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At least 883 records · Page 49

Stress and Aeronautical Team Decision Making: Strengthening the Weak Links

A model that characterizes pilots'decision making in flight will be presented. Elements of the model that appear most vulnerable to stress will be examined in light of accidents and incidents. The model includes two major components: Situation assessment and choice of a course of action. While based on Klein's Recognition-Primed Decision Making, it is tailored to the aviation environment which includes certain features that may be common to other domains: Primarily, aviation is highly proceduralized and options are generally well known. What appears to make decisions difficult are ambiguity, time pressure, and risk. In addition, decisions must often be made while carrying out the standard procedures of flight, including checklists, review of approach plates, standard briefings, and communication with air traffic controllers or cabin crew. The effects of stressors on decision making by pilots with varying levels of expertise will be explored, along with strategies for strengthening the weak links.

Orasanu, Judith↗

The Nature of Ultraluminous Galaxies: Infrared Space Observatory Analysis and Instrument Team

The scientific goal of the proposed research was to investigate the physical conditions in the nuclear regions of infrared luminous galaxies by carrying out detailed infrared spectroscopic observations of a large sample of infrared luminous galaxies. During the past year, these observations have been successfully analyzed and extensive modeling using photoionization and photodissociation codes has been carried out. Two first-author publications and a second-author publication have been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal and results were presented at two invited talks. Four additional journal papers are in preparation and will be submitted during year 2 of the grant. The secondary project included in this program was the development of a near-infrared cryogenic Fabry-Perot interferometer for use on future large aperture telescopes. System integration and room temperature testing was successfully carried out for this project during year 1.

Satyapal, Shobita↗

Space Science Field Workshops for K-12 Teacher-Scientist Teams

In collaboration with NASA Space Grant Consortia and other partners, we developed workshops for K-12 teachers that involve intensive, direct interaction with scientists. Field trips allow informal and spontaneous interaction, encouraging active participation. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Thompson, P. B.↗

Pittsburgh Public School District / Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Team Participation in the US First Competition

FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, is an international program designed to encourage junior and senior high school students to participate in science and technology related activities. FIRST attempts to increase enthusiasm for technology by providing a competitive environment in which to demonstrate robotics technology designed for a particular set of tasks. Carnegie Mellon University provided student members of the project the opportunity to complete the design, construction, testing, and operation of a robot. Electrical, mechanical, and programming skills were stressed, with both adult and senior students acting as mentors for more junior members. Teamwork and integration was also stressed in order to provide students with a realistic feel for project-based work. Finally, an emphasis was placed on recruiting students with greater difficulty in entering technological fields: girls and ethnic minorities and students leaning toward humanities (especially art). Carnegie Mellon built a relationship with Taylor Allderdice High School that lasted four years. For four years, the success of the project increased each year. Each term, the students successfully designed and built a working robot that could fully participate in the competition. The enthusiasm of the students has been the cornerstone of the recruit of new students, keeping the project growing and vital. Carnegie Mellon's participation with Allderdice has been an overall great success.

Stroupe, Ashley↗

ISO Guest Observer Data Analysis and LWS Instrument Team Activities

This project was granted a no-cost extension prompted by the request of the major subcontractor, the Naval Research Laboratory, which had not yet completed its tasks. As of July 2002, they had made substantial progress. They have successfully fabricated a metal mesh grid on polyimide, and also successfully fabricated a 2-layer metal mesh infrared filter using stacks of these metal mesh grids on polyimide; the actual layering was done at SAO. Both warm and cold spectroscopic tests were done on these fabricated devices. The measurements were in good agreement with the theory, and also reasonable performance in absolute terms. NRL is now working on fabricating a 3-layer metal mesh infrared filter, and a prototype is expected in the next month. Testing should occur before the end of the fiscal year. Finally, NRL has preliminarily agreed to hire a new postdoctoral person to refine the modeling of the filters based on the new measurements. The person should arrive this fall. NRL has a new Fourier Transform Spectrometer which will be delivered in the next month, and which will be used to facilitate the testing which has up to now been done in collaboration with NASA Goddard Space Flight Space Center.

Smith, Howard↗

Participation in the TOMS Science Team

Because of the nominal funding provided by this grant, some of the relevant research is partially funded by other sources. Research performed for this funding period included the following items: We have investigated errors in TOMS ozone measurements caused by the uncertainty in wavelength calibration, coupled with the ozone cross sections in the Huggins bands and their temperature dependence. Preliminary results show that 0.1 nm uncertainty in TOMS wavelength calibration at the ozone active wavelengths corresponds to approx. 1% systematic error in O3, and thus potential 1% biases among ozone trends from the various TOMS instruments. This conclusion will be revised for absolute O3 Measurements as cross sections are further investigated for inclusion in the HITRAN database at the SAO, but the potential for relative errors remains. In order to aid further comparisons among TOMS and GOME ozone measurements, we have implemented our method of direct fitting of GOME radiances (BOAS) for O3, and now obtain the best fitting precision to date for GOME O3 Columns. This will aid in future comparisons of the actual quantities measured and fitted for the two instrument types. We have made comparisons between GOME ICFA cloud fraction and cloud fraction determined from GOME data using the Ring effect in the Ca II lines. There is a strong correlation, as expected, but there are substantial systematic biases between the determinations. This study will be refined in the near future using the recently-developed GOME Cloud Retrieval Algorithm (GOMECAT). We have improved the SAO Ring effect determination to include better convolution with instrument transfer functions and inclusion of interferences by atmospheric absorbers (e.g., O3). This has been made available to the general community.

Chance, Kelly↗

Test and Analysis Capabilities of the Space Environment Effects Team at Marshall Space Flight Center

Marshall Space Flight Center has developed world-class space environmental effects testing facilities to simulate the space environment. The combined environmental effects test system exposes temperature-controlled samples to simultaneous protons, high- and low-energy electrons, vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) radiation, and near-ultraviolet (NUV) radiation. Separate chambers for studying the effects of NUV and VUV at elevated temperatures are also available. The Atomic Oxygen Beam Facility exposes samples to atomic oxygen of 5 eV energy to simulate low-Earth orbit (LEO). The LEO space plasma simulators are used to study current collection to biased spacecraft surfaces, arcing from insulators and electrical conductivity of materials. Plasma propulsion techniques are analyzed using the Marshall magnetic mirror system. The micro light gas gun simulates micrometeoroid and space debris impacts. Candidate materials and hardware for spacecraft can be evaluated for durability in the space environment with a variety of analytical techniques. Mass, solar absorptance, infrared emittance, transmission, reflectance, bidirectional reflectance distribution function, and surface morphology characterization can be performed. The data from the space environmental effects testing facilities, combined with analytical results from flight experiments, enable the Environmental Effects Group to determine optimum materials for use on spacecraft.

Finckenor, M. M.↗

NPSS Space Team

The objective is to increase the usability of the current NPSS code/architecture by incorporating an advanced space transportation propulsion system capability into the existing NPSS code and begin defining advanced capabilities for NPSS and provide an enhancement for the NPSS code/architecture.

Lavelle, Tom↗

ISO Guest Observer Data Analysis and LWS Instrument Team Activities

We have designed and fabricated infrared filters for use at wavelengths greater than or equal to 15 microns. Unlike conventional dielectric filters used at the short wavelengths, ours are made from stacked metal grids, spaced at a very small fraction of the performance wavelengths. The individual lattice layers are gold, the spacers are polyimide, and they are assembled using integrated circuit processing techniques; they resemble some metallic photonic band-gap structures. We simulate the filter performance accurately, including the coupling of the propagating, near-field electromagnetic modes, using computer aided design codes. We find no anomalous absorption. The geometrical parameters of the grids are easily altered in practice, allowing for the production of tuned filters with predictable useful transmission characteristics. Although developed for astronomical instrumentation, the filters are broadly applicable in systems across infrared and terahertz bands.

Oliversen, Ronald J.↗

Team Software Development for Aerothermodynamic and Aerodynamic Analysis and Design

A collaborative approach to software development is described. The approach employs the agile development techniques: project retrospectives, Scrum status meetings, and elements of Extreme Programming to efficiently develop a cohesive and extensible software suite. The software product under development is a fluid dynamics simulator for performing aerodynamic and aerothermodynamic analysis and design. The functionality of the software product is achieved both through the merging, with substantial rewrite, of separate legacy codes and the authorship of new routines. Examples of rapid implementation of new functionality demonstrate the benefits obtained with this agile software development process. The appendix contains a discussion of coding issues encountered while porting legacy Fortran 77 code to Fortran 95, software design principles, and a Fortran 95 coding standard.

Alexandrov, N.↗

A One-Stop Web Application for the Mars Team

THe Mars Exploration Rover Collaborative Information Portal (MERCIP) provides a window to all mission events. It supports mission updates, data sharing, and collaboration. The report also discusses: Technology spotlight. Integrating data multiple sources. Securing access for multiple clients. A new information infrastructure.

Laufenberg, Lawrence↗

Team Oriented Robotic Exploration Task on Scorpion and K9 Platforms

This final report describes the achievements that have been made in the project over the complete period of performance. The technical progress highlights the different areas of work in terms of Progress in Mechatronics, Sensor integration, Software Development. User Interfaces, Behavior Development and Experimental Results and System Testing. The different areas are: Mechatronics, Sensor integration, Software development, Experimental results and Basic System Testing, Behaviors Development and Advanced System Testing, User Interface and Wireless Communication.

Kirchner, Frank↗

SemanticOrganizer Brings Teams Together

SemanticOrganizer enables researchers in different locations to share, search for, and integrate data. Its customizable semantic links offer fast access to interrelated information. This knowledge management and information integration tool also supports real-time instrument data collection and collaborative image annotation.

Laufenberg, Lawrence↗

US Team Member Participation in the Ozone Monitoring Experiment on EOS CHEM

Progress on OMI operational algorithms for BrO, OClO, and HCHO includes: A parameterization scheme for OMI instrument function lab measurements was developed for both UV and Visible instrument channels. The scheme was implemented for all three PGEs and extensively tested. PGEs now have the option of either using the parameterized lab measurements or fitting a symmetric or asymmetric Gaussian function on-line.

Chance, Kelly↗

US Team Member Participation in the Ozone Monitoring Experiment on EOS Chem

Progress on OMI operational algorithms for BrO, OClO, and HCHO includes: Implemented changes to PGE_Description.txt that were required to promote the PGEs to Integration. Studies were initiated for a parameterization of the laboratory measurements of the OMi instrument function for use in the PGEs. V0.9.27 of the PGEs were delivered to the DAAC.

Change, Kelly↗

Team play with a powerful and independent agent: operational experiences and automation surprises on the Airbus A-320

Research and operational experience have shown that one of the major problems with pilot-automation interaction is a lack of mode awareness (i.e., the current and future status and behavior of the automation). As a result, pilots sometimes experience so-called automation surprises when the automation takes an unexpected action or fails to behave as anticipated. A lack of mode awareness and automation surprises can he viewed as symptoms of a mismatch between human and machine properties and capabilities. Changes in automation design can therefore he expected to affect the likelihood and nature of problems encountered by pilots. Previous studies have focused exclusively on early generation "glass cockpit" aircraft that were designed based on a similar automation philosophy. To find out whether similar difficulties with maintaining mode awareness are encountered on more advanced aircraft, a corpus of automation surprises was gathered from pilots of the Airbus A-320, an aircraft characterized by high levels of autonomy, authority, and complexity. To understand the underlying reasons for reported breakdowns in human-automation coordination, we also asked pilots about their monitoring strategies and their experiences with and attitude toward the unique design of flight controls on this aircraft.

NASA Discipline Space Human Factors↗

Orthostatic intolerance and the postural tachycardia syndrome: genetic and environment pathophysiologies. Neurolab Autonomic Team

Orthostatic intolerance is a common problem for inbound space travelers. There is usually tachycardia on standing but blood pressure may be normal, low or, rarely, elevated. This condition is analogous to the orthostatic intolerance that occurs on Earth in individuals with orthostatic tachycardia, palpitations, mitral valve prolapse, and light-headedness. Our studies during the Neurolab mission indicated that sympathetic nerve traffic is raised in microgravity and that plasma norepinephrine is higher than baseline supine levels but lower than baseline upright levels. A subgroup of patients with familial orthostatic intolerance differ from inbound space travelers in that they have an alanine-to-to-proline mutation at amino acid position 457 in their norepinephrine transporter gene. This leads to poor clearance of norepinephrine from synapses, with consequent raised heart rate. Clinical features of these syndromes are presented.

short duration↗