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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 1,585 records · Page 88
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2020

TopiQAL: Topic-aware Question Answering using Scalable Domain-specific Supercomputers

We all have questions. About today's temperature, scores of our favorite baseball team, the Universe, and about vaccine for COVID-19. Life, physical, and natural scientists have been trying to find answers to various topics using scientific methods and experiments, while computer scientists have built language models as a tiny step towards automatically answering all of these questions across domains given a little bit of context. In this paper, we propose an architecture using state-of-the-art Natural Language Processing language models namely Topic Models and Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) that can transparently and automatically retrieve articles of relevance to questions across domains, and fetch answers to topical questions related to COVID-19 current and historical medical research literature. We demonstrate the benefits of using domain-specific supercomputers like Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), residing on cloud-based infrastructure, using which we could achieve significant gains in training and inference times, also with very minimal cost.

Penberthy, Scott↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Rapid Spacecraft Payload Development: In-Orbit Demonstration of Flight Software Reuse, Scalability, and Dependability

As space mission design trends towards shared, multi-mission platforms and high-performance onboard computing architectures, the number of spacecraft launched into operation is also steadily rising. Through ridesharing, spacecraft miniaturization, and other cost-reduction measures, the barriers to space are lowering, resulting in compounded growth in the amount of flight software being deployed. To meet the needs of both the growing quantity and evolving nature of spacecraft, flight software design must accordingly adapt to support more efficient development, solutions to computational resource-sharing, and software reusability. This paper focuses on a software payload demonstrating several core technologies that improve the state-of-the-art in these identified areas. Launched into low-earth orbit in January 2022, our software payload was conceived, designed, and delivered in a span of merely two months. It was developed on top of the NASA core Flight System (cFS) framework and the Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy (DSA) Comm cFS application, which translates cFS software bus messages across a Data Distribution Service (DDS) network. The flight software, packaged in Linux container images, was deployed as one of 18 flight applications managed through the Unibap SpaceCloud Framework. The applications were run on a Unibap iX5-102 radiation-tolerant payload computer, hosted on the D-Orbit SCV-004 spacecraft as part of an ESA-sponsored in-orbit technology test. Our payload, referred to as the DSA D-Orbit software, demonstrates the reusability of the DSA Comm app in a substantially different context and purpose as its original mission. Comm’s original design goal was to reliably distribute messages between spacecraft swarms of arbitrary size and dynamic network topology. However, we leverage this same functionality to introduce redundancy and opportunistic parallel data processing in the context of a representative onboard image processing workload. This adaptive mission architecture was enabled in part by the SpaceCloud Framework’s use of container virtualization as the payload integration interface. By using a base container image with common high-level language runtimes and libraries, we were able to rapidly design, develop, and validate our image processing application without many of the technological barriers common to flight software development. We present details the goals, approach, results, and lessons learned through this technology demonstration experiment and contextualize those observations against present and future challenges in spacecraft software development.

computer programming↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Design Concepts for an Optimized, Modular, and Scalable Liquid Amine Test Stand

The Air Revitalization Labs at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) is investigating liquid amines to for their performance removing spacecraft carbon dioxide (CO2) for crewed space missions. Development of the current one-crew scale amine test stand stems from several modifications to a test stand initially built at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) This sub-scale system has been modified to incorporate a flow spreader for the inlet air stream, an updated contactor design for CO2 capture, a degasser to regenerate the liquid sorbent and recover the captured CO2, and a condenser to reduce water loss. Results from the existing integrated liquid amine test stand have provided valuable insight, but continued performance optimization requires design and build of a new integrated test system. New design concepts will institute a modular configuration to allow for interfacing with novel contactor and degasser architecture, parallel or series flow pathways for the air stream and liquid sorbent, and scaling up to a 4-crew CO2 removal system.

Tiago Faria Costa↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

High Density Vertiplex: Scalable Autonomous Operations Prototype Assessment Simulation

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is a rapidly growing topic within the field of aviation because of the impact a refined ecosystem and uncrewed aerial vehicles could have on modern society, such as urban air mobility, cargo, and emergency transport. Before the UAM concept can be actualized, research is needed to understand how to integrate these new classes of vehicles and operations into the National Airspace System. One under-researched but critical piece of infrastructure required for UAM operations is Vertiport operations. Vertiports are the envisioned takeoff and landing locations for these uncrewed aerial vehicles. To accommodate the high use of the vertiport, new technologies and roles will be required for optimal use. At NASA, the High Density Vertiplex sub-project targets research into vertiports. The High Density Vertiplex team created an Urban Air Mobility ecosystem to test and evaluate different concepts and tools used to support higher density operations at vertiports. Part of the test and evaluation included the Prototype Assessment Operations simulation of highdensity operations around a vertiport to study vertiport management and vertiport operations. The research team also evaluated how the prototype Urban Air Mobility ecosystem supported fleet managers, ground control station operators, and vertiport managers in execution of nominal and off-nominal high-density operations. Results from this simulation provided insight regarding UAM ecosystem research and development and vertiport automation systems.

Small Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (sUAS)↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

High Density Vertiplex: Scalable Autonomous Operations Prototype Assessment Simulation

Urban Air Mobility is a rapidly growing topic within the field of aviation because of the impact a refined ecosystem and uncrewed aerial vehicles could have on modern society, such as urban air, cargo, and emergency transport. Before the UAM concept can be actualized, research is needed to understand how to integrate these new classes of vehicles and operations into the National Airspace System. One under-researched but critical piece of infrastructure required for UAM operations is Vertiport operations. Vertiports are the envisioned takeoff and landing locations for these uncrewed aerial vehicles. To accommodate the high use of the vertiport, new technologies and roles will be required for optimal use. At NASA, the High Density Vertiplex sub-project targets research into vertiports. The High Density Vertiplex team created their own Advanced Air Mobility ecosystem to test and evaluate different concepts and tools used to support higher density operations at vertiports. Part of the test and evaluation included the Prototype Assessment Operations simulation of high-density operations around a vertiport to study vertiport management and vertiport operations. The research team also evaluated how their simulated Urban Air Mobility ecosystem supported fleet managers, ground control station operators, and vertiport managers in execution of nominal and off-nominal high-density operations. Takeaways from this simulation helped the team evaluate well how the users of the ecosystem were able to use the components of the ecosystem to complete Urban Air Mobility missions.

Small Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (sUAS)↗