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DOE BSSD Performance Management Metrics Report Q1

Microbes play key roles in our biosphere, from driving global nutrient cycling to impacting plant, animal and human health and disease. Complex data from microbial genomes, proteins, and metabolites provide a window into these tiny engines that drive life on our planet. Yet these data are dispersed among researchers’ laboratories and various repositories, making it difficult to access. This calls for new ways of managing data, improving data interoperability, advancing community standards, and creating an infrastructure where data are shared efficiently. We have built the National Microbiome Data Collaborative (NMDC) to advance how scientists create, use, and reuse data to redefine the way we understand and harness the power of microbes. The vision of the National Microbiome Data Collaborative (NMDC) is to drive a microbiome data sharing network connecting data, people, and ideas to advance microbiome innovation and discovery. The NMDC was launched in 2019 and brought together DOE National Laboratories to collaborate across resources, capabilities, and expertise. The NMDC team was strategically assembled to include software developers, microbial researchers, metadata experts, and multi-omics specialists. The diversity of the NMDC team reflects the inherently interdisciplinary nature of microbiome science, and we leverage the strengths of the DOE National Laboratory system. Towards BER’s goal of advancing an iterative systems biology approach to the understanding of microbial genomes, the NMDC serves as a foundation for infrastructure, data standards, and community building. Together with the flagship DOE User Facilities, the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), we are developing core capabilities in metadata standards for environmental descriptors and sample handling and processing; standardized bioinformatic workflows; an interface for data search and access; and robust community engagement activities. The NMDC production platform supports long-term data infrastructure and community building for BER’s bioenergy and environmental research goals. Our approach leverages lessons learned and an ambitious framework for collaborative, interdisciplinary data infrastructure to support microbiome research. The NMDC supports data, information, and knowledge access through three defined software tools – the Submission Portal, NMDC EDGE, and the Data Portal – driven by community needs. Herein, we describe the value proposition for the microbiome research community, our overarching strategy, and challenges and opportunities for developing the NMDC as both an infrastructure and community engagement program.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

EOS Laser Atmosphere Wind Sounder (LAWS) investigation

The related activities of the contract are outlined for the first year. These include: (1) attend team member meetings; (2) support EOS Project with science related activities; (3) prepare and Execution Phase plan; and (4) support LAWS and EOSDIS related work. Attached to the report is an appendix, 'LAWS Algorithm Development and Evaluation Laboratory (LADEL)'. Also attached is a copy of a proposal to the NASA EOS for 'LAWS Sampling Strategies and Wind Computation Algorithms -- Storm-Top Divergence Studies. Volume I: Investigation and Technical Plan, Data Plan, Computer Facilities Plan, Management Plan.'

Emmitt, George D.↗

Preparation of Flight Operations and IWS Integration of the CELIAS Experiment on the SOHO Spacecraft

During this annual progress report time period, the following activities took place: (1) Generation of several versions of the CELIAS (STOF/SEM/CTOF/MTOF/DPU) commissioning timeline for the first 180 days after launch. These were written and submitted by A. Galvin after consultation (phone, fax, e-mail, meetings) with the CELIAS Instrument Manager and Lead-Co-I's. (2) Identification of several problems with the CELIAS portion of the Project Data Base (PDB). (3) Meetings with the Flight Operations Team regarding PDB, critical commands, etc. (4) Attend Science Operations Working Group (SOWG) Meetings (November 1994, February 1995, May 1995) and Flight Operations Review Meeting (July 1995). (5) Participate in Flight Operation Simulations SIM 1 (November 14-18, 1994), SIM 2 (May 1-4, 1995) and SIM3 (August 7-11, 1995). (6) Participate in the Ground System Compatibility Test Rehearsal (April 24- 28, 1995), GSCT #2 (May 30-June 14, 1995), GSCT #3 (September 12-22, 1995), and GSCT #4b (October 30-November 5, 1995). A small portion of the documentation for the above cited activities is appended.

Ipavich, Fred↗

Radiation Effects: Core Project

The risks to personnel in space from the naturally occurring radiations are generally considered to be one of the most serious limitations to human space missions, as noted in two recent reports of the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences. The Core Project of the Radiation Effects Team for the National Space Biomedical Research Institute is the consequences of radiations in space in order to develop countermeasure, both physical and pharmaceutical, to reduce the risks of cancer and other diseases associated with such exposures. During interplanetary missions, personnel in space will be exposed to galactic cosmic rays, including high-energy protons and energetic ions with atomic masses of iron or higher. In addition, solar events will produce radiation fields of high intensity for short but irregular durations. The level of intensity of these radiations is considerably higher than that on Earth's surface, and the biological risks to astronauts is consequently increased, including increased risks of carcinogenesis and other diseases. This group is examining the risk of cancers resulting from low-dose, low-dose rate exposures of model systems to photons, protons, and iron by using ground-based accelerators which are capable of producing beams of protons, iron, and other heavy ions at energies comparable to those encountered in space. They have begun the first series of experiments using a 1-GeV iron beam at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and 250-MeV protons at Loma Linda University Medical Center's proton synchrotron facility. As part of these studies, this group will be investigating the potential for the pharmaceutical, Tamoxifen, to reduce the risk of breast cancer in astronauts exposed to the level of doses and particle types expected in space. Theoretical studies are being carried out in a collaboration between scientists at NASA's Johnson Space Center and Johns Hopkins University in parallel with the experimental program have provided methods and predictions which are being used to assess the levels of risks to be encountered and to evaluate appropriate strategies for countermeasures. Although the work in this project is primarily directed toward problems associated with space travel, the problem of protracted exposures to low-levels of radiation is one of national interest in our energy and defense programs, and the results may suggest new paradigms for addressing such risks.

Dicello, John F.↗

Promoting Real-Time Science in the Classroom using Wireless PDA Technology

The year is 2004, NASA has landed and deployed a fleet of rovers on the surface of Mars to continue the exploration of that planet and prepare the way for human visitors. Middle school students at Milton Elementary have been following the mission through the media and Internet as part of Mr. Johnson's Earth and space sciences class. The kids have been working in teams to track the rovers as they move across the surface of Mars on a scale model of the landing site they built from sand and rocks using pictures and video downloaded from the Internet. They also built their own version of a rover that can be driven around the model. The time is 3:36pm. Jim and a couple of his fellow students from class are sitting in the cafeteria waiting for a student council meeting to begin. Mary and several others are on the bus riding home. Kathy is in her father's car waiting to leave the parking lot. On Mars, Rover-3 has just stopped and issued an alert to ground control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Back at Milton Elementary chimes can be heard going off in the cafeteria, on the school bus, and in Kathy's car. The students are familiar with the drill and each brings up the Mars mission status display on their hand-held PDA device. They've been using their PDAs (those Palm devices that seem to be everywhere today) to obtain real-time position information for each of the rovers throughout the mission. The mission status display tells them that Rover-3 has stopped on the edge of a small gully and isn't quite sure what to do. The students begin considering the options amongst themselves. Should the rover just drive through the gully? If it does, what happens if it gets stuck? Maybe it should turnaround and look for away around the gully? Trough questions. Real questions. Real problems. The students know they will need to be prepared to discuss the options and conduct their own simulations using the models they built in Mr. Johnson's class tomorrow. Much the same way engineers and scientists will be working to solve the problem at NASA. It's a couple of days later, NASA has made a decision on what to do and has issued new commands for Rover-3 to execute at 9:15am Milton Elementary time. Interestingly, NASA's solution to the problem differs from the one favored by the students. 9:16am, chimes can be heard going off throughout Milton Elementary.

Matusow, David↗

Neptune Aerocapture Systems Analysis

A Neptune Aerocapture Systems Analysis is completed to determine the feasibility, benefit and risk of an aeroshell aerocapture system for Neptune and to identify technology gaps and technology performance goals. The high fidelity systems analysis is completed by a five center NASA team and includes the following disciplines and analyses: science; mission design; aeroshell configuration screening and definition; interplanetary navigation analyses; atmosphere modeling; computational fluid dynamics for aerodynamic performance and database definition; initial stability analyses; guidance development; atmospheric flight simulation; computational fluid dynamics and radiation analyses for aeroheating environment definition; thermal protection system design, concepts and sizing; mass properties; structures; spacecraft design and packaging; and mass sensitivities. Results show that aerocapture can deliver 1.4 times more mass to Neptune orbit than an all-propulsive system for the same launch vehicle. In addition aerocapture results in a 3-4 year reduction in trip time compared to all-propulsive systems. Aerocapture is feasible and performance is adequate for the Neptune aerocapture mission. Monte Carlo simulation results show 100% successful capture for all cases including conservative assumptions on atmosphere and navigation. Enabling technologies for this mission include TPS manufacturing; and aerothermodynamic methods and validation for determining coupled 3-D convection, radiation and ablation aeroheating rates and loads, and the effects on surface recession.

Lockwood, Mary Kae↗

Utilization of the Space Vision System as an Augmented Reality System For Mission Operations

Augmented reality is a technique whereby computer generated images are superimposed on live images for visual enhancement. Augmented reality can also be characterized as dynamic overlays when computer generated images are registered with moving objects in a live image. This technique has been successfully implemented, with low to medium levels of registration precision, in an NRA funded project entitled, "Improving Human Task Performance with Luminance Images and Dynamic Overlays". Future research is already being planned to also utilize a laboratory-based system where more extensive subject testing can be performed. However successful this might be, the problem will still be whether such a technology can be used with flight hardware. To answer this question, the Canadian Space Vision System (SVS) will be tested as an augmented reality system capable of improving human performance where the operation requires indirect viewing. This system has already been certified for flight and is currently flown on each shuttle mission for station assembly. Successful development and utilization of this system in a ground-based experiment will expand its utilization for on-orbit mission operations. Current research and development regarding the use of augmented reality technology is being simulated using ground-based equipment. This is an appropriate approach for development of symbology (graphics and annotation) optimal for human performance and for development of optimal image registration techniques. It is anticipated that this technology will become more pervasive as it matures. Because we know what and where almost everything is on ISS, this reduces the registration problem and improves the computer model of that reality, making augmented reality an attractive tool, provided we know how to use it. This is the basis for current research in this area. However, there is a missing element to this process. It is the link from this research to the current ISS video system and to flight hardware capable of utilizing this technology. This is the basis for this proposed Space Human Factors Engineering project, the determination of the display symbology within the performance limits of the Space Vision System that will objectively improve human performance. This utilization of existing flight hardware will greatly reduce the costs of implementation for flight. Besides being used onboard shuttle and space station and as a ground-based system for mission operational support, it also has great potential for science and medical training and diagnostics, remote learning, team learning, video/media conferencing, and educational outreach.

Maida, James C.↗

Kalman Filter for Calibrating a Telescope Focal Plane

The instrument-pointing frame (IPF) Kalman filter, and an algorithm that implements this filter, have been devised for calibrating the focal plane of a telescope. As used here, calibration signifies, more specifically, a combination of measurements and calculations directed toward ensuring accuracy in aiming the telescope and determining the locations of objects imaged in various arrays of photodetectors in instruments located on the focal plane. The IPF Kalman filter was originally intended for application to a spaceborne infrared astronomical telescope, but can also be applied to other spaceborne and ground-based telescopes. In the traditional approach to calibration of a telescope, (1) one team of experts concentrates on estimating parameters (e.g., pointing alignments and gyroscope drifts) that are classified as being of primarily an engineering nature, (2) another team of experts concentrates on estimating calibration parameters (e.g., plate scales and optical distortions) that are classified as being primarily of a scientific nature, and (3) the two teams repeatedly exchange data in an iterative process in which each team refines its estimates with the help of the data provided by the other team. This iterative process is inefficient and uneconomical because it is time-consuming and entails the maintenance of two survey teams and the development of computer programs specific to the requirements of each team. Moreover, theoretical analysis reveals that the engineering/ science iterative approach is not optimal in that it does not yield the best estimates of focal-plane parameters and, depending on the application, may not even enable convergence toward a set of estimates.

Kang, Bryan↗

The MSFC Collaborative Engineering Process for Preliminary Design and Concept Definition Studies

This paper describes a collaborative engineering process developed by the Marshall Space Flight Center's Advanced Concepts Office for performing rapid preliminary design and mission concept definition studies for potential future NASA missions. The process has been developed and demonstrated for a broad range of mission studies including human space exploration missions, space transportation system studies and in-space science missions. The paper will describe the design team structure and specialized analytical tools that have been developed to enable a unique rapid design process. The collaborative engineering process consists of integrated analysis approach for mission definition, vehicle definition and system engineering. The relevance of the collaborative process elements to the standard NASA NPR 7120.1 system engineering process will be demonstrated. The study definition process flow for each study discipline will be will be outlined beginning with the study planning process, followed by definition of ground rules and assumptions, definition of study trades, mission analysis and subsystem analyses leading to a standardized set of mission concept study products. The flexibility of the collaborative engineering design process to accommodate a wide range of study objectives from technology definition and requirements definition to preliminary design studies will be addressed. The paper will also describe the applicability of the collaborative engineering process to include an integrated systems analysis approach for evaluating the functional requirements of evolving system technologies and capabilities needed to meet the needs of future NASA programs.

Mulqueen, Jack↗

Team LunaCY Outreach Paper

Iowa State University's Lunabotics Club, Team LunaCY, has worked hard to generate enthusiasm for robotics, engineering, and lunar activities. Team LunaCY participated in a variety of different outreach events making a strong impression on Iowa youth. These events led the chair of the mechanical engineering department, Dr. Ted Heindel, to refer to the club's outreach program as "the model that all other engineering clubs should follow." Team LunaCY's outreach activities totaled over 200 hours and captivated over 3000 students and adults throughout the course of this acaden1ic year, reaching out to people all over Iowa and to several special guests. These guests included Vice-President Joe Biden, during a visit to Iowa State University in March 2012, and astronaut Clayton Anderson, during a visit to Iowa State's campus in the fall 2011. Team LunaCY's outreach events created hands on learning opportunities for local youth ranging in age from elementary school children to high school students. The team strove to make a positive impression on Iowa youth and to encourage interest and involvement in scientific fields. The full list of events is shown in Table 1. Three of the major outreach events the team participated in were the FIRST LEGO League, Science Bound, and iExplore STEM Festival.

Heise, James↗

Standardization of the Definitions of Vertical Resolution and Uncertainty in the NDACC-archived Ozone and Temperature Lidar Measurements

The international Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC) is a global network of high-quality, remote-sensing research stations for observing and understanding the physical and chemical state of the Earth atmosphere. As part of NDACC, over 20 ground-based lidar instruments are dedicated to the long-term monitoring of atmospheric composition and to the validation of space-borne measurements of the atmosphere from environmental satellites such as Aura and ENVISAT. One caveat of large networks such as NDACC is the difficulty to archive measurement and analysis information consistently from one research group (or instrument) to another [1][2][3]. Yet the need for consistent definitions has strengthened as datasets of various origin (e.g., satellite and ground-based) are increasingly used for intercomparisons, validation, and ingested together in global assimilation systems.In the framework of the 2010 Call for Proposals by the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) located in Bern, Switzerland, a Team of lidar experts was created to address existing issues in three critical aspects of the NDACC lidar ozone and temperature data retrievals: signal filtering and the vertical filtering of the retrieved profiles, the quantification and propagation of the uncertainties, and the consistent definition and reporting of filtering and uncertainties in the NDACC- archived products. Additional experts from the satellite and global data standards communities complement the team to help address issues specific to the latter aspect.

Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC↗

SMC: SCENIC Model Control

NASAs Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program manages three active networks: the Near Earth Network, the Space Network, and the Deep Space Network. These networks simultaneously support NASA missions and provide communications services to customers worldwide. To efficiently manage these resources and their capabilities, a team of student interns at the NASA Glenn Research Center is developing a distributed system to model the SCaN networks. Once complete, the system shall provide a platform that enables users to perform capacity modeling of current and prospective missions with finer-grained control of information between several simulation and modeling tools. This will enable the SCaN program to access a holistic view of its networks and simulate the effects of modifications in order to provide NASA with decisional information. The development of this capacity modeling system is managed by NASAs Strategic Center for Education, Networking, Integration, and Communication (SCENIC). Three primary third-party software tools offer their unique abilities in different stages of the simulation process. MagicDraw provides UMLSysML modeling, AGIs Systems Tool Kit simulates the physical transmission parameters and de-conflicts scheduled communication, and Riverbed Modeler (formerly OPNET) simulates communication protocols and packet-based networking. SCENIC developers are building custom software extensions to integrate these components in an end-to-end space communications modeling platform. A central control module acts as the hub for report-based messaging between client wrappers. Backend databases provide information related to mission parameters and ground station configurations, while the end user defines scenario-specific attributes for the model. The eight SCENIC interns are working under the direction of their mentors to complete an initial version of this capacity modeling system during the summer of 2015. The intern team is composed of four students in Computer Science, two in Computer Engineering, one in Electrical Engineering, and one studying Space Systems Engineering.

Simulation↗

What's the Cube Quest Challenge?

Cube Quest Challenge, sponsored by Space Technology Mission Directorates Centennial Challenges program, is NASAs first in-space prize competition. Cube Quest is open to any U.S.-based, non-government CubeSat developer. Entrants will compete for one of three available 6U CubeSat dispenser slots on the EM-1 mission the first un-crewed lunar flyby of the Orion spacecraft launched by the Space Launch System in early 2018. The Cube Quest Challenge will award up to $5M in prizes. The advanced CubeSat technologies demonstrated by Cube Quest winners will enable NASA, universities, and industry to more quickly and affordably accomplish science and exploration objectives. This paper describes the teams, their novel CubeSat designs, and the emerging technologies for CubeSat operations in deep space environment.

Cube Quest Challenge↗

Status and Path Forward for the Large Ultraviolet Optical Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) Mission Concept Study

In preparation of the 2020 Astrophysics Decadal Survey, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has commenced a process for the astronomical community to study several large mission concepts leveraging the lessons learned from past Decadal Surveys. This will enable the Decadal Survey committee to make more informed recommendations to NASA on its astrophysics science and mission priorities with respect to cost and risk. Four astrophysics large mission concepts were identified. Each of them had a Science and Technology Definition Teem(STDT) chartered to produce scientifically compelling, feasible, and executable design reference mission (DRM)concepts to present to the 2020 Decadal Survey. In addition, The Aerospace Corporation will perform an independent cost and technical evaluation (CATE) of each of these mission concept studies in advance of the 2020 Decadal Survey by interacting with the STDTs to provide detailed technical details on certain areas for which deep dives are appropriate. This paper presents the status and path forward for one of the four large mission concepts, namely, the Large UltraViolet, Optical, InfraRed surveyor (LUVOIR).

Study Office: science analyses↗

Autonomous Acquisition of Science Quality Spectra from Unmanned Aerial Systems

This is a presentation on a technique for using Unmanned Aerial Systems with intelligent sensing to create science quality data. In this particular case, the team used two spectrometers with high spectral resolution and developed a technique to have the spectrometers self calibrate so that it is possible to take the measurements within the allocated 10 minute flight times. Because there is both upwelling and downwelling foreoptics on each of the two spectrometers, it becomes slow to set the calibration up for all four possibilities which relates to the integration time and then take the measurements. If light conditions change too rapidly then the measurements won't be scaled so that the spectra max is at least 85% of the instrument max but not saturated. This process was more difficult then it appeared due to the complexity of determining the integration time before light conditions changed and before the battery runs our of charge to fly the Unmanned Aerial System. This presentation goes over the results for the first few flight days and the planned future flight experiments.

Mandl, Daniel↗

An Early Assessment of JPSS-1/NOAA-20 VIIRS Day-Night Band On-Orbit Calibration and Performance

The JPSS-1 (now named NOAA-20) VIIRS instrument has been successfully operating on orbit since November 28th, 2017. The Day-Night Band (DNB) is a panchromatic channel covering wavelengths from 0.5 to 0.9 m that is capable of observing the Earth scene in visible/near-Infrared spectral range at spatial resolution of 750 m. The DNB operates at low, mid, or high radiometric gain stages, and it uses an onboard solar diffuser (SD) panel for low gain stage calibration. The SD observations also provide a mean to compute gain ratios between low-to-mid and mid-to-high gain stages. With their large dynamic range and high sensitivity, the DNB detectors can make observations during both daytime and nighttime. This paper provides an early assessment of the DNB on-orbit performance and behavior in the first 90-day post launch test (PLT) period and beyond. The calibration methodology used by the VIIRS Characterization Support Team (VCST) in support of the NASA earth science community will be presented. The trending of OBC dark-offsets, SD gains and gain ratios, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at minimum radiance have been analyzed, especially during key events such as the Nadir and Cryo-cooler doors opening. Furthermore, we performed inter-comparison studies between SNPP and JPSS-1 instruments and evaluated DNB radiometric calibration and characterization, including the SD degradation, detector gains and gain ratios, as well as the calibration comparison between the IDPS LUTs and our VCST delivery results.

Chen, H.↗

Navigation Design and Operations of Maven Aerobraking

This paper describes the operational design and execution of the MAVEN aerobraking phase at Mars from a Navigation Team perspective. MAVEN was designed to perform atmospheric science in a ~150x6200 km altitude elliptical orbit. After the primary science mission, it was decided that MAVEN should circularize its orbit, as much as feasible from a spacecraft and mission standpoint, to better support relay operations with the landers. As a result, MAVEN performed aerobraking in the first half of 2019 to reduce its orbit to ~150x4500 km altitude. Although MAVEN did not decrease its altitude as low as previous aerobraking missions, it had several unique challenges. Science observations continued to be taken during aerobraking, requiring dramatically better Navigation accuracies than typical for such phases. Furthermore, continuous DSN coverage with 2-way Doppler data was not available. So, with 40% less Doppler data, Navigation had to meet prediction accuracies which were an order of magnitude smaller than in previous aerobraking operations. Spacecraft accelerometer data was included in Navigation analyses in order to meet these requirements.

Jakosky, Bruce↗

Rapid Assessment of a Lunar Surface Laboratory Module

Johnson Space Center is piloting an innovation team known as the Forge to perform rapid turnaround, concurrent engineering studies. The Forge is intended to be able to pull together a team of strategically selected domain experts to innovatively solve a specified problem within a short period of time. The Forge’s inaugural project being the development of a Lunar Surface Laboratory Module concept. The lab module is intended as an option for the Artemis program’s Lunar Architecture Team. The lab module may allow for increased science productivity and return on investment than a surface architecture with only the habitat. This paper will discuss the configuration of the Lunar Laboratory module, including the pressure vessel, its placement relative to the Surface Habitat and Pressurized Rover, and internal architecture. In order to determine the suitability of such a design, a human factors evaluation is conducted. Historically, a human factors evaluation of a habitable volume could require a month or longer, including time needed to prepare a test plan, conduct the evaluation, compile the data, and produce a report. The entire Forge effort will only last for five weeks, forcing the creation of a rapid assessment process. This rapid assessment includes three evaluation studies, all conducted and processed in the space of a single day, to determine the acceptability of the resulting design. The first evaluation is a card sort evaluation of the laboratory instruments. A brief discussion of the card sort evaluation is provided. This card sort is focused on the relative positioning of the laboratory instruments, determining whether a given instrument should be adjacent to, or separated from, another. It will use human factors personnel and both life and physical scientists as subject matter experts. The second evaluation is a science productivity tabletop evaluation. This evaluation focuses on the selection of instruments and the number of instruments, attempting to assess the amount of work the crew will be able to use the facility to do. It uses life and physical science personnel as subject matter experts. The third evaluation is a CAD or Virtual Reality human factors walkthrough evaluation. This evaluation focuses on the layout of the lab module and its connectivity to the basecamp’s pressurized elements. If possible, astronauts will be used as subject matter experts. Each of these evaluations will focus primarily on objective data with limited subjective comments, reducing the time required for processing responses. The results of each evaluation and their implications will be discussed. Based on the evaluation data, an overall acceptability of the Lunar Surface Laboratory Module produced by the Forge study can be determined. Lessons learned and recommendations for future use of the human factors rapid assessment process in early design trades will also be provided.

Lunar Laboratory↗