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NASA NTRS2011

Report on the Global Data Assembly Center (GDAC) to the 12th GHRSST Science Team Meeting

In 2010/2011 the Global Data Assembly Center (GDAC) at NASA's Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) continued its role as the primary clearinghouse and access node for operational Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) datastreams, as well as its collaborative role with the NOAA Long Term Stewardship and Reanalysis Facility (LTSRF) for archiving. Here we report on our data management activities and infrastructure improvements since the last science team meeting in June 2010.These include the implementation of all GHRSST datastreams in the new PO.DAAC Data Management and Archive System (DMAS) for more reliable and timely data access. GHRSST dataset metadata are now stored in a new database that has made the maintenance and quality improvement of metadata fields more straightforward. A content management system for a revised suite of PO.DAAC web pages allows dynamic access to a subset of these metadata fields for enhanced dataset description as well as discovery through a faceted search mechanism from the perspective of the user. From the discovery and metadata standpoint the GDAC has also implemented the NASA version of the OpenSearch protocol for searching for GHRSST granules and developed a web service to generate ISO 19115-2 compliant metadata records. Furthermore, the GDAC has continued to implement a new suite of tools and services for GHRSST datastreams including a Level 2 subsetter known as Dataminer, a revised POET Level 3/4 subsetter and visualization tool, a Google Earth interface to selected daily global Level 2 and Level 4 data, and experimented with a THREDDS catalog of GHRSST data collections. Finally we will summarize the expanding user and data statistics, and other metrics that we have collected over the last year demonstrating the broad user community and applications that the GHRSST project continues to serve via the GDAC distribution mechanisms. This report also serves by extension to summarize the activities of the GHRSST Data Assembly and Systems Technical Advisory Group (DAS-TAG).

sea surface temperature (SST)↗

NASA NTRS2004

Mechanism for Self-Reacted Friction Stir Welding

A mechanism has been designed to apply the loads (the stirring and the resection forces and torques) in self-reacted friction stir welding. This mechanism differs somewhat from mechanisms used in conventional friction stir welding, as described below. The tooling needed to apply the large reaction loads in conventional friction stir welding can be complex. Self-reacted friction stir welding has become popular in the solid-state welding community as a means of reducing the complexity of tooling and to reduce costs. The main problems inherent in self-reacted friction stir welding originate in the high stresses encountered by the pin-and-shoulder assembly that produces the weld. The design of the present mechanism solves the problems. The mechanism includes a redesigned pin-and-shoulder assembly. The welding torque is transmitted into the welding pin by a square pin that fits into a square bushing with set-screws. The opposite or back shoulder is held in place by a Woodruff key and high-strength nut on a threaded shaft. The Woodruff key reacts the torque, while the nut reacts the tensile load on the shaft.

Venable, Richard↗

NASA NTRS2014

NASA-DoD Lower Process Temperature Lead-Free Solder Project Overview

This project is a follow-on effort to the Joint Council on Aging AircraftJoint Group on Pollution Prevention (JCAAJG-PP) Pb-free Solder Project and NASA-DoD Lead-Free Electronics Project which were the first projects to test the reliability of Pb-free solder joints against the requirements of the aerospace and military community. This effort would continue to build on the results from the JCAAJG-PP Lead-Free Solder Project and NASA-DoD Lead-Free Electronics Project while focusing on a particular failure mechanism currently plaguing Pb-free assemblies, pad cratering.The NASA-DoD Lead-Free Electronics Project confirmed that pad cratering is one of the dominant failure modes that occur in various board level reliability tests, especially under dynamic loading. Pad Cratering is a latent defect that may occur during assembly, rework, and post assembly handling and testing.

electronics↗

NASA NTRS2010

Development of a Solar Array Drive Assembly for CubeSat

Small satellites and in particular CubeSats, have increasingly become more viable as platforms for payloads typically requiring much larger bus structures. As advances in technology make payloads and instruments for space missions smaller, lighter and more power efficient, a niche market is emerging from the university community to perform rapidly developed, low-cost missions on very small spacecraft - micro, nano, and picosatellites. In just the last few years, imaging, biological and new technology demonstration missions have been either proposed or have flown using variations of the CubeSat structure as a basis. As these missions have become more complex, and the CubeSat standard has increased in both size (number of cubes) and mass, available power has become an issue. Body-mounted solar cells provide a minimal amount of power; deployable arrays improve on that baseline but are still limited. To truly achieve maximum power, deployed tracked arrays are necessary. To this end, Honeybee Robotics Spacecraft Mechanisms Corporation, along with MMA of Nederland Colorado, has developed a solar array drive assembly (SADA) and deployable solar arrays specifically for CubeSat missions. In this paper, we discuss the development of the SADA.

Passaretti, Mike↗

NASA NTRS2012

An Efficient and Versatile Means for Assembling and Manufacturing Systems in Space

Within NASA Space Science, Exploration and the Office of Chief Technologist, there are Grand Challenges and advanced future exploration, science and commercial mission applications that could benefit significantly from large-span and large-area structural systems. Of particular and persistent interest to the Space Science community is the desire for large (in the 10- 50 meter range for main aperture diameter) space telescopes that would revolutionize space astronomy. Achieving these systems will likely require on-orbit assembly, but previous approaches for assembling large-scale telescope truss structures and systems in space have been perceived as very costly because they require high precision and custom components. These components rely on a large number of mechanical connections and supporting infrastructure that are unique to each application. In this paper, a new assembly paradigm that mitigates these concerns is proposed and described. A new assembly approach, developed to implement the paradigm, is developed incorporating: Intelligent Precision Jigging Robots, Electron-Beam welding, robotic handling/manipulation, operations assembly sequence and path planning, and low precision weldable structural elements. Key advantages of the new assembly paradigm, as well as concept descriptions and ongoing research and technology development efforts for each of the major elements are summarized.

Dorsey, John T.↗

NASA NTRS2015

biOrigami: A New Approach to Reduce the Cost of Space Missions

Space exploration lies at the inquisitive core of human nature, yet high costs hinder the advancement of this frontier. We are harnessing the replicative properties of biology to create biOrigamibiological, self-folding origamito reduce the mass, volume, and assembly time of materials needed for space missions. biOrigami consists of two main components: manufacturing substrates biologically and bioengineering folding mechanisms. For substrates, we are developing new BioBricks to synthesize two thermoplastics: polystyrene and polyhydroxyalkanoates. For folding mechanisms, we are using heat-induced contraction of thermoplastics and the contractile properties of bacterial spores. After consulting with experts, we believe that biOrigami could be incorporated into rovers, solar sails, and more. In addition to biOrigami, we are creating a novel method to efficiently transform bacteria by using the CRISPRCas9 system, benefitting the broader synthetic biology community. Our project integrates and improves manufacturing processes for space exploration on both the micro and macro levels.

Space Exploration↗

NASA NTRS2013

SMAP Instrument Mechanical System Engineering

The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, scheduled for launch by the end of 2014, is being developed to measure the soil moisture and soil freeze/thaw state on a global scale over a three-year period. The accuracy, resolution, and global coverage of SMAP measurements are invaluable across many science and applications disciplines including hydrology, climate, carbon cycle, and the meteorological, environment, and ecology applications communities. The SMAP observatory is composed of a despun bus and a spinning instrument platform that includes both a deployable 6 meter aperture low structural frequency Astromesh reflector and a spin control system. The instrument section has engendered challenging mechanical system issues associated with the antenna deployment, flexible antenna pointing in the context of a multitude of disturbances, spun section mass properties, spin control system development, and overall integration with the flight system on both mechanical and control system levels. Moreover, the multitude of organizations involved, including two major vendors providing the spin subsystem and reflector boom assembly plus the flight system mechanical and guidance, navigation, and control teams, has led to several unique system engineering challenges. Capturing the key physics associated with the function of the flight system has been challenging due to the many different domains that are applicable. Key interfaces and operational concepts have led to complex negotiations because of the large number of organizations that integrate with the instrument mechanical system. Additionally, the verification and validation concerns associated with the mechanical system have had required far-reaching involvement from both the flight system and other subsystems. The SMAP instrument mechanical systems engineering issues and their solutions are described in this paper.

mechanical systems.↗

NASA NTRS2022

Adaptations of Endolithic Communities to Abrupt Environmental Changes in A Hyper-Arid Desert

The adaptation mechanisms of microbial communities to natural perturbations remain relatively unexplored, particularly in extreme environments. The extremophilic communities of halite (NaCl) nodules from the hyper-arid core of the Atacama Desert are self-sustained and represent a unique opportunity to study functional adaptations and community dynamics with changing environmental conditions. We transplanted halite nodules to different sites in the desert and investigated how their taxonomic, cellular, and biochemical changes correlated with water availability, using environmental data modeling and metagenomic analyses. Salt-in strategists, mainly represented by haloarchaea, significantly increased in relative abundance at sites characterized by extreme dryness, multiple wet/dry cycles, and colder conditions. The functional analysis of metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) revealed site-specific enrichments in archaeal MAGs encoding for the uptake of various compatible solutes and for glycerol utilization. These findings suggest that opportunistic salt-in strategists took over the halite communities at the driest sites. They most likely benefited from metabolites newly released in the environment by the death of microorganisms least adapted to the new conditions. The observed changes were consistent with the need to maximize cellular bioenergetics when confronted with lower water availability and higher salinity, providing valuable information on microbial community adaptations and resilience to climate change.

Atacama↗

NASA NTRS2011

Metrics for Operator Situation Awareness, Workload, and Performance in Automated Separation Assurance Systems

A research consortium of scientists and engineers from California State University Long Beach (CSULB), San Jose State University Foundation (SJSUF), California State University Northridge (CSUN), Purdue University, and The Boeing Company was assembled to evaluate the impact of changes in roles and responsibilities and new automated technologies, being introduced in the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), on operator situation awareness (SA) and workload. To meet these goals, consortium members performed systems analyses of NextGen concepts and airspace scenarios, and concurrently evaluated SA, workload, and performance measures to assess their appropriateness for evaluations of NextGen concepts and tools. The following activities and accomplishments were supported by the NRA: a distributed simulation, metric development, systems analysis, part-task simulations, and large-scale simulations. As a result of this NRA, we have gained a greater understanding of situation awareness and its measurement, and have shared our knowledge with the scientific community. This network provides a mechanism for consortium members, colleagues, and students to pursue research on other topics in air traffic management and aviation, thus enabling them to make greater contributions to the field

Strybel, Thomas Z.↗

NASA NTRS1996

From Competence to Efficiency: A Tale of GA Progress

Genetic algorithms (GAs) - search procedures based on the mechanics of natural selection and genetics - have grown in popularity for the solution of difficult optimization problems. Concomitant with this growth has been a rising cacaphony of complaint asserting that too much time must be spent by the GA practitioner diddling with codes, operators, and GA parameters; and even then these GA cassandras continue, and the user is still unsure that the effort will meet with success. At the same time, there has been a rising interest in GA theory by a growing community - a theorocracy - of mathematicians and theoretical computer scientists, and these individuals have turned their efforts increasingly toward elegant abstract theorems and proofs that seem to the practitioner to offer little in the way of answers for GA design or practice. What both groups seem to have missed is the largely unheralded 1993 assembly of integrated, applicable theory and its experimental confirmation. This theory has done two key things. First, it has predicted that simple GAs are severely limited in the difficulty of problems they can solve, and these limitations have been confirmed experimentally. Second, it has shown the path to circumventing these limitations in nontraditional GA designs such as the fast messy GA. This talk surveys the history, methodology, and accomplishment of the 1993 applicable theory revolution. After arguing that these accomplishments open the door to universal GA competence, the paper shifts the discussion to the possibility of universal GA efficiency in the utilization of time and real estate through effective parallelization, temporal decomposition, hybridization, and relaxed function evaluation. The presentation concludes by suggesting that these research directions are quickly taking us to a golden age of adaptation.

Goldberg, David E.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Systems special investigation group overview

The Systems Special Investigation Group (SIG) has undertaken investigations in the four major engineering disciplines represented in the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) hardware: electrical, mechanical, thermal, and optical systems. Testing was planned for the highest possible level of assembly, and top level system tests for nearly all systems were performed at this time. To date, testing was performed on a mix of LDEF and individual experimenter systems. No electrical or mechanical system level failures attributed to the spaceflight environment have yet been detected. Some low cost electrical components were used successfully, although relays were a continuing problem. Mechanical galling was observed unexpectedly, but no evidence of cold welding was identified yet. A working index of observed systems anomalies was created and will be used to support the tracking and resolution of these effects. The LDEF hardware currently available to the Systems SIG includes most of the LDEF systems hardware, and some significant experimenter hardware as well. A series of work packages was developed for each of several subsystem types where further testing is of critical interest. The System SIG is distributing a regular newsletter to the greater LDEF community in order to maintain coherence in an investigation which is widely scattered both in subject matter and in geography. Circulation of this informal document has quadrupled in its first year.

Mason, James B.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Systems special investigation group overview

The Systems Special Investigation Group (SIG) has undertaken investigations in the four major engineering disciplines represented by LDEF hardware: electrical, mechanical, thermal, and optical systems. Testing was planned for the highest possible level of assembly, and top level system tests for nearly all systems were performed at this time. Testing to date was performed on a mix of LDEF and individual experimenter systems. No electrical or mechanical system level failures attributed to the spaceflight environment were detected by the Systems SIG. Some low cost electrical components were used successfully, although relays were a continuing problem. Extensive mechanical galling was observed, but no evidence of coldwelding was identified. A working index of observed systems anomalies was created and will be used to support the tracking and resolution of these effects. LDEF hardware currently available to the Systems SIG includes most of the LDEF facility systems hardware, and some significant experimenter hardware as well. A series of work packages was developed for each of several subsystem types where further testing is of critical interest. The Systems SIG is distributing a regular newsletter to the greater LDEF community in order to maintain coherence in an investigation which is widely scattered both in subject matter and in geography. Circulation of this informal document has quadrupled in its first year.

James B Mason↗

NASA NTRS2000

Diagnostic Techniques Used to Study Chemical-Vapor-Deposited Diamond Films

The advantages and utility of chemical-vapor-deposited (CVD) diamond as an industrial ceramic can only be realized if the price and quality are right. Until recently, this technology was of interest only to the academic and basic research community. However, interest has grown because of advances made by leading CVD diamond suppliers: 1) Reduction of the cost of CVD polycrystalline diamond deposition below $5/carat ($8/sq cm); 2) Installation of production capacity; 3) Epitaxial growth of CVD single-crystal diamond. Thus, CVD diamond applications and business are an industrial reality. At present, CVD diamond is produced in the form of coatings or wafers. CVD diamond film technology offers a broader technological potential than do natural and high-pressure synthetic diamonds because size, geometry, and eventually cost will not be as limiting. Now that they are cost effective, diamond coatings - with their extreme properties - can be used in a variety of applications. Diamond coatings can improve many of the surface properties of engineering substrate materials, including erosion, corrosion, and wear resistance. Examples of actual and potential applications, from microelectromechanical systems to the wear parts of diamond coatings and related superhard coatings are described. For example, diamond coatings can be used as a chemical and mechanical barrier for the space shuttles check valves, particularly on the guide pins and seat assemblies.

Miyoshi, Kazuhisa↗

NASA NTRS2019

Assembly and Integrated Systems Testing for the Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE)

The Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE) is a flight experiment that is designed to operate in the Fluids Integrated Rack (FIR) on the International Space Station (ISS). The objective of the FBCE is to develop an integrated two-phase flow experiment that will serve as a primary platform for obtaining flow boiling and condensation heat transfer data in microgravity. This data will enable the design and analysis of two-phase thermal management systems for future NASA missions that require increased efficiency beyond the current single-phase systems. The FBCE consists of seven modules, each of which must link together mechanically, electrically, and fluidically upon final integration. Five of the modules provide the fluidic and electronic components required to bring the test fluid to the inlet conditions required by the test module, where the primary science is conducted. These inlet conditions encompass fluid quality ranging from a superheated vapor to a subcooled liquid at a variety of flow rates and pressures. The FBCE is currently manufacturing two test modules, each of which has its own separate test campaign with the five support modules. Each of the modules presents a unique challenge in its assembly and checkout, particularly related to ensuring the final hardware configuration can meet the fluid and thermal requirements levied upon them. Following assembly, a series of flight verification tests will be performed, including thermal testing, EMI testing, and final integration in a FIR Ground Integration Unit. This presentation discusses the status of the FBCE as it continues through final verification testing, including current test results and lessons learned throughout the assembly and integration phase of the project. In addition, future options for additional flight test sections will be explored that will benefit the broader NASA thermal and fluids community.

deFiebre, Jesse↗

NASA NTRS2020

Potential Biofilm Control Strategies for Extended Spaceflight Missions

Biofilms, surface-adherent microbial communities, are associated with microbial fouling and corrosion in terrestrial water-distribution systems. Biofilms are also present in human spaceflight, particularly in the Water Recovery System (WRS) on the International Space Station (ISS). The WRS is comprised of the Urine Processor Assembly (UPA) and the Water Processor Assembly (WPA) which together recycles wastewater from human urine and recovered humidity from the ISS atmosphere. These wastewaters and various process streams are continually inoculated with microorganisms primarily arising from the space crew microbiome. Biofilm-related fouling has been encountered and addressed in spacecraft in low Earth orbit, including ISS and the Russian Mir Space Station. However, planned future missions beyond low Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars present additional challenges, as resupplying spare parts or support materials would be impractical and the mission timeline would be in the order of years in the case of a mission to Mars. In addition, future missions are expected to include a period of dormancy in which the WRS would be unused for an extended duration. The concepts developed in this review arose from a workshop including NASA personnel and representatives with biofilm expertise from a wide range of industrial and academic backgrounds. Here, we address current strategies that are employed on Earth for biofilm control, including antifouling coatings and biocides and mechanisms for mitigating biofilm growth and damage. These ideas are presented in the context of their applicability to spaceflight and identify proposed new topics of biofilm control that need to be addressed in order to facilitate future extended, crewed, spaceflight missions.

Luis Zea↗

NASA NTRS2010

NASA's Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) Mission

The Soil Moisture Active-Passive (SMAP) Mission is one of the first Earth observation satellites being formulated by NASA in response to the 2007 National Research Council s Decadal Survey. SMAP will make global measurements of soil moisture at the Earth's land surface and its freeze-thaw state. These measurements will allow significantly improved estimates of water, energy and carbon transfers between the land and atmosphere. Soil moisture measurements are also of great importance in assessing flooding and monitoring drought. Knowledge gained from SMAP observations can help mitigate these natural hazards, resulting in potentially great economic and social benefits. SMAP observations of soil moisture and freeze/thaw timing over the boreal latitudes will also reduce a major uncertainty in quantifying the global carbon balance and help to resolve an apparent missing carbon sink over land. The SMAP mission concept will utilize an L-band radar and radiometer sharing a rotating 6-meter mesh reflector antenna flying in a 680 km polar orbit with an 8-day exact ground track repeat aboard a 3-axis stabilized spacecraft to provide high-resolution and high-accuracy global maps of soil moisture and freeze/thaw state every two to three days. In addition, the SMAP project will use these surface observations with advanced modeling and data assimilation to provide estimates of deeper root-zone soil moisture and net ecosystem exchange of carbon. SMAP recently completed its Phase A Mission Concept Study Phase for NASA and transitioned into Phase B (Formulation and Detailed Design). A number of significant accomplishments occurred during this initial phase of mission development. The SMAP project held several open meetings to solicit community feedback on possible science algorithms, prepared preliminary draft Algorithm Theoretical Basis Documents (ATBDs) for each mission science product, and established a prototype algorithm testbed to enable testing and evaluation of the performance of candidate algorithms. SMAP conducted an Applications Workshop in September 2009 to coordinate with potential application users interested in the mission data. A draft Applications Plan describing the Project s planned outreach to potential applications users has been prepared and will be updated during Phase B. SMAP made a significant evaluation of the potential terrestrial radio frequency interference (RFI) source environment and established radiometer and radar flight hardware and ground processing mitigation approaches. SMAP finalized its science orbit and orbit injection approach to optimize launch mass and prepared launch and commissioning scenarios and timeline. A science data communications approach was developed to maximize available science data volume to improve science margins while maintaining moderately short data product latencies to support many potential applications using existing ground assets and with minimum impact to the flight system. SMAP developed rigid multi-body and flexible body dynamics and control models and system designs for the 6-meter rotating instrument reflector-boom assembly (RBA) and flight system to confirm pointing and control performance, and devised strategies to efficiently implement on-orbit balancing if needed. Industry partners were selected for the spin mechanism assembly (SMA) and RBA. Preliminary designs for the radar and radiometer were initiated, including constructing breadboards of key assemblies.

Kellogg, Kent↗

NASA NTRS2011

A Magnetically Coupled Cryogenic Pump

Historically, cryogenic pumps used for propellant loading at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and other NASA Centers have a bellows mechanical seal and oil bath ball bearings, both of which can be problematic and require high maintenance. Because of the extremely low temperatures, the mechanical seals are made of special materials and design, have wearing surfaces, are subject to improper installation, and commonly are a potential leak path. The ball bearings are non-precision bearings [ABEC-1 (Annular Bearing Engineering Council)] and are lubricated using LOX compatible oil. This oil is compatible with the propellant to prevent explosions, but does not have good lubricating properties. Due to the poor lubricity, it has been a goal of the KSC cryogenics community for the last 15 years to develop a magnetically coupled pump, which would eliminate these two potential issues. A number of projects have been attempted, but none of the pumps was a success. An off-the-shelf magnetically coupled pump (typically used with corrosive fluids) was procured that has been used for hypergolic service at KSC. The KSC Cryogenics Test Lab (CTL) operated the pump in cryogenic LN2 as received to determine a baseline for modifications required. The pump bushing, bearings, and thrust rings failed, and the pump would not flow liquid (this is a typical failure mode that was experienced in the previous attempts). Using the knowledge gained over the years designing and building cryogenic pumps, the CTL determined alternative materials that would be suitable for use under the pump design conditions. The CTL procured alternative materials for the bearings (bronze, aluminum bronze, and glass filled PTFE) and machined new bearing bushings, sleeves, and thrust rings. The designed clearances among the bushings, sleeves, thrust rings, case, and case cover were altered once again using experience gained from previous cryogenic pump rebuilds and designs. The alternative material parts were assembled into the pump, and the pump was successfully operated meeting all expected operating parameters. Unique pump sub-assembly parts were designed and manufactured by the CTL using specialized materials determined to be superior for cryogenic thermal applications under the pump design conditions. This work is a proof-of-concept/proof-of-operation of the pump only. Other known internal design modifications to the pump should be accomplished for the long-term use of the pump. An upscaled version of this pump, which is under development and testing at the CTL, can be used either for current or future vehicle loading or for vehicle replenishment. Scaling of this pump can be easily accomplished.

Hatfield, Walter↗

NASA NTRS2002

LWS/SET Technology Experiment Carrier

This paper examines the approach taken to building a low-cost, modular spacecraft bus that can be used to support a variety of technology experiments in different space environments. It describes the techniques used and design drivers considered to ensure experiment independence from as yet selected host spacecraft. It describes the technology experiment carriers that will support NASA's Living With a Star Space Environment Testbed space missions. NASA has initiated the Living With a Star (LWS) Program to develop a better scientific understanding to address the aspects of the connected Sun-Earth system that affect life and society. A principal goal of the program is to bridge the gap between science, engineering, and user application communities. The Space Environment Testbed (SET) Project is one element of LWS. The Project will enable future science, operational, and commercial objectives in space and atmospheric environments by improving engineering approaches to the accommodation and/or mitigation of the effects of solar variability on technological systems. The SET Project is highly budget constrained and must seek to take advantage of as yet undetermined partnering opportunities for access to space. SET will conduct technology validation experiments hosted on available flight opportunities. The SET Testbeds will be developed in a manner that minimizes the requirements for accommodation, and will be flown as flight opportunities become available. To access the widest range of flight opportunities, two key development requirements are to maintain flexibility with respect to accommodation constraints and to have the capability to respond quickly to flight opportunities. Experiments, already developed to the technology readiness level of needing flight validation in the variable Sun-Earth environment, will be selected on the basis of the need for the subject technology, readiness for flight, need for flight resources and particular orbit. Experiments will be accumulated by the Project and manifested for specific flight opportunities as they become available. The SET Carrier is designed to present a standard set of interfaces to SET technology experiments and to be modular and flexible enough to interface to a variety of possible host spacecraft. The Carrier will have core components and mission unique components. Once the core carrier elements have been developed, only the mission unique components need to be defined and developed for any particular mission. This approach will minimize the mission specific cost and development schedule for a given flight opportunity. The standard set of interfaces provided by SET to experiments allows them to be developed independent of the particulars of a host spacecraft. The Carrier will provide the power, communication, and the necessary monitoring features to operate experiments. The Carrier will also provide all of the mechanical assemblies and harnesses required to adapt experiments to a particular host. Experiments may be hosted locally with the Carrier or remotely on the host spacecraft. The Carrier design will allow a single Carrier to support a variable number of experiments and will include features that support the ability to incrementally add experiments without disturbing the core architecture.

Sherman, Barry↗