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At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2012

Simulation Control Graphical User Interface Logging Report

One of the many tasks of my project was to revise the code of the Simulation Control Graphical User Interface (SIM GUI) to enable logging functionality to a file. I was also tasked with developing a script that directed the startup and initialization flow of the various LCS software components. This makes sure that a software component will not spin up until all the appropriate dependencies have been configured properly. Also I was able to assist hardware modelers in verifying the configuration of models after they have been upgraded to a new software version. I developed some code that analyzes the MDL files to determine if any error were generated due to the upgrade process. Another one of the projects assigned to me was supporting the End-to-End Hardware/Software Daily Tag-up meeting.

Hewling, Karl B., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Master Console System Monitoring and Control Development

The Master Console internship during the spring of 2013 involved the development of firing room displays at the John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC). This position was with the Master Console Product Group (MCPG) on the Launch Control System (LCS) project. This project is responsible for the System Monitoring and Control (SMC) and Record and Retrieval (R&R) of launch operations data. The Master Console is responsible for: loading the correct software into each of the remaining consoles in the firing room, connecting the proper data paths to and from the launch vehicle and all ground support equipment, and initializing the entire firing room system to begin processing. During my internship, I developed a system health and status display for use by Master Console Operators (MCO) to monitor and verify the integrity of the servers, gateways, network switches, and firewalls used in the firing room.

Brooks, Russell A.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Master Console System Monitoring and Control Development

The Master Console internship during the summer of 2013 involved the development of firing room displays and support applications at the John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC). This position was with the Master Console Product Group (MCPG) on the Launch Control System (LCS) project. This project is responsible for the System Monitoring and Control (SMC) and Record and Retrieval (R&R) of launch operations data. The Master Console is responsible for: loading the correct software into each of the remaining consoles in the firing room, connecting the proper data paths to and from the launch vehicle and all ground support equipment, and initializing the entire firing room system to begin processing. During my internship, I created control scripts using the Application Control Language (ACL) to analyze the health and status of Kennedy Ground Control System (KGCS) programmable logic controllers (PLCs). This application provides a system health and status display I created with summarized data for use by Master Console Operators (MCO) to monitor and verify the integrity of KGCS subsystems.

Brooks, Russell A.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Launch Control System Message Reduction

System Monitoring and Control (SMC) message browsers receive many messages daily that operators do not need to see. My job is to reduce the number of messages so that warning and emergency messages can be seen easily and therefore, responded to promptly. There are two methods to reduce messages: duplicate and state-based message correlations. With duplicate message correlation, SMC display the message the first time it shows up. The next times it occurs, a duplicate number will count the number of times the message appears. State-based message correlation is a process in which more informative messages acknowledge less useful ones and send them to history. I also work on correcting the severity level and text formats of messages. I follow two SMC message filtering tenets as I'm working on this project. Firstly, before filtering an offending message, a non-conformance (NC) must be created in order to attempt fixing that message through hardware or software. Only after the NC assessment states that it cannot fix an offending message, it can be filtered by SMC. Secondly, per Launch Control System (LCS) Coding Standards, SMC does not send information messages to the active message browser unless it's a response to an operator action.

correlation↗
NASA NTRS2014

IT Security Support for the Spaceport Command Control System Development

My job title is IT Security support for the Spaceport Command & Control System Development. As a cyber‐security analyst it is my job to ensure NASA's information stays safe from cyber threats, such as, viruses, malware and denial-of-service attacks by establishing and enforcing system access controls. Security is very important in the world of technology and it is used everywhere from personal computers to giant networks ran by Government agencies worldwide. Without constant monitoring analysis, businesses, public organizations and government agencies are vulnerable to potential harmful infiltration of their computer information system. It is my responsibility to ensure authorized access by examining improper access, reporting violations, revoke access, monitor information request by new programming and recommend improvements. My department oversees the Launch Control System and networks. An audit will be conducted for the LCS based on compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). I recently finished analyzing the SANS top 20 critical controls to give cost effective recommendations on various software and hardware products for compliance. Upon my completion of this internship, I will have successfully completed my duties as well as gain knowledge that will be helpful to my career in the future as a Cyber Security Analyst.

IT Security↗
NASA NTRS2014

High-Energy Pulsar Models: Developments and New Questions

The past few years have seen a major advance in observational knowledge of high-energy (HE) pulsars. The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) and AGILE have increased the number of known gamma-ray pulsars by an order of magnitude, its members being divided roughly equally among millisecond pulsars (MSPs), young radio-loud pulsars, and young radio-quiet pulsars. Many new and diverse emission characteristics are being measured, while radio and X-ray follow-up observations increase the pulsar detection rate and enrich our multiwavelength picture of these extreme sources. The wealth of new data has provided impetus for further development and improvement of existing theoretical pulsar models. Geometric light curve (LC) modelling has uncovered three broad classes into which HE pulsars fall: those where the radio profile leads, is aligned with, or lags the gamma-ray profile. For example, the original MSP and original black widow system are members of the second class, requiring co-located emission regions and thereby breaking with traditional notions of radio emission origin. These models imply narrow accelerator gaps in the outer magnetosphere, indicating copious pair production even in MSP magnetospheres that were previously thought to be pair-starved. The increased quality and variety of the LCs necessitate construction of ever more sophisticated models. We will review progress in global magnetosphere solutions which specify a finite conductivity on field lines above the stellar surface, filling the gap between the standard vacuum and force-free (FF; plasma-filled) models. The possibility of deriving phase-resolved spectra for the brightest pulsars, coupled with the fact that the HE pulsar population is sizable enough to allow sampling of various pulsar geometries, will enable much more stringent testing of future radiation models. Reproduction of the observed phase-resolved behavior of this disparate group will be one of the next frontiers in pulsar science, impacting on our understanding of particle acceleration, emission, and magnetosphere geometry. One may now also study evolutionary trends of the measured or inferred quantities, and probe pulsar visibility and population properties such as radiation beam sizes of different pulsar classes, as well as the distribution of spin-down power, gamma-ray luminosity, conversion efficiency, spectral index, and cutoff energy across the population. Lastly, the recent detection of very-high-energy (VHE) pulsations from the Crab pulsar generated quite a few ideas to explain this emission, leading to an extension of standard models and possibly even a bridge between the physics of pulsars and pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe).

gamma rays:↗
NASA NTRS2015

Customer Avionics Interface Development and Analysis (CAIDA) Lab DEWESoft Display Creation

The Customer Avionics Interface Development and Analysis (CAIDA) Lab supports the testing of the Launch Control System (LCS), NASA's command and control system for the Space Launch System (SLS), Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), and ground support equipment. The objectives of the year-long internship were to support day-to-day operations of the CAIDA Lab, create prelaunch and tracking displays for Orion's Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1), and create a program to automate the creation of displays for SLS and MPCV to be used by CAIDA and the Record and Playback Subsystem (RPS).

DEWESoft↗
NASA NTRS2017

Electronics and Software Engineer for Robotics Project Intern

I was assigned to mentor high school students for the 2017 First Robotics Competition. Using a team based approach, I worked with the students to program the robot and applied my electrical background to build the robot from start to finish. I worked with students who had an interest in electrical engineering to teach them about voltage, current, pulse width modulation, solenoids, electromagnets, relays, DC motors, DC motor controllers, crimping and soldering electrical components, Java programming, and robotic simulation. For the simulation, we worked together to generate graphics files, write simulator description format code, operate Linux, and operate SOLIDWORKS. Upon completion of the FRC season, I transitioned over to providing full time support for the LCS hardware team. During this phase of my internship I helped my co-intern write test steps for two networking hardware DVTs , as well as run cables and update cable running lists.

Teijeiro, Antonio↗
NASA NTRS2017

Launch Control Network Engineer

The Spaceport Command and Control System (SCCS) is being built at the Kennedy Space Center in order to successfully launch NASA’s revolutionary vehicle that allows humans to explore further into space than ever before. During my internship, I worked with the Network, Firewall, and Hardware teams that are all contributing to the huge SCCS network project effort. I learned the SCCS network design and the several concepts that are running in the background. I also updated and designed documentation for physical networks that are part of SCCS. This includes being able to assist and build physical installations as well as configurations. I worked with the network design for vehicle telemetry interfaces to the Launch Control System (LCS); this allows the interface to interact with other systems at other NASA locations. This network design includes the Space Launch System (SLS), Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), and the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV). I worked on the network design and implementation in the Customer Avionics Interface Development and Analysis (CAIDA) lab.

Medeiros, Samantha↗
NASA NTRS2017

Command and Control System Software Development

Kennedy Space Center has been the heart of human space flight for decades. From the Apollo Program to the Space Shuttle Program, and now to the coming Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion, NASA will be a leader in deep space exploration for mankind. Before any rockets blast off, there is significant work to be done in preparation for launch. People working on all aspects of spaceflight must contribute by developing new technology that has yet to participate in a successful launch, and which can work with technology already proven in flight. These innovations, whether hardware or software, must be tried and true, and includes the projects to which interns contribute to. For this internship, the objective was to create a data recording system for the developers of a LCS section that records certain messages in the traffic of the system. Developers would then be able to use these recordings for analysis later on, either manually or by an automated test. The tool would be of convenience to a developer as it would be used if the system's main data recorder was not available for tests.

Velasquez, Ricky↗
NASA NTRS2018

Observing Ice Sublimation From Water-Doped Lunar Simulant at Cryogenic Temperatures

NASA's Resource Prospector (RP) mission is intended to characterize the three-dimensional nature of volatiles in lunar polar and permanently shadowed regions. The Near-Infrared Volatile Spectrometer System (NIRVSS) observes while a drill penetrates to a maximum depth of 1 m. Any 10 cm increment of soil identified as containing water ice can be delivered to a heating crucible with the evolved gas delivered to a gas chromatograph / mass spectrometer. NIRVSS consists of two components; a spectrometer box (SB) and bracket assembly (BA), connected by two fiber optic cables. The SB contains separate short- and long-wavelength spectrometers, SW and LW respectively, that collectively span the 1600-3400 nm range. The BA contains an IR emitter (lamp), drill observation camera (DOC, 2048 x 2048 CMOS detector), 8 different wavelength LEDs, and a longwave calibration sensor (LCS) measuring the surface emissivity at four IR wavelengths. Tests of various RP sub-systems have been under-taken in a large cryo-vacuum chamber at Glenn Re-search Center. The chamber accommodates a tube (1.2 m high x 25.4 cm diameter) filled with lunar simulant, NU-LHT-3M, prepared with known abundances of water. Thermocouples are embedded at different depths, and also across the surface of the soil tube. In the chamber the tube is cooled with LN2 as the pressure is reduced to approx. 5-6x10(exp -6) Torr. For the May 2016 tests two soil tubes were prepared with initially 2.5 Wt.% water. The shroud surrounding the soil tube was held at different temperatures for each tube to simulate a warm and cold lunar environment. Table 1 provides a summary of experimental conditions and Figure 1 shows the nominal view of the NIRVSS components, the drill foot, and the top of the soil tube. Once the average soil temperature reached approx. 178 K, drilling commenced. During drilling activities NIRVSS was alternating between obtaining spectra and obtaining images. Here we discuss NIRVSS spectral data obtained during controlled drill percussions.

Roush, T. L.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Customer Avionics Interface Development and Analysis (CAIDA): Software Developer for Avionics Systems

The Customer Avionics Interface Development and Analysis (CAIDA) supports the testing of the Launch Control System (LCS), NASA's command and control system for the Space Launch System (SLS), Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), and ground support equipment. The objective of the semester-long internship was to support day-to-day operations of CAIDA and help prepare for verification and validation of CAIDA software.

Mitchell, Sherry L.↗
NASA NTRS2017

[Network Design of the Spaceport Command and Control System]

I helped the Launch Control System (LCS) hardware team sustain the network design of the Spaceport Command and Control System. I wrote the procedure that will be used to satisfy an official hardware test for the hardware carrying data from the Launch Vehicle. I installed hardware and updated design documents in support of the ongoing development of the Spaceport Command and Control System and applied firewall experience I gained during my spring 2017 semester to inspect and create firewall security policies as requested. Finally, I completed several online courses concerning networking fundamentals and Unix operating systems.

Teijeiro, Antonio↗
NASA NTRS2018

Software Development and Testing Support for the Avionics Systems Telemetry Tool Suite

The Customer Avionics Interface Development and Analysis (CAIDA) team helps to provide modeling and simulation software for the verification of the Launch Control System (LCS). With a new iteration of telemetry tools being developed, extensive work must be done to ensure features are implemented in an efficient manner. The authors worked to develop new functionalities in the telemetry tools, update documentation, and perform various tests on the CAIDA Advanced Telemetry Tool (CATT). This was accomplished with Python through built-in library frameworks. In addition, work needed to be performed to set up a training document for new engineers and interns joining the team in the future. The outcome of this internship was the completion of several new features, unit and functional tests on CATT, thorough documentation, and a developer’s guide to programming under CAIDA.

Negron-Martinez, Antonio Jose↗
NASA NTRS2019

TESS Science Processing Operations Center Pipeline and Data Products

TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) launched on 18-4-2018 to conduct a two-year, near all-sky survey for at least 50 nearby exoplanets for which masses can be obtained. TESS just completed surveying the southern hemisphere, identifying hundreds of candidate exoplanet systems and unveiling a plethora of exciting non-exoplanet astrophysics results, such as asteroseismology, asteroids, and supernova. The TESS Science Processing Operations Center (SPOC) at NASA Ames Research Center processes the image data downlinked from TESS every two weeks to generate a variety of data products hosted at the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). For each approximately 1-month sector, the SPOC calibrates the image data for both 30-minute Full Frame Images (FFIs) and up to 20,000 pre-selected 2-minute target star postage stamps. Simple aperture photometry and systematic error-corrected flux-time series are generated for the 2-minute data. The data products also include co-trending basis vectors (CBVs) and calibration files, such as the Pixel Response Functions (PRF). The archival files are modeled after Kepler's for ease of use, and include Target Pixel Files (TPFs) containing original and calibrated 2-minute image data, Light Curve files (LCs) containing the photometric time series for each 2-minute target, as well as the Data Validation products. New products derived from the FFIs include light curves for the 2-minute targets and CBVs. The TESS Mission is funded by NASA's Science Mission Directorate as an Astrophysics Explorer Mission.

Science Pipeline↗
NASA NTRS2019

TESS Science Processing Operations Center Pipeline and Data Products

TESS launched 18-4-2018 to conduct a two-year, near all-sky survey for at least 50 nearby exoplanets for which masses can be. TESS just completed surveying the southern hemisphere, identifying hundreds of candidate exoplanet systems and unveiling a plethora of exciting non-exoplanet astrophysics results, such as asteroseismology, asteroids, and supernova. The TESS Science Processing Operations Center (SPOC) at NASA Ames Research Center processes the image data downlinked from TESS every two weeks to generate a variety of data products hosted at the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). For each ~1 month sector, the SPOC calibrates the image data for both 30-min Full Frame Images (FFIs) and up to 20,000 pre-selected 2-min target star postage stamps. Simple aperture photometry and systematic error-corrected flux time series are generated for the 2-min data. The data products also include co-trending basis vectors (CBVs) and calibration files, such as the Pixel Response Functions (PRF). The archival files are modeled after Kepler's for ease of use, and include Target Pixel Files (TPFs) containing original and calibrated 2-min image data, Light Curve files (LCs) containing the photometric time series for each 2-min target, as well as the Data Validation products. New products derived from the FFIs include light curves for the 2-min targets and CBVs. The TESS Mission is funded by NASA's Science Mission Directorate as an Astrophysics Explorer Mission.

Jenkins, Jon M.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Improving the S/X Celestial Reference Frame in the South

We believe that the S/X celestial reference frame(CRF) can be improved in the far-south by a factor of 2 in density and a factor of 2.5 in precision. We have started a collaboration to meet these goals. We have increased the data rates on existing IV Sastrometric sessions in the south from 256 Mbps to 1 Gbps. We will use this sensitivity to detect weaker sources and to improve the precision of sources in the southern S/X CRF, while simultaneously increasing the number of sources, in particular the overlap with other frames such as K-and Ka-band in the radio and the Gaia frame in the optical. VLBI observations in the southern celestial hemisphere have always been more difficult both because there are fewer radio telescopes in the south than in the north, and because there are fewer known reference sources in the south. There have been many efforts in recent years to increase the number of known reference sources in the south, in particular the LBA calibrator Survey (LCS), which has already produced a significant improvement at X-band. The ICRF-3 is expected to make significant improvements in the south, however the south has not yet reached parity with the north and much work remains to be done. Therefore dedicated astrometric and imaging observations have already begun to improve the southern CRF at S/Xbands.

Basu, Sayan↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Comparing and Automatically Optimizing the Performance of Systematic Error Correctors for TESS Light Curves

Accurate and precise removal of systematic errors from TESS light curves (lcs) is critical for exoplanet, stellar, and asteroseismology studies•Various approaches exist to correct for systematics while preserving intrinsic stellar variability (Luger et al. 2016, 2018; Hedges et al. 2021; Smith et al. 2012; Stumpe et al. 2014; Aigrain et al. 2017)•However, no comprehensive analyseshave been carried out to properly compare these approaches and determine their validity on different target types in both an individual and statistical manner•Current correctors have been usually demonstrated on their own and on limited sets of hand-picked targets•To apply these corrections more generally, it is important to compare multiple correctors on larger samples•We are particularly interested in the ability to remove scattered light contaminationfrom the Earth and the Moon, which is a key systematic for TESS

David Rapetti↗