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At least 73 records · Page 4

Celestial Navigation in Cislunar Space with autoNGC

Celestial navigation (CelNav) is a source of navigation observables where images of known solar system bodies are used to locate a spacecraft, beneficial within the solar system for both cislunar and deep space missions. CelNav provides a variety of design benefits to support and enable current and new autonomous space operations- using only a camera and a processor to produce in-situ measurements for navigation. This technology reduces subscription to ground-based tracking during all phases of a mission, freeing up resources for other operational needs. This also supports secure navigation since it eliminates the need for ground contact. CelNav enables missions where the light time delay between Earth and the spacecraft is too long (or the Earth to spacecraft line of sight is obscured) to support critical operations. It also enables smaller mission classes, where Deep Space Network (DSN)time is cost prohibitive, to reduce its cost by focusing primarily on data downlink. Finally, it enables the NASA Artemis program and other cislunar human space flight by providing redundant navigation to traditional radiometric tracking. In this presentation, we discuss the implementation of a CelNav app in autonomous Navigation, Guidance, and Control (autoNGC), a comprehensive flight software suite for onboard autonomy that is built on the core Flight System (cFS). The presentation also summarizes the results of flight software-in-the-loop (SIL) and processor-in-the-loop (PIL) demonstrations. Both are high-fidelity simulations with the use of a camera emulator hosted on a GPU server that simulates images that would be captured by the camera. The CelNav app leverages the use of cGIANT (cFS Goddard Image Analysis and Navigation Tool).Previously developed for the autoNGC software suite, cGIANT is an onboard autonomous image processing and optical navigation (OpNav) tool that performs limb-based OpNav and Terrain Relative Navigation. The added CelNav capability of cGIANT generates bearing measurements to multiple known celestial bodies (planets, moons, asteroids, comets, etc.) in monocular (2D) images. These observables are then fed to the Goddard Enhanced Onboard Navigation System (GEONS)navigation filter app, enabling us to navigate the spacecraft autonomously. In early 2025, the autoNGC CelNav capability is planned to be flight tested as part of the onboard autonomy experiment on the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment(CAPSTONE) spacecraft that is currently in a Lunar Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit(NRHO).

celestial navigation↗

Leveraging the 2024 Solar Eclipse to Enhance Science Learning through Citizen Science

The solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, provided a rare and compelling opportunity for educators and students to engage in hands-on citizen science. Two NASA Science Activation projects GLOBE Mission Earth (GME) and NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative (NESEC) partnered together to provide a unique professional development experience for educators interested in the eclipse. They invited educators to participate in a specialized 5-week online workshop designed to engage the educators in Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) citizen science about the eclipse. The workshop was designed to support their certification as GLOBE educators and develop their knowledge, skills, and confidence in conducting a GLOBE investigation. Over 60 educators from across the United States took part in this workshop, which focused on investigating the eclipse by collecting and analyzing atmospheric data. The GLOBE Program promotes environmental and scientific literacy by enabling participants to collect Earth science data and contribute it to a global database accessible for research. The 2024 GLOBE Eclipse workshop trained educators in specific GLOBE protocols—Clouds, Air Temperature, and Surface Temperature—using the GLOBE Eclipse tool integrated into the GLOBE Observer app. This training was supplemented with guidance on engaging students in authentic scientific research and creating research posters to present their findings. The workshop aimed to enhance educators’ skills and confidence in integrating GLOBE protocols into their teaching practices. It addressed several key areas outlined in the National Academies' report on Learning through Citizen Science, including scientific context, nature of participation, and project infrastructure. Educators learned about the atmospheric effects of solar eclipses and were trained to use scientific tools and data analysis methods relevant to their research. They also engaged in live sessions and asynchronous activities, practicing data collection and analysis with real-time feedback. Survey results from the workshop highlighted that participants were primarily motivated by the desire to better use data in their classrooms and improve their proficiency with the GLOBE Observer app. Post-workshop evaluations showed significant increases in educators' confidence regarding their ability to conduct and guide scientific research. Participants reported feeling well-prepared to use the GLOBE Observer app for data collection and were successful in integrating their eclipse observations into classroom activities. Participants also valued the opportunity to contribute to authentic science through GLOBE, which involved observing atmospheric changes such as air temperature fluctuations and cloud cover alterations during the eclipse. The success of the workshop is evident in the increased confidence and skill levels of educators, as well as the publication of research posters on the GLOBE Mission Earth Student Research webpage.This session will discuss how the GLOBE Eclipse workshop series effectively utilized the unique context of the solar eclipse to enhance science education through citizen science. By adhering to the principles outlined in the Learning through Citizen Science framework, the workshop successfully engaged educators and students in meaningful scientific practices, demonstrating the potential of citizen science to enrich science education and foster a deeper understanding of Earth systems.

Jessica Taylor↗

Auxiliary payload power system study for space processing applications payloads. Preliminary requirements study

The preliminary designs, specifications, and programmatic data for the auxiliary payload power system (APPS) are presented. The APPS concept is an independent system to be carried in the Orbiter's cargo bay having the capability of housing and supporting space processing applications (SPA) experiment payloads and augmenting Spacelab power and heat rejection capabilities as required in the performance of these experiments.

Source record↗

Improvement in birefringent filters. IV - The alternate partial polarizer filter

The design and performance of a birefringent filter with alternate partial polarizers are analyzed. The properties of several filter configurations with imperfect intermediate polarizers are examined. It is shown that such filters have significant advantages in transmission and profile shape over both the standard Lyot and the contrast element Lyot filters. These theoretical advantages are demonstrated by the measured properties of an actual filter using the alternate partial polarizer (APP) design. This filter is a four-module eight-crystal APP device which has been built using Polaroid HN-38 for the perfect polarizers and two laminated sheets of HN-55 for the partial polarizers. The measured characteristics of the filter are found to be in good agreement with theory.

Title, A. M.↗

Communications and information research: Improved space link performance via concatenated forward error correction coding

With the development of new advanced instruments for remote sensing applications, sensor data will be generated at a rate that not only requires increased onboard processing and storage capability, but imposes demands on the space to ground communication link and ground data management-communication system. Data compression and error control codes provide viable means to alleviate these demands. Two types of data compression have been studied by many researchers in the area of information theory: a lossless technique that guarantees full reconstruction of the data, and a lossy technique which generally gives higher data compaction ratio but incurs some distortion in the reconstructed data. To satisfy the many science disciplines which NASA supports, lossless data compression becomes a primary focus for the technology development. While transmitting the data obtained by any lossless data compression, it is very important to use some error-control code. For a long time, convolutional codes have been widely used in satellite telecommunications. To more efficiently transform the data obtained by the Rice algorithm, it is required to meet the a posteriori probability (APP) for each decoded bit. A relevant algorithm for this purpose has been proposed which minimizes the bit error probability in the decoding linear block and convolutional codes and meets the APP for each decoded bit. However, recent results on iterative decoding of 'Turbo codes', turn conventional wisdom on its head and suggest fundamentally new techniques. During the past several months of this research, the following approaches have been developed: (1) a new lossless data compression algorithm, which is much better than the extended Rice algorithm for various types of sensor data, (2) a new approach to determine the generalized Hamming weights of the algebraic-geometric codes defined by a large class of curves in high-dimensional spaces, (3) some efficient improved geometric Goppa codes for disk memory systems and high-speed mass memory systems, and (4) a tree based approach for data compression using dynamic programming.

Rao, T. R. N.↗

AVHRR-Based Polar Pathfinder Products: Evaluation, Enhancement, and Transition to MODIS

The AVHRR-Based Polar Pathfinder (APP) products include calibrated AVHRR channel data, surface temperatures, albedo, satellite scan and solar geometries, and a cloud mask composited into twice- per-day images, and daily averaged fields of sea ice motion, for regions poleward of 50 deg. latitude. Our goals under this grant, in general, are four-fold: 1. To quantify the APP accuracy and sources of error by comparing Pathfinder products with field measurements. 2. To determine the consistency of mean fields and trends in comparison with longer time series of available station data and forecast model output. 3. To investigate the consistency of the products between the different AVHRR instruments over the 1982-present period of the NOAA program. 4. To compare an annual cycle of the AVHRR Pathfinder products with MODIS to establish a baseline for extending Pathfinder-type products into the new ESE period. Year One tasks include intercomparisons of the Pathfinder products with field measurements, testing of algorithm assumptions, collection of field data, and further validation and possible improvement of the multi-sensor ice motion fields. Achievements for these tasks are summarized below.

Fowler, Charles↗

GOES-R: Satellite Insight

GOES-R: Satellite Insight seeks to bring awareness of the GOES-R (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite -- R Series) satellite currently in development to an audience of all ages on the emerging medium of mobile games. The iPhone app (Satellite Insight) was created for the GOES-R Program. The app describes in simple terms the types of data products that can be produced from GOES-R measurements. The game is easy to learn, yet challenging for all audiences. It includes educational content and a path to further information about GOESR, its technology, and the benefits of the data it collects. The game features action-puzzle game play in which the player must prevent an overflow of data by matching falling blocks that represent different types of GOES-R data. The game adds more different types of data blocks over time, as long as the player can prevent a data overflow condition. Points are awarded for matches, and players can compete with themselves to beat their highest score.

Fitzpatrick, Austin J.↗

Next Gen One Portal Usability Evaluation

Each exercise device on the International Space Station (ISS) has a unique, customized software system interface with unique layouts / hierarchy, and operational principles that require significant crew training. Furthermore, the software programs are not adaptable and provide no real-time feedback or motivation to enhance the exercise experience and/or prevent injuries. Additionally, the graphical user interfaces (GUI) of these systems present information through multiple layers resulting in difficulty navigating to the desired screens and functions. These limitations of current exercise device GUI's lead to increased crew time spent on initiating, loading, performing exercises, logging data and exiting the system. To address these limitations a Next Generation One Portal (NextGen One Portal) Crew Countermeasure System (CMS) was developed, which utilizes the latest industry guidelines in GUI designs to provide an intuitive ease of use approach (i.e., 80% of the functionality gained within 5-10 minutes of initial use without/limited formal training required). This is accomplished by providing a consistent interface using common software to reduce crew training, increase efficiency & user satisfaction while also reducing development & maintenance costs. Results from the usability evaluations showed the NextGen One Portal UI having greater efficiency, learnability, memorability, usability and overall user experience than the current Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) UI used by astronauts on ISS. Specifically, the design of the One-Portal UI as an app interface similar to those found on the Apple and Google's App Store, assisted many of the participants in grasping the concepts of the interface with minimum training. Although the NextGen One-Portal UI was shown to be an overall better interface, observations by the test facilitators noted specific exercise tasks appeared to have a significant impact on the NextGen One-Portal UI efficiency. Future updates to the NextGen One Portal UI will address these inefficiencies.

Cross, E. V., III↗

Leveraging Technology in Invasive Species Mapping

Kenya has had several invasions of alien species that have had negative impacts on biodiversity, agriculture and human development. For instance, prickly pear out-competes native plants, precludes grazing and browsing near it, and inhibits the proliferation of indigenous species. The Northern Kenya Rangelands in the recent decades has experienced increased infestation by invasive plant species shrinking forage space available for both livestock and wildlife. An Invasive Species App has been co-developed and is currently being used in tracking locations and sightings of invasive species of trees or shrubs and the extensiveness of their effects. The App is customized to include any list of local invasive plants present in an area, take photos of the invasive species and is also able to work offline in cases of no internet connection in the remote areas.

remote sensing↗

New Capabilities, Products and Usage of NASA Earth Imagery for Near Real Time Applications

NASA's Worldview and Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) have provided near real time (NRT) imagery to the public since 2011 and continue to add new capabilities and products. As a web map app for GIBS, Worldview (https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov) has recently added new features to support NRT applications such as a "before" and "after" comparison capability and support for geostationary imagery. As an open set of standards-based web map services, GIBS (https://earthdata.nasa.gov/gibs) has added several new NRT imagery products and will soon add new capabilities for better integration with Geographic Information System (GIS) clients. One of NASA's original NRT imagery systems and a long-running workhorse, Rapid Response, has been retired and replaced with a modern, mobile-friendly, and low-bandwidth app dubbed Worldview Snapshots (https://wvs.earthdata.nasa.gov). Finally, this presentation will demonstrate recent usage of these tools and services by those in the NRT community.

Boller, R.↗

Evaluating the Suitability of Commercial Clouds for NASA's High Performance Computing Applications: A Trade Study

NASA’s High-End Computing Capability (HECC) Project is periodically asked if it could be more cost effective through the use of commercial cloud resources. To answer the question, HECC’s Application Performance and Productivity (APP) team undertook a performance and cost evaluation comparing three domains: two commercial cloud providers, Amazon and Penguin, and HECC’s in-house resources—the Pleiades and Electra systems. In the study, the APP team used a combination of the NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NPB) and six full applications from NASA’s workload on Pleiades and Electra to compare performance of nodes based on three different generations of Intel Xeon processors—Haswell, Broadwell, and Skylake. Because of export control limitations, the most heavily used applications on Pleiades and Electra could not be used in the cloud; therefore, only one of the applications, OpenFOAM, represents work from the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate and the Human and Exploration Mission Directorate. The other five applications are from the Science Mission Directorate.

High Performance↗

NASA KSC Intern Final Report - Virtual Reality in STEM Engagement

For this internship, I was a part of the multi-center NextGen STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) pilot. Specifically, I worked with the Developing Commercial Crew Program (CCP) Capabilities team that focuses on human spaceflight to the space station with NASA’s commercial partners. Composed of NASA employees and contractors (who are connected to KSC, JSC, and LaRC), they work to ensure that students will experience traditional classroom content and be immersed in emerging technologies in order to explore Commercial Crew missions and launch facilities. This group is in the process of creating educational products and resources to inspire the next generation to pursue STEM and to allow educators to have access to unique and enticing STEM activities. These products include: age-appropriate classroom lessons (including activity sheets and challenges) for kindergarten through twelfth grade; a CCP app and corresponding guide; learning experiences for students as well as educators; and virtual field trips and tours using NASA-created Virtual Reality (VR) videos and a custom VR app. My particular assignment was managing the VR equipment, developing an understanding of how to maximize the use of the equipment, creating documents that explain and convey the operations and procedures concerning the equipment (including lessons learned from equipment use), and training others to utilize the equipment effectively and correctly for conference events and group demonstrations. Over the course of this internship, I helped my team outline and learn essential procedures of operation for the VR equipment, solved technology problems that arose (due to the nature of creating unique products), and encouraged audiences at KSC and various conferences to consider using the CCP VR videos in their classrooms as an opportunity to engage and challenge the next generation to pursue STEM careers.

STEM↗

Autonomy Operating System for UAVs: Pilot-in-a-Box

The Autonomy Operating System (AOS) is an open flight software platform with Artificial Intelligence for smart UAVs. It is built to be extendable with new apps, similar to smartphones, to enable an expanding set of missions and capabilities. AOS has as its foundations NASAs core flight executive and core flight software (cFEcFS). Pilot-in-a-Box (PIB) is an expanding collection of interacting AOS apps that provide the knowledge and intelligence onboard a UAV to safely and autonomously fly in the National Air Space, eventually without a remote human ground crew. Longer-term, the goal of PIB is to provide the capability for pilotless air vehicles such as air taxis that will be key for new transportation concepts such as mobility-on-demand. PIB provides the procedural knowledge, situational awareness, and anticipatory planning (thinking ahead of the plane) that comprises pilot competencies. These competencies together with a natural language interface will enable Pilot-in-a-Box to dialogue directly with Air Traffic Management from takeoff through landing. This paper describes the overall AOS architecture, Artificial Intelligence reasoning engines, Pilot-in-a-box competencies, and selected experimental flight tests to date.

Lowry, Michael↗

Abrstract - OnePlace Redesign Spring 2020 Internship

The project I worked on was the OnePlace Redesign. In that, I converted the OnePlace home page to the Service Portal to match NASA OnePlace’s current application design standards, I was able to allow users to easily find applications in OnePlace and I was able to allow users to easily find and request OnePlace services (new app development, new knowledge base, etc.). It was a major accomplishment to be able to remodel a website that soon the entire Langley center that uses OnePlace will use. The website was made through ServiceNow’s Service Portal, and I organized the applications like never before, allowed a clear styling to applications a user does not have access to and/or are new applications, browsing of applications with clear button divisions, and allowing for different options depending if app is accessible or not, with proper error checking in place and very-well documented code. It was amazing to incorporate all this logic into one widget so that whoever wants to utilize this feature has no trouble at all to do so. The 3 most important things I learned were being able to do this work within ServiceNow, as it is such an important enterprise platform for CRM and boosting the connected workforce of NASA, incorporate built-in APIs from ServiceNow Glide Records to connect Server Scripts to Client Scripts and HTML, and be able to use agile to get another experience of managing work capacity with stories, and having proper communication with the team if every feature is done correctly and steps for continuing forward. The part that I enjoyed the most was the training I did for ServiceNow and I freedom I had to experiment to see how to structure the Service Portal. I was not tied down, and I believe this allowed for a better outcome of the product. As part of the internship, I created a very in-depth design document with the help of my team to document the project goals before it was started and technical documentation (including the design document) summarizing the final result of the product in terms of the new features added and the explanation of the logic thoroughly so that anyone can understand the project easily. The technical documentation will be published as a Knowledge Article within OnePlace Knowledge Base documentation.

Ariel Wald↗

Bhutan Water Resources III: Analyzing Forest Disturbances and Climate Data in Bhutan to Create a Tool for Assisting the Himalayan Environment Rhythm Observation and Evaluation Systems (HEROES) Project

Forest disturbances from bark beetle outbreaks are a major concern in Bhutan, known to cause extensive tree mortality to pine and spruce forests. The NASA DEVELOP team partnered with the Ugyen Wangchuck Institute of Conservation and Environmental Research (UWICER), the Bhutan Foundation, and the Karuna Foundation to assess forest changes for the districts of Bumthang and Haa from 2000 to 2018. The project used preprocessed meteorological data from the Climate Hazards Center Infrared Precipitation with Station (CHIRPS) and Famine Early Warning System Network Land Data Assimilation System (FLDAS), along with Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM), Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+), and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) to assess apparent forest disturbance occurrences and observed climate trends. Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) was used to resolve variations in elevation and slope for mountainous regions. Using the Google Earth Engine LandTrendr (LT) code algorithm, along with Landsat data, the team developed an app called Forest Disturbances Detection Toolbox (FDDT) to assess forest changes in Bhutan. The app includes climate variables for the focus districts, along with LT variables, which allows the end users to further examine the cause of disturbances. The team compared geocoordinates for known disturbances with LT disturbance detection products. Although additional work is needed in the future to validate the project end products from the FDDT, the tool will be provided to the project partners to aid forest management efforts in Bhutan.

Tashi Choden↗

Adventures in cFS Unit Testing: Examining the Past to Explain the Present with an Eye toward the Future

An overview of my experiences writing unit tests for various projects with a specific focus on my work unit testing core Flight System (cFS) applications. I recount some of the direct personal experiences I have had that showed me the utility of having done unit testing for my projects. Many of the tips, tricks and pitfalls encountered during my time writing unit tests for the cFS app, CF, are examined. I also compare and contrast my cFS unit testing development with that of a parallel project, in which I write unit tests using RSpec, a testing framework for the Ruby programming language. I impart my complete methodology behind the CF app unit testing effort and the rationale for why I did it that way. Then I give some ideas for how you can do your own unit testing for cFS applications. You will also learn about my hopes for how unit testing cFS applications can be done going forward from where we are now.

"unit testing"↗

Lower Mekong Hydrological Decision Support system

The Lower Mekong Hydrological Decision Support system (LMHDSs) is a environmental data analysis tool developed at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center with funding from the SERVIR Applied Sciences Team and technical support from SERVIR Science Coordination Office (SCO). The web application allows stakeholders and decision-makers to view and download the inputs and outputs to the Soil and Water Assessment Tool(SWAT) model temporally and spatially. The front end is developed using JavaScript libraries like OpenLayers and Stock charts and the backend uses Django, a Python-based web framework. The web app provides several features, including visualizing map products, time-series plots, land-use/land-cover and associated soil information, and a data cart for downloading data. In addition, LMHDSs incorporates the NASAaccess software package, which provides seamless access to various climate and weather data products from NASA’s Earth observations portfolio. The application is region agnostic (any valid SWAT model can be used), modular (different components of the applications can be customized), and open (anyone can download and run it on their end). The web app is currently in use by the Mekong River Commission (MRC), a treaty-based regional intergovernmental organization that is made up of Mekong countries, as part of its hydrological decision support.

Hydrology↗

RApid Blade and Blade-Vortex InTeraction (RABBIT) GUI implementation via MATLAB Application Designer

Rotorcraft noise source identification and reduction is crucial to the emergence of the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) market. One key rotor noise source is Blade Vortex Interaction (BVI), caused by the rotor wake interacting with the rotor blades. The low-fidelity RApid Blade and Blade-Vortex InTeraction (RABBIT) tool was created to predict the location and characteristics of Blade-Vortex Interaction (BVI) noise. RABBIT enables engineers to quickly locate and understand designs or configurations that cause significant BVI noise. Furthermore, RABBIT can identify the time and location of blade overlap for coaxial rotors. RABBIT is not a general acoustic prediction tool, but instead utilizes vortex and wake parameters to visualize and predict only BVI noise. To date, RABBIT has been validated against CAMRAD II and ANOPP2/AARON for three NASA Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology (RVLT) concept vehicles: the Quiet Single Main Rotor (QSMR), Side-by-Side, and Quadrotor. RABBIT has been shown to be a useful BVI prediction tool capable of visualizing BVI as a function of various parameters. Impulse factor and time rate of change of loading allows for a unique BVI prediction technique that provides information on impulse strength, location, and frequency. This presentation will highlight how MATLAB’s App Designer was utilized to enable users to navigate RABBIT easily and efficiently without prior experience with MATLAB or rotorcraft acoustics. RABBIT users can build and view rotors in real time with options to control blade chord, radius, phasing, and airfoil geometry. Furthermore, multiple rotors can be combined to create state-of-the-art multi-rotor vehicles or fleets. Editable tables, sliding bars, and push buttons were implemented within MATLAB’s App Designer for RABBIT’s GUI to allow engineers and designers to predict low order acoustic impact of BVI occurrences.

Natasha Lydia Schatzman↗