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At least 1,693 records · Page 94

INTEGRAL burst alert service

The detection, accurate positioning, and spectral analysis of cosmic gamma ray bursts is an objective of the International Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) mission. Due to their unpredictable nature, gamma ray bursts can only be observed in serendipity mode. In order to allow and promote multiwavelength follow-up observations of such events, it is desirable to make the information available to the astrophysics community with a minimum delay through the use of Internet. Ideally, the data dissemination should occur within a few seconds of the start of the burst event so that follow up observations can proceed while gamma rays are still being emitted. The technical feasibility of building such a system to disseminate INTEGRAL burst alerts in real time is currently under consideration, the preliminary results of which are presented. It is concluded that such an alert service is technically feasible.

Pedersen, H.↗

ATM Quality of Service Tests for Digitized Video Using ATM Over Satellite: Laboratory Tests

A digitized video application was used to help determine minimum quality of service parameters for asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) over satellite. For these tests, binomially distributed and other errors were digitally inserted in an intermediate frequency link via a satellite modem and a commercial gaussian noise generator. In this paper, the relation- ship between the ATM cell error and cell loss parameter specifications is discussed with regard to this application. In addition, the video-encoding algorithms, test configurations, and results are presented in detail.

Ivancic, William D.↗

Feasibility of NASA TT&C via Commercial Satellite Services

This report presents the results of a study to identify impact and driving requirements by implementing commercial satellite communications service into traditional National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) space-ground communications. The NASA communication system is used to relay spacecraft and instrument commands, telemetry and science data. NASA's goal is to lower the cost of operation and increase the flexibility of spacecraft operations. Use of a commercial network offers the opportunity to contact a spacecraft on a nearly "on-demand" basis with ordinary phone calls to enable real time interaction with science events.

Mitchell, Carl W.↗

Replacement Technologies for Precision Cleaning of Aerospace Hardware for Propellant Service

The NASA White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) is developing cleaning and verification processes to replace currently used chlorofluorocarbon-l13- (CFC-113-) based processes. The processes being evaluated include both aqueous- and solvent-based techniques. Replacement technologies are being investigated for aerospace hardware and for gauges and instrumentation. This paper includes the findings of investigations of aqueous cleaning and verification of aerospace hardware using known contaminants, such as hydraulic fluid and commonly used oils. The results correlate nonvolatile residue with CFC 113. The studies also include enhancements to aqueous sampling for organic and particulate contamination. Although aqueous alternatives have been identified for several processes, a need still exists for nonaqueous solvent cleaning, such as the cleaning and cleanliness verification of gauges used for oxygen service. The cleaning effectiveness of tetrachloroethylene (PCE), trichloroethylene (TCE), ethanol, hydrochlorofluorocarbon 225 (HCFC 225), HCFC 141b, HFE 7100(R), and Vertrel MCA(R) was evaluated using aerospace gauges and precision instruments and then compared to the cleaning effectiveness of CFC 113. Solvents considered for use in oxygen systems were also tested for oxygen compatibility using high-pressure oxygen autogenous ignition and liquid oxygen mechanical impact testing.

Harold Beeson↗

Providing Total Quality Fundamentals: 1995 Workshops for the NASA Lewis Research Center's Technical Services Directorate

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) agency-wide movement to cultivate a quality workplace is the basis for Lewis Research Center to implement Total Quality Fundamentals (TQF) initiatives. The Lewis Technical Services Directorate (TSD) introduced the Total Quality Fundamentals (TQF) workshops to its work force as an opportunity to introduce the concepts and principles of TQF. These workshops also provided the participants with the opportunity to dialogue with fellow TSD employees and managers. This report describes, through the perspective of the Lewis TSD TQF Coaches, how the TQF work- shop process was accomplished in TSD. It describes the structure for addressing the need, implementation process, input the TSD Coaches provided, common themes and concerns raised, conclusions, and recommendations. The Coaches concluded that these types of workshops could be the key to open the communication channels that are necessary to help everyone at Lewis understand where they fit in the organization. TQF workshops can strengthen the participant's connection with the Mission, Vision of the Center, and Vision of the Agency. Reconunendations are given based on these conclusions that can help the TSD Quality Board develop attainable measures towards a quality workplace.

Antczak, Paul↗

Development, Validation, and Potential Enhancements to the Second-Generation Operational Aerosol Product at the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

A revised (phase 2) single-channel algorithm for aerosol optical thickness, tau(sup A)(sub SAT), retrieval over oceans from radiances in channel 1 (0.63 microns) of the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) has been implemented at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service for the NOAA 14 satellite launched December 30, 1994. It is based on careful validation of its operational predecessor (phase 1 algorithm), implemented for NOAA 14 in 1989. Both algorithms scale the upward satellite radiances in cloud-free conditions to aerosol optical thickness using an updated radiative transfer model of the ocean and atmosphere. Application of the phase 2 algorithm to three matchup Sun-photometer and satellite data sets, one with NOAA 9 in 1988 and two with NOAA 11 in 1989 and 1991, respectively, show systematic error is less than 10%, with a random error of sigma(sub tau) approx. equal 0.04. First results of tau(sup A)(sub SAT) retrievals from NOAA 14 using the phase 2 algorithm, and from checking its internal consistency, are presented. The potential two-channel (phase 3) algorithm for the retrieval of an aerosol size parameter, such as the Junge size distribution exponent, by adding either channel 2 (0.83 microns) from the current AVHRR instrument, or a 1.6-microns channel to be available on the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission and the NOAA-KLM satellites by 1997 is under investigation. The possibility of using this additional information in the retrieval of a more accurate estimate of aerosol optical thickness is being explored.

Stowe, Larry L.↗

An Analysis of Failure Handling in Chameleon, A Framework for Supporting Cost-Effective Fault Tolerant Services

The desire for low-cost reliable computing is increasing. Most current fault tolerant computing solutions are not very flexible, i.e., they cannot adapt to reliability requirements of newly emerging applications in business, commerce, and manufacturing. It is important that users have a flexible, reliable platform to support both critical and noncritical applications. Chameleon, under development at the Center for Reliable and High-Performance Computing at the University of Illinois, is a software framework. for supporting cost-effective adaptable networked fault tolerant service. This thesis details a simulation of fault injection, detection, and recovery in Chameleon. The simulation was written in C++ using the DEPEND simulation library. The results obtained from the simulation included the amount of overhead incurred by the fault detection and recovery mechanisms supported by Chameleon. In addition, information about fault scenarios from which Chameleon cannot recover was gained. The results of the simulation showed that both critical and noncritical applications can be executed in the Chameleon environment with a fairly small amount of overhead. No single point of failure from which Chameleon could not recover was found. Chameleon was also found to be capable of recovering from several multiple failure scenarios.

Haakensen, Erik Edward↗

Astronomical Software Directory Service

This is the final report on the development of the Astronomical Software Directory Service (ASDS), a distributable, searchable, WWW-based database of software packages and their related documentation. ASDS provides integrated access to 56 astronomical software packages, with more than 16,000 URL's indexed for full-text searching.

Hanisch, R. J.↗

Satellite/Terrestrial Networks: End-to-End Communication Interoperability Quality of Service Experiments

Various issues associated with satellite/terrestrial end-to-end communication interoperability are presented in viewgraph form. Specific topics include: 1) Quality of service; 2) ATM performance characteristics; 3) MPEG-2 transport stream mapping to AAL-5; 4) Observation and discussion of compressed video tests over ATM; 5) Digital video over satellites status; 6) Satellite link configurations; 7) MPEG-2 over ATM with binomial errors; 8) MPEG-2 over ATM channel characteristics; 8) MPEG-2 over ATM over emulated satellites; 9) MPEG-2 transport stream with errors; and a 10) Dual decoder test.

Ivancic, William D.↗

Measurement of the Errors of Service Altimeter Installations During Landing-Approach and Take-Off Operations

The overall errors of the service altimeter installations of a variety of civil transport, military, and general-aviation airplanes have been experimentally determined during normal landing-approach and take-off operations. The average height above the runway at which the data were obtained was about 280 feet for the landings and about 440 feet for the take-offs. An analysis of the data obtained from 196 airplanes during 415 landing approaches and from 70 airplanes during 152 take-offs showed that: 1. The overall error of the altimeter installations in the landing- approach condition had a probable value (50 percent probability) of +/- 36 feet and a maximum probable value (99.7 percent probability) of +/- 159 feet with a bias of +10 feet. 2. The overall error in the take-off condition had a probable value of +/- 47 feet and a maximum probable value of +/- 207 feet with a bias of -33 feet. 3. The overall errors of the military airplanes were generally larger than those of the civil transports in both the landing-approach and take-off conditions. In the landing-approach condition the probable error and the maximum probable error of the military airplanes were +/- 43 and +/- 189 feet, respectively, with a bias of +15 feet, whereas those for the civil transports were +/- 22 and +/- 96 feet, respectively, with a bias of +1 foot. 4. The bias values of the error distributions (+10 feet for the landings and -33 feet for the take-offs) appear to represent a measure of the hysteresis characteristics (after effect and recovery) and friction of the instrument and the pressure lag of the tubing-instrument system.

Gracey, William↗

Roll Utilization of an F-100A Airplane During Service Operational Flying

As a means of evaluating the roll utilization of a fighter airplane capable of supersonic speeds, an instrumented North American F-100A fighter airplane was flown by U.S. Air Force pilots at Nellis Air Force Base, NV, during 20 hours of service operational flying. Mach numbers up to 1.22 and altitudes up to 50,000 feet were realized in this investigation. Results of the study showed that except for high g barrel rolls performed as evasive maneuvers and rolls performed in acrobatic flying, rolling was utilized primarily as a means of changing heading. Acrobatic and air combat maneuvering produced the largest bank angles (1,200 deg), roll velocities (3.3 radians/sec), rolling accelerations (8 radians/sq sec) and sideslip angles (10.8 deg). Full aileron deflections were utilized on numerous occasions. Although high rolling velocities and accelerations also were experienced during several air-to-air gunnery missions, generally, air-to-air gunnery and air-to-ground gunnery and bombing required only two-thirds of maximum aileron deflection. The air-to-air gunnery and air combat maneuvers initiated from supersonic speeds utilized up to two-thirds aileron deflection and bank angles of less than 18 deg and resulted in rolling velocities and accelerations of 2 radians per second and 4.6 radians/sq sec, respectively. Rolling maneuvers were often initiated from high levels of normal acceleration, but from levels of negative normal acceleration only once.

Matranga, Gene J.↗

MPEG-2 Over Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Over Satellite Quality of Service (QoS) Experiments: Laboratory Tests

Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) quality of service (QoS) experiments were performed using MPEG-2 (ATM application layer 5, AAL5) over ATM over an emulated satellite link. The purpose of these experiments was to determine the free-space link quality necessary to transmit high-quality multimedia information by using the ATM protocol. The detailed test plan and test configuration are described herein as are the test results. MPEG-2 transport streams were baselined in an errored environment, followed by a series of tests using, MPEG-2 over ATM. Errors were created both digitally as well as in an IF link by using a satellite modem and commercial gaussian noise test set for two different MPEG-2 decoder implementations. The results show that ITU-T Recommendation 1.356 Class 1, stringent ATM applications will require better link quality than currently specified; in particular, cell loss ratios of better than 1.0 x 10(exp -8) and cell error ratios of better than 1.0 x 10(exp -7) are needed. These tests were conducted at the NASA Lewis Research Center in support of satellite-ATM interoperability research.

Ivancic, William D.↗

PI Microgravity Services Role for International Space Station Operations

During the ISS era, the NASA Lewis Research Center's Principal Investigator Microgravity Services (PIMS) project will provide to principal investigators (PIs) microgravity environment information and characterization of the accelerations to which their experiments were exposed during on orbit operations. PIMS supports PIs by providing them with microgravity environment information for experiment vehicles, carriers, and locations within the vehicle. This is done to assist the PI with their effort to evaluate the effect of acceleration on their experiments. Furthermore, PIMS responsibilities are to support the investigators in the area of acceleration data analysis and interpretation, and provide the Microgravity science community with a microgravity environment characterization of selected experiment carriers and vehicles. Also, PIMS provides expertise in the areas of microgravity experiment requirements, vibration isolation, and the implementation of requirements for different spacecraft to the microgravity community and other NASA programs.

DeLombard, Richard↗

Carrier Estimation Using Classic Spectral Estimation Techniques for the Proposed Demand Assignment Multiple Access Service

In any satellite communication, the Doppler shift associated with the satellite's position and velocity must be calculated in order to determine the carrier frequency. If the satellite state vector is unknown then some estimate must be formed of the Doppler-shifted carrier frequency. One elementary technique is to examine the signal spectrum and base the estimate on the dominant spectral component. If, however, the carrier is spread (as in most satellite communications) this technique may fail unless the chip rate-to-data rate ratio (processing gain) associated with the carrier is small. In this case, there may be enough spectral energy to allow peak detection against a noise background. In this thesis, we present a method to estimate the frequency (without knowledge of the Doppler shift) of a spread-spectrum carrier assuming a small processing gain and binary-phase shift keying (BPSK) modulation. Our method relies on an averaged discrete Fourier transform along with peak detection on spectral match filtered data. We provide theory and simulation results indicating the accuracy of this method. In addition, we will describe an all-digital hardware design based around a Motorola DSP56303 and high-speed A/D which implements this technique in real-time. The hardware design is to be used in NMSU's implementation of NASA's demand assignment, multiple access (DAMA) service.

Scaife, Bradley James↗

Galileo-NMS Field Services

Final Technical Report for NAS5-29344 entitled "Galileo Mass Spectrometer System Field Services."

Carignan, George R.↗

International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry: 2000 General Meeting Proceedings

This volume is the proceedings of the first General Meeting of the International Very Long Base Interferometry (VLBI) Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS), held in Koetzting, Germany, February 21-24, 2000. The content of this volume also appears on the IVS web site at: http://ivscc.gsfc.nasa.gov/publications/gm2000. The goal of the program committee for the General Meeting was to provide an interesting and informative program for a wide cross section of IVS members, including station operators, program managers, and analysts. The program included reports, tutorials, invited and contributed papers, and poster presentations. The tutorial papers should be particularly useful references because each one provides an overview and introduction to a topic relevant to VLBI.

Nancy R. Vandenberg↗

Breadth of Scientific Activities and Network Station Specifications in the International GPS Service (IGS)

A strong multipurpose aspect of the International GPS Service (IGS) is revealed by a glance at the titles of current projects and working groups within the IGS: IGS/BIPM Time Transfer Project; Ionosphere Working Group; Troposphere Working Group; International GLONASS Experiment; Working Group on Low-Earth Orbiter Missions; and Tide Gauges, CGPS, and the IGS. The IGS network infrastructure, in large part originally commissioned for geodynamical investigations, has proved to be a valuable asset in developing application-oriented subnetworks whose requirements overlap the characteristics of existing IGS stations and future station upgrades. Issues encountered thus far in the development of multipurpose or multitechnique IGS projects as well as future possibilities will be reviewed.

Moore, A. W.↗

ATM Quality of Service Parameters at 45 Mbps Using a Satellite Emulator: Laboratory Measurements

Results of 45-Mbps DS3 intermediate-frequency loopback measurements of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) quality of service parameters (cell error ratio and cell loss ratio) are presented. These tests, which were conducted at the NASA Lewis Research Center in support of satellite-ATM interoperability research, represent initial efforts to quantify the minimum parameters for stringent ATM applications, such as MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video transmission. Portions of these results were originally presented to the International Telecommunications Union's ITU-R Working Party 4B in February 1996 in support of their Draft Preliminary Recommendation on the Transmission of ATM Traffic via Satellite.

Ivancic, William D.↗