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All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2017

Entry, Descent, and Landing Guidance and Control Approaches to Satisfy Mars Human Mission Landing Criteria

Precision landing on Mars is a challenge. All Mars lander missions prior to the 2012 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) had landing location uncertainty ellipses on the order of hundreds of kilometers. Sending humans to the surface of Mars will likely require multiple landers delivered in close proximity, which will in turn require orders of magnitude improvement in landing accuracy. MSL was the first Mars mission to use an Apollo-derived bank angle guidance to reduce the size of the landing ellipse. It utilized commanded bank angle magnitude to control total range and bank angle reversals to control cross range. A shortcoming of this bank angle guidance is that the open loop phase of flight created by use of bank reversals increases targeting errors. This paper presents a comparison of entry, descent and landing performance for a vehicle with a low lift-to-drag ratio using both bank angle control and an alternative guidance called Direct Force Control (DFC). DFC eliminates the open loop flight errors by directly controlling two forces independently, lift and side force. This permits independent control of down range and cross range. Performance results, evaluated using the Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories (POST2), including propellant use and landing accuracy, are presented.

Dwyer Cianciolo, Alicia↗

NASA NTRS1990

Taguchi Approach to Design Optimization for Quality and Cost: An Overview

Calibrations to existing cost of doing business in space indicate that to establish human presence on the Moon and Mars with the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) will require resources, felt by many, to be more than the national budget can afford. In order for SEI to succeed, we must actually design and build space systems at lower cost this time, even with tremendous increases in quality and performance requirements, such as extremely high reliability. This implies that both government and industry must change the way they do business. Therefore, new philosophy and technology must be employed to design and produce reliable, high quality space systems at low cost. In recognizing the need to reduce cost and improve quality and productivity, Department of Defense (DoD) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have initiated Total Quality Management (TQM). TQM is a revolutionary management strategy in quality assurance and cost reduction. TQM requires complete management commitment, employee involvement, and use of statistical tools. The quality engineering methods of Dr. Taguchi, employing design of experiments (DOE), is one of the most important statistical tools of TQM for designing high quality systems at reduced cost. Taguchi methods provide an efficient and systematic way to optimize designs for performance, quality, and cost. Taguchi methods have been used successfully in Japan and the United States in designing reliable, high quality products at low cost in such areas as automobiles and consumer electronics. However, these methods are just beginning to see application in the aerospace industry. The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the Taguchi methods for improving quality and reducing cost, describe the current state of applications and its role in identifying cost sensitive design parameters.

Unal, Resit↗

NASA NTRS2005

Aircraft Fault Detection and Classification Using Multi-Level Immune Learning Detection

This work is an extension of a recently developed software tool called MILD (Multi-level Immune Learning Detection), which implements a negative selection algorithm for anomaly and fault detection that is inspired by the human immune system. The immunity-based approach can detect a broad spectrum of known and unforeseen faults. We extend MILD by applying a neural network classifier to identify the pattern of fault detectors that are activated during fault detection. Consequently, MILD now performs fault detection and identification of the system under investigation. This paper describes the application of MILD to detect and classify faults of a generic transport aircraft augmented with an intelligent flight controller. The intelligent control architecture is designed to accommodate faults without the need to explicitly identify them. Adding knowledge about the existence and type of a fault will improve the handling qualities of a degraded aircraft and impact tactical and strategic maneuvering decisions. In addition, providing fault information to the pilot is important for maintaining situational awareness so that he can avoid performing an action that might lead to unexpected behavior - e.g., an action that exceeds the remaining control authority of the damaged aircraft. We discuss the detection and classification results of simulated failures of the aircraft's control system and show that MILD is effective at determining the problem with low false alarm and misclassification rates.

Wong, Derek↗

NASA NTRS2011

Space Shuttle Ascent Flight Design Process: Evolution and Lessons Learned

The Space Shuttle Ascent Flight Design team is responsible for defining a launch to orbit trajectory profile that satisfies all programmatic mission objectives and defines the ground and onboard reconfiguration requirements for this high-speed and demanding flight phase. This design, verification and reconfiguration process ensures that all applicable mission scenarios are enveloped within integrated vehicle and spacecraft certification constraints and criteria, and includes the design of the nominal ascent profile and trajectory profiles for both uphill and ground-to-ground aborts. The team also develops a wide array of associated training, avionics flight software verification, onboard crew and operations facility products. These key ground and onboard products provide the ultimate users and operators the necessary insight and situational awareness for trajectory dynamics, performance and event sequences, abort mode boundaries and moding, flight performance and impact predictions for launch vehicle stages for use in range safety, and flight software performance. These products also provide the necessary insight to or reconfiguration of communications and tracking systems, launch collision avoidance requirements, and day of launch crew targeting and onboard guidance, navigation and flight control updates that incorporate the final vehicle configuration and environment conditions for the mission. Over the course of the Space Shuttle Program, ascent trajectory design and mission planning has evolved in order to improve program flexibility and reduce cost, while maintaining outstanding data quality. Along the way, the team has implemented innovative solutions and technologies in order to overcome significant challenges. A number of these solutions may have applicability to future human spaceflight programs.

Picka, Bret A.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Engineering Polymers as Structural Materials in Spacecraft Water Systems

The novel application of structural materials, surface treatments, and barrier coatings is desired to mitigate the rapid loss of ionic silver (Ag+) biocide observed with passive metal alloys, improve reliability, and reduce system mass. In this work, we provide an initial look at the potential replacement of these heritage alloys in spacecraft water systems with high-performance thermoplastic engineering polymers, including PEEK, PEI, and PVDF. Such materials have found increasing use as structural materials in a broad array of performance-critical applications, including in the aerospace, medical implant, and chemical processing fields. We selected a number of promising materials for investigation, compiled mechanical behavior data, and conducted theoretical performance analyses. We also identified and began to address numerous material suitability concerns as well as design requirements for pressurized components in human-rated spacecraft hardware. These include material flammability, offgassing, leaching, chemical resistance, radiation tolerance, prevention of fracture/yielding, and others. We find that there is significant potential for use of engineering polymers in spacecraft water systems, and suggest some directions for future research.

Lance Dean Delzeit↗

NASA NTRS2017

Enabling Future Science and Human Exploration with NASA's Next Generation Near Earth and Deep Space Communications and Navigation Architecture

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is studying alternatives for the United States space communications architecture through the 2040 timeframe. This architecture provides communication and navigation services to both human exploration and science missions throughout the solar system. Several of NASA's key space assets are approaching their end of design life and major systems are in need of replacement. The changes envisioned in the relay satellite architecture and capabilities around both Earth and Mars are significant undertakings and occur only once or twice each generation, and therefore is referred to as NASA's next generation space communications architecture. NASA's next generation architecture will benefit from technology and services developed over recent years. These innovations will provide missions with new operations concepts, increased performance, and new business and operating models. Advancements in optical communications will enable high-speed data channels and the use of new and more complex science instruments. Modern multiple beam/multiple access technologies such as those employed on commercial high throughput satellites will enable enhanced capabilities for on-demand service, and with new protocols will help provide Internet-like connectivity for cooperative spacecraft to improve data return and coordinate joint mission objectives. On-board processing with autonomous and cognitive networking will play larger roles to help manage system complexity. Spacecraft and ground systems will coordinate among themselves to establish communications, negotiate link connectivity, and learn to share spectrum to optimize resource allocation. Spacecraft will autonomously navigate, plan trajectories, and handle off-nominal events. NASA intends to leverage the ever-expanding capabilities of the satellite communications industry and foster its continued growth. NASA's technology development will complement and extend commercial capabilities to meet unique space environment requirements and to provide capabilities that are beyond the commercial marketplace. The progress of the communications industry, including the emerging global space internet segment and its planned constellations of 100's of satellites offer additional opportunities for new capability and mission concepts. The opportunities and challenges of a future space architecture require an optimal solution encompassing a global perspective. The concepts and technologies intentionally define an architecture that applies not only to NASA, but to other U.S. government agencies, international space and government agencies, and domestic and international industries to advance the openness, interoperability, and affordability of space communications. Cooperation among the worlds space agencies, their capabilities, standards, operations, and interoperability are key to advancing humankinds understand of the universe and extending human presence into the solar system.

deep space↗

NASA NTRS2017

Enabling Future Science and Human Exploration with NASA's Next Generation near Earth and Deep Space Communications and Navigation Architecture

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is studying alternatives for the United States space communications architecture through the 2040 timeframe. This architecture provides communication and navigation services to both human exploration and science missions throughout the solar system. Several of NASA's key space assets are approaching their end of design life and major systems are in need of replacement. The changes envisioned in the relay satellite architecture and capabilities around both Earth and Mars are significant undertakings and occur only once or twice each generation, and therefore is referred to as NASA's next generation space communications architecture. NASA's next generation architecture will benefit from technology and services developed over recent years. These innovations will provide missions with new operations concepts, increased performance, and new business and operating models. Advancements in optical communications will enable high-speed data channels and the use of new and more complex science instruments. Modern multiple beam/multiple access technologies such as those employed on commercial high throughput satellites will enable enhanced capabilities for on-demand service, and with new protocols will help provide Internet-like connectivity for cooperative spacecraft to improve data return and coordinate joint mission objectives. On-board processing with autonomous and cognitive networking will play larger roles to help manage system complexity. Spacecraft and ground systems will coordinate among themselves to establish communications, negotiate link connectivity, and learn to share spectrum to optimize resource allocation. Spacecraft will autonomously navigate, plan trajectories, and handle off-nominal events. NASA intends to leverage the ever-expanding capabilities of the satellite communications industry and foster its continued growth. NASA's technology development will complement and extend commercial capabilities to meet unique space environment requirements and to provide capabilities that are beyond the commercial marketplace. The progress of the communications industry, including the emerging global space internet segment and its planned constellations of 100's of satellites offer additional opportunities for new capability and mission concepts. The opportunities and challenges of a future space architecture require an optimal solution encompassing a global perspective. The concepts and technologies intentionally define an architecture that applies not only to NASA, but to other U.S. government agencies, international space and government agencies, and domestic and international industries to advance the openness, interoperability, and affordability of space communications. Cooperation among the worlds space agencies, their capabilities, standards, operations, and interoperability are key to advancing humankind's understand of the universe and extending human presence into the solar system.

Communications↗

NASA NTRS2001

Direct comparison of the impact of head tracking, reverberation, and individualized head-related transfer functions on the spatial perception of a virtual speech source

A study of sound localization performance was conducted using headphone-delivered virtual speech stimuli, rendered via HRTF-based acoustic auralization software and hardware, and blocked-meatus HRTF measurements. The independent variables were chosen to evaluate commonly held assumptions in the literature regarding improved localization: inclusion of head tracking, individualized HRTFs, and early and diffuse reflections. Significant effects were found for azimuth and elevation error, reversal rates, and externalization.

NASA Discipline Space Human Factors↗

NASA NTRS1996

Advanced Air Traffic Management Research (Human Factors and Automation): NASA Research Initiatives in Human-Centered Automation Design in Airspace Management

NASA has initiated a significant thrust of research and development focused on providing the flight crew and air traffic managers automation aids to increase capacity in en route and terminal area operations through the use of flexible, more fuel-efficient routing, while improving the level of safety in commercial carrier operations. In that system development, definition of cognitive requirements for integrated multi-operator dynamic aiding systems is fundamental. The core processes of control and the distribution of decision making in that control are undergoing extensive analysis. From our perspective, the human operators and the procedures by which they interact are the fundamental determinants of the safe, efficient, and flexible operation of the system. In that perspective, we have begun to explore what our experience has taught will be the most challenging aspects of designing and integrating human-centered automation in the advanced system. We have performed a full mission simulation looking at the role shift to self-separation on board the aircraft with the rules of the air guiding behavior and the provision of a cockpit display of traffic information and an on-board traffic alert system that seamlessly integrates into the TCAS operations. We have performed and initial investigation of the operational impact of "Dynamic Density" metrics on controller relinquishing and reestablishing full separation authority. (We follow the assumption that responsibility at all times resides with the controller.) This presentation will describe those efforts as well as describe the process by which we will guide the development of error tolerant systems that are sensitive to shifts in operator work load levels and dynamic shifts in the operating point of air traffic management.

Corker, Kevin M.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

PowerCell aboard the EuCROPIS satellite - Results from the first synthetic biology experiment in space

Synthetic biology is the design and construction of new biological parts and systems not found in nature, a technology that we believe will be a game-changing technology for space exploration. The PowerCell concept is an ecology based on photosynthetic microbes taking advantage of in situ materials and energy to generate, on-demand, useful products (food, fuel, cloths, drugs, etc.) that satisfy specific needs of long-term human presence away from Earth. This first PowerCell experiment is testing this concept as well as several key mechanisms of engineering biology in a 48-well plate microfluidics system. NASA's PowerCell experiment was loaded in the fluidics system at NASA Ames in May 2016, and subsequently integrated on the DLR's compact satellite Eu:CROPIS (Euglena Combined Regenerative Organic food Production In Space), as a secondary payload. Launched into Earth’s orbit from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, USA, in December 3, 2019, the Eu:CROPIS platform has provided an artificial gravity through rotational acceleration, simulating gravity ranges compatible to those found on Mars and on the Moon, as well as microgravity in the absence of acceleration. Each set of biological experiments performed at Earth's orbit was compared to ground controls. Over 400 days' worth of mission data showed that all hardware and software worked as planned, and microbial growth was observed in all four gravity regimes, including growth on cyanobacterial cell extract in three out of four gravity regimes. The genetic transformation experiment was successful in microgravity and provided valuable long-term reagent stability data, including antibiotic efficacy. The demonstrated ability of hardy bacterial spores to recover from a long-term stasis period will be fundamental for deep human space missions. Lessons learned from hardware design to experimental operations are leading to improved designs and capabilities for future missions.

Ivan Glaucio Paulino Lima↗

DOE OSTI2025

Liquid Alkaline Water Electrolyzers: Comparing Performance across Design, Operation, and End-of-Life Scenarios

Liquid alkaline water electrolysis (LAWE) is a demonstrated technology for hydrogen production, yet a comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) of their deployment is lacking. Research leading to improvements to the core component, the electrochemical stack, along with auxiliary system materials and dynamic operation of stacks from variable electricity supply offers new data that allows for detailed modeling and evaluation. Here, we present an LCA of two facility designs based on the current state-of-the-art stack and an advanced stack with zero-gap between electrodes, and capture dynamic electricity use from solar, wind, and hybrid sources and stack recycling strategies. We present life cycle impact factors characterizing the production of 1 kg of hydrogen across 12 environmental, human health, and resource impact categories (TRACI and ReCiPe) in the contiguous United States. As expected, the source of electricity will drive impacts (e.g., 83-94% of carbon intensity); however, we find that operating using wind electricity can lower hydrogen leakage and the overall carbon intensity (1.03 kgCO 2 e/kgH 2 ) relative to solar electricity (2.57 kgCO 2 e/kgH 2 ) at matched 1:1 capacity between LAWE and the electricity source. The deployment of the advanced design and stack recycling lowers impacts across all life cycle stages. We highlight opportunities to further reduce potential impacts, including the balance of plant materials and operation cycles associated with the use of variable wind and solar electricity that result in hydrogen leakage.

08 HYDROGEN↗

NASA NTRS1982

Analysis of driver performance under reduced visibility

Mathematical models describing vehicle dynamics as well as human behavior may be useful in evaluating driver performance and in establishing design criteria for vehicles more compatible with man. In 1977, a two level model of driver steering behavior was developed, but its parameters were identified for clear visibility conditions only. Since driver performance degrades under conditions of reduced visibility, e.g., fog, the two level model should be investigated to determine its applicability to such conditions. The data analysis of a recently performed driving simulation experiment showed that the model still performed reasonably well under fog conditions, although there was a degradation in its predictive capacity during fog. Some additional parameters affecting anticipation and lag time may improve the model's performance for reduced visibility conditions.

Kaeppler, W. D.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Recent research results in stereo 3-D pictorial displays at Langley Research Center

Recent results from a NASA-Langley program which addressed stereo 3D pictorial displays from a comprehensive standpoint are reviewed. The program dealt with human factors issues and display technology aspects, as well as flight display applications. The human factors findings include addressing a fundamental issue challenging the application of stereoscopic displays in head-down flight applications, with the determination that stereoacuity is unaffected by the short-term use of stereo 3D displays. While stereoacuity has been a traditional measurement of depth perception abilities, it is a measure of relative depth, rather than actual depth (absolute depth). Therefore, depth perception effects based on size and distance judgments and long-term stereo exposure remain issues to be investigated. The applications of stereo 3D to pictorial flight displays within the program have repeatedly demonstrated increases in pilot situational awareness and task performance improvements. Moreover, these improvements have been obtained within the constraints of the limited viewing volume available with conventional stereo displays. A number of stereo 3D pictorial display applications are described, including recovery from flight-path offset, helicopter hover, and emulated helmet-mounted display.

Parrish, Russell V.↗

NASA NTRS2010

A Near-Term Concept for Trajectory Based Operations with Air/Ground Data Link Communication

An operating concept and required system components for trajectory-based operations with air/ground data link for today's en route and transition airspace is proposed. Controllers are fully responsible for separation as they are today, and no new aircraft equipage is required. Trajectory automation computes integrated solutions to problems like metering, weather avoidance, traffic conflicts and the desire to find and fly more time/fuel efficient flight trajectories. A common ground-based system supports all levels of aircraft equipage and performance including those equipped and not equipped for data link. User interface functions for the radar controller's display make trajectory-based clearance advisories easy to visualize, modify if necessary, and implement. Laboratory simulations (without human operators) were conducted to test integrated operation of selected system components with uncertainty modeling. Results are based on 102 hours of Fort Worth Center traffic recordings involving over 37,000 individual flights. The presence of uncertainty had a marginal effect (5%) on minimum-delay conflict resolution performance, and windfavorable routes had no effect on detection and resolution metrics. Flight plan amendments and clearances were substantially reduced compared to today s operations. Top-of-descent prediction errors are the largest cause of failure indicating that better descent predictions are needed to reliably achieve fuel-efficient descent profiles in medium to heavy traffic. Improved conflict detections for climbing flights could enable substantially more continuous climbs to cruise altitude. Unlike today s Conflict Alert, tactical automation must alert when an altitude amendment is entered, but before the aircraft starts the maneuver. In every other failure case tactical automation prevented losses of separation. A real-time prototype trajectory trajectory-automation system is running now and could be made ready for operational testing at an en route Center in 1-2 years.

McNally, David↗

NASA NTRS2019

Using Virtual Reality and Motion Capture as Tools for Human Factors Engineering at Nasa Marshall Space Flight Center

MSFC’s Human Factors Engineering (HFE) team is responsible for all worksite analyses performed for the SLS pre-launch integration activities at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). There is a wide variety of tasks associated with pre-launch integration activities and it is important to verify that vehicle integration will be successful early in the design process. The VR work performed by the HFE team at MSFC has allowed fast changing layouts to be analyzed by various departments with minimal impact to cost or schedule. Implementing these methods for SLS allows for VR use in early design cycles, saving time and budget. Utilizing the resulting HFE analyses improves usability and safety. Ultimately, the goal is to provide a safe environment for the technicians assembling the vehicle and the astronaut crew at launch.

Andrews, Tanya↗

NASA NTRS2022

Registering Articulated Objects With Human-in-the-loop Corrections

Remotely programming robots to execute tasks often relies on registering objects of interest in the robot’s environment. Frequently, these tasks involve articulating objects such as opening or closing a valve. However, existing human-in-the-loop methods for registering objects do not consider articulations and the corresponding impact to the geometry of the object, which can cause the methods to fail. In this work, we present an approach where the registration system attempts to automatically determine the object model, pose, and articulation for user-selected points using a nonlinear iterative closest point algorithm. When the automated fitting is incorrect, the operator can iteratively intervene with corrections after which the system will refit the object. We present an implementation of our fitting procedure and evaluate it with a user study that shows that it can improve user performance, in measures of time on task and task load, ease of use, and usefulness compared to a manual registration approach. We also present a situated example that demonstrates the integration of our method in an end-to-end system for articulating a remote valve.

teleoperation↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Design Considerations for LTV HITL Testing of Pressurized Suited Crew on a Motion-Based Platform

The upcoming NASA Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) will succeed the Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle, performing both surface exploration and logistics transfer in NASA’s return to the Moon. Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) testing will play a key role in refining the design of the LTV, ensuring its usability and ability to accommodate the astronaut population. A motion-based platform and a lunar terrain and lighting model can simulate the conditions of the lunar south pole region. It can be used by NASA to conduct HITL testing in concert with HITL testing of the drivable Ground Reference Unit (GTU) concept vehicle. The dynamic motion of the platform combined with the mobility restrictions of pressurized suits could help improve NASA understanding of vehicle-suit-astronaut interfaces. NASA human factors practitioners have proposed multiple HITL test series to use the motion-based platform in conjunction with testing of the GTU in hopes that lessons learned can be applied to help select a commercial partner to develop the Artemis LTV.

LTV↗

DOE OSTI2023

Talent Acquisition in Scientific and Engineering Disciplines: A Case Study of National Laboratory (TASED) [Thesis]

Identifying the hindrances to performing effective talent acquisition within the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics field is an important topic for technical hiring managers. Top candidates have multiple options during highly competitive market conditions requiring managers to look for unique solutions which diverge from competition. Prior to this study there has been very little research considering national laboratory research and development challenges from a technical hiring manager’s talent acquisition perspective. Utilizing a unique combination of national laboratory multi-organization survey, pilot study, Human Resource (HR) tracking data and trust based business strategy to enhance partnering this research finds hiring managers can leverage out of the box techniques to improve internal processes while developing industry support to target highly qualified individuals. This methodology could be utilized by technical hiring managers across federal national laboratory enterprise to effectively capture next generation staff and leadership talent who align with their organization professionally as well as social culture.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗