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At least 1,081 records · Page 60

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NASA NTRS2014

Prototype and Metrics for Data Processing Chain Components of IPM

This presentation lays out the evolution of the Intelligent Payload Module (IPM) vision given that the HyspIRI mission has been delayed. It shows that there has been a focus on airborne vehcile and unmanned aerial systems to further develop the IPM functionality. This of course does not preclude use of the IPM for space missions but provides alternate paths to continue the concept of improved onboard processing for low latency users of science data products.

Onboard Processing↗

NASA NTRS2015

ATD-1: Avionics and Ground Automation Prototyping Progress

No abstract available

Johnson, William C.↗

NASA NTRS2016

Development of a Prototype Model-Form Uncertainty Knowledge Base

Uncertainties are generally classified as either aleatory or epistemic. Aleatory uncertainties are those attributed to random variation, either naturally or through manufacturing processes. Epistemic uncertainties are generally attributed to a lack of knowledge. One type of epistemic uncertainty is called model-form uncertainty. The term model-form means that among the choices to be made during a design process within an analysis, there are different forms of the analysis process, which each give different results for the same configuration at the same flight conditions. Examples of model-form uncertainties include the grid density, grid type, and solver type used within a computational fluid dynamics code, or the choice of the number and type of model elements within a structures analysis. The objectives of this work are to identify and quantify a representative set of model-form uncertainties and to make this information available to designers through an interactive knowledge base (KB). The KB can then be used during probabilistic design sessions, so as to enable the possible reduction of uncertainties in the design process through resource investment. An extensive literature search has been conducted to identify and quantify typical model-form uncertainties present within aerospace design. An initial attempt has been made to assemble the results of this literature search into a searchable KB, usable in real time during probabilistic design sessions. A concept of operations and the basic structure of a model-form uncertainty KB are described. Key operations within the KB are illustrated. Current limitations in the KB, and possible workarounds are explained.

Green, Lawrence L.↗

NASA NTRS2016

A Multi-Center Space Data System Prototype Based on CCSDS Standards

No abstract available

Rich, Tom↗

NASA NTRS2017

Development of an IVE/EVA Compatible Prototype Cold-Gas Cubesat Propulsion System at NASA/JSC

Cold-gas propulsion systems are well suited for some applications because they are simple to design and build, have low operating costs, and are non-toxic. The inherent tradeoff, however, is their relatively low impulse density. Nevertheless, a modest propulsion system, sized for Cubesats and designed for affordability, presents an attractive system solution for some missions, such as an on-orbit inspection free-flyer. NASA has a long-standing effort to develop propulsion systems appropriate for very high delta-V cubesat missions, such as geo transfer orbits, and there are commercially available Cubesat propulsion systems with considerably more impulse capability, but, these are both prohibitively expensive for some development customers and face compatibility constraints for crewed applications, such as operation within ISS. A relatively conventional cold-gas system has been developed at NASA/JSC taking advantage of existing miniature industrial components, additive manufacturing techniques and in-house qualification of the system. The result is a nearly modular system with a 1U form factor. Compressed nitrogen is stored in a small high-pressure tank, then regulated and distributed to 12 thrusters. Maneuvering thrust can be adjusted, with a typical value of 40 mN, and the delta-V delivered to a 3U Cubesat would be approximately 7 m/s. These values correspond to the performance parameters for an inspection mission previously established at JSC for inspection of the orbiter prior to reentry. Environmental testing was performed to meet ISS launch and workmanship standards, along with the expected thermal environment for an inspection mission. Functionality has been demonstrated, and performance in both vacuum and relevant blow down scenarios was completed. Several avenues for further improvement are also explored. Details of the system, components, integration, tests, and test data are presented in this paper.

Radke, Christopher↗

NASA NTRS2017

Computational Modeling of a Mechanized Benchtop Apparatus for Leading-Edge Slat Noise Treatment Device Prototypes

Airframe noise is a growing concern in the vicinity of airports because of population growth and gains in engine noise reduction that have rendered the airframe an equal contributor during the approach and landing phases of flight for many transport aircraft. The leading-edge-slat device of a typical high-lift system for transport aircraft is a prominent source of airframe noise. Two technologies have significant potential for slat noise reduction; the slat-cove filler (SCF) and the slat-gap filler (SGF). Previous work was done on a 2D section of a transport-aircraft wing to demonstrate the implementation feasibility of these concepts. Benchtop hardware was developed in that work for qualitative parametric study. The benchtop models were mechanized for quantitative measurements of performance. Computational models of the mechanized benchtop apparatus for the SCF were developed and the performance of the system for five different SCF assemblies is demonstrated.

Turner, Travis L.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Smashing the Stovepipe: Leveraging the GMSEC Open Architecture and Advanced IT Automation to Rapidly Prototype, Develop and Deploy Next-Generation Multi-Mission Ground Systems

Satellite/Payload Ground Systems - Typically highly-customized to a specific mission's use cases - Utilize hundreds (or thousands!) of specialized point-to-point interfaces for data flows / file transfers Documentation and tracking of these complex interfaces requires extensive time to develop and extremely high staffing costs Implementation and testing of these interfaces are even more cost-prohibitive, and documentation often lags behind implementation resulting in inconsistencies down the road With expanding threat vectors, IT Security, Information Assurance and Operational Security have become key Ground System architecture drivers New Federal security-related directives are generated on a daily basis, imposing new requirements on current / existing ground systems - These mandated activities and data calls typically carry little or no additional funding for implementation As a result, Ground System Sustaining Engineering groups and Information Technology staff continually struggle to keep up with the rolling tide of security Advancing security concerns and shrinking budgets are pushing these large stove-piped ground systems to begin sharing resources - I.e. Operational / SysAdmin staff, IT security baselines, architecture decisions or even networks / hosting infrastructure Refactoring these existing ground systems into multi-mission assets proves extremely challenging due to what is typically very tight coupling between legacy components As a result, many "Multi-Mission" ops. environments end up simply sharing compute resources and networks due to the difficulty of refactoring into true multi-mission systems Utilizing continuous integration / rapid system deployment technologies in conjunction with an open architecture messaging approach allows System Engineers and Architects to worry less about the low-level details of interfaces between components and configuration of systems GMSEC messaging is inherently designed to support multi-mission requirements, and allows components to aggregate data across multiple homogeneous or heterogeneous satellites or payloads - The highly-successful Goddard Science and Planetary Operations Control Center (SPOCC) utilizes GMSEC as the hub for it's automation and situational awareness capability Shifts focus towards getting GS to a final configuration-managed baseline, as well as multi-mission / big-picture capabilities that help increase situational awareness, promote cross-mission sharing and establish enhanced fleet management capabilities across all levels of the enterprise.

GMSEC↗

NASA NTRS2016

Limb-Nadir Matching Using Non-Coincident NO2 Observations: Proof of Concept and the OMI-minus-OSIRIS Prototype Product

A variant of the limb-nadir matching technique for deriving tropospheric NO2 columns is presented in which the stratospheric component of the NO2 slant column density (SCD) measured by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) is removed using non-coincident profiles from the Optical Spectrograph and InfraRed Imaging System (OSIRIS). In order to correct their mismatch in local time and the diurnal variation of stratospheric NO2, OSIRIS profiles, which were measured just after sunrise, were mapped to the local time of OMI observations using a photochemical boxmodel. Following the profile time adjustment, OSIRIS NO2 stratospheric vertical column densities (VCDs) were calculated. For profiles that did not reach down to the tropopause, VCDs were adjusted using the photochemical model. Using air mass factors from the OMI Standard Product (SP), a new tropospheric NO2 VCD product - referred to as OMI-minus-OSIRIS (OmO) - was generated through limb-nadir matching. To accomplish this, the OMI total SCDs were scaled using correction factors derived from the next-generation SCDs that improve upon the spectral fitting used for the current operational products. One year, 2008, of OmO was generated for 60 deg S to 60 deg N and a cursory evaluation was performed. The OmO product was found to capture the main features of tropospheric NO2, including a background value of about 0.3 x 10(exp 15) molecules per sq cm over the tropical Pacific and values comparable to the OMI operational products over anthropogenic source areas. While additional study is required, these results suggest that a limb-nadir matching approach is feasible for the removal of stratospheric NO2 measured by a polar orbiter from a nadir-viewing instrument in a geostationary orbit such as Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) or Sentinel-4.

Photochemical Boxmodel↗

NASA NTRS2016

Open Source Simulation Leveraging Open Source Technologies for Rapid Prototyping of Simulation Tools

No abstract available

Fonseca, Eduardo↗

NASA NTRS2017

Control and Non-Payload Communications (CNPC) Prototype Radio Verification Test Report

This report provides an overview and results from the verification of the specifications that defines the operational capabilities of the airborne and ground, L Band and C Band, Command and Non-Payload Communications radio link system. An overview of system verification is provided along with an overview of the operation of the radio. Measurement results are presented for verification of the radios operation.

avionics↗

NASA NTRS2019

Planetary Entry Vehicle Prototyping Using Cubesats (or How to Progress on a Shoe-String Budget and Hope to Play with the Big Guys): The Micro Return Capsule (MIRCA)

Imagine standing on the surface of an alien planet or satellite. High in the sky, a soft breeze is interrupted by the whistling sound of a tiny probe sent from Earth to study the atmosphere, or to land on some high-value target on the surface. Now imagine that this probe is followed by a dozen others, all entering in distributed locations throughout the geographic landscape. These probes are systematically and methodically being released from an orbiting spacecraft, perhaps having arrived months in advance. Or maybe the probes themselves are released systematically months in advance by and approaching mother-ship. Although probes have been sent to celestial neighbors before, what is unique is that these new vehicles had their genesis on the highly popular Cubesat specification… My dream is to make spaceflight so mundane, we can actually routinely leave the bounds of our planet to explore en masse our solar system. For that, we must create systems that allow us to bring space exploration within the realm of our everyday lives. No longer exquisite systems but just good enough, where failure is an option … and a new opportunity.

Esper, Jaime↗

NASA NTRS2019

Prototype Magnetic Calorimeter Arrays with Buried Wiring for the Lynx X-Ray Microcalorimeter

Metallic magnetic calorimeter (MMC) technology is a leading contender for detectors for the Lynx X-ray Microcalorimeter, which is an imaging spectrometer consisting of an array of greater than 100,000 pixels. The fabrication of such large arrays presents a challenge when attempting to route the superconducting wiring from the pixels to the multiplexed readout. If the wiring is designed to be planar, then an aggressive, submicron scale wiring pitch has to be employed, which is technically challenging to design and fabricate on account of the requirements of low inductance, low cross-talk, high critical currents and high yield. An alternative way to achieve large scale, high density wiring is through the use of multiple buried metal layers, planarized by Chemical Mechanical Planarization. This approach is well-suited for connecting thousands of pixels on a large focal plane to readout chips, and also for fabricating sensor meander coils with narrow line widths, which helps in increasing the sensor inductance and thus alleviates stray inductance issues associated with the wiring in large size arrays. In this work we describe the fabrication of high sensor inductance MMC arrays implementing Lynx concepts and incorporating multiple layers of buried Nb wiring. The detector array is composed of three sub-arrays with pixels optimized to meet the different science driven performance requirements of Lynx. In two of the sub-arrays we adopt a thermal multiplexing scheme to read out pixels by coupling 25 absorbers to a single sensor through thermal links of varied thermal conductance. We demonstrate the successful fabrication of multi-absorber MMCs with fine pitch pixels in very large size arrays.

Solid-State Physics↗

NASA NTRS2016

Inflatable Antenna for CubeSats: Development of the X-Band Prototype

No abstract available

Babuscia, Alessandra↗

NASA NTRS2019

Usability Test of a Prototype UAS Awareness Interface for Public Users

A tool to give the public a window into Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) operations was created from an existing data collection tool. The interface included a map and a table showing details about UAS operations that could be queried in a number of ways. Eleven participants attended the study, successfully completing a 19-item task set in about 30 minutes. They correctly found information for 87% of the non-subjective tasks at a rate of around a minute per task, and rated the usability of the tool at the end of the session above the industry benchmark. Participants gave favorable reviews of the "public portal tool", even reporting that they would be satisfied with less information that it presented. There were one or two elements of the display that users found distracting and some navigation functions that need improvement, but on balance, the public representatives liked the features they saw in, and had few criticisms of, the public portal tool. One important issue for the small Unmanned Aerial System community to resolve will be how much or how little information should be available about UTM operations to members of the public.

Martin, Lynne H.↗

NASA NTRS2019