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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 91 records · Page 5

On Using Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) Electronic Products in Space

NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) has utilized COTS products in its programs since the early 1990's. Recently it has become evident that, of all failure modes possible, radiation will probably dominate; sometimes to the point of driving system architecture. It is now imperative that radiation susceptibility be addressed when writing the system requirements. Susceptibility assessment, e.g. testing, must begin early in the design phase to establish performance and continue through the hardware qualification program to prove satisfaction of the original requirements(s). Examples of requirements, testing, and architecture versus failure rate will be given.

Culpepper, William X.↗

Bantam System Technology Project Ground System Requirements Document

The Low Cost Booster Project (LCBP), also known as Bantam, is an element of the Advanced Space Transportation Program focused on Low Cost Booster Technologies. During FY 99 flight demonstrations are planned to demonstrate the feasibility of producing a booster capable of inserting a 150 kg payload into low earth orbit. The ground support system is an element of the full launch system. The ground support system provides for integration of the payload with the launch vehicle, preparation of the vehicle for launch (including maintenance, integration and test of the vehicle flight software), monitor and control of the launch sequence, range safety during launch, and collection of telemetry during the flight up to payload release. The ground support system is intended to make the maximum possible use of Government Off-the-Shelf (GOTS) or Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) hardware and software to obtain the best value in terms of development operations support and ultimate life cycle cost for the launch system.

Moon, J. M.↗

DigiFloat (Final Scientific/Technical Report)

This purpose of this report is to document the development of a floating offshore wind platform Digital Twin for the ARPA-E-funded DigiFloat project led by Principle Power, Inc. In Offshore Wind, Digital Twins are aimed at reducing farm-wide OPEX expenditures through reduced-basis inspection, assessing life extension methods, and obtaining better knowledge of the deployed assets for future product optimization. There is a high level of technical effectiveness and economic feasibility for the technology investigated, as it uses commercial off-the-shelf sensors, and a commercial software package. A substantial portion of the project goals are improvement of existing technology for use with floating wind turbines, and new application of an existing technology to a rapidly-growing sector. A few sensors applied to a small number of units bring benefit to the entire fleet of floating wind turbines in a given farm, and in other future wind farms. The benefits to the public of this project are further optimization and maturation of floating wind technology, to bring it to the U.S. market faster and cheaper.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Life sciences payload definition and integration study. Volume 4: Appendix, costs, and data management requirements of the dedicated 30-day laboratory

The results of the updated 30-day life sciences dedicated laboratory scheduling and costing activities are documented, and the 'low cost' methodology used to establish individual equipment item costs is explained in terms of its allowances for equipment that is commerical off-the-shelf, modified commercial, and laboratory prototype; a method which significantly lowers program costs. The costs generated include estimates for non-recurring development, recurring production, and recurring operations costs. A cost for a biomedical emphasis laboratory and a Delta cost to provide a bioscience and technology laboratory were also generated. All cost reported are commensurate with the design and schedule definitions available.

Source record↗

Coarse-Grain Bandwidth Estimation Scheme for Large-Scale Network

A large-scale network that supports a large number of users can have an aggregate data rate of hundreds of Mbps at any time. High-fidelity simulation of a large-scale network might be too complicated and memory-intensive for typical commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) tools. Unlike a large commercial wide-area-network (WAN) that shares diverse network resources among diverse users and has a complex topology that requires routing mechanism and flow control, the ground communication links of a space network operate under the assumption of a guaranteed dedicated bandwidth allocation between specific sparse endpoints in a star-like topology. This work solved the network design problem of estimating the bandwidths of a ground network architecture option that offer different service classes to meet the latency requirements of different user data types. In this work, a top-down analysis and simulation approach was created to size the bandwidths of a store-and-forward network for a given network topology, a mission traffic scenario, and a set of data types with different latency requirements. These techniques were used to estimate the WAN bandwidths of the ground links for different architecture options of the proposed Integrated Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) Network. A new analytical approach, called the "leveling scheme," was developed to model the store-and-forward mechanism of the network data flow. The term "leveling" refers to the spreading of data across a longer time horizon without violating the corresponding latency requirement of the data type. Two versions of the leveling scheme were developed: 1. A straightforward version that simply spreads the data of each data type across the time horizon and doesn't take into account the interactions among data types within a pass, or between data types across overlapping passes at a network node, and is inherently sub-optimal. 2. Two-state Markov leveling scheme that takes into account the second order behavior of the store-and-forward mechanism, and the interactions among data types within a pass. The novelty of this approach lies in the modeling of the store-and-forward mechanism of each network node. The term store-and-forward refers to the data traffic regulation technique in which data is sent to an intermediate network node where they are temporarily stored and sent at a later time to the destination node or to another intermediate node. Store-and-forward can be applied to both space-based networks that have intermittent connectivity, and ground-based networks with deterministic connectivity. For groundbased networks, the store-and-forward mechanism is used to regulate the network data flow and link resource utilization such that the user data types can be delivered to their destination nodes without violating their respective latency requirements.

Cheung, Kar-Ming↗

Generalized Nanosatellite Avionics Testbed Lab

The Generalized Nanosatellite Avionics Testbed (G-NAT) lab at NASA Ames Research Center provides a flexible, easily accessible platform for developing hardware and software for advanced small spacecraft. A collaboration between the Mission Design Division and the Intelligent Systems Division, the objective of the lab is to provide testing data and general test protocols for advanced sensors, actuators, and processors for CubeSat-class spacecraft. By developing test schemes for advanced components outside of the standard mission lifecycle, the lab is able to help reduce the risk carried by advanced nanosatellite or CubeSat missions. Such missions are often allocated very little time for testing, and too often the test facilities must be custom-built for the needs of the mission at hand. The G-NAT lab helps to eliminate these problems by providing an existing suite of testbeds that combines easily accessible, commercial-offthe- shelf (COTS) processors with a collection of existing sensors and actuators.

Testing data and general test protocols↗

Disturb testing in flash memories

Non-volatile memory technology as defined by NAND architecture flash memory continues to lead the process scaling and device shrinking efforts of the entire integrated circuit industry. 45- nm technology nodes are now producing commercial 32Gb devices. These latest 32Gb devices are pioneering new charge trapping memory cell technologies using metal gates and high-k dielectric materials. These cells are called TANOS and consist of tantalum-nitride, aluminum oxide (high k material), nitride, oxide, and silicon. Such high-density memories continue to revolutionize commercial electronics in terms of new high-speed data architectures and significant reductions in overall power and weight consumption. In stark contrast, nearly all science-based interplanetary and earth-orbiting NASA spacecraft are still designing in and around mid-1980s-level non-volatile technology with 1Mb Electrically Erasable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM) devices. NASA has typically shunned the use of modern flash devices because of radiation and reliability concerns due to the commercial-offthe– shelf (COTS) nature of the NAND flash technology. Given the significant potential increases in overall system capability these modern flash devices could bring to NASA missions, it is important to continue to investigate these devices. This report will investigate certain portions of the reliability performance of NAND flash devices, specifically the disturb properties. Understanding the possible limitations such new non-volatile memory technology presents to NASA is the goal of this report.

Freie, Michael↗

Integration of Next Generation Critical Infrastructure Sensor Technologies

This project is focused on advancing current protective relaying and control through verifying next generation timing systems and sensors with current commercial off the shelf protective relays. This will further research in the field of advanced grid modernization and demonstrate interoperability between nextgeneration protective relays and voltage and current sensors. These commercial off the shelf (COTS) technologies were tested and integrated with next generation sensor technologies, with the results documented below.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Proton Effects and Test Issues for Satellite Designers: Ionization Effects - Section 4

This portion of the Short Course is divided into two segments to separately address the two major proton-related effects confronting satellite designers: ionization effects and displacement damage effects. While both of these topics are deeply rooted in "traditional" descriptions of space radiation effects, there are several factors at play to cause renewed concern for satellite systems being designed today. For example, emphasis on Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) technologies in both commercial and government systems increases both Total Ionizing Dose (TID) and Single Event Effect (SEE) concerns. Scaling trends exacerbate the problems, especially with regard to SEEs where protons can dominate soft error rates and even cause destructive failure. In addition, proton-induced displacement damage at fluences encountered in natural space environments can cause degradation in modern bipolar circuitry as well as in many emerging electronic and opto-electronic technologies. A crude, but nevertheless telling, indication of the level of concern for proton effects follows from surveying the themes treated in papers presented at this conference. The table lists themes found in the IEEE Transaction on Nuclear Science (TNS) December issue from the past year and compares them with the December issue's content a decade earlier. Ten years ago there were nine papers, or about 10% of the total, dealing with the four indicated topics. At that time, single event effects from protons were the primary concern, and these were thought to be possible only when a nuclear reaction initiated energetic recoil atoms. This is shown in the table as the 'traditional" SEE subject. A decade later, submissions addressing this topic had doubled, while papers devoted to displacement damage studies had increased from one to nine! More importantly, displacement damage effects in the natural space environments have become a concern for degradation in modern devices (other than solar cells), and this was not so ten years earlier.

Marshall, Paul W.↗

1999 NSREC Short Course: Proton Effects and Test Issues for Satellite Designers: Displacement Effects

This portion of the Short Course is divided into two segments to separately address the two major proton-related effects confronting satellite designers: ionization effects and displacement damage effects. While both of these topics are deeply rooted in "traditional" descriptions of space radiation effects, there are several factors at play to cause renewed concern for satellite systems being designed today. For example, emphasis on Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) technologies in both commercial and government systems increases both Total Ionizing Dose (TID) and Single Event Effect (SEE) concerns. Scaling trends exacerbate the problems, especially with regard to SEEs where protons can dominate soft error rates and even cause destructive failure. In addition, proton-induced displacement damage at fluences encountered in natural space environments can cause degradation in modern bipolar circuitry as well as in many emerging electronic and opto-electronic technologies.

Marshall, Cheryl J.↗

Validation of Commercial Fiber Optic Components for Aerospace Environments

Full qualification for commercial photonic parts as defined by the Military specification system in the past, is not feasible. Due to changes in the photonic components industry and the Military specification system that NASA had relied upon so heavily in the past, an approach to technology validation of commercial off the shelf parts had to be devised. This approach involves knowledge of system requirements, environmental requirements and failure modes of the particular components under consideration. Synthesizing the criteria together with the major known failure modes to formulate a test plan is an effective way of establishing knowledge based "qualification". Although this does not provide the type of reliability assurance that the Military specification system did in the past, it is an approach that allows for increased risk mitigation. The information presented will introduce the audience to the technology validation approach that is currently applied at NASA for the usage of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) fiber optic components for space flight environments. The focus will be on how to establish technology validation criteria for commercial fiber products such that continued reliable performance is assured under the harsh environmental conditions of typical missions. The goal of this presentation is to provide the audience with an approach to formulating a COTS qualification test plan for these devices. Examples from past NASA missions will be discussed.

Ott, Melanie N.↗

SmallSat Ka-band Operations User Terminal (SKOUT)

SKOUT is a Ka-band communications system for future NASA mission spacecraft that operates with both NASA and commercial relay satellite constellations in GEO and potentially LEO as well as direct-to-Earth (DTE) networks. This project encompasses the development and demonstration of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) 5G, Ka band, phased array technologies compatible with commercial space networks, including actively phases array antennas, software defined modems, power optimization algorithms, and high data rate to ground using the DVB-S2 standard.

space communications↗

A Process for Capturing the Art of Systems Engineering

There is both an art and a science to systems engineering. The science of systems engineering is effectively captured in processes and procedures, but the art is much more elusive. We propose that there is six step process that can be applied to any systems engineering organization to create an environment from which the "art" of that organization can be captured, be allowed to evolve collaboratively and be shared with all members of the organization. This paper details this process as it was applied to NASA Launch Services Program (LSP) Integration Engineering Branch during a pilot program of Confluence, a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) wiki tool.

Commercial Off The Shelf↗