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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1994

Reference manual for the Thermal Analyst's Help Desk Expert System

This document provides technical information and programming guidance for the maintenance and future development of the Thermal Analyst's Help Desk. Help Desk is an expert system that operates within the EXSYSTM expert system shell, and is used to determine first approximations of thermal capacity for spacecraft and instruments. The five analyses supported in Help Desk are: (1) surface area required for a radiating surface, (2) equilibrium temperature of a surface, (3) enclosure temperature and heat loads for a defined position in orbit, (4) enclosure temperature and heat loads over a complete orbit and, (5) selection of appropriate surface properties. The two geometries supported by Help Desk are a single flat plate and a rectangular box enclosure. The technical information includes the mathematical approach and analytical derivations used in the analyses such as: radiation heat balance, view factor calculation, and orbit determination with coordinate transformation. The programming guide for developers describes techniques for enhancement of Help Desk. Examples are provided showing the addition of new features, user interface development and enhancement, and external program interfaces.

Ormsby, Rachel A.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Preparing for Mars: The Evolvable Mars Campaign 'Proving Ground' Approach

As the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) prepares to extend human presence beyond Low Earth Orbit, we are in the early stages of planning missions within the framework of an Evolvable Mars Campaign. Initial missions would be conducted in near-Earth cis-lunar space and would eventually culminate in extended duration crewed missions on the surface of Mars. To enable such exploration missions, critical technologies and capabilities must be identified, developed, and tested. NASA has followed a principled approach to identify critical capabilities and a "Proving Ground" approach is emerging to address testing needs. The Proving Ground is a period subsequent to current International Space Station activities wherein exploration-enabling capabilities and technologies are developed and the foundation is laid for sustained human presence in space. The Proving Ground domain essentially includes missions beyond Low Earth Orbit that will provide increasing mission capability while reducing technical risks. Proving Ground missions also provide valuable experience with deep space operations and support the transition from "Earth-dependence" to "Earth-independence" required for sustainable space exploration. A Technology Development Assessment Team identified a suite of critical technologies needed to support the cadence of exploration missions. Discussions among mission planners, vehicle developers, subject-matter-experts, and technologists were used to identify a minimum but sufficient set of required technologies and capabilities. Within System Maturation Teams, known challenges were identified and expressed as specific performance gaps in critical capabilities, which were then refined and activities required to close these critical gaps were identified. Analysis was performed to identify test and demonstration opportunities for critical technical capabilities across the Proving Ground spectrum of missions. This suite of critical capabilities is expected to provide the foundation required to enable a variety of possible destinations and missions consistent with the Evolvable Mars Campaign.. The International Space Station will be used to the greatest extent possible for exploration capability and technology development. Beyond this, NASA is evaluating a number of options for Proving Ground missions. An "Asteroid Redirect Mission" will demonstrate needed capabilities (e.g., Solar Electric Propulsion) and transportation systems for the crew (i.e., Space Launch System and Orion) and for cargo (i.e., Asteroid Redirect Vehicle). The Mars 2020 mission and follow-on robotic precursor missions will gather Mars surface environment information and will mature technologies. NASA is considering emplacing a small pressurized module in cis-lunar space to support crewed operations of increasing duration and to serve as a platform for critical exploration capabilities testing (e.g., radiation mitigation; extended duration deep space habitation). In addition, "opportunistic mission operations" could demonstrate capabilities not on the Mars critical path that may, nonetheless, enhance exploration operations (e.g., teleoperations, crew assisted Mars sample return). The Proving Ground may also include "pathfinder" missions to test and demonstrate specific capabilities at Mars (e.g., entry, descent, and landing). This paper describes the (1) process used to conduct an architecture-driven technology development assessment, (2) exploration mission critical and supporting capabilities, and (3) approach for addressing test and demonstration opportunities encompassing the spectrum of flight elements and destinations consistent with the Evolvable Mars Campaign.

Bobskill, Marianne R.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Standards Roadmapping for Mission Assurance in Commercial Spaceflight

This paper explores the application of established roadmapping approaches in standards planning and roadmap development to support mission assurance objectives. Mission assurance requires proactive planning across multiple domains including technical, schedule, cost, organizational, and policy. The intersection of these domains happens at the enterprise level, and enterprise systems engineering processes can systematically guide mission assurance activities, including development of standards roadmaps. Standards planning and development is a critical contributor to an effective mission assurance strategy, although standards are often developed and adopted reactively. Technology and standards planning is a key Enterprise Process Management activity, as identified by the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge, and technology and standards roadmaps are strategic tools used to enable that process. Technology roadmapping has proven effective in guiding enterprise architecture and concept design, and standards planning supports enterprise requirements definition and management. However, there are limited methodologies to guide such standards planning activities. The application of technology roadmapping principles to standards planning formalizes the process and establishes a repeatable framework for standards development and integration. The framework development described in this paper fills a methodological gap by adapting proven roadmapping techniques to standards planning. Through a comparison of roadmapping methodologies and a case study analysis, this approach outlines a systematic process for anticipating and planning standards needs. In the case of developing a standards integration roadmap for NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA), technology roadmapping principles were adapted to develop a roadmap framework to allow NASA and OSMA to define an agency-wide standards integration plan for commercial and industry safety and mission assurance standards. The outcome highlights key adaptations required for roadmapping in a standards context and describes the process steps to formalize a standards planning activity. The roadmapping framework adapted for standards development and integration enables more strategic, forward-looking standards planning and allows for better alignment between evolving capabilities and mission assurance requirements. Beyond its application to mission assurance, this methodology can be transferred to other domains requiring standards development, providing a systematic approach that integrates systems engineering principles into policy strategy and decision-making processes.

Enterprise Systems Engineering↗
NASA NTRS2012

SPS-ALPHA: The First Practical Solar Power Satellite via Arbitrarily Large Phased Array

The vision of delivering solar power to Earth from platforms in space has been known for decades. However, early architectures to accomplish this vision were technically complex and unlikely to prove economically viable. Some of the issues with these earlier solar power satellite (SPS) concepts – particularly involving technical feasibility – were addressed by NASA’s space solar power (SSP) studies and technology research in the mid-to-late 1990s. Despite that progress, ten years ago a number of key technical and economic uncertainties remained. A new SPS concept has been proposed that resolves many, if not all, of those uncertainties: “SPSALPHA” (Solar Power Satellite by means of Arbitrarily Large Phased Array). During 2011-2012 the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program supported a Phase 1 “SPS-ALPHA” project, the goal of which was to establish the technical and economic viability of the SPS-ALPHA concept to an early TRL 3 – analytical proof-of-concept – and provide a framework for further study and technology development. The objectives of this project were to: (1) conduct an initial end-to-end systems analysis of the SPS-ALPHA concept in order to determine its technical feasibility; (2) identify and assess in greater detail the key technology challenges inherent in the architecture (including figures of merit for each critical technology area); (3) conduct an initial evaluation of the economic viability of the concept (as a function of key performance parameters); and, (4) define a preliminary roadmap for the further development of the SPS-ALPHA concept.

Mankins, John↗
NASA NTRS2007

The NASA "PERS" Program: Solid Polymer Electrolyte Development for Advanced Lithium-Based Batteries

In fiscal year 2000, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) established a collaborative effort to support the development of polymer-based, lithium-based cell chemistries and battery technologies to address the next generation of aerospace applications and mission needs. The ultimate objective of this development program, which was referred to as the Polymer Energy Rechargeable System (PERS), was to establish a world-class technology capability and U.S. leadership in polymer-based battery technology for aerospace applications. Programmatically, the PERS initiative exploited both interagency collaborations to address common technology and engineering issues and the active participation of academia and private industry. The initial program phases focused on R&D activities to address the critical technical issues and challenges at the cell level. Out of a total of 38 proposals received in response to a NASA Research Announcement (NRA) solicitation, 18 proposals (13 contracts and 5 grants) were selected for initial award to address these technical challenges. Brief summaries of technical approaches, results and accomplishments of the PERS Program development efforts are presented. With Agency support provided through FY 2004, the PERS Program efforts were concluded in 2005, as internal reorganizations and funding cuts resulted in shifting programmatic priorities within NASA. Technically, the PERS Program participants explored, to various degrees over the lifetime of the formal program, a variety of conceptual approaches for developing and demonstrating performance of a viable advanced solid polymer electrolyte possessing the desired attributes, as well as several participants addressing all components of an integrated cell configuration. Programmatically, the NASA PERS Program was very successful, even though the very challenging technical goals for achieving a viable solid polymer electrolyte material or the overall envisioned long-term, program objectives were not met due to funding reductions. The NASA PERS Program provided research opportunities and generated and disseminated a wealth of new scientific knowledge and technical competencies within the polymer electrolyte area.

Baldwin, Richard S.↗
NASA NTRS1993

NASA safety program activities in support of the Space Exploration Initiatives Nuclear Propulsion program

The activities of the joint NASA/DOE/DOD Nuclear Propulsion Program Technical Panels have been used as the basis for the current development of safety policies and requirements for the Space Exploration Initiatives (SEI) Nuclear Propulsion Technology development program. The Safety Division of the NASA Office of Safety and Mission Quality has initiated efforts to develop policies for the safe use of nuclear propulsion in space through involvement in the joint agency Nuclear Safety Policy Working Group (NSPWG), encouraged expansion of the initial policy development into proposed programmatic requirements, and suggested further expansion into the overall risk assessment and risk management process for the NASA Exploration Program. Similar efforts are underway within the Department of Energy to ensure the safe development and testing of nuclear propulsion systems on Earth. This paper describes the NASA safety policy related to requirements for the design of systems that may operate where Earth re-entry is a possibility. The expected plan of action is to support and oversee activities related to the technology development of nuclear propulsion in space, and support the overall safety and risk management program being developed for the NASA Exploration Program.

Sawyer, J. C., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Medical Data Architecture Project Status

The Medical Data Architecture (MDA) project supports the Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) risk to minimize or reduce the risk of adverse health outcomes and decrements in performance due to in-flight medical capabilities on human exploration missions. To mitigate this risk, the ExMC MDA project addresses the technical limitations identified in ExMC Gap Med 07: We do not have the capability to comprehensively process medically-relevant information to support medical operations during exploration missions. This gap identifies that the current International Space Station (ISS) medical data management includes a combination of data collection and distribution methods that are minimally integrated with on-board medical devices and systems. Furthermore, there are variety of data sources and methods of data collection. For an exploration mission, the seamless management of such data will enable an increasingly autonomous crew than the current ISS paradigm. The MDA will develop capabilities that support automated data collection, and the necessary functionality and challenges in executing a self-contained medical system that approaches crew health care delivery without assistance from ground support. To attain this goal, the first year of the MDA project focused on reducing technical risk, developing documentation and instituting iterative development processes that established the basis for the first version of MDA software (or Test Bed 1). Test Bed 1 is based on a nominal operations scenario authored by the ExMC Element Scientist. This narrative was decomposed into a Concept of Operations that formed the basis for Test Bed 1 requirements. These requirements were successfully vetted through the MDA Test Bed 1 System Requirements Review, which permitted the MDA project to begin software code development and component integration. This paper highlights the MDA objectives, development processes, and accomplishments, and identifies the fiscal year 2017 milestones and deliverables in the upcoming year.

Data management↗
NASA NTRS2007

Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Annual Report 2006

Nothing is as gratifying in space exploration as when we are surprised by the unexpected. Much of our work progresses in an orderly way, from concept to plan to creation to finding. But now and then we are caught off-guard by something startlingly new, and it is these moments that make our hearts race and leave us with many of our most compelling memories. And 2006 was an exceptional year for the unforeseen. One of our orbiters shocked many with stark proof that liquid water, the seemingly long-gone force that reshaped so much of the scenery of Mars, still flows there today,at least in occasional bursts. Another spacecraft caught us by surprise with photos of Yellowstone-like geysers on one of Saturn's seemingly nondescript moons, Enceladus. A spaceborne observatory created to plumb the life histories of stars and galaxies showed off a completely unexpected talent when it revealed the day and night faces of a fire and ice planet far beyond our solar system 40 light-years away. A newly launched Earth observer revealed that the clouds that decorate our own planet are not what we thought them to be in many ways. Of course, not all of the high points of the year arrived on our doorstep in such unexpected ways. There was also great drama when missions came off exactly as planned, such as when Stardust's sample return capsule made a flawless landing in the Utah desert, bringing home samples of cometary and interstellar dust. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter slipped into orbit around the red planet exactly as planned. Numerous other missions and technology programs likewise made great achievements during the year. In all, 17 spacecraft and six instruments were stationed across the solar system, studying our own world, other planets, comets and the deeper universe. All of these achievements were enabled by many teams and systems at the Laboratory. The Deep Space Network of communications complexes across three continents supported all of NASA's solar system missions, and several from our international partners, while looking ahead to reinvent itself for the future. Technologists were at work creating innovations both for NASA missions and terrestrial uses. JPL's community of scientific researchers was equally busy coordinating the science activities of our missions and pursuing independent investigations. None of this would be possible without the support of business and administrative teams dedicated to making the Laboratory's institutional environment as world-class as its technical face, or the public engagement specialists who bring the experience of space to the country's diverse publics. All of our missions in one way or another support our nation's Vision for Space Exploration, which envisages a gradually widening robotic and human presence across the solar system in the years ahead.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NAS↗
NASA NTRS2018

Improving Reliability and Maintainability (R&M) in Space Life Support

This paper considers how to improve the reliability and maintainability (R&M) of future NASA space life support systems. If these systems are procured under an industry contract, defining the R&M requirements would take precedence over providing technical guidance on designing the system. Imposing a specific R&M design could be over constraining. However, the mission may define the overall R&M approach, as the International Space Station (ISS) did by requiring Orbital Replacement Units (ORUs). Before defining the R&M requirements for the next mission, the life support research program should understand and plan the R&M approach. The recent NASA technical standard on R&M has moved away from requiring specific R&M activities during each of the traditional project phases to instead developing and planning to implement the R&M requirements to meet the top level project R&M objectives. The emphasis is on providing the evidence to show that the R&M requirements are met, rather than on conducting specific prescribed R&M activities. The technical standard on R&M defines a comprehensive hierarchy of specific R&M objectives and identifies particular strategies to implement them at each level. That is, the top level R&M objective is defined and then one or more design strategies to implement it are developed immediately, before the next lower objectives are defined and the strategies to achieve those are designed. This step-by-step, top-down approach is similar to the axiomatic design method. The objectives are the R&M requirements, and the strategies are the hardware designs or operations plans developed to meet these requirements. The new R&M process is aligned with the systems design process and helps ensure that the methods to meet the R&M requirements are built into the design.

Jones, Harry W.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Task Load Management in Earth Independent Medical Operations

BACKGROUND: Medical care in spaceflight carries a high task load and can easily overwhelm a small crew. Present day operations in low Earth orbit (LEO) offload most medical tasks to ground teams in mission control. This team includes dozens of flight surgeons, specialists, and engineers and supports the on-orbit crew in monitoring environmental systems, tracking medications, guiding procedures, providing expert advice, and many other tasks. However, the physical limitations of the speed of light and technical limitations of bandwidth, channel capacity, and signal processing mean that missions beyond LEO cannot rely on this level of telemedical support. The further we travel from Earth the more these tasks will fall on the shoulders of the crew and the greater the risk of task saturation to the wellbeing of the crew and the success of the mission. Exploration class space crews will need progressively more robust systems for managing task load as they progress further out in space. OVERVIEW: Medical task management systems will need to assist with two broad categories of tasks; cognitively intensive tasks and procedure execution tasks. In both cases the goal is for the systems to operate in the background with minimal human-in-the-loop intervention. To accomplish this such systems will need to be designed with careful consideration for human factors and human systems integration to maximize efficiency, minimize alarm fatigue, and avoid inadvertently increasing task loads. Finally, the key domains of space medicine tasking can be used to map present day and near future technologies to the areas where they are best suited to support and identify gaps which can be targeted for research and development. DISCUSSION: Task load is a major challenge for Earth Independent Medical Operations to overcome. It will require careful coordination between experts in a variety of fields paying attention to human factors and human systems integration as well as technical and medical expertise. If done well medical task management systems can handle many of the tasks currently run by humans in mission control and enable human crews to maintain terrestrial standards of care in the extraterrestrial environment.

Dana Levin↗
NASA NTRS2010

An Extension of Analysis of Solar-Heated Thermal Wadis to Support Extended-Duration Lunar Exploration

The realization of the renewed exploration of the Moon presents many technical challenges; among them is the survival of lunar surface assets during periods of darkness when the lunar environment is very cold. Thermal wadis are engineered sources of stored solar energy using modified lunar regolith as a thermal storage mass that can supply energy to protect lightweight robotic rovers or other assets during the lunar night. This paper describes an extension of an earlier analysis of performance of thermal wadis based on the known solar illumination of the Moon and estimates of producible thermal properties of modified lunar regolith. The current analysis has been performed for the lunar equatorial region and validates the formerly used 1-D model by comparison of predictions to those obtained from 2-D and 3-D computations. It includes the effects of a thin dust layer covering the surface of the wadi, and incorporating either water as a phase-change material or aluminum stakes as a high thermal conductivity material into the regolith. The calculations indicate that thermal wadis can provide the desired thermal energy and temperature control for the survival of rovers or other equipment during periods of darkness.

Balasubramaniam, R.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Analysis of Solar-Heated Thermal Wadis to Support Extended-Duration Lunar Exploration

The realization of the renewed exploration of the moon presents many technical challenges; among them is the survival of lunar-surface assets during periods of darkness when the lunar environment is very cold. Thermal wadis are engineered sources of stored solar energy using modified lunar regolith as a thermal storage mass that can supply energy to protect lightweight robotic rovers or other assets during the lunar night. This paper describes an analysis of the performance of thermal wadis based on the known solar illumination of the moon and estimates of producible thermal properties of modified lunar regolith. Analysis has been performed for the lunar equatorial region and for a potential outpost location near the lunar south pole. The calculations indicate that thermal wadis can provide the desired thermal energy and temperature control for the survival of rovers or other equipment during periods of darkness.

Balasubramaniam, R.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Analysis of Solar-Heated Thermal Wadis to Support Extended-Duration Lunar Exploration

The realization of the renewed exploration of the Moon presents many technical challenges; among them is the survival of lunar-surface assets during periods of darkness when the lunar environment is very cold. Thermal wadis are engineered sources of stored solar energy using modified lunar regolith as a thermal storage mass that can supply energy to protect lightweight robotic rovers or other assets during the lunar night. This paper describes an analysis of the performance of thermal wadis based on the known solar illumination of the Moon and estimates of producible thermal properties of modified lunar regolith. Analysis has been performed for the lunar equatorial region and for a potential outpost location near the Lunar South Pole. The calculations indicate that thermal wadis can provide the desired thermal energy and temperature control for the survival of rovers or other equipment during periods of darkness.

Balasubramaniam, R.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Universities Earth System Scientists Program

This document constitutes the final technical report for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Grant NAGW-3172. This grant was instituted to provide for the conduct of research under the Universities Space Research Association's (USRA's) Universities Earth System Scientist Program (UESSP) for the Office of Mission to Planet Earth (OMTPE) at NASA Headquarters. USRA was tasked with the following requirements in support of the Universities Earth System Scientists Programs: (1) Bring to OMTPE fundamental scientific and technical expertise not currently resident at NASA Headquarters covering the broad spectrum of Earth science disciplines; (2) Conduct basic research in order to help establish the state of the science and technological readiness, related to NASA issues and requirements, for the following, near-term, scientific uncertainties, and data/information needs in the areas of global climate change, clouds and radiative balance, sources and sinks of greenhouse gases and the processes that control them, solid earth, oceans, polar ice sheets, land-surface hydrology, ecological dynamics, biological diversity, and sustainable development; (3) Evaluate the scientific state-of-the-field in key selected areas and to assist in the definition of new research thrusts for missions, including those that would incorporate the long-term strategy of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). This will, in part, be accomplished by study and evaluation of the basic science needs of the community as they are used to drive the development and maintenance of a global-scale observing system, the focused research studies, and the implementation of an integrated program of modeling, prediction, and assessment; and (4) Produce specific recommendations and alternative strategies for OMTPE that can serve as a basis for interagency and national and international policy on issues related to Earth sciences.

Estes, John E.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Near-infrared mapping spectrometer optical subsystem development and testing

The Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) is one of the four remote-sensing science instruments of the Galileo Orbiter scientific payload. The NIMS scientific objectives require operating the detector and optical subsystem at cryogenic temperatures. The necessity of assembling, aligning, and testing the optics at room temperature and meeting design specifications at the cryogenic operating temperature (130 K) presented a set of challenging technical problems. A systematic approach to the development of athermalized mounts and supporting structures for optical components is described. A technique utilizing the visible spectral range and supplementary ray-trace information for alignment of an infrared instrument is presented. The optical subsystem point-spread function and spatial and spectral resolution were determined at room temperature using selected spectral and spatial targets. Based on thermal-distortion analyses of the structure and mounts, compensators were selected, implemented, and verified at cryogenic temperatures. The selection of the compensator and the overall system performance were verified in a thermal vacuum chamber. Various external and internal calibration targets were used.

Macenka, S. A.↗
NASA NTRS1993

An overview of eight years of activity developing French nickel-hydrogen technology

The French and European Space Agencies (CNES, ESA) have been continuously contributing to the development of synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT) Ni-H2 technology since 1985. An important effort has been devoted to improving scientific knowledge to enhancing industrial experience and to promoting SAFT as an official back up source for the European domestic telecommunications market as a battery supplier. Fundamental aspects have been investigated in both industrial and university labs as essential R&D supports. The objectives of this paper are the following: to explain which technical areas, components, and processes have been covered by our studies; to show the results of this work; to establish the status which has been reached and what the standard SAFT individual pressure vessels (IPV) design's main features are; and to present our plans for the near future.

Jamin, Thierry↗
NASA NTRS1993

Design and application of electromechanical actuators for deep space missions

The annual report Design and Application of Electromechanical Actuators for Deep Space Missions is presented. The reporting period is 16 Aug. 1992 to 15 Aug. 1993. However, the primary focus will be work performed since submission of our semi-annual progress report in Feb. 1993. Substantial progress was made. We currently feel confident in providing guidelines for motor and control strategy selection in electromechanical actuators to be used in thrust vector control (TVC) applications. A small portion was presented in the semi-annual report. At this point, we have implemented highly detailed simulations of various motor/drive systems. The primary motor candidates were the brushless dc machine, permanent magnet synchronous machine, and the induction machine. The primary control implementations were pulse width modulation and hysteresis current control. Each of the two control strategies were applied to each of the three motor choices. With either pulse width modulation or hysteresis current control, the induction machine was always vector controlled. A standard test position command sequence for system performance evaluation is defined. Currently, we are gathering all of the necessary data for formal presentation of the results. Briefly stated for TVC application, we feel that the brushless dc machine operating under PWM current control is the best option. Substantial details on the topic, with supporting simulation results, will be provided later, in the form of a technical paper prepared for submission and also in the next progress report with more detail than allowed for paper publication.

Haskew, Tim A.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 385)

This bibliography lists 536 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System Database. Subject coverage includes: aerospace medicine and physiology, life support systems and man/system technology, protective clothing, exobiology and extraterrestrial life, planetary biology, and flight crew behavior and performance.

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