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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
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ave been developed to get as much data as possible from the Galileo spacecraft even without the high gain antenna. These methods include extensive data compression, a new packetized telemetry format, new error-correcting codes, new modulation, new ground receivers, and antenna arraying. (abstract only).
A Formal Inspection Technology Transfer Program, based on the inspection process developed by Michael Fagan at IBM, has been developed at JPL. The goal of this program is to support organizations wishing to use Formal Inspections to improve the quality of software and system level engineering products. The Technology Transfer Program provides start-up materials and assistance to help organizations establish their own Formal Inspection program. The course materials and certified instructors associated with the Technology Transfer Program have proven to be effective in classes taught at other NASA centers as well as at JPL. Formal Inspections (NASA tailored Fagan Inspections) are a set of technical reviews whose objective is to increase quality and reduce the cost of software development by detecting and correcting errors early. A primary feature of inspections is the removal of engineering errors before they amplify into larger and more costly problems downstream in the development process. Note that the word 'inspection' is used differently in software than in a manufacturing context. A Formal Inspection is a front-end quality enhancement technique, rather than a task conducted just prior to product shipment for the purpose of sorting defective systems (manufacturing usage). Formal Inspections are supporting and in agreement with the 'total quality' approach being adopted by many NASA centers.
The JPL Navigation and Mission Design Section has two related tasks: Mission Design: calculate a nominal trajectory which meets the diverse needs of the scientists on a particular mission. Locate deterministic maneuvers required to fly the nominal trajectory, while locating statistical maneuvers which correct errors in the actual trajectory. Navigation estimates the flight path of a spacecraft (orbit determination) using three fundamental data sets: ground based astrometric data; radio metric tracking data (Doppler, range).
EDAptive Computing Inc.'s (ECI) EDAstar engineering software tool suite, created to capture and validate system design requirements, was significantly funded by NASA's Ames Research Center through five Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts. These programs specifically developed Syscape, used to capture executable specifications of multi-disciplinary systems, and VectorGen, used to automatically generate tests to ensure system implementations meet specifications. According to the company, the VectorGen tests considerably reduce the time and effort required to validate implementation of components, thereby ensuring their safe and reliable operation. EDASHIELD, an additional product offering from ECI, can be used to diagnose, predict, and correct errors after a system has been deployed using EDASTAR -created models. Initial commercialization for EDASTAR included application by a large prime contractor in a military setting, and customers include various branches within the U.S. Department of Defense, industry giants like the Lockheed Martin Corporation, Science Applications International Corporation, and Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation, as well as NASA's Langley and Glenn Research Centers
An electronic shift register memory (20) at the molecular level is described. The memory elements are based on a chain of electron transfer molecules (22) and the information is shifted by photoinduced (26) electron transfer reactions. Thus, multi-step sequences of charge transfer reactions are used to move charge with high efficiency down a molecular chain. The device integrates compositions of the invention onto a VLSI substrate (36), providing an example of a molecular electronic device which may be fabricated. Three energy level schemes, molecular implementation of these schemes, optical excitation strategies, charge amplification strategies, and error correction strategies are described.
Gigabit-per-second communications have been a desired target for future NASA Earth science missions, and for potential manned lunar missions. Frequency bandwidth at S-band and X-band is typically insufficient to support missions at these high data rates. In this paper, we present the results of a 1 Gbps 32-QAM end-to-end experiment at Ka-band using a reconfigurable Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) baseband modulator board. Bit error rate measurements of the received signal using a software receiver demonstrate the feasibility of using ultra-high data rates at Ka-band, although results indicate that error correcting coding and/or modulator predistortion must be implemented in addition. Also, results of the demonstration validate the low-cost, MOS-based reconfigurable modulator approach taken to development of a high rate modulator, as opposed to more expensive ASIC or pure analog approaches.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is developing a direct-detection free-space laser communications transceiver test bed. The laser transmitter is a master-oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) configuration using a 1060 nm wavelength laser-diode with a two-stage multi-watt Ytterbium fiber amplifier. Dual Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulators provide an extinction ratio greater than 40 dB. The MOPA design delivered 10-W average power with low-duty-cycle PPM waveforms and achieved 1.7 kW peak power. We use pulse-position modulation format with a pseudo-noise code header to assist clock recovery and frame boundary identification. We are examining the use of low-density-parity-check (LDPC) codes for forward error correction. Our receiver uses an InGaAsP 1 mm diameter photocathode hybrid photomultiplier tube (HPMT) cooled with a thermo-electric cooler. The HPMT has 25% single-photon detection efficiency at 1064 nm wavelength with a dark count rate of 60,000/s at -22 degrees Celsius and a single-photon impulse response of 0.9 ns. We report on progress toward demonstrating a combined laser communications and ranging field experiment.
The Materials on International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) is being conducted with funding from NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense, in order to evaluate candidate materials and processes for flight hardware. MISSE modules include test specimens used to validate NASA technical standards for part markings exposed to harsh environments in low-Earth orbit and space, including: atomic oxygen, ultraviolet radiation, thermal vacuum cycling, and meteoroid and orbital debris impact. Marked test specimens are evaluated and then mounted in a passive experiment container (PEC) that is affixed to an exterior surface on the International Space Station (ISS). They are exposed to atomic oxygen and/or ultraviolet radiation for a year or more before being retrieved and reevaluated. Criteria include percent contrast, axial uniformity, print growth, error correction, and overall grade. MISSE 1 and 2 (2001-2005), MISSE 3 and 4 (2006-2007), and MISSE 5 (2005-2006) have been completed to date. Acceptable results were found for test specimens marked with Data Matrix(TradeMark) symbols by Intermec Inc. and Robotic Vision Systems Inc using: laser bonding, vacuum arc vapor deposition, gas assisted laser etch, chemical etch, mechanical dot peening, laser shot peening, laser etching, and laser induced surface improvement. MISSE 6 (2008-2009) is exposing specimens marked by DataLase(Registed TradeMark), Chemico technologies Inc., Intermec Inc., and tesa with laser-markable paint, nanocode tags, DataLase and tesa laser markings, and anodized metal labels.
This paper addresses the carrier-phase estimation problem under low SNR conditions as are typical of turbo- and LDPC-coded applications. In previous publications by the first author, closed-loop carrier synchronization schemes for error-correction coded BPSK and QPSK modulation were proposed that were based on feeding back hard data decisions at the input of the loop, the purpose being to remove the modulation prior to attempting to track the carrier phase as opposed to the more conventional decision-feedback schemes that incorporate such feedback inside the loop. In this paper, we consider an alternative approach wherein the extrinsic soft information from the iterative decoder of turbo or LDPC codes is instead used as the feedback.
A method of constructing certain low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes by use of relatively simple loop-free coding modules has been developed. The subclasses of LDPC codes to which the method applies includes accumulate-repeat-accumulate (ARA) codes, accumulate-repeat-check-accumulate codes, and the codes described in Accumulate-Repeat-Accumulate-Accumulate Codes (NPO-41305), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 31, No. 9 (September 2007), page 90. All of the affected codes can be characterized as serial/parallel (hybrid) concatenations of such relatively simple modules as accumulators, repetition codes, differentiators, and punctured single-parity check codes. These are error-correcting codes suitable for use in a variety of wireless data-communication systems that include noisy channels. These codes can also be characterized as hybrid turbolike codes that have projected graph or protograph representations (for example see figure); these characteristics make it possible to design high-speed iterative decoders that utilize belief-propagation algorithms. The present method comprises two related submethods for constructing LDPC codes from simple loop-free modules with circulant permutations. The first submethod is an iterative encoding method based on the erasure-decoding algorithm. The computations required by this method are well organized because they involve a parity-check matrix having a block-circulant structure. The second submethod involves the use of block-circulant generator matrices. The encoders of this method are very similar to those of recursive convolutional codes. Some encoders according to this second submethod have been implemented in a small field-programmable gate array that operates at a speed of 100 megasymbols per second. By use of density evolution (a computational- simulation technique for analyzing performances of LDPC codes), it has been shown through some examples that as the block size goes to infinity, low iterative decoding thresholds close to channel capacity limits can be achieved for the codes of the type in question having low maximum variable node degrees. The decoding thresholds in these examples are lower than those of the best-known unstructured irregular LDPC codes constrained to have the same maximum node degrees. Furthermore, the present method enables the construction of codes of any desired rate with thresholds that stay uniformly close to their respective channel capacity thresholds.
A very-large-scale-integrated-circuit (VLSI) turbo decoder has been designed to serve as a compact, high-throughput, low-power, lightweight decoder core of a receiver in a data-communication system. In a typical contemplated application, such a decoder core would be part of a single integrated circuit that would include the rest of the receiver circuitry and possibly some or all of the transmitter circuitry, all designed and fabricated together according to an advanced communication-system-on-a-chip design concept. Turbo codes are forward-error-correction (FEC) codes. Relative to older FEC codes, turbo codes enable communication at lower signal-to-noise ratios and offer greater coding gain. In addition, turbo codes can be implemented by relatively simple hardware. Therefore, turbo codes have been adopted as standard for some advanced broadband communication systems.
A recently developed algorithm for demodulation and decoding of a pulse-position- modulation (PPM) signal is suitable as a basis for designing a single hardware decoding apparatus to be capable of handling any PPM order. Hence, this algorithm offers advantages of greater flexibility and lower cost, in comparison with prior such algorithms, which necessitate the use of a distinct hardware implementation for each PPM order. In addition, in comparison with the prior algorithms, the present algorithm entails less complexity in decoding at large orders. An unavoidably lengthy presentation of background information, including definitions of terms, is prerequisite to a meaningful summary of this development. As an aid to understanding, the figure illustrates the relevant processes of coding, modulation, propagation, demodulation, and decoding. An M-ary PPM signal has M time slots per symbol period. A pulse (signifying 1) is transmitted during one of the time slots; no pulse (signifying 0) is transmitted during the other time slots. The information intended to be conveyed from the transmitting end to the receiving end of a radio or optical communication channel is a K-bit vector u. This vector is encoded by an (N,K) binary error-correcting code, producing an N-bit vector a. In turn, the vector a is subdivided into blocks of m = log2(M) bits and each such block is mapped to an M-ary PPM symbol. The resultant coding/modulation scheme can be regarded as equivalent to a nonlinear binary code. The binary vector of PPM symbols, x is transmitted over a Poisson channel, such that there is obtained, at the receiver, a Poisson-distributed photon count characterized by a mean background count nb during no-pulse time slots and a mean signal-plus-background count of ns+nb during a pulse time slot. In the receiver, demodulation of the signal is effected in an iterative soft decoding process that involves consideration of relationships among photon counts and conditional likelihoods of m-bit vectors of coded bits. Inasmuch as the likelihoods of all the m-bit vectors of coded bits mapping to the same PPM symbol are correlated, the best performance is obtained when the joint mbit conditional likelihoods are utilized. Unfortunately, the complexity of decoding, measured in the number of operations per bit, grows exponentially with m, and can thus become prohibitively expensive for large PPM orders. For a system required to handle multiple PPM orders, the cost is even higher because it is necessary to have separate decoding hardware for each order. This concludes the prerequisite background information. In the present algorithm, the decoding process as described above is modified by, among other things, introduction of an lbit marginalizer sub-algorithm. The term "l-bit marginalizer" signifies that instead of m-bit conditional likelihoods, the decoder computes l-bit conditional likelihoods, where l is fixed. Fixing l, regardless of the value of m, makes it possible to use a single hardware implementation for any PPM order. One could minimize the decoding complexity and obtain an especially simple design by fixing l at 1, but this would entail some loss of performance. An intermediate solution is to fix l at some value, greater than 1, that may be less than or greater than m. This solution makes it possible to obtain the desired flexibility to handle any PPM order while compromising between complexity and loss of performance.
Techniques for filtering clock jitter measurements are developed, in the context of controlling data modulation jitter on an RF carrier to accommodate low signal-to-noise ratio thresholds of high-performance error correction codes. Measurement artifacts from sampling are considered, and a tutorial on interpretation of direct readings is included.
This innovation is an efficient algorithm designed to perform bit-to-symbol and symbol-to-bit likelihood mappings that represent a significant portion of the complexity of an error-correction code decoder for high-order constellations. Recent implementation of the algorithm in hardware has yielded an 8- percent reduction in overall area relative to the prior design.
The NASA version of the low-density parity check (LDPC) 7/8-rate code, shortened to the dimensions of (8160, 7136), has been implemented as the forward error correction (FEC) schema for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM). This is the first flight application of this code. In order to place a 440 Msps link within the 375 MHz wide X band we found it necessary to heavily bandpass filter the satellite transmitter output . Despite the significant amplitude and phase distortions that accompanied the spectral truncation, the mission required BER is maintained at < 10(exp -12) with less than 2 dB of implementation loss. We utilized a band-pass filter designed ostensibly to replicate the link distortions to demonstrate link design viability. The same filter was then used to optimize the adaptive equalizer in the receiver employed at the terminus of the downlink. The excellent results we obtained could be directly attributed to the implementation of the LDPC code and the amplitude and phase compensation provided in the receiver. Similar results were obtained with receivers from several vendors.
The invention allows a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or similar device to be efficiently reconfigured in whole or in part to provide higher capacity, non-redundant operation. The redundant device consists of functional units such as adders or multipliers, configuration memory for the functional units, a programmable routing method, configuration memory for the routing method, and various other features such as block RAM, I/O (random access memory, input/output) capability, dedicated carry logic, etc. The redundant device has three identical sets of functional units and routing resources and majority voters that correct errors. The configuration memory may or may not be redundant, depending on need. For example, SRAM-based FPGAs will need some type of radiation-tolerant configuration memory, or they will need triple-redundant configuration memory. Flash or anti-fuse devices will generally not need redundant configuration memory. Some means of loading and verifying the configuration memory is also required. These are all components of the pre-existing redundant FPGA. This innovation modifies the voter to accept a MODE input, which specifies whether ordinary voting is to occur, or if redundancy is to be split. Generally, additional routing resources will also be required to pass data between sections of the device created by splitting the redundancy. In redundancy mode, the voters produce an output corresponding to the two inputs that agree, in the usual fashion. In the split mode, the voters select just one input and convey this to the output, ignoring the other inputs. In a dual-redundant system (as opposed to triple-redundant), instead of a voter, there is some means to latch or gate a state update only when both inputs agree. In this case, the invention would require modification of the latch or gate so that it would operate normally in redundant mode, and would separately latch or gate the inputs in non-redundant mode.
We present new measurements of the large-scale bulk flows of galaxy clusters based on five-year WMAP data and a significantly expanded X-ray cluster catalog. Our method probes the flow via measurements of the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect produced by the hot gas in moving clusters. It computes the dipole in the cosmic microwave background data at cluster pixels, which preserves the SZ component while integrating down other contributions. Our improved catalog of over 1000 clusters enables us to further investigate possible systematic effects and, thanks to a higher median cluster redshift, allows us to measure the bulk flow to larger scales. We present a corrected error treatment and demonstrate that the more X-ray luminous clusters, while fewer in number, have much larger optical depth, resulting in a higher dipole and thus a more accurate flow measurement. This results in the observed correlation of the dipole derived at the aperture of zero monopole with the monopole measured over the cluster central regions. This correlation is expected if the dipole is produced by the SZ effect and cannot be caused by unidentified systematics (or primary cosmic microwave background anisotropies). We measure that the flow is consistent with approximately constant velocity out to at least [similar, equals]800 Mpc. The significance of the measured signal peaks around 500 h -1 70 Mpc, most likely because the contribution from more distant clusters becomes progressively more diluted by the WMAP beam. However, at present, we cannot rule out that these more distant clusters simply contribute less to the overall motion.
We present the Telecommunications protocol processing subsystem using Reconfigurable Interoperable Gate Arrays (TRIGA), a novel approach that unifies fault tolerance, error correction coding and interplanetary communication protocol off-loading to implement CCSDS File Delivery Protocol and Datalink layers. The new reconfigurable architecture offers more than one order of magnitude throughput increase while reducing footprint requirements in memory, command and data handling processor utilization, communication system interconnects and power consumption.