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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

PTD: Enabling New Space Technologies

Significant advances in the capabilities of small spacecraft over the past 20 years, coupled with improved access to space from a variety of launch platforms have created new opportunities for scientific exploration and commercial application using these high-value (and yet low cost) platforms. Continued development and demonstration of key technologies are improving the performance of the 3U and 6U class CubeSats while expanding the small spacecraft reach into larger platforms, such as 12U and ESPA class missions. The availability and relatively low cost of CubeSat spacecraft allows key technologies to be flight qualified, bridging the TRL 6/7 gap and making truly novel and enabling technologies available to much larger missions in the planning stages at NASA. The key is connecting the technologists with the flight opportunity in a time and cost efficient manner. NASA’s Small Satellite Technology (SST) program is using existing commercial spacecraft to provide a common bus for technology demonstration, taking advantage of their proven platforms and system with proven flight heritage and extensive infrastructure. In this paper we discuss the Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator (PTD) series of four spacecraft and the CubeSat Laser Infrared CrosslinK (CLICK) series of three spacecraft, the approach SST took in facilitating the missions, the successes of those missions as well as lessons learned in the process. NASA’s PTD spacecraft series is demonstrating a variety of new technologies on-orbit, providing proof of the maturity of these significant new technologies, and enhancing the performance of future CubeSats. Each of the four PTD mission consists of one 6-unit (6U) CubeSat weighing approximately 12 kilograms and measuring approximately 30 centimeters x 25 centimeters x 10 centimeters, characterizing its payload within 90 days of orbit insertion. The spacecraft bus, integration and test, and mission operations services are being provided by Terran Orbital. The PTD missions have demonstrated a novel nano-spacecraft compatible propulsion systems (enabling deep space and maneuverable Cubeat missions) and an optical communications system (enabling high data rate collection and communications) already. The CLICK missions are demonstrating compact space-to-space optical communications first with the CLICK A technology demonstrator (already flown) and finally with the CLICK BC dual spacecraft mission. Both projects are part of the SST program within the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate. SST is chartered to develop and demonstrate technologies to enhance and expand the capabilities of small spacecraft with a particular focus on enabling new mission architectures through the use of small spacecraft, expanding the reach of small spacecraft to new destinations, and augmenting future missions with supporting small spacecraft.

J. Hanson↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Novel Observing Strategies (NOS) and Earth System Digital Twins (ESDT) for Disaster Resilience

"Earth systems have now been observed continuously for more than 50 years, not only from space but also from airplanes, balloons and in-situ sensors. With the addition of commercial remote sensing providers, many more Internet-of-Things sensors and new NASA and international observatories being planned, these incredible amounts of data will soon be augmented by even larger amounts of diverse data and therefore will become more and more difficult to access, integrate, understand and utilize. At the same time, because of climate change and its impacts, in order to predict, manage, and mitigate the effects of extreme science events and disasters, the information produced by all of this data needs to be optimized, organized and analyzed in such a way that it can be utilized by traditional as well as many new non-traditional users. This calls for the development of observing systems that are agile, coordinated and responsive to events of interest, and for information systems to be dynamic, interactive and fast. With these objectives in mind, the Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) Program has been developing technologies that will allow for the development of Novel Observing Strategies (NOS) in a distributed, coordinated fashion (i.e., similar to an “Internet-of-Earth-Things”), as well as for the development of novel information systems or Earth System Digital Twins (ESDT) that will build a digital replica of the past and current states of the Earth systems, will derive forecasts of future states under nominal assumptions and will also offer the capability to investigate many hypothetical evolution scenarios under varying impact assumptions. Both NOS and ESDT will be facilitated by the unprecedented advances of Artificial Intelligence technologies, especially Machine Learning (ML), for extracting relevant information from these large amounts of data, for fusing and assimilating diverse data together and for running complex models faster. Together NOS and ESDT will help build the capabilities needed to anticipate, predict and mitigate the effects of future disasters."

Earth Science Remote Sensing; Information Systems↗

NASA NTRS1993

An integrated knowledge system for wind tunnel testing - Project Engineers' Intelligent Assistant

The Project Engineers' Intelligent Assistant (PEIA) is an integrated knowledge system developed using artificial intelligence technology, including hypertext, expert systems, and dynamic user interfaces. This system integrates documents, engineering codes, databases, and knowledge from domain experts into an enriched hypermedia environment and was designed to assist project engineers in planning and conducting wind tunnel tests. PEIA is a modular system which consists of an intelligent user-interface, seven modules and an integrated tool facility. Hypermedia technology is discussed and the seven PEIA modules are described. System maintenance and updating is very easy due to the modular structure and the integrated tool facility provides user access to commercial software shells for documentation, reporting, or database updating. PEIA is expected to provide project engineers with technical information, increase efficiency and productivity, and provide a realistic tool for personnel training.

Lo, Ching F.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Hyperspectral Imaging on the International Space Station: An Innovative Approach to Commercial Development of Space

NASA s Space Partnership Division (SPD) was established to promote the commercial development of space by providing access to space ai opportunity to perform commercial research in the microgravity environment. NASA, through SPD, has established Research Partnership Centers (RPC s) that bring the government, universities at private industry together to perform research in space for commercial applica!.!lons. The SPD Office has fostered a re!ationship between an RPC and an aerospace company to perform hyperspectral imaging on the Window Observational Research Facility (WORF) on board the International Space Station (ISS). As a result of this relationship and M the capabilities of the WORF, the ISS will serve the private sector with platform to conduct hyperspectral imaging for commercial research.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1985

Commerce Lab - A program of commercial flight opportunities

Commerce Lab is conceived as an adjunct to the National Space Transportation System (NSTS) by providing a focal point for commercial missions which could utilize existing NSTS carrier and resource capabilities for on-orbit experimentation in the microgravity sciences. In this context, the Commerce Lab program provides mission planning for private sector involvement in the space program, in general, and the commercial exploitation of the microgravity environment for materials processing research and development. It is expected that Commerce Lab will provide a logical transition between currently planned NSTS missions and future microgravity science and commercial R&D missions centered around the Space Station. The present study identifies candidate Commerce Lab flight experiments and their development status and projects a mission traffic model that can be used in commercial mission planning.

Robertson, J.↗

NASA NTRS1978

Automated meteorological data from commercial aircraft via satellite - Present experience and future implications

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has developed a low-cost communications system to provide meteorological data from commercial aircraft, in near real-time, on a fully automated basis. The complete system including the low profile antenna and all installation hardware weighs 34 kg. The prototype system has been installed on a Pan American B-747 aircraft and has been providing meteorological data (wind angle and velocity, temperature, altitude and position as a function of time) on a fully automated basis for the past several months. The results have been exceptional. This concept is expected to have important implications for operational meteorology and airline route forecasting.

Steinberg, R.↗

NASA NTRS1988

New initiatives in the commercial development of space

This paper provides a status report on aggressive new initiatives by the NASA Office of Commercial Programs to implement new commercial space policy. The promotion of a strong U.S. commercial presence in space via Spacehab, the Space Shuttle external tanks, privatization of the Space Station, and the development of commercial remote sensing systems is addressed. The privatization of launch services and the development of a talent base for commercial space efforts are considered. Groups, policies, and plans involved in these developments are discussed.

Rose, James T.↗

NASA NTRS1999

The Wallops Flight Facility Model for an Integrated Federal/Commercial Launch Range

Historically, the federal government has been the predominant purchaser of space launches in the United States. The government met its needs through purchase of hardware and services. It also provided the infrastructure necessary to conduct launch operations through federal launch ranges, both military and NASA. Under this model, the government had the complete ownership, responsibility, liability, and expense for launch activities. As the commercial space sector grew, there emerged a corresponding growth in demand for launch range services. However, the expense and complexity of activities has thus far deterred a rapid rise in the establishment of purely commercial launch sites. In this context, purely commercial is defined as "without benefit of capabilities provided by the federal government." Consistent with the Commercial Space Launch Act, in recent years NASA and the Air Force have supported commercial launches from government launch ranges on a cost-reimbursable, non-interference basis. In this mode the commercial launch service providers contract with the government to provide services including use of facilities, tracking and data services, and range safety. As the commercial market projections began to show significant opportunities for economic development, several states established spaceports to provide the services necessary to meet these projected commercial needs. In 1997, NASA agreed to the establishment of the Virginia Space Flight Center (VSFC) at the Wallops Flight Facility. Under this arrangement, NASA agreed to allow Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority (VCSFA) to construct facilities on NASA property and agreed to provide services in accordance with the Space Act of 1958 and the Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984 (as amended) to support VSFC launch customers. The relationship between NASA and VCSFA, however, has evolved beyond a customer supplier relationship. A partnership relationship has emerged which pairs the strengths of the established NASA test range and the state-sponsored, commercial launch facility provider, in an attempt to satisfy the needs for flexible, low-cost access to space. Furthermore, the future of the NASA/Wallops Test Range is closely linked with the success of VCSFA in promoting commercial launches from Wallops. This paper will describe the changing paradigm of the federal launch range and the unique aspects of the NASA/Wallops Facility relationship with VCSFA. Discussion will include institutional cost-sharing, business development and marketing, joint educational programs, and strategic planning.

Underwood, Bruce E.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Enabling Exploration Through the International Docking System Standard

Human exploration missions beyond low earth orbit will likely require international cooperation in order to leverage limited resources. International standards can help enable cooperative missions by providing well understood, predefined interfaces allowing compatibility between unique spacecraft and systems. The International Space Station (ISS) partnership has developed a publically available International Docking System Standard (IDSS) that provides a solution to one of these key interfaces by defining a common docking interface. The docking interface provides a way for even dissimilar spacecraft to dock for exchange of crew and cargo, as well as enabling the assembly of large space systems. This paper provides an overview of the key attributes of the IDSS, an overview of the NASA Docking System (NDS), and the plans for updating the ISS with IDSS compatible interfaces. The NDS provides a state of the art, low impact docking system that will initially be made available to commercial crew and cargo providers. The ISS will be used to demonstrate the operational utility of the IDSS interface as a foundational technology for cooperative exploration.

Hatfield, Caris A.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Enabling Exploration Through Docking Standards

Human exploration missions beyond low earth orbit will likely require international cooperation in order to leverage limited resources. International standards can help enable cooperative missions by providing well understood, predefined interfaces allowing compatibility between unique spacecraft and systems. The International Space Station (ISS) partnership has developed a publicly available International Docking System Standard (IDSS) that provides a solution to one of these key interfaces by defining a common docking interface. The docking interface provides a way for even dissimilar spacecraft to dock for exchange of crew and cargo, as well as enabling the assembly of large space systems. This paper provides an overview of the key attributes of the IDSS, an overview of the NASA Docking System (NDS), and the plans for updating the ISS with IDSS compatible interfaces. The NDS provides a state of the art, low impact docking system that will initially be made available to commercial crew and cargo providers. The ISS will be used to demonstrate the operational utility of the IDSS interface as a foundational technology for cooperative exploration.

Hatfield, Caris A.↗

NASA NTRS2009

Commercialization is Required for Sustainable Space Exploration and Development

The U.S. Space Exploration policy outlines an exciting new direction in space for human and robotic exploration and development beyond low Earth orbit. Pressed by this new visionary guidance, human civilization will be able to methodically build capabilities to move off Earth and into the solar system in a step-by-step manner, gradually increasing the capability for humans to stay longer in space and move further away from Earth. The new plans call for an implementation that would create an affordable and sustainable program in order to span over generations of explorers, each new generation pushing back the boundaries and building on the foundations laid by the earlier. To create a sustainable program it is important to enable and encourage the development of a selfsupporting commercial space industry leveraging both traditional and non-traditional segments of the industrial base. Governments will not be able to open the space frontier on their own because their goals change over relatively short timescales and because the large costs associated with human spaceflight cannot be sustained. A strong space development industrial sector is needed that can one day support the needs of commercial space enterprises as well as provide capabilities that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and other national space agencies can buy to achieve their exploration goals. This new industrial space sector will someday provide fundamental capabilities like communications, power, logistics, and even cargo and human space transportation, just as commercial companies are able to provide these services on Earth today. To help develop and bolster this new space industrial sector, NASA and other national space agencies can enable and facilitate it in many ways, including reducing risk by developing important technologies necessary for commercialization of space, and as a paying customer, partner, or anchor tenant. This transition from all or mostly government developed and operated facilities and services to commercial supplied facilities and services should be considered from the very earliest stages of planning. This paper will first discuss the importance of space commercialization to fulfilling national goals and the associated policy and strategic objectives that will enable space exploration and development. Then the paper will offer insights into how government can provide leadership to promote the nascent commercial space industry. In addition, the paper describes programs and policies already in place at NASA and offers five important principles government can use to strengthen space industry.

Martin, Gary L.↗

NASA NTRS2020

Interoperability and Concepts of Operation Assessment for Space Relay Services and Partnerships

The United States National Space Policy provides guidance and directives for U.S. Government agencies to purchase commercial space services and capabilities to the maximum extent practical. In alignment with this guidance, NASA is exploring potential industry partnerships to leverage current or planned commercial space communication and navigation infrastructure to provide services to NASA user missions in the mid-2020s. Leveraging commercial infrastructure and reducing NASA’s reliance on government-owned and operated infrastructure should yield substantial development and operations cost savings. Additionally, the commercial services market will offer NASA a variety of service offerings at competitive prices, while simultaneously allowing NASA to benefit from commercial best practices. Under Appendix G of the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP-2) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), NASA awarded contracts to eight study vendors in May 2019 to investigate the feasibility of applying commercial services concepts to the NASA user mission community. The studies, managed by NASA Glenn Research Center, were completed in October 2019 and detailed ten study topic areas, three of which included: service provider interoperability, user terminal interoperability, and commercial services concept of operations. This report provides a summary of the significant (non-proprietary) findings and recommendations relating to those study areas from the BAA study vendors.

Eric J Knoblock↗

NASA NTRS2018

The Evolution of Payload Data Capabilities on the Commercial Visiting Vehicles that Service the International Space Station

In 2008, NASA awarded the first contracts to U.S. commercial companies to deliver cargo and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). These contracts, called the first phase of Commercial Resupply Services (CRS1), were awarded to Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Orbital Sciences. Under the CRS1 contracts, commercial visiting vehicles not only provide a couple tons of cargo to the ISS each mission, but they also provide the ability for payloads to be transferred to the ISS in an active, powered state. Prior to the start of the CRS1 program, most vehicles that serviced the ISS transported science experiments as passive cargo. Therefore, the CRS1 program through offering frequent flight opportunities with powered payload transport capability ushered in a new era in which NASA and payload developers could reimagine operational concepts for payloads during the transit phase to and from the ISS. To take advantage of this powered payload transport capability, NASA first added requirements under the CRS1 program for the commercial vehicles to provide telemetry monitoring services for pressurized payloads to give payload developers situational awareness during the transport phase. Since then, payload developer use-cases for visiting vehicle data services during free-flight have evolved with each new commercial visiting vehicle contract to cover a variety of payload monitoring and control abilities. Additional commercial contracts include the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts that were awarded to SpaceX and Boeing, and the second phase of Commercial Resupply Services (CRS2) contracts that were awarded to SpaceX, Orbital ATK (formerly Orbital Sciences), and Sierra Nevada Corporation. Commercial crew flights will commence in 2018, and the first flight under the CRS2 program is currently planned for 2019.

Wiggins, Lindsay M.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

CFD Evaluation of Aviation Fuels for Commercial Supersonics Technology

An overview is provided of a CFD analysis of a Lean-Direct Injection (LDI) combustion concept for NASA’s Commercial Supersonic Transport (CST) program. The National Combustion Code (OpenNCC) was used to perform two-phase reacting flow computations with three different aviation fuels for UTRC’s Axially Controlled Stoichiometry (ACS) combustor at CST cruise conditions. All computations were performed with a consistent approach of mesh-generation, spray and chemical-kinetics modeling for the combustor. Emissions (EICO, EINOx) and performance characteristics were predicted with OpenNCC, to evaluate the impact of replacing Jet-A with RP2 and Iso-Paraffinic Kerosene (IPK) for supersonic combustor applications. The CFD predictions of flame structure for IPK fuel were significantly different in comparison to those of Jet-A and RP2 fuel. However, the CFD analysis predicted very similar EINOx emissions for Jet-A, RP-2 and IPK fuels. The predicted EINOx emissions for all three fuels also compared very well with measured experimental data.

gas turbine combustion↗

NASA NTRS1979

Photovoltaics in the U.S.A. - A progress report

The Federal Photovoltaics Program is reviewed with reference to price goals, program organization, technical developments, and various applications. The immediate goals of the program are: (1) to develop the Federal market by encouraging Government agencies to incorporate photovoltaic systems, and (2) to provide marketing support to commercial solar cell and system manufacturers whose growth is crucial to the ultimate success of the photovoltaic program. The program will initially provide for procurement of the smaller remote types of systems and will be broadened to include residential and intermediate load systems.

Forney, R. G.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Structural Weight Estimation for Launch Vehicles

This paper describes some of the work in progress to develop automated structural weight estimation procedures within the Vehicle Analysis Branch (VAB) of the NASA Langley Research Center. One task of the VAB is to perform system studies at the conceptual and early preliminary design stages on launch vehicles and in-space transportation systems. Some examples of these studies for Earth to Orbit (ETO) systems are the Future Space Transportation System [1], Orbit On Demand Vehicle [2], Venture Star [3], and the Personnel Rescue Vehicle[4]. Structural weight calculation for launch vehicle studies can exist on several levels of fidelity. Typically historically based weight equations are used in a vehicle sizing program. Many of the studies in the vehicle analysis branch have been enhanced in terms of structural weight fraction prediction by utilizing some level of off-line structural analysis to incorporate material property, load intensity, and configuration effects which may not be captured by the historical weight equations. Modification of Mass Estimating Relationships (MER's) to assess design and technology impacts on vehicle performance are necessary to prioritize design and technology development decisions. Modern CAD/CAE software, ever increasing computational power and platform independent computer programming languages such as JAVA provide new means to create greater depth of analysis tools which can be included into the conceptual design phase of launch vehicle development. Commercial framework computing environments provide easy to program techniques which coordinate and implement the flow of data in a distributed heterogeneous computing environment. It is the intent of this paper to present a process in development at NASA LaRC for enhanced structural weight estimation using this state of the art computational power.

Cerro, Jeff↗

NASA NTRS2002

First Commerical Operations on the International Space Station

As part of NASA's mission of furthering the commercial development of space, the Space Product Development Office has sponsored the flight of seven commercial payloads to the International Space Station (ISS) during calendar year 2001. Most of these payloads, which are among the first users of this new laboratory, build upon successful commercial investigations that previously were restricted to the limited flight duration of the Space Shuttle. These commercial operations range from multi-media, in the form of Dreamtime, to biotechnology such as in Advanced Astroculture, to advanced materials such as Zeolite Crystal Growth. Industry investment in the commercial program has continued to remain high, while awaiting long term access to space, which the ISS provides. While the majority of early commercial use of the ISS is in the area of biotechnology, there is a significant shift towards commercial materials research over the next two years. In order to take fall advantage of the ISS, much of the commercial hardware is designed to be left on Station, while the Shuttle brings samples up and down. This not only makes good use of this valuable space resource, it has the added benefit of having commercial hardware available on the ISS for scientific users. In order to provide benefit to the entire NASA microgravity program, the scientific community on a space available basis can use a variety of commercial apparatus at very low cost. In addition to the solution crystal growth capability of Creosote Crystal Growth, in 2002 containerless processing will be available in the form of Space-DRUMS, and in 2003, thermophysical properties research can be performed in the Vulcan furnace. The first commercial operations on the ISS provides not only a much needed capability to the commercial development of space program, it also has the potential to augment the science program as well.

Nall, Mark E.↗

NASA NTRS1985

NASA mobile satellite program

A three phase development program for ground and space segment technologies which will enhance and enable the second and third generation mobile satellite systems (MSS) is outlined. Phase 1, called the Mobile Satellite Experiment (MSAT-X), is directed toward the development of ground segment technology needed for future MSS generations. Technology validation and preoperational experiments with other government agencies will be carried out during the two year period following launch. The satellite channel capacity needed to carry out these experiments will be obtained from industry under a barter type agreement in exchange for NASA provided launch services. Phase 2 will develop and flight test the multibeam spacecraft antenna technology needed to obtain substantial frequency reuse for second generation commercial systems. Industry will provide the antenna, and NASA will fly it on the Shuttle and test it in orbit. Phase 3 is similar to Phase 2 but will develop an even larger multibeam antenna and test it on the space station.

Knouse, G.↗