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ESDIS Standards Office (ESO): Requirements, Standards and Practices

The ESDIS Standards Office assists the ESDIS Project in formulating standards policy for NASA Earth Science Data Systems (ESDS), coordinates standards activities within ESDIS, and provides technical expertise and assistance with standards related tasks within the NASA Earth Science Data System Working Groups (ESDSWG). This poster summarizes information found on the earthdata.nasa.gov site that describes the ESO.

Interoperability↗

Frequency standards requirements of the NASA deep space network to support outer planet missions

Navigation of Mariner spacecraft to Jupiter and beyond will require greater accuracy of positional determination than heretofore obtained if the full experimental capabilities of this type of spacecraft are to be utilized. Advanced navigational techniques which will be available by 1977 include Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), three-way Doppler tracking (sometimes called quasi-VLBI), and two-way Doppler tracking. It is shown that VLBI and quasi-VLBI methods depend on the same basic concept, and that they impose nearly the same requirements on the stability of frequency standards at the tracking stations. It is also shown how a realistic modelling of spacecraft navigational errors prevents overspecifying the requirements to frequency stability.

Fliegel, H. F.↗

Nutrition Requirements, Standards, and Operating Bands for Exploration Missions

The challenge was brought forward in early 2005 to define the nutritional requirements for Exploration missions, and to define the relevant standards and associated operating bands related to nutrition. This document is the result of this charge. An extensive review of existing knowledge was conducted with participation of intramural and extramural experts, and the findings are summarized herein. In short, the approach taken was to define the nutrient intake requirements, that is, the amount of each nutrient expected to be available in the food system. The standards are defined as markers of nutritional status, with optimal (green), sub-optimal (yellow), and critical (red) levels for each. For many of the nutrient requirements, it is not known if they are altered during space flight. Furthermore, in many cases the intake of a nutrient may act as a countermeasure to one or more negative effects of space flight, but these potential countermeasures, too, are not well defined. Thus, we have also documented herein the areas where further research is required. Accordingly, while this document is intended as a comprehensive summary of our knowledge to date, it is expected that this is the first edition of these requirements and standards. As we learn more about space-flight nutrition, and as relationships between disease and nutrients are further defined in Earth-based populations, this document, and the approach to nutrition in the space rogram, will need to be updated accordingly.

Neubek, Deborah J.↗

The New NASA Orbital Debris Mitigation Procedural Requirements and Standards

NASA has issued major updates to its principal orbital debris mitigation policy directive and standards. The new NASA Procedural Requirements for Limiting Orbital Debris (NPR 8715.6), with its supporting NASA Standard 8719.14, both refine earlier orbital debris mitigation documents and in some areas expand their applicability. Organizational and individual responsibilities along with general directives are set forth in NPR 8715.6. New requirements include routine conjunction assessments for all maneuverable NASA spacecraft in LEO and GEO, prompt notifications of intended or unintended debris generation, preparation and maintenance of formal end-of-mission plans, and disposal of vehicles in operation around the Moon and Mars and at the Earth-Sun Lagrangian points. NASA Standard 8719.14 replaces the 1995 NASA Safety Standard 1740.14 with no major new requirements but with several refinements and additions, some of which had already been adopted. Compliance with human casualty risk limitations from reentering debris will be calculated explicitly and not be expressed in terms of average debris casualty area. Moreover, the minimum kinetic energy threshold for potentially injurious reentering debris is set at 15 Joules. The overarching requirement for the disposal of GEO spacecraft and launch vehicle orbital stages is to ensure that the vehicles do not come within GEO + 200 km for at least 100 km after end of mission, rather than setting specific requirements for the disposal orbit. Spacecraft operating in or routinely transiting LEO must remain in the region for no more than 25 years after end of mission or 30 years after launch, whichever occurs sooner. A comprehensive new NASA handbook on orbital debris has also been prepared to provide background on the orbital debris environment and the related NASA mitigation requirements and standards.

Johnson, Nicholas L.↗

Materials Requirements for Standard Lunar Highlands Regolith Simulants as Defined by the NASA Simulant Development Program

The development of surface technologies for NASA's human and robotic lunar program beyond 2010 has begun. The multitude of projects underway and future ones will soon rely on the availability of lunar regolith simulant materials chosen to simulate the characteristics of lunar regoliths in order to design, test and qualify prototype hardware and flight equipment. The selection and development of standard lunar regolith simulants (SLRS) for the use of NASA technology programs was one of the main recommendations of the 2005 Workshop on Lunar Regolith Simulant Materials at Marshall Space Flight Center. The realization of that objective is now underway through the NASA simulant development program at the Marshall Space Flight Center. The approach adopted to define materials requirements for standard simulants of regolith from the Highlands regions of the Moon will be presented along with a discussion of limitations inherent to such an endeavor.

Sibille, Laurent↗

Incorporating Research Findings into Standards and Requirements for Space Medicine

The Vision for Exploration has been the catalyst for NASA to refocus its life sciences research. In the future, life sciences research funded by NASA will be focused on answering questions that directly impact setting physiological standards and developing effective countermeasures to the undesirable physiological and psychological effects of spaceflight for maintaining the health of the human system. This, in turn, will contribute to the success of exploration class missions. We will show how research will impact setting physiologic standards, such as exposure limits, outcome limits, and accepted performance ranges. We will give examples of how a physiologic standard can eventually be translated into an operational requirement, then a functional requirement, and eventually spaceflight hardware or procedures. This knowledge will be important to the space medicine community as well as to vehicle contractors who, for the first time, must now consider the human system in developing and constructing a vehicle that can achieve the goal of success.

Duncan, J. Michael↗

Some Observations on Damage Tolerance Analyses in Pressure Vessels

AIAA standards S080 and S081 are applicable for certification of metallic pressure vessels (PV) and composite overwrap pressure vessels (COPV), respectively. These standards require damage tolerance analyses with a minimum reliable detectible flaw/crack and demonstration of safe life four times the service life with these cracks at the worst-case location in the PVs and oriented perpendicular to the maximum principal tensile stress. The standards require consideration of semi-elliptical surface cracks in the range of aspect ratios (crack depth a to half of the surface length c, i.e., (a/c) of 0.2 to 1). NASA-STD-5009 provides the minimum reliably detectible standard crack sizes (90/95 probability of detection (POD) for several non-destructive evaluation (NDE) methods (eddy current (ET), penetrant (PT), radiography (RT) and ultrasonic (UT)) for the two limits of the aspect ratio range required by the AIAA standards. This paper tries to answer the questions: can the safe life analysis consider only the life for the crack sizes at the two required limits, or endpoints, of the (a/c) range for the NDE method used or does the analysis need to consider values within that range? What would be an appropriate method to interpolate 90/95 POD crack sizes at intermediate (a/c) values? Several procedures to develop combinations of a and c within the specified range are explored. A simple linear relationship between a and c is chosen to compare the effects of seven different approaches to determine combinations of aj and cj that are between the (a/c) endpoints. Two of the seven are selected for evaluation: Approach I, the simple linear relationship, and a more conservative option, Approach III. For each of these two Approaches, the lives are computed for initial semi-elliptic crack configurations in a plate subjected to remote tensile fatigue loading with an R-ratio of 0.1, for an assumed material evaluated using NASGRO (registered 4) version 8.1. These calculations demonstrate that for this loading, using Approach I and the initial detectable crack sizes at the (a/c) endpoints in 5009 specified for the ET and UT NDE methods, the smallest life is not at the two required limits of the (a/c) range, but rather is at an intermediate configuration in the range (a/c) of 0.4 to 0.6. Similar analyses using both Approach I and III with the initial detectable crack size at the (a/c) endpoints in 5009 for PT NDE showed the smallest life may be at an (a/c) endpoint or an intermediate (a/c), depending upon which Approach is used. As such, analyses that interrogate only the two (a/c) values of 0.2 and 1 may result in unconservative life predictions. The standard practice may need to be revised based on these results.

Raju, Ivatury S.↗

Facility Systems, Ground Support Systems, and Ground Support Equipment General Design Requirements

This standard establishes requirements and guidance for design and fabrication of ground systems (GS) that includes: ground support equipment (GSE), ground support systems (GSS), and facility ground support systems (F GSS) to provide uniform methods and processes for design and development of robust, safe, reliable, maintainable, supportable, and cost-effective GS in support of space flight and institutional programs and projects.

Ground Support Equipment↗

Group-type hydrocarbon standards for high-performance liquid chromatographic analysis of middistillate fuels

A new high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method for group-type analysis of middistillate fuels is described. It uses a refractive index detector and standards that are prepared by reacting a portion of the fuel sample with sulfuric acid. A complete analysis of a middistillate fuel for saturates and aromatics (including the preparation of the standard) requires about 15 min if standards for several fuels are prepared simultaneously. From model fuel studies, the method was found to be accurate to within 0.4 vol% saturates or aromatics, and provides a precision of + or - 0.4 vol%. Olefin determinations require an additional 15 min of analysis time. However, this determination is needed only for those fuels displaying a significant olefin response at 200 nm (obtained routinely during the saturated/aromatics analysis procedure). The olefin determination uses the responses of the olefins and the corresponding saturates, as well as the average value of their refractive index sensitivity ratios (1.1). Studied indicated that, although the relative error in the olefins result could reach 10 percent by using this average sensitivity ratio, it was 5 percent for the fuels used in this study. Olefin concentrations as low as 0.1 vol% have been determined using this method.

Otterson, D. A.↗

Flywheel Rotor Safe-Life Technology

Since the 1960s, research has been conducted into the use of flywheels as energy storage systems. The-proposed applications include energy storage for hybrid and electric automobiles, attitude control and energy storage for satellites, and uninterruptible power supplies for hospitals and computer centers. For many years, however, the use of flywheels for space applications was restricted by the total weight of a system employing a metal rotor. With recent technological advances in the manufacturing of composite materials, however, lightweight composite rotors have begun to be proposed for such applications. Flywheels with composite rotors provide much higher power and energy storage capabilities than conventional chemical batteries. However, the failure of a high speed flywheel rotor could be a catastrophic event. For this reason, flywheel rotors are classified by the NASA Fracture Control Requirements Standard as fracture critical parts. Currently, there is no industry standard to certify a composite rotor for safe and reliable operation forth( required lifetime of the flywheel. Technical problems hindering the development of this standard include composite manufacturing inconsistencies, insufficient nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques for detecting defects and/or impact damage, lack of standard material test methods for characterizing composite rotor design allowables, and no unified proof (over-spin) test for flight rotors. As part of a flywheel rotor safe-life certification pro-ram funded b the government, a review of the state of the art in composite rotors is in progress. The goal of the review is to provide a clear picture of composite flywheel rotor technologies. The literature review has concentrated on the following topics concerning composites and composite rotors: durability (fatigue) and damage tolerance (safe-life) analysis/test methods, in-service NDE and health monitoring techniques, spin test methods/ procedures, and containment options. This report presents the papers selected for their relevance to this topic and summarizes them.

Ratner, J. K. H.↗

Software Quality Assurance Metrics

Software Quality Assurance (SQA) is a planned and systematic set of activities that ensures conformance of software life cycle processes and products conform to requirements, standards and procedures. In software development, software quality means meeting requirements and a degree of excellence and refinement of a project or product. Software Quality is a set of attributes of a software product by which its quality is described and evaluated. The set of attributes includes functionality, reliability, usability, efficiency, maintainability, and portability. Software Metrics help us understand the technical process that is used to develop a product. The process is measured to improve it and the product is measured to increase quality throughout the life cycle of software. Software Metrics are measurements of the quality of software. Software is measured to indicate the quality of the product, to assess the productivity of the people who produce the product, to assess the benefits derived from new software engineering methods and tools, to form a baseline for estimation, and to help justify requests for new tools or additional training. Any part of the software development can be measured. If Software Metrics are implemented in software development, it can save time, money, and allow the organization to identify the caused of defects which have the greatest effect on software development. The summer of 2004, I worked with Cynthia Calhoun and Frank Robinson in the Software Assurance/Risk Management department. My task was to research and collect, compile, and analyze SQA Metrics that have been used in other projects that are not currently being used by the SA team and report them to the Software Assurance team to see if any metrics can be implemented in their software assurance life cycle process.

McRae, Kalindra A.↗

Requirement for a standard language for test and ground operations

The basic requirements for a standard test and checkout language applicable to all phases of the space shuttle test and ground operations are determined. The general characteristics outlined here represent the integration of selected ideas and concepts from operational elements within Kennedy Space Center (KSC) that represent diverse disciplines associated with space vehicle testing and launching operations. Special reference is made to two studies conducted in this area for KSC as authorized by the Advanced Development Element of the Office of Manned Space Flight (MSF). Information contained in reports from these studies have contributed significantly to the final selection of language features depicted in this technical report.

Medlock, J. R.↗

Optically coupled digital altitude encoder for general aviation altimeters

An optically coupled pressure altitude encoder which can be incorporated into commercially available inexpensive general aviation altimeters was successfully developed. The encoding of pressure altitude is accomplished in 100-ft (30.48-m) increments from -1000 to 20,000ft (-304.8 to 6096 m). The prototype encoders were retrofitted into two different internal altimeter configurations. A prototype encoder was checked for accuracy of transition points and environmental effects. Each altimeter configuration, with the encoder incorporated, was laboratory tested for performance and was subsequently flight-tested over the specified altitude range. With few exceptions, the assembled altimeter-encoder met aeronautical standards for altimeters and encoders. Design changes are suggested to improve performance to meet required standards consistently.

Bryant, F. R.↗

Microbial Survival in Brewed Tea

Loose-leaf bagged tea is a commonly requested crew food item that comprises up to 7% of samples in the spaceflight food system. Tea preferences are typically specific and vary between different crew members, and there is significant interest to provide preferred food selections for the physical and mental wellbeing of the crew. Loose leaf bagged teas are made from herbs and spices that frequently have high microbial loads which do not meet the microbiological standards outlined in NASA-STD-3001. The food industry on earth does not require standards for microbial load of loose-leaf teas, because tea is brewed in boiling (100C) water, which is assumed to reduce the number of microorganisms. However, hot water from the ISS PWD is typically dispensed at a temperature between 155F (68C) and 175F (79C), which is below the suggested temperature range for safe brewing (180F/80C – 212F/100C). In this study, a commonly requested chamomile tea bags were infected with Bacillus cereus, a pathogenic, spore forming bacterium known to cause foodborne illness. Brewing B. cereus infected tea bags with boiling (212F/100C) or ISS PWD (155F/68C) temperature water showed no significant reduction in the overall microbial load of the tea (p=0.535). The addition of boiling and ISS PWD temperature water also was not sufficient to kill 100% of the infected B. cereus, and in one case of ISS PWD temperature water, B. cereus was detected at levels above a previously reported infectious dose. This study showed that the microbiological risk associated with drinking brewed tea on ISS is not reduced by the brewing process.

S G Thornhill↗

International Planetary Data Alliance (IPDA) Information Model

This document is the third deliverable of the International Planetary Data Alliance (IPDA) Archive Data Standards Requirements Identification project. The goal of the project is to identify a subset of the standards currently in use by NASAs Planetary Data System (PDS) that are appropriate for internationalization. As shown in the highlighted sections of Figure 1, the focus of this project is the Information Model component of the Data Architecture Standards, namely the object models, a data dictionary, and a set of data formats.

information model↗

Time-synchronized VLF phase-tracking receiver

Coded signals transmitted at very low frequencies by National Bureau of Standards via its radio facility WWVL contain both primary time and frequency information. Synchronization of local time with WWVL signal standard requires comparison of phase differences between transmitted signal and output of traveling atomic clock such as rubidium frequency standard.

Ward, S. C.↗

James Webb Space Telescope XML Database: From the Beginning to Today

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Project has been defining, developing, and exercising the use of a common eXtensible Markup Language (XML) for the command and telemetry (C&T) database structure. JWST is the first large NASA space mission to use XML for databases. The JWST project started developing the concepts for the C&T database in 2002. The database will need to last at least 20 years since it will be used beginning with flight software development, continuing through Observatory integration and test (I&T) and through operations. Also, a database tool kit has been provided to the 18 various flight software development laboratories located in the United States, Europe, and Canada that allows the local users to create their own databases. Recently the JWST Project has been working with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Object Management Group (OMG) XML Telemetry and Command Exchange (XTCE) personnel to provide all the information needed by JWST and JPL for exchanging database information using a XML standard structure. The lack of standardization requires custom ingest scripts for each ground system segment, increasing the cost of the total system. Providing a non-proprietary standard of the telemetry and command database definition formation will allow dissimilar systems to communicate without the need for expensive mission specific database tools and testing of the systems after the database translation. The various ground system components that would benefit from a standardized database are the telemetry and command systems, archives, simulators, and trending tools. JWST has exchanged the XML database with the Eclipse, EPOCH, ASIST ground systems, Portable spacecraft simulator (PSS), a front-end system, and Integrated Trending and Plotting System (ITPS) successfully. This paper will discuss how JWST decided to use XML, the barriers to a new concept, experiences utilizing the XML structure, exchanging databases with other users, and issues that have been experienced in creating databases for the C&T system.

Gal-Edd, Jonathan↗