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NASA NTRS2018

Predicting the Operational Acceptance of Airborne Flight Reroute Requests Using Data Mining

For tools that generate more efficient flight routes or reroute advisories, it is important to ensure compatibility of automation and autonomy decisions with human objectives so as to ensure acceptability by the human operators. In this paper, the authors developed a proof of concept predictor of operational acceptability for route changes during a flight. Such a capability could have applications in automation tools that identify more efficient routes around airspace impacted by weather or congestion and that better meet airline preferences. The predictor is based on applying data mining techniques, including logistic regression, a decision tree, a support vector machine, a random forest and Adaptive Boost, to historical flight plan amendment data reported during operations and field experiments. Cross validation was used for model development, while nested cross validation was used to validate the models. The model found to have the best performance in predicting air traffic controller acceptance or rejection of a route change, using the available data from Fort Worth Air Traffic Control Center and its adjacent Centers, was the random forest, with an F-score of 0.77. This result indicates that the operational acceptance of reroute requests does indeed have some level of predictability, and that, with suitable data, models can be trained to predict the operational acceptability of reroute requests. Such models may ultimately be used to inform route selection by decision support tools, contributing to the development of increasingly autonomous systems that are capable of routing aircraft with less human input than is currently the case.

Operational Acceptability↗

NASA NTRS2000

EOSDIS: Archive and Distribution Systems in the Year 2000

Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) is a long-term NASA research mission to study the processes leading to global climate change. The Earth Observing System (EOS) is a NASA campaign of satellite observatories that are a major component of ESE. The EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS) is another component of ESE that will provide the Earth science community with easy, affordable, and reliable access to Earth science data. EOSDIS is a distributed system, with major facilities at seven Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) located throughout the United States. The EOSDIS software architecture is being designed to receive, process, and archive several terabytes of science data on a daily basis. Thousands of science users and perhaps several hundred thousands of non-science users are expected to access the system. The first major set of data to be archived in the EOSDIS is from Landsat-7. Another EOS satellite, Terra, was launched on December 18, 1999. With the Terra launch, the EOSDIS will be required to support approximately one terabyte of data into and out of the archives per day. Since EOS is a multi-mission program, including the launch of more satellites and many other missions, the role of the archive systems becomes larger and more critical. In 1995, at the fourth convening of NASA Mass Storage Systems and Technologies Conference, the development plans for the EOSDIS information system and archive were described. Five years later, many changes have occurred in the effort to field an operational system. It is interesting to reflect on some of the changes driving the archive technology and system development for EOSDIS. This paper principally describes the Data Server subsystem including how the other subsystems access the archive, the nature of the data repository, and the mass-storage I/O management. The paper reviews the system architecture (both hardware and software) of the basic components of the archive. It discusses the operations concept, code development, and testing phase of the system. Finally, it describes the future plans for the archive.

Behnke, Jeanne↗

NASA NTRS2010

The Habitat Demonstration Unit Project Overview

This paper will describe an overview of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) led multi-center Habitat Demonstration Unit (HDU) Project. The HDU project is a "technology-pull" project that integrates technologies and innovations from numerous NASA centers. This project will be used to investigate and validate surface architectures, operations concepts, and requirements definition of various habitation concepts. The first habitation configuration this project will build and test is the Pressurized Excursion Module (PEM). This habitat configuration - the PEM - is based on the Constellation Architecture Scenario 12.1 concept of a vertically oriented habitat module. The HDU project will be tested as part of the 2010 Desert Research and Technologies Simulations (D-RATS) test objectives. The purpose of this project is to develop, integrate, test, and evaluate a habitat configuration in the context of the mission architectures and surface operation concepts. A multi-center approach will be leveraged to build, integrate, and test the PEM through a shared collaborative effort of multiple NASA centers. The HDU project is part of the strategic plan from the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) Directorate Integration Office (DIO) and the Lunar Surface Systems Project Office (LSSPO) to test surface elements in a surface analog environment. The 2010 analog field test will include two Lunar Electric Rovers (LER) and the PEM among other surface demonstration elements. This paper will describe the overall objectives, its various habitat configurations, strategic plan, and technology integration as it pertains to the 2010 and 2011 field analog tests. To accomplish the development of the PEM from conception in June 2009 to rollout for operations in July 2010, the HDU project team is using a set of design standards to define the interfaces between the various systems of PEM and to the payloads, such as the Geology Lab, that those systems will support. Scheduled activities such as early fit-checks and the utilization of a habitat avionics test bed prior to equipment installation into PEM are planned to facilitate the integration process.

Kennedy, Kriss J.↗

NASA NTRS1979

Low cost point focus solar concentrator, phase 1

Design concepts and plans for mass-production facilities and equipment, field installation, and maintenance were developed and used for cost analysis of a pneumatically stabilized plastic film point focus solar concentrator which has potential application in conjunction with Brayton cycle engines or supply of thermal energy. A sub-scale reflector was fabricated and optically tested by laser ray tracing to determine focal deviations of the surface slope and best focal plane. These test data were then used for comparisons with theoretical concentrator performance modeling and predictions of full-scale design performance. Results of the economic study indicate the concentrator design will have low cost when mass-produced and has cost/performance parameters that fall within current Jet Propulsion Laboratory goals.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1989

The CELSS research program - A brief review of recent activities

The history of the Controlled Ecological Life Support System program, initiated by NASA in the late 1970s to explore the use of bioregenerative methods of life support, is reviewed. The project focused on examining the process involved in converting inorganic minerals and gases into life support materials using sunlight as the primary energy source. The research, planning, and technological development required by the CELSS program and conducted at NASA field centers, at various universities, and by commercial organizations are reviewed. Research activities at universities have focused upon exploring methods of reducing the size of the system, reducing system power requirements, understanding issues that are associated with its long-term stability, and identifying new technologies that might be useful in improving its efficiency. Research activities at Ames research center have focused on the use of common duckweed as a high biomass-producing plant, which is high in protein and on waste processing.

Macelroy, R. D.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Real Time Data/Video/Voice Uplink and Downlink for Kuiper Airborne Observatory

LFS was an educational outreach adventure which brought the excitement of astronomical exploration on NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) to a nationwide audience of children, parents and children through live, interactive television, broadcast from the KAO at an altitude of 41,000 feet during an actual scientific observing mission. The project encompassed three KAO flights during the fall of 1995, including a short practice mission, a daytime observing flight between Moffett Field, California to Houston, Texas, and a nighttime mission from Houston back to Moffett Field. The University of Chicago infrared research team participated in planning the program, developing auxiliary materials including background information and lesson plans, developing software which allowed students on the ground to control the telescope and on-board cameras via the Internet from the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, and acting as on-camera correspondents to explain and answer questions about the scientific research conducted during the flights.

Harper, Doyal A.↗

NASA NTRS2007

Saharan Air and Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Suppression From a Global Modeling Perspective

During summer 2006, the NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (NAMMA) organized a field campaign in Africa called Special Observation Period (SOP-3), in which scientists in the field were involved in a number of surface network and aircraft measurements. One of the scientific goals of the campaign was to understand the nature and causes for tropical cyclogenesis originating out of African Easterly Waves (AEWs, westward propagating atmospheric disturbances sometimes associated with precursors of hurricanes), and the role that the Saharan Air Layer (SAL, a hot and dry air layer advecting large amounts of dust) can play in the formation or suppression of tropical cyclones. During the NAMMA campaign a high-resolution global model, the NASA GEOS-5, was operationally run by the NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) in support to the mission. The daily GEOS-5 forecasts were found to be very useful by decision-making scientists in the field as an aid to discriminate between developing and non-developing AEWs and plan the flight tracks. In the post-event analyses which were performed mostly by the Goddard Laboratory for Atmospheres, two events were highlighted: a non-developing AEW which appeared to have been suppressed by Saharan air, compared to a developing AEW which was the precursor of hurricane Helene. Both events were successfully predicted by the GEOS-5 during the real-time forecasts provided in support to the mission. In this work it is found that very steep moisture gradients and a strong thermal dipole, with relatively warm air in the mid-troposphere and cool air below, are associated with SAL in both the GEOS-5 forecasts and the NCEP analyses, even at -great distance- from the Sahara. The presence of these unusual thermodynamic features over the Atlantic Ocean, at several thousands of kilometers from the African coastline, is suggestive that SAL mixing is very minimal and that the model's capability of retaining the different properties of air masses during transport are important to represent effectively the role of dry air intrusions in the tropical circulation.

Reale, O.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Development and Implementation of NASA's Lead Center for Rocket Propulsion Testing

With the new millennium, NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC) continues to develop and refine its role as rocket test service provider for NASA and the Nation. As Lead Center for Rocket Propulsion Testing (LCRPT), significant progress has been made under SSC's leadership to consolidate and streamline NASA's rocket test infrastructure and make this vital capability truly world class. NASA's Rocket Propulsion Test (RPT) capability consists of 32 test positions with a replacement value in excess of $2B. It is dispersed at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), Johnson Space Center (JSC)-White Sands Test Facility (WSTF), Glenn Research Center (GRC)-Plum Brook (PB), and SSC and is sized appropriately to minimize duplication and infrastructure costs. The LCRPT also provides a single integrated point of entry into NASA's rocket test services. The RPT capability is managed through the Rocket Propulsion Test Management Board (RPTMB), chaired by SSC with representatives from each center identified above. The Board is highly active, meeting weekly, and is key to providing responsive test services for ongoing operational and developmental NASA and commercial programs including Shuttle, Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle, and 2nd and 3rd Generation Reusable Launch Vehicles. The relationship between SSC, the test provider, and the hardware developers, like MSFC, is critical to the implementation of the LCRPT. Much effort has been expended to develop and refine these relationships with SSC customers. These efforts have met with success and will continue to be a high priority to SSC for the future. To data in the exercise of its role, the LCRPT has made 22 test assignments and saved or avoided approximately $51M. The LCRPT directly manages approximately $30M annually in test infrastructure costs including facility maintenance and upgrades, direct test support, and test technology development. This annual budges supports rocket propulsion test programs which have an annual budget in excess of $150M. As the LCRPT continues to develop, customer responsiveness and lower cost test services will be major themes. In that light, SSC is embarking on major test technology development activities ensuring long range goals of safer, more responsive, and more cost effective test services are realized. The LCRPT is also focusing on the testing requirements for advanced propulsion systems. This future planning is key to defining and fielding the ability to test these new technologies in support of the hardware developers.

Dawson, Michael C.↗

NASA NTRS1977

Experimental research and design planning in the field of liquid-propellant rocket engines conducted between 1934 - 1944 by the followers of F. A. Tsander

The development of the following Liquid-Propellant Rocket Engines (LPRE) is reviewed: (1) an alcohol-oxygen single-firing LPRE for use in wingless and winged rockets, (2) a similar multifiring LPRE for use in rocket gliders, (3) a combined solid-liquid propellant rocket engine, and (4) an aircraft LPRE operating on nitric acid and kerosene.

Dushkin, L. S.↗

NASA NTRS2015

Geologic Investigations Spurred by Analog Testing at the 7504 Cone-SP Mountain Area of the San Francisco Volcanic Field

The SP Mountain area of the San Francisco Volcanic Field, AZ, has been used as an analog mission development site for NASA since 1998. This area consists of basaltic cinder cones, lava flows and maar craters that have been active since mid-Miocene, with the youngest events occurring within the last 10,000 years. The area has been used because its geologic and topographic resemblance to lunar and Martian terrains provides an ideal venue for testing hardware and science operations practices that might be employed on planetary surfaces, as well as training astronauts in field geology. Analog operations have often led to insights that spurred new scientific investigations. Most recently, an investigation of the 7504 cone was initiated due to perceptions that Apollo-style traverse plans executed during the Desert RATS 2010 mission had characterized the area incorrectly, leading to concerns that the Apollo traverse planning process was scientifically flawed. This investigation revealed a complex history of fissure eruptions of lava and cinders, cinder cone development, a cone-fill-and-spill episode, extensive rheomorphic lava flow initiation and emplacement, and cone sector collapse that led to a final lava flow. This history was not discernible on pre-RATS mission photogeology, although independent analysis of RATS 2010 data and samples develped a "75% complete solution" that validated the pre-RATS mission planning and Apollo traverse planning and execution. The study also pointed out that the development of scientific knowledge with time in a given field area is not linear, but may follow a functional form that rises steeply in the early period of an investigation but flattens out in the later period, asymptotically approaching a theoretical "complete knowledge" point that probably cannot be achieved. This implies that future human missions must be prepared to shift geographic areas of investigation regularly if significant science returns are to be forthcoming.

Eppler, Dean B.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Generating Safety-Critical PLC Code From a High-Level Application Software Specification

The benefits of automatic-application code generation are widely accepted within the software engineering community. These benefits include raised abstraction level of application programming, shorter product development time, lower maintenance costs, and increased code quality and consistency. Surprisingly, code generation concepts have not yet found wide acceptance and use in the field of programmable logic controller (PLC) software development. Software engineers at Kennedy Space Center recognized the need for PLC code generation while developing the new ground checkout and launch processing system, called the Launch Control System (LCS). Engineers developed a process and a prototype software tool that automatically translates a high-level representation or specification of application software into ladder logic that executes on a PLC. All the computer hardware in the LCS is planned to be commercial off the shelf (COTS), including industrial controllers or PLCs that are connected to the sensors and end items out in the field. Most of the software in LCS is also planned to be COTS, with only small adapter software modules that must be developed in order to interface between the various COTS software products. A domain-specific language (DSL) is a programming language designed to perform tasks and to solve problems in a particular domain, such as ground processing of launch vehicles. The LCS engineers created a DSL for developing test sequences of ground checkout and launch operations of future launch vehicle and spacecraft elements, and they are developing a tabular specification format that uses the DSL keywords and functions familiar to the ground and flight system users. The tabular specification format, or tabular spec, allows most ground and flight system users to document how the application software is intended to function and requires little or no software programming knowledge or experience. A small sample from a prototype tabular spec application is shown.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1998

Implementation Plan for the NASA Center of Excellence for Structures and Materials

This report presents the implementation plans of the Center of Excellence (COE) for Structures and Materials. The plan documented herein is the result of an Agencywide planning activity led by the Office of the Center of Excellence for Structures and Materials at Langley Research Center (LaRC). The COE Leadership Team, with a representative from each NASA Field Center, was established to assist LaRC in fulfilling the responsibilities of the COE. The Leadership Team developed the plan presented in this report.

Harris, Charles E.↗

NASA NTRS1983

Potential for monitoring soil erosion features and soil erosion modeling components from remotely sensed data

Accurate estimates of soil erosion and its effects on soil productivity are essential in agricultural decision making and planning from the field scale to the national level. Erosion models have been primarily developed for designing erosion control systems, predicting sediment yield for reservoir design, predicting sediment transport, and simulating water quality. New models proposed are more comprehensive in that the necessary components (hydrology, erosion-sedimentation, nutrient cycling, tillage, etc.) are linked in a model appropriate for studying the erosion-productivity problem. Recent developments in remote sensing systems, such as Landsat Thematic Mapper, Shuttle Imaging Radar (SIR-B), etc., can contribute significantly to the future development and operational use of these models.

Langran, K. J.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Scanning Lidar Transceiver Telescopes Using Holographic Optical Elements

Scanning enables remote measurements perpendicular to the ground track of airborne and spaceborne lidar systems, giving us three dimensional images of atmospheric backscatter or other measurable parameters. For ground based systems, scanning allows one to record a time series of data in multiple spatial dimensions. The large size and cost of scanning systems for atmospheric lidars using conventional scanning technologies is prohibitive for space based systems. By replacing the conventional reflective telescope with a holographic optical element (HOE) in the lidar, single axis conical scanning can be achieved with a mechanically simple system. Relatively inexpensive to produce, HOES can be used to satisfy a variety of scanning lidar applications. I will introduce the concept of the HOE and describe its production and use as a scanning lidar transceiver telescope. I will describe the advantages as well as the disadvantages and limitations of HOES in this application. Optical performance test results and two lidar systems currently using HOES will be described. Examples of data taken with these systems will be presented. Current and planned future developments will be described, including scanning without mechanical motion and wide field-of-view lidar imaging.

Schwemmer, Geary K.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Institutionalizing Lessons Learned

The NASA Integrated Action Team (NIAT) was formed by the NASA Administrator in March 2000. The purpose of this team was to identify the actions that NASA must take to address systemic findings reported in 4 different anomaly investigations. Team membership represented senior managers from all the field centers and NASA Headquarters. NIAT report addressed 165 findings and developed 17 action plans that are described in five themes: people and teams, technology, risk, formulation rigor, and communications. The NIAT actions present a systems solution for strengthening formulation and implementation of programs and improving the environment for their support. NIAT results included: enhancing success by avoiding failures that could have been prevented through good planning and sound practice; ensuring that prudent risks do not compromise safety; and ensuring that mission risks are objectively assessed, appropriately mitigated and consciously accepted by the program team and customers. Definitions of Faster, Better, Cheaper and Success Criteria were also developed and included as part of the NIAT report. As a result of the NIAT report, program and project management process changes were incorporated into NASA's quality system documentation, including NPG 7120.513, "NASA Program and Project Management Processes and Requirements. This paper describes the NIAT results and the resulting updates to NPG 7120.5 that keep this program and project management description a living process.

McBrayer, Robert O.↗

NASA NTRS2003

An Automated, Low Mass, Low Power Drill for Acquiring Subsurface Samples of Ground Ice for Astrobiology Studies on Earth and on Mars

As a project that is part of NASA s Astrobiology Technology & Instrument Development Program (ASTID), we are developing a low mass (approx.20kg) drill that will be operated without drilling fluids and at very low power levels (approx.60 watts electrical) to access and retrieve samples from permafrost regions of Earth and Mars. The drill, designed and built as a joint effort by NASA JSC and Baker-Hughes International, takes the form of a down-hole unit attached to a cable so that it can, in principle, be scaled easily to reach significant depths. A parallel laboratory effort is being carried out at UC Berkeley to characterize the physics of dry drilling under martian conditions of pressure, temperature and atmospheric composition. Data from the UCB and JSC laboratory experiments are being used as input to a drill simulation program which is under development to provide autonomous control of the drill. The first Arctic field test of the unit is planned for May 2004. A field expedition to Eureka on Ellesmere Island in Spring 2003 provided an introduction for several team members to the practical aspects of drilling under Arctic conditions. The field effort was organized by Wayne Pollard of McGill University and Christopher McKay of NASA ARC. A conventional science drill provided by New Zealand colleagues was used to recover ground ice cores for analysis of their microbial content and also to develop techniques using tracers to track the depth of penetration of contamination from the core surface into the interior of the samples.

Briggs, G. A.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA Earth Science Division’s Commitment to Increasing Safety in the Field

NASA's Earth Science Division (ESD) has led and supported field campaign research over many decades focused on advancing fundamental research, testing new instrument technologies, and promoting career development. ESD field campaign research is conducted over a wide range of projects that vary in size, science focus area, location, platform type, and people. ESD leadership has created a task team to address campaign physical and mental safety, with the goal of providing all participants in NASA field campaign research with an environment that promotes research, safety, inclusivity, and a positive experience. Building on resources that have been developed both within and outside NASA, we report on the task team’s accomplishments and near-term plans, including the recent establishment of a best practices document and guidelines for the development of “agreement of behaviors” document for field teams. We also describe progress in the development of an online training module for field campaign participation, the incorporation of campaign safety language in forthcoming NASA ROSES solicitations, and outreach activities. Finally, we report on recent joint interactions with the NASA Planetary Science Division’s Ethics in Fieldwork team.

Ocean-based measurements↗

NASA NTRS2017

Predicting the Operational Acceptability of Route Advisories

NASA envisions a future Air Traffic Management system that allows safe, efficient growth in global operations, enabled by increasing levels of automation and autonomy. In a safety-critical system, the introduction of increasing automation and autonomy has to be done in stages, making human-system integrated concepts critical in the foreseeable future. One example where this is relevant is for tools that generate more efficient flight routings or reroute advisories. If these routes are not operationally acceptable, they will be rejected by human operators, and the associated benefits will not be realized. Operational acceptance is therefore required to enable the increased efficiency and reduced workload benefits associated with these tools. In this paper, the authors develop a predictor of operational acceptability for reroute advisories. Such a capability has applications in tools that identify more efficient routings around weather and congestion and that better meet airline preferences. The capability is based on applying data mining techniques to flight plan amendment data reported by the Federal Aviation Administration and data on requested reroutes collected from a field trial of the NASA developed Dynamic Weather Routes tool, which advised efficient route changes to American Airlines dispatchers in 2014. 10-Fold cross validation was used for feature, model and parameter selection, while nested cross validation was used to validate the model. The model performed well in predicting controller acceptance or rejection of a route change as indicated by chosen performance metrics. Features identified as relevant to controller acceptance included the historical usage of the advised route, the location of the maneuver start point relative to the boundaries of the airspace sector containing the maneuver start (the maneuver start sector), the reroute deviation from the original flight plan, and the demand level in the maneuver start sector. A random forest with forty trees was the best performing of the five models evaluated in this paper.

route advisories↗