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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.

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At least 235 records · Page 13

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NASA NTRS2002

Fluid Dynamics of Small, Rugged Vacuum Pumps of Viscous-Drag Type

The need to identify spikes in the concentration of hazardous gases during countdowns to space shuttle launches has led Kennedy Space Center to acquire considerable expertise in the design, construction, and operation of special-purpose gas analyzers of mass-spectrometer type. If such devices could be miniaturized so as to fit in a small airborne package or backpack them their potential applications would include integrated vehicle health monitoring in later-generation space shuttles and in hazardous material detection in airports, to name two examples. The bulkiest components of such devices are vacuum pumps, particularly those that function in the low vacuum range. Now some pumps that operate in the high vacuum range (e.g. molecular-drag and turbomolecular pumps) are already small and rugged. The present work aims to determine whether, on physical grounds, one may or may not adopt the molecular-drag principle to the low-vacuum range (in which case viscous-drag principle is the appropriate term). The deliverable of the present effort is the derivation and justification of some key formulas and calculation methods for the preliminary design of a single-spool, spiral-channel viscous-drag pump.

Russell, John M.↗

NASA NTRS2004

[Activities of System Studies and Simulation, Inc.]

Contents include the following: 1. Launch Vehicle Interface Work Performed: a. S3 provided to KSC the new launch inclination targets needed for the April '04 launch date. 2. Prelaunch operations work performed: a. S3 updated the staffing plan for MSFC on-console personnel\during the Final Countdown prior to launch. 3. Software Assessment Work Performed: a. S3 evaluated and recommended approval for Program Control Board (PCB) proposed change 649 for ground software changes, as well as change 650 and 650A for Stored Program Commands. 4. Education and Public Outreach Work Performed: a. S3 continues to coordinate the effort for the design and fabrication of scale models of the GP-3 for use at the launch site, education forums, and management/technical briefings. S3 also prepared a Change Request for additional funds needed for fabrication of additional scale models. S3 drafted the planned uses of these models, including the possibility of participation in the Boston, MA showings of the traveling Einstein Exhibit. 5. Program Management Support Work Performed: a. S3 prepared the input for and closed three MSFC Centerwide Action Item Tracking Systems (CAITS) actions during this period.

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NASA NTRS2004

Tropospheric Wind Monitoring During Day-of-Launch Operations for NASA's Space Shuttle Program

The Environments Group at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Marshall Space Flight Center monitors the winds aloft above Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in support of the Space Shuttle Program day-of-launch operations. Assessment of tropospheric winds is used to support the ascent phase of launch. Three systems at KSC are used to generate independent tropospheric wind profiles prior to launch; 1) high resolution jimsphere balloon system, 2) 50-MHz Doppler Radar Wind Profiler (DRWP) and 3) low resolution radiosonde system. All independent sources are compared against each other for accuracy. To assess spatial and temporal wind variability during launch countdown each jimsphere profile is compared against a design wind database to ensure wind change does not violate wind change criteria.

Decker, Ryan↗

NASA NTRS2005

STS-114: Discovery Launch Readiness Press Conference

This press conference, attended by representatives from the national, Florida, and aerospace media, addresses launch, weather, and safety issues related to Space Shuttle Discovery prior to its launch on the STS-114 Return to Flight mission. The Master of Ceremonies is George Diller from NASA Public Affairs, and the panelists are: Space Shuttle Program Manager Bill Parsons, ISS Program Manager (JSC) Bill Gerstenmaier, Space Shuttle Deputy Program Manager Wayne Hale, Director of Shuttle Processing Mike Wetmore, ISS Program Manager (JAXA) Dr. Kuniaki Shiraki, and Launch Weather Officer (USAF) Mindy Chavez. Questions included the following topics: predicted weather conditions at launch, contingency rescue plans, countdown procedures, and risk management, as well as implications of the Return to Flight for the International Space Station (ISS).

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NASA NTRS2005

STS-114: Discovery Mission Status Briefing

This video features mid-deck payloads being stowed at Pad 39B, a ribbon cutting ceremony at the NASA Shuttle Launch Facility (SLF) Air Traffic Control Tower and footage of the air traffic control radar constructed at Shiloh. The STS-114 Crewmembers, Commander, Eileen Collins, Pilot, James Kelly, Mission Specialist, Charles Camarda, Mission Specialist, Wendy Lawrence, Mission Specialist, Soichi Noguchi, JAXA, Mission Specialist, Stephen Robinson, and Mission Specialist Andrew Thomas are shown arriving at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center. Eileen Collins introduces each crew member and talks to the news media about their role during this mission. The astronauts are also shown during their spacesuit fit check at the Operations and Control Center (O&C) and footage of a practice flight is presented. The start of the countdown clock in the firing room 3 of the launch control center is shown

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NASA NTRS2005

STS-114: TCDT Soichi Noguchi Press Briefing

Mission Specialist, Soichi Noguchi, of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is seen during a pre-launch interview. He talks about his first Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT) which is a standard training session that precedes every shuttle launch.

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NASA NTRS2005

STS-114/Discovery Flight Readiness Review Press Briefing

This press briefing on Flight Readiness Review (FRR) for the STS-114 Discovery flight is shown. Dean Acosta, Deputy Associate Administrator for Public Affairs, introduces the panel. The panel consist of: Michael Griffin, NASA Administrator, William Readdy, Associate Administrator of Space Operations, Bill Parsons, Space Shuttle Program Manager, and Mike Leinbach, NASA Launch Director. Questions from the media includes the following topics: certification, countdown, ice on the external tank, debris, and safety of the Space Shuttle Discovery.

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NASA NTRS2005

STS-114: Discovery TCDT Flight Crew Test Media Event at Pad 39-B

The STS-114 Space Shuttle Discovery Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT) flight crew is shown at Pad 39-B. Eileen Collins, Commander introduces the astronauts. Andrew Thomas, mission specialist talks about his primary responsibility of performing boom inspections, Wendy Lawrence, Mission Specialist 4 (MS4) describes her role as the robotic arm operator supporting Extravehicular Activities (EVA), Stephen Robinson, Mission Specialist 3 (MS3) talks about his role as flight engineer, Charlie Camarda, Mission Specialist 5 (MS5) says that his duties are to perform boom operations, transfer operations from the space shuttle to the International Space Station and spacecraft rendezvous. Soichi Noguchi, Mission Specialist 1 (MS1) from JAXA, introduces himself as Extravehicular Activity 1 (EVA1), and Jim Kelley, Pilot will operate the robotic arm and perform pilot duties. Questions from the news media about the safety of the external tank, going to the International Space Station and returning, EVA training, and thoughts about the Space Shuttle Columbia crew are answered.

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NASA NTRS2005

STS-114: Discovery Post MMT Press Conference

Bruce Buckingham, NASA Public Affairs hosted this conference. Bill Parsons, Space Shuttle Program Manager; John Muratore, Shuttle System and Integration Manager; Mike Wetmore, Shuttle Processing Director were present. The Panel summarizes that thorough effort of analysis and test techniques and great amount of work is being done to fix the sensor problem and will be ready to call the stations for a launch countdown process after the trouble shooting is fully completed. Launch time, grounding problem, sensor failure, trouble shooting, tanking test, pin swap, and heaters were topics covered with the News media. For clarification, Bruce Buckingham provided information that preferred launch time is at 10:39am on July 26, Eastern Time.

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NASA NTRS2005

Fault-Detection Tool Has Companies 'Mining' Own Business

A successful launching of NASA's Space Shuttle hinges heavily on the three Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME) that power the orbiter. These critical components must be monitored in real time, with sensors, and compared against expected behaviors that could scrub a launch or, even worse, cause in- flight hazards. Since 1981, SSME faults have caused 23 scrubbed launches and 29 percent of total Space Shuttle downtime, according to a compilation of analysis reports. The most serious cases typically occur in the last few seconds before ignition; a launch scrub that late in the countdown usually means a period of investigation of a month or more. For example, during the launch attempt of STS-41D in 1984, an anomaly was detected in the number three engine, causing the mission to be scrubbed at T-4 seconds. This not only affected STS-41D, but forced the cancellation of another mission and caused a 2-month flight delay. In 2002, NASA s Kennedy Space Center, the Florida Institute of Technology, and Interface & Control Systems, Inc., worked together to attack this problem by creating a system that could automate the detection of mechanical failures in the SSMEs fuel control valves.

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NASA NTRS2008

Hardware and Programmatic Progress on the Ares I-X Flight Test

In less than two years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will execute the Ares I-X mission. This will be the first flight of the Ares I crew launch vehicle; which, together with the Ares V cargo launch vehicle (Figure 1), will eventually send humans to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. As the countdown to this first Ares mission continues, personnel from across the Ares I-X Mission Management Office (MMO) are finalizing designs and, in some cases, already fabricating vehicle hardware in preparation for an April 2009 launch. This paper will discuss the hardware and programmatic progress of the Ares I-X mission.

Davis, Stephan R.↗

NASA NTRS2007

Ares I-X Flight Test--The Future Begins Here

Davis, Stephan R.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Ares I-X Flight Test - The Future Begins Here

In less than two years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will launch the Ares I-X mission. This will be the first flight of the Ares I crew launch vehicle, which, together with the Ares V cargo launch vehicle, will eventually send humans to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. As the countdown to this first Ares mission continues, personnel from across the Ares I-X Mission Management Office (MMO) are finalizing designs and fabricating vehicle hardware for an April 2009 launch. This paper will discuss the hardware and programmatic progress of the Ares I-X mission. Like the Apollo program, the Ares launch vehicles will rely upon extensive ground, flight, and orbital testing before sending the Orion crew exploration vehicle into space with humans on board. The first flight of Ares I, designated Ares I-X, will be a suborbital development flight test. Ares I-X gives NASA its first opportunity to gather critical data about the flight dynamics of the integrated launch vehicle stack; understand how to control its roll during flight; better characterize the severe stage separation environments that the upper stage engine will experience during future operational flights; and demonstrate the first stage recovery system. NASA also will begin modifying the launch infrastructure and fine-tuning ground and mission operations, as the agency makes the transition from the Space Shuttle to the Ares/Orion system.

Davis, Stephan R.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Simulation and Analysis of Launch Teams (SALT)

A SALT effort was initiated in late 2005 with seed funding from the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance Human Factors organization. Its objectives included demonstrating human behavior and performance modeling and simulation technologies for launch team analysis, training, and evaluation. The goal of the research is to improve future NASA operations and training. The project employed an iterative approach, with the first iteration focusing on the last 70 minutes of a nominal-case Space Shuttle countdown, the second iteration focusing on aborts and launch commit criteria violations, the third iteration focusing on Ares I-X communications, and the fourth iteration focusing on Ares I-X Firing Room configurations. SALT applied new commercial off-the-shelf technologies from industry and the Department of Defense in the spaceport domain.

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NASA NTRS2009

Upper Atmospheric Monitoring for Ares I-X Ascent Loads and Trajectory Evaluation on the Day-of-Launch

During the launch countdown of the Ares I-X test vehicle, engineers from Langley Research Center will use profiles of atmospheric density and winds in evaluating vehicle ascent loads and controllability. A schedule for the release of balloons to measure atmospheric density and winds has been developed by the Natural Environments Branch at Marshall Space Flight Center to help ensure timely evaluation of the vehicle ascent loads and controllability parameters and support a successful launch of the Ares I-X vehicle.

Roberts, Barry C.↗

NASA NTRS2009

STS-114 Engine Cut-off Sensor Anomaly Technical Consultation Report

The NESC consultation team participated in real-time troubleshooting of the Main Propulsion System (MPS) Engine Cutoff (ECO) sensor system failures during STS-114 launch countdown. The team assisted with External Tank (ET) thermal and ECO Point Sensor Box (PSB) circuit analyses, and made real-time inputs to the Space Shuttle Program (SSP) problem resolution teams. Several long-term recommendations resulted. One recommendation was to conduct cryogenic tests of the ECO sensors to validate, or disprove, the theory that variations in circuit impedance due to cryogenic effects on swaged connections within the sensor were the root cause of STS-114 failures.

Wilson, Timmy R.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Flight Avionics Sequencing Telemetry (FAST) DIV Latching Display

The NASA Engineering (NE) Directorate at Kennedy Space Center provides engineering services to major programs such as: Space Shuttle, Inter national Space Station, and the Launch Services Program (LSP). The Av ionics Division within NE, provides avionics and flight control syste ms engineering support to LSP. The Launch Services Program is respons ible for procuring safe and reliable services for transporting critical, one of a kind, NASA payloads into orbit. As a result, engineers mu st monitor critical flight events during countdown and launch to asse ss anomalous behavior or any unexpected occurrence. The goal of this project is to take a tailored Systems Engineering approach to design, develop, and test Iris telemetry displays. The Flight Avionics Sequen cing Telemetry Delta-IV (FAST-D4) displays will provide NASA with an improved flight event monitoring tool to evaluate launch vehicle heal th and performance during system-level ground testing and flight. Flight events monitored will include data from the Redundant Inertial Fli ght Control Assembly (RIFCA) flight computer and launch vehicle comma nd feedback data. When a flight event occurs, the flight event is ill uminated on the display. This will enable NASA Engineers to monitor c ritical flight events on the day of launch. Completion of this project requires rudimentary knowledge of launch vehicle Guidance, Navigatio n, and Control (GN&C) systems, telemetry, and console operation. Work locations for the project include the engineering office, NASA telem etry laboratory, and Delta launch sites.

Moore, Charlotte↗

NASA NTRS2010

Modeling and Performance Considerations for Automated Fault Isolation in Complex Systems

The purpose of this paper is to document the modeling considerations and performance metrics that were examined in the development of a large-scale Fault Detection, Isolation and Recovery (FDIR) system. The FDIR system is envisioned to perform health management functions for both a launch vehicle and the ground systems that support the vehicle during checkout and launch countdown by using suite of complimentary software tools that alert operators to anomalies and failures in real-time. The FDIR team members developed a set of operational requirements for the models that would be used for fault isolation and worked closely with the vendor of the software tools selected for fault isolation to ensure that the software was able to meet the requirements. Once the requirements were established, example models of sufficient complexity were used to test the performance of the software. The results of the performance testing demonstrated the need for enhancements to the software in order to meet the demands of the full-scale ground and vehicle FDIR system. The paper highlights the importance of the development of operational requirements and preliminary performance testing as a strategy for identifying deficiencies in highly scalable systems and rectifying those deficiencies before they imperil the success of the project

Ferrell, Bob↗