SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “software tool”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,261 records · Page 70

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2013

Development of a Phasor Diagram Creator to Visualize the Piston and Displacer Forces in an Advanced Stirling Convertor

The steady state, nearly sinusoidal behavior of the components in a Free Piston Stirling Engine allows for visualization of the forces in the system using phasor diagrams. Based on Newton's second law, F=ma, any phasor diagrams modeling a given component in a system should close if all of the acting forces have been considered. Since the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG), currently being developed for future NASA deep space missions, is made up of such nearly sinusoidally oscillating components, its phasor diagrams would also be expected to close. A graphical user interface (GUI) has been written in MATLAB by taking user input data, passing it to Sage, a 1-D thermodynamic modeling program used to model the Stirling convertor, running Sage and then automatically plotting the phasor diagrams. Using this software tool, the effect of varying different Sage inputs on the phasor diagrams was determined. The parameters varied were piston amplitude, hot end temperature, cold end temperature, operating frequency, and displacer spring constant. By using these phasor diagrams, better insight can be gained as to why the convertor operates the way that it does.

Saha, Dipanjan↗

NASA NTRS2013

Development of a Phasor Diagram Creator to Visualize the Piston and Displacer Forces in an Advanced Stirling Convertor

The steady-state, nearly sinusoidal behavior of the components in a free-piston Stirling engine allows for visualization of the forces in the system using phasor diagrams. Based on Newton's second law, F = ma, any phasor diagrams modeling a given component in a system should close if all of the acting forces have been considered. Since the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG), currently being developed for future NASA deep space missions, is made up of such nearly sinusoidally oscillating components, its phasor diagrams would also be expected to close. A graphical user interface (GUI) has been written in MATLAB (MathWorks), which takes user input data, passes it to Sage (Gedeon Associates), a one-dimensional thermodynamic modeling program used to model the Stirling convertor, runs Sage, and then automatically plots the phasor diagrams. Using this software tool, the effect of varying different Sage inputs on the phasor diagrams was determined. The parameters varied were piston amplitude, hot-end temperature, cold-end temperature, operating frequency, and displacer spring constant. These phasor diagrams offer useful insight into convertor operation and performance.

Saha, Dipanjan↗

NASA NTRS2015

Lunar Impact Flash Locations from NASA's Lunar Impact Monitoring Program

Meteoroids are small, natural bodies traveling through space, fragments from comets, asteroids, and impact debris from planets. Unlike the Earth, which has an atmosphere that slows, ablates, and disintegrates most meteoroids before they reach the ground, the Moon has little-to-no atmosphere to prevent meteoroids from impacting the lunar surface. Upon impact, the meteoroid's kinetic energy is partitioned into crater excavation, seismic wave production, and the generation of a debris plume. A flash of light associated with the plume is detectable by instruments on Earth. Following the initial observation of a probable Taurid impact flash on the Moon in November 2005,1 the NASA Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO) began a routine monitoring program to observe the Moon for meteoroid impact flashes in early 2006, resulting in the observation of over 330 impacts to date. The main objective of the MEO is to characterize the meteoroid environment for application to spacecraft engineering and operations. The Lunar Impact Monitoring Program provides information about the meteoroid flux in near-Earth space in a size range-tens of grams to a few kilograms-difficult to measure with statistical significance by other means. A bright impact flash detected by the program in March 2013 brought into focus the importance of determining the impact flash location. Prior to this time, the location was estimated to the nearest half-degree by visually comparing the impact imagery to maps of the Moon. Better accuracy was not needed because meteoroid flux calculations did not require high-accuracy impact locations. But such a bright event was thought to have produced a fresh crater detectable from lunar orbit by the NASA spacecraft Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The idea of linking the observation of an impact flash with its crater was an appealing one, as it would validate NASA photometric calculations and crater scaling laws developed from hypervelocity gun testing. This idea was dependent upon LRO finding a fresh impact crater associated with one of the impact flashes recorded by Earth-based instruments, either the bright event of March 2013 or any other in the database of impact observations. To find the crater, LRO needed an accurate area to search. This Technical Memorandum (TM) describes the geolocation technique developed to accurately determine the impact flash location, and by association, the location of the crater, thought to lie directly beneath the brightest portion of the flash. The workflow and software tools used to geolocate the impact flashes are described in detail, along with sources of error and uncertainty and a case study applying the workflow to the bright impact flash in March 2013. Following the successful geolocation of the March 2013 flash, the technique was applied to all impact flashes detected by the MEO between November 7, 2005, and January 3, 2014.

Moser, D. E.↗

NASA NTRS2016

A Generic Modeling Process to Support Functional Fault Model Development

Functional fault models (FFMs) are qualitative representations of a system's failure space that are used to provide a diagnostic of the modeled system. An FFM simulates the failure effect propagation paths within a system between failure modes and observation points. These models contain a significant amount of information about the system including the design, operation and off nominal behavior. The development and verification of the models can be costly in both time and resources. In addition, models depicting similar components can be distinct, both in appearance and function, when created individually, because there are numerous ways of representing the failure space within each component. Generic application of FFMs has the advantages of software code reuse: reduction of time and resources in both development and verification, and a standard set of component models from which future system models can be generated with common appearance and diagnostic performance. This paper outlines the motivation to develop a generic modeling process for FFMs at the component level and the effort to implement that process through modeling conventions and a software tool. The implementation of this generic modeling process within a fault isolation demonstration for NASA's Advanced Ground System Maintenance (AGSM) Integrated Health Management (IHM) project is presented and the impact discussed.

Design Analysis↗

NASA NTRS2016

UAS-NAS Project Demo - Mini HITL Week 2 Stats

The UAS-NAS Project demo will showcase recent research efforts to ensure the interoperability between proposed UAS detect and avoid (DAA) human machine interface requirements (developed within RTCA SC-228) and existing collision avoidance displays. Attendees will be able to view the current state of the art of the DAA pilot traffic, alerting and guidance displays integrated with Traffic advisory and Collision Avoidance (TCAS) II in the UAS-NAS Project's research UAS ground control station (developed in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory). In addition, attendees will have the opportunity to interact with the research UAS ground control station and "fly" encounters, using the DAA and TCAS II displays to avoid simulated aircraft. The display of the advisories will be hosted on a laptop with an external 30" monitor, running the Vigilant Spirit system. DAA advisories will be generated by the JADEM software tool, connected to the system via the LVC Gateway. A repeater of the primary flight display will be shown on a 55" monitor mounted on a stand at the back of the booth to show the pilot interaction to the passersby.

UAS↗

NASA NTRS2015

Operating in "Strange New Worlds" and Measuring Success - Test and Evaluation in Complex Environments

Software tools are being developed by the Autonomy Incubator at NASA's Langley Research Center that will provide an integrated and scalable capability to support research and non-research flight operations across several flight domains, including urban and mixed indoor-outdoor operations. These tools incorporate a full range of data products to support mission planning, approval, flight operations, and post-flight review. The system can support a number of different operational scenarios that can incorporate live and archived data streams for UAS operators, airspace regulators, and other important stakeholders. Example use cases are described that illustrate how the tools will benefit a variety of users in nominal and off-nominal operational scenarios. An overview is presented for the current state of the toolset, including a summary of current demonstrations that have been completed. Details of the final, fully operational capability are also presented, including the interfaces that will be supported to ensure compliance with existing and future airspace operations environments.

Qualls, Garry↗

NASA NTRS2014

Titan Science Return Quantification

Each proposal for a NASA mission concept includes a Science Traceability Matrix (STM), intended to show that what is being proposed would contribute to satisfying one or more of the agency's top-level science goals. But the information traditionally provided cannot be used directly to quantitatively compare anticipated science return. We added numerical elements to NASA's STM and developed a software tool to process the data. We then applied this methodology to evaluate a group of competing concepts for a proposed mission to Saturn's moon, Titan.

Saturn↗

NASA NTRS2014

ULSGEN (Uplink Summary Generator)

Uplink is an important part of spacecraft operations. Ensuring the accuracy of uplink content is essential to mission success. Before commands are radiated to the spacecraft, the command and sequence must be reviewed and verified by various teams. In most cases, this process requires collecting the command data, reviewing the data during a command conference meeting, and providing physical signatures by designated members of various teams to signify approval of the data. If commands or sequences are disapproved for some reason, the whole process must be restarted. Recording data and decision history is important for traceability reasons. Given that many steps and people are involved in this process, an easily accessible software tool for managing the process is vital to reducing human error which could result in uplinking incorrect data to the spacecraft. An uplink summary generator called ULSGEN was developed to assist this uplink content approval process. ULSGEN generates a web-based summary of uplink file content and provides an online review process. Spacecraft operations personnel view this summary as a final check before actual radiation of the uplink data. .

Wang, Y.-F.↗

NASA NTRS2016

Algorithms for Collision Detection Between a Point and a Moving Polygon, with Applications to Aircraft Weather Avoidance

This paper proposes mathematical definitions of functions that can be used to detect future collisions between a point and a moving polygon. The intended application is weather avoidance, where the given point represents an aircraft and bounding polygons are chosen to model regions with bad weather. Other applications could possibly include avoiding other moving obstacles. The motivation for the functions presented here is safety, and therefore they have been proved to be mathematically correct. The functions are being developed for inclusion in NASA's Stratway software tool, which allows low-fidelity air traffic management concepts to be easily prototyped and quickly tested.

Narkawicz, Anthony↗

NASA NTRS2016

AIAA Aviation UAS DAA Demonstration-Mini HITL Week 2 Stats

The UAS-NAS Project demo will showcase recent research efforts to ensure the interoperability between proposed UAS detect and avoid (DAA) human machine interface requirements (developed within RTCA SC-228) and existing collision avoidance displays. Attendees will be able to view the current state of the art of the DAA pilot traffic, alerting and guidance displays integrated with Traffic advisory and Collision Avoidance (TCAS) II in the UAS-NAS Project's research UAS ground control station (developed in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory). In addition, attendees will have the opportunity to interact with the research UAS ground control station and "fly" encounters, using the DAA and TCAS II displays to avoid simulated aircraft. The display of the advisories will be hosted on a laptop with an external 30" monitor, running the Vigilant Spririt system. DAA advisories will be generated by the JADEM software tool, connected to the system via the LVC Gateway. A repeater of the primary flight display will be shown on a 55" tv/monitor mounted on a stand at the back of the booth to show the pilot interaction to the passersby.

UAS↗

NASA NTRS2016

Modeling Relationships Between Flight Crew Demographics and Perceptions of Interval Management

The Interval Management Alternative Clearances (IMAC) human-in-the-loop simulation experiment was conducted to assess interval management system performance and participants' acceptability and workload while performing three interval management clearance types. Twenty-four subject pilots and eight subject controllers flew ten high-density arrival scenarios into Denver International Airport during two weeks of data collection. This analysis examined the possible relationships between subject pilot demographics on reported perceptions of interval management in IMAC. Multiple linear regression models were created with a new software tool to predict subject pilot questionnaire item responses from demographic information. General patterns were noted across models that may indicate flight crew demographics influence perceptions of interval management.

Remy, Benjamin↗

NASA NTRS2016

GC31G-1182: Opennex, a Private-Public Partnership in Support of the National Climate Assessment

The NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) is a collaborative computing platform that has been developed with the objective of bringing scientists together with the software tools, massive global datasets, and supercomputing resources necessary to accelerate research in Earth systems science and global change. NEX is funded as an enabling tool for sustaining the national climate assessment. Over the past five years, researchers have used the NEX platform and produced a number of data sets highly relevant to the National Climate Assessment. These include high-resolution climate projections using different downscaling techniques and trends in historical climate from satellite data. To enable a broader community in exploiting the above datasets, the NEX team partnered with public cloud providers to create the OpenNEX platform. OpenNEX provides ready access to NEX data holdings on a number of public cloud platforms along with pertinent analysis tools and workflows in the form of Machine Images and Docker Containers, lectures and tutorials by experts. We will showcase some of the applications of OpenNEX data and tools by the community on Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and the NEX Sandbox.

datasets↗

NASA NTRS2017

Increasing Crew Autonomy for Long Duration Exploration Missions: Self-Scheduling

Over the last three years, we have been investigating the operational concept of crew self-scheduling as a method of increasing crew autonomy for future exploration missions. Through Playbook, a planning and scheduling software tool, we have incrementally increased the ability for Earth analog mission crews to modify their schedules. Playbook allows the crew to add new activities from scratch, add new activities or groups of activities through a Task List, and reschedule or reassign flexible activities. The crew is also able to identify if plan modifications create violations, i.e., plan constraints not being met. This paper summarizes our observations with qualitative evidence from four NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) analog missions that supported self-scheduling as a feasible operational concept.

crew autonomy↗

NASA NTRS2017

Minerva: User-Centered Science Operations Software Capability for Future Human Exploration

In June of 2016, the Biologic Analog Science Associated with Lava Terrains (BASALT) research project conducted its first field deployment, which we call BASALT-1. BASALT-1 consisted of a science-driven field campaign in a volcanic field in Idaho as a simulated human mission to Mars. Scientists and mission operators were provided a suite of ground software tools that we refer to collectively as Minerva to carry out their work. Minerva provides capabilities for traverse planning and route optimization, timeline generation and display, procedure management, execution monitoring, data archiving, visualization, and search. This paper describes the Minerva architecture, constituent components, use cases, and some preliminary findings from the BASALT-1 campaign.

Deans, Matthew↗

NASA NTRS2017

Minerva: User-Centered Science Operations Software Capability for Future Human Exploration

Deans, Matthew↗

NASA NTRS2017

Dr. Kenneth Plotkins Myriad Contribution to the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations Supersonic Mission

The world as a whole and NASA in particular, owes a large debt of gratitude to Dr. Kenneth Plotkin for his decades of service in the field of sonic boom research and advancement of quiet supersonic transportation. This presentation will highlight the contributions of Dr. Plotkin to a myriad of NASA projects. One of the largest efforts was the assembly and continual improvement of sonic boom propagation software tools, collectively called PCBoom, which allowed the analysis of real and imagined vehicles from Mach cutoff conditions to the hypersonic.

Mach Cutoff↗

NASA NTRS2017

Increasing Crew Autonomy for Long Duration Exploration Missions: Self-Scheduling

planning and scheduling↗

NASA NTRS2017

Medical Data Architecture Capabilities and Design

Mission constraints will challenge the delivery of medical care on a long-term, deep space explorationmission. This type of mission will be restricted in the availability of medical knowledge, skills, procedures and resourcesto prevent, diagnose, and treat in-flight medical events. Challenges to providing medical care are anticipated, includingresource and resupply constraints, delayed communications and no ability for medical evacuation. The Medical DataArchitecture (MDA) project will enable medical care capability in this constrained environment.The first version of thesystem, called Test Bed 1, includes capabilities for automated data collection, data storage and data retrieval to provideinformation to the Crew Medical Officer (CMO). Test Bed 1 seeks to establish a data architecture foundation and developa scalable data management system through modular design and standardized interfaces. In addition, it will demonstrateto stakeholders the potential for an improved, automated, flow of data to and from the medical system over the currentmethods employed on the International Space Station (ISS). It integrates a set of external devices, software andprocesses, and a Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan (SOAP) note commonly used by clinicians. Medical datalike electrocardiogram plots, heart rate, skin temperature, respiration rate, medications taken, and more are collectedfrom devices and stored in the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system, and reported to crew and clinician. Devicesintegrated include the Astroskin biosensor vest and IMED CARDIAX electrocardiogram (ECG) device with INEED MDECG Glove, and the NASA-developed Medical Dose Tracker application.The system is designed to be operated as astandalone system, and can be deployed in a variety of environments, from a laptop to a data center. The system isprimarily composed of open-source software tools, and is designed to be modular, so new capabilities can be added. Thesoftware components and integration methods will be discussed.

Exploration medical system↗