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At least 181 records · Page 10

Continued Environmental Microbiology Monitoring of the International Space Station (ISS) Veggie Unit Used for In-Flight, Crop-Based Food Systems

Crewmembers live and work in a closed environment that is monitored to ensure their health and safety. To ensure occupants’ health and safety during their spaceflight residency, Environmental Health System (EHS) microbial samples including air, surface, and water, are collected, enumerated, and analyzed quarterly to monitor on-board system contamination and potential risks to crew health. Quarterly monitoring of the microorganisms in the ISS environment supports crew safety and contributes to a large set of microbial concentration and diversity data. Based upon data historically collected over the years, in-flight microbial requirements have been established to maintain the health and safety of the spacecraft environment. This study leverages quarterly operational Environmental Health System (EHS) sampling by collecting additional microbial samples from the surface of the station’s Veggie plant production system. Microbial surface samples collected from the Veggie plant production system will yield microbial concentration and diversity that can be compared and analyzed with nominal surface samples from the vehicle. The data collected in this study will aid in the development of requirements for spaceflight-based food production systems. Continued surface sampling of the internal and external surfaces of the Veggie locker, along with collaboration from both Johnson Space Center (JSC) & Kennedy Space Center (KSC) scientists studying the microbiome of the veggie-crop systems, will be implemented as part of the future development of crop-based food system requirements for the ISS and beyond. This presentation will include a review of the study procedures and evaluations of the current results.

Christian Mena↗

Intelligent Sensors: An Integrated Systems Approach

The need for intelligent sensors as a critical component for Integrated System Health Management (ISHM) is fairly well recognized by now. Even the definition of what constitutes an intelligent sensor (or smart sensor) is well documented and stems from an intuitive desire to get the best quality measurement data that forms the basis of any complex health monitoring and/or management system. If the sensors, i.e. the elements closest to the measurand, are unreliable then the whole system works with a tremendous handicap. Hence, there has always been a desire to distribute intelligence down to the sensor level, and give it the ability to assess its own health thereby improving the confidence in the quality of the data at all times. This paper proposes the development of intelligent sensors as an integrated systems approach, i.e. one treats the sensors as a complete system with its own sensing hardware (the traditional sensor), A/D converters, processing and storage capabilities, software drivers, self-assessment algorithms, communication protocols and evolutionary methodologies that allow them to get better with time. Under a project being undertaken at the NASA Stennis Space Center, an integrated framework is being developed for the intelligent monitoring of smart elements. These smart elements can be sensors, actuators or other devices. The immediate application is the monitoring of the rocket test stands, but the technology should be generally applicable to the Intelligent Systems Health Monitoring (ISHM) vision. This paper outlines some fundamental issues in the development of intelligent sensors under the following two categories: Physical Intelligent Sensors (PIS) and Virtual Intelligent Sensors (VIS).

Mahajan, Ajay↗

Health Monitoring System Technology Assessments: Cost Benefits Analysis

The subject of sensor-based structural health monitoring is very diverse and encompasses a wide range of activities including initiatives and innovations involving the development of advanced sensor, signal processing, data analysis, and actuation and control technologies. In addition, it embraces the consideration of the availability of low-cost, high-quality contributing technologies, computational utilities, and hardware and software resources that enable the operational realization of robust health monitoring technologies. This report presents a detailed analysis of the cost benefit and other logistics and operational considerations associated with the implementation and utilization of sensor-based technologies for use in aerospace structure health monitoring. The scope of this volume is to assess the economic impact, from an end-user perspective, implementation health monitoring technologies on three structures. It specifically focuses on evaluating the impact on maintaining and supporting these structures with and without health monitoring capability.

Kent, Renee M.↗

Development of a Vehicle Health Monitoring System for the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster Program

During their brief flight, the space shuttle solid rocket boosters (SRBs) experience a severe environment. This environment in most cases is unknown. When the design engineers believe they understand the environments, something new occurs. For example, at water impact several SRBs have sustained noticeable structural damage. The severity of the damage is usually dependent upon the waves that the SRB encounter at splashdown. The space shuttle is presently scheduled to fly until 2030. To support the shuttle flight schedule, the avionics on the SRB's will need to be upgraded. The environments on the different sections of the SRB will need to be defined more completely to properly qualify the avionics for multiple flights. The combination of new avionics systems and unknown flight environments led Marshall Space Flight Center's (MSFC) SRB Project Office to request the Science and Engineering (S&E) Directorate to develop a stand-alone data acquisition system that could collect data from any area of the booster. The Enhanced Data Acquisition System (EDAS) was developed to meet this request. However, the EDAS has some technical drawbacks that needed resolved. To answer the EDAS problems, the SRB Project Office has funded MSFC's Avionics Department to begin investigating a new vehicle health monitoring (VHM) system. The major requirements are the system shall have 64 channels, have programmable sample rates up to 10,000 samples per second, have sufficient memory for a twenty minute flight and not interfere with existing operational flight avionics hardware. This paper will describe the effort to develop a VHM system that can meet the SRB requirements.

Crawford, Kevin↗

Data Compression Techniques for Advanced Space Transportation Systems

Advanced space transportation systems, including vehicle state of health systems, will produce large amounts of data which must be stored on board the vehicle and or transmitted to the ground and stored. The cost of storage or transmission of the data could be reduced if the number of bits required to represent the data is reduced by the use of data compression techniques. Most of the work done in this study was rather generic and could apply to many data compression systems, but the first application area to be considered was launch vehicle state of health telemetry systems. Both lossless and lossy compression techniques were considered in this study.

Bradley, William G.↗

Advanced Caution and Warning System, Final Report - 2011

The work described in this report is a continuation of the ACAWS work funded in fiscal year (FY) 2010 under the Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP), Integrated Systems Health Management (ISHM) project. In FY 2010, we developed requirements for an ACAWS system and vetted the requirements with potential users via a concept demonstration system. In FY 2011, we developed a working prototype of aspects of that concept, with placeholders for technologies to be fully developed in future phases of the project. The objective is to develop general capability to assist operators with system health monitoring and failure diagnosis. Moreover, ACAWS was integrated with the Discrete Controls (DC) task of the Autonomous Systems and Avionics (ASA) project. The primary objective of DC is to demonstrate an electronic and interactive procedure display environment and multiple levels of automation (automatic execution by computer, execution by computer if the operator consents, and manual execution by the operator).

Spirkovska, Lilly↗

Using Systems Engineering to Develop an Integrated Crew Health and Performance System to Mitigate Risk for Human Exploration Missions

New space exploration missions are currently being designed to take humanity beyond Low EarthOrbit (LEO) to cis-lunar space, the lunar surface, and eventually to Mars. These missions carryincreased risks due to a number of factors, including distance from Earth, exposure to deep spacehazards, reduced capacity and ability to resupply and evacuate, and increased communication delays.As distance from Earth grows and mission length increases, a growing proportion of overall missionrisk can be attributed to the “human system.” Almost twenty years ago, the Institute of Medicine in theUnited States recommended the early and complete integration of the human system into thespacecraft and mission design process to mitigate this increased risk inherent in exploration missions.Exploration missions will require increasing levels of crew self-sufficiency that will challenge thecurrent operational paradigms established in LEO. Enabling progressive Earth independence requiresmanagement of the increasingly complex interactions among spacecraft systems and integration of allthe data and functions that affect human health and performance into one coordinated system – theCrew Health and Performance (CHP) system. This system is a critical spacecraft system that isanalogous to other systems such as propulsion, guidance and navigation, or avionics. Design andintegration of the CHP system requires the evidence-based merger of typically disparate disciplinessuch as medicine, human factors, and physiological support system design, using systems engineering(SE) practices. The approach described here enables spacecraft and mission designers to align thescope of a CHP system with mission specific requirements, decrease risk to the crew, and increase theprobability of mission success.

Kerry Mcguire↗

Intelligent Sensors and Components for On-Board ISHM

A viewgraph presentation on the development of intelligent sensors and components for on-board Integrated Systems Health Health Management (ISHM) is shown. The topics include: 1) Motivation; 2) Integrated Systems Health Management (ISHM); 3) Intelligent Components; 4) IEEE 1451; 5)Intelligent Sensors; 6) Application; and 7) Future Directions

Figueroa, Jorge↗

Smart Sensor Node Development, Testing and Implementation for ISHM

A main design criterion for a robust Integrated Systems Health Management (ISHM) system is summed up best by the statement "No data is better than bad data". Traditional data acquisition systems are calibrated in a controlled environment and guaranteed to perform bounded by their tested conditions. To successfully design and implement a real world ISHM system, the data acquisition and signal conditioning needs to function in an uncontrolled environment. Development and testing focuses on a design with the ability to self check in order to extend calibration times, report internal faults and drifts and notify the overall system when the data acquisition is not performing as it should. All of this will be designed in a system that is flexible, requiring little redesign to be deployed on a wide variety of systems. Development progress and testing results will be reported.

Mengers, Timothy↗

Embedded diagnostic, prognostic, and health management system and method for a humanoid robot

A robotic system includes a humanoid robot with multiple compliant joints, each moveable using one or more of the actuators, and having sensors for measuring control and feedback data. A distributed controller controls the joints and other integrated system components over multiple high-speed communication networks. Diagnostic, prognostic, and health management (DPHM) modules are embedded within the robot at the various control levels. Each DPHM module measures, controls, and records DPHM data for the respective control level/connected device in a location that is accessible over the networks or via an external device. A method of controlling the robot includes embedding a plurality of the DPHM modules within multiple control levels of the distributed controller, using the DPHM modules to measure DPHM data within each of the control levels, and recording the DPHM data in a location that is accessible over at least one of the high-speed communication networks.

Barajas, Leandro G.↗

Flat Surface Damage Detection System (FSDDS)

The Flat Surface Damage Detection system (FSDDS} is a sensory system that is capable of detecting impact damages to surfaces utilizing a novel sensor system. This system will provide the ability to monitor the integrity of an inflatable habitat during in situ system health monitoring. The system consists of three main custom designed subsystems: the multi-layer sensing panel, the embedded monitoring system, and the graphical user interface (GUI). The GUI LABVIEW software uses a custom developed damage detection algorithm to determine the damage location based on the sequence of broken sensing lines. It estimates the damage size, the maximum depth, and plots the damage location on a graph. Successfully demonstrated as a stand alone technology during 2011 D-RATS. Software modification also allowed for communication with HDU avionics crew display which was demonstrated remotely (KSC to JSC} during 2012 integration testing. Integrated FSDDS system and stand alone multi-panel systems were demonstrated remotely and at JSC, Mission Operations Test using Space Network Research Federation (SNRF} network in 2012. FY13, FSDDS multi-panel integration with JSC and SNRF network Technology can allow for integration with other complementary damage detection systems.

Williams, Martha↗

Battery Energy Storage Systems: A Review of Energy Management Systems and Health Metrics

With increasing concerns about climate change, there is a transition from high-carbon-emitting fuels to green energy resources in various applications including household, commercial, transportation, and electric grid applications. Even though renewable energy resources are receiving traction for being carbon-neutral, their availability is intermittent. To address this issue to achieve extensive application, the integration of energy storage systems in conjunction with these resources is becoming a recommended practice. Additionally, in the transportation sector, the increased demand for EVs requires the development of energy storage systems that can deliver energy for rigorous driving cycles, with lithium-ion-based batteries emerging as the superior choice for energy storage due to their high power and energy densities, length of their life cycle, low self-discharge rates, and reasonable cost. As a result, battery energy storage systems (BESSs) are becoming a primary energy storage system. The high-performance demand on these BESS can have severe negative effects on their internal operations such as heating and catching on fire when operating in overcharge or undercharge states. Reduced efficiency and poor charge storage result in the battery operating at higher temperatures. To mitigate early battery degradation, battery management systems (BMSs) have been devised to enhance battery life and ensure normal operation under safe operating conditions. Some BMSs are capable of determining precise state estimations to ensure safe battery operation and reduce hazards. Precise estimation of battery health is computed by evaluating several metrics and is a central factor in effective battery management systems. In this scenario, the accurate estimation of the health indicators (HIs) of the battery becomes even more important within the framework of a BMS. This paper provides a comprehensive review and discussion of battery management systems and different health indicators for BESSs, with suitable classification based on key characteristics.

Nazaralizadeh, Solmaz (ORCID:0009000737004039)↗

Network-Capable Application Process and Wireless Intelligent Sensors for ISHM

Intelligent sensor technology and systems are increasingly becoming attractive means to serve as frameworks for intelligent rocket test facilities with embedded intelligent sensor elements, distributed data acquisition elements, and onboard data acquisition elements. Networked intelligent processors enable users and systems integrators to automatically configure their measurement automation systems for analog sensors. NASA and leading sensor vendors are working together to apply the IEEE 1451 standard for adding plug-and-play capabilities for wireless analog transducers through the use of a Transducer Electronic Data Sheet (TEDS) in order to simplify sensor setup, use, and maintenance, to automatically obtain calibration data, and to eliminate manual data entry and error. A TEDS contains the critical information needed by an instrument or measurement system to identify, characterize, interface, and properly use the signal from an analog sensor. A TEDS is deployed for a sensor in one of two ways. First, the TEDS can reside in embedded, nonvolatile memory (typically flash memory) within the intelligent processor. Second, a virtual TEDS can exist as a separate file, downloadable from the Internet. This concept of virtual TEDS extends the benefits of the standardized TEDS to legacy sensors and applications where the embedded memory is not available. An HTML-based user interface provides a visual tool to interface with those distributed sensors that a TEDS is associated with, to automate the sensor management process. Implementing and deploying the IEEE 1451.1-based Network-Capable Application Process (NCAP) can achieve support for intelligent process in Integrated Systems Health Management (ISHM) for the purpose of monitoring, detection of anomalies, diagnosis of causes of anomalies, prediction of future anomalies, mitigation to maintain operability, and integrated awareness of system health by the operator. It can also support local data collection and storage. This invention enables wide-area sensing and employs numerous globally distributed sensing devices that observe the physical world through the existing sensor network. This innovation enables distributed storage, distributed processing, distributed intelligence, and the availability of DiaK (Data, Information, and Knowledge) to any element as needed. It also enables the simultaneous execution of multiple processes, and represents models that contribute to the determination of the condition and health of each element in the system. The NCAP (intelligent process) can configure data-collection and filtering processes in reaction to sensed data, allowing it to decide when and how to adapt collection and processing with regard to sophisticated analysis of data derived from multiple sensors. The user will be able to view the sensing device network as a single unit that supports a high-level query language. Each query would be able to operate over data collected from across the global sensor network just as a search query encompasses millions of Web pages. The sensor web can preserve ubiquitous information access between the querier and the queried data. Pervasive monitoring of the physical world raises significant data and privacy concerns. This innovation enables different authorities to control portions of the sensing infrastructure, and sensor service authors may wish to compose services across authority boundaries.

Figueroa, Fernando↗

Strategies for Quantifying Human Space Flight Performance in the Crew Health and Performance System

The Crew Health and Performance-Probabilistic Risk Assessment (CHP-PRA) team at NASA Glenn Research Center is planning a customized approach to quantify human spaceflight performance changes with respect to changes to the CHP system functions and capabilities. Using the Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAG) initiated by NASA’s Human Systems Risk Board (HSRB) [1], the team is surveying potential candidate models and novel strategies that generate metrics suitable for supporting decision making related to how the CHP system may influence human system performance risk. One such investigation includes classic Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) models. Traditionally, HRA methods estimate the occurrence of human errors and their impact on the success of an activity when designing and operating a system. While humans perceive, interpret, decide on, and carry out a course of action, the factors affecting performance and error likelihood are commonly referred to as performance shaping factors (PSFs). Originally developed to alleviate safety concerns related to nuclear power plant operations, HRA methods such as THERP [2] and CREAM [3] dismantle an activity into tasks, requiring elemental steps to be executed, and assess their failure due to predefined PSFs. In this study, we compare generic HRA methods and those that incorporate some human spaceflight aspects, such as sleep conditions (SCREAM [4]), with respect to how they may be adopted to capture performance with an intention to mitigate detrimental outcomes elucidated by the HSRB DAGs. We suggest strategies to quantify astronaut performance specific to spaceflight activities and illustrate how such concepts may help in optimizing the CHP system capabilities with respect to Artemis missions.

dag↗

Health Maintenance System (HMS) Hardware Research, Design, and Collaboration

The Space Life Sciences division (SLSD) concentrates on optimizing a crew member's health. Developments are translated into innovative engineering solutions, research growth, and community awareness. This internship incorporates all those areas by targeting various projects. The main project focuses on integrating clinical and biomedical engineering principles to design, develop, and test new medical kits scheduled for launch in the Spring of 2011. Additionally, items will be tagged with Radio Frequency Interference Devices (RFID) to keep track of the inventory. The tags will then be tested to optimize Radio Frequency feed and feed placement. Research growth will occur with ground based experiments designed to measure calcium encrusted deposits in the International Space Station (ISS). The tests will assess the urine calcium levels with Portable Clinical Blood Analyzer (PCBA) technology. If effective then a model for urine calcium will be developed and expanded to microgravity environments. To support collaboration amongst the subdivisions of SLSD the architecture of the Crew Healthcare Systems (CHeCS) SharePoint site has been redesigned for maximum efficiency. Community collaboration has also been established with the University of Southern California, Dept. of Aeronautical Engineering and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Hardware disbursements will transpire within these communities to support planetary surface exploration and to serve as an educational tool demonstrating how ground based medicine influenced the technological development of space hardware.

Gonzalez, Stefanie M.↗

Health Monitoring of a Planetary Rover Using Hybrid Particle Petri Nets

This paper focuses on the application of a Petri Net-based diagnosis method on a planetary rover prototype.The diagnosis is performed by using a model-based method in the context of health management of hybrid systems.In system health management, the diagnosis task aims at determining the current health state of a system and the fault occurrences that lead to this state. The Hybrid Particle Petri Nets (HPPN) formalism is used to model hybrid systems behavior and degradation, and to define the generation of diagnosers to monitor the health states of such systems under uncertainty. At any time, the HPPN-based diagnoser provides the current diagnosis represented by a distribution of beliefs over the health states. The health monitoring methodology is demonstrated on the K11 rover. A hybrid model of the K11 is proposed and experimental results show that the approach is robust to real system data and constraints.

health monitoring↗

Using Systems Engineering to Develop an Integrated Crew Health and Performance System to Mitigate Risk for Human Exploration Missions

New space exploration missions are currently being designed to take humanity beyond low Earth orbit (LEO) to cis-lunar space, the lunar surface, and eventually to Mars. These missions carry increased risks due to a number of factors, including distance from Earth, exposure to deep space hazards, reduced capacity and ability to resupply and evacuate, and increased communication delays. As distance from Earth grows and mission length increases, a growing proportion of mission risk can be attributed to the “human system.” Almost twenty years ago, the Institute of Medicine in the United States recommended the early and complete integration of the human system into the spacecraft and mission design process to mitigate this increased risk inherent in exploration missions. Exploration missions will require increasing levels of crew self-sufficiency that will challenge the current operational paradigms established in LEO. Enabling progressive Earth independence requires management of the increasingly complex interactions among spacecraft systems and integration of all the data and functions that affect human health and performance into one coordinated system –the Crew Health and Performance (CHP) system. This system is a critical spacecraft system that is analogous to other systems such as propulsion, guidance and navigation, or avionics. Design and integration of the CHP system requires the evidence-based merger of typically disparate disciplines such as medicine, human factors, and life support system design, using systems engineering (SE) practices. SE provides traceability of spacecraft requirements and enables reliable and repeatable trade space analysis of the many competing options for hardware and software to be included in the mission architecture. The approach described here enables spacecraft and mission designers to align the scope of a CHP system with mission specific requirements, decrease risk to the crew, and increase the probability of mission success.

Kerry McGuire↗

Methods Developed by the Tools for Engine Diagnostics Task to Monitor and Predict Rotor Damage in Real Time

Tools for Engine Diagnostics is a major task in the Propulsion System Health Management area of the Single Aircraft Accident Prevention project under NASA s Aviation Safety Program. The major goal of the Aviation Safety Program is to reduce fatal aircraft accidents by 80 percent within 10 years and by 90 percent within 25 years. The goal of the Propulsion System Health Management area is to eliminate propulsion system malfunctions as a primary or contributing factor to the cause of aircraft accidents. The purpose of Tools for Engine Diagnostics, a 2-yr-old task, is to establish and improve tools for engine diagnostics and prognostics that measure the deformation and damage of rotating engine components at the ground level and that perform intermittent or continuous monitoring on the engine wing. In this work, nondestructive-evaluation- (NDE-) based technology is combined with model-dependent disk spin experimental simulation systems, like finite element modeling (FEM) and modal norms, to monitor and predict rotor damage in real time. Fracture mechanics time-dependent fatigue crack growth and damage-mechanics-based life estimation are being developed, and their potential use investigated. In addition, wireless eddy current and advanced acoustics are being developed for on-wing and just-in-time NDE engine inspection to provide deeper access and higher sensitivity to extend on-wing capabilities and improve inspection readiness. In the long run, these methods could establish a base for prognostic sensing while an engine is running, without any overt actions, like inspections. This damage-detection strategy includes experimentally acquired vibration-, eddy-current- and capacitance-based displacement measurements and analytically computed FEM-, modal norms-, and conventional rotordynamics-based models of well-defined damages and critical mass imbalances in rotating disks and rotors.

Baaklini, George Y.↗