Mission control center - houston display and control system.
Houston Manned Spacecraft Center display and control system for near-real-time assessment of Project Gemini data
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Mariner 9 - Image processing and products.
The purpose of this paper is to describe the system for the display, processing, and production of image data products created to support the Mariner 9 Television Experiment. Of necessity, the system was large in order to respond to the needs of a large team of scientists with a broad scope of experimental objectives. The desire to generate processed data products as rapidly as possible to take advantage of adaptive planning during the mission, coupled with the complexities introduced by the nature of the vidicon camera, greatly increased the scale of the ground image processing effort. This paper describes the systems that carried out the processes and delivered the products necessary for real-time and near-real-time analyses. References are made to the computer algorithms used for the different levels of decalibration and analysis.
Levinthal, E. C.↗
Mariner 9 - Image processing and products.
The purpose of this paper is to describe the system for the display, processing, and production of image-data products created to support the Mariner 9 Television Experiment. Of necessity, the system was large in order to respond to the needs of a large team of scientists with a broad scope of experimental objectives. The desire to generate processed data products as rapidly as possible, coupled with the complexities introduced by the nature of the vidicon camera, greatly increased the scale of the ground-image processing effort. This paper describes the systems that carried out the processes and delivered the products necessary for real-time and near-real-time analyses. References are made to the computer algorithms used for the different levels of decalibration and analysis.
Levinthal, E. C.↗
Mariner Mars 1971 optical navigation demonstration
The feasibility of using a combination of spacecraft-based optical data and earth-based Doppler data to perform near-real-time approach navigation was demonstrated by the Mariner Mars 71 Project. The important findings, conclusions, and recommendations are documented. A summary along with publications and papers giving additional details on the objectives of the demonstration are provided. Instrument calibration and performance as well as navigation and science results are reported.
Born, G. H.↗
The Skylab sleep monitoring experiment - Methodology and initial results
The sleep monitoring experiment permitted an objective evaluation of sleep characteristics during the first two manned Skylab flights. Hardware located onboard the spacecraft accomplished data acquisition, analysis, and preservation, thereby permitting near-real-time evaluation of sleep during the flights and more detailed postmission analysis. The crewman studied during the 28-Day Mission showed some decrease in total sleep time and an increase in the percentage of Stage 4 sleep, while the subject in the 59-Day Mission exhibited little change in total sleep time and a small decrease in Stage 4 and REM sleep. Some disruption of sleep characteristics was seen in the final days of both missions, and both subjects exhibited decreases in REM-onset latency in the immediate postflight period. The relatively minor changes seen were not of the type nor magnitude which might be expected to be associated with significant degradation of performance capability.
Frost, J. D., Jr.↗
Mariner-Venus-Mercury optical navigation demonstration - Results and implications for future missions
Optical navigation uses spacecraft television pictures of a target body against a known star background in a process which relates the spacecraft trajectory to the target body. This technology was used in the Mariner-Venus-Mercury mission, with the optical data processed in near-real-time, simulating a mission critical environment. Optical data error sources were identified, and a star location error analysis was carried out. Several methods for selecting limb crossing coordinates were used, and a limb smear compensation was introduced. Omission of planetary aberration corrections was the source of large optical residuals.
Acton, C. H., Jr.↗
Advances in automatic extraction of information from multispectral scanner data
The state-of-the-art of automatic multispectral scanner data analysis and interpretation is reviewed. Sources of system variability which tend to obscure the spectral characteristics of the classes under consideration are discussed, and examples of the application of spatial and temporal discrimination bases are given. Automatic processing functions, techniques and methods, and equipment are described with particular attention to those that are applicable to large land surveys using satellite data. The development and characteristics of the Multivariate Interactive Digital Analysis System (MIDAS) for processing aircraft or satellite multispectral scanning data are discussed in detail. The MIDAS system combines the parallel digital implementation capabilities of a low-cost processor with a general purpose PDP-11/45 minicomputer to provide near-real-time data processing. The preprocessing functions are user-selectable. The input subsystem accepts data stored on high density digital tape, computer compatible tape, and analog tape.
Erickson, J. D.↗
Use of TV in space science activities - Some considerations
Advantages in the use of TV on board satellites as the primary data-recording system in a manned space laboratory when certain types of experiments are flown are indicated. Real-time or near-real-time validation, elimination of film weight, improved depth of field and low-light sensitivity, and better adaptability to computer and electronic processing of data are spelled out as advantages of TV over photographic techniques, say, in fluid dynamics experiments, and weightlessness studies.
Bannister, T. C.↗
Scientist/AMPS equipment interface study
The principal objective was to determine for each experiment how the operating procedures and modes of equipment onboard shuttle can be managed in real-time or near-real-time to enhance the quality of results. As part of this determination the data and display devices that a man will need for real-time management are defined. The secondary objectives, as listed in the RFQ and technical proposal, were to: (1) determine what quantities are to be measured (2) determine permissible background levels (3) decide in what portions of space measurements are to be made (4) estimate bit rates (5) establish time-lines for operating the experiments on a mission or set of missions and (6) determine the minimum set of hardware needed for real-time display. Experiment descriptions and requirements were written. The requirements of the various experiments are combined and a minimal set of joint requirements are defined.
Anderson, H. R.↗
DSN command system Mark 3-78
The Deep Space Network Command System Mark III-78 implementation and functional operation are described. Software upgrade enables expanded storage capacity in the Deep Space Station Command Processor Assembly. Store-and-forward command data handling is operational for Voyager and Helios. Near-real-time command data handling was retained for Viking and Pioneer.
Thorman, H. C.↗
Spacecraft automated operations
Trends in automation of planetary spacecraft are examined using data from missions as far back as Mariner '67 and up to the highly sophisticated Galileo. Nine design considerations which influence the degree of automation such as protection against catastrophic failures, highly repetitive functions, loss of spacecraft communications, and the need for near-real-time adaptivity are discussed. Rapid growth of automation is shown in terms of on-board hardware by plots of number of processors on board, the average speed of processors, and total core memory. The number of commands transmitted from the ground has grown to 5 million bits in Voyager, so that increases in mission complexity have increased both in spacecraft automation and ground operations. Achieving greater automation by transferring ground operations to the spacecraft with the current means of controlling missions, are considered noting proposed changes. For the future, improved computer technology, more microprocessors and increased core storage will be used, and the number of automated functions and their complexity will grow. It is concluded that using the growing computational capability of spacecraft will achieve more autonomy thus reversing the trend of increased mission complexity and cost.
Bird, T. H.↗
Oceanic Satellite Data Distribution System
The Satellite Data Distribution System (SDDS) serves to process satellite-derived ocean observations, generate ocean analysis and forecast products, and distribute the products to a limited set of commercial users. The SDDS functions in series with the U.S. Navy Fleet Numerical Oceanography Center (FNOC) to provide products on a near-real-time basis to commercial marine industries. Conventional meteorological and oceanographic observations provided to FNOC serve as the input set to the numerical analysis and forecast models. Large main-frame computers are used to analyze and forecast products on a routine, operational basis (at 6-hour and 12-hour synoptic times). The products, reformatted to meet commercial users needs, are transferred to a NASA-owned computer for storage and distribution. Access to the information is possible either by a commercial dial-up packet-switching network or by a direct computer-computer connection.
Montgomery, D. R.↗
Analysis of ALOPE data from Superflux
Remote sensing data collected with the airborne lidar oceanographic probing experiment (ALOPE) laser fluorosensor during the Superflux 1 and Superflux 2 experiments were analyzed using two techniques. A qualitative technique which requires no supplementary data provided a near-real-time estimate of relative abundance of the golden-brown and green phytoplankton color groups. Contour plots developed for the later mission are used to demonstrate the utility of this technique. A quantitative technique which requires supplementary data to define the attenuation coefficient provides chlorophyll a concentration by color group. The sum of the golden-brown and green chlorophyll a data yields total chlorophyll a values which may be compared with in situ data. As expected, the golden-brown population was dominant in the Chesapeake Bay and the Bay plume whereas the green population was dominant in shelf waters.
Jarrett, O., Jr.↗
Intercontinental clock synchronization with the block 1 VLBI system
The Block 1 very long baseline interferometer (VLBI) operated by the Deep Space Network (DSN) to make weekly measurements of the relative epoch and rate offsets between the time standards in the global network of DSN stations is discussed. The precision of these measurements routinely achieves sub-microsecond levels for epoch offset and accuracies of better than one part in 10 to the 12th power for rate offset. The implementation of the phase calibrator system permits absolute measurement of epoch offset to better than 10 nanoseconds. With the near-real-time play-back and on-line storage of VLBI data, the Block 1 system typically produces clock parameters within 48 hours from the time of observation.
Roth, M. G.↗
Future interactive data systems
The information and control requirements of the investigator-users of future free-flying, platform-based, or Space Station-based scientific experiments are assessed, and the implications of these requirements for the design of the information systems are discussed. The principal requirements include near-real-time interaction with the payload, distributed or remote payload command and control, rapid access to quick-look data, flexibility of payload command sequences, on-demand uplink-downlink availability, system transparency, and modular design to facilitate replacement of system components. Current developments in systems architecture such as increased use of onboard microprocessors to select and preprocess data and transmit autonomous streams directly to the user, standardization of interfaces, and the NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System are characterized, and block diagrams of present and future systems are provided.
Bracken, P. A.↗
ICE navigation support
The International Cometary Explorer (ICE) encounter with Comet Giacobini-Zinner took place 7 years after the spacecraft's original launch on 12 August 1978 as the International Sun Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3), part of a three-spacecraft project to study the interaction between the solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere. Transfer to an interplanetary trajectory was performed via a 119-km-altitute, gravity-assist, lunar swingby on December 1983. Navigation support during interplanetary cruise and comet encounter was provided by orbit determination utilizing radio metric data from the DSN 64-meter antennas in Goldstone, California and Madrid, Spain. Orbit solutions yielding predictions of 50-km geocentric delivery accuracy in the target aim plane were achieved during interplanetary cruise and at comet encounter using 6-to-12-week data arcs between periodic attitude-change maneuvers. One-sigma two-way range and range rate residuals were consistently 40 meters and 0.2 mm/s or better, respectively. Non-gravitational forces affected the comet's motion during late August and early September 1985 and caused a 2300-km shift in the orbit of the comet relative to the spacecraft. This necessitated a final ICE orbit trim maneuver 3 days prior to encounter. Near-real-time assessment of two-way 2-GHz (S-band) Doppler pseudo-residuals during the June and July 1985 trajectory change maneuvers aided in calibration of the spacecraft's thrusters in preparation for this final critical maneuver. Post-flight analysis indicates tail centerline passage was achieved within 10 seconds of the predicted time and geocentric position uncertainty at encounter was less than 40 km.
Efron, L.↗
Millimeter-wave imaging sensor data evaluation
A passive 3-mm radiometer system with a mechanically scanned antenna was built for use on a small aircraft or an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to produce real near-real-time, moderate-resolution (0.5) images of the ground. One of the main advantages of this passive imaging sensor is that it is able to provide surveillance information through dust, smoke, fog and clouds when visual and IR systems are unusable. It can also be used for a variety of remote sensing applications, such as measurements of surface moisture, surface temperature, vegetation extent and snow cover. It is also possible to detect reflective objects under vegetation cover.
Wilson, William J.↗
A densely spaced array of sea level monitors for the detection of vertical crustal deformation in the Shumagin seismic gap, Alaska
A network of sea level gauges has been installed with about 40 km spacing in the Shumagin Islands in order to detect relative vertical motion, in particular, possible crustal motion precursory to an expected major earthquake. This required the development and deployment of a pressure sensor sea level gauge suitable for installation on remote and harsh coastlines. Data are collected in near-real-time via satellite, both in order to exploit fully any precursors that may be observed and to provide continuous information on the status of the instruments. Using Wiener filtering techniques, it has been determined conservatively that no relative vertical crustal motion greater than 0.1 m between stations has occurred during 1981-1985. This is consistent with independent geodetic leveling and trilateration data, though evidence exists for more rapid deformation during 1978-1980. The sea level data collected so far have an rms noise level of about 0.04 m after processing; this is limited in part by the pressure sensor and associated electronics. Improved prressure gauges with better long-term stability have recently been installed. A short-baseline tiltmeter operating in a tunnel has demonstrated that suitably designed and located land-based tiltmeters have a lower noise level, and hence better precursor detection characteristics than the sea level gauges, at monthly and shorter periods.
Beavan, John↗