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At least 1,027 records · Page 57

A computer assisted teleoperator control station with tactile feedback

A computer-assisted teleoperator control system for making comparative performance evaluations is described. A local and a remote control station, each with decision-making capability, communicate with each other through a simulated time delay. Supervisory control at three increasingly automatic levels is possible. The highest level of programmed control is facilitated through the ARM language which was developed to permit easily readable program manuscripts to be written and assembled into programs of motions by novice programmers. Experimental results show the advantage of this form of supervisory control with both direct and delayed (3 sec) manipulation tasks. In addition, two systems to measure and reproduce force distributions have been designed. One system reproduces contact on the external surfaces of the remote hand using 21 airjet simulators. Another system reproduces the shape of the contact between object and jaws using 288 piezoelectric (bimorph) stimulators.

Hill, J. W.↗

Scientific considerations in the design of the Mars Observer gamma-ray spectrometer

Cosmic-ray primary and secondary particles induce characteristic gamma-ray and neutron emissions from condensed bodies in our solar system. These characteristic emissions can be used to obtain qualitative and quantitative elemental analyses of planetary surfaces from orbital altitudes. Remote sensing gamma-ray spectroscopy has been successfully used to obtain elemental composition of the Moon and Mars during United States Apollo 15 and 16 missions and the Soviet Luna and Mars missions. A remote sensing gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer will be included aboard the United States Mars Observer Mission. If proper care is not taken in the design of the spectrometer and choice of materials in the construction of the detector system ahd spacecraft, the sensitivity of these remote sensing spectrometers can be greatly degraded. A discussion of these design and material selection problems is presented.

Arnold, J. R.↗

Payload operation television system

The Payload Operation Television System is a high performance closed-circuit TV system designed to determine the feasibility of using TV to augment purely visual monitoring of operations, and to establish optimum system design of an operating unit which can ultimately be used to assist the operator of a remotely manipulated space-borne cargo loading device. The TV system assembled on this program is intended for laboratory experimentation which would develop operational techniques and lead to the design of space-borne TV equipment whose purpose would be to assist the astronaut-operator aboard a space station to load payload components. The equipment consists principally of a good quality TV camera capable of high resolving power; a TV monitor; a sync generator for driving camera and monitor; and two pan/tilt units which are remotely controlled by the operator.

Source record↗

Autonomous power expert system

The Autonomous Power Expert (APEX) system was designed to monitor and diagnose fault conditions that occur within the Space Station Freedom Electrical Power System (SSF/EPS) Testbed. APEX is designed to interface with SSF/EPS testbed power management controllers to provide enhanced autonomous operation and control capability. The APEX architecture consists of three components: (1) a rule-based expert system, (2) a testbed data acquisition interface, and (3) a power scheduler interface. Fault detection, fault isolation, justification of probable causes, recommended actions, and incipient fault analysis are the main functions of the expert system component. The data acquisition component requests and receives pertinent parametric values from the EPS testbed and asserts the values into a knowledge base. Power load profile information is obtained from a remote scheduler through the power scheduler interface component. The current APEX design and development work is discussed. Operation and use of APEX by way of the user interface screens is also covered.

Walters, Jerry L.↗

Ikhana: A NASA UAS Supporting Long Duration Earth Science Missions

The NASA Ikhana unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a General Atomics Ae ronautical Systems Inc. (San Diego, California) MQ-9 Predator-B modif ied to support the conduct of Earth science missions for the NASA Sci ence Mission Directorate and, through partnerships, other government agencies and universities. It can carry over 2000 lb of experiment p ayloads in the avionics bay and external pods and is capable of missi on durations in excess of 24 hours at altitudes above 40,000 ft. The aircraft is remotely piloted from a mobile ground control station (GC S) that is designed to be deployable by air, land, or sea. On-board s upport capabilities include an instrumentation system and an Airborne Research Test System (ARTS). The Ikhana project will complete GCS d evelopment, science support systems integration, external pod integra tion and flight clearance, and operations crew training in early 2007 . A large-area remote sensing mission is currently scheduled for Summ er 2007.

Cobleigh, B.↗

Fully Automated Detection of Cloud and Aerosol Layers in the CALIPSO Lidar Measurements

Accurate knowledge of the vertical and horizontal extent of clouds and aerosols in the earth s atmosphere is critical in assessing the planet s radiation budget and for advancing human understanding of climate change issues. To retrieve this fundamental information from the elastic backscatter lidar data acquired during the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) mission, a selective, iterated boundary location (SIBYL) algorithm has been developed and deployed. SIBYL accomplishes its goals by integrating an adaptive context-sensitive profile scanner into an iterated multiresolution spatial averaging scheme. This paper provides an in-depth overview of the architecture and performance of the SIBYL algorithm. It begins with a brief review of the theory of target detection in noise-contaminated signals, and an enumeration of the practical constraints levied on the retrieval scheme by the design of the lidar hardware, the geometry of a space-based remote sensing platform, and the spatial variability of the measurement targets. Detailed descriptions are then provided for both the adaptive threshold algorithm used to detect features of interest within individual lidar profiles and the fully automated multiresolution averaging engine within which this profile scanner functions. The resulting fusion of profile scanner and averaging engine is specifically designed to optimize the trade-offs between the widely varying signal-to-noise ratio of the measurements and the disparate spatial resolutions of the detection targets. Throughout the paper, specific algorithm performance details are illustrated using examples drawn from the existing CALIPSO dataset. Overall performance is established by comparisons to existing layer height distributions obtained by other airborne and space-based lidars.

Vaughan, Mark A.↗

Design, Prototyping, and Testing of a Novel Flowpath with an Array of Six 3D Matrix Vitvo Bioreactors for the NASA Bioculture System

The NASA Bioculture System is an advanced cell culture closed-loop system containing highly automated flowpaths designed to conduct long term biology experiments on ISS with earth remote controllable medium flow, temperature, gas composition, medium exchange, cell sampling and fixation. This technology was already demonstrated with successful cardiomyocyte and osteocyte cultures experiments onboard the ISS and is now supporting NASA PI science. The Bioculture System, however, can only support 10 cassettes with disposable flowpaths, each containing a single hollow fiber bioreactor with a culture capacity of about 2ml. This constraint not only severely limits the number of investigators that can conduct experiments in space, but also subjects the experiments to limitations in the number of replicates and conditions that can be studied. To address these limitations, we sought a novel design solution to maximize the number of separate bioreactor cultures and volume that can be conducted simultaneously. To this end we designed, prototyped, and are now testing a six-Vitvo 3D Matrix 2ml bioreactor insert that replaces the conventional Bioculture System hollow fiber bioreactor. This design will allow the Bioculture System to support up to 60 different bioreactors and samples at once. Specifically, the novel gas-tight containment housing insert contains six COTS Rigenerand VITVO bioreactors stacked on each side of a heat sink powered by the existing heating element and pair of temperature sensors. Medium will be distributed into each bioreactor's cell-free chamber via its built-in Luer connector, then across the 3D matrix to the cell chamber, dissipating laminar flow and limiting fluid shear stresses that might mechanostimulate cell cultures. Gas (5% CO2 in air) will be supplied directly to the bioreactor gas-tight housing for exchange via the bioreactor flat-surface gas-permeable membranes, eliminating the need for the existing Bioculture System cassette oxygenator. If successfully implemented on ISS, this new multi-bioreactor insert for the Bioculture System has the potential to make real-time cell science experimentation in space more efficient and accessible to more investigators.

Ma, Kristin R.↗

Mission design overview for the Mars Exploration Rover Mission

In the summer of 2003, NASA will launch the next wave of robotic explorers towards the planet Mars. Specifically designed to 'follow the water', two identical rovers wil be delivered to the surface of Mars to remotely conduct geologic and atmospheric investigations.

Mars Exploration Rover mission design↗

TEAMER: Experimental performance characterization of a shrouded axial-flow turbine

Sitkana has developed a shrouded hydrokinetic turbine with a modular, low-cost design that can be scaled to meet the needs of remote communities. With technical support from the University of Washington, Sitkana sought to experimentally characterize the mechanical power and structural loads of various 1:3.3 scale rotor geometries. In all, 11 different rotor geometries were characterized with variations in height-to-diameter ratio, blade number, and blade type (foiled versus flat). All tests were conducted in Reynolds-independent flow conditions in the Alice C. Tyler Flume at the University of Washington. Results allow Sitkana to (1) refine the optimal rotor geometry, (2) validate numerical models, and (3) predict power output for a full-scale system. This project is part of the TEAMER RFTS 8 (request for technical support) program.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

Development of a satellite microwave radiometer to sense the surface temperature of the world oceans

A proposed S-band radiometer for determining the ocean surface temperature with an absolute accuracy of + or - 1 Kelvin and a resolution of + or - .1 Kelvin was placed under the Advanced Applications Flight Experiment for further development into Nimbus readiness state. The results of assessing the following are described: effects due to the state of the sea surface, effects caused by the intervening atmosphere, and effects associated with imperfections in the instrument itself. An extensive sea truth program is also described for correlation of aircraft test flight measurements or of satellite remote measurement to in-situ data. An improved radiometer design is a modified Dicke-switch type with temperature stabilized, microwave integrated circuit, front-end and with a pulsed injection-noise nulling system. The radiometer has a multimode rectangular horn antenna with very low ohmic losses and a beam efficiency of 98% or better.

Hidy, G. M.↗

Short pulse radar measurements of layered ice and snow

Using a radar system with high range resolution, it was shown that measurements of snow and ice thickness are feasible with an accuracy of better than 3 inches. In addition, the water equivalent of the snowpack can be estimated, given a single surface measurement of the snow depth. Discontinuities in density were also detected and their location determined by inspection of the radar returns. The remote measurement of layer thickness is described. The system was designed for eventual incorporation into a light aircraft.

Vickers, R. S.↗

The census cities project: A status report for 1971

Work done by the Census Cities Project during 1971 is outlined. The project is designed to detect urban changes in land resource utilization from remote high altitude aircraft and earth orbiting satellite sensors, aid metropolitan regional planners, and provide urban land use maps for various areas. Land use maps are given of several areas observed during 1971.

Wray, J. R.↗

Central Atlantic regional ecological test site: A prototype regional environment information system

The author has identified the following significant results. Prior to the actual testing of data from ERTS-1, the principal scientific results to date are the establishment of a model or design for a regional land use information system based on remote sensor data and a firm establishment of the RB-57 type high altitude aircraft data base as an important tool in land use mapping. Preliminary user evaluations of the resulting land use data have been favorable, and one of the states, Maryland, has adopted the USGS-GAP land use system as a first step towards mapping their entire state. The State is funding an extension (to the west) of the part of Maryland not covered by CARETS (Central Atlantic Regional Ecological Test Site), using the GAP land use classification and mapping procedures.

Alexander, R. H.↗

Applications of remote sensing to stream discharge predictions

A feasibility study has been initiated on the use of remote earth observations for augmenting stream discharge prediction for the design and/or operation of major reservoir systems, pumping systems and irrigation systems. The near-term objectives are the interpolation of sparsely instrumented precipitation surveillance networks and the direct measurement of water loss by evaporation. The first steps of the study covered a survey of existing reservoir systems, stream discharge prediction methods, gage networks and the development of a self-adaptive variation of the Kentucky Watershed model, SNOPSET, that includes snowmelt. As a result of these studies, a special three channel scanner is being built for a small aircraft, which should provide snow, temperature and water vapor maps for the spatial and temporal interpolation of stream gages.

Krause, F. R.↗

Application of remote sensing to study nearshore circulation

The research to use remote sensing techniques for studying the continental shelf is reported. The studies reported include: (1) nearshore circulation in the vincinity of a natural tidal inlet; (2) identification of indicators of biological activity; (3) remote navigation system for tracking free drifting buoys; (4) experimental design of an estuaring tidal circulation; and (5) Skylab support work.

Zeigler, J.↗

Geological applications of LANDSAT-1 imagery to the Great Salt Lake area

The ERTS program has been designed as a research and development tool to demonstrate that remote sensing from orbital altitudes is a feasible and practical approach to efficient management of earth resources. From this synoptic view and repetitive coverage provided by ERTS imagery of the Great Salt Lake area, large geological and structural features, trends, and patterns have been identified and mapped. A comparative analysis of lineaments observed in September and December data was conducted, existing mineral locations were plotted, and areas considered prospective for mineralization based on apparent structure-mineralization relationships were defined. The additional information obtained using ERTS data provides an added source of information to aid in the development of more effective mineral exploration programs.

Anderson, A. T.↗

Soil moisture detection from Skylab

An investigation was designed for the Skylab satellite to determine the feasibility of remote sensing of the soil moisture content of the surface from various microwave sensors. Skylab data for the experiment were collected during passes 5, 10, 16, and 38 across the two test sites selected in eastern Kansas and western Texas. Pass 38 covered both test sites giving five data sets for the analysis. As Skylab data were being taken the moisture content of the soil was sampled by ground crews for each 2.5 centimeter depth from the surface to 15 centimeters at interval of about six kilometers along two different routes along the test sites. This resulted in a total of 2250 soil moisture samples corresponding to different locations and six different depths. Skylab data were collected by passive microwave radiometers at wavelengths of 2.1 and 21 centimeters by the S193 and S194 microwave sensors. An active microwave system also collected scatterometer data at a wavelength of 2.1 centimeters. The analysis of microwave data has revealed that the longer wavelength L-Band passive radiometer gives the best correlation with soil moisture content of the upper 2.5 centimeter depth of soil.

Eagleman, J. R.↗

Statistical sampling analysis for stratospheric measurements from satellite missions

Earth orbiting satellite experiments can be designed to measure stratospheric constituents such as ozone by utilizing remote sensing techniques. Statistical analysis techniques, mission simulation and model development have been utilized to develop a method for analyzing various mission/sensor combinations. Existing and planned NASA satellite missions such as Nimbus-4 and G, and Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment-Application Explorer Mission (SAGE-AEM) have been analyzed to determine the ability of the missions to adequately sample the global field.

Drewry, J. W.↗