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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2012

Calysto: Risk Management for Commercial Manned Spaceflight

The Calysto: Risk Management for Commercial Manned Spaceflight study analyzes risk management in large enterprises and how to effectively communicate risks across organizations. The Calysto Risk Management tool developed by NASA's Kennedy Space Center's SharePoint team is used and referenced throughout the study. Calysto is a web-base tool built on Microsoft's SharePoint platform. The risk management process at NASA is examined and incorporated in the study. Using risk management standards from industry and specific organizations at the Kennedy Space Center, three methods of communicating and elevating risk are examined. Each method describes details of the effectiveness and plausibility of using the method in the Calysto Risk Management Tool. At the end of the study suggestions are made for future renditions of Calysto.

Dillaman, Gary↗
NASA NTRS2012

Cryogenic Applications of Commercial Electronic Components

We have developed a range of techniques useful for constructing analog and digital circuits for operation in a liquid Helium environment (4.2K), using commercially available low power components. The challenges encountered in designing cryogenic electronics include finding components that can function usefully in the cold and possess low enough power dissipation so as not to heat the systems they are designed to measure. From design, test, and integration perspectives it is useful for components to operate similarly at room and cryogenic temperatures; however this is not a necessity. Some of the circuits presented here have been used successfully in the MUSTANG and in the GISMO camera to build a complete digital to analog multiplexer (which will be referred to as the Cryogenic Address Driver board). Many of the circuit elements described are of a more general nature rather than specific to the Cryogenic Address Driver board, and were studied as a part of a more comprehensive approach to addressing a larger set of cryogenic electronic needs.

Buchanan, Ernest D.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Cost Model Comparison: A Study of Internally and Commercially Developed Cost Models in Use by NASA

NASA makes use of numerous cost models to accurately estimate the cost of various components of a mission - hardware, software, mission/ground operations - during the different stages of a mission's lifecycle. The purpose of this project was to survey these models and determine in which respects they are similar and in which they are different. The initial survey included a study of the cost drivers for each model, the form of each model (linear/exponential/other CER, range/point output, capable of risk/sensitivity analysis), and for what types of missions and for what phases of a mission lifecycle each model is capable of estimating cost. The models taken into consideration consisted of both those that were developed by NASA and those that were commercially developed: GSECT, NAFCOM, SCAT, QuickCost, PRICE, and SEER. Once the initial survey was completed, the next step in the project was to compare the cost models' capabilities in terms of Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) elements. This final comparison was then portrayed in a visual manner with Venn diagrams. All of the materials produced in the process of this study were then posted on the Ground Segment Team (GST) Wiki.

cost models↗
NASA NTRS2013

Advanced Concept Studies for Supersonic Commercial Transports Entering Service in the 2018 to 2020 Period

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company (LM), working in conjunction with General Electric Global Research (GE GR), Rolls-Royce Liberty Works (RRLW), and Stanford University, herein presents results from the "N+2 Supersonic Validations" contract s initial 22 month phase, addressing the NASA solicitation "Advanced Concept Studies for Supersonic Commercial Transports Entering Service in the 2018 to 2020 Period." This report version adds documentation of an additional three month low boom test task. The key technical objective of this effort was to validate integrated airframe and propulsion technologies and design methodologies. These capabilities aspired to produce a viable supersonic vehicle design with environmental and performance characteristics. Supersonic testing of both airframe and propulsion technologies (including LM3: 97-023 low boom testing and April-June nozzle acoustic testing) verified LM s supersonic low-boom design methodologies and both GE and RRLW's nozzle technologies for future implementation. The N+2 program is aligned with NASA s Supersonic Project and is focused on providing system-level solutions capable of overcoming the environmental and performance/efficiency barriers to practical supersonic flight. NASA proposed "Initial Environmental Targets and Performance Goals for Future Supersonic Civil Aircraft". The LM N+2 studies are built upon LM s prior N+3 100 passenger design studies. The LM N+2 program addresses low boom design and methodology validations with wind tunnel testing, performance and efficiency goals with system level analysis, and low noise validations with two nozzle (GE and RRLW) acoustic tests.

Morgenstern, John↗
NASA NTRS2009

From Bench Top to Market: Growth of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes by Injection CVD Using Fe Organometallics - Production of a Commercial Reactor

Preferential oriented multiwalled carbon nanotubes were prepared by the injection chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method using either cyclopentadienyliron dicarbonyl dimer or cyclooctatetraene iron tricarbonyl as the iron catalyst source. The catalyst precursors were dissolved in toluene as the carrier solvent for the injections. The concentration of the catalyst was found to influence both the growth (i.e., MWNT orientation) of the nanotubes, as well as the amount of iron in the deposited material. As deposited, the multiwalled carbon nanotubes contained as little as 2.8% iron by weight. The material was deposited onto tantalum foil and fused silica substrates. The nanotubes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. This synthetic route provides a simple and scalable method to deposit MWNTs with a low defect density, low metal content and a preferred orientation. Subsequently, a small start-up was founded to commercialize the deposition equipment. The contrast between the research and entrepreneurial environments will be discussed.

Rowsell, J.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Commercial Parts Technology Qualification Processes

Many high-reliability systems, including space systems, use selected commercial parts (including Plastic Encapsulated Microelectronics or PEMs) for unique functionality, small size, low weight, high mechanical shock resistance, and other factors. Predominantly this usage is subjected to certain 100% tests (typically called screens) and certain destructive tests usually (but not always) performed on the flight lot (typically called qualification tests). Frequently used approaches include those documented in EEE-INST-002 and JPL DocID62212 (which are sometimes modified by the particular aerospace space systems manufacturer). In this study, approaches from these documents and several space systems manufacturers are compared to approaches from a launch systems manufacturer (SpaceX), an implantable medical electronics manufacturer (Medtronics), and a high-reliability transport system process (automotive systems). In the conclusions section, these processes are outlined for all of these cases and presented in tabular form. Then some simple comparisons are made. In this introduction section, the PEM technology qualification process is described, as documented in EEE-INST-002 (written by the Goddard Space Flight Center, GSFC), as well as the somewhat modified approach employed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Approaches used at several major NASA contractors are also described

Cooper, Mark S.↗
NASA NTRS2013

NASA's Commercial Crew Program, The Next Step in U.S. Space Transportation

The Commercial Crew Program (CCP) is leading NASA's efforts to develop the next U.S. capability for crew transportation and rescue services to and from the International Space Station (ISS) by the mid-decade timeframe. The outcome of this capability is expected to stimulate and expand the U.S. space transportation industry. NASA is relying on its decades of human space flight experience to certify U.S. crewed vehicles to the ISS and is doing so in a two phase certification approach. NASA Certification will cover all aspects of a crew transportation system, including development, test, evaluation, and verification; program management and control; flight readiness certification; launch, landing, recovery, and mission operations; sustaining engineering and maintenance/upgrades. To ensure NASA crew safety, NASA Certification will validate technical and performance requirements, verify compliance with NASA requirements, validate the crew transportation system operates in appropriate environments, and quantify residual risks.

Mango, Edward J.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Heat Shield Paves the Way for Commercial Space

The Phenolic-Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA) heat shield, a lightweight material designed to withstand high temperatures, was used for the Stardust’s reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX later worked with the inventors at Ames Research Center to outfit PICA on its Dragon capsule, which is now delivering cargo to and from the International Space Station through NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contracts program.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2013

Evaluation of Commercial Off-the-Shelf Sorbents and Catalysts for Control of Ammonia and Carbon Monoxide

Designers of future space vehicles envision simplifying the Atmosphere Revitalization (AR) system by combining the functions of trace contaminant (TC) control and carbon dioxide removal into one swing-bed system. Flow rates and bed sizes of the TC and CO2 systems have historically been very different. There is uncertainty about the ability of trace contaminant sorbents to adsorb adequately in high-flow or short bed length configurations, and to desorb adequately during short vacuum exposures. There is also concern about ambient ammonia levels in the absence of a condensing heat exchanger. In addition, new materials and formulations have become commercially available, formulations never evaluated by NASA for purposes of trace contaminant control. The optimal air revitalization system for future missions may incorporate a swing-bed system for carbon dioxide (CO2) and partial trace contaminant control, with a reduced-size, low-power, targeted trace contaminant system supplying the remaining contaminant removal capability. This paper describes the results of a comparative experimental investigation into materials for trace contaminant control that might be part of such a system. Ammonia sorbents and low temperature carbon monoxide (CO) oxidation catalysts are the foci. The data will be useful to designers of AR systems for future flexible path missions. This is a continuation of work presented in a prior year, with extended test results.

Luna, Bernadette↗
NASA NTRS2012

Radiation Tests of Highly Scaled, High-Density, Commercial, Nonvolatile NAND Flash Memories - Update 2012

The space radiation environment poses a certain risk to all electronic components on Earth-orbiting and planetary mission spacecraft. In recent years, there has been increased interest in the use of high-density, commercial, nonvolatile flash memories in space because of ever-increasing data volumes and strict power requirements. They are used in a wide variety of spacecraft subsystems. At one end of the spectrum, flash memories are used to store small amounts of mission-critical data such as boot code or configuration files and, at the other end, they are used to construct multi-gigabyte data recorders that record mission science data. This report examines single-event effect (SEE) and total ionizing dose (TID) response in single-level cell (SLC) 32-Gb, multi-level cell (MLC) 64-Gb, and Triple-level (TLC) 64-Gb NAND flash memories manufactured by Micron Technology with feature size of 25 nm.

Irom, Farokh↗
NASA NTRS2013

Commercial Non-Dispersive Infrared Spectroscopy Sensors for Sub-Ambient Carbon Dioxide Detection

Carbon dioxide produced through respiration can accumulate rapidly within closed spaces. If not managed, a crew's respiratory rate increases, headaches and hyperventilation occur, vision and hearing are affected, and cognitive abilities decrease. Consequently, development continues on a number of CO2 removal technologies for human spacecraft and spacesuits. Terrestrially, technology development requires precise performance characterization to qualify promising air revitalization equipment. On-orbit, instrumentation is required to identify and eliminate unsafe conditions. This necessitates accurate in situ CO2 detection. Recursive compensation algorithms were developed for sub-ambient detection of CO2 with commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) sensors. In addition, the source of the exponential loss in accuracy is developed theoretically. The basis of the loss can be explained through thermal, Doppler, and Lorentz broadening effects that arise as a result of the temperature, pressure, and composition of the gas mixture under analysis. The objective was to develop a mathematical routine to compensate COTS CO2 sensors relying on NDIR over pressures, temperatures, and compositions far from calibration conditions. The routine relies on a power-law relationship for the pressure dependency of the sensors along with an equivalent pressure to account for the composition dependency. A Newton-Raphson iterative technique solves for actual carbon dioxide concentration based on the reported concentration. Moreover, first principles routines were established to predict mixed-gas spectra based on sensor specifications (e.g., optical path length). The first principles model can be used to parametrically optimize sensors or sensor arrays across a wide variety of pressures/temperatures/ compositions. In this work, heuristic scaling arguments were utilized to develop reasonable compensation techniques. Experimental results confirmed this approach and provided evidence that composition broadening significantly alters spectra when pressure is reduced. Consequently, a recursive compensation technique was developed with the Newton-Raphson method, which was subsequently verified through experimentation.

Swickrath, Michael J.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Commercial off-the-Shelf (COTS) Refractory Material Evaluation

Fondu Fyre (FF) is currently the only refractory material qualified for use in the flame trench at KSC's Shuttle Launch Pads 39A and 39B. However, the material is not used as it was qualified and has undergone increasingly frequent and severe degradation due to the launch blasts. This degradation is costly as well as dangerous for launch infrastructure, crew and vehicle. FF is applied at the pad via the gunnite process, where wetted refractory material is sprayed onto a steel grid mounted on a support structure. The water content in this process can be manually adjusted by operators, causing distinct visual and physical discrepancies among repair areas. Since the application process is unlikely to change for new refractory materials, it is important to understand the effects of water content on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) refractory materials. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of the FF with respect to various water contents as well as heat treatments, to simulate aging and exposure to the blast. Initial results indicated that different water contents and heat treatments result in distinct differences in crushing strength, apparent porosity and bulk density. However, water content became an insignificant factor in both crush strength and porosity when FF was cured to at least 1500 deg. Additionally, inspection of the material's surface microstructure by scanning electron microscopy indicated distinguishable characteristics for different heat treatment levels. Results from this study will help guide future studies on the development and identification of new refractory materials.

Calle, Luz Marina↗
NASA NTRS2014

Using ISERV and Commercial Satellite Imagery to Assess and Monitor Recovery Efforts in Urban Damaged Areas

NASA's Short-term Prediction, Research, and Transition (SPoRT) Center uses a wide array of satellites to monitor and assess the impacts of natural disasters, with support from NASA's Applied Sciences Program. One of the newest sensors SPoRT is utilizing in these activities is the International Space Station (ISS) SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System (ISERV) instrument. ISERV provides a unique view of the areas impacted and will play a big role in monitoring the recovery these areas. High‐resolution commercial satellite data is also used to monitor urban areas that have been impacted by natural disasters. SPoRT is developing techniques to measure the extent of these disasters and to monitor recovery. Several of these techniques include semi‐automatic feature detection and change as well as developing an experimental damage assessment based upon the visible damage observed by the satellites. Furthermore, throughout these activities SPoRT hopes to provide additional data to the NOAA National Weather Service Damage Assessment Toolkit, which will help to supplement those activities being performed in the field.

Bell, Jordan R.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Mars Sample Return Using Commercial Capabilities: Mission Architecture Overview

Mars Sample Return (MSR) is the highest priority science mission for the next decade as recommended by the recent Decadal Survey of Planetary Science. This presentation provides an overview of a feasibility study for a MSR mission in which emerging commercial capabilities are used alongside other sources of mission elements. Goal is to reduce the number of mission systems and launches required to return the samples, with the goal of reducing mission cost.. Major elements required for the MSR mission are described. We report the feasibility of a complete and closed MSR mission design

Red Dragon↗
NASA NTRS2013

Pre-Study Walkthrough with a Commercial Pilot for a Preliminary Single Pilot Operations Experiment

The number of crew members in commercial flights has decreased to two members, down from the five-member crew required 50 years ago. One question of interest is whether the crew should be reduced to one pilot. In order to determine the critical factors involved in safely transitioning to a single pilot, research must examine whether any performance deficits arise with the loss of a crew member. With a concrete understanding of the cognitive and behavioral role of a co-pilot, aeronautical technologies and procedures can be developed that make up for the removal of the second aircrew member. The current project describes a pre-study walkthrough process that can be used to help in the development of scenarios for testing future concepts and technologies for single pilot operations. Qualitative information regarding the tasks performed by the pilots can be extracted with this technique and adapted for future investigations of single pilot operations.

Single Pilot Operations↗
NASA NTRS2008

Design of an Eye Limiting Resolution Visual System Using Commercial-Off-the-Shelf Equipment

A feasibility study was conducted to determine if a flight simulator with an eye-limiting resolution out-the-window (OTW) visual system could be built using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology and used to evaluate the visual performance of Air Force pilots in an operations context. Results of this study demonstrate that an eye limiting OTW visual system can be built using COTS technology. Further, a series of operationally-based tasks linked to clinical vision tests can be used within the synthetic environment to demonstrate a correlation and quantify the level of correlation between vision and operational aviation performance.

visual systems↗
NASA NTRS2014

Radiation Effects of Commercial Resistive Random Access Memories

We present results for the single-event effect response of commercial production-level resistive random access memories. We found that the resistive memory arrays are immune to heavy ion-induced upsets. However, the devices were susceptible to single-event functional interrupts, due to upsets from the control circuits. The intrinsic radiation tolerant nature of resistive memory makes the technology an attractive consideration for future space applications.

Random Access Memory (RAM)↗