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SAGE III/ISS Rapid Data Analysis Through Dashboarding with Jupyter Notebooks

Spaceborne remote sensing observations of Earth’s atmosphere produce significant quantities of data over the life of each mission. In the case of the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III on the International Space Station (SAGE III/ISS) nearly four years of vertical profiles of atmospheric ozone, water vapor, and nitrogen dioxide concentrations as well as aerosol extinction coefficients have been released. The dichotomy of the desire for both long-term trends in the atmospheric state alongside the assessment of short-term impacts of major disruptive events such as volcanic eruptions and pyrocumulus injections requires agile tools to handle these cases in near real-time as new data are produced. The analysis landscape is further complicated by the desire to compare results between the numerous contemporary observations available for a given dataset. The SAGE III/ISS team has developed a suite of tools leveraging modern web-based frameworks allowing members to interact with a dashboard-style interface to load the data record, assess new profiles as they are generated and in ensemble, compare between species, and additionally add in measurements observed by other platforms as necessary. Leveraging a commonly packaged data format of NetCDF alongside the Python Jupyter Notebook framework, the data can be served to interested parties from an analysis server while still runnable on personal systems if required. This presentation illustrates the ecosystem developed by the SAGE III/ISS team, the applicability to measurements made by any limb-observing platform, and the benefit to transforming routine analyses into readily accessible dynamic plots. Frameworks currently exist at larger scales with projects such as GIOVANNI, and this illustration seeks to show that similar frameworks are accessible and possible within the local research environment while simultaneously unloading human processing cycles for more specialized analysis tasks.

Dashboarding↗
NASA NTRS2004

Low Gravity Rapid Thermal Analysis of Glass

It has been observed by two research groups that ZrF4-BaF2-LaF3-AlF3-NaF (ZBLAN) glass crystallization is suppressed in microgravity. The mechanism for this phenomenon is unknown at the present time. In order to better understand the mechanism, an experiment was performed on NASA's KC135 reduced gravity aircraft to obtain quantitative crystallization data. An apparatus was designed and constructed for performing rapid thermal analysis of milligram quantities of ZBLAN glass. The apparatus employs an ellipsoidal furnace allowing for rapid heating and cooling. Using this apparatus nucleation and crystallization kinetic data was obtained leading to the construction of time-temperature-transformation curves for ZBLAN in microgravity and unit gravity.

Tucker, Dennis S.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Rapid Biochemical Analysis on the International Space Station (ISS): Preparing for Human Exploration of the Moon and Mars

The Lab-on-a-Chip Application Development - Portable Test System, known as LOCAD-PTS, was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-116) on December 9th,2006. Since that time, it has remained onboard ISS and has been operated by the crew on 10 separate occasions LOCAD-PTS is a handheld device for rapid biochemical analysis; it consists of a spectrophotometer, a series of interchangeable cartridges, a pipette and several clean/sterilized swabbing kits to obtain samples from ISS surfaces. Sampling, quantitative analysis and data retrieval is performed onboard, therefore reducing the need to return samples to Earth. Less than 20 minutes are required from sampling to data, significantly faster than existing culture-based methods on ISS, which require 3-5 days. Different cartridges are available for the detection of different target molecules (simply by changing the formulation within each cartridge), thereby maximizing the benefit and applications addressed by a single instrument. Initial tests on ISS have focused on the detection of the bact.erial macromolecule endotoxin, a component of bacterial cell walls. LOCAD-PTS detects endotoxin with a cartridge that contains a formulation known as Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL) assay. LAL is derived from blood of the horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus, and detects enodotoxin with an enzyme cascade that triggers generation Of a yellow colored dye, p-nitroanaline. The more p-nitroanaline product, the more endotoxin is in the original sample. To enable quantitative analysis, the absorbance of this color is measured by LOCAD-PTS through a 395 nm filter and compared with an internal calibration curve, to provide a reading on the LED display that ranges from 0.05 Endotoxin Units (EU)/ml to 5 EU/ml. Several surface sites were analyzed within ISS between March 2007 and February 2008, including multiple locations in the US Laboratory Destiny, Node 1 Unity, AMock, and Service Module Zvezda. The goals of this initial study were to i) test the cleanliness of reagents/supplies on orbit, ii) test the crew's ability to collect and process a sample in microgravity without contamination, iii) demonstrate nominal function of the LOCAD-PTS, and iv) provide a general survey of endotoxin within the ISS. The surface sites varied greatly in terms of their frequency-of-use and material texture/composition; from relatively smooth aluminum, to fabric, to the room temperature vulcanizing (RTV) rubber of a Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit. Results showed that: i) the swabbing kits and reagents remained clean on orbit, ii) the crew could collect and process a sample without contamination, and iii) the LOCAD-PTS functioned nominally in > 99% of the 55 tests completed. We will present detailed results of the survey of endotoxin on ISS surfaces. These results and technology are important in the near-term - by providing an extra tool in the toolbox for ISS microbial monitoring. They are also important in the longer term as valuable preparation for human exploration of the Moon and Mars. One of the proposed science goals for the human exploration of Mars will be to detect and characterize any indigenous biological molecules that may exist on the Martian surface. To achieve that goal, the crew must have the technology available onboard to differentiate indigenous biology from any terrestrial biological material brought to Mars by the spacecraft and crew (termed 'forward contamination'). The LAL assay is already one of the official methods used by NASA's planetary protection program to certify cleanliness of interplanetary robotic spacecraft prior to launch; and therefore endotoxin is a good marker of forward contamination (as well as other microbial molecules detectable with LOCAD-PTS e.g. box-1, 3-glucan and lipoteichoic acid). Furthermore, the distribution and abundance of these molecules on the ISS provides a good indicator of what to expect on the Crew Exploratioehicle Orion, the lunar lander Antares, and future crewed spacecraft destined for Mars. In addition, technology such as LOCAD-PTS has been proposed to help evaluate forward contamination during lunar surface operations by the crew, as preparation for the human exploration of Mars.

Maule, J.↗
NASA NTRS2018

An Energy-Based Low-Order Approach for Mission Analysis of Air Vehicles in LEAPS

Mission analysis methods that allow rapid analysis of conceptual aircraft provide great benefits to designers because a large number of feasibility and optimization studies can be performed quickly. This paper presents a novel low-order mission analysis approach that will be included in a new aircraft analysis tool called the Layered and Extensible Aircraft Performance System, also known as LEAPS. This approach is based on the mission analysis method used in the Flight Optimization System, also known as FLOPS. FLOPS has been developed at NASA Langley Research Center for over 30 years, and it is mainly used to analyze conventional aircraft (e.g., gas turbine-powered aircraft). One of the main features of FLOPS is its ability to perform rapid mission analysis. This quick analysis turnaround makes FLOPS a suitable tool to perform a large number of trade studies and optimizations. For this reason, the main concepts applied in FLOPS will be used and expanded in LEAPS to allow the analysis of unconventional aircraft that use novel propulsion systems. This expanded approach includes the capability to handle electric propulsion systems as well as multiple propulsor classes at the same time. A novel hybrid-electric aircraft configuration is used to investigate the potential benefits of the proposed mission analysis approach. The results show that the design space increases which can potentially lead to better designs.

Capristan, Francisco M.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Single Degree-of-Freedom Modeling of SLS Liquid Hydrogen Pre-Valve Flow Guide to Enable Rapid Transient Analysis

A unique single degree-of-freedom approximation technique has been developed to enable rapid application of a temporally-defined multi-spectral semi-narrow-band loading for generation of realistic stress/cycle values compared to a resonant analysis. The technique uses the harmonic analysis at resonance of a high-fidelity finite element model to produce a transfer function, which is then used to calibrate the response of the SDOF model. A standard numerical ordinary differential equation solver is then used to obtain the temporal response, and its histogram is used in a fatigue/fracture model. This technique is related to other SDOF methods used widely in industry, such as Miles' Equation and the Shock Response Spectra, but it is unique in that it produces a realistic time history of the response. The most obvious error in the process, which is the effect of closely-spaced modes, was also assessed using the parallel application of several SDOF models, and the error is shown to be small. The application of this unique and tractable reduced-order methodology has enabled the SLS program to avoid substantial cost and schedule penalties if a redesign or change of material were required. It has also enabled quick analysis of a number of other structures undergoing the same or similar excitation fields, and quick assessment when the excitation and structural configuration has been altered due to design changes in the system.

Brown, Andrew M.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Rapid distortion analysis and direct simulation of compressible homogeneous turbulence at finite Mach number

The effect of rapid mean compression on compressible turbulence at a range of turbulent Mach numbers is investigated. Rapid distortion theory (RDT) and direct numerical simulation results for the case of axial (one-dimensional) compression are used to illustrate the existence of two distinct rapid compression regimes. These regimes are set by the relationships between the timescales of the mean distortion, the turbulence, and the speed of sound. A general RDT formulation is developed and is proposed as a means of improving turbulence models for compressible flows.

Cambon, C.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Rapid Distortion Analysis and Direct Simulation of Compressible Homogeneous Turbulence at Finite Mach Number

The effect of rapid mean compression on compressible turbulence at a range of turbulent Mach numbers is investigated. Rapid dist'ortion theory (RDT) and direct numerical simulation results for the case of axial (one-dimensional) compression are used to illustrate the existence of two distinct rapid compression regimes. These regimes - the nearly solenoidal and the 'pressure-released' - are defined by a single parameter involving the timescales of the mean distortion, the turbulence, and the speed of sound. A general RDT formulation is developed and is proposed as a means of improving turbulence models for compressible flows. In contrast to the well-documented observation that 'compressibility' (measured, for example, by the turbulent Mach number) is often associated with a decrease in the growth rate of turbulent kinetic energy, we find that under rapid distortion compressibility can produce an amplification of the kinetic energy growth rate. We also find that as the compressibility increases, the magnitude of the pressure-dilation correlation increases, in absolute terms, but its relative importance decreases compared to the magnitude of the kinetic energy production.

Cambon, C.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Statistical Methods for Rapid Aerothermal Analysis and Design Technology

The cost and safety goals for NASA's next generation of reusable launch vehicle (RLV) will require that rapid high-fidelity aerothermodynamic design tools be used early in the design cycle. To meet these requirements, it is desirable to establish statistical models that quantify and improve the accuracy, extend the applicability, and enable combined analyses using existing prediction tools. The research work was focused on establishing the suitable mathematical/statistical models for these purposes. It is anticipated that the resulting models can be incorporated into a software tool to provide rapid, variable-fidelity, aerothermal environments to predict heating along an arbitrary trajectory. This work will support development of an integrated design tool to perform automated thermal protection system (TPS) sizing and material selection.

Morgan, Carolyn↗
NASA NTRS2003

Statistical Methods for Rapid Aerothermal Analysis and Design Technology: Validation

The cost and safety goals for NASA s next generation of reusable launch vehicle (RLV) will require that rapid high-fidelity aerothermodynamic design tools be used early in the design cycle. To meet these requirements, it is desirable to identify adequate statistical models that quantify and improve the accuracy, extend the applicability, and enable combined analyses using existing prediction tools. The initial research work focused on establishing suitable candidate models for these purposes. The second phase is focused on assessing the performance of these models to accurately predict the heat rate for a given candidate data set. This validation work compared models and methods that may be useful in predicting the heat rate.

DePriest, Douglas↗
NASA NTRS1980

Rapid correlation analysis in a group of motions and homogeneous scale transforms of the plane (M(2)xR sub +)

A method is proposed for picking out a given image, in a plane, irrespective of translations, rotations, and homogeneous scale transforms of the plane. The correlation integral is calculated, using the method of abstract harmonic analysis. In this case, and also for groups of translations, it is possible to carry out the calculations using the rapid Fourier transform. The latter fact makes it possible to substantially reduce the number of computer operations for calculating the correlation integral, as compared with direct methods.

Tkhabisimov, D. K.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Aerodynamic Properties Analysis of Rapid Prototyped Models Versus Conventional Machined Models

Initial studies of the aerodynamic characteristics of proposed launch vehicles can be made more accurately if lower cost, high fidelity aerodynamic models are available for wind tunnel testing early in the design phase. This paper discusses the results of a study undertaken at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center to determine if four rapid prototyping methods using a variety of materials are suitable for the design and manufacturing of high speed wind tunnel models in direct testing applications. It also gives an analysis of whether these materials and processes are of sufficient strength and fidelity to withstand the testing environment. In addition to test data, costs and turn-around times for the various models are given. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that rapid prototyping models show promise in limited direct application for preliminary aerodynamic development studies at subsonic, transonic, and supersonic speeds.

Springer, A.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Study of Unsteady, Sphere-Driven, Shock-Induced Combustion for Application to Hypervelocity Airbreathing Propulsion

A premixed, shock-induced combustion engine has been proposed in the past as a viable option for operating in the Mach 10 to 15 range in a single stage to orbit vehicle. In this approach, a shock is used to initiate combustion in a premixed fuel/air mixture. Apparent advantages over a conventional scramjet engine include a shorter combustor that, in turn, results in reduced weight and heating loads. There are a number of technical challenges that must be understood and resolved for a practical system: premixing of fuel and air upstream of the combustor without premature combustion, understanding and control of instabilities of the shock-induced combustion front, ability to produce sufficient thrust, and the ability to operate over a range of Mach numbers. This study evaluated the stability of the shock-induced combustion front in a model problem of a sphere traveling in a fuel/air mixture at high Mach numbers. A new, rapid analysis method was developed and applied to study such flows. In this method the axisymmetric, body-centric Navier-Stokes equations were expanded about the stagnation streamline of a sphere using the local similarity hypothesis in order to reduce the axisymmetric equations to a quasi-1D set of equations. These reduced sets of equations were solved in the stagnation region for a number of flow conditions in a premixed, hydrogen/air mixture. Predictions from the quasi-1D analysis showed very similar stable or unstable behavior of the shock-induced combustion front as compared to experimental studies and higher-fidelity computational results. This rapid analysis tool could be used in parametric studies to investigate effects of fuel rich/lean mixtures, non-uniformity in mixing, contaminants in the mixture, and different chemistry models.

Axdahl, Erik↗
NASA NTRS1993

Analysis of rapidly developing fog at the Kennedy Space Center

Space Shuttle landings at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) are of special concern to NASA's landing community because of Florida's rapidly changing weather conditions. Since a large number of Shuttle landing attempts occur in the morning hours (just after sunrise) fog and stratus development are a problem. The deorbit burn decision for a landing at KSC is typically made 90 minutes before Shuttle touchdown. In that 90 minutes weather conditions can change very rapidly. Fog to the west of KSC an advect in and reduce visibility to less than 7 miles. The most important difference between Shuttle and normal aircraft landings is that the Shuttle has no go-around capability requiring a forecast with little room for error. To help guard against rapidly changing weather conditions, flight rules have been developed as guidelines for all landings. This paper concerns fog development that would affect less than 7-statue mile visibility rule which is in effect for End-Of-Mission (EOM) Shuttle landings at KSC (Rule 4-64(A)). Data used for this analysis included hourly surface observations at the X68 Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) and upper-air observations form the CCAFS (Cape Canaveral Air Force Station-72794) rawinsonde site for the five year period, 1986 to 1990. This investigation focused on rapidly developing fog or stratus that developed between decision time and landing.

Wheeler, Mark M.↗
NASA NTRS1994

The analysis of rapidly developing fog at the Kennedy Space Center

This report documents fog precursors and fog climatology at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Florida from 1986 to 1990. The major emphasis of this report focuses on rapidly developing fog events that would affect the less than 7-statute mile visibility rule for End-Of-Mission (EOM) Shuttle landing at KSC (Rule 4-64(A)). The Applied Meteorology Unit's (AMU's) work is to: develop a data base for study of fog associated weather conditions relating to violations of this landing constraint; develop forecast techniques or rules-of-thumb to determine whether or not current conditions are likely to result in an acceptable condition at landing; validate the forecast techniques; and transition techniques to operational use. As part of the analysis the fog events were categorized as either advection, pre-frontal or radiation. As a result of these analyses, the AMU developed a fog climatological data base, identified fog precursors and developed forecaster tools and decision trees. The fog climatological analysis indicates that during the fog season (October to April) there is a higher risk for a visibility violation at KSC during the early morning hours (0700 to 1200 UTC), while 95 percent of all fog events have dissipated by 1600 UTC. A high number of fog events are characterized by a westerly component to the surface wind at KSC (92 percent) and 83 percent of the fog events had fog develop west of KSC first (up to 2 hours). The AMU developed fog decision trees and forecaster tools that would help the forecaster identify fog precursors up to 12 hours in advance. Using the decision trees as process tools ensures the important meteorological data are not overlooked in the forecast process. With these tools and a better understanding of fog formation in the local KSC area, the Shuttle weather support forecaster should be able to give the Launch and Flight Directors a better KSC fog forecast with more confidence.

Wheeler, Mark M.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Earth zonal harmonics from rapid numerical analysis of long satellite arcs

A zonal geopotential is presented to degree 21 from evaluation of mean elements for 21 satellites including 2 of low inclination. Each satellite is represented by an arc of at least one apsidal rotation. The lengths range from 200 to 800 days. Differential correction of the initial elements in all of the arcs, together with radiation pressure and atmospheric drag coefficients, was accomplished simultaneously with the correction for the zonal harmonics. The satellite orbits and their variations are generated by numerical integration of the Lagrange equations for mean elements. Disturbances due to precession and nutation of the earth's pole, atmospheric drag, radiation pressure and luni-solar gravity are added at from 1- to 8-day intervals in the integrated orbits. The results agree well with recent solutions from other authors using different methods and different satellite sets.

Wagner, C. A.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Thermodynamic and fluid mechanic analysis of rapid pressurization in a dead-end tube

Three models have been applied to very rapid compression of oxygen in a dead-ended tube. Pressures as high as 41 MPa (6000 psi) leading to peak temperatures of 1400 K are predicted. These temperatures are well in excess of the autoignition temperature (750 K) of teflon, a frequently used material for lining hoses employed in oxygen service. These findings are in accord with experiments that have resulted in ignition and combustion of the teflon, leading to the combustion of the stainless steel braiding and catastrophic failure. The system analyzed was representative of a capped off-high-pressure oxygen line, which could be part of a larger system. Pressurization of the larger system would lead to compression in the dead-end line, and possible ignition of the teflon liner. The model consists of a large plenum containing oxygen at the desired pressure (500 to 6000 psi). The plenum is connected via a fast acting valve to a stainless steel tube 2 cm inside diameter. Opening times are on the order of 15 ms. Downstream of the valve is an orifice sized to increase filling times to around 100 ms. The total length from the valve to the dead-end is 150 cm. The distance from the valve to the orifice is 95 cm. The models describe the fluid mechanics and thermodynamics of the flow, and do not include any combustion phenomena. A purely thermodynamic model assumes filling to be complete upstream of the orifice before any gas passes through the orifice. This simplification is reasonable based on experiment and computer modeling. Results show that peak temperatures as high as 4800 K can result from recompression of the gas after expanding through the orifice. An approximate transient model without an orifice was developed assuming an isentropic compression process. An analytical solution was obtained. Results indicated that fill times can be considerably shorter than valve opening times. The third model was a finite difference, 1-D transient compressible flow model. Results from the code show the recompression effect but predict much lower peak temperatures than the thermodynamic model.

Leslie, Ian H.↗
NASA NTRS1990

A parallel-vector algorithm for rapid structural analysis on high-performance computers

A fast, accurate Choleski method for the solution of symmetric systems of linear equations is presented. This direct method is based on a variable-band storage scheme and takes advantage of column heights to reduce the number of operations in the Choleski factorization. The method employs parallel computation in the outermost DO-loop and vector computation via the 'loop unrolling' technique in the innermost DO-loop. The method avoids computations with zeros outside the column heights, and as an option, zeros inside the band. The close relationship between Choleski and Gauss elimination methods is examined. The minor changes required to convert the Choleski code to a Gauss code to solve non-positive-definite symmetric systems of equations are identified. The results for two large-scale structural analyses performed on supercomputers, demonstrate the accuracy and speed of the method.

Storaasli, Olaf O.↗