and accomplishments, for the Biocatalysis Project of the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Conversion and Utilization Technologies (ECUT) Division. The ECUT Biocatalysis Project is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. The Biocatalysis Project is a mission-oriented, applied research and exploratory development activity directed toward resolution of the major generic technical barriers that impede the development of biologically catalyzed commercial chemical production. The approach toward achieving project objectives involves an integrated participation of universities, industrial companies and government research laboratories. The Project's technical activities were organized into three work elements: (1) The Molecular Modeling and Applied Genetics work element includes research on modeling of biological systems, developing rigorous methods for the prediction of three-dimensional (tertiary) protein structure from the amino acid sequence (primary structure) for designing new biocatalysis, defining kinetic models of biocatalyst reactivity, and developing genetically engineered solutions to the generic technical barriers that preclude widespread application of biocatalysis. (2) The Bioprocess Engineering work element supports efforts in novel bioreactor concepts that are likely to lead to substantially higher levels of reactor productivity, product yields and lower separation energetics. Results of work within this work element will be used to establish the technical feasibility of critical bioprocess monitoring and control subsystems. (3) The Bioprocess Design and Assessment work element attempts to develop procedures (via user-friendly computer software) for assessing the energy-economics of biocatalyzed chemical production processes, and initiation of technology transfer for advanced bioprocesses.

Baresi, Larry↗
NASA NTRS1989

Controlled Ecological Life Support System Breadboard Project - 1988

The Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) Breadboard Project, NASA's effort to develop the technology required to produce a functioning bioregenerative system, is discussed. The different phases of the project and its current status are described. The relationship between the project components are shown, and major project activities for fiscal years 1989-1993 are listed. The biomass production chamber to be used by the project is described.

Knott, W. M.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Portable Common Execution Environment (PCEE) project review: Peer review

The purpose of the review was to conduct an independent, in-depth analysis of the PCEE project and to provide the results of said review. The review team was tasked with evaluating the potential contribution of the PCEE project to the improvement of the life cycle support of mission and safety critical (MASC) computing components for large, complex, non-stop, distributed systems similar to those planned for such NASA programs as the space station, lunar outpost, and manned missions to Mars. Some conclusions of the review team are as follow: The PCEE project was given high marks for its breath of vision on the overall problem with MASC software; Correlated with the sweeping vision, the Review Team is very skeptical that any research project can successfully attack such a broad range of problems; and several recommendations are made such as to identify the components of the broad solution envisioned, prioritizing them with respect to their impact and the likely ability of the PCEE or others to attack them successfully, and to rewrite its Concept Document differentiating the problem description, objectives, approach, and results so that the project vision becomes assessible to others.

Locke, C. Douglass↗
NASA NTRS1991

Total Quality Management: Analysis, Evaluation and Implementation Within ACRV Project Teams

Total quality management (TQM) is a cooperative form of doing business that relies on the talents of everyone in an organization to continually improve quality and productivity, using teams and an assortment of statistical and measurement tools. The Assured Crew Return Vehicle (ACRV) Project Office was identified as an excellent project in which to demonstrate the applications and benefits of TQM processes. As the ACRV Program moves through its various stages of development, it is vital that effectiveness and efficiency be maintained in order to provide the Space Station Freedom (SSF) crew an affordable, on-time assured return to Earth. A critical factor for the success of the ACRV is attaining the maximum benefit from the resources applied to the program. Through a series of four tutorials on various quality improvement techniques, and numerous one-on-one sessions during the SSF's 10-week term in the project office, results were obtained which are aiding the ACRV Office in implementing a disciplined, ongoing process for generating fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide the organization. Significant advances were made in improving the processes for two particular groups - the correspondence distribution team and the WATER Test team. Numerous people from across JSC were a part of the various team activities including engineering, man systems, and safety. The work also included significant interaction with the support contractor to the ACRV Project. The results of the improvement activities can be used as models for other organizations desiring to operate under a system of continuous improvement. In particular, they have advanced the ACRV Project Teams further down the path of continuous improvement, in support of a working philosophy of TQM.

Raiman, Laura B.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Aircraft engine hot section technology: An overview of the HOST Project

NASA sponsored the Turbine Engine Hot Section (HOST) project to address the need for improved durability in advanced aircraft engine combustors and turbines. Analytical and experimental activities aimed at more accurate prediction of the aerothermal environment, the thermomechanical loads, the material behavior and structural responses to loads, and life predictions for cyclic high temperature operation were conducted from 1980 to 1987. The project involved representatives from six engineering disciplines who are spread across three work disciplines - industry, academia, and NASA. The HOST project not only initiated and sponsored 70 major activities, but also was the keystone in joining the multiple disciplines and work sectors to focus on critical research needs. A broad overview of the project is given along with initial indications of the project's impact.

Sokolowski, Daniel E.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Generating effective project scheduling heuristics by abstraction and reconstitution

A project scheduling problem consists of a finite set of jobs, each with fixed integer duration, requiring one or more resources such as personnel or equipment, and each subject to a set of precedence relations, which specify allowable job orderings, and a set of mutual exclusion relations, which specify jobs that cannot overlap. No job can be interrupted once started. The objective is to minimize project duration. This objective arises in nearly every large construction project--from software to hardware to buildings. Because such project scheduling problems are NP-hard, they are typically solved by branch-and-bound algorithms. In these algorithms, lower-bound duration estimates (admissible heuristics) are used to improve efficiency. One way to obtain an admissible heuristic is to remove (abstract) all resources and mutual exclusion constraints and then obtain the minimal project duration for the abstracted problem; this minimal duration is the admissible heuristic. Although such abstracted problems can be solved efficiently, they yield inaccurate admissible heuristics precisely because those constraints that are central to solving the original problem are abstracted. This paper describes a method to reconstitute the abstracted constraints back into the solution to the abstracted problem while maintaining efficiency, thereby generating better admissible heuristics. Our results suggest that reconstitution can make good admissible heuristics even better.

Janakiraman, Bhaskar↗
NASA NTRS1992

NASA SBIR abstracts of 1991 phase 1 projects

The objectives of 301 projects placed under contract by the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are described. These projects were selected competitively from among proposals submitted to NASA in response to the 1991 SBIR Program Solicitation. The basic document consists of edited, non-proprietary abstracts of the winning proposals submitted by small businesses. The abstracts are presented under the 15 technical topics within which Phase 1 proposals were solicited. Each project was assigned a sequential identifying number from 001 to 301, in order of its appearance in the body of the report. Appendixes to provide additional information about the SBIR program and permit cross-reference of the 1991 Phase 1 projects by company name, location by state, principal investigator, NASA Field Center responsible for management of each project, and NASA contract number are included.

Schwenk, F. Carl↗
NASA NTRS1988

The 1987-1988 advanced space design projects: Results from the fall semester of 1987 and the spring semester of 1988

Students in Aerospace Engineering (ASE) and Mechanical Engineering (ME) at the University of Texas at Austin completed eight separate design projects under the sponsorship of the NASA/USRA Advanced Space Design Program. During the Fall semester of 1987, ASE and ME students worked on various aspects of a 'bootstrap' lunar base. ASE students concentrated on the overall definition of the base while the ME team designed a convertible lunar lander lower stage. Six design projects were executed during the spring semester of 1988. Aerospace engineering students designed a fast Mars mission crew transfer vehicle, an Earth-orbiting transportation node to support the lunar base, a lunar base construction shack/initial habitat vehicle, and carried out a systems assessment aimed at arresting ozone depletion in the Earth's atmosphere. The ME students designed a lunar surface personnel navigation system and investigated radiation shielding structures for a lunar base. The design objectives, a summary of the results, and selected comments are given concerning each of the projects. Due to the number of projects completed, the reader should refer to the text of the final project reports for additional and detailed information.

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NASA NTRS1992

A recent Cleanroom success story: The Redwing project

Redwing is the largest completed Cleanroom software engineering project in IBM, both in terms of lines of code and project staffing. The product provides a decision-support facility that utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) technology for predicting and preventing complex operating problems in an MVS environment. The project used the Cleanroom process for development and realized a defect rate of 2.6 errors/KLOC, measured from first execution. This represents the total amount of errors that were found in testing and installation at three field test sites. Development productivity was 486 LOC/PM, which included all development labor expended in design specification through completion of incremental testing. In short, the Redwing team produced a complex systems software product with an extraordinarily low error rate, while maintaining high productivity. All of this was accomplished by a project team using Cleanroom for the first time. An 'introductory implementation' of Cleanroom was defined and used on Redwing. This paper describes the quality and productivity results, the Redwing project, and how Cleanroom was implemented.

Hausler, Philip A.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Let your fingers do the walking: The projects most invaluable tool

The barrage of information pertaining to the software being developed for a project can be overwhelming. Current status information, as well as the statistics and history of software releases, should be 'at the fingertips' of project management and key technical personnel. This paper discusses the development, configuration, capabilities, and operation of a relational database, the System Engineering Database (SEDB) which was designed to assist management in monitoring of the tasks performed by the Network Control Center (NCC) Project. This database has proven to be an invaluable project tool and is utilized daily to support all project personnel.

Zirk, Deborah A.↗