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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2000

NASA Information Technology Implementation Plan

NASA's Information Technology (IT) resources and IT support continue to be a growing and integral part of all NASA missions. Furthermore, the growing IT support requirements are becoming more complex and diverse. The following are a few examples of the growing complexity and diversity of NASA's IT environment. NASA is conducting basic IT research in the Intelligent Synthesis Environment (ISE) and Intelligent Systems (IS) Initiatives. IT security, infrastructure protection, and privacy of data are requiring more and more management attention and an increasing share of the NASA IT budget. Outsourcing of IT support is becoming a key element of NASA's IT strategy as exemplified by Outsourcing Desktop Initiative for NASA (ODIN) and the outsourcing of NASA Integrated Services Network (NISN) support. Finally, technology refresh is helping to provide improved support at lower cost. Recently the NASA Automated Data Processing (ADP) Consolidation Center (NACC) upgraded its bipolar technology computer systems with Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology systems. This NACC upgrade substantially reduced the hardware maintenance and software licensing costs, significantly increased system speed and capacity, and reduced customer processing costs by 11 percent.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2002

Creating a Team Archive During Fast-Paced Anomaly Response Activities in Space Missions

This paper describes a Web-based system to support the temporary Anomaly Response Team formed from distributed subteams in Space Shuttle and International Space Station missions. The system was designed for easy and flexible creation of small collections of files and links associated with work on a particular anomaly. The system supports privacy and levels of formality for the subteams. First we describe the supported groups and an anomaly response scenario. Then we describe the support system prototype, the Anomaly Response Tracking and Integration System (ARTIS). Finally, we describe our evaluation approach and the results of the evaluation.

Malin, Jane T.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Flight Crew Sleep in Long-Haul Aircraft Bunk Facilities: Survey Results

Modem long-haul aircraft can fly up to 16 continuous hours and provide a 24-hour, global capability. Extra (augmented) flight crew are available on long flights to allow planned rest periods, on a rotating basis, away from the flight deck in onboard crew rest facilities (2 bunks). A NASA/FAA study is under-way to examine the quantity and quality of sleep obtained in long-haul aircraft bunks and the factors that promote or interfere with that sleep. The first phase of the study involved a retrospective survey, followed by a second phase field study to collect standard polysomnographic data during inflight bunk sleep periods. A summary of the Phase I survey results are reported here. A multi-part 54-question retrospective survey was completed by 1,404 flight crew (37% return rate) at three different major US air carriers flying B747-100, 200, 400, and MD- 11 long-haul aircraft. The questions examined demographics, quantity and quality of sleep at home and in onboard bunks, factors that promote or interfere with sleep, and effects on subsequent performance and alertness. Flight crew reported a mean bunk sleep latency of 39.4 mins (SD=28.3 mins) (n=1,276) and a mean total sleep time of 2.2 hrs (SD=1.3 hrs) (n=603). (Different flight lengths could affect overall time available for sleep.) Crew rated 25 factors for their interference or promotion of bunk sleep. Figure I portrays the average ratings for each factor across all three carriers. A principal components analysis of the 25 factors revealed three areas that promoted bunk sleep: physiological (e.g., readiness for sleep), physical environment (e.g., bunk size, privacy), and personal comfort (e.g., blankets, pillows). Five areas were identified that interfered with sleep: environmental disturbance (e.g., background noise, turbulence), luminosity (e.g., lighting), personal disturbances (e.g., bathroom trips, random thoughts), environmental discomfort (e.g., low humidity, cold), and interpersonal disturbances (e.g., bunk partner).

Rosekind, Mark R.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Making Wireless Networks Secure for NASA Mission Critical Applications using Virtual Private Network (VPN) Technology

With so many security issues involved with wireless networks, the technology has not been fully utilized in the area of mission critical applications. These applications would include the areas of telemetry, commanding, voice and video. Wireless networking would allow payload operators the mobility to take computers outside of the control room to their offices and anywhere else in the facility that the wireless network was extended. But the risk is too great of having someone sit just inside of your wireless network coverage and intercept enough of your network traffic to steal proprietary data from a payload experiment or worse yet hack back into your system and do even greater harm by issuing harmful commands. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is improving but has a ways to go before it can be trusted to protect mission critical data. Today s hackers are becoming more aggressive and innovative, and in order to take advantage of the benefits that wireless networking offer, appropriate security measures need to be in place that will thwart hackers. The Virtual Private Network (VPN) offers a solution to the security problems that have kept wireless networks from being used for mission critical applications. VPN provides a level of encryption that will ensure that data is protected while it is being transmitted over a wireless local area network (IAN). The VPN allows a user to authenticate to the site that the user needs to access. Once this authentication has taken place the network traffic between that site and the user is encapsulated in VPN packets with the Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES). 3DES is an encryption standard that uses a single secret key to encrypt and decrypt data. The length of the encryption key is 168 bits as opposed to its predecessor DES that has a 56-bit encryption key. Even though 3DES is the common encryption standard for today, the Advance Encryption Standard (AES), which provides even better encryption at a lower cycle cost is growing acceptance. The user computer running the VPN client and the. target site that is running the . VPN firewall exchange this encryption key and therefore are the only ones that are able to decipher the data. The level of encryption offered by the VPN is making it possible for wireless networks to pass the strict security policies that have kept them from being used in the past. Now people will be able to benefit from the many advantages that wireless networking has to offer in the area of mission critical applications.

Nichols, Kelvin F.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Internet technologies and requirements for telemedicine

Internet technologies are briefly introduced and those applicable for telemedicine are reviewed. Multicast internet technologies are described. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 'Telemedicine Space-bridge to Russia' project is described and used to derive requirements for internet telemedicine. Telemedicine privacy and Quality of Service (QoS) requirements are described.

Remote Consultation↗
NASA NTRS2004

Making Wireless Networks Secure for NASA Mission Critical Applications Using Virtual Private Network (VPN) Technology

With so many security issues involved with wireless networks, the technology has not been fully utilized in the area of mission critical applications. These applications would include the areas of telemetry, commanding, voice and video. Wireless networking would allow payload operators the mobility to take computers outside of the control room to their off ices and anywhere else in the facility that the wireless network was extended. But the risk is too great of having someone sit just inside of your wireless network coverage and intercept enough of your network traffic to steal proprietary data from a payload experiment or worse yet hack back into your system and do even greater harm by issuing harmful commands. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is improving but has a ways to go before it can be trusted to protect mission critical data. Today s hackers are becoming more aggressive and innovative, and in order to take advantage of the benefits that wireless networking offer, appropriate security measures need to be in place that will thwart hackers. The Virtual Private Network (VPN) offers a solution to the security problems that have kept wireless networks from being used for mission critical applications. VPN provides a level of encryption that will ensure that data is protected while it is being transmitted over a wireless local area network (LAN). The VPN allows a user to authenticate to the site that the user needs to access. Once this authentication has taken place the network traffic between that site and the user is encapsulated in VPN packets with the Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES). 3DES is an encryption standard that uses a single secret key to encrypt and decrypt data. The length of the encryption key is 168 bits as opposed to its predecessor DES that has a 56-bit encryption key. Even though 3DES is the common encryption standard for today, the Advance Encryption Standard (AES), which provides even better encryption at a lower cycle cost is growing acceptance. The user computer running the VPN client and the target site that is running the VPN firewall exchange this encryption key and therefore are the only ones that are able to decipher the data. The level of encryption offered by the VPN is making it possible for wireless networks to pass the strict security policies that have kept them from being used in the past. Now people will be able to benefit from the many advantages that wireless networking has to offer in the area of mission critical applications.

Nichols, Kelvin F.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Psychosocial value of space simulation for extended spaceflight

There have been over 60 studies of Earth-bound activities that can be viewed as simulations of manned spaceflight. These analogs have involved Antarctic and Arctic expeditions, submarines and submersible simulators, land-based simulators, and hypodynamia environments. None of these analogs has accounted for all the variables related to extended spaceflight (e.g., microgravity, long-duration, heterogeneous crews), and some of the stimulation conditions have been found to be more representative of space conditions than others. A number of psychosocial factors have emerged from the simulation literature that correspond to important issues that have been reported from space. Psychological factors include sleep disorders, alterations in time sense, transcendent experiences, demographic issues, career motivation, homesickness, and increased perceptual sensitivities. Psychiatric factors include anxiety, depression, psychosis, psychosomatic symptoms, emotional reactions related to mission stage, asthenia, and postflight personality, and marital problems. Finally, interpersonal factors include tension resulting from crew heterogeneity, decreased cohesion over time, need for privacy, and issues involving leadership roles and lines of authority. Since future space missions will usually involve heterogeneous crews working on complicated objectives over long periods of time, these features require further study. Socio-cultural factors affecting confined crews (e.g., language and dialect, cultural differences, gender biases) should be explored in order to minimize tension and sustain performance. Career motivation also needs to be examined for the purpose of improving crew cohesion and preventing subgrouping, scapegoating, and territorial behavior. Periods of monotony and reduced activity should be addressed in order to maintain morale, provide meaningful use of leisure time, and prevent negative consequences of low stimulation, such as asthenia and crew member withdrawal. Leadership roles and lines of authority need to be studied further to understand the factors leading to status leveling, leadership competition, and role confusion. Finally, the relationship between crews and ground personnel should be characterized in order to minimize the displacement of anger and tension to the outside, to counter the effects of inter-group miscommunications, and to develop support strategies that can help to counter in-group/out-group conflicts. Ground-based space simulations still have a role to play in terms of understanding the impact of these factors and ways of dealing with them. In particular, issues involving language, cultural differences, gender biases, career motivation, monotonous conditions, use of free time, leadership, lines of authority, and the relationship between crews and outside monitoring personnel need to be further characterized and examined under controlled conditions. Until such time as these factors can be studied directly in space, simulations provide an opportunity to learn more about these psychosocial issues and to plan ways of minimizing their negative consequences during actual space missions.

NASA Discipline Number 00-00↗
NASA NTRS2005

An Interoperability Consideration in Selecting Domain Parameters for Elliptic Curve Cryptography

Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) will be an important technology for electronic privacy and authentication in the near future. There are many published specifications for elliptic curve cryptosystems, most of which contain detailed descriptions of the process for the selection of domain parameters. Selecting strong domain parameters ensures that the cryptosystem is robust to attacks. Due to a limitation in several published algorithms for doubling points on elliptic curves, some ECC implementations may produce incorrect, inconsistent, and incompatible results if domain parameters are not carefully chosen under a criterion that we describe. Few documents specify the addition or doubling of points in such a manner as to avoid this problematic situation. The safety criterion we present is not listed in any ECC specification we are aware of, although several other guidelines for domain selection are discussed in the literature. We provide a simple example of how a set of domain parameters not meeting this criterion can produce catastrophic results, and outline a simple means of testing curve parameters for interoperable safety over doubling.

Ivancic, Will↗
NASA NTRS2008

Deployable Crew Quarters

The deployable crew quarters (DCQ) have been designed for the International Space Station (ISS). Each DCQ would be a relatively inexpensive, deployable boxlike structure that is designed to fit in a rack bay. It is to be occupied by one crewmember to provide privacy and sleeping functions for the crew. A DCQ comprises mostly hard panels, made of a lightweight honeycomb or matrix/fiber material, attached to each other by cloth hinges. Both faces of each panel are covered with a layer of Nomex cloth and noise-suppression material to provide noise isolation from ISS. On Earth, the unit is folded flat and attached to a rigid pallet for transport to the ISS. On the ISS, crewmembers unfold the unit and install it in place, attaching it to ISS structural members by use of soft cords (which also help to isolate noise and vibration). A few hard pieces of equipment (principally, a ventilator and a smoke detector) are shipped separately and installed in the DCQ unit by use of a system of holes, slots, and quarter-turn fasteners. Full-scale tests showed that the time required to install a DCQ unit amounts to tens of minutes. The basic DCQ design could be adapted to terrestrial applications to satisfy requirements for rapid deployable emergency shelters that would be lightweight, portable, and quickly erected. The Temporary Early Sleep Station (TeSS) currently on-orbit is a spin-off of the DCQ.

Izenson, Michael G.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Processing Electromyographic Signals to Recognize Words

A recently invented speech-recognition method applies to words that are articulated by means of the tongue and throat muscles but are otherwise not voiced or, at most, are spoken sotto voce. This method could satisfy a need for speech recognition under circumstances in which normal audible speech is difficult, poses a hazard, is disturbing to listeners, or compromises privacy. The method could also be used to augment traditional speech recognition by providing an additional source of information about articulator activity. The method can be characterized as intermediate between (1) conventional speech recognition through processing of voice sounds and (2) a method, not yet developed, of processing electroencephalographic signals to extract unspoken words directly from thoughts. This method involves computational processing of digitized electromyographic (EMG) signals from muscle innervation acquired by surface electrodes under a subject's chin near the tongue and on the side of the subject s throat near the larynx. After preprocessing, digitization, and feature extraction, EMG signals are processed by a neural-network pattern classifier, implemented in software, that performs the bulk of the recognition task as described.

Jorgensen, C. C.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Human Research Program Human Health Countermeasures Element Cardiovascular Risks Standing Review Panel (SRP)

The Cardiovascular Risk Standing Review Panel (SRP) evaluated several cardiovascular risks associated with space flight along with the ongoing and emerging plans to study these issues and potentially propose and/or develop countermeasures. The areas of focus included: 1) The risk of cardiac rhythm problems during prolonged space flight, and 2) Issues related to the risk of orthostatic intolerance during re-exposure to gravity. An emerging area of concern is radiation associated vascular injury. The risk of cardiac rhythm disturbances has emerged based on case reports only. No systematic study of this risk has been published. However, concerns about this risk are heightened by the age range of astronauts, the structural changes in the heart that occur during space flight, and the potential shifts in fluids and electrolytes. The current plan is to use prolonged Holter monitor EKG records made as part of the "Integrated Cardiovascular SMO" in space to determine more about the frequency and magnitude of this problem and to link this data to complementary data from the nutrition group on electrolytes. The SRP was supportive of this approach. The SRP also felt that any data related to cardiovascular risk in space should be better coordinated with the medical screening data that all astronauts undergo at regular intervals. Additionally, while there are potential privacy issues related to this suggestion, many of the current barriers to better coordination of experimental and clinical data appear to reflect longstanding cultural traditions at NASA that need rethinking. The risk of orthostatic intolerance during re-exposure to gravity was seen by the SRP as an area supported by a wealth of published physiological evidence. The SRP also felt that moving forward with the planned approach to countermeasures was reasonable and that extensive additional hypothesis testing on the physiology of orthostatic intolerance was not needed at this time. There was support for developing ground based models of limited (e.g. 1/6 th) G environments on Earth that generated a number of ideas for consideration by NASA investigators.

Joyner, Michael↗
NASA NTRS2002

Neurovestibular Effects of Long-Duration Spaceflight: A Summary of Mir-Phase 1 Experiences

Space motion sickness and associated neurovestibular dysfunction though not completely understood - have been relatively well clinically and operationally characterized on short-duration (1-2 week) Space Shuttle missions (Oman, et al, 1984, 1986; Thornton, et al, 1987; Reschke, et al, 1994). Between March 1995 and June 1998, seven NASA astronauts flew on the Russian Mir space station, as "Phase 1" of the joint effort to build the International Space Station, and provided NASA with invaluable experience on the operational and biomedical problems associated with flights of up to six months in duration. The goal of this paper is to provide a summary of the available information on neurovestibular dysfunction, space motion sickness, and readaptation to Earth's gravity on the NASA Mir flights, based on a set of medical questionnaire data, transcripts, and interviews which are available from the NASA-Mir Phase I program. Records were incomplete and anecdotal. All references to specific crewmembers have been removed, to respect their individual privacy. Material was excerpted from multiple sources of information relating to neurologic function, sensory illusions and motion sickness of NASA-Mir Phase I Program crewmembers. Data were compiled by epoch (in-flight vs landing/postflight) and grouped by neurovestibular topic. The information was recorded either contemporaneously during or within days after landing, or retrospectively weeks to months later. Space motion sickness symptoms are more intense and longer in duration. Sense of spatial orientation takes at least a month to become "natural and instinctive" in space station structures, but mental survey knowledge is apparently not completely developed even after 3 months in some cases. Visual reorientation illusions (VRI) are more easily induced after long exposure to weightlessness. Head movements can cause illusory spinning sensations for up to 7 days postflight. Postural and balance control does not fully recover for at least a month postflight.

Richards, Jason T.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Network-Capable Application Process and Wireless Intelligent Sensors for ISHM

Intelligent sensor technology and systems are increasingly becoming attractive means to serve as frameworks for intelligent rocket test facilities with embedded intelligent sensor elements, distributed data acquisition elements, and onboard data acquisition elements. Networked intelligent processors enable users and systems integrators to automatically configure their measurement automation systems for analog sensors. NASA and leading sensor vendors are working together to apply the IEEE 1451 standard for adding plug-and-play capabilities for wireless analog transducers through the use of a Transducer Electronic Data Sheet (TEDS) in order to simplify sensor setup, use, and maintenance, to automatically obtain calibration data, and to eliminate manual data entry and error. A TEDS contains the critical information needed by an instrument or measurement system to identify, characterize, interface, and properly use the signal from an analog sensor. A TEDS is deployed for a sensor in one of two ways. First, the TEDS can reside in embedded, nonvolatile memory (typically flash memory) within the intelligent processor. Second, a virtual TEDS can exist as a separate file, downloadable from the Internet. This concept of virtual TEDS extends the benefits of the standardized TEDS to legacy sensors and applications where the embedded memory is not available. An HTML-based user interface provides a visual tool to interface with those distributed sensors that a TEDS is associated with, to automate the sensor management process. Implementing and deploying the IEEE 1451.1-based Network-Capable Application Process (NCAP) can achieve support for intelligent process in Integrated Systems Health Management (ISHM) for the purpose of monitoring, detection of anomalies, diagnosis of causes of anomalies, prediction of future anomalies, mitigation to maintain operability, and integrated awareness of system health by the operator. It can also support local data collection and storage. This invention enables wide-area sensing and employs numerous globally distributed sensing devices that observe the physical world through the existing sensor network. This innovation enables distributed storage, distributed processing, distributed intelligence, and the availability of DiaK (Data, Information, and Knowledge) to any element as needed. It also enables the simultaneous execution of multiple processes, and represents models that contribute to the determination of the condition and health of each element in the system. The NCAP (intelligent process) can configure data-collection and filtering processes in reaction to sensed data, allowing it to decide when and how to adapt collection and processing with regard to sophisticated analysis of data derived from multiple sensors. The user will be able to view the sensing device network as a single unit that supports a high-level query language. Each query would be able to operate over data collected from across the global sensor network just as a search query encompasses millions of Web pages. The sensor web can preserve ubiquitous information access between the querier and the queried data. Pervasive monitoring of the physical world raises significant data and privacy concerns. This innovation enables different authorities to control portions of the sensing infrastructure, and sensor service authors may wish to compose services across authority boundaries.

Figueroa, Fernando↗
NASA NTRS2011

Image Analysis via Soft Computing: Prototype Applications at NASA KSC and Product Commercialization

This slide presentation reviews the use of "soft computing" which differs from "hard computing" in that it is more tolerant of imprecision, partial truth, uncertainty, and approximation and its use in image analysis. Soft computing provides flexible information processing to handle real life ambiguous situations and achieve tractability, robustness low solution cost, and a closer resemblance to human decision making. Several systems are or have been developed: Fuzzy Reasoning Edge Detection (FRED), Fuzzy Reasoning Adaptive Thresholding (FRAT), Image enhancement techniques, and visual/pattern recognition. These systems are compared with examples that show the effectiveness of each. NASA applications that are reviewed are: Real-Time (RT) Anomaly Detection, Real-Time (RT) Moving Debris Detection and the Columbia Investigation. The RT anomaly detection reviewed the case of a damaged cable for the emergency egress system. The use of these techniques is further illustrated in the Columbia investigation with the location and detection of Foam debris. There are several applications in commercial usage: image enhancement, human screening and privacy protection, visual inspection, 3D heart visualization, tumor detections and x ray image enhancement.

Dominguez, Jesus A.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Secure Intra-Body Wireless Communications (SIWiC) System Project

SIWiC System is a project to investigate, design and implement future wireless networks of implantable sensors in the body. This futuristic project is designed to make use of the emerging and yet-to-emerge technologies, including ultra-wide band (UWB) for wireless communications, smart implantable sensors, ultra low power networking protocols, security and privacy for bandwidth and power deficient devices and quantum computing. Progress in each of these fronts is hindered by the needs of breakthrough. But, as we will see in this paper, these major challenges are being met or will be met in near future. SIWiC system is a network of in-situ wireless devices that are implanted to coordinate sensed data inside the body, such as symptoms monitoring collected internally, or biometric data collected of an outside object from within the intra-body network. One node has the capability of communicating outside the body to send data or alarm to a relevant authority, e.g., a remote physician.

Ahmad, Aftab↗
NASA NTRS2011

Habitat Demonstration Unit Medical Operations Workstation Upgrades

This paper provides an overview of the design and fabrication associated with upgrades for the Medical Operations Workstation in the Habitat Demonstration Unit. The work spanned a ten week period. The upgrades will be used during the 2011 Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert RATS) field campaign. Upgrades include a deployable privacy curtain system, a deployable tray table, an easily accessible biological waste container, reorganization and labeling of the medical supplies, and installation of a retractable camera. All of the items were completed within the ten week period.

Trageser, Katherine H.↗
NASA NTRS2011

The Challenges of Releasing Human Data for Analysis

The NASA Johnson Space Center s (NASA JSC) Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects (CPHS) recently approved the formation of two human data repositories: the Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health Repository (LSAH-R) for clinical data and the Life Sciences Data Archive Repository (LSDA-R) for research data. The establishment of these repositories forms the foundation for the release of data and information beyond the scope for which the data was originally collected. The release of clinical and research data and information is primarily managed by two NASA groups: the Evidence Base Working Group (EBWG), consisting of members of both repositories, and the LSAH Policy Board. The goal of unifying these repositories and their processes is to provide a mutually supportive approach to handling medical and research data, to enhance the use of medical and research data to reduce risk, and to promote the understanding of space physiology, countermeasures and other mitigation strategies. Over the past year, both repositories have received over 100 data and information requests from a wide variety of requesters. The disposition of these requests has highlighted the challenges faced when attempting to make data collected on a unique set of subjects available beyond the original intent for which the data were collected. As the EBWG works through each request, many considerations must be factored into account when deciding what data can be shared and how - from the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), to NASA s Health Information Management System (10HIMS) and Human Experimental and Research Data Records (10HERD) access requirements. Additional considerations include the presence of the data in the repositories and vetting requesters for legitimacy of their use of the data. Additionally, fair access must be ensured for intramural, as well as extramural investigators. All of this must be considered in the formulation of the charters, policies and workflows for the human data repositories at NASA.

Fitts, Mary↗