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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 163 records · Page 9
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2021

On-demand Command and Control of ASTERIA with Cloud-based Ground Station Services

ASTERIA (Arcsecond Space Telescope Enabling Research in Astrophysics) was a 6-unit CubeSat technology demonstration mission that deployed from the International Space Station on November 20th, 2017. After successfully completing its 90-day primary mission that demonstrated arcsecond-level line-of-sight pointing and focal plane thermal stability for exoplanet detection, it entered an extended mission performing onboard software demonstrations to mature technology both in space and on the ground. One of the technologies was a completely cloud-based ground system leveraging Amazon Web Services (AWS) Ground Station service. Announced in December 2018 and launched in May 2019, AWS Ground Station is a fully managed ground station service that aims to reduce the overhead associated with developing and maintaining ground system infrastructure throughout the mission lifecycle. AWS Ground Station makes available the suite of features required for any ground system in support of low-Earth orbit (LEO) and medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite operations on-demand and without setting up or maintaining long-term contracts. Charges are incurred on a per-minute basis for antenna usage during scheduled tracks. Support is available for S-band uplink and downlink, along with X-band narrowband and wideband downlink. Missions that use the service may reserve tracks with any licensed AWS Ground Station antennas located across each service region and have direct access to any AWS services in support of mission operations. The cloud-based architecture built around the AWS Ground Station service greatly enhanced ASTERIA mission operations by enabling end-to-end pass automation, on-demand contact scheduling and contingency planning, along with more efficient data downlink through station availability and station-tostation handovers. It incorporated open-source software, particularly NASA's AMMOS Instrument Toolkit (AIT) and Open Mission Control Technologies (OpenMCT), along with the AWS application programming interfaces (API) to the Ground Station, Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Simple Storage Service (S3) services. After showcasing operability in August 2019, the team continued using and improving this novel ground system architecture until the end of mission in December 2019. This paper describes the cloud-based ground system, how it was designed, tested, and evaluated with an inorbit spacecraft, the operational capabilities that it enabled, along with lessons learned and recommendations for future missions.

Fesq, Lorraine↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) Lunar Exploration Upgrades (DLEU)

In the near future, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will return to the moon beginning the next era of human exploration. NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program will play a vital role in establishing communications and navigation support to realize the ambitious goals of the Artemis program. SCaN’s overall lunar communications support plan will be covered in a separate 2023 SpaceOps paper: “NASA’s Communications and Navigation Architecture Plans to Support the Return to the Moon and a Sustainable Lunar Presence”. The plan as it currently stands, includes a three-fold approach of lunar relay services, a dedicated set of new ground stations and support through the Deep Space Network (DSN). This paper will have a more granular focus on the DSN and NASA’s plans to upgrade and expand the network to be better suited for human spaceflight on and around the lunar surface. NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) will be a critical communications component for the upcoming lunar activities. There will be multiple spacecraft, using different bands, and some of those spacecraft will be transmitting and receiving using multiple bands, requiring DSN support of S-band (2 GHz), X-band (7 GHz up, 8 GHz down), and K-band (22.5 GHz up, 26 GHz down). Since there may be more than one spacecraft in the beamwidth of the DSN antennas, the DSN support will require an extension of the DSN’s capability to support multiple spacecraft using one antenna, expanding it to provide two simultaneous uplinks in the different bands at each antenna. Achieving this requires using new techniques for manufacturing the frequency selective surfaces, called dichroics, which steer the different frequency beams from and to the appropriate transmitting and receiving equipment, along with the addition of a new K-band uplink system. Additionally, due to the relative closeness of the moon from Earth (as opposed to the planetary missions the DSN supports daily), significantly higher data rates on both uplink and downlink are required, specifically up to 20 Mbps on the uplink and 150 Mbps on the downlink, both using Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) error correcting codes. And, again due to the relative closeness of the moon, there is a need for low latency data delivery of the high rate downlink telemetry which requires a change in the current DSN paradigm of delivering higher rate data with higher latency.

deep space network↗
DOE OSTI2014

The agile alert system for gamma-ray transients

In recent years, a new generation of space missions has offered great opportunities for discovery in high-energy astrophysics. In this article we focus on the scientific operations of the Gamma-Ray Imaging Detector (GRID) on board the AGILE space mission. AGILE-GRID, sensitive in the energy range of 30 MeV-30 GeV, has detected many γ-ray transients of both galactic and extragalactic origin. This work presents the AGILE innovative approach to fast γ-ray transient detection, which is a challenging task and a crucial part of the AGILE scientific program. The goals are to describe (1) the AGILE Gamma-Ray Alert System, (2) a new algorithm for blind search identification of transients within a short processing time, (3) the AGILE procedure for γ-ray transient alert management, and (4) the likelihood of ratio tests that are necessary to evaluate the post-trial statistical significance of the results. Special algorithms and an optimized sequence of tasks are necessary to reach our goal. Data are automatically analyzed at every orbital downlink by an alert pipeline operating on different timescales. As proper flux thresholds are exceeded, alerts are automatically generated and sent as SMS messages to cellular telephones, via e-mail, and via push notifications from an application for smartphones and tablets. These alerts are crosschecked with the results of two pipelines, and a manual analysis is performed. Being a small scientific-class mission, AGILE is characterized by optimization of both scientific analysis and ground-segment resources. The system is capable of generating alerts within two to three hours of a data downlink, an unprecedented reaction time in γ-ray astrophysics.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Real-time Cellular Activity Monitoring using LTE Radio Measurements

As the licensing and deployment of Long term evolution (LTE) systems are ramping up, the study of cellular activity in LTE systems is essential to better understand the spectrum needs and make informed decisions on mobile device (population) density over time. Currently, there are limited mechanisms to non-intrusively monitor mobile device density in real-time. Cellular carriers such as AT&T and Verizon harvest such data through their cell towers; however, this data is proprietary and the carriers restrict access due to privacy concerns. In this paper, we present a system that passively monitors the cellular activity and senses the mobile device density from collected LTE radio measurements without requiring private user information or provider support. This information can be extracted from the downlink control information messages in the LTE physical layer protocol. Downlink LTE radio signals are measured in our locality and analyzed to provide real-time insights to the cellular activity and mobile device count.

Olama, Mohammed M.↗
DOE OSTI2021

NACHOS, a CubeSat-based high-resolution UV-Visible hyperspectral imager for remote sensing of trace gases: system overview and science objectives

Here, the Nano-satellite Atmospheric Chemistry Hyperspectral Observation System (NACHOS) is a high-throughput (f/2.9), high spectral resolution (~1.3 nm optical resolution, 0.6 nm sampling) Offner-design hyperspectral imager operating in the 300-500 nm spectral region. The 1.5U instrument payload (1U optical system, 0.5U electronics module) is hosted by a 1.5U LANL-designed CubeSat bus to comprise a 3U complete satellite. Spectroscopically similar to NASA’s Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), which provides wide-field global mapping of ozone and other gases at coarse spatial resolution, NACHOS fills the complementary niche of targeted measurements at much higher spatial resolution. With 350 across-track spatial pixels and a 15-degree across-track field of view, NACHOS will provide spectral imaging at roughly 0.4 km per pixel from 500 km altitude. NACHOS incorporates highly streamlined gas-retrieval algorithms for rapid onboard processing, alleviating the need to routinely downlink massive hyperspectral data cubes. We will discuss the instrument design, challenges in achieving mechanical robustness to launch vibration in such a compact instrument, the onboard calibration system, and gas-retrieval data downlink strategy. We will also discuss potential science missions, including monitoring of NO 2 as an easily detected proxy for anthropogenic fossil-fuel greenhouse gases, monitoring lowlevel SO 2 degassing at pre-eruptive volcanoes, H 2 CO from wildfires, and characterization of aerosols. The long-term vision is for a many-satellite constellation that could provide both high spatial resolution and frequent revisits for selected targets of interest. As an initial technology demonstration of this vision, the NACHOS project is currently slated to launch two CubeSats in early 2022.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
NASA NTRS1972

Guidance system operations plan for manned CM earth orbital missions using program Skylark 1. Section 2: Data links

A computer program to define the digital uplink and downlink for use in manned command module orbital missions is presented. The subjects discussed are: (1) digital uplink to command module, (2) CMC digital downlink, (3) downlist formats, (4) description of telemetered qualities, (5) flagbits, and (6) effects of Fresh Start (V36) and Hardware Restart on flagword and channel bits.

Hamilton, M. H.↗
NASA NTRS1971

Apollo 16/AS-511/LM-11 operational calibration curves. Volume 1: Calibration curves for command service module CSM 113

Calibration curves for the Apollo 16 command service module pulse code modulation downlink and onboard display are presented. Subjects discussed are: (1) measurement calibration curve format, (2) measurement identification, (3) multi-mode calibration data summary, (4) pulse code modulation bilevel events listing, and (5) calibration curves for instrumentation downlink and meter link.

Demoss, J. F.↗
NASA NTRS1970

Modifications of the wideband FM TDRS system

The wideband FM scheme for the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) system is discussed. The technique achieves a spread-spectrum advantage against multipath and interference through the inclusion of a large deviation FM subcarrier. The signal also permits co-channel spread-spectrum multipath access (SSMA) on the downlink from mission spacecraft to TDRS. Each user is assigned a unique combination of carrier and subcarrier which allows the ground receiver to separate user signals with overlapping spectra. The system was modified by the addition of a low-deviation fine range tone to both the uplink and the downlink, separate from the wide-deviation subcarrier. The magnitude of the interference components due to other SSMA signals are analyzed. A carrier and subcarrier frequency plan was worked out based on the modified signal format. A configuration to accommodate 42 and 60 users is described. The inclusion of ambiguity resolving ranging sidetones is also discussed.

Wachsman, R. H.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Design of communication systems using short-constraint-length convolutional codes.

A method is presented for calculating the effect of carrier-phase reference error in a receiver phase-locked loop on bit error rates in convolutionally coded data, for the practical design of systems using short-constraint-length convolutional codes. A set of design curves shows the relation between design bit error rate, uplink carrier tracking loop SNR, downlink total SNR, and downlink modulation index. These curves make possible rapid and simple system optimization.

Merrill, H. M.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Outer planet Pioneer imaging communications system study

The effects of different types of imaging data compression on the elements of the Pioneer end-to-end data system were studied for three imaging transmission methods. These were: no data compression, moderate data compression, and the advanced imaging communications system. It is concluded that: (1) the value of data compression is inversely related to the downlink telemetry bit rate; (2) the rolling characteristics of the spacecraft limit the selection of data compression ratios; and (3) data compression might be used to perform acceptable outer planet mission at reduced downlink telemetry bit rates.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1976

Signal design study for shuttle/TDRSS Ku-band uplink

The adequacy of the signal design approach chosen for the TDRSS/orbiter uplink was evaluated. Critical functions and/or components associated with the baseline design were identified, and design alternatives were developed for those areas considered high risk. A detailed set of RF and signal processing performance specifications for the orbiter hardware associated with the TDRSS/orbiter Ku band uplink was analyzed. Performances of a detailed design of the PN despreader, the PSK carrier synchronization loop, and the symbol synchronizer are identified. The performance of the downlink signal by means of computer simulation to obtain a realistic determination of bit error rate degradations was studied. The three channel PM downlink signal was detailed by means of analysis and computer simulation.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1977

Mariner Venus Mercury 1973 S/X-band experiment

The S/X-band experiment on the Mariner Venus/Mercury 1973 spacecraft constituted a unique opportunity to demonstrate the capability of an X-band downlink coherent with the normal S-band downlink. This was both a technological and scientific experiment, and the results indicated that it was successful in both cases. Analysis of the tracking data shows that the new S/X data type was capable of reducing the miss distance at the planet Mercury by 80% (post-processed data). The use of S/X electron content was demonstrated by comparison with Faraday rotation data. An X-band turnaround telemetry experiment showed the feasibility of a planetary X-band link. In the science area, the model atmospheric environment of Venus was refined. The ionosphere of the planet was measured to a higher accuracy than before, and the value of the dual-frequency link for measuring the scale size of turbulence was demonstrated. The estimate of the scale size was increased from 100 m to above 5 km.

Levy, G. S.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Sharing the 620-790 MHz band allocated to terrestrial television with an audio-bandwidth social service satellite system

A study was carried out to identify the optimum uplink and downlink frequencies for audio-bandwidth channels for use by a satellite system distributing social services. The study considered functional-user-need models for five types of social services and identified a general baseline system that is appropriate for most of them. Technical aspects and costs of this system and of the frequency bands that it might use were reviewed, leading to the identification of the 620-790 MHz band as a perferred candidate for both uplink and downlink transmissions for nonmobile applications. The study also led to some ideas as to how to configure the satellite system.

Smith, E. K.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Potential digitization/compression techniques for Shuttle video

The Space Shuttle initially will be using a field-sequential color television system but it is possible that an NTSC color TV system may be used for future missions. In addition to downlink color TV transmission via analog FM links, the Shuttle will use a high resolution slow-scan monochrome system for uplink transmission of text and graphics information. This paper discusses the characteristics of the Shuttle video systems, and evaluates digitization and/or bandwidth compression techniques for the various links. The more attractive techniques for the downlink video are based on a two-dimensional DPCM encoder that utilizes temporal and spectral as well as the spatial correlation of the color TV imagery. An appropriate technique for distortion-free coding of the uplink system utilizes two-dimensional HCK codes.

Habibi, A.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Performances of regenerative and non-regenerative satellite repeaters with MPSK signalling

Linear (translation), hard-limited, and demod/remod types of satellite repeaters are considered in this paper. Both uncoded and coded multiple phase shift keyed (MPSK) signals are assumed to be transmitted through these repeaters. Relative performances of these repeaters in the presence of uplink and downlink noises are then compared quantitatively. Probabilities of bit errors and the computational cutoff rates are computed for 2, 4, and 8 phases PSK signals, with uplink and downlink SNRs as parameters.

Woo, K. T.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Orbiter S-band direct link system verification test report

Space-to-ground S-band communications system compatibility and performance tests were performed for the various radio frequency links. These tests consisted of the various uplink and downlink signal combinations (data rates) for the phase modulation system and both realtime and playback data rates for the frequency modulated downlink systems. In addition, tests involving encryption/decryption, Doppler, and acquisition were performed. Results show that the S-band transponder for the space shuttle orbiter is compatible with the S-band equipment of the AFSCF/RTS (Air Force Satellite Control Facility/Remote Tracking Station). It is also concluded that the performance of the orbiter-AFSCF/RTS direct link exceeds the required performance and that this communications link will meet the system requirements of the Space Transportation System.

Vermillion, B. K.↗
NASA NTRS1980

RFI prevention for colocated antennas

Potential radio frequency interference problems related to the colocation of antennas for the Mark 4-A Deep Space network are analyzed. Cases discussed include effects of S-band uplinks on X-band downlinks and S-band downlinks, planetary radar at Goldstone, future X-band uplink, radiometer measurements, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence instrument, and radio astronomy projects. Remedial actions are suggested.

Peng, T. K.↗
NASA NTRS1981

An experimental study of the concatenated Reed-Solomon/Viterbi channel coding system performance and its impact on space communications

The need for efficient space communication at very low bit error probabilities to the specification and implementation of a concatenated coding system using an interleaved Reed-Solomon code as the outer code and a Viterbi-decoded convolutional code as the inner code. Experimental results of this channel coding system are presented under an emulated S-band uplink and X-band downlink two-way space communication channel, where both uplink and downlink have strong carrier power. This work was performed under the NASA End-to-End Data Systems program at JPL. Test results verify that at a bit error probability of 10 to the -6 power or less, this concatenated coding system does provide a coding gain of 2.5 dB or more over the Viterbi-decoded convolutional-only coding system. These tests also show that a desirable interleaving depth for the Reed-Solomon outer code is 8 or more. The impact of this "virtually" error-free space communication link on the transmission of images is discussed and examples of simulation results are given.

Liu, K. Y.↗