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NASA NTRS2012

Space Environments and Effects Concept: Transitioning Research to Operations and Applications

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is embarking on a course to expand human presence beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) while expanding its mission to explore the solar system. Destinations such as Near Earth Asteroids (NEA), Mars and its moons, and the outer planets are but a few of the mission targets. NASA has established numerous offices specializing in specific space environments disciplines that will serve to enable these missions. To complement these existing discipline offices, a concept focusing on the development of space environment and effects application is presented. This includes space climate, space weather, and natural and induced space environments. This space environment and effects application is composed of 4 topic areas; characterization and modeling, engineering effects, prediction and operation, and mitigation and avoidance. These topic areas are briefly described below. Characterization and modeling of space environments will primarily focus on utilization during Program mission concept, planning, and design phases. Engineering effects includes materials testing and flight experiments producing data to be used in mission planning and design phases. Prediction and operation pulls data from existing sources into decision-making tools and empirical data sets to be used during the operational phase of a mission. Mitigation and avoidance will develop techniques and strategies used in the design and operations phases of the mission. The goal of this space environment and effects application is to develop decision-making tools and engineering products to support the mission phases of mission concept through operations by focusing on transitioning research to operations. Products generated by this space environments and effects application are suitable for use in anomaly investigations. This paper will outline the four topic areas, describe the need, and discuss an organizational structure for this space environments and effects application.

Edwards, David L.↗

NASA NTRS2006

An Overview of Space Exploration Simulation (Basis of Confidence) Documentation

Models and simulations (M&S) are critical resources in the exploration of space. They support program management, systems engineering, integration, analysis, test, and operations by providing critical information that supports key analyses and decisions (technical, cost and schedule). Consequently, there is a clear need to establish a solid understanding of M&S strengths and weaknesses, and the bounds within which they can credibly support decision making. In this presentation we will describe how development of simulation capability documentation will be used to form a Basis of Confidence (Basis of Confidence) for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) M&S. The process by which BOC documentation is developed will be addressed, as well as the structure and critical concepts that are essential for establishing credibility of NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) legacy M&S. We will illustrate the significance of BOC documentation in supporting decision makers and Accreditation Authorities in M&S risk management.

Bray, Alleen↗

NASA NTRS2006

Software for Simulating Air Traffic

Future Air Traffic Management Concepts Evaluation Tool (FACET) is a system of software for performing computational simulations for evaluating advanced concepts of advanced air-traffic management. FACET includes a program that generates a graphical user interface plus programs and databases that implement computational models of weather, airspace, airports, navigation aids, aircraft performance, and aircraft trajectories. Examples of concepts studied by use of FACET include aircraft self-separation for free flight; prediction of air-traffic-controller workload; decision support for direct routing; integration of spacecraft-launch operations into the U.S. national airspace system; and traffic- flow-management using rerouting, metering, and ground delays. Aircraft can be modeled as flying along either flight-plan routes or great-circle routes as they climb, cruise, and descend according to their individual performance models. The FACET software is modular and is written in the Java and C programming languages. The architecture of FACET strikes a balance between flexibility and fidelity; as a consequence, FACET can be used to model systemwide airspace operations over the contiguous U.S., involving as many as 10,000 aircraft, all on a single desktop or laptop computer running any of a variety of operating systems. Two notable applications of FACET include: (1) reroute conformance monitoring algorithms that have been implemented in one of the Federal Aviation Administration s nationally deployed, real-time, operational systems; and (2) the licensing and integration of FACET with the commercially available Flight Explorer, which is an Internet- based, real-time flight-tracking system.

Sridhar, Banavar↗

NASA NTRS2012

Surface Traffic Management Research

This presentation discusses an overview of the surface traffic management research conducted by NASA Ames. The concept and human-in-the-loop simulation of the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA), an integrated decision support tool for the tower controllers and airline ramp operators, is also discussed.

Jung, Yoo Chul↗

NASA NTRS2019

Field Evaluation of the Baseline Integrated Arrival, Departure, and Surface Capabilities at Charlotte Douglas International Airport

NASA is currently developing a suite of decision support capabilities for integrated arrival, departure, and surface (IADS) operations in a metroplex environment. The effort is being made in three phases, under NASA's Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2) sub-project, through a strong partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), air carriers, airport, and general aviation community. The Phase 1 Baseline IADS capabilities provide enhanced operational efficiency and predictability of flight operations through data exchange and integration, tactical surface metering, and automated coordination of release time of controlled flights for overhead stream insertion. The users of the IADS system include the personnel at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) air traffic control tower, American Airlines ramp tower, CLT terminal radar approach control (TRACON), and Washington Center. This paper describes the Phase 1 Baseline IADS capabilities and field evaluation conducted at CLT from September 2017 for a year. From the analysis of operations data, it is estimated that 538,915 kilograms of fuel savings, and 1,659 metric tons of CO2 emission reduction were achieved during the period with a total of 944 hours of engine run time reduction. The amount of CO2 savings is estimated as equivalent to planting 42,560 urban trees. The results have also shown that the surface metering had no negative impact on on-time arrival performance of both outbound and inbound flights. The technology transfer of Phase 1 Baseline IADS capabilities has been made to the FAA and aviation industry, and the development of additional capabilities for the subsequent phases is underway.

Jung, Yoon C.↗

NASA NTRS2020

ATD-2 Benefits Mechanism

NASA has been developing and demonstrating a suite of decision support capabilities for integrated arrival, departure, and surface (IADS) operations in a metroplex environment. The effort is being made in three phases, under NASA’s Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2) sub-project, through a close partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), air carriers, airport, and general aviation community. The Phase 1 Baseline IADS capabilities provide enhanced operational efficiency and predictability of flight operations through data exchange and integration, tactical surface metering, and automated coordination of release time of controlled flights for overhead stream insertion. The Phase 2 Fused IADS capabilities include the fusion of strategic and tactical surface metering, Atlanta Center airspace tactical scheduling, Electronic Flight Data (EFD) integration, Terminal Flight Data Manager (TFDM) Terminal Publication (TTP) prototype, and Mobile App for General Aviation (GA) community. In the Phase 2 field evaluation, strategic surface metering provides advance notice of metering and additional stability to the assigned gate holds. The users of the IADS system in Phases 1 and 2 include the personnel at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) air traffic control tower, American Airlines ramp tower, CLT terminal radar approach control (TRACON), and Washington and Atlanta Center. This document describes the ATD-2 benefits mechanism used to assess the Phases 1 and 2 IADS capabilities and field evaluation conducted at CLT since September 2017. The ATD-2 benefits mechanism mainly consists of surface metering and overhead stream insertion. This document provides detailed calculation methods of major benefit metrics, such as fuel savings, gas emissions savings, and engine runtime reduction, which can be obtained through surface metering, gate hold of Approval Request (APREQ) flights prior to pushback, and the renegotiation of release time while taxiing. As of March 31, 2020, it is estimated that 5,075,981 pounds of fuel savings and 15,634,022 pounds of CO2 emission reduction have been achieved so far, with a reduction of 3,832 hours in total engine runtime. The amount of CO2 savings is estimated to be equivalent to planting 116,254 urban trees. The pre- and post-metering comparison results using FAA’s Aviation System Performance Metrics (ASPM) data have also shown that the surface metering had no negative impact on the on-time arrival performance of both outbound and inbound flights at CLT.

ATD-2↗

NASA NTRS2020

ATD-2 Benefits Mechanism

NASA has been developing and demonstrating a suite of decision support capabilities for integrated arrival, departure, and surface (IADS) operations in a metroplex environment. The effort is being made in three phases, under NASA’s Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2) sub-project, through a close partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), air carriers, airport, and general aviation community. The Phase 1 Baseline IADS capabilities provide enhanced operational efficiency and predictability of flight operations through data exchange and integration, tactical surface metering, and automated coordination of release time of controlled flights for overhead stream insertion. The Phase 2 Fused IADS capabilities include the fusion of strategic and tactical surface metering, Atlanta Center airspace tactical scheduling, Electronic Flight Data (EFD) integration, Terminal Flight Data Manager (TFDM) Terminal Publication (TTP) prototype, and Mobile App for General Aviation (GA) community. In the Phase 2 field evaluation, strategic surface metering provides advance notice of metering and additional stability to the assigned gate holds. The users of the IADS system in Phases 1 and 2 include the personnel at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) air traffic control tower, American Airlines ramp tower, CLT terminal radar approach control (TRACON), and Washington and Atlanta Center. This document describes the ATD-2 benefits mechanism used to assess the Phases 1 and 2 IADS capabilities and field evaluation conducted at CLT since September 2017. The ATD-2 benefits mechanism mainly consists of surface metering and overhead stream insertion. This document provides detailed calculation methods of major benefit metrics, such as fuel savings, gas emissions savings, and engine runtime reduction, which can be obtained through surface metering, gate hold of Approval Request (APREQ) flights prior to pushback, and the renegotiation of release time while taxiing. As of April 30, 2020, it is estimated that 5,097,173 pounds of fuel savings and 15,699,292 pounds of CO2 emission reduction have been achieved so far, with a reduction of 3,831 hours in total engine runtime. The amount of CO2 savings is estimated to be equivalent to planting 116,739 urban trees. The pre- and post-metering comparison results using FAA’s Aviation System Performance Metrics (ASPM) data have also shown that the surface metering had no negative impact on the on-time arrival performance of both outbound and inbound flights at CLT.

ATD-2↗

NASA NTRS2021

ATD-2 Phase 3 Benefits Mechanism

ATD-2 Phase 3↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Hyper-Spectral Infrared Remote Sensing for Wildfire-Related Research and Air Quality Monitoring

The National Airborne Sounder Testbed-Interferometer (NAST-I) is an airborne FTS remote sensor that nominally flies on NASA high-altitude aircraft to serve as a spaceborne instrument simulator. NAST-I continues to serve as a pathfinder for future satellite FTS systems and the next generation advanced atmospheric sounders in general. NAST-I provides high resolution spectrally resolved infrared radiances. NAST-I retrieval products characterizing the surface (i.e., skin temperature and spectral emissivity), atmosphere (i.e., profiles of temperature, moisture, ozone, carbon monoxide, and other trace species), and clouds (e.g., optical depth, particle size, temperature, and height) can be used to support fire-related monitoring and research. NAST-I provided 3-d characterizations of wildfire-induced plumes of CO during the FIREX-AQ field campaign (conducted during 2019) which showed the intensity and size evolution of wildfire plumes at high spatial and temporal resolutions. Wildfire-induced CO plumes, in conjunction with their evolution, transport, and age have been identified and recently published in scientific journals. Other research applications, such as surface emissivity changes due to fire burning of ground landscape, have been under investigation. These products could be used in support of wildfire management to better inform decision making and operations for pre-, active, and post-fire environments.

remote sensing↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Reach Performance Using Touchscreens Under G and Vibration Conditions

This presentation summarizes prior results from human-in-the-loop experiments that measured the accuracy and precision of human reaches to a touchscreen under a range of altered gravitational and vibrational conditions. From the data, this presentation proposes a method for estimating the worst-case reach accuracy and precision during lunar landings with an eye towards supporting engineering design decisions about human control interfaces and crew operations for lunar missions.

human performance↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

FATE: The drifting Fish Aggregating Device (dFAD) TrajEctory Modeling Tool for Marine Protected Area Management

Drifting fish aggregating devices (dFADs) routinely enter marine protected areas (MPAs) and may undermine MPA protections by drifting out of the MPA with the aggregated fish biomass, or grounding and damaging sensitive coral reef habitats. MPA managers must decide whether to deploy resources in response to dFAD intrusions. To address this issue, we propose to quantify dFAD activity in relation to ocean currents, fish biomass, and animal telemetry at Palmyra Atoll, part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument in the central Pacific Ocean. Specifically, we propose to develop the dFAD TrajEctory Tool (FATE). FATE is an innovative decision support tool that will use NASA observations and numerical models to predict future dFAD trajectories and inform TNC and USFWS whether they should deploy tactical resources (boats, personnel) to monitor, intercept, or retrieve dFADs that have entered the Refuge. The objectives are to use NASA observational constraints on ocean winds and currents to assist with the ecological management of the Palmyra Atoll NWR and MPA. Specifically, we will deliver an operational software tool that quantifies the grounding risk associated with each tracked dFAD and decision support for grounding risk mitigation via intercept at sea. This project addresses Element 3.3: Protected area management of the 2022 Ecological Conservation Solicitation by developing a tool needed by MPA managers to make tactical and strategic decisions focused on improving the effectiveness of MPAs. By quantifying the riskof dFADs, this project will help monitor and better inform the deployment of tactical (ships/personnel) and strategic (legislative) resources to better manage MPAs. This project is a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, who operate long-term projects within the Palmyra MPA, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who have the authority to make decisions related to its management. We expect that the results of our proposal will benefit marine resources within the Palmyra MPA and could be transferred to other remote MPAs within the US and other island nations within the Pacific Ocean.

TrajEctory↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Decentralized and Asynchronous Planning for Cooperative Practices in High Altitude Digitally Enabled Operations

Cooperative practices will likely be foundational to future digitally enabled airspace operations characterized by decentralized and asynchronous decision-making. This paper explores the implementation of cooperative practices in high-altitude airspace. The digitally enabled operations framework, under exploratory investigation by NASA as a potential new operating mode, which is enabled and dependent on digital technologies and information sharing, may create new operational possibilities for a wide range of vehicle types and missions. An essential element of the operating mode framework under investigation, cooperative practices, could empower operators to manage critical functions such as deconfliction, equitable airspace usage, and demand-capacity balancing. The use of cooperative practices would involve asynchronous flight information sharing and decentralized conflict management by operators, representing a major change from traditional air traffic services that use synchronous surveillance information to support centralized decision-making by air traffic controllers. This paper details three key components for implementing cooperative practices for decentralized, digitally enabled operations: (a) intent modeling and sharing, (b) conflict detection, and (c) cooperative deconfliction.

cooperative operating practics↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Crew Medical Officer Training and Role of Ground Support for International Space Station (ISS) Operations

Medical systems supporting exploration-class missions to the Moon and Mars will require greater inflight medical decision-making autonomy. An understanding of current ISS training regimens for Crew Medical Officers (CMOs) as well as the role of ground support personnel in medical operations is needed to identify the starting point from which exploration medical system design must evolve in order to achieve inflight medical autonomy.

Rachel Richardson↗

NASA NTRS1998

Automating Mission Scheduling for Space-Based Observatories

In this paper we describe the use of our planning and scheduling framework, HSTS, to reduce the complexity of science mission planning. This work is part of an overall project to enable a small team of scientists to control the operations of a spacecraft. The present process is highly labor intensive. Users (scientists and operators) rely on a non-codified understanding of the different spacecraft subsystems and of their operating constraints. They use a variety of software tools to support their decision making process. This paper considers the types of decision making that need to be supported/automated, the nature of the domain constraints and the capabilities needed to address them successfully, and the nature of external software systems with which the core planning/scheduling engine needs to interact. HSTS has been applied to science scheduling for EUVE and Cassini and is being adapted to support autonomous spacecraft operations in the New Millennium initiative.

Pell, Barney↗

NASA NTRS2004

Preserving the Finger Lakes for the Future: A Prototype Decision Support System for Water Resource Management, Open Space, and Agricultural Protection

This report summarizes the activity conducted under NASA Grant NAG13-02059 entitled "Preserving the Finger Lakes for the Future" A Prototype Decision Support System for Water Resources Management, Open Space and Agricultural Protection, for the period of September 26, 2003 to September 25, 2004. The RACNE continues to utilize the services of its affiliate, the Institute for the Application of Geospatial Technology at Cayuga Community College, Inc. (IAGT), for the purposes of this project under its permanent operating agreement with IAGT. IAGT is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit Corporation created by the RACNE for the purpose of carrying out its programmatic and administrative mission. The "Preserving the Finger Lakes for the Future" project has progressed and evolved as planned, with the continuation or initiation of a number of program facets at programmatic, technical, and inter-agency levels. The project has grown, starting with the well received core concept of the Virtual Management Operations Center (VMOC), to the functional Watershed Virtual Management Operations Center (W-VMOC) prototype, to the more advanced Finger Lakes Decision Support System (FLDSS) prototype, deployed for evaluation and assessment to a wide variety of agencies and organizations in the Finger Lakes region and beyond. This suite of tools offers the advanced, compelling functionality of interactive 3D visualization interfaced with 2D mapping, all accessed via Internet or virtually any kind of distributed computer network.

Brower, Robert↗

NASA NTRS2016

A Satellite Data-Driven, Client-Server Decision Support Application for Agricultural Water Resources Management

Water cycle extremes such as droughts and floods present a challenge for water managers and for policy makers responsible for the administration of water supplies in agricultural regions. In addition to the inherent uncertainties associated with forecasting extreme weather events, water planners need to anticipate water demands and water user behavior in a typical circumstances. This requires the use decision support systems capable of simulating agricultural water demand with the latest available data. Unfortunately, managers from local and regional agencies often use different datasets of variable quality, which complicates coordinated action. In previous work we have demonstrated novel methodologies to use satellite-based observational technologies, in conjunction with hydro-economic models and state of the art data assimilation methods, to enable robust regional assessment and prediction of drought impacts on agricultural production, water resources, and land allocation. These methods create an opportunity for new, cost-effective analysis tools to support policy and decision-making over large spatial extents. The methods can be driven with information from existing satellite-derived operational products, such as the Satellite Irrigation Management Support system (SIMS) operational over California, the Cropland Data Layer (CDL), and using a modified light-use efficiency algorithm to retrieve crop yield from the synergistic use of MODIS and Landsat imagery. Here we present an integration of this modeling framework in a client-server architecture based on the Hydra platform. Assimilation and processing of resource intensive remote sensing data, as well as hydrologic and other ancillary information occur on the server side. This information is processed and summarized as attributes in water demand nodes that are part of a vector description of the water distribution network. With this architecture, our decision support system becomes a light weight 'app' that connects to the server to retrieve the latest information regarding water demands, land use, yields and hydrologic information required to run different management scenarios. Furthermore, this architecture ensures all agencies and teams involved in water management use the same, up-to-date information in their simulations.

Agricultural↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Human Monitoring for Medical Operator Assistance

Measurement of multiple biologic and non-biologic signals can be exploited for the task of monitoring the physiological status of individuals - either as patients during and following illness or injury or as those engaged in operational activities. Assessing physiological status is accomplished by measuring vital signs and wellness measures that support clinical decision-making for physical optimization, illness/injury prevention and treatment, recovery progression, and general delivery of care, or monitoring an operator's moment-to-moment personal "readiness" state. Physiological measures are beneficial for monitoring the medical state of vehicle operators, for example, through the detection of incapacitation in the realm of transportation safety. Measuring physiological signals or control inputs can also be beneficial for monitoring operator state to optimize human-autonomy-teaming performance for safety and efficiency. Similarly, monitoring a health care provider during the performance of medical procedures could provide valuable feedback on optimizing human-robot interactions and human teaming with autonomous systems. In this sense, the provider can be seen as a "Medical Operator" in the same way other "operators" drive, aviate, or control vehicles by performing manual, attention-demanding tasks during safety-critical activities.

Neuroergonomics↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Designing for Advanced Aerial Mobility: Human-Autonomy Teaming and In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance

The continued growth of aviation shall require new innovative technologies and operational concepts to meet the ever-increasing demands on air transportation. The NASA Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) project focuses on emerging aviation markets, such as Urban Air Mobility (UAM). UAM is defined as “...a safe and efficient system for air passenger and cargo transportation within an urban area. It is inclusive of small package delivery and other urban unmanned aerial system services and supports a mix of onboard/ground-piloted and increasingly autonomous operations” ([1]). The AAM project emphasizes technology development and validating system-level concepts and solutions in coordination with other NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) projects to enable UAM metro- and micro-plex vertiport and airspace concepts of operations. The NASA AAM research portfolio includes the concepts of Remote Supervisor-in-Command (RSC) and Fleet and Airspace Manager (FAM) as possible human roles for consumer fleet providers. NASA research in RSC is focused on development of guidelines and standards for remote pilots/operators passively and actively controlling a large fleet of autonomous aircraft. For FAM, flight and ground system concepts and technologies to enable high density homogeneous operations at increased scale from vertiport(s), and coordination with other humans in the systems (e.g., UAM urban airspace manager, Air Traffic Control) are key research areas. The envisioned UAM operations are posited to require autonomous systems to enable functions ranging from fleet and resource management to vehicle control. Although automation has become increasingly sophisticated and ubiquitous in civil aviation, autonomy represents a significant evolution in automation, which has generally been limited in functional scope and capability. As autonomy takes on increasing responsibilities, humans and machines will be required to work together in new and different ways [2], rather than traditional design approaches focused on how machines (i.e., autonomy) can do the work of people. The emerging field of human-autonomy teaming (HAT) represents a comprehensive and prioritized research-driven approach to enable the success of future emerging aviation market applications through capabilities and principles that facilitate humans and machine working and thinking better together. The NASA Transformational Tools and Technologies (TTT) Autonomous System (AS) Sub-project was created to assist with the transition into higher levels of autonomy to enable new modes of air transportation, such as UAM. TTT-AS has identified HAT as a key research need to enable UAM while maintaining today’s ultra-safe aviation system safety levels. The latter challenge has been taken up by the NASA System-Wide Safety (SWS) Project, which recognizes that aviation safety, as it evolves, shall require new ways of thinking about safety to include integration of a wide-range of existing and new safety systems and practices, enhanced tools and technologies, increased access to data and data fusion, improved data analysis capabilities, enhanced in-time risk monitoring and detection, hazard prioritization and mitigation, safety assurance decision-support, and in-time integrated system analytics [3].The operational concept of UAM represents a variety of work that has been termed, “work-as-imagined” to characterize the idea that how people think that work is done and how work is actually done are often not the same [4]. To ensure design success and system safety, looking at “work-as-done” provides a comparative approach toward UAM concept and technology design through examination of corresponding analogs found today in aviation (e.g., on-demand operations) and other transportation domains (e.g., port operations). The paper shall discuss various alternative applications with specific focus on airline operation center (AOC) operations, and unmanned aerial system (UAS) command-and-control to inform scaled-versions of FAM and RSC, respectively, and with consideration of the national airspace system contextual environment. The tenets and principles of the HAT field and current NASA research efforts under the TTT-AS sub-project shall also be described. Finally, the SWS sub-project efforts to develop In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance (ISSA) and In-Time Safety Management Systems (IASMS) are discussed in terms of how “in-time” safety assurance may be conceptualized for the on-demand mobility air taxi “work-as-imagined” operational concept [5]. As part of this effort, concepts from the emerging field of resilience engineering, are being studied. Traditional approaches to aviation safety have focused on what can go wrong and how to prevent it. Another approach to thinking about system safety should reflect not only “avoiding things that go wrong” (protective safety) but also “ensuring that things go right” (productive safety), that enables a system to exhibit the resilient performance [6] necessary for the success of the future aviation system emerging concepts of operations. The paper shall describe efforts focused on how productive safety and resilience may enable a more complete approach to system safety thinking and design of ISSA and IASMS for UAM. Future directions and research needs shall also be discussed.

resilience↗