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We provide an overview of several ongoing NASA endeavors based on concepts, systems, and technology from the Semantic Web arena. Indeed NASA has been one of the early adopters of Semantic Web Technology and we describe ongoing and completed R&D efforts for several applications ranging from collaborative systems to airspace information management to enterprise search to scientific information gathering and discovery systems at NASA.
Since its founding in 1992, Global Science & Technology, Inc. (GST), of Greenbelt, Maryland, has been developing technologies and providing services in support of NASA scientific research. GST specialties include scientific analysis, science data and information systems, data visualization, communications, networking and Web technologies, computer science, and software system engineering. As a longtime contractor to Goddard Space Flight Center s Earth Science Directorate, GST scientific, engineering, and information technology staff have extensive qualifications with the synthesis of satellite, in situ, and Earth science data for weather- and climate-related projects. GST s experience in this arena is end-to-end, from building satellite ground receiving systems and science data systems, to product generation and research and analysis.
The Spatial Information Technology Center (SITC) at Fulton-Montgomery Community College (FMCC) continued to fulfill its mission and charter by successfully completing its fourth year of operations under Congressional funding and NASA sponsorship. Fourth year operations (01 Oct 03 - 30 Sep 04) have been funded and conducted utilizing an authorized Research Grant NAG 13-02053 (via a one-year no-cost extension expiring Sep 04). Drawdown and reporting of fiscal activities for SITC operations passes through the Institute for the Application of Geo-spatial Technology (IAGT) at Cayuga Community College in Auburn, New York. Fiscal activity of the Center is reported quarterly via SF 272 to IAGT, this report contains an overview and expenditures for the remaining funds of NAG 13-02053. NAG 13-02053, slated for operating costs for the fiscal year FY02-03, received a one-year no-cost extension. SITC also received permission to use remaining funds for salaries and benefits through December 31,2004. The IAGT receives no compensation for administrative costs. This report includes addendums for the NAG award as required by federal guidelines. Attached are the signed Report of New Technology/Inventions and a Final Property Report. As an academic, economic, and workforce development program, the Center has made significant strides in bringing the technology, knowledge and applications of the spatial information technology field to the region it serves. Through the mission of the Center, the region's communities have become increasingly aware of the benefits of Geospatial technology, particularly in the region s K-12 arena. SITC continues to positively affect the region's education, employment and economic development, while expanding its services and operations.
Fiscal Year (FY) 2002 brought advances on many fronts in support of NASA's new vision, announced by Administrator Sean O Keefe on April 12, "to improve life here, to extend life to there, to find life beyond." NASA successfully carried out four Space Shuttle missions, including three to the International Space Station (ISS) and one servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). By the end of the fiscal year, humans had occupied the ISS continuously for 2 years. NASA also managed five expendable launch vehicle (ELV) missions and participated in eight international cooperative ELV launches. In the area of space science, two of the Great Observatories, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, continued to make spectacular observations. The Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey carried out their mapping missions of the red planet in unprecedented detail. Among other achievements, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Shoemaker spacecraft made the first soft landing on an asteroid, and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) monitored a variety of solar activity, including the largest sunspot observed in 10 years. The education and public outreach program stemming from NASA's space science missions continues to grow. In the area of Earth science, attention focused on completing the first Earth Observing Satellite series. Four spacecraft were successfully launched. The goal is to understand our home planet as a system, as well as how the global environment responds to change. In aerospace technology, NASA conducted studies to improve aviation safety and environmental friendliness, progressed with its Space Launch Initiative Program, and explored a variety of pioneering technologies, including nanotechnology, for their application to aeronautics and aerospace. NASA remained broadly engaged in the international arena and concluded over 60 international cooperative and reimbursable international agreements during FY 2002.
Recent experimental investigations and physical modeling studies have indicated that turbulence behaviors within a liquid jet have considerable effects on the atomization process. For certain flow regimes, it has been observed that the liquid jet surface is highly turbulent. This turbulence characteristic plays a key role on the breakup of the liquid jet near to the injector exit. Other experiments also showed that the breakup length of the liquid core is sharply shortened as the liquid jet is changed from the laminar to the turbulent flow conditions. In the numerical and physical modeling arena, most of commonly used atomization models do not include the turbulence effect. Limited attempts have been made in modeling the turbulence phenomena on the liquid jet disintegration. The subject correlation and models treat the turbulence either as an only source or a primary driver in the breakup process. This study aims to model the turbulence effect in the atomization process of a cylindrical liquid jet. In the course of this study, two widely used models, Reitz's primary atomization (blob) and Taylor-Analogy-Break (TAB) secondary droplet breakup by O Rourke et al. are examined. Additional terms are derived and implemented appropriately into these two models to account for the turbulence effect on the atomization process. Since this enhancement effort is based on a framework of the two existing atomization models, it is appropriate to denote the two present models as T-blob and T-TAB for the primary and secondary atomization predictions, respectively. In the primary breakup model, the level of the turbulence effect on the liquid breakup depends on the characteristic time scales and the initial flow conditions. This treatment offers a balance of contributions of individual physical phenomena on the liquid breakup process. For the secondary breakup, an addition turbulence force acted on parent drops is modeled and integrated into the TAB governing equation. The drop size formed from this breakup regime is estimated based on the energy balance before and after the breakup occurrence. The turbulence energy is also considered in this process.
A significant portion of lifecycle costs for launch vehicles are generated during the operations phase. Research indicates that operations costs can account for a large percentage of the total life-cycle costs of reusable space transportation systems. These costs are largely determined by decisions made early during conceptual design. Therefore, operational considerations are an important part of vehicle design and concept analysis process that needs to be modeled and studied early in the design phase. However, this is a difficult and challenging task due to uncertainties of operations definitions, the dynamic and combinatorial nature of the processes, and lack of analytical models and the scarcity of historical data during the conceptual design phase. Ultimately, NASA would like to know the best mix of launch vehicle concepts that would meet the missions launch dates at the minimum cost. To answer this question, we first need to develop a model to estimate the total cost, including the operational cost, to accomplish this set of missions. In this project, we have developed and implemented a discrete-event simulation model using ARENA (a simulation modeling environment) to determine this cost assessment. Discrete-event simulation is widely used in modeling complex systems, including transportation systems, due to its flexibility, and ability to capture the dynamics of the system. The simulation model accepts manifest inputs including the set of missions that need to be accomplished over a period of time, the clients (e.g., NASA or DoD) who wish to transport the payload to space, the payload weights, and their destinations (e.g., International Space Station, LEO, or GEO). A user of the simulation model can define an architecture of reusable or expendable launch vehicles to achieve these missions. Launch vehicles may belong to different families where each family may have it own set of resources, processing times, and cost factors. The goal is to capture the required resource levels of the major launch elements and their required facilities. The model s output can show whether or not a certain architecture of vehicles can meet the launch dates, and if not, how much the delay cost would be. It will also produce aggregate figures of missions cost based on element procurement cost, processing cost, cargo integration cost, delay cost, and mission support cost. One of the most useful features of this model is that it is stochastic where it accepts statistical distributions to represent the processing times mimicking the stochastic nature of real systems.
Powerful computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools have emerged that appear to offer significant benefits as an adjunct to the experimental methods used by the stability and control community to predict aerodynamic parameters. The decreasing costs for and increasing availability of computing hours are making these applications increasingly viable as time goes on and the cost of computing continues to drop. This paper summarizes the efforts of four organizations to utilize high-end computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools to address the challenges of the stability and control arena. General motivation and the backdrop for these efforts will be summarized as well as examples of current applications.
Since 1940 Aeronautics has had an immense impact upon Global Human lifestyles and affairs - in both the Civilian and Military arenas. During this period Long distance Train and Ship passenger transport were largely supplanted by Air Travel and Aviation assumed a dominant role in warfare. The early 1940 s to the mid 1970 s was a particularly productive period in terms of Aeronautical Technology. What is interesting is that, since the mid 1970 s, the rate of Aeronautical Technological Progress has been far slower, the basic technology in nearly all of our current Aero Systems dates from the mid 70 s or earlier. This is especially true in terms of Configuration Aerodynamics, Aeronautics appears to have "settled" on the 707, double delta and rotary wing as the approach of choice for Subsonic long haul, supersonic cruise and VTOL respectively. Obviously there have been variants and some niche digression from this/these but in the main Aeronautics, particularly civilian Aeronautics, has become a self-professed "mature", Increasingly "Commodity", Industry. The Industry is far along an existing/deployed technology curve and focused, now for decades, on incremental/evolutionary change - largely Appliers vs. developers of technology. This is, of course, in sharp contrast to the situation in the early-to-later 20th century where Aeronautics was viewed as A Major Technological Engine, much the way IT/Bio/Nano/Energetics/Quantum Technologies are viewed today. A search for Visionary Aeronautical "Futures" papers/projections indicates a decided dearth thereof over the last 20 plus years compared to the previous quarter Century. Aeronautics is part of Aerospace and Aerospace [including Aeronautics] has seen major cutbacks over the last decades. Some numbers for the U.S. Aerospace Industry serve as examples. Order of 600,000 jobs lost, with some 180,000 more on the block over the next 10 years. Approximately 25% of the Aerospace workforce is eligible to retire and the average Engineer age is in the mid-50 s. Firms such as Microsoft, Intel and Walmart are individually capitalized at a factor of 4 or more than the Aerospace industry as a whole. Aerospace Research levels are in the less than 5% range in terms of overall U.S. Research Investments.
Tremendous strides have been made in the recent years to digitally represent human beings in computer simulation models ranging from assembly plant maintenance operations to occupants getting in and out of vehicles to action movie scenarios. While some of these tools are being actively pursued by the engineering communities, there is still a lot of work that remains to be done for the newly planned planetary exploration missions. For example, certain unique and several common challenges are seen in developing computer generated suited human models for designing the next generation space vehicle. The purpose of this presentation is to discuss NASA s potential needs for better human models and to show also many of the inherent yet not too obvious pitfalls that still are left unresolved in this new arena of digital human modeling. As part of NASA s Habitability and Human Factors Branch, the Anthropometry and Biomechanics Facility has been engaged in studying the various facets of computer generated human physical performance models; for instance, it has been engaged in utilizing three-dimensional laser scan data along with three dimensional video based motion and reach data to gather suited anthropometric and shape and size information that are not available yet in the form of computer mannequins. Our goal is to bring in new approaches to deal with heavily clothed humans (such as, suited astronauts) and to overcome the current limitations of wrongly identifying humans (either real or virtual) as univariate percentiles. We are looking at whole-body posture based anthropometric models as a means to identify humans of significantly different shapes and sizes to arrive at mathematically sound computer models for analytical purposes.
The most recognized and widely used NASA spinoff is at it again. Temper foam, whose origins date back to 1966 when it was developed to absorb shock and, thus, offer improved protection and comfort in NASA s airplane seats, has paid its dividends to Earth repeatedly, and in many different ways. It has padded the helmets of the Dallas Cowboys throughout the 1970s and 1980s, protected bedridden patients from bedsores, and comforted the feet of thousands wearing stylish shoes that incorporate the cushioning material in their insoles. Four decades later, the world has come to realize that there are no bounds to temper foam s benefits. Though the rights to the technology have been shared amongst various manufacturers, the original product maker is still going strong, pushing temper foam into new arenas, including automotives, amusement parks, prosthetics, and modern art.
NASA s Langley Research Center scientists developed a family of catalysts for low- temperature oxidation of carbon monoxide and other gases. The catalysts provide oxidation of both carbon monoxide and formaldehyde at room temperature without requiring any energy input, just a suitable flow of gas through them. Originally designed as part of an atmospheric satellite project, where the catalysts were intended to recycle and recapture carbon dioxide to enhance the operational life of carbon dioxide lasers, the entire system was made to be rugged, long-lived, and fail-safe. The low-temperature oxidation catalysts can be produced and coated onto various catalyst supports, including porous ceramic monoliths and beads, which means that they can be integrated into existing designs, made to fit in limited space, and fashioned into a variety of geometrically different products. Although the satellite project was never launched, the resulting catalysts are doing great things here on Earth, with current applications in the high-speed motor sports arena as air purifiers, so professional racecar drivers do not get carbon monoxide poisoning. Future benefits may extend even further.
The Jet Propulsion Laboraytory (JPL), Californian Institute of Technology, is challenged with no only providing an environment where engineers and scientists can exchange informaiton quickly and accurately, but also providing the public with the fruits of its exploration in a way that is both interesting and understandable to all age groups and professional arenas.
Phased array antenna is beginning to play an important in the arena of mobile/satellite communications. Two examples of mobile terminal phased arrays will be shown. Their technical background, challenges, and cost drivers will be discussed. A possible solution to combat some of the deficiencies of the conventional phased array by exploiting the phased reflectarray technology will be briefly presented.
The goal of this plan is to briefly describe new technologies available to us in the arenas of information discovery and discuss the strategic value they have for the NASA enterprise with some considerations and suggestions for near term implementations using the NASA Engineering Network (NEN) as a delivery venue.
Development of power systems is the most challenging technical issue in the design of ocean regional cabled observatories. ARENA and NEPTUNE are two ocean regional cabled observatory networks with aims that are at least broadly similar. Yet the two designs are quite different in detail. This paper outlines the both systems and explores the reasons for the divergence of design, and shows that it arose because of differences in the priority of requirements.
Maintenance of human health on long-duration exploration missions is a primary challenge to mission designers. Indeed, human health risks are currently the largest risk contributors to the risks of evacuation or loss of the crew on long-duration International Space Station missions. We describe a quantitative assessment of the relative probabilities of occurrence of the individual risks to human safety and efficiency during space flight to augment qualitative assessments used in this field to date. Quantitative probabilistic risk assessments will allow program managers to focus resources on those human health risks most likely to occur with undesirable consequences. Truly quantitative assessments are common, even expected, in the engineering and actuarial spheres, but that capability is just emerging in some arenas of life sciences research, such as identifying and minimize the hazards to astronauts during future space exploration missions. Our expectation is that these results can be used to inform NASA mission design trade studies in the near future with the objective of preventing the higher among the human health risks. We identify and discuss statistical techniques to provide this risk quantification based on relevant sets of astronaut biomedical data from short and long duration space flights as well as relevant analog populations. We outline critical assumptions made in the calculations and discuss the rationale for these. Our efforts to date have focussed on quantifying the probabilities of medical risks that are qualitatively perceived as relatively high risks of radiation sickness, cardiac dysrhythmias, medically significant renal stone formation due to increased calcium mobilization, decompression sickness as a result of EVA (extravehicular activity), and bone fracture due to loss of bone mineral density. We present these quantitative probabilities in order-of-magnitude comparison format so that relative risk can be gauged. We address the effects of conservative and nonconservative assumptions on the probability results. We discuss the methods necessary to assess mission risks once exploration mission scenarios are characterized. Preliminary efforts have produced results that are commensurate with earlier qualitative estimates of risk probabilities in this and other operational contexts, indicating that our approach may be usefully applied in support of the development of human health and performance standards for long-duration space exploration missions. This approach will also enable mission-specific probabilistic risk assessments for space exploration missions.
Built and designed by Avco Corporation, the Apollo heat shield was coated with an ablative material whose purpose was to burn and, thus, dissipate energy. The material charred to form a protective coating which blocked heat penetration beyond the outer surface. Avco Corporation subsequently entered into a contract with Ames Research Center to develop spinoff applications of the heat shield in the arena of fire protection, specifically for the development of fire-retardant paints and foams for aircraft. This experience led to the production of Chartek 59, manufactured by Avco Specialty Materials (a subsidiary of Avco Corporation eventually acquired by Textron, Inc.) and marketed as the world s first intumescent epoxy material. As an intumescent coating, Chartek 59 expanded in volume when exposed to heat or flames and acted as an insulating barrier. It also retained its space-age ablative properties and dissipated heat through burn-off. Further applications were discovered, and the fireproofing formulation found its way into oil refineries, chemical plants, and other industrial facilities working with highly flammable products.
Space-based interferometric observatories will be challenging projects, equal at least to that of building the Great Observatories (the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Spitzer Space Telescope (SST), Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Gamma Ray Observatory), if not the Pyramids of Eygpt - but they represent the next logical step in examining our Universe at substantially higher angular resolution. Increasing our resolving power by factors of 100 or more (as is needed to make meaningful improvements in this observational arena) over existing facilities such as HST and SST requires mirror diameters (100's to 1000's of meters) much larger than can be supported by single or segmented mirrors - and thus the design and construction of sparse aperture, inteferometric arrays such as those described herein will be required. But just imagine the rewards of being able to see, for the first time, the surfaces of other stars, the location and type of extrasolar planets and even pictures of those same planets, the inner workings of Active Galactic Nuclei, the close-in details of supernovae explosions, black hole event horizons, and the infrared universe at the same resolution of the UV-optical Hubble Deep Fields. As a slight variation on the "Star Trek: Enterprise" theme song might say, it'll be a "long road, getting from here to there", but it will one well-worth taking.