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At least 487 records · Page 27

Multi-application controls: Robust nonlinear multivariable aerospace controls applications

This viewgraph presentation describes the general methodology used to apply Honywell's Multi-Application Control (MACH) and the specific application to the F-18 High Angle-of-Attack Research Vehicle (HARV) including piloted simulation handling qualities evaluation. The general steps include insertion of modeling data for geometry and mass properties, aerodynamics, propulsion data and assumptions, requirements and specifications, e.g. definition of control variables, handling qualities, stability margins and statements for bandwidth, control power, priorities, position and rate limits. The specific steps include choice of independent variables for least squares fits to aerodynamic and propulsion data, modifications to the management of the controls with regard to integrator windup and actuation limiting and priorities, e.g. pitch priority over roll, and command limiting to prevent departures and/or undesirable inertial coupling or inability to recover to a stable trim condition. The HARV control problem is characterized by significant nonlinearities and multivariable interactions in the low speed, high angle-of-attack, high angular rate flight regime. Systematic approaches to the control of vehicle motions modeled with coupled nonlinear equations of motion have been developed. This paper will discuss the dynamic inversion approach which explicity accounts for nonlinearities in the control design. Multiple control effectors (including aerodynamic control surfaces and thrust vectoring control) and sensors are used to control the motions of the vehicles in several degrees-of-freedom. Several maneuvers will be used to illustrate performance of MACH in the high angle-of-attack flight regime. Analytical methods for assessing the robust performance of the multivariable control system in the presence of math modeling uncertainty, disturbances, and commands have reached a high level of maturity. The structured singular value (mu) frequency response methodology is presented as a method for analyzing robust performance and the mu-synthesis method will be presented as a method for synthesizing a robust control system. The paper concludes with the author's expectations regarding future applications of robust nonlinear multivariable controls.

Enns, Dale F.↗

Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation of Methane Slosh and Drain Experiments

NASA possesses a wealth of historical cryogenic experiments that provide valuable insights into the design, troubleshooting, and understanding involved in the complex fluid and thermodynamics of managing cryogenic propellants. One approach to leveraging these historical datasets is by simulating these experiments to validate the accuracy of simulation environments and constituent models. This study focused on simulating a selection of the K site test series for both static and sloshing pressurized liquid methane draining experiments conducted at NASA in the 1970’s, utilizing computational fluid dynamics. The simulations were performed in the ANSYS FLUENT environment using the Volume of Fluid (VOF) numerical approach. A k-omega turbulence model was used with interfacial turbulence damping, and accurately predicted the amount of pressurant needed to maintain the required tank pressure throughout the static drain. The static simulation predicted the temperature stratification in the ullage observed at the end of the drain. During the methane expulsion with sloshing test, many features were successfully captured using the k-omega turbulence model with interfacial turbulence damping included. The rate of phase change and liquid temperature was overpredicted compared to the experimental measurements. The overprediction may be attributed to uncertainties in the vessel geometry, methane pressurant temperature and composition, and methodological differences in how the sloshing frequency was adjusted during the expulsion.

Cryogenic Propellants↗

Evaluation of a proposed expert system development methodology: Two case studies

Two expert system development projects were studied to evaluate a proposed Expert Systems Development Methodology (ESDM). The ESDM was developed to provide guidance to managers and technical personnel and serve as a standard in the development of expert systems. It was agreed that the proposed ESDM must be evaluated before it could be adopted; therefore a study was planned for its evaluation. This detailed study is now underway. Before the study began, however, two ongoing projects were selected for a retrospective evaluation. They were the Ranging Equipment Diagnostic Expert System (REDEX) and the Backup Control Mode Analysis and Utility System (BCAUS). Both projects were approximately 1 year into development. Interviews of project personnel were conducted, and the resulting data was used to prepare the retrospective evaluation. Decision models of the two projects were constructed and used to evaluate the completeness and accuracy of key provisions of ESDM. A major conclusion reached from these case studies is that suitability and risk analysis should be required for all AI projects, large and small. Further, the objectives of each stage of development during a project should be selected to reduce the next largest area of risk or uncertainty on the project.

Gilstrap, Lewey↗

Modeling the Effect of Wetlands, Flooding, and Irrigation on River Flow: Application to the Aral Sea

As the world's population continues to increase, additional stress is placed on water resources. This stress, coupled with future uncertainties regarding climate change, makes arid and semi-arid regions particularly vulnerable. One example is the Aral Sea where the freshwater inflow, which is dominated by snowmelt runoff, has decreased significantly since the expansion of intensive irrigation in the 1960s. The purpose of this paper is to use a river routing scheme from a global climate model to examine the flow of the Amu Dar'ya River into the Aral Sea. The river routing scheme is modified to include groundwater flow, flooding, and evaporative losses in the river's wetlands and floodplain, and anthropogenic withdrawals for irrigation. A set of scenarios is designed to test the sensitivity of river flow to the inclusion of these modifications into the river routing scheme. When riverine wetlands and floodplains are present, the river flow is reduced significantly and is similar to the observed flow. In addition the model results show that it is essential to incorporate human diversions to accurately represent the inflow to the Aral Sea, and they also indicate potential management strategies that might be appropriate to maintain a balance between inflow to the Sea and upstream diversions for irrigation.

Ferrari, Michael R.↗

Airborne Lidar-Based Estimates of Tropical Forest Structure in Complex Terrain: Opportunities and Trade-Offs for REDD+

Background: Carbon stocks and fluxes in tropical forests remain large sources of uncertainty in the global carbon budget. Airborne lidar remote sensing is a powerful tool for estimating aboveground biomass, provided that lidar measurements penetrate dense forest vegetation to generate accurate estimates of surface topography and canopy heights. Tropical forest areas with complex topography present a challenge for lidar remote sensing. Results: We compared digital terrain models (DTM) derived from airborne lidar data from a mountainous region of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil to 35 ground control points measured with survey grade GNSS receivers. The terrain model generated from full-density (approx. 20 returns/sq m) data was highly accurate (mean signed error of 0.19 +/-0.97 m), while those derived from reduced-density datasets (8/sq m, 4/sq m, 2/sq m and 1/sq m) were increasingly less accurate. Canopy heights calculated from reduced-density lidar data declined as data density decreased due to the inability to accurately model the terrain surface. For lidar return densities below 4/sq m, the bias in height estimates translated into errors of 80-125 Mg/ha in predicted aboveground biomass. Conclusions: Given the growing emphasis on the use of airborne lidar for forest management, carbon monitoring, and conservation efforts, the results of this study highlight the importance of careful survey planning and consistent sampling for accurate quantification of aboveground biomass stocks and dynamics. Approaches that rely primarily on canopy height to estimate aboveground biomass are sensitive to DTM errors from variability in lidar sampling density.

Airborne lidar↗

The Influence of Material Characterization on Thermal Loads Development and Flight Vehicle Design

The thermal management team faces a significant challenge to meet the aggressive thermal loading associated with hypersonic flight. Design strategies require the involvement of many engineering disciplines, as each must design their respective subsystem and then interface with all remaining subsystems to successfully close the vehicle design space. High fidelity thermal solid models will capture the variation in material properties and the effects of chemical reactions associated with hypersonic flight. Selection of the best materials for the mission will be based upon computational fluid dynamics and thermal modeling results. To enhance the probability for success, it is recommended that frequent communication occur between the thermal modeler and the materials scientist regarding design strategies and modeling assumptions. Early in the design process, lower fidelity modeling will be used to narrow the trade space. As promising designs are found, greater fidelity in the modeling process will be required to address more of the flowfield challenges and the material performance under the prescribed flight profile. The end goal is to select the most technically sound and physically advantageous material for the mission while avoiding overdesigning the vehicle due to modeling or material uncertainties. This presentation seeks to give an overview of the key thermal parameters that are affected through materials engineering, the interactions between a thermal engineer and other disciplines, and an example of the thermal design process, the X-43.

hypersonic↗

NASA’s Prototype Spectral Water Inversion Processor and Emulator (SWIPE): Towards Global Coastal and Inland Water Quality and Algal Biodiversity Monitoring

Degradation of Earth’s inland water resources due to anthropogenic perturbations and climate anomalies at both local and global scales continues to place human health at substantial risk. There is now a growing necessity to develop pragmatic approaches that allow timely and effective extrapolation of local processes, to spatially resolved global products, and to promote operational and sustainable resource policy management. This presentation will provide updates on NASA’s prototype open-source aquatic modeling platform, Spectral Water Inversion Processor and Emulator (SWIPE), which is a comprehensive, multi-faceted modeling platform for both forward and inverse modeling of diverse aquatic ecosystems from the benthos to top-of-atmosphere (TOA). SWIPE provides a cohesive application which leverages recent advancements in particle modeling, Big Data analytics, and machine learning to develop a high-fidelity synthetic training ground for sensitivity studies and algorithm development for multispectral or upcoming hyperspectral missions. Some of the prominent features of SWIPE to be discussed include: 1. Advanced hyperspectral modeling of globally diverse algal and non-algal particles using a novel two-layer coated sphere scattering model and radiative transfer modeling, 2. Massive, highly detailed synthetic spectral libraries of Analysis-Ready-Data (ARD) which include spectral libraries of particle microphysics, water biogeophysical and optical properties, as well as surface and TOA reflectances at 1 nm resolution, 3. An ensemble of pre-built analytic, machine learning, and deep learning inversion algorithms for various water quality and biodiversity related retrieval parameters and uncertainty quantification, 4. Sensor-agnostic water quality inversion at wide ranging spatial and spectral resolutions including a codebase for seamless application in the Google Earth Engine and NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) for planetary scale analysis. SWIPE will be a fully open-source platform based in python with comprehensive documentation, tutorials, and options for distributed computing on high performance computing clusters or on single, local machines. Further, we will discuss how we envision SWIPE contributing towards a global analysis of coastal and inland water quality dynamics.

top-of-atmosphere (TOA)↗

Machine Learning Approaches to Increasing Value of Spaceflight Omics Databases

The number of spaceflight bioscience mission opportunities is too small to allow all relevant biological and environmental parameters to be experimentally identified. Simulated spaceflight experiments in ground-based facilities (GBFs), such as clinostats, are each suitable only for particular investigations -- a rotating-wall vessel may be 'simulated microgravity' for cell differentiation (hours), but not DNA repair (seconds) -- and introduce confounding stimuli, such as motor vibration and fluid shear effects. This uncertainty over which biological mechanisms respond to a given form of simulated space radiation or gravity, as well as its side effects, limits our ability to baseline spaceflight data and validate mission science. Machine learning techniques autonomously identify relevant and interdependent factors in a data set given the set of desired metrics to be evaluated: to automatically identify related studies, compare data from related studies, or determine linkages between types of data in the same study. System-of-systems (SoS) machine learning models have the ability to deal with both sparse and heterogeneous data, such as that provided by the small and diverse number of space biosciences flight missions; however, they require appropriate user-defined metrics for any given data set. Although machine learning in bioinformatics is rapidly expanding, the need to combine spaceflight/GBF mission parameters with omics data is unique. This work characterizes the basic requirements for implementing the SoS approach through the System Map (SM) technique, a composite of a dynamic Bayesian network and Gaussian mixture model, in real-world repositories such as the GeneLab Data System and Life Sciences Data Archive. The three primary steps are metadata management for experimental description using open-source ontologies, defining similarity and consistency metrics, and generating testing and validation data sets. Such approaches to spaceflight and GBF omics data may soon enable unique insight into which measured phenomena correlate to biological mechanisms that are truly affected by spaceflight conditions; which are most likely to be confounded by other variables; and which are insufficiently characterized, significantly increasing existing and future science return from ISS and spaceflight missions.

Gentry, Diana↗

Parametric Study of Federated Conflict Resolution for UAM Operations

This work presents a federated conflict resolution algorithm and its parametric study for UAM operations. A federated speed-control-based conflict resolution algorithm is introduced first, including its rules of the road, data exchange requirement, and critical parameters. Two experiments were set up for the parametric study. The first investigates five parameters: look ahead time, resolution update interval, maximum allowed speed reduction, traffic flow interval, and crossing angle. The second experiment studies the uncertainty of departure time. Metrics associated with safety, efficiency, and conflict resolution effort were measured for each scenario. A Design Of Experiment (DOE) analysis was used to perform the multi-factor analysis for the first experiment. It revealed that the crossing angle and flow interval were the most critical parameters across all three metrics, followed by maximum allowed speed reduction. Look ahead time and resolution update interval were of minor significance to safety and conflict resolution effort, but had little to no effect on efficiency. The analysis of the second experiment showed that, given a flow rate, the fluctuation in departure time was absorbed by the conflict resolution algorithm, which resulted in a relatively small fluctuation in airborne delay.

Urban air mobility↗

Parametric Study of Federated Conflict Resolution for UAM Operations using DOE Analysis

This work presents a federated conflict resolution algorithm and its parametric study for UAM operations. A federated speed-control-based conflict resolution algorithm is introduced first, including its rules of the road, data exchange requirement, and critical parameters. Two experiments were set up for the parametric study. The first investigates five parameters: look ahead time, resolution update interval, maximum allowed speed reduction, traffic flow interval, and crossing angle. The second experiment studies the uncertainty of departure time. Metrics associated with safety, efficiency, and conflict resolution effort were measured for each scenario. A Design Of Experiment (DOE) analysis was used to perform the multi-factor analysis for the first experiment. It revealed that the crossing angle and flow interval were the most critical parameters across all three metrics, followed by maximum allowed speed reduction. Look ahead time and resolution update interval were of minor significance to safety and conflict resolution effort, but had little to no effect on efficiency. The analysis of the second experiment showed that, given a flow rate, the fluctuation in departure time was absorbed by the conflict resolution algorithm, which resulted in a relatively small fluctuation in airborne delay.

Urban air mobility↗

NMME Monthly / Seasonal Forecasts for NASA SERVIR Applications Science

This work details use of the North American Multi-Model Ensemble (NMME) experimental forecasts as drivers for Decision Support Systems (DSSs) in the NASA / USAID initiative, SERVIR (a Spanish acronym meaning "to serve"). SERVIR integrates satellite observations, ground-based data and forecast models to monitor and forecast environmental changes and to improve response to natural disasters. Through the use of DSSs whose "front ends" are physically based models, the SERVIR activity provides a natural testbed to determine the extent to which NMME monthly to seasonal projections enable scientists, educators, project managers and policy implementers in developing countries to better use probabilistic outlooks of seasonal hydrologic anomalies in assessing agricultural / food security impacts, water availability, and risk to societal infrastructure. The multi-model NMME framework provides a "best practices" approach to probabilistic forecasting. The NMME forecasts are generated at resolution more coarse than that required to support DSS models; downscaling in both space and time is necessary. The methodology adopted here applied model output statistics where we use NMME ensemble monthly projections of sea-surface temperature (SST) and precipitation from 30 years of hindcasts with observations of precipitation and temperature for target regions. Since raw model forecasts are well-known to have structural biases, a cross-validated multivariate regression methodology (CCA) is used to link the model projected states as predictors to the predictands of the target region. The target regions include a number of basins in East and South Africa as well as the Ganges / Baramaputra / Meghna basin complex. The MOS approach used address spatial downscaling. Temporal disaggregation of monthly seasonal forecasts is achieved through use of a tercile bootstrapping approach. We interpret the results of these studies, the levels of skill by several metrics, and key uncertainties.

Robertson, Franklin R.↗

Optimal Integration of Departure and Arrivals in Terminal Airspace

Coordination of operations with spatially and temporally shared resources such as route segments, fixes, and runways improves the efficiency of terminal airspace management. Problems in this category include scheduling and routing, thus they are normally difficult to solve compared with pure scheduling problems. In order to reduce the computational time, a fast time algorithm formulation using a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA) was introduced in this work and applied to a test case based on existing literature. The experiment showed that new method can solve the whole problem in fast time instead of solving sub-problems sequentially with a window technique. The results showed a 60% or 406 second delay reduction was achieved by sharing departure fixes (more details on the comparison with MILP results will be presented in the final paper). Furthermore, the NSGA algorithm was applied to a problem in LAX terminal airspace, where interactions between 28% of LAX arrivals and 10% of LAX departures are resolved by spatial segregation, which may introduce unnecessary delays. In this work, spatial segregation, temporal segregation, and hybrid segregation were formulated using the new algorithm. Results showed that spatial and temporal segregation approaches achieved similar delay. Hybrid segregation introduced much less delay than the other two approaches. For a total of 9 interacting departures and arrivals, delay reduction varied from 4 minutes to 6.4 minutes corresponding flight time uncertainty from 0 to 60 seconds. Considering the amount of flights that could be affected, total annual savings with hybrid segregation would be significant.

high density terminal↗

Study of Pairwise Deconfliction Metrics to Analyze Air Traffic Complexity in Upper Class E Airspace

Upper Class E Traffic Management (ETM) is envisioned to cooperatively facilitate operations of a diverse set of aerial vehicles, such as high-altitude long-endurance fixed-wing unmanned aircraft (low-speed and high-speed), high-altitude platforms, airships, stratospheric balloons, supersonic unmanned and commercial aircraft, etc., with a wide variety of mission types, performance characteristics, communication, navigation and surveillance capabilities, maneuverability, and on-board avionics in the National Airspace System (NAS) ’above’ 60,000 feet above mean sea level, without an active and direct control from human air traffic controllers. A diverse mixture of aerial vehicle types creates significant challenges in understanding air traffic complexity, which may not correlate strongly with air traffic density. One key step for determining air traffic complexity in upper class E airspace is to first understand pairwise deconfliction metrics such as reachability, reserve area, and reserve flight time for each pair of unique aerial vehicle types under potential conflict. Therefore, pairwise deconfliction metrics are first defined, and analytical equations are derived for conflict resolution using the heading change maneuver. Next, case studies are performed to analyze deconfliction metrics to avoid secondary conflicts in upper class E airspace. The study shows that pairwise deconfliction metrics are functions of maneuverability, performance characteristics, uncertainty in position and velocity, heading angle change, and conflict angle of aerial vehicles. The next step for this research is to build a mathematical model for air traffic complexity using pairwise deconfliction metrics and validate it in an upper Class E simulation environment.

Airspace Complexity↗

Study of Pairwise Deconfliction Metrics to Analyze Air Traffic Complexity in Upper Class E Airspace

Upper Class E Traffic Management (ETM) is envisioned to cooperatively facilitate operations of a diverse set of aerial vehicles, such as high-altitude long-endurance fixed-wing unmanned aircraft (low-speed and high-speed), high-altitude platforms, airships, stratospheric balloons, supersonic unmanned and commercial aircraft, etc., with a wide variety of mission types, performance characteristics, communication, navigation and surveillance capabilities, maneuverability, and on-board avionics in the National Airspace System (NAS) ’above’ 60,000 feet above mean sea level, without an active and direct control from human air traffic controllers. A diverse mixture of aerial vehicle types creates significant challenges in understanding air traffic complexity, which may not correlate strongly with air traffic density. One key step for determining air traffic complexity in upper class E airspace is to first understand pairwise deconfliction metrics such as reachability, reserve area, and reserve flight time for each pair of unique aerial vehicle types under potential conflict. Therefore, pairwise deconfliction metrics are first defined, and analytical equations are derived for conflict resolution using the heading change maneuver. Next, case studies are performed to analyze deconfliction metrics to avoid secondary conflicts in upper class E airspace. The study shows that pairwise deconfliction metrics are functions of maneuverability, performance characteristics, uncertainty in position and velocity, heading angle change, and conflict angle of aerial vehicles. The next step for this research is to build a mathematical model for air traffic complexity using pairwise deconfliction metrics and validate it in an upper Class E simulation environment.

Airspace Complexity↗

Real Time Metrics and Analysis of Integrated Arrival, Departure, and Surface Operations

To address the Integrated Arrival, Departure, and Surface (IADS) challenge, NASA is developing and demonstrating trajectory-based departure automation under a collaborative effort with the FAA and industry known Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2). ATD-2 builds upon and integrates previous NASA research capabilities that include the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA), the Precision Departure Release Capability (PDRC), and the Terminal Sequencing and Spacing (TSAS) capability. As trajectory-based departure scheduling and collaborative decision making tools are introduced in order to reduce delays and uncertainties in taxi and climb operations across the National Airspace System, users of the tools across a number of roles benefit from a real time system that enables common situational awareness. A real time dashboard was developed to inform and present users notifications and integrated information regarding airport surface operations. The dashboard is a supplement to capabilities and tools that incorporate arrival, departure, and surface air-traffic operations concepts in a NextGen environment. In addition to shared situational awareness, the dashboard offers the ability to compute real time metrics and analysis to inform users about capacity, predictability, and efficiency of the system as a whole. This paper describes the architecture of the real time dashboard as well as an initial proposed set of metrics. The potential impact of the real time dashboard is studied at the site identified for initial deployment and demonstration in 2017: Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (CLT). The architecture of implementing such a tool as well as potential uses are presented for operations at CLT. Metrics computed in real time illustrate the opportunity to provide common situational awareness and inform users of system delay, throughput, taxi time, and airport capacity. In addition, common awareness of delays and the impact of takeoff and departure restrictions stemming from traffic flow management initiatives are explored. The potential of the real time tool to inform users of the predictability and efficiency of using a trajectory-based departure scheduling system is also discussed.

integrated arrival departure surface operations↗

Operational Impact of the Baseline Integrated Arrival, Departure and Surface System Field Demonstration

To address the Integrated Arrival, Departure, and Surface (IADS) challenge, NASA is developing and demonstrating trajectory-based departure automation under a collaborative effort with the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and industry known Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2). ATD-2 builds upon and integrates previous NASA research capabilities that include the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA), the Precision Departure Release Capability (PDRC), and the Terminal Sequencing and Spacing (TSAS) capability. As trajectory-based departure scheduling and collaborative decision making tools are introduced in order to reduce delays and uncertainties in taxi and climb operations across the National Airspace System, users of the tools across a number of roles benefit from a real time system that enables common situational awareness. A real time dashboard was developed to inform and present users notifications and integrated information regarding airport surface operations. The dashboard is a supplement to capabilities and tools that incorporate arrival, departure, and surface air-traffic operations concepts in a NextGen environment. In addition to shared situational awareness, the dashboard offers the ability to compute real time metrics and analysis to inform users about capacity, predictability, and efficiency of the system as a whole. This paper describes the architecture of the real time dashboard as well as an initial proposed set of metrics. The potential impact of the real time dashboard is studied at the site identified for initial deployment and demonstration in 2017: Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (CLT). The architecture of implementing such a tool as well as potential uses are presented for operations at CLT. Metrics computed in real time illustrate the opportunity to provide common situational awareness and inform users of system delay, throughput, taxi time, and airport capacity. In addition, common awareness of delays and the impact of takeoff and departure restrictions stemming from traffic flow management initiatives are explored. The potential of the real time tool to inform users of the predictability and efficiency of using a trajectory-based departure scheduling system is also discussed.

air traffic optimization↗

Discrete Event Simulation-Based Timeline Validation Using R2U2

The Gateway Vehicle Systems Manager (VSM), the top-level software control system in a distributed, hierarchical Autonomous System Management Architecture is, like most modern spacecraft software control systems, heavily data-driven. For example, schedules (timelines) will be developed on the ground and, due to the high degree of autonomy, contain complex procedures involving conditional branching, variable timing, and resource contention resolution. In order to verify that an uploaded timeline will function correctly, it is necessary to explore the feasible set of possible executions. While it is possible to test a timeline using a mission simulation, the complexity of the system and duration of a timeline limits the number of trials and therefore the test coverage. To address this problem, the VSM team is using a discrete event system model that can rapidly generate from a timeline sets of event sequences using Monte Carlo techniques. To achieve rapid and trustworthy checking of the event sequences, we use an offline version of the runtime model checking tool R2U2. This presentation describes the approach the VSM team is using to implement the discrete event simulation and evaluate event sequences using R2U2. The presentation will discuss: 1. Description of the timelines by VSM in the context of VSM operations 2. Expansion of a timeline into a sequence of atomic events 3. Adjustment, in the Monte Carlo environment, of an event sequence to account for uncertainty, external events, and failures 4. Definition of R2U2 input and mission-time linear temporal logic files 5. Generation and use of R2U2 verdict sequences 6. Lessons learned and future work

Verification↗

Effects of Acute Exposures to Carbon Dioxide upon Cognitive Functions

Carbon dioxide (CO2) originates from human metabolism and typically remains about 10-fold higher in concentration on the International Space Station (ISS) than at the earth's surface. There have been recurring complaints by crew members of episodes of "mental viscosity" adversely affecting their performance, and there is evidence from the ISS that associates CO2 levels with reports of headaches by crewmembers. Consequently, flight rules have been employed to control CO2 below 3 mm Hg, which is well below the existing Spacecraft Maximum Allowable Concentration (SMAC) of 10 mm Hg for 24-hour exposures, and 5.3 mm Hg for exposures of 7 to 180 days. Headaches, while sometime debilitating themselves, are also symptoms that can provide evidence that physiological defense mechanisms have been breached, and there is evidence that CO2 has effects at levels below the threshold for headaches. This concern appears to be substantiated in reports that CO2 at concentrations below 2 mm Hg substantially reduced some cognitive functions that are associated with the ability to make complex decisions in conditions that are characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, and delayed feedback. These are conditions that could be encountered by crews in off-nominal situations or during the first missions beyond low earth orbit. Therefore, we set out to determine if decision-making under volatile, uncertain, confusing and ambiguous circumstances, where feedback is delayed or absent, is correlated with low levels of CO2 during acute exposures (several hours) in crew-like subjects and to determine if additional cognitive domains are sensitive to concentrations of CO2 at, or below, current ISS levels by using a test battery that is currently available onboard ISS. We enrolled 22 volunteers (8 females, 14 males) between the ages of 30-55 (38.8 +/- 7.0) years whose training and professional experience reflect that of the astronaut corps. Subjects were divided among 4 study groups. Exposures occurred in the 20-foot environmental chamber in Bldg 7 at JSC. Each group was exposed to each of four concentrations of CO2 (600, 1200, 2500, and 5000 ppm), and the exposure order was balanced across the groups which were randomly assigned to 4 possible complete exposure orders. Study participants and investigators were blinded to the exposure order. Each exposure lasted 4 hours and occurred on the same day each week for 4 consecutive weeks. Testing included the Strategic Management Simulation (SMS) methodology and the Cognition battery of psychometric measures that are being utilized aboard the ISS. Subjects participated in a familiarization session one week prior to the start of exposure sessions. Each exposure session followed the schedule noted in Figure 1 below. On the morning of each exposure, subjects completed the Cognition battery in a conference room at indoor ambient CO2 levels. Subjects then entered the exposure chamber and were acclimated to the environment for 15 minutes before completing another round of the Cognition battery. After a 20 minute rest, subject completed the approx.80 minute SMS. Subjects were allowed another 20 minute rest period before completing the final Cognition test battery in the exposure chamber. Subjects then returned to the conference room where they completed one final round of Cognition. Data from both testing methodologies are currently being analyzed and will be presented. Study investigators have not yet been unblinded to the coded exposure concentrations, but preliminary results suggest differences.

Ryder, V. E.↗