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NASA NTRS2004

Picturing Data With Uncertainty

NASA is in the business of creating maps for scientific purposes to represent important biophysical or geophysical quantities over space and time. For example, maps of surface temperature over the globe tell scientists where and when the Earth is heating up; regional maps of the greenness of vegetation tell scientists where and when plants are photosynthesizing. There is always uncertainty associated with each value in any such map due to various factors. When uncertainty is fully modeled, instead of a single value at each map location, there is a distribution expressing a set of possible outcomes at each location. We consider such distribution data as multi-valued data since it consists of a collection of values about a single variable. Thus, a multi-valued data represents both the map and its uncertainty. We have been working on ways to visualize spatial multi-valued data sets effectively for fields with regularly spaced units or grid cells such as those in NASA's Earth science applications. A new way to display distributions at multiple grid locations is to project the distributions from an individual row, column or other user-selectable straight transect from the 2D domain. First at each grid cell in a given slice (row, column or transect), we compute a smooth density estimate from the underlying data. Such a density estimate for the probability density function (PDF) is generally more useful than a histogram, which is a classic density estimate. Then, the collection of PDFs along a given slice are presented vertically above the slice and form a wall. To minimize occlusion of intersecting slices, the corresponding walls are positioned at the far edges of the boundary. The PDF wall depicts the shapes of the distributions very dearly since peaks represent the modes (or bumps) in the PDFs. We've defined roughness as the number of peaks in the distribution. Roughness is another useful summary information for multimodal distributions. The uncertainty of the multi-valued data can also be interpreted by the number of peaks and the widths of the peaks as shown by the PDF walls.

Kao, David↗

NASA NTRS1994

Modeling the bidirectional reflectance distribution function of mixed finite plant canopies and soil

An analytical model of the bidirectional reflectance for optically semi-infinite plant canopies has been extended to describe the reflectance of finite depth canopies contributions from the underlying soil. The model depends on 10 independent parameters describing vegetation and soil optical and structural properties. The model is inverted with a nonlinear minimization routine using directional reflectance data for lawn (leaf area index (LAI) is equal to 9.9), soybeans (LAI, 2.9) and simulated reflectance data (LAI, 1.0) from a numerical bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) model (Myneni et al., 1988). While the ten-parameter model results in relatively low rms differences for the BRDF, most of the retrieved parameters exhibit poor stability. The most stable parameter was the single-scattering albedo of the vegetation. Canopy albedo could be derived with an accuracy of less than 5% relative error in the visible and less than 1% in the near-infrared. Sensitivity were performed to determine which of the 10 parameters were most important and to assess the effects of Gaussian noise on the parameter retrievals. Out of the 10 parameters, three were identified which described most of the BRDF variability. At low LAI values the most influential parameters were the single-scattering albedos (both soil and vegetation) and LAI, while at higher LAI values (greater than 2.5) these shifted to the two scattering phase function parameters for vegetation and the single-scattering albedo of the vegetation. The three-parameter model, formed by fixing the seven least significant parameters, gave higher rms values but was less sensitive to noise in the BRDF than the full ten-parameter model. A full hemispherical reflectance data set for lawn was then interpolated to yield BRDF values corresponding to advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) scan geometries collected over a period of nine days. The resulting parameters and BRDFs are similar to those for the full sampling geometry, suggesting that the limited geometry of AVHRR measurements might be used to reliably retrieve BRDF and canopy albedo with this model.

Schluessel, G.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Preparation for the Proof of Concept Flight of the Veggie Plant Growth Chamber

Veggie is a small plant growth chamber designed and built by ORBITEC that will fly to the International Space Station on SpaceX-3, scheduled for the summer of 2013. Ultimately Veggie will be used for research, education and outreach, and crew recreation. We want to demonstrate the functionality of this hardware by testing a scenario that could allow the crew to grow and consume fresh vegetables. Veggie will be collapsed and transported flat in a cargo transfer bag, and deployed on orbit, where it will be installed in an EXPRESS rack. The chamber consists of three subsystems: an LED light cap, a transparent bellows, and a root mat reservoir assembly. The bellows and flexible support arms allow the distance between plants and light cap to be adjusted for different ages and types of plants. Researchers at Kennedy Space Center and ORBITEC have been working to develop the plant growth interfaces for the proof of concept flight. We have developed a rooting pillow, consisting of a small bag containing media, time release fertilizer, seeds, and a wicking surface to conduct water from the root mat reservoir. Prototype pillows have been tested and results have influenced the design of flight pillows, which will be modified for microgravity from flight-approved materials. Several studies have been conducted selecting species and comparing media types in analog systems. Water content seems to be the most important factor differentiating media types in these small growth volumes (100 mL). Media type also influenced microbial levels on plants. Since produce sanitizing agents are not currently approved for growing food crops on orbit, plants and media types having very low microbial levels are being selected. Lettuce, mizuna, and other salad greens typically have microbial counts less than 10(exp 4) colony forming units and thus are good candidates for spaceflight. As we approach flight verification testing, we will finalize species, media selection, harvesting, and microbial sampling procedures. Next steps include testing of Veggie flight and ground hardware and associated equipment. This research was funded by NASA.

Massa, Gioia↗

NASA NTRS2011

Step-by-Step Simulation of Radiation Chemistry Using Green Functions for Diffusion-Influenced Reactions

Radiolytic species are formed approximately 1 ps after the passage of ionizing radiation through matter. After their formation, they diffuse and chemically react with other radiolytic species and neighboring biological molecules, leading to various oxidative damage. Therefore, the simulation of radiation chemistry is of considerable importance to understand how radiolytic species damage biological molecules [1]. The step-by-step simulation of chemical reactions is difficult, because the radiolytic species are distributed non-homogeneously in the medium. Consequently, computational approaches based on Green functions for diffusion-influenced reactions should be used [2]. Recently, Green functions for more complex type of reactions have been published [3-4]. We have developed exact random variate generators of these Green functions [5], which will allow us to use them in radiation chemistry codes. Moreover, simulating chemistry using the Green functions is which is computationally very demanding, because the probabilities of reactions between each pair of particles should be evaluated at each timestep [2]. This kind of problem is well adapted for General Purpose Graphic Processing Units (GPGPU), which can handle a large number of similar calculations simultaneously. These new developments will allow us to include more complex reactions in chemistry codes, and to improve the calculation time. This code should be of importance to link radiation track structure simulations and DNA damage models.

Plante, Ianik↗

NASA NTRS1996

Recycle of Inorganic Nutrients for Hydroponic Crop Production Following Incineration of Inedible Biomass

Recovery of resources from waste streams is essential for future implementation and reliance on a regenerative life support system. The major waste streams of concern are from human activities and plant wastes. Carbon, water and inorganics are the primary desired raw materials of interest. The goal of resource recovery is maintenance of product quality to insure support of reliable and predictable levels of life support function performance by the crop plant component. Further, these systems must be maintained over extended periods of time, requiring maintenance of nutrient solutions to avoid toxicity and deficiencies. Today, reagent grade nutrients are used to make nutrient solutions for hydroponic culture and these solutions are frequently changed during the life cycle or sometimes managed for only one crop life cycle. The focus of this study was to determine the suitability of the ash product following incineration of inedible biomass as a source of inorganic nutrients for hydroponic crop production. Inedible wheat biomass was incinerated and ash quality characterized. The incinerator ash was dissolved in adequate nitric acid to establish a consistent nitrogen concentration in all nutrient solution treatments. Four experimental nutrient treatments were included: control, ash only, ash supplemented to match control, and ash only quality formulated with reagent grade chemicals. When nutrient solutions are formulated using only ash following-incineration of inedible biomass, a balance in solution is established representing elemental retention following incineration and nutrient proportions present in the original biomass. The resulting solution is not identical to the control. This imbalance resulted in suppression of crop growth. When the ash is supplemented with nutrients to establish the same balance as in the control, growth is identical to the control. The ash appears to carry no phytotoxic materials. Growth in solution formulated with reagent grade chemicals but matching the quality of the ash only treatment resulted in growth similar to that of the ash only treatment. The ash product resulting from incineration of inedible biomass appears to be a suitable form for recycle of inorganic nutrients to crop production.

Bubenheim, David L.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Ecological Study of Lagoons Surrounding the John F. Kennedy Space Center, Brevard County, Florida : Theses and Project Reports - Volume 2

Many of the detailed studies done in connection with Ecological Study of the Lagoons surrounding the John F. Kennedy Space Port were performed as Master's Thesis investigations by various graduate students enrolled at F. I. T. during and subsequent to the report. The scope and purpose of what we came to call "the KSC Baseline Study" caught the imagination and interest of our student body. Many who were not financially or otherwise connected with the project found their inspiration in studies that were directly connected with project, and thus added materially to the totality of the knowledge gained. An example of one such study is the first article included in this Volume, A Master's Thesis study performed by Shen Phillip Chen, who chose the site for his investigation so that his results would correlate with and extend the results of others. In addition to the Master's Theses contained in this Volume, six other graduate studies must be acknowledged here as contributing to this Report, although they have not reached the stage of final publication. Ms. Sandra Fettes has completed a study of the amounts of five trace metals in mangrove leaves from plants at various locations around the Kennedy Space Center. Mr. Bernard Cohenour has isolated and identified a number of oil consuming bacteria endemic in the waters of the Indian Rivers. Mr. Charles Waterhouse has analyzed historic data of tidal gauges in the lagoonal area and correlated it with wind field records. Mr. Renkert Meyer has measured the vertical and horizontal currents of the lagoons and is attempting an interpretation of them in terms of the wind field as a driving force. Mr. Richard Campbell has measured the rate of nitrogen fixation in both the water columns and the sediments under them in the lagoons. Mr. Craig Weiderhold has measured thl3 annual variations in the populations of benthic invertebrates in the lagoons. An integral part of the F. I. T. curriculum is a requirement that each undergraduate student perform an independent study during his Senior year and submit his results in the form and format of a professional scientific report. While none of these senior Project Reports have been included in this Volume because of space limitations, many of them aided significantly in the overall study. Typical of these were: light and dark bottle studies of the blue-green algae respiration; writing and executing computer studies comparing the water chemistry data from various sites; detection and identification of nitrogen fixation bacteria in the Indian River; measurement of dissolved oils and greases in the river, photographically recording the benthic life-forms found in the river bottom; measuring the vertical structure of drift and slope currents in too lagoons; and measurement of water level variations along the long axis of a lagoon as a function of wind stress. These articles are published as a part of this Final Report in an effort to make available for the record as much of the basic data as possible. The few articles published on the Indian River have in general not contained much detailed data, so that comparisons of current status to conditions of the past are difficult or impossible. A major effort of both the Oceanographic and Ecological communities for the past decade has been the retrieval and storage of basic data in order to permit determinations of trends or changes in baseline conditions. It is believed that the information compiled here will be of great value in any future investigations.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1999

Analysis of peg formation in cucumber seedlings grown on clinostats and in a microgravity (space) environment

In young cucumber seedlings, the peg is a polar out-growth of tissue that functions by snagging the seed coat, thereby freeing the cotyledons. Previous studies have indicated that peg formation is gravity dependent. In this study we analyzed peg formation in cucumber seedlings (Cucumis sativus L. cv Burpee Hybrid II) grown under conditions of normal gravity, microgravity, and simulated microgravity (clinostat rotation). Seeds were germinated on the ground, in clinostats and on board the space shuttle (STS 95) for 1-2 days, frozen and subsequently examined for their stage of development, degree of hook formation, number of pegs formed, and peg morphology. The frequency of peg formation in space grown seedlings was found to be nearly identical to that of clinostat grown seedlings and to differ from that of seedlings germinated under normal gravity only in a minority of cases; approximately 6% of the seedlings formed two pegs and nearly 2% of the seedlings lacked pegs, whereas such abnormalities did not occur in ground controls. The degree of hook formation was found to be less pronounced for space grown seedlings, compared to clinostat grown seedlings, indicating a greater degree of decoupling between peg formation and hook formation in space. Nonetheless, in all seedlings having single pegs and a hook, the peg was found to be positioned correctly on the inside of the hook, showing that there is coordinate development even in microgravity environments. Peg morphologies were altered in space grown samples, with the pegs having a blunt appearance and many pegs showing alterations in expansion, with the peg extending out over the edges of the seed coat and downwards. These phenotypes were not observed in clinostat or ground grown seedlings.

STS-95 Shuttle Project↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Spaceflight Autonomous Multigenerational Microbial Sequencer in Support of Plant-Growth Systems

The CubeSat platform has proven successful in obtaining meaningful life science information when biological payloads are incorporated. Examples include: 1) the first-ever CubeSat with a biological payload, GeneSat-1, which demonstrated decreased growth rates for flight samples of Escherichia coli in low Earth orbit (Parra et al. 2008); 2) PharmaSat, demonstrated that Saccharomyces cerevisiae in the microgravity environment exhibits a significant level of metabolic activity even at high doses of applied antifungal (Ricco et al. 2011); 3) O/OREOS, which used Bacillus subtilis(bacteria) to demonstrate for the first time that microorganisms can be loaded in a dried, dormant form and then rehydrated and grown in orbit months after launch (Nicholson et al. 2011; Ehrenfreund et al. 2014; 4) the SporeSat payload, which investigated Ceratopteris richardii(fern spores) using lab-on-a-chip devices (BioCDs) and minicentrifuges to produce artificial gravitational forces in ground studies (Park et al. 2017), with demonstration of the BioCD and minicentrifuge in space; 5) EcAMSat, the first CubeSat to be directly deployed from the ISS for an experiment assessing antibiotic resistance of E. coli in the microgravity environment (Padgen et al. 2020); 6) BioSentinel, exposed a culture of yeast to galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) and solar particle events while in heliocentric orbit to measure the rate of double-strand-break repair using DNA-repair-deficient mutants. This effort measures the metabolic parameters of yeast in a deep-space environment compared to Earth ambient conditions using a 3-color LED detection system (Ricco et al. 2020; Padgen et al. 2021). We aim to expand this list to include a Spaceflight Autonomous Multigenerational Microbial Sequencer (SAMMS). SAMMS will allow for the genome level understanding of changes in growth and metabolic activity for any organism. While microbes are suitable for early studies in our proposed platform because of their small size, small and relatively less-complicated genomes, fast generation times, and relevance to life support systems; multicellular organisms can similarly be evaluated for their genetic response to the spaceflight environment. The Spaceflight Autonomous Multigenerational Microbial Sequencer (SAMMS) will enable autonomous sequencing of biological samples in plant production units, cislunar orbit and on the lunar surface to examine spaceflight effects (ie. radiation, altered gravity, reduced pressures) on plant and microbial genomes.On this team a Kennedy Space Center (KSC) space crop production and water systems microbiologist/molecular biologist works with a Johnson Space Center (JSC) International Space Station (ISS) microbial sequencing expert and an Ames Research Center (ARC) CubeSat Engineering team to convert an automated Oxford Nanopore librarypreparation and sequencing method to a fluidic CubeSat payload system. The Oxford Nanopore MinION sequencing platform has proven successful in the spaceflight environment onboard the ISS (Stahl-Rommel et al. 2021). Further long-duration spaceflight and exposure to high levels of radiation will cause genotypic effects in biological organisms that may affect their function. Monitoring the adaption of a population to the spaceflight environment and any subsequent beneficial mutations will allow for the harnessing of organisms best suited for use in life support systems. This will ensure that the selected life support-essential microorganisms maintain their intended specified function over generations of culturing in the relevant spaceflight environment without becoming hazardous to crew or spacecraft systems.

Aubrie E Orourke↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Genesis Solar Wind Sample Curation Documentation

Introduction: A scientist with experience as a sample science analyst, provider of flight hardware for multiple missions, and senior engineer in an ISO 2000-rated manufacturing plant has described the timeline of key participants in any PI-led sample return mission, the breadth of the organizations involved [1,2], and, of interest to this meeting, choosing the types of data to preserve and issues of future data accessibility. This work broadens that perspective by giving similar lessons from Genesis sample curation point-of-view. Curation participation regarding data gathering was part of the mission review process from the beginning. Genesis’ story illustrates outcome of several choices about types of data to record and preserve. Precision analysis of solar wind atoms captured in pure, ultraclean substrates is the driving science goal; therefore, detailed documentation was captured from all mission and curation phases and from investigator laboratories because these processes affect the final analytical results [3]. Pre-flight: Design and fabrication of the spacecraft. Like many modern small sample return missions, Genesis was a tightly managed team integrated across science, engineering and curation. Communication across the team was excellent, and, for the most part, the hands-on engineering technicians understood the impacts of “small choices” they routinely make, and the eyes-on oversight of manufacturing processes by scientists was mindful of details. The payload was designed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the spacecraft by Lockheed Martin. Solar wind collectors and instruments were fabricated by multiple vendors and laboratories. The main portion of the payload was assembled at JSC. Fabrication procedures and contamination-control data (with witness coupons) were stored primarily at JSC. The original composition, dimensions and configuration of components, results of thermal testing, etc. are still needed for interpretation of analytical data. At times, these must be estimated from secondary information acquired pre-flight. Moreover, some files (e.g., original 3-D models and early Powerpoint) cannot be opened using software. Archived curation data includes 2-D drawings, material usage lists, QA documentation and analyses of consumables used during fabrication. Important chemical information still resides in archived hardware, paints and lubricants, material coupons, cleaning coupons, environmental witness plates and reference materials from manufacturing facilities. Purity and cleanliness of collector substrates. Semi-conductor vendors provided surface cleanliness data and some purity data. Purity for specific elements of interest was verified by science team members in their laboratories [4]. Curation archived procurement and shipping records, analysis reports, and non-proprietary fabrication data. A physical archive of flight collector reference materials is maintained for future use so additional data can be collected as analytical techniques improve. These are of increased value due to the hard landing upon re-entry. Cleaning and cleanliness assessments of flight hardware. Cleaning of the science canister payload was performed at JSC in a dedicated ISO 4 cleanroom using ultrapure water (UPW). The cleanliness of this UPW was monitored throughout processing. The archive for the clean lab also includes airborne particle counts, airborne molecular and inorganic contamination measurements as well as cleanroom construction material coupons and witness coupons. Hardware cleanliness was assessed by particle counts in rinse water batches. This information is recorded in batch cleaning forms and logbooks, and are, perhaps, of decreased value due to the hard landing. Post-flight: Curation-generated data. The curation handling history of each Genesis sample is documented in a typical astromaterials sample database which captures sample location, physical description and characterization data. Samples have a “shelf life”. Crucial to the preservation of samples is ongoing documentation of the sample environment, initially under curatorial control but is now a separate facility function with requires coordination. PI-generated data. Data on sample characterization and cleaning techniques continues to be generated by sample users [5]. These are often captured in LPSC abstracts, but these “engineering” results often are not publishable as stand-alone papers. We are actively looking for ways to make this information more accessible to users. Ion implants into samples have aided science return and can be shared among investigators. These (and similar) materials should be added to the curatorial collection with appropriate process and characterization data generated externally. Summary: Complete data archives for returned astromaterial samples must be broad in types and formats, and inclusive of environmental monitoring.

Genesis↗