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NASA NTRS2000

History of NASA/Native People Native Homelands Initiative

This workshop is one of the follow-on local assessment activities from the US National Assessment on the Impact of Climate Change on the US. N. Maynard (for NASA) helped create and get under way an initiative which brought together climate change scientists from around the US with Native Americans to bring together classic Western European scientists with knowledge from native peoples - from such sources as oral histories of drought, major fires, etc. The purpose of this was to encourage not only joint science but also bring NASA resources and education materials to Tribal schools and encourage joint preparation of educational and training materials. N. Maynard's talk will provide history of that process and discuss possible ways to collaborate in the future, building on this effort.

Maynard, Nancy↗

NASA NTRS2015

Conceptual Design of Environmentally Friendly Rotorcraft - A Comparison of NASA and ONERA Approaches

In 2011, a task was initiated under the US-French Project Agreement on rotorcraft studies to collaborate on design methodologies for environmentally friendly rotorcraft. This paper summarizes the efforts of that collaboration. The French and US aerospace agencies, ONERA and NASA, have their own software toolsets and approaches to rotorcraft design. The first step of this research effort was to understand how rotorcraft impact the environment, with the initial focus on air pollution. Second, similar baseline helicopters were developed for a passenger transport mission, using NASA and ONERA rotorcraft design software tools. Comparisons were made between the designs generated by the two tools. Finally, rotorcraft designs were generated targeting reduced environmental impact. The results show that a rotorcraft design that targets reduced environmental impact can be significantly different than one that targets traditional cost drivers, such as fuel burn and empty weight.

Conceptual Design↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Using NASA Earth Observations to Identify Wildfire Impacts on Hydrologic Functions and Recovery in the Gila National Forest

Wildfires can dramatically influence both abiotic and biotic components of a landscape, including soil stability and chemistry; vegetation health, density, and composition; and water flow and quality. In addition to the immediate hazards posed by wildfires, subsequent hazards such as flooding and debris flow can impact the area. In New Mexico’s Gila National Forest, wildfire events have occurred with increasing frequency and severity over recent years, notably including the Whitewater Baldy Complex Fire (2012) and Silver Fire (2013), which burned over 290,000 acres and 138,698 acres, respectively, according to the Burned Area Emergency Response Team Executive Summary reports. Following a significant wildfire, land and resource management decisions are made, including when and where to focus vegetation and stream restoration efforts. This research is the result of a collaboration between the NASA DEVELOP National Program and the US Forest Service, which aimed to utilize NASA Earth observations to help inform those critical land management decisions. The project had two main objectives: 1) assess the efficacy of post-fire vegetation restoration efforts and 2) analyze the impact of burn events on the hydrology at the watershed-scale. To accomplish this first goal, data from Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM), Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) were used to study the vegetation health over time of treated and non-treated burn areas. To accomplish the latter, various aspects of stream behavior were examined in relation to burn events, including the runoff coefficient and “flashiness” of streams based on USGS stream gauge data and Integrated Multi-satelllite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) precipitation data. This will allow land managers to better understand the complex ecological relationship between the cascading effects after wildfire and the greater forest ecosystem.

Madeline Allen↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) NASA’s First Polar Drilling and Volatiles Detection Mission

The US Administration announced in 2019 that NASA would return to the Moon where it would seek to establish a sustainable lunar presence. In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is needed to sustain and grow hu-man surface exploration and it is therefore a vital part of ensuring this bold endeavor. ISRU requires ground-truth on physical, mineral, and volatile characteristics of the resources. Water, a key and game-changing resource, exists in the polar regions of the Moon. Learning to harvest and use this resource first requires understanding where the resource is abundantly located and on what scales. Harvested water, which is usable for life support and fuel, must be identified, quantified, and assessed for its mining feasibility. The project goal for PRIME-1 is to develop a flight-ready instrumentation package that can assess the volatiles at a polar lunar landing location. PRIME-1 is the combination of two instruments; Mass Spectrometer observing lunar operations (MSolo) and The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain (TRIDENT). TRIDENT is an 1-meter augering drill capable of bringing incremental lunar regolith samples to the surface for volatile analysis. MSolo is a modified, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) mass spectrometer capable of qualifying and quantifying atomic species in the 1-100 amu range, including isotopic differentiation. These two lunar flight instruments operating together make up the PRIME-1 instrument suite. PRIME-1 intends to fly on and operate from a static lunar lander acquired by the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) acquisition process. The PRIME-1 payload suite was selected to fly on Intuitive Machines Nova-C lander, and is currently targeting a late Fall 2023 landing attempt.

MSolo↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) NASA’s First Polar Drilling and Volatiles Detection Mission

MSolo↗

NASA NTRS2006

NASA Crew Launch Vehicle Overview

The US. Vision for Space Exploration, announced January 2004, outlines the National Aeronautics and Space Administration s (NASA) strategic goals and objectives. These include: 1) Flying the Shuttle as safely as possible until its retirement, not later than 2010. 2) Bringing a new Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) into service as soon as possible after Shuttle retirement. 3) Developing a balanced overall program of science, exploration, and aeronautics at NASA, consistent with the redirection of the human spaceflight program to focus on exploration. 4) Completing the International Space Station (ISS) in a manner consistent with international partner commitments and the needs of human exploration. 5) Encouraging the pursuit of appropriate partnerships with the emerging commercial space sector. 6) Establishing a lunar return program having the maximum possible utility for later missions to Mars and other destinations. Following the confirmation of the new NASA Administrator in April 2005, the Agency commissioned a team of aerospace subject matter experts from government and industry to perform the Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS), which provided in-depth information for selecting the follow-on launch vehicle designs to enable these goals, The ESAS team analyzed a number of potential launch systems, with a focus on: (1) a human-rated launch vehicle for crew transport and (2) a heavy lift launch vehicle (HLLV) to carry cargo. After several months of intense study utilizing technical performance, budget, and schedule objectives, the results showed that the optimum architecture to meet the challenge of safe, reliable crew transport is a two-stage variant of the Space Shuttle propulsion system - utilizing the reusable Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) as the first stage, along with a new upper stage that uses a derivative of the RS-25 Space Shuttle Main Engine to deliver 25 metric tons to low-Earth orbit. The CEV that this new Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV) lofts into space early next decade will initially ferry astronauts to the Space Station and be capable of carrying crews back to lunar orbit and of supporting missions to Mars orbit. The HLLV system will utilize the Shuttle External Tank combined with SRBs. The focus of this paper is on the CLV system, giving an overview of plans and progress to date.

Dumbacher, Daniel L.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Refining the GPS Space Service Volume (SSV) and Building a Multi-GNSS SSV

The GPS (Global Positioning System) Space Service Volume (SSV) was first defined to protect the GPS main lobe signals from changes from block to block. First developed as a concept by NASA in 2000, it has been adopted for the GPS III block of satellites, and is being used well beyond the current specification to enable increased navigation performance for key missions like GOES-R. NASA has engaged the US IFOR (Interagency Forum Operational Requirements) process to adopt a revised requirement to protect this increased and emerging use. Also, NASA is working through the UN International Committee on GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) to develop an interoperable multi-GNSS SSV in partnership with all of the foreign GNSS providers.

Parker, Joel J. K.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Independent Reliability Assessment of the NASA GSFC Laser Transmitter for the LISA Program

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is a partnership between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA to build a Gravitational Wave (GW) observatory. The observatory, which consists of a three-spacecraft constellation with a nominal separation of 2.5 million km between each spacecraft, provides a tool for scientists to directly detect gravitational waves generated from various astronomical phenomena in a waveband that is not accessible from Earth. NASA is developing laser transmitters as one of the potential US contributions to LISA. The NASA laser design leverages lessons learned from previous flight missions and included the latest technologies in photonics packaging and reliability engineering to ensure a laser lifetime of >16 years covering integration and test through a possible extended mission phase. As part of the laser development process, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) requested support from the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) to independently assess the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the LISA Laser System (LS). The independent assessment included the following tasks: (a) assess the design for weaknesses and suggest improvements to mitigate risks, (b) assess the laser reliability plan for weaknesses and suggest improvements to mitigate risks and improve effectiveness, and (c) assess the current redundancy plan on laser subsystems for weaknesses and suggest improvements to mitigate risks and improve effectiveness. The NESC team comprised of a team of subject matter experts (SMEs) and performed a 12-month review of every aspect of the laser design. We present the assessment findings and the current development progress of the LISA laser to meet the mission requirements with a delivery of a form, fit, and functional TRL6 laser to the LSIA mission by late 2023.

LISA↗

NASA NTRS2000

The Fight Deck Perspective of the NASA Langley AILS Concept

Many US airports depend on parallel runway operations to meet the growing demand for day to day operations. In the current airspace system, Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) reduce the capacity of close parallel runway operations; that is, runways spaced closer than 4300 ft. These capacity losses can result in landing delays causing inconveniences to the traveling public, interruptions in commerce, and increased operating costs to the airlines. This document presents the flight deck perspective component of the Airborne Information for Lateral Spacing (AILS) approaches to close parallel runways in IMC. It represents the ideas the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) AILS Development Team envisions to integrate a number of components and procedures into a workable system for conducting close parallel runway approaches. An initial documentation of the aspects of this concept was sponsored by LaRC and completed in 1996. Since that time a number of the aspects have evolved to a more mature state. This paper is an update of the earlier documentation.

Rine, Laura L.↗

NASA NTRS2008

The INTEGRAL Mission: Status and Science

Since its launch on October 17, 2002, the INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) mission has been producing exciting scientific results. I will present a brief overview of the INTEGRAL mission including its complement of scientific instruments and its current operational status. This will set the stage for the scientific talks that follow. I will then discuss opportunities for US investigator participation including the NASA INTEGRAL Guest Investigator Program and support services available through the US INTEGRAL Guest Observer Facility.

Sturner, Steven J.↗

NASA NTRS1971

US - Soviet agreement

Agreement between NASA and Academy of Sciences of USSR for data exchange

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2009

Technology Transfer Challenges: A Case Study of User-Centered Design in NASA's Systems Engineering Culture

The Upper Stage (US) section of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Ares I rocket will require internal access platforms for maintenance tasks performed by humans inside the vehicle. Tasks will occur during expensive critical path operations at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) including vehicle stacking and launch preparation activities. Platforms must be translated through a small human access hatch, installed in an enclosed worksite environment, support the weight of ground operators and be removed before flight - and their design must minimize additional vehicle mass at attachment points. This paper describes the application of a user-centered conceptual design process and the unique challenges encountered within NASA's systems engineering culture focused on requirements and "heritage hardware". The NASA design team at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) initiated the user-centered design process by studying heritage internal access kits and proposing new design concepts during brainstorming sessions. Simultaneously, they partnered with the Technology Transfer/Innovative Partnerships Program to research inflatable structures and dynamic scaffolding solutions that could enable ground operator access. While this creative, technology-oriented exploration was encouraged by upper management, some design stakeholders consistently opposed ideas utilizing novel, untested equipment. Subsequent collaboration with an engineering consulting firm improved the technical credibility of several options, however, there was continued resistance from team members focused on meeting system requirements with pre-certified hardware. After a six-month idea-generating phase, an intensive six-week effort produced viable design concepts that justified additional vehicle mass while optimizing the human factors of platform installation and use. Although these selected final concepts closely resemble heritage internal access platforms, challenges from the application of the user-centered process provided valuable lessons for improving future collaborative conceptual design efforts.

Quick, Jason↗

NASA NTRS2012

NASA's Launch Propulsion Systems Technology Roadmap

Safe, reliable, and affordable access to low-Earth (LEO) orbit is necessary for all of the United States (US) space endeavors. In 2010, NASA s Office of the Chief Technologist commissioned 14 teams to develop technology roadmaps that could be used to guide the Agency s and US technology investment decisions for the next few decades. The Launch Propulsion Systems Technology Area (LPSTA) team was tasked to address the propulsion technology challenges for access to LEO. The developed LPSTA roadmap addresses technologies that enhance existing solid or liquid propulsion technologies and their related ancillary systems or significantly advance the technology readiness level (TRL) of less mature systems like airbreathing, unconventional, and other launch technologies. In developing this roadmap, the LPSTA team consulted previous NASA, military, and industry studies as well as subject matter experts to develop their assessment of this field, which has fundamental technological and strategic impacts for US space capabilities.

McConnaughey, Paul K.↗

NASA NTRS1996

Planning an Effective Speakers Outreach Program

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and, in particular, the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) have played pivotal roles in the advancement of space exploration and space-related science and discovery since the early 1960's. Many of the extraordinary accomplishments and advancements of NASA and MSFC have gone largely unheralded to the general public, though they often border on the miraculous. This lack of suitable and deserved announcement of these "miracles" seems to have occurred because NASA engineers and scientists are inclined to regard extraordinary accomplishment as a normal course of events. The goal in this project has been to determine an effective structure and mechanism for communicating to the general public the extent to which our investment in our US civilian space program, NASA, is, in fact, a very wise investment. The project has involved discerning important messages of truth which beg to be conveyed to the public. It also sought to identify MSFC personnel who are particularly effective as messengers or communicators. A third aspect of the project was to identify particular target audiences who would appreciate knowing the facts about their NASA investment. The intent is to incorporate the results into the formation of an effective, proactive MSFC speakers bureau. A corollary accomplishment for the summer was participation in the formation of an educational outreach program known as Nasa Ambassadors. Nasa Ambassadors are chosen from the participants in the various MSFC summer programs including: Summer Faculty Fellowship Program (SFFP), Science Teacher Enrichment Program (STEP), Community College Enrichment Program (CCEP), Joint Venture (JOVE) program, and the NASA Academy program. NASA Ambassadors agree to make pre-packaged NASA-related presentations to non-academic audiences in their home communities. The packaged presentations were created by a small cadre of participants from the 1996 MSFC summer programs, volunteering their time beyond their normal NASA summer research commitment. A total of eight presentations were created and made available for use by NASA Ambassadors. A major segment of the research effort during the summer has been devoted to verifying and documenting certain "spinoff' contributions of NASA technology and in determining their relevance and impact to our society and our nation's economy. The purpose behind the verification/documentation research has been to shed light on the question of whether or not our NASA investment is a wise investment. It has revealed that NASA is a wise investment.

McDonald, Malcolm W.↗

NASA NTRS2005

NASA Earth Sciences Data Support System and Services for the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative

The presentation describes data management of NASA remote sensing data for Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI). Many types of ground and integrative (e.g., satellite, GIs) data will be needed and many models must be applied, adapted or developed for properly understanding the functioning of Northern Eurasia cold and diverse regional system. Mechanisms for obtaining the requisite data sets and models and sharing them among the participating scientists are essential. The proposed project targets integration of remote sensing data from AVHRR, MODIS, and other NASA instruments on board US- satellites (with potential expansion to data from non-US satellites), customized data products from climatology data sets (e.g., ISCCP, ISLSCP) and model data (e.g., NCEPNCAR) into a single, well-architected data management system. It will utilize two existing components developed by the Goddard Earth Sciences Data & Information Services Center (GES DISC) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: (1) online archiving and distribution system, that allows collection, processing and ingest of data from various sources into the online archive, and (2) user-friendly intelligent web-based online visualization and analysis system, also known as Giovanni. The former includes various kinds of data preparation for seamless interoperability between measurements by different instruments. The latter provides convenient access to various geophysical parameters measured in the Northern Eurasia region without any need to learn complicated remote sensing data formats, or retrieve and process large volumes of NASA data. Initial implementation of this data management system will concentrate on atmospheric data and surface data aggregated to coarse resolution to support collaborative environment and climate change studies and modeling, while at later stages, data from NASA and non-NASA satellites at higher resolution will be integrated into the system.

Leptoukh, Gregory↗

NASA NTRS2012

Quantification of Posterior Globe Flattening: Methodology Development and Validation

Microgravity exposure affects visual acuity in a subset of astronauts and mechanisms may include structural changes in the posterior globe and orbit. Particularly, posterior globe flattening has been implicated in the eyes of several astronauts. This phenomenon is known to affect some terrestrial patient populations and has been shown to be associated with intracranial hypertension. It is commonly assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) or B-mode Ultrasound (US), without consistent objective criteria. NASA uses a semiquantitative scale of 0-3 as part of eye/orbit MRI and US analysis for occupational monitoring purposes. The goal of this study was ot initiate development of an objective quantification methodology to monitor small changes in posterior globe flattening.

Lumpkins, Sarah B.↗

NASA NTRS2015

Lunar and Meteorite Sample Disk for Educators

NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) has the unique responsibility to curate NASA's extraterrestrial samples from past and future missions. Curation includes documentation, preservation, preparation and distribution of samples for research, education and public outreach. Between 1969 and 1972 six Apollo missions brought back 382 kilograms of lunar rocks, core and regolith samples, from the lunar surface. JSC also curates meteorites collected from a US cooperative effort among NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Smithsonian Institution that funds expeditions to Antarctica. The meteorites that are collected include rocks from Moon, Mars, and many asteroids including Vesta. The sample disks for educational use include these different samples. Active relevant learning has always been important to teachers and the Lunar and Meteorite Sample Disk Program provides this active style of learning for students and the general public. The Lunar and Meteorite Sample Disks permit students to conduct investigations comparable to actual scientists. The Lunar Sample Disk contains 6 samples; Basalt, Breccia, Highland Regolith, Anorthosite, Mare Regolith and Orange Soil. The Meteorite Sample Disk contains 6 samples; Chondrite L3, Chondrite H5, Carbonaceous Chondrite, Basaltic Achondrite, Iron and Stony-Iron. Teachers are given different activities that adhere to their standards with the disks. During a Sample Disk Certification Workshop, teachers participate in the activities as students gain insight into the history, formation and geologic processes of the moon, asteroids and meteorites.

Foxworth, Suzanne↗

NASA NTRS2008

Study of the Correlation between the Performances of Lunar Vehicle Wheels Predicted by the Nepean Wheeled Vehicle Performance Model and Test Data

This paper describes the results of a study of the correlation between the performances of wheels for lunar vehicles predicted using the Nepean wheeled vehicle performance model (NWVPM), developed under the auspices of Vehicle Systems Development Corporation, Ottawa, Canada, and the corresponding test data presented in Performance evaluation of wheels for lunar vehicles , Technical Report M-70-2, prepared for George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), USA, by the US Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station (WES). The NWVPM was originally developed for design and performance evaluation of terrestrial off-road wheeled vehicles. The purpose of this study is to assess the potential of the NWVPM for evaluating wheel candidates for the new generation of extra-terrestrial vehicles. Two versions of a wire-mesh wheel and a hoop-spring wheel, which were considered as candidates for lunar roving vehicles for the NASA Apollo program in the late 1960s, together with a pneumatic wheel were examined in this study. The tractive performances of these wheels and of a 464 test vehicle with the pneumatic wheels on air-dry sand were predicted using the NWVPM and compared with the corresponding test data obtained under Earth s gravity and previously documented in the above-named report. While test data on wheel or vehicle performances obtained under Earth s gravity may not necessarily be representative of those on extra-terrestrial bodies, because of the differences in gravity and in environmental conditions, such as atmospheric pressure, it is still a valid approach to use test data obtained under Earth s gravity to evaluate the predictive capability of the NWVPM and its potential applications to predicting wheel or wheeled rover performances on extra-terrestrial bodies. Results of this study show that, using the ratio (P20/W) of the drawbar pull to normal load at 20 per cent slip as a performance indicator, there is a reasonable correlation between the predictions and experimental data. This indicates that the NWVPM has the potential as an engineering tool for evaluating wheel candidates for a future generation of extra-terrestrial vehicles, provided that appropriate input data are available.

Wong, J. Y.↗