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At least 289 records · Page 16

The SSRI Knowledge Base Tool: Current Tool Functionality Review and Planned Future Enhancements

NASA’s Small Satellite Reliability Initiative (SSRI), in conjunction with NASA’s Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute (S3VI), has developed the SSRI Knowledge Base to improve mission confidence for small spacecraft. The SSRI Knowledge Base provides vetted, high-quality sources of information on elements that are key to successful small spacecraft missions. These resources include SSRI working group generated documents and presentations in addition to existing guides, publications, standards, software tools, websites, and books. The Knowledge Base is fully searchable, offers downloadable content when possible, and otherwise links to or references content directly from within the tool. All 58 of the planned topic pages that comprise the SSRI Knowledge Base have been recently completed and include over 450 unique resources that are now available for review. Over the past several months significant enhancements to the tool’s capabilities have been developed and implemented. These enhancements consist of the completed baseline content; development of an Application Programming Interface (API); improved user interfaces; scalable and searchable Best Practices and Lessons Learned (BPLL) lists with ratings; and custom website analytics. The SSRI Knowledge Base is a comprehensive and searchable online tool that consolidates and organizes resources, best practices, and lessons learned from previous small spacecraft missions sponsored by NASA, other government agencies, and academia. This free, publicly available tool is available to the entire SmallSat community at: NASA SSRI Knowledge Base | Explore. This presentation will discuss the motivation for and development of the SSRI Knowledge Base, demonstrate the existing tool, share how the smallsat community can get involved and outline plans for further enhancement development. The SSRI is a collaborative activity with broad participation from civil, Department of Defense, and both national and international commercial space systems providers and stakeholders. The S3VI is jointly sponsored by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and Science Mission Directorate.

Small Spacecraft↗

Small Satellite Reliability Initiative (SSRI) Knowledge Base Tool: Update and Future Direction

NASA’s Small Satellite Reliability Initiative (SSRI), in conjunction with NASA’s Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute (S3VI), has developed the SSRI Knowledge Base to improve mission confidence for small spacecraft. The SSRI Knowledge Base is a comprehensive and searchable online tool that consolidates and organizes resources, best practices, and lessons learned from previous small satellite missions sponsored by NASA, other government agencies, and academia. This free, publicly available tool is available to the entire SmallSat community at: NASA SSRI Knowledge Base | Explore. The SSRI Knowledge Base provides vetted, high-quality sources of information on elements that are key to successful small satellite missions. These resources include SSRI working group generated documents and presentations in addition to existing guides, publications, standards, software tools, websites, and books. The Knowledge Base is fully searchable, offers downloadable content when possible, and otherwise links to or references content directly from within the tool. All 58 of the planned topic pages that comprise the SSRI Knowledge Base have been recently completed and include over 450 unique resources that are now available for review. Over the past several months significant enhancements to the tool’s capabilities have been developed and implemented. These enhancements consist of the completed baseline content; development of an Application Programming Interface (API); improved user interfaces; scalable and searchable Best Practices and Lessons Learned (BPLL) lists with ratings; and custom website analytics. This presentation and paper will discuss the motivation for and development of the SSRI Knowledge Base, demonstrate the existing tool, and outline plans for further development. The SSRI is a collaborative activity with broad participation from civil, Department of Defense, and both national and international commercial space systems providers and stakeholders. The S3VI is jointly sponsored by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and Science Mission Directorate.

Small Spacecraft↗

Small Satellite Reliability Initiative (SSRI) Knowledge Base Tool: Use Case Review and Future Functionality and Content Direction

NASA’s Small Satellite Reliability Initiative (SSRI), in conjunction with NASA’s Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute (S3VI), has developed the SSRI Knowledge Base to improve mission confidence for small spacecraft. The SSRI Knowledge Base is a comprehensive and searchable online tool that consolidates and organizes resources, best practices, and lessons learned from previous small satellite missions sponsored by NASA, other government agencies, and academia. This free, publicly available tool is available to the entire SmallSat community at: NASA SSRI Knowledge Base | Explore. The SSRI Knowledge Base provides vetted, high-quality sources of information on elements that are key to successful small satellite missions. These resources include SSRI working group generated documents and presentations in addition to existing guides, publications, standards, software tools, websites, and books. The Knowledge Base is fully searchable, offers downloadable content when possible, and otherwise links to or references content directly from within the tool. All 58 of the planned topic pages that comprise the SSRI Knowledge Base have been recently completed and include over 450 unique resources that are now available for review. Over the past several months significant enhancements to the tool’s capabilities have been developed and implemented. These enhancements consist of the completed baseline content; development of an Application Programming Interface (API); improved user interfaces; scalable and searchable Best Practices and Lessons Learned (BPLL) lists with ratings; and custom website analytics. This presentation and paper will discuss the motivation for and development of the SSRI Knowledge Base, review of potential use case(s), and outline plans for further development and content generation. The SSRI is a collaborative activity with broad participation from civil, Department of Defense, and both national and international commercial space systems providers and stakeholders. The S3VI is jointly sponsored by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and Science Mission Directorate.

Small Spacecraft↗

Spacecraft Observatory Benchmark Problem for Optical Disturbance Rejection

Since mid-1980s NASA has launched several first-generation interplanetary observatory missions. A salient feature of these missions has been the mounting of the optical payload on top of a large flexible space structure. This imposes challenging control-structure interaction problems (CSI) that have been studied over several decades. The Dec. 2021 launch of the James Webb Telescope marks the latest example of such a mission. One way to encourage development of novel control methods is to provide a benchmark problem for researchers. By the mid-2000s, there were a few well-known benchmark problems developed by the control community with a focus on CSI applications. However, in the past 15 years, the control challenges in optical observation missions have shifted from CSI to line-of-sight (LOS) precision pointing. This is because popular designs of the second-generation (Gen II) space earth missions have eliminated the large structure interface by mounting the optical payload directly on top of a rigid bus platform. The focus now is to achieve accurate pointing with maximum rejection of the surrounding disturbances. The NASA Safety and Engineering Center (NESC) has tasked T he Aerospace Corporation to develop a Benchmark Problem to study the challenging control issues that Gen II observatory missions encounter. This software tool is to be released as a public domain platform aimed at government, academic, and industry researchers. The focus of this benchmark problem is for researchers to design a set of innovative payload control laws with the maximum Optical Disturbance Rejection (ODR) capability to meet a set of pre-defined μrad-level of LOS jitter requirements. This paper describes the development of the benchmark problem. Aerospace/NASA will provide an integrated LOS plant model and disturbance/command profiles for users to run their design and simulation with as well as a user’s guide describing the required interfaces. The Aerospace Corp is also working to develop a hardware fast steering mirror testbed for users to demonstrate their innovative design in real hardware, if so desired.

Spacecraft Observatory Benchmark Problem↗

Tree Classification Software

This paper introduces the IND Tree Package to prospective users. IND does supervised learning using classification trees. This learning task is a basic tool used in the development of diagnosis, monitoring and expert systems. The IND Tree Package was developed as part of a NASA project to semi-automate the development of data analysis and modelling algorithms using artificial intelligence techniques. The IND Tree Package integrates features from CART and C4 with newer Bayesian and minimum encoding methods for growing classification trees and graphs. The IND Tree Package also provides an experimental control suite on top. The newer features give improved probability estimates often required in diagnostic and screening tasks. The package comes with a manual, Unix 'man' entries, and a guide to tree methods and research. The IND Tree Package is implemented in C under Unix and was beta-tested at university and commercial research laboratories in the United States.

Buntine, Wray↗

CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery Evaluation System (CO2_E_EvSystem), Version 2025

The United States Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Fossil Energy and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) developed a suite of screening-level, techno-economic models/tools, known as the CO2_E_EvSystem, to evaluate technical aspects and costs of using carbon dioxide (CO2) enhanced oil recovery (EOR) to store CO2 and produce oil. CO2_E_EvSystem has three software components and several input and output files. The software components are CO2_E_EvTool, CO2_Prophet, and CO2_E_COM. Almost all computational work is performed by CO2_Prophet and CO2_E_COM, which are both Fortran programs. The primary role of CO2_E_EvTool is to manage input and output files for the two programs, run the two programs, allow multiple oilfields to be evaluated in a single run, and generate files that summarize the results for all the oilfields run. This version of the CO2_E_EvSystem includes a residual oil zone dataset from the San Andres formation, Permian Basin, to demonstrate the system and guide users on attributes needed for dataset inputs.

AS↗

High Temperature Calibration Furnace System user's guide

The High Temperature Calibration Furnace System (HTCFS) was developed by Summitec Corporation. It is a high precision instrument providing a constant temperature which can be used to calibrate high temperature thermocouples. Incorporating the many recent technological advances from the fields of optical fiber thermometry, material science, computer systems interfacing, and process control, the engineers at Summitec Corporation have been able to create a system that can reach a steady operating temperature of 1700 C. The precision for the system requires the measurement of temperature to be within 1 C in two hours and within 2 C in 24 hours. As documented, the experimental result shows that this system has been able to stay within .5 C in 5 hours. No other systems commercially available have been able to achieve such high temperature precision. This manual provides an overview of the system design, instructions for instrument setup, and operation procedures. Also included are a vendor list and the source codes for the custom-designed software.

Source record↗

MaterialsMap: A CALPHAD-based tool to design composition pathways through feasibility map for desired dissimilar materials, demonstrated with resistance spot welding joining of Ag-Al-Cu

Assembly of dissimilar metals can be achieved by different methods, for example, casting, welding, and additive manufacturing (AM). However, undesired phases formed in liquid-phase assembling processes due to solute segregation during solidification diminish mechanical and other properties of the processed parts. In the present work, an open-source software named MaterialsMap, has been developed based on the CALculation of Phase Diagrams (CALPHAD) approach. The primary objective of MaterialsMap is to facilitate the design of an optimal composition pathway for assembling dissimilar alloys with liquid-phases based on the formation of desired and undesired phases along the pathway. In MaterialsMap, equilibrium thermodynamic calculations are used to predict equilibrium phases formed at slow cooling rate, while Scheil-Gulliver simulations are employed to predict non-equilibrium phases formed during rapid cooling. Additionally, by combining these two simulations, MaterialsMap offers a thorough guide for understanding phase formation in various manufacturing processes, assisting users in making informed decisions during material selection and production. As a demonstration of this approach, a compositional pathway was designed from pure Al to pure Cu through Ag using MaterialsMap. The design was experimentally verified using resistance spot welding (RSW).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

A user's guide to the SUDAN computer program for determining the vibration modes of structural systems

The use of the SUDAN computer program for analyzing structural systems for their natural modes and frequencies of vibration is described. SUDAN is intended for structures which can be represented as an equivalent system of beam, spring, and rigid-body substructures. User-written constraint equations are used to analytically join the mass and stiffness matrices of the substructures to form the mass and stiffness matrices of the complete structure from which all the frequencies and modes of the system are determined. The SUDAN program can treat the case in which both the mass and stiffness matrices of the coupled system may be singular simultaneously. A general description of the FORTRAN IV program is given, the computer hardware and software specifications are indicated, and the input required by the program is described.

Kvaternik, R. G.↗

ElementLIBS User's Guide: An operational aid for use and development

Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy or LIBS is a rapid, in-situ analytical technique where a laser of known energy is pulsed at the surface of an analyte. The laser pulse rapidly heats a localized area to many thousand degrees Kelvin, ablating part of the analyte and turning it into a plasma. As the plasma cools, excited atoms return to a ground state with known emission energies. This emitted energy is captured by various spectrometers and provides a spectrum of the emitted energies and intensities. This spectrum can be analyzed to provide the elemental composition of a sample by using known emission lines and relative abundance. ElementLIBS was developed for the SciAps hand-held LIBS model Z300 but will work with any model that provides a LIBS spectrum of similar resolution. The Z300 has an integrated resolution of 1/30 nm with a range of approximately 180nm – 960nm, providing an output spectrum of 23431 pixels across three spectrometers. These criteria are only provided as a reference, as the software was designed to work with any size spectrum, provided the input file is of the correct format and the models were developed using the same framework. If spectra of varying dimensions are used, the software will fail without warning and unusual events could occur.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Spatial region filtering in IRAF/PROS

In order to analyze x ray data, it is nearly always necessary to extract source and background events from a data set. Typically, this is done by defining geometric spatial regions of the data set to describe the source and background. For example, one might wish to extract source events from a circular or elliptical region centered at a particular pixel, and background events from a circular or elliptical annulus whose inner radius matches the source region. At the same time, it might be necessary to exclude one or more nearby sources from the source or background region in question. Thus, it might be necessary to define a pie-shaped region or even an entirely irregularly-shaped region to exclude. A spatial filtering scheme called REGIONS was implemented in IRAF/PROS to support these and other types of spatial region extraction. It allows users to create a spatial mask by specifying one or more ASCII geometric shape descriptors (box, circle, ellipse, pie, point, annulus, and polygon) as regions to be included or excluded in the mask. In addition, two or more shapes can be combined using Boolean algebra to create an infinite variety of sophisticated regions. Each geometric shape has a specific set of parameters that describe that shape. For example, a circle is described by a center and a radius, while a box is described by a center, length, width, and rotation angle. These quantities can be specified in units of pixels or, in cases where the target image contains world coordinate system information, they can be described in units such as RA and Dec. Users can create region mask files by feeding an ASCII region descriptor to the IRAF/PROS plcreate task. Temporary masks can also be created from ASCII region descriptors by individual applications that call the routines in the region creation library. This library implements a yacc-based region parser that compiles the ASCII descriptors into 'software CPU' instructions which are then executed to create the mask. The mask created from these region descriptors is a standard IRAF PLIO mask. It can be combined with other PLIO masks (e.g., exposure masks) to provide complete spatial filtering capabilities. The capabilities of the region filtering scheme are described. It also discusses the design philosophy guiding our work, as well as our plans for the future.

Mandel, Eric↗

Adaptive Fault Tolerance for Many-Core Based Space-Borne Computing

This paper describes an approach to providing software fault tolerance for future deep-space robotic NASA missions, which will require a high degree of autonomy supported by an enhanced on-board computational capability. Such systems have become possible as a result of the emerging many-core technology, which is expected to offer 1024-core chips by 2015. We discuss the challenges and opportunities of this new technology, focusing on introspection-based adaptive fault tolerance that takes into account the specific requirements of applications, guided by a fault model. Introspection supports runtime monitoring of the program execution with the goal of identifying, locating, and analyzing errors. Fault tolerance assertions for the introspection system can be provided by the user, domain-specific knowledge, or via the results of static or dynamic program analysis. This work is part of an on-going project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

fault tolerance↗

Accessible, uniform protein property prediction with a scikit-learn based toolset AIDE

Summary Protein property prediction via machine learning with and without labeled data is becoming increasingly powerful, yet methods are disparate and capabilities vary widely over applications. The software presented here, “Artificial Intelligence Driven protein Estimation (AIDE)”, enables instantiating, optimizing, and testing many zero-shot and supervised property prediction methods for variants and variable length homologs in a single, reproducible notebook or script by defining a modular, standardized application programming interface (API), i.e. drop-in compatible with scikit-learn transformers and pipelines. Availability and implementation AIDE is an installable, importable python package inheriting from scikit-learn classes and API and is installable on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Many of the wrapped models internal to AIDE will be effectively inaccessible without a GPU, and some assume CUDA. The newest stable, tested version can be found at https://github.com/beckham-lab/aide_predict and a full user guide and API reference can be found at https://beckham-lab.github.io/aide_predict/. Static versions of both at the time of writing can be found on Zenodo.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Planetary Geologic Mapping Handbook - 2010

Geologic maps present, in an historical context, fundamental syntheses of interpretations of the materials, landforms, structures, and processes that characterize planetary surfaces and shallow subsurfaces. Such maps also provide a contextual framework for summarizing and evaluating thematic research for a given region or body. In planetary exploration, for example, geologic maps are used for specialized investigations such as targeting regions of interest for data collection and for characterizing sites for landed missions. Whereas most modern terrestrial geologic maps are constructed from regional views provided by remote sensing data and supplemented in detail by field-based observations and measurements, planetary maps have been largely based on analyses of orbital photography. For planetary bodies in particular, geologic maps commonly represent a snapshot of a surface, because they are based on available information at a time when new data are still being acquired. Thus the field of planetary geologic mapping has been evolving rapidly to embrace the use of new data and modern technology and to accommodate the growing needs of planetary exploration. Planetary geologic maps have been published by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) since 1962. Over this time, numerous maps of several planetary bodies have been prepared at a variety of scales and projections using the best available image and topographic bases. Early geologic map bases commonly consisted of hand-mosaicked photographs or airbrushed shaded-relief views and geologic linework was manually drafted using mylar bases and ink drafting pens. Map publishing required a tedious process of scribing, color peel-coat preparation, typesetting, and photo-laboratory work. Beginning in the 1990s, inexpensive computing, display capability and user-friendly illustration software allowed maps to be drawn using digital tools rather than pen and ink, and mylar bases became obsolete. Terrestrial geologic maps published by the USGS now are primarily digital products using geographic information system (GIS) software and file formats. GIS mapping tools permit easy spatial comparison, generation, importation, manipulation, and analysis of multiple raster image, gridded, and vector data sets. GIS software has also permitted the development of projectspecific tools and the sharing of geospatial products among researchers. GIS approaches are now being used in planetary geologic mapping as well. Guidelines or handbooks on techniques in planetary geologic mapping have been developed periodically. As records of the heritage of mapping methods and data, these remain extremely useful guides. However, many of the fundamental aspects of earlier mapping handbooks have evolved significantly, and a comprehensive review of currently accepted mapping methodologies is now warranted. As documented in this handbook, such a review incorporates additional guidelines developed in recent years for planetary geologic mapping by the NASA Planetary Geology and Geophysics (PGG) Program's Planetary Cartography and Geologic Mapping Working Group's (PCGMWG) Geologic Mapping Subcommittee (GEMS) on the selection and use of map bases as well as map preparation, review, publication, and distribution. In light of the current boom in planetary exploration and the ongoing rapid evolution of available data for planetary mapping, this handbook is especially timely.

Tanaka, K. L.↗

Range Safety Flight Elevation Limit Calculation Software

This program was developed to fill a need within the Wallops Flight Facility workflow for automation of the development of vertical plan limit lines used by flight safety officers during the conduct of expendable launch vehicle missions. Vertical plane present-position-based destruct lines have been used by range safety organizations at numerous launch ranges to mitigate launch vehicle risks during the early phase of flight. Various ranges have implemented data submittal and processing workflows to develop these destruct lines. As such, there is significant prior art in this field. The ElLimits program was developed at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility to automate the process for developing vertical plane limit lines using current computing technologies. The ElLimits program is used to configure launch-phase range safety flight control lines for guided missiles. The name of the program derives itself from the fundamental quantity that is computed - flight elevation limits. The user specifies the extent and resolution of a grid in the vertical plane oriented along the launch azimuth. At each grid point, the program computes the maximum velocity vector flight elevation that can be permitted without endangering a specified back-range location. Vertical plane x-y limit lines that can be utilized on a present position display are derived from the flight elevation limit data by numerically propagating 'streamlines' through the grid. The failure turn and debris propagation simulation technique used by the application is common to all of its analysis options. A simulation is initialized at a vertical plane grid point chosen by the program. A powered flight failure turn is then propagated in the plane for the duration of the so-called RSO reaction time. At the end of the turn, a delta-velocity is imparted, and a ballistic trajectory is propagated to impact. While the program possesses capability for powered flight failure turn modeling, it does not require extensive user inputs of vehicle characteristics (e.g., thrust and aerodynamic data), nor does it require reams of turn data after the traditional fashion of the Air Force ranges. The program requires a nominal trajectory table (time, altitude, range, velocity, and flight elevation) and makes heavy use of it to initialize and model a failure turn.

Lanzi, Raymond J↗

Guide star catalogue data retrieval software 2

The Guide Star Catalog (GSC), being the largest astronomical catalog to date, is widely used by the astronomical community for all sorts of applications, such as statistical studies of certain sky regions, searches for counterparts to observational phenomena, and generation of finder charts. It's format (2 CD-ROM's) requires minimum hardware and is ideally suited for all sorts of conditions, especially observations. Unfortunately, the actual GSC data is not easily accessible. It takes the form of FITS tables, and the coordinates of the objects are given in one coordinate system (equinox 2000). The included reading software is rudimentary at best. Thus, even generation of a simple finder chart is not a trivial undertaking. To solve this problem, at least for PC users, GUIDARES was created. GUIDARES is a user-friendly program that lets you look directly at the data in the GSC, either as a graphical sky map or as a text table. GUIDARES can read a sampling of GSC data from a given sky region, store this sampling in a text file, and display a graphical map of the sampled region in projected celestial coordinates (perfect for finder charts). GUIDARES supports rectangular and circular regions defined by coordinates in the equatorial, ecliptic (any equinox) or galactic systems.

Smirnov, O. M.↗

Model Checker for Java Programs

Java Pathfinder (JPF) is a verification and testing environment for Java that integrates model checking, program analysis, and testing. JPF consists of a custom-made Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that interprets bytecode, combined with a search interface to allow the complete behavior of a Java program to be analyzed, including interleavings of concurrent programs. JPF is implemented in Java, and its architecture is highly modular to support rapid prototyping of new features. JPF is an explicit-state model checker, because it enumerates all visited states and, therefore, suffers from the state-explosion problem inherent in analyzing large programs. It is suited to analyzing programs less than 10kLOC, but has been successfully applied to finding errors in concurrent programs up to 100kLOC. When an error is found, a trace from the initial state to the error is produced to guide the debugging. JPF works at the bytecode level, meaning that all of Java can be model-checked. By default, the software checks for all runtime errors (uncaught exceptions), assertions violations (supports Java s assert), and deadlocks. JPF uses garbage collection and symmetry reductions of the heap during model checking to reduce state-explosion, as well as dynamic partial order reductions to lower the number of interleavings analyzed. JPF is capable of symbolic execution of Java programs, including symbolic execution of complex data such as linked lists and trees. JPF is extensible as it allows for the creation of listeners that can subscribe to events during searches. The creation of dedicated code to be executed in place of regular classes is supported and allows users to easily handle native calls and to improve the efficiency of the analysis.

Visser, Willem↗

The development of a program analysis environment for Ada

A unit level, Ada software module testing system, called Query Utility Environment for Software Testing of Ada (QUEST/Ada), is described. The project calls for the design and development of a prototype system. QUEST/Ada design began with a definition of the overall system structure and a description of component dependencies. The project team was divided into three groups to resolve the preliminary designs of the parser/scanner: the test data generator, and the test coverage analyzer. The Phase 1 report is a working document from which the system documentation will evolve. It provides history, a guide to report sections, a literature review, the definition of the system structure and high level interfaces, descriptions of the prototype scope, the three major components, and the plan for the remainder of the project. The appendices include specifications, statistics, two papers derived from the current research, a preliminary users' manual, and the proposal and work plan for Phase 2.

Brown, David B.↗