Search NASA⌕ Search

Engineering topics

Crooke, Julie A.

Publications and source records attributed to Crooke, Julie A..

Optical Instrument Thermal Control on the Large Ultraviolet/Optical/Infrared Surveyor

The Large Ultraviolet/Optical/Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) is a multi-wavelength observatory commissioned by NASA as one of four large mission concept studies for the Astro2020 Decadal Survey. Two concepts are under study which bound a range of cost, risk, and scientific return: an 8-meter diameter unobscured segmented aperture primary mirror and a 15-meter segmented aperture primary mirror. Each concept carries with it an accompanying suite of instruments. The Extreme Coronagraph for Living Planetary Systems (ECLIPS) is a near-ultraviolet (NUV) / optical / near-infrared (NIR) coronagraph; the LUVOIR Ultraviolet Multi-object Spectrograph (LUMOS) provides multi-object imaging spectroscopy in the 100-400 nanometer ultraviolet (UV) range; and the High Definition Imager (HDI) is a wide field-of-view near-UV / optical / near-IR camera that can also perform astrometry. The 15-meter concept also contains an additional instrument, Pollux, which is a high-resolution UV spectro-polarimeter. While the observatory is nominally at a 270 Kelvin operational temperature, the requirements of imaging in both IR and UV require separate detectors operating at different temperature regimes, each with stringent thermal stability requirements. The change in observatory size requires two distinct thermal designs per instrument. In this current work, the thermal architecture is presented for each instrument suite. We describe here the efforts made to achieve the target operational temperatures and stabilities with passive thermal control methods. Additional discussion will focus on how these instrument thermal designs impact the overall system-level architecture of the observatory and indicate the thermal challenges for hardware implementation.

LUVOIR↗

Evolving Management Strategies to Improve NASA Flagship's Cost and Schedule Performance: LUVOIR as a Case Study

The LUVOIR study process has brought to fruition an extremely exciting scientific mission concept. The 3.5 year LUVOIR study duration enabled an unprecedented level of scientific, engineering, and technology thoroughness prior to the Astro2020 Decadal. This detail also shed light on many technical and programmatic challenges for efficiently developing a mission of this scale. While NASA's flagships perform exquisitely once on-orbit, there is understandable growing frustration in their development cost and schedule overruns. We felt it incumbent upon ourselves to ask how we could improve on delivering LUVOIR (or any of NASA's future flagships) on schedule and on budget, not just for the next mission, but for all NASA large strategic missions to come. We researched past and current NASA flagship's lessons learned publications and other large government projects that pointed to some systemic challenges that will only grow with larger and more complex strategic missions. Our findings pointed us to some ways that could potentially evolve NASA's current flagship management practices to help improve on their development cost and schedule performance despite their growing complexity.. This paper briefly comments on the science motivation for NASA's flagships and on the science motivation for a LUVOIR-like mission. We argue the motivation for improving NASA's flagships development cost and schedule performance. We review the specific challenges of NASA's flagships to acknowledge their specific issues. We then examine the most repeated systemic challenges we found from previous NASA flagship and other large government project lessons learned/observed. Lastly, we offer recommendations to tackle these repeated systemic challenges facing NASA's flagships. The recommendations culminate into a proactive integrated development and funding framework to enable improving the execution of NASA's future flagship's cost and schedule performance.

Crooke, Julie A.↗

Optical Instrument Thermal Control on the Large Ultraviolet/Optical/Infrared Surveyor

The Large Ultraviolet/Optical/Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) is a multi-wavelength observatory commissioned by NASA as one of four large mission concept studies for the Astro2020 Decadal Survey. Two concepts are under study which bound a range of cost, risk, and scientific return: an 8-meter diameter unobscured segmented aperture primary mirror and a 15-meter segmented aperture primary mirror. Each concept carries with it an accompanying suite of instruments. The Extreme Coronagraph for Living Planetary Systems (ECLIPS) is a near-ultraviolet (NUV) / optical / near-infrared (NIR) coronagraph; the LUVOIR Ultraviolet Multi-object Spectrograph (LUMOS) provides multi-object imaging spectroscopy in the 100-400 nanometer ultraviolet (UV) range; and the High Definition Imager (HDI) is a wide field-of-view near-UV / optical / near-IR camera that can also perform astrometry. The 15-meter concept also contains an additional instrument, Pollux, which is a high-resolution UV spectro-polarimeter. While the observatory is nominally at a 270 Kelvin operational temperature, the requirements of imaging in both IR and UV require separate detectors operating at different temperature regimes, each with stringent thermal stability requirements. The change in observatory size requires two distinct thermal designs per instrument. In this current work, the thermal architecture is presented for each instrument suite. We describe here the efforts made to achieve the target operational temperatures and stabilities with passive thermal control methods. Additional discussion will focus on how these instrument thermal designs impact the overall system-level architecture of the observatory and indicate the thermal challenges for hardware implementation.

Decadal Study↗

Fast Steering Mirror Disturbance Effects on Overall System Optical Performance for the Large Ultraviolet/optical/infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) Concept Using a Non-Contact Vibration Isolation and Precision Pointing System

As the optical performance requirements of space telescopes get more stringent, the need to analyze all possible error sources early in the mission design becomes critical. One large telescope with tight performance requirements is the Large Ultraviolet / Optical / Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) concept. The LUVOIR concept includes a 15-meter-diameter segmented-aperture telescope with a suite of serviceable instruments operating over a range of wavelengths between 100nm to 2.5um. Using an isolation architecture that involves no mechanical contact between the telescope and the host spacecraft structure allows for tighter performance metrics than current space-based telescopes being flown. Because of this separation, the spacecraft disturbances can be greatly reduced and disturbances on the telescope payload contribute more to the optical performance error. A portion of the optical performance error comes from the disturbances generated from the motion of the Fast Steering Mirror (FSM) on the payload. Characterizing the effects of this disturbance gives insight into the specifications on the FSM needed to achieve the tight optical performance requirements of the overall system. Through analysis of the LUVOIR finite element model and linear optical model given a range of input disturbances at the FSM, the optical performance of the telescope and recommendations for FSM specifications can be determined. The LUVOIR observatory control strategy consists of a multi-loop control architecture including the spacecraft Attitude Control System (ACS), Vibration Isolation and Precision Pointing System (VIPPS), and FSM. This paper focuses on the control loop containing the FSM disturbances and their effects on the telescope optical performance.

Sacks, Lia W.↗

Evolving Management Strategies to Improve NASA Flagship's Cost and Schedule Performance: LUVOIR as a Case Study

The large ultraviolet optical infrared surveyor (LUVOIR) study process has brought to fruition an extremely exciting scientific mission concept. The 3.5 year LUVOIR study duration enabled an unprecedented level of scientific, engineering, and technology thoroughness prior to the Astro2020 Decadal. This detail also shed light on many technical and programmatic challenges for efficiently developing a mission of this scale within the context of NASA’s flagships cost and schedule performances to date. While NASA’s flagships perform exquisitely once on orbit, there is understandable growing frustration in their development cost and schedule overruns. We felt it incumbent upon ourselves to ask how we could improve on delivering LUVOIR (or any of NASA’s future flagships) on schedule and on budget, not just for the next mission, but for all NASA large strategic missions to come. We researched past and current NASA flagship’s lessons learned publications and other large government projects that pointed to some systemic challenges that will only grow with larger and more complex strategic missions. Our findings pointed us to some ways that could potentially evolve NASA’s current flagship management practices to help improve on their development cost and schedule performance despite their growing complexity. This paper briefly comments on the motivations for NASA’s flagships and on the science motivations for a LUVOIR-like mission. We argue the incentives for improving NASA’s flagships development cost and schedule performance. We review the specific additional challenges of NASA’s flagships to acknowledge their specific issues. We then examine the most repeated systemic challenges we found from previous NASA flagships and other large government projects lessons learned/observed. Lastly, we offer recommendations to tackle these repeated systemic challenges facing NASA’s flagships. The recommendations culminate into a proactive integrated development and funding framework to enable improving the execution of NASA’s future flagship’s cost and schedule performance.

Crooke, Julie A.↗

Managing Flagship Missions to Reduce Cost and Schedule

Flagship missions are highly complex with highly nested systems. This level of complexity poses unique management problems as complexity influences risk which, in turn, affects cost and schedule. Establishing a strong technical and programmatic leadership team is critical to mission success. Developing and using a mission architecture is critical to informing the management organization, product ownership, interface and integration relationships, schedule organization, and integration and test paths. In highly nested systems, the mission phasing can be significantly out of sync with product phasing. Targeted technology development prior to Phase A is critical to reducing risk. Early architecture, concept design, and requirements development is critical to reducing risk. Modular design; pathfinders; parallel manufacturing and integration and test paths; and properly handling institutional requirements across interfaces are all management techniques that can be applied to reduce risk. NASA’s large strategic missions, sometimes referred to as flagship missions, are designed to provide answers to some of the most compelling scientific questions being asked. These types of missions are a series of highly nested subsystems that pose unique management problems when compared to more traditional instrument and spacecraft designs. They typically have an overall architecture that is very complex and nested; they typically require a tremendous amount of technology development; they typically involve many contractors and subcontractors with many associated contracts; and they typically involve staff from all over the world. Successful management of a flagship requires the balance between science requirements, engineering and technology capabilities, and resource constraints. Mismanaging these flagship missions can and will lead to significant cost and schedule growth, both of which are detrimental to NASA’s overall reputation which, in turn, is detrimental to the development of future flagship missions. While many of the same management principles used on smaller instruments and spacecraft are relevant, managing flagship missions requires an evolution of those current best practices to better address the specific needs and additional complexity and vastness of these missions. This paper explores how to leverage lessons learned from previous flagship missions to better manage flagship missions in the future.

Hylan, Jason↗

The Large UV/Optical/Infrared Surveyor Decadal Mission Concept Thermal System Architecture

The Large Ultraviolet/Optical/Infrared (LUVOIR) Surveyor is one of four large strategic mission concept studies commissioned by NASA for the 2020 Decadal Survey in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Slated for launch to the second Lagrange point (L2) in the mid-to-late 2030s, LUVOIR seeks to directly image habitable exoplanets around sun-like stars, characterize their atmospheric and surface composition, and search for biosignatures, as well as study a large array of astrophysics goals including galaxy formation and evolution. Two observatory architectures are currently being considered which bound the trade-off between cost, risk, and scientific return: a 15-meter diameter segmented aperture primary mirror in a three-mirror anastigmat configuration, and an 8-meter diameter unobscured segmented aperture design. To achieve its science objectives, both architectures require milli-Kelvin level thermal stability over the optics, structural components, and interfaces to attain picometer wavefront RMS stability. A 270 Kelvin operational temperature was chosen to balance the ability to perform science in the near-infrared band and the desire to maintain the structure at a temperature with favorable material properties and lower contamination accumulation. This paper will focus on the system-level thermal designs of both LUVOIR observatory architectures. It will detail the various thermal control methods used in each of the major components - the optical telescope assembly, the spacecraft bus, the sunshade, and the suite of accompanying instruments - as well as provide a comprehensive overview of the analysis and justification for each design decision. It will additionally discuss any critical thermal challenges faced by the engineering team should either architecture be prioritized by the Astro2020 Decadal Survey process to proceed as the next large strategic mission for development.

Yang, Kan↗

Optical Design and Status of the Large Ultra-Violet Optical Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR)

"In preparation for the Astrophysics 2020 Decadal Survey NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is studying a segmented aperture telescope with broad astrophysics, solar system, and exoplanet science capability called the Large Ultra-Violet Optical Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR). This telescope design incorporates many heritage design concepts from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). This includes similar ultraviolet instrumentation from HST, deployable segmented optics from JWST, and high-contrast coronagraph technology from WFIRST. Several optical design trades were completed to maximize the science product while maintaining reasonable packaging and fabrication constraints. Other technology developments such as freeform optics, UV enhanced coatings, coronagraph design, and ultra-stable mirrors are being studied to further improve the observatory performance.

Ultraviolet↗

Preliminary Jitter Stability Results for the Large UV/Optical/Infrared (LUVOIR) Surveyor Concept Using a Non-Contact Vibration Isolation and Precision Pointing System

The need for high payload dynamic stability and ultra-stable mechanical systems is an overarching technology need for large space telescopes such as the Large Ultraviolet / Optical / Infrared (LUVOIR) Surveyor concept. The LUVOIR concept includes a 15-meter-diameter segmented-aperture telescope with a suite of serviceable instruments operating over a range of wavelengths between 100nm to 2.5 um. Wavefront error (WFE) stability of less than 10 picometers RMS of uncorrected system WFE per wavefront control step represents a drastic performance improvement over current space-based telescopes being fielded. Through the utilization of an isolation architecture that involves no mechanical contact between the telescope and the host spacecraft structure, a system design is realized that maximizes the telescope dynamic stability performance without driving stringent technology requirements on spacecraft structure, sensors or actuators. Through analysis of the LUVOIR finite element model and linear optical model, the wavefront error and Line-Of-Sight (LOS) jitter performance is discussed in this paper when using the Vibration Isolation and Precision Pointing System (VIPPS) being developed cooperatively with Lockheed Martin in addition to a multi-loop control architecture. The multi-loop control architecture consists of the spacecraft Attitude Control System (ACS), VIPPS, and a Fast Steering Mirror on the instrument. While the baseline attitude control device for LUVOIR is a set of Control Moment Gyroscopes (CMGs), Reaction Wheel Assembly (RWA) disturbance contribution to wavefront error stability and LOS stability are presented to give preliminary results in this paper. CMG disturbance will be explored in further work to be completed.

Sacks, Lia W.↗

Status and Path Forward for the Large Ultraviolet Optical Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) Mission Concept Study

In preparation of the 2020 Astrophysics Decadal Survey, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has commenced a process for the astronomical community to study several large mission concepts leveraging the lessons learned from past Decadal Surveys. This will enable the Decadal Survey committee to make more informed recommendations to NASA on its astrophysics science and mission priorities with respect to cost and risk. Four astrophysics large mission concepts were identified. Each of them had a Science and Technology Definition Teem(STDT) chartered to produce scientifically compelling, feasible, and executable design reference mission (DRM)concepts to present to the 2020 Decadal Survey. In addition, The Aerospace Corporation will perform an independent cost and technical evaluation (CATE) of each of these mission concept studies in advance of the 2020 Decadal Survey by interacting with the STDTs to provide detailed technical details on certain areas for which deep dives are appropriate. This paper presents the status and path forward for one of the four large mission concepts, namely, the Large UltraViolet, Optical, InfraRed surveyor (LUVOIR).

Study Office: science analyses↗

National Research Council Dialogue to Assess Progress on NASA's Title of CRM Capability Roadmap Development: General Background and Introduction

Contents include the following: General Background and Introduction of Capability Roadmaps "Title." Agency Objective. Strategic Planning Transformation. Advanced Planning Organizational Roles. Public Involvement in Strategic Planning. Strategic Roadmaps and Schedule. Capability Roadmaps and Schedule. Purpose of NRC Review. Capability Roadmap Development (Progress to Date).

Crooke, Julie A.↗

Theodolite with CCD Camera for Safe Measurement of Laser-Beam Pointing

The simple addition of a charge-coupled-device (CCD) camera to a theodolite makes it safe to measure the pointing direction of a laser beam. The present state of the art requires this to be a custom addition because theodolites are manufactured without CCD cameras as standard or even optional equipment. A theodolite is an alignment telescope equipped with mechanisms to measure the azimuth and elevation angles to the sub-arcsecond level. When measuring the angular pointing direction of a Class ll laser with a theodolite, one could place a calculated amount of neutral density (ND) filters in front of the theodolite s telescope. One could then safely view and measure the laser s boresight looking through the theodolite s telescope without great risk to one s eyes. This method for a Class ll visible wavelength laser is not acceptable to even consider tempting for a Class IV laser and not applicable for an infrared (IR) laser. If one chooses insufficient attenuation or forgets to use the filters, then looking at the laser beam through the theodolite could cause instant blindness. The CCD camera is already commercially available. It is a small, inexpensive, blackand- white CCD circuit-board-level camera. An interface adaptor was designed and fabricated to mount the camera onto the eyepiece of the specific theodolite s viewing telescope. Other equipment needed for operation of the camera are power supplies, cables, and a black-and-white television monitor. The picture displayed on the monitor is equivalent to what one would see when looking directly through the theodolite. Again, the additional advantage afforded by a cheap black-and-white CCD camera is that it is sensitive to infrared as well as to visible light. Hence, one can use the camera coupled to a theodolite to measure the pointing of an infrared as well as a visible laser.

Crooke, Julie A.↗

Alignment and Polarization Sensitivity Study for the Cassini-Composite InfraRed Spectrometer (CIRS) Far InfraRed (FIR) Interferometer

The Composite InfraRed Spectrometer (CIRS) instrument flying on the Cassini spacecraft to Saturn is a cryogenic spectrometer with far-infrared (FIR) and mid-infrared (MIR) channels. The CIRS FIR channel is a polarizing interferometer that contains three polarizing grid components. These components are an input polarizer, a polarizing beamsplitter, and an output polarizer/analyzer. They consist of a 1.5 micron thick mylar substrate with 2 gm wide copper wires, with 2 gm spacing (4 micron pitch) photolithographically deposited on the substrate. This paper details the polarization sensitivity studies performed on the output polarizer/analyzer, and the alignment sensitivity studies performed on the input polarizer and beamsplitter components in the FIR interferometer.

Crooke, Julie A.↗