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Overview of the Capture, Containment, and Return System (CCRS)

The Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign is one of the most ambitious and complex planetary exploration missions currently underway. With the participation of NASA, ESA, and a large number of industry partners, MSR aims to bring Martian soil, rock, and atmospheric samples back to Earth, in order to answer key questions about Mars’ biological evolution. To accomplish this goal the campaign relies on four coordinated missions, each fulfilling a fundamental role to bring the samples to Earth. The Mars Perseverance rover, the first of the four missions, landed safely on Mars on February 18, 2021 and has already acquired candidate samples for Earth return. A selection of the samples of Martian soil and atmosphere that Perseverance has captured during its mission will be recovered, launched into Mars orbit, and transported back to Earth. The Sample Fetch Rover and Mars Ascent System, both parts of the Sample Return Lander project, perform the Mars surface missions to retrieve the collected samples and launch them into Mars orbit. NASA’s Capture, Containment, and Return System (CCRS), hosted on ESA’s Earth Return Orbiter (ERO), brings the samples back to Earth from Mars orbit. These retrieval and return missions are currently in the planning and design stages of development. The NASA-provided CCRS is the payload of the ESA ERO and is the focus of this presentation. ERO will enter Mars orbit and provide communication relay to Earth for the other MSR elements. The Sample Return Lander systems will fetch the sample tubes and integrate them into a protective vessel – the Orbiting Sample (OS) system – which is then launched into low Mars orbit. ERO will perform rendezvous maneuvers, allowing its CCRS payload to capture the OS, contain it, and perform the first automated in-space assembly of a spacecraft, the Earth Entry System (EES), while in Mars orbit. ERO will then begin its journey back to Earth, with CCRS and its assembled EES spacecraft. Three days prior to arrival, CCRS will release the EES on an Earth entry trajectory from a distance beyond the orbit of the Moon. The passive EES spacecraft will then enter Earth’s atmosphere, flying on a ballistic trajectory, followed by a terminal descent (without a parachute) and landing at the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR). This presentation will show the current design of the CCRS system and its concept of operations. ERO and CCRS will perform several firsts in planetary exploration: (a) orbital rendezvous and capture in Mars orbit, (b) in-space sterilization and containment, (c) on-orbit spacecraft assembly at Mars, and (d) fully-passive entry, descent, and landing sequence for sample return.

Carlie H. Zumwalt↗

Mars Sample Return Using Commercial Capabilities: Propulsive Entry, Descent, and Landing of a Capsule Form Vehicle

This paper describes a critical portion of the work that has been done at NASA, Ames Research Center regarding the use of the commercially developed Dragon capsule as a delivery vehicle for the elements of a high priority Mars Sample Return mission. The objective of the investigation was to determine entry and landed mass capabilities that cover anticipated mission conditions. The "Red Dragon", Mars configuration, uses supersonic retro-propulsion, with no required parachute system, to perform Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) maneuvers. The propulsive system proposed for use is the same system that will perform an abort, if necessary, for a human rated version of the Dragon capsule. Standard trajectory analysis tools are applied to publically available information about Dragon and other legacy capsule forms in order to perform the investigation. Trajectory simulation parameters include entry velocity, flight path angle, lift to drag Ratio (L/D), landing site elevation, atmosphere density, and total entry mass, in addition engineering assumptions for the performance of the propulsion system are stated. Mass estimates for major elements of the overall proposed architecture are coupled to this EDL analysis to close the overall architecture. Three synodic launch opportunities, beginning with the 2022 opportunity, define the arrival conditions. Results state the relations between the analysis parameters as well as sensitivities to those parameters. The EDL performance envelope includes landing altitudes between 0 and -4 km referenced to the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter datum as well as minimum and maximum atmosphere density. Total entry masses between 7 and 10 mt are considered with architecture closure occurring between 9.0 and 10 mt. Propellant mass fractions for each major phase of the EDL - Entry, Terminal Descent, and Hazard Avoidance - have been derived. An assessment of the effect of the entry conditions on the Thermal Protection System (TPS) currently in use for Dragon missions shows no significant stressors. A useful payload mass of 2.0 mt is provided and includes mass and grow allowance for a Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), Earth Return Vehicle (ERV), and mission unique equipment. The useful payload supports an architecture that receives a sample from another surface asset and sends it directly back to Earth for recovery in a high Earth orbit. The work shows that emerging commercial capabilities as well as previously studied EDL methodologies can be used to efficiently support an important planetary science objective. The work also has applications for human exploration missions that will also use propulsive EDL techniques

EDL↗

Space radiator simulation system analysis

A transient heat transfer analysis was carried out on a space radiator heat rejection system exposed to an arbitrarily prescribed combination of aerodynamic heating, solar, albedo, and planetary radiation. A rigorous analysis was carried out for the radiation panel and tubes lying in one plane and an approximate analysis was used to extend the rigorous analysis to the case of a curved panel. The analysis permits the consideration of both gaseous and liquid coolant fluids, including liquid metals, under prescribed, time dependent inlet conditions. The analysis provided a method for predicting: (1) transient and steady-state, two dimensional temperature profiles, (2) local and total heat rejection rates, (3) coolant flow pressure in the flow channel, and (4) total system weight and protection layer thickness.

Black, W. Z.↗

A Common Probe Design for Multiple Planetary Destinations

Atmospheric probes have been successfully flown to planets and moons in the solar system to conduct in situ measurements. They include the Pioneer Venus multi-probes, the Galileo Jupiter probe, and Huygens probe. Probe mission concepts to five destinations, including Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, have all utilized similar-shaped aeroshells and concept of operations, namely a 45-degree sphere cone shape with high density heatshield material and parachute system for extracting the descent vehicle from the aeroshell. Each concept designed its probe to meet specific mission requirements and to optimize mass, volume, and cost. At the 2017 International Planetary Probe Workshop (IPPW), NASA Headquarters postulated that a common aeroshell design could be used successfully for multiple destinations and missions. This "common probe" design could even be assembled with multiple copies, properly stored, and made available for future NASA missions, potentially realizing savings in cost and schedule and reducing the risk of losing technologies and skills difficult to sustain over decades. Thus the NASA Planetary Science Division funded a study to investigate whether a common probe design could meet most, if not all, mission needs to the five planetary destinations with extreme entry environments. The Common Probe study involved four NASA Centers and addressed these issues, including constraints and inefficiencies that occur in specifying a common design. Study methodology: First, a notional payload of instruments for each destination was defined based on priority measurements from the Planetary Science Decadal Survey. Steep and shallow entry flight path angles (EFPA) were defined for each planet based on qualification and operational g-load limits for current, state-of-the-art instruments. Interplanetary trajectories were then identified for a bounding range of EFPA. Next, 3-degrees-of-freedom simulations for entry trajectories were run using the entry state vectors from the interplanetary trajectories. Aeroheating correlations were used to generate stagnation point convective and radiative heat flux profiles for several aeroshell shapes and entry masses. High fidelity thermal response models for various Thermal Protection System (TPS) materials were used to size stagnation-point thicknesses, with margins based on previous studies. Backshell TPS masses were assumed based on scaled heat fluxes from the heatshield and also from previous mission concepts. Presentation: We will present an overview of the study scope, highlights of the trade studies and design driver analyses, and the final recommendations of a common probe design and assembly. We will also indicate limitations that the common probe design may have for the different destinations. Finally, recommended qualification approaches for missions will be presented.

Hwang, H. H.↗

Assessments of Physiology and Cognition in Hybrid-Reality Environments (APACHE)

NASA is planning to return to the Moon in the mid-2020s as a stepping stone to Mars missions in the 2030s. Spacewalks, or extravehicular activities (EVAs), performed on the Moon and Mars will differ in a variety of ways from those that have been performed in decades past. NASA has identified multiple risks to human health and performance associated with a crewed mission to Mars, especially those associated with exploration EVAs which are expected to be a primary mission activity. Crew may be expected to conduct up to 24 hours of EVA per person per week, where the likelihood of injury and/or mental mistakes are increased compared to ground-based training or current microgravity EVAs and the consequences of which can be catastrophic. Current test environments for exploration EVA research and technology development are large, costly facilities that are limited in their availability or capabilities. Spacesuit testing in a reduced gravity environment such as NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, while a good representation of the crew’s physical workload during exploration EVAs, typically has small datasets and is difficult to integrate physiological sensors or other types of crew performance measures. Meanwhile, scientific field-based testing such as NASA’s Desert Research and Technology Studies offers an operationally relevant environment for exploration EVAs, particularly for cognitive workload, but is also limited by small datasets, lack of a pressurized spacesuit, and obtrusive measures. The limitations of current analogs for exploration EVAs identify a need for a new test environment that can approximate both the physical and cognitive demands associated with exploration EVAs to enable rapid, controlled, and repeatable evaluations of human health and performance risks of exploration missions. In response, the Human Physiology, Performance, Protection, and Operations Laboratory (H-3PO) at NASA Johnson Space Center has developed a hybrid reality exploration EVA analog named the Assessments of Physiology And Cognition in Hybrid-reality Environments (APACHE) to address these limitations using a combination of virtual, physical, and hybrid reality techniques. The APACHE facility resides at NASA Johnson Space Center and serves as a large “sandbox” for EVA research and simulation. At its center is a roughly 15x20ft space surrounded by a 14” tall sandbox partially filled with lunar regolith simulant to emulate the physical feeling of walking on a planetary surface and to allow for simulated geology operations. Nearby, a curved passive treadmill (Skillmill Connect, Technogym, Fairfield, NJ) and an omnidirectional treadmill (Infinadeck, Infinadeck, Rocklin, CA) are included to enable exploration of these large virtual environments while also imposing the physical demands, representative timelines, and cognitive burdens required to navigate and traverse these distances during exploration EVA. A 6DOF motion platform is used to simulate rover operations and supports various human performance evaluations and associated risks. Lastly, APACHE can support two extravehicular (EV) crewmembers working in tandem. A computer workstation is located nearby and also supports an intravehicular (IV) crewmember as part of a full mission simulation. The IV crewmember has direct video and audio communication with the EV crew in VR to provide operational and procedural support. The software used in APACHE was created by the JSC Engineering Directorate, in partnership with Buendea, powered by a custom Unreal Engine 5 (UE5.3, Epic Games) project. APACHE currently utilizes the HTC Vive Pro Eye in a wireless configuration for VR simulations. There are two virtual environments that subjects can explore within APACHE, a Lunar and Martian surface. The virtual Lunar surface was created from LIDAR data of the Lunar South Pole to create roughly 16 sq km of explorable terrain. The virtual Martian surface contains roughly 400 sq km of explorable terrain derived from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter LIDAR data of the Jezero Crater. The immersion and related cognitive burdens of conducting a planetary EVA is simulated through a series of EVA-relevant tasks performed in the VR environment, using these high-fidelity visual representations. Additionally, APACHE includes biosensor driven informatics, such as real-time heart rate monitoring and/or derived values from model simulations, for active monitoring by the EV crew and added cognitive demand. A “Wizard of Oz” control panel enables test operators to activate contingency events such as simulated spacesuit malfunctions, loss of communications, and/or limited visibility. Embedded performance measures such as accuracy, completeness, and execution time have been developed for various exploration tasks to objectively quantify crew performance during an EVA and compare impacts to performance when different environmental stressors, both physical and cognitive, are added to or removed from the simulation. Additionally, validated cognitive and operational performance measures such as the Digit Symbol Substitution Task have been recreated and embedded in VR for direct and relatively unobtrusive measurement of motor perception. The APACHE environment currently supports multiple research studies at NASA. Examples include the CHAPEA project, a series of simulated year-long missions on Mars by a 4-person crew; and the CO2 Contingency Walk Back Study, an investigation of elevated CO2 exposure on crew performance during a contingency EVA scenario. APACHE also provides a test environment to support the development of the Crew State and Risk Model, which is a collection of individualized, mathematical models of crew physical and cognitive state; and the Personalized EVA Informatics and Decision Support system, an operational tool for flight controllers, and eventually a self-reliant Martian crew, to make biomedically-informed decisions in real-time to optimize the EVA planning and execution with respect to crew health and performance. Some technical challenges associated with developing the APACHE environment, as well as current limitations, include VR limitless natural walking with a hybrid spacesuit simulator, optimizing performance for wireless PC VR streaming while maintaining a high degree of visual fidelity, and the integration of various physiological (metabolic masks) and psychometric (eye tracking) sensors with the VR headset.

Human Performance↗

Evaluation of Spacecraft Shielding Effectiveness for Radiation Protection

The potential for serious health risks from solar particle events (SPE) and galactic cosmic rays (GCR) is a critical issue in the NASA strategic plan for the Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS). The excess cost to protect against the GCR and SPE due to current uncertainties in radiation transmission properties and cancer biology could be exceedingly large based on the excess launch costs to shield against uncertainties. The development of advanced shielding concepts is an important risk mitigation area with the potential to significantly reduce risk below conventional mission designs. A key issue in spacecraft material selection is the understanding of nuclear reactions on the transmission properties of materials. High-energy nuclear particles undergo nuclear reactions in passing through materials and tissue altering their composition and producing new radiation types. Spacecraft and planetary habitat designers can utilize radiation transport codes to identify optimal materials for lowering exposures and to optimize spacecraft design to reduce astronaut exposures. To reach these objectives will require providing design engineers with accurate data bases and computationally efficient software for describing the transmission properties of space radiation in materials. Our program will reduce the uncertainty in the transmission properties of space radiation by improving the theoretical description of nuclear reactions and radiation transport, and provide accurate physical descriptions of the track structure of microscopic energy deposition.

Cucinotta, Francis A.↗

Director's Discretionary Fund Report for Fiscal Year 1996

Topics covered include: Waterproofing the Space Shuttle tiles, thermal protection system for Reusable Launch Vehicles, computer modeling of the thermal conductivity of cometary ice, effects of ozone depletion and ultraviolet radiation on plants, a novel telemetric biosensor to monitor blood pH on-line, ion mobility in polymer electrolytes for lithium-polymer batteries, a microwave-pumped far infrared photoconductor, and a new method for measuring cloud liquid vapor using near infrared remote sensing. Also included: laser-spectroscopic instrument for turbulence measurement, remote sensing of aircraft contrails using a field portable imaging interferometer, development of a silicon-micromachined gas chromatography system for determination of planetary surface composition, planar Doppler velocimetry, chaos in interstellar chemistry, and a limited pressure cycle engine for high-speed output.

Source record↗

Impact-shocked rocks--insights into Archean and extraterrestrial microbial habitats (and sites for prebiotic chemistry?)

Impact-shocked gneiss shocked to greater than 10 GPa in the Haughton impact structure in the Canadian High Arctic has an approximately 25-times greater pore surface area than unshocked rocks. These pore spaces provide microhabitats for a diversity of heterotrophic microorganisms and in the near-surface environment of the rocks, where light levels are sufficient, cyanobacteria. Shocked rocks provide a moisture retaining, UV protected microenvironment. During the Archean, when impact fluxes were more than two orders of magnitude higher than today, the shocked-rock habitat was one of the most common terrestrial habitats and might have provided a UV-shielded refugium for primitive life. These potential habitats are in high abundance on Mars where impact crater habitats could have existed over geologic time periods of billions of years, suggesting that impact-shocked rocks are important sites to search for biomolecules in extraterrestrial life detection strategies. In addition to being favourable sites for life, during the prebiotic period of planetary history impact-shocked rocks might have acted as a site for the concentration of reactants for prebiotic syntheses. c2004 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evolution, Chemical↗

Lightweight Multifunctional Planetary Probe for Extreme Environment Exploration and Locomotion

The demand to explore new worlds requires the development of advanced technologies that enable landed science on uncertain terrains or in hard to reach locations. As a result, contemporary Entry, Descent, Landing, (EDL) and additional locomotion (EDLL) profiles are becoming increasingly more complex, with the introduction of lifting/guided entries, hazard avoidance on descent, and a plethora of landing techniques including airbags and the skycrane maneuver. The inclusion of each of these subsystems into a mission profile is associated with a substantial mass penalty. This report explores the new all-in-one entry vehicle concept, TANDEM, a new combined EDLL concept, and compares it to the current state of the art EDL systems. The explored system is lightweight and collapsible and provides the capacity for lifting/guided entry, guided descent, hazard avoidance, omnidirectional impact protection and surface locomotion without the aid of any additional subsystems. This Phase I study explored: 1. The capabilities and feasibility of the TANDEM concept as an EDLL vehicle. 2. Extensive impact analysis to ensure mission success in unfavorable landing conditions, and safe landing in Tessera regions. 3. Development of a detailed design for a conceptual mission to Venus. As a result of our work it was shown that: 1. TANDEM provides additional benefits over the Adaptive, Deployable Entry Placement Technology (ADEPT) including guided descent and surface locomotion, while reducing the mass by 38% compared to the ADEPT-VITaL mission. 2. Demonstrated that the design of tensegrity structures, and TANDEM specifically, grows linearly with an increase in velocity, which was previously unknown. 3. Investigation of surface impact revealed a promising results that suggest a properly configured TANDEM vehicle can safely land and preform science in the Tessera regions, which was previously labeled by the Decadal Survey as, largely inaccessible despite its high scientific interest. This work has already resulted in a NASA TM and will be submitted to the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets.

landing techniques↗

Design considerations for future planetary space suits

Manned extravehicular activity (EVA) operations will be major mission elements of planned future U.S. space operations. Whether designed for orbital operations or planetary surface exploration, the EVA system must be safe and reliable, and must provide a high degree of performance capabilities. An extravehicular mobility unit (EMU) consisting of a space suit, EVA gloves, and a portable life support system (PLSS) is central to the EVA system. A rugged, highly reliable, mobile, reusable, and easily maintained EVA suit and compact PLSS must meet the specific requirements of the intended mission. Additional requirements imposed by exposure to surface and gravitational environments are the need for lightweight, high-strength materials for fabricating EMUs to prevent astronaut fatigue and the need for dust protection measures and removal techniques to prevent contamination. Also, operational pressure for habitats should be chosen so as to maintain zero-prebreathe conditions while allowing for lower EMU operating pressure.

Kosmo, Joseph J.↗

Neutrons in Space: Shield Models and Design Issues

The normal working and living areas of the astronaut are designed to provide an acceptable level of protection against the hazards of ionizing space radiation. Attempts to reduce the exposures require intervening shield materials to reduce the transmitted radiation. An unwelcome side effect of the shielding is the production of neutrons, which are themselves dangerous particles that can be (but are not always) more hazardous than the particles that produced them. This is especially true depending on the choice of shield materials. Although neutrons are not a normal part of the space environment, this paper focuses on them as principle component of astronaut exposure in the massive spacecraft's required for human space travel and habitation near planetary surfaces or other large bodies of material in space.

Wilson, J. W.↗

Electro-Mechanical Systems for Extreme Space Environments

Exploration beyond low earth orbit presents challenges for hardware that must operate in extreme environments. The current state of the art is to isolate and provide heating for sensitive hardware in order to survive. However, this protection results in penalties of weight and power for the spacecraft. This is particularly true for electro-mechanical based technology such as electronics, actuators and sensors. Especially when considering distributed electronics, many electro-mechanical systems need to be located in appendage type locations, making it much harder to protect from the extreme environments. The purpose of this paper to describe the advances made in the area of developing electro-mechanical technology to survive these environments with minimal protection. The Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), the Glenn Research Center (GRC), the Langley Research Center (LaRC), and Aeroflex, Inc. over the last few years have worked to develop and test electro-mechanical hardware that will meet the stringent environmental demands of the moon, and which can also be leveraged for other challenging space exploration missions. Prototype actuators and electronics have been built and tested. Brushless DC actuators designed by Aeroflex, Inc have been tested with interface temperatures as low as 14 degrees Kelvin. Testing of the Aeroflex design has shown that a brushless DC motor with a single stage planetary gearbox can operate in low temperature environments for at least 120 million cycles (measured at motor) if long life is considered as part of the design. A motor control distributed electronics concept developed by JPL was built and operated at temperatures as low as -160 C, with many components still operational down to -245 C. Testing identified the components not capable of meeting the low temperature goal of -230 C. This distributed controller is universal in design with the ability to control different types of motors and read many different types of sensors. The controller form factor was designed to surround or be at the actuator. Communication with the slave controllers is accomplished by a bus, thus limiting the number of wires that must be routed to the extremity locations. Efforts have also been made to increase the power capability of these electronics for the ability to power and control actuators up to 2.5KW and still meet the environmental challenges. For commutation and control of the actuator, a resolver was integrated and tested with the actuator. Testing of this resolver demonstrated temperature limitations. Subsequent failure analysis isolated the low temperature failure mechanism and a design solution was negotiated with the manufacturer. Several years of work have resulted in specialized electro-mechanical hardware to meet extreme space exploration environments, a test history that verifies and finds limitations of the designs and a growing knowledge base that can be leveraged by future space exploration missions.

Mojarradi, Mohammad M.↗

Instrumentation for Measuring Entry Radiative Heating - Past, Present, and Future

Radiative heating can be a significant contributor to the total heat load during atmospheric entry, especially for large vehicles with high entry velocties. For example, the stagnation region heat load derived from thermocouples embedded in the thermal protection system (TPS)of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) heatshield did not match the unmargined pre-flight predictions. This was at least partially attributed to the fact that radiative heating was not accounted for in the unmargined pre-flight predictions [2].Since MSL, significant work has been done to update radiative heating models and test how the models perform compared to ground-based test facilities such as shock tubes. The models and ground-based tests have shown that radiative heating can be significant for entry into the atmospheres of Venus, Earth, Mars, and Titan, among other planetary bodies. However, there are still discrepancies between the models and the test data, which is where the desire for flight data comes in to play. Missions that have had or are currently planned to have instrumentation to measure radiative heating during atmospheric entry are listed in Table 1.

R A Miller↗

A Novel Machine Learning Method for Surface PM2.5 Estimations from Geostationary Satellites

Particulate matter (PM) with a diameter of less or equal to 2.5 μm, known as PM , affects human health as it penetrates the respiratory system. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) measures the atmospheric concentration of PM using air quality monitors stationed throughout the Continental United States (CONUS). Such measurements are points on a spatial domain and therefore, might not be representative of the air quality at nearby areas considering that the composition of the atmosphere is highly variable from place to place. Satellite based AOD permits a spatially uniform means of estimating PM and new geostationary satellites provide high temporal and spatial resolution estimation of AOD. However, the concentration of PM is non-linearly dependent on other atmospheric parameters that include relative humidity, temperature, and height of the planetary boundary layer. This information may be estimated at similar spatial and temporal resolutions as AOD from numerical modeling such as from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model which resolves near real-time atmospheric conditions over the CONUS. The estimation of PM concentration is a multi-parametric problem that considers the effect of temporal dependencies among the different parameters. Deep learning approaches are appropriate for such complex estimation problems as they intrinsically capture relations among multiple non-linear parameters. This study compares deep-learning methods to traditional regression analysis to demonstrate the capabilities of these methods in predicting PM2.5 concentrations. Additionally, a novel ensemble learning approach is employed to identify scientific processes that could further improve the estimation of PM concentration. Utilizing Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural networks, which are suitable for multivariate time series estimation problems as they are capable of learning long-term dependencies, individual models are created for each EPA station and trained on the aforementioned dataset collocated over each station. Individual station models are merged if the model's performance is improved by reducing the root mean squared error (RMSE) metric. This ensemble training method ultimately reduces the RMSE value. Evaluation of these results provide insights into physical processes and related observable parameters that may contribute to PM concentrations. Identified parameters evaluated to be statistically different between the merged and unmerged models are expected to improve overall performance. These new parameters are then utilized for reevaluation of the deep learning methods with an extreme gradient boosting model with an RMSE of 5.5 providing the best results.

George Priftis↗

Reimagining Earth in the Earth System

Abstract Terrestrial, aquatic, and marine ecosystems regulate climate at local to global scales through exchanges of energy and matter with the atmosphere and assist with climate change mitigation through nature‐based climate solutions. Climate science is no longer a study of the physics of the atmosphere and oceans, but also the ecology of the biosphere. This is the promise of Earth system science: to transcend academic disciplines to enable study of the interacting physics, chemistry, and biology of the planet. However, long‐standing tension in protecting, restoring, and managing forest ecosystems to purposely improve climate evidences the difficulties of interdisciplinary science. For four centuries, forest management for climate betterment was argued, legislated, and ultimately dismissed, when nineteenth century atmospheric scientists narrowly defined climate science to the exclusion of ecology. Today's Earth system science, with its roots in global models of climate, unfolds in similar ways to the past. With Earth system models, geoscientists are again defining the ecology of the Earth system. Here we reframe Earth system science so that the biosphere and its ecology are equally integrated with the fluid Earth to enable Earth system prediction for planetary stewardship. Central to this is the need to overcome an intellectual heritage to the models that elevates geoscience and marginalizes ecology and local land knowledge. The call for kilometer‐scale atmospheric and ocean models, without concomitant scientific and computational investment in the land and biosphere, perpetuates the geophysical view of Earth and will not fully provide the comprehensive actionable information needed for a changing climate.

Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences↗

Lunar Transportation Facilities and Operations Study, option 1

Throughout the Option I period of the Lunar Transportation Facilities and Operations Study (LTFOS), McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Company - Kennedy Space Center (MDSSC-KSC) provided support to both the Planetary Surface Systems (PSS) Office at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the Johnson Space Center and to the Flight and Ground Systems Projects Office (Payload Projects Management) at the Kennedy Space Center. The primary objective of the Option I phase of the study was to assist the above NASA centers in developing Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) concepts. MDSSC-KSC conducted three analyses which provided launch and landing detail to the proposed exploration concepts. One analysis, the Lunar Ejecta Assessment, was conducted to determine the effects of launch and landing a vehicle in a dusty environment. A second analysis, the Thermal/Micrometeoroid Protection Trade Study, was refined to determine the impacts that Reference Architecture Option 5A would have on thermal/micrometeoroid protection approaches. The third analysis, the Centaur Prelaunch Procedure Analysis, used a Centaur prelaunch test and checkout flow to identify key considerations that would be important if a Lunar Excursion Vehicle (LEV) was to use an expander cycle liquid oxygen-liquid hydrogen engine. Several 'quick look' assessments were also conducted. One quick look assessment, the Storable Propellant Quick Look Assessment, was conducted to identify design considerations that should be made if storable propellants were to be used instead of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. The LEV Servicer Maintenance Analysis provided an early look at the effort required to maintain an LEV Servicer on the lunar surface. Also, support was provided to the PSS Logistics Manager to develop initial LEV Servicer cost inputs. Consideration was given to the advanced development that must be provided to accomplish a lunar and/or Mars mission. MDSS-KSC also provided support to both MASE and PSS by reviewing and commenting on architecture documents and concept definitions to ensure adequate considerations were given to the launch and landing function of an exploration initiative.

Source record↗

Deployed Electromagnetic Radiation Deflector Shield Creating a Zone of Minimum Radiation and Magnetic/Plasma Effects for Spacecraft

Spaceflight outside of the Earth's protective magnetic field is dangerous from a cosmic radiation perspective. Inside Earth's magnetic field, where the manned International Space Station (ISS) orbits, the radiation encountered is minimal and almost all is deflected by our planet's magnetic fields. However, outside that protective shield, the Sun's solar wind (high energy radiation, solar energetic particles or SEPs) consisting of protons, electrons, alpha particles and plasmas continuously bombards the spacecraft for the months or years of spaceflight. On occasion the Sun produces a CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) that vastly increases the energy and volume of this radiation. These particles damage human DNA as well as living tissue and can destroy sensitive electronics. The Deployed Electromagnetic Radiation Deflector Shield (DERDS) provides a magnetic field that will deflect SEPs and CMEs and other harmful solar and cosmic rays away from a manned spacecraft, robotic spacecraft, or manned extra-planetary base stations using an electromagnet that is deployed between the spacecraft/station and the source of radiation and creates a magnetosphere or zone of minimal radiation in which the spacecraft or base station would reside.

Patent↗

NASA System Safety Handbook: System Safety Framework and Concepts for Implementation - Volume 1

System safety assessment is defined in NPR 8715.3C, NASA General Safety Program Requirements as a disciplined, systematic approach to the analysis of risks resulting from hazards that can affect humans, the environment, and mission assets. Achievement of the highest practicable degree of system safety is one of NASA's highest priorities. Traditionally, system safety assessment at NASA and elsewhere has focused on the application of a set of safety analysis tools to identify safety risks and formulate effective controls.1 Familiar tools used for this purpose include various forms of hazard analyses, failure modes and effects analyses, and probabilistic safety assessment (commonly also referred to as probabilistic risk assessment (PRA)). In the past, it has been assumed that to show that a system is safe, it is sufficient to provide assurance that the process for identifying the hazards has been as comprehensive as possible and that each identified hazard has one or more associated controls. The NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) has made several statements in its annual reports supporting a more holistic approach. In 2006, it recommended that "... a comprehensive risk assessment, communication and acceptance process be implemented to ensure that overall launch risk is considered in an integrated and consistent manner." In 2009, it advocated for "... a process for using a risk-informed design approach to produce a design that is optimally and sufficiently safe." As a rationale for the latter advocacy, it stated that "... the ASAP applauds switching to a performance-based approach because it emphasizes early risk identification to guide designs, thus enabling creative design approaches that might be more efficient, safer, or both." For purposes of this preface, it is worth mentioning three areas where the handbook emphasizes a more holistic type of thinking. First, the handbook takes the position that it is important to not just focus on risk on an individual basis but to consider measures of aggregate safety risk and to ensure wherever possible that there be quantitative measures for evaluating how effective the controls are in reducing these aggregate risks. The term aggregate risk, when used in this handbook, refers to the accumulation of risks from individual scenarios that lead to a shortfall in safety performance at a high level: e.g., an excessively high probability of loss of crew, loss of mission, planetary contamination, etc. Without aggregated quantitative measures such as these, it is not reasonable to expect that safety has been optimized with respect to other technical and programmatic objectives. At the same time, it is fully recognized that not all sources of risk are amenable to precise quantitative analysis and that the use of qualitative approaches and bounding estimates may be appropriate for those risk sources. Second, the handbook stresses the necessity of developing confidence that the controls derived for the purpose of achieving system safety not only handle risks that have been identified and properly characterized but also provide a general, more holistic means for protecting against unidentified or uncharacterized risks. For example, while it is not possible to be assured that all credible causes of risk have been identified, there are defenses that can provide protection against broad categories of risks and thereby increase the chances that individual causes are contained. Third, the handbook strives at all times to treat uncertainties as an integral aspect of risk and as a part of making decisions. The term "uncertainty" here does not refer to an actuarial type of data analysis, but rather to a characterization of our state of knowledge regarding results from logical and physical models that approximate reality. Uncertainty analysis finds how the output parameters of the models are related to plausible variations in the input parameters and in the modeling assumptions. The evaluation of unrtainties represents a method of probabilistic thinking wherein the analyst and decision makers recognize possible outcomes other than the outcome perceived to be "most likely." Without this type of analysis, it is not possible to determine the worth of an analysis product as a basis for making decisions related to safety and mission success. In line with these considerations the handbook does not take a hazard-analysis-centric approach to system safety. Hazard analysis remains a useful tool to facilitate brainstorming but does not substitute for a more holistic approach geared to a comprehensive identification and understanding of individual risk issues and their contributions to aggregate safety risks. The handbook strives to emphasize the importance of identifying the most critical scenarios that contribute to the risk of not meeting the agreed-upon safety objectives and requirements using all appropriate tools (including but not limited to hazard analysis). Thereafter, emphasis shifts to identifying the risk drivers that cause these scenarios to be critical and ensuring that there are controls directed toward preventing or mitigating the risk drivers. To address these and other areas, the handbook advocates a proactive, analytic-deliberative, risk-informed approach to system safety, enabling the integration of system safety activities with systems engineering and risk management processes. It emphasizes how one can systematically provide the necessary evidence to substantiate the claim that a system is safe to within an acceptable risk tolerance, and that safety has been achieved in a cost-effective manner. The methodology discussed in this handbook is part of a systems engineering process and is intended to be integral to the system safety practices being conducted by the NASA safety and mission assurance and systems engineering organizations. The handbook posits that to conclude that a system is adequately safe, it is necessary to consider a set of safety claims that derive from the safety objectives of the organization. The safety claims are developed from a hierarchy of safety objectives and are therefore hierarchical themselves. Assurance that all the claims are true within acceptable risk tolerance limits implies that all of the safety objectives have been satisfied, and therefore that the system is safe. The acceptable risk tolerance limits are provided by the authority who must make the decision whether or not to proceed to the next step in the life cycle. These tolerances are therefore referred to as the decision maker's risk tolerances. In general, the safety claims address two fundamental facets of safety: 1) whether required safety thresholds or goals have been achieved, and 2) whether the safety risk is as low as possible within reasonable impacts on cost, schedule, and performance. The latter facet includes consideration of controls that are collective in nature (i.e., apply generically to broad categories of risks) and thereby provide protection against unidentified or uncharacterized risks.

Dezfuli, Homayoon↗