Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Capabilities and Resources”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2013

An Overview of the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) Facility and the Research Performed in the MSG on the International Space Station (ISS)

The Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) is a rack facility aboard the International Space Station (ISS) designed for investigation handling. The MSG was built by the European Space Agency (ESA) which also provides sustaining engineering support for the facility. The MSG has been operating on the ISS since July 2002 and is currently located in the US Laboratory Module. The unique design of the facility allows it to accommodate science and technology investigations in a "workbench" type environment. The facility has an enclosed working volume that is held at a negative pressure with respect to the crew living area. This allows the facility to provide two levels of containment for small parts, particulates, fluids, and gases. This containment approach protects the crew from possible hazardous operations that take place inside the MSG work volume. Research investigations operating inside the MSG are provided a large 255 liter enclosed work space, 1000 watts of dc power via a versatile supply interface (120, 28, +/- 12, and 5 Vdc), 1000 watts of cooling capability, video and data recording and real time downlink, ground commanding capabilities, access to ISS Vacuum Exhaust and Vacuum Resource Systems, and gaseous nitrogen supply. These capabilities make the MSG one of the most utilized facilities on ISS. The MSG has been used for over 14500 hours of scientific payload operations. MSG investigations involve research in cryogenic fluid management, fluid physics, spacecraft fire safety, materials science, combustion, plant growth, and life support technology. The MSG facility is operated by the Payloads Operations Integration Center at Marshall Space flight Center. Payloads may also operate remotely from different telescience centers located in the United States and Europe. The investigative Payload Integration Manager (iPIM) is the focal to assist organizations that have payloads operating in the MSG facility. NASA provides an MSG engineering unit for payload developers to verify that their hardware is operating properly before actual operation on the ISS. This paper will provide an overview of the MSG facility, a synopsis of the research that has already been accomplished in the MSG, and an overview of video and biological upgrades.

Jordan, Lee P.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Overview of the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) Facility and the Research Performed in the MSG

The Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) is a rack facility aboard the International Space Station (ISS) designed for investigation handling. The MSG was built by the European Space Agency (ESA) which also provides sustaining engineering support for the facility. The MSG has been operating on the ISS since July 2002 and is currently located in the US Laboratory Module. The unique design of the facility allows it to accommodate science and technology investigations in a "workbench" type environment. The facility has an enclosed working volume that is held at a negative pressure with respect to the crew living area. This allows the facility to provide two levels of containment for small parts, particulates, fluids, and gases. This containment approach protects the crew from possible hazardous operations that take place inside the MSG work volume. Research investigations operating inside the MSG are provided a large 255 liter enclosed work space, 1000 watts of direct current power via a versatile supply interface (120, 28, plus or minus 12, and 5 volts direct current), 1000 watts of cooling capability, video and data recording and real time downlink, ground commanding capabilities, access to ISS Vacuum Exhaust and Vacuum Resource Systems, and gaseous nitrogen supply. These capabilities make the MSG one of the most utilized facilities on ISS. The MSG has been used for over 27,000 hours of scientific payload operations. MSG investigations involve research in cryogenic fluid management, fluid physics, spacecraft fire safety, materials science, combustion, plant growth, biological studies and life support technology. The MSG facility is operated by the Payloads Operations Integration Center at Marshall Space Flight Center. Payloads may also operate remotely from different telescience centers located in the United States and Europe. The Investigative Payload Integration Manager (IPIM) is the focal to assist organizations that have payloads operating in the MSG facility. NASA provides an MSG engineering unit for payload developers to verify that their hardware is operating properly before actual operation on the ISS. This poster will provide an overview of the MSG facility, a synopsis of the research that has already been accomplished in the MSG, and an overview of video and biological upgrades. The author would like to acknowledge Teledyne Brown Engineering and the entire MSG Team for their inputs into this poster.

Jordan, Lee↗
NASA NTRS1983

Evaluation of the use of on-board spacecraft energy storage for electric propulsion missions

On-board spacecraft energy storage represents an under utilized resource for some types of missions that also benefit from using relatively high specific impulse capability of electric propulsion. This resource can provide an appreciable fraction of the power required for operating the electric propulsion subsystem in some missions. The most probable mission requirement for utilization of this energy is that of geostationary satellites which have secondary batteries for operating at high power levels during eclipse. The study summarized in this report selected four examples of missions that could benefit from use of electric propulsion and on-board energy storage. Engineering analyses were performed to evaluate the mass saved and economic benefit expected when electric propulsion and on-board batteries perform some propulsion maneuvers that would conventionally be provided by chemical propulsion. For a given payload mass in geosynchronous orbit, use of electric propulsion in this manner typically provides a 10% reduction in spacecraft mass.

Poeschel, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Space Resources Development: The Link Between Human Exploration and the Long-Term Commercialization of Space

In a letter to the NASA Administrator, Dan Goldin, in January of 1999, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) stated the following . OMB recommends that NASA consider commercialization in a broader context than the more focused efforts to date on space station and space shuttle commercialization. We suggest that NASA examine architectures that take advantage of a potentially robust future commercial infrastructure that could dramatically lower the cost of future human exploration." In response to this letter, the NASA Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS) Enterprise launched the BEDS Technology & Commercialization Initiative (HTCI) to link technology and system development for human exploration with the commercial development of space to emphasize the "D" (Development) in BEDS. The development of technologies and capabilities to utilize space resources is the first of six primary focus areas in this program. It is clear that Space Resources Development (SRD) is key for both long-term human exploration of our solar system and to the long-term commercialization of space since: a) it provides the technologies, products, and raw materials to support efficient space transportation and in-space construction and manufacturing, and b) it provides the capabilities and infrastructure to allow outpost growth, self-sufficiency, and commercial space service and utility industry activities.

Sanders, Gerald B.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Lunar Surface Cargo Offloading Concepts

A sustainable presence on the lunar surface will serve as a vital training ground and technology demonstration test site in preparation for future human missions to Mars. Robotic lunar surface campaigns will focus on the exploration of resources providing information on the availability and extraction of usable resources, such as oxygen and water, and prepare the surface for a sustained human presence. Landers, outfitted with sensor packages, will be used to conduct risk-reduction activities and aid in the development of technologies prior to the crewed lunar missions that drive the need to for a logistics supply chain that requires offloading. A series of landers will be required on other planetary surfaces to build up the capabilities, capitalizing on those resources, required for sustained human presence. In each of those landers will be cargo including ascent vehicles, habitats, supplies, science packages, spare parts, fluids commodities for fuel and life support, and others varying in volume and ranging from mass in hundreds of kilograms to an estimated 6-14 metric tons to support Human Landing Systems and surface logistics requirements. This paper will examine the challenge of offloading examples of these cargo elements from different categories of landers on the lunar surface using a variety of methodologies. Challenges on the lunar surface arise with the conditions present (thermal, lighting, communications, regolith consistency), the desire to minimize mass of all landed systems, the desire to perform much of the activities with limited to minimal human interaction, and the overall configuration of the landers that are responsible for landing the cargo.

Lunar↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Lunar Surface Cargo Offloading Concepts

A sustainable presence on the lunar surface will serve as a vital training ground and technology demonstration test site in preparation for future human missions to Mars. Robotic lunar surface campaigns will focus on the exploration of resources providing information on the availability and extraction of usable resources, such as oxygen and water, and prepare the surface for a sustained human presence. Landers, outfitted with sensor packages, will be used to conduct risk-reduction activities and aid in the development of technologies prior to the crewed lunar missions that drive the need to for a logistics supply chain that requires offloading. A series of landers will be required on other planetary surfaces to build up the capabilities, capitalizing on those resources, required for sustained human presence. In each of those landers will be cargo including ascent vehicles, habitats, supplies, science packages, spare parts, fluids commodities for fuel and life support, and others varying in volume and ranging from mass in hundreds of kilograms to an estimated 6-14 metric tons to support Human Landing Systems and surface logistics requirements. This paper will examine the challenge of offloading examples of these cargo elements from different categories of landers on the lunar surface using a variety of methodologies. Challenges on the lunar surface arise with the conditions present (thermal, lighting, communications, regolith consistency), the desire to minimize mass of all landed systems, the desire to perform much of the activities with limited to minimal human interaction, and the overall configuration of the landers that are responsible for landing the cargo.

Lunar↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Impact, a Tool Suite for Crew Health and Performance System Trade Analyses and Decision Support - Status of Development

Mission planners, systems engineers, and clinicians that support crew health and performance face very difficult choices on upcoming exploration missions. Given that there will be a heavily constrained mass and volume allocation for a medical system on these missions, what medical capability should be manifested to minimize both medical risk and mission risk? Given that not all promising research and technology proposals can be funded, how can proposals be prioritized so that those funded research investments produce the maximum benefit in reducing overall medical risk? The Informing Mission Planning via Analysis of Complex Tradespaces (IMPACT) project seeks to answer these kinds of questions and others to support upcoming exploration missions. IMPACT enables risk-informed and evidence-based trade space analysis for future space vehicles, missions, and systems. This presentation will discuss the long-term HRP and ExMC vision for the larger ecosystem of tools, which include an updated medical database (consisting of an Evidence Library for medical conditions and a medical item database (MedID) for medical resources), dynamic Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) capabilities, System Modeling Language (SysML) models, and contextual data visualizations of output data. IMPACT is the result of a multi-center collaborative effort. The trade space analyses performed by IMPACT can directly inform mission, vehicle, and habitat development by quantifying medical risk, given a design reference mission, crew attributes and a set of medical capabilities. This presentation will update the audience on the development status of the tool suite, its constituent parts and the plans for when it will deploy as an operational product, currently scheduled for the end of FY22. Recent development successes on the IMPACT project include the ability to cluster medical resources into medical capabilities and mutually-dependent bundles, the ability to perform trade analyses on different medical sets, different DRMs, and different crew complements, and the ability to specify mission segments as periods of time assigned to one or more members of the crew during which unique mission events occur (e.g., extravehicular activities, surface operations, gravity well adaptations, etc.). IMPACT is gearing up for its verification and validation phase to compile the data package necessary for a successful Transition to Operations (TtO), per the guidance in NPR 8900.1B .

IMPACT↗
NASA NTRS2001

Articulation Management for Intelligent Integration of Information

When combining data from distinct sources, there is a need to share meta-data and other knowledge about various source domains. Due to semantic inconsistencies and heterogeneity of representations, problems arise in combining multiple domains when the domains are merged. The knowledge that is irrelevant to the task of interoperation will be included, making the result unnecessarily complex. This heterogeneity problem can be eliminated by mediating the conflicts and managing the intersections of the domains. For interoperation and intelligent access to heterogeneous information, the focus is on the intersection of the knowledge, since intersection will define the required articulation rules. An algebra over domain has been proposed to use articulation rules to support disciplined manipulation of domain knowledge resources. The objective of a domain algebra is to provide the capability for interrogating many domain knowledge resources, which are largely semantically disjoint. The algebra supports formally the tasks of selecting, combining, extending, specializing, and modifying Components from a diverse set of domains. This paper presents a domain algebra and demonstrates the use of articulation rules to link declarative interfaces for Internet and enterprise applications. In particular, it discusses the articulation implementation as part of a production system capable of operating over the domain described by the IDL (interface description language) of objects registered in multiple CORBA servers.

Maluf, David A.↗
NASA NTRS2007

The NASA Dryden Flight Research Center Unmanned Aircraft System Service Capabilities

Over 60 years of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) expertise at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center are being leveraged to provide capability and expertise to the international UAS community. The DFRC brings together technical experts, UAS, and an operational environment to provide government and industry a broad capability to conduct research, perform operations, and mature systems, sensors, and regulation. The cornerstone of this effort is the acquisition of both a Global Hawk (Northrop Grumman Corporation, Los Angeles, California) and Predator B (General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., San Diego, California) unmanned aircraft system (UAS). In addition, a test range for small UAS will allow developers to conduct research and development flights without the need to obtain approval from civil authorities. Finally, experts are available to government and industry to provide safety assessments in support of operations in civil airspace. These services will allow developers to utilize limited resources to their maximum capability in a highly competitive environment.

Bauer, Jeff↗
NASA NTRS2007

The NASA Dryden Flight Research Center Unmanned Aircraft System Service Capabilities

Over 60 years of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) expertise at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Dryden Flight Research Center are being leveraged to provide capability and expertise to the international UAS community. The DFRC brings together technical experts, UAS, and an operational environment to provide government and industry a broad capability to conduct research, perform operations, and mature systems, sensors, and regulation. The cornerstone of this effort is the acquisition of both a Global Hawk (Northrop Grumman Corporation, Los Angeles, California) and Predator B (General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., San Diego, California) unmanned aircraft system (UAS). In addition, a test range for small UAS will allow developers to conduct research and development flights without the need to obtain approval from civil authorities. Finally, experts are available to government and industry to provide safety assessments in support of operations in civil airspace. These services will allow developers to utilize limited resources to their maximum capability in a highly competitive environment.

Bauer, Jeff↗
NASA NTRS2011

Land and Atmosphere Near-Real-Time Capability for Earth Observing System

The past decade has seen a rapid increase in availability and usage of near-real-time data from satellite sensors. The EOSDIS (Earth Observing System Data and Information System) was not originally designed to provide data with sufficiently low latency to satisfy the requirements for near-real-time users. The EOS (Earth Observing System) instruments aboard the Terra, Aqua and Aura satellites make global measurements daily, which are processed into higher-level 'standard' products within 8-40 hours of observation and then made available to users, primarily earth science researchers. However, applications users, operational agencies, and even researchers desire EOS products in near-real-time to support research and applications, including numerical weather and climate prediction and forecasting, monitoring of natural hazards, ecological/invasive species, agriculture, air quality, disaster relief and homeland security. These users often need data much sooner than routine science processing allows, usually within 3 hours, and are willing to trade science product quality for timely access. While Direct Broadcast provides more timely access to data, it does not provide global coverage. In 2002, a joint initiative between NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), and the DOD (Department of Defense) was undertaken to provide data from EOS instruments in near-real-time. The NRTPE (Near Real Time Processing Effort) provided products within 3 hours of observation on a best-effort basis. As the popularity of these near-real-time products and applications grew, multiple near-real-time systems began to spring up such as the Rapid Response System. In recognizing the dependence of customers on this data and the need for highly reliable and timely data access, NASA's Earth Science Division sponsored the Earth Science Data and Information System Project (ESDIS)-led development of a new near-real-time system called LANCE (Land, Atmosphere Near-Real-Time Capability for EOS) in 2009. LANCE consists of special processing elements, co-located with selected EOSDIS data centers and processing facilities. A primary goal of LANCE is to bring multiple near-real-time systems under one umbrella, offering commonality in data access, quality control, and latency. LANCE now processes and distributes data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer Earth Observing System (AMSR-E), Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) instruments within 3 hours of satellite observation. The Rapid Response System and the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) capabilities will be incorporated into LANCE in 2011. LANCE maintains a central website to facilitate easy access to data and user services. LANCE products are extensively tested and compared with science products before being made available to users. Each element also plans to implement redundant network, power and server infrastructure to ensure high availability of data and services. Through the user registration system, users are informed of any data outages and when new products or services will be available for access. Building on a significant investment by NASA in developing science algorithms and products, LANCE creates products that have a demonstrated utility for applications requiring near-real-time data. From lower level data products such as calibrated geolocated radiances to higher-level products such as sea ice extent, snow cover, and cloud cover, users have integrated LANCE data into forecast models and decision support systems. The table above shows the current near-real-time product categories by instrument. The ESDIS Project continues to improve the LANCE system and use the experience gained through practice to seek adjustments to improve the quality and performance of the system. For example, anGC-compliant Web Map Service (WMS) will be added shortly that will allow users to download geo-referenced MODIS images for arbitrary bounding boxes. Further, an OGC-compliant Web Coverage Service (WCS) will be added later this year that will expedite user access to arbitrary data subsets or re-formatted products. AIRS images are now served through WMS and available in multiple formats (PNG, GeoTIFF, KMZ). NASA has established a LANCE User Working Group to steer the development of the system and create a forum for sharing ideas and experiences that are expected to further improve the LANCE capabilities. The LANCE system has proved a success by satisfying the growing needs of the applications and operational communities for land and atmosphere data in near-real-time. NASA's Earth Sciences Division was able to leverage existing science research capabilities to provide the near-real-time community with products and imagery that support monitoring of disasters in a timely manner.

Murphy, Kevin J.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Searching Across the International Space Station Databases

Data access in the enterprise generally requires us to combine data from different sources and different formats. It is advantageous thus to focus on the intersection of the knowledge across sources and domains; keeping irrelevant knowledge around only serves to make the integration more unwieldy and more complicated than necessary. A context search over multiple domain is proposed in this paper to use context sensitive queries to support disciplined manipulation of domain knowledge resources. The objective of a context search is to provide the capability for interrogating many domain knowledge resources, which are largely semantically disjoint. The search supports formally the tasks of selecting, combining, extending, specializing, and modifying components from a diverse set of domains. This paper demonstrates a new paradigm in composition of information for enterprise applications. In particular, it discusses an approach to achieving data integration across multiple sources, in a manner that does not require heavy investment in database and middleware maintenance. This lean approach to integration leads to cost-effectiveness and scalability of data integration with an underlying schemaless object-relational database management system. This highly scalable, information on demand system framework, called NX-Search, which is an implementation of an information system built on NETMARK. NETMARK is a flexible, high-throughput open database integration framework for managing, storing, and searching unstructured or semi-structured arbitrary XML and HTML used widely at the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) and industry.

Maluf, David A.↗
NASA NTRS1971

Survey of space escape/rescue/survivability capabilities.

Discussion of preventive or remedial systems to achieve safer space flight operations. Escape, rescue, and survival systems are defined by categories: on board, prepositioned aid, and earth-launched concepts. The survey considers separable escape or survival capsules; standby escape or rescue systems; and earth-launched manned and unmanned rescue systems. Reports covering such systems are listed, and the contents are classified as to scope of investigation, space mission, and design approach. Mission classes considered are earth orbit, lunar, and interplanetary. Results of the space escape, rescue, and survivability investigations are summarized in terms of system features and performance, including apparent voids or limitations in rescue capability. Recovery requirements and resources for space rescue are discussed.

Fleisig, R.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Choice: 36 band feature selection software with applications to multispectral pattern recognition

Feature selection software was developed at the Earth Resources Laboratory that is capable of inputting up to 36 channels and selecting channel subsets according to several criteria based on divergence. One of the criterion used is compatible with the table look-up classifier requirements. The software indicates which channel subset best separates (based on average divergence) each class from all other classes. The software employs an exhaustive search technique, and computer time is not prohibitive. A typical task to select the best 4 of 22 channels for 12 classes takes 9 minutes on a Univac 1108 computer.

Jones, W. C.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Water resources

Substantial progress has been made in applying ERTS-1 data to water resources problems, nevertheless, more time and effort still appear necessary for further quantification of results, including the specification of thematic measurement accuracies. More modeling can be done very profitably. In particular, more strategy models describing the processes wherein ERTS-1 data would be acquired, analyzed, processed, and utilized in operational situations could be profitably accomplished. It is generally observed that the ERTS-1 data applicability is evident in several areas and that the next most general and substantive steps in the implementation of the data in operational situations would be greatly encouraged by the establishment of an operational earth resources satellite organization and capability. Further encouragement of this operational capability would be facilitated by all investigators striving to document their procedures as fully as possible and by providing time and cost comparisons between ERTS-1 and conventional acquisition approaches.

Salomonson, V. V.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Spacelab - A key element in the Space Shuttle Space Transportation System

Spacelab will be a key element in the Space Transportation System (STS) to be initiated with the advent of the first operational flight of Space Shuttle in 1980. Spacelab is an international, cooperative venture between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which is structured to provide the scientific community an earthlike laboratory in space by 1980. The responsibilities of both ESA and NASA are divided into design and development to be accomplished by ESA and the experiment integration and operation with the Space Shuttle by NASA. While the Spacelab is a key element in the STS, it is highly dependent on other elements in the system for its resources and payload support capabilities. This paper presents the relationship of the Spacelab to other elements and the operational planning that NASA is undertaking to make the Spacelab a flexible and efficient laboratory in space.

Lee, T. J.↗
NASA NTRS1981

A high order approach to flight software development and testing

The use of a software development facility is discussed as a means of producing a reliable and maintainable ECS software system, and as a means of providing efficient use of the ECS hardware test facility. Principles applied to software design are given, including modularity, abstraction, hiding, and uniformity. The general objectives of each phase of the software life cycle are also given, including testing, maintenance, code development, and requirement specifications. Software development facility tools are summarized, and tool deficiencies recognized in the code development and testing phases are considered. Due to limited lab resources, the functional simulation capabilities may be indispensable in the testing phase.

Steinbacher, J.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Transmission and orbital constraints in space-related programs: Briefing summary

Research was initiated to develop a capability for predicting and analyzing the spectrum/orbital geometry requirements of current and projected U.S. and international space related systems. Essential components of the project include development of a comprehensive space environment data base and computer analysis programs. This capability will provide a resource for evaluating engineering and architectural designs, identifying and analyzing the impact of intentional and unintentional electromagnetic (EM) interference, and predicting probable saturation conditions in spectrum usage and satellite/orbital positions. Assessments of means for accommodating the anticipated growth are also an important part of the study project.

Hiebert, A. I.↗