Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Quality Management 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 289 records · Page 16

Space Transportation System Cargo projects: inertial stage/spacecraft integration plan. Volume 1: Management plan

The Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Management System for the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) - spacecraft processing from KSC arrival through launch is described. The roles and responsibilities of the agencies and test team organizations involved in IUS-S/C processing at KSC for non-Department of Defense missions are described. Working relationships are defined with respect to documentation preparation, coordination and approval, schedule development and maintenance, test conduct and control, configuration management, quality control and safety. The policy regarding the use of spacecraft contractor test procedures, IUS contractor detailed operating procedures and KSC operations and maintenance instructions is defined. Review and approval requirements for each documentation system are described.

Source record↗

Use of Soft Computing Technologies for a Qualitative and Reliable Engine Control System for Propulsion Systems

The problem to be addressed in this paper is to explore how the use of Soft Computing Technologies (SCT) could be employed to improve overall vehicle system safety, reliability, and rocket engine performance by development of a qualitative and reliable engine control system (QRECS). Specifically, this will be addressed by enhancing rocket engine control using SCT, innovative data mining tools, and sound software engineering practices used in Marshall's Flight Software Group (FSG). The principle goals for addressing the issue of quality are to improve software management, software development time, software maintenance, processor execution, fault tolerance and mitigation, and nonlinear control in power level transitions. The intent is not to discuss any shortcomings of existing engine control methodologies, but to provide alternative design choices for control, implementation, performance, and sustaining engineering, all relative to addressing the issue of reliability. The approaches outlined in this paper will require knowledge in the fields of rocket engine propulsion (system level), software engineering for embedded flight software systems, and soft computing technologies (i.e., neural networks, fuzzy logic, data mining, and Bayesian belief networks); some of which are briefed in this paper. For this effort, the targeted demonstration rocket engine testbed is the MC-1 engine (formerly FASTRAC) which is simulated with hardware and software in the Marshall Avionics & Software Testbed (MAST) laboratory that currently resides at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, building 4476, and is managed by the Avionics Department. A brief plan of action for design, development, implementation, and testing a Phase One effort for QRECS is given, along with expected results. Phase One will focus on development of a Smart Start Engine Module and a Mainstage Engine Module for proper engine start and mainstage engine operations. The overall intent is to demonstrate that by employing soft computing technologies, the quality and reliability of the overall scheme to engine controller development is further improved and vehicle safety is further insured. The final product that this paper proposes is an approach to development of an alternative low cost engine controller that would be capable of performing in unique vision spacecraft vehicles requiring low cost advanced avionics architectures for autonomous operations from engine pre-start to engine shutdown.

Trevino, Luis↗

Data reduction, management, and analysis software for CID

In an overview of the Data Reduction System, three major steps are examined. First, the raw data tapes were selected from the onboard recorders. These tapes should provide the best quality data for the data reduction software system. These tapes contained 352 channels of data, plus the monitor channels recorded in 8 bit Pulsed Coded Modulation (PCM) words. The next step consists of transcribing the PCM tapes from 8 bit serial digital data to 8 bit parallel digital data. This puts the data in the correct format for processing. The transcription process was accomplished here at LaRC in the Central Data Transportation Facility (CDTF). The last step in this 3 step process is to process the data through the reduction system developed for the Impact Dynamic Research Facility in the early part of 1980. Processing system criteria, system interface routines, and engineering units program that reads digitized data from tapes, and file management programs are discussed.

Davis, C. W.↗

The Monotonic Lagrangian Grid for Rapid Air-Traffic Evaluation

The Air Traffic Monotonic Lagrangian Grid (ATMLG) is presented as a tool to evaluate new air traffic system concepts. The model, based on an algorithm called the Monotonic Lagrangian Grid (MLG), can quickly sort, track, and update positions of many aircraft, both on the ground (at airports) and in the air. The underlying data structure is based on the MLG, which is used for sorting and ordering positions and other data needed to describe N moving bodies and their interactions. Aircraft that are close to each other in physical space are always near neighbors in the MLG data arrays, resulting in a fast nearest-neighbor interaction algorithm that scales as N. Recent upgrades to ATMLG include adding blank place-holders within the MLG data structure, which makes it possible to dynamically change the MLG size and also improves the quality of the MLG grid. Additional upgrades include adding FAA flight plan data, such as way-points and arrival and departure times from the Enhanced Traffic Management System (ETMS), and combining the MLG with the state-of-the-art strategic and tactical conflict detection and resolution algorithms from the NASA-developed Stratway software. In this paper, we present results from our early efforts to couple ATMLG with the Stratway software, and we demonstrate that it can be used to quickly simulate air traffic flow for a very large ETMS dataset.

Kaplan, Carolyn↗

NASA Delay Tolerant Networks: Operational, Evolving, an Ready for Expansion

The future of humanity’s presence beyond Earth depends on the successful commercialization of space. For commercialization to succeed, companies need cost-efficient architectures to support their business models and minimize risks for human capital, design, development, and operations. An ongoing challenge to any space enterprise is the reality that terrestrial network technologies are insufficient to provide reliable communications between assets in space. Whether you need to ensure your valuable data is safely transmitted to the ground or reliably delivered between platforms in orbit, ensuring data integrity over intermittent communication links is a necessity. Current solutions to space communications rely heavily on manual recording, storing, and retrieval of data from spacecraft. The current standard in space communication protocols, Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) Space Packet standard, is reliant on inflexible network architectures based around mission-critical infrastructure to ensure data delivery. However, by automating the recording, storing, retrieval, and verification of data with Delay Tolerant Networks (DTN), the operator is freed from the dependence on manual data management and expensive mission critical infrastructure. NASA has been developing delay tolerant systems since the late 1990’s. Multiple DTN implementations have been established during that time, each suited to different use cases. Most notably, the DTN deployment for the International Space Station (ISS) includes demonstration of two DTN technologies: Interplanetary Overlay Network (ION) and Delay Tolerant Network Marshall Enterprise (DTNME). Beyond ISS, there are even more NASA DTN deployments being considered. Now that DTN implementations are maturing, it is appropriate to reflect upon these decades of work, review the integration and performance of the existing ISS deployment, and explore the future possibilities for DTN deployment industry-wide. The ISS DTN deployment is a complex architecture consisting of different DTN implementations for the onboard and ground network environments. The ION DTN implementation is being used in the on-board network. The Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC) DTN implementation, DTNME, is used by the ground network supporting ISS and will soon be a second onboard gateway too. The two implementations work cooperatively to provide high fidelity data services to flight operations users and payload developers across the globe. Though the two implementations yield a quality service, limitations are evident. Data rate, data storage, and device management are constrained by the services themselves and the complex nature of the deployment. Evolution of operations concepts will improve system capabilities and stability, but significant improvement will require additional development to the implementations themselves and to the overall deployment architecture. Taking advantage of the ongoing development and operation of the ISS DTN service will be central to the success of the future evolutions of NASA DTN deployments while demonstrating the benefits of DTN’s low-cost reliable data communication protocols for the growing commercial space industry. A broad effort on DTN integration and support is necessary to promote expansion beyond existing applications. NASA is developing several useful DTN implementations across a number of different systems: ION, DTNME, High-Rate DTN (HDTN), Bundle Protocol Library (BPLib), and others. To prevent fragmentation, DTN implementation teams need to communicate, collaborate, and integrate with one another to build a solid operational foundation for new DTN deployments. The establishment of a group that can assist new DTN users with understanding the purpose of each DTN implementation, provide best practices, and serve as a general knowledge base is paramount. Potential use of DTN on Gateway and other future NASA missions further drives the need for streamlined communication between DTN implementation teams. A well-integrated and highly engaged NASA DTN working group should help provide system architects the best DTN solutions for future commercial space efforts. This paper will first review the history of DTN implementations, explore the shortcoming of current space networking solutions given available limits in technology, and therefore establish the need for Delay Tolerant Networking in space communications. Secondly, the authors will explore NASA’s array of DTN implementations and highlight their usefulness to space applications. Thirdly, this paper will establish general DTN implementation distinguishing factors. Fourthly, the authors will discuss attempts to create a generic DTN comparison matrix, and the authors will review potential future topics in DTN innovation and collaboration, highlighting several key future efforts. Finally, this paper will describe how the institution of a NASA DTN Working Group will benefit DTN adoption across the governmental and commercial space sector. The goal of this paper is to encourage enthusiasm for DTN, share strategies for improving DTN on both current and future applications, promote the collaboration of DTN implementation groups within the international space operations community, and open the conversations about DTN, priorities, complexities, and innovation to the wider spaceflight industry.

DTN↗

NASA Delay Tolerant Networks: Operational, Evolving, an Ready for Expansion

The future of humanity’s presence beyond Earth depends on the successful commercialization of space. For commercialization to succeed, companies need cost-efficient architectures to support their business models and minimize risks for human capital, design, development, and operations. An ongoing challenge to any space enterprise is the reality that terrestrial network technologies are insufficient to provide reliable communications between assets in space. Whether you need to ensure your valuable data is safely transmitted to the ground or reliably delivered between platforms in orbit, ensuring data integrity over intermittent communication links is a necessity. Current solutions to space communications rely heavily on manual recording, storing, and retrieval of data from spacecraft. The current standard in space communication protocols, Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) Space Packet standard, is reliant on inflexible network architectures based around mission-critical infrastructure to ensure data delivery. However, by automating the recording, storing, retrieval, and verification of data with Delay Tolerant Networks (DTN), the operator is freed from the dependence on manual data management and expensive mission critical infrastructure. NASA has been developing delay tolerant systems since the late 1990’s. Multiple DTN implementations have been established during that time, each suited to different use cases. Most notably, the DTN deployment for the International Space Station (ISS) includes demonstration of two DTN technologies: Interplanetary Overlay Network (ION) and Delay Tolerant Network Marshall Enterprise (DTNME). Beyond ISS, there are even more NASA DTN deployments being considered. Now that DTN implementations are maturing, it is appropriate to reflect upon these decades of work, review the integration and performance of the existing ISS deployment, and explore the future possibilities for DTN deployment industry-wide. The ISS DTN deployment is a complex architecture consisting of different DTN implementations for the onboard and ground network environments. The ION DTN implementation is being used in the on-board network. The Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC) DTN implementation, DTNME, is used by the ground network supporting ISS and will soon be a second onboard gateway too. The two implementations work cooperatively to provide high fidelity data services to flight operations users and payload developers across the globe. Though the two implementations yield a quality service, limitations are evident. Data rate, data storage, and device management are constrained by the services themselves and the complex nature of the deployment. Evolution of operations concepts will improve system capabilities and stability, but significant improvement will require additional development to the implementations themselves and to the overall deployment architecture. Taking advantage of the ongoing development and operation of the ISS DTN service will be central to the success of the future evolutions of NASA DTN deployments while demonstrating the benefits of DTN’s low-cost reliable data communication protocols for the growing commercial space industry. A broad effort on DTN integration and support is necessary to promote expansion beyond existing applications. NASA is developing several useful DTN implementations across a number of different systems: ION, DTNME, High-Rate DTN (HDTN), Bundle Protocol Library (BPLib), and others. To prevent fragmentation, DTN implementation teams need to communicate, collaborate, and integrate with one another to build a solid operational foundation for new DTN deployments. The establishment of a group that can assist new DTN users with understanding the purpose of each DTN implementation, provide best practices, and serve as a general knowledge base is paramount. Potential use of DTN on Gateway and other future NASA missions further drives the need for streamlined communication between DTN implementation teams. A well-integrated and highly engaged NASA DTN working group should help provide system architects the best DTN solutions for future commercial space efforts. This paper will first review the history of DTN implementations, explore the shortcoming of current space networking solutions given available limits in technology, and therefore establish the need for Delay Tolerant Networking in space communications. Secondly, the authors will explore NASA’s array of DTN implementations and highlight their usefulness to space applications. Thirdly, this paper will establish general DTN implementation distinguishing factors. Fourthly, the authors will discuss attempts to create a generic DTN comparison matrix, and the authors will review potential future topics in DTN innovation and collaboration, highlighting several key future efforts. Finally, this paper will describe how the institution of a NASA DTN Working Group will benefit DTN adoption across the governmental and commercial space sector. The goal of this paper is to encourage enthusiasm for DTN, share strategies for improving DTN on both current and future applications, promote the collaboration of DTN implementation groups within the international space operations community, and open the conversations about DTN, priorities, complexities, and innovation to the wider spaceflight industry.

DTN↗

System Enhancements for Mechanical Inspection Processes

Quality inspection of parts is a major component to any project that requires hardware implementation. Keeping track of all of the inspection jobs is essential to having a smooth running process. By using HTML, the programming language ColdFusion, and the MySQL database, I created a web-based job management system for the 170 Mechanical Inspection Group that will replace the Microsoft Access based management system. This will improve the ways inspectors and the people awaiting inspection view and keep track of hardware as it is in the inspection process. In the end, the management system should be able to insert jobs into a queue, place jobs in and out of a bonded state, pre-release bonded jobs, and close out inspection jobs.

inspection processes↗

Space transportation main engine reliability and safety

Viewgraphs are used to illustrate the reliability engineering and aerospace safety of the Space Transportation Main Engine (STME). A technology developed is called Total Quality Management (TQM). The goal is to develop a robust design. Reducing process variability produces a product with improved reliability and safety. Some engine system design characteristics are identified which improves reliability.

Monk, Jan C.↗

Bioburden control for Space Station Freedom's Ultrapure Water System

Bioburden control is one of the challenges for the Ultrapure Water System on Space Station Freedom. Bioburden control must enable the system to deliver water with a low bacterial count as well as maintain biological contamination at a manageable level, to permit continued production of quality water. Ozone has been chosen as the primary means of Bioburden control. Planned tests to determine the effectiveness of ozone on free-floating microbes and biofilms are described.

Snodgrass, Donald W.↗

Information Management Workflow and Tools Enabling Multiscale Modeling Within ICME Paradigm

With the increased emphasis on reducing the cost and time to market of new materials, the need for analytical tools that enable the virtual design and optimization of materials throughout their processing - internal structure - property - performance envelope, along with the capturing and storing of the associated material and model information across its lifecycle, has become critical. This need is also fueled by the demands for higher efficiency in material testing; consistency, quality and traceability of data; product design; engineering analysis; as well as control of access to proprietary or sensitive information. Fortunately, material information management systems and physics-based multiscale modeling methods have kept pace with the growing user demands. Herein, recent efforts to establish workflow for and demonstrate a unique set of web application tools for linking NASA GRC's Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) Granta MI database schema and NASA GRC's Integrated multiscale Micromechanics Analysis Code (ImMAC) software toolset are presented. The goal is to enable seamless coupling between both test data and simulation data, which is captured and tracked automatically within Granta MI®, with full model pedigree information. These tools, and this type of linkage, are foundational to realizing the full potential of ICME, in which materials processing, microstructure, properties, and performance are coupled to enable application-driven design and optimization of materials and structures.

Materials Engineering↗

An Advanced Open-Source Platform for Air Quality Analysis, Visualization, and Prediction

Ambient air pollution is the largest environmental health risk factor, leading to several million premature deaths globally per year. The challenge of combating poor air quality is exacerbated by growing urban populations, changing emissions, and a warming climate. While there have been many advances monitoring and modeling of atmospheric composition, reflected in the dramatic increase in archived Earth Observations, there is no single measurement or method that alone can provide an accurate depiction of the entire atmosphere. The rapidly growing collections of observational and modeling data require us to be smarter about what data to include, and how such data is used. In recent years, NASA has invested significantly in advancing the concepts for Analytics Collaborative Framework (ACF) [5] and New Observing Strategies (NOS) [4] to tackle our software infrastructure need for harmonized data management and dynamic acquisition of diverse measurements for on-demand, interactive, multivariate analysis, and access [3]. It is not enough to have a big data, standalone analytics solution; it is critical that we start integrating data from remote sensing, modeling, and in-situ networks in a harmonized manner that enables timely and data-driven decision-making for air quality management. This work presents the design and development of an Air Quality Analytics Collaborative Framework (AQ ACF), as part of NASA’s Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) effort, to establish a data, machine-learning, and numerically driven platform for air quality analysis, visualization, and prediction.

Liu, Qian↗

Decision Support Systems for Research and Management in Advanced Life Support

Decision support systems have been implemented in many applications including strategic planning for battlefield scenarios, corporate decision making for business planning, production planning and control systems, and recommendation generators like those on Amazon.com(Registered TradeMark). Such tools are reviewed for developing a similar tool for NASA's ALS Program. DSS are considered concurrently with the development of the OPIS system, a database designed for chronicling of research and development in ALS. By utilizing the OPIS database, it is anticipated that decision support can be provided to increase the quality of decisions by ALS managers and researchers.

Rodriquez, Luis F.↗

Supporting Aquaculture in the Chesapeake Bay Using Artificial Intelligence to Detect Poor Water Quality with Remote Sensing

Reliable information on water quality is not currently available at the space and time scales that are required for aquaculture and other resource management needs. For example, shellfish growing areas maybe impacted by harmful algal blooms or runoff from land that increases turbidity, lowers salinity, or introduces contaminants. Shellfish resource managers in the Chesapeake Bay are especially concerned with sources of bacteria from land such as failing onsite waste systems, failing wastewater infrastructure, and concentrated animal feeding operations. There is an urgent need for remote sensing of water quality indicators beyond chlorophyll-a and suspended sediments to augment field sampling programs. Artificial Intelligence trained with simultaneous in situ and satellite observations is explored in preparation for future hyperspectral satellite missions, which offer potential to detect additional water quality indicators not previously possible. This first step identifies and develops a method to harmonize disparate, unlinked aquatic datasets to derive information about where water quality is likely degraded.

Stephanie Schollaert Uz↗

Harnessing Systems Engineering Methodology in Using Earth Science Research Data for Real Applications

For the last three decades, Earth science remote sensing technologies have been providing an enormous amount of useful data and information serving to broaden our understanding of the home planet as a system. NASA's Earth science program has deployed about 18 complex satellites and is in the process of defining and launching multiple observing systems in this decade. At the same time, the European Community and many other countries such as Russia, France, India, Japan, and China have also significantly contributed to Earth science research. To date, the majority of such efforts have concentrated on expanding our scientific understanding of the multiple nonlinear and chaotic processes of Earth's behavior. In recent years, legislators and stakeholders have put serious pressure on the science community to devote more attention to making use of scientific results for societal benefit. For instance, there are a number of areas such as energy forecasting, aviation safety, agricultural efficiency, disaster management, air quality and public health that can directly take advantage of Earth science results to analyze and predict large scale problems and conditions. This is becoming even more important now that we live in a global economy interconnected via the internet and transportation systems; regional environmental conditions can have far reaching impact across continental boundaries. These factors dictate requirements for global data that can help us assess and control the devastating problems of famine, water resources, wildfires, human health and more. To do this requires a serious, organized, and systematic approach that transfers fundamental research products to the applied sciences domain. This paper presents a systems engineering and management process that can effectively make such transfer of data to the user community. Examples are presented on how the above decision making framework can help in solving critical problems such as the spread of vector borne diseases, forecasts of harmful algal blooms as well as forest fires and wildfires, and the intercontinental transport of dust storms and pollution.

Habib, Shahid↗

Zero Emission Cargo Transport (ZECT) II Demonstration: South Coast Air Quality Management District (Final Report)

The South Coast Air Quality Management District (South Coast AQMD), California Air Resources Board (CARB) and Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) — the agencies responsible for preparing the State Implementation Plan required under the federal Clean Air Act — have agreed that attainment of federal air quality standards for the region will require a transition to the broad use of zero and near-zero emission energy sources in cars, trucks and other equipment. Accordingly, the 2012 South Coast AQMD Air Quality Management Plan, the SCAG 2012 Regional Transportation Plan, and the “Vision for Clean Air: A Framework for Air Quality and Climate Control Planning” all identify the need to immediately enact a phasing in of zero and near-zero emission technologies to meet air quality goals. In 2014, South Coast AQMD was awarded grant funding under the US Department of Energy Zero Emission Cargo Transport (ZECT) II Demonstration program to develop and demonstrate zero-emission drayage trucks for goods movement operations between the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) and Port of Long Beach (POLB) near dock rail yards and warehouses: 1) development and demonstration of zero-emission fuel cell range extended electric drayage trucks and 2) development and demonstration of hybrid electric drayage trucks. The purpose of this project was to accelerate deployment of zero emission cargo transport technologies to reduce harmful diesel emissions, petroleum consumption and greenhouse gases in the surrounding communities along the goods movement corridors that are impacted by heavy diesel traffic and the associated air pollution. Between 2014 – 2024, six ZECT II zero-emission fuel cell drayage truck platforms, including fuel cell range extended and CNG hybrid trucks, were successfully designed, developed, integrated, built, tested, and demonstrated with drayage fleet operators in transportation corridors within areas of the South Coast AQMD jurisdiction in Southern California such as in and around POLA and POLB. Portable hydrogen refueling was deployed to support the fuel cell vehicles. The project had real-time improvement with on-going debugging and optimizations while the vehicles were under demonstration. All platforms demonstrated sufficient or excess power, torque, and energy to support 82,000lbs Gross Vehicle Weight Rating and gradeability to perform their daily duty cycles. Collectively, the trucks drove over 23,000 miles during their respective demonstration phases. The ZECT II project was the first of its kind to demonstrate the commercial viability that supported the additional technology breakthroughs for Class 8 zero emission trucks and validations as well as the regulatory basis for all the zero-emission regulation that we know today, such as the Innovative Clean Transit regulation, Advanced Clean Trucks and Clean Fleet regulations.

08 HYDROGEN↗

Assembly and Repair of the Photosystem II Reaction Center

This project investigated the biochemical and biophysical mechanisms governing assembly and repair of Photosystem II (PSII), the membrane protein complex responsible for solar-driven water oxidation in oxygenic photosynthesis. The work focused on three integrated areas: (1) protein–protein interactions that facilitate PSII assembly in cyanobacterial biogenesis centers, (2) the chemical mechanism of photo-assembly of the Mn 4 CaO 5 oxygen-evolving complex (OEC), and (3) mechanisms that target PSII reaction centers for degradation and repair in photosynthetic organisms. Using electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, protein biochemistry, molecular genetics, quantitative mass spectrometry, and computational modeling, the project demonstrated that proton release events limit early steps of OEC assembly and that chloride and calcium ions facilitate Mn oxidation and intermediate stabilization. Complementary studies identified chaperone recruitment mechanisms in cyanobacterial PSII biogenesis centers and translation and protease factors involved in PSII turnover in Chlamydomonas. Together, these results establish proton management and coordinated protein quality control as central design principles in PSII assembly and repair and provide mechanistic insight relevant to biological and artificial photosynthetic systems.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Shunt-Connected FACTS and Synchronous Condensers

In recent years, the electric-transmission system has undergone a significant transformation marked by a greater integration of renewable-energy sources like wind and solar, the phasing out of thermal generation plants, and a concerted effort towards electrifying energy consumption. To keep pace with the integration of renewable-energy sources and the escalating demands of industries and households, it is imperative to expand and modernize the existing power infrastructure. These upgrades are essential to maintain grid stability, enhance power delivery, and boost overall efficiency of the system. However, challenges have emerged with the growing complexity of power grids, particularly in the realms of voltage control, transient stability, and power-quality management.

24 - POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

An overview of the Hubble Space Telescope command and data management system

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) will be an orbiting observatory which will extend the capability of large earth-based observatories to view the universe by approximately 350 times in volume and approximately seven times in distance. The HST program, which includes the Orbiting Observatory, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and the Space Telescope Operations Control Center, is supported by the Space Shuttle, the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, and the NASA Communications Network. This paper describes the Command and Data Management System for the HST spacecraft, including flexibility, operation modes, and end-to-end data flow paths used to meet stringent synchronization and data quality requirements. The results of system tests indicate that the use of concatenated coding techiques consisting of both block and convolutional codes as a protection against random and burst errors has been successful. Diagrams of the HST data system are included.

Clubb, Jerry↗