Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “data mining system”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 271 records · Page 15

2024 Nasa Lunabotics University Competition: Site Preparation With Bulk Regolith

Introduction: Lunabotics provides accredited institutions of higher learning students (vocational-technical, college, university) an opportunity to apply the NASA systems engineering process to design and build a prototype robot. This robot would be capable of performing the proposed operations on the Lunar surface in support of future Artemis mission goals. Lunabotics features a systems engineering design challenge to engage students in the next phase of hu-man space exploration supporting the Artemis missions. This two-semester event encourages students to design and build an autonomous or telerobotic robot designed to traverse the simulated Lunar surface and complete the assigned construction tasks. The number of teams accepted into this challenge is not predetermined but is based on the scores and overall quality of the Project Management Plans received and other factors. The culmination of the Lunabotics virtual challenge will be the design, build and operation of a functional prototype Lunar robot. Teams are required to submit the following: (1) Project Management Plan, (2) Systems Engineering Paper, a (3) STEM Engage-ment Report, and a (4) Proof of Life Video. This is an optional item, but to qualify for the grand prize a team must also submit a: (5) Presentation and Demonstration. Background: The NASA Lunabotics University Competition was first held in 2010 as a follow on to the NASA Regolith Excavation Challenge [1]. The high level of interest and participation from over 50 universities each year has led to a sustained annual competi-ion cadence: it has been held every May for the past 14 years [2,3]. Over 6,000 students have participated and been inspired to pursue Science, Technology, En-gineering and Mathematics careers (STEM). 2024 Competition: The necessary lunar surface tasks are evolving to meet the NASA Artemis Mission requirements. In the past Lunabotics challenges we gathered data to support Lunar mining for consuma-bles in the Lunar regolith. Now, in 2024, the task is to gather data on Lunar site preparation and construction by designing and building a robot that will traverse the chaotic Lunar terrain and construct a regolith-based berm. The goal is to build a berm structure which would be useful to the Artemis Mission for blast and ejecta protection during lunar landings and launches, shading cryogenic propellant tank farms, providing radiation protection around a nuclear power plant and other mission critical uses. Lunabotics will consist of three separate events this year. The first event is NASA’s Lunabotics Project Development Challenge, where teams submit various deliverables to be scored by judges. The second event will be the University of Central Florida (UCF) Lunabotics Qualification challenge, in the Exolith laboratory, where teams will put their de-signs to the test. The top ten scoring teams from the Qualification challenge are then invited to the third and final event, NASA’s Lunabotics On-Site Challenge at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This presentation will summarize the results and lessons learned from the NASA Lunabotics University Competition held in May 2024.

Lunabotics↗

An Update on the Lithium-Ion Cell Low-Earth-Orbit Verification Test Program

A Lithium-Ion Cell Low-Earth-Orbit Verification Test Program is being conducted by NASA Glenn Research Center to assess the performance of lithium-ion (Li-ion) cells over a wide range of low-Earth-orbit (LEO) conditions. The data generated will be used to build an empirical model for Li-ion batteries. The goal of the modeling will be to develop a tool to predict the performance and cycle life of Li-ion batteries operating at a specified set of mission conditions. Using this tool, mission planners will be able to design operation points of the battery system while factoring in mission requirements and the expected life and performance of the batteries. Test conditions for the program were selected via a statistical design of experiments to span a range of feasible operational conditions for LEO aerospace applications. The variables under evaluation are temperature, depth-of-discharge (DOD), and end-of-charge voltage (EOCV). The baseline matrix was formed by generating combinations from a set of three values for each variable. Temperature values are 10 C, 20 C and 30 C. Depth-of-discharge values are 20%, 30% and 40%. EOCV values are 3.85 V, 3.95 V, and 4.05 V. Test conditions for individual cells may vary slightly from the baseline test matrix depending upon the cell manufacturer s recommended operating conditions. Cells from each vendor are being evaluated at each of ten sets of test conditions. Cells from four cell manufacturers are undergoing life cycle tests. Life cycling on the first sets of cells began in September 2004. These cells consist of Saft 40 ampere-hour (Ah) cells and Lith ion 30 Ah cells. These cells have achieved over 10,000 cycles each, equivalent to about 20 months in LEO. In the past year, the test program has expanded to include the evaluation of Mine Safety Appliances (MSA) 50 Ah cells and ABSL battery modules. The MSA cells will begin life cycling in October 2006. The ABSL battery modules consist of commercial Sony hard carbon 18650 lithium-ion cells configured in series and parallel combinations to create nominal 14.4 volt, 3 Ah packs (4s-2p). These modules have accumulated approximately 3000 cycles. Results on the performance of the cells and modules will be presented in this paper. The life prediction and performance model for Li-ion cells in LEO will be built by analyzing the data statistically and performing regression analysis. Cells are being cycled to failure so that differences in performance trends that occur at different stages in the life of the cell can be observed and accurately modeled. Cell testing is being performed at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, IN.

Reid, Concha M.↗

Lunar Polar Ice: Methods for Mining the New Resource for Exploration

The presence of ice in permanently shadowed depressions near the lunar poles and determination of its properties will significantly influence both the near- and long-term prospects for lunar exploration and development. Since data from the Lunar Prospector spacecraft indicate that water ice is likely present (the instrument measures hydrogen strongly suggests the presence of water), it is important to understand how to extract it for beneficial use, as well as how to preserve it for scientific analysis. Two types of processes can be considered for the extraction of water ice from the lunar poles. In the first case, energy is transported into the shadowed regions, ice is constrain models of impacts on the lunar surface and processed in-situ, and water is transported out of the cold trap. In the second case, ice-containing regolith can be mined in the cold trap, transported outside the cold trap, and the ice extracted in a location with abundant solar energy. A series of conceptual implementations has been examined and criteria have been developed for the selection of systems and subsystems for further study.

Gustafson, Robert J.↗

An Ensemble Approach to Building Mercer Kernels with Prior Information

This paper presents a new methodology for automatic knowledge driven data mining based on the theory of Mercer Kernels, which are highly nonlinear symmetric positive definite mappings from the original image space to a very high, possibly dimensional feature space. we describe a new method called Mixture Density Mercer Kernels to learn kernel function directly from data, rather than using pre-defined kernels. These data adaptive kernels can encode prior knowledge in the kernel using a Bayesian formulation, thus allowing for physical information to be encoded in the model. Specifically, we demonstrate the use of the algorithm in situations with extremely small samples of data. We compare the results with existing algorithms on data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and demonstrate the method's superior performance against standard methods. The code for these experiments has been generated with the AUTOBAYES tool, which automatically generates efficient and documented C/C++ code from abstract statistical model specifications. The core of the system is a schema library which contains templates for learning and knowledge discovery algorithms like different versions of EM, or numeric optimization methods like conjugate gradient methods. The template instantiation is supported by symbolic-algebraic computations, which allows AUTOBAYES to find closed-form solutions and, where possible, to integrate them into the code.

Srivastava, Ashok N.↗

ISRU Potential Water Mine Sites; Preliminary Evaluation for NASA Artemis Campaign

The NASA Artemis Campaign aims to return to the Moon to maintain a sustainable presence [1], and In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU)is a key part of sustainability. The regions of interest for the Artemis campaign, as outlined in [1] and shown in Fig 1, are at Lunar the South Pole where water ice has been identified. The potential use of this water, and oxygen/hydrogen, for NASA and commercial applications such as refueling vehicles and power systems, and supplying life support consumables is one of the considerations the NASA Artemis team is using to evaluate these regions. As such, analyses are underway to evaluate the ISRU ice mining potential of these regions of interest. To do so, a set of ground rules for ISRU sites have been developed to align with current assumptions for customer needs, hardware capabilities, initially limited infrastructure, and lunar environments/terrain. The customer could be a lander, habitat, or other asset that makes use of ISRU product within the Artemis architecture. At this time, four of the regions of influence (the ‘western’ cluster in Fig. 1) have undergone preliminary ISRU evaluation. It should be noted that variety of other efforts have done similar evaluations of this nature with different assumptions or viewpoints, such as the most recent[2]. However, most evaluations focus on large permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) and craters due to orbital data resolution limitations, whereas early ice mining operations will likely occur in much smaller PSRs

In situ resource utilization↗

Design of a lunar propellant processing facility. NASA/USRA advanced program

Mankind's exploration of space will eventually lead to the establishment of a permanent human presence on the Moon. Essential to the economic viability of such an undertaking will be prudent utilization of indigenous lunar resources. The design of a lunar propellant processing system is presented. The system elements include facilities for ore processing, ice transportation, water splitting, propellant storage, personnel and materials transportation, human habitation, power generation, and communications. The design scenario postulates that ice is present in the lunar polar regions, and that an initial lunar outpost was established. Mining, ore processing, and water transportation operations are located in the polar regions. Water processing and propellant storage facilities are positioned near the equator. A general description of design operations is outlined below. Regolith containing the ice is mined from permanently-shaded polar craters. Water is separated from the ore using a microwave processing technique, and refrozen into projectiles for launch to the equatorial site via railgun. A mass-catching device retrieves the ice. This ice is processed using fractional distillation to remove impurities, and the purified liquid water is fed to an electrolytic cell that splits the water into vaporous hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen and oxygen are condensed and stored separately in a tank farm. Electric power for all operations is supplied by SP-100 nuclear reactors. Transportation of materials and personnel is accomplished primarily using chemical rockets. Modular living habitats are used which provide flexibility for the placement and number of personnel. A communications system consisting of lunar surface terminals, a lunar relay satellite, and terrestrial surface stations provides capabilities for continuous Moon-Moon and Moon-Earth transmissions of voice, picture, and data.

Batra, Rajesh↗

Experimental Determination of in Situ Utilization of Lunar Regolith for Thermal Energy Storage

A Lunar Thermal Energy from Regolith (LUTHER) experiment has been designed and fabricated at the NASA Lewis Research Center to determine the feasibility of using lunar soil as thermal energy storage media. The experimental apparatus includes an alumina ceramic canister (25.4 cm diameter by 45.7 cm length) which contains simulated lunar regolith, a heater (either radiative or conductive), 9 heat shields, a heat transfer cold jacket, and 19 type B platinum rhodium thermocouples. The simulated lunar regolith is a basalt, mined and processed by the University of Minnesota, that closely resembles the lunar basalt returned to earth by the Apollo missions. The experiment will test the effects of vacuum, particle size, and density on the thermophysical properties of the regolith. The properties include melt temperature (range), specific heat, thermal conductivity, and latent heat of storage. Two separate tests, using two different heaters, will be performed to study the effect of heating the system using radiative and conductive heat transfer. The physical characteristics of the melt pattern, material compatibility of the molten regolith, and the volatile gas emission will be investigated by heating a portion of the lunar regolith to its melting temperature (1435 K) in a 10(exp -4) pascal vacuum chamber, equipped with a gas spectrum analyzer. A finite differencing SINDA model was developed at NASA Lewis Research Center to predict the performance of the LUTHER experiment. The analytical results of the code will be compared with the experimental data generated by the LUTHER experiment. The code will predict the effects of vacuum, particle size, and density has on the heat transfer to the simulated regolith.

Richter, Scott W.↗

An Evaluation of Fractal Surface Measurement Methods for Characterizing Landscape Complexity from Remote-Sensing Imagery

The rapid increase in digital data volumes from new and existing sensors necessitates the need for efficient analytical tools for extracting information. We developed an integrated software package called ICAMS (Image Characterization and Modeling System) to provide specialized spatial analytical functions for interpreting remote sensing data. This paper evaluates the three fractal dimension measurement methods: isarithm, variogram, and triangular prism, along with the spatial autocorrelation measurement methods Moran's I and Geary's C, that have been implemented in ICAMS. A modified triangular prism method was proposed and implemented. Results from analyzing 25 simulated surfaces having known fractal dimensions show that both the isarithm and triangular prism methods can accurately measure a range of fractal surfaces. The triangular prism method is most accurate at estimating the fractal dimension of higher spatial complexity, but it is sensitive to contrast stretching. The variogram method is a comparatively poor estimator for all of the surfaces, particularly those with higher fractal dimensions. Similar to the fractal techniques, the spatial autocorrelation techniques are found to be useful to measure complex images but not images with low dimensionality. These fractal measurement methods can be applied directly to unclassified images and could serve as a tool for change detection and data mining.

Lam, Nina Siu-Ngan↗

NASA Kennedy Space Center: Contributions to Sea Turtle Science and Conservation

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is a United States (US) federal agency that oversees US space exploration and aeronautical research. NASA's primary launch site, Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is located along the east coast of Florida, on Cape Canaveral and the western Atlantic Ocean. The natural environment within KSC's large land boundaries, not only functions as an extensive safety buffer-area, it performs simultaneously as a wildlife refuge and a national seashore. In the early 1960s, NASA was developing KSC for rocket launches and the US was establishing an awareness of, and commitment to protecting the environment. The US began creating regulations that required the consideration of the environment when taking action on federal land or with federal funds. The timing of the US Endangered Species Act (1973), the US National Environmental Policy Act (1972), coincided with the planning and implementation of the US Space Shuttle Program. This resulted in the first efforts to evaluate the impacts of space launch operation operations on waterways, air quality, habitats, and wildlife. The first KSC fauna and flora baseline studies were predominantly performed by University of Central Florida (then Florida Technological University). Numerous species of relative importance were observed and sea turtles were receiving regulatory review and protection as surveys by Dr. L Ehrhart (UCF) from 1973-1978 described turtles nesting along the KSC beaches and foraging in the KSC lagoon systems. These data were used in the first NASA Environmental Impact Statement for the Space Transportation System (shuttle program) in 1980. In 1982, NASA began a long term ecological monitoring program with contracted scientists on site. This included efforts to track sea turtle status and trends at KSC and maintain protective measures for these species. Many studies and collaborations have occurred on KSC over these last 45 years with agencies (USFWS, NOAA, NAVY), students, and universities (UCF, University of Toronto, Texas A&M, UF). This presentation will review the various studies and collaborations on sea turtles at KSC that include: nest distributions and success, stranding network development, aerial survey testing for nest counts, predator control assessments, the earliest baseline blood chemistry health determinations on nesting females, stress hormones in nesting females, multi-year study of hatchling sex ratios, genetics, species composition, abundance and distribution of in-water juveniles, turtle cold stun response, exterior lighting impacts and control, and satellite tag tracking of post-nesting turtles in the vicinity of near shore shoals and sand mining sites. Through these studies, monitoring, and recommendations, KSC has provided excellent stewardship and protection of the local environment. While conducting its space program mission, KSC has also made significant contributions of information for agencies charged with the conservation and management of these species

Provancha, Jane A.↗

Occupant Protection at NASA

This slide presentation reviews NASA's efforts to arrive at protection of occupants of the ORION space craft on landing. An Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) has been developed, it is an anatomically-based, consensus-derived, global severity scoring system that classifies each injury by body region according to its relative importance on a 6-point ordinal scale. It reviews an Operationmally Relevant Injury Scale (ORIS), a classification methodology, and shows charts that detail the results of applying this ORIS to the injury databases. One chart uses NASCAR injury classification. It discusses providing a context for the level of risk inherent in the Orion landings in terms that people understand and have a sense for. For example is the risk of injury during an Orion landing roughly the same, better or worse than: An aircraft carrier landing, a NASCAR crash, or a helicopter crash, etc? The data for NASCAR and Indy Racing league (IRL) racing crash and injury data was reviewed. The risk from the Air Force, Navy, and Army injury data was also reviewed. Past NASA and the Soyuz programs injury risks are also reviewed. The work is an attempt to formulate a recommendation to the Orion Project for an acceptable level of injury risk associated with Nominal and Off-Nominal landing cases. The presentation also discusses the data mining and use of the data to Validate NASA Operationally-Relevant Injury Scale (NORIS) / Military Operationally-Relevant Injury Scale (MORIS), developing injury risk criteria, the types of data that are required, NASCAR modeling techniques and crash data, and comparison with the Brinkley model. The development of injury risk curves for each biodynamic response parameter is discussed. One of the main outcomes of this work is to establish an accurate Automated Test Dummy (ATD) that can be used to measure human tolerances.

Somers, Jeffrey↗

Geotechnical Tests on Asteroid Simulant Orgueil

In the last 100 years, the global population has more than quadrupled to over seven billion people. At the same time, the demand for food and standard of living has been increasing which has amplified the global water use by nearly eight times from approximately 500 to 4000 cu km per yr from 1900 to 2010. With the increasing concern to sustain the growing population on Earth it is necessary to seek other approaches to ensure that our planet will have resources for generations to come. In recent years, the advancement of space travel and technology has allowed the idea of mining asteroids with resources closer to becoming a reality. During the duration of the internship at NASA Kennedy Space Center, several geotechnical tests were conducted on BP-1 lunar simulant and asteroid simulant Orgueil. The tests that were conducted on BP-1 was to practice utilizing the equipment that will be used on the asteroid simulant and the data from those tests will be omitted from report. Understanding the soil mechanics of asteroid simulant Orgueil will help provide basis for future technological advances and prepare scientists for the conditions they may encounter when mining asteroids becomes reality in the distant future. Distinct tests were conducted to determine grain size distribution, unconsolidated density, and maximum density. Once the basic properties are known, the asteroid simulant will be altered to different levels of compaction using a vibrator table to see how compaction affects the density. After different intervals of vibration compaction, a miniature vane shear test will be conducted. Laboratory vane shear testing is a reliable tool to investigate strength anisotropy in the vertical and horizontal directions of a very soft to stiff saturated fine-grained clayey soil. This test will provide us with a rapid determination of the shear strength on the undisturbed compacted regolith. The results of these tests will shed light on how much torque is necessary to drill through the surface of an asteroid. Most of the known asteroids are believed to be left over material during the formation of the solar system that never accreted to form planets. Asteroids can be found in several groups such as Trojan Asteroids, Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) and the main asteroid belt. The Trojan Asteroids orbit the 4th and 5th Lagrange points of major planets in the Solar System while the NEA's have orbits that are close to and sometimes intersect with Earths orbit and the Main Asteroid Belt which is found between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter. Gravitational perturbations can alter the orbit of asteroids in the Main Asteroid Belt causing them to move closer to earth causing them to become in the NEA class.

resources↗

RESOLVE - Starting Point for Partnerships in Lunar and Mars Resource Characterization

The mystery and controversy surrounding the possibility of finding water/ice at the lunar poles of the Moon based on the interpretation of neutron spectrometer data from Lunar Prospector and radar data from Clementine raises questions that both Science and the Human Exploration proponents want answered. From the Science perspective, the determination of lunar volatiles and in particular the increased hydrogen concentration detected at the lunar poles was identified as an important objectives for lunar exploration and understanding the history of the Moon, Sun, and the solar system. From the Human Exploration perspective, the potential for large concentrations of accessible water opens up possibilities for utilizing in-situ resources, known as In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), to implement a sustained and affordable human exploration program of the Moon and beyond through production of propellants, fuel cell reagents, and life support consumables for lunar surface operations and mobility, and Earth-Moon transportation. Both the Science and Human Exploration proponents agree that a mission to the lunar poles to obtain ground truth data is the only means to conclusively answer the questions of whether water/ice exists, how much, what form, and where did it come from. In 2005, NASA initiated the Regolith and Environment Science & Oxygen and Lunar Volatiles Extraction (RESOLVE) project, and is currently developing hardware under the NASA Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP). The purpose of the project was to begin developing technologies and operations that would answer the fundamental science questions, such as What resources are available on the Moon, where are they, what form, and where did they come from? as well as critical engineering questions, such as How will we mine these resources, what chemical extraction processes are the most practical and efficient, and what are the engineering challenges to be faced in this environment? .

Sanders, Gerald B.↗

Climate Scenarios for the NASA / USAID SERVIR Project: Challenges for Multiple Planning Horizons

SERVIR, an acronym meaning "to serve" in Spanish, is a joint venture between NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) which provides satellite-based Earth observation data, modeling, and science applications to help developing nations in Central America, East Africa and the Himalayas improve environmental decision making. Anticipating climate variability / climate change impacts has now become an important component of the SERVIR efforts to build capacity in these regions. Uncertainty in hydrometeorological components of climate variations and exposure to extreme events across scales from weather to climate are of particular concern. We report here on work to construct scenarios or outlooks that are being developed as input drivers for decision support systems (DSSs) in a variety of settings. These DSSs are being developed jointly by a broad array NASA Applied Science Team (AST) Investigations and user communities in the three SERVIR Hub Regions, Central America, East Africa and the Himalayas. Issues span hydrologic / water resources modeling, agricultural productivity, and forest carbon reserves. The scenarios needed for these efforts encompass seasonal forecasts, interannual outlooks, and likely decadal / multi-decadal trends. Providing these scenarios across the different AST efforts enables some level of integration in considering regional responses to climate events. We will discuss a number of challenges in developing this continuum of scenarios including the identification and "mining" of predictability, addressing multiple continental regions, issues of downscaling global model integrations to regional / local applications (i.e. hydrologic and crop modeling). We compare / contrast the role of the U.S. National Multi- Model Experiment initiative in seasonal forecasts and the CMIP-5 climate model experiments in supporting these efforts. Examples of these scenarios, their use, and an assessment of their utility as well as limitations will be presented.

Robertson, Franklin R.↗

Analyzing Double Delays at Newark Liberty International Airport

When weather or congestion impacts the National Airspace System, multiple different Traffic Management Initiatives can be implemented, sometimes with unintended consequences. One particular inefficiency that is commonly identified is in the interaction between Ground Delay Programs (GDPs) and time based metering of internal departures, or TMA scheduling. Internal departures under TMA scheduling can take large GDP delays, followed by large TMA scheduling delays, because they cannot be easily fitted into the overhead stream. In this paper we examine the causes of these double delays through an analysis of arrival operations at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) from June to August 2010. Depending on how the double delay is defined between 0.3 percent and 0.8 percent of arrivals at EWR experienced double delays in this period. However, this represents between 21 percent and 62 percent of all internal departures in GDP and TMA scheduling. A deep dive into the data reveals that two causes of high internal departure scheduling delays are upstream flights making up time between their estimated departure clearance times (EDCTs) and entry into time based metering, which undermines the sequencing and spacing underlying the flight EDCTs, and high demand on TMA, when TMA airborne metering delays are high. Data mining methods (currently) including logistic regression, support vector machines and K-nearest neighbors are used to predict the occurrence of double delays and high internal departure scheduling delays with accuracies up to 0.68. So far, key indicators of double delay and high internal departure scheduling delay are TMA virtual runway queue size, and the degree to which estimated runway demand based on TMA estimated times of arrival has changed relative to the estimated runway demand based on EDCTs. However, more analysis is needed to confirm this.

traffic management advisor↗

Applications of low temperature CO-oxidation catalysts to breathable gases

Modifications of tin oxide/precious metal catalysts described for use in CO2 lasers have also been developed for use in other applications; namely, as low temperature CO oxidation components in fire escape hoods/masks for mines, aircrafts, hotels, and offices and in sealed environments, such as hyperbaric chambers and submarines. Tin oxide/precious metal catalysts have been prepared on a variety of high surface area cloth substrates for application in fire escape hoods. These show high and stable CO oxidation capability (10 to the 4th power ppm CO reduced to 10 to the 1st power ppm CO) at GHSV of 37,000 h(-1) with water saturated inlet gas at body heat (37 C) and below. Water vapor plays an important role in the surface state/performance of tin oxide catalyst. Water-resistant formulations have been produced by the introduction of transition metal promoters. Tin oxide/precious metal catalysts have also been developed for CO oxidation in the North Sea diving environment. These are currently in use in a variety of hyperbaric chambers and diving vehicles. Ambient temperature operation and resistance to atmospheric water vapor have been demonstrated, and as a result, they offer a viable alternative to hopcalite or heated catalyst systems. A new range of non-tin oxide based low temperature CO oxidation catalysts is described. They are based on reducible metal oxides promoted with previous metals. Preliminary data on selected materials in the form of both cloth artifacts and shaped pellets are presented. They are expected to be applicable both to the breathable gas application area and to CO2 lasers.

Noordally, Ehsan↗

Analyzing Double Delays at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)

When weather or congestion impacts the National Airspace System, multiple different Traffic Management Initiatives can be implemented, sometimes with unintended consequences. One particular perceived inequity that is commonly identified is in the interaction between Ground Delay Programs (GDPs) and time based scheduling of internal departures by the Traffic Management Advisor (TMA) (now operationally superseded by the FAA's the Time-Based Flow Management system). Internal departures under TMA scheduling can take large GDP delays, followed by large TMA scheduling delays, because they cannot easily fit into the arrival flow at the runway. In this paper we examine the causes of these double delays through an analysis of arrival operations at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) from June to August 2010. TMA scheduling delays are found to be generally higher than TMA airborne metering delays, regardless of prior GDP delays. Depending on how the double delay is defined, between 42 and 62 of all internal departures in GDP and TMA scheduling experienced double delays in this period. A deep dive into the data reveals that contributors to double delays include upstream flights departing before their Expect Departure Clearance Times (EDCTs); differences in the rates used for setting EDCTs and TMA Scheduled Times of Arrival; differences in the arrival demand expected based on EDCTs and the arrival demand entering TMA; and shorter en route times between takeoff and entry into TMA than assumed in the calculation of flight EDCTs, all of which undermine the sequencing and spacing underlying flight EDCTs. Double delays are also found to coincide with periods in which the virtual runway arrival queue being served by a TMA is large, there are periods of high demand relative to capacity, and there are high airborne metering delays. Data mining techniques are used to confirm that each of these factors contribute to the occurrence of double delay andor high internal departure scheduling delay across three months of data from June to August 2010. Predictors of the occurrence of double delay and high TMA scheduling delay are built using logistic regression, providing prediction accuracies of 69 and 73, respectively.

traffic flow management↗

NASA Kennedy Space Center Swamp Works: Innovation Methods for Advanced Research & Technology Development

Kennedy Space Center’s (KSC) Swamp Works, provides government and commercial space ventures with the technologies required for working and living on the surfaces of the Moon or other planets and bodies in our solar system. The Swamp Works team establishes agile, innovative and cost effective exploration mission solutions through leveraging of partnerships across NASA, industry and academia. Concepts start small and build up efficiently, with lean development processes and a hands on approach. Testing is performed in early stages to drive design improvements and progressively increase Technology Readiness Levels (TRL). Swamp Works provides concepts, architecture studies and trades, designs, data, technology development, technology demonstration hardware, flight hardware, testing, flight support and knowledge in support of the development of surface systems. This paper will summarize the state of the art in innovation methods, and it will compare the various other methods to how innovation is accomplished at the NASA KSC Swamp Works. Since 2013, Swamp Works has developed a wide variety of technologies, and has demonstrated viable methods for innovation while also collaborating with other government agencies, industry and academia to support space exploration. These methods focus on agile design, test, build iterations where each cycle of prototyping results in improved knowledge and designs. Failures are tole rated in the early stages of these iterations, since the overall development cycle is shorter more efficient and cost effective by retiring risk early in the cycle. Momentum is maintained and the development teams remain highly motivated by the high level of team work, technical excellence, engagement and creative freedom.

Robotic Mining↗

NASA Kennedy Space Center Swamp Works 10th Anniversary: Innovative Research & Technology Development Summary

Kennedy Space Center’s (KSC) Swamp Works, provides government and commercial space ventures with the technologies required for working and living on the surfaces of the Moon or other planets and bodies in our solar system. The Swamp Works team establishes rapid, innovative and cost-effective exploration mission solutions through leveraging of partnerships across NASA, industry and academia. Concepts start small and build up fast, with lean development processes and a hands-on approach. Testing is performed in early stages to drive design improvements and progressively increase Technology Readiness Levels (TRL). Swamp Works provides concepts, architecture studies and trades, designs, data, technology development, technology demonstration hardware, flight hardware, testing, flight support and knowledge in support of the development of surface systems. It consists of several teams with associated laboratories and test capabilities. The Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations (GMRO) Laboratory and the Electrostatics and Surface Physics Laboratory (ESPL) are co-located in the Engineering Development Lab (EDL) facility high bay. The Applied Chemistry Lab (ACL) is in an adjacent facility and other KSC labs are being influenced by the innovation methods pioneered at the Swamp Works. The Swamp Works was founded in January 2013 by a group of scientists and engineers at KSC with the over-arching vision of expanding humanity and civilization into the solar system by the use of space resources via advanced technology. Ultimately, this will create a solar system economy that will improve the human condition due to the abundance of energy and resources. This paper will summarize the projects and technology development that have been performed by the Swamp Works to celebrate its 10th Anniversary of innovation success.

Robotic Mining↗