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All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2010

A Near-Term Concept for Trajectory Based Operations with Air/Ground Data Link Communication

An operating concept and required system components for trajectory-based operations with air/ground data link for today's en route and transition airspace is proposed. Controllers are fully responsible for separation as they are today, and no new aircraft equipage is required. Trajectory automation computes integrated solutions to problems like metering, weather avoidance, traffic conflicts and the desire to find and fly more time/fuel efficient flight trajectories. A common ground-based system supports all levels of aircraft equipage and performance including those equipped and not equipped for data link. User interface functions for the radar controller's display make trajectory-based clearance advisories easy to visualize, modify if necessary, and implement. Laboratory simulations (without human operators) were conducted to test integrated operation of selected system components with uncertainty modeling. Results are based on 102 hours of Fort Worth Center traffic recordings involving over 37,000 individual flights. The presence of uncertainty had a marginal effect (5%) on minimum-delay conflict resolution performance, and windfavorable routes had no effect on detection and resolution metrics. Flight plan amendments and clearances were substantially reduced compared to today s operations. Top-of-descent prediction errors are the largest cause of failure indicating that better descent predictions are needed to reliably achieve fuel-efficient descent profiles in medium to heavy traffic. Improved conflict detections for climbing flights could enable substantially more continuous climbs to cruise altitude. Unlike today s Conflict Alert, tactical automation must alert when an altitude amendment is entered, but before the aircraft starts the maneuver. In every other failure case tactical automation prevented losses of separation. A real-time prototype trajectory trajectory-automation system is running now and could be made ready for operational testing at an en route Center in 1-2 years.

McNally, David↗

DOE OSTI2025

Preliminary Evaluation of Joint Electricity-Hydrogen Concept of Operations

An initial thermal power dispatch (TPD) concept of operations was evaluated that couples a nuclear power plant to a nearby hydrogen production plant. GSE Systems’ generic pressurized water reactor full-scope simulator was modified with a TPD model comprised of a thermal power extraction and delivery system. A prototype human-system interface (HSI) was developed to interact with the TPD model and allow participants to execute the basic operating scenarios for normal operations. Four retired operators performed the evaluation, and due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, the original in-person experimental design was restructured to support a remote participator evaluation using a web meeting platform. Data from operator feedback, observations from the research team, and quantitative survey responses revealed that the initial TPD concept of operations is feasible. The operators were comfortable with the engineered system and HSI and could manage it without adverse impacts to reactor power, plant safety, or equipment. Findings are discussed in terms of both the TPD system design and HSI performance.

human factors↗

NASA NTRS2004

CCSDS Spacecraft Monitor and Control Service Framework

This CCSDS paper presents a reference architecture and service framework for spacecraft monitoring and control. It has been prepared by the Spacecraft Monitoring and Control working group of the CCSDS Mission Operations and Information Management Systems (MOIMS) area. In this context, Spacecraft Monitoring and Control (SM&C) refers to end-to-end services between on- board or remote applications and ground-based functions responsible for mission operations. The scope of SM&C includes: 1) Operational Concept: definition of an operational concept that covers a set of standard operations activities related to the monitoring and control of both ground and space segments. 2) Core Set of Services: definition of an extensible set of services to support the operational concept together with its information model and behaviours. This includes (non exhaustively) ground systems such as Automatic Command and Control, Data Archiving and Retrieval, Flight Dynamics, Mission Planning and Performance Evaluation. 3) Application-layer information: definition of the standard information set to be exchanged for SM&C purposes.

Merri, Mario↗

NASA NTRS2005

Safety Verification of the Small Aircraft Transportation System Concept of Operations

A critical factor in the adoption of any new aeronautical technology or concept of operation is safety. Traditionally, safety is accomplished through a rigorous process that involves human factors, low and high fidelity simulations, and flight experiments. As this process is usually performed on final products or functional prototypes, concept modifications resulting from this process are very expensive to implement. This paper describe an approach to system safety that can take place at early stages of a concept design. It is based on a set of mathematical techniques and tools known as formal methods. In contrast to testing and simulation, formal methods provide the capability of exhaustive state exploration analysis. We present the safety analysis and verification performed for the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) Concept of Operations (ConOps). The concept of operations is modeled using discrete and hybrid mathematical models. These models are then analyzed using formal methods. The objective of the analysis is to show, in a mathematical framework, that the concept of operation complies with a set of safety requirements. It is also shown that the ConOps has some desirable characteristic such as liveness and absence of dead-lock. The analysis and verification is performed in the Prototype Verification System (PVS), which is a computer based specification language and a theorem proving assistant.

Carreno, Victor↗

NASA NTRS2020

Exploration EVA System Concept of Operations

The Exploration Extravehicular Activity (xEVA) System concept of operations (con ops) captures the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) current aims future missions to all potential Exploration destinations. This document captures the mission architectures, stakeholder expectations, and high level definitions of the capabilities and interfaces associated with the xEVA System. This includes missions to Gateway in cislunar space, the lunar surface, a redirected asteroid in cislunar space, Near Earth Asteroids (NEA), Mars’ orbit, the moons of Mars (Phobos and Deimos), and the surface of Mars. These missions, which include microgravity, milli-gravity, and partial-gravity surface EVAs, will involve a variety of engineering (maintenance, contingency, pioneering, construction) and science tasks. This document also captures information concerning vehicles and habitats with which the xEVA System will interface. The concepts of operations (con ops) detailed in this document are informed by the Artemis Program and a multitude of Exploration studies, and are also influenced by various integrated operational analog testing.

David Coan↗

NASA NTRS2018

Airspace Technology Demonstration 3 (ATD-3) Multi-Flight Common Route (MFCR) Technology Transfer Document Summary Version 2.0

Airspace Technology Demonstration - 3 (ATD-3) is part of NASA's Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP) - specifically, its Airspace Technology Demonstrations (ATD) Project. ATD-3 is a multi-year research and development effort which proposes to develop and demonstrate automation technologies and operating concepts that enable air navigation service providers and airspace users to continuously assess weather, winds, traffic, and other information to identify, evaluate, and implement workable opportunities for flight plan route corrections that can result in significant flight time and fuel savings in en-route airspace. In order to ensure that the products of this tech-transfer are relevant and useful, NASA has created strong partnerships with the FAA and key industry stakeholders. This summary document and accompanying technology artifacts satisfy the second of three Research Transition Products (RTPs) defined in the Applied Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) Research Transition Team (RTT) Plan. The original transfer, completed in December 2017, consisted of NASA's Multi-Flight Common Route (MFCR) research for efficient route corrections for en-route weather avoidance. This transfer updates the Concept of Operations document to a publicly-available NASA Technical Memorandum. The MFCR concept builds on the experience of the legacy Dynamic Weather Routes (DWR) and focuses on a better balance of potential savings with ATC acceptability, common route corrections options for multiple flights on similar routings, and better use of existing and/or modern automation for communication and coordination of route change options. All of these capabilities are expected to improve system performance significantly in terms of actual delay-reducing clearances issued to flights compared to that of the DWR tool and operating concept.

Tech transfer↗

NASA NTRS2008

Early Impacts of a Human-in-the-Loop Evaluation in a Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility

The development of a new space vehicle, the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), provides Human Factors engineers an excellent opportunity to have an impact early in the design process. This case study highlights a Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) evaluation conducted in a Space Vehicle Mock-Up Facility and will describe the human-centered approach and how the findings are impacting design and operational concepts early in space vehicle design. The focus of this HITL evaluation centered on the activities that astronaut crewmembers would be expected to perform within the functional internal volume of the Crew Module (CM) of the space vehicle. The primary objective was to determine if there are aspects of a baseline vehicle configuration that would limit or prevent the performance of dynamically volume-driving activities (e.g. six crewmembers donning their suits in an evacuation scenario). A second objective was to step through concepts of operations for known systems and evaluate them in integrated scenarios. The functional volume for crewmember activities is closely tied to every aspect of system design (e.g. avionics, safety, stowage, seats, suits, and structural support placement). As this evaluation took place before the Preliminary Design Review of the space vehicle with some designs very early in the development, it was not meant to determine definitely that the crewmembers could complete every activity, but rather to provide inputs that could improve developing designs and concepts of operations definition refinement.

Byrne, Vicky↗

NASA NTRS2013

Validating an Air Traffic Management Concept of Operation Using Statistical Modeling

Validating a concept of operation for a complex, safety-critical system (like the National Airspace System) is challenging because of the high dimensionality of the controllable parameters and the infinite number of states of the system. In this paper, we use statistical modeling techniques to explore the behavior of a conflict detection and resolution algorithm designed for the terminal airspace. These techniques predict the robustness of the system simulation to both nominal and off-nominal behaviors within the overall airspace. They also can be used to evaluate the output of the simulation against recorded airspace data. Additionally, the techniques carry with them a mathematical value of the worth of each prediction-a statistical uncertainty for any robustness estimate. Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) is the process of quantitative characterization and ultimately a reduction of uncertainties in complex systems. UQ is important for understanding the influence of uncertainties on the behavior of a system and therefore is valuable for design, analysis, and verification and validation. In this paper, we apply advanced statistical modeling methodologies and techniques on an advanced air traffic management system, namely the Terminal Tactical Separation Assured Flight Environment (T-TSAFE). We show initial results for a parameter analysis and safety boundary (envelope) detection in the high-dimensional parameter space. For our boundary analysis, we developed a new sequential approach based upon the design of computer experiments, allowing us to incorporate knowledge from domain experts into our modeling and to determine the most likely boundary shapes and its parameters. We carried out the analysis on system parameters and describe an initial approach that will allow us to include time-series inputs, such as the radar track data, into the analysis

Statistical emulation↗

NASA NTRS2006

HALE UAS Concept of Operations. Version 3.0

This document is a system level Concept of Operations (CONOPS) from the perspective of future High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) service providers and National Airspace System (NAS) users. It describes current systems (existing UAS), describes HALE UAS functions and operations to be performed (via sample missions), and offers insight into the user s environment (i.e., the UAS as a system of systems). It is intended to be a source document for NAS UAS operational requirements, and provides a construct for government agencies to use in guiding their regulatory decisions, architecture requirements, and investment strategies. Although it does not describe the technical capabilities of a specific HALE UAS system (which do, and will vary widely), it is intended to aid in requirements capture and to be used as input to the functional requirements and analysis process. The document provides a basis for development of functional requirements and operational guidelines to achieve unrestricted access into the NAS. This document is an FY06 update to the FY05 Access 5 Project-approved Concept of Operations document previously published in the Public Domain on the Access 5 open website. This version is recommended to be approved for public release also. The updates are a reorganization of materials from the previous version with the addition of an updated set of operational requirements, inclusion of sample mission scenarios, and identification of roles and responsibilities of interfaces within flight phases.

Source record↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Concept of Operations for Power Beaming of Electric Air Vehicles

A concept of operations is presented for power beaming of microwaves to extend battery charge of an electric air vehicle. Critical aspects of airspace operations and power beam charging are addressed. Three classes of electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing vehicle models are considered for recharging. The effects of transmitter frequency, antenna size, and beam width are analyzed. Based on past experiments in the industry, a 2.5 kW power beam is selected. A no-drag rectifying antenna under the belly of the vehicle is selected along with the conversion efficiency, power density, and its size. The combined efficiency of the transmit/receive system as well as the beam containment values are addressed. These parameters are chosen to assess viability and feasibility of the energy augmentation method to establish safety for humans on-board from exposure to the transmitted energy. NASA will test the concept of operations in a laboratory experiment with parameters selected and presented in this paper.

eVTOL vehicles↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Concept of Operations for Power Beaming of Electric Air Vehicles

eVTOL vehicles↗

DOE OSTI2024

Concept of Operations for Advanced Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel Management

This presentation presents a preliminary description of a concept of operations to incorporate advanced-reactor spent nuclear fuel (SNF) into an integrated waste-management system (IWMS). The evaluation includes SNF from four advanced-reactor concepts with the following fuel types: (1) small modular reactors using oxide fuels, (2) tristructural-isotropic (TRISO) fuels, (3) metallic fuels, and (4) fuel salts. To provide context for the proposed concept of operations for advanced reactors, a comparison is made with traditional light-water reactors (LWRs) to identify potential gaps in the IWMS. The technical differences between advanced reactors and LWRs are assessed to determine the feasibility of managing advanced-reactor waste streams using existing operations and technology. This presentation emphasizes fuel types from Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program reactors: Xe 100, which uses TRISO fuel and Natrium, with its metallic fuels while also analyzing management options for molten-salt reactors and advanced light-water reactors (ALWRs). Understanding the storage, transportation, and disposal requirements of SNF is dependent on both the quantity and characteristics of the SNF generated by nuclear reactors. This presentation provides a high level overview, comparing the anticipated concept of operations for different SNFs from advanced reactors. The IWMS includes at-reactor storage, transportation, potential off-site storage, potential treatment, and disposition. To assess the potential effect of advanced-reactor concept of operations on the IWMS, estimates were made for fuel characteristics that contribute to storage, transportation, disposal, and possible treatment of advanced-reactor SNF. These include canister heat load, dose rates, and criticality-control limits, which are important for determining the condition and configuration of the advanced reactor SNF. At-reactor storage of LWR SNF traditionally involves a spent-fuel pool (SFP) before transfer to an independent spent-fuel storage installation. However, some advanced-reactor concepts, particularly those using TRISO and salt fuels, do not anticipate the use of an SFP. This difference in at-reactor storage could impact the IWMS. Additionally, transportation of advanced-reactor SNF may include additional processes tied to potential off gassing, and transportation of microreactor SNF may occur within the reactor vessel. Some advanced-reactor SNF could also undergo treatment to meet requirements of an acceptable waste form for disposition, and the treatment location will be a major contributor to efficiently performing IWMS responsibilities. Moreover, the quantity of SNF generated is an important consideration for IWMS because it could affect the size of the transportation fleet and potential off-site storage requirements. Additionally, volume and heat load are the primary drivers for SNF disposition. This presentation compares potential packaging options for advanced reactor SNF with traditional LWR packaging to provide a high-level comparison for the needs of the IWMS for advanced-reactor SNF.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

NASA NTRS2004

Abstract Model of the SATS Concept of Operations: Initial Results and Recommendations

An abstract mathematical model of the concept of operations for the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) is presented. The Concept of Operations consist of several procedures that describe nominal operations for SATS, Several safety properties of the system are proven using formal techniques. The final goal of the verification effort is to show that under nominal operations, aircraft are safely separated. The abstract model was written and formally verified in the Prototype Verification System (PVS).

Dowek, Gilles↗

NASA NTRS2015

System-Oriented Runway Management Concept of Operations

This document describes a concept for runway management that maximizes the overall efficiency of arrival and departure operations at an airport or group of airports. Specifically, by planning airport runway configurations/usage, it focuses on the efficiency with which arrival flights reach their parking gates from their arrival fixes and departure flights exit the terminal airspace from their parking gates. In the future, the concept could be expanded to include the management of other limited airport resources. While most easily described in the context of a single airport, the concept applies equally well to a group of airports that comprise a metroplex (i.e., airports in close proximity that share resources such that operations at the airports are at least partially dependent) by including the coordination of runway usage decisions between the airports. In fact, the potential benefit of the concept is expected to be larger in future metroplex environments due to the increasing need to coordinate the operations at proximate airports to more efficiently share limited airspace resources. This concept, called System-Oriented Runway Management (SORM), is further broken down into a set of airport traffic management functions that share the principle that operational performance must be measured over the complete surface and airborne trajectories of the airport's arrivals and departures. The "system-oriented" term derives from the belief that the traffic management objective must consider the efficiency of operations over a wide range of aircraft movements and National Airspace System (NAS) dynamics. The SORM concept is comprised of three primary elements: strategic airport capacity planning, airport configuration management, and combined arrival/departure runway planning. Some aspects of the SORM concept, such as using airport configuration management1 as a mechanism for improving aircraft efficiency, are novel. Other elements (e.g., runway scheduling, which is a part of combined arrival/departure runway scheduling) have been well studied, but are included in the concept for completeness and to allow the concept to define the necessary relationship among the elements. The goal of this document is to describe the overall SORM concept and how it would apply both within the NAS and potential future Next Generation Air Traffic System (NextGen) environments, including research conducted to date. Note that the concept is based on the belief that runways are the primary constraint and the decision point for controlling efficiency, but the efficiency of runway management must be measured over a wide range of space and time. Implementation of the SORM concept is envisioned through a collection of complementary, necessary capabilities collectively focused on ensuring efficient arrival and departure traffic management, where that efficiency is measured not only in terms of runway efficiency but in terms of the overall trajectories between parking gates and transition fixes. For the more original elements of the concept-airport configuration management-this document proposes specific air traffic management (ATM) decision-support automation for realizing the concept.

Lohr, Gary W.↗

NASA NTRS2020

UAM Vision Concept of Operations (ConOps) UAM Maturity Level (UML) 4

This Vision ConOps is intended as a foundation to engage members of the UAM community and provide a consensus on the future vision of UAM operations. It provides a concept for more detailed discussion and a basis for the exploration of ideas using a common framework to inform the continued development and integration of UAM as part of the broader transportation system. Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) encompasses a range of innovative aviation technologies (small drones, electric aircraft, automated air traffic management, etc.) that are transforming aviation’s role in everyday life, including the movement of goods and people. Urban Air Mobility (UAM) represents one of the most exciting and complex AAM concepts with highly automated aircraft, providing commercial services to the public over densely populated cities. This concept has generated tremendous interest and industry investment. UAM envisages a future in which advanced technologies and new operational procedures enable practical, cost-effective air travel as an integral mode of transportation in metropolitan areas. It represents one of the most exciting and complex AAM concepts with highly automated aircraft providing commercial services to the public over densely populated cities. For this reason, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) selected UAM as the initial goal of its AAM efforts and the focus of this Vision Concept of Operations (ConOps) document. UAM Community Vision ConOps: This Vision ConOps effort was led by experts from NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) in collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Deloitte’s Ecosystem Advisory Group (a cohort of advisers with aviation, aerospace, and regulatory expertise). To develop this Vision ConOps, NASA, FAA, and Deloitte built upon the current body of aeronautical research and consulted with more than 100 stakeholder organizations. This UAM community includes entities ranging from legacy aviation leaders to innovators and new market entrants. Stakeholders consulted included the federal government, state and local government, aerospace original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), local transportation organizations, prospective UAM operators, academia, industry standards-setting bodies, airports, service suppliers, and others (as described in Appendix G). This input was captured through the following methods: • A series of more than two dozen interviews with industry experts, federal regulators, state and local governments, and industry trade groups provided insight into the challenges of UAM integration into the National Airspace System (NAS), as well as technology developments and a variety of perspectives as to how UAM systems will integrate. • A series of two-day community workshops enabling active, detailed engagement of nearly 100 industry, academic, federal, and state stakeholder individuals. These workshops, hosted by NASA and Deloitte, explored UAM concepts in detail, and stakeholders were invited to collaboratively analyze and propose solutions to some of the greatest conceptual challenges behind UAM at an intermediate state. • A review of more than 160 sources of UAM literature from across government, industry, and academia, which are listed in Appendix H. • The public sharing of workshop input and document drafts for review and input across the UAM community. Feedback in the form of more than 1,000 comments and inputs on the document was received from industry groups, individual companies, academia, and government (federal, state, and local), among others. Although effort was made to incorporate inputs from across the UAM stakeholder group, not all comments could ultimately be incorporated in this version. The team resolved conflicting comments or ideas while maintaining consistency with the known direction of regulators and ensuring the document was coherent and consistent. It is recognized that this is a rapidly evolving area and that concepts will likely change over time; as such, this Vision ConOps is a living document and is expected to evolve as concepts mature. The ConOps does, however, provide a vision of UAM concepts and solutions based on the broad insights from across the UAM stakeholder community at the time of its publication and is intended to serve as a UAM North Star for continued research and development of UAM. As a broad Vision ConOps, is not a detailed engineering document; rather, it focuses primarily on outlining a broad, high-level vision across all aspects of a UAM transportation system.

Urban Air Mobility↗

NASA NTRS2014

An Overview of the Concept of Operations for Assembly, Integration, Testing and Ground Servicing Developed for the MPCV-ESM Propulsion System

A concept of operations for the Assembly, Integration and Testing (AIT) and the Ground Systems Development Operations (GSDO) of the European Service Module (ESM) propulsion system has been developed. The AIT concept of operations covers all fabrication, integration and testing activities in both Europe and in the United States. The GSDO Program develops the facilities, equipment, and procedures for the loading of hypergolic propellants, the filling of high-pressure gases, and contingency de-servicing operations for the ESM. NASA and ESA along with the Lockheed Martin and Airbus Space and Defense are currently working together for the EM-1 and EM-2 missions in which the ESM will be flown as part of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV). The NASA/ESA SM propulsion team is collaborating with the AIT personnel from ESA/Airbus and NASA/Lockheed Martin to ensure successful integration of the European designed Service Module propulsion system, the Lockheed Martin designed Crew Module Adapter and the heritage Space Shuttle Orbital Maneuvering System Engines (OMS-E) being provided as Government Furnished Equipment (GFE). This paper will provide an overview of the current AIT and GSDO concept of operations for the ESM propulsion system.

Propulsion↗

NASA NTRS2014

An Overview of the Concept of Operations for Assembly, Integration, Testing and Ground Servicing Developed for the MPCV-ESM Propulsion System

Ground Servicing↗

NASA NTRS2008

Design of Launch Abort System Thrust Profile and Concept of Operations

This paper describes how the Abort Motor thrust profile has been tailored and how optimizing the Concept of Operations on the Launch Abort System (LAS) of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) aides in getting the crew safely away from a failed Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV). Unlike the passive nature of the Apollo system, the Orion Launch Abort Vehicle will be actively controlled, giving the program a more robust abort system with a higher probability of crew survival for an abort at all points throughout the CLV trajectory. By optimizing the concept of operations and thrust profile the Orion program will be able to take full advantage of the active Orion LAS. Discussion will involve an overview of the development of the abort motor thrust profile and the current abort concept of operations as well as their effects on the performance of LAS aborts. Pad Abort (for performance) and Maximum Drag (for separation from the Launch Vehicle) are the two points that dictate the required thrust and shape of the thrust profile. The results in this paper show that 95% success of all performance requirements is not currently met for Pad Abort. Future improvements to the current parachute sequence and other potential changes will mitigate the current problems, and meet abort performance requirements.

Litton, Daniel↗