Lunar Robotics Update
Robotics project status update for the Network for Exploration and Space Science (NESS).
Fong, Terry↗
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Interfacing Space Communications and Navigation Network Simulation with Distributed System Integration Laboratories (DSIL)
NASA's planned Lunar missions will involve multiple NASA centers where each participating center has a specific role and specialization. In this vision, the Constellation program (CxP)'s Distributed System Integration Laboratories (DSIL) architecture consist of multiple System Integration Labs (SILs), with simulators, emulators, testlabs and control centers interacting with each other over a broadband network to perform test and verification for mission scenarios. To support the end-to-end simulation and emulation effort of NASA' exploration initiatives, different NASA centers are interconnected to participate in distributed simulations. Currently, DSIL has interconnections among the following NASA centers: Johnson Space Center (JSC), Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Through interconnections and interactions among different NASA centers, critical resources and data can be shared, while independent simulations can be performed simultaneously at different NASA locations, to effectively utilize the simulation and emulation capabilities at each center. Furthermore, the development of DSIL can maximally leverage the existing project simulation and testing plans. In this work, we describe the specific role and development activities at JPL for Space Communications and Navigation Network (SCaN) simulator using the Multi-mission Advanced Communications Hybrid Environment for Test and Evaluation (MACHETE) tool to simulate communications effects among mission assets. Using MACHETE, different space network configurations among spacecrafts and ground systems of various parameter sets can be simulated. Data that is necessary for tracking, navigation, and guidance of spacecrafts such as Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV), and Lunar Relay Satellite (LRS) and orbit calculation data are disseminated to different NASA centers and updated periodically using the High Level Architecture (HLA). In addition, the performance of DSIL under different traffic loads with different mix of data and priorities are evaluated.
Traffic Measuring and Monitoring↗
Attitude Control and Orbit Determination of a Crewed Spacecraft with Lunar Lander in near Rectilinear Halo Orbit
NASA's Gateway program plans to place a crew-tended spacecraft in cislunar Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO). The craft will support arrivals of crews in Orion and the undocking and return of a crewed lunar lander. The impact to at-titude control of a Gateway with the addition of a lunar lander is investigated. Perturbations from Orion and a lander's docking and undocking from the Gate-way are considered. Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking is supplemented with optical measurements to lunar north pole craters to analyze the possible benefit in solution accuracy and/or DSN scheduling relief.
Newman, Clark P.↗
NASA’s Lunar Communications and Navigation Architecture: Human Lunar Return
NASA’s Artemis missions will return humanity to the Moon, establishing a long-term presence there and opening more of the lunar surface to exploration than ever before. This rapid growth of lunar activity requires robust and resilient communications, navigation, and networking capabilities for crew safety, command and control of spacecraft, return of science data, and precise maneuvering of assets in space and on the lunar surface.
Michael J Zemba↗
Space Communications in Support of the Artemis Program
NASA has been challenged to send the first woman and first person of color to the South Pole of the moon by 2024. Named the Artemis Program, this effort serves as a proving ground for the greater Moon-to-Mars campaign and establishes a lunar outpost by 2028. The Artemis Program relies on simultaneous operation of multiple flight assets separated by large angular distances that require a unique communication strategy and is a departure from the previous Apollo-era architecture. NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program is designing a scalable, extensible, and reusable network architecture to provide communication and navigation services in support of lunar exploration. This architecture serves at the foundational infrastructure, paving the way for future exploration of Mars. In pursuance of this new architecture, the SCaN Program is augmenting NASA’s space communications networks by upgrading the current 34-meter beam waveguide antenna systems and incorporating an 18-meter class subnet. This paper presents an overview of NASA’s plans to provide high data rate communication and navigation services for lunar exploration efforts including: operations concepts to support the lunar communications architecture, major network enhancements and new capabilities, and a Mars-forward approach that maximizes the reuse of these capabilities. Capabilities include:(1) Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN), (2) Multiple Spacecraft Per Aperture (MSPA, also known as Multiple Spacecraft Per Antenna), and (3) Simultaneous Ka-band uplink and downlink. The mid-2020s era is a historic opportunity to advance NASA’s space communications infrastructure as humans return to the moon and continue to interplanetary exploration, starting with Mars. The space communication infrastructure is a lifeline that supports these endeavors, furthering humankinds’ exploration and understanding of the universe.
Philip A Baldwin↗
A Model for Effective Professional Development of Formal Science Educators
The Lunar Workshops for Educators (LWE) series was developed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) education team in 2010 to provide professional development on lunar science and exploration concepts for grades 6-9 science teachers. Over 300 educators have been trained to date. The LWE model incorporates best practices from pedagogical research of science education, thoughtful integration of scientists and engineer subject matter experts for both content presentations and informal networking with educators, access to NASA-unique facilities, hands-on and data-rich activities aligned with education standards, exposure to the practice of science, tools for addressing common misconceptions, follow-up with participants, and extensive evaluation. Evaluation of the LWE model via pre- and post-assessments, daily workshop surveys, and follow-up surveys at 6-month and 1-year intervals indicate that the LWE are extremely effective in increasing educators' content knowledge, confidence in incorporating content into the classroom, understanding of the practice of science, and ability to address common student misconceptions. In order to address the efficacy of the LWE model for other science content areas, the Dynamic Response of Environments at Asteroids, the Moon, and moons of Mars (DREAM2) education team, funded by NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute, developed and ran a pilot workshop called Dream2Explore at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in June, 2015. Dream2Explore utilized the LWE model, but incorporated content related to the science and exploration of asteroids and the moons of Mars. Evaluation results indicate that the LWE model was effectively used for educator professional development on non-lunar content. We will present more detail on the LWE model, evaluation results from the Dream2Explore pilot workshop, and suggestions for the application of the model with other science content for robust educator professional development.
Orbiter↗
Germinating the 2050 Cis-Lunar Econosphere
In early 2013, Marshall Space Flight Center's upper management chartered a diverse team for a six-week 'sprint' to speculate (in a disciplined manner) and paint (with broad brush strokes) a picture of how earth, space, and public/private entities might be operating and relating to each other... in the year 2100. Two 12-person groups of civil servants, one with members having 15 years or less of NASA experience and the other with more senior members, worked independently and then compared and integrated their conclusions. In 2014, the 'Space 2100' team, with some new team members and different group boundaries, ran a longer sprint to a) develop more detailed estimates of the operations and economics of space activities in the vicinity of the Earth and Moon in the 2050 time frame, b) identify evolutionary paths, barriers, and opportunities, and c) suggest actions and philosophies to enable and invigorate progress towards the vision. This paper explores Space 2100's first two sprints and their projections of NASA's role in what will likely be a highly networked, international space industry and cis-lunar infrastructure.
Scott, David W.↗
Lunar surface magnetometer experiment
The Apollo 15 lunar-surface magnetometer (LSM) is one of a network of magnetometers that have been deployed on the moon to study intrinsic remanent magnetic fields and global magnetic response of the moon to large-scale solar and terrestrial magnetic fields. From these field measurements, properties of the lunar interior such as magnetic permeability, electrical conductivity, and temperature can be calculated. In addition, correlation with solar-wind-spectrometer data allows study of the the solar-wind plasma interaction with the moon and, in turn, investigation of the resulting absorption of gases and accretion of an ionosphere. These physical parameters and processes determined from magnetometer measurements must be accounted for by comprehensive theories of origin and evolution of the moon and solar system.
Dyal, P.↗
Germinating the 2050 Cis-Lunar Econosphere
In early 2013, the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Director and MSFC's Office of Strategic Analysis and Communications (OSAC) chartered a diverse team for a six-week "sprint" to speculate (in a disciplined manner) and paint (with broad brush strokes) a picture of how earth, space, and public/private entities might be operating and relating to each other...in the year 2100. Two 12-person groups of civil servants, one with members having 15 years or less of NASA experience and the other with more senior members, worked independently and then compared and integrated their conclusions. In 2014, the "Space 2100" team, with some new team members and different group boundaries, ran a longer sprint to a) develop more detailed estimates of the operations and economics of space activities in the vicinity of the Earth and Moon in the 2050 time frame, b) identify evolutionary steps and viable paths needed to make that a reality, and c) recommend actions to enable and invigorate those steps. This paper explores Space 2100's first two sprints and their projections of NASA's role in what will likely be a highly networked international space industry and cis-lunar infrastructure.
Scott, David W.↗
Adaptive-Sweep Algorithm for Spacecraft Carrier Acquisition and Tracking: System Analysis and Implementation
This paper presents an adaptive-sweep algorithm that can be used in conjunction with a Phased-Lock Loop to acquire and track the carrier of a Binary Phase-shift Keying signal with residual carrier. This algorithm is useful in proximity links where no Doppler pre-compensation is available at the transmitter, and allows the receiver to acquire the incoming carrier even if the experienced Doppler shift is several orders of magnitude larger than the PLL bandwidth. Other applications for this algorithm include Multiple Uplink per Antenna at the Deep Space Network, and generation of observables (Doppler shift, Doppler rate, range rate) for in-situ navigation purposes. This paper enhances a previously presented adaptive-sweep algorithm and its performance analysis in two fronts. First, the algorithm now uses the direction function to automatically estimate the required frequency jump to achieve PLL lock. This enables a fully adaptive-sweep scheme in which system implementer does not need to manually select thresholds. On the other hand, we study the system performance in the presence of Additive White Gaussian Noise and derive necessary conditions for the system to operate at low signal-to-noise conditions. This allows us to create design rules that specify all parameters of the algorithm given a set of system-level requirements. To test the performance of the proposed algorithm, we implement it in GNU Radio, an open-source Software-Defined Radio that interfaces with several commercial radio peripherals. We use this implementation to demonstrate carrier lock and quantify system performance under different noise conditions. We also test the algorithm using open-loop recordings of two downlinks between the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Deep Space Network. We show that even after large frequency jumps (tens of kHz), the proposed system is able to rapidly reacquire the carrier and continue operation.
Divsalar, Dariush↗
Channel Measurements for Switching Strategies in Hybrid RF/Optical Communications
Free space optical (FSO) communication links increase data rate, reduce size and power, and increase security. These criteria are particularly important in space communication. Increasing mission complexity and crowding of lower frequency bands is driving the need for optical communications. This makes FSO communication technology extremely attractive, and there is significant ongoing work towards the development of FSO transceivers, ground stations, and relays. Notable projects include the Laser Communications Relay Demonstrator (LCRD), Integrated LCRD Low-Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal (ILLUMA-T), and CubeSat Laser Infrared Crosslink (CLICK) CubeSats. These technologies will eventually operate in unison with existing Radio Frequency (RF) systems, but there is little experimental investigation of such hybrid networks. This paper presents some experimental underpinnings of switching strategies for hybrid RF/FSO systems in various attenuation conditions. A 170 m optical path was constructed in an enclosed test chamber where atmospheric conditions can be tightly controlled. The performance of a 1550 nm infrared FSO link was evaluated in this chamber under varying conditions of turbulence and jitter. The system will eventually be used to investigate switching criteria between the FSO and RF channels. Optimizing the use of RF/FSO communication links will allow data rate, size, power, and security improvements. Therefore, this research will help to mature the network architecture and improve the performance of communication networks to be used for LEO, GEO, Lagrange, Lunar missions and beyond.
Space Networks↗
Distributed communications and control network for robotic mining
The application of robotics to coal mining machines is one approach pursued to increase productivity while providing enhanced safety for the coal miner. Toward that end, a network composed of microcontrollers, computers, expert systems, real time operating systems, and a variety of program languages are being integrated that will act as the backbone for intelligent machine operation. Actual mining machines, including a few customized ones, have been given telerobotic semiautonomous capabilities by applying the described network. Control devices, intelligent sensors and computers onboard these machines are showing promise of achieving improved mining productivity and safety benefits. Current research using these machines involves navigation, multiple machine interaction, machine diagnostics, mineral detection, and graphical machine representation. Guidance sensors and systems employed include: sonar, laser rangers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, clinometers, and accelerometers. Information on the network of hardware/software and its implementation on mining machines are presented. Anticipated coal production operations using the network are discussed. A parallelism is also drawn between the direction of present day underground coal mining research to how the lunar soil (regolith) may be mined. A conceptual lunar mining operation that employs a distributed communication and control network is detailed.
Schiffbauer, William H.↗
Earth-lunar communications using the advanced TDRSS
The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) is an operational geostationary satellite system used by the NASA to communicate with low earth orbiting missions such as the NASA Space Transportation System and the Hubble Space Telescope. The Advanced TDRSS (ATDRSS) is a continuation to TDRSS and will develop new spacecraft to replenish and maintain the TDRSS space network into the second decade of the 21st century. This paper describes an approach which could permit the future ATDRSS space network to meet the future communications required for lunar missions as well as those projected for low earth missions in this time frame.
Brandel, Daniel L.↗
High-precision gravimetric survey in support of lunar laser ranging at Haleakala, Maui, 1976 - 1978
The planning, observations and adjustment of high-precision gravity survey networks established on the islands of Maui and Oahu as part of the geodetic-geophysical program in support of lunar laser ranging at Haleakala, Maui, Hawaii are described. The gravity survey networks include 43 independently measured gravity differences along the gravity calibration line from Kahului Airport to the summit of Mt. Haleakala, together with some key points close to tidal gauges on Maui, and 40 gravity differences within metropolitan Honolulu. The results of the 1976-1978 survey are compared with surveys made in 1961 and in 1964-1965. All final gravity values are given in the system of the international gravity standardization net 1971 (IGSN 71); values are obtained by subtracting 14.57 mgal from the Potsdam value at the gravity base station at the Hickam Air Force Base, Honolulu.
Schenck, B. E.↗
Regionalized Lunar South Pole Surface Navigation System Analysis
Apollo missions utilized Earth-based assets for navigation because the landings took place at lunar locations in constant view from the Earth. The new exploration campaign to the lunar south pole region will have limited Earth visibility, but the extent to which a navigation system comprised solely of Earth-based tracking stations will provide adequate navigation solutions in this region is unknown. This report presents a dilution-of-precision (DoP)-based, stationary surface navigation analysis of the performance of multiple lunar satellite constellations, Earth-based deep space network assets, and combinations thereof. Results show that kinematic and integrated solutions cannot be provided by the Earth-based deep space network stations. Also, the stationary surface navigation system needs to be operated either as a two-way navigation system or as a one-way navigation system with local terrain information, while the position solution is integrated over a short duration of time with navigation signals being provided by a lunar satellite constellation.
Welch, Bryan W.↗
Earth-based antenna network tradeoffs for NASA's Space Exploration Initiative (SEI)
The results of a tradeoff study conducted for selection of the most viable earth-based antenna network architecture for support of NASA's Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) lunar and mars missions are summarized. The study addressed the lunar mission support requirements, and examined the performance, operations, and cost tradeoffs of using either the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) large 34-m antennas or smaller commercial antennas to replace or supplement the 34-m antennas. The results are presented as a set of eight tables.
Manshadi, F.↗
Lunar module relay experiment tracking accuracy study Final report
Lunar module tracking experiment using synchronous relay network
Source record↗
Contribution of Apollo lunar photography to the establishment of selenodetic control
Among the various types of available data relevant to the establishment of geometric control on the moon, the only one covering significant portions of the lunar surface (20%) with sufficient information content, is lunar photography, taken at the proximity of the moon from lunar orbiters. The idea of free geodetic networks is introduced as a tool for the statistical comparison of the geometric aspects of the various data used. Methods were developed for the updating of the statistics of observations and the a priori parameter estimates to obtain statistically consistent solutions by means of the optimum relative weighting concept.
Dermanis, A.↗