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At least 127 records · Page 7

Bioavailability of Promethazine during Spaceflight

Promethazine (PMZ) is the choice anti-motion sickness medication for treating space motion sickness (SMS) during flight. The side effects associated with PMZ include dizziness, drowsiness, sedation, and impaired psychomotor performance which could impact crew performance and mission operations. Early anecdotal reports from crewmembers indicate that these central nervous system side effects of PMZ are absent or greatly attenuated in microgravity, potentially due to changes in pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics in microgravity. These changes could also affect the therapeutic effectiveness of drugs in general and PMZ, in particular. In this investigation, we examined bioavailability and associated pharmacokinetics of PMZ in astronauts during and after space flight. Methods. Nine astronauts received, per their preference, PMZ (25 or 50 mg as intramuscular injection, oral tablet, or rectal suppository) on flight day one for the treatment of SMS and subsequently collected saliva samples and completed sleepiness scores for 72 h post dose. Thirty days after the astronauts returned to Earth, they repeated the protocol. Bioavailability and PK parameters were calculated and compared between flight and ground. Results. Maximum concentration (Cmax) was lower and time to reach Cmax (tmax) was longer in flight than on the ground. Area under the curve (AUC), a measure of bioavailability, was lower and biological half-life (t1/2) was longer in flight than on the ground. Conclusion. Results indicate that bioavailability of PMZ is reduced during spaceflight. Number of samples, sampling method, and sampling schedule significantly affected PK parameter estimates.

Boyd, Jason L.↗

Effects of Acute Exposures to Carbon Dioxide upon Cognitive Functions

Carbon dioxide (CO2) originates from human metabolism and typically remains about 10-fold higher in concentration on the International Space Station (ISS) than at the earth's surface. There have been recurring complaints by crew members of episodes of "mental viscosity" adversely affecting their performance, and there is evidence from the ISS that associates CO2 levels with reports of headaches by crewmembers. Consequently, flight rules have been employed to control CO2 below 3 mm Hg, which is well below the existing Spacecraft Maximum Allowable Concentration (SMAC) of 10 mm Hg for 24-hour exposures, and 5.3 mm Hg for exposures of 7 to 180 days. Headaches, while sometime debilitating themselves, are also symptoms that can provide evidence that physiological defense mechanisms have been breached, and there is evidence that CO2 has effects at levels below the threshold for headaches. This concern appears to be substantiated in reports that CO2 at concentrations below 2 mm Hg substantially reduced some cognitive functions that are associated with the ability to make complex decisions in conditions that are characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, and delayed feedback. These are conditions that could be encountered by crews in off-nominal situations or during the first missions beyond low earth orbit. Therefore, we set out to determine if decision-making under volatile, uncertain, confusing and ambiguous circumstances, where feedback is delayed or absent, is correlated with low levels of CO2 during acute exposures (several hours) in crew-like subjects and to determine if additional cognitive domains are sensitive to concentrations of CO2 at, or below, current ISS levels by using a test battery that is currently available onboard ISS. We enrolled 22 volunteers (8 females, 14 males) between the ages of 30-55 (38.8 +/- 7.0) years whose training and professional experience reflect that of the astronaut corps. Subjects were divided among 4 study groups. Exposures occurred in the 20-foot environmental chamber in Bldg 7 at JSC. Each group was exposed to each of four concentrations of CO2 (600, 1200, 2500, and 5000 ppm), and the exposure order was balanced across the groups which were randomly assigned to 4 possible complete exposure orders. Study participants and investigators were blinded to the exposure order. Each exposure lasted 4 hours and occurred on the same day each week for 4 consecutive weeks. Testing included the Strategic Management Simulation (SMS) methodology and the Cognition battery of psychometric measures that are being utilized aboard the ISS. Subjects participated in a familiarization session one week prior to the start of exposure sessions. Each exposure session followed the schedule noted in Figure 1 below. On the morning of each exposure, subjects completed the Cognition battery in a conference room at indoor ambient CO2 levels. Subjects then entered the exposure chamber and were acclimated to the environment for 15 minutes before completing another round of the Cognition battery. After a 20 minute rest, subject completed the approx.80 minute SMS. Subjects were allowed another 20 minute rest period before completing the final Cognition test battery in the exposure chamber. Subjects then returned to the conference room where they completed one final round of Cognition. Data from both testing methodologies are currently being analyzed and will be presented. Study investigators have not yet been unblinded to the coded exposure concentrations, but preliminary results suggest differences.

Ryder, V. E.↗

Design and Development of Responder: a Notification-Acknowledgment Android OS Phone Application

This paper discusses the design and development of the Android phone application Responder and how it assists Flight Operation Team (FOT) members in handling alerts from a Short Message Service (SMS) text message and email based notification system. The FOT needed a simplified and more powerful tool for receiving, storing, and acknowledging notifications sent from the ground systems automated notification software called Attention! (Registered Trademark). The previous system was to rely on a text message application that comes on a phone. This way was slow, inefficient, and did a poor job of keeping FOT members informed on the state of a situation when multiple notifications are being sent out by Attention! (Registered Trademark). Responder is designed to provide easier viewing and acknowledging of multiple messages. It gives the user a quick look at all recently received messages in an organized and clean manner that prevents notifications from being lost during a large burst of messages. It makes it easier to find and review old messages received and Responder was designed to give the user more flexibility in setting up how and what alerts will notify them when they are received by the phone. Since the implementation of Responder the FOT members are more informed and are able to focus more on problem solving the reason a notification was received then trying to keep up with sending cumbersome acknowledgements over text message or email. Responder is only able to receive and send SMS text messages but by using email to text services provided by the cellular carrier it is able to send and receive emails.

notification↗

Spectrometer Scan Mechanism for Encountering Jovian Orbit Trojan Asteroids

This paper describes the design, testing, and lessons learned during the development of the Lucy Ralph (L'Ralph) Scan Mirror System (SMS), composed of the Scan Mirror Mechanism (SMM), Differential Position Sensor System (DPSS) and Mechanism Control Electronics (MCE). The L'Ralph SMS evolved from the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) Beam Steering Mechanism (BSM), so design comparisons will be made. Lucy is scheduled to launch in October 2021, embarking upon a 12-year mission to make close range encounters in 2025 and 2033 with seven Trojan asteroids and one main belt asteroid that are within the Jovian orbit. The L'Ralph instrument is based upon the New Horizons Ralph instrument, which is a panchromatic and color visible imager and infrared spectroscopic mapper that slewed the spacecraft for imaging. The L'Ralph SMM is to provide scanning for imaging to eliminate the need to slew the spacecraft. One purpose of this paper is to gain understanding of the reasoning behind some of the design features as compared with the ATLAS BSM. We will identify similarities and differences between the ATLAS BSM and the L'Ralph SMM that resulted from the latter's unique requirements. Another purpose of this paper is to focus upon "Lessons Learned" that came about during the development of the L'Ralph SMM and its MCE, both mechanism engineering issues and solutions as well as Ground Support Equipment (GSE) issues and solutions that came about during the validation of requirements process. At the time of this writing, the L'Ralph SMM has been flight qualified and delivered to the project.

Blumenstock, Kenneth A.↗

A Model-Based Systems Engineering Evaluation of the Evolution to an In-Time Aviation Safety Management System

In 2018, as result of a recommendation from the National Academies, NASA began to prototype an In-Time Aviation Safety Management System (IASMS). The purpose of the IASMS is to enable innovative aviation operations and greater heterogeneity of the overall National Airspace (NAS) by automating much of the safety monitoring, assessment, and risk and hazard mitigation function present in today’s Safety Management Systems (SMS). NASA has worked together with early industry collaborators to understand how such a system might work and has published several early Concepts of Operation (ConOps) and other technical memoranda that illustrate the primary considerations for selected aviation domains. The shift from an SMS to an IASMS is predicated on several assumptions, including: 1.) automating safety functions will decrease the amount of time necessary for risk and hazard identification and analysis, making it more likely that safety concerns are understood ‘in-time’ to mitigate them, and 2.) an IASMS will allow easier tailoring of safety management processes to the particular risks and hazards inherent to that aviation operation. In this paper, we begin to validate these assumptions through the use of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE).

IASMS↗

Psychophysiological Research Methods to Assess Airline Flight Crew Resilient Performance in High-Fidelity Flight Simulation Scenarios

New concepts in aviation system safety thinking have emerged to consider not only what may go wrong, but also what can be learned when things go right. This approach forms a more comprehensive approach to system safety thinking. A need exists for methods to enable a better understanding of human contributions to aviation safety and how they may inform Safety Management Systems (SMS). A high-fidelity 737-800 simulation study was conducted to study how current type-rated commercial airline flight crews anticipate, monitor, respond to, and learn from expected and unexpected disturbances during line operations. A number of dependent measures were collected that included traditional SMS data types, but also non-traditional safety data to include multiple psychophysiological metrics. This paper describes the psychophysiological measures results that evinced the capability of measures to help identify resilient flight crews. Implications for future research and design of future In-time Aviation Safety Management Systems are discussed.

Psychophysiology↗

Research and Technology Challenges for Human Data Analysts in Future Safety Management Systems

Enabling new and novel concepts of operations for Advanced Air Mobility poses an important need to evolve current safety management systems (SMS) and is posited to be realized through advances in Machine Learning (ML) Data Sciences and Artificial Intelligence. The “In-time Aviation Safety Management System” (IASMS) concept of operations supports the need to evolve today’s SMS to become more tailorable, scalable, and interoperable in response to forecasted changes expected for the future airspace system. Key to IASMS is integration of proactive and predictive ML algorithms trained to provide “in time” detection and mitigation of hazards and emergent risks through new methods and novel data types. IASMS research and technology development includes human factors design considerations for these systems to include human-system teaming, innovations in human interfaces and management of complex digital data information, human-system interaction/model-based system engineering, and verification and validation for data assurance and trust.

Chad L Stephens↗

Psychophysiological Research Methods to Assess Airline Flight Crew Resilient Performance in High-Fidelity Flight Simulation Scenarios

New concepts in aviation system safety thinking have emerged to consider not only what may go wrong, but also what can be learned when things go right. This approach forms a more comprehensive approach to system safety thinking. A need exists for methods to enable a better understanding of human contributions to aviation safety and how they may inform Safety Management Systems (SMS). A high-fidelity 737-800 simulation study was conducted to study how current type-rated commercial airline flight crews anticipate, monitor, respond to, and learn from expected and unexpected disturbances during line operations. A number of dependent measures were collected that included traditional SMS data types, but also non-traditional safety data to include multiple psychophysiological metrics. This paper describes the psychophysiological measures results that evinced the capability of measures to help identify resilient flight crews. Implications for future research and design of future In-time Aviation Safety Management Systems are discussed.

Psychophysiology↗

The Future of Safety Management

As the pace of aviation evolution accelerates, our approach to safety and risk management needs to evolve to cover expanded current day operations as well as participants not traditionally included in the airspace. To assure safety of an increasingly complex aviation system it is essential to leverage new processes and techniques that can more quickly identify and respond to emerging risks. The concept of an In-Time Aviation Safety Management System (IASMS) presents an advanced SMS framework designed to enable integrated safety management and assurance. To assure safety of future aviation operations and technologies, advanced SMS concepts must be designed such that they can evolve to keep pace as aviation continues to change and as new safety and risk management tools and techniques emerge.

safety↗

NASA’s Safety, Reliability, and Mission Assurance Digital Future

The evolution from “document-centric” to “data-centric” and “model-centric” information leveraging structured data and model-based approaches is at the heart of digital engineering transformational efforts underway across industry and government. It is these approaches that pave the way for data lakes, Authoritative Sources of Truth (ASOTs), and systems- of-systems interoperability and the corresponding transformational benefits thereof. Such benefits include increased data availability, data access equity, data traceability, real-time analytics, batch analytics, and (most importantly) acceleration of the time-to-value and time-to-insights associated with engineering products and analyses. The longer-term benefits of reusability, customization and traceability are even more promising. For Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA), and Mission Success (SMS) activities; realization of such benefits is essential to provide engineers and analysts alike vital information when needed to support critical decision making throughout the entire life cycle. The SMA community often operate in parallel with engineering activities, for which information exchange with relevant context is paramount. Far too often, such information lags key decision points and/or is absent of the robust, integrated, knowledge needed, given inherent barriers associated with traditional document-centric means to data sharing, analysis, and reporting. This paper provides an overview of how NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) is evolving its policies, standards, guidance, and training to transform to eliminate such barriers, thus realizing the benefits emerging in this new digital era. A roadmap for achieving this digital future is presented along with key building blocks involving use and implementation of concepts such as: Objectives-Hierarchies, Objective-Driven Requirements, Accepted Standards, Safety and Assurance Cases, data digitization (i.e., ontologies, structured data, and model-centric data), FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, & Reusable) and/or FAIRUST (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable, Understandable, Secure, and Trusted) principles [1]. This paper also describes how OSMA, leveraging the Agency’s overall commitment to Digital Transformation (DT), is using the power of Policy, “Digital” Domain representation, Product Evolution, and Community Outreach and Engagement as part of a strategic vision and roadmap to evolve and transform its SMA organizations to become better able to serve its stakeholders and customers. Future publications will elaborate on these building blocks and deeper concepts.

Authoritative Source of Truth (ASOT),↗

Meteorological satellites

Meteorological satellites characteristics, reviewing Tiros, Itos, Nimbus, ATS, SMS and IGAR programs and vehicles

Denoyer, J. M.↗

SMS/GOES WEFAX users guide

An attempt is made to provide both the WEFAX user and the APT user with the basic equipments necessary to convert present equipment to the new SMS WEFAX frequency. This conversion is simple and, as in all communication systems, can be accomplished by innumerable approaches. The approach used here assumed commercial purchase of components and integration by the user into his system. This conversion requires no modification to existing equipment and is simply an RF conversion from S-band to the present VHF frequencies.

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Automated cloud tracking using precisely aligned digital ATS pictures.

An interactive man-computer system, termed WINDCO, which was developed to measure cloud motions from pictures obtained by the ATS-I and ATS-III satellites, is described. The system will measure motions to at least three knots at moderate cost in a real-time environment. Accuracy could be improved by a factor of 4 by incorporating high-resolution visible SMS data.

Smith, E. A.↗

Pulsed plasma solid propellant microthruster for the synchronous meteorological satellite. Task 4: Engineering model fabrication and test report

Two flight prototype solid propellant pulsed plasma microthruster propulsion systems for the SMS satellite were fabricated, assembled and tested. The propulsion system is a completely self contained system requiring only three electrical inputs to operate: a 29.4 volt power source, a 28 volt enable signal and a 50 millsec long command fire signal that can be applied at any rate from 50 ppm to 110 ppm. The thrust level can be varied over a range 2.2 to 1 at constant impulse bit amplitude. By controlling the duration of the 28 volt enable either steady state thrust or a series of discrete impulse bits can be generated. A new technique of capacitor charging was implemented to reduce high voltage stress on energy storage capacitors.

Guman, W. J.↗

DCS: A global satellite environmental data collection system study

Cost analysis and technical feasibility data are presented on five medium orbiting and six geosynchronous satellite data collection systems with varying degrees of spacecraft and local user terminal complexity. Data are also provided on system approaches, user requirements, and user classes. Systems considered include orbiting ERTS and EOS type satellites and geosynchronous SmS and SEOS type data collectors.

Source record↗

Visible infrared spin-scan radiometer

The visible infrared spin-scal radiometer (VISSR) may be considered as a camera system capable of simultaneously providing both visible and infrared earth and cloud cover pictures every 20 minutes from the geostationary synchronous meteorological satellite (SMS). With a 0.9-kilometer resolution in the visible spectrum and a 9-kilometer resolution in the IR spectrum, the VISSR/SMS SYSTEM makes its possible to study atmospheric dynamics through 24-hour continuous observation of cloud altitudes, patterns, motion, and temperature distributions.

Phenix, J. E.↗

An amplitude-steered, electronically despun antenna for the synchronous meteorological satellite.

Description of the design and performance of a dual-band electronically despun, high-gain, earth-coverage satellite antenna for use on the Synchronous Meteorological Satellite. The SMS satellite is designed to take high-resolution cloud cover pictures from synchronous altitude. Several unique design features are described, including a scheme for steering energy around the array in a continuous fashion to avoid 'phase jumps' caused by sudden energy switches.

Dietrich, F. J.↗

Task four report: Telemetry, command, and data handling

An overview of the telemetry, command, and data handling features of four spacecraft developed under GSFC management is presented. Two of these spacecraft ATS and SMS, are designed for geostationary orbit; the other two OSO and ERTS, are designed for low earth orbits. The program time spans for these spacecraft are as shown. The programs are seen to be near contemporary, especially in the 1973, 1974 period. All of the spacecraft listed were developed under GSFC control and are thus subject to the standards set forth in the Aerospace Data System Standard developed by GSFC. These standards must be adhered to by all spacecraft programs under GSFC control or utilizing STDN unless waivers have been granted. The standards were developed to maximize the utilization of the large amount of standard equipment at each STDN ground facility. The standards impose bounds on both the command and telemetry formats to be compatible with the STDN ground station unless valid and acceptable reasons are raised to deviate from these restraints.

Source record↗