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NASA NTRS2016

Planetary Balloon-Based Science Platform Evaluation and Program Implementation

This report describes a study evaluating the potential for a balloon-based optical telescope as a planetary science asset to achieve decadal class science. The study considered potential science achievable and science traceability relative to the most recent planetary science decadal survey, potential platform features, and demonstration flights in the evaluation process. Science Potential and Benefits: This study confirms the cost the-benefit value for planetary science purposes. Forty-four (44) important questions of the decadal survey are at least partially addressable through balloon based capabilities. Planetary science through balloon observations can provide significant science through observations in the 300 nm to 5 m range and at longer wavelengths as well. Additionally, balloon missions have demonstrated the ability to progress from concept to observation to publication much faster than a space mission increasing the speed of science return. Planetary science from a balloon-borne platform is a relatively low-cost approach to new science measurements. This is particularly relevant within a cost-constrained planetary science budget. Repeated flights further reduce the cost of the per unit science data. Such flights offer observing time at a very competitive cost. Another advantage for planetary scientists is that a dedicated asset could provide significant new viewing opportunities not possible from the ground and allow unprecedented access to observations that cannot be realized with the time allocation pressures faced by current observing assets. In addition, flight systems that have a relatively short life cycle and where hardware is generally recovered, are excellent opportunities to train early career scientists, engineers, and project managers. The fact that balloon-borne payloads, unlike space missions, are generally recovered offers an excellent tool to test and mature instruments and other space craft systems. Desired Gondola Features: Potential gondola characteristics are assessed in this study and a concept is recommended, the Gondola for High-Altitude Planetary Science (GHAPS). This first generation platform is designed around a 1 m or larger aperture, narrow-field telescope with pointing accuracies better than one arc-second. A classical Cassegrain, or variant like Ritchey-Chretien, telescope is recommended for the primary telescope. The gondola should be designed for multiple flights so it must be robust and readily processed at recovery. It must be light-weighted to the extent possible to allow for long-duration flights on super-pressure balloons. Demonstration Flights: Recent demonstration flights achieved several significant accomplishments that can feed forward to a GHAPS gondola project. Science results included the first ever Earth-based measurements for CO2 in a comet, first measurements for CO2 and H2O in an Oort cloud comet, and the first measurement of 1 Ceres at 2.73 m to refine the shape of the infrared water absorption feature. The performance of the Fine Steering Mirror (FSM) was also demonstrated. The BOPPS platform can continue to be leveraged on future flights even as GHAPS is being developed. The study affirms the planetary decadal recommendations, and shows that a number of Top Priority science questions can be achieved. A combination GHAPS and BOPPS would provide the best value for PSD for realizing that science.

Dankanich, John W.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Human Factors Checklist: Think Human Factors - Focus on the People

A quick-look Human Factors (HF) Checklist condenses industry and NASA Agency standards consisting of thousands of requirements into 14 main categories. With support from contractor HF and Safety Practitioners, NASA developed a means to share key HF messages with Design, Engineering, Safety, Project Management, and others. It is often difficult to complete timely assessments due to the large volume of HF information. The HF Checklist evolved over time into a simple way to consider the most important concepts. A wide audience can apply the checklist early in design or through planning phases, even before hardware or processes are finalized or implemented. The checklist is a good place to start to supplement formal HF evaluation. The HF Checklist was based on many Space Shuttle processing experiences and lessons learned. It is now being applied to ground processing of new space vehicles and adjusted for new facilities and systems.

Human Factors; Human Systems Integration↗
NASA NTRS2016

Cradle Enhanced UI Development

This summer I have been working in the EDI (Exploration, Development, and Integration) office. The primary goal of my office is to facilitate the integration, cooperation, and communication between programs, projects and departments throughout the agency. The majority of my efforts has been focused on Cradle, a requirements management and systems engineering tool. This tool is utilized by teams throughout NASA to plan and track the development of a variety of ongoing projects.

Jentsch, Samuel↗
NASA NTRS2017

An Overview of Materials Structures for Extreme Environments Efforts for 2015 SBIR Phases I and II

Technological innovation is the overall focus of NASA's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The program invests in the development of innovative concepts and technologies to help NASA's mission directorates address critical research and development needs for Agency projects. This report highlights innovative SBIR 2015 Phase I and II projects that specifically address areas in Materials and Structures for Extreme Environments, one of six core competencies at NASA Glenn Research Center. Each article describes an innovation, defines its technical objective, and highlights NASA applications as well as commercial and industrial applications. Ten technologies are featured: metamaterials-inspired aerospace structures, metallic joining to advanced ceramic composites, multifunctional polyolefin matrix composite structures, integrated reacting fluid dynamics and predictive materials degradation models for propulsion system conditions, lightweight inflatable structural airlock (LISA), copolymer materials for fused deposition modeling 3-D printing of nonstandard plastics, Type II strained layer superlattice materials development for space-based focal plane array applications, hydrogenous polymer-regolith composites for radiation-shielding materials, a ceramic matrix composite environmental barrier coating durability model, and advanced composite truss printing for large solar array structures. This report serves as an opportunity for NASA engineers, researchers, program managers, and other personnel to learn about innovations in this technology area as well as possibilities for collaboration with innovative small businesses that could benefit NASA programs and projects.

integrated reacting fluid dynamics and predictive ↗
NASA NTRS2016

Topic Modeling of NASA Space System Problem Reports: Research in Practice

Problem reports at NASA are similar to bug reports: they capture defects found during test, post-launch operational anomalies, and document the investigation and corrective action of the issue. These artifacts are a rich source of lessons learned for NASA, but are expensive to analyze since problem reports are comprised primarily of natural language text. We apply topic modeling to a corpus of NASA problem reports to extract trends in testing and operational failures. We collected 16,669 problem reports from six NASA space flight missions and applied Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling to the document corpus. We analyze the most popular topics within and across missions, and how popular topics changed over the lifetime of a mission. We find that hardware material and flight software issues are common during the integration and testing phase, while ground station software and equipment issues are more common during the operations phase. We identify a number of challenges in topic modeling for trend analysis: 1) that the process of selecting the topic modeling parameters lacks definitive guidance, 2) defining semantically-meaningful topic labels requires nontrivial effort and domain expertise, 3) topic models derived from the combined corpus of the six missions were biased toward the larger missions, and 4) topics must be semantically distinct as well as cohesive to be useful. Nonetheless,topic modeling can identify problem themes within missions and across mission lifetimes, providing useful feedback to engineers and project managers.

Data Mining↗
NASA NTRS2018

Creating Innovative Frameworks to Spur Cultural Change at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center

Changing the culture of an organization is a monumental task that often takes years and has no set formula. Steps can be taken, however, to spur cultural change by creating spaces and infrastructure to serve as the initial driving force. An innovation space and a bicycle sharing (bike share) program were implemented at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) (Edwards, California) with a vision toward connecting Center personnel, fostering collaboration and innovation, retaining newer employees, promoting flexibility, and improving the culture and workplace atmosphere. This paper discusses the steps taken, challenges faced, novel culture-change-focused design elements, lessons learned, acquired metrics, and how these initiated cultural change at AFRC. For both the innovation space and the bike share program, funding was negotiated and provided through the NASA Convergent Aeronautics Solutions (CAS) project, which was seeking to improve the innovation and collaboration capabilities at each of the four NASA aeronautics Centers. Key stakeholders across AFRC from upper management, facilities, safety, engineering, and procurement were identified early in the process and were consulted and included throughout execution to ensure that any encountered roadblocks could be easily navigated. Research was then conducted by attending conferences and visiting culture-changing organizations both inside and outside United States Government agencies. Distilling the research, identifying available space, and deciding on specific design elements for the space was conducted by a subset of individuals of diverse backgrounds to enable quick, effective decision-making. Decisions were made with the intent to increase usage and diversity of users of the space; care was taken to ensure a well-crafted atmosphere that would foster the desired culture change. The allocated physical space required major structural modifications, new furniture, and new capabilities that would bring people in. Decisions and desires underwent a rapid reiterative process in order to stay within budget and short deadlines, while holding firm to what was seen as fundamental elements of an innovation space. The framework for cultural change being established, the more difficult task began: incubating the desired culture. Intentional workday use of the innovation space was encouraged, and organized events coordinated in order to truly foster culture change. Such incubation supports the organic spread of culture change to all areas of AFRC. This framework was complemented and expanded by the implementation of the bike share program. Steps for implementation included bike selection based on lessons learned, creating bike stations and signage, implementing bike share rules, and building a volunteer maintenance infrastructure. A novel user-reporting feedback system at each bike station is a low-impact method of capturing usage metrics. Due to the nature of the work conducted at AFRC, the bike share program and feedback system were negotiated and vetted through various organizations including legal, safety, and operations. The innovation space and the bike share program together are an effective initial framework for innovation and collaboration. Culture change takes time, but the innovation space and the bike share program are already showing signs of making a positive impact on the AFRC workforce.

rooms↗
NASA NTRS2018

Refurbishment of NASA's Johnson Space Center Liquid Nitrogen Bulk Storage Tanks in Preparation for Thermal Vacuum Optical Testing of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

NASA is the mission lead for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the next of the "Great Observatories", scheduled for launch in 2019. It is directly responsible for the integration and test (I&T) program that culminated in an end-to-end cryo vacuum optical test of the flight telescope and instrument module in Chamber A at NASA Johnson Space Center. Historic Chamber A is the largest thermal vacuum chamber at Johnson Space Center and one of the largest space simulation chambers in the world. Chamber A has undergone a major modernization effort to support the deep cryogenic, vacuum and cleanliness requirements for testing the JWST. Chamber A utilizes Liquid Nitrogen as a thermal barrier between the 300 Kelvin vessel wall and the 20 Kelvin helium environmental conditioning shrouds. The 155,000 gallon capacity of the six vessels support long duration testing which support low and deep space simulations for today's testing. This paper describe the challenges of refurbishing six liquid nitrogen bulk storage vessels that are 60 year old. The vessels were refurbished in place and focused primarily on the vacuum annulus. The challenges of vessel research, design engineering and project management will be discussed. The refurbishment of the vessels has extended the life of the vessels for another 35-50 years on the vacuum annulus integrity. The survivability of the bulk storage vessels was tested during the historic hurricane Harvey of 2017 during the 100 day JWST thermal-vacuum test.

Garcia, Sammy↗
NASA NTRS1974

Pioneer Odyssey: Encounter with a Giant

Ancient peoples, perhaps thousands of years ago, undoubtedly conceived the idea of "reaching out" to Jupiter, the largest and most brilliant of the "wandering stars." But for mankind to stretch across the half billion miles to the giant planet of the Solar System many advances in technical and organizational fields of human endeavor had to be made. Outreach to Jupiter did not become a serious possibility until the Pioneer F and G Project was formed by NASA early in 1968. And then man began to design an extension of his senses that would probe the environs of the giant of the Solar System, a truly pioneer odyssey into the virtually unknown regions beyond the orbit of Mars. In the ensuing year. a dedicated and cooperative effort of several thousand people in Govern­ment, university, and private industrial organiza­tions converted the idea into a reality. Less than twelve generations after Galileo first saw the banded disc of Jupiter and the flickering dots of its large satellites in the newly invented telescope, mankind sent a machine to make observations within that Jovian system. The two Pioneer spacecraft for the mission to Jupiter each weighed only about 570 pounds, yet carried eleven highly sophisticated instruments capable of operating unattended for many year in space. The spacecraft consumes less electrical power than a standard 100 watt lamp yet is able to accept instructions from Earth to control numerous operating modes of its scientific payload, process observations from these scientific instruments and format the observations into information usable on Earth. Even more remarkable. the space­craft transmits a radio signal of only 8 watts power - equal to a nightlight - yet the information carried by the radio signal is received back on Earth from a distance of several billion miles. The Pioneer mission could not have been a success without the special engineering, scientific and management organization created for its accomplishment. This organization was rather unique in that it first had to meet a launch date target relatively quickly and then had to function for an extremely long mission operational time, far longer than any previous mission to planets. The first task was thus to organize so that the mission could be planned and the spacecraft designed and fabricated to be ready for launch within a few weeks of a 30-month target for completion. The program also produced an organization that planned mission operations to such detail that more than 16,000 commands were transmitted flawlessly to the distant spacecraft during Jupiter encounter. And each command reached the spacecraft within one second of the planned time despite the more than 90 minutes required for the radio message to travel from Earth to the space­craft and for the spacecraft to return a confirma­tion to controllers back on Earth. The organization for Pioneer also determined the required flight path from Earth to Jupiter with such precision, and controlled the launch vehicle with such accuracy, that 21 months after launch the spacecraft was able to fly behind Jupiter's satellite lo, thereby providing the first measurement that indicated the possibility of a tenuous atmosphere about this large satellite. Finally, the Pioneer organization processed and analyzed each year sufficient information from the spacecraft to fill a book having about 3 million pages and reduced this avalanche of data from space into summaries of manageable size. And all this organization depended on people, consisted of people: the people who really made this whole mission possible. Pioneer has always depended on the dedication of many individuals from many organizations throughout the world to achieve its scientific objectives, and, as evidenced by the success of the Pioneer series, this dependence is completely justified. Relatively few individuals have an opportunity during their lives to participate in such a challenging, historic, pioneering effort; and still fewer are able to enjoy the rewards of such an activity. We who have worked on Pioneer 10 and its sister spacecraft, Pioneer 11, consider ourselves fortunate to be in both classes. For the opportunity we thank the people of the United States of America, who have supported our country's space effort and its spreading of human awareness of a vast and intriguing universe in which our own unique planet Earth is only one of myriads of worlds. This volume describing the mission to Jupiter and its results is one of the many rewards for our effort which we share with you, the reader.

Fimmel, Richard O.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Orion Ascent Abort 2 Test - Benefits of a Digital Collaboration Environment

The Ascent Abort-2 Crew Module and Separation Ring (CSR) were developed internally to NASA, led by the JSC EA Integrated Product Team. The CSR IPT leveraged Sharepoint as an Integrated Data environment to link systems engineering and project management data element, enabling collaborative development and engagement from across the project (NASA-wide). This presentation describes the mission, the development approach, and the benefits of this approach. flight operations

Devolites, Jenny↗
NASA NTRS2020

Toa Baja Disasters: Utilizing Open-Source Earth Observations to Inform the Toa Baja Municipality’s Flood Mitigation Efforts and Educate the Public

Toa Baja, located just west of San Juan in Puerto Rico, is known as “the underwater city” due to its propensity to flood. The city contains the mouth of the island’s longest river, Río de la Plata, which drains into the Atlantic Ocean on the northern edge of the municipality. Proximity to these major water features and the flat, low terrain contribute to the flood-prone nature of the area. During tropical storm events, such as Hurricane Maria in 2017, Toa Baja experienced inundation of up to 20 feet. Changes in the global climate system are causing more intense and frequent tropical storms, making places like Toa Baja subject to irreparable damage. This NASA DEVELOP project collaborated with the Municipio Autónomo de Toa Baja, ResilientSEE, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Urban Risk Lab to supplement recent 2018 Federal Emergency Management Agency Hydraulic Engineering Centers-River Analysis System flood maps, which designated 63% of the area as a flood plain. The analysis provides a high-resolution interpretation of flood susceptibility using a variety of factors that collectively influence the likelihood of flooding. Sentinel-1 C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (C-SAR) data processed with Google Earth Engine scripting identified historical inundation and was used for validation purposes. Socioeconomic factors were combined with the inundation layer producing a final risk output. These outputs will improve public understanding of exposure to flood risk in Toa Baja and provide scientific evidence for flood mitigation advocacy.

Disasters↗
NASA NTRS2020

Toa Baja Disasters: Utilizing Open-Source Earth Observations to Inform the Toa Baja Municipality’s Flood Mitigation Efforts and Educate the Public

Toa Baja, located just west of San Juan in Puerto Rico, is known as “the underwater city” due to its propensity to flood. The city contains the mouth of the island’s longest river, Río de la Plata, which drains into the Atlantic Ocean on the northern edge of the municipality. Proximity to these major water features and the flat, low terrain contribute to the flood-prone nature of the area. During tropical storm events, such as Hurricane Maria in 2017, Toa Baja experienced inundation of up to 20 feet. Changes in the global climate system are causing more intense and frequent tropical storms, making places like Toa Baja subject to irreparable damage. This NASA DEVELOP project collaborated with the Municipio Autonómo de Toa Baja, ResilientSEE, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Urban Risk Lab to supplement recent 2018 Federal Emergency Management Agency Hydraulic Engineering Centers-River Analysis System flood maps, which designated 63% of the area as a flood plain. The analysis provides a high-resolution interpretation of flood susceptibility using a variety of factors that collectively influence the likelihood of flooding. Sentinel-1 C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (C-SAR) data processed with Google Earth Engine scripting identified historical inundation and was used for validation purposes. Socioeconomic factors were combined with the inundation layer producing a final risk output. These outputs will improve public understanding of exposure to flood risk in Toa Baja and provide scientific evidence for flood mitigation advocacy.

Disasters↗
NASA NTRS2020

Leveraging Google Earth Engine User Interface for Semiautomated Wetland Classification in the Great Lakes Basin at 10 m With Optical and Radar Geospatial Datasets

As one of the world’s largest freshwater ecosystems,the Great Lakes Basin houses hundreds of thousands of acres of wetlands that support a variety of crucial ecological and environmental functions at the local, regional, and global levels.Monitoring these wetlands is critical to conservation and restoration efforts, however current methods that rely on field monitoring are labor-intensive, costly, and often outdated. In this study, we present a graphical user interface constructed in Google Earth Engine called the Wetland Extent Tool (WET),which allows semi-automatic wetland classification according to a user-input area of interest and date range. WET composites datasets and conducts multi source, moderate resolution processing utilizing Landsat 8 OLI, Sentinel-2 MSI, Sentinel-1 C-SAR, and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) datasets to classify wetlands in the entire Great Lakes Basin. We evaluated classification results of wetlands, uplands, and open water from May-September 2019, and tested whether SRTM elevation, slope,or the Dynamic Surface Water Extent produced the most accurate results in each Great Lake Basin in conjunction with optical indices and radar composites. We found that elevation produced the most accurate classification in Lake Erie, Michigan,and Ontario, while slope performed best in Lake Huron and Superior. Lake Erie, Michigan, Ontario, and Huron achieved high overall accuracy and identification of wetlands. WET leverages cloud-computing for multi source processing of moderate resolution remote sensing data, and employs a user interface in Google Earth Engine that wetland managers and conservationists can use to monitor wetland extent in the Great Lakes Basin in near real-time.

Vanessa L Valenti↗
NASA NTRS2020

Integrated Concurrent Engineering Teams for Increased Efficiency in Flight Projects

A highly integrated Concurrent Engineering Team (CET) within a flight project evolves in its function and has the potential to provide many benefits through the project lifecycle. The benefits include superior systems-oriented design products, as well as overall improved project efficiency and higher-performing interpersonal relationships within the project. If physically integrated, this can manifest as a Concurrent Engineering Center (CEC) centrally located within a project’s physical office space. Here we discuss the process to establish and maintain a tightly integrated engineering and design team for providing highly streamlined service to the project, including a cost/benefits analysis discussion.

Flight Project↗
NASA NTRS2020

Integrated Concurrent Engineering Teams for Increased Efficiency in Flight Projects

A highly integrated Concurrent Engineering Team (CET) within a flight project evolves in its function and has the potential to provide many benefits through the project lifecycle. The benefits include superior systems-oriented design products, as well as overall improved project efficiency and higher-performing interpersonal relationships within the project. If physically integrated, this can manifest as a Concurrent Engineering Center (CEC) centrally located within a project’s physical office space. Here we discuss the process to establish and maintain a tightly integrated engineering and design team for providing highly streamlined service to the project, including a cost/benefits analysis discussion.

Flight Project↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

My Life as a NASA Test Subject

In addition to Joe McMann’s duties as project engineer and technical manager, he was a test subject for spacesuits, life support systems, and other systems under his purview for over 18 years. During this Spacesuit Knowledge Capture event, he shared his experiences as a test subject during the Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle Programs, which include both comical and serious lessons learned.

Joe McMann↗
NASA NTRS1974

Space Shuttle Orbiter Fracture Control Plan

The criteria are presented for preventing space shuttle structural failure associated with crack initiation or propagation during fabrication, test, handling, and the operational life of the vehicle. The criteria discussed include: engineering responsibilities, assurance management, production, operation and test, procurement, critical parts selection, design, and structural analysis.

Fracture control↗
NASA NTRS2024

NASA Glenn/Korea Aerospace Research Institute Technical Interchange Meeting

This is a compilation of NASA Glenn presentation materials as part of the NASA Glenn/Korea Aerospace Research Institute Technical Interchange Meeting in August, 2024. NASA presentations cover Artemis, engines, cryogenic fluid management, microgravity and ISS sciences, extreme materials, and power.

Michael Meyer↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Simulated Lunar Gravity Testing of VIPER Loop Heat Pipe

NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission consists of a rover designed to explore the lunar south pole. One of the main challenges faced by the rover during the lunar polar exploration is the adverse thermal environment. Temperatures can fluctuate more than a 100°C between day and night; potentially dropping to −246°C in permanent shadow regions. To maintain the rover components within temperature limits, VIPER’s Thermal Management System (TMS) relies heavily on Loop Heat Pipes (LHPs). To assist the design of the thermal management system, an Engineering Design Unit (EDU) LHP has been tested in several opportunities under thermal vacuum (TVAC) environment. Of particular interest was the LHP performance in lunar gravity. To that end, the EDU LHP was tested at the nominal orientation within the rover assembly, vertical, and inclined such that the gravitational component acting on the LHP evaporator and condenser was 1/6g (lunar gravity is 1/6 of Earth gravity) when compared to the vertical configuration. This paper will examine the LHP conductance as one the key parameters to assess the effect of the gravity on the LHP performance.

Loop Heat Pipe↗