SEARCH · Search NASA
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.
This book chapter describes the issues surrounding managing planetary dust during surface operations. It summarizes the effects of dust on surface operations, the effects of planetary surface environments on dust transport, and a snapshot of current dust mitigation technologies.
In September 2007, a team of scientists and engineers from several NASA centers participated in a field exercise at Meteor Crater, Arizona. The tests in this field exercise utilized recently developed robots of varying scales and capabilities and humans in pressurized space suits. Two examples of operations performed in the field are presented: a surface operations scenario involving suited crew supported by a number of mobile robots and setup operations for accessing a crater. The surface operations scenario simulated the end of a crew sortie and involved the following agents: 1) Suit subjects from Johnson Space Center s (JSC) advanced spacesuit laboratory 2) JSC's unpressurized crewed rover testbed, SCOUT 3) The Jet Propulsion Laboratory s (JPL) rough terrain, payload carrying robot, ATHLETE 4) JSC's Astronaut assist robot, Robonaut 5) Ames Research Center's (ARC) inspection robot, K-10. Operations began with ATHLETE positioning a pressurized rover compartment (PRC) as two crew members drove the SCOUT unpressurized rover from the field. The crew dismounted SCOUT, walked to the PRC for recharging. Robonaut then removed a sample box from the SCOUT equipment tray. K-10 then performed a drive around inspection of SCOUT, assembling a mosaic image. Lastly, the SCOUT vehicle was remotely driven to the next site. The setup operations for crater access scenario involved ATHLETE and Robonaut. This scenario began with Robonaut approaching ATHLETE and extracting a tether line. ATHLETE then extracted a drill and drilled an anchor into the surface. Robonaut then reconnected the tether to the anchor and backed away. ATHLETE is then ready to descend into the crater. This descending into the crater step is currently in the planning phase.
The objectives of this program are to 1) Assess viability of using lithium-ion technology for future NASA applications, with emphasis upon Mars landers and rovers which will operate on the planetary surface; 2) Support the JPL 2003 Mars Exploration Rover program to assist in the delivery and testing of a 8 AHr Lithium-Ion battery (Lithion/Yardney) which will power the rover; 3) Demonstrate applicability of using lithium-ion technologyfor future Mars applications: Mars 09 Science Laboratory (Smart Lander) and Future Mars Surface Operations (General). Mission simulation testing was carried out for cells and batteries on the Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander and the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover.
This slide presentation reviews the first part of the post-touchdown lunar surface and system checkout tasks. A stay/no stay decision for the lunar lander was made based on the questions: "Is the Lunar Module (LM) stable on the lunar surface?"; "Are there any time critical systems failures or trends indicating impending loss of capability to ascent and achieve a safe lunar orbit?"; and "Is there loss of capability in critical LM systems?" The sequence of these decisions is given as a time after touchdown on the surface of the moon. After the decision to stay is made the next task is to checkout status of the lunar module. While the status of the lunar module is checking out certain conditions, the Command Service Module was also engaged in certain checkout activities.
The purpose of this report is to document preliminary, predicted, life sciences implications of expected operational concepts for lunar surface extravehicular activity (EVA). Algorithms developed through simulation and testing in lunar analog environments were used to predict crew metabolic rates and ground reaction forces experienced during lunar EVA. Subsequently, the total metabolic energy consumption, the daily bone load stimulus, total oxygen needed, and other variables were calculated and provided to Human Research Program and Exploration Systems Mission Directorate stakeholders. To provide context to the modeling, the report includes an overview of some scenarios that have been considered. Concise descriptions of the analog testing and development of the algorithms are also provided. This document may be updated to remain current with evolving lunar or other planetary surface operations, assumptions and concepts, and to provide additional data and analyses collected during the ongoing analog research program.
A goal of the Human Research Program (HRP) Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) Element Systems Engineering (SE) team is to define the technical system needed to support crew medical system capabilities for future exploration missions, including a mission with lunar orbital and long duration surface operations. The medical system concept of operations (ConOps) is the starting point of creating a foundation for a medical system that meets Level of Care IV requirements, as defined by NASA’s space flight human-system standards. This ConOps illustrates how NASA can provide a Level of Care IV medical system for crews within the various cis-lunar orbit and lunar surface habitat environments. The use case scenarios included in this ConOps illustrate required medical system capabilities for Level of Care IV and enable the ExMC SE team to develop integrated medical system requirements and identify capabilities required to meet those requirements. This discussion will focus on how this concept of operations was constructed – by utilizing the lessons learned from ExMC’s existing Short-Duration Lunar Orbit Medical System Concept of Operations, by employing Model-Based Systems Engineering, and by collaborating with stakeholders in order to ensure the necessary assumptions were made.
One goal of the Human Research Program (HRP) Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) Element Systems Engineering (SE) team is to define the technical system needed to support crew medical system capabilities for future exploration missions, including orbital and surface operations for long duration lunar missions. This is accomplished through the development of a Medical System Foundation, which communicates medical system requirements, capabilities, conditions, and resources that define a starting point for a medical system that meets the specification for design reference missions and associated Levels of Care (as defined by NASA-STD-3001). The starting point for creating this Medical System Foundation Model is the development of a Concept of Operations (ConOps) that describes the operation of the system from the point of view of the users. It includes a comprehensive and thoroughly vetted list of the users, their specific needs, the goals of the system, key assumptions about the system, and definitions of the system’s operational environments. The use case scenarios included in the ConOps illustrate required medical system capabilities for Level of Care IV and enable the ExMC SE team to develop integrated medical system requirements and identify capabilities required to meet those requirements. For this “Long Duration” Medical System Foundation development effort, ExMC replaced the traditional document-based ConOps with a model-based ConOps using model-based systems engineering. This approach has several advantages, including the facilitation of more efficient understanding of the material through information-dense images with less opportunity for misinterpretation than text alone, the roll-out of changes to the ConOps to stakeholders in real-time as they are approved, and the consolidation of all salient information into one centralized location. This discussion will focus on both how the model represents the ConOps content and how the SE team utilized lessons learned in an agile environment to improve the way this information was created and presented to stakeholders.
One goal of the Human Research Program (HRP) Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) Element Systems Engineering (SE) team is to define the technical system needed to support crew medical system capabilities for future exploration missions, including orbital and surface operations for long duration lunar missions. This is accomplished through the development of a Medical System Foundation, which communicates medical system requirements, capabilities, conditions, and resources that define a starting point for a medical system that meets the specification for design reference missions and associated Levels of Care (as defined by NASA-STD-3001). The starting point for creating this Medical System Foundation Model is the development of a Concept of Operations (ConOps) that describes the operation of the system from the point of view of the users. It includes a comprehensive and thoroughly vetted list of the users, their specific needs, the goals of the system, key assumptions about the system, and definitions of the system’s operational environments. The use case scenarios included in the ConOps illustrate required medical system capabilities for Level of Care IV and enable the ExMC SE team to develop integrated medical system requirements and identify capabilities required to meet those requirements. For this “Long Duration” Medical System Foundation development effort, ExMC replaced the traditional document-based ConOps with a model-based ConOps using model-based systems engineering. This approach has several advantages, including the facilitation of more efficient understanding of the material through information-dense images with less opportunity for misinterpretation than text alone, the roll-out of changes to the ConOps to stakeholders in real-time as they are approved, and the consolidation of all salient information into one centralized location. This discussion will focus on both how the model represents the ConOps content and how the SE team utilized lessons learned in an agile environment to improve the way this information was created and presented to stakeholders.
A large fraction of safety incidents occurs on the ground during airport surface operations. Although these incidents are mostly non-fatal with a few exceptions, they are high profile incidents that remain a source of concern for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), major airlines, and other stakeholders of the National Airspace System (NAS). These incidents have historically been mitigated by implementing changes to regulations, policies, and procedures over time. This approach has minimized but not eliminated the risk of occurrence of safety incidents. It is thus important to develop integrated techniques to assess, model, and prevent these incidents by analyzing the risk and likelihood of occurrence and communicating results of the analysis to decision-making personnel who can mitigate and prevent incidents in real time. The work presented in this paper builds on a previously developed architecture for safety, Real-Time Safety Monitoring (RTSM), to enable monitoring and prediction of the safety of the NAS. In the RTSM framework, hazards to flight are translated to safety metrics such as wake vortex encounters or loss of separation, that can be modeled and analyzed offline and also predicted and monitored in real time (online). The intent of this paper is to integrate predictable incidents that occur during surface and ground operations into the safety portfolio of the RTSM project by (i) identifying suitable information sources from which ground incidents can be studied, (ii) developing safety metrics correlated with surface operations, and (iii) recommending suitable data sources that can be quantified and used for the computation of pertinent safety metrics.
A large fraction of safety incidents occurs on the ground during airport surface operations. Although these incidents are mostly non-fatal with a few exceptions, they are high profile incidents that remain a source of concern for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), major airlines, and other stakeholders of the National Airspace System (NAS). These incidents have historically been mitigated by implementing changes to regulations, policies, and procedures over time. This approach has minimized but not eliminated the risk of occurrences. It is thus important to develop integrated techniques to assess, model, and prevent these incidents by analyzing the risk and likelihood of occurrence and communicating results of the analysis to decision-making personnel who can mitigate and prevent incidents in real time. The research presented in this report builds on prior work of researchers at the NASA Ames Research Center who developed an automated framework, Real-Time Safety Monitoring (RTSM), to enable monitoring and prediction of the safety of the NAS. In the RTSM framework, hazards to flight are translated to safety metrics such as wake vortex encounters or loss of separation, that can be modeled and analyzed offline and also predicted and monitored in real time (online). The intent of this report is to integrate predictable incidents that occur during surface and ground operations into the safety portfolio of the RTSM project by (i) identifying suitable information sources from which ground incidents can be studied, (ii) developing safety metrics correlated with surface operations, and (iii) recommending suitable data sources that can be quantified and used for the computation of pertinent safety metrics.
Experiments and flight tests have shown that airport surface operations can be enhanced by using synthetic vision and associated technologies, employed on a Head-Up Display (HUD) and head-down display electronic moving maps (EMM). Although HUD applications have shown the greatest potential operational improvements, the research noted that two major limitations during ground operations were its monochrome form and limited, fixed field-of-regard. A potential solution to these limitations may be the application of advanced Head Worn Displays (HWDs) particularly during low-visibility operations wherein surface movement is substantially limited because of the impaired vision of pilots and air traffic controllers. The paper describes the results of ground simulation experiments conducted at the NASA Langley Research Center. The results of the experiments showed that the fully integrated HWD concept provided significantly improved path performance compared to using paper charts alone. When comparing the HWD and HUD concepts, there were no statistically-significant differences in path performance or subjective ratings of situation awareness and workload. Implications and directions for future research are described.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Artemis Program is developing, testing, and demonstrating new capabilities and technologies required to support a sustainable human presence on the lunar surface and a longer-term vision of sending astronauts to Mars. Artemis lunar surface operations will begin with robotically exploring the lunar south polar regions for locations suitable for harvesting lunar surface resources. Over time activities on the lunar surface will expand beyond robotic operations to human lunar surface operations with the delivery of a lunar habitat and in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) assets increasing the need for highly reliable and available electrical power. As operations move beyond the Artemis technology demonstrations and exploration activities towards full commercial lunar surface activities, the ability to expand the original envisioned Artemis power system and repurpose power system components to support commercial activities will be crucial. One technology that will be necessary to support commercial lunar operations is a power grid. A lunar surface power grid would offer the ability to integrate various power sources to maximize power availability, including fission surface power (nuclear), solar arrays, batteries, and regenerative fuel cells. Newly designed terrestrial microgrids are flexible and can be designed to allow for islanded operation, where power is utilized near the loads to minimize power distribution losses or in a power sharing mode where power is transmitted longer distances. This capability is crucial during failures where overall power availability is reduced, and load demand exceeds generation/storage capability. These terrestrial microgrids will also allow for the power system to grow and evolve over time, meeting the need to expand beyond initial lunar surface activities. This presentation will discuss the NASA Artemis plans, potential power system architectures, and power distribution options that will enable growth from initial technology demonstrations towards a lunar economy with a lunar surface power grid that offers many of the advantages of terrestrial microgrids.
Although over forty years have passed since first landing on the Moon, there is not yet a comprehensive, quantitative assessment of Apollo extravehicular activities (EVAs). Quantitatively evaluating lunar EVAs will provide a better understanding of the challenges involved with surface operations. This first evaluation of a surface EVA centers on comparing the planned and the as-ran timeline, specifically collecting data on discrepancies between durations that were estimated versus executed. Differences were summarized by task categories in order to gain insight as to the type of surface operation activities that were most challenging. One Apollo 14 EVA was assessed utilizing the described methodology. Selected metrics and task categorizations were effective, and limitations to this process were identified.
The Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA) is an integrated decision support tool for airlines and air traffic control tower enabling surface collaborative decision making (CDM) and departure metering in order to enhance efficiency of surface operations at congested airports. The presentation describes the concept and architecture of the SARDA as a CDM tool, and the results from a human-in-the-loop simulation of the tool conducted in 2012 at the FutureFlight Central, the tower simulation facility. Also, presented is the current activities and future plan for SARDA development. The presentation was given at the meeting with the FAA senior advisor of the Surface Operations Office.
The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) vision proposes many revolutionary operational concepts, such as surface trajectory-based operations (STBO) and technologies, including display of traffic information and movements, airport moving maps (AMM), and proactive alerts of runway incursions and surface traffic conflicts, to deliver an overall increase in system capacity and safety. A piloted simulation study was conducted at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center to evaluate the ability of a flight crew to conduct safe and efficient airport surface operations while utilizing an AMM. Position accuracy of traffic was varied, and the effect of traffic position accuracy on airport conflict detection and resolution (CD&R) capability was measured. Another goal was to evaluate the crew's ability to safely conduct STBO by assessing the impact of providing traffic intent information, CD&R system capability, and the display of STBO guidance to the flight crew on both head-down and head-up displays (HUD). Nominal scenarios and off-nominal conflict scenarios were conducted using 12 airline crews operating in a simulated Memphis International Airport terminal environment. The data suggest that all traffic should be shown on the airport moving map, whether qualified or unqualified, and conflict detection and resolution technologies provide significant safety benefits. Despite the presence of traffic information on the map, collisions or near-collisions still occurred; when indications or alerts were generated in these same scenarios, the incidents were averted. During the STBO testing, the flight crews met their required time-of-arrival at route end within 10 seconds on 98 percent of the trials, well within the acceptable performance bounds of 15 seconds. Traffic intent information was found to be useful in determining the intent of conflicting traffic, with graphical presentation preferred. The CD&R system was only minimally effective during STBO because the prevailing visibility was sufficient for visual detection of conflicting traffic. Overall, the pilots indicated STBO increased general situation awareness but also negatively impacted workload, reduced the ability to watch for other traffic, and increased head-down time.
A preliminary design study is presented of a mobile crane suitable for conducting remote, automated construction operations on planetary surfaces. A cursory study was made of earth based mobile cranes and the needs for major improvements were identified. Current earth based cranes have a single cable supporting the payload, and precision positioning is accomplished by the use of construction workers controlling the payload by the use of tethers. For remote, autonomous operations on planetary surfaces it will be necessary to perform the precision operations without the use of humans. To accomplish this the payload must be stabilized relative to the crane. One approach for accomplishing this is to suspend the payload on multiple cable. A 3-cable suspension system crane concept is discussed. An analysis of the natural frequency of the system is presented which verifies the legitimacy of the concept.
On November 26, 2011, NASA launched a large (900 kg) rover as part of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission to Mars. Eight months later, on August 5, 2012, the MSL rover (Curiosity) successfully touched down on the surface of Mars. As of the writing of this paper, the rover had completed over 200 Sols of Mars surface operations in the Gale Crater landing site (4.5 degrees South latitude). This paper describes the thermal performance of the MSL Rover during the early part of its two Earth-0.year (670 Sols) prime surface mission. Curiosity landed in Gale Crater during early Spring (Solar longitude=151) in the Southern Hemisphere of Mars. This paper discusses the thermal performance of the rover from landing day (Sol 0) through Summer Solstice (Sol 197) and out to Sol 204. The rover surface thermal design performance was very close to pre-landing predictions. The very successful thermal design allowed a high level of operational power dissipation immediately after landing without overheating and required a minimal amount of survival heating. Early morning operations of cameras and actuators were aided by successful heating activities. MSL rover surface operations thermal experiences are discussed in this paper. Conclusions about the rover surface operations thermal performance are also presented.
NASA conducted a series of flight experiments at Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport as part of the Low Visibility Landing and Surface Operations (LVLASO) Program. LVLASO is one of the subelements of the NASA Terminal Area Productivity (TAP) Program, which is focused on providing technology and operating procedures for achieving clear-weather airport capacity in instrument-weather conditions, while also improving safety. LVLASO is investigating various technologies to be applied to airport surface operations, including advanced flight deck displays and surveillance systems. The purpose of this report is to document the performance of the surveillance systems tested as part of the LVLASO flight experiment. There were three surveillance sensors tested: primary radar using Airport Surface Detection Equipment (ASDE-3) and the Airport Movement Area Safety System (AMASS), Multilateration using the Airport Surface Target Identification System (ATIDS), and Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B) operating at 1090 MHz. The performance was compared to the draft requirements of the ICAO Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control System (A-SMGCS). Performance parameters evaluated included coverage, position accuracy, and update rate. Each of the sensors was evaluated as a stand alone surveillance system.