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An Overview of Future NASA Missions, Concepts, and Technologies Related to Imaging of the World's Land Areas

In the near term NASA is entering into the peak activity period of the Earth Observing System (EOS). The EOS AM-1 /"Terra" spacecraft is nearing launch and operation to be followed soon by the New Millennium Program (NMP) Earth Observing (EO-1) mission. Other missions related to land imaging and studies include EOS PM-1 mission, the Earth System Sciences Program (ESSP) Vegetation Canopy Lidar (VCL) mission, the EOS/IceSat mission. These missions involve clear advances in technologies and observational capability including improvements in multispectral imaging and other observing strategies, for example, "formation flying". Plans are underway to define the next era of EOS missions, commonly called "EOS Follow-on" or EOS II. The programmatic planning includes concepts that represent advances over the present Landsat-7 mission that concomitantly recognize the advances being made in land imaging within the private sector. The National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite Series (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) is an effort that will help to transition EOS medium resolution (herein meaning spatial resolutions near 500 meters), multispectral measurement capabilities such as represented by the EOS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) into the NPOESS operational series of satellites. Developments in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and passive microwave land observing capabilities are also proceeding. Beyond these efforts the Earth Science Enterprise Technology Strategy is embarking efforts to advance technologies in several basic areas: instruments, flight systems and operational capability, and information systems. In the case of instruments architectures will be examined that offer significant reductions in mass, volume, power and observational flexibility. For flight systems and operational capability, formation flying including calibration and data fusion, systems operation autonomy, and mechanical and electronic innovations that can reduce spacecraft and subsystem resource requirements. The efforts in information systems will include better approaches for linking multiple data sets, extracting and visualizing information, and improvements in collecting, compressing, transmitting, processing, distributing and archiving data from multiple platforms. Overall concepts such as sensor webs, constellations of observing systems, and rapid and tailored data availability and delivery to multiple users comprise and notions Earth Science Vision for the future.

Salomonson, Vincent V.↗

An Expert System for Autonomous Spacecraft Control

The Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment (ASE), part of the New Millennium Space Technology 6 Project, is flying onboard the Earth Orbiter 1 (EO-1) mission. The ASE software enables EO-1 to autonomously detect and respond to science events such as: volcanic activity, flooding, and water freeze/thaw. ASE uses classification algorithms to analyze imagery onboard to detect chang-e and science events. Detection of these events is then used to trigger follow-up imagery. Onboard mission planning software then develops a response plan that accounts for target visibility and operations constraints. This plan is then executed using a task execution system that can deal with run-time anomalies. In this paper we describe the autonomy flight software and how it enables a new paradigm of autonomous science and mission operations. We will also describe the current experiment status and future plans.

utonomy flight software↗

Onboard Classification of Hyperspectral Data on the Earth Observing One Mission

Remote-sensed hyperspectral data represents significant challenges in downlink due to its large data volumes. This paper describes a research program designed to process hyperspectral data products onboard spacecraft to (a) reduce data downlink volumes and (b) decrease latency to provide key data products (often by enabling use of lower data rate communications systems). We describe efforts to develop onboard processing to study volcanoes, floods, and cryosphere, using the Hyperion hyperspectral imager and onboard processing for the Earth Observing One (EO-1) mission as well as preliminary work targeting the Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) mission.

cryosphere↗

Implementation of Autonomous GPS Guidance and Control for Spacecraft Formation Flying

This paper presents the general relative orbit dynamics equations and GPS (Global Positioning System) orbit observational equations that have been developed for on-board control of spacecraft flying in formation. The approach to the implementation of the autonomous control for orbit acquisition and maintenance of spacecraft formation using GPS code pseudoranges are presented. As a practical application of the models and method provided in this paper, the orbit control of the Earth-Orbiter 1(EO-1) / Landsat 7 system has been designed, using the discrete-time linear optimal output feedback control. For the actuator of the on/off type reaction jets, the implementation problem of the pulse-amplitude modulation is also studied. Simulation results of autonomous orbit control and maintenance, for 3-dimensional initial orbit error, using optimal output feedback control are shown. These simulation results certified the feasibility of the implementation of the autonomous maintenance control for EO-1/Landsat 7 formation flying by means of the discrete-time linear optimal output feedback control.

Xing, Guang Q.↗

Flying the Earth Observing Constellations

Prior to the launch of the Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra and Landsat-7 satellites in 1999, the Project Scientists for the two missions and the Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project at the Goddard Space Flight Center signed an inter-project agreement document describing their plan to fly in loose formation, approximately 20 minutes within each other. In November 2000, a technology demonstration satellite, Earth Observer-1 (EO-1), was launched into the same orbit as that of Landsat-7 and Terra, with a goal of flying within a minute from Landsat-7. The SAC-C satellite, developed and operated by the government of Argentina, was launched along with EO-1, with a goal of flying near both Terra and Landsat-7. This formation enables the scientists to make use of the scientific synergy among the instruments on the different spacecraft. This group of satellites constitutes the morning constellation, which is led by the Landsat-7, which has a mean local time (MLT) at 10:00 a.m. In May 2002, the EOS Aqua satellite was launched into an orbit with an altitude of 705 km. and a 1:30 p.m. MLT. Two smaller satellites, CALIPSO (a joint U.S./French mission), and CloudSat (a joint NASA/Colorado State University/Air Force mission), plan to fly in tight formation, within 15 seconds of each other. In addition, CALIPSO and CloudSat also plan to be within 30 to 60 seconds of the Aqua satellite. A third satellite, PARASOL, managed by the French Space Agency, CNES, will be placed within a minute of the CALIPSO satellite. In 2004, the Aura satellite will be launched and phased in relation to the Aqua satellite, such that the instruments on Aura will be able to view the same mass of air no later than 8 minutes after the instruments on Aqua have observed it. Representatives from each mission are currently documenting a plan on how they will coordinate on-orbit operations. Why are all these satellites planning to fly as a constellation? The answer is that as a constellation. the scientists will be able to acquire science data not only from their specific instruments on a single satellite, but science data from the other satellites which will have been taken at approximately the same time, thus resulting in coordinated science observation data. This leads to better quality science. This paper describes how the mission design has been driven by the science requirements. The morning and the afternoon constellations present operational challenges, which had not previously been encountered. Operations planning must address not only how the satellites of each constellation operate safely together, but also, how the two constellations fly on the same orbits without interfering with each other as they downlink data to their respective ground stations. This paper describes the operations experience gained from the morning constellation and the planning for the afternoon constellation.

Kelly, Angelita C.↗

Relative navigation for spacecraft formation flying

The Goddard Space Flight Center Guidance, Navigation, and Control Center (GNCC) is currently developing and implementing advanced satellite systems to provide autonomous control of formation flyers. The initial formation maintenance capability will be flight-demonstrated on the Earth-Orbiter-1 (EO-1) satellite, which is planned under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration New Millennium Program to be a coflight with the Landsat-7 (L-7) satellite. Formation flying imposes relative navigation accuracy requirements in addition to the orbit accuracy requirements for the individual satellites. In the case of EO-1 and L-7, the two satellites are in nearly coplanar orbits, with a small difference in the longitude of the ascending node to compensate for the Earth's rotation. The GNCC has performed trajectory error analysis for the relative navigation of the EO-1/L-7 formation, as well as for a more advanced tracking configuration using cross-link satellite communications. This paper discusses the orbit determination and prediction accuracy achievable for EO-1 and L-7 under various tracking and orbit determination scenarios and discusses the expected relative separation errors in their formation flying configuration.

Hartman, Kate R.↗

Measurement of the Earth-Observer-1 Satellite X-Band Phased Array

The recent launch and successful orbiting of the EO-1 Satellite has provided an opportunity to validate the performance of a newly developed X-Band transmit-only phased array aboard the satellite. This paper will compare results of planar near-field testing before and after spacecraft installation as well as on-orbit pattern characterization. The transmit-only array is used as a high data rate antenna for relaying scientific data from the satellite to earth stations. The antenna contains distributed solid-state amplifiers behind each antenna element that cannot be monitored except for radiation pattern measurements. A unique portable planar near-field scanner allows both radiation pattern measurements and also diagnostics of array aperture distribution before and after environmental testing over the ground-integration and prelaunch testing of the satellite. The antenna beam scanning software was confirmed from actual pattern measurements of the scanned beam positions during the spacecraft assembly testing. The scanned radiation patterns on-orbit were compared to the near-field patterns made before launch to confirm the antenna performance. The near-field measurement scanner has provided a versatile testing method for satellite high gain data-link antennas.

Perko, Kenneth↗

Proven and Robust Ground Support Systems - GSFC Success and Lessons Learned

Over the past fifteen years, Goddard Space Flight Center has developed several successful science missions in-house: the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE), the Earth Observing 1 (EO-1) [1], and the Space Technology 5 (ST-5)[2] missions, several Small Explorers, and several balloon missions. Currently in development are the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) [3] and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)[4]. What is not well known is that these missions have been supported during spacecraft and/or instrument integration and test, flight software development, and mission operations by two in house satellite Telemetry and Command (T & C) Systems, the Integrated Test and Operations System (ITOS) and the Advanced Spacecraft Integration and System Test (ASIST). The advantages of an in-house satellite Telemetry and Command system are primarily in the flexibility of management and maintenance - the developers are considered a part of the mission team, get involved early in the development process of the spacecraft and mission operations-control center, and provide on-site, on-call support that goes beyond Help Desk and simple software fixes. On the other hand, care must be taken to ensure that the system remains generic enough for cost effective re-use from one mission to the next. The software is designed such that many features are user-configurable. Where user-configurable options were impractical, features were designed so as to be easy for the development team to modify. Adding support for a new ground message header, for example, is a one-day effort because of the software framework on which that code rests. This paper will discuss the many features of the Goddard satellite Telemetry and Command systems that have contributed to the success of the missions listed above. These features include flexible user interfaces, distributed parallel commanding and telemetry decommutation, a procedure language, the interfaces and tools needed for a high degree of automation, and instantly accessible archives of spacecraft telemetry. It will discuss some of the problems overcome during development, including secure commanding over networks or the Internet, constellation support for the three satellites that comprise the ST-5 mission, and geographically distributed telemetry end users.

Pfarr, Barbara↗

Evaluation of Algorithms for Compressing Hyperspectral Data

With EO-1 Hyperion in orbit NASA is showing their continued commitment to hyperspectral imaging (HSI). As HSI sensor technology continues to mature, the ever-increasing amounts of sensor data generated will result in a need for more cost effective communication and data handling systems. Lockheed Martin, with considerable experience in spacecraft design and developing special purpose onboard processors, has teamed with Applied Signal & Image Technology (ASIT), who has an extensive heritage in HSI spectral compression and Mapping Science (MSI) for JPEG 2000 spatial compression expertise, to develop a real-time and intelligent onboard processing (OBP) system to reduce HSI sensor downlink requirements. Our goal is to reduce the downlink requirement by a factor > 100, while retaining the necessary spectral and spatial fidelity of the sensor data needed to satisfy the many science, military, and intelligence goals of these systems. Our compression algorithms leverage commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) spectral and spatial exploitation algorithms. We are currently in the process of evaluating these compression algorithms using statistical analysis and NASA scientists. We are also developing special purpose processors for executing these algorithms onboard a spacecraft.

Cook, Sid↗

Onboard Processor for Compressing HSI Data

With EO-1 Hyperion and MightySat in orbit NASA and the DoD are showing their continued commitment to hyperspectral imaging (HSI). As HSI sensor technology continues to mature, the ever-increasing amounts of sensor data generated will result in a need for more cost effective communication and data handling systems. Lockheed Martin, with considerable experience in spacecraft design and developing special purpose onboard processors, has teamed with Applied Signal & Image Technology (ASIT), who has an extensive heritage in HSI, to develop a real-time and intelligent onboard processing (OBP) system to reduce HSI sensor downlink requirements. Our goal is to reduce the downlink requirement by a factor greater than 100, while retaining the necessary spectral fidelity of the sensor data needed to satisfy the many science, military, and intelligence goals of these systems. Our initial spectral compression experiments leverage commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) spectral exploitation algorithms for segmentation, material identification and spectral compression that ASIT has developed. ASIT will also support the modification and integration of this COTS software into the OBP. Other commercially available COTS software for spatial compression will also be employed as part of the overall compression processing sequence. Over the next year elements of a high-performance reconfigurable OBP will be developed to implement proven preprocessing steps that distill the HSI data stream in both spectral and spatial dimensions. The system will intelligently reduce the volume of data that must be stored, transmitted to the ground, and processed while minimizing the loss of information.

Cook, Sid↗

Autonomous Formation Flying from Ground to Flight

The cost of on-orbit operations remains a significant and increasingly visible concern in the support of satellite missions. Headway has been made in automating some ground operations; however, increased mission complexity and more precise orbital constraints have compelled continuing human involvement in mission design and maneuver planning operations. AI Solutions, Inc. in cooperation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has tackled these more complex problems through the development of AutoCon as a tool for an automated solution. NASA is using AutoCon to automate the maneuver planning for the Earth Orbiter-1 (EO-1) mission. AutoCon was developed originally as a ground system tool. The EO-1 mission will be using a scaled version of AutoCon on-board the EO-1 satellite to command orbit adjustment maneuvers. The flight version of AutoCon plans maneuvers based on formation flying algorithms developed by GSFC, JPL, and other industry partners. In its fully autonomous mode, an AutoCon planned maneuver will be executed on-board the satellite without intervention from the ground. This paper describes how AutoCon automates maneuver planning for the formation flying constraints of the EO-1 mission. AutoCon was modified in a number of ways to automate the maneuver planning on-board the satellite. This paper describes how the interface and functionality of AutoCon were modified to support the on-board system. A significant component of this modification was the implementation of a data smoother, based on a Kalman filter, that ensures that the spacecraft states estimated by an on-board GPS receiver are as accurate as possible for maneuver planning. This paper also presents the methodology use to scale the AutoCon functionality to fit and execute on the flight hardware. This paper also presents the modes built that allow the incremental phasing in of autonomy. New technologies for autonomous operations are usually received with significant, and probably appropriate trepidation. A number of safeguards have been designed in both AutoCon and the interfacing systems to alleviate the potential of mission-impacting anomalies from the on-board autonomous system. This paper describes the error checking, input data integrity validation and limits set on maneuvers in AutoCon and the on-board system.

Chapman, Keith B.↗

Autonomous Formation Flying from the Ground to Flight

The cost of on-orbit operations remains a significant and increasingly visible concern in the support of satellite missions. Headway has been made in automating some ground operations; however, increased mission complexity and more precise orbital constraints have compelled continuing human involvement in mission design and maneuver planning operations. AI Solutions, Inc. in cooperation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has tackled these more complex problems through the development of AutoCon(TM) as a tool for an automated solution. NASA is using AutoCon(TM) to automate the maneuver planning for the Earth Orbiter-1 (EO-1) mission. AutoCon(TM) was developed originally as a ground system tool. The EO-1 mission will be using a scaled version of AutoCon(TM) on-board the EO-1 satellite to command orbit adjustment maneuvers. The flight version of AutoCon(TM) plans maneuvers based on formation flying algorithms developed by GSFC, JPL, and other industry partners. In its fully autonomous mode, an AutoCon(TM) planned maneuver will be executed on-board the satellite without intervention from the ground. This paper describes how AutoCon(TM) automates maneuver planning for the formation flying constraints of the EO-1 mission. AutoCon(TM) was modified in a number of ways to automate the maneuver planning on-board the satellite. This paper describes how the interface and functionality of AutoCon(TM) were modified to support the on-board system. A significant component of this modification was the implementation of a data smoother, based on a Kalman filter, that ensures that the spacecraft states estimated by an on-board GPS receiver are as accurate as possible for maneuver planning. This paper also presents the methodology used to scale the AutoCon(TM) functionality to fit and execute on the flight hardware. This paper also presents the modes built into the system that allow the incremental phasing in of autonomy. New technologies for autonomous operations are usually received with significant, and probably appropriate, trepidation. A number of safeguards have been designed in both AutoCon(TM) and the interfacing systems to alleviate the potential of mission-impacting anomalies from the on-board autonomous system. This paper describes the error checking, input data integrity validation, and limits set on maneuvers in AutoCon(TM) and the on-board system.

Chapman, Keith B.↗

Integration of a Decentralized Linear-Quadratic-Gaussian Control into GSFC's Universal 3-D Autonomous Formation Flying Algorithm

A decentralized control is investigated for applicability to the autonomous formation flying control algorithm developed by GSFC for the New Millenium Program Earth Observer-1 (EO-1) mission. This decentralized framework has the following characteristics: The approach is non-hierarchical, and coordination by a central supervisor is not required; Detected failures degrade the system performance gracefully; Each node in the decentralized network processes only its own measurement data, in parallel with the other nodes; Although the total computational burden over the entire network is greater than it would be for a single, centralized controller, fewer computations are required locally at each node; Requirements for data transmission between nodes are limited to only the dimension of the control vector, at the cost of maintaining a local additional data vector. The data vector compresses all past measurement history from all the nodes into a single vector of the dimension of the state; and The approach is optimal with respect to standard cost functions. The current approach is valid for linear time-invariant systems only. Similar to the GSFC formation flying algorithm, the extension to linear LQG time-varying systems requires that each node propagate its filter covariance forward (navigation) and controller Riccati matrix backward (guidance) at each time step. Extension of the GSFC algorithm to non-linear systems can also be accomplished via linearization about a reference trajectory in the standard fashion, or linearization about the current state estimate as with the extended Kalman filter. To investigate the feasibility of the decentralized integration with the GSFC algorithm, an existing centralized LQG design for a single spacecraft orbit control problem is adapted to the decentralized framework while using the GSFC algorithm's state transition matrices and framework. The existing GSFC design uses both reference trajectories of each spacecraft in formation and by appropriate choice of coordinates and simplified measurement modeling is formulated as a linear time-invariant system. Results for improvements to the GSFC algorithm and a multiple satellite formation will be addressed. The goal of this investigation is to progressively relax the assumptions that result in linear time-invariance, ultimately to the point of linearization of the non-linear dynamics about the current state estimate as in the extended Kalman filter. An assessment will then be made about the feasibility of the decentralized approach to the realistic formation flying application of the EO-1/Landsat 7 formation flying experiment.

Folta, David C.↗

LIDAR Remote Sensing Concepts

The primary goal of the NASA New Millennium Program (NMP) is to develop technology for use on future operational missions. The Program consists of two thrust areas, one oriented towards developing technologies for Deep Space Probes and one oriented towards developing technology for Earth Observing Probes. Each thrust area intends to fly several technology demonstrator spacecraft designated DS-X and EO-X respectively where X is the mission number. Each mission has an approximately $100 million cap on total mission cost. The EO-1 mission has been selected and is under development. The instrument discussed here was submitted by NASA MSFC as a potential candidate for the EO-2 or EO-3 missions due to launch in 2001 and late 2002 or early 2003 respectively. This report summarizes and follows the format of the material provided to NMP.

Spiers, Gary D.↗

Relative Navigation for Spacecraft Formation Flying

The Goddard Space Flight Center Guidance, Navigation, and Control Center (GNCC) is currently developing and implementing advanced satellite systems to provide autonomous control of formation flyers. The initial formation maintenance capability will be flight-demonstrated on the Earth-Orbiter-1 (EO-l) satellite, which is planned under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration New Millennium Program to be a coflight with the Landsat-7 (L-7) satellite. Formation flying imposes relative navigation accuracy requirements in addition to the orbit accuracy requirements for the individual satellites. In the case of EO-1 and L-7, the two satellites are in nearly coplanar orbits, with a small difference in the longitude of the ascending node to compensate for the Earth's rotation. The GNCC has performed trajectory error analysis for the relative navigation of the EO-1/L-7 formation, as well as for a more advanced tracking configuration using cross- link satellite communications. This paper discusses the orbit determination and prediction accuracy achievable for EO-1 and L-7 under various tracking and orbit determination scenarios and discusses the expected relative separation errors in their formation flying configuration.

Hartman, Kate R.↗

Overview of the Landsat-7 Mission

Landsat-7 is scheduled for launch on April 15 from the Western Test Range at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on a Delta-H expendable launch vehicle. The Landsat 7 satellite consists of a spacecraft bus being provided by Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space (Valley Forge, Pa.) and the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus instrument built by Raytheon (formerly Hughes) Santa Barbara Remote Sensing (Santa Barbara, Calif.). The instrument on board Landsat 7 is the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+). ETM+ improves upon the previous Thematic Mapper (TM) instruments on Landsat's 4 and 5 (Fig. la and lb). It includes the previous 7 spectral bands measuring reflected solar radiation and emitted thermal emissions but, in addition, includes a new 15 in panchromatic (visible-near infrared) band. The spatial resolution of the thermal infrared band has also been improved to 60 m. Both the radiometric precision and accuracy of the sensor are also improved from the previous TM sensors. After being launched into a sun-synchronous polar orbit, the satellite will use on-board propulsion to adjust its orbit to a circular altitude of 438 miles (705 kilometers) crossing the equator at approximately 10 a.m. on its southward track. This orbit will place Landsat 7 along the same ground track as previous Landsat satellites. The orbit will be maintained with periodic adjustments for the life of the mission. A three-axis attitude control subsystem will stabilize the satellite and keep the instrument pointed toward the Earth to within 0.05 degrees. Later this year, plans call for the NASA Earth Observation System (EOS) Terra (AM-1) observatory and the experimental EO-1 mission to closely follow Landsat-7's orbit to support synergistic research and applications from this new suite of terrestrial sensor systems. Landsat is the United States' oldest land-surface observation satellite system, with satellites continuously operating since 1972. Although the program has scored numerous successes in scientific and resource-management applications, Landsat has had a tumultuous history of management and funding changes over its nearly 27-year history. Landsat-7 marks a new direction in the program to reduce the cost of data and increase systematic global coverage for use in global change research as well as commercial and regional applications. With the passage of the Land Remote Sensing Policy Act in 1992, oversight of the Landsat program began to shift from the commercial sector to the federal government. NASA integrated Landsat-7 into its EOS science program in 1994. Landsat-7 is managed and operated jointly by NASA and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). As a result, the costs of acquiring observations from

Williams, Darrel↗

Bitcoin, Blockchains and Efficient Distributed Spacecraft Mission Control

Earth Observing 1 (E0-1) satellite has an imaging spectrometer (hyperspectral) instrument called Hyperion. The satellite is able to image any spot on Earth in the nadir looking direction every 16 days. With slewing of the satellite and allowing for up to a 23 degree view angle, any spot on the Earth can be imaged approximately every 2 to 3 days. EO-1 has been used to track many natural hazards such as wildfires, volcanoes and floods. An enhanced capability that is sought is the ability to image natural hazards in a daily time series for space based imaging spectrometers. The Hyperion can not provide this capability on EO-1 with the present polar orbit. However, a constellation of cubesats each powered with Intelligent Payload Modules, and each with copies of a commercial imaging spectrometer, positioned strategically in the same orbit, can be used to provide daily coverage, cost-effectively.

Blockchain in spac↗