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At least 199 records · Page 11

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NASA NTRS2004

Lapin Data Interchange Among Database, Analysis and Display Programs Using XML-Based Text Files

The purpose was to investigate and evaluate the interchange of application- specific data among multiple programs each carrying out part of the analysis and design task. This has been carried out previously by creating a custom program to read data produced by one application and then write that data to a file whose format is specific to the second application that needs all or part of that data. In this investigation, data of interest is described using the XML markup language that allows the data to be stored in a text-string. Software to transform output data of a task into an XML-string and software to read an XML string and extract all or a portion of the data needed for another application is used to link two independent applications together as part of an overall design effort. This approach was initially used with a standard analysis program, Lapin, along with standard applications a standard spreadsheet program, a relational database program, and a conventional dialog and display program to demonstrate the successful sharing of data among independent programs. See Engineering Analysis Using a Web-Based Protocol by J.D. Schoeffler and R.W. Claus, NASA TM-2002-211981, October 2002. Most of the effort beyond that demonstration has been concentrated on the inclusion of more complex display programs. Specifically, a custom-written windowing program organized around dialogs to control the interactions have been combined with an independent CAD program (Open Cascade) that supports sophisticated display of CAD elements such as lines, spline curves, and surfaces and turbine-blade data produced by an independent blade design program (UD0300).

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2004

Design Space Issues for Intrinsic Evolvable Hardware

This paper discusses the problem of increased programming time for intrinsic evolvable hardware (EM) as the complexity of the circuit grows. As the circuit becomes more complex, then more components will be required and a longer programming string, L, is required. We develop equations for the size of the population, n, and the number of generations required for the population to converge, based on L. Our analytical results show that even though the design search space grows as 2L (assuming a binary programming string), the number of circuit evaluations, n*ngen, only grows as O(Lg3), or slightly less than O(L). This makes evolvable techniques a good tool for exploring large design spaces. The major hurdle for intrinsic EHW is evaluation time for each possible circuit. The evaluation time involves downloading the bit string to the device, updating the device configuration, measuring the output and then transferring the output data to the control processor. Each of these steps must be done for each member of the population. The processing time of the computer becomes negligible since the selection/crossover/mutation steps are only done once per generation. Evaluation time presently limits intrinsic evolvable hardware techniques to designing only small or medium-sized circuits. To evolve large or complicated circuits, several researchers have proposed using hierarchical design or reuse techniques where submodules are combined together to form complex circuits. However, these practical approaches limit the search space of available designs and preclude utilizing parasitic coupling or other effects within the programmable device. The practical approaches also raise the issue of why intrinsic EHW techniques do not easily apply to large design spaces, since the analytical results show only an O(L) complexity growth.

Hereford, James↗

NASA NTRS2005

Lapin Data Interchange Among Database, Analysis and Display Programs Using XML-Based Text Files

The purpose of grant NCC3-966 was to investigate and evaluate the interchange of application-specific data among multiple programs each carrying out part of the analysis and design task. This has been carried out previously by creating a custom program to read data produced by one application and then write that data to a file whose format is specific to the second application that needs all or part of that data. In this investigation, data of interest is described using the XML markup language that allows the data to be stored in a text-string. Software to transform output data of a task into an XML-string and software to read an XML string and extract all or a portion of the data needed for another application is used to link two independent applications together as part of an overall design effort. This approach was initially used with a standard analysis program, Lapin, along with standard applications a standard spreadsheet program, a relational database program, and a conventional dialog and display program to demonstrate the successful sharing of data among independent programs. Most of the effort beyond that demonstration has been concentrated on the inclusion of more complex display programs. Specifically, a custom-written windowing program organized around dialogs to control the interactions have been combined with an independent CAD program (Open Cascade) that supports sophisticated display of CAD elements such as lines, spline curves, and surfaces and turbine-blade data produced by an independent blade design program (UD0300).

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2005

Experimental Study of Arcing on High-voltage Solar Arrays

The main obstacle to the implementation of a high-voltage solar array in space is arcing on the conductor-dielectric junctions exposed to the surrounding plasma. One obvious solution to this problem would be the installation of fully encapsulated solar arrays which were not having exposed conductors at all. However, there are many technological difficulties that must be overcome before the employment of fully encapsulated arrays will turn into reality. An alternative solution to raise arc threshold by modifications of conventionally designed solar arrays looks more appealing, at least in the nearest future. A comprehensive study of arc inception mechanism [1-4] suggests that such modifications can be done in the following directions: i) to insulate conductor-dielectric junction from a plasma environment (wrapthrough interconnects); ii) to change a coverglass geometry (overhang); iii) to increase a coverglass thickness; iiii) to outgas areas of conductor-dielectric junctions. The operation of high-voltage array in LEO produces also the parasitic current power drain on the electrical system. Moreover, the current collected from space plasma by solar arrays determines the spacecraft floating potential that is very important for the design of spacecraft and its scientific apparatus. In order to verify the validity of suggested modifications and to measure current collection five different solar array samples have been tested in large vacuum chamber. Each sample (36 silicon based cells) consists of three strings containing 12 cells connected in series. Thus, arc rate and current collection can be measured on every string independently, or on a whole sample when strings are connected in parallel. The heater installed in the chamber provides the possibility to test samples under temperature as high as 80 C that simulates the LEO operational temperature. The experimental setup is described below.

Vayner, Boris↗

NASA NTRS2004

International Space Station Solar Array Wing On-Orbit Electrical Performance Degradation Measured

The port-side photovoltaic power module (P6) was activated on the International Space Station in December 2000. P6 provides electrical power to channels 2B and 4B to operate ISS power loads. A P6 is shown in the preceding photograph. This article highlights the work done at the NASA Glenn Research Center to calculate the on-orbit degradation of the P6 solar array wings (SAWs) using on-orbit data from December 2000 to February 2003. During early ISS operations, the 82 strings of photovoltaic cells that make up a SAW can provide much more power than is necessary to meet the demand. To deal with excess power, a sequential shunt unit successively shunts the current from the strings. This shunt current was the parameter chosen for the SAW performance degradation study for the following reasons: (1) it is based on a direct shunt current measurement in the sequential shunt unit, (2) the shunt current has a low temperature dependence that reduces the data correction error from using a computationally derived array temperature, and (3) the SSU shunt current is essentially the same as the SAW short-circuit current on a per-string basis.

Gustafson, Eric D.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Options Studied for Managing Space Station Solar Array Electrical Hazards for Sequential Shunt Unit Replacement

The U.S. solar array strings on the International Space Station are connected to a sequential shunt unit (SSU). The job of the SSU is to shunt, or short, the excess current from the solar array, such that just enough current is provided downstream to maintain the 160-V bus voltage while meeting the power load demand and recharging the batteries. Should an SSU fail on-orbit, it would be removed and replaced with the on-orbit spare during an astronaut space walk or extravehicular activity (EVA) (see the photograph). However, removing an SSU during an orbit Sun period with input solar array power connectors fully energized could result in substantial hardware damage and/or safety risk to the EVA astronaut. The open-circuit voltage of cold solar-array strings can exceed 320 V, and warm solar-array strings could feed a short circuit with a total current level exceeding 240 A.

Delleur, Ann M.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Catastrophic Fault Recovery with Self-Reconfigurable Chips

Mission critical systems typically employ multi-string redundancy to cope with possible hardware failure. Such systems are only as fault tolerant as there are many redundant strings. Once a particular critical component exhausts its redundant spares, the multi-string architecture cannot tolerate any further hardware failure. This paper aims at addressing such catastrophic faults through the use of 'Self-Reconfigurable Chips' as a last resort effort to 'repair' a faulty critical component.

fault tolerance↗

NASA NTRS2007

Neural Net Safety Monitor Design

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) has been conducting flight-test research using an F-15 aircraft (figure 1). This aircraft has been specially modified to interface a neural net (NN) controller as part of a single-string Airborne Research Test System (ARTS) computer with the existing quad-redundant flight control system (FCC) shown in figure 2. The NN commands are passed to FCC channels 2 and 4 and are cross channel data linked (CCDL) to the other computers as shown. Numerous types of fault-detection monitors exist in the FCC when the NN mode is engaged; these monitors would cause an automatic disengagement of the NN in the event of a triggering fault. Unfortunately, these monitors still may not prevent a possible NN hard-over command from coming through to the control laws. Therefore, an additional and unique safety monitor was designed for a single-string source that allows authority at maximum actuator rates but protects the pilot and structural loads against excessive g-limits in the case of a NN hard-over command input. This additional monitor resides in the FCCs and is executed before the control laws are computed. This presentation describes a floating limiter (FL) concept1 that was developed and successfully test-flown for this program (figure 3). The FL computes the rate of change of the NN commands that are input to the FCC from the ARTS. A window is created with upper and lower boundaries, which is constantly floating and trying to stay centered as the NN command rates are changing. The limiter works by only allowing the window to move at a much slower rate than those of the NN commands. Anywhere within the window, however, full rates are allowed. If a rate persists in one direction, it will eventually hit the boundary and be rate-limited to the floating limiter rate. When this happens, a persistent counter begins and after a limit is reached, a NN disengage command is generated. The tunable metrics for the FL are (1) window size, (2) drift rate, and (3) persistence counter. Ultimate range limits are also included in case the NN command should drift slowly to a limit value that would cause the FL to be defeated. The FL has proven to work as intended. Both high-g transients and excessive structural loads are controlled with NN hard-over commands. This presentation discusses the FL design features and presents test cases. Simulation runs are included to illustrate the dramatic improvement made to the control of NN hard-over effects. A mission control room display from a flight playback is presented to illustrate the neural net fault display representation. The FL is very adaptable to various requirements and is independent of flight condition. It should be considered as a cost-effective safety monitor to control single-string inputs in general.

Larson, Richard R.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Fault-Tolerant Coding for State Machines

Two reliable fault-tolerant coding schemes have been proposed for state machines that are used in field-programmable gate arrays and application-specific integrated circuits to implement sequential logic functions. The schemes apply to strings of bits in state registers, which are typically implemented in practice as assemblies of flip-flop circuits. If a single-event upset (SEU, a radiation-induced change in the bit in one flip-flop) occurs in a state register, the state machine that contains the register could go into an erroneous state or could hang, by which is meant that the machine could remain in undefined states indefinitely. The proposed fault-tolerant coding schemes are intended to prevent the state machine from going into an erroneous or hang state when an SEU occurs. To ensure reliability of the state machine, the coding scheme for bits in the state register must satisfy the following criteria: 1. All possible states are defined. 2. An SEU brings the state machine to a known state. 3. There is no possibility of a hang state. 4. No false state is entered. 5. An SEU exerts no effect on the state machine. Fault-tolerant coding schemes that have been commonly used include binary encoding and "one-hot" encoding. Binary encoding is the simplest state machine encoding and satisfies criteria 1 through 3 if all possible states are defined. Binary encoding is a binary count of the state machine number in sequence; the table represents an eight-state example. In one-hot encoding, N bits are used to represent N states: All except one of the bits in a string are 0, and the position of the 1 in the string represents the state. With proper circuit design, one-hot encoding can satisfy criteria 1 through 4. Unfortunately, the requirement to use N bits to represent N states makes one-hot coding inefficient.

Naegle, Stephanie Taft↗

NASA NTRS2009

Implementation of an Adaptive Controller System from Concept to Flight Test

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) has been conducting flight-test research using an F-15 aircraft (figure 1). This aircraft has been specially modified to interface a neural net (NN) controller as part of a single-string Airborne Research Test System (ARTS) computer with the existing quad-redundant flight control system (FCC) shown in figure 2. The NN commands are passed to FCC channels 2 and 4 and are cross channel data linked (CCDL) to the other computers as shown. Numerous types of fault-detection monitors exist in the FCC when the NN mode is engaged; these monitors would cause an automatic disengagement of the NN in the event of a triggering fault. Unfortunately, these monitors still may not prevent a possible NN hard-over command from coming through to the control laws. Therefore, an additional and unique safety monitor was designed for a single-string source that allows authority at maximum actuator rates but protects the pilot and structural loads against excessive g-limits in the case of a NN hard-over command input. This additional monitor resides in the FCCs and is executed before the control laws are computed. This presentation describes a "floating limiter" (FL) concept that was developed and successfully test-flown for this program (figure 3). The FL computes the rate of change of the NN commands that are input to the FCC from the ARTS. A window is created with upper and lower boundaries, which is constantly "floating" and trying to stay centered as the NN command rates are changing. The limiter works by only allowing the window to move at a much slower rate than those of the NN commands. Anywhere within the window, however, full rates are allowed. If a rate persists in one direction, it will eventually "hit" the boundary and be rate-limited to the floating limiter rate. When this happens, a persistent counter begins and after a limit is reached, a NN disengage command is generated. The tunable metrics for the FL are (1) window size, (2) drift rate, and (3) persistence counter. Ultimate range limits are also included in case the NN command should drift slowly to a limit value that would cause the FL to be defeated. The FL has proven to work as intended. Both high-g transients and excessive structural loads are controlled with NN hard-over commands. This presentation discusses the FL design features and presents test cases. Simulation runs are included to illustrate the dramatic improvement made to the control of NN hard-over effects. A mission control room display from a flight playback is presented to illustrate the neural net fault display representation. The FL is very adaptable to various requirements and is independent of flight condition. It should be considered as a cost-effective safety monitor to control single-string inputs in general.

Larson, Richard R.↗

NASA NTRS2009

Measuring Multiple Resistances Using Single-Point Excitation

In a proposed method of determining the resistances of individual DC electrical devices connected in a series or parallel string, no attempt would be made to perform direct measurements on individual devices. Instead, (1) the devices would be instrumented by connecting reactive circuit components in parallel and/or in series with the devices, as appropriate; (2) a pulse or AC voltage excitation would be applied at a single point on the string; and (3) the transient or AC steady-state current response of the string would be measured at that point only. Each reactive component(s) associated with each device would be distinct in order to associate a unique time-dependent response with that device.

Hall, Dan↗

NASA NTRS2012

Neutrino Analysis of the September 2010 Crab Nebula Flare and Time-Integrated Constraints on Neutrino Emission from the Crab Using IceCube

We present the results for a search of high-energy muon neutrinos with the IceCube detector in coincidence with the Crab nebula flare reported on September 2010 by various experiments. Due to the unusual flaring state of the otherwise steady source we performed a prompt analysis of the 79-string configuration data to search for neutrinos that might be emitted along with the observed gamma-rays. We performed two different and complementary data selections of neutrino events in the time window of 10 days around the flare. One event selection is optimized for discovery of E(sub v)(sup -2) neutrino spectrum typical of 1st order Fermi acceleration. A similar event selection has also been applied to the 40-string data to derive the time-integrated limits to the neutrino emission from the Crab [35]. The other event selection was optimized for discovery of neutrino spectra with softer spectral index and TeV energy cut-offs as observed for various galactic sources in gamma-rays. The 90% CL best upper limits on the Crab flux during the 10 day flare are 4.73 x 10(exp -11) per square centimeter per second TeV(sup -1) for an E(sub v)(sup -2) neutrino spectrum and 2.50 x 10(exp -10) per square centimeter per second TeV(sup -1) for a softer neutrino spectra of E(sub v)(sup -2.7), as indicated by Fermi measurements during the flare. IceCube has also set a time-integrated limit on the neutrino emission of the Crab using 375.5 days of livetime of the 40-string configuration data. This limit is compared to existing models of neutrino production from the Crab and its impact on astrophysical parameters is discussed. The most optimistic predictions of some models are already rejected by the IceCube neutrino telescope with more than 90% CL.

Abbasi, R.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Neutrino Analysis of the September 2010 Crab Nebula Flare and Time-integrated Constraints on Neutrino Emission From the Crab Using IceCube

We present the results for a search of high-energy muon neutrinos with the IceCube detector in coincidence with the Crab nebula flare reported on September 2010 by various experiments. Due to the unusual flaring state of the otherwise steady source we performed a prompt analysis of the 79-string configuration data to search for neutrinos that might be emitted along with the observed gamma-rays. We performed two different and complementary data selections of neutrino events in the time window of 10 days around the flare. One event selection is optimized for discovery of E(sub nu)(sup -2) neutrino spectrum typical of 1st order Fermi acceleration. A similar event selection has also been applied to the 40-string data to derive the time-integrated limits to the neutrino emission from the Crab [35]. The other event selection was optimized for discovery of neutrino spectra with softer spectral index and TeV energy cut-offs as observed for various galactic sources in gamma-rays. The 90% CL best upper limits on the Crab flux during the 10 day flare are 4.73 x 10(exp -11) per square centimeter per second TeV (sup -1) for an E(sub nu) (sup -2) neutrino spectrum and 2.50 x 10(exp -10) per square centimeter per second TeV(sup -1) for a softer neutrino spectra of E(sub nu)(sup -2.7), as indicated by Fermi measurements during the flare. IceCube has also set a time-integrated limit on the neutrino emission of the Crab using 375.5 days of livetime of the 40-string configuration data. This limit is compared to existing models of neutrino production from the Crab and its impact on astrophysical parameters is discussed. The most optimistic predictions of some models are already rejected by the IceCube neutrino telescope with more than 90% CL.

Stamatikos, M.↗

NASA NTRS2017

On-Orbit Reconfigurable Solar Array

In one or more embodiments, the present disclosure teaches a method for reconfiguring a solar array. The method involves providing, for the solar array, at least one string of solar cells. The method further involves deactivating at least a portion of at least one of the strings of solar cells of the solar array when power produced by the solar array reaches a maximum power allowance threshold. In addition, the method involves activating at least a portion of at least one of the strings of the solar cells in the solar array when the power produced by the solar array reaches a minimum power allowance threshold.

Levy, Robert K.↗

NASA NTRS2019

High Power Demonstration of a 100 kW Nested Hall Thruster System

The XR-100 team successfully completed high power system testing of a Nested Hall Thruster system made up of the X3 Nested Hall Thruster, a modular Power Processing Unit, and a 5 valve Mass Flow Controller as the culmination of work performed under a NASA NextSTEP program. The test campaign attained several key firsts, including highest directly measured thrust of an electric propulsion (EP) string, highest demonstrated current of an EP string, and highest power operation of an EP string at thermal equilibrium published to date. Most importantly, the XR-100 system testing demonstrated that a 100 kW-class Nested Hall Thruster system has comparable performance and behavior to current state-of-the-art mid power Hall Thrusters, validating that the heritage technology can be scaled up to 100+ kW

Shark, Sarah↗

NASA NTRS2019

High Power Demonstration of a 100 kW Nested Hall Thruster System

Shark, Sarah↗

NASA NTRS2006

Catastrophic fault recovery with self-reconfigurable chips

Mission critical systems typically employ multi-string redundancy to cope with possible hardware failure. Such systems are only as fault tolerant as there are many redundant strings. Once a particular critical component exhausts its redundant spares, the multi-string architecture cannot tolerate any further hardware failure. This paper aims at addressing such catastrophic faults through the use of "Self-Reconfigurable Chips" as a last resort effort to "repair" a faulty critical component.

Chau, Savio N.↗

NASA NTRS2019

All-Sky Search for Short Gravitational-Wave Bursts in the Second Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo Run

We present the results of a search for short-duration gravitational-wave transients in the data from the second observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. We search for gravitational-wave transients with a duration of milliseconds to approximately one second in the 32–4096 Hz frequency band with minimal assumptions about the signal properties, thus targeting a wide variety of sources. We also perform a matched-filter search for gravitational-wave transients from cosmic string cusps for which the waveform is well modeled. The unmodeled search detected gravitational waves from several binary black hole mergers which have been identified by previous analyses. No other significant events have been found by either the unmodeled search or the cosmic string search. We thus present the search sensitivities for a variety of signal waveforms and report upper limits on the source rate density as a function of the characteristic frequency of the signal. These upper limits are a factor of 3 lower than the first observing run, with a 50% detection probability for gravitational-wave emissions with energies of ∼10−9 𝑀⊙⁢𝑐2 at 153 Hz. For the search dedicated to cosmic string cusps we consider several loop distribution models, and present updated constraints from the same search done in the first observing run.

B P Abbott↗