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NASA NTRS2022

Scientist-Stakeholder Relationships Drive Carbon Data Product Transfer Effectiveness within NASA Program

Carbon cycle science is at the heart of research on global climate change and its long-term impacts, as it examines the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere, oceans, land, and the impact of fossil fuel emissions on this cycling. Given the urgency of the climate challenge, NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) requires all funded investigators to identify and work with stakeholder organizations at project inception to accelerate the transfer of the products developed by funded research into decision making systems. In this study, we contribute to the literature through the implementation of a quantitative analysis of 908 unique survey responses from funded investigators to explore the maturity of the scientist-stakeholder engagement. The paper employs multiple correspondence analysis to provide evidence to support policy options to increase stakeholder integration into research programs. Despite limitations of the dataset used, we demonstrated that multiple funding rounds, long-standing relationships between the stakeholder and scientist, and the scientific productivity of the PI, including the ability to produce datasets and research papers on these datasets, all contribute to carbon products moving from research to operational use. The maturity of relationships between scientists and stakeholders was shown to result improved stakeholder engagement. The use of carbon products should be identified in every stage of the program, and that capacity building is needed to support both existing and newly identified stakeholders better understand and use CMS products. As Federal, State, and local policy on climate adaptation and mitigation matures, the need for information on carbon will expand. Building of stakeholder-scientist relationships in CMS results in an effective generation and use of datasets to support this need and prototype ways that improved information needed for decision making can be created.

Monitoring↗

DOE OSTI2014

Controlling O&M Costs of Advanced SMRs using Prognostics and Enhanced Risk Monitoring

Advanced small modular reactors (AdvSMRs) can contribute to safe, sustainable, and carbon-neutral energy production. The economics of small reactors (including AdvSMRs) will be impacted by the reduced economy-of-scale savings when compared to traditional light water reactors. The most significant controllable element of the day-to-day costs involves operations and maintenance (O&M). Enhancing affordability of AdvSMRs through technologies that help control O&M costs will be critical to ensuring their practicality for wider deployment.A significant component of O&M costs is the management and mitigation of degradation of components due to their impact on planning maintenance activities and staffing levels. Technologies that help characterize real-time risk of failure of key components are important in this context. Given the possibility of frequently changing AdvSMR plant configurations, approaches are needed to integrate three elements – advanced plant configuration information, equipment condition information, and risk monitors – to provide a measure of risk that is customized for each AdvSMR unit and support real-time decisions on O&M. This article describes an overview of ongoing research into diagnostics/prognostics and enhanced predictive risk monitors (ERM) for this purpose.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

NASA NTRS2008

Information Requirements for Supervisory Air Traffic Controllers in Support of a Wake Vortex Departure System

Closely Space Parallel Runway (CSPR) configurations are capacity limited for departures due to the requirement to apply wake vortex separation standards from traffic departing on the adjacent parallel runway. To mitigate the effects of this constraint, a concept focusing on wind dependent departure operations has been developed, known as the Wake Turbulence Mitigation for Departures (WTMD). This concept takes advantage of the fact that crosswinds of sufficient velocity blow wakes generated by aircraft departing from the downwind runway away from the upwind runway. Consequently, under certain conditions, wake separations on the upwind runway would not be required based on wakes generated by aircraft on the downwind runway, as is currently the case. It follows that information requirements, and sources for this information, would need to be determined for airport traffic control tower (ATCT) supervisory personnel who would be charged with decisions regarding use of the procedure. To determine the information requirements, data were collected from ATCT supervisors and controller-in-charge qualified individuals at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport (STL) and George Bush Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH). STL and IAH were chosen as data collection sites based on the implementation of a WTMD prototype system, operating in shadow mode, at these locations. The 17 total subjects (STL: 5, IAH: 12) represented a broad-base of air traffic experience. Results indicated that the following information was required to support the conduct of WTMD operations: current and forecast weather information, current and forecast traffic demand and traffic flow restrictions, and WTMD System status information and alerting. Subjects further indicated that the requisite information is currently available in the tower cab with the exception of the WTMD status and alerting. Subjects were given a demonstration of a display supporting the prototype systems and unanimously stated that the WTMD status information they felt important was represented. Overwhelmingly, subjects felt that approving, monitoring and terminating the WTMD procedure could be integrated into their supervisory workload.

Lohr, Gary W.↗

NASA NTRS2005

A Framework for Integration of IVHM Technologies for Intelligent Integration for Vehicle Management

As a part of the overall goal of developing Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) systems for aerospace vehicles, the NASA Faculty Fellowship Program (NFFP) at Marshall Space Flight Center has performed a pilot study on IVHM principals which integrates researched IVHM technologies in support of Integrated Intelligent Vehicle Management (IIVM). IVHM is the process of assessing, preserving, and restoring system functionality across flight and ground systems (NASA NGLT 2004). The framework presented in this paper integrates advanced computational techniques with sensor and communication technologies for spacecraft that can generate responses through detection, diagnosis, reasoning, and adapt to system faults in support of IIVM. These real-time responses allow the IIVM to modify the effected vehicle subsystem(s) prior to a catastrophic event. Furthermore, the objective of this pilot program is to develop and integrate technologies which can provide a continuous, intelligent, and adaptive health state of a vehicle and use this information to improve safety and reduce costs of operations. Recent investments in avionics, health management, and controls have been directed towards IIVM. As this concept has matured, it has become clear the IIVM requires the same sensors and processing capabilities as the real-time avionics functions to support diagnosis of subsystem problems. New sensors have been proposed, in addition, to augment the avionics sensors to support better system monitoring and diagnostics. As the designs have been considered, a synergy has been realized where the real-time avionics can utilize sensors proposed for diagnostics and prognostics to make better real-time decisions in response to detected failures. IIVM provides for a single system allowing modularity of functions and hardware across the vehicle. The framework that supports IIVM consists of 11 major on-board functions necessary to fully manage a space vehicle maintaining crew safety and mission objectives: Guidance and Navigation; Communications and Tracking; Vehicle Monitoring; Information Transport and Integration; Vehicle Diagnostics; Vehicle Prognostics; Vehicle mission Planning; Automated Repair and Replacement; Vehicle Control; Human Computer Interface; and Onboard Verification and Validation. Furthermore, the presented framework provides complete vehicle management which not only allows for increased crew safety and mission success through new intelligence capabilities, but also yields a mechanism for more efficient vehicle operations. The representative IVHM technologies for IIVH includes: 1) robust controllers for use in re-usable launch vehicles, 2) scaleable/flexible computer platform using heterogeneous communication, 3) coupled electromagnetic oscillators for enhanced communications, 4) Linux-based real-time systems, 5) genetic algorithms, 6) Bayesian Networks, 7) evolutionary algorithms, 8) dynamic systems control modeling, and 9) advanced sensing capabilities. This paper presents IVHM technologies developed under NASA's NFFP pilot project. The integration of these IVHM technologies forms the framework for IIVM.

Paris, Deidre E.↗

NASA NTRS2005

Intelligent Vehicle Health Management

As a part of the overall goal of developing Integrated Vehicle Health Management systems for aerospace vehicles, the NASA Faculty Fellowship Program (NFFP) at Marshall Space Flight Center has performed a pilot study on IVHM principals which integrates researched IVHM technologies in support of Integrated Intelligent Vehicle Management (IIVM). IVHM is the process of assessing, preserving, and restoring system functionality across flight and ground systems (NASA NGLT 2004). The framework presented in this paper integrates advanced computational techniques with sensor and communication technologies for spacecraft that can generate responses through detection, diagnosis, reasoning, and adapt to system faults in support of INM. These real-time responses allow the IIVM to modify the affected vehicle subsystem(s) prior to a catastrophic event. Furthermore, the objective of this pilot program is to develop and integrate technologies which can provide a continuous, intelligent, and adaptive health state of a vehicle and use this information to improve safety and reduce costs of operations. Recent investments in avionics, health management, and controls have been directed towards IIVM. As this concept has matured, it has become clear the INM requires the same sensors and processing capabilities as the real-time avionics functions to support diagnosis of subsystem problems. New sensors have been proposed, in addition, to augment the avionics sensors to support better system monitoring and diagnostics. As the designs have been considered, a synergy has been realized where the real-time avionics can utilize sensors proposed for diagnostics and prognostics to make better real-time decisions in response to detected failures. IIVM provides for a single system allowing modularity of functions and hardware across the vehicle. The framework that supports IIVM consists of 11 major on-board functions necessary to fully manage a space vehicle maintaining crew safety and mission objectives: Guidance and Navigation; Communications and Tracking; Vehicle Monitoring; Information Transport and Integration; Vehicle Diagnostics; Vehicle Prognostics; Vehicle mission Planning; Automated Repair and Replacement; Vehicle Control; Human Computer Interface; and Onboard Verification and Validation. Furthermore, the presented framework provides complete vehicle management which not only allows for increased crew safety and mission success through new intelligence capabilities, but also yields a mechanism for more efficient vehicle operations. The representative IVHM technologies for computer platform using heterogeneous communication, 3) coupled electromagnetic oscillators for enhanced communications, 4) Linux-based real-time systems, 5) genetic algorithms, 6) Bayesian Networks, 7) evolutionary algorithms, 8) dynamic systems control modeling, and 9) advanced sensing capabilities. This paper presents IVHM technologies developed under NASA's NFFP pilot project and the integration of these technologies forms the framework for IIVM.

Paris, Deidre E.↗

NASA NTRS2022

Scientist-Stakeholder Relationships Drive Carbon Data Product Transfer Effectiveness within NASA Program

Carbon cycle science is at the heart of research on global climate change and its long-term impacts, as it examines the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere, oceans, land, and the impact of fossil fuel emissions on this cycling. Given the urgency of the climate challenge, NASA's Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) requires all funded investigators to identify and work with stakeholder organizations at project inception to accelerate the transfer of the products developed by funded research into decision making systems. In this study, we contribute to the literature through the implementation of a quantitative analysis of 908 unique survey responses from funded investigators to explore the maturity of the scientist-stakeholder engagement. The paper employs multiple correspondence analysis to provide evidence to support policy options to increase stakeholder integration into research programs. Despite limitations of the dataset used, we demonstrated that multiple funding rounds, long-standing relationships between the stakeholder and scientist, and the scientific productivity of the Principal Investigator, including the ability to produce datasets and research papers on these datasets, all contribute to carbon products moving from research to operational use. The maturity of relationships between scientists and stakeholders was shown to result improved stakeholder engagement. The use of carbon products should be identified in every stage of the program, and that capacity building is needed to support both existing and newly identified stakeholders better understand and use CMS products. As federal, state, and local policy on climate adaptation and mitigation matures, the need for information on carbon will expand. Building of stakeholder-scientist relationships in CMS results in an effective generation and use of datasets to support this need and prototype ways that improved information needed for decision making can be created.

Molly E Brown↗

DOE OSTI2026

Concise Guide on Hydrogen for Ports

This Concise Guide on Hydrogen for Ports provides port stakeholders with a comprehensive overview of hydrogen as an emerging energy solution for maritime and land-based operations. It explains hydrogen’s fundamental properties, production pathways, and emissions profiles, while highlighting its potential benefits and associated challenges. The document explores practical applications for hydrogen at ports alongside considerations for storage, delivery, and integration. It also outlines implementation frameworks, stakeholder engagement approaches, and risk assessment methodologies to support informed decision-making. The guide aims to provide a pathway forward for ports that choose to consider implementation of hydrogen technology at their facility.

08 HYDROGEN↗

NASA NTRS1993

The ASLOTS concept: An interactive, adaptive decision support concept for Final Approach Spacing of Aircraft (FASA). FAA-NASA Joint University Program

This presentation outlines a concept for an adaptive, interactive decision support system to assist controllers at a busy airport in achieving efficient use of multiple runways. The concept is being implemented as a computer code called FASA (Final Approach Spacing for Aircraft), and will be tested and demonstrated in ATCSIM, a high fidelity simulation of terminal area airspace and airport surface operations. Objectives are: (1) to provide automated cues to assist controllers in the sequencing and spacing of landing and takeoff aircraft; (2) to provide the controller with a limited ability to modify the sequence and spacings between aircraft, and to insert takeoffs and missed approach aircraft in the landing flows; (3) to increase spacing accuracy using more complex and precise separation criteria while reducing controller workload; and (4) achieve higher operational takeoff and landing rates on multiple runways in poor visibility.

Simpson, Robert W.↗

NASA NTRS2005

Advanced Technology Lifecycle Analysis System (ATLAS) Technology Tool Box (TTB)

The Advanced Technology Lifecycle Analysis System (ATLAS) is a decision support tool designed to aid program managers and strategic planners in determining how to invest technology research and development dollars. It is an Excel-based modeling package that allows a user to build complex space architectures and evaluate the impact of various technology choices. ATLAS contains system models, cost and operations models, a campaign timeline and a centralized technology database. Technology data for all system models is drawn from a common database, the ATLAS Technology Tool Box (TTB). The TTB provides a comprehensive, architecture-independent technology database that is keyed to current and future timeframes.

Doyle, Monica↗

NASA NTRS2006

The Path to NGATS

NGATS operational Improvements and benefits include: 1) Broad area and precision navigation to access and capacity; 2) Airspace access and management to capacity; 3) 4D trajectory based ATM to capacity and efficiency; 4) Reduced separation between aircraft to capacity; 5) Flight deck situational awareness and delegation to capacity and safety; 6) ATM decision support to capacity; 7) Improved weather data and dissemination to capacity and safety; 8) Reduced cost to deliver ATM services to cost; 9) Greatly expanded airport network and improved terminals to capacity.

Scardina, John↗

NASA NTRS2013

Development of WMS Capabilities to Support NASA Disasters Applications and App Development

During the last year several significant disasters have occurred such as Superstorm Sandy on the East coast of the United States, and Typhoon Bopha in the Phillipines, along with several others. In support of these disasters NASA's Short‐term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center delivered various products derived from satellite imagery to help in the assessment of damage and recovery of the affected areas. To better support the decision makers responding to the disasters SPoRT quickly developed several solutions to provide the data using open Geographical Information Service (GIS) formats. Providing the data in open GIS standard formats allowed the end user to easily integrate the data into existing Decision Support Systems (DSS). Both Tile Mapping Service (TMS) and Web Mapping Service (WMS) were leveraged to quickly provide the data to the end‐user. Development of the deliver methodology allowed quick response to rapidly developing disasters and enabled NASA SPoRT to bring science data to decision makers in a successful research to operations transition.

Bell, Jordan R.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Development of WMS Capabilities to Support NASA Disasters Applications and App Development

Bell, Jordan R.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Development of Web Mapping Service Capabilities to Support NASA Disasters Applications / App Development

Burks, Jason E.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Development of Web Mapping Service Capabilities to Support NASA Disasters Applications/App Development

Burks, Jason E.↗

NASA NTRS2016

Clinical Outcome Metrics for Optimization of Robust Training

Introduction: The emphasis of this research is on the Human Research Program (HRP) Exploration Medical Capability's (ExMC) "Risk of Unacceptable Health and Mission Outcomes Due to Limitations of In-Flight Medical Capabilities." Specifically, this project aims to contribute to the closure of gap ExMC 2.02: We do not know how the inclusion of a physician crew medical officer quantitatively impacts clinical outcomes during exploration missions. The experiments are specifically designed to address clinical outcome differences between physician and non-physician cohorts in both near-term and longer-term (mission impacting) outcomes. Methods: Medical simulations will systematically compare success of individual diagnostic and therapeutic procedure simulations performed by physician and non-physician crew medical officer (CMO) analogs using clearly defined short-term (individual procedure) outcome metrics. In the subsequent step of the project, the procedure simulation outcomes will be used as input to a modified version of the NASA Integrated Medical Model (IMM) to analyze the effect of the outcome (degree of success) of individual procedures (including successful, imperfectly performed, and failed procedures) on overall long-term clinical outcomes and the consequent mission impacts. The procedures to be simulated are endotracheal intubation, fundoscopic examination, kidney/urinary ultrasound, ultrasound-guided intravenous catheter insertion, and a differential diagnosis exercise. Multiple assessment techniques will be used, centered on medical procedure simulation studies occurring at 3, 6, and 12 months after initial training (as depicted in the following flow diagram of the experiment design). Discussion: Analysis of procedure outcomes in the physician and non-physician groups and their subsets (tested at different elapsed times post training) will allow the team to 1) define differences between physician and non-physician CMOs in terms of both procedure performance (pre-IMM analysis) and overall mitigation of the mission medical impact (IMM analysis); 2) refine the procedure outcome and clinical outcome metrics themselves; 3) refine or develop innovative medical training products and solutions to maximize CMO performance; and 4) validate the methods and products of this experiment for operational use in the planning, execution, and quality assurance of the CMO training process The team has finalized training protocols and developed a software training/testing tool in collaboration with Butler Graphics (Detroit, MI). In addition to the "hands on" medical procedure modules, the software includes a differential diagnosis exercise (limited clinical decision support tool) to evaluate the diagnostic skills of participants. Human subject testing will occur over the next year.

Ebert, D.↗

NASA NTRS2019

Simulation and Flight Test Environments for the TASAR Traffic Aware Planner

The Traffic Aware Planner (TAP) software is a flight deck decision support tool that enhances the flight crew’s ability to make flight-optimizing route change requests while airborne. The software provides conflict-free, optimized trajectory suggestions during en route flight to produce time- and fuel-savings compared to the current trajectory. The TAP software requires evaluation in an operational environment with real pilot users to validate projected benefits. To this end, a set of developmental test environments have been developed to mature the software and mitigate technical risk prior to entering operational evaluation. The unique attributes of each test environment were leveraged to provide a range of purpose- and case-dependent TAP software tests. This paper describes the elements of a testing environment, discusses several environments of varying fidelity used to test the TAP software, and provides a review of two case studies highlighting the vital role testing played in the TAP software development process.

Barney, Terique L.↗

DOE OSTI2013

The used nuclear fuel problem - can reprocessing and consolidated storage be complementary?

This paper describes our CISF (Consolidated Interim Storage Facilities) and Reprocessing Facility concepts and show how they can be combined with a geologic repository to provide a comprehensive system for dealing with spent fuels in the USA. The performance of the CISF was logistically analyzed under six operational scenarios. A 3-stage plan has been developed to establish the CISF. Stage 1: the construction at the CISF site of only a rail receipt interface and storage pad large enough for the number of casks that will be received. The construction of the CISF Canister Handling Facility, the Storage Cask Fabrication Facility, the Cask Maintenance Facility and supporting infrastructure are performed during stage 2. The construction and placement into operation of a water-filled pool repackaging facility is completed for Stage 3. By using this staged approach, the capital cost of the CISF is spread over a number of years. It also allows more time for a final decision on the geologic repository to be made. A recycling facility will be built, this facility will used the NUEX recycling process that is based on the aqueous-based PUREX solvent extraction process, using a solvent of tri-N-butyl phosphate in a kerosene diluent. It is capable of processing spent fuels at a rate of 5 MT per day, at burn-ups up to 50 GWD per ton of spent fuels and a minimum of 5 years out-of-reactor cooling.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Accelerating Hanford Site Cleanup through Operations Research Modeling - 20238

The Hanford Site cleanup effort will require the integration of dozens of unique facilities and processes, many of which will be first-of-a-kind in implementation and design. Each facility will be governed by its own set of operating logic, configured with a unique array of unit operations, and subject to a set of constraints that will affect its behavior. The collection of facilities have multiple points of interface, making the operations of any one facility potentially significant to the operations of other up- or downstream processes. It is therefore highly desirable to accurately predict these operations, as it allows for Site officials to identify and preempt bottlenecks and vulnerabilities before they unexpectedly inhibit the cleanup mission. With the quantity and complexity of the processes that will be on Site, building a pen-and-paper or even a spreadsheet-assisted model of the cleanup mission quickly becomes overwhelming in scope and inaccurate in execution. The Engineering organization for the Site's Tank Operations Contract (TOC) has therefore implemented the use of operations research (OR) modeling to simulate and predict future operations of Site facilities. These models are created using a discrete event simulation tool that allows for the development of detailed, versatile, and robust models. Not only can these models account for complex logical behaviors, but they can also simulate process details down to the level of vessel sizing, labor utilization, equipment reliability, and resource availability. To date, the TOC has developed OR models for several facilities on Site, including for single-shell tank (SST) farms, double-shell tank (DST) farms, the Effluent Treatment Facility (ETF), and the waste transfer system. These models have focused on identifying bottlenecks and operational constraints, and have been used to quantify the effects of implementing process changes. This latter point is particularly valuable, as it allows for several alternatives to be studied in a virtual setting before committing resources to making a change in the field. The decision to develop OR models has gained tremendous support from the Site's stakeholders and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) management, and has prompted the use of the tool to support additional internal and external initiatives. Recently, an initiative was proposed to use the models to help identify and provide quantitative backing for risks and opportunities for the TOC. This application of OR could not only help inform how the TOC manages its risks (e.g. quantities and types of spare parts), but could also help drive process improvements whose benefits might otherwise be hard to quantify. The models have also been used to drive the TOC's cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) initiatives. These initiatives will not only improve the ability of the TOC to more rapidly respond to the needs of its customers, but it will also aid in the ability of the TOC to analyze and improve the processes it studies. Partnership with two external software development and consulting companies (Lanner and Ynformed) has furthered not only the application of AI and ML within the TOC, but has also spurred the development of new/improved software tools and platforms used by the companies. These partnerships have proven to be mutually beneficial and productive, and have set a precedent for the types of gains that can be made by exploring such options. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗