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NASA NTRS2016

Silicon Valley as an Early Adopter for On-Demand Civil VTOL Operations

With high incomes, long commutes, severe ground geographic constraints, severe highway congestion during peak commute times, high housing costs, and near perfect year-round weather, the Silicon Valley is positioned to be an excellent early adopter market for emerging aviation On-Demand Mobility transportation solutions. Prior efforts have attempted to use existing aviation platforms (helicopters or General Aviation aircraft) with existing infrastructure solutions, or only investigated new vehicle platforms without understanding how to incorporate new vehicle types into existing built-up communities. Research has been performed with the objective of minimizing door-to-door time for "Hyper Commuters" (frequent, long-distance commuters) in the Silicon Valley through the development of new helipad infrastructure for ultra-low noise Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft. Current travel times for chosen city-pairs across urban and suburban commutes are compared to future mobility concepts that provide significantly higher utilization and productivity to yield competitive operating costs compared to existing transportation choices. Helipads are introduced near current modes of transportation and infrastructure for ease-of-access, and maximizing proximity. Strategies for both private and public infrastructure development are presented that require no new land purchase while minimizing community noise exposure. New VTOL concepts are introduced with cruise speeds of 200 mph, which yield a greater than three times improvement in overall door-to-door time when compared to current automobiles, and in some cases, improvements of up to 6 times lower trip times.

Antcliff, Kevin R.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Evolution of A Distributed Live, Virtual, Constructive Environment for Human in the Loop Unmanned Aircraft Testing

NASA's Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in the National Airspace System Project is conducting human in the loop simulations and flight testing intended to reduce barriers associated with enabling routine airspace access for unmanned aircraft. The primary focus of these tests is interaction of the unmanned aircraft pilot with the display of detect and avoid alerting and guidance information. The projects integrated test and evaluation team was charged with developing the test infrastructure. As with any development effort, compromises in the underlying system architecture and design were made to allow for the rapid prototyping and open-ended nature of the research. In order to accommodate these design choices, a distributed test environment was developed incorporating Live, Virtual, Constructive, (LVC) concepts. The LVC components form the core infrastructure support simulation of UAS operations by integrating live and virtual aircraft in a realistic air traffic environment. This LVC infrastructure enables efficient testing by leveraging the use of existing assets distributed across multiple NASA Centers. Using standard LVC concepts enable future integration with existing simulation infrastructure.

UAS in the NA↗

NASA NTRS2017

Evolution of A Distributed Live, Virtual, Constructive Environment for Human in the Loop Unmanned Aircraft Testing

NASA's Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in the National Airspace System Project is conducting human in the loop simulations and flight testing intended to reduce barriers associated with enabling routine airspace access for unmanned aircraft. The primary focus of these tests is interaction of the unmanned aircraft pilot with the display of detect and avoid alerting and guidance information. The project's integrated test and evaluation team was charged with developing the test infrastructure. As with any development effort, compromises in the underlying system architecture and design were made to allow for the rapid prototyping and open-ended nature of the research. In order to accommodate these design choices, a distributed test environment was developed incorporating Live, Virtual, Constructive, (LVC) concepts. The LVC components form the core infrastructure support simulation of UAS operations by integrating live and virtual aircraft in a realistic air traffic environment. This LVC infrastructure enables efficient testing by leveraging the use of existing assets distributed across multiple NASA Centers. Using standard LVC concepts enable future integration with existing simulation infrastructure.

LVC↗

NASA NTRS2016

Cyber-Threat Assessment for the Air Traffic Management System: A Network Controls Approach

Air transportation networks are being disrupted with increasing frequency by failures in their cyber- (computing, communication, control) systems. Whether these cyber- failures arise due to deliberate attacks or incidental errors, they can have far-reaching impact on the performance of the air traffic control and management systems. For instance, a computer failure in the Washington DC Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZDC) on August 15, 2015, caused nearly complete closure of the Centers airspace for several hours. This closure had a propagative impact across the United States National Airspace System, causing changed congestion patterns and requiring placement of a suite of traffic management initiatives to address the capacity reduction and congestion. A snapshot of traffic on that day clearly shows the closure of the ZDC airspace and the resulting congestion at its boundary, which required augmented traffic management at multiple locations. Cyber- events also have important ramifications for private stakeholders, particularly the airlines. During the last few months, computer-system issues have caused several airlines fleets to be grounded for significant periods of time: these include United Airlines (twice), LOT Polish Airlines, and American Airlines. Delays and regional stoppages due to cyber- events are even more common, and may have myriad causes (e.g., failure of the Department of Homeland Security systems needed for security check of passengers, see [3]). The growing frequency of cyber- disruptions in the air transportation system reflects a much broader trend in the modern society: cyber- failures and threats are becoming increasingly pervasive, varied, and impactful. In consequence, an intense effort is underway to develop secure and resilient cyber- systems that can protect against, detect, and remove threats, see e.g. and its many citations. The outcomes of this wide effort on cyber- security are applicable to the air transportation infrastructure, and indeed security solutions are being implemented in the current system. While these security solutions are important, they only provide a piecemeal solution. Particular computers or communication channels are protected from particular attacks, without a holistic view of the air transportation infrastructure. On the other hand, the above-listed incidents highlight that a holistic approach is needed, for several reasons. First, the air transportation infrastructure is a large scale cyber-physical system with multiple stakeholders and diverse legacy assets. It is impractical to protect every cyber- asset from known and unknown disruptions, and instead a strategic view of security is needed. Second, disruptions to the cyber- system can incur complex propagative impacts across the air transportation network, including its physical and human assets. Also, these implications of cyber- events are exacerbated or modulated by other disruptions and operational specifics, e.g. severe weather, operator fatigue or error, etc. These characteristics motivate a holistic and strategic perspective on protecting the air transportation infrastructure from cyber- events. The analysis of cyber- threats to the air traffic system is also inextricably tied to the integration of new autonomy into the airspace. The replacement of human operators with cyber functions leaves the network open to new cyber threats, which must be modeled and managed. Paradoxically, the mitigation of cyber events in the airspace will also likely require additional autonomy, given the fast time scale and myriad pathways of cyber-attacks which must be managed. The assessment of new vulnerabilities upon integration of new autonomy is also a key motivation for a holistic perspective on cyber threats.

Complex Networks↗

NASA NTRS2018

The Disruptive Technology That is Additive Construction: System Development Lessons Learned for Terrestrial and Planetary Applications

Disruptive technologies are unique in that they spawn other new technologies and applications as they grow. These activities are usually preceded by the question, "What If?" For example, "What if we could use an emerging technology and in-situ materials to promote exploration on the Moon or Mars, and then use that same technology to keep our troops out of harm's way and/or help the worlds' homeless?" This question allows us to flip the mindset of "how can people create more valuable innovation?" to "how can innovation create more valuable people?." This approach allows us to view augmented human labor as an inclusive opportunity, not a threat. The discipline of Additive Construction is growing rapidly due to the flexibility, speed, safety and logistics benefits offered as compared to standard construction techniques. Additive construction is a disruptive technology in that it employs the principles of additive manufacturing on a human habitat structure scale. Developed initially for emergency management and disaster relief applications, additive construction has now grown into military infrastructure and planetary (Moon and Mars) surface infrastructure applications as well. Additive Construction with Mobile Emplacement (ACME) is a NASA technology development project that seeks to demonstrate the feasibility of constructing shelters for human crews, and other surface infrastructure, on the Moon or Mars for a future human presence. The ACME project will allow, for the first time, the 3-dimensional printing of surface structures on planetary bodies using local materials for construction, thereby tremendously reducing launch and transportation mass and logistics. Some examples of infrastructure that could be constructed using robotic additive construction methods are landing pads, rocket engine blast protection berms, roads, dust free zones, equipment shelters, habitats and radiation shelters. Terrestrial applications include the development of surface structures using Earth-based materials for emergency response, disaster relief, general construction, and housing at all economic levels. This paper will describe the progress made by the NASA ACME project with a focus on prototypes and full scale additive construction demonstrations using both Portland cement concrete and other indigenous material mixtures. Rationale for the use of additive construction for both terrestrial and planetary applications will be explored and a thorough state-of-the-art of additive construction techniques will be presented. An evolutionary history of NASA's additive construction development efforts, dating back to 2004, will be included. The paper will then step through a series of trade studies performed to inform key processing and design decisions in the development of the full-scale ACES-3 system developed by NASA and the Jacobs Space Exploration Group for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Construction Engineers Research Laboratory (CERL) in Champaign, IL. The selection of aggregate and binders, based on in-situ materials, will also be presented and discussed

Space Processing↗

NASA NTRS2019

NASA Platform for Autonomous Systems (NPAS)

NASA Platform for Autonomous Systems (NPAS) is a disruptive software platform and processes being developed by the NASA Stennis Space Center (SSC) Autonomous Systems Laboratory (ASL). Autonomous operations are critical for the success, safety and crew survival of NASA deep space missions beyond low Earth orbit, including the Gateway, and for the future of cost-effective ground mission operations. NPAS represents the embodiment of an innovative paradigm for “thinking” autonomy in contrast to brute-force autonomy. NPAS uniquely addresses the requirements and integrates the primary functionalities for autonomous operations, in one platform that includes: (1) Integrated System Health Management (ISHM); (2) autonomy strategies, guided by system health and concepts of operations; (3) domain objects (system elements) and infrastructure to create complete application domain knowledge models (4) infrastructure to create, schedule, and execute mission plans; (5) infrastructure to develop user interfaces for comprehensive awareness; and (6) infrastructure to integrate distributed autonomous applications across networks. NPAS is a single platform that can be used to make any system operate with any desirable degree of autonomy, as well as provide comprehensive system awareness to operators and users.

Figueroa, Fernando↗

NASA NTRS2018

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Market Study

The Booz Allen Team explored market size and potential barriers to Urban Air Mobility (UAM) by focusing on three potential markets – Airport Shuttle, Air Taxi, and Air Ambulance. We found that the Airport Shuttle and Air Taxi markets are viable, with a significant total available market value in the U.S. of $500 billion, for a fully unconstrained scenario. In this unconstrained best-case scenario, passengers would have the ability to access and fly a UAM at any time, from any location to any destination, without being hindered by constraints such as weather, infrastructure, or traffic volume. Significant legal and regulatory, weather, certification, public perception, and infrastructure constraints exist, which reduce the market potential for these applications to only about 0.5% of the total available market, or $2.5 billion, in the near term. However, we determined that these constraints can be addressed through ongoing intra-governmental partnerships, government and industry collaboration, strong industry commitment, and existing legal and regulatory enablers. We found that the Air Ambulance market is not a viable market if served by electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles due to technology constraints but may potentially be viable if a hybrid VTOL aircraft are utilized. The barriers and challenges we characterized in this study can be stratified according to their applicability or potential mitigation through technology as well as market maturity (Figure 1). In the near term, high cost of service will be a key economic challenge. We found potential for significant reduction in service cost through increased vehicle and component efficiency, and automation in a more mature market scenario. Weather conditions also pose a challenge to the UAM market, though there is potential for mitigation of some of these impacts through technology such as sensors enabling operations in low visibility. However, even in a mature market with advanced technology, disruptions are still likely to occur due to weather events such as thunderstorms and strong winds. High density operations will likely stress the current Air Traffic Management (ATM) system in the near term, but technology and new initiatives such as the Air Traffic Management -eXploration project (ATM-X) will enable safe and efficient integration of UAM into the National Airspace System (NAS). Current battery technology creates a barrier in the near term, especially for the Air Ambulance market, as battery weight and extensive recharging times would be needed for these operations. Advancements in battery technology, as well as use of hybrid VTOLs, could significantly reduce this barrier in the longer term. As UAM emerges as a viable mode of transportation in the near term, adverse energy and environmental impacts, particularly noise, may impact community acceptance and potentially persist as the market matures into larger-scale operations. For non-technology related challenges, we found that infrastructure constraints will create a significant barrier to UAM in the near term but could be addressed in the longer term through development and expansion of vertiports. Competition from existing modes of transportation such as ride-sharing (e.g., Lyft, Uber) and ground taxi’s pose a key barrier to UAM in the short term, which will likely evolve into competition from other emerging technologies such as autonomous cars and electric trains in the longer term. Weather events will influence other components of the operation such as passenger comfort (e.g., extreme temperatures, turbulence) and infrastructure (e.g., winter weather causing cracks and degradation in vertiports). There is also potential for these impacts to be heightened in the longer term from the increased frequency of adverse weather such as thunderstorms due to changing climatic conditions. We also found that the public has strong concerns about safety as a passenger in a piloted UAM, including “lasing” of pilots, unruly passengers, and sabotage. They would prefer that all passengers pass through a security screening process before boarding a vehicle. They would also prefer to use UAM for longer regional trips, such as flying from Washington, DC to Baltimore, MD or San Diego, CA to Los Angeles, CA. A longer term automated UAM vehicle market will face challenges due to public apprehension about automation and unmanned operations, and a preference to fly with passengers they know in an autonomous (unmanned) operational scenario.

Rohit Goyal↗

NASA NTRS2018

Ground Software Technologies – Embracing Change: Mission Drivers and Technology Opportunities to Enable Long Lived Missions

Mission lifecycles have proven to extend well beyond their original design. The benefits to this are countless but introduce challenges in today’s rapidly changing ground infrastructure and software technologies used to enable mission success. What remains constant is the risk posture missions maintain when accepting change and the use of new technologies. Larger missions are ready for change in early lifecycle development but near launch and especially in operations, few continue to evolve beyond what is set in place in phase C. This paper will discuss how the Advance Multi-Mission Operations System (AMMOS) intends to address, three driving missions concerns: Maintaining functionality (hardware/software) for decades, rapidly responding to security vulnerabilities in software, and finally the ability to quickly evolve infrastructure and software changes. These driving concerns are briefly described below: 1. Maintaining functionality (hardware/software) for decades. Hardware updates considerably faster than 10 years ago. Expectations that a system can remain in place for more than 10 years is no longer valid. Expecting to find hardware replacements for a system older than 5 years will increasingly become more and more challenging. How than do missions plan for hardware changes for long lived missions? Principle Objective: Provide abstraction by virtualizing and containerizing software abstract away any hardware dependencies and package up the application lightweight units. 2. Rapidly responding to security vulnerabilities in software. Cost is often the main impediment and largely driven by the revalidation and testing of system that undergo change. In todays, environment security updates are a major diver demanding systems remain up to date. How then do missions accept these changes and avoid large testing efforts? Principle Objective: Help reduce the cost of re-testing by automation of testing, deployment, and compartmentalizing change. 3. Ability to quickly evolve infrastructure and software changes. Responding quickly to change is similar to the second concern in this paper regarding security vulnerabilities. In this case, it address broader concerns of updating software and infrastructure on a more realistic timeline. How do missions stay up to date with the most recent versions of software and allowing for improved functionality? Principle Objective: Use continuous integration techniques at the system level to ensure rapid turnaround. This paper explores each of these concerns in more detail. It focuses the AMMOS’s current plans, challenges and current roadmap.

Giovannoni, Brian J.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA Power: Global Solar Insolation, Meteorological Parameter Data, and Web Services to Support Sustainable Building Design and Operations

The buildings industry is currently striving to adopt green solutions to make infrastructure more energy-efficient in order to meet the 2050 net-zero climate goals. This planning requires reliable environmental datasets that are crucial in designing, building, and maintaining our world’s-built environment, as well as other energy-related processes and investments. This webinar for the National Institute of Building Sciences provides an overview of NASA’s Prediction Of Worldwide Energy Resources (POWER) Project that informs decision-making and development for sustainable building design and operations by enabling public open discovery, efficient access, and convenient distribution of NASA’s Earth Observations and global atmospheric model datasets. POWER’s datastore is comprised of solar radiation and surface meteorology parameters, spanning nearly 40 years of hourly data, that are easily accessible via several access methods and tools to support three focus areas: 1) renewable energy deployment and management, 2) sustainable infrastructure, and 3) agroclimatology applications. POWER and NASA Earth Science both plan future data parameters, updated tools, and improved observations that could directly support U.S. and international sustainable development goals, climate strategies, and building information modeling. To this end, solar data from several NASA projects and meteorological data from NASA assimilation models have already been reformatted and disseminated to the public via a user-friendly web GIS-enabled based data portal through the POWER Project. POWER data is analysis-ready and accessible through an Application Programming Interface (API), ArcGIS Image Services, and the project’s Data Access Viewer enhanced (DAVe), an interactive online tool. The POWER DAVe also features data consistent with ASHRAE Climate Design Conditions and has developed web image services showing Building Climate Zones and their variability. Through those tools, the data can be downloaded into multiple formats that support the infrastructure community, including CSV and Energy Plus Weather (EPW). POWER’s entire data product catalog is available through Amazon Web Services (AWS) Open Data Registry (ODR) via a free and publicly accessible Simple Storage Service (S3). This webinar provides a full overview of the NASA POWER Project's data and services developed in collaboration with the sustainable infrastructure community. Examples of how the renewable energy and building communities have utilized POWER data products to make decisions and a preview of future data product expansion, including climate projections, and web services will also be provided. Additionally, use case stories from our broad community of users will be presented.

Paul W. Stackhouse↗

NASA NTRS2024

Terrestrial Proving Ground Capabilities Needed for Lunar In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) & Construction Concepts of Operation

Incorporating any new technology or system into a human exploration mission or architecture requires development well in advance of the mission to eliminate technology, cost, and schedule risk concerns. It is often stated that technologies need to be at a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 6, i.e. ‘system/subsystem model or prototype demonstration in a relevant environment (ground or space)’, by Authority To Proceed (ATP) or by the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for the mission at the latest. There are two game changing capabilities for sustained human exploration of space that can have a significant effect on the overall exploration architecture and the technologies and systems included in the architecture. The first game changing capability, known as In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), involves the search for, acquisition, and processing of resources on the Moon and Mars into mission consumables and usable products, and the second is the ability to utilize space resources in the construction of roads, structures, and surface infrastructure. ISRU and surface construction capabilities have the potential to greatly reduce the cost and risk of human exploration while enabling sustained lunar surface and commercial operations. However, ISRU and surface construction systems are complex and must operate in extremely harsh environments, with abrasive regolith and pervasive dust, for long-periods of time, with potentially limited opportunities for maintenance and repair by humans. The complexity of these capabilities and operations also means that there are a limited number of companies that can design, build, and operate end-to-end systems on their own. The majority of the technologies being developed for these systems are by small companies and at the component or subsystem level. With the overarching strategy of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) to enable industry to implement ISRU and surface infrastructure for Artemis and space commercialization, it is therefore important to establish processes and capabilities to promote and foster collaborations among large and small companies involved in ISRU and surface infrastructure development. For ISRU and infrastructure systems and capabilities to be used in Artemis missions and future commercial lunar surface operations, a coordinated framework with virtual/physical integration and testing locations, or ‘Proving Grounds’, needs to be established and operated on a regular basis and open to all. This paper will discuss the ISRU and surface construction near and long-term concepts of operations, and review operations and lessons-learned from the previous ISRU analog field tests. From this information, requirements and capabilities will be proposed to support and enable the integration and testing of ISRU and construction systems with industry, academia, and international agencies, as well as what facilities and organizations could help establish these Proving Grounds.

ISRU↗

NASA NTRS2022

The DIARieS Ecosystem – A Software Ecosystem to Simplify Discovery, Implementation, Analysis, Reproducibility, and Sharing of Scientific Results and Environments in Heliophysics

The infrastructure of the Heliophysics discipline has promising components but with several missing gaps, drastically reducing research and development efficiency. Developing an online discovery and analysis software ecosystem will close several of these gaps. The five main focuses on this ecosystem should be Discovery, Implementation, Analysis, Reproducibility, and Sharing of results (DIARieS). In this paper, we give a detailed description of how the proposed software ecosystem should operate, and point out the large range of possible applications to benefit many disparate groups, such as researchers, operational staff, decision-makers, and educators. The infrastructure components and technological capabilities necessary for its completion are either currently available or in development, making such an ecosystem possible for the first time. One main focus of current infrastructure investments must be to adapt and connect these pieces together into a cohesive whole to increase our research and development efficiency.

infrastructure↗

NASA NTRS2023

National Campaign Development Test Executive Summary

NASA’s vision for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) is to provide safe, sustainable, accessible, and affordable aviation for transformational local and intraregional missions and includes the transportation of passengers and cargo as well as aerial work missions, such as infrastructure inspection or search and rescue operations. NASA’s technical expertise, intergovernmental relationships, and high level of public trust will help this technology come to market concurrent with infrastructure readiness, public acceptance, and constructive regulation. By advising and integrating disparate AAM efforts across the country and working collaboratively with the FAA, the National Campaign (NC) objective is to motivate industry progress and support the development of policy, regulatory, and technical standards in a manner that best ensures public safety and benefit to the American people. NC began with the Dry Run and Developmental Test (NC-DT), which served as a pathfinder for collaboration and direct involvement with industry partners in integrated simulation exercises and flight tests. NC-DT culminated with an acoustics-gathering flight test in September 2021 with industry partner Joby’s prototype S4 2.0 air vehicle, which delivered the first foundational baseline of noise levels present in Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) vehicles. Through the DT phase, the NC team built and tested the airspace and range infrastructure while assessing the readiness level of industry partners leading up to future NC events. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of NC-DT.

National Campaign↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Selection, Production, and Properties of Regolith Polymer Composites for Lunar Construction

NASA’s Artemis Program seeks to establish a long-term presence on the Moon to enable scientific exploration and expand the cis-lunar economy by utilizing lunar resources through public-private and international partnerships. Over the next decades, a lunar spaceport will need to be established to provide the services and facilities that are necessary to achieve this goal. Robotic construction technologies using in-situ materials must be developed to build up enabling infrastructure such as launch/landing pads, blast protection, power/communications infrastructure, improved roads, improved operational surfaces, and radiation protection shelters. Kennedy Space Center’s Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations laboratory at Swamp Works has partnered with SpaceFactory and LERA Consulting Structural Engineers to develop the architectural and structural design of an unpressurized lunar shelter. The shelter, called Lunar Infrastructure Asset (LINA), is designed to support 2.3 m of regolith overburden to protect astronauts and surface assets from radiation, meteoroid impact, thermal gradients/cycling, and to withstand moonquakes. LINA’s structural design criteria and the resulting structure design are detailed in separate papers. A Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) construction process using regolith polymer composites has been developed and is detailed in a separate publication. This paper presents material formulations and selection rationale for each of the composite components that were examined. Formulations include 70:30, 80:20, and 85:15 wt.% mixture ratios of lunar mare simulant Black Point-1 (BP-1): Polylactic Acid (PLA), 80:20 Lunar Highlands Simulant-1 (LHS-1): PLA and an 80:20 BP-1: PLA formulation with a flow enhancer additive. Test samples were printed in simulated lunar dirty thermal vacuum conditions (-190 °C, 10-3 torr). A series of tests were performed on each formulation to characterize the achieved mixture ratio, mechanical strength properties, off-gassing products during vacuum printing, and porosity and density of printed products. The LHS-1: PLA formulation yielded an advantageous combination of properties and was used in a final test that additively constructed a sub-scaled LINA on regolith simulant in dirty vacuum conditions. The materials and construction process presented in this paper are considered to be at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 with additional testing necessary to characterize long term lunar environmental exposure effects.

lunar infrastructure↗

NASA NTRS1975

Roles of airships in economic development

It is proposed that airships of known and tested technology could, in some cases, perform routine transport missions more economically than conventional transport modes. If infrastructure for direct surface transport is already in place or if such infrastructure can be justified by the size of the market and there are no unusual impediments to constructing it, then the airships of tested technology cannot normally compete. If, however, the surface routes would be unusually expensive or circuitous, or if they involve several transhipments, or if the market size is too small to spread infrastructure costs of conventional transport, the airships of tested technology present a workable alternative. A series of special cases are considered. The cases, though unusual, are not unique; there are several similar possible applications which, in total, would provide a reasonably large market for airships.

Beier, G. J.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Rationale for an integrated moon/Mars exploration program

Although it is possible to design manned missions to Mars that do not involve prior lunar missions, a strategy that includes development of a lunar base before or concurrent with the Mars program offers potential benefits from space infrastructure development, space operations experience, and utilization of lunar materials for propulsion. Common utilization of infrastructure elements (e.g., Orbital Transfer Vehicles, Space Operation Center modules) is emphasized in this approach. Mass flows through a low Earth orbit Space Station change in quantity and in proportion of propellant to hardware as the infrastructure develops.

Duke, Michael B.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Overview of the surface architecture and elements common to a wide range of Lunar and Mars missions

NASA has studied future missions to the moon and Mars since the 1960's, and most recently during the studies for the Space Exploration Initiative chartered by President Bush. With these most recent studies, the Lunar and Mars Exploration Program Office is looking at a number of possible options for the human exploration of the solar system. Objectives of these options include science and exploration, testing and learning centers, local planetary resource development, and self sufficient bases. To meet the objectives of any particular mission, efforts have focused primarily in three areas: (1) space transportation vehicles, (2) the associated space infrastructure to support these vehicles, and (3) the necessary infrastructure on the planet surface to carry out the mission objectives. This paper looks at work done by the Planet Surface Systems Office at JSC in the third area, and presents an overview of the approach to determining appropriate equipment and elements of the surface infrastructure needed for these mission alternatives. It describes the process of deriving appropriate surface architectures with consideration of mission objectives leading to system concepts, designation of elements and element placement.

Connolly, John F.↗

NASA NTRS1990

High energy astrophysics 21st century workshop 'Space Capabilities in the 21st Century'

An overview of 20th-century NASA accomplishments and of the infrastructure and technology that NASA plans to have in place in the 21st century is presented. Attention is given to the Great Observatories Program, AXAF, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, the Cosmic Background Explorer, the Small Explorers Program, the Large Area Modular Array of Reflectors, and the X-Ray Background Survey Spectrometer. Also discussed are earth-to-orbit communication links, transportation in the 1990s, the evolution of the space infrastructure, and the Space Station Freedom. Consideration is given to the possibilities of the 21st-century infrastructure, with emphasis on exploration on Mars and the moon. Topics addressed include telecommunications, navigation, information management, and 21st-century space science.

Rhome, Robert C.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Modernization of the NASA scientific and technical information program

The NASA Scientific and Technical Information Program utilizes a technology infrastructure assembled in the mid 1960s to late 1970s to process and disseminate its information products. When this infrastructure was developed it placed NASA as a leader in processing STI. The retrieval engine for the STI database was the first of its kind and was used as the basis for developing commercial, other U.S., and foreign government agency retrieval systems. Due to the combination of changes in user requirements and the tremendous increase in technological capabilities readily available in the marketplace, this infrastructure is no longer the most cost-effective or efficient methodology available. Consequently, the NASA STI Program is pursuing a modernization effort that applies new technology to current processes to provide near-term benefits to the user. In conjunction with this activity, we are developing a long-term modernization strategy designed to transition the Program to a multimedia, global 'library without walls.' Critical pieces of the long-term strategy include streamlining access to sources of STI by using advances in computer networking and graphical user interfaces; creating and disseminating technical information in various electronic media including optical disks, video, and full text; and establishing a Technology Focus Group to maintain a current awareness of emerging technology and to plan for the future.

Cotter, Gladys A.↗