Results for “Architecture Development” — Page 9

NASA NTRS2016

Natural Environments Definition for Design

Planning for future National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) missions will encompass a variety of operational and engineering activities that involve a multitude of issues, constraints, and influences derived from the natural environment. This Technical Memorandum (TM) presents a definition of the natural environment, i.e., a description in engineering handbook format of models and data specifically selected to support the architecture development, engineering design, and technology development for NASA's Exploration Systems Development (ESD) initiatives.

Justh, H. L.↗

NASA NTRS2018

Spacecraft Dormancy Autonomy Analysis for a Crewed Martian Mission

Current concepts of operations for human exploration of Mars center on the staged deployment of spacecraft, logistics, and crew. Though most studies focus on the needs for human occupation of the spacecraft and habitats, these resources will spend most of their lifetime unoccupied. As such, it is important to identify the operational state of the unoccupied spacecraft or habitat, as well as to design the systems to enable the appropriate level of autonomy. Key goals for this study include providing a realistic assessment of what "dormancy" entails for human spacecraft, exploring gaps in state-of-the-art for autonomy in human spacecraft design, providing recommendations for investments in autonomous systems technology development, and developing architectural requirements for spacecraft that must be autonomous during dormant operations. The mission that was chosen is based on a crewed mission to Mars. In particular, this study focuses on the time that the spacecraft that carried humans to Mars spends dormant in Martian orbit while the crew carries out a surface mission. Communications constraints are assumed to be severe, with limited bandwidth and limited ability to send commands and receive telemetry. The assumptions made as part of this mission have close parallels with mission scenarios envisioned for dormant cis-lunar habitats that are stepping-stones to Mars missions. As such, the data in this report is expected to be broadly applicable to all dormant deep space human spacecraft.

Badger, Julia↗

NASA NTRS2019

Encounter-Based Simulation Architecture for Detect and Avoid Modeling

This paper presents an encounter-based simulation architecture developed at NASA to facilitate flexible and efficient Detect and Avoid modeling in parametric or tradespace studies on large data sets. The basic premise of this tool is that large-scale input data can be reduced to a set of `canonical encounters' and that using the reduced data in simulations does not lead to loss of fidelity. A canonical encounter is specified as ownship and intruder flight portions potentially resulting in a loss of well clear along with a set of properties that characterize the encounter. The advantages of using canonical encounters include faster simulations, reduced memory footprint, ability to select encounters based on user-specified criteria, shared encounters across multiple teams, peer-reviewed encounters, and a better understanding of the input data set, to name a few.

MOPS↗

NASA NTRS2019

Sense and Avoid Characterization of the Independent Configurable Architecture for Reliable Operations of Unmanned Systems

Abstract—Independent Configurable Architecture for Reliable Operations of Unmanned Systems (ICAROUS) is a distributed software architecture developed by NASA Langley Research Center to enable safe autonomous UAS operations. ICAROUS consists of a collection formally verified core algorithms for path planning, traffic avoidance, geofence handling, and decision making that interface with an autopilot system through a publisher-subscriber middleware. The ICAROUS Sense and Avoid Characterization (ISAAC) test was designed to evaluate the performance of the onboard Sense and Avoid (SAA) capability to detect potential conflicts with other aircraft and autonomously maneuver to avoid collisions, while remaining within the airspace boundaries of the mission. The ISAAC tests evaluated the impact of separation distances and alerting times on SAA performance. A preliminary analysis of the effects of each parameter on key measures of performance is conducted, informing the choice of appropriate parameter values for different small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) applications. Furthermore, low-power Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) is evaluated for potential use to enable autonomous sUAS to sUAS deconflictions as well as to provide usable warnings for manned aircraft without saturating the frequency spectrum.

Consiglio, Maria↗

NASA NTRS2020

Lunar Water ISRU Measurement Study (LWIMS): Establishing a Measurement Plan for Identification and Characterization of a Water Reserve

NASA’s Artemis program aims to achieve a sustainable lunar presence by 2028. To carry out sustained crewed surface operations, In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), which would use lunar resources (e.g., water) to produce mission consumables, will be critical. Water-bearing materials have been identified at both lunar poles, butthe nature and extent of this resource is not well understood. Identification of the presence of water alone is not adequate for ISRU architecture planning and engineering design. The Lunar Water ISRU Measurement Study (LWIMS) assessed and defined the type, amount, and fidelity of the information and measurements needed to select mining locations for lunar water ISRU and to define requirements for ISRU hardware and architecture development. Current ISRU requirements were used to define a water ‘reserve’ in this context. A measurement plan to achieve these goals includes three key elements; a predictive ‘water favorability’ model to identify and map potential deposits, continued assessment of orbital data, and three types of landed missions to make direct ground measurements. Corresponding mission scenarios and instrument suites will depend on risk posture and timelines for ISRU implementation.

In situ resource utilization↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Clinical Decision Support - Concepts of Operation

We are entering a new era in space exploration to return to the moon and explore Mars. Crew members operating independently during long duration space exploration missions will require a clinical decision support system (CDSS) to increase autonomy by augmenting their knowledge, skills and abilities in different scenarios. Significant changes to in-flight and habitat medical care due to constraints on mass, volume, power, crew time and medical evacuation capabilities are needed to increase crew autonomy and self-reliance in decision making and task performance. The Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) Element of the Human Research Program (HRP) pushes the boundary of space medical systems to advance the care of astronauts on future exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit by identifying and testing next-generation medical care and crew health maintenance technologies. Clinical decision support (CDS) presents knowledge and data in a context aware manner to augment a crew members’ knowledge, skills and abilities during the process of observation, orientation, decisions and action. A comprehensive crew health and performance CDSS is required to augment crew capability and will be used in different scenarios for several reasons. In general, the CDSS’s role is to assist the crew in prevention, detection, diagnosis and treatment of crew health and performance related conditions that may arise in exploration spaceflight. For example, CDSS would assist a high acuity scenario such as a heart attack by supplying clear instructions, vital signs and treatment reminders. A lower severity scenario such as kidney stone risk could interface to vehicle systems and display more complex predictive data during a diagnosis. A CDSS needs to contribute to successful missions by maintaining a high performing crew who can potentially exhibit countless medical conditions related to derangements from the space environment (sleep, cognition, nutrition and exercise) as well as conditions intrinsic to humans anywhere. While supporting the crew’s ability to make sound clinical decisions is desirable in any mission, it is essential for exploration missions with significant communication delays, no evacuation capability, and extended exposure to the flight environment. Such missions correspond with medical Level of Care V (LOC V), the highest level specified in NASA-STD-3001. The project focuses on CDS implementation research to derive requirements for LOC V, where the need for increased autonomy results in new practices and the inclusion of non-clinical data, such as vehicle environmental measures and physical exercise results, from other human and vehicle domains and advanced analytics. The CDS project describes how the CDSS is intended to be used by defining concepts of operations (ConOps). The process to derive ConOps focuses on increased autonomy that reduces the likelihood and consequences of accepted medical conditions. These crew health and performance inputs are grouped by common datasets and analysis models. Use cases are derived to research new clinical scenarios, architectural development and workflows. Implementation research is conducted with protypes to inform assumptions and derive requirements. The project also establishes how externally developed analysis and approaches can be added to expand a clinical decision support system and thus highlight how a comprehensive system can be globally developed with collaborators. This presentation will cover example scenarios from the CDS ConOps and the method to derive them. One example scenario will be CDSS alerting an increased kidney stone risk during a mission, with diagnosis and treatment options provided during the intervention.

clinical decision support↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Clinical Decision Support - Concepts of Operation

We are entering a new era in space exploration to return to the moon and explore Mars. Crew members operating independently during long duration space exploration missions will require a clinical decision support system (CDSS) to increase autonomy by augmenting their knowledge, skills and abilities in different scenarios. Significant changes to in-flight and habitat medical care due to constraints on mass, volume, power, crew time and medical evacuation capabilities are needed to increase crew autonomy and self-reliance in decision making and task performance. The Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) Element of the Human Research Program (HRP) pushes the boundary of space medical systems to advance the care of astronauts on future exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit by identifying and testing next-generation medical care and crew health maintenance technologies. Clinical decision support (CDS) presents knowledge and data in a context aware manner to augment a crew members’ knowledge, skills and abilities during the process of observation, orientation, decisions and action. A comprehensive crew health and performance CDSS is required to augment crew capability and will be used in different scenarios for several reasons. In general, the CDSS’s role is to assist the crew in prevention, detection, diagnosis and treatment of crew health and performance related conditions that may arise in exploration spaceflight. For example, CDSS would assist a high acuity scenario such as a heart attack by supplying clear instructions, vital signs and treatment reminders. A lower severity scenario such as kidney stone risk could interface to vehicle systems and display more complex predictive data during a diagnosis. A CDSS needs to contribute to successful missions by maintaining a high performing crew who can potentially exhibit countless medical conditions related to derangements from the space environment (sleep, cognition, nutrition and exercise) as well as conditions intrinsic to humans anywhere. While supporting the crew’s ability to make sound clinical decisions is desirable in any mission, it is essential for exploration missions with significant communication delays, no evacuation capability, and extended exposure to the flight environment. Such missions correspond with medical Level of Care V (LOC V), the highest level specified in NASA-STD-3001. The project focuses on CDS implementation research to derive requirements for LOC V, where the need for increased autonomy results in new practices and the inclusion of non-clinical data, such as vehicle environmental measures and physical exercise results, from other human and vehicle domains and advanced analytics. The CDS project describes how the CDSS is intended to be used by defining concepts of operations (ConOps). The process to derive ConOps focuses on increased autonomy that reduces the likelihood and consequences of accepted medical conditions. These crew health and performance inputs are grouped by common datasets and analysis models. Use cases are derived to research new clinical scenarios, architectural development and workflows. Implementation research is conducted with protypes to inform assumptions and derive requirements. The project also establishes how externally developed analysis and approaches can be added to expand a clinical decision support system and thus highlight how a comprehensive system can be globally developed with collaborators. This presentation will cover example scenarios from the CDS ConOps and the method to derive them. One example scenario will be CDSS alerting an increased kidney stone risk during a mission, with diagnosis and treatment options provided during the intervention.

clinical decision support↗

NASA NTRS1999

Flexible All-Digital Receiver for Bandwidth Efficient Modulations

An all-digital high data rate parallel receiver architecture developed jointly by Goddard Space Flight Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is presented.

Bandwidth↗

NASA NTRS1996

Technology Capability Needs of Future Earth Science Missions

Technology capability needs for future Earth science space missions have been collected as an input to NASA's New Millenium Program. Candidate technologies to meet these capability needs have been identified and a set of candidate mission architectures developed. This paper describes the process that was used to develop the capability needs and lists the needs that resulted from that process.

New↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

In-Space Transportation Sensitivity to Roundtrip Mission Duration and Mars Vicinity Stay Time

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate has been developing architecture concepts for human missions to Mars in alignment with the agency’s Moon-to-Mars Strategy & Objectives. One of the key components of a human Mars mission is the in-space transportation system that delivers crew and cargo to Mars vicinity and returns the crew safely back to Earth. The Mars Architecture Team within ESDMD’s Strategy and Architecture Office has been evaluating multiple in-space transportation options to satisfy this functional need. The first step of this evaluation is to understand key architectural drivers for in-space transportation systems. Lunar and Mars missions have unique challenges, and systems designed for one may not be directly applicable to the other as they have different energy and mission needs. In addition, the time and distance for a Mars mission will be drastically different from the historical and current programs, requiring a new paradigm for mission architects. This paper investigates the impact of mission duration on a variety of different transportation options. As mission duration decreases, the total energy required to perform a roundtrip Mars mission increases exponentially, significantly increasing the required Earth departure mass. Sensitivity analyses of various in-space transportation system concepts were shown in this paper to begin mapping out the in-space transportation trade space. Each of the transportation systems has its own strengths and weaknesses, especially in the context of the continuous mission duration and vicinity stay time trade space. Although mission duration and Mars vicinity stay time may be key architecture drivers from an in-space transportation perspective, the decision of acceptable mission duration cannot be made solely from this perspective. Mission duration also has tangible impacts to crew health and performance, as well as system reliability and other key architecture considerations. The integrated nature of the architecture decision road map will be the primary focus of the Mars Architecture Team in the coming analysis cycle. This in-space transportation analysis will serve as the first guidepost of this critical activity that will guide the Moon-to-Mars Architecture into the humans to Mars segment.

Mars↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

In-Space Transportation Sensitivity to Roundtrip Mission Duration and Mars Vicinity Stay Time

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate has been developing architecture concepts for human missions to Mars in alignment with the agency’s Moon-to-Mars Strategy & Objectives. One of the key components of a human Mars mission is the in-space transportation system that delivers crew and cargo to Mars vicinity and returns the crew safely back to Earth. The Mars Architecture Team within ESDMD’s Strategy and Architecture Office has been evaluating multiple in-space transportation options to satisfy this functional need. The first step of this evaluation is to understand key architectural drivers for in-space transportation systems. Lunar and Mars missions have unique challenges, and systems designed for one may not be directly applicable to the other as they have different energy and mission needs. In addition, the time and distance for a Mars mission will be drastically different from the historical and current programs, requiring a new paradigm for mission architects. This paper investigates the impact of mission duration on a variety of different transportation options. As mission duration decreases, the total energy required to perform a roundtrip Mars mission increases exponentially, significantly increasing the required Earth departure mass. Sensitivity analyses of various in-space transportation system concepts were shown in this paper to begin mapping out the in-space transportation trade space. Each of the transportation systems has its own strengths and weaknesses, especially in the context of the continuous mission duration and vicinity stay time trade space. Although mission duration and Mars vicinity stay time may be key architecture drivers from an in-space transportation perspective, the decision of acceptable mission duration cannot be made solely from this perspective. Mission duration also has tangible impacts to crew health and performance, as well as system reliability and other key architecture considerations. The integrated nature of the architecture decision road map will be the primary focus of the Mars Architecture Team in the coming analysis cycle. This in-space transportation analysis will serve as the first guidepost of this critical activity that will guide the Moon-to-Mars Architecture into the humans to Mars segment.

Mars↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Structural Requirements and Scaling Analysis of a Fluidic Mirror Space Telescope Support Structure

The NASA FLUTE project proposes large-scale (50m) fluidic telescopes for astronomy applications. To continue to explore the universe, astronomers require larger and larger telescope apertures. The highest priority astrophysics targets such as exoplanets and early galaxies are extremely faint, motivating larger telescope apertures. However, mission costs depend on aperture diameter, and scaling apertures beyond 10-m apertures faces economic and technological viability challenges. An unsegmented primary mirror made in space via fluidic microgravity shaping would provide a scalable and cost-effective method to scale apertures to 50-m scale while achieving sub-nanometer (root mean square) surface quality. Such microgravity fluidic shaping has been demonstrated in laboratory neutral buoyance environments, parabolic microgravity experiments, as well aboard the International Space Station. One of the main components of a fluidic observatory is the mirror frame. The frame must provide a stable bounding circular ring which the edges of the fluid mirror surface can wet. The frame can optionally provide a ‘floor’ surface on the interior of the ring to provide additional fluid support and reduce required fluid volume. In this work, we evaluate several classes of structural frame architectures potentially suitable for a fluidic telescope support structure. We start by estimating stability requirements, orbital, station keeping, and slew loads based on a notional CONOPS. The scaling of overall fluid mass required for each architecture is evaluated. Preliminary results elucidate the importance of a support floor for overall mission viability above 10-m diameter. We then investigate the scaling of a tetrahedral truss frame support structure. We show that segmented solid shell support surfaces can provide sufficient stability at modest mass fractions. We estimate that the total fluid and frame mass for a 50-m telescope could be on the order of 15,000 kg. Finally, implementation considerations are discussed, including deployment/assembly methodologies. The results of this study establish feasibility of a large-scale fluidic telescope and will guide further architecture development and detailed structural design.

Christine Gregg↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Historical Review of Logistics Mass and Crew Time Demands for ISS Operations

Following over 20 years of continuously crewed operations on the International Space Station (ISS), NASA is planning to return to the Moon and eventually send humans to Mars. ISS operations provide vital data to inform mission analysts as NASA prepares for longer and more complex missions with increased mission endurance. Endurance, defined as crewed operating time between cargo deliveries (or crew launch and return to Earth), is an important metric when analyzing mission needs. NASA is developing architectures to support sustained deep-space habitats in cislunar space, the lunar surface, Mars transit, and the surface of Mars. Unlike the ISS, these systems will not be continuously crewed, and unlike the Space Shuttle, these systems will not return to Earth for regular refurbishment between missions. Lunar systems will routinely go through long uncrewed periods between crewed missions. The systems on board will need to survive these dormancy periods with no crew present to provide maintenance. Mars systems will experience significantly longer endurance than past experience. Additionally, the inability to have quick aborts to return to Earth increases the need for system reliability, redundancy, and maintainability, as well as plans for contingency operations. This paper examines the historical logistics and crew time demand for ISS operations and mission objectives and provides an overview of missions to the ISS over its operating history, the mass and items delivered with the missions, and the crew time spent during missions. These parameters provide insight and valuable data to inform logistics and crew time estimates for future long-endurance crewed exploration missions.

Crew Logistics↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Historical Review of Logistics Mass and Crew Time Demands for ISS Operations

Following over 20 years of continuously crewed operations on the International Space Station (ISS), NASA is planning to return to the Moon and eventually send humans to Mars. ISS operations provide vital data to inform mission analysts as NASA prepares for longer and more complex missions with increased mission endurance. Endurance, defined as crewed operating time between cargo deliveries (or crew launch and return to Earth), is an important metric when analyzing mission needs. NASA is developing architectures to support sustained deep-space habitats in cislunar space, the lunar surface, Mars transit, and the surface of Mars. Unlike the ISS, these systems will not be continuously crewed, and unlike the Space Shuttle, these systems will not return to Earth for regular refurbishment between missions. Lunar systems will routinely go through long uncrewed periods between crewed missions. The systems on board will need to survive these dormancy periods with no crew present to provide maintenance. Mars systems will experience significantly longer endurance than past experience. Additionally, the inability to have quick aborts to return to Earth increases the need for system reliability, redundancy, and maintainability, as well as plans for contingency operations. This paper examines the historical logistics and crew time demand for ISS operations and mission objectives and provides an overview of missions to the ISS over its operating history, the mass and items delivered with the missions, and the crew time spent during missions. These parameters provide insight and valuable data to inform logistics and crew time estimates for future long-endurance crewed exploration missions.

Crew Logistics↗

NASA NTRS1999

Satellite ATM Networks: Architectures and Guidelines Developed

An important element of satellite-supported asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networking will involve support for the routing and rerouting of active connections. Work published under the auspices of the Telecommunications Industry Association (http://www.tiaonline.org), describes basic architectures and routing protocol issues for satellite ATM (SATATM) networks. The architectures and issues identified will serve as a basis for further development of technical specifications for these SATATM networks. Three ATM network architectures for bent pipe satellites and three ATM network architectures for satellites with onboard ATM switches were developed. The architectures differ from one another in terms of required level of mobility, supported data rates, supported terrestrial interfaces, and onboard processing and switching requirements. The documentation addresses low-, middle-, and geosynchronous-Earth-orbit satellite configurations. The satellite environment may require real-time routing to support the mobility of end devices and nodes of the ATM network itself. This requires the network to be able to reroute active circuits in real time. In addition to supporting mobility, rerouting can also be used to (1) optimize network routing, (2) respond to changing quality-of-service requirements, and (3) provide a fault tolerance mechanism. Traffic management and control functions are necessary in ATM to ensure that the quality-of-service requirements associated with each connection are not violated and also to provide flow and congestion control functions. Functions related to traffic management were identified and described. Most of these traffic management functions will be supported by on-ground ATM switches, but in a hybrid terrestrial-satellite ATM network, some of the traffic management functions may have to be supported by the onboard satellite ATM switch. Future work is planned to examine the tradeoffs of placing traffic management functions onboard a satellite as opposed to implementing those functions at the Earth station components.

vonDeak, Thomas C.↗

NASA NTRS2016

Spaceport Command and Control System - Support Software Development

The Information Architecture Support (IAS) Team, the component of the Spaceport Command and Control System (SCCS) that is in charge of all the pre-runtime data, was in need of some report features to be added to their internal web application, Information Architecture (IA). Development of these reports is crucial for the speed and productivity of the development team, as they are needed to quickly and efficiently make specific and complicated data requests against the massive IA database. These reports were being put on the back burner, as other development of IA was prioritized over them, but the need for them resulted in internships being created to fill this need. The creation of these reports required learning Ruby on Rails development, along with related web technologies, and they will continue to serve IAS and other support software teams and their IA data needs.

Information Architecture↗

NASA NTRS2017

Preliminary Results from a Model-Driven Architecture Methodology for Development of an Event-Driven Space Communications Service Concept

NASA's next generation space communications network will involve dynamic and autonomous services analogous to services provided by current terrestrial wireless networks. This architecture concept, known as the Space Mobile Network (SMN), is enabled by several technologies now in development. A pillar of the SMN architecture is the establishment and utilization of a continuous bidirectional control plane space link channel and a new User Initiated Service (UIS) protocol to enable more dynamic and autonomous mission operations concepts, reduced user space communications planning burden, and more efficient and effective provider network resource utilization. This paper provides preliminary results from the application of model driven architecture methodology to develop UIS. Such an approach is necessary to ensure systematic investigation of several open questions concerning the efficiency, robustness, interoperability, scalability and security of the control plane space link and UIS protocol.

Roberts, Christopher J.↗

NASA NTRS1992

An architecture for the development of real-time fault diagnosis systems using model-based reasoning

Presented here is an architecture for implementing real-time telemetry based diagnostic systems using model-based reasoning. First, we describe Paragon, a knowledge acquisition tool for offline entry and validation of physical system models. Paragon provides domain experts with a structured editing capability to capture the physical component's structure, behavior, and causal relationships. We next describe the architecture of the run time diagnostic system. The diagnostic system, written entirely in Ada, uses the behavioral model developed offline by Paragon to simulate expected component states as reflected in the telemetry stream. The diagnostic algorithm traces causal relationships contained within the model to isolate system faults. Since the diagnostic process relies exclusively on the behavioral model and is implemented without the use of heuristic rules, it can be used to isolate unpredicted faults in a wide variety of systems. Finally, we discuss the implementation of a prototype system constructed using this technique for diagnosing faults in a science instrument. The prototype demonstrates the use of model-based reasoning to develop maintainable systems with greater diagnostic capabilities at a lower cost.

Hall, Gardiner A.↗