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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.

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At least 397 records · Page 22

[Component and System Level of the FASTRAC Engine]

The primary activities of Lee & Associates during the period 7/20/99 to 12/31/99 as specified in the referenced Purchase Order has been in direct support of the Advanced Space Technology Program OfFice's Core Propulsion Project. An independent review to assess the program readiness to conduct component and system level testing of the FASTRAC Engine and to proceed into Fabrication has been provided. This was accomplished through the identification of program weaknesses and potential failure areas and where applicable recommended solutions were suggested to the Program Office that would mitigate technical and program risk. The approach taken to satisfy the objectives has been for the contractor to provide a team of experts with relevant experience from past programs and a strong background of experience in the fields critical to the success of the program. The team participated in Test Planning, Test Readiness Reviews for system testing at Stennis Space Center, Anomaly Resolution Reviews, an Operations Audit, and data analysis. This approach worked well in satisfying the objectives and providing the Project Office with valuable information in real time and through monthly reports. During the month of December 1999 the primary effort involved the participation in anomaly resolution and the detailed review of the data from the final H3 and H4 test series performed on the FASTRAC engine in the b-2 Horizontal Test Facility at Stennis. The more significant findings and recommendations from this review are presented in this report.

Source record↗

Machine learning based noise reduction for satellite products: application to solar-induced fluorescence retrievals using simulated and real data

In the past two decades, global satellite measurements of terrestrial chlorophyll solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) have been used widely for a number of different applications related to physiology, phenology, and productivity of plants. However, SIF retrievals are inherently noisy due to the relatively small SIF spectral signature in comparison with observational noise. In this work, we examine how a spectral-based approach that employs principal component analysis along with a relatively shallow artificial neural network can be used to reduce noise and other artifacts in satellite level 2 (L2) products. We first apply the approach in a controlled environment in which radiance spectra are simulated with a full atmospheric and surface radiative transfer model for different scenarios including various SIF values that are known. Various levels of noise can be added to the simulated spectra. Resulting noisy and noise-reduced SIF retrievals are compared with the true values to assess performance. We then apply the noise reduction approach to real SIF derived from instruments flying on meteorological satellites. The results are evaluated by comparing SIF retrievals from different platforms with each other and with other independent data sets, showing enhanced capability to capture seasonal and interannual variability in SIF.

Chlorophyll fluorescence↗

Global, Multi-Year Analysis of Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System Terra Observations and Radiative Transfer Calculations

An extended record of the Terra Surface and Atmosphere Radiation Budget (SARB) computed by CERES (Clouds and Earth s Radiant Energy System) is produced in gridded form, facilitating an investigation of global scale direct aerosol forcing. The new gridded version (dubbed FSW) has a spacing of 1 at the Equator. A companion document (Rutan et al. 2005) focuses on advances to (and validation of) the ungridded, footprint scale calculations (dubbed CRS), primarily in clear-sky conditions. While mainly intended to provide observations of fluxes at the top of atmosphere (TOA), CERES (Wielicki et al. 1996) includes a program to also compute the fluxes at TOA, within the atmosphere and at the surface, and also to validate the results with independent ground based measurements (Charlock and Alberta 1996). ARM surface data has been a focus for this component of CERES. To permit the user to infer cloud forcing and direct aerosol forcing with the computed SARB, CERES includes surface and TOA fluxes that have been computed for cloud-free (clear) and aerosol free (pristine) footprints; this accounts for aerosol effects (SW scattering and absorption, and LW scattering, absorption and emission) to both clear and cloudy skies.

Charlock, T. P.↗

Humidity profiles over the ocean

The variabilities of atmospheric humidity profile over oceans from daily to interannual time scales were examined using 9 years of daily and semidaily radiosonde soundings at island stations extending from the Arctic to the South Pacific. The relative humidity profiles were found to have considerable temporal and geographic variabilities, contrary to the prevalent assumption. Principal component analysis on the profiles of specific humidity were used to examine the applicability of a relation between the surface-level humidity and the integrated water vapor; this relation has been used to estimate large-scale evaporation from satellite data. The first principal component was found to correlate almost perfectly with the integrated water vapor. The fractional variance represented by this mode increases with increasing period. It reaches approximately 90 percent at two weeks and decreases sharply, below one week, down to approximately 60 percent at the daily period. At low frequencies, the integrated water vapor appeared to be an adequate estimator of the humidity profile and the surface-level humidity. At periods shorter than a week, more than one independent estimator is needed.

Liu, W. T.↗

Assessing the Uncertainty of Land Surface Fluxes Derived from Operational Analyses

Operational numerical weather prediction systems assimilate tremendous amounts of observations to produce global analyses of the atmospheric states. Since the systems include significant contributions from the model components, physical fields, such as the turbulent heat fluxes, can also be derived. However, the physical fields are indirectly constrained by the data assimilation, and so subject to uncertainty in the model parameterizations. Recently, 10 international operational analyses have been collected and reprocessed through the Coordinated Enhanced. Observing Period (CEOP). Comparisons against independent observations (global precipitation and outgoing longwave radiation) show that while there is significant range of the individual analyses, the ensemble of analyses provide data closest the observations. Here, we evaluate the collection of land surface turbulent heat fluxes. The data are available for Oct 2002 - Dec 2004, at 6 hourly, daily and monthly intervals. An ensemble mean and its variance have been computed. we will analyze the range of analysis results at daily and seasonal time scales, and where possible compare with existing observations.

Bosilovich, Michael G.↗

NASA CARA Tools

The NASA Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis (CARA) team has created and posted to GitHub a set of MATLAB software tools for collision assessment (CA) analysis. The software is provided to the public under a NASA Open-Source Software Agreement and is maintained/updated by the CARA Analysis team. Capabilities provided within the toolset include algorithms in assessing probability of collision (Pc), collision consequence, covariance realism, Orbit Determination (OD) quality assessment, and single covariance max Pc. Additionally, a set of utilities are provided for astrodynamics topics closely related to CA, such as: Conjunction Data Message (CDM) parsing, covariance transformations, coordinate system transformations, etc. The repository is regularly updated on a monthly basis and new functionality will be added as algorithms are approved for public release. This presentation will provide a brief introduction to the toolset, highlight some of the key components which can be used in operations, and will present information on algorithms that are in the release pipeline and can be expected soon. This software will enable operators to independently perform CA calculations using the same core algorithms that CARA uses in operations.

L. Baars↗

NASA CARA Tools

The NASA Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis (CARA) team has created and posted to GitHub a set of MATLAB software tools for collision assessment (CA) analysis. The software is provided to the public under a NASA Open-Source Software Agreement and is maintained/updated by the CARA Analysis team. Capabilities provided within the toolset include algorithms in assessing probability of collision (Pc), collision consequence, covariance realism, Orbit Determination (OD) quality assessment, and single covariance max Pc. Additionally, a set of utilities are provided for astrodynamics topics closely related to CA, such as: Conjunction Data Message (CDM) parsing, covariance transformations, coordinate system transformations, etc. The repository is regularly updated on a monthly basis and new functionality will be added as algorithms are approved for public release. This presentation will provide a brief introduction to the toolset, highlight some of the key components which can be used in operations, and will present information on algorithms that are in the release pipeline and can be expected soon. This software will enable operators to independently perform CA calculations using the same core algorithms that CARA uses in operations.

Luis Baars↗

CCSDS Advanced Orbiting Systems Virtual Channel Access Service for QoS MACHETE Model

To support various communications requirements imposed by different missions, interplanetary communication protocols need to be designed, validated, and evaluated carefully. Multimission Advanced Communications Hybrid Environment for Test and Evaluation (MACHETE), described in "Simulator of Space Communication Networks" (NPO-41373), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 29, No. 8 (August 2005), p. 44, combines various tools for simulation and performance analysis of space networks. The MACHETE environment supports orbital analysis, link budget analysis, communications network simulations, and hardware-in-the-loop testing. By building abstract behavioral models of network protocols, one can validate performance after identifying the appropriate metrics of interest. The innovators have extended the MACHETE model library to include a generic link-layer Virtual Channel (VC) model supporting quality-of-service (QoS) controls based on IP streams. The main purpose of this generic Virtual Channel model addition was to interface fine-grain flow-based QoS (quality of service) between the network and MAC layers of the QualNet simulator, a commercial component of MACHETE. This software model adds the capability of mapping IP streams, based on header fields, to virtual channel numbers, allowing extended QoS handling at link layer. This feature further refines the QoS v existing at the network layer. QoS at the network layer (e.g. diffserv) supports few QoS classes, so data from one class will be aggregated together; differentiating between flows internal to a class/priority is not supported. By adding QoS classification capability between network and MAC layers through VC, one maps multiple VCs onto the same physical link. Users then specify different VC weights, and different queuing and scheduling policies at the link layer. This VC model supports system performance analysis of various virtual channel link-layer QoS queuing schemes independent of the network-layer QoS systems.

Jennings, Esther H.↗

Techniques for carrying out radiative transfer calculations for the Martian atmospheric dust

A description is given of the modification of a theory on the reflectance of particulate media so as to apply it to analysis of the infrared spectra obtained by the IRIS instrument on Mariner 9. With the aid of this theory and the optical constants of muscovite mica, quartz, andesite, anorthosite, diopside pyroxenite, and dunite, modeling calculations were made to refine previous estimates of the mineralogical composition of the Martian dust particles. These calculations suggest that a feldspar rich mixture is a very likely composition for the dust particles. The optical constants used for anorthosite and diopside pyroxenite were derived during this program from reflectance measurements. Those for the mica were derived from literature reflectance data. Finally, a computer program was written to invert the measured radiance data so as to obtain the absorption coefficient spectrum which should then be independent of the temperature profile and gaseous component effects.

Aronson, J. R.↗

Shuttle Debris Impact Tool Assessment Using the Modern Design of Experiments

Computational tools have been developed to estimate thermal and mechanical reentry loads experienced by the Space Shuttle Orbiter as the result of cavities in the Thermal Protection System (TPS). Such cavities can be caused by impact from ice or insulating foam debris shed from the External Tank (ET) on liftoff. The reentry loads depend on cavity geometry and certain Shuttle state variables, among other factors. Certain simplifying assumptions have been made in the tool development about the cavity geometry variables. For example, the cavities are all modeled as shoeboxes , with rectangular cross-sections and planar walls. So an actual cavity is typically approximated with an idealized cavity described in terms of its length, width, and depth, as well as its entry angle, exit angle, and side angles (assumed to be the same for both sides). As part of a comprehensive assessment of the uncertainty in reentry loads estimated by the debris impact assessment tools, an effort has been initiated to quantify the component of the uncertainty that is due to imperfect geometry specifications for the debris impact cavities. The approach is to compute predicted loads for a set of geometry factor combinations sufficient to develop polynomial approximations to the complex, nonparametric underlying computational models. Such polynomial models are continuous and feature estimable, continuous derivatives, conditions that facilitate the propagation of independent variable errors. As an additional benefit, once the polynomial models have been developed, they require fewer computational resources to execute than the underlying finite element and computational fluid dynamics codes, and can generate reentry loads estimates in significantly less time. This provides a practical screening capability, in which a large number of debris impact cavities can be quickly classified either as harmless, or subject to additional analysis with the more comprehensive underlying computational tools. The polynomial models also provide useful insights into the sensitivity of reentry loads to various cavity geometry variables, and reveal complex interactions among those variables that indicate how the sensitivity of one variable depends on the level of one or more other variables. For example, the effect of cavity length on certain reentry loads depends on the depth of the cavity. Such interactions are clearly displayed in the polynomial response models.

DeLoach, R.↗

Development of Finite Elements for Two-Dimensional Structural Analysis Using the Integrated Force Method

The Integrated Force Method has been developed in recent years for the analysis of structural mechanics problems. This method treats all independent internal forces as unknown variables that can be calculated by simultaneously imposing equations of equilibrium and compatibility conditions. In this paper a finite element library for analyzing two-dimensional problems by the Integrated Force Method is presented. Triangular- and quadrilateral-shaped elements capable of modeling arbitrary domain configurations are presented. The element equilibrium and flexibility matrices are derived by discretizing the expressions for potential and complementary energies, respectively. The displacement and stress fields within the finite elements are independently approximated. The displacement field is interpolated as it is in the standard displacement method, and the stress field is approximated by using complete polynomials of the correct order. A procedure that uses the definitions of stress components in terms of an Airy stress function is developed to derive the stress interpolation polynomials. Such derived stress fields identically satisfy the equations of equilibrium. Moreover, the resulting element matrices are insensitive to the orientation of local coordinate systems. A method is devised to calculate the number of rigid body modes, and the present elements are shown to be free of spurious zero-energy modes. A number of example problems are solved by using the present library, and the results are compared with corresponding analytical solutions and with results from the standard displacement finite element method. The Integrated Force Method not only gives results that agree well with analytical and displacement method results but also outperforms the displacement method in stress calculations.

Kaljevic, Igor↗

The General-Use Nodal Network Solver (GUNNS) Modeling Package for Space Vehicle Flow System Simulation

The General-Use Nodal Network Solver (GUNNS) is a modeling software package that combines nodal analysis and the hydraulic-electric analogy to simulate fluid, electrical, and thermal flow systems. GUNNS is developed by L-3 Communications under the TS21 (Training Systems for the 21st Century) project for NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC), primarily for use in space vehicle training simulators at JSC. It has sufficient compactness and fidelity to model the fluid, electrical, and thermal aspects of space vehicles in real-time simulations running on commodity workstations, for vehicle crew and flight controller training. It has a reusable and flexible component and system design, and a Graphical User Interface (GUI), providing capability for rapid GUI-based simulator development, ease of maintenance, and associated cost savings. GUNNS is optimized for NASA's Trick simulation environment, but can be run independently of Trick.

Harvey, Jason↗

Turbo Trellis Coded Modulation With Iterative Decoding for Mobile Satellite Communications

In this paper, analytical bounds on the performance of parallel concatenation of two codes, known as turbo codes, and serial concatenation of two codes over fading channels are obtained. Based on this analysis, design criteria for the selection of component trellis codes for MPSK modulation, and a suitable bit-by-bit iterative decoding structure are proposed. Examples are given for throughput of 2 bits/sec/Hz with 8PSK modulation. The parallel concatenation example uses two rate 4/5 8-state convolutional codes with two interleavers. The convolutional codes' outputs are then mapped to two 8PSK modulations. The serial concatenated code example uses an 8-state outer code with rate 4/5 and a 4-state inner trellis code with 5 inputs and 2 x 8PSK outputs per trellis branch. Based on the above mentioned design criteria for fading channels, a method to obtain he structure of the trellis code with maximum diversity is proposed. Simulation results are given for AWGN and an independent Rayleigh fading channel with perfect Channel State Information (CSI).

Divsalar, D.↗

Resistance of virus to extinction on bottleneck passages: study of a decaying and fluctuating pattern of fitness loss

RNA viruses display high mutation rates and their populations replicate as dynamic and complex mutant distributions, termed viral quasispecies. Repeated genetic bottlenecks, which experimentally are carried out through serial plaque-to-plaque transfers of the virus, lead to fitness decrease (measured here as diminished capacity to produce infectious progeny). Here we report an analysis of fitness evolution of several low fitness foot-and-mouth disease virus clones subjected to 50 plaque-to-plaque transfers. Unexpectedly, fitness decrease, rather than being continuous and monotonic, displayed a fluctuating pattern, which was influenced by both the virus and the state of the host cell as shown by effects of recent cell passage history. The amplitude of the fluctuations increased as fitness decreased, resulting in a remarkable resistance of virus to extinction. Whereas the frequency distribution of fitness in control (independent) experiments follows a log-normal distribution, the probability of fitness values in the evolving bottlenecked populations fitted a Weibull distribution. We suggest that multiple functions of viral genomic RNA and its encoded proteins, subjected to high mutational pressure, interact with cellular components to produce this nontrivial, fluctuating pattern.

Serial Passage↗

Tele-Supervised Adaptive Ocean Sensor Fleet

The Tele-supervised Adaptive Ocean Sensor Fleet (TAOSF) is a multi-robot science exploration architecture and system that uses a group of robotic boats (the Ocean-Atmosphere Sensor Integration System, or OASIS) to enable in-situ study of ocean surface and subsurface characteristics and the dynamics of such ocean phenomena as coastal pollutants, oil spills, hurricanes, or harmful algal blooms (HABs). The OASIS boats are extended- deployment, autonomous ocean surface vehicles. The TAOSF architecture provides an integrated approach to multi-vehicle coordination and sliding human-vehicle autonomy. One feature of TAOSF is the adaptive re-planning of the activities of the OASIS vessels based on sensor input ( smart sensing) and sensorial coordination among multiple assets. The architecture also incorporates Web-based communications that permit control of the assets over long distances and the sharing of data with remote experts. Autonomous hazard and assistance detection allows the automatic identification of hazards that require human intervention to ensure the safety and integrity of the robotic vehicles, or of science data that require human interpretation and response. Also, the architecture is designed for science analysis of acquired data in order to perform an initial onboard assessment of the presence of specific science signatures of immediate interest. TAOSF integrates and extends five subsystems developed by the participating institutions: Emergent Space Tech - nol ogies, Wallops Flight Facility, NASA s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Carnegie Mellon University, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The OASIS Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) system, which includes the vessels as well as the land-based control and communications infrastructure developed for them, controls the hardware of each platform (sensors, actuators, etc.), and also provides a low-level waypoint navigation capability. The Multi-Platform Simulation Environment from GSFC is a surrogate for the OASIS ASV system and allows for independent development and testing of higher-level software components. The Platform Communicator acts as a proxy for both actual and simulated platforms. It translates platform-independent messages from the higher control systems to the device-dependent communication protocols. This enables the higher-level control systems to interact identically with heterogeneous actual or simulated platforms.

Lefes, Alberto↗

An Architectural Concept for Intrusion Tolerance in Air Traffic Networks

The goal of an intrusion tolerant network is to continue to provide predictable and reliable communication in the presence of a limited num ber of compromised network components. The behavior of a compromised network component ranges from a node that no longer responds to a nod e that is under the control of a malicious entity that is actively tr ying to cause other nodes to fail. Most current data communication ne tworks do not include support for tolerating unconstrained misbehavio r of components in the network. However, the fault tolerance communit y has developed protocols that provide both predictable and reliable communication in the presence of the worst possible behavior of a limited number of nodes in the system. One may view a malicious entity in a communication network as a node that has failed and is behaving in an arbitrary manner. NASA/Langley Research Center has developed one such fault-tolerant computing platform called SPIDER (Scalable Proces sor-Independent Design for Electromagnetic Resilience). The protocols and interconnection mechanisms of SPIDER may be adapted to large-sca le, distributed communication networks such as would be required for future Air Traffic Management systems. The predictability and reliabi lity guarantees provided by the SPIDER protocols have been formally v erified. This analysis can be readily adapted to similar network stru ctures.

Maddalon, Jeffrey M.↗

A Hybrid Numerical Analysis Method for Structural Health Monitoring

A new hybrid surface-integral-finite-element numerical scheme has been developed to model a three-dimensional crack propagating through a thin, multi-layered coating. The finite element method was used to model the physical state of the coating (far field), and the surface integral method was used to model the fatigue crack growth. The two formulations are coupled through the need to satisfy boundary conditions on the crack surface and the external boundary. The coupling is sufficiently weak that the surface integral mesh of the crack surface and the finite element mesh of the uncracked volume can be set up independently. Thus when modeling crack growth, the finite element mesh can remain fixed for the duration of the simulation as the crack mesh is advanced. This method was implemented to evaluate the feasibility of fabricating a structural health monitoring system for real-time detection of surface cracks propagating in engine components. In this work, the authors formulate the hybrid surface-integral-finite-element method and discuss the mechanical issues of implementing a structural health monitoring system in an aircraft engine environment.

Forth, Scott C.↗

NASA Instrument Cost/Schedule Model

NASA's Office of Independent Program and Cost Evaluation (IPCE) has established a number of initiatives to improve its cost and schedule estimating capabilities. 12One of these initiatives has resulted in the JPL developed NASA Instrument Cost Model. NICM is a cost and schedule estimator that contains: A system level cost estimation tool; a subsystem level cost estimation tool; a database of cost and technical parameters of over 140 previously flown remote sensing and in-situ instruments; a schedule estimator; a set of rules to estimate cost and schedule by life cycle phases (B/C/D); and a novel tool for developing joint probability distributions for cost and schedule risk (Joint Confidence Level (JCL)). This paper describes the development and use of NICM, including the data normalization processes, data mining methods (cluster analysis, principal components analysis, regression analysis and bootstrap cross validation), the estimating equations themselves and a demonstration of the NICM tool suite.

JCL↗