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NASA NTRS2016

S&MA Internship to Support Orion and the European Service Module

As a University Space Research Association (USRA) intern for NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) during the summer 2016 work term, I worked on three main projects for the Space Exploration Division (NC) of the Safety and Mission Assurance (S&MA) Directorate. I worked on all three projects concurrently. One of the projects involved facilitating the status and closure of technical actions that were created during European Service Module (ESM) safety reviews by the MPCV Safety & Engineering Review Panel (MSERP). The two main duties included accurately collecting and summarizing qualitative data, and communicating that information to the European Space Agency (ESA) and Airbus (ESA's prime contractor) in a clear, succinct and precise manner. This project also required that I create a report on the challenges and opportunities of international S&MA. With its heavy emphasis on soft skills, this project taught me how to communicate better, by showing me how to present and share information in an easy-to-read and understandable format, and by showing me how to cooperate with and culturally respect international partners on a technical project. The second project involved working with the Orion Thermal Protection System (TPS) Process Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (PFMEA) Working Group to create the first full version of the Orion TPS PFMEA. The Orion TPS PFMEA Working Group met twice a week to analyze the Avcoat block installation process for failure modes, the failure modes effects, and how such failure modes could be controlled. I was in charge of implementing changes that were discussed in meeting, but were not implemented real time. Another major task included creating a significant portion of the content alongside another team member outside the two weekly meetings. This project caused me to become knowledgeable about TPS, heatshields, space-rated manufacturing, and non-destructive evaluation (NDE). The project also helped me to become better at working with a small team and helped improved my technical communication skills. My main duty for the third project was creating a Safety Verification Tracking Log (SVTL) for the Orbital Maneuvering System Engine (OMS-E), and contacting subject matter experts to close Hazard Report (HR) control verifications. This project also required me to support other OMS-E safety process tasks, like monitoring OMS-E vibration testing for Quality Assurance (QA) purposes. This project helped me become even more proficient in Excel. Throughout the project, I gained knowledge about the OMS-E system and improved my understanding of pressure systems and propellant systems. In terms of education goals, this work term has affirmed my desire to take a few more space-related courses, like orbital mechanics, so that I can have a better understanding of human spaceflight and the industry surrounding it. However, the work term did not persuade me to pursue a master's degree. In terms of career goals, this work term has helped me clarify the direction I would like to head in the future. The perspective of three summer terms working for NASA in S&MA has allowed me to observe that most S&MA employees joined S&MA after working in other NASA directorates, such as Engineering or Flight Operations. It is my belief that it would be advantageous for both NASA and I for me to broaden my knowledge base and technical skill set by completing hands-on technical work on human spaceflight projects, and for me to integrate my safety experience directly into technical work in other directorates. The other significant advantage to this proposed situation is that if I were to eventually return to S&MA, I would be returning with a substantial set of hands-on technical experience and knowledge, which would be a significant resource for S&MA tasks and projects.

Hutcheson, Connor↗

NASA NTRS2016

Kennedy Space Center Five Year Sustainability Plan

The Federal Government is committed to following sustainable principles. At its heart, sustainability integrates environmental, societal and economic solutions for present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Building upon its pledge towards environmental stewardship, the Administration generated a vision of sustainability spanning ten goals mandated within Executive Order (EO) 13693, Planning for Federal Sustainability in the Next Decade. In November 2015, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) responded to this EO by incorporating it into a new release of the NASA Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan (SSPP). The SSPP recognizes the importance of aligning environmental practices in a manner that preserves, enhances and strengthens NASA's ability to perform its mission indefinitely. The Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is following suit with KSC's Sustainability Plan (SP) by promoting, maintaining and pioneering green practices in all aspects of our mission. KSC's SP recognizes that the best sustainable solutions use an interdisciplinary, collaborative approach spanning civil servant and contractor personnel from across the Center. This approach relies on the participation of all employees to develop and implement sustainability endeavors connected with the following ten goals: Reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Design, build and maintain sustainable buildings, facilities and infrastructure. Leverage clean and renewable energy. Increase water conservation. Improve fleet and vehicle efficiency and management. Purchase sustainable products and services. Minimize waste and prevent pollution. Implement performance contracts for Federal buildings. Manage electronic equipment and data centers responsibly. Pursue climate change resilience. The KSC SP details the strategies and actions that address the following objectives: Reduce Center costs. center dot Increase energy and water efficiencies. Promote smart buying practices. Increase reuse and recycling while decreasing waste. Benefit the community. Meet or exceed the EO and NASA SSPP sustainability goals.

Sustainability↗

NASA NTRS2016

Leadership Development Program Final Project

TOSC is NASA's prime contractor tasked to successfully assemble, test, and launch the EM1 spacecraft. TOSC success is highly dependent on design products from the other NASA Programs manufacturing and delivering the flight hardware; Space Launch System(SLS) and Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle(MPCV). Design products directly feed into TOSC's: Procedures, Personnel training, Hardware assembly, Software development, Integrated vehicle test and checkout, Launch. TOSC senior management recognized a significant schedule risk as these products are still being developed by the other two (2) programs; SVE and ACE positions were created.

Design products required for Engineering↗

NASA NTRS2016

International Earth Science Constellation Mission Operations Working Group September 27-29, 2016 Aqua Spring 2017 IAM Series

This Aqua Spring 2017 IAM Series powerpoint presentation will be presented at the MOWG meeting in Albuquerque, NM. Topics to be discussed are: recap Aqua 2016 IAM campaign maneuver results and post 2016 IAM MLT evolution; current DMU strategy; 2017 IAM campaign dates and planning; Aqua latest lifetime MLT team predictions. Susan Good is a contractor who supports David Tracewell in code 595 therefore this is being routed through 595. Eric Moyer, ESMO Deputy Project Manager-Technical has reviewed and approved this presentation.

Constellation↗

NASA NTRS2016

SGSLR Testing Facility at GGAO

This document describes the SGSLR Test Facility at Goddards Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory (NASA Goddard area 200) and its features are described at a high level for users. This is the facility that the Contractor will be required to use for the Testing and Verification of all SGSLR systems.

SGP Network↗

NASA NTRS2016

Design and Development of a Methane Cryogenic Propulsion Stage for Human Mars Exploration

NASA is currently working on the Evolvabe Mars Campaign (EMC) study to outline transportation and mission options for human exploration of Mars. One of the key aspects of the EMC is leveraging current and planned near-term technology investments to build an affordable and evolvable approach to Mars exploration. This leveraging of investments includes the use of high-power Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) systems evolved from those currently under development in support of the Asteroid Redirect Mission to deliver payloads to Mars. The EMC is considering several transportation options that combine solar electric and chemical propulsion technologies to deliver crew and cargo to Mars. In one primary architecture option, the SEP propulsion system is used to pre-deploy mission elements to Mars while a high-thrust chemical propulsion system is used to send crew on faster ballistic transfers between Earth and Mars. This high-thrust chemical system uses liquid oxygen - liquid methane main propulsion and reaction control systems integrated into the Methane Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (MCPS). Over the past year, there have been several studies completed to provide critical design and development information related to the MCPS. This paper is intended to provide a summary of these efforts. A summary of the current point of departure design for the MCPS is provided as well as an overview of the mission architecture and concept of operations that the MCPS is intended to support. To leverage the capabilities of solar electric propulsion to the greatest extent possible, the EMC architecture pre-deploys the required stages for returning crew from Mars. While this changes the risk posture of the architecture, it provides mass savings by using higher-efficiency systems for interplanetary transfer. However, this does introduce significantly longer flight times to Mars which, in turn, increases the overall lifetime of the stages to as long as 3000 days. This unique aspect to the concept of operations introduces several challenges, specifically related to propellant storage and engine reliability. These challenges and some potential solutions are discussed. Specific focus is provided on two key technology areas; propulsion and cryogenic fluid management. In the area of propulsion development, the development of an integrated methane propulsion system that combines both main propulsion and reaction control is discussed. This includes an overview of potential development paths, areas where development for Mars applications are complementary to development efforts underway in other parts of the aerospace industry, and commonality between the MCPS methane propulsion applications and other Mars elements, including the Mars lander systems. This commonality is a key affordability aspect of the Evolvable Mars Campaign. A similar discussion is provided for cryogenic fluid management technologies including a discussion of how using cryo-propulsion in the Mars transportation application not only provides performance benefits but also leverages decades of technology development investments made by NASA and its aerospace contractor community.

Percy, Thomas K.↗

NASA NTRS2016

Design and Development of a Methane Cryogenic Propulsion Stage for Human Mars Exploration

NASA is currently working on the Evolvabe Mars Campaign (EMC) study to outline transportation and mission options for human exploration of Mars. One of the key aspects of the EMC is leveraging current and planned near-term technology investments to build an affordable and evolvable approach to Mars exploration. This leveraging of investments includes the use of high-power Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) systems, evolved from those currently under development in support of the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), to deliver payloads to Mars. The EMC is considering several transportation options that combine solar electric and chemical propulsion technologies to deliver crew and cargo to Mars. In one primary architecture option, the SEP propulsion system is used to pre-deploy mission elements to Mars while a high-thrust chemical propulsion system is used to send crew on faster ballistic transfers between Earth and Mars. This high-thrust chemical system uses liquid oxygen - liquid methane main propulsion and reaction control systems integrated into the Methane Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (MCPS). Over the past year, there have been several studies completed to provide critical design and development information related to the MCPS. This paper is intended to provide a summary of these efforts. A summary of the current point of departure design for the MCPS is provided as well as an overview of the mission architecture and concept of operations that the MCPS is intended to support. To leverage the capabilities of solar electric propulsion to the greatest extent possible, the EMC architecture pre-deploys to Mars orbit the stages required for returning crew from Mars. While this changes the risk posture of the architecture, it can provide some mass savings by using higher-efficiency systems for interplanetary transfer. However, this does introduce significantly longer flight times to Mars which, in turn, increases the overall lifetime of the stages to as long as 2500 days. This unique aspect to the concept of operations introduces several challenges, specifically related to propellant storage and engine reliability. These challenges and some potential solutions are discussed. Specific focus is provided on two key technology areas; propulsion and cryogenic fluid management. In the area of propulsion development, the development of an integrated methane propulsion system that combines both main propulsion and reaction control is discussed. This includes an overview of potential development paths, areas where development for Mars applications are complementary to development efforts underway in other parts of the aerospace industry, and commonality between the MCPS methane propulsion applications and other Mars elements, including the Mars lander systems. This commonality is a key affordability aspect of the Evolvable Mars Campaign. A similar discussion is provided for cryogenic fluid management technologies including a discussion of how using cryo propulsion in the Mars transportation application not only provides performance benefits but also leverages decades of technology development investments made by NASA and its aerospace contractor community.

Percy, Thomas K.↗

NASA NTRS2015

3rd Annual NASA Ames Space Science and Astrobiology Jamboree

The Space Science and Astrobiology Division at NASA Ames Research Center consists of over 50 civil servants and more than 110 contractors, co-‐ops, post-‐docs and associates. Researchers in the division are pursuing investigations in a variety of fields including exoplanets, planetary science, astrobiology and astrophysics. In addition, division personnel support a wide variety of NASA missions including (but not limited to) Kepler, SOFIA, LADEE, JWST, and New Horizons. With such a wide variety of interesting research going on, distributed among three branches in at least 5 different buildings, it can be difficult to stay abreast of what one's fellow researchers are doing. Our goal in organizing this symposium is to facilitate communication and collaboration among the scientists within the division, and to give center management and other ARC researchers and engineers an opportunity to see what scientific research and science mission work is being done in the division. We are also continuing the tradition within the Space Science and Astrobiology Division to honor one senior and one early career scientist with the Pollack Lecture and the Early Career Lecture, respectively. With the Pollack Lecture, our intent is to select a senior researcher who has made significant contributions to any area of research within the space sciences, and we are pleased to honor Dr. William Borucki this year. With the Early Career Lecture, our intent is to select a young researcher within the division who, by their published scientific papers, shows great promise for the future in any area of space science research, and we are pleased to honor Dr. Melinda Kahre this year

Dotson, Jessie↗

NASA NTRS2016

Advanced Sensor Platform to Evaluate Manloads For Exploration Suit Architectures

Space suit manloads are defined as the outer bounds of force that the human occupant of a suit is able to exert onto the suit during motion. They are defined on a suit-component basis as a unit of maximum force that the suit component in question must withstand without failure. Existing legacy manloads requirements are specific to the suit architecture of the EMU and were developed in an iterative fashion; however, future exploration needs dictate a new suit architecture with bearings, load paths, and entry capability not previously used in any flight suit. No capability currently exists to easily evaluate manloads imparted by a suited occupant, which would be required to develop requirements for a flight-rated design. However, sensor technology has now progressed to the point where an easily-deployable, repeatable and flexible manloads measuring technique could be developed leveraging recent advances in sensor technology. INNOVATION: This development positively impacts schedule, cost and safety risk associated with new suit exploration architectures. For a final flight design, a comprehensive and accurate man loads requirements set must be communicated to the contractor; failing that, a suit design which does not meet necessary manloads limits is prone to failure during testing or worse, during an EVA, which could cause catastrophic failure of the pressure garment posing risk to the crew. This work facilitates a viable means of developing manloads requirements using a range of human sizes & strengths. OUTCOME / RESULTS: Performed sensor market research. Highlighted three viable options (primary, secondary, and flexible packaging option). Designed/fabricated custom bracket to evaluate primary option on a single suit axial. Manned suited manload testing completed and general approach verified.

McFarland, Shane↗

NASA NTRS2008

NASA Crew Exploration Vehicle, Thermal Protection System, Lessons Learned

The Orion (CEV) thermal protection system (TPS) advanced development project (ADP) was initiated in late 2006 to reduce developmental risk by significant investment in multiple heat shield architectural solutions that can meet the needs both the Low Earth orbit (LEO) and Lunar return missions. At the same time, the CEV TPS ADP was also charged with developing a preliminary design for the heat shield to meet the PDR requirement and at the time of the PDR, transfer the design to Lockheed- Martin, the prime contractor. We reported on the developmental activities of the first 18 months at the IPPW5 in Bordeaux, France, last summer. In June 08, at the time of the IPPW6, the CEV TPS ADP would have nearly completed the preparation for the Orion PDR and would be close to the original three-year mark. We plan to report on the progress at the Atlanta workshop. In the past year, Orion TPS ADP investment in TPS Technology, especially in PICA ablative Heat-shield design, development, testing and engineering (DDTE) has paid off in enabling MSL mission to switch from SLA 561 V heat shield to PICA heat shield. CEV TPS ADP considered SLA 561 V as a candidate for LEO missions and our testing identified failure modes in SLA and as a result, we dropped SLA for further evaluation. This close synergy between two projects is a highly visible example of how investment in technology areas can and does benefit multiple missions. In addition, CEV TPS ADP has been able to revive the Apollo ablative system namely AVCOAT honeycomb architecture as an alternate to the baseline PICA architecture and we plan to report the progress we have made in AVCOAT. CEV TPS ADP has invested considerable resources in developing analytical models for PICA and AVCOAT, material property measurements that is essential to the design of the heat-shield, in arcjet testing, in understanding the differences between different arc jet facilities, namely NASA Ames, NASA JSC and Air Force's AEDC, and in Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE), and in integration of and manufacturing heat shield as a system. The capabilities of the two heat shield systems including failure modes via testing and analysis, once established, can serve the Probe Community and future mission designers to inner and outer planetary exploration very well. For example, missions to Venus, Mars and Titan can use either one of the system by selecting the mission design parameters that utilizes the full characteristics of these system to make use of system efficiency that will result in reduced heat shield mass, system robustness that will enhance mission success and cost. We plan to present significant progresses of the past three years and highlight the significant contributions CEV TPS ADP Project has made to advance the state of the art in Thermal Protection System technology that has and will continue to benefit future entry probe missions.

NASA Crew Exploration Vehicle↗

NASA NTRS2016

Reliability and Maintainability Analysis for the Amine Swingbed Carbon Dioxide Removal System

I have performed a reliability & maintainability analysis for the Amine Swingbed payload system. The Amine Swingbed is a carbon dioxide removal technology that has gone through 2,400 hours of International Space Station on-orbit use between 2013 and 2016. While the Amine Swingbed is currently an experimental payload system, the Amine Swingbed may be converted to system hardware. If the Amine Swingbed becomes system hardware, it will supplement the Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) as the primary CO2 removal technology on the International Space Station. NASA is also considering using the Amine Swingbed as the primary carbon dioxide removal technology for future extravehicular mobility units and for the Orion, which will be used for the Asteroid Redirect and Journey to Mars missions. The qualitative component of the reliability and maintainability analysis is a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA). In the FMEA, I have investigated how individual components in the Amine Swingbed may fail, and what the worst case scenario is should a failure occur. The significant failure effects are the loss of ability to remove carbon dioxide, the formation of ammonia due to chemical degradation of the amine, and loss of atmosphere because the Amine Swingbed uses the vacuum of space to regenerate the Amine Swingbed. In the quantitative component of the reliability and maintainability analysis, I have assumed a constant failure rate for both electronic and nonelectronic parts. Using this data, I have created a Poisson distribution to predict the failure rate of the Amine Swingbed as a whole. I have determined a mean time to failure for the Amine Swingbed to be approximately 1,400 hours. The observed mean time to failure for the system is between 600 and 1,200 hours. This range includes initial testing of the Amine Swingbed, as well as software faults that are understood to be non-critical. If many of the commercial parts were switched to military-grade parts, the expected mean time to failure would be 2,300 hours. Both calculated mean times to failure for the Amine Swingbed use conservative failure rate models. The observed mean time to failure for CDRA is 2,500 hours. Working on this project and for NASA in general has helped me gain insight into current aeronautics missions, reliability engineering, circuit analysis, and different cultures. Prior my internship, I did not have a lot knowledge about the work being performed at NASA. As a chemical engineer, I had not really considered working for NASA as a career path. By engaging in interactions with civil servants, contractors, and other interns, I have learned a great deal about modern challenges that NASA is addressing. My work has helped me develop a knowledge base in safety and reliability that would be difficult to find elsewhere. Prior to this internship, I had not thought about reliability engineering. Now, I have gained a skillset in performing reliability analyses, and understanding the inner workings of a large mechanical system. I have also gained experience in understanding how electrical systems work while I was analyzing the electrical components of the Amine Swingbed. I did not expect to be exposed to as many different cultures as I have while working at NASA. I am referring to both within NASA and the Houston area. NASA employs individuals with a broad range of backgrounds. It has been great to learn from individuals who have highly diverse experiences and outlooks on the world. In the Houston area, I have come across individuals from different parts of the world. Interacting with such a high number of individuals with significantly different backgrounds has helped me to grow as a person in ways that I did not expect. My time at NASA has opened a window into the field of aeronautics. After earning a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering, I plan to go to graduate school for a PhD in engineering. Prior to coming to NASA, I was not aware of the graduate Pathways program. I intend to apply for the graduate Pathways program as positions are opened up. I would like to pursue future opportunities with NASA, especially as my engineering career progresses.

Dunbar, Tyler↗

NASA NTRS2017

Cost-Driven Design of a Large Scale X-Plane

A conceptual design process focused on the development of a low-cost, large scale X-plane was developed as part of an internal research and development effort. One of the concepts considered for this process was the double-bubble configuration recently developed as an advanced single-aisle class commercial transport similar in size to a Boeing 737-800 or Airbus A320. The study objective was to reduce the contractor cost from contract award to first test flight to less than $100 million, and having the first flight within three years of contract award. Methods and strategies for reduced cost are discussed.

Welstead, Jason R.↗

NASA NTRS2016

Spaceport Command and Control System Support Software Development

The Spaceport Command and Control System (SCCS) is a project developed and used by NASA at Kennedy Space Center in order to control and monitor the Space Launch System (SLS) at the time of its launch. One integral subteam under SCCS is the one assigned to the development of a data set building application to be used both on the launch pad and in the Launch Control Center (LCC) at the time of launch. This web application was developed in Ruby on Rails, a web framework using the Ruby object-oriented programming language, by a 15 - employee team (approx.). Because this application is such a huge undertaking with many facets and iterations, there were a few areas in which work could be more easily organized and expedited. As an intern working with this team, I was charged with the task of writing web applications that fulfilled this need, creating a virtual and highly customizable whiteboard in order to allow engineers to keep track of build iterations and their status. Additionally, I developed a knowledge capture web application wherein any engineer or contractor within SCCS could ask a question, answer an existing question, or leave a comment on any question or answer, similar to Stack Overflow.

Knowledge Transfer↗

NASA NTRS2017

Cruise Speed Sensitivity Study for Transonic Truss Braced Wing

NASA's investment and research in aviation has led to new technologies and concepts that make aircraft more efficient and environmentally friendly. One aircraft design operational concept is the reduction of cruise speed to reduce fuel burned during a mission. Although this is not a new idea, it was used by all of the contractors involved in a 2008 NASA sponsored study that solicited concept and technology ideas to reduce environmental impacts for future subsonic passenger transports. NASA is currently improving and building new analysis capabilities to analyze advanced concepts. To test some of these new capabilities, a transonic truss braced wing configuration was used as a test case. This paper examines the effects due to changes in the design cruise speed and other tradeoffs in the design space. The analysis was baselined to the Boeing SUGAR High truss braced wing concept. An optimization was run at five different design cruise Mach numbers. These designs are compared to provide an initial assessment space and the parameters that should be considered when selecting a design cruise speed. A discussion of the design drivers is also included. The results show that the wing weight in the current analysis has more influence on the takeoff gross weight than expected. This effect caused lower than expected wing sweep angle values for higher cruise speed designs.

Wells, Douglas P.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Creative Analytics of Mission Ops Event Messages

Historically, tremendous effort has been put into processing and displaying mission health and safety telemetry data; and relatively little attention has been paid to extracting information from missions time-tagged event log messages. Todays missions may log tens of thousands of messages per day and the numbers are expected to dramatically increase as satellite fleets and constellations are launched, as security monitoring continues to evolve, and as the overall complexity of ground system operations increases. The logs may contain information about orbital events, scheduled and actual observations, device status and anomalies, when operators were logged on, when commands were resent, when there were data drop outs or system failures, and much much more. When dealing with distributed space missions or operational fleets, it becomes even more important to systematically analyze this data. Several advanced information systems technologies make it appropriate to now develop analytic capabilities which can increase mission situational awareness, reduce mission risk, enable better event-driven automation and cross-mission collaborations, and lead to improved operations strategies: Industry Standard for Log Messages. The Object Management Group (OMG) Space Domain Task Force (SDTF) standards organization is in the process of creating a formal standard for industry for event log messages. The format is based on work at NASA GSFC. Open System Architectures. The DoD, NASA, and others are moving towards common open system architectures for mission ground data systems based on work at NASA GSFC with the full support of the commercial product industry and major integration contractors. Text Analytics. A specific area of data analytics which applies statistical, linguistic, and structural techniques to extract and classify information from textual sources. This presentation describes work now underway at NASA to increase situational awareness through the collection of non-telemetry mission operations information into a common log format and then providing display and analytics tools to provide in-depth assessment of the log contents. The work includes: Common interface formats for acquiring time-tagged text messages Conversion of common files for schedules, orbital events, and stored commands to the common log format Innovative displays to depict thousands of messages on a single display Structured English text queries against the log message data store, extensible to a more mature natural language query capability Goal of speech-to-text and text-to-speech additions to create a personal mission operations assistant to aid on-console operations. A wide variety of planned uses identified by the mission operations teams will be discussed.

events↗

NASA NTRS2017

Environmental Control Subsystem Development

Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39B, part of Launch Complex 39, is currently undergoing construction to prepare it for NASA's Space Launch System missions. The Environmental Control Subsystem, which provides the vehicle with an air or nitrogen gas environment, required development of its local and remote display screens. The remote displays, developed by NASA contractors and previous interns, were developed without complete functionality; the remote displays were revised, adding functionality to over 90 displays. For the local displays, multiple test procedures were developed to assess the functionality of the screens, as well as verify requirements. One local display screen was also developed.

ECS↗

NASA NTRS2017

Critical Software for Human Spaceflight

The NASA Orion vehicle that will fly to the moon in the next years is propelled along its mission by the European Service Module (ESM), developed by ESA and its prime contractor Airbus Defense and Space. This paper describes the development of the Propulsion Drive Electronics (PDE) Software that provides the interface between the propulsion hardware of the European Service Module with the Orion flight computers, and highlights the challenges that have been faced during the development. Particularly, the specific aspects relevant to Human Spaceflight in an international cooperation are presented, as the compliance to both European and US standards and the software criticality classification to the highest category A. An innovative aspect of the PDE SW is its Time- Triggered Ethernet interface with the Orion Flight Computers, which has never been flown so far on any European spacecraft. Finally the verification aspects are presented, applying the most exigent quality requirements defined in the European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS) standards such as the structural coverage analysis of the object code and the recourse to an independent software verification and validation activity carried on in parallel by a different team.

Preden, Antonio↗

NASA NTRS2017

Overview of the Acoustic Testing of the European Service Module Structural Test Article (E-STA)

The European Space Agency (ESA) and their prime contractor Airbus Defense Space (ADS) are developing the European Service Module (ESM) for integration and utilization with other modules of NASAs Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. As part of this development, ESA, ADS, NASA and the Lockheed Martin Company performed a series of reverberant acoustic tests in April-May 2016 on the ESM Structural Test Article (E-STA), the mechanical mock-up of the ESM designated for mechanical tests. Testing the E-STA under acoustic qualification loads verifies whether it can successfully withstand the medium and high frequency mechanical environment occurring during the vehicles lift-off and atmospheric phases of flight. The testing occurred at the Reverberant Acoustic Test Facility (RATF) at the NASA Glenn Research Centers Plum Brook Station site in Sandusky, OH, USA. This highly successful acoustic test campaign excited the E-STA to acoustic test levels as high as 149.4 dB Overall Sound Pressure Level. This acoustic testing met all the ESA and ADSs test objectives, including establishing/verifying the random vibration qualification test levels for numerous hardware components of the ESM, and qualifying the ESMs Solar Array Wing electrical power system. This paper will address the test objectives, the test articles configuration, the test instrumentation and excitation levels, the RATF site and capabilities, the series of acoustic tests performed, and the technical issues faced and overcome to result in a successful acoustic test campaign for the ESM. A discussion of several test results is also included.

Qualification↗