Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Flying Focus”

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 NTRSDate not supplied

Lucy Mission Design Strategy in a Dynamic Operations Environment from Launch Through First Asteroid Encounter

Lucy, a 12-yearlong NASA Discovery-class mission which launched on October 16, 2021will fly by several Jupiter-Trojan asteroids a t the L4 and L5 La grange points. Prior to theL4 Trojan encounter in 2027 and 2028, Lucy will utilize two Earth gravity-assist flybys and fly by two main-belt a steroids. After the L4 encounters a third Earth flyby will set up the L5 Troja n encounter in 2033. This pa per summarizes the baseline mission plan with focus on the spacecraft trajectory and the corresponding essential trajectory correction maneuvers as well as how the Lucy team adapted to many unforeseen changes to the spacecraft configuration and added an asteroid target of opportunity that required changes to the baseline mission plan. Refinement of asteroid flyby science requirements after launch also required updates to the baseline Lucy trajectory.

James V. Mcadams↗
NASA NTRS2004

Formation Flying: 2000-2004

This custom bibliography from the NASA Scientific and Technical Information Program lists a sampling of records found in the NASA Aeronautics and Space Database. The scope of this topic includes technologies for free-space interferometric applications and near-surface reconnaissance of planetary bodies. This area of focus is one of the enabling technologies as defined by NASA s Report of the President s Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy, published in June 2004.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1993

Ignition and combustion characteristics of metallized propellants

Experimental and analytical investigations focusing on secondary atomization and ignition characteristics of aluminum/liquid hydrocarbon slurry propellants were conducted. Experimental efforts included the application of a laser-based, two-color, forward-scatter technique to simultaneously measure free-flying slurry droplet diameters and velocities for droplet diameters in the range of 10-200 microns. A multi-diffusion flame burner was used to create a high-temperature environment into which a dilute stream of slurry droplets could be introduced. Narrowband measurements of radiant emission were used to determine if ignition of the aluminum in the slurry droplet had occurred. Models of slurry droplet shell formation were applied to aluminum/liquid hydrocarbon propellants and used to ascertain the effects of solids loading and ultimate particle size on the minimum droplet diameter that will permit secondary atomization. For a 60 weight-percent Al slurry, the limiting critical diameter was predicted to be 34.7 microns which is somewhat greater than the 20-25 micron limiting diameters determined in the experiments. A previously developed model of aluminum ignition in a slurry droplet was applied to the present experiments and found to predict ignition times in reasonable agreement with experimental measurements. A model was also developed that predicts the mechanical stress in the droplet shell and a parametric study was conducted. A one-dimensional model of a slurry-fueled rocket combustion chamber was developed. This model includes the processes of liquid hydrocarbon burnout, secondary atomization, aluminum ignition, and aluminum combustion. Also included is a model for radiant heat transfer from the hot aluminum oxide particles to the chamber walls. Exercising this model shows that only a modest amount of secondary atomization is required to reduce residence times for aluminum burnout, and thereby maintain relatively short chamber lengths. The model also predicts radiant heat transfer losses to the walls to be only approximately 3 percent of the fuel energy supplied. Additional work is required to determine the effects of secondary atomization on two-phase losses in the nozzle.

Turns, Stephen R.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Mission Operations Directorate - Success Legacy of the Space Shuttle Program (Overview of the Evolution and Success Stories from MOD During the Space Shuttle program)

In support of the Space Shuttle Program, as well as NASA's other human space flight programs, the Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) at the Johnson Space Center has become the world leader in human spaceflight operations. From the earliest programs - Mercury, Gemini, Apollo - through Skylab, Shuttle, ISS, and our Exploration initiatives, MOD and its predecessors have pioneered ops concepts and emphasized a history of mission leadership which has added value, maximized mission success, and built on continual improvement of the capabilities to become more efficient and effective. This paper provides specific examples that illustrate how MOD's focus on building and contributing value with diverse teams has been key to their successes both with the US space industry and the broader international community. This paper will discuss specific examples for the Plan, Train, Fly, and Facilities aspects within MOD. This paper also provides a discussion of the joint civil servant/contractor environment and the relative badge-less society within MOD. Several Shuttle mission related examples have also been included that encompass all of the aforementioned MOD elements and attributes, and are used to show significant MOD successes within the Shuttle Program. These examples include the STS-49 Intelsat recovery and repair, the (post-Columbia accident) TPS inspection process and the associated R-Bar Pitch Maneuver for ISS missions, and the STS-400 rescue mission preparation efforts for the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission. Since their beginning, MOD has consistently demonstrated their ability to evolve and respond to an ever changing environment, effectively prepare for the expected and successfully respond to the unexpected, and develop leaders, expertise, and a culture that has led to mission and Program success.

Azbell, Jim A.↗
NASA NTRS2016

The Cognitive Challenges of Flying a Remotely Piloted Aircraft

A large variety of Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) designs are currently in production or in development. These aircraft range from small electric quadcopters that are flown close to the ground within visual range of the operator, to larger systems capable of extended flight in airspace shared with conventional aircraft. Before RPA can operate routinely and safely in civilian airspace, we need to understand the unique human factors associated with these aircraft. The task of flying an RPA in civilian airspace involves challenges common to the operation of other highly-automated systems, but also introduces new considerations for pilot perception, decision-making, and action execution. RPA pilots participated in focus groups where they were asked to recall critical incidents that either presented a threat to safety, or highlighted a case where the pilot contributed to system resilience or mission success. Ninety incidents were gathered from focus-groups. Human factor issues included the impact of reduced sensory cues, traffic separation in the absence of an out-the-window view, control latencies, vigilance during monotonous and ultra-long endurance flights, control station design considerations, transfer of control between control stations, the management of lost link procedures, and decision-making during emergencies. Some of these concerns have received significant attention in the literature, or are analogous to human factors of manned aircraft. The presentation will focus on issues that are poorly understood, and have not yet been the subject of extensive human factors study. Although many of the reported incidents were related to pilot error, the participants also provided examples of the positive contribution that humans make to the operation of highly-automated systems.

remote pilot station↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Fault Detection and Performance Monitoring of Propellers in Electric UAV

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used in various industries such as agriculture and logistics, to name but a few, where their applications are beyond basic mapping, surveillance, and photography. In near future, UAVs are expected to be used in package delivery service and larger electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles will be employed for urban air mobility applications (air taxi). Thus, several electric propulsion systems will enter the low-altitude airspace with frequent take offs and landings. To achieve state-of-the-art safety standards under such high traffic density, UAVs will require in-time fault detection and performance monitoring of critical powertrain components. This work focuses on propeller blade performance and damage detection in electric UAVs. Propellers are the fastest moving component in an UAV; even a minor defect in the propeller blades could cause performance deterioration, with consequent challenges in flying through the planned trajectory or adhere to the safety requirements of the operation. Monitoring and updating aerodynamic efficiency of each rotor would therefore enable the detection of off-nominal propeller conditions thus magnifying the state-awareness of powertrain monitoring systems based on the acquired electrical signals. We use an extended Kalman filter-based parameter estimation algorithm that incorporates time history responses from UAV powertrain in conjunction with a full powertrain system model. Propeller fault detection is achieved by incorporating the aerodynamic parameters of propeller into the powertrain model. The proposed technique is successfully validated with numerical simulations.

Unmanned aerial vehicles↗
NASA NTRS2004

Microthrust Propulsion of the LISA Mission

We present the most recent propulsion requirements for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) Mission and describe potential microth ruster technology that can meet these requirements. LISA consists of three spacecraft in heliocentric orbits, forming a triangle with 5x l 0 (exp 6) km sides that are the arms of three Michelson-type interferometers. Reflective proof masses provide the reference surfaces at the end of the interferometer arms as part of the Gravitational Referenc e Sensor (GRS) designed to detect gravitational waves. The microthrus t propulsion system will be part of the Disturbance Reduction System (DRS), which is responsible for maintaining each spacecraft position w ithin approximately 10 nm around the proof masses. To provide the nec essary sensitivity, the GRS must not experience spurious acceleration s >15 (exp -10) m/ s(exp 2) in the 0.1 mHz to 1 Hz bandwidth, requiring precision formation flying and drag-free operation of the LISA spa cecraft. This leads to the following microthruster performance requir ements: a thrust range of 2-30 Micro N, a thrust resolution < 0.1 Mic ro N, and thrust noise <0.1 Hz(exp -1/2) over the LISA measurement bandwidth. The microthruster must provide this performance for 5 years c ontinuously, contain 10 years worth of propellant, and not disrupt th e science measurements. Potential microthruster technologies include Colloid, Field Emission Electric Propulsion (FEEP), and precision cold gas microthrusters. Each of these technologies is described in detai l with focus on the NASA microthruster development of the Busek Collo id Micro-Newton Thruster (CMNT).

Field Emission Electric Propulsion (FEEP)↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Astrobee: Improving Capabilities for Free Flying Robotic Technology Demonstrations

The Astrobee Project has completed three years operating inside the ISS. Three Astrobee Free Flyers reached the ISS in April 2019 and are currently hosting a variety of users. During this time, Astrobee has advanced the state of the art in free-flying robots on ISS, operated over 100 sessions, logged over 750 hours of free-flyer operation, and made several capability improvements. Astrobee’s primary objective is to provide a highly flexible and capable free-flying robotic research platform to enable future guest scientist investigations. However, Astrobee is also demonstrating the feasibility of intra-vehicular robots (IVR) for performing key caretaking functions within exploration vehicles as part of NASA’s Moon-to-Mars exploration strategy. IVR capabilities will be especially vital during uncrewed mission phases. For example, current plans call for the lunar Gateway to be uncrewed >85% of the time. Astrobee’s baseline implementation supports free-flying camera and sensor survey use cases. Astrobee guest scientists can deploy software updates and hardware payloads to extend its capabilities. Astrobee is continuously improving its navigation robustness, general flight software maturity, and ISS interior maps, both through the baseline Astrobee operations and with the help of the ISAAC project. Astrobee began with mapping, localization, and operations in the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), and has expanded to mapping in Node 2 and the US Lab. Astrobee has improved localization and operational robustness through improved mapping processes, algorithm updates (Soussan 2022) that reduce the occurrences of lost localization as well as developed recovery techniques to return to a good localization fix when loss of localization does occur. Future guest science experiments currently in development could demonstrate cargo transfer, fault isolation, free flyer and stationary robot collaboration, microgravity fluid transfer, and new docking mechanisms, among others. This presentation will focus on 1) Astrobee technical capabilities 2) What Astrobee can provide to a guest science experiment 3) Astrobee’s recent improvements 4) Possibilities for using Astrobee for future investigations. Soussan, R., Kumar, V., Coltin, B. and Smith, T. (2022) AstroLoc: An Efficient and Robust Localizer for a Free-flying Robot, Proc. Int. Conf. Rob. Autom. (ICRA) [to appear]

Astrobee↗
NASA NTRS1992

Low aspect ratio wing code validation experiment

An experiment was performed on a low-aspect ratio wing to define the limits of the validity of codes which are used to predict the flow over modern fighter configurations. The focus of the experiment is to provide data at or near the true operating conditions of transonic aircraft. The Reynolds numbers reached in this experiment reproduce those experienced by an aircraft with a 5-m root chord, flying at 14 to 16 km, from Mach 0.6 to 0.8. The angle-of-attack range of the experiment extends into the regime of leading-edge separation.

Olsen, Michael E.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Customizing the JPL Multimission Ground Data System: Lessons learned

The Multimission Ground Data System (MGDS) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has brought improvements and new technologies to mission operations. It was designed as a generic data system to meet the needs of multiple missions and avoid re-inventing capabilities for each new mission and thus reduce costs. It is based on adaptable tools that can be customized to support different missions and operations scenarios. The MGDS is based on a distributed client/server architecture, with powerful Unix workstations, incorporating standards and open system architectures. The distributed architecture allows remote operations and user science data exchange, while also providing capabilities for centralized ground system monitor and control. The MGDS has proved its capabilities in supporting multiple large-class missions simultaneously, including the Voyager, Galileo, Magellan, Ulysses, and Mars Observer missions. The Operations Engineering Lab (OEL) at JPL has been leading Customer Adaptation Training (CAT) teams for adapting and customizing MGDS for the various operations and engineering teams. These CAT teams have typically consisted of only a few engineers who are familiar with operations and with the MGDS software and architecture. Our experience has provided a unique opportunity to work directly with the spacecraft and instrument operations teams and understand their requirements and how the MGDS can be adapted and customized to minimize their operations costs. As part of this work, we have developed workstation configurations, automation tools, and integrated user interfaces at minimal cost that have significantly improved productivity. We have also proved that these customized data systems are most successful if they are focused on the people and the tasks they perform and if they are based upon user confidence in the development team resulting from daily interactions. This paper will describe lessons learned in adapting JPL's MGDS to fly the Voyager, Galileo, and Mars Observer missions. We will explain how powerful, existing ground data systems can be adapted and packaged in a cost effective way for operations of small and large planetary missions. We will also describe how the MGDS was adapted to support operations within the Galileo Spacecraft Testbed. The Galileo testbed provided a unique opportunity to adapt MGDS to support command and control operations for a small autonomous operations team of a handful of engineers flying the Galileo Spacecraft flight system model.

Murphy, Susan C.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Through Microgravity and Towards the Stars: Microgravity and Strategic Research at Marshall's Biological and Physical Space Research Laboratory

The Microgravity and Strategic research at Marshall s Biological and Physical Space Research Laboratory will be reviewed. The environment in orbit provides a unique opportunity to study Materials Science and Biotechnology in the absence of sedimentation and convection. There are a number of peer-selected investigations that have been selected to fly on the Space Station that have been conceived and are led by Marshall s Biological and Physical Research Laboratory s scientists. In addition to Microgravity research the Station will enable research in "Strategic" Research Areas that focus on enabling humans to live, work, and explore the solar system safely. New research in Radiation Protection, Strategic Molecular Biology, and In-Space Fabrication will be introduced.

Curreri, Peter A.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Verification and Tuning of an Adaptive Controller for an Unmanned Air Vehicle

This paper focuses on the analysis and tuning of a controller based on the Adaptive Control Technology for Safe Flight (ACTS) architecture. The ACTS architecture consists of a nominal, non-adaptive controller that provides satisfactory performance under nominal flying conditions, and an adaptive controller that provides robustness under off-nominal ones. A framework unifying control verification and gain tuning is used to make the controller s ability to satisfy the closed-loop requirements more robust to uncertainty. In this paper we tune the gains of both controllers using this approach. Some advantages and drawbacks of adaptation are identified by performing a global robustness assessment of both the adaptive controller and its non-adaptive counterpart. The analyses used to determine these characteristics are based on evaluating the degradation in closed-loop performance resulting from uncertainties having increasing levels of severity. The specific adverse conditions considered can be grouped into three categories: aerodynamic uncertainties, structural damage, and actuator failures. These failures include partial and total loss of control effectiveness, locked-in-place control surface deflections, and engine out conditions. The requirements considered are the peak structural loading, the ability of the controller to track pilot commands, the ability of the controller to keep the aircraft s state within the reliable flight envelope, and the handling/riding qualities of the aircraft. The nominal controller resulting from these tuning strategies was successfully validated using the NASA GTM Flight Test Vehicle.

Crespo, Luis G.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

BioLEAD: BioLogical Exploration via Autonomous Detection – Using Dielectric Spectroscopy to Monitor Biological Changes in Response to Deep Space Radiation

Leveraging the bio-fluidic hardware developed for BioSentinel, we propose a new payload for autonomous missions: BioLEAD – BioLogical Exploration via Autonomous Detection. With NASA's renewed focus to continue human exploration of the Moon (Artemis Program), the BioLEAD payload aims to investigate the effects of the lunar environment on biology, whether onboard a lunar lander, the Lunar Gateway, or as a free-flying CubeSat orbiting the Moon. In place of an optical detection system, BioLEAD will employ a miniaturized, non-invasive dielectric spectroscopy sensor to enable real-time monitoring of biological activity. The sensor operates by relating capacitance measurements to the dielectric properties of the cell, such as cell morphology, doubling time, and cell cycle stage. The implementation of this new sensor technology will address limitations of the optical measurement system used on BioSentinel. It will also advance the use of autonomous bioanalytical microsystems and reveal new information regarding biological responses to the Moon’s radiation environment. Most importantly, BioLEAD’s technology will be adaptable for a wide array of future missions.

Biosensor↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Global SO 2 Data Record from OMPS Instruments on the JPSS Constellation

NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS) SO 2 climate data record (CDR) started in 2004, with the launch of the Aura/Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and is now being continued with the SNPP/Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) launched in 2011. Both OMI and SNPP/OMPS SO 2 CDRs are produced with the Goddard principal component analysis (PCA) spectral fitting algorithm. An advantage of the data-driven PCA retrieval technique is that it enables highly consistent retrievals from different instruments, by inherently accounting for various instrumental factors. To further extend the EOS SO 2 CDR, we are implementing the PCA SO 2 retrieval algorithm with the L1B measurements from OMPS instruments flying on the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) constellation. In this presentation, we will provide an update on our progress in NOAA-20 (launched in 2017) and NOAA-21 (launched in 2022) PCA SO2 retrievals. We will focus on our new NOAA-20/OMPS PCA SO 2 EOS continuity product, to be publicly released in fall of 2023. We will present statistical analyses on the quality of NOAA-20 PCA SO 2 product, including retrieval noise, biases over background areas, and long-term stability. We will compare our PCA SO 2 retrievals from NOAA-20 with those from OMI, SNPP/OMPS, and S5P/TROPOMI (TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument) for anthropogenic sources as well as large volcanic plumes. We will also discuss the application of a new machine learning technique that helps to further reduce the noise of NOAA-20 SO 2 retrievals. In addition, we will present preliminary PCA SO 2 retrievals from NOAA-21/OMPS, including those from direct readout implementation for aviation disaster avoidance. Finally, we will share some first results applying the PCA algorithm to NASA’s geostationary TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) instrument to obtain hourly, high resolution SO 2 data over North America.

SO2↗
NASA NTRS2003

Advances in Pneumatic-Controlled High-Lift Systems Through Pulsed Blowing

Circulation Control technologies have been around for 65 years, and have been successfully demonstrated in laboratories and flight vehicles alike. Yet there are few production aircraft flying today that implement these advances. Circulation Control techniques may have been overlooked due to perceived unfavorable trade offs of mass flow, pitching moment, cruise drag, noise, etc. Improvements in certain aspects of Circulation Control technology are the focus of this paper. This report will describe airfoil and blown high lift concepts that also address cruise drag reduction and reductions in mass flow through the use of pulsed pneumatic blowing on a Coanda surface. Pulsed concepts demonstrate significant reductions in mass flow requirements for Circulation Control, as well as cruise drag concepts that equal or exceed conventional airfoil systems.

Jones, Gregory S.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Pneumatic Flap Performance for a 2D Circulation Control Airfoil, Steady and Pulsed

Circulation Control technologies have been around for 65 years, and have been successfully demonstrated in laboratories and flight vehicles alike, yet there are few production aircraft flying today that implement these advances. Circulation Control techniques may have been overlooked due to perceived unfavorable trade offs of mass flow, pitching moment, cruise drag, noise, etc. Improvements in certain aspects of Circulation Control technology are the focus of this paper. This report will describe airfoil and blown high lift concepts that also address cruise drag reduction and reductions in mass flow through the use of pulsed pneumatic blowing on a Coanda surface. Pulsed concepts demonstrate significant reductions in mass flow requirements cor Circulation Control, as well as cruise drag concepts that equal or exceed conventional airfoil systems.

Jones, Gregory S.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Variations in Upper-Tropospheric Humidity and Convective Processes as Seen from SSM/T-2

Water vapor feedback, particularly involving water vapor in the upper troposphere (UTH), is widely regarded as the process with the most potential to amplify anthropogenic greenhouse forcing. Yet, our ability to quantify observationally water vapor variations in the current climate and the relationships to convective processes remains rather crude. Remote sensing from polar orbiting instruments has played a major role in documenting UTH variability, supplementing highly undersampled and poorly calibrated rawinsonde measurements. Most of our observational understanding of UTH has come from the 6.7 micrometer channel measurements which are subject to cloud contamination uncertainties. In this work we examine UTH variations present in the Special Sensor Microwave Temperature Sounder 2 (SSM/T-2) sensors flying aboard Defense Military Satellite Program (DMSP) polar orbiting satellites during the period 1993 through 2001. We employ data from the the 183.3 +/- 1 GHz channel which is far less sensitive to cirrus than IR methods. Our primary focus is on obtaining more reliable statistics of interannual behavior; i.e. How close to constant RH are interannual variations in T2 UTH over the tropics? How do temperature and moisture variations contribute regionally? The 1997/1998 strong ENS0 warming event and adjacent cool periods provide a strong signal to study, albeit a perturbation of natural climate variability. Modeling the 183.3 GHz channel using reanalysis temperature data, but with climatological water vapor, allows us to infer the separate contribution by water vapor in the observations. In addition, frozen hydrometeors produced by deep convection are also captured in the 150 GHz oxygen channel, providing an opportUnity to relate the incidence of deep convection to water vapor variability. Our results indicate a much larger variation of 183.3 GHz brightness temperatures would be observed were it not for water vapor variations positively correlated with tropical SSTs. Comparisons are made with previous studies using both IR and microwave observations to characterize UTH response to tropical SSTs.

Robertson, Franklin R.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Trajectory Prediction Accuracy and Error Sources for Regional Jet Descents: Results of a 2010 Flight Trial at Denver International Airport using SkyWest Revenue Flights - Part II

The Efficient Descent Advisor (EDA) controller automation tool generates trajectory-based speed, path, and altitude-profile advisories to facilitate efficient, continuous descents into congested terminal airspace. While prior field trials have assessed the trajectory prediction accuracy for large jet (i.e., Boeing and Airbus) types, smaller (i.e., regional and business) jet types present unique challenges involving different descent procedures and Flight Management System (FMS) capabilities. This paper quantifies the trajectory prediction accuracy for small jet revenue flight descents based on SkyWest Canadair Regional Jet 200, 700, and 900 aircraft arrivals to Denver in the fall of 2010. Post flight test data analysis and SkyWest pilot interviews uncovered unexpected variation between flight crews due to different interpretations of (1) which fixed flight path angle (FPA) to fly based on the flight trial procedure and (2) how to fly the descent to achieve the target FPA. Pilot reports were used to select a subset of flights where pilots indicated an FPA according to the flight trial procedure to remove the unexpected variation due to (1) to focus on (2). Results for the subset for en-route descents, from prior to top of descent to the meter fix 30 to 130 nmi downstream, indicate that aircraft arrived to the meter fix six seconds early with about a twelve second standard deviation. Large FPA errors up to one degree relative to the EDA flight trial procedure were detected after the flight trial as a characteristic of the unexpected variation. It is recommended that quantitative validation be performed during future flight trials so that experimental procedures can be adjusted if unexpected results are detected.

Field Test Results↗