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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,549 records · Page 86

Mission Design & Operations Approach for the HelioSwarm Mission

HelioSwarm: The Nature of Turbulence in Space Plasmas is a transformational mission to explore the dynamic three-dimensional mechanisms controlling the physics of plasma turbulence, a ubiquitous process occurring in the heliosphere and plasmas throughout the universe. Turbulence is the process by which energy contained in fluctuating magnetic fields and plasma motion cascades from large to smaller spatial scales. HelioSwarm achieves its science goals by making simultaneous measurements across a wide range of measurement baselines, spanning magnetohydrodynamic scales (1000’s of km) to sub-ion heating scales (10’s of km), using a novel nine-spacecraft swarm. The swarm operates in a high-altitude lunar resonant Earth orbit (two-week period, ~63 RE apogee, ~13 RE perigee), giving it access to both the pristine solar wind and regions of strongly driven turbulence (specifically the magnetosphere and foreshock), and utilizes customized relative orbital motion of the swarm members to produce the range of measurement baselines and configurations. The swarm comprises eight “node” spacecraft, manufactured by Blue Canyon Technologies, and a “hub” spacecraft produced by Northrop Grumman Corp. The hub serves as a communications relay, with all communications between the ground and the nodes flowing through it. Mission operations are conducted within the Multi-Mission Operations Center at the NASA Ames Research Center and science operations at the University of New Hampshire, Durham. HelioSwarm was selected in 2022 as one of NASA’s newest Heliophysics Explorer missions to proceed from mission concept into mission implementation, with a target launch in 2029. This paper provides an overview of the mission’s science goals and objectives, the mission design, and the concept of operations, with an emphasis on how the swarm aspects of the mission both enable the science measurements and present unique operational challenges. The paper then describes the proposed development approach for the mission operations system and ground data system which relies on a selective combination of scaling strategies to meet the challenges.

HelioSwarm↗

Energy demand reduction in the built environment using shallow geothermal integrated energy systems: Part II – Hybrid ground source heat pump for building heating

The research collection aims at finding the various possible opportunities for the effective integration of shallow geothermal energy (SGE) to decrease the energy demand in the built environment and to reduce emission associated with it. The direct utilization of SGE using a ground source heat pump (GSHP) has been reviewed in comprehensive review part I and part II. From the extensive review, we have found that the hybrid GSHP is needed to avoid ground thermal imbalance and peak demand. Hybrid GSHP can adopt various supplemental heat sources and sinks according to the local climatic conditions and the balance of energy demands. The primary focus on the integration of subsystems such as biomass, solar energy (PV, PVT, and collector), phase change material, micro gas turbine, and absorption heat pump with GSHP is presented for heating application. This comprehensive review part III highlights the recent research findings and a potential gap in hybrid GSHP for further research and developments

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

NASA's next generation tracking and data relay satellite system (TDRSS): Launch and operational ground segment architecture

The next generation's tracking and data relay satellite system (TDRSS) spacecraft currently under development for user support into the next century, is reported. Modifications will be made to the TDRSS ground terminals required for user support, the control of the TDRSS and the support of transfer orbit operations. The modifications will be made while ensuring compatibility with the present generation of TDRSS. The capabilities of the new spacecraft are described and compared with those of the existing generation. The architecture of the modified ground terminals and that of a new terminal, are detailed.

Miller, Ronald A.↗

Support systems design and analysis

The integration of Kennedy Space Center (KSC) ground support systems with the new launch processing system and new launch vehicle provided KSC with a unique challenge in system design and analysis for the Space Transportation System. Approximately 70 support systems are controlled and monitored by the launch processing system. Typical systems are main propulsion oxygen and hydrogen loading systems, environmental control life support system, hydraulics, etc. An End-to-End concept of documentation and analysis was chosen and applied to these systems. Unique problems were resolved in the areas of software analysis, safing under emergency conditions, sampling rates, and control loop analysis. New methods of performing End-to-End reliability analyses were implemented. The systems design approach selected and the resolution of major problem areas are discussed.

Ferguson, R. M.↗

Simplifying Operations with an Uplink/Downlink Integration Toolkit

The Operations Engineering Lab (OEL) at JPL has developed a simple, generic toolkit to integrate the uplink/downlink processes (often called closing the loop) in JPL's Multimission Ground Data System. This toolkit provides capabilities for integrating telemetry verification points with predicted spacecraft commands and ground events in the Mission Sequence of Events (SOE) document. This toolkit is designed to greatly simplify the user's ability to access and view telemetry data, and also provide a means to view this data in a context of the commands and ground events that are used to interpret it. This paper will discuss the toolkit implementation, including design trade-offs and future for enhancing the automated capabilities.

ground↗

Using Task Analysis to Understand the Data System Operations Team

The Data System Operations Team (DSOT) currently monitors and controls the Multimission Ground Data System (MGDS) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The MGDS currently supports five spacecraft and within the next five years it will support ten spacecraft simultaneously. The ground processing element of the MGDS consists of a distributed UNIX-based system of over 40 nodes and 100 processes. The MGDS system provides operators with little or no information about the system's end-to-end processing status or end-to-end configuration. The lack of system visibility has become a critical issue in the daily operation of the MGDS. A task analysis was conducted to determine what kinds of tools were needed to provide DSOT with useful status information and to prioritize the tool development...

Holder, Barbara E.↗

Experience Using Formal Methods for Specifying a Multi-Agent System

The process and results of using formal methods to specify the Lights Out Ground Operations System (LOGOS) is presented in this paper. LOGOS is a prototype multi-agent system developed to show the feasibility of providing autonomy to satellite ground operations functions at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). After the initial implementation of LOGOS the development team decided to use formal methods to check for race conditions, deadlocks and omissions. The specification exercise revealed several omissions as well as race conditions. After completing the specification, the team concluded that certain tools would have made the specification process easier. This paper gives a sample specification of two of the agents in the LOGOS system and examples of omissions and race conditions found. It concludes with describing an architecture of tools that would better support the future specification of agents and other concurrent systems.

Rouff, Christopher↗

Ground attitude determination and gyro calibration procedures for the HEAO missions

The Attitude Ground Support System (AGSS) at Goddard Space Flight Center provides ground attitude support for the High Energy Astronomy Observatory (HEAO) missions. The AGSS uses information telemetered from sun sensors, gyroscopes, star trackers (STAs), and an onboard computer to calculate updates to the onboard attitude reference and gyro calibration parameters. This paper presents the procedures used by the AGSS in computing reference and calibration updates; it also provides HEAO-1 postlaunch statistics that illustrate the ability to maintain 0.25-deg accuracy in the onboard attitude reference. Simulated HEAO-B results show an improvement in reference accuracy through the use of calibration maneuvers.

Fallon, L., III↗

Pulsed Doppler lidar for the detection of turbulence in clear air

A pulsed C02 Doppler lidar system is described and demonstration tests in ground-based and airborne flight operations are discussed. As a ground-based system, it can detect wind shears in thunderstorm gust fronts to a range of 6 km. When in the airborne configuration, the lidar can detect clear air turbulence in advance of the aircraft encountering clear air turbulence. The data provided by the lidar included turbulence location and intensity with intensity being indicated by the measured spectral width which is proportional to the wind gust velocity.

Weaver, E. A.↗

Modeling human target acquisition in ground-to-air weapon systems

The problems associated with formulating and validating mathematical models for describing and predicting human target acquisition response are considered. In particular, the extension of the human observer model to include the acquisition phase as well as the tracking segment is presented. Relationship of the Observer model structure to the more complex Standard Optimal Control model formulation and to the simpler Transfer Function/Noise representation is discussed. Problems pertinent to structural identifiability and the form of the parameterization are elucidated. A systematic approach toward the identification of the observer acquisition model parameters from ensemble tracking error data is presented.

Phatak, A. V.↗