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At least 415 records · Page 23

Past and Present Large Solid Rocket Motor Test Capabilities

A study was performed to identify the current and historical trends in the capability of solid rocket motor testing in the United States. The study focused on test positions capable of testing solid rocket motors of at least 10,000 lbf thrust. Top-level information was collected for two distinct data points plus/minus a few years: 2000 (Y2K) and 2010 (Present). Data was combined from many sources, but primarily focused on data from the Chemical Propulsion Information Analysis Center s Rocket Propulsion Test Facilities Database, and heritage Chemical Propulsion Information Agency/M8 Solid Rocket Motor Static Test Facilities Manual. Data for the Rocket Propulsion Test Facilities Database and heritage M8 Solid Rocket Motor Static Test Facilities Manual is provided to the Chemical Propulsion Information Analysis Center directly from the test facilities. Information for each test cell for each time period was compiled and plotted to produce a graphical display of the changes for the nation, NASA, Department of Defense, and commercial organizations during the past ten years. Major groups of plots include test facility by geographic location, test cells by status/utilization, and test cells by maximum thrust capability. The results are discussed.

Kowalski, Robert R.↗

Digi Island: A Serious Game for Teaching and Learning Digital Circuit Optimization

Karnaugh maps, also known as K-maps, are a tool used to optimize or simplify digital logic circuits. A K-map is a graphical display of a logic circuit. K-map optimization is essentially the process of finding a minimum number of maximal aggregations of K-map cells. with values of 1 according to a set of rules. The Digi Island is a serious game designed for aiding students to learn K-map optimization. The game takes place on an exotic island (called Digi Island) in the Pacific Ocean . The player is an adventurer to the Digi Island and will transform it into a tourist attraction by developing real estates, such as amusement parks.and hotels. The Digi Island game elegantly converts boring 1s and Os in digital circuits into usable and unusable spaces on a beautiful island and transforms K-map optimization into real estate development, an activity with which many students are familiar and also interested in. This paper discusses the design, development, and some preliminary results of the Digi Island game.

Harper, Michael↗

CEOS Land Surface Imaging Constellation Mid-Resolution Optical Guidelines

The LSI community of users is large and varied. To reach all these users as well as potential instrument contributors this document has been organized by measurement parameters of interest such as Leaf Area Index and Land Surface Temperature. These measurement parameters and the data presented in this document are drawn from multiple sources, listed at the end of the document, although the two primary ones are "The Space-Based Global Observing System in 2010 (GOS-2010)" that was compiled for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) by Bizzarro Bizzarri, and the CEOS Missions, Instruments, and Measurements online database (CEOS MIM). For each measurement parameter the following topics will be discussed: (1) measurement description, (2) applications, (3) measurement spectral bands, and (4) example instruments and mission information. The description of each measurement parameter starts with a definition and includes a graphic displaying the relationships to four general land surface imaging user communities: vegetation, water, earth, and geo-hazards, since the LSI community of users is large and varied. The vegetation community uses LSI data to assess factors related to topics such as agriculture, forest management, crop type, chlorophyll, vegetation land cover, and leaf or canopy differences. The water community analyzes snow and lake cover, water properties such as clarity, and body of water delineation. The earth community focuses on minerals, soils, and sediments. The geo-hazards community is designed to address and aid in emergencies such as volcanic eruptions, forest fires, and large-scale damaging weather-related events.

Keyes, Jennifer P.↗

Portfolio Analysis Tool

Portfolio Analysis Tool (PAT) is a Web-based, client/server computer program that helps managers of multiple projects funded by different customers to make decisions regarding investments in those projects. PAT facilitates analysis on a macroscopic level, without distraction by parochial concerns or tactical details of individual projects, so that managers decisions can reflect the broad strategy of their organization. PAT is accessible via almost any Web-browser software. Experts in specific projects can contribute to a broad database that managers can use in analyzing the costs and benefits of all projects, but do not have access for modifying criteria for analyzing projects: access for modifying criteria is limited to managers according to levels of administrative privilege. PAT affords flexibility for modifying criteria for particular "focus areas" so as to enable standardization of criteria among similar projects, thereby making it possible to improve assessments without need to rewrite computer code or to rehire experts, and thereby further reducing the cost of maintaining and upgrading computer code. Information in the PAT database and results of PAT analyses can be incorporated into a variety of ready-made or customizable tabular or graphical displays.

Barth, Tim↗

Designing Facilities for Collaborative Operations

A methodology for designing operational facilities for collaboration by multiple experts has begun to take shape as an outgrowth of a project to design such facilities for scientific operations of the planned 2003 Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission. The methodology could also be applicable to the design of military "situation rooms" and other facilities for terrestrial missions. It was recognized in this project that modern mission operations depend heavily upon the collaborative use of computers. It was further recognized that tests have shown that layout of a facility exerts a dramatic effect on the efficiency and endurance of the operations staff. The facility designs (for example, see figure) and the methodology developed during the project reflect this recognition. One element of the methodology is a metric, called effective capacity, that was created for use in evaluating proposed MER operational facilities and may also be useful for evaluating other collaboration spaces, including meeting rooms and military situation rooms. The effective capacity of a facility is defined as the number of people in the facility who can be meaningfully engaged in its operations. A person is considered to be meaningfully engaged if the person can (1) see, hear, and communicate with everyone else present; (2) see the material under discussion (typically data on a piece of paper, computer monitor, or projection screen); and (3) provide input to the product under development by the group. The effective capacity of a facility is less than the number of people that can physically fit in the facility. For example, a typical office that contains a desktop computer has an effective capacity of .4, while a small conference room that contains a projection screen has an effective capacity of around 10. Little or no benefit would be derived from allowing the number of persons in an operational facility to exceed its effective capacity: At best, the operations staff would be underutilized; at worst, operational performance would deteriorate. Elements of this methodology were applied to the design of three operations facilities for a series of rover field tests. These tests were observed by human-factors researchers and their conclusions are being used to refine and extend the methodology to be used in the final design of the MER operations facility. Further work is underway to evaluate the use of personal digital assistant (PDA) units as portable input interfaces and communication devices in future mission operations facilities. A PDA equipped for wireless communication and Ethernet, Bluetooth, or another networking technology would cost less than a complete computer system, and would enable a collaborator to communicate electronically with computers and with other collaborators while moving freely within the virtual environment created by a shared immersive graphical display.

Norris, Jeffrey↗

Software for Simulating a Complex Robot

RoboSim (Robot Simulation) is a computer program that simulates the poses and motions of the Robonaut a developmental anthropomorphic robot that has a complex system of joints with 43 degrees of freedom and multiple modes of operation and control. RoboSim performs a full kinematic simulation of all degrees of freedom. It also includes interface components that duplicate the functionality of the real Robonaut interface with control software and human operators. Basically, users see no difference between the real Robonaut and the simulation. Consequently, new control algorithms can be tested by computational simulation, without risk to the Robonaut hardware, and without using excessive Robonaut-hardware experimental time, which is always at a premium. Previously developed software incorporated into RoboSim includes Enigma (for graphical displays), OSCAR (for kinematical computations), and NDDS (for communication between the Robonaut and external software). In addition, RoboSim incorporates unique inverse-kinematical algorithms for chains of joints that have fewer than six degrees of freedom (e.g., finger joints). In comparison with the algorithms of OSCAR, these algorithms are more readily adaptable and provide better results when using equivalent sets of data.

Goza, S. Michael↗

Software for Allocating Resources in the Deep Space Network

TIGRAS 2.0 is a computer program designed to satisfy a need for improved means for analyzing the tracking demands of interplanetary space-flight missions upon the set of ground antenna resources of the Deep Space Network (DSN) and for allocating those resources. Written in Microsoft Visual C++, TIGRAS 2.0 provides a single rich graphical analysis environment for use by diverse DSN personnel, by connecting to various data sources (relational databases or files) based on the stages of the analyses being performed. Notable among the algorithms implemented by TIGRAS 2.0 are a DSN antenna-load-forecasting algorithm and a conflict-aware DSN schedule-generating algorithm. Computers running TIGRAS 2.0 can also be connected using SOAP/XML to a Web services server that provides analysis services via the World Wide Web. TIGRAS 2.0 supports multiple windows and multiple panes in each window for users to view and use information, all in the same environment, to eliminate repeated switching among various application programs and Web pages. TIGRAS 2.0 enables the use of multiple windows for various requirements, trajectory-based time intervals during which spacecraft are viewable, ground resources, forecasts, and schedules. Each window includes a time navigation pane, a selection pane, a graphical display pane, a list pane, and a statistics pane.

Wang, Yeou-Fang↗

Global Precipitation Mission Visualization Tool

The Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) software provides graphic visualization tools that enable easy comparison of ground- and space-based radar observations. It was initially designed to compare ground radar reflectivity from operational, ground-based, S- and C-band meteorological radars with comparable measurements from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite's precipitation radar instrument. This design is also applicable to other groundbased and space-based radars, and allows both ground- and space-based radar data to be compared for validation purposes. The tool creates an operational system that routinely performs several steps. It ingests satellite radar data (precipitation radar data from TRMM) and groundbased meteorological radar data from a number of sources. Principally, the ground radar data comes from national networks of weather radars (see figure). The data ingested by the visualization tool must conform to the data formats used in GPM Validation Network Geometry-matched data product generation. The software also performs match-ups of the radar volume data for the ground- and space-based data, as well as statistical and graphical analysis (including two-dimensional graphical displays) on the match-up data. The visualization tool software is written in IDL, and can be operated either in the IDL development environment or as a stand-alone executable function.

Schwaller, Mathew↗

Hypervelocity Impact Test Fragment Modeling: Modifications to the Fragment Rotation Analysis and Lightcurve Code

Hypervelocity impact tests on test satellites are performed by members of the orbital debris scientific community in order to understand and typify the on-orbit collision breakup process. By analysis of these test satellite fragments, the fragment size and mass distributions are derived and incorporated into various orbital debris models. These same fragments are currently being put to new use using emerging technologies. Digital models of these fragments are created using a laser scanner. A group of computer programs referred to as the Fragment Rotation Analysis and Lightcurve code uses these digital representations in a multitude of ways that describe, measure, and model on-orbit fragments and fragment behavior. The Dynamic Rotation subroutine generates all of the possible reflected intensities from a scanned fragment as if it were observed to rotate dynamically while in orbit about the Earth. This calls an additional subroutine that graphically displays the intensities and the resulting frequency of those intensities as a range of solar phase angles in a Probability Density Function plot. This document reports the additions and modifications to the subset of the Fragment Rotation Analysis and Lightcurve concerned with the Dynamic Rotation and Probability Density Function plotting subroutines.

Gouge, Michael F.↗

Design and Implementation of a Lunar Communications Satellite and Server for the 2012 SISO Smackdown

Last year, the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO) inaugurated the now annual High Level Architecture (HLA) Smackdown at the Spring Simulation Interoperability Workshop (SIW). A primary objective of the Smackdown event is to provide college students with hands-on experience in the High Level Architecture (HLA). The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAHuntsville) fielded teams in 2011 and 2012. Both the 2011 and 2012 smackdown scenarios were a lunar resupply mission. The 2012 UAHuntsville fielded four federates: a communications network Federate called Lunar Communications and Navigation Satellite Service (LCANServ) for sending and receiving messages, a Lunar Satellite Constellation (LCANSat) to put in place radios needed by the communications network for Line-Of-Sight communication calculations, and 3D graphical displays of the orbiting satellites and a 3D visualization of the lunar surface activities. This paper concentrates on the first two federates by describing the functions, algorithms, the modular FOM, experiences, lessons learned and recommendations for future Smackdown events.

Bulgatz, Dennis↗

Business Management System Support Analysis

The purpose of this research project was to develop a searchable database compiled with internal and external audit findings/observations. The data will correspond to the findings and observations from the date of Center-wide implementation of the ISO 9001-2000 standard to the present (2003-2008). It was derived and extracted from several sources and was in multiple formats. Once extracted, categorization of the findings/observations would be possible. The final data was mapped to the ISO 9001-2000 standard with the understanding that it will be displayed graphically. The data will be used to verify trends, associate risks, and establish timelines to identify strengths and weaknesses to determine areas of improvement in the Kennedy Space Center Business Management System Internal Audit Program.

Parikh, Jay↗

Communications Dashboard (Control Rooms Take a Cue from Facebook), Chapter 1

Papers published via IEEE and AIAA conferences have presented an overview of how social media could benefit NASA working environments in general and proposed three specific social applications to benefit space flight control operations. One of them, Communications Dashboard, would help a real time flight controller keep up with both the "big picture" and significant details of operations via a cohesive interface similar to those of social networking services (SNS). Instead of recreational social features, "CommDash" would support functions like console logging, categorized and threaded text chat streams with enhanced accountability and graphics display features, high-level status displays driven by telemetry or other events, and an on-screen hailing function for requesting voice or text stream conversation. Moving certain voice conversations to text streams would reduce confusion and stress in two ways. Within text conversations, there would be far less repetition of content since text conversations have visual persistence and are reviewable instantly, e.g., there s no need to brief new participants to a discussion -- they just read what s already there. Remaining voice traffic would stand out more clearly, and quieter voice loops means fewer "say again" calls and less distraction from visual and mental tasks, thus less stress. (Most flight controllers monitor 4 or 5 voice loops at once.) Links could be created from console log entries to chat selections so that underlying details are readily available yet unobtrusive. This would reduce the confusion that rises from having multiple and sometimes divergent copies of the same information due to cut/copy and paste operations, attachments, and asynchronous editing. This concept could apply to a plethora of real time control environments and to other settings with lots of information juggling. This paper explores the dashboard concept in further detail and chronicles the first phase of a NASA IT Labs (Information Technology) project that could lead to a working system

Scott, David w.↗

Robot Sequencing and Visualization Program (RSVP)

The Robot Sequencing and Visualization Program (RSVP) is being used in the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission for downlink data visualization and command sequence generation. RSVP reads and writes downlink data products from the operations data server (ODS) and writes uplink data products to the ODS. The primary users of RSVP are members of the Rover Planner team (part of the Integrated Planning and Execution Team (IPE)), who use it to perform traversability/articulation analyses, take activity plan input from the Science and Mission Planning teams, and create a set of rover sequences to be sent to the rover every sol. The primary inputs to RSVP are downlink data products and activity plans in the ODS database. The primary outputs are command sequences to be placed in the ODS for further processing prior to uplink to each rover. RSVP is composed of two main subsystems. The first, called the Robot Sequence Editor (RoSE), understands the MSL activity and command dictionaries and takes care of converting incoming activity level inputs into command sequences. The Rover Planners use the RoSE component of RSVP to put together command sequences and to view and manage command level resources like time, power, temperature, etc. (via a transparent realtime connection to SEQGEN). The second component of RSVP is called HyperDrive, a set of high-fidelity computer graphics displays of the Martian surface in 3D and in stereo. The Rover Planners can explore the environment around the rover, create commands related to motion of all kinds, and see the simulated result of those commands via its underlying tight coupling with flight navigation, motor, and arm software. This software is the evolutionary replacement for the Rover Sequencing and Visualization software used to create command sequences (and visualize the Martian surface) for the Mars Exploration Rover mission.

Cooper, Brian K.↗

Adaptive Distributed Environment for Procedure Training (ADEPT)

ADEPT (Adaptive Distributed Environment for Procedure Training) is designed to provide more effective, flexible, and portable training for NASA systems controllers. When creating a training scenario, an exercise author can specify a representative rationale structure using the graphical user interface, annotating the results with instructional texts where needed. The author's structure may distinguish between essential and optional parts of the rationale, and may also include "red herrings" - hypotheses that are essential to consider, until evidence and reasoning allow them to be ruled out. The system is built from pre-existing components, including Stottler Henke's SimVentive instructional simulation authoring tool and runtime. To that, a capability was added to author and exploit explicit control decision rationale representations. ADEPT uses SimVentive's Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)- based interactive graphic display capability as the basis of the tool for quickly noting aspects of decision rationale in graph form. The ADEPT prototype is built in Java, and will run on any computer using Windows, MacOS, or Linux. No special peripheral equipment is required. The software enables a style of student/ tutor interaction focused on the reasoning behind systems control behavior that better mimics proven Socratic human tutoring behaviors for highly cognitive skills. It supports fast, easy, and convenient authoring of such tutoring behaviors, allowing specification of detailed scenario-specific, but content-sensitive, high-quality tutor hints and feedback. The system places relatively light data-entry demands on the student to enable its rationale-centered discussions, and provides a support mechanism for fostering coherence in the student/ tutor dialog by including focusing, sequencing, and utterance tuning mechanisms intended to better fit tutor hints and feedback into the ongoing context.

Domeshek, Eric↗

Visualization and Quantification of Rotor Tip Vortices in Helicopter Flows

This paper presents an automated approach for effective extraction, visualization, and quantification of vortex core radii from the Navier-Stokes simulations of a UH-60A rotor in forward flight. We adopt a scaled Q-criterion to determine vortex regions and then perform vortex core profiling in these regions to calculate vortex core radii. This method provides an efficient way of visualizing and quantifying the blade tip vortices. Moreover, the vortices radii are displayed graphically in a plane.

Quantification↗

FIM Avionics Operations Manual

This document describes the operation and use of the Flight Interval Management (FIM) Application installed on an electronic flight bag (EFB). Specifically, this document includes: 1) screen layouts for each page of the interface; 2) step-by-step instructions for data entry, data verification, and input error correction; 3) algorithm state messages and error condition alerting messages; 4) aircraft speed guidance and deviation indications; and 5) graphical display of the spatial relationships between the Ownship aircraft and the Target aircraft.

Alves, Erin E.↗

Quantitative Validation of the Integrated Medical Model (IMM) for ISS Missions

Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health (LSAH) provided observed medical event data on 33 ISS and 111 STS person-missions for use in further improving and validating the Integrated Medical Model (IMM). Using only the crew characteristics from these observed missions, the newest development version, IMM v4.0, will simulate these missions to predict medical events and outcomes. Comparing IMM predictions to the actual observed medical event counts will provide external validation and identify areas of possible improvement. In an effort to improve the power of detecting differences in this validation study, the total over each program ISS and STS will serve as the main quantitative comparison objective, specifically the following parameters: total medical events (TME), probability of loss of crew life (LOCL), and probability of evacuation (EVAC). Scatter plots of observed versus median predicted TMEs (with error bars reflecting the simulation intervals) will graphically display comparisons while linear regression will serve as the statistical test of agreement. Two scatter plots will be analyzed 1) where each point reflects a mission and 2) where each point reflects a condition-specific total number of occurrences. The coefficient of determination (R2) resulting from a linear regression with no intercept bias (intercept fixed at zero) will serve as an overall metric of agreement between IMM and the real world system (RWS). In an effort to identify as many possible discrepancies as possible for further inspection, the -level for all statistical tests comparing IMM predictions to observed data will be set to 0.1. This less stringent criterion, along with the multiple testing being conducted, should detect all perceived differences including many false positive signals resulting from random variation. The results of these analyses will reveal areas of the model requiring adjustment to improve overall IMM output, which will thereby provide better decision support for mission critical applications.

validation↗

Development of a Route Crossing Tool for Shared Airspace Environments

In current-day Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) operations, departure and arrival controllers maintain separate and dedicated airspace for their respective traffic flows. Although this practice has obvious safety features, it also leads to inefficiencies; for example, departure aircraft may be routinely capped beneath arrival airspace. With the right decision-support and coordination tools, departures could continue to climb through arrival airspace when sufficient gaps exist. Previous studies of ‘shared airspace’ have examined pre-arranged coordination procedures, as well as tools that gave feedback to the controllers on where gaps between arrivals were located and whether the departure aircraft could be scheduled to fly through those gaps [1, 2, 3, 4]. Since then, the Route Crossing Tool (RCT) has been developed to allow controllers to assess multiple pre-defined route options at points where the arrivals and departures cross, thereby increasing the possibility of climbing a departure through an arrival gap.The RCT aids in ensuring lateral separation between departure and arrival aircraft that pass through the same altitude. Since the RCT can be applied tactically, it can enable aircraft to fly through arrival flows even if these aircraft depart outside scheduled times. The RCT makes use of a set of predefined parallel departure routes crossing the arrival flow at equidistant intersecting points on the arrival route. The RCT uses the Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) of the departure aircraft at each intersecting point to calculate the lateral separation with the neighboring arrivals when it crosses that point; this information is graphically displayed to the controller. Additionally, the RCT incorporates forecast winds in its ETA predictions.Multiple prototypes of the RCT have been iteratively developed with feedback from Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). This paper presents the final design, the design process, and lessons learned. Initial results from a simulation suggest that the tool was successful in helping controllers to safely climb more aircraft. Controller feedback on the tool was also positive.

shared airspace↗