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At least 1,657 records · Page 92
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1993

UARS in-flight jitter study for EOS

Response data collected from gyroscopes on board the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) provided a unique opportunity to analyze actual flight pointing jitter data. Flight modal frequencies and damping values are derived from the measured data using an Eigensystem Realization Algorithm (ERA). Flight frequencies at various solar array positions are compared to analytical predictions obtained with a Finite Element Model. The solar array modal frequencies change with position due to the modes acting about different spacecraft inertial axes. Higher order modes were difficult to identify due to the limited instrumentation. Future flight jitter studies on other spacecraft would be significantly aided by additional instrumentation. Spacecraft jitter due to continuous disturbance sources such as the 1.6 meter scanning microwave antenna, the solar array drive, and reaction wheels is presented. The solar array drive disturbance dominates the spacecraft response during normal operation.

Molnar, John↗
NASA NTRS1993

Geocenter location and variations in earth orientation using global positioning system measurements

We have studied the use of GPS ground and flight tracking data to measure short-period earth orientation variations and changes in geocenter location. Comparisons between GPS-estimated earth rotation variations and those calculated from ocean tide models suggest that observed subdaily variations in earth rotation are dominated by oceanic tidal effects. Our preliminary GPS estimates for geocenter location agree with an independent satellite laser ranging estimates to 10-15 cm. Covariance analysis predicts that temporal resolution of GPS estimates for earth orientation and geocenter improves significantly when data collected from low earth-orbiting satellites as well as from ground sites are combined. The low-earth GPS tracking data enhance the accuracy and resolution for measuring high-frequency global geodynamical signals over time scales less than 1 day.

Malla, R. P.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Airport Surface Delays and Causes: A Preliminary Analysis

This report summarizes FAA Program Analysis and Operations Research Service (ASD-400)/Lockheed Martin activities and findings related to airport surface delays and causes, in support of NASA Langley Research Center's Terminal Area Productivity (TAP) Program. The activities described in this report were initiated in June 1995. A preliminary report was published on September 30, 1995. The final report incorporates data collection forms filled out by traffic managers, other FAA staff, and an airline for the New York City area, some updates, data previously requested from various sources to support this analysis, and further quantification and documentation than in the preliminary report. This final report is based on data available as of April 12, 1996. This report incorporates data obtained from review and analysis of data bases and literature, discussions/interviews with engineers, air-traffic staff, other FAA technical personnel, and airline staff, site visits, and a survey on surface delays and causes. It includes analysis of delay statistics; preliminary findings and conclusions on surface movement, surface delay sources and causes, runway occupancy time (ROT), and airport characteristics impacting surface operations and delays; and site-specific data on the New York City area airports, which are the focus airports for this report.

Chin, David K.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Dry Air Entrainment into Hurricane Earl

Hurricane Earl formed in the Gulf of Mexico in September 1998. It quickly was upgraded from a tropical disturbance to tropical storm status and then to a hurricane. Earl possessed hybrid (tropical and extratropical) characteristics throughout its lifetime. The system maintained and erratic track, which led to wide variability in the operational track forecasts. It eventually made landfall on the Florida panhandle on 2 September and raced northeastward. During August and September 1998, NASA conducted the third Convection and Moisture Experiment (CAMEX-3). The experiment was focused on studying hurricanes with an emphasis toward developing a better understanding of their intensification and motion. Earl provides a unique opportunity to utilize high spatial and temporal resolution data collected from the DC-8 and high altitude ER-2 NASA platforms, which flew over Earl as it made landfall. These data can also be put into broader view provided by other instruments from the Geosychronous Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellites. Hurricane Earl was affected by entrainment of dry air from the northwest. Hurricane Isis was intensifying and approaching the Mexican Pacific coast with its associated outflow potentially affecting the inflow into Earl as the storm neared Florida. In addition, a longwave synoptic trough circulation was present over the eastern U.S. Either or both of these could be responsible for the dry air into the system. This paper will focus on identifying the source of the dry by using upper-level wind and moisture fields derived from the GOES 6.7 um water vapor imagery. We will attempt to relate the large-scale observations to those from the NASA aircraft. An infrared instrument onboard the ER-2 also has a similar wavelength and may be able to confirm some of the GOES findings. In addition, a microwave radiometer with 4 channels focused on measuring precipitation and its associated ice scattering was also aboard the ER-2. The microwave observations will allow the authors to relate the entrainment to precipitation changes near the flight path of the aircraft.

Guillory, Anthony R.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Entrainment of Upper Level Dry Air Into Hurricane Earl

Hurricane Earl formed in the Gulf of Mexico in September 1998. It quickly was upgraded from a tropical disturbance to tropical storm status and then to a hurricane. Earl possessed hybrid (tropical and extratropical) characteristics throughout its lifetime. The system maintained and erratic track, which led to wide variability in the operational track forecasts. It eventually made landfall on the Florida panhandle on 2 September and raced northeastward. During August and September 1998, NASA conducted the third Convection and Moisture Experiment (CAMEX-3). The experiment was focused on studying hurricanes with an emphasis toward developing a better understanding of their intensification and motion. Earl provides a unique opportunity to utilize high spatial and temporal resolution data collected from the DC-8 and high altitude ER-2 NASA platforms, which flew over Earl as it made landfall. These data can also be put into broader view provided by other instruments from the Geosynchronous Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellites. Hurricane Earl was affected by entrainment of dry air from the northwest. Hurricane Isis was intensifying and approaching the Mexican Pacific coast with its associated outflow potentially affecting the inflow into Earl as the storm neared Florida. In addition, a longwave synoptic trough circulation was present over the eastern U.S. Either or both of these could be responsible for the dry air into the system. This paper will focus on identifying the source of the dry by using upper-level wind and moisture fields derived from the GOES 6.7 um water vapor imagery. We will attempt to relate the large-scale observations to those from the NASA aircraft. An infrared instrument onboard the ER-2 also has a similar wavelength and may be able to confirm some of the GOES findings. In addition, a microwave radiometer with 4 channels focused on measuring precipitation and its associated ice scattering was also aboard the ER-2. The microwave observations will allow the authors to relate the entrainment to precipitation changes near the flight path of the aircraft.

Guillory, Anthony R.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Characterizing diurnal and seasonal cycles in monsoon systems from TRMM and CEOP observations

The CEOP Inter-Monsoon Study (CIMS) is one of the two main science drivers of CEOP that aims to (a) provide better understanding of fundamental physical processes in monsoon regions around the world, and (b) demonstrate the synergy and utility of CEOP data in providing a pathway for model physics evaluation and improvement. As the data collection phase for EOP-3 and EOP-4 is being completed, two full annual cycles (2003-2004) of research-quality data sets from satellites, reference sites, and model output location time series (MOLTS) have been processed and made available for data analyses and model validation studies. This article presents preliminary results of a CIMS study aimed at the characterization and intercomparison of all major monsoon systems. The CEOP reference site data proved its value in such exercises by being a powerful tool to cross-validate the TRMM data, and to intercompare with multi-model results in ongoing work. We use 6 years (1998-2003) of pentad CEOP/TRMM data with 2deg x 2.5deg latitude-longitude grid, over the domain of interests to define the monsoon climatological diurnal and annual cycles for the East Asian Monsoon (EAM), the South Asian Monsoon (SAM), the West Africa Monsoon (WAM), the North America/Mexican Monsoon (NAM), the South American Summer Monsoon (SASM) and the Australian Monsoon (AUM). As noted, the TRMM data used in the study were cross-validated using CEOP reference site data, where applicable. Results show that the observed diurnal cycle of rain peaked around late afternoon over monsoon land, and early morning over the oceans. The diurnal cycles in models tend to peak 2-3 hours earlier than observed. The seasonal cycles of the EAM and SAM show the strongest continentality, i.e, strong control by continental processes away from the ITCZ. The WAM, and the AUM shows the less continentality, i.e, strong control by the oceanic ITCZ.

Lau, William K. M.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Characterizing Diurnal and Seasonal Cycles in Monsoon Systems from TRMM and CEOP Observations

The CEOP Inter-Monsoon Study (CIMS) is one of the two main science drivers of CEOP that aims to (a) provide better understanding of fundamental physical processes in monsoon regions around the world, and (b) demonstrate the synergy and utility of CEOP data in providing a pathway for model physics evaluation and improvement. As the data collection phase for EOP-3 and EOP-4 is being completed, two full annual cycles (2003-2004) of research-quality data sets from satellites, reference sites, and model output location time series (MOLTS) have been processed and made available for data analyses and model validation studies. This article presents preliminary results of a CIMS study aimed at the characterization and intercomparison of all major monsoon systems. The CEOP reference site data proved its value in such exercises by being a powerful tool to cross-validate the TRMM data, and to intercompare with multi-model results in ongoing work. We use 6 years (1998-2003) of pentad CEOP/TRMM data with 2 deg x 2.5 deg. latitude-longitude grid, over the domain of interests to define the monsoon climatological diurnal and annual cycles for the East Asian Monsoon (EAM), the South Asian Monsoon (SAM), the West Africa Monsoon (WAM), the North America/Mexican Monsoon (NAM), the South American Summer Monsoon (SASM) and the Australian Monsoon (AUM). As noted, the TRMM data used in the study were cross-validated using CEOP reference site data, where applicable. Results show that the observed diurnal cycle of rain peaked around late afternoon over monsoon land, and early morning over the oceans. The diurnal cycles in models tend to peak 2-3 hours earlier than observed. The seasonal cycles of the EAM and SAM show the strongest continentality, i.e, strong control by continental processes away from the ITCZ. The WAM, and the AUM shows the less continentality, i.e, strong control by the oceanic ITCZ.

Lau, William K. M.↗
NASA NTRS2011

The Sensor Test for Orion RelNav Risk Mitigation Development Test Objective

The Sensor Test for Orion Relative-Navigation Risk Mitigation (STORRM) Development Test Objective (DTO) ew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-134, and was designed to characterize the performance of the ash LIDAR being developed for the Orion. This ash LIDAR, called the Vision Navigation Sensor (VNS), will be the primary navigation instrument used by the Orion vehicle during rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking. This paper provides an overview of the STORRM test objectives and the concept of operations. It continues with a description of the STORRM's major hardware compo nents, which include the VNS and the docking camera. Next, an overview of crew and analyst training activities will describe how the STORRM team prepared for flight. Then an overview of how insight data collection and analysis actually went is presented. Key ndings and results from this project are summarized, including a description of "truth" data. Finally, the paper concludes with lessons learned from the STORRM DTO.

Christian, John A.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Aqua MODIS 8-Year On-Orbit Operation and Calibration

Launched in May 2002, the NASA EOS Aqua MODIS has successfully operated for more than 8 years. Observations from Aqua MODIS and its predecessor, Terra MODIS, have generated an unprecedented amount of data products and made significant contributions to studies of changes in the Earth s system of land, oceans, and atmosphere. MODIS collects data in 36 spectral bands: 20 reflective solar bands (RSB) and 16 thermal emissive bands (TEB). It has a set of on-board calibrators (OBC), providing sensor on-orbit radiometric, spectral, and spatial calibration and characterization. This paper briefly summarizes Aqua MODIS on-orbit operation and calibration activities and illustrates instrument on-orbit performance from launch to present. Discussions are focused on OBC functions and changes in detector radiometric gains, spectral responses, and spatial registrations. With ongoing calibration effort, Aqua MODIS will continue serving the science community with high quality data products

Xiong, Xiaoxiong↗
NASA NTRS2014

Exploration Medical System Demonstration

BACKGROUND: Exploration class missions will present significant new challenges and hazards to the health of the astronauts. Regardless of the intended destination, beyond low Earth orbit a greater degree of crew autonomy will be required to diagnose medical conditions, develop treatment plans, and implement procedures due to limited communications with ground-based personnel. SCOPE: The Exploration Medical System Demonstration (EMSD) project will act as a test bed on the International Space Station (ISS) to demonstrate to crew and ground personnel that an end-to-end medical system can assist clinician and non-clinician crew members in optimizing medical care delivery and data management during an exploration mission. Challenges facing exploration mission medical care include limited resources, inability to evacuate to Earth during many mission phases, and potential rendering of medical care by non-clinicians. This system demonstrates the integration of medical devices and informatics tools for managing evidence and decision making and can be designed to assist crewmembers in nominal, non-emergent situations and in emergent situations when they may be suffering from performance decrements due to environmental, physiological or other factors. PROJECT OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the EMSD project are to: a. Reduce or eliminate the time required of an on-orbit crew and ground personnel to access, transfer, and manipulate medical data. b. Demonstrate that the on-orbit crew has the ability to access medical data/information via an intuitive and crew-friendly solution to aid in the treatment of a medical condition. c. Develop a common data management framework that can be ubiquitously used to automate repetitive data collection, management, and communications tasks for all activities pertaining to crew health and life sciences. d. Ensure crew access to medical data during periods of restricted ground communication. e. Develop a common data management framework that allows for scalability, extensibility, and interoperability of data sources and data users. f. Lower total cost of ownership for development and sustainment of peripheral hardware and software that use EMSD for data management. g. Provide a better standard of healthcare for crew members through reductions in the time required by crew and ground personnel to provide medical treatment and the number of crew errors experienced during treatment.

Rubin, D. A.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Reconstruction of Twist Torque in Main Parachute Risers

The reconstruction of twist torque in the Main Parachute Risers of the Capsule Parachute Assembly System (CPAS) has been successfully used to validate CPAS Model Memo conservative twist torque equations. Reconstruction of basic, one degree of freedom drop tests was used to create a functional process for the evaluation of more complex, rigid body simulation. The roll, pitch, and yaw of the body, the fly-out angles of the parachutes, and the relative location of the parachutes to the body are inputs to the torque simulation. The data collected by the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) was used to calculate the true torque. The simulation then used photogrammetric and IMU data as inputs into the Model Memo equations. The results were then compared to the true torque results to validate the Model Memo equations. The Model Memo parameters were based off of steel risers and the parameters will need to be re-evaluated for different materials. Photogrammetric data was found to be more accurate than the inertial data in accounting for the relative rotation between payload and cluster. The Model Memo equations were generally a good match and when not matching were generally conservative.

Day, Joshua D.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Using Cloud-Based Storage Technologies for Earth Science Data

Cloud based infrastructure may offer several key benefits of scalability, built in redundancy and reduced total cost of ownership as compared with a traditional data center approach. However, most of the tools and software systems developed for NASA data repositories were not developed with a cloud based infrastructure in mind and do not fully take advantage of commonly available cloud-based technologies. Object storage services are provided through all the leading public (Amazon Web Service, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, etc.) and private (Open Stack) clouds, and may provide a more cost-effective means of storing large data collections online. We describe a system that utilizes object storage rather than traditional file system based storage to vend earth science data. The system described is not only cost effective, but shows superior performance for running many different analytics tasks in the cloud. To enable compatibility with existing tools and applications, we outline client libraries that are API compatible with existing libraries for HDF5 and NetCDF4. Performance of the system is demonstrated using clouds services running on Amazon Web Services.

Data↗
NASA NTRS2018

Changes in Exercise Data Management

The suite of exercise hardware aboard the International Space Station (ISS) generates an immense amount of data. The data collected, treadmill, cycle ergometer, and resistance strength training hardware, are basic exercise parameters (time, heart rate, speed, load, etc.). The raw data are processed in the laboratory and more detailed parameters are calculated from each exercise data file. Updates recently have been made to how these valuable data are stored, adding an additional level of security, increasing accessibility, and resulting in overall increased efficiency of medical report delivery. Questions regarding exercise performance or how exercise may influence other variables of crew health frequently arise within the crew health care community. Inquiries regarding the health of the exercise hardware often need quick analysis and response to ensure the exercise system is operable on a continuous basis. Consolidating all of the exercise system data in a single repository enables a quick response to both the medical and engineering communities. A SQL server database is currently in use, and provides a secure location for all of the exercise data starting at ISS Expedition 1 to current date. The database has been structured to update derived metrics automatically, making analysis and reporting available within minutes of dropping the in-flight data into the database. Commercial tools were evaluated to help aggregate and visualize data from the SQL database. The Tableau software provides manageable interface, which has improved the laboratory’s output time of crew reports by 67%. Expansion of the SQL database, to be inclusive of additional medical requirement metrics, addition of ‘app-like’ tools for mobile visualization, and collaborative use (e.g., operational support teams, research groups, and International Partners) of the data system, is currently being explored.

Buxton, R. E.↗
NASA NTRS2020

Results of the Deep Space Atomic Clock Deep Space Navigation Analog Experiment

The timing and frequency stability provided by the Deep Space Atomic Clock (DSAC) is almost comparable with the Deep Space Network’s ground clocks, and will enable one-way radiometric measurements with accuracy equivalent to cur- rent two-way tracking data. A demonstration unit of the clock was launched into low Earth orbit on June 25, 2019, for the purpose of validating DSAC’s perfor- mance in the space environment. GPS data collected throughout the mission was utilized not only for precise clock estimation, but also as a proxy for deep space tracking data to conduct the Deep Space Navigation Analog Experiment. Through careful processing of GPS Doppler data and limited modeling fidelity representa- tive of deep space navigation capabilities, the analog orbit solutions are compared to higher-fidelity solutions, demonstrating DSAC’s viability as a navigation instru- ment in conditions typical for a low altitude Mars orbiter.

Stuart, Jeffrey↗
NASA NTRS2024

Presound: UAV Diagnostic System Enabled by Vibration-Based Machine Learning

A low-weight, inexpensive small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) that takes off, performs a mission, lands, and safely stows and recharges itself has myriad future applications ranging from agricultural imaging to last-mile package delivery. Likewise, Urban Air Mobility (UAM) systems will enable people to take air taxis from point to point in cities, rapidly moving commuters long distances without concern for road traffic and congestion. Fully electric aviation systems will be cleaner and quieter than ground transport. Cities could eliminate cars and buses, and convert roads to higher capacity bike and pedestrian throughways. Yet, for sUAS as well as UAM, system reliability and assurance is a limiting factor to deploying affordable autonomous flight systems. For this bright future of aviation to be realized, aircraft must be able to autonomously and accurately self-diagnose health issues both before takeoff and during flight. The GreenSight PreSound system is designed to identify defects on aircraft through intelligent analysis of vibration. It accomplishes this by measuring structural vibrations induced by the vehicle’s own propellers, and analyzing that data using a machine learning model that determines whether a defect is present. The PreSound system is designed to require no human oversight, and to operate across a wide array of vehicles through re-training of the model for each target aircraft. PreSound has been developed and seen limited early success using data collected from the GreenSight Dreamer sUAS, a 5lb quadrotor vehicle designed for aerial imaging applications. The final detection model, trained on data with props spinning at 50% throttle, achieves excellent performance with over 99% average accuracy in detecting blade damage using a single FFT vector input. It demonstrates the ability to generalize to new types of blade damage, correctly classifying a different type of blade damage with 98% accuracy. Full test pulses were classified with 100% accuracy, and in live testing, all sets of data during blade movement were classified accurately with over 95% confidence. When trained on in-flight data, the same model achieves an average accuracy of 85% in distinguishing between undamaged and blade-damaged states in flight. The authors believe that these accuracies show significant potential of this approach to expand unmanned flight safety, with significant potential benefits in accelerating Advanced Aerial Mobility (AAM) and UAM aviation applications.

UAS↗
NASA NTRS2005

Heritability of markers of bone metabolism

Several classic twin studies show genetic effects on markers of bone health, including bone mineral density and parathyroid hormone (PTH). This study was performed to assess the relative contribution of genetics to biochemical markers of bone metabolism. Fifteen sets of identical twins (8 male, 7 female) were housed in a clinical research center where diet was controlled (15% protein, 55% carbohydrate, 30% fat) for 3 consecutive days. Each day, 24-h urine pools were collected and N-telopeptide (NTX), deoxypyridinoline (DPD), calcium, and serum PTH were measured. The broad-sense heritability factor (H2) is an estimation of the portion of the total variance of a given phenotype that is attributable to genetic variance. H2 was estimated from the correlation coefficient of the phenotype data. H2 for NTX was 94% for males and 80% for females, DPD was 88% for males and 97% for females, urinary calcium excretion was 97% for males and 90% for females, and PTH was 92% for males and 79% for females. Since environmental variability was minimized for the 3 days of data collection, these heritability factors are likely overestimated. Nonetheless, the data support the concept that PTH is a predominantly heritable trait, and suggest that NTX, DPD, and calcium excretion are as well. These biochemical data support the previously documented heritability of bone health.

Smith, Scott M.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Space technology: A study of the significance of recognition for innovators of spinoff technologies. Commercial Space Expo-USA, 1993

This is a report on the data collected at the Commercial Space Expo. The Expo was held 13-14 April 1993, in conjunction with the National Space Symposium. There were two modes of data gathering: surveys of expo registrants and exhibit feedback. In addition, exhibitors were interviewed to get their perspectives on the format of the expo and exhibits. Expo registrants were given a paper-pencil survey instrument at the beginning of the day and were asked to turn in the survey when they left for the day. Of the approximately 100 registrants, 22 surveys were returned. In the exhibit hall were five computers set up to collect people's reactions to specific exhibits. It was envisioned that people would react to each (or several) exhibits they visited. In fact, few people did this: almost everyone who visited a computer responded to one exhibit and did not stop by another computer. Therefore, we did not get a large number of responses for any particular exhibit. Nevertheless, there are some interesting data.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1971

The Role of Remotely Sensed and Relayed Data in the Delaware River Basin

The planned integration of the existing water quality monitoring and data processing systems in the Delaware River Basin with a data relay experiment proposed for the ERTS-1 is discussed. The experiment is designed to use ERTS-1 as a data relay link for a maximum of 20 hydrologic stations in the basin, including stream gaging, reservoir level, ground water level, and water quality monitoring stations. This experiment has the potential for reducing the time lag between data collection and dissemination to less than 12 hours. The experiment will also provide impetus to develop an operational system of real time data processing and dissemination to handle the large quantity of data that will be obtained from the stations in the basin. The results of this experiment will demonstrate the relative merits of satellite relay of data versus conventional means of data telemetry and will provide a basis for the development of operational satellite relay of hydrologic data.

Paulson, R. W.↗