Computer-based instruction and reference documentation system for the orbit determination program
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With the awarding of multiple contracts within the Artemis program and building on the success of Artemis I, NASA is investing in and demonstrating the vehicle capabilities necessary for a return to human crewed Lunar Missions. To support activities on the lunar surface, NASA is also assessing architecture options and approaches to enable high precision in-situ navigation within the lunar sphere of influence. These capabilities build on decades of research and advancements within the field, building and evolving the techniques used during Apollo. To support inter-operability and broad application within its elements, NASA conducted a trade on Orbital and Surface Lunar Architecture for PNT. Time-defined mission requirements were captured across elements to inform a phased approach and deployment of needed capability. The architecture must also address unique aspects of the South Pole lunar environments, specifically in terms of harsh lighting and hazardous terrain. To inform the study, documentation of primary users, operational concepts of operations, driving scenarios, and mission needs were used to define performance constraints and phasing. Multiple technologies were assessed in terms of maturity, applicability, and performance to meet the primary user needs forecast. The results of this study support the utilization of in-situ orbital infrastructure to provide a back-bone for navigation and emphasize the need for a common Lunar Reference System and Lunar Time Reference. This deployment can ensure compatibility and enable a high-accuracy in-situ capability. This provides further justification for the capabilities being invested in and deployed by NASA and other international agencies. In addition to including advancements in terrestrial surface navigation, NASA is also applying lessons learned and innovation in the contractual approach to the individual elements by means of a services-based contract mechanism. This impacts the navigation architecture heavily in terms of government and provider roles, in terms of levels of implementation, interoperability, and verification. These distinctions in roles provide constraints to the architecture approach in terms of implementation and integration and will be discussed. The development, use, and mandate of interoperability standards are being deployed to support cross-element compatibility. This paper will provide a summary of the NASA Lunar Navigation needs across its various elements and the proposed deployment of an integrated navigation architecture to support early mission needs with inherent extensibility towards the future.
Coordinate transformation between inertial reference system and noninertial acceleration system - clock paradox
A Model Reference Adaptive Controller (MRAC) is derived for a Shuttle payload called the Instrument Pointing System (IPS). The unique features of this MRAC design are that total state feedback is not required, that the internal structure of the model is independent of the internal structure of the IPS, and that the model input is of bounded variation and not required a priori. An application of Liapunov's stability theorems is used to synthesize a control signal which assures MRAC asymptotic stability. Exponential observers are used to obtain the necessary state information to implement the control synthesis. Results are presented which show how effectively the MRAC can maneuver the IPS.
We review the application of millisecond pulsars to define a precise long-term standard and positional reference system in a nearly inertial reference frame. We quantify the current timing precision of the best millisecond pulsars and define the required precise time and time interval (PTTI) accuracy and stability to enable time transfer via pulsars. Pulsars may prove useful as independent standards to examine decade-long timing stability and provide an independent natural system within which to calibrate any new, perhaps vastly improved atomic time scale. Since pulsar stability appears to be related to the lifetime of the pulsar, the new millisecond pulsar J173+0747 is projected to have a 100-day accuracy equivalent to a single HP5071 cesium standard. Over the last five years, dozens of new millisecond pulsars have been discovered. A few of the new millisecond pulsars may have even better timing properties.
A preliminary study of containment systems for aircraft landing on elevated STOL-ports was conducted as part of an overall study of human acceptance problems associated with STOL operations. The study included a survey and feasibility study of different concepts and a computer analysis of four arrestment systems. The principal conclusion was that a system referred to as the FAA system appears to offer the greatest promise. In this system, standard arresting gear cables are stretched across the roof-top, at roughly 100-foot intervals, but are shielded over the 100-foot-wide primary landing strip. Thus a pilot can land with an arresting hook down, but will not contact the cable unless he swerves off the landing strip, either because he has made a bad landing, or because his landing gear has failed. It was also noted that a suitable curb or guard rail should be developed. Presently available arresting gears and nylon net barriers were considered satisfactory for the overshoot problem.
Real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS) is an enabling technology that has transformed engineering experimentation and helped researchers expand modeling capabilities. However, breakthroughs are necessary to expand the range of hybrid simulation methods and, thus, enable experiments with loading conditions representing multiple hazards. This paper discusses the development of a new thermomechanical RTHS framework and a systematic approach to determining RTHS control requirements. First, the framework is established using a representative finite element model of a layered structural system subjected to thermal loading. A complete two-layer system model serves as the reference system, and it is then partitioned into a numerical layer and an experimental layer that share interface conditions. Next, a thermal actuator is introduced to impose dynamic thermal loading on the experimental subsystem, serving as a transfer system. Finally, control and performance metrics are defined to evaluate the realization of interface boundary conditions and map this to the RTHS execution. Through an illustrative example considering the influence of temperature on a lunar habitat, we demonstrate how to establish controller requirements for RTHS and demonstrate that this approach can be used to conduct RTHS on structures with thermomechanical loading.
This report describes a study to evaluate the benefits of advanced propulsion technologies for transporting materials between low Earth orbit and the Moon. A relatively conventional reference transportation system, and several other systems, each of which includes one advanced technology component, are compared in terms of how well they perform a chosen mission objective. The evaluation method is based on a pairwise life-cycle cost comparison of each of the advanced systems with the reference system. Somewhat novel and economically important features of the procedure are the inclusion not only of mass payback ratios based on Earth launch costs, but also of repair and capital acquisition costs, and of adjustments in the latter to reflect the technological maturity of the advanced technologies. The required input information is developed by panels of experts. The overall scope and approach of the study are presented in the introduction. The bulk of the paper describes the evaluation method; the reference system and an advanced transportation system, including a spinning tether in an eccentric Earth orbit, are used to illustrate it.
A description of a mathematical model reference system is presented which provides redundancy management for an electrohydraulic servoactuator. The mathematical model includes a compensation network that calculates reference parameter perturbations induced by external disturbance forces. This is accomplished by using the measured pressure differential data taken from the physical system. This technique was experimentally verified by tests performed using the H-1 engine thrust vector control system for Saturn IB. The results of these tests are included in this report. It was concluded that this technique improves the tracking accuracy of the model reference system to the extent that redundancy management of electrohydraulic servosystems may be performed using this method.
The fixed-lag Kalman smoother (FLKS) has been proposed as a framework to construct data assimilation procedures capable of producing high-quality climate research datasets. Fixed-lag Kalman smoother-based systems, referred to as retrospective data assimilation systems, are an extension to three-dimensional filtering procedures with the added capability of incorporating observations not only in the past and present time of the estimate, but also at future times. A variety of simplifications are necessary to render retrospective assimilation procedures practical. In this article, we present an FLKS-based retrospective data assimilation system implementation for the Goddard Earth Observing System (GOES) Data Assimilation System (DAS). The practicality of this implementation comes from the practicality of its underlying (filter) analysis system, i.e., the physical-space statistical analysis system (PSAS). The behavior of two schemes is studied here. The first retrospective analysis (RA) scheme is designed simply to update the regular PSAS analyses with observations available at times ahead of the regular analysis times. Although our GEOS DAS implementation is general, results are only presented for when observations 6-hours ahead of the analysis time are used to update the PSAS analyses and thereby to calculate the so-called lag-1 retrospective analyses. Consistency tests for this RA scheme show that the lag-1 retrospective analyses indeed have better 6-hour predictive skills than the predictions from the regular analyses. This motivates the introduction of the second retrospective analysis scheme which, at each analysis time, uses the 6-hour retrospective analysis to replace the first-guess normally used in the PSAS analysis, and therefore allows the calculation of a revised (filter) PSAS analysis. Since in this scheme the lag-1 retrospective analyses influence the filter results, this procedure is referred to as the retrospective-based iterative analysis (RIA) scheme. Results from the RIA scheme indicate its potential for improving the overall quality of the assimilation.
The multihundred kW power system management and a distribution program aims to develop critical components, circuits, and subsystems required to manage the generation, storage, and distribution of energy in large, orbital space systems. To accomplish this objective, a reference system including subsystems for the generation and storage of energy and management of electrical and thermal energy was designed and is being used to assess at the system level the impact of changing various subsystem parameters. A power management subsystem will then be designed. The subsystem is autonomous and based on ground utility systems concepts to the maximum extent possible. An agency power system breadboard is under development for characterizing and verifying the various component and subsystem technology developments.
A regional geometrical model for the Whipple-Buckskin-Bullard detachment system (referred to as the Whipple detachment system) is developed. Mineral separates from samples collected in the Harquahala and Buckskin mountains, which lie in the footwall of the Whipple detachment system, are analyzed by the Ar-40/Ar-39 age spectrum technique to determine the cooling history of the mountain range and the age of the metamorphism. Based on the cooling history of the mountains and the bedrock geology of the Harquahala Mountains, the initial geometry of the Whipple detachment system is reconstructed. Next, estimates of slip on the detachment fault and extension within the upper plate terrane are used to determine the regional pattern of extension. The data on the cooling history, structural geometry, and extension pattern are combined into a geometrical model which reconciles the geological data, according to which the breakaway zones represented by the Harquahala Mountains were unroofed by movement on the gently to moderately dipping segment of a great normal fault system as it cut through the upper crust.
This report contains copies of nearly all of the technical papers and viewgraphs presented at the Goddard Conference on Mass Storage Systems and Technologies held in October 1993. The conference served as an informational exchange forum for topics primarily relating to the ingestion and management of massive amounts of data and the attendant problems involved. Discussion topics include the necessary use of computers in the solution of today's infinitely complex problems, the need for greatly increased storage densities in both optical and magnetic recording media, currently popular storage media and magnetic media storage risk factors, data archiving standards including a talk on the current status of the IEEE Storage Systems Reference Model (RM). Additional topics addressed System performance, data storage system concepts, communications technologies, data distribution systems, data compression, and error detection and correction.
The system level results of the system definition studies performed by NASA as a part of the Department of Energy/NASA satellite power system concept development and evaluation program are summarized. System requirements and guidelines are discussed as well as the major elements that comprise the reference system and its design options. Alternative system approaches including different system sizes, solid state amplifier (microwave) concepts, and laser power transmission system cost summaries are reviewed. An overview of the system analysis and planning efforts is included. The overall study led to the conclusion that the reference satellite power system concept is a feasible baseload source of electrical power and, within the assumed guidelines, the minimum cost per kilowatt is achieved at the maximum output of 5 gigawatts to the utility grid. Major unresolved technical issues include maximum allowable microwave power density in the ionosphere and performance/mass characteristics of laser power transmission systems.
The world's two global satellite navigation systems, GPS and GLONASS, will both become operational during the early 1990's. Each will offer, independently of the other, precise location and time transfer continuously anywhere in the world and indeed in space itself. Many potential users, in particular the civil aviation community, are keenly interested in a joint GPS/GLONASS operation since it would offer substantial advantages in defining and maintaining the integrity of the navigation aid. The question arises of compatibility of GPS/GLONASS from the point of view of satellite on-board clocks, their system references, their national standards and ultimately UTC. Results are presented on the characterization of GLONASS system and spacecraft clocks as compared to their Navstar GPS counterparts.
Rubidium 87 atomic time and frequency reference system for manned space flight
The widespread adoption of standard packet-based data communication protocols and services for spaceflight missions provides the foundation for other standard space data handling services. These space data handling services can be defined as increasingly sophisticated processing of data or information received from lower-level services, using a layering approach made famous in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Open System Interconnection Reference Model (OSI-RM). The Space Data System Interconnection Reference Model (SDSI-RM) incorporates the conventions of the OSIRM to provide a framework within which a complete set of space data handling services can be defined. The use of the SDSI-RM is illustrated through its application to data handling services and protocols that have been defined by, or are under consideration by, the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS).