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MSL Lessons Learned and Knowledge Capture

The Mars Program has recently been informed of the Planetary Protection Subcommittee (PPS) recommendation, which was endorsed by the NAC, concerning Mars Science Lab (MSL) lessons learned and knowledge capture. The Mars Program has not had an opportunity to consider any decisions specific to the PPS recommendation. Some of the activities recommended by the PPS would involve members of the MSL flight team who are focused on cruise, entry descent & landing, and early surface operations; those activities would have to wait. Members of the MSL planetary protection team at JPL are still available to support MSL lessons learned and knowledge capture; some of the specifically recommended activities have already begun. The Mars Program shares the PPS/NAC concerns about loss of potential information & expertise in planetary protection practice.

planetary protection↗

Growing the success of Small Satellite missions through community learning

The successful utilization of small satellites for scientific missions relies on continual infusion of technology innovations, creative approaches, and new capabilities, all of which advance at a very rapid pace. Achieving these advancements requires open and efficient exchange of results, experiences, and ideas. Community learning is particularly challenging in this fast-growing community involving an increasingly diverse set of players from all sectors: industry, academia, government, and the public at large. Building and cultivating a community of practices around small satellite technology development and mission implementation are key objectives for NASA’s Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute (S3VI). The institute has developed and provides access to a large collection of products, tools, and activities to advance clear communications and coordination regarding small spacecraft undertakings across NASA, to provide mission enabling information to the smallsat research community, to engage with stakeholders in industry, government, academia and the general public, and to support the overall small spacecraft community. New and updated offerings by the S3VI include: The2021 NASA State of the Art Report of Small Spacecraft Technology, the Small Spacecraft Reliability Initiative Knowledge Base, and the “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED”webinar series. These and other institute products will help scientists and engineers planning future missions answer pertinent questions, such as: What is the state of the art of small spacecraft technology that can be used?What are some best practices that other experts and teams can recommend? What did previous missions accomplish? What lessons could be learned from previous missions? What flight-proven parts are available? What emerging technologies could be taken advantage of? A status will be presented on S3VI activities facilitating community learning within the small satellite science community through the collection, sharing, and exchange of experiences with small satellite mission development and execution across all NASA mission areas.

Moretto Jorgensen, T↗

Growing the Success of Small Satellite Missions Through Community Learning

The successful utilization of small satellites for scientific missions relies on continual infusion of technology innovations, creative approaches, and new capabilities, all of which advance at a very rapid pace. Achieving these advancements requires open and efficient exchange of results, experiences, and ideas. Community learning is particularly challenging in this fast-growing community involving an increasingly diverse set of players from all sectors: industry, academia, government, and the public at large. Building and cultivating a community of practices around small satellite technology development and mission implementation are key objectives for NASA’s Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute (S3VI). The institute has developed and provides access to a large collection of products, tools, and activities to advance clear communications and coordination regarding small spacecraft undertakings across NASA, to provide mission enabling information to the smallsat research community, to engage with stakeholders in industry, government, academia and the general public, and to support the overall small spacecraft community. New and updated offerings by the S3VI include: The2021 NASA State of the Art Report of Small Spacecraft Technology, the Small Spacecraft Reliability Initiative Knowledge Base, and the “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” webinar series. These and other institute products will help scientists and engineers planning future missions answer pertinent questions, such as: What is the state of the art of small spacecraft technology that can be used? What are some best practices that other experts and teams can recommend? What did previous missions accomplish? What lessons could be learned from previous missions? What flight-proven parts are available? What emerging technologies could be taken advantage of? A status will be presented on S3VI activities facilitating community learning within the small satellite science community through the collection, sharing, and exchange of experiences with small satellite mission development and execution across all NASA mission areas.

Small Satellite↗

Fluid Quick Disconnects - ISS Lessons Learned

The International Space Station has many fluid systems on the United States On-orbit Segment supporting thermal control, life support, extravehicular activities and payloads. To facilitate assembly and maintenance, fluid quick disconnect (QD) fittings are used throughout these systems for both internal pressurized modules and for external systems exposed to space. In the years since full scale development began on these QDs, a number of design and performance issues have surfaced and required substantial program funds and activity to rectify. This paper is intended to describe the most significant of these issues, their resolutions, and the lessons learned from the ISS experience.

Bond, Timothy A.↗

Advanced composites research and development for transport aircraft

This paper highlights past experiences, lessons learned, state-of-the-art and current research activities directed at providing an integrated 'affordable' data base for composite structures. Composite secondary and empennage structures are in production on several transport aircraft. The weight reduction potential of composite structures is well documented. However, the cost to develop and produce composite structures remains the major barrier to increased application of this technology to transport aircraft. Specific technology items that are being developed under the NASA Advanced Composites Technology Program are described. Materials, design concepts, structural mechanics methodology and manufacturing processes and equipment are under development or are emerging that are expected to lead to an integrated 'affordable' data base. Technology verification for the next decade is expected to require fabrication and testing of full-scale wing-box and fuselage-section components before certificatiaon can occur and production commitments can be made.

Davis, John G., Jr.↗

Total recall in distributive associative memories

Iterative error correction of asymptotically large associative memories is equivalent to a one-step learning rule. This rule is the inverse of the activation function of the memory. Spectral representations of nonlinear activation functions are used to obtain the inverse in closed form for Sparse Distributed Memory, Selected-Coordinate Design, and Radial Basis Functions.

Danforth, Douglas G.↗

Developing a space network interface simulator: The NTS approach

This paper describes the approach used to redevelop the Network Control Center (NCC) Test System (NTS), a hardware and software facility designed to make testing of the NCC Data System (NCCDS) software efficient, effective, and as rigorous as possible prior to operational use. The NTS transmits and receives network message traffic in real-time. Data transfer rates and message content are strictly controlled and are identical to that of the operational systems. NTS minimizes the need for costly and time-consuming testing with the actual external entities (e.g., the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Payload Operations Control Center (POCC) and the White Sands Ground Terminal). Discussed are activities associated with the development of the NTS, lessons learned throughout the project's lifecycle, and resulting productivity and quality increases.

Hendrzak, Gary E.↗

Probing Below the Surface of Mars

In this activity, students will record and graph temperature data to learn about NASA's Mars Microprobe Mission, Deep Space 2, and how the properties of a material affect the transfer of heat.

Deep Space 2 Mars Microprobes classroom experiment↗

Lunar In Situ Materials-Based Surface Structure Technology Development Efforts at NASA/MSFC

For long-duration missions on other planetary bodies, the use of in situ materials will become increasingly critical. As man's presence on these bodies expands, so must the structures to accommodate them, including habitats, laboratories, berms, radiation shielding for surface reactors, garages, solar storm shelters, greenhouses, etc. The use of in situ materials will significantly offset required launch upmass and volume issues. Under the auspices of the In Situ Fabrication & Repair (ISFR) Program at NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), the Surface Structures project has been developing materials and construction technologies to support development of these in situ structures. This paper will report on the development of several of these technologies at MSFC's Prototype Development Laboratory (PDL). These technologies include, but are not limited to, development of extruded concrete and inflatable concrete dome technologies based on waterless and water-based concretes, development of regolith-based blocks with potential radiation shielding binders including polyurethane and polyethylene, pressure regulation systems for inflatable structures, production of glass fibers and rebar derived from molten lunar regolith simulant, development of regolithbag structures, and others, including automation design issues. Results to date and lessons learned will be presented, along with recommendations for future activities.

Fiske, M. R.↗

Achieving Operability via the Mission System Paradigm

In the past, flight and ground systems have been developed largely-independently, with the flight system taking the lead, and dominating the development process. Operability issues have been addressed poorly in planning, requirements, design, I&T, and system-contracting activities. In many cases, as documented in lessons-learned, this has resulted in significant avoidable increases in cost and risk. With complex missions and systems, operability is being recognized as an important end-to-end design issue. Never-the-less, lessons-learned and operability concepts remain, in many cases, poorly understood and sporadically applied. A key to effective application of operability concepts is adopting a 'mission system' paradigm. In this paradigm, flight and ground systems are treated, from an engineering and management perspective, as inter-related elements of a larger mission system. The mission system consists of flight hardware, flight software, telecom services, ground data system, testbeds, flight teams, science teams, flight operations processes, procedures, and facilities. The system is designed in functional layers, which span flight and ground. It is designed in response to project-level requirements, mission design and an operations concept, and is developed incrementally, with early and frequent integration of flight and ground components.

ground systems↗

Shunted Piezoelectric Vibration Damping Analysis Including Centrifugal Loading Effects

Excessive vibration of turbomachinery blades causes high cycle fatigue problems which require damping treatments to mitigate vibration levels. One method is the use of piezoelectric materials as passive or active dampers. Based on the technical challenges and requirements learned from previous turbomachinery rotor blades research, an effort has been made to investigate the effectiveness of a shunted piezoelectric for the turbomachinery rotor blades vibration control, specifically for a condition with centrifugal rotation. While ample research has been performed on the use of a piezoelectric material with electric circuits to attempt to control the structural vibration damping, very little study has been done regarding rotational effects. The present study attempts to fill this void. Specifically, the objectives of this study are: (a) to create and analyze finite element models for harmonic forced response vibration analysis coupled with shunted piezoelectric circuits for engine blade operational conditions, (b) to validate the experimental test approaches with numerical results and vice versa, and (c) to establish a numerical modeling capability for vibration control using shunted piezoelectric circuits under rotation. Study has focused on a resonant damping control using shunted piezoelectric patches on plate specimens. Tests and analyses were performed for both non-spinning and spinning conditions. The finite element (FE) shunted piezoelectric circuit damping simulations were performed using the ANSYS Multiphysics code for the resistive and inductive circuit piezoelectric simulations of both conditions. The FE results showed a good correlation with experimental test results. Tests and analyses of shunted piezoelectric damping control, demonstrating with plate specimens, show a great potential to reduce blade vibrations under centrifugal loading.

Min, James B.↗

International Space Station Benefits for Humanity

The ISS partnership has seen a substantial increase in research accomplished, crew efforts devoted to research, and results of ongoing research and technology development. The ISS laboratory is providing a unique environment for research and international collaboration that benefits humankind. Benefits come from the engineering development, the international partnership, and from the research results. Benefits can be of three different types: scientific discovery, applications to life on Earth, and applications to future exploration. Working across all ISS partners, we identified key themes where the activities on the ISS improve the lives of people on Earth--not only within the partner nations, but also in other nations of the world. Three major themes of benefits to life on earth emerged from our review: benefits to human health, education, and Earth observation and disaster response. Other themes are growing as use of the ISS continues. Benefits to human health range from advancements in surgical technology, improved telemedicine, and new treatments for disease. Earth observations from the ISS provide a wide range of observations that include: marine vessel tracking, disaster monitoring and climate change. The ISS participates in a number of educational activities aimed to inspire students of all ages to learn about science, technology, engineering and mathematics. To date over 63 countries have directly participated in some aspect of ISS research or education. In summarizing these benefits and accomplishments, ISS partners are also identifying ways to further extend the benefits to people in developing countries for the benefits of humankind.

Thumm, Tracy L.↗

MODIS Radiometric Calibration Program, Methods and Results

As a key instrument for NASA s Earth Observing System (EOS), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) has made significant contributions to the remote sensing community with its unprecedented amount of data products continuously generated from its observations and freely distributed to users worldwide. MODIS observations, covering spectral regions from visible (VIS) to long-wave infrared (LWIR), have enabled a broad range of research activities and applications for studies of the earth s interactive system of land, oceans, and atmosphere. In addition to extensive pre-launch measurements, developed to characterize sensor performance, MODIS carries a set of on-board calibrators (OBC) that can be used to track on-orbit changes of various sensor characteristics. Most importantly, dedicated and continuous calibration efforts have been made to maintain sensor data quality. This paper provides an overview of the MODIS calibration program, on-orbit calibration activities, methods, and performance. Key calibration results and lessons learned from the MODIS calibration effort are also presented in this paper.

Xiong, Xiaoxiong↗

International Space Station Research Benefits for Humanity

The ISS partnership has seen a substantial increase in research accomplished, crew efforts devoted to research, and results of ongoing research and technology development. The ISS laboratory is providing a unique environment for research and international collaboration that benefits humankind. Benefits come from the engineering development, the international partnership, and from the research results. Benefits can be of three different types: scientific discovery, applications to life on Earth, and applications to future exploration. Working across all ISS partners, we identified key themes where the activities on the ISS improve the lives of people on Earth -- not only within the partner nations, but also in other nations of the world. Three major themes of benefits to life on earth emerged from our review: benefits to human health, education, and Earth observation and disaster response. Other themes are growing as use of the ISS continues. Benefits to human health range from advancements in surgical technology, improved telemedicine, and new treatments for disease. Earth observations from the ISS provide a wide range of observations that include: marine vessel tracking, disaster monitoring and climate change. The ISS participates in a number of educational activities aimed to inspire students of all ages to learn about science, technology, engineering and mathematics. To date over 63 countries have directly participated in some aspect of ISS research or education. In summarizing these benefits and accomplishments, ISS partners are also identifying ways to further extend the benefits to people in developing countries for the benefits of humankind.

Thumm, Tracy↗

[STEM on Station Education]

The STEM on Station team is part of Education which is part of the External Relations organization (ERO). ERO has traditional goals based around BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal). The BHAG model is simplified to a saying: Everything we do stimulates actions by others to advance human space exploration. The STEM on Station education initiate is a project focused on bringing off the earth research and learning into classrooms. Educational resources such as lesson plans, activities to connect with the space station and STEM related contests are available and hosted by the STEM on Station team along with their partners such as Texas Instruments. These educational activities engage teachers and students in the current happenings aboard the international space station, inspiring the next generation of space explorers.

Lundebjerg, Kristen↗

Deep Domain Adaptation based Cloud Type Detection using Active and Passive Satellite Data

Domain adaptation techniques have been developed to handle data from multiple sources or domains. Most existing domain adaptation models assume that source and target domains are homogeneous, i.e., they have the same feature space. Nevertheless, many real world applications often deal with data from heterogeneous domains that come from completely different feature spaces. In our remote sensing application, data in source domain (from an active spaceborne Lidar sensor CALIOP onboard CALIPSO satellite) contain 25 attributes, while data in target domain (from a passive spectroradiometer sensor VIIRS onboard Suomi-NPP satellite) contain 20 different attributes. CALIOP has better representation capability and sensitivity to aerosol types and cloud phase, while VIIRS has wide swaths and better spatial coverage but has inherent weakness in differentiating atmospheric objects on different vertical levels. To address this mismatch of features across the domains/sensors, we propose a novel end-to-end deep domain adaptation with domain mapping and correlation alignment (DAMA) to align the heterogeneous source and target domains in active and passive satellite remote sensing data. It can learn domain invariant representation from source and target domains by transferring knowledge across these domains, and achieve additional performance improvement by incorporating weak label information into the model (DAMA-WL). Our experiments on a collocated CALIOP and VIIRS dataset show that DAMA and DAMA-WL can achieve higher classification accuracy in predicting cloud types.

domain adaptation↗

The NASA DEVELOP Model: Multidisciplinary Teams Conduct Interdisciplinary Projects to Produce Transdisciplinary Outcomes

The DEVELOP Program, part of NASA’s Earth Applied Sciences’ Capacity Building Program, conducts 50-70 feasibility studies each year that utilize Earth observations to address local decision-making challenges and help inform action. DEVELOP uses these projects as the mechanism to build skills in its participants and partner organizations to assess and apply satellite data insights to environmental decision-making processes. While organized by thematic focus (ex. water resource management, ecological forecasting, disaster management), projects use a multidisciplinary team approach with teams of students, recent graduates, early career professionals, and transitioning career professionals, bringing different disciplines, life experience, and perspectives to execute projects that have been collaboratively designed with end-user partner organizations (federal agencies, state and local governments, non-profit and for-profit organizations, and international organizations). Projects are interdisciplinary in nature as they integrate methods from multiple disciplines, with a focus on the incorporation of satellite data with other data sources such as socioeconomic and demographic data, in situ measurements, model outputs, and partners’ knowledge, and take place under the guidance of science advisors from NASA, academia, and other partner organizations. The culmination of these multidisciplinary teams working on projects that draw from interdisciplinary methods and approaches, is a transdisciplinary solution for the partner organizations to explore further for potential adoption. This presentation will highlight the DEVELOP model of co-production and collaboration, lessons learned integrating people and project methodologies, and impact assessment activities surrounding the program’s efforts.

Capacity Building↗

Overview of Advanced Stirling Convertor Dual Convertor Controller Development and Testing at NASA Glenn Research Center

For over two decades, NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has been supporting the development of Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS). NASA desires higher conversion efficiency RPS options that are reliable and robust with long life design. Dynamic conversion, such as Stirling offer the potential for higher conversion efficiencies than current RPS but have yet to be demonstrated in a flight application. GRC developed a non-nuclear representation of a RPS consisting of a pair of Advanced Stirling Convertors (ASC), a Dual Convertor Controller (DCC), and associated support equipment. The DCC was designed by the Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) to actively control a pair of ASCs. Based on lessons learned, three generations of DCCs were developed over the past decade. After each generation of the DCC was completed, tests were performed to verify functionality. These tests include acceptance testing, fault testing, characterization testing, and testing with the Radioisotope Power System Systems Integration Laboratory (RSIL). Acceptance testing verifies that the DCC can control a pair of ASCs to produce full convertor power output. The fault testing verifies that the DCC can maintain control of the ASCs during either internal or external faults. Characterization testing verifies the functionality of the DCC over a range of bus voltage values. RSIL provides insight into the electrical interactions between a representative radioisotope power generator, its associated control schemes, and realistic electric system loads. The DCC design, development, lessons learned, test results, and future work are presented in this paper.

Stirling↗