Results for “portable” — Page 72

NASA NTRS2022

Permutations of the Exploration Extra-vehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) for Mission Specific Objectives

The Advanced Portable Life Support System began first with NASA investment during the Constellation Program focused on new technologies that were central to the new architecture but with a consideration for development of the most flexible and adaptable design to address the varied future needs for Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) capability by the agency as part of the exploration of the moon and beyond. Since that time, the Portable Life Support System (PLSS) architecture has been demonstrated at bread-board level, packaged prototype level with Human In-The Loop (HITL) testing, and has now matured into what has become known as the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) PLSS focused on a demonstration on the International Space Station (ISS) and support for initial lunar missions. The xEMU completed Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and the associated Safety Review Panel (SRP) Phase I reviews in 2019-2020 and is progressing through the Design Verification Test (DVT) phase in 2021. As the agency updates planning for lunar both near term, long term, and beyond, there are many possible permutations of the existing architecture that can be accommodated to enable varied mission objectives. This paper will discuss the current baseline DVT design for xEMU as well as potential permutations of the PLSS architecture to accomplish an Apollo style short-duration down and out mission, a long term lunar ultra-lightweight approach, as well as a potential SuitPort accommodating architecture.

Colin Campbell↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Configuration and Projected Capabilities of the Common Habitat Medical Care Facility

The Common Habitat is a large, long-duration habitat being explored as part of a conceptual study (not an active NASA program) that uses an SLS core stage Liquid Oxygen (LOX) tank as its primary structure. It is intended for use on the Moon as part of a permanently occupied outpost, on Mars as part of an outpost that will be occupied for hundreds of days at a time, and in deep space as part of the Deep Space Exploration Vehicle where it will support crewed missions up to 1200 days in duration. A study of internal orientation and crew size resulted in a Common Habitat configuration sized for a crew of eight with a three-deck horizontal orientation. Additional work outside the scope of this paper is developing a vertical translation system, a crew mobility aids system based on wearable gecko-derived grippers, and a crew seating/restraint system. These systems are all assumed for use in conjunction with the Medical Care Facility, which is needed to maintain crew well-being during these missions, where distance from Earth precludes the possibility of evacuation to Earth. This paper describes recent improvements in the Common Habitat Medical Care Facility and associated benefits for crew survivability in long duration missions beyond Earth orbit. These improvements were made with the assistance of a NASA Pathways intern whose experience includes a tour of duty in Afghanistan as an Army combat medic with the 691st GHOST-T, attached to the 1st and 7th US Special Forces Groups as part of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, where he helped provide far-forward surgical capabilities in austere combat environments. The initial baseline Medical Care Facility was developed working in conjunction with University of Houston Space Architecture graduate students. The facility was placed on the upper deck of the Common Habitat in a location that provided privacy, operational volume, and was close to the vertical translation pathway. The notional outfitting repurposed component CAD models from unrelated studies and notionally indicated a level of care roughly equivalent to that aboard the International Space Station. The CAD modeling provided notional stowage volumes, a deployable surface, some fixed equipment, an ultrasound, and a potentially reconfigurable treatment table. While this facility is clearly a competent arrangement, it was desired to leverage available expertise and upgrade the station given the vast distances from Earth to be experienced by the Common Habitat. Key driving requirements applied to the upgrade included to provide Medical Level of Care V, offer enhanced telemedicine capabilities, provide patient physical accommodation, provide caregiver access to the patient from all sides, include sliding pocket doors for access to hygiene and to the Vertical Translation System, and to add any additional capability possible for the best achievable medical care. The first step in the facility upgrade was to quantify the current medical inventory on the International Space Station and ensure that sufficient stowage volume was present for this purpose. To that end, the ISS medical kits were reviewed, and eight full size mid deck lockers were placed in the facility. A number of additional devices were also added, based on the intern’s combat medic experience. Also, two fixed shelves and one horizontal work surface were added to the Medical Care Facility, with the shelves providing storage space for the additional devices and the work surface providing a location for the caregiver to work or stage equipment. Four display monitors were added to the wall above the horizontal work surface, supporting data display, telemedicine, conferencing, or other needs. The existing treatment table was replaced with a mobile surgical stretcher-chair. Two additional doors were added to the Medical Care Facility. One leads directly to the hygiene compartment, allowing it to support medical operations in addition to providing galley/wardroom support. The other door leads directly into the Vertical Translation System. The wall adjacent to the subsystems bay was moved, adding additional volume to the Medical Care Facility. This improved caregiver access to the patient and allowed for a larger number of caregivers to be present. It also provided options for relocation of support equipment relative to the patient as needed. In the upgraded Medical Care Facility, the Surgical Stretcher-Chair and the Vertical Translation System can work together to provide incapacitated crew member transport from a site of injury on any deck of the Common Habitat to the Medical Care Facility. It can also support patient treatment in a variety of positions including a variety of sitting postures and a supine posture at a variety of pitch angles. The facility can also support caregiver office work for review of examination results, private consultation, inventory and maintenance, and a variety of other purposes. A forward activity will be to conduct evaluations of the Medical Care Facility with different medical scenarios. Additionally, ambient and task lighting selections remain as forward work. The eight mid deck lockers can be augmented to use as portable equipment carts, similar to a manner in which maintenance facility stowage was used as portable carts during the NASA Desert Research and Technology Studies in the Constellation Program. Trash accommodation will also need forward work to assess, including provision for wet trash, dry trash, and biological waste. It will be important to assess a redesign of the surgical stretcher-chair. The commercial version used in the upgrade can only enable vertical translation in the seated configuration, requiring the patient to bend both hips and knees. A possible redesign of the chair will allow for vertical translation without requiring any bending at the hip or knees. Also, the commercial version is wheeled, making it mobile in gravity but unanchored in microgravity. Work will be needed to adapt the chair for gravity-independent performance. The hygiene compartment can be redesigned for dual-use medical scrub and galley handwash facility. Pending sufficient volume, it may also be possible to place sanitation equipment in this location to clean medical tools. Finally, most space architectures have never allowed for more than one incapacitated crew member, but several scenarios could potentially injure two or more crew in the same incident. This facility could be assessed to determine its present ability to address two or more injured crew in parallel and determine the potential upper limit for number of treatable crew in a multi-crew injury scenario, or to treat polytrauma of a single patient.

Habitat↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Uncrewed Lunar Surface Operations and Support Activities

Sustained human presence on the surface of the Moon and future missions to Mars require increased independence from surface crews and Earth-based mission control to operate efficiently, safely, and reliably. The time for surface crews to perform tasks will be limited. Extravehicular activities by surface personnel are burdensome and time-consuming, even when a continuous human presence on the surface occurs. Identifying and balancing human/automation roles and tasks and infusing automation and autonomy practices early in a system’s lifecycle will be essential to achieve mission objectives. Among these objectives are attaining a sustained human presence, improving performance and mission effectiveness, reducing operations and maintenance (O&M) costs, and ensuring operations that are robust to communication delays. To achieve these objectives, an operational shift toward increased automation and autonomy with less reliance on humans is needed. Uncrewed lunar surface operations and support activities occur when surface crews are not present or are independent of surface crew timeline activities requiring no surface crew oversight or intervention. These uncrewed surface opportunities can also be planned to minimize crew workload that avoids routine maintenance and support tasks, thus maximizing crew exploration time. Uncrewed preparations such as staging and prepositioning equipment and materials before the crew arrives could improve crew task efficiency. Additional opportunities exist to conduct uncrewed science, exploration, and utilization. Uncrewed surface architecture functions can include science and exploration; habitation; launch and landing support; surface communication and navigation; surface power generation and distribution; human surface mobility; lifting, handling, manipulating; excavation, construction, and site preparation; logistics management; maintenance and repair; surface resource utilization; integrated site operations and shared support services (e.g., site scheduling/prioritization, dust mitigation/contamination control, and surface safety). Early robotic lunar surface campaigns will provide information on the availability of resources, such as oxygen and water, and demonstrate surface-based technologies. After the Artemis III human lunar return mission, a series of landers will deliver surface systems, cargo, supplies, science packages, spare parts, and commodities. A balance of crewed and uncrewed surface operations will enable a sustained lunar surface presence at the South Pole of the Moon at a site that will be known as the Artemis Base Camp (ABC). It is envisioned that base camp operations on and around the Moon will then help prepare for the mission durations and activities needed to support the first human mission to Mars. Before long-duration crew missions to the base camp can occur, the necessary surface infrastructure will be pre-deployed and verified operational. Surface assets will be teleoperated and remotely managed from Earth. Additionally, robotic and short-duration crewed missions to the ABC will ensure the site’s merit to achieve long-term science objectives, availability of usable resources, and that terrain, seasonal variations, and illumination conditions are acceptable. ABC will consist of different areas where specific functions and services are rendered, including: • Launch and Landing Area • Habitation Area • Power Production Area • Resource Areas Launch and Landing Area—The launch and landing area will support associated functions for the arrival and departure of vehicles, such as crewed landing and ascent and uncrewed cargo deliveries and offloading. It will evolve from an unimproved site at the beginning of the exploration campaign to a more sustainable landing and launch area that can support repeated arrivals and departures. Initial uncrewed Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) surface operations may include emplacement of navigation beacons and communication equipment, real-time video and photography of landing/liftoff events, and element repositioning, such as portable utility power (PUP) (applicable for other landed assets at other areas). Site preparations, such as surface leveling, soil compaction, and berm/path construction, may be needed for a more sustainable launch and landing area capable of accommodating vehicles that are increasingly more reusable and reduce the effects of plume surface interactions and ejecta impacts on nearby surface assets. During the ABC missions, cargo and logistics will be delivered to the lunar surface via robotic cargo landers before the crew arrives. These shipments, which can arrive in pressurized logistics carriers, will deliver the logistics necessary to support a crewed mission and include items such as food, water, equipment spares, etc. Providing the capability to retrieve, offload, and transport the logistics closer to the ABC site before the arrival of the crew will increase the overall efficiency of crew operations once they arrive. In the sustained phase of exploration, other supporting services may be needed, such as lander propellant servicing, surface power services, commodity refreshes, and additional inspection, maintenance, and repair capabilities, to sustain a cadence of extended personnel stays and cargo arrivals and departures. Habitation Area—Uncrewed support to surface habitation could involve supporting activation and pre-entry operations of the habitat while the crew is in orbit at the Gateway outpost preparing for a surface landing. Surface Habitat (SH) uncrewed operations may include bringing the cabin environment to a habitable temperature and air mix and activating other critical crew support systems. Potential crop production uncrewed tasks in the SH could also include autonomous watering and tending. Additionally, when the crew departs, the SH enters dormancy for the long period of uncrewed operation. A logistical staging area could also be collocated near the SH. If so, staging operations for crew supplies, waste re-location, and recycling operations may be opportunities for uncrewed operations. Power Production Area—The Fission Surface Power (FSP) element and its supporting distribution equipment provide power to surface elements as needed across the ABC to supplement day-to-day operations and survive lunar nights. Uncrewed support of this power system includes any initial LTV-assisted deployments of cables and other distributed equipment, associated electrical connections, and system testing and activation operations. Robotically performing some inspections, maintenance, or repair tasks on the power distribution equipment could reduce the surface crew workload. Resource Area— Uncrewed resource prospecting, mapping, and characterizing possible resource sites is likely to be time-consuming and represents an opportunity for uncrewed operations between crewed missions. Uncrewed mobile equipment operations will be needed in the extreme environments of permanently shadowed locations where resource extractions occur. As In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) pilot plant operations begin, uncrewed surface support activities with available mobile and portable assets (LTV, PUP, etc.) will better support these operations. Any produced commodities can be stored at a centralized storage location for future use. Also associated with these operations is the use of mobile robotic excavators for resource acquisition and robotic/autonomous regolith processing. The waste tailings generated during excavation and regolith processing would also need to be transported and deposited at a dedicated location. Surface assets will continue operating between crew visits to maintain surface capabilities, conduct lunar surface science, technology demonstrations, and public outreach opportunities. Additionally, certain sustaining tasks that would consume valuable crew time could be performed before crew arrival, or after their departure. This capability may offer more affordable options to construct, activate, test, and maintain a broad set of surface assets. Telerobotically operated human surface mobility systems, such as the LTV and Pressurized Rover (PR), can be utilized for various tasks. Surface environmental conditions pose a distinct challenge for all these activities. Surface illumination and localized shadows are one such factor. Night-survival operations could consist of thermal management, battery pre-charging, and load shedding. Some surface systems may hibernate through the night and then awake and continue nominal operations. Uncrewed mobile assets may use a more adaptive approach to optimize their power and operations; one method is to follow the sunlight. Night-survival operations may be initiated remotely by teleoperation, automated, or accomplished by supervised autonomous operation. The ability to pre-deploy and control remote assets in orbit or on Mars before the arrival of the mission crew is a key capability that can be simulated on the moon. The base camp provides a venue where these advanced operational concepts, technologies, and autonomous methods and techniques, including the incorporation of time delays to simulate Earth-Mars latency can be replicated to help buy down future Mars mission risks. This paper will examine the evolution of uncrewed lunar surface operations and support activities. It will also discuss the lunar surface environmental conditions (thermal, lighting, terrain, topography, communications) along with the challenges they pose on uncrewed surface operations, and the performance of these activities with limited to minimal human interaction and/or teleoperation. Since lunar missions include Mars mission analogs, such investigation provides the framework for future uncrewed Mars mission support.

Mark E Lewis↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Configuration and Projected Capabilities of the Common Habitat Medical Care Facility

The Common Habitat is a large, long-duration habitat being explored as part of a conceptual study (not an active NASA program) that uses an SLS core stage Liquid Oxygen (LOX) tank as its primary structure. It is intended for use on the Moon as part of a permanently occupied outpost, on Mars as part of an outpost that will be occupied for hundreds of days at a time, and in deep space as part of the Deep Space Exploration Vehicle where it will support crewed missions up to 1200 days in duration. A study of internal orientation and crew size resulted in a Common Habitat configuration sized for a crew of eight with a three-deck horizontal orientation. Additional work outside the scope of this paper is developing a vertical translation system, a crew mobility aids system based on wearable gecko-derived grippers, and a crew seating/restraint system. These systems are all assumed for use in conjunction with the Medical Care Facility, which is needed to maintain crew well-being during these missions, where distance from Earth precludes the possibility of evacuation to Earth. This paper describes recent improvements in the Common Habitat Medical Care Facility and associated benefits for crew survivability in long duration missions beyond Earth orbit. These improvements were made with the assistance of a NASA Pathways intern whose experience includes a tour of duty in Afghanistan as an Army combat medic with the 691st GHOST-T, attached to the 1st and 7th US Special Forces Groups as part of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, where he helped provide far-forward surgical capabilities in austere combat environments. The initial baseline Medical Care Facility was developed working in conjunction with University of Houston Space Architecture graduate students. The facility was placed on the upper deck of the Common Habitat in a location that provided privacy, operational volume, and was close to the vertical translation pathway. The notional outfitting repurposed component CAD models from unrelated studies and notionally indicated a level of care roughly equivalent to that aboard the International Space Station. The CAD modeling provided notional stowage volumes, a deployable surface, some fixed equipment, an ultrasound, and a potentially reconfigurable treatment table. While this facility is clearly a competent arrangement, it was desired to leverage available expertise and upgrade the station given the vast distances from Earth to be experienced by the Common Habitat. Key driving requirements applied to the upgrade included to provide NASA’s Medical Level of Care V, offer enhanced telemedicine capabilities, provide patient physical accommodation, provide caregiver access to the patient from all sides, include sliding pocket doors for access to hygiene and to the Vertical Translation System, and to add any additional capability possible for the best achievable medical care. The first step in the facility upgrade was to quantify the current medical inventory on the International Space Station and ensure that sufficient stowage volume was present for this purpose. To that end, the ISS medical kits were reviewed, and eight full size mid deck lockers were placed in the facility. A number of additional devices were also added, based on the co-author’s combat medic experience. Also, two fixed shelves and one horizontal work surface were added to the Medical Care Facility, with the shelves providing storage space for the additional devices and the work surface providing a location for the caregiver to work or stage equipment. Four display monitors were added to the wall above the horizontal work surface, supporting data display, telemedicine, conferencing, or other needs. The existing treatment table was replaced with a mobile surgical stretcher-chair. Two additional doors were added to the Medical Care Facility. One leads directly to the hygiene compartment, allowing it to support medical operations in addition to providing galley/wardroom support. The other door leads directly into the Vertical Translation System. The wall adjacent to the subsystems bay was moved, adding additional volume to the Medical Care Facility. This improved caregiver access to the patient and allowed for a larger number of caregivers to be present. It also provided options for relocation of support equipment relative to the patient as needed. In the upgraded Medical Care Facility, the Surgical Stretcher-Chair and the Vertical Translation System can work together to provide incapacitated crew member transport from a site of injury on any deck of the Common Habitat to the Medical Care Facility. It can also support patient treatment in a variety of positions including a variety of sitting postures and a supine posture at a variety of pitch angles. The facility can also support caregiver office work for review of examination results, private consultation, inventory and maintenance, and a variety of other purposes. A forward activity will be to conduct evaluations of the Medical Care Facility with different medical scenarios. Additionally, ambient and task lighting selections remain as forward work. The eight middeck lockers can be augmented to use as portable equipment carts, similar to a manner in which maintenance facility stowage was used as portable carts during the NASA Desert Research and Technology Studies in the Constellation Program. Trash accommodation will also need forward work to assess, including provision for wet trash, dry trash, and biological waste. It will be important to assess a redesign of the surgical stretcher-chair. The commercial version used in the upgrade can only enable vertical translation in the seated configuration, requiring the patient to bend both hips and knees. A possible redesign of the chair will allow for vertical translation without requiring any bending at the hip or knees. Also, the commercial version is wheeled, making it mobile in gravity but unanchored in microgravity. Work will be needed to adapt the chair for gravity-independent performance. The hygiene compartment can be redesigned to serve both as a medical scrub facility and for galley hand washing. Pending sufficient volume, it may also be possible to place sanitation equipment in this location to clean medical tools. Finally, most space architectures have never allowed for more than one incapacitated crew member, but several scenarios could potentially injure two or more crew in the same incident. This facility could be assessed to determine its present ability to address two or more injured crew in parallel and determine the potential upper limit for number of treatable crew in a multi-crew injury scenario, or to treat polytrauma of a single patient.

Common Habitat↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Recent Advances in Soft Matter Characterization Capabilities Developed at NASA GRC for Lunar Exploration: Differential Dynamic Microscopy to Spectroscopy to Computer Vision

In 1991, famous French scientist Pierre-Gilles de Genes was awarded Nobel prize for his impactful research in soft matter, more specifically polymers. He is defined as the founding father of soft matter. In his Nobel lecture (https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/06/gennes-lecture.pdf ) he described soft matter aka complex fluids as materials with two primary features – (a) complexity and (b) flexibility. The sub-categories of soft matter (e.g.- granular materials, polymers, foams, colloids etc.) are defined on the basis of Pierre-Gilles de Gennes’ definition. At NASA GRC, we are pushing the boundaries for fundamental study of soft matter on Lunar Surface. With regard to Lunar surface science, we are focusing on developing capabilities pertaining to granular materials and bio-soft/active matter to facilitate future efforts in ISRU and bio-ISRU capabilities. In order to achieve fundamental goals of soft matter research within the limitations of Lunar environment, the scientific capabilities need to be small, flexible, modular, off the shelf and the focus needs to be more on developing an interdisciplinary capability that leverages the recent growth in AI/ML and Computer Vision to augment our understanding of fundamental science. This strategy would allow us to reduce our resource requirement during launch, installation, and occupied real estate footprint on Lunar surface In this talk, we will go over 3 different capabilities that we have developed in house and in close collaboration – (a) Differential Dynamic Microscopy (DDM), (b) Portable In-situ Chemical Spectroscopy (PICS) and (c) Computer Vision Enabled Observation. At very high level, Differential Dynamic Microscopy (DDM) allows us to study the structure-property-process relation (microrheology) of bio-soft/active matter using optical microscope and improved image analysis capabilities. PICS uses AI/ML-based advanced signal deconvolution and analysis technique that can work with existing portable spectroscopy tools to perform materials analysis (e.g.- granular materials and bio-soft/active matter) inspection on the go. Finally, computer vision enabled analysis allows us to use simple camera images for 3D reconstruction of experimental process and tracking of objects of interest in an experiment. We expect that this detailed process will allow us reach a thorough understanding of soft matter in Lunar environment. The capabilities developed by us will help to validate and establish fundamental understanding in Lunar environment. This will, in turn, allow us to guide future space exploration missions and expand the knowledge base of the scientific and engineering communities.

Suman Sinha Ray↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Recent Advances in Soft Matter Characterization Capabilities Developed at NASA GRC for Lunar Exploration: Differential Dynamic Microscopy to Spectroscopy to Computer Vision

In 1991, famous French scientist Pierre-Gilles de Genes was awarded Nobel prize for his impactful research in soft matter, more specifically polymers. He is defined as the founding father of soft matter. In his Nobel lecture (https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/06/gennes-lecture.pdf ) he described soft matter aka complex fluids as materials with two primary features – (a) complexity and (b) flexibility. The sub-categories of soft matter (e.g.- granular materials, polymers, foams, colloids etc.) are defined on the basis of Pierre-Gilles de Gennes’ definition. At NASA GRC, we are pushing the boundaries for fundamental study of soft matter on Lunar Surface. With regard to Lunar surface science, we are focusing on developing capabilities pertaining to granular materials and bio-soft/active matter to facilitate future efforts in ISRU and bio-ISRU capabilities. In order to achieve fundamental goals of soft matter research within the limitations of Lunar environment, the scientific capabilities need to be small, flexible, modular, off the shelf and the focus needs to be more on developing an interdisciplinary capability that leverages the recent growth in AI/ML and Computer Vision to augment our understanding of fundamental science. This strategy would allow us to reduce our resource requirement during launch, installation, and occupied real estate footprint on Lunar surface. In this talk, we will go over 3 different capabilities that we have developed in house and in close collaboration – (a) Differential Dynamic Microscopy (DDM), (b) Portable In-situ Chemical Spectroscopy (PICS) and (c) Computer Vision Enabled Observation. At very high level, Differential Dynamic Microscopy (DDM) allows us to study the structure-property-process relation (microrheology) of bio-soft/active matter using optical microscope and improved image analysis capabilities. PICS uses AI/ML-based advanced signal deconvolution and analysis technique that can work with existing portable spectroscopy tools to perform materials analysis (e.g.- granular materials and bio-soft/active matter) inspection on the go. Finally, computer vision enabled analysis allows us to use simple camera images for 3D reconstruction of experimental process and tracking of objects of interest in an experiment. We expect that this detailed process will allow us reach a thorough understanding of soft matter in Lunar environment. The capabilities developed by us will help to validate and establish fundamental understanding in Lunar environment. This will, in turn, allow us to guide future space exploration missions and expand the knowledge base of the scientific and engineering communities.

Suman Sinha-Ray↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Recent Advances in Soft Matter Characterization Capabilities Developed at NASA GRC for Lunar Exploration: Differential Dynamic Microscopy to Spectroscopy to Computer Vision

In 1991, famous French scientist Pierre-Gilles de Genes was awarded Nobel prize for his impactful research in soft matter, more specifically polymers. He is defined as the founding father of soft matter. In his Nobel lecture (https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/06/gennes-lecture.pdf ) he described soft matter aka complex fluids as materials with two primary features – (a) complexity and (b) flexibility. The sub-categories of soft matter (e.g.- granular materials, polymers, foams, colloids etc.) are defined on the basis of Pierre-Gilles de Gennes’ definition. At NASA GRC, we are pushing the boundaries for fundamental study of soft matter on Lunar Surface. With regard to Lunar surface science, we are focusing on developing capabilities pertaining to granular materials and bio-soft/active matter to facilitate future efforts in ISRU and bio-ISRU capabilities. In order to achieve fundamental goals of soft matter research within the limitations of Lunar environment, the scientific capabilities need to be small, flexible, modular, off the shelf and the focus needs to be more on developing an interdisciplinary capability that leverages the recent growth in AI/ML and Computer Vision to augment our understanding of fundamental science. This strategy would allow us to reduce our resource requirement during launch, installation, and occupied real estate footprint on Lunar surface In this talk, we will go over 3 different capabilities that we have developed in house and in close collaboration – (a) Differential Dynamic Microscopy (DDM), (b) Portable In-situ Chemical Spectroscopy (PICS) and (c) Computer Vision Enabled Observation. At very high level, Differential Dynamic Microscopy (DDM) allows us to study the structure-property-process relation (microrheology) of bio-soft/active matter using optical microscope and improved image analysis capabilities. PICS uses AI/ML-based advanced signal deconvolution and analysis technique that can work with existing portable spectroscopy tools to perform materials analysis (e.g.- granular materials and bio-soft/active matter) inspection on the go. Finally, computer vision enabled analysis allows us to use simple camera images for 3D reconstruction of experimental process and tracking of objects of interest in an experiment. We expect that this detailed process will allow us reach a thorough understanding of soft matter in Lunar environment. The capabilities developed by us will help to validate and establish fundamental understanding in Lunar environment. This will, in turn, allow us to guide future space exploration missions and expand the knowledge base of the scientific and engineering communities.

Suman Sinha Ray↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Recent Advances in Soft Matter Characterization Capabilities Developed at NASA GRC

In 1991, famous French scientist Pierre-Gilles de Genes was awarded Nobel prize for his impactful research in soft matter, more specifically polymers. He is defined as the founding father of soft matter. In his Nobel lecture (https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/06/gennes-lecture.pdf ) he described soft matter aka complex fluids as materials with two primary features – (a) complexity and (b) flexibility. The sub-categories of soft matter (e.g.- granular materials, polymers, foams, colloids etc.) are defined on the basis of Pierre-Gilles de Gennes’ definition. At NASA GRC, we are pushing the boundaries for fundamental study of soft matter on Lunar Surface. With regard to Lunar surface science, we are focusing on developing capabilities pertaining to granular materials and bio-soft/active matter to facilitate future efforts in ISRU and bio-ISRU capabilities. In order to achieve fundamental goals of soft matter research within the limitations of Lunar environment, the scientific capabilities need to be small, flexible, modular, off the shelf and the focus needs to be more on developing an interdisciplinary capability that leverages the recent growth in AI/ML and Computer Vision to augment our understanding of fundamental science. This strategy would allow us to reduce our resource requirement during launch, installation, and occupied real estate footprint on Lunar surface In this talk, we will go over 3 different capabilities that we have developed in house and in close collaboration – (a) Differential Dynamic Microscopy (DDM), (b) Portable In-situ Chemical Spectroscopy (PICS) and (c) Computer Vision Enabled Observation. At very high level, Differential Dynamic Microscopy (DDM) allows us to study the structure-property-process relation (microrheology) of bio-soft/active matter using optical microscope and improved image analysis capabilities. PICS uses AI/ML-based advanced signal deconvolution and analysis technique that can work with existing portable spectroscopy tools to perform materials analysis (e.g.- granular materials and bio-soft/active matter) inspection on the go. Finally, computer vision enabled analysis allows us to use simple camera images for 3D reconstruction of experimental process and tracking of objects of interest in an experiment. We expect that this detailed process will allow us reach a thorough understanding of soft matter in Lunar environment. The capabilities developed by us will help to validate and establish fundamental understanding in Lunar environment. This will, in turn, allow us to guide future space exploration missions and expand the knowledge base of the scientific and engineering communities.

Suman Sinha Ray↗

NASA NTRS2024

Runtime Thread-Block Optimization for Custom Multistream CUDA Kernels for the Glenn Research Center Communication Analysis Suite

In preparation of the return of humans to the Moon with the coming Artemis missions, NASA scientists must evaluate proposed landing site locations for terrain and communications viability. The Glenn Research Center Communication Analysis Suite (GCAS) combines sophisticated communication network models with accurate lunar terrain to access sites across the Moon’s south pole. Given the importance of proper site selection to crew safety and mission success, many locations need to be analyzed resulting in a large computational load needing to be performed. To meet the growing project demands, development has begun to improve the runtime efficiency of GCAS with GPU parallelization by way of multi-stream CUDA kernels. One of the most prominent factors in kernel optimization is the proper selection of thread-block dimensions in order to maximize the concurrent operation on the device. Typically, thread-block dimensions are optimized by hand requiring many stages of benchmarking and iteration. Additionally, given the main conditions to optimization are the physical GPU architecture and problem size, these optimal dimensions are non-portable and fragile in their scope. As such, a novel optimization routine was developed to generate the optimal thread-block dimensions during runtime with considerations to hardware specifications and problem size resolving the issues of portability and enabling the function of more dynamic routines.

Aden Bergstresser↗

DOE OSTI2020

INTEGRATION OF FLEX EQUIPMENT AND OPERATOR ACTIONS IN PLANT FORCE-ON-FORCE MODELS WITH DYNAMIC RISK ASSESSMENT

The overall operation and maintenance cost to protect nuclear power plants accounts for approximately 7% of the total cost of power generation, with labor accounting for half of this cost. In the current research, from interaction with utilities and other stakeholders, it was determined that physical security forces account for nearly 20% of the entire workforce at several nuclear power plants. Labor costs continue to rise in the U.S., so any measures to reduce the cost of operating a nuclear power plant will need to include a reduction in labor. The physical security pathway within the DOE’s Light Water Reactor Sustainability program aims to lower the cost of physical security through directed research into modeling and simulation, application of advanced sensors or deployment of advanced weapons. This report presents a modeling and simulation framework for integrating Diverse and Flexible Mitigation Capability (FLEX) portable equipment performance with Force on Force models of a plant’s physical security posture. The generic framework is described in detail, followed by a case study of modeling an adversarial attack aimed at causing a radiological release by sabotaging the plant’s power supply and its ultimate heat sink capabilities at a hypothetical nuclear power plant. Two different FLEX deployment strategies, series and parallel, are modeled with distinct timelines. The results of the adversarial attack modeled in a commercial Force on Force tool are integrated with the FLEX deployment model in INL’s dynamic modeling tool EMRALD. Monte Carlo simulation is used to model the distribution of the timeline in FLEX deployment strategies. The results demonstrate that, even in the extreme case of a successful adversarial attack, deployment of FLEX equipment can result in a significantly high likelihood of preventing radiological release. The modeling and simulation framework integrating FLEX equipment with Force on Force models enables the nuclear power plants to credit FLEX portable equipment in the plant security posture, resulting in an efficient and optimized physical security.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2020

CCAMP: An Integrated Translation and Optimization Framework for OpenACC and OpenMP

Heterogeneous computing and exploration into specialized accelerators are inevitable in current and future supercomputers. Although this diversity of devices is promising for performance, the array of architectures presents programming challenges. High-level programming strategies have emerged to face these challenges, such as the OpenMP offloading model and OpenACC. The varying levels of support for these standards, however, within vendor-specific and open-source tools, as well as the lack of performance portability across devices, have prevented the standards from achieving their goals. To address these shortcomings, we present CCAMP, an OpenMP and OpenACC interoperable framework. CCAMP provides two primary facilities: language translation between the two standards and device-specific directive optimization within each standard. We show that by using the CCAMP framework, programmers can easily transplant non-portable code into new ecosystems for new architectures. Additionally, by using CCAMP device-specific directive optimizations, users can achieve optimized performance across architectures using a single source code.

Lambert, Jacob↗

DOE OSTI2021

Porting CMS Heterogeneous Pixel Reconstruction to Kokkos

Programming for a diverse set of compute accelerators in addition to the CPU is a challenge. Maintaining separate source code for each architecture would require lots of effort, and development of new algorithms would be daunting if it had to be repeated many times. Fortunately there are several portability technologies on the market such as Alpaka, Kokkos, and SYCL. These technologies aim to improve the developer productivity by making it possible to use the same source code for many different architectures. In this paper we use heterogeneous pixel reconstruction code from the CMS experiment at the CERNL LHC as a realistic use case of a GPU-targeting HEP reconstruction software, and report experience from prototyping a portable version of it using Kokkos. The development was done in a standalone program that attempts to model many of the complexities of a HEP data processing framework such as CMSSW. We also compare the achieved event processing throughput to the original CUDA code and a CPU version of it.

Childers, Taylor↗

DOE OSTI2021

High efficiency environmental sampling with rapidly cured peelable coatings

A rapidly curable liquid gel for collecting an analyte from a sampling surface includes a polymer precursor mixture including a monomer and/or an oligomer; and an additive to enhance extraction of the analyte from the sampling surface. A kit for collecting an analyte from a sampling surface may include the rapidly curable liquid gel and a portable device for rapidly curing the gel. The rapidly curable liquid gel is cured to thereby form a peelable sampling film, and the sampling film is removed from the sampling surface, thereby collecting the analyte. In one embodiment, the rapidly curable liquid gel is UV-curable, the polymer precursor mixture further includes a photoinitiator compound, and the portable device includes a UV light source configured to emit UV light of a wavelength range absorbed by the photoinitiator compound.

Henzl, Vladimir↗

DOE OSTI2023

Methods and systems for redox flow battery electrolyte hydration

Methods and systems are provided for transporting and hydrating a redox flow battery system with a portable field hydration system. In one example, the redox flow battery system may be hydrated with the portable field hydration system in a dry state, in the absence of liquids. In this way, a redox flow battery system may be assembled and transported from a battery manufacturing facility to an end-use location off-site while the redox flow battery system is in the dry state, thereby reducing shipping costs, design complexities, as well as logistical and environmental concerns.

Song, Yang↗

DOE OSTI2025

Creating Apptainer Workflows with Docker-Compose-like Utilities

Creating Apptainer Workflows with Docker-Compose-like Utilities In this presentation, I will explore the utilization of a tool called process-compose, inspired by docker-compose, to create Apptainer-based services. This approach allows for easy deployment and management of fully containerized applications on High Performance Computing (HPC) systems without requiring elevated privileges. Benefits to the Ecosystem: By incorporating process-compose and Apptainer, I aim to address several key challenges in the HPC ecosystem: Simplified Workflow Management: Process-compose provides a user-friendly interface for defining and managing complex containerized application services, reducing the setup time and lowering the barrier to entry for new users. Enhanced Portability: Apptainer ensures that containerized applications can run consistently across different HPC environments, promoting greater portability and reducing compatibility issues. Process-compose is also a single binary that does not need to be installed by admin level users. Community Driven Solutions: This approach aligns with the goals of the High Performance Software Foundation (HPSF) to advance community-driven solutions. By sharing our experiences and insights, I hope to foster collaboration and innovation within the HPC community. Increased Productivity: The combination of process-compose and Apptainer streamlines the serve deployment process, allowing researchers and developers to focus more on their scientific work rather than the intricacies of system or service administration. Through this presentation, attendees will gain valuable insights into the practical implementation of containerized workflows on HPC systems, learn about the benefits of using process-compose and Apptainer, and understand how these tools can contribute to a more efficient HPC ecosystem.

97 - MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2021

Porting HEP Parameterized Calorimeter Simulation Code to GPUs

The High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments, such as those at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), traditionally consume large amounts of CPU cycles for detector simulations and data analysis, but rarely use compute accelerators such as GPUs. As the LHC is upgraded to allow for higher luminosity, resulting in much higher data rates, purely relying on CPUs may not provide enough computing power to support the simulation and data analysis needs. As a proof of concept, we investigate the feasibility of porting a HEP parameterized calorimeter simulation code to GPUs. We have chosen to use FastCaloSim, the ATLAS fast parametrized calorimeter simulation. While FastCaloSim is sufficiently fast such that it does not impose a bottleneck in detector simulations overall, significant speed-ups in the processing of large samples can be achieved from GPU parallelization at both the particle (intra-event) and event levels; this is especially beneficial in conditions expected at the high-luminosity LHC, where extremely high per-event particle multiplicities will result from the many simultaneous proton-proton collisions. We report our experience with porting FastCaloSim to NVIDIA GPUs using CUDA. A preliminary Kokkos implementation of FastCaloSim for portability to other parallel architectures is also described.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2023

A tool and a methodology to use macros for abstracting variations in code for different computational demands

Scientific software used on high-performance computing platforms is in a phase of transformation because of the combined increase in the heterogeneity and complexity of models and hardware platforms. Having separate implementations for different platforms can easily lead to combinatorial explosions; therefore, the computational science community has been looking for mechanisms to express code through abstractions that can be specialized for different platforms. Most existing approaches use template meta-programming in C++, and are, therefore language specific. Here, we have developed a tool that uses customized expansion of macros to mimic some of C++ behavior in other languages. It enables unification of any code variants that may be necessary to run efficiently on different target architectures and different computational environments through use of macros with multiple alternative definitions and ability to arbitrate on definition selection for expansion. Combined with two other tools, a custom runtime, and a user specified recipe translator, our custom macroprocessor becomes a part of an overall performance portability solution that does not depend on any specific programming language. We also use macros as code-shorthand that lets code snippets become building blocks that allow variations in control flow to explore performance options. We demonstrate use of macros in Flash-X, a multiphysics multicomponent code with many Fortran legacy components derived from an earlier community code FLASH.

Heterogenous computing↗

DOE OSTI2024

Self-reported health impacts of do-it-yourself air cleaner use in a smoke-impacted community

Smoke exposure from wildfires or residential wood burning for heat is a public health problem for many communities. Do-It-Yourself (DIY) portable air cleaners (PACs) are promoted as affordable alternatives to commercial PACs, but evidence of their effect on health outcomes is limited. Pilot test an evaluation of the effect of DIY PAC usage on self-reported symptoms, and investigate barriers and facilitators of PAC use, among members of a tribal community that routinely experiences elevated concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) from smoke. We conducted studies in Fall 2021 (“wildfire study”; N = 10) and Winter 2022 (“wood stove study”; N = 17). Each study included four sequential one-to-two-week phases: 1) initial, 2) DIY PAC usage ≥8 h/day, 3) commercial PAC usage ≥8 h/day, and 4) air sensor with visual display and optional PAC use. We continuously monitored PAC usage and indoor/outdoor PM 2.5 concentrations in homes. Concluding each phase, we conducted phone surveys about participants’ symptoms, perceptions, and behaviors. We analyzed symptoms associated with PAC usage and conducted an analysis of indoor PM 2.5 concentrations as a mediating pathway using mixed effects multivariate linear regression. We categorized perceptions related to PACs into barriers and facilitators of use. No association was observed between PAC usage and symptoms, and the mediation analysis did not indicate that small observed trends were attributable to changes in indoor PM 2.5 concentrations. Small sample sizes hindered the ability to draw conclusions regarding the presence or absence of causal associations. DIY PAC usage was low; loud operating noise was a barrier to use. This research is novel in studying health effects of DIY PACs during wildfire and wood smoke exposures. Such research is needed to inform public health guidance. Recommendations for future studies on PAC use during smoke exposure include building flexibility of intervention timing into the study design.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗