Investigation and development of new concepts for improvement of aircraft electrical power systems Quarterly progress report
Review of electrical equipment currently installed in aircraft
Lee, C. H.↗
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Network, system, and status software enhancements for the autonomously managed electrical power system breadboard. Volume 1: Project summary
This volume (1 of 4) gives a summary of the original AMPS software system configuration, points out some of the problem areas in the original software design that this project is to address, and in the appendix collects all the bimonthly status reports. The purpose of AMPS is to provide a self reliant system to control the generation and distribution of power in the space station. The software in the AMPS breadboard can be divided into three levels: the operating environment software, the protocol software, and the station specific software. This project deals only with the operating environment software and the protocol software. The present station specific software will not change except as necessary to conform to new data formats.
Mckee, James W.↗
Network, system, and status software enhancements for the autonomously managed electrical power system breadboard. Volume 2: Protocol specification
This volume (2 of 4) contains the specification, structured flow charts, and code listing for the protocol. The purpose of an autonomous power system on a spacecraft is to relieve humans from having to continuously monitor and control the generation, storage, and distribution of power in the craft. This implies that algorithms will have been developed to monitor and control the power system. The power system will contain computers on which the algorithms run. There should be one control computer system that makes the high level decisions and sends commands to and receive data from the other distributed computers. This will require a communications network and an efficient protocol by which the computers will communicate. One of the major requirements on the protocol is that it be real time because of the need to control the power elements.
Mckee, James W.↗
Network, system, and status software enhancements for the autonomously managed electrical power system breadboard. Volume 3: Commands specification
This volume (3 of 4) contains the specification for the command language for the AMPS system. The volume contains a requirements specification for the operating system and commands and a design specification for the operating system and command. The operating system and commands sits on top of the protocol. The commands are an extension of the present set of AMPS commands in that the commands are more compact, allow multiple sub-commands to be bundled into one command, and have provisions for identifying the sender and the intended receiver. The commands make no change to the actual software that implement the commands.
Mckee, James W.↗
Network, system, and status software enhancements for the autonomously managed electrical power system breadboard. Volume 4: Graphical status display
This volume (4 of 4) contains the description, structured flow charts, prints of the graphical displays, and source code to generate the displays for the AMPS graphical status system. The function of these displays is to present to the manager of the AMPS system a graphical status display with the hot boxes that allow the manager to get more detailed status on selected portions of the AMPS system. The development of the graphical displays is divided into two processes; the creation of the screen images and storage of them in files on the computer, and the running of the status program which uses the screen images.
Mckee, James W.↗
Skylab technology electrical power system
The solar array/battery power systems for the Skylab vehicle were designed to operate in a solar inertial pointing mode to provide power continuously to the Skylab. Questions of power management are considered, taking into account difficulties caused by the reduction in power system performance due to the effects of structural failure occurring during the launching process. The performance of the solar array of the Apollo Telescope Mount Power System is discussed along with the Orbital Workshop solar array performance and the Airlock Module power conditioning group performance. A list is presented of a number of items which have been identified during mission monitoring and are recommended for electrical power system concepts, designs, and operation for future spacecraft.
Woosley, A. P.↗
Estimation of Faults in DC Electrical Power System
This paper demonstrates a novel optimization-based approach to estimating fault states in a DC power system. Potential faults changing the circuit topology are included along with faulty measurements. Our approach can be considered as a relaxation of the mixed estimation problem. We develop a linear model of the circuit and pose a convex problem for estimating the faults and other hidden states. A sparse fault vector solution is computed by using 11 regularization. The solution is computed reliably and efficiently, and gives accurate diagnostics on the faults. We demonstrate a real-time implementation of the approach for an instrumented electrical power system testbed, the ADAPT testbed at NASA ARC. The estimates are computed in milliseconds on a PC. The approach performs well despite unmodeled transients and other modeling uncertainties present in the system.
Gorinevsky, Dimitry↗
Building an adaptive agent to monitor and repair the electrical power system of an orbital satellite
Over several years we have developed a multistrategy apprenticeship learning methodology for building knowledge-based systems. Recently we have developed and applied our methodology to building intelligent agents. This methodology allows a subject matter expert to build an agent in the same way in which the expert would teach a human apprentice. The expert will give the agent specific examples of problems and solutions, explanations of these solutions, or supervise the agent as it solves new problems. During such interactions, the agent learns general rules and concepts, continuously extending and improving its knowledge base. In this paper we present initial results on applying this methodology to build an intelligent adaptive agent for monitoring and repair of the electrical power system of an orbital satellite, stressing the interaction with the expert during apprenticeship learning.
Tecuci, Gheorghe↗
Probabilistic Physics-Based Risk Tools Used to Analyze the International Space Station Electrical Power System Output
This paper describes the methods employed to apply probabilistic modeling techniques to the International Space Station (ISS) power system. These techniques were used to quantify the probabilistic variation in the power output, also called the response variable, due to variations (uncertainties) associated with knowledge of the influencing factors called the random variables. These uncertainties can be due to unknown environmental conditions, variation in the performance of electrical power system components or sensor tolerances. Uncertainties in these variables, cause corresponding variations in the power output, but the magnitude of that effect varies with the ISS operating conditions, e.g. whether or not the solar panels are actively tracking the sun. Therefore, it is important to quantify the influence of these uncertainties on the power output for optimizing the power available for experiments.
Patel, Bhogila M.↗
Design analysis and computer-aided performance evaluation of shuttle orbiter electrical power system. Volume 1: Summary
Studies were conducted to develop appropriate space shuttle electrical power distribution and control (EPDC) subsystem simulation models and to apply the computer simulations to systems analysis of the EPDC. A previously developed software program (SYSTID) was adapted for this purpose. The following objectives were attained: (1) significant enhancement of the SYSTID time domain simulation software, (2) generation of functionally useful shuttle EPDC element models, and (3) illustrative simulation results in the analysis of EPDC performance, under the conditions of fault, current pulse injection due to lightning, and circuit protection sizing and reaction times.
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Development of a Supervisory Tool for Fault Detection and Diagnosis of DC Electric Power Systems with the Application to Deep Space Vehicles
The objective of this dissertation is to provide a software tool capable of detecting a wide range of DC power system related faults for application to autonomous spacecraft systems.
Fault Detection and Diagnosis↗
Electric Power System for High Altitude UAV Technology Survey
Electric powertrain technologies with application to high altitude Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are assessed. One hundred twenty five solar electric UAV configurations and missions were simulated. Synergistic design opportunities were investigated with the premise that specific benefits may be realized, for example, if a single component can serve multiple functions, such as a battery being used for energy storage as well as for a structural component of the aircraft. For each UAV mission simulation, the airframe structure, powertrain configuration (type of solar cells, energy storage options) and performance baseline (1997 or 2001) were specified. It has been found that the use of the high efficiency (multijunction) solar cells or the use of the synergistic amorphous silicon solar cell configuration yields aircraft that can accomplish the majority of the missions of interest for any latitude between 0 deg and 55 deg, hence, a single versatile aircraft can be constructed and implemented to accomplish these missions.
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Apollo Lunar Module Electrical Power System Overview
Objectives include: a) Describe LM Electrical System original specifications; b) Describe the decision to change from fuel cells to batteries and other changes; c) Describe the Electrical system; and d) Describe the Apollo 13 failure from the LM perspective.
Interbartolo, Michael↗
Design criteria and candidate electrical power systems for a reusable Space Shuttle booster.
This paper presents the results of a preliminary study to establish electrical power requirements, investigate candidate power sources, and select a representative power generation concept for the NASA Space Shuttle booster stage. Design guidelines and system performance requirements are established. Candidate power sources and combinations thereof are defined and weight estimates made. The selected power source concept utilizes secondary silver-zinc batteries, engine-driven alternators with constant speed drive, and an airbreathing gas turbine. The need for cost optimization, within safety, reliability, and performance constraints, is emphasized as being the most important criteria in design of the final system.
Merrifield, D. V.↗
The performance of solar thermal electric power systems employing small heat engines
The paper presents a comparative analysis of small (10 to 100 KWe) heat engines for use with a solar thermal electric system employing the point-focusing, distributed receiver (PF-DR) concept. Stirling, Brayton, and Rankine cycle engines are evaluated for a nominal overall system power level of 1 MWe, although the concept is applicable to power levels up to at least 10 MWe. Multiple concentrators are electrically connected to achieve the desired plant output. Best performance is achieved with the Stirling engine, resulting in a system Levelized Busbar Energy Cost of just under 50 mills/kWH and a Capital Cost of $900/kW, based on the use of mass-produced components. Brayton and Rankine engines show somewhat less performance but are viable alternatives with particular benefits for special applications. All three engines show excellent performance for the small community application.
Pons, R. L.↗
Progress in Spacecraft Electric Power System Technologies for Deep Space Missions
Planetary missions place unique demands on spacecraft systems and operations in terms of lifetime and autonomous operation. At the same time, the new
Spacecraft↗
Space station electrical power system availability study
ARINC Research Corporation performed a preliminary reliability, and maintainability (RAM) anlaysis of the NASA space station Electric Power Station (EPS). The analysis was performed using the ARINC Research developed UNIRAM RAM assessment methodology and software program. The analysis was performed in two phases: EPS modeling and EPS RAM assessment. The EPS was modeled in four parts: the insolar power generation system, the eclipse power generation system, the power management and distribution system (both ring and radial power distribution control unit (PDCU) architectures), and the power distribution to the inner keel PDCUs. The EPS RAM assessment was conducted in five steps: the use of UNIRAM to perform baseline EPS model analyses and to determine the orbital replacement unit (ORU) criticalities; the determination of EPS sensitivity to on-orbit spared of ORUs and the provision of an indication of which ORUs may need to be spared on-orbit; the determination of EPS sensitivity to changes in ORU reliability; the determination of the expected annual number of ORU failures; and the integration of the power generator system model results with the distribution system model results to assess the full EPS. Conclusions were drawn and recommendations were made.
Turnquist, Scott R.↗
TOPEX Electrical Power System - Autonomous Operation
The main objective of TOPEX/Poseidon Satellite is to monitor the world's oceans for scientific study of weather and climate prediction, coastal storm warning and maritime safety.
oceans climate predictions Electrical Power System↗