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NASA NTRS2020

SAGE III ISS Contamination Monitoring Package: Observations in Orbit

The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III (SAGE III) telescope and instrument assembly employ the methods of solar occultation and lunar occultation to retrieve near-global vertical profiles of atmospheric ozone, water vapor, nitrogen dioxide, aerosol extinctions, and other gaseous species and atmospheric state parameters. The SAGE III grating spectrometer measures light within the spectral range of 280 nm to 1037 nm at approximately 1 nm resolution, but retrievals in the Ultraviolet (UV) are particularly sensitive to contamination of the optical train. Therefore, a contamination door that contains a quartz optical window can be closed over the telescope aperture during periods of enhanced external contaminant flux. This optically transparent window permits continued science event acquisition at an acceptably diminished signal-to-noise ratio, which is expected to decline with ongoing accretion of contaminant material. To date, this impact has been short term, and science quality through the window returns to baseline performance after a contamination source is removed and spontaneous desorption removes material from the low-affinity quartz surface. Two Contamination Monitoring Packages (CMPs) consisting of eight Thermoelectric Quartz Crystal Microbalances (TQCMs) from QCM Research provide characterization and redundant monitoring of contaminant deposition from the 2π steradian solid angle on the payload side of the Expedite the Processing of Experiments to the Space Station (ExPRESS) Payload Adapter. CMP data are closely examined by the SAGE III team to determine when the contamination door should remain closed during science events and in what direction the instrument assembly scan head should stow when not acquiring science measurements. Additionally, should the CMPs indicate an unacceptable accretion rate, the ight computer will close the contamination door as part of the automatic fault detection system. Along with spectrometer measurements of the quartz window's transmission, the payload CMPs enable auditing of the mission contamination budget. The process of Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) can be used to help identify chemical constituents accreted on the CMP sensors. To be presented here along with an explanation of the CMP systems are the first two and a half years of observations of the contaminant deposition environment around the payload in quiescence and during special events like docking vehicles.

Tyler T Dawson↗

NASA NTRS2020

SAGE III/ISS Contamination Monitoring Package: Observations in Orbit

The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III (SAGE III) telescope and instrument assembly employ the methods of solar occultation and lunar occultation to retrieve near-global vertical profiles of atmospheric ozone, water vapor, nitrogen dioxide, aerosol extinctions, and other gaseous species and atmospheric state parameters. The SAGE III grating spectrometer measures light within the spectral range of 280 nm to 1037 nm at approximately 1 nm resolution, but retrievals in the Ultraviolet (UV) are particularly sensitive to contamination of the optical train. Therefore, a contamination door that contains a quartz optical window can be closed over the telescope aperture during periods of enhanced external contaminant flux. This optically transparent window permits continued science event acquisition at an acceptably diminished signal-to-noise ratio, which is expected to decline with ongoing accretion of contaminant material. To date, this impact has been short term, and science quality through the window returns to baseline performance after a contamination source is removed and spontaneous desorption removes material from the low-affinity quartz surface. Two Contamination Monitoring Packages (CMPs) consisting of eight Thermoelectric Quartz Crystal Microbalances (TQCMs) from QCM Research provide characterization and redundant monitoring of contaminant deposition from the 2pi steradian solid angle on the payload side of the Expedite the Processing of Experiments to the Space Station (ExPRESS) Payload Adapter. CMP data are closely examined by the SAGE III team to determine when the contamination door should remain closed during science events and in what direction the instrument assembly scan head should stow when not acquiring science measurements. Additionally, should the CMPs indicate an unacceptable accretion rate, the flight computer will close the contamination door as part of the automatic fault detection system. Along with spectrometer measurements of the quartz window's transmission, the payload CMPs enable auditing of the mission contamination budget. The process of Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) can be used to help identify chemical constituents accreted on the CMP sensors. To be presented here along with an explanation of the CMP systems are the first two and a half years of observations of the contaminant deposition environment around the payload in quiescence and during special events like docking vehicles.

Tyler T Dawson↗

NASA NTRS1995

The CCD/Transit Instrument (CTI) data-analysis system

The automated software system for archiving, analyzing, and interrogating data from the CCD/Transit Instrument (CTI) is described. The CTI collects up to 450 Mbytes of image-data each clear night in the form of a narrow strip of sky observed in two colors. The large data-volumes and the scientific aims of the project make it imperative that the data are analyzed within the 24-hour period following the observations. To this end a fully automatic and self evaluating software system has been developed. The data are collected from the telescope in real-time and then transported to Tucson for analysis. Verification is performed by visual inspection of random subsets of the data and obvious cosmic rays are detected and removed before permanent archival is made to the optical disc. The analysis phase is performed by a pair of linked algorithms, one operating on the absolute pixel-values and the other on the spatial derivative of the data. In this way both isolated and merged images are reliably detected in a single pass. In order to isolate the latter algorithm from the effects of noise spikes a 3x3 Hanning filter is applied to the raw data before the analysis is run. The algorithms reduce the input pixel-data to a database of measured parameters for each image which has been found. A contrast filter is applied in order to assign a detection-probability to each image and then x-y calibration and intensity calibration are performed using known reference stars in the strip. These are added to as necessary by secondary standards boot-strapped from the CTI data itself. The final stages involve merging the new data into the CTI Master-list and History-list and the automatic comparison of each new detection with a set of pre-defined templates in parameter-space to find interesting objects such as supernovae, quasars and variable stars. Each stage of the processing from verification to interesting image selection is performed under a data-logging system which both controls the pipe-lining of data through the system and records key performance monitor parameters which are built into the software. Furthermore, the data from each stage are stored in databases to facilitate evaluation, and all stages offer the facility to enter keyword-indexed free-format text into the data-logging system. In this way a large measure of certification is built into the system to provide the necessary confidence in the end results.

Cawson, M. G. M.↗

NASA NTRS1973

An all digital low data rate communication system

The advent of digital hardwares has made it feasible to implement many communication system components digitally. With the exception of frequency down conversion, the proposed low data rate communication system uses digital hardwares completely. Although the system is designed primarily for deep space communications with large frequency uncertainty and low signal-to-noise ratio, it is also suitable for other low data rate applications with time-shared operation among a number of channels. Emphasis is placed on the fast Fourier transform receiver and the automatic frequency control via digital filtering. The speed available from the digital system allows sophisticated signal processing to reduce frequency uncertainty and to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. The practical limitations of the system such as the finite register length are examined. It is concluded that the proposed all-digital system is not only technically feasible but also has potential cost reduction over the existing receiving systems.

Chen, C.↗

NASA NTRS1973

An all digital low data rate communication system

The advent of digital hardwares has made it feasible to implement many communication system components digitally. With the exception of frequency down conversion, the proposed low data rate communication system uses digital hardware completely. Although the system is designed primarily for deep space communications with large frequency uncertainty and low signal-to-noise ratio, it is also suitable for other low data rate applications with time-shared operation among a number of channels. Emphasis is placed on the fast Fourier transform receiver and the automatic frequency control via digital filtering. The speed available from the digital system allows sophisticated signal processing to reduce frequency uncertainty and to increase the signal-to-noise ratio.

Chen, C.-H.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Design Description of the X-33 Avionics Architecture

In this paper, we provide a design description of the X-33 avionics architecture. The X-33 is an autonomous Single Stage to Orbit (SSTO) launch vehicle currently being developed by Lockheed Martin for NASA as a technology demonstrator for the VentureStar Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV). The X-33 avionics provides autonomous control of die vehicle throughout takeoff, ascent, descent, approach, landing, rollout, and vehicle safing. During flight the avionics provides communication to the range through uplinked commands and downlinked telemetry. During pre-launch and post-safing activities, the avionics provides interfaces to ground support consoles that perform vehicle flight preparations and maintenance. The X-33 Avionics is a hybrid of centralized and distributed processing elements connected by three dual redundant Mil-Std 1553 data buses. These data buses are controlled by a central processing suite located in the avionics bay and composed of triplex redundant Vehicle Mission Computers (VMCs). The VMCs integrate mission management, guidance, navigation, flight control, subsystem control and redundancy management functions. The vehicle sensors, effectors and subsystems are interfaced directly to the centralized VMCs as remote terminals or through dual redundant Data Interface Units (DIUs). The DIUs are located forward and aft of the avionics bay and provide signal conditioning, health monitoring, low level subsystem control and data interface functions. Each VMC is connected to all three redundant 1553 data buses for monitoring and provides a complete identical data set to the processing algorithms. This enables bus faults to be detected and reconfigured through a voted bus control configuration. Data is also shared between VMCs though a cross channel data link that is implemented in hardware and controlled by AlliedSignal's Fault Tolerant Executive (FTE). The FTE synchronizes processors within the VMC and synchronizes redundant VMCs to each other. The FTE provides an output-voting plane to detect, isolate and contain faults due to internal hardware or software faults and reconfigures the VMCs to accommodate these faults. Critical data in the 1553 messages are scheduled and synchronized to specific processing frames in order to minimize data latency. In order to achieve an open architecture, military and commercial off-the-shelf equipment is incorporated using common processors, standard VME backplanes and chassis, the VxWorks operating system, and MartixX for automatic code generation. The use of off-the-shelf tools and equipment helps reduce development time and enables software reuse. The open architecture allows for technology insertion, while the distributed modular elements allow for expansion to increased redundancy levels to meet the higher reliability goals of future RLVs.

Reichenfeld, Curtis J.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Automated Testing Experience of the Linear Aerospike SR-71 Experiment (LASRE) Controller

System controllers must be fail-safe, low cost, flexible to software changes, able to output health and status words, and permit rapid retest qualification. The system controller designed and tested for the aerospike engine program was an attempt to meet these requirements. This paper describes (1) the aerospike controller design, (2) the automated simulation testing techniques, and (3) the real time monitoring data visualization structure. Controller cost was minimized by design of a single-string system that used an off-the-shelf 486 central processing unit (CPU). A linked-list architecture, with states (nodes) defined in a user-friendly state table, accomplished software changes to the controller. Proven to be fail-safe, this system reported the abort cause and automatically reverted to a safe condition for any first failure. A real time simulation and test system automated the software checkout and retest requirements. A program requirement to decode all abort causes in real time during all ground and flight tests assured the safety of flight decisions and the proper execution of mission rules. The design also included health and status words, and provided a real time analysis interpretation for all health and status data.

Larson, Richard R.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Crew Activity Analyzer

The crew activity analyzer (CAA) is a system of electronic hardware and software for automatically identifying patterns of group activity among crew members working together in an office, cockpit, workshop, laboratory, or other enclosed space. The CAA synchronously records multiple streams of data from digital video cameras, wireless microphones, and position sensors, then plays back and processes the data to identify activity patterns specified by human analysts. The processing greatly reduces the amount of time that the analysts must spend in examining large amounts of data, enabling the analysts to concentrate on subsets of data that represent activities of interest. The CAA has potential for use in a variety of governmental and commercial applications, including planning for crews for future long space flights, designing facilities wherein humans must work in proximity for long times, improving crew training and measuring crew performance in military settings, human-factors and safety assessment, development of team procedures, and behavioral and ethnographic research. The data-acquisition hardware of the CAA (see figure) includes two video cameras: an overhead one aimed upward at a paraboloidal mirror on the ceiling and one mounted on a wall aimed in a downward slant toward the crew area. As many as four wireless microphones can be worn by crew members. The audio signals received from the microphones are digitized, then compressed in preparation for storage. Approximate locations of as many as four crew members are measured by use of a Cricket indoor location system. [The Cricket indoor location system includes ultrasonic/radio beacon and listener units. A Cricket beacon (in this case, worn by a crew member) simultaneously transmits a pulse of ultrasound and a radio signal that contains identifying information. Each Cricket listener unit measures the difference between the times of reception of the ultrasound and radio signals from an identified beacon. Assuming essentially instantaneous propagation of the radio signal, the distance between that beacon and the listener unit is estimated from this time difference and the speed of sound in air.] In this system, six Cricket listener units are mounted in various positions on the ceiling, and as many as four Cricket beacons are attached to crew members. The three-dimensional position of each Cricket beacon can be estimated from the time-difference readings of that beacon from at least three Cricket listener units

Murray, James↗

NASA NTRS1975

EPA requirements and programs

The proposed ERTS-DCS system is designed to allow EPA the capability to evaluate, through demonstrable hardware, the effectiveness of automated data collection techniques. The total effectiveness of any system is dependent upon many factors which include equipment cost, installation, maintainability, logistic support, growth potential, flexibility and failure rate. This can best be accomplished by installing the system at an operational environmental control agency (CAMP station) to insure that valid data is being obtained and processed. Consequently, it is imperative that the equipment interface must not compromise the validity of the sensor data nor should the experimental system effect the present operations of the CAMP station. Since both the system which is presently in use and the automatic system would be in operation in parallel, conformation and comparison are readily obtained.

Koutsandreas, J. D.↗

NASA NTRS1975

A thematic mapper performance optimization study

A six-month systems study of earth resource surveys from satellites was conducted in early 1974. Skylab S-192 Multispectral Scanner (MSS) data were used as a baseline to aid in evaluating the characteristics of future systems using satellite MSS sensors. The study took the viewpoint that overall system (sensor and processing) characteristics and parameter values should be determined largely by user requirements for automatic information extraction performance in quasi-operational earth resources surveys, the other major factor being hardware limitations imposed by state-of-the-art technology and cost.

Thomson, F. J.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Principal components technique analysis for vegetation and land use discrimination

Automatic pre-processing technique called Principal Components (PRINCO) in analyzing LANDSAT digitized data, for land use and vegetation cover, on the Brazilian cerrados was evaluated. The chosen pilot area, 223/67 of MSS/LANDSAT 3, was classified on a GE Image-100 System, through a maximum-likehood algorithm (MAXVER). The same procedure was applied to the PRINCO treated image. PRINCO consists of a linear transformation performed on the original bands, in order to eliminate the information redundancy of the LANDSAT channels. After PRINCO only two channels were used thus reducing computer effort. The original channels and the PRINCO channels grey levels for the five identified classes (grassland, "cerrado", burned areas, anthropic areas, and gallery forest) were obtained through the MAXVER algorithm. This algorithm also presented the average performance for both cases. In order to evaluate the results, the Jeffreys-Matusita distance (JM-distance) between classes was computed. The classification matrix, obtained through MAXVER, after a PRINCO pre-processing, showed approximately the same average performance in the classes separability.

Parada, N. D. J.↗

NASA NTRS1996

Analysis of space radiation data of semiconductor memories

This article presents an analysis of radiation effects for several select device types and technologies aboard the Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES) satellite. These space-flight measurements covered a period of about 14 months of mission lifetime. Single Event Upset (SEU) data of the investigated devices from the Microelectronics Package (MEP) were processed and analyzed. Valid upset measurements were determined by correcting for invalid readings, hard failures, missing data tapes (thus voids in data), and periods over which devices were disabled from interrogation. The basic resolution time of the measurement system was confirmed to be 2 s. Lessons learned, important findings, and recommendations are presented.

Flight Experiment↗

DOE OSTI2026

SEED: Semantic Energy Exploration and Discovery

The Bioenergy Knowledge Discovery Framework (KDF) hosts a vast repository of specialized data, yet traditional keyword-based search methods often struggle to provide direct answers, requiring significant domain expertise and manual effort to filter through raw documents. To overcome these barriers, this software introduces a semantic search engine that enables both specialists and non-specialists to query the KDF using natural language. By shifting from rigid keyword matching to intent-based retrieval, the tool automatically identifies and ranks the most relevant sources within the database. The system functions by processing natural language queries to extract the most pertinent information, delivering an AI-generated plain-language summary alongside exact supporting quotes from retrieved documents. This integrated approach provides users with immediate, evidence-based answers while eliminating the need for exhaustive manual review. By surfacing direct insights and contextual evidence, the software enhances the usability of existing KDF resources and democratizes access to complex bioenergy data. Ultimately, this semantic search solution accelerates the discovery process and supports faster, more informed decision-making across the bioenergy sector.

Pan, Meiyu (Melrose) [Oak Ridge National Laborator↗

NASA NTRS1976

An investigation of potential applications of OP-SAPS: Operational sampled analog processors

The impact of charge-coupled device (CCD) processors on future instrumentation was investigated. The CCD devices studied process sampled analog data and are referred to as OP-SAPS - operational sampled analog processors. Preliminary studies into various architectural configurations for systems composed of OP-SAPS show that they have potential in such diverse applications as pattern recognition and automatic control. It appears probable that OP-SAPS may be used to construct computing structures which can serve as special peripherals to large-scale computer complexes used in real time flight simulation. The research was limited to the following benchmark programs: (1) face recognition, (2) voice command and control, (3) terrain classification, and (4) terrain identification. A small amount of effort was spent on examining a method by which OP-SAPS may be used to decrease the limiting ground sampling distance encountered in remote sensing from satellites.

Parrish, E. A.↗

NASA NTRS1977

A stand-alone interactive graphics finite element modeling system

The finite element modeling (FEM) system described here is an interactive graphics system designed for use with an intelligent terminal. It offers an economical alternative to the conventional methods (hand compilation and remote terminals) of 2 and 3-dimensional model generation. Using local computing and local storage, this FEM system allows the operator to create and display 3-dimensional models entirely off-line from the host computer. This eliminates costly on-line computer and host-processing time, and makes the user more effective by greatly reducing computer response time. The system allows model generation by down-loading node and element data from the host computer or by using the system's model generation operations for digitizing and automatic creation. The system then generates completed model information in the desired analysis package's bulk data format and transmits it to the host computer for finite element analysis.

Gingerich, J. Z.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Use of Semantic Technology to Create Curated Data Albums

One of the continuing challenges in any Earth science investigation is the discovery and access of useful science content from the increasingly large volumes of Earth science data and related information available online. Current Earth science data systems are designed with the assumption that researchers access data primarily by instrument or geophysical parameter. Those who know exactly the data sets they need can obtain the specific files using these systems. However, in cases where researchers are interested in studying an event of research interest, they must manually assemble a variety of relevant data sets by searching the different distributed data systems. Consequently, there is a need to design and build specialized search and discover tools in Earth science that can filter through large volumes of distributed online data and information and only aggregate the relevant resources needed to support climatology and case studies. This paper presents a specialized search and discovery tool that automatically creates curated Data Albums. The tool was designed to enable key elements of the search process such as dynamic interaction and sense-making. The tool supports dynamic interaction via different modes of interactivity and visual presentation of information. The compilation of information and data into a Data Album is analogous to a shoebox within the sense-making framework. This tool automates most of the tedious information/data gathering tasks for researchers. Data curation by the tool is achieved via an ontology-based, relevancy ranking algorithm that filters out nonrelevant information and data. The curation enables better search results as compared to the simple keyword searches provided by existing data systems in Earth science.

Ramachandran, Rahul↗

NASA NTRS2014

Use of Semantic Technology to Create Curated Data Albums

One of the continuing challenges in any Earth science investigation is the discovery and access of useful science content from the increasingly large volumes of Earth science data and related information available online. Current Earth science data systems are designed with the assumption that researchers access data primarily by instrument or geophysical parameter. Those who know exactly the data sets they need can obtain the specific files using these systems. However, in cases where researchers are interested in studying an event of research interest, they must manually assemble a variety of relevant data sets by searching the different distributed data systems. Consequently, there is a need to design and build specialized search and discovery tools in Earth science that can filter through large volumes of distributed online data and information and only aggregate the relevant resources needed to support climatology and case studies. This paper presents a specialized search and discovery tool that automatically creates curated Data Albums. The tool was designed to enable key elements of the search process such as dynamic interaction and sense-making. The tool supports dynamic interaction via different modes of interactivity and visual presentation of information. The compilation of information and data into a Data Album is analogous to a shoebox within the sense-making framework. This tool automates most of the tedious information/data gathering tasks for researchers. Data curation by the tool is achieved via an ontology-based, relevancy ranking algorithm that filters out non-relevant information and data. The curation enables better search results as compared to the simple keyword searches provided by existing data systems in Earth science.

Ramachandran, Rahul↗

NASA NTRS1972

Automatic thematic mapping in the EROS program

A specified approach to the automatic extraction and catographic presentation of thematic data contained in multispectral photographic images is presented. Experimental efforts were directed toward the mapping of open waters, snow and ice, infrared reflective vegetation, and massed works of man. The system must also be able to process data from a wide variety of sources.

Edson, D. T.↗