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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Digital Prototyping Methods to Enable Product Development Analysis Cycle Compression in Aerospace Systems

Historically, the product development life cycle (spanning from origination of a systems concept to initial delivery or fielding) for large-scale aerospace systems is 10-25 years. Examples of recent programs exhibiting this timeline are the Space Shuttle (13 years), , International Space Station (18 years), NASA Hubble telescope (16 years), USAF F-35 Strike Fighter (22 years), Missile Defense Agency THAAD (21 years), USAF V-22 Osprey (26 years), USAF B-2 Spirt (19 years), US Army RAH-66 Comanche (22 years, cancelled prior to fielding), James Webb Space Telescope (25 years), Space Launch System (10 years). This list illustrates the challenges of developing and fielding a modern integrated multi-disciplinary aerospace system. These development timelines are often preceded by significant research and development programs and followed by multiple increments, blocks, or spirals to reach planned operational capability. In the modern era of aerospace system acquisition, there is significant pressure to reduce system development timelines to meet system objectives and enable competitiveness in the current industry and landscape. Across the aerospace industry, a range of rapid acquisition and prototyping programs are seeking to achieve system development within timelines considerably less than 10 years. Notably, in September of 2019, NASA issued a solicitation for the development and demonstration of a Human Landing System (HLS) to deliver humans to the lunar surface by 2024 (5 years) and for the development and demonstration of a more sustainable HLS by 2026 (7 years). Lengthy product development cycle timelines are a product of multiple factors ranging from programmatic, sociological, technical, and systems engineering issues. New approaches in systems engineering provide new ways to enable these compressed development timelines. These approaches employ expanded application of advanced systems engineering methods and cross-cutting digital tools to accelerate system development, utilizing digital prototyping to connect maturing sub-system or component technologies into system or system-of-systems hardware prototypes. Approaches such as the use of system integrating physics relationships to reduce the number of design analysis cycle iterations and state analysis modeling to reduce necessary software testing (and improving coverage of system execution scenarios) represent steps forward in reducing the engineering time needed to field new systems. In addition to cost, schedule and performance benefits, expanded digital exploration and demonstration reduce risk in live system test and demonstration. This incremental demonstration approach, where digital prototyping and demonstration leads and informs full system test and demonstration, could be more important for space applications because of the increased difficulty of test and demonstration of space systems and architectures. The Advanced Concepts Office (ACO) at Marshall Space Flight Center merges traditional multi-disciplinary concept definition methods with modern, cross-cutting systems engineering concepts to enable iterative design and analysis of space architectures and systems through coordinated, strategic management of human capital, technical processes, and technology. This paper provides an overview of that approach, including recent examples and a strategic path forward to enabling continued reduction of aerospace system product development life cycles.

Michael D Watson↗

NASA NTRS1992

Residual acceleration data on IML-1: Development of a data reduction and dissemination plan

The need to record some measure of the low-gravity environment of an orbiting space vehicle was recognized at an early stage of the U.S. Space Program. Such information was considered important for both the assessment of an astronaut's physical condition during and after space missions and the analysis of the fluid physics, materials processing, and biological sciences experiments run in space. Various measurement systems were developed and flown on space platforms beginning in the early 1970's. Similar in concept to land based seismometers that measure vibrations caused by earthquakes and explosions, accelerometers mounted on orbiting space vehicles measure vibrations in and of the vehicle due to internal and external sources, as well as vibrations in a sensor's relative acceleration with respect to the vehicle to which it is attached. The data collected over the years have helped to alter the perception of gravity on-board a space vehicle from the public's early concept of zero-gravity to the science community's evolution of thought from microgravity to milligravity to g-jitter or vibrational environment. Since the advent of the Shuttle Orbiter Program, especially since the start of Spacelab flights dedicated to scientific investigations, the interest in measuring the low-gravity environment in which experiments are run has increased. This interest led to the development and flight of numerous accelerometer systems dedicated to specific experiments. It also prompted the development of the NASA MSAD-sponsored Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS). The first SAMS units flew in the Spacelab on STS-40 in June 1991 in support of the first Spacelab Life Sciences mission (SLS-1). SAMS is currently manifested to fly on all future Spacelab missions.

Rogers, Melissa J. B.↗

NASA NTRS1983

Historical development of worldwide guided missiles

The development of missiles from early history to present time is put in perspective. The influence of World War II in accelerating the development of guided missiles, particularly through German scientists, is discussed. The dispersion of German scientists to other countries and the coupling of their work with native talent to develop guide missiles is traced. Particular emphasis is placed on the evolution of the missile in the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. Since the Soviets possess what is probably the world's most complete array of dedicated missile system types, their known inventory is reviewed. Some philosophical observations of missile design trends and missile purposes are made as related to the interests of various countries.

Spearman, M. L.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Accelerated stress testing of thin film solar cells: Development of test methods and preliminary results

If thin film cells are to be considered a viable option for terrestrial power generation their reliability attributes will need to be explored and confidence in their stability obtained through accelerated testing. Development of a thin film accelerated test program will be more difficult than was the case for crystalline cells because of the monolithic construction nature of the cells. Specially constructed test samples will need to be fabricated, requiring committment to the concept of accelerated testing by the manufacturers. A new test schedule appropriate to thin film cells will need to be developed which will be different from that used in connection with crystalline cells. Preliminary work has been started to seek thin film schedule variations to two of the simplest tests: unbiased temperature and unbiased temperature humidity. Still to be examined are tests which involve the passage of current during temperature and/or humidity stress, either by biasing in the forward (or reverse) directions or by the application of light during stress. Investigation of these current (voltage) accelerated tests will involve development of methods of reliably contacting the thin conductive films during stress.

Lathrop, J. W.↗

NASA NTRS1992

The new challenge of computational aeroscience

This paper discusses NASA's Computational Aerosciences (CAS) Project of the High Performance Computing and Communications Program (HPCCP). The project is aimed at developing advanced, multidisciplinary simulation capabilities for aerospace vehicle and propulsion system design. It is also aimed at overcoming computational performance barriers by accelerating the development of parallel computer technology. The goals and approach of the CAS Project are described and the challenges to its implementation are addressed. Specific vehicle class simulations to be demonstrated and the principal mutidisciplinary modeling approaches to be emphasized are described. The computational speed and memory requirements for representative multidisciplinary applications are estimated. Finally, the state of parallel computer technology including programming issues and the results of performance measurements are explored.

Bailey, F. R.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Glenn's Strategic Partnerships With HBCUs and OMUs

NASA senior management has identified the need to develop a strategy for increased contracting with the historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other minority universities (OMUs). The benefits to the institutions, by partnering with NASA, include developing their industrial base via NASA-industry partnerships, strong competitive advantage in technology-based research opportunities, and improved research capabilities. NASA gains increased contributed value to the Agency missions and programs as well as potential future recruits from technology-trained students who also constitute a pool for the nation s workforce. This report documents synergistic links between Glenn Research Center research and technology programs and faculty expertise at HBCUs and OMUs. The links are derived, based on Glenn technologies in the various directorates, program offices, and project offices. Such links readily identify universities with faculty members who are knowledgeable or have backgrounds in the listed technologies for possible collaboration. Recommendations are made to use the links as opportunities for Glenn and NASA, as well as industry collaborators, to cultivate stronger partnerships with the universities. It is concluded that Glenn and its partners and collaborators can expect to mutually benefit from leveraging NASA s cutting-edge and challenging research and technologies; industry's high technology development, research and development facilities, system design capabilities and market awareness; and academia s expertise in basic research and relatively low overhead cost. Reduced cost, accelerated technology development, technology transfer, and infrastructure development constitute some of the derived benefits.

Kankam, M. David↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Overview of NASA's Break the Ice Lunar Challenge

The goal of NASA’s Artemis program is to return to the Moon and put in place a sustainable infrastructure that will enable permanent presence on the Moon. In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is critical in making the permanent presence on the Moon possible. One of the most important of these resources is water. On the Moon, water is trapped in icy regolith at the lunar poles, including inside permanently dark and cold craters. Excavating icy regolith and extracting water from it needs development of technologies that can operate reliably in the extreme lunar environmental conditions. Prize competitions are a well-known way of accelerating the development of new technologies and have been successfully used throughout the history. NASA’s Centennial Challenges Program(CCP) has been developing and executing prize competitions for past 15 years. Several of these competitions resulted in breakthrough technologies for in-space and terrestrial applications. In 2019, NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) tasked CCP to develop a challenge to address the technology gaps in the areas of Lunar Excavation, Manufacturing, and Construction. This paper provides the background, status and ongoing plans by CCP in developing “Break the Ice Lunar Challenge”. The challenge is scheduled to open for registration in late 2020. This challenge will enable the development of excavation technologies that can operate in the extreme conditions on the Moon.

centennial challenges↗

NASA NTRS1992

Development of and flight results from the Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS)

This paper describes the development of and flight results from the Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS) flight units used in the Orbiter middeck, Spacelab module and the Orbiter cargo bay. The SAMS units are general purpose microgravity accelerometers designed to support a variety of science experiments with microgravity acceleration measurements. A total of six flight units have been fabricated; four for use in the Orbiter middeck and Spacelab module, and two for use in the Orbiter cargo bay. The design of the units is briefly described. The initial two flights of SAMS units on STS-40 (June 1991) and STS-43 (August 1991) resulted in 371 megabytes and 2.6 gigabytes of data, respectively. Analytical techniques developed to examine this quantity of acceleration data are described and sample plots of analyzed data are illustrated. Future missions for the SAMS units are listed.

Delombard, Richard↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Statistical Practice and Research at NASA

The discipline of statistics has gained recognition within NASA by spurring innovation and efficiency, and it has demonstrated significant impact and value. In aerospace research and development, it accelerates learning, maximizes knowledge, ensures strategic resource investment, and informs rigorous data-driven decisions. In practice, it requires immersive multidisciplinary collaboration to develop solution strategies that integrate statistical methods with subject-matter expertise to address challenging research objectives. This presentation provides an overview of statistical case studies in aeronautics, space exploration, and atmospheric science, and it highlights statistical research motivated by NASA’s challenging applications.

Peter A. Parker↗

NASA NTRS2011

Standards and Specifications for Ground Processing of Space Vehicles: From an Aviation-Based Shuttle Project to Global Application

Proprietary or unique designs and operations are expected early in any industry's development, and often provide a competitive early market advantage. However, there comes a time when a product or industry requires standardization for the whole industry to advance...or survive. For the space industry, that time has come. Here, we will focus on standardization of ground processing for space vehicles and their ground systems. With the retirement of the Space Shuttle, and emergence of a new global space race, affordability and sustainability are more important now than ever. The growing commercialization of the space industry and current global economic environment are driving greater need for efficiencies to save time and money. More RLV's (Reusable Launch Vehicles) are being developed for the gains of reusability not achievable with traditional ELV's (Expendable Launch Vehicles). More crew/passenger vehicles are also being developed. All of this calls for more attention needed for ground processing-repeatedly before launch and after landing/recovery. RLV's should provide more efficiencies than ELV's, as long as MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) is well-planned-even for the unplanned problems. NASA's Space Shuttle is a primary example of an RLV which was supposed to thrive on reusability savings with efficient ground operations, but lessons learned show that costs were (and still are) much greater than expected. International standards and specifications can provide the commonality needed to simplify design and manufacturing as well as to improve safety, quality, maintenance, and operability. There are standards organizations engaged in the space industry, but ground processing is one of the areas least addressed. Challenges are encountered due to various factors often not considered during development. Multiple vehicle elements, sites, customers, and contractors pose various functional and integration difficulties. Resulting technical publication structures and methods are incongruent. Some processing products are still done on paper, some electronic, and many being converted in between. Business systems then are not fully compatible, and paper as well as electronic conversions are time-consuming and costly. NASA and its Shuttle contractors setup rules and systems to handle what has produced over 130 RLV launches, but they have had many challenges. Attempts have been made to apply aviation industry specifications to make the Shuttle more efficient with its ground processing. One efficiency project example was to make a Shuttle Maintenance Manual (SMM) based on the commercial ATA (Air Transport Association of America) Spec 100 for technical publications. This industry standard, along with others, has been a foundation for efficient global MRO of commercial airlines for years. A modified version was also made for some military aircraft. The SMM project found many similarities in Spec 100 which apply to the Shuttle, and room for expansion for space systems/structures not in aircraft. The SMM project team met with the ATA and representatives from NASA's X-33 and X-34 programs to discuss collaboration on a national space standard based on Spec 100. A pilot project was enabled for a subset of Shuttle systems. Full implementation was not yet achieved, X-33 and X-34 were cancelled, and the Shuttles were then designated for retirement. Nonetheless, we can learn from this project how to expand this concept to all space vehicle products. Since then, ATA has joined with ASD (AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe) and AIA (Aerospace Industries Association) to form a much-enhanced and expanded international specification: Sl000D, International Specification for Technical Publications. It includes air, land, and sea vehicles, missiles, support equipment, ordnance, and communications. It is used by a growing number of countries for commercial and government products. Its modular design is supported by a Common Source Dabase (CSDB), and COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) software is available for production of IETP's (Interactive Electronic Technical Publications). A few space industry products in Europe have begun to apply Sl000D already. Also, there are other related standards/specifications which have global implications. We have an opportunity to adapt Sl000D and possibly other standards for use with space vehicles and ground systems. Sl000D has plenty of flexibility to apply to any product needed. To successfully grow the viability of the space industry, all members, commercial and government, will need to engage cooperatively in developing and applying standards to move toward interoperability. If we leverage and combine the best existing space standards and specifications, develop new ones to address known gaps, and adapt the best applicable features from other industries, we can establish an infrastructure to not only accelerate current development, but also build longevity for a more cohesive international space community.

Ingalls, John↗

NASA NTRS1992

Development of and flight results from the Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS)

Described here is the development of and the flight results from the Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS) flight units used in the Orbiter middeck, Spacelab module, and the Orbitercargo bay. The SAMS units are general purpose microgravity accelerometers designed to support a variety of science experiments with microgravity acceleration measurements. A total of six flight units have been fabricated; four for use in the Orbiter middeck and Spacelab module, and two for use in the Orbiter cargo bay. The design of the units is briefly described. The initial two flights of SAMS units on STS-40 (June 1991) and STS-43 (August 1991) resulted in 371 megabytes and 2.6 gigabytes of data respectively. Analytical techniques developed to examine this quantity of acceleration data are described and sample plots of analyzed data are illustrated. Future missions for the SAMS units are listed.

Delombard, Richard↗

NASA NTRS2010

Stiffness and Damping Coefficient Estimation of Compliant Surface Gas Bearings for Oil-Free Turbomachinery

Foil gas bearings are a key technology in many commercial and emerging Oil-Free turbomachinery systems. These bearings are non-linear and have been difficult to analytically model in terms of performance characteristics such as load capacity, power loss, stiffness and damping. Previous investigations led to an empirically derived method, a rule-of-thumb, to estimate load capacity. This method has been a valuable tool in system development. The current paper extends this tool concept to include rules for stiffness and damping coefficient estimation. It is expected that these rules will further accelerate the development and deployment of advanced Oil-Free machines operating on foil gas bearings

DellaCorte, Christopher↗

NASA NTRS2012

Stiffness and Damping Coefficient Estimation of Compliant Surface Gas Bearings for Oil-Free Turbomachinery

Foil gas bearings are a key technology in many commercial and emerging oilfree turbomachinery systems. These bearings are nonlinear and have been difficult to analytically model in terms of performance characteristics such as load capacity, power loss, stiffness, and damping. Previous investigations led to an empirically derived method to estimate load capacity. This method has been a valuable tool in system development. The current work extends this tool concept to include rules for stiffness and damping coefficient estimation. It is expected that these rules will further accelerate the development and deployment of advanced oil-free machines operating on foil gas bearings.

Della-Corte, Christopher↗

NASA NTRS2015

Multilateral Research Opportunities in Ground Analogs

The global economy forces many nations to consider their national investments and make difficult decisions regarding their investment in future exploration. International collaboration provides an opportunity to leverage other nations' investments to meet common goals. The Humans In Space Community shares a common goal to enable safe, reliable, and productive human space exploration within and beyond Low Earth Orbit. Meeting this goal requires efficient use of limited resources and International capabilities. The International Space Station (ISS) is our primary platform to conduct microgravity research targeted at reducing human health and performance risks for exploration missions. Access to ISS resources, however, is becoming more and more constrained and will only be available through 2020 or 2024. NASA's Human Research Program (HRP) is actively pursuing methods to effectively utilize the ISS and appropriate ground analogs to understand and mitigate human health and performance risks prior to embarking on human exploration of deep space destinations. HRP developed a plan to use ground analogs of increasing fidelity to address questions related to exploration missions and is inviting International participation in these planned campaigns. Using established working groups and multilateral panels, the HRP is working with multiple Space Agencies to invite International participation in a series of 30- day missions that HRP will conduct in the US owned and operated Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) during 2016. In addition, the HRP is negotiating access to Antarctic stations (both US and non-US), the German :envihab and Russian NEK facilities. These facilities provide unique capabilities to address critical research questions requiring longer duration simulation or isolation. We are negotiating release of international research opportunities to ensure a multilateral approach to future analog research campaigns, hoping to begin multilateral campaigns in the latter facilities by 2017. Collaborative use of analog facilities and shared investment in the development of spaceflight countermeasures through multilateral campaigns or missions that leverage the global scientific community will focus high quality research and provide sufficient power to accelerate the development of countermeasures and drive sound recommendations for exploration missions. This panel will provide an overview of efforts to encourage and facilitate multilateral collaboration in analog missions or campaigns and describe the facilities currently under consideration to reach the common goal of enabling safe, reliable, and productive human space exploration.

Corbin, Barbara J.↗

NASA NTRS2019

Safe and Optimal Techniques Enabling Recovery, Integrity, and Assurance

There is a trend in the aviation industry to go from federated to integrated computing systems. Combining a number of traditional stand-alone federated systems into an integrated common platform (called Integrated Modular Avionics, IMA) has the benefit of increased power efficiency, reduced support hardware, and reduced cabling. However, changing from federated to integrated has a significant impact on the system architecture and hence the process of how avionic systems are to be analyzed. Traditional approaches to safety analysis become inefficient when functional boundaries can no longer be assumed for failure independence and fault isolation. In this report, we describe a tool that we developed to accelerate the safety engineer's ability to perform safety analysis of IMA systems through modeling, as well as optimize the system engineer's ability to develop a system through architecture synthesis. This work was the result of a three-year research effort called SOTERIA (Safe and Optimal Techniques Enabling Recovery, Integrity, and Assurance). We developed a compositional modeling language that supports rapid development, modification, and evaluation of architectures. The modeling language is structured such that the end-user defines a library of components with information on component reliability, connectivity, and fault propagation logic. The system model is built by instantiating the components from the library, connecting the components, and identifying the top-level faults of interest. Our tool is compositional in that the end-user only needs to define safety aspects at the component level. The tool takes the model and automatically synthesizes both the qualitative and quantitative safety analyses. We go further by allowing users to describe system information such as components to use in an architecture and their connection compatibility and automatically synthesize an architecture that meets the top-level probability target adhering to end-user specified constraints. This capability allows users to rapidly explore a design space..

Siu, Kit Y.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Recent measurements for hadrontherapy and space radiation: nuclear physics

The particles and energies commonly used for hadron therapy overlap the low end of the charge and energy range of greatest interest for space radiation applications, Z=1-26 and approximately 100-1000 MeV/nucleon. It has been known for some time that the nuclear interactions of the incident ions must be taken into account both in treatment planning and in understanding and addressing the effects of galactic cosmic ray ions on humans in space. Until relatively recently, most of the studies of nuclear fragmentation and transport in matter were driven by the interests of the nuclear physics and later, the hadron therapy communities. However, the experimental and theoretical methods and the accelerator facilities developed for use in heavy ion nuclear physics are directly applicable to radiotherapy and space radiation studies. I will briefly review relevant data taken recently at various accelerators, and discuss the implications of the measurements for radiotherapy, radiobiology and space radiation research.

NASA Discipline Radiation Health↗

NASA NTRS2018

C++ Resource Intelligent Compilation for GPU Enabled Applications

We are nearing the limits of Moore's Law with current computing technology. As industries push for more performance from smaller systems, alternate methods of computation such as Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) should be considered. Many of these systems utilize the Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) to give programmers access to individual compute elements of the GPU for general purpose computing tasks. Direct access to the GPU's parallel multi-core architecture enables highly efficient computation and can drastically reduce the time required for complex algorithms or data analysis. Of course not all systems have a CUDA-enabled device to leverage, and so applications must consider optional support for users with these devices. Resource Intelligent Compilation (RIC) addresses this situation by enabling GPU-based acceleration of existing applications without affecting users without GPUs. Resource Intelligent Compilation (RIC) creates C/C++ modules that can be compiled to create a standard CPU version or GPU accelerated version of a program, depending on hardware availability. This is accomplished through a toolbox of programming strategies based on features of the CUDA API. Using this toolbox, existing applications can be modified with ease to support GPU acceleration, and new applications can be generated with just a few simple modifications. All of this culminates in an accelerated application for users with the appropriate hardware, with no performance impact to standard systems. This memorandum presents all the important features involved in supporting and implementing RIC and an example of using RIC to accelerate an existing mathematical model, without removing support for standard users. Through this memorandum, NASA engineers can acquire a set of guidelines to follow for RIC-compliant development, seamlessly accelerating C/C++ applications.

GPU↗

NASA NTRS2001

A Concept for Directly Coupled Pulsed Electromagnetic Acceleration of Plasmas

Plasma jets with high momentum flux density are required for a variety of applications in propulsion research. Methods of producing these plasma jets are being investigated at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The experimental goal in the immediate future is to develop plasma accelerators which are capable of producing plasma jets with momentum flux density represented by velocities up to 200 km/s and ion density up to 10(exp 24) per cu m, with sufficient precision and reproducibility in their properties, and with sufficiently high efficiency. The jets must be sufficiently focused to allow them to be transported over several meters. A plasma accelerator concept is presented that might be able to meet these requirements. It is a self-switching, shaped coaxial pulsed plasma thruster, with focusing of the plasma flow by shaping muzzle current distribution as in plasma focus devices, and by mechanical tapering of the gun walls. Some 2-D MHD modeling in support of the conceptual design will be presented.

Thio, Y.C. Francis↗