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NASA NTRS1993

Industrial Hygiene Laboratory accreditation: The JSC experience

The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) is a society of professionals dedicated to the health and safety of workers and community. With more than 10,000 members, the AIHA is the largest international association serving occupational and environmental health professionals practicing industrial hygiene in private industry, academia, government, labor, and independent organizations. In 1973, AIHA developed a National Industrial Hygiene Laboratory Accreditation Program. The purposes of this program are shown.

Fadner, Dawn E.↗

NASA NTRS2019

Consensus on Aquatic Primary Productivity Field Protocols for Satellite Validation and Model Synthesis

The NASA PACE project, in conjunction with the IOCCG, EUMETSAT, and JAXA, have initiated an Aquatic Primary Productivity working group, with the aim to develop community consensus on multiple methods for measuring aquatic primary productivity used for satellite validation and model synthesis. A workshop to commence the working group efforts was held December 05-07, 2018 at the University Space Research Association headquarters in Columbia, MD U.S.A., bringing together 26 active researchers from 16 institutions. The group discussed the primary differences, nuances, scales, uncertainties, definitions, and best practices for measurements of primary productivity derived from in situ/on-deck/laboratory radio/stable isotope incubations, dissolved oxygen concentrations (from incubations or autonomous platforms such as floats or gliders), oxygen-argon ratios, triple oxygen isotope, natural fluorescence, and FRRF/ETR/kinetic analysis. These discussions highlighted the necessity to move the community forward towards the establishment of climate-quality primary productivity measurements that follow uniform protocols, which is imperative to ensure that existing and future measurements can be compared, assimilated, and their uncertainties determined for model development and validation. The specific deliverable resulting from of this activity will be a protocol document, published in coordination with the IOCCG. This presentation will discuss the findings of the meeting, and address future activities of the working group.

Vandermeulen, Ryan A.↗

NASA NTRS2024

Usage of ChatGPT for Engineering Design and Analysis Tool Development

ChatGPT, a generative AI large language model, has recently captured significant attention in both the computer science community and the broader public domain. It has demonstrated a wide range of capabilities, from answering simple questions to writing fully functional computer code. This study spotlights both the capabilities and limitations of ChatGPT when addressing engineering problems. The model's capacity to generate practical engineering tools is highlighted through an example of a prompt that leads to an interactive plotting tool, enabling the examination of the fluid boundary layer around a fan blade. Subsequently, the paper also uncovers potential pitfalls in ChatGPT’s application, shown through an unsuccessful attempt to use ChatGPT to automate a process in Ansys Workbench through scripting. The research further investigates ChatGPT's proficiency in addressing inquiries and providing explanations about the functionalities of OpenMDAO, an open-source, multidisciplinary design, analysis, and optimization tool developed at NASA Glenn Research Center. Finally, an optimization methodology, developed with ChatGPT’s help, is applied to the structural optimization of a fan blade. The developed optimization method utilizes T-Blade3 for geometry generation, Ansys Mechanical for meshing and finite element analysis, and sci-kit learn’s MLPRegressor method to generate a trained neural network model of the design space. OpenMDAO is then used to find the optimal point within the design space. The outcome is a significant reduction in stress in the optimized model—less than one-fifth of the stress value in the baseline model.

Design↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Usage of ChatGPT for Engineering Design and Analysis Tool Development

Design↗

NASA NTRS2006

Architecting Ourselves: Schema to Facilitate Growth of the International Space Architecture Community

This paper develops a conceptual model, adapted from the way research and development non-profits and universities tend to be organized, that could help amplify the reach and effectiveness of the international space architecture community. The model accommodates current activities and published positions, and increases involvement by allocating accountability for necessary professional and administrative activities. It coordinates messaging and other outreach functions to improve brand management. It increases sustainability by balancing volunteer workload. And it provides an open-ended structure that can be modified gracefully as needs, focus, and context evolve. Over the past 20 years, Space Architecture has attained some early signs of legitimacy as a discipline: an active, global community of practicing and publishing professionals; university degree programs; a draft undergraduate curriculum; and formal committee establishment within multiple professional organizations. However, the nascent field has few outlets for expression in built architecture, which exacerbates other challenges the field is experiencing in adolescence: obtaining recognition and inclusion as a unique contributor by the established aerospace profession; organizing and managing outreach by volunteers; striking a balance between setting admittance or performance credentials and attaining a critical mass of members; and knowing what to do, beyond sharing common interests, to actually increase the market demand for space architecture. This paper develops a conceptual model, adapted from the way research-anddevelopment non-profits and universities tend to be organized, that could help amplify the reach and effectiveness of the international space architecture community. The model accommodates current activities and published positions, and increases involvement by allocating accountability for necessary professional and administrative activities. It coordinates messaging and other outreach functions to improve brand management. It increases sustainability by balancing volunteer workload. And it provides an open-ended structure that can be modified gracefully as needs, focus, and context evolve. This organizational model is offered up for consideration, debate, and toughening by the space architecture community at large.

space architecure↗

NASA NTRS2005

[Editorial on NASA and its Goals]

Innovations in Systems and Software Engineering: A NASA Journal will address research and development issues that will be important to NASA in attaining its exploration goals. The journal will report on prior research and contemplate how it may be practically applied in future missions. It will provide feedback to the community on issues of concern to NASA and on work that NASA and its collaborators are performing to address these issues. It will also provide a forum for researchers to highlight topics that either are, or should be, of interest to NASA. The selection of papers in this our inaugural issue includes some work that has been funded by NASA in the past, and which has already been directly applied to NASA projects and missions, as well as research in areas that NASA has interest in, although the work reported has not been funded by NASA.

Hinchey, Michael G.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Practical Approach to Uncertainty Quantification Using Probability Boxes

To date, while the use of CFD for aerospace vehicle design and development is prevalent, the documentation of uncertainties associated with the simulations are rare. Instead, the current state-of-the-art relies heavily on the experience of the CFD practitioner to estimate the uncertainty associated with their simulations through simple sensitivity studies or subject matter expertise. This practice will have to be replaced with a formal uncertainty quantification (UQ) process if CFD is to play an expanded role in the research and engineering design community, test and evaluation community, and ultimately certification for flight. Accounting for uncertainties in a formal manner is a tedious process. Moreover, the typical CFD practitioner is not likely to be familiar with formal UQ methods. These factors have prevented the adoption of UQ methods in the engineering design and development cycle. This presentation will outline a credible approach to UQ using Probability Boxes that is straightforward to apply, and can readily be automated using existing UQ tool sets such as the DAKOTA packaged developed at Sandia. The added expense incurred when moving away from a deterministic CFD process to a stochastic one that captures uncertainties to enable risk-informed decision making will be discussed, as well as effective ways to reduce the computational costs.

Uncertainty Quantification↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Activities of the NASA Urban Air Mobility Noise Working Group (UNWG)

The NASA-led Urban Air Mobility Noise Working Group was established in 2018 following an exploratory meeting of stakeholders from traditional and emerging aviation sectors across industry, government agencies, academia, and community groups. Its mission is to create and support a diverse community of acoustics experts to identify, discuss, and address noise issues associated with UAM vehicles and their operations. The UNWG is comprised of four subgroups including Tools and Technologies, Ground and Flight Testing, Human Response and Metrics, and Regulation and Policy. In 2020, NASA published the white paper entitled “Urban Air Mobility Noise: Current Practice, Gaps, and Recommendations,” that presents a set of high-level goals and makes recommendations to address gaps in the current practice. This presentation is about recent activities of each of the subgroups to address those recommendations, including work towards establishment of an aeroacoustic test database for model validation, development of a set of measurement guidelines to quantify vehicle acoustic emission, a remotely administered human response study for quantifying annoyance to UAM operations, and status on noise standard, regulation, policy, and community engagement developments.

Urban air mobility↗

NASA NTRS2001

Guidelines for the Selection of Near-Earth Thermal Environment Parameters for Spacecraft Design

Thermal analysis and design of Earth orbiting systems requires specification of three environmental thermal parameters: the direct solar irradiance, Earth's local albedo, and outgoing longwave radiance (OLR). In the early 1990s data sets from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment were analyzed on behalf of the Space Station Program to provide an accurate description of these parameters as a function of averaging time along the orbital path. This information, documented in SSP 30425 and, in more generic form in NASA/TM-4527, enabled the specification of the proper thermal parameters for systems of various thermal response time constants. However, working with the engineering community and SSP-30425 and TM-4527 products over a number of years revealed difficulties in interpretation and application of this material. For this reason it was decided to develop this guidelines document to help resolve these issues of practical application. In the process, the data were extensively reprocessed and a new computer code, the Simple Thermal Environment Model (STEM) was developed to simplify the process of selecting the parameters for input into extreme hot and cold thermal analyses and design specifications. In the process, greatly improved values for the cold case OLR values for high inclination orbits were derived. Thermal parameters for satellites in low, medium, and high inclination low-Earth orbit and with various system thermal time constraints are recommended for analysis of extreme hot and cold conditions. Practical information as to the interpretation and application of the information and an introduction to the STEM are included. Complete documentation for STEM is found in the user's manual, in preparation.

Anderson, B. J.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Extensible Adaptable Simulation Systems: Supporting Multiple Fidelity Simulations in a Common Environment

Common practice in the development of simulation systems is meeting all user requirements within a single instantiation. The Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) presents a unique challenge to establish a simulation environment that meets the needs of a diverse user community while also spanning a multi-mission environment over decades of operation. In response, the JPSS Flight Vehicle Test Suite (FVTS) is architected with an extensible infrastructure that supports the operation of multiple observatory simulations for a single mission and multiple mission within a common system perimeter. For the JPSS-1 satellite, multiple fidelity flight observatory simulations are necessary to support the distinct user communities consisting of the Common Ground System development team, the Common Ground System Integration & Test team, and the Mission Rehearsal Team/Mission Operations Team. These key requirements present several challenges to FVTS development. First, the FVTS must ensure all critical user requirements are satisfied by at least one fidelity instance of the observatory simulation. Second, the FVTS must allow for tailoring of the system instances to function in diverse operational environments from the High-security operations environment at NOAA Satellite Operations Facility (NSOF) to the ground system factory floor. Finally, the FVTS must provide the ability to execute sustaining engineering activities on a subset of the system without impacting system availability to parallel users. The FVTS approach of allowing for multiple fidelity copies of observatory simulations represents a unique concept in simulator capability development and corresponds to the JPSS Ground System goals of establishing a capability that is flexible, extensible, and adaptable.

McLaughlin, Brian J.↗

NASA NTRS2012

NASA Integrated Model Centric Architecture (NIMA) Model Use and Re-Use

This whitepaper accepts the goals, needs and objectives of NASA's Integrated Model-centric Architecture (NIMA); adds experience and expertise from the Constellation program as well as NASA's architecture development efforts; and provides suggested concepts, practices and norms that nurture and enable model use and re-use across programs, projects and other complex endeavors. Key components include the ability to effectively move relevant information through a large community, process patterns that support model reuse and the identification of the necessary meta-information (ex. history, credibility, and provenance) to safely use and re-use that information. In order to successfully Use and Re-Use Models and Simulations we must define and meet key organizational and structural needs: 1. We must understand and acknowledge all the roles and players involved from the initial need identification through to the final product, as well as how they change across the lifecycle. 2. We must create the necessary structural elements to store and share NIMA-enabled information throughout the Program or Project lifecycle. 3. We must create the necessary organizational processes to stand up and execute a NIMA-enabled Program or Project throughout its lifecycle. NASA must meet all three of these needs to successfully use and re-use models. The ability to Reuse Models a key component of NIMA and the capabilities inherent in NIMA are key to accomplishing NASA's space exploration goals. 11

Conroy, Mike↗

NASA NTRS1961

Results of the Second U.S. Manned Suborbital Space Flight, July 21, 1961

This document presents the results of the second United States manned suborbital space flight. The data and flight description presented form a continuation of the information provided at an open conference held under the auspices of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in cooperation with the National Institutes of Health and the National Academy of Sciences, at the U.S. Department of State Auditorium on June 6, 1961. The papers presented herein generally parallel the presentations of the first report and were prepared by the personnel of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in collaboration with personnel from other government agencies, participating industry, and universities. The second successful manned suborbital space flight on July 21, 1961, in which Astronaut Virgil I. Grissom was the pilot was another step in the progressive research, development, and training program leading to the study of man's capabilities in a space environment during manned orbital flight. Data and operational experiences gained from this flight were in agreement with and supplemented the knowledge obtained from the first suborbital flight of May 5, 1961, piloted by Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr. The two recent manned suborbital flights, coupled with the unmanned research and development flights, have provided valuable engineering nd scientific data on which the program can progress. The successful active participation of the pilots, in much the same way as in the development and testing of high performance aircraft, has. greatly increased our confidence in giving man a significant role in future space flight activities. It is the purpose of this report to continue the practice of providing data to the scientific community interested in activities of this nature. Brief descriptions are presented of the Project Mercury spacecraft and flight plan. Papers are provided which parallel the presentations of data published for the first suborbital space flight. Additional information is given relating to the operational aspects of the medical support activities for the two manned suborbital space flights.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1998

Theoretical Calculation and Validation of the Water Vapor Continuum Absorption

The primary objective of this investigation is the development of an improved parameterization of the water vapor continuum absorption through the refinement and validation of our existing theoretical formalism. The chief advantage of our approach is the self-consistent, first principles, basis of the formalism which allows us to predict the frequency, temperature and pressure dependence of the continuum absorption as well as provide insights into the physical mechanisms responsible for the continuum absorption. Moreover, our approach is such that the calculated continuum absorption can be easily incorporated into satellite retrieval algorithms and climate models. Accurate determination of the water vapor continuum is essential for the next generation of retrieval algorithms which propose to use the combined constraints of multispectral measurements such as those under development for EOS data analysis (e.g., retrieval algorithms based on MODIS and AIRS measurements); current Pathfinder activities which seek to use the combined constraints of infrared and microwave (e.g., HIRS and MSU) measurements to improve temperature and water profile retrievals, and field campaigns which seek to reconcile spectrally-resolved and broad-band measurements such as those obtained as part of FIRE. Current widely used continuum treatments have been shown to produce spectrally dependent errors, with the magnitude of the error dependent on temperature and abundance which produces errors with a seasonal and latitude dependence. Translated into flux, current water vapor continuum parameterizations produce flux errors of order 10 W/sq m, which compared to the 4 W/sq m magnitude of the greenhouse gas forcing and the 1-2 W/sq m estimated aerosol forcing is certainly climatologically significant and unacceptably large. While it is possible to tune the empirical formalisms, the paucity of laboratory measurements, especially at temperatures of interest for atmospheric applications, preclude tuning, the empirical continuum models over the full spectral range of interest for remote sensing and climate applications. Thus, we propose to further develop and refine our existing, far-wing formalism to provide an improved treatment applicable from the near-infrared through the microwave. Based on the results of this investigation, we will provide to the remote sensing/climate modeling community a practical and accurate tabulation of the continuum absorption covering the near-infrared through the microwave region of the spectrum for the range of temperatures and pressures of interest for atmospheric applications.

Ma, Qiancheng↗

NASA NTRS1998

Theoretical Calculation and Validation of the Water Vapor Continuum Absorption

The primary objective of this investigation is the development of an improved parameterization of the water vapor continuum absorption through the refinement and validation of our existing theoretical formalism. The chief advantage of our approach is the self-consistent, first principles, basis of the formalism which allows us to predict the frequency, temperature and pressure dependence of the continuum absorption as well as provide insights into the physical mechanisms responsible for the continuum absorption. Moreover, our approach is such that the calculated continuum absorption can be easily incorporated into satellite retrieval algorithms and climate models. Accurate determination of the water vapor continuum is essential for the next generation of retrieval algorithms which propose to use the combined constraints of multi-spectral measurements such as those under development for EOS data analysis (e.g., retrieval algorithms based on MODIS and AIRS measurements); current Pathfinder activities which seek to use the combined constraints of infrared and microwave (e.g., HIRS and MSU) measurements to improve temperature and water profile retrievals, and field campaigns which seek to reconcile spectrally-resolved and broad-band measurements such as those obtained as part of FIRE. Current widely used continuum treatments have been shown to produce spectrally dependent errors, with the magnitude of the error dependent on temperature and abundance which produces errors with a seasonal and latitude dependence. Translated into flux, current water vapor continuum parameterizations produce flux errors of order 10 W/ml, which compared to the 4 W/m' magnitude of the greenhouse gas forcing and the 1-2 W/m' estimated aerosol forcing is certainly climatologically significant and unacceptably large. While it is possible to tune the empirical formalisms, the paucity of laboratory measurements, especially at temperatures of interest for atmospheric applications, preclude tuning the empirical continuum models over the full spectral range of interest for remote sensing and climate applications. Thus, we propose to further develop and refine our existing far-wing formalism to provide an improved treatment applicable from the near-infrared through the microwave. Based on the results of this investigation, we will provide to the remote sensing/climate modeling community a practical and accurate tabulation of the continuum absorption covering the near-infrared through the microwave region of the spectrum for the range of temperatures and pressures of interest for atmospheric applications.

Ma, Qiancheng↗

NASA NTRS2006

Systems Engineering and Integration for Technology Programs

The Architecture, Habitability & Integration group (AH&I) is a system engineering and integration test team within the NASA Crew and Thermal Systems Division (CTSD) at Johnson Space Center. AH&I identifies and resolves system-level integration issues within the research and technology development community. The timely resolution of these integration issues is fundamental to the development of human system requirements and exploration capability. The integration of the many individual components necessary to construct an artificial environment is difficult. The necessary interactions between individual components and systems must be approached in a piece-wise fashion to achieve repeatable results. A formal systems engineering (SE) approach to define, develop, and integrate quality systems within the life support community has been developed. This approach will allow a Research & Technology Program to systematically approach the development, management, and quality of technology deliverables to the various exploration missions. A tiered system engineering structure has been proposed to implement best systems engineering practices across all development levels from basic research to working assemblies. These practices will be implemented through a management plan across all applicable programs, projects, elements and teams. While many of the engineering practices are common to other industries, the implementation is specific to technology development. An accounting of the systems engineering management philosophy will be discussed and the associated programmatic processes will be presented.

Kennedy, Kruss J.↗

NASA NTRS2017

The NASA Ames Life Sciences Data Archive: Biobanking for the Final Frontier

The NASA Ames Institutional Scientific Collection involves the Ames Life Sciences Data Archive (ALSDA) and a biospecimen repository, which are responsible for archiving information and non-human biospecimens collected from spaceflight and matching ground control experiments. The ALSDA also manages a biospecimen sharing program, performs curation and long-term storage operations, and facilitates distribution of biospecimens for research purposes via a public website (https:lsda.jsc.nasa.gov). As part of our best practices, a tissue viability testing plan has been developed for the repository, which will assess the quality of samples subjected to long-term storage. We expect that the test results will confirm usability of the samples, enable broader science community interest, and verify operational efficiency of the archives. This work will also support NASA open science initiatives and guides development of NASA directives and policy for curation of biological collections.

Biobank↗

NASA NTRS2021

Single-Turnover Variable Chlorophyll Fluorescence as a Tool for Assessing Phytoplankton Photosynthesis and Primary Productivity: Opportunities, Caveats and Recommendations

Phytoplankton photosynthetic physiology can be investigated through single-turnover variable chlorophyll fluorescence (ST-ChlF) approaches, which carry unique potential to autonomously collect data at high spatial and temporal resolution. Over the past decades, significant progress has been made in the development and application of ST-ChlF methods in aquatic ecosystems, and in the interpretation of the resulting observations. At the same time, however, an increasing number of sensor types, sampling protocols, and data processing algorithms have created confusion and uncertainty among potential users, with a growing divergence of practice among different research groups. In this review, we assist the existing and upcoming user community by providing an overview of current approaches and consensus recommendations for the use of ST-ChlF measurements to examine in-situ phytoplankton productivity and photo-physiology. We argue that a consistency of practice and adherence to basic operational and quality control standards is critical to ensuring data inter-comparability. Large datasets of inter-comparable and globally coherent ST-ChlF observations hold the potential to reveal large-scale patterns and trends in phytoplankton photo-physiology, photosynthetic rates and bottom-up controls on primary productivity. As such, they hold great potential to provide invaluable physiological observations on the scales relevant for the development and validation of ecosystem models and remote sensing algorithms.

variable chlorophyll fluorescence↗

NASA NTRS2000

NASA/University JOint VEnture (JOVE) Program. VIXEN(tm): Object-Oriented, Technology-Adaptive, Virtual Information Exchange Environment

Vixen is a collection of enabling technologies for uninhibited distributed object computing. In the Spring of 1995 when Vixen was proposed, it was an innovative idea very much ahead of its time. But today the technologies proposed in Vixen have become standard technologies for Enterprise Computing. Sun Microsystems J2EE/EJB specifications, among others, are independently proposed technologies of the Vixen type. I have brought Vixen completely under the J2EE standard in order to maximize interoperability and compatibility with other computing industry efforts. Vixen and the Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) Server technologies are now practically identical; OIL, another Vixen technology, and the Java Messaging System (JMS) are practically identical; and so on. There is no longer anything novel or patentable in the Vixen work performed under this grant. The above discussion, notwithstanding, my independent development of Vixen has significantly helped me, my university, my students and the local community. The undergraduate students who worked with me in developing Vixen have enhanced their expertise in what has become the cutting edge technology of their industry and are therefore well positioned for lucrative employment opportunities in the industry. My academic department has gained a new course: "Multi-media System Development", which provides a highly desirable expertise to our students for employment in any enterprise today. The many Outreach Programs that I conducted during this grant period have exposed local Middle School students to the contributions that NASA is making in our society as well as awakened desires in many such students for careers in Science and Technology. I have applied Vixen to the development of two software packages: (a) JAS: Joshua Application Server - which allows a user to configure an EJB Server to serve a J2EE compliant application over the world wide web; (b) PCM: Professor Course Manager: a J2EE compliant application for configuring a course for distance learning. These types of applications are, however, generally available in the industry today.

Anyiwo, Joshua C.↗