Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “command process”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 685 records · Page 38
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2002

STS-111 Flight Day 3 Highlights

On Flight Day 3 of STS-111, the crew of Endeavour (Kenneth Cockrell, Commander; Paul Lockhart, Pilot; Franklin Chang-Diaz, Mission Specialist; Philippe Perrin, Mission Specialist) and the Expedition 5 crew (Valery Korzun, Commander; Peggy Whitson, Flight Engineer; Sergei Treschev, Flight Engineer), begin their final approach towards the International Space Station (ISS). From cameras aboard the ISS, live video of Endeavour is shown as it approaches the station. The Orbiter is maneuvered slowly to a position for docking, and cameras from multiple angles show this process. As it is maneuvered, there are clear views of its payload bay, which includes the Leonardo MultiPurpose Logistics Module (MPLM) and the Mobile Base System (MBS), both of which will be installed on the ISS during this mission. In the final stages of the docking procedure there is close-up footage of Endeavour meeting the ISS's Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 on the Destiny Laboratory Module. Inside the ISS, the Expedition 4 crew (Yury Onufrienko, Commander; Daniel Bursch, Flight Engineer; Carl Walz, Flight Engineer), which will be replaced by the Expedition 5 crew, prepares for final docking. Crew members are shown transferring equipment from the Endeavour to the ISS, prior to a replay of the mating of the two crafts. In the replay, the hatch is shown being opened and the two newly arrived crews are greeted with excitement by Expedition 4 crewmembers. The video closes with footage of the Quest airlock used for EVA (extravehicular activity) egress, and the Canadarm 2 robotic arm.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2014

Communications Technology Assessment for the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Control and Non-Payload Communications (CNPC) Link

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Glenn Research Center (GRC) is performing communications systems research for the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project. One of the goals of the communications element is to select and test a communications technology for the UAS Control and Non-Payload Communications (CNPC) link. The GRC UAS Modeling and Simulation (M/S) Sub Team will evaluate the performance of several potential technologies for the CNPC link through detailed software simulations. In parallel, an industry partner will implement a technology in hardware to be used for flight testing. The task necessitated a technical assessment of existing Radio Frequency (RF) communications technologies to identify the best candidate systems for use as the UAS CNPC link. The assessment provides a basis for selecting the technologies for the M/S effort and the hardware radio design. The process developed for the technical assessments for the Future Communications Study1 (FCS) was used as an initial starting point for this assessment. The FCS is a joint Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Eurocontrol study on technologies for use as a future aeronautical communications link. The FCS technology assessment process methodology can be applied to the UAS CNPC link; however the findings of the FCS are not directly applicable because of different requirements between a CNPC link and a general aeronautical data link. Additional technologies were added to the potential technologies list from the State of the Art Unmanned Aircraft System Communication Assessment developed by NASA GRC2. This document investigates the state of the art of communications as related to UAS. A portion of the document examines potential communications systems for a UAS communication architecture. Like the FCS, the state of the art assessment surveyed existing communications technologies. It did not, however, perform a detailed assessment of the technology necessary to recommend a technology for the UAS CNPC link. The technical assessment process, as shown in Figure 1, consists of the following steps. First, candidate RF communications technologies are identified. An initial review of each of these technologies is then performed to determine if the technology appears to be a good candidate and requires further review. Any technology that can be shown to be inadequate at that point is removed from consideration to allow for more detailed analysis of the remaining technologies. Criteria for the detailed assessments are defined and a scoring methodology is devised. This is followed by the detailed review and scoring of each technology. The least favorable technologies are removed during the process until only the few best candidates remain.

Aircraft Command and Control↗
NASA NTRS1993

Mission Operations and Command Assurance: Flight Operations Quality Improvements

Mission Operations and Command Assurance (MO&CA) is a Total Quality Management (TQM) task on JPL projects to instill quality in flight mission operations. From a system engineering view, MO&CA facilitates communication and problem-solving among flight teams and provides continuous process improvement to reduce risk in mission operations by addressing human factors. The MO&CA task has evolved from participating as a member of the spacecraft team to an independent team reporting directly to project management and providing system level assurance. JPL flight projects have benefited significantly from MO&CA's effort to contain risk and prevent rather than rework errors. MO&CA's ability to provide direct transfer of knowledge allows new projects to benefit from previous and ongoing flight experience.

mission↗
NASA NTRS1981

Dynamics Explorer twin spacecraft under evaluation tests

The Dynamics Explorer A and B satellites designed to explore the interactive processes occuring between the magnetosphere and Earth's ionosphere, upper atmosphere, and plasmasphere are described. Effects of these interactions, satellite orbits, data collecting antennas, solar power systems, axes, configurations, and Earth based command, control and data display systems are mentioned.

Redmond, C.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Knowledge based and interactive control for the Superfluid Helium On-orbit Transfer Project

NASA's Superfluid Helium On-Orbit Transfer (SHOOT) project is a Shuttle-based experiment designed to acquire data on the properties of superfluid helium in micro-gravity. Aft Flight Deck Computer Software for the SHOOT experiment is comprised of several monitoring programs which give the astronaut crew visibility into SHOOT systems and a rule based system which will provide process control, diagnosis and error recovery for a helium transfer without ground intervention. Given present Shuttle manifests, this software will become the first expert system to be used in space. The SHOOT Command and Monitoring System (CMS) software will provide a near real time highly interactive interface for the SHOOT principal investigator to control the experiment and to analyze and display its telemetry. The CMS software is targeted for all phases of the SHOOT project: hardware development, pre-flight pad servicing, in-flight operations, and post-flight data analysis.

Castellano, Timothy P.↗
NASA NTRS1989

DEVS representation of dynamical systems - Event-based intelligent control

It is shown how systems can be advantageously represented as discrete-event models by using DEVS (discrete-event system specification), a set-theoretic formalism. Such DEVS models provide a basis for the design of event-based logic control. In this control paradigm, the controller expects to receive confirming sensor responses to its control commands within definite time windows determined by its DEVS model of the system under control. The event-based contral paradigm is applied in advanced robotic and intelligent automation, showing how classical process control can be readily interfaced with rule-based symbolic reasoning systems.

Zeigler, Bernard P.↗
NASA NTRS1991

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Robotic Processing System Program Automation Systems, volume 2

Topics related to robot operated materials processing in space (RoMPS) are presented in view graph form. Some of the areas covered include: (1) mission requirements; (2) automation management system; (3) Space Transportation System (STS) Hitchhicker Payload; (4) Spacecraft Command Language (SCL) scripts; (5) SCL software components; (6) RoMPS EasyLab Command & Variable summary for rack stations and annealer module; (7) support electronics assembly; (8) SCL uplink packet definition; (9) SC-4 EasyLab System Memory Map; (10) Servo Axis Control Logic Suppliers; and (11) annealing oven control subsystem.

Dobbs, M. E.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Preliminary Results Obtained in Integrated Safety Analysis of NASA Aviation Safety Program Technologies

This is a listing of recent unclassified RTO technical publications for January 1, 2005 through March 31, 2005 processed by the NASA Center for AeroSpace Center available on the NASA Aeronautics and Space Database. Contents include 1) Electronic Information Management; 2) Decision Support to Combined Joint Task Force and Component Commanders; 3) RTO Technical Publications : A Quarterly Listing (December 2004); 4) The Role of Humans in Intelligent and Automated Systems.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2009

Policy-Based Management Natural Language Parser

The Policy-Based Management Natural Language Parser (PBEM) is a rules-based approach to enterprise management that can be used to automate certain management tasks. This parser simplifies the management of a given endeavor by establishing policies to deal with situations that are likely to occur. Policies are operating rules that can be referred to as a means of maintaining order, security, consistency, or other ways of successfully furthering a goal or mission. PBEM provides a way of managing configuration of network elements, applications, and processes via a set of high-level rules or business policies rather than managing individual elements, thus switching the control to a higher level. This software allows unique management rules (or commands) to be specified and applied to a cross-section of the Global Information Grid (GIG). This software embodies a parser that is capable of recognizing and understanding conversational English. Because all possible dialect variants cannot be anticipated, a unique capability was developed that parses passed on conversation intent rather than the exact way the words are used. This software can increase productivity by enabling a user to converse with the system in conversational English to define network policies. PBEM can be used in both manned and unmanned science-gathering programs. Because policy statements can be domain-independent, this software can be applied equally to a wide variety of applications.

James, Mark↗
NASA NTRS2011

IONAC-Lite

The Interplanetary Overlay Net - working Protocol Accelerator (IONAC) described previously in The Inter - planetary Overlay Networking Protocol Accelerator (NPO-45584), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 32, No. 10, (October 2008) p. 106 (http://www.techbriefs.com/component/ content/article/3317) provides functions that implement the Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) bundle protocol. New missions that require high-speed downlink-only use of DTN can now be accommodated by the unidirectional IONAC-Lite to support high data rate downlink mission applications. Due to constrained energy resources, a conventional software implementation of the DTN protocol can provide only limited throughput for any given reasonable energy consumption rate. The IONAC-Lite DTN Protocol Accelerator is able to reduce this energy consumption by an order of magnitude and increase the throughput capability by two orders of magnitude. In addition, a conventional DTN implementation requires a bundle database with a considerable storage requirement. In very high downlink datarate missions such as near-Earth radar science missions, the storage space utilization needs to be maximized for science data and minimized for communications protocol-related storage needs. The IONAC-Lite DTN Protocol Accelerator is implemented in a reconfigurable hardware device to accomplish exactly what s needed for high-throughput DTN downlink-only scenarios. The following are salient features of the IONAC-Lite implementation: An implementation of the Bundle Protocol for an environment that requires a very high rate bundle egress data rate. The C&DH (command and data handling) subsystem is also expected to be very constrained so the interaction with the C&DH processor and the temporary storage are minimized. Fully pipelined design so that bundle processing database is not required. Implements a lookup table-based approach to eliminate multi-pass processing requirement imposed by the Bundle Protocol header s length field structure and the SDNV (self-delimiting numeric value) data field formatting. 8-bit parallel datapath to support high data-rate missions. Reduced resource utilization implementation for missions that do not require custody transfer features. There was no known implementation of the DTN protocol in a field programmable gate array (FPGA) device prior to the current implementation. The combination of energy and performance optimization that embodies this design makes the work novel.

Torgerson, Jordan L.↗
NASA NTRS2022

NASA's Responsible AI Plan

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an integral part of today’s process of conducting science and technology development. At NASA, AI has become an integral and important tool for researchers, engineers, data scientists, and technologists in pursuing the ground-breaking discoveries that we are known for, including the command and controlling of our spacecraft and other supporting infrastructures. Consequently, research and engineering efforts incorporating AI have permeated almost every area of our work. It is contributing to NASA’s drive toward the future, not just of space science, but for society here at home. We are dedicated to continuing the use of AI in a safe and fully transparent approach so that the public can have high confidence in the outcomes and benefits. We believe that the plan outlined here will be responsive and contribute to the call for openness across the federal government. NASA is committed to responsible use of AI in all of its activities and in all phases of development and deployment of its space and terrestrial programs missions. NASA does not deliberately focus on “AI Research” as a separate field (we have no single “AI office” or “AI program”), rather NASA uses AI to build tools for its programs. This plan, being put forward, adheres to the Responsible AI (RAI) principles set and laid down by the White House in its Presidential Executive Order 13960. Our research, engineering and technical communities have been made aware of these guidelines and we are committed to an on-going process of educating and monitoring its implementation to ensure adherence to those principles. The vast majority of NASA’s use cases, which number almost 75 today, are geared toward analyzing the petabytes of data that NASA collects from its fleet of spacecraft across all disciplines, in human space exploration, and in aeronautics, etc.

Artificial Intelligence↗
NASA NTRS1986

The mission configuration process for the Spartan attitude control system

The Spartan attitude control system (ACS) control electronics assembly cold plate has a standard connector interface to the rest of the Spartan payload and ground equipment. The connectors carry gyro signals, optical sensor signals, the experiment interface, the gas command decoder interface, and a pneumatics interface. Different flights can employ different optical sensor complements; the ACS engineer must accordingly connect the sensor error signals to the proper pins and connectors on the ACS electronics.

Stone, R. W.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (ISIS): Design of the Energetic Particle Investigation

The Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (ISIS) is a complete science investigation on the Solar Probe Plus (SPP) mission, which flies to within nine solar radii of the Sun's surface. ISIS comprises a two-instrument suite to measure energetic particles over a very broad energy range, as well as coordinated management, science operations, data processing, and scientific analysis. Together, ISIS observations allow us to explore the mechanisms of energetic particles dynamics, including their: (1) Origins-defining the seed populations and physical conditions necessary for energetic particle acceleration; (2) Acceleration-determining the roles of shocks, reconnection, waves, and turbulence in accelerating energetic particles; and (3) Transport-revealing how energetic particles propagate from the corona out into the heliosphere. The two ISIS Energetic Particle Instruments measure lower (EPI-Lo) and higher (EPI-Hi) energy particles. EPI-Lo measures ions and ion composition from approx. 20 keV/nucleon-15 MeV total energy and electrons from approx.25-1000 keV. EPI-Hi measures ions from approx. 1-200 MeV/nucleon and electrons from approx. 0.5-6 MeV. EPI-Lo comprises 80 tiny apertures with fields-of-view (FOVs) that sample over nearly a complete hemisphere, while EPI-Hi combines three telescopes that together provide five large-FOV apertures. ISIS observes continuously inside of 0.25 AU with a high data collection rate and burst data (EPI-Lo) coordinated with the rest of the SPP payload; outside of 0.25 AU, ISIS runs in low-rate science mode whenever feasible to capture as complete a record as possible of the solar energetic particle environment and provide calibration and continuity for measurements closer in to the Sun. The ISIS Science Operations Center plans and executes commanding, receives and analyzes all ISIS data, and coordinates science observations and analyses with the rest of the SPP science investigations. Together, ISIS' unique observations on SPP will enable the discovery, untangling, and understanding of the important physical processes that govern energetic particles in the innermost regions of our heliosphere, for the first time. This paper summarizes the ISIS investigation at the time of the SPP mission Preliminary Design Review in January 2014.

Coronal Mass Ejections↗
NASA NTRS2008

Re-Engineering the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Satellite Utilizing Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Mission Services Center (GMSEC) Middleware Based Technology to Enable Lights Out Operations and Autonomous Re-Dump of Lost Telemetry Data

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) spacecraft was launched in November of 1996 in order to obtain unique three dimensional radar cross sectional observations of cloud structures with particular interest in hurricanes. The TRMM mission life was recently extended with current estimates that operations will continue through the 2012-2013 timeframe. Faced with this extended mission profile, the project has embarked on a technology refresh and re-engineering effort. TRMM has recently implemented a re-engineering effort to expand a middleware based messaging architecture to enable fully redundant lights-out of flight operations activities. The middleware approach is based on the Goddard Mission Services Evolution Center (GMSEC) architecture, tools and associated open-source Applications Programming Interface (API). Middleware based messaging systems are useful in spacecraft operations and automation systems because private node based knowledge (such as that within a telemetry and command system) can be broadcast on the middleware messaging bus and hence enable collaborative decisions to be made by multiple subsystems. In this fashion, private data is made public and distributed within the local area network and multiple nodes can remain synchronized with other nodes. This concept is useful in a fully redundant architecture whereby one node is monitoring the processing of the 'prime' node so that in the event of a failure the backup node can assume operations of the prime, without loss of state knowledge. This paper will review and present the experiences, architecture, approach and lessons learned of the TRMM re-engineering effort centered on the GMSEC middleware architecture and tool suite. Relevant information will be presented that relates to the dual redundant parallel nature of the Telemetry and Command (T and C) and Front-End systems and how these systems can interact over a middleware bus to achieve autonomous operations including autonomous commanding to recover missing science data during the same spacecraft contact.

Marius, Julio L.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Magellan spacecraft and memory state tracking: Lessons learned, future thoughts

Numerous studies have been dedicated to improving the two main elements of Spacecraft Mission Operations: Command and Telemetry. As a result, not much attention has been given to other tasks that can become tedious, repetitive, and error prone. One such task is Spacecraft and Memory State Tracking, the process by which the status of critical spacecraft components, parameters, and the contents of on-board memory are managed on the ground to maintain knowledge of spacecraft and memory states for future testing, anomaly investigation, and on-board memory reconstruction. The task of Spacecraft and Memory State Tracking has traditionally been a manual task allocated to Mission Operations Procedures. During nominal Mission Operations this job is tedious and error prone. Because the task is not complex and can be accomplished manually, the worth of a sophisticated software tool is often questioned. However, in the event of an anomaly which alters spacecraft components autonomously or a memory anomaly such as a corrupt memory or flight software error, an accurate ground image that can be reconstructed quickly is a priceless commodity. This study explores the process of Spacecraft and Memory State Tracking used by the Magellan Spacecraft Team highlighting its strengths as well as identifying lessons learned during the primary and extended missions, two memory anomalies, and other hardships encountered due to incomplete knowledge of spacecraft states. Ideas for future state tracking tools that require minimal user interaction and are integrated into the Ground Data System will also be discussed.

Bucher, Allen W.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Partially Decentralized Control Architectures for Satellite Formations

In a partially decentralized control architecture, more than one but less than all nodes have supervisory capability. This paper describes an approach to choosing the number of supervisors in such au architecture, based on a reliability vs. cost trade. It also considers the implications of these results for the design of navigation systems for satellite formations that could be controlled with a partially decentralized architecture. Using an assumed cost model, analytic and simulation-based results indicate that it may be cheaper to achieve a given overall system reliability with a partially decentralized architecture containing only a few supervisors, than with either fully decentralized or purely centralized architectures. Nominally, the subset of supervisors may act as centralized estimation and control nodes for corresponding subsets of the remaining subordinate nodes, and act as decentralized estimation and control peers with respect to each other. However, in the context of partially decentralized satellite formation control, the absolute positions and velocities of each spacecraft are unique, so that correlations which make estimates using only local information suboptimal only occur through common biases and process noise. Covariance and monte-carlo analysis of a simplified system show that this lack of correlation may allow simplification of the local estimators while preserving the global optimality of the maneuvers commanded by the supervisors.

Carpenter, J. Russell↗
NASA NTRS2021

Concept of Operations for OSIRIS-REx Optical Navigation Image Planning

Optical navigation (OpNav) is a critical subsystem of the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, which operated in the vicinity of near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu from August 2018 through April 2021. A substantial amount of mission resources across multiple subsystems and institutions is required to ensure that the OpNav data are successfully acquired. The KinetX OpNav team, part of the Flight Dynamics System (FDS), is responsible for performing required analysis to develop the OpNav operations plans; requesting, reviewing and verifying the plans; and ultimately using the image data for critical navigation operations. The FDS team, responsible for the mission navigation, is operated by KinetX Aerospace with management and operations support from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The Science Processing and Operations Center (SPOC), located at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, is responsible for generating the planning products for all science and most OpNav data. These plans are integrated into the spacecraft sequences, tested, and commanded by the Mission Support Area (MSA) at Lockheed Martin Space. To ensure mission-critical navigation image data are successfully acquired, the plan is developed through a waterfall of planning cycles over the course of 3 months prior to onboard plan execution. During the initial strategic planning for a mission phase, detailed analysis is performed by the OpNav team to conceptualize the concept of operations (ConOps) for image data collection. This phase OpNav Narrative is included along with other strategic planning documents for the key ground segment stakeholders to review and provide feedback. The detailed OpNav plans get defined in the tactical planning cycle, which spans 8 to 3 weeks before the week-long integrated sequence is executed on-board the spacecraft. During the tactical cycle, the initial OpNav Request is submitted along with the science requests, kicking off development of the science and OpNav plans. Once the initial plan is drafted, interfaces are exercised so that the plan can be reviewed and iterated, if necessary. A rigorous schedule is followed by the planning teams during the implementation cycle, spanning the last 18 days before uplink, to ensure all the necessary integration, testing, and reviewing can occur on time. The development of the OpNav planning ConOps, including responsibilities, interfaces, timelines, and procedures, took extensive collaboration across mission elements and institutions. The process was robust throughout the 137 weeks of continuous Optical Navigation Operations at Bennu, which concluded on April 9th, 2021.

Coralie D. Adam↗
NASA NTRS1972

Roles of the ground and flight crew in Apollo operations.

The functions performed by ground personnel and flight crews of Apollo missions are reviewed, covering vehicle systems operation and management, Saturn launch vehicle, command-service and lunar modules, lunar rover, communication relay unit and ground-commanded TV assembly. Details of the flight path, scientific experiments, photographic equipment and crew health monitoring are also discussed in terms of these functions. The coordinated combination of large numbers of experts and data processing equipment on the ground with the crew's capabilities to operate the spacecraft and exercise on-the-spot judgements is viewed as the backbone of the successful fulfillment of Apollo missions.

Wolfer, B. M.↗