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Two sensor development programs being conducted at the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, NASA Ames Research Center are described, one in progress and the other being initiated. The ongoing program involves digital image velocimetry for velocity field measurements of time-dependent flows. The new program involves advanced acoustic sensors for wind tunnel applications.
The history of the NASA Lewis Research Center's role in space nuclear power programs is reviewed. Lewis has provided leadership in research, development, and the advancement of space power and propulsion systems. Lewis' pioneering efforts in nuclear reactor technology, shielding, high temperature materials, fluid dynamics, heat transfer, mechanical and direct energy conversion, high-energy propellants, electric propulsion and high performance rocket fuels and nozzles have led to significant technical and management roles in many national space nuclear power and propulsion programs.
The history of the NASA Lewis Research Center's role in space nuclear power programs is reviewed. Lewis has provided leadership in research, development, and the advancement of space power and propulsion systems. Lewis' pioneering efforts in nuclear reactor technology, shielding, high temperature materials, fluid dynamics, heat transfer, mechanical and direct energy conversion, high-energy propellants, electric propulsion and high performance rocket fuels and nozzles have led to significant technical and management roles in many natural space nuclear power and propulsion programs.
The recent reorganization and shift to managing total quality at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) has placed an increasing emphasis on teams and teamwork in accomplishing day-to-day work activities and long-term projects. The purpose of this research was to review the nature of teams and teamwork at LaRC. Models of team performance and teamwork guided the gathering of information. Current and former team members served as participants; their collective experience reflected membership in over 200 teams at LaRC. The participants responded to a survey of open-ended questions which assessed various aspects of teams and teamwork. The participants also met in a workshop to clarify and elaborate on their responses. The work accomplished by the teams ranged from high-level managerial decision making (e.g., developing plans for LaRC reorganization) to creating scientific proposals (e.g., describing spaceflight projects to be designed, sold, and built). Teams typically had nine members who remained together for six months. Member turnover was around 20 percent; this turnover was attributed to heavy loads of other work assignments and little formal recognition and reward for team membership. Team members usually shared a common and valued goal, but there was not a clear standard (except delivery of a document) for knowing when the goal was achieved. However, members viewed their teams as successful. A major factor in team success was the setting of explicit a priori rules for communication. Task interdependencies between members were not complex (e.g., sharing of meeting notes and ideas about issues), except between members of scientific teams (i.e., reliance on the expertise of others). Thus, coordination of activities usually involved scheduling and attendance of team meetings. The team leader was designated by the team's sponsor. This leader usually shared power and responsibilities with other members, such that team members established their own operating procedures for decision making. Sponsors followed a hands-off policy during team operations, but they approved and reviewed team products. Most teams, particularly high-level decision-making teams, had little or no authority to carry out their decisions. Team members had few interpersonal conflicts. They monitored each other respectfully about meeting deadlines. Feedback and backup behaviors were seen as desirable aspects of teamwork, wanted by the members, and done appropriately.
This paper summarizes on-going modal testing activities at the NASA Langley Research Center for two aircraft fuselage structures: a generic "aluminum testbed cylinder" (ATC) and a Beechcraft Starship fuselage (BSF). Subsequent acoustic tests will measure the interior noise field created by exterior mechanical and acoustic sources. These test results will provide validation databases for interior noise prediction codes on realistic aircraft fuselage structures. The ATC is a 12-ft-long, all-aluminum, scale model assembly. The BSF is a 40-ft-long, all-composite, complete aircraft fuselage. To date, two of seven test configurations of the ATC and all three test configurations of the BSF have been completed. The paper briefly describes the various test configurations, testing procedure, and typical results for frequencies up to 250 Hz.
This paper summarizes on-going modal testing activities at the NASA Langley Research Center for two aircraft fuselage structures: a generic "aluminum testbed cylinder" (ATC) and a Beechcraft Starship fuselage (BSF). Subsequent acoustic tests will measure the interior noise field created by exterior mechanical and acoustic sources. These test results will provide validation databases for interior noise prediction codes on realistic aircraft fuselage structures. The ATC is a 12-ft-long, all-aluminum, scale model assembly. The BSF is a 40-ft-long, all-composite, complete aircraft fuselage. To date, two of seven test configurations of the ATC and all three test configurations of the BSF have been completed. The paper briefly describes the various test configurations, testing procedure, and typical results for frequencies up to 250 Hz.
The Space Shuttle has many communications systems which are used throughout a typical mission. Given that the radio spectrum has become increasingly congested, the ability to hear extremely weak signals requires greater receiver sensitivity. Dryden Flight Research Center approached Angle Linear, a manufacturer of linear radio frequency products and peripherals for communications, to solve the problem. The solution was a receiving preamplifier specially crafted for NASA. Communications with the Space Shuttle are now more reliable,with Dryden being able to also support local missions without purchasing additional equipment. The work has carried over into the Mir Space Station communication support effort and is under evaluation by other NASA centers. The company's preamplifier line was greatly expanded to cover a broader range of frequencies, providing the same sensational improvement to other areas of communication including business, government, trucking, land mobile, cellular and broadcast.
This paper provides a short history of NASA Stennis Space Center's Test Technology Laboratory and briefly describes the variety of engine test technology activities and developmental project initiatives. Theoretical rocket exhaust plume modeling, acoustic monitoring and analysis, hand held fire imaging, heat flux radiometry, thermal imaging and exhaust plume spectroscopy are all examples of current and past test activities that are briefly described. In addition, recent efforts and visions focused on accomodating second, third, and fourth generation flight vehicle engine test requirements are discussed.
The features of the data acquisition and control systems of the NASA Langley Research Center's Jet Noise Laboratory are presented. The Jet Noise Laboratory is a facility that simulates realistic mixed flow turbofan jet engine nozzle exhaust systems in simulated flight. The system is capable of acquiring data for a complete take-off assessment of noise and nozzle performance. This paper describes the development of an integrated system to control and measure the behavior of model jet nozzles featuring dual independent high pressure combusting air streams with wind tunnel flow. The acquisition and control system is capable of simultaneous measurement of forces, moments, static and dynamic model pressures and temperatures, and jet noise. The design concepts for the coordination of the control computers and multiple data acquisition computers and instruments are discussed. The control system design and implementation are explained, describing the features, equipment, and the experiences of using a primarily Personal Computer based system. Areas for future development are examined.
The Hypersonic Tunnel Facility (HTF) located at the NASA Glenn Research Center s Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio, is the nation s only large-scale, non-vitiated, hypersonic propulsion test facility. The HTF, with its 4-story graphite induction heater, is capable of duplicating Mach 5, 6, and 7 flight conditions. This unique propulsion system test facility has experienced several standby and reactivation cycles. The intent of the paper is to overview the HTF capabilities to the propulsion community, present the current status of HTF, and share the lessons learned from putting a large-scale facility into mothball status for a later restart
Climate policy in the United States is currently guided by public-private partnerships and actions at the local and state levels. This mitigation strategy is made up of programs that focus on energy efficiency, renewable energy, agricultural practices and implementation of technologies to reduce greenhouse gases. How will policy makers know if these strategies are working, particularly at the scales at which they are being implemented? The NASA Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) will provide information on carbon dioxide fluxes derived from observations of earth's land, ocean and atmosphere used in state of the art models describing their interactions. This new modeling system could be used to assess the impact of specific policy interventions on CO2 reductions, enabling an iterative, results-oriented policy process. In January of 2012, the CMS team held a meeting with carbon policy and decision makers in Washington DC to describe the developing modeling system to policy makers. The NASA CMS will develop pilot studies to provide information across a range of spatial scales, consider carbon storage in biomass, and improve measures of the atmospheric distribution of carbon dioxide. The pilot involves multiple institutions (four NASA centers as well as several universities) and over 20 scientists in its work. This pilot study will generate CO2 flux maps for two years using observational constraints in NASA's state-of -the-art models. Bottom-up surface flux estimates will be computed using data-constrained land and ocean models; comparison of the different techniques will provide some knowledge of uncertainty in these estimates. Ensembles of atmospheric carbon distributions will be computed using an atmospheric general circulation model (GEOS-5), with perturbations to the surface fluxes and to transport. Top-down flux estimates will be computed from observed atmospheric CO2 distributions (ACOS/GOSAT retrievals) alongside the forward-model fields, in conjunction with an inverse approach based on the CO2 model of GEOS ]Chem. The forward model ensembles will be used to build understanding of relationships among surface flux perturbations, transport uncertainty and atmospheric carbon concentration. This will help construct uncertainty estimates and information on the true spatial resolution of the top-down flux calculations. The relationship between the top-down and bottom-up flux distributions will be documented. Because the goal of NASA CMS is to be policy relevant, the scientists involved in the flux modeling pilot need to understand and be focused on the needs of the climate policy and decision making community. If policy makers are to use CMS products, they must be aware of the modeling effort and begin to design policies that can be evaluated with information. Improving estimates of carbon sequestered in forests, for example, will require information on the spatial variability of forest biomass that is far more explicit than is presently possible using only ground observations. Carbon mitigation policies being implemented by cities around the United States could be designed with the CMS data in mind, enabling sequential evaluation and subsequent improvements in incentives, structures and programs. The success of climate mitigation programs being implemented in the United States today will hang on the depth of the relationship between scientists and their policy and decision making counterparts. Ensuring that there is two-way communication between data providers and users is important for the success both of the policies and the scientific products meant to support them..
The latest flight demonstration of Doppler Aerosol Wind Lidar (DAWN) at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) is presented. The goal of the campaign was to demonstrate the improvement of DAWN system since the previous flight campaign in 2012 and the capabilities of DAWN and the latest airborne wind profiling algorithm APOLO (Airborne Wind Profiling Algorithm for Doppler Wind Lidar) developed at LaRC. The comparisons of APOLO and another algorithm are discussed utilizing two and five line-of-sights (LOSs), respectively. Wind parameters from DAWN were compared with ground-based radar measurements for validation purposes. The campaign period was June - July in 2013 and the flight altitude was 8 km in inland toward Charlotte, NC, and offshores in Virginia Beach, VA and Ocean City, MD. The DAWN system was integrated into a UC12B with two operators onboard during the campaign.
Several upgrade projects have been completed at the NASA Langley Research Center National Transonic Facility over the last 1.5 years in an effort defined as STARBUKS - Subsonic Transonic Applied Refinements By Using Key Strategies. This multi-year effort was undertaken to improve NTF's overall capabilities by addressing Accuracy and Validation, Productivity, and Reliability areas at the NTF. This presentation will give a brief synopsis of each of these efforts.
This document is a collection of technical reports on research conducted by the participants in the 2003 NASA/ASEE Faculty Fellowship Program at the John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC). This was the nineteenth year that a NASA/ASEE program has been conducted at KSC. The 2003 program was administered by the University of Central Florida (UCF) in cooperation with KSC. The program was operated under the auspices of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and the Education Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. The KSC program was one of nine such Aeronautics and Space Research Programs funded by NASA Headquarters in 2003. The basic common objectives of the NASA/ASEE Faculty Fellowship Program are: A) To further the professional knowledge of qualified engineering and science faculty members; B) To stimulate an exchange of ideas between teaching participants and employees of NASA; C) To enrich and refresh the research and teaching activities of participants institutions; D) To contribute to the research objectives of the NASA center. The KSC Faculty Fellows spent ten weeks (May 19 through July 25, 2003) working with NASA scientists and engineers on research of mutual interest to the university faculty member and the NASA colleague. The editors of this document were responsible for selecting appropriately qualified faculty to address some of the many research areas of current interest to NASA/KSC. A separate document reports on the administrative aspects of the 2003 program. The NASA/ASEE program is intended to be a two-year program to allow in-depth research by the university faculty member. In many cases a faculty member has developed a close working relationship with a particular NASA group that had provided funding beyond the two-year limit.
The goal of this Annual Review was to present NASA plans and accomplishments that will impact the national aviation safety goal. NASA's WxAP Project focuses on developing the following products: (1) Aviation Weather Information (AWIN) technologies (displays, sensors, pilot decision tools, communication links, etc.); (2) Electronic Pilot Reporting (E-PIREPS) technologies; (3) Enhanced weather products with associated hazard metrics; (4) Forward looking turbulence sensor technologies (radar, lidar, etc.); (5) Turbulence mitigation control system designs; Attendees included personnel from various NASA Centers, FAA, National Weather Service, DoD, airlines, aircraft and pilot associations, industry, aircraft manufacturers and academia. Attendees participated in discussion sessions aimed at collecting aviation user community feedback on NASA plans and R&D activities. This CD is a compilation of most of the presentations presented at this Review.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Medical and Environmental Services Division, which includes both the Environmental Management Branch (EMB) and Environmental Assurance Branch (EAB), identified lagoon health as a high priority for the mission. This document provides NASA KSC and its partners a plan which considers the unique relationship between the approximately 140,000-acre Federal property and the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) estuary on and adjacent to KSC, and proposes projects and restoration actions that will ensure NASA KSC’s continued role as a responsible steward promoting IRL health and biodiversity. Additionally, this document provides NASA KSC a reference document to enable informed decisions regarding future IRL health projects.
Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) can be a challenge when there is only one modeler and one model involved. For the Gateway Program, due to its unique acquisition approach, the modeling efforts involve multiple NASA centers with each developing their own models. Every additional model to be integrated compounds the difficulties, necessitating stronger ontologies and explicitly defined interfaces between models. To help facilitate this integration, a vision of collaboration between centers is in its beginning stages. This vision includes looking at models as systems themselves and developing their own use cases, requirements and interfaces between each of them. The goal of this presentation is to share the Gateway Program's cross-center vision for model collaboration, the lessons learned in developing and implementing that vision for the various system engineering products needed to satisfy life cycle review criteria and how treating models as systems helped in these efforts.
This paper presents a summary of the transmission diagnostics research work conducted at NASA Lewis Research Center over the last four years. In 1990, the Transmission Health and Usage Monitoring Research Team at NASA Lewis conducted a survey to determine the critical needs of the diagnostics community. Survey results indicated that experimental verification of gear and bearing fault detection methods, improved fault detection in planetary systems, and damage magnitude assessment and prognostics research were all critical to a highly reliable health and usage monitoring system. In response to this, a variety of transmission fault detection methods were applied to experimentally obtained fatigue data. Failure modes of the fatigue data include a variety of gear pitting failures, tooth wear, tooth fracture, and bearing spalling failures. Overall results indicate that, of the gear fault detection techniques, no one method can successfully detect all possible failure modes. The more successful methods need to be integrated into a single more reliable detection technique. A recently developed method, NA4, in addition to being one of the more successful gear fault detection methods, was also found to exhibit damage magnitude estimation capabilities.