SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “flyable”

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.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

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

At least 37 records · Page 2

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS1989

Crew emergency return vehicle autoland feasibility study

The crew emergency return vehicle (CERV) autoland feasibility study focused on determining the controllability of the NASA Langley high lift over drag CERV for performing an automatic landing at a prescribed runway. An autoland system was developed using integral linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) design techniques. The design was verified using a nonlinear 6 DOF simulation. Simulation results demonstrate that the CERV configuration is a very flyable configuration for performing an autoland mission. Adequate stability and control was demonstrated for wind turbulence and wind shear. Control surface actuator requirements were developed.

Bossi, J. A.↗

NASA NTRS1990

The 4-D descent trajectory generation techniques under realistic operating conditions

NASA-Langley has been conducting and sponsoring research in airborne energy management for a number of years. During the course of this research, two fundamental techniques for the generation of 4D (fixed time) descent trajectories have emerged as viable candidates for advanced flight management systems. The first technique utilizes speed schedules of constant Mach number transitioning to constant calibrated airspeed chosen empirically to produce minimum fuel usage. The second technique computes cost optimized speed schedules of variable airspeed developed through application of optimal control theory. Both techniques have been found to produce reasonable and flyable descent trajectories. The formulation of the algorithms for each technique is evaluated and their suitability for operations in realistic conditions is discussed. Operational factors considered include: airplace speed, thrust, and altitude rate constaints; wind, temperature, and pressure variations; Air Traffic Control altitude, speed, and time constaints; and pilot interface and guidance considerations. Time flexibility, fuel usage, and airborne computational requirements were the primary performance measures.

Williams, David H.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Personnel Launch System definition

A lifting-body Personnel Launch System (PLS) is defined for assured manned access to space for future U.S. space missions. The reusable craft described is configured for reliable and safe operations, maintainability, affordability, and improved operability, and could reduce life-cycle costs associated with placing personnel into orbit. Flight simulations show the PLS to be a very flyable vehicle with very little control and propellant expenditure required during entry. The attention to crew safety has resulted in the design of a system that provides protection for the crew throughout the mission profile. However, a new operations philosophy for manned space vehicles must be adopted to fully achieve low-cost, manned earth-to-orbit transportation.

Piland, William M.↗

NASA NTRS1992

A cable detection lidar system for helicopters

Helicopters in low-level flight are endangered by power lines or telephone wires, especially when flying at night and under poor visibility conditions. In order to prevent 'wire strike', Thomson has developed a lidar system consisting of a pulsed diode laser emitting in the near infrared region (lambda = 0.9 microns). The HOWARD (Helicopter Obstacle Warning and Detection) System utilizes a high repetition rate diode laser (PRE = 20 KHz) along with counter-rotating prisms for laser beam deflection with a total field of view of 30 degrees. This system was successfully field tested in 1991. HOWARD can detect one inch wires at ranges up to 200 meters. We are presently in the process of developing a flyable compact lidar system capable of detection ranges in the order of 400 meters.

Grossmann, Benoist↗

NASA NTRS1991

A workstation-based evaluation of a far-field route planner for helicopters

Helicopter flight missions at very low, nap of the Earth, altitudes place a heavy workload on the pilot. To aid in reducing this workload, Ames Research Center has been investigating various types of automated route planners. As part of an automated preflight mission planner, a route planner algorithm aids in selecting the overall (far-field) route to be flown. During the mission, the route planner can be used to replan a new route in case of unexpected threats or change in mission requirements. An evaluation of a candidate route planning algorithm, based on dynamic programming techniques is described. This algorithm meets most of the requirements for route planning, both preflight and during the mission. In general, the requirements are to minimize the distance and/or fuel and the deviation from a flight time schedule, and must be flyable within the constraints of available fuel and time.

Warner, David N., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Development and calibration of UV/VUV radiometric sources

A program exists at NIST to calibrate radiometric sources for the spectral range from 118-350 nm. These include deuterium lamps, hollow-cathode lamps, RF-excited dimer lamps, and wall-stabilized argon arcs. Sources have been calibrated for and used by researchers in solar physics, astrophysics, atmospheric physics (ozone measurements), magnetically controlled fusion, and photobiology. The argon arcs were developed in our laboratory, and provide intense sources of both radiance and irradiance. Calibrations are performed relative to two primary sources, a wall-stabilized hydrogen arc and a 12,000 K black-body line arc, both developed in our laboratory. Also we recently have begun periodic calibrations on the NIST storage ring, SURF II, to insure consistency between our respective radiometric bases. Various sources have been calibrated for space' applications, including several which are flyable. Also, some development and testing of radiometers for semiconductor lithography were recently carried out with an intense argon arc source.

Bridges, J. M.↗

NASA NTRS1996

Flying Cars

Flying cars have nearly mythical appeal to nonpilots, a group that includes almost the whole human race. The appeal resides in the perceived utility of flying cars, vehicles that offer portal-to-portal transportation, yet break the bonds of road and traffic and travel freely through the sky at the drivers will. Part of the appeal is an assumption that flying cars can be as easy to fly as to drive. Flying cars have been part of the dream of aviation since the dawn of powered flight. Glenn Curtiss built, displayed, and maybe even flew a flying car in 1917, the Curtiss Autoplane. Many roadable airplanes were built in the 1930's, like the Waterman Arrowbile and the Fulton Airphibian. Two flying cars came close to production in the early 1950's. Ted Hall built a series of flying cars culminating in the Convaircar, sponsored by Consolidated Vultee, General Motors, and Hertz. Molt Taylor built and certified his Aerocar, and Ford came close to producing them. Three Aerocars are still flyable, two in museums in Seattle and Oshkosh, and the third owned and flown by Ed Sweeny. Flying cars do have problems, which so far have prevented commercial success. An obvious problem is complexity of the vehicle, the infrastructure, or both. Another is the difficulty of matching low power for normal driving with high power in flight. An automobile uses only about 20 hp at traffic speeds, while a personal airplane needs about 160 hp at speeds typical of flight. Many automobile engines can deliver 160 hp, but not for very long. A more subtle issue involves the drag of automobiles and airplanes. A good personal airplane can fly 30 miles per gallon of fuel at 200 mph. A good sports car would need 660 hp at the same speed and would travel only 3 miles per gallon. The difference is drag area, about 4.5 sq ft for the automobile and 1.4 sq ft for the airplane. A flying car better have the drag area of the airplane, not the car!

Crow, Steven↗

NASA NTRS1998

X-34 Experimental Aeroheating at Mach 6 and 10

Critical technologies are being developed to support the goals of the NASA Office of Aeronautics and Space Transportation Technology Access to Space initiative for next-generation reusable space transportation systems. From the perspective of aerothermodynamic performance throughout the flight trajectory, the Reusable Launch Vehicle program incorporates conceptual analysis, ground-based testing, and computational fluid dynamics to provide flyable suborbital flight demonstrator vehicles. This report provides an overview of the hypersonic aeroheating wind tunnel test program conducted at the NASA Langley Research Center in support of one of these vehicles, the X-34 small reusable technology demonstrator program. Global surface heat transfer images, surface streamline patterns, and shock shapes were measured on 0.0153- and 0.0183-scale models of proposed X-34 flight vehicles at Mach 6 and 10 in air. The primary parametrics that were investigated include angles-of-attack from 0 to 35 deg. and freestream unit Reynolds numbers from 0.5 to 8 million per foot (which was sufficient to produce laminar, transitional, and turbulent heating data), both with and without control surface deflections. Comparisons of the experimental data to computational predictions are included, along with a discussion of the implications of some of the experimental flow features for the flight vehicle.

Berry, Scott A.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Pointing and Tracking Concepts for Deep Space Missions

This paper summarizes part of a FY1998 effort on the design and development of an optical communications (Opcomm) subsystem for the Advanced Deep Space System Development (ADSSD) Project. This study was funded by the JPL X2000 program to develop an optical communications (Opcomm) subsystem for use in future planetary missions. The goal of this development effort was aimed at providing prototype hardware with the capability of performing uplink, downlink, and ranging functions from deep space distances. Such a system was envisioned to support future deep space missions in the Outer Planets/Solar Probe (OPSP) mission set such as the Pluto express and Europa orbiter by providing a significant enhancement of data return capability. A study effort was initiated to develop a flyable engineering model optical terminal to support the proposed Europa Orbiter mission - as either the prime telecom subsystem or for mission augmentation. The design concept was to extend the prototype lasercom terminal development effort currently conducted by JPL's Optical Communications Group. The subsystem would track the sun illuminated Earth at Europa and farther distances for pointing reference. During the course of the study, a number of challenging issues were found. These included thermo-mechanical distortion, straylight control, and pointing. This paper focuses on the pointing aspects required to locate and direct a laser beam from a spacecraft (S/C) near Jupiter to a receiving station on Earth.

Alexander, J. W.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Subsonic Glideback Rocket Demonstrator Flight Testing

For the past two years, Cal Poly's rocket program has been aggressively exploring the concept of remotely controlled, fixed wing, flyable rocket boosters. This program, embodied by a group of student engineers known as Cal Poly Space Systems, has successfully demonstrated the idea of a rocket design that incorporates a vertical launch pattern followed by a horizontal return flight and landing. Though the design is meant for supersonic flight, CPSS demonstrators are deployed at a subsonic speed. Many steps have been taken by the club that allowed the evolution of the StarBooster prototype to reach its current size: a ten-foot tall, one-foot diameter, composite material rocket. Progress is currently being made that involves multiple boosters along with a second stage, third rocket.

DeTurris, Dianne J.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Continued Development of a Planetary Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (PIFTS)

This report describes continued efforts to evaluate a breadboard of a Planetary Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (PIFTS). The PIFTS breadboard was developed under prior PIDDP funding. That effort is described in the final report for NASA Grant NAG5-6248 and in two conference papers (Sromovsky et al. 2000; Revercomb et al. 2000). The PIFTS breadboard was designed for near-IR (1-5.2 micrometer imaging of planetary targets with spectral resolving powers of several hundred to several thousand, using an InSb detector array providing at least 64x64 pixels imaging detail. The major focus of the development effort was to combine existing technologies to produce a small and low power design compatible with a very low mass flyable instrument. The objective of this grant (NAG5-10729) was further characterization of the breadboard performance, including intercomparisons with the highly accurate non-imaging Advanced Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) (Revercomb et al. 1994; Best et al. 1997).

Sromovsky, L. A.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Neural Flight Control System

The Neural Flight Control System (NFCS) was developed to address the need for control systems that can be produced and tested at lower cost, easily adapted to prototype vehicles and for flight systems that can accommodate damaged control surfaces or changes to aircraft stability and control characteristics resulting from failures or accidents. NFCS utilizes on a neural network-based flight control algorithm which automatically compensates for a broad spectrum of unanticipated damage or failures of an aircraft in flight. Pilot stick and rudder pedal inputs are fed into a reference model which produces pitch, roll and yaw rate commands. The reference model frequencies and gains can be set to provide handling quality characteristics suitable for the aircraft of interest. The rate commands are used in conjunction with estimates of the aircraft s stability and control (S&C) derivatives by a simplified Dynamic Inverse controller to produce virtual elevator, aileron and rudder commands. These virtual surface deflection commands are optimally distributed across the aircraft s available control surfaces using linear programming theory. Sensor data is compared with the reference model rate commands to produce an error signal. A Proportional/Integral (PI) error controller "winds up" on the error signal and adds an augmented command to the reference model output with the effect of zeroing the error signal. In order to provide more consistent handling qualities for the pilot, neural networks learn the behavior of the error controller and add in the augmented command before the integrator winds up. In the case of damage sufficient to affect the handling qualities of the aircraft, an Adaptive Critic is utilized to reduce the reference model frequencies and gains to stay within a flyable envelope of the aircraft.

Gundy-Burlet, Karen↗

NASA NTRS2004

Power Lander for Support of Long-Term Lunar Presence

Emerging industrial base and the consequent sustained manned Lunar presence will require consistent high power capacities. This paper proposes a first iteration design of a flyable electric power platform which could serve as an enabler of Lunar Development and Exploration. It is intended to support a small facility solo or an emerging industrial base as part of a grid. Lunar Missions, Habitats and Facilities stand to benefit from an expected decade of non-stop operation, the economics of scale, Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) availability, standardization of design, and logistical support for Lunar encampments provided by this architecture. The unattended and unmanned vehicle design is to be man- and robotics-serviceable after delivery by current and proposed heavy-lift boosters. Design continuity within a family of systems will improve reliability through "lessons learned'' in the field. Further, various configurations of the proposed scalable architecture will provide reference platforms for the indigenous construction of similar power plant facilities from in-situ Lunar resources (ISRU). The baseline design should be directed towards those materials available on the Moon and expected to be manufacturable on-site within the first decade of operation.

Joyner, Russ↗

NASA NTRS2010

Autonomous GN and C for Spacecraft Exploration of Comets and Asteroids

A spacecraft guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) system is needed to enable a spacecraft to descend to a surface, take a sample using a touch-and-go (TAG) sampling approach, and then safely ascend. At the time of this reporting, a flyable GN&C system that can accomplish these goals is beyond state of the art. This article describes AutoGNC, which is a GN&C system capable of addressing these goals, which has recently been developed and demonstrated to a maturity TRL-5-plus. The AutoGNC solution matures and integrates two previously existing JPL capabilities into a single unified GN&C system. The two capabilities are AutoNAV and GREX. AutoNAV is JPL s current flight navigation system, and is fairly mature with respect to flybys and rendezvous with small bodies, but is lacking capability for close surface proximity operations, sampling, and contact. G-REX is a suite of low-TRL algorithms and capabilities that enables spacecraft operations in close surface proximity and for performing sampling/contact. The development and integration of AutoNAV and G-REX components into AutoGNC provides a single, unified GN&C capability for addressing the autonomy, close-proximity, and sampling/contact aspects of small-body sample return missions. AutoGNC is an integrated capability comprising elements that were developed separately. The main algorithms and component capabilities that have been matured and integrated are autonomy for near-surface operations, terrain-relative navigation (TRN), real-time image-based feedback guidance and control, and six degrees of freedom (6DOF) control of the TAG sampling event. Autonomy is achieved based on an AutoGNC Executive written in Virtual Machine Language (VML) incorporating high-level control, data management, and fault protection. In descending to the surface, the AutoGNC system uses camera images to determine its position and velocity relative to the terrain. This capability for TRN leverages native capabilities of the original AutoNAV system, but required advancements that integrate the separate capabilities for shape modeling, state estimation, image rendering, defining a database of onboard maps, and performing real-time landmark recognition against the stored maps. The ability to use images to guide the spacecraft requires the capability for image-based feedback control. In Auto- GNC, navigation estimates are fed into an onboard guidance and control system that keeps the spacecraft guided along a desired path, as it descends towards its targeted landing or sampling site. Once near the site, AutoGNC achieves a prescribed guidance condition for TAG sampling (position/orientation, velocity), and a prescribed force profile on the sampling end-effector. A dedicated 6DOF TAG control then implements the ascent burn while recovering from sampling disturbances and induced attitude rates. The control also minimizes structural interactions with flexible solar panels and disallows any part of the spacecraft from making contact with the ground (other than the intended end-effector).

Carson, John M.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Combining Model-Based and Feature-Driven Diagnosis Approaches - A Case Study on Electromechanical Actuators

Model-based diagnosis typically uses analytical redundancy to compare predictions from a model against observations from the system being diagnosed. However this approach does not work very well when it is not feasible to create analytic relations describing all the observed data, e.g., for vibration data which is usually sampled at very high rates and requires very detailed finite element models to describe its behavior. In such cases, features (in time and frequency domains) that contain diagnostic information are extracted from the data. Since this is a computationally intensive process, it is not efficient to extract all the features all the time. In this paper we present an approach that combines the analytic model-based and feature-driven diagnosis approaches. The analytic approach is used to reduce the set of possible faults and then features are chosen to best distinguish among the remaining faults. We describe an implementation of this approach on the Flyable Electro-mechanical Actuator (FLEA) test bed.

Narasimhan, Sriram↗

NASA NTRS2014

Don't Trust a Management Metric, Especially in Life Support

Goodhart's law states that metrics do not work. Metrics become distorted when used and they deflect effort away from more important goals. These well-known and unavoidable problems occurred when the closure and system mass metrics were used to manage life support research. The intent of life support research should be to develop flyable, operable, reliable systems, not merely to increase life support system closure or to reduce its total mass. It would be better to design life support systems to meet the anticipated mission requirements and user needs. Substituting the metrics of closure and total mass for these goals seems to have led life support research to solve the wrong problems.

life support↗

NASA NTRS2022

Wind-Optimal Lateral Trajectories for a Multirotor Aircraft in Urban Air Mobility

The primary motivation for this paper is to quantify the operational benefits (energy consumption and flight duration) of flying wind-optimal lateral trajectories for short flights (less than 60 miles) anticipated in the urban environment. The optimal control model presented includes a wind model for quantifying the effect of wind on the lateral trajectory. The optimal control problem is numerically solved using the direct collocation method. Energy consumption and flight duration flying wind-optimal lateral trajectories are compared with corresponding values obtained flying great-circle paths between the same origin and destination pairs to determine the operational benefits of wind-optimal routing for short flights. The flight duration results for different scenarios are validated using a simulation tool designed and developed at NASA for exploring advanced air traffic management concepts. This research study suggests that for short flights in an urban environment, operational benefits of the wind-optimal lateral trajectories over the corresponding great-circle trajectories in terms of energy consumption and flight duration per flight are dependent on: i) wind field’s spatial variability, ii) wind magnitude, iii) the direction of route relative to the wind field, and iv) cruise segment length. The operational benefits observed in realistic flyable wind scenarios are less than 2.5%; these could be translated to an equivalent of a maximum of 2 min of cruise flight duration savings in the urban air mobility environment. As expected, headwinds and tailwinds along the flight route most significantly impact energy consumption and flight duration.

Wind-Optimal Trajectory, Lateral Path, Urban Air M↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Flight Test Design and Implementation for Airspace Independent Surveillance Through a Distributed Ground Based Sensor Network

The paper presents a system architecture for distributed sensing, networking and computing, its hardware implementation, and execution of initial flight experiments to validate theoretical findings. It induces development of distributed sensing requirements, framework, and architecture, development of distributed ground node hardware prototypes, integration of all nodes and testing of baseline functionalities, integration of in-house developed perception, migration and tracking software packages, establishing flight scenario and flyable path for a selected UAS, flying the air vehicle along the path, recording sensors measurements, pre-processing them and transferring the resulting data to an optimal computing center. It also addresses the challenges related to pre-flight hardware calibration, clock synchronization, sensor registration and establishing a communication network. Sensors data processing results demonstrate the functionality of the presented distributed architecture and satisfactory performance of the applied technologies.

Target tracking↗