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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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NASA NTRS2001

Progress and Status of the 2nd Generation Reusable Launch Vehicle Program

Safe, low-cost space transportation is the key enabler of the commercial development and civil exploration of space. Human space flight remains a hazardous endeavor in spite of advances in aerospace technology. NASA intends to reduce the resources devoted to routine space operations, thus enabling additional science research, technology development, and exploration activities. NASA developed the Integrated Space Transportation Plan (ISTP) to address the needs for space access. ISTP is a balanced and comprehensive plan that embodies strategies for achieving goals for earth-to-orbit and in-space transportation operations. ISTP calls for near-term safety related upgrades to the Space Shuttle, development of a Crew Return Vehicle, a new Space Launch Initiative (SLI), and development of an Aero-Space Base to provide foundation technology for future space systems. NASA formed the SLI to coordinate the development of the 2nd Generation Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) architecture, The SLI is implemented by the 2nd Generation RLV Program Office.

Dumbacher, Daniel L.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Increases in Efficiency and Enhancements to the Mars Observer Non-stored Commanding Process

The Mars Observer team was, until the untimely loss of the spacecraft on August 21, 1993, performing flight operations with greater efficiency and speed than any previous JPL mission of its size. This level of through-put was made possible by a Mission Operations System which was composed of skilled personnel using sophisticated sequencing and commanding tools. During cruise flight operations, however, it was realized by the project that this commanding level was not going to be sufficient to support the activities planned for the mapping operations. The project had committed to providing the science instrument principle investigators with a much higher level of commanding during mapping. Thus, the project began taking steps to enhance the capabilities of the flight team. One mechanism used by project management was a tool available from Total Quality Management (TQM). This tool is known as a Process Action Team (PAT). The Mars Observer PAT was tasked to increase the capacity of the flight team's non-stored commanding process by fifty percent with no increase in staffing and a minimal increase in risk. The outcome of this effort was to, in fact, increase the capacity by a factor of 2.5 rather than the desired fifty percent and actually reduce risk. The majority of these improvements came from the automation of the existing command process. The results required very few changes to the existing mission operations system. Rather, the PAT was able to take advantage of automation capabilities inherent in the existing system and make changes to the existing flight team procedures. This paper will describe in detail the enhancements recommended by the PAT for the non-stored command generation process on Mars Observer. This will be contrasted with the process used by the flight team prior to implementation of these improvements. Finally, there will be a discussion of the applicability of the techniques devised by the PAT for enhancement of the non-stored command process to present and future projects.

Process↗
NASA NTRS1991

Environmental health discipline science plan

The purpose of this plan is to provide a conceptual strategy for NASA's Life Sciences Division research and development activities in environmental health. It covers the significant research areas critical to NASA's programmatic requirements for the Extended Duration Orbiter, Space Station Freedom, and exploration mission science activities. These science activities include ground-based and flight; basic, applied, and operational; animal and human subjects; and research and development. This document summarizes the history and current status of the program elements, outlines available knowledge, establishes goals and objectives, identifies scientific priorities, and defines critical questions in the three disciplines: (1) Barophysiology, (2) Toxicology, and (3) Microbiology. This document contains a general plan that will be used by both NASA Headquarters Program Officers and the field centers to review and plan basic, applied, and operational research and development activities, both intramural and extramural, in this area. The document is divided into sections addressing these three disciplines.

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NASA NTRS2003

Low/Medium Density Biomass, Coastal and Ocean Carbon: A Carbon Cycle Mission

As part of the Global Carbon Cycle research effort, an agency-wide planning initiative was organized between October 2000 and June 2001 by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) at the behest of the Associate Administrator for Earth Science. The goal was to define future research and technology development activities needed for implementing a cohesive scientific observation plan. A timeline for development of missions necessary to acquire the selected new measurements was laid out, and included missions for low - medium density terrestrial biomass / coastal ocean / and ocean carbon. This paper will begin with the scientific justification and measurement requirements for these specific activities, explore the options for having separate or combined missions, and follow-up with an implementation study centered on a hyperspectral imager at geosynchronous altitudes.

Esper, Jaime↗
NASA NTRS2024

NASA’s Astrophysics Cross-Observatory Science Support (ACROSS) Initiative: Enabling Time-Domain and Multimessenger

The Astro2020 Decadal Survey recommended an investment in Time-Domain and 4 Multimessenger Astrophysics (TDAMM) as the top-priority sustaining activity in space for the 5 coming decade. One aspect of NASA’s response to this recommendation is a pilot project, 6 the Astrophysics Cross-Observatory Science Support (ACROSS) initiative, designed to provide 7 support to both missions and observers as they pursue TDAMM science. Here, we present our 8 observations of needs in the community and initial plans for ACROSS activities, including services 9 to facilitate and improve cross-mission follow-up planning and execution; a multimessenger web portal with links to existing mission resources, community tools, and information targeted for 11 TDAMM general observers; development of “Smart target-of-opportunity submission page” proof-12 of-concepts; and ongoing development of a potential TDAMM general observing competitive 13 grant solicitation. As the ACROSS pilot phase begins, we invite discussion of our plans with both 14 missions and observers to better understand their needs and concerns.

T B Humensky↗
NASA NTRS1995

Mission planning for the Lidar in Space Technology Experiment

Developing a mission planning system for a Space Shuttle mission is a complex procedure. Several months of preparation are required to develop a plan that optimizes science return during the short operations time frame. Further complicating the scenario is the necessity to schedule around crew activities and other payloads which share Orbiter resources. SpaceTec, Inc. developed the mission planning system for the Lidar In Space Technology Experiment, or LITE, which flew on Space Shuttle mission STS-64 in September of 1994. SpaceTec used a combination of off-th-shelf and in-house developed software to analyze various mission scenarios both premission and real-time during the flight. From this analysis, SpaceTec developed a comprehensive mission plan that met the mission objectives.

Redifer, Matthew E.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Ground-based Validation of the EOS Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) Aerosol Retrieval Algorithms and Science Data Products

A plan for the ground-based validation of MISR aerosol retrieval is outlined. Activities occur in two phases: (1) pre-launch, work is focused on technique development and MISR algorithm validation using conventional ground-base methods and a MISR simulator (AirMISR) operating from the ER-2 aircraft to simulate MISR on-orbit observations. (2) Post-launch, the validation program relies on ground campaigns, underflights wit the MISR simulator and the use of local measurements fo aerosol loading and properties and irradiance measurements derived from the AERONET and ISIS networks.

algorithm↗
NASA NTRS1991

Second National Space Grant Conference report, 1991

The conference goals were: (1) to provide a setting for Space Grant College/Consortia leaders to meet and discuss program plans; (2) to provide participants with updates on major NASA science and engineering programs and educational affairs activities; and (3) to hold workshops on themes of critical importance to the program. The conference agenda focused primarily on a series of 15 workshops in which program directors or their designees discussed components of the Space Grant Program. These components - outreach, pre-college education, publicity, and organization - were earlier incorporated in very specific ways within individual program plans. The conference, thus, afforded those attending an opportunity to exchange information and concerns regarding program elements while exploring ways to structure, enhance and perhaps broaden their program plans. Space Grant representatives also discussed with headquarters officials ways in which the Space Grant Program itself should be evaluated.

Heimsoth, Jeffrey T.↗
NASA NTRS2023

The Earth in Living Color - NASA’s Surface Biology and Geology Designated Observable

The Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) Designated Observable will transform our understanding of the global land surface, inland and coastal aquatic ecosystems through visible-to-shortwave infra-red imaging (VSWIR) spectroscopy and thermal infra-red (TIR) imaging. SBG is one of four high-priority observables recommended in the 2017 NASA Earth Science Decadal Survey t o address science questions on vegetation and aquatic ecosystem health, snow-cover dynamics, volcanic activity, and minerology. With a planned launch readiness date of 2028, SBG is currently in Pre-Phase A, with Level 1 requirements being developed for a two-spacecraft architecture, including an additional constellation pathfinder. The recommended architecture emerged from an extensive study (2018-2021) that engaged the research and applications community to consider the science questions and measurement objectives of the Decadal Survey. A Science and Applications Traceability Matrix was used as a basis for scoring candidate architectures, with inputs from four working groups that covered algorithms, applications, calibration and validation, and modeling. Two pathfinder studies, Modeling End-to-End Traceability in support of SBG (MEET-SBG) and Space-based Imaging Spectroscopy and Thermal pathfindER (SISTER) are providing pre-launch modeling tools and data for algorithm development to support science value trades. The architecture consists of one spacecraft hosting a wide-swath VSWIR imaging spectrometer providing 30-m ground-sample distance (GSD), a spectral range of 380-2500 nm (at 10 nm resolution), 16-day revisit with 400 signal-to-noise for VNIR and 250 for SWIR (at 25% reflectance). A separate spacecraft will host a wide swath thermal imager, with five to seven bands placed between 4-12 μm), with 60-m (GSD), 3- day revisit, and 0.2K noise-equivalent differential temperature (NeDT). A VNIR compact camera will be hosted on the TIR spacecraft to enable coincident TIR and VNIR observations. A constellation pathfinder will evaluate options for enabling VSWIR mission continuity using Small Sats or data buys. Partnerships with international space agencies contribute technology as well as improvements to temporal revisit. SBG, when launched, will be the first dedicated mission collecting the full spectra of the Earth’s ‘living color’ and will play a critical role in NASA’s Earth System Observatory.

David S Schimel↗
NASA NTRS1991

Customer requirements process

Customer requirements are presented through three viewgraphs. One graph presents the range of services, which include requirements management, network engineering, operations, and applications support. Another viewgraph presents the project planning process. The third viewgraph presents the programs and/or projects actively supported including life sciences, earth science and applications, solar system exploration, shuttle flight engineering, microgravity science, space physics, and astrophysics.

Russell, Yvonne↗
NASA NTRS2003

Expedition 8 Crew Interviews: C. Michael Foale - CDR

C. Michael Foale, Commander of the Expedition 8 crew to the International Space Station (ISS), answers interview questions in this video. The questions cover: 1) The goals of the Expedition; 2) How his Mir experience prepared him for long-duration spaceflight; 3) The reaction the Columbia accident where he was training in Star City, Russia; 4) Why the rewards of spaceflight are worth the risks; 5) Why he wanted to become an astronaut; 6) His career path; 7) His influences; 8) His path of study; 9) His responsibilities on a mission; 10) What a Soyuz capsule is like; 11) What the oncoming and offgoing ISS crews will do together; 12) How the ISS science mission will be advanced during his stay; 13) Training and plans for extravehicular activity (EVA); 14) Return to Flight of Shuttle; 15) What is needed to make his mission a success; 16) The most valuable contribution of the ISS.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2004

Mixed-Initiative Constraint-Based Activity Planning for Mars Exploration Rovers

In January, 2004, two NASA rovers, named Spirit and Opportunity, successfully landed on Mars, starting an unprecedented exploration of the Martian surface. Power and thermal concerns constrained the duration of this mission, leading to an aggressive plan for commanding both rovers every day. As part of the process for generating these command loads, the MAPGEN tool provides engineers and scientists an intelligent activity planning tool that allows them to more effectively generate complex plans that maximize the science return each day. The key to'the effectiveness of the MAPGEN tool is an underlying artificial intelligence plan and constraint reasoning engine. In this paper we outline the design and functionality of the MAEPGEN tool and focus on some of the key capabilities it offers to the MER mission engineers.

Bresina, John↗
NASA NTRS2004

MAPGEN: Mixed-Initiative Activity Planning for the Mars Exploration Rover Mission

This document describes the Mixed initiative Activity Plan Generation system MAPGEN. This system is one of the critical tools in the Mars Exploration Rover mission surface operations, where it is used to build activity plans for each of the rovers, each Martian day. The MAPGEN system combines an existing tool for activity plan editing and resource modeling, with an advanced constraint-based reasoning and planning framework. The constraint-based planning component provides active constraint and rule enforcement, automated planning capabilities, and a variety of tools and functions that are useful for building activity plans in an interactive fashion. In this demonstration, we will show the capabilities of the system and demonstrate how the system has been used in actual Mars rover operations. In contrast to the demonstration given at ICAPS 03, significant improvement have been made to the system. These include various additional capabilities that are based on automated reasoning and planning techniques, as well as a new Constraint Editor support tool. The Constraint Editor (CE) as part of the process for generating these command loads, the MAPGEN tool provides engineers and scientists an intelligent activity planning tool that allows them to more effectively generate complex plans that maximize the science return each day. The key to the effectiveness of the MAPGEN tool is an underlying constraint-based planning and reasoning engine.

Ai-Chang, Mitchell↗
NASA NTRS2025

ACROSS: Enabling Time Domain and Multi-Messenger Astrophysics

The U.S. Astro2020 Decadal Survey recommended an investment in Time Domain and Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (TDAMM) as the top-priority sustaining activity in space for the coming decade. One aspect of NASA’s response to this rec-ommendation is a pilot project, the Astrophysics Cross-Observatory Science Support (ACROSS) Initiative, designed to provide support to both missions and observers as they pursue TDAMM science. In this talk, we present our observations of needs in the community and initial plans for ACROSS activities, including services to facilitate and improve cross-mission follow-up planning and execution; a multi-messenger web portal with links to existing mission resources, community tools, and information tar-geted for TDAMM General Observers; development of "Smart Target of Opportunity submission page" proof-of-concepts; and ongoing development of a potential TDAMM general observing competitive grant solicitation. While the initial focus has been to en-hance coordination between NASA missions, we are eager to work with ground-based and international partners as well. We invite discussion with both missions and ob-servers to better understand their needs and concerns as ACROSS progresses. Here we present our efforts on the web-portal and API, along with our development to support NASA’s BurstCube mission.

T B Humensky↗
NASA NTRS2023

Reports From EXPORTS Modeling and Data-Mining Activities

EXPORTS -EXport Processes in the Ocean from RemoTe Sensing is NASA’s large field campaign focusing on development of a predictive understanding of the export, fate and carbon cycle impacts of the global net primary production. This co-funded program (NSF, private funding1, and international participation) was conceived in 2013, with EXPORTS Science plan published in 2016 (Siegel et al 2016, EXPORTS Writing Team 2015) and its implementation plan finalized in 2016 (EXPORTS Science Definition Team 2016). More details are presented in Siegel et al (2021). EXPORTS campaign is structured as a multiyear effort (Figure 1). It started with “Pre-EXPORTS” modeling and data-mining activity followed by a first phase with two major field programs and a second synthesis and modeling phase. The “Pre-EXPORTS” projects, total of 6 of them (Table 1), funded under A.3 Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry 2015 call, helped to plan the field campaign (Resplandy et al 2019, Rousseaux & Gregg 2017), and supporting further global synthesis with datasets mined from the literature (e.g. Bisson et al (2020), Bisson et al (2018), Kramer and Siegel (2019)), directly responding to objectives outlined in Science Plan (see section 6 in Team (2015)) and Implementation team (see Figure 1 in Team (2016)). This document presents a compilation of the final reports of the Pre-EXPORTS funded projects, in hope of synthesizing the outcomes, and insuring the legacy of this program. Each of these reports contains a list of published papers, and reader should refer to them to see results in details.

Brandi J. McCarty↗
NASA NTRS2004

Activity Planning for the Mars Exploration Rovers

Operating the Mars Exploration Rovers is a challenging, time-pressured task. Each day, the operations team must generate a new plan describing the rover activities for the next day. These plans must abide by resource limitations, safety rules, and temporal constraints. The objective is to achieve as much science as possible, choosing from a set of observation requests that oversubscribe rover resources. In order to accomplish this objective, given the short amount of planning time available, the MAPGEN (Mixed-initiative Activity Plan GENerator) system was made a mission-critical part of the ground operations system. MAPGEN is a mixed-initiative system that employs automated constraint-based planning, scheduling, and temporal reasoning to assist operations staff in generating the daily activity plans. This paper describes the adaptation of constraint-based planning and temporal reasoning to a mixed-initiative setting and the key technical solutions developed for the mission deployment of MAPGEN.

Bresina, John L.↗
NASA NTRS1996

NASA Science Institutes Plan. Report of the NASA Science Institutes Team: Final Publication (Incorporating Public Comments and Revisions)

This NASA Science Institute Plan has been produced in response to direction from the NASA Administrator for the benefit of NASA Senior Management, science enterprise leaders, and Center Directors. It is intended to provide a conceptual framework for organizing and planning the conduct of science in support of NASA's mission through the creation of a limited number of science Institutes. This plan is the product of the NASA Science Institute Planning Integration Team (see Figure A). The team worked intensively over a three-month period to review proposed Institutes and produce findings for NASA senior management. The team's activities included visits to current NASA Institutes and associated Centers, as well as approximately a dozen non-NASA research Institutes. In addition to producing this plan, the team published a "Benchmarks" report. The Benchmarks report provides a basis for comparing NASA's proposed activities with those sponsored by other national science agencies, and identifies best practices to be considered in the establishment of NASA Science Institutes. Throughout the team's activities, a Board of Advisors comprised of senior NASA officials (augmented as necessary with other government employees) provided overall advice and counsel.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2011

Landsat Data Continuity Mission

The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) is currently under development and is on schedule to launch the 8th satellite in the Landsat series in December of 2012. LDCM is a joint project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS). NASA is responsible for developing and launching the flight hardware and on-orbit commissioning and USGS is responsible for developing the ground system and operating the system onorbit after commissioning. Key components of the flight hardware are the Operational Land Imager (OLI), nearing completion by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp in Boulder, CO, the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS), being built by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the spacecraft, undergoing integration at Orbital Sciences Corp in Gilbert, Arizona. The launch vehicle will be an Atlas-5 with launch services provided by NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Key ground systems elements are the Mission Operations Element, being developed by the Hammers Corporation, and the Collection Activity Planning Element, Ground Network Element, and Data Processing and Archive System, being developed internally by the USGS Earth Resources Observations and Science (EROS) Center. The primary measurement goal of LDCM is to continue the global coverage of moderate spatial resolution imagery providing continuity with the existing Landsat record. The science goal for this imagery is to monitor land use and land cover, particularly as it relates to global climate change. Together the OLI and TIRS instruments on LDCM replace the ETM+ instrument on Landsat-7 with significant enhancements. The OLI is a pushbroom design instrument where the scanning mechanism of the ETM+ is effectively replaced by a long line of detectors. The OLI has 9 spectral bands with similar spatial resolution to ETM+: 7 of them similar to the reflective spectral bands on ETM+ and two new bands. The two new bands cover (1) the shorter wavelength blue part of the spectrum to help with coastal studies and aerosol analyses/atmospheric correction and (2) an atmospheric water absorption band, where the Earth surface is generally not visible, but Cirrus clouds are, to aid in cloud detection and screening. The radiometry of OLI benefits from improved SNR, dynamic range and quantization. OLI is undergoing system testing with a delivery scheduled for Spring 2011. The TIRS is also a pushbroom design and used QWIPS detectors that require cooling to 43K using a cryocooler. It.has two spectral bands, effectively splitting the ETM+ band 6 in half, that can be used as a split window to aid in atmospheric correction. It has nominally 100 m spatial resolution as opposed to the 60 m of Landsat-7 ETM+: TIRS has commenced integration and test, with a delivery to the spacecraft vendor scheduled for Winter 2011-2012. The Orbital spacecraft currently being integrated for LDCM will have improved capabilities for pointing over previous missions. These capabilities will allow the OLI and TIRS instruments to point off-nadir the equivalent of one WRS-2 path to increase the chances of coverage for high priority targets, particularly in the event of natural disasters. Also, the pointing capability will allow the calibration of the OLI using the sun (roughly weekly), the moon (monthly), stars (during commissioning) and the Earth (at 90 deg from normal orientation, a.k.a., side slither) quarterly. The solar calibration will be used for OLI absolute and relative calibration, the moon for trending the stability of the OLI response, the stars will be used for Line of Sight determination and the side slither will be an alternate OLI and relative gain determination methodology. The spacecraft is scheduled to begin integration with the OLI instrument in Summer 2011. The LDCM data processing and archive system (DPAS), located at USGS EROS, generates the products for distribution to users. Like Landsat-7 this includes an image assessment system for characrizing instrument performance and updating calibration parameters. Products will be generated that include the spectral bands from both instruments, terrain corrected and registered to the geoid. Also, like Landsat-7, data products will be distributed at no charge to the user. The current status and plans of the space and ground segments of the LDCM project will be presented along with performance predictions as available. More detailed information on the two instruments is intended to be presented in separate papers.

Markham, Brian↗