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NASA NTRS1984

NASA's plans for life sciences research facilities on a Space Station

A Life Sciences Research Facility on a Space Station will contribute to the health and well-being of humans in space, as well as address many fundamental questions in gravitational and developmental biology. Scientific interests include bone and muscle attrition, fluid and electrolyte shifts, cardiovascular deconditioning, metabolism, neurophysiology, reproduction, behavior, drugs and immunology, radiation biology, and closed life-support system development. The life sciences module will include a laboratory and a vivarium. Trade-offs currently being evaluated include (1) the need for and size of a 1-g control centrifuge; (2) specimen quantities and species for research; (3) degree of on-board analysis versus sample return and ground analysis; (4) type and extent of equipment automation; (5) facility return versus on-orbit refurbishment; (6) facility modularity, isolation, and system independence; and (7) selection of experiments, design, autonomy, sharing, compatibility, and integration.

Arno, R.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Exploration Medical Capability System Engineering Introduction and Vision

Human exploration missions to beyond low Earth orbit destinations such as Mars will require more autonomous capability compared to current low Earth orbit operations. For the medical system, lack of consumable resupply, evacuation opportunities, and real-time ground support are key drivers toward greater autonomy. Recognition of the limited mission and vehicle resources available to carry out exploration missions motivates the Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) Element's approach to enabling the necessary autonomy. The Element's work must integrate with the overall exploration mission and vehicle design efforts to successfully provide exploration medical capabilities. ExMC is applying systems engineering principles and practices to accomplish its integrative goals. This talk will briefly introduce the discipline of systems engineering and key points in its application to exploration medical capability development. It will elucidate technical medical system needs to be met by the systems engineering work, and the structured and integrative science and engineering approach to satisfying those needs, including the development of shared mental and qualitative models within and external to the human health and performance community. These efforts are underway to ensure relevancy to exploration system maturation and to establish medical system development that is collaborative with vehicle and mission design and engineering efforts.

Mindock, J.↗

NASA NTRS1978

A design for a 1984 Mars rover

A Mars rover is planned for the mid-1980's as a follow-up to the Viking program, and as a prelude to a return-to-earth mission of Martian samples in the late eighties or early nineties. An overall view of the rover's configuration is presented with a summary of basic design parameters. Six subsystems are outlined: computing, with a 10 to the 8th bit bubble memory; mobility, designed for a journey of 100 km in 2 earth years; science sample acquisition, including a soil auger and hard rock drill; power, supplied by an RTG and stored in batteries; telecommunication, with 50 K bit UHF transmission relayed through an orbiter; and visual imaging, employing two television cameras, each with an 800 x 800 pixel charge coupled device. Scientific research goals include information about Martian seismic characteristics, magnetic field, surface heat flow, chemical composition, geology along a transverse, and meteorology. Attention is given to the necessity of rover autonomy from earth commands.

Dobrotin, B. M.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Pointing and control for planetary spacecraft - The first twenty years

The evolution of guidance and control systems for United States planetary and unmanned lunar spacecraft over the last 20 years is traced. The characteristics of the guidance and control systems used on spacecraft from the Range lunar impactor to the planned Galileo Jupiter orbiter and entry probe are surveyed, with attention given to the uses of three-axis stabilized, spin-stabilized and dual-spin designs. System performance trends that have evolved to meet the increasing science and mission requirements of the spacecraft are considered in the areas of attitude references, control consumables, dynamics and system modeling, thrust vector control, optical navigation, manuever turns, maneuver velocity control, instrument pointing, and antenna pointing. Hardware trends in optical sensors, inertial sensors, processing electronics, electromechanical devices, and system testing and reliability are also reviewed. The achievements represented by these advances are emphasized, and it is predicted that future developments will be in the areas of increased control system autonomy and performance requirements.

Pace, G. D.↗

NASA NTRS2018

A Prognostics Framework Development for Swarm Satellite Formations

Prognostics is the science of predicting the failure(s) of a component or a system and understanding how the performance will change in the event of a failure or degradation mechanism. With accurate predictions of possible failures, autonomous mitigative actions can be taken to correct/repair any issues or alert human operators of a failure threshold exceedance requiring condition-based maintenance. Although there is extensive research on failure predictions for a component or a system, there are significantly more opportunities to foray into failure predictions and prognostics for a system of systems such as an airspace consisting of multiple aircraft, a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles, and a swarm of intelligent satellite systems. Failure prediction and mitigation are particularly important in autonomous systems such as satellite swarm systems that need effective resource management and minimal human interactions. Based on NASA's decadal survey, there is a clear need to prioritize the development of satellite swarm technology for studies of space physics and Earth science. The science community will propose future missions that return in-situ measurements from a 3-D (three-dimensional) volume of space, with relative spacecraft motion and inter-satellite baselines controlled according to the mission objectives. For such multi-spacecraft missions, it is required that ground operations resources do not scale with the number of satellites, thus compromising the swarm or leading to inefficiencies in resource allocation. Swarms of tens or hundreds of small satellites will require autonomy in attitude control, navigation and failure. Although significant research has been conducted in the areas of autonomous formation flying algorithms, less attention has been given to the development of resilient systems robust to failures.The focus of this research paper is the integration of model-based prognostics into the swarm dynamics control and decision-making algorithms. We simulate swarm management strategies for a subsystem failure to demonstrate the importance of failure predictions by comparing two cases: (i) no health information is provided to the system and utilized in the decision-making process and (2) system health information is obtained using prognostics and employed by the control system. One example scenario presented is for the GPS (Global Positioning System) system of an individual satellite to perform off-nominally due to increasing estimated error. In this scenario, the keep-out zone for that satellite would become more conservative, thereby decreasing the risk of collision. This is achieved via tuning the individual artificial repulsive functions assigned to each satellite.This paper is structured as follows. First we provide an overview of current swarm technology development, where we specifically use the term swarm to define multiple satellites flying in formation in similar orbits, with cross-link communication and station-keeping capabilities. Second, we give an introduction to the Swarm Orbital Dynamics Advisor (SODA), a tool that accepts high-level configuration commands and provides the orbital maneuvers required to achieve the prescribed formation configuration. Third, we provide the details of the model-based prognostics algorithm implementation in SODA. Finally, we present different case studies for potential component/subsystem failures and the swarm responses based with and without failure prediction information.

prognostics↗

NASA NTRS2017

Single Operator Control of Multiple UAS: A Supervisory Delegation Approach

This presentation will be given as part of the UAS EXCOM Science and Research Panel's (SARP) workshop on multiple UAS controlled by a single operator. Participants were asked to identify public use cases for multiple UAS control and identify research, policy and technical gaps in those operations. The purpose of this workshop is to brainstorm, categorize and prioritize those use canses and gaps. Here, I will discuss research performed on this topic when I worked for the Army and on-going work within the division and a NATO working group on Human-Autonomy Teaming.

Human-Autonomy Teaming↗

NASA NTRS2014

Space-Based Reconfigurable Software Defined Radio Test Bed Aboard International Space Station

The National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) recently launched a new software defined radio research test bed to the International Space Station. The test bed, sponsored by the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Office within NASA is referred to as the SCaN Testbed. The SCaN Testbed is a highly capable communications system, composed of three software defined radios, integrated into a flight system, and mounted to the truss of the International Space Station. Software defined radios offer the future promise of in-flight reconfigurability, autonomy, and eventually cognitive operation. The adoption of software defined radios offers space missions a new way to develop and operate space transceivers for communications and navigation. Reconfigurable or software defined radios with communications and navigation functions implemented in software or VHDL (Very High Speed Hardware Description Language) provide the capability to change the functionality of the radio during development or after launch. The ability to change the operating characteristics of a radio through software once deployed to space offers the flexibility to adapt to new science opportunities, recover from anomalies within the science payload or communication system, and potentially reduce development cost and risk by adapting generic space platforms to meet specific mission requirements. The software defined radios on the SCaN Testbed are each compliant to NASA's Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) Architecture. The STRS Architecture is an open, non-proprietary architecture that defines interfaces for the connections between radio components. It provides an operating environment to abstract the communication waveform application from the underlying platform specific hardware such as digital-to-analog converters, analog-to-digital converters, oscillators, RF attenuators, automatic gain control circuits, FPGAs, general-purpose processors, etc. and the interconnections among different radio components.

Communications↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Uncrewed Lunar Surface Operations and Support Activities

Sustained human presence on the surface of the Moon and future missions to Mars require increased independence from surface crews and Earth-based mission control to operate efficiently, safely, and reliably. The time for surface crews to perform tasks will be limited. Extravehicular activities by surface personnel are burdensome and time-consuming, even when a continuous human presence on the surface occurs. Identifying and balancing human/automation roles and tasks and infusing automation and autonomy practices early in a system’s lifecycle will be essential to achieve mission objectives. Among these objectives are attaining a sustained human presence, improving performance and mission effectiveness, reducing operations and maintenance (O&M) costs, and ensuring operations that are robust to communication delays. To achieve these objectives, an operational shift toward increased automation and autonomy with less reliance on humans is needed. Uncrewed lunar surface operations and support activities occur when surface crews are not present or are independent of surface crew timeline activities requiring no surface crew oversight or intervention. These uncrewed surface opportunities can also be planned to minimize crew workload that avoids routine maintenance and support tasks, thus maximizing crew exploration time. Uncrewed preparations such as staging and prepositioning equipment and materials before the crew arrives could improve crew task efficiency. Additional opportunities exist to conduct uncrewed science, exploration, and utilization. Uncrewed surface architecture functions can include science and exploration; habitation; launch and landing support; surface communication and navigation; surface power generation and distribution; human surface mobility; lifting, handling, manipulating; excavation, construction, and site preparation; logistics management; maintenance and repair; surface resource utilization; integrated site operations and shared support services (e.g., site scheduling/prioritization, dust mitigation/contamination control, and surface safety). Early robotic lunar surface campaigns will provide information on the availability of resources, such as oxygen and water, and demonstrate surface-based technologies. After the Artemis III human lunar return mission, a series of landers will deliver surface systems, cargo, supplies, science packages, spare parts, and commodities. A balance of crewed and uncrewed surface operations will enable a sustained lunar surface presence at the South Pole of the Moon at a site that will be known as the Artemis Base Camp (ABC). It is envisioned that base camp operations on and around the Moon will then help prepare for the mission durations and activities needed to support the first human mission to Mars. Before long-duration crew missions to the base camp can occur, the necessary surface infrastructure will be pre-deployed and verified operational. Surface assets will be teleoperated and remotely managed from Earth. Additionally, robotic and short-duration crewed missions to the ABC will ensure the site’s merit to achieve long-term science objectives, availability of usable resources, and that terrain, seasonal variations, and illumination conditions are acceptable. ABC will consist of different areas where specific functions and services are rendered, including: • Launch and Landing Area • Habitation Area • Power Production Area • Resource Areas Launch and Landing Area—The launch and landing area will support associated functions for the arrival and departure of vehicles, such as crewed landing and ascent and uncrewed cargo deliveries and offloading. It will evolve from an unimproved site at the beginning of the exploration campaign to a more sustainable landing and launch area that can support repeated arrivals and departures. Initial uncrewed Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) surface operations may include emplacement of navigation beacons and communication equipment, real-time video and photography of landing/liftoff events, and element repositioning, such as portable utility power (PUP) (applicable for other landed assets at other areas). Site preparations, such as surface leveling, soil compaction, and berm/path construction, may be needed for a more sustainable launch and landing area capable of accommodating vehicles that are increasingly more reusable and reduce the effects of plume surface interactions and ejecta impacts on nearby surface assets. During the ABC missions, cargo and logistics will be delivered to the lunar surface via robotic cargo landers before the crew arrives. These shipments, which can arrive in pressurized logistics carriers, will deliver the logistics necessary to support a crewed mission and include items such as food, water, equipment spares, etc. Providing the capability to retrieve, offload, and transport the logistics closer to the ABC site before the arrival of the crew will increase the overall efficiency of crew operations once they arrive. In the sustained phase of exploration, other supporting services may be needed, such as lander propellant servicing, surface power services, commodity refreshes, and additional inspection, maintenance, and repair capabilities, to sustain a cadence of extended personnel stays and cargo arrivals and departures. Habitation Area—Uncrewed support to surface habitation could involve supporting activation and pre-entry operations of the habitat while the crew is in orbit at the Gateway outpost preparing for a surface landing. Surface Habitat (SH) uncrewed operations may include bringing the cabin environment to a habitable temperature and air mix and activating other critical crew support systems. Potential crop production uncrewed tasks in the SH could also include autonomous watering and tending. Additionally, when the crew departs, the SH enters dormancy for the long period of uncrewed operation. A logistical staging area could also be collocated near the SH. If so, staging operations for crew supplies, waste re-location, and recycling operations may be opportunities for uncrewed operations. Power Production Area—The Fission Surface Power (FSP) element and its supporting distribution equipment provide power to surface elements as needed across the ABC to supplement day-to-day operations and survive lunar nights. Uncrewed support of this power system includes any initial LTV-assisted deployments of cables and other distributed equipment, associated electrical connections, and system testing and activation operations. Robotically performing some inspections, maintenance, or repair tasks on the power distribution equipment could reduce the surface crew workload. Resource Area— Uncrewed resource prospecting, mapping, and characterizing possible resource sites is likely to be time-consuming and represents an opportunity for uncrewed operations between crewed missions. Uncrewed mobile equipment operations will be needed in the extreme environments of permanently shadowed locations where resource extractions occur. As In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) pilot plant operations begin, uncrewed surface support activities with available mobile and portable assets (LTV, PUP, etc.) will better support these operations. Any produced commodities can be stored at a centralized storage location for future use. Also associated with these operations is the use of mobile robotic excavators for resource acquisition and robotic/autonomous regolith processing. The waste tailings generated during excavation and regolith processing would also need to be transported and deposited at a dedicated location. Surface assets will continue operating between crew visits to maintain surface capabilities, conduct lunar surface science, technology demonstrations, and public outreach opportunities. Additionally, certain sustaining tasks that would consume valuable crew time could be performed before crew arrival, or after their departure. This capability may offer more affordable options to construct, activate, test, and maintain a broad set of surface assets. Telerobotically operated human surface mobility systems, such as the LTV and Pressurized Rover (PR), can be utilized for various tasks. Surface environmental conditions pose a distinct challenge for all these activities. Surface illumination and localized shadows are one such factor. Night-survival operations could consist of thermal management, battery pre-charging, and load shedding. Some surface systems may hibernate through the night and then awake and continue nominal operations. Uncrewed mobile assets may use a more adaptive approach to optimize their power and operations; one method is to follow the sunlight. Night-survival operations may be initiated remotely by teleoperation, automated, or accomplished by supervised autonomous operation. The ability to pre-deploy and control remote assets in orbit or on Mars before the arrival of the mission crew is a key capability that can be simulated on the moon. The base camp provides a venue where these advanced operational concepts, technologies, and autonomous methods and techniques, including the incorporation of time delays to simulate Earth-Mars latency can be replicated to help buy down future Mars mission risks. This paper will examine the evolution of uncrewed lunar surface operations and support activities. It will also discuss the lunar surface environmental conditions (thermal, lighting, terrain, topography, communications) along with the challenges they pose on uncrewed surface operations, and the performance of these activities with limited to minimal human interaction and/or teleoperation. Since lunar missions include Mars mission analogs, such investigation provides the framework for future uncrewed Mars mission support.

Mark E Lewis↗

NASA NTRS2010

A Modular Instrumentation System for NASA's Habitat Demonstration Unit

NASA's human spaceflight program is focused on developing technologies to expand the reaches of human exploration and science activities beyond low earth orbit. A critical aspect of living in space or on planetary surfaces is habitation, which provides a safe and comfortable space in which humans can live and work. NASA is seeking out the best option for habitation by exploring several different concepts through the Habitat Demonstration Unit (HDU) project. The purpose of this HDU is to develop a fully autonomous habitation system that enables human exploration of space. One critical feature of the HDU project that helps to accomplish its mission of autonomy is the instrumentation system that monitors key subsystems operating within a Habitat configuration. The following paper will discuss previous instrumentation systems used in analog habitat concepts and how the current instrumentation system being implemented on the HDU1-PEM, or pressurized excursion module, is building upon the lessons learned of those previous systems. Additionally, this paper will discuss the benefits and the limitations of implementing a wireless sensor network (WSN) as the basis for data transport in the instrumentation system. Finally, this paper will address the experiences and lessons learned with integration, testing prior to deployment, and field testing at the JSC rock yard. NASA is developing the HDU1-PEM as a step towards a fully autonomous habitation system that enables human exploration of space. To accomplish this purpose, the HDU project is focusing on development, integration, testing, and evaluation of habitation systems. The HDU will be used as a technology pull, testbed, and integration environment in which to advance NASA's understanding of alternative mission architectures, requirements, and operations concepts definition and validation. This project is a multi-year effort. In 2010, the HDU1-PEM will be in a pressurized excursion module configuration, and in 2011 the module will be reconfigured for a pressurized core module configuration. Each year the HDU configurations will undergo testing at NASA's Desert Research and Technology Studies (D-RaTS) in Arizona [1]. As part of this project, a modular instrumentation system is developed to meet the monitoring needs of the HDU subsystems and to integrate with the current command and data handling infrastructure that has been developed for the project. The main objective of this study is to provide for the monitoring needs of the HDU. The requirements necessary to meet this objective are developed by working with the subsystem managers of the HDU to understand their monitoring needs. Additionally, the instrumentation system design leverages knowledge and lessons learned from previous studies, such as the inflatable habitat health monitoring system that was deployed in Antarctica [2], the integrated health monitoring system developed for NASA's Microhab [3], and the JSC Lunar Habitat Wireless Testbed to demonstrate a "standardsbased" approach to a wireless instrumentation system [4]. The HDU also requires flexibility in reconfiguration options, and it is necessary to demonstrate and evaluate a modular approach to an instrumentation system. Thus, the instrumentation system is designed in two parts: the primary system employs a standard WSN configuration, and the secondary system employs a wired USB hub. The WSN design provides for reconfiguration or replacement of sensors due to malfunctions or upgrades by using a wireless node that accepts ten instrument inputs and wirelessly transmits the data to the command and data handling system. The USB hub is necessary for those instruments that operate using a wired USB connection, although the design attempts to limit the amount of sensors that need to be wired connections.

Rojdev, Kristina↗

NASA NTRS2017

Single Operator Control of Multiple UAS: A Supervisory Delegation Approach

This presentation will be given as part of the UAS EXCOM Science and Research Panel's (SARP) workshop on multiple UAS controlled by a single operator. Participants were asked to identify public use cases for multiple Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) control and identify research, policy, and technical gaps in those operations. The purpose of this workshop is to brainstorm, categorize, and prioritize those use cases and gaps. Here, I will discuss research performed on this topic when I worked for the Army and on-going work within the division and a NATO working group on Human-Autonomy Teaming.

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)↗

NASA NTRS2020

MEXEC: An Onboard Integrated Planning and Execution Approach for Spacecraft Commanding

The traditional form of spacecraft commanding is with sequences that specify when commands should execute based on a schedule generated on the ground. Some sequences have control logic and event driven responses to increase flexibility, but it is limited. An approach to increase autonomy is to use goal-based planning and commanding. Using this paradigm, intention and behavior is modeled on board the spacecraft. In this paper we describe MEXEC (Multi-mission EXECutive), a multi-mission, task-based, onboard planning and execution software designed specifically to be used as flight software. As a path to infusion for future flight projects, we describe two experiments performed on the ASTERIA CubeSat and testbed that demonstrate that MEXEC can be integrated and used for spacecraft operations and increase robustness and science return compared to the standard sequences that were being used.

Campuzano, Brian↗

NASA NTRS1999

Autonomous Navigation Using Celestial Objects

In the twenty-first century, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Enterprises envision frequent low-cost missions to explore the solar system, observe the universe, and study our planet. Satellite autonomy is a key technology required to reduce satellite operating costs. The Guidance, Navigation, and Control Center (GNCC) at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) currently sponsors several initiatives associated with the development of advanced spacecraft systems to provide autonomous navigation and control. Autonomous navigation has the potential both to increase spacecraft navigation system performance and to reduce total mission cost. By eliminating the need for routine ground-based orbit determination and special tracking services, autonomous navigation can streamline spacecraft ground systems. Autonomous navigation products can be included in the science telemetry and forwarded directly to the scientific investigators. In addition, autonomous navigation products are available onboard to enable other autonomous capabilities, such as attitude control, maneuver planning and orbit control, and communications signal acquisition. Autonomous navigation is required to support advanced mission concepts such as satellite formation flying. GNCC has successfully developed high-accuracy autonomous navigation systems for near-Earth spacecraft using NASA's space and ground communications systems and the Global Positioning System (GPS). Recently, GNCC has expanded its autonomous navigation initiative to include satellite orbits that are beyond the regime in which use of GPS is possible. Currently, GNCC is assessing the feasibility of using standard spacecraft attitude sensors and communication components to provide autonomous navigation for missions including: libration point, gravity assist, high-Earth, and interplanetary orbits. The concept being evaluated uses a combination of star, Sun, and Earth sensor measurements along with forward-link Doppler measurements from the command link carrier to autonomously estimate the spacecraft's orbit and reference oscillator's frequency. To support autonomous attitude determination and control and maneuver planning and control, the orbit determination accuracy should be on the order of kilometers in position and centimeters per second in velocity. A less accurate solution (one hundred kilometers in position) could be used for acquisition purposes for command and science downloads. This paper provides performance results for both libration point orbiting and high Earth orbiting satellites as a function of sensor measurement accuracy, measurement types, measurement frequency, initial state errors, and dynamic modeling errors.

Folta, David↗

NASA NTRS1998

The Athena Mars Rover Science Payload

The Mars Surveyor missions that will be launched in April of 2001 will include a highly capable rover that is a successor to the Mars Pathfinder mission's Sojourner rover. The design goals for this rover are a total traverse distance of at least 10 km and a total lifetime of at least one Earth year. The rover's job will be to explore a site in Mars' ancient terrain, searching for materials likely to preserve a record of ancient martian water, climate, and possibly biology. The rover will collect rock and soil samples, and will store them for return to Earth by a subsequent Mars Surveyor mission in 2005. The Athena Mars rover science payload is the suite of scientific instruments and sample collection tools that will be used to perform this job. The specific science objectives that NASA has identified for the '01 rover payload are to: (1) Provide color stereo imaging of martian surface environments, and remotely-sensed point discrimination of mineralogical composition. (2) Determine the elemental and mineralogical composition of martian surface materials. (3) Determine the fine-scale textural properties of these materials. (4) Collect and store samples. The Athena payload has been designed to meet these objectives. The focus of the design is on field operations: making sure the rover can locate, characterize, and collect scientifically important samples in a dusty, dirty, real-world environment. The topography, morphology, and mineralogy of the scene around the rover will be revealed by Pancam/Mini-TES, an integrated imager and IR spectrometer. Pancam views the surface around the rover in stereo and color. It uses two high-resolution cameras that are identical in most respects to the rover's navigation cameras. The detectors are low-power, low-mass active pixel sensors with on-chip 12-bit analog-to-digital conversion. Filters provide 8-12 color spectral bandpasses over the spectral region from 0.4 to 1.1 micron Narrow-angle optics provide an angular resolution of 0.28 mrad/pixel, nearly a factor of four higher than that of the Mars Pathfinder and Mars Surveyor '98 cameras. Image compression will be performed using a wavelet compression algorithm. The Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) is a point spectrometer operating in -the thermal IR. It produces high spectral resolution (5 /cm) image cubes with a wavelength range of 5-40 gm, a nominal signal/noise ratio of 500:1, and a maximum angular resolution of 7 mrad (7 cm at a distance of 10 in). The wavelength region over which it operates samples the diagnostic fundamental absorption features of rockforming minerals, and also provides some capability to see through dust coatings that could tend to obscure spectral features. The mineralogical information that Mini-TES provides will be used to select from a distance the rocks and soils that will be investigated in more detail and ultimately sampled. Mini-TES is derived from the MO/MGS TES instrument, but is significantly smaller and simpler. The instrument uses an 8-cm Cassegrain telescope, a Michelson interferometer, and uncooled pyroelectric detectors. Along with its mineralogical capabilities, Mini-TES can provide information on the thermophysical properties of rocks and soils. Viewing upward, it can also provide temperature profiles through the martian atmospheric boundary layer. Elemental and Mineralogical Composition: Once promising samples have been identified from a distance using Pancam/Mini-TES, they will be studied in detail using up to three compositional sensors that can be placed directly against them by an Instrument Arm. The two compositional sensors, presently on the payload are an Alpha-Proton-X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS), and a Mossbauer Spectrometer. The APXS is derived closely from the instrument that flew on Mars Pathfinder. Radioactive alpha sources and three detection modes (alpha, proton, and x-ray) provide elemental abundances of rocks and soils to complement and constrain mineralogical data. The Athena APXS will have a revised mechanical design that will cut down significantly on backscattering of alpha particles from martian atmospheric carbon. It will also include a target of known elemental composition that will be used for calibration purposes. The Athena Mossbauer Spectrometer is a diagnostic instrument for the mineralogy and oxidation state of Fe-bearing phases, which are particularly important on Mars. The instrument measures the resonant absorption of gamma rays produced by a Co-57 source to determine splitting of nuclear energy levels in Fe atoms that is related to the electronic environment surrounding them. It has been under development for space flight for many years at the Technical University of Darmstadt. The Mossbauer Spectrometer (and the other arm instruments) will be able to view a small permanent magnet array that will attract magnetic particles in the martian soil. The payload may also include a Raman Spectrometer. If included, the Raman Spectrometer will provide precise identification of major and minor mineral phases. It requires no sample preparation, and is also sensitive to organics. Fine-Scale Texture: The Instrument Arm a also carries a Microscopic Imager that will obtain high-resolution monochromatic images of the same materials for which compositional data will be obtained. Its spatial resolution is 20 micron/pixel over a 1 cm depth of field, and 40 micron/pixel over a 1-cm depth of field. Like Pancam, it uses the same active pixel sensor detectors and electronics as the rover's navigation cameras. The Instrument Arm is a three degree-of-freedom arm that uses designs and components from the Mars Pathfinder and Mars Surveyor '98 projects. Its primary function is instrument positioning. Along with the instruments noted above, it also carries a brush that can be used to remove dust and other loose coatings from rocks. Sample Collection and Storage: Martian rock and soil samples will be collected using a low-power rotary coring drill called the Mini-Corer. An important characteristic of this device is that it can obtain intact samples of rock from up to 5 cm within strong boulders and bedrock, Nominal core dimensions are 8xl7 mm. The Mini-Corer drills a core to the commanded depth in a rock, shears it off, retains it, and extracts it. It can also acquire samples of loose soil, using soil sample cups that are pressed downward into loose material. The Mini-Corer can drill at angles from vertical to 45' off vertical. It has six interchangeable bits for long life. Mechanical damage to the sample during drilling is minimal, and heating is negligible. After acquisition, the sample may be viewed by the arm instruments, and/or placed in one of 104 compartments in the Sample Container. A subset of the acquired samples may be replaced with other samples obtained later if desired. The Sample Container has no moving parts, and is mounted external to the rover for easy removal by the Mars Surveyor 2005 flight system. Operation of the rover will make extensive use of automated onboard navigation and hazard avoidance capabilities. Otherwise, use of onboard autonomy is minimal. Data downlink capability is about 40 Mbit/sol, and the use of the Mars Surveyor '01 orbiter for data relay imposes a limit of at most two command cycles per sol. Because of the significant amount of time available between command cycles, all payload elements will be operated sequentially, rather than in parallel.; this approach also significantly simplifies operations and minimizes peak power usage. The landing site for the '01 rover has not been selected yet. Site selection will make as full use as possible of Mars Global Surveyor data, and will involve substantial input from the broad Mars science community. Summary: The following table describes the mass, power, providers, and key scientific objectives of all the major elements of the Athena payload. Additional Athena payload information may be found at: http://astrosun.tn.cornell.edu/athena/index.html. Additional information contained in the original.

Squyes, S. W.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Collaboration technology and space science

A summary of available collaboration technologies and their applications to space science is presented as well as investigations into remote coaching paradigms and the role of a specific collaboration tool for distributed task coordination in supporting such teleoperations. The applicability and effectiveness of different communication media and tools in supporting remote coaching are investigated. One investigation concerns a distributed check-list, a computer-based tool that allows a group of people, e.g., onboard crew, ground based investigator, and mission control, to synchronize their actions while providing full flexibility for the flight crew to set the pace and remain on their operational schedule. This autonomy is shown to contribute to morale and productivity.

Leiner, Barry M.↗

NASA NTRS2018

Space Mobile Network Concepts for Missions Beyond Low Earth Orbit

The Space Mobile Network (SMN) is an architectural framework that will allow for quicker, more efficient and more easily available space communications services, providing user spacecraft with an experience similar to that of terrestrial mobile network users. While previous papers have described SMN concept using examples of users in low-Earth orbit, the framework can also be applied beyond the near-Earth environment. This paper details how SMN concepts such as user-initiated services, which will enable users to request access to high-performance link resources in response to real-time science or operational events, would be applied in and beyond the near-Earth regime. Specifically, the paper explores the application of user-initiated services to direct-to-Earth (DTE), relay, and DTE/relay hybrid scenarios in near-Earth, lunar, Martian and other space regimes.

CubeSat and Autonomy↗

NASA NTRS1993

Capabilities and constraints of combustion diagnostics in microgravity

A significant scientific return from both existing and proposed microgravity combustion science experiments is substantially dependent on the availability of diagnostic systems for the collection of the required scientific data. To date, the available diagnostic instrumentation has consisted primarily of conventional photographic media and intrusive temperature and velocity probes, such as thermocouples and hot wire anemometers. This situation has arisen primarily due to the unique and severe operational constraints inherent in reduced gravity experimentation. Each of the various reduced gravity facilities is accompanied by its own peculiar envelope of capabilities and constraints. Drop towers, for example, pose strict limitations on available working volume and power, as well as autonomy of operation. In contrast, hardware developed for space flight applications can be somewhat less constrained in regards to the aforementioned quantities, but is additionally concerned with numerous issues involving safety and reliability.

Greenberg, Paul S.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA Science Technology Development Programs for Ocean Worlds Exploration

The exploration of ocean worlds such as Europa and Enceladus supports NASA’s goal to search for life and potentially habitable regions elsewhere in the universe, and further promises to help us understand the origins, evolution, and limits of life on Earth. Over the past several years, NASA’s Planetary Science Division has funded several technology development programs to enable future surface and subsurface missions to ocean worlds. These programs include Instrument Concepts for Europa Exploration (ICEE), Concepts for Ocean Worlds Life Detection Technology (COLDTech), Scientific Exploration Subsurface Access Mechanism for Europa (SESAME), Applied Information Systems Research: Autonomous Robotics Research for Ocean Worlds (AISR:ARROW), and Astrodynamics in Support of Icy Worlds Missions. Tasks selected under these programs include the development of scientific instruments including seismometers, imagers, spectrometers, and organic analyzers, and platform technologies including drills, melt probes, through-ice communications, radiation-hard electronics, and autonomy for surface operations. This paper describes the objectives of each of these programs and provides a summary of the work that has been completed or is underway in each.

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NASA NTRS2022

NASA Science Technology Development Programs for Ocean Worlds Exploration

Nayar, Hari D↗