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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.

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At least 775 records · Page 43

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 11: The Voice of the User: How US Aerospace Engineers and Scientists View DoD Technical Reports

The project examines how the results of NASA/DOD research diffuse into the aerospace R&D process, and empirically analyzes the implications of the aerospace knowledge diffusion process. Specific issues considered are the roles played by government technical reports, the recognition of the value of scientific and technical information (STI), and the optimization of the STI aerospace transfer system. Information-seeking habits are assessed for the U.S. aerospace community, the general community, the academic sector, and the international community. U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists use 65 percent of working time to communicate STI, and prefer 'internal' STI over 'external' STI. The isolation from 'external' information is found to be detrimental to U.S. aerospace R&D in general.

Pinelli, Thomas E.↗

Situation management in the Link Monitor and Control Operator Assistant (LMCOA)

This paper describes a knowledge-based system called the Situation Manager that was developed for the Link Monitor and Control Operator Assistant (LMCOA) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This system was developed in response to a number of deficiencies that were identified in an earlier version of the LMCOA: the need to close the control loop between sending a directive and knowing when its execution is complete (versus just closing the communications loop), the need to recognize an anomaly and alert the operator when a directive is rejected or a link device fails, and the need to suggest ways to work around an anomaly, provided that it is recognizable. In response to these needs, the Situation Manager has been designed to provide the LMCOA with three basic capabilities: situation assessment, anomaly diagnosis, and recovery from commonly occurring problems.

Hill, Randall W., Jr.↗

NASA Educational Product Development and Post-Secondary Program Assessment Planning

Producing "value-added students" involves proactively addressing how successfully students develop their skills, knowledge, and personal, social, and ethical growth due to their association with a program. NASA programs for higher education can certainly be responsive in aiding the academic community strive for quality in terms of "valueadded" students. By identifying essential characteristics of exemplary assessment practices, the standards developed by accrediting agencies serve as guides for developing quality practices and policies. Such a process is an effective tool for communicating the expectations of the educational components of a program to all concerned with the program and its expected results. When standards are connected to student performance, they provide a very compelling argument for refocusing the definition of quality in higher education. By linking standards and performance, student learning and development becomes the starting point for examining program quality. If the multiple stakeholders - faculty, peers, the professional community, addressed assessment issues, then accreditation can be a link among various constituencies, the parties can better understand the needs of each other and develop the necessary trust needed for understanding and support.

Salmons, Phyllis A.↗

Resilient Hierarchical Networked Control Systems: Secure Controls for Critical Locations and at Edge

Integration of information and communication technology (ICT) offers new opportunities in improving the management and operation of critical infrastructures such as power systems as it allows connection of different sensors and control components via a communication network, leading to the so-called networked control systems (NCS). However, the use of open and pervasive ICT such as the Internet or wireless communication technologies comes at a price of making NCS vulnerable to cyber intrusions/attacks which may cause physical damage. Here, this chapter presents control algorithms to ensure resilient and safe operation of NCS under unknown cyberattacks. Specifically, a variant of dynamic watermarking strategies is presented by embedding encoding/decoding components of chaotic signals into the NCS for secure control for critical locations where the measurement/control signals are transmitted to/from the control center via a communication network. In addition, resilient cooperative control algorithms are discussed to ensure safe operation at edge of the NCS which consists of a large number of distributed controllable devices. Several numerical examples are provided to illustrate the proposed control strategies.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

Education Highlights: Developing People and Communicating Science

In teaching students all about science and what makes it so fun, we’re learning new things, too! Argonne's Educational Programs and Outreach encourages student and public interactions with professional scientists, engineers, and researchers at Argonne to foster mutual understanding and appreciation of each other, enabling new perspectives on how to better communicate our ideas with the world. We have a creative and passionate staff who’s always ready to strengthen learning in new directions, so come and discover more about us and our work! https://www.anl.gov/education/stem-outreach

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

Guest Editorial: Advanced Data-Analytics for Power System Operation, Control, and Enhanced Situational Awareness

Along with the smart grid development, modern power systems are entering a ‘data-intensive’ era. A vast volume of data from power grids is being collected through advanced sensing and communication technologies, such as smart metering data, phasor measurement data, as well as meteorological data (e.g., wind speed and solar irradiance) related to renewable power generation. Such data contains comprehensive information about the power system covering equipment's health status, power grid's static and dynamic characteristics, renewable power generation, customers’ electricity usage pattern, etc. Therefore, advanced data-analytics techniques are needed to convert such data to knowledge for practical applications. In line with the trend of widespread data-driven applications in power systems, this Special Issue aims to present state-of-the-art research works on advanced data-analytics for power system's operation, control, and situational awareness. There are in total twenty-six papers accepted for publication in this Special Issue through careful peer reviews and revisions. Under the overarching theme of data-driven applications in power systems, the selected papers are broadly categorised into five topics. The summary of every topic is given below. You are, however, strongly encouraged to read the full paper if interested.

Xu, Yan↗

Intelligent systems technology infrastructure for integrated systems

Significant advances have occurred during the last decade in intelligent systems technologies (a.k.a. knowledge-based systems, KBS) including research, feasibility demonstrations, and technology implementations in operational environments. Evaluation and simulation data obtained to date in real-time operational environments suggest that cost-effective utilization of intelligent systems technologies can be realized for Automated Rendezvous and Capture applications. The successful implementation of these technologies involve a complex system infrastructure integrating the requirements of transportation, vehicle checkout and health management, and communication systems without compromise to systems reliability and performance. The resources that must be invoked to accomplish these tasks include remote ground operations and control, built-in system fault management and control, and intelligent robotics. To ensure long-term evolution and integration of new validated technologies over the lifetime of the vehicle, system interfaces must also be addressed and integrated into the overall system interface requirements. An approach for defining and evaluating the system infrastructures including the testbed currently being used to support the on-going evaluations for the evolutionary Space Station Freedom Data Management System is presented and discussed. Intelligent system technologies discussed include artificial intelligence (real-time replanning and scheduling), high performance computational elements (parallel processors, photonic processors, and neural networks), real-time fault management and control, and system software development tools for rapid prototyping capabilities.

Lum, Henry, Jr.↗

Risk Management Implementation Tool

Continuous Risk Management (CM) is a software engineering practice with processes, methods, and tools for managing risk in a project. It provides a controlled environment for practical decision making, in order to assess continually what could go wrong, determine which risk are important to deal with, implement strategies to deal with those risk and assure the measure effectiveness of the implemented strategies. Continuous Risk Management provides many training workshops and courses to teach the staff how to implement risk management to their various experiments and projects. The steps of the CRM process are identification, analysis, planning, tracking, and control. These steps and the various methods and tools that go along with them, identification, and dealing with risk is clear-cut. The office that I worked in was the Risk Management Office (RMO). The RMO at NASA works hard to uphold NASA s mission of exploration and advancement of scientific knowledge and technology by defining and reducing program risk. The RMO is one of the divisions that fall under the Safety and Assurance Directorate (SAAD). I worked under Cynthia Calhoun, Flight Software Systems Engineer. My task was to develop a help screen for the Continuous Risk Management Implementation Tool (RMIT). The Risk Management Implementation Tool will be used by many NASA managers to identify, analyze, track, control, and communicate risks in their programs and projects. The RMIT will provide a means for NASA to continuously assess risks. The goals and purposes for this tool is to provide a simple means to manage risks, be used by program and project managers throughout NASA for managing risk, and to take an aggressive approach to advertise and advocate the use of RMIT at each NASA center.

Wright, Shayla L.↗

Execution of the Spitzer In-orbit Checkout and Science Verification Plan

The Spitzer Space Telescope is an 85-cm telescope with three cryogenically cooled instruments. Following launch, the observatory was initialized and commissioned for science operations during the in-orbit checkout (IOC) and science verification (SV) phases, carried out over a total of 98.3 days. The execution of the IOC/SV mission plan progressively established Spitzer capabilities taking into consideration thermal, cryogenic, optical, pointing, communications, and operational designs and constraints. The plan was carried out with high efficiency, making effective use of cryogen-limited flight time. One key component to the success of the plan was the pre-launch allocation of schedule reserve in the timeline of IOC/SV activities, and how it was used in flight both to cover activity redesign and growth due to continually improving spacecraft and instrument knowledge, and to recover from anomalies. This paper describes the adaptive system design and evolution, implementation, and lessons learned from IOC/SV operations. It is hoped that this information will provide guidance to future missions with similar engineering challenges

operations↗

Spinoff 2010

Topics covered include: Burnishing Techniques Strengthen Hip Implants; Signal Processing Methods Monitor Cranial Pressure; Ultraviolet-Blocking Lenses Protect, Enhance Vision; Hyperspectral Systems Increase Imaging Capabilities; Programs Model the Future of Air Traffic Management; Tail Rotor Airfoils Stabilize Helicopters, Reduce Noise; Personal Aircraft Point to the Future of Transportation; Ducted Fan Designs Lead to Potential New Vehicles; Winglets Save Billions of Dollars in Fuel Costs; Sensor Systems Collect Critical Aerodynamics Data; Coatings Extend Life of Engines and Infrastructure; Radiometers Optimize Local Weather Prediction; Energy-Efficient Systems Eliminate Icing Danger for UAVs; Rocket-Powered Parachutes Rescue Entire Planes; Technologies Advance UAVs for Science, Military; Inflatable Antennas Support Emergency Communication; Smart Sensors Assess Structural Health; Hand-Held Devices Detect Explosives and Chemical Agents; Terahertz Tools Advance Imaging for Security, Industry; LED Systems Target Plant Growth; Aerogels Insulate Against Extreme Temperatures; Image Sensors Enhance Camera Technologies; Lightweight Material Patches Allow for Quick Repairs; Nanomaterials Transform Hairstyling Tools; Do-It-Yourself Additives Recharge Auto Air Conditioning; Systems Analyze Water Quality in Real Time; Compact Radiometers Expand Climate Knowledge; Energy Servers Deliver Clean, Affordable Power; Solutions Remediate Contaminated Groundwater; Bacteria Provide Cleanup of Oil Spills, Wastewater; Reflective Coatings Protect People and Animals; Innovative Techniques Simplify Vibration Analysis; Modeling Tools Predict Flow in Fluid Dynamics; Verification Tools Secure Online Shopping, Banking; Toolsets Maintain Health of Complex Systems; Framework Resources Multiply Computing Power; Tools Automate Spacecraft Testing, Operation; GPS Software Packages Deliver Positioning Solutions; Solid-State Recorders Enhance Scientific Data Collection; Computer Models Simulate Fine Particle Dispersion; Composite Sandwich Technologies Lighten Components; Cameras Reveal Elements in the Short Wave Infrared; Deformable Mirrors Correct Optical Distortions; Stitching Techniques Advance Optics Manufacturing; Compact, Robust Chips Integrate Optical Functions; Fuel Cell Stations Automate Processes, Catalyst Testing; Onboard Systems Record Unique Videos of Space Missions; Space Research Results Purify Semiconductor Materials; and Toolkits Control Motion of Complex Robotics.

Source record↗

Flight Operations

Outline the process that takes new hires with zero knowledge all the way to the point of completing missions in Flight Operations. Audience members should be able to outline the attributes of a flight controller and instructor, outline the training flow for flight controllers and instructors, and identify how the flight controller and instructor attributes are necessary to ensure operational excellence in mission prep and execution. Identify how the simulation environment is used to develop crisis management, communication, teamwork, and leadership skills for SGT employees beyond what can be provided by classroom training.

Forest, Greg↗

Expansion of Tabulated Scattering Matrices in Generalized Spherical Functions

An efficient way to solve the vector radiative transfer equation for plane-parallel turbid media is to Fourier-decompose it in azimuth. This methodology is typically based on the analytical computation of the Fourier components of the phase matrix and is predicated on the knowledge of the coefficients appearing in the expansion of the normalized scattering matrix in generalized spherical functions. Quite often the expansion coefficients have to be determined from tabulated values of the scattering matrix obtained from measurements or calculated by solving the Maxwell equations. In such cases one needs an efficient and accurate computer procedure converting a tabulated scattering matrix into the corresponding set of expansion coefficients. This short communication summarizes the theoretical basis of this procedure and serves as the user guide to a simple public-domain FORTRAN program.

scattering matrix↗

Exploration Medical Capability Clinical Decision Support Use Cases for CDSS Test Bed

Long-duration, deep-space exploration missions present significant challenges to crew health and performance. These challenges include the individual and combined effects of microgravity, radiation exposure, isolation, limited resources (mass, volume, power, data, and crew time), limited options for evacuation, and those associated with delayed or constrained communications. Each of these challenges necessitates greater degrees of crew autonomy as our distance from Earth increases. Specifically, as communication delays intensify - and evacuation capability diminishes the further we explore space - the unqualified need for Earth-independent medical operations focused on autonomous diagnosis, treatment and prevention will become key to mission continuation and success. This need will be especially true should a crewmember become ill or injured wherein treatment and disposition “in-situ” ultimately falls to the crew itself to determine. To augment the requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) of a time-constrained exploration mission crew operating under stressful conditions, combatting fatigue, and facing a potential medical crisis, a robust clinical decision support system (CDSS) is a probable solution. A CDSS would facilitate, guide, and inform Earth-independent medical operations while assisting crewmembers through various clinical presentations. The CDSS would allow crewmembers to take advantage of pre-mission training tied to the in-flight/in-mission use of pre-planned protocols that offer both a range of diagnostic options and “just-in-time” (refamiliarization) training and assistance. CDSS will expand such capabilities by improving the utility and effectiveness of various available diagnostic, treatment, and health maintenance tools, techniques, and measures.

ExMC↗

NASA Pilot-Engaged Expert Response Using IBM Watson Technology: Prototype Evaluation of Knowledge Retrieval System

NASA Langley Research Center and IBM have been investigating the use of IBM Watson technology in aerospace research and development. One application of Watson technology is the Pilot-Engaged Expert Response (PEER) use case. The PEER system is envisioned as an in-cockpit advisor that will act as a source of situationally-relevant information for pilots and other flight crew members to assist in decision making about real-time events and situations that arise in the course of aircraft operations. PEER will make available vast stores of knowledge and information quickly and directly, putting important informational resources where they are needed most. IBM has worked with NASA to develop an architecture and articulate a roadmap for the development of the PEER system. That vision is built around Watson Discovery Advisor (WDA) software solution, derived from IBM's Jeopardy!-winning automatic question answering system. PEER makes use of WDA's sophisticated question-answering capabilities as its core, adding important User Interface components and other customizations for the cockpit environment, including communication with flight systems and other external data sources. The development plan for PEER includes four development stages, with the current project constituting the first phase. In this project, a prototype instance of PEER was successfully adapted to the aviation domain, enabling users to ask questions about aviation topics and receive useful and accurate answers to these questions. Major tasks accomplished include the development of procedures for domain adaptation through automatic lexicon extraction from domain glossaries; generation of question-answer training data which was used to train the system; and assessment of the effectiveness of domain adaptation, which showed a dramatic improvement in the ability of the PEER system to answer domain-relevant questions. In addition, the vision for the PEER system was pushed forward by the articulation of a plan for the automatic enhancement of question-answering with contextual information. This initial phase focused on two main goals: 1) the targeted domain adaptation of the underlying WDA system to the aviation domain; and, 2) the design of the software systems needed to leverage flight-contextual data. Domain adaptation of the WDA system proceeds via three main activities: Domain data ingestion, lexical customization and model training. A textual corpus consisting of 1,147 individual documents with more than 7.5 million words of text was ingested into the system and this served as the basis of all further development. A domain lexicon of over 3,500 aviation-domain terms was semi-automatically generated from domain documents and used to train the system. In addition, a set of over 500 question-answer (QA) pairs relevant to the PEER use case was developed; these were used to train and assess the system. These important first steps established the basis for the PEER system. In addition, steps were taken towards the integration of the PEER system into the cockpit environment with the development of a functional design for the Contextual Data Augmentation (CDA) subsystem. This subsystem brings to bear contextual data to improve system responses. It has three main submodules: the Contextual Data Collection module, the Contextual Data Selection module, and the Contextual QA Augmentation module. These modules form a processing pipeline that addresses the problems associated with automatically integrating information from external resources into the knowledge-retrieval mechanism.

Machine learning↗

The combined release and radiation effects satellite, a joint NASA/DOD program

The Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES) program is a two-phase joint USAF/NASA program consisting of a low Earth orbit (LEO) phase and a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) phase. The mission has been carefully planned to help clarify the geospace environment picture and its effects on space hardware, communications, and man. CRRES instruments were selected for synergism, accuracy, and applicability, and will be cross-calibrated for consistency. They will provide data to fill the gaps in geospace modeling data already obtained, and will update and correct existing models. The chemical release experiments and low altitude instruments will clarify the character of the ionosphere in low Earth orbit and the high altitude chemical release experiments will improve knowledge of how trapped particle populations behave out as far as synchronous altitudes. The ionospheric studies will lead to significantly improved Earth-space intercommunications.

Berrier, D. J.↗

International Research Results and Accomplishments From the International Space Station

In 2016, the International Space Station (ISS) partnership published the first-ever compilation of international ISS research publications resulting from research performed on the ISS through 2011. The International Space Station Research Accomplishments: An Analysis of Results From 2000-2011 is a collection of summaries of over 1,200 journal publications that describe ISS research in the areas of biology and biotechnology; Earth and space science; educational activities and outreach; human research; physical sciences; technology development and demonstration; and, results from ISS operations. This paper will summarize the ISS results publications obtained through 2011 on behalf of the ISS Program Science Forum that is made up of senior science representatives across the international partnership. NASA's ISS Program Science office maintains an online experiment database (www.nasa.gov/issscience) that tracks and communicates ISS research activities across the entire ISS partnership, and it is continuously updated. It captures ISS experiment summaries and results and includes citations to the journals, conference proceedings, and patents as they become available. The International Space Station Research Accomplishments: An Analysis of Results From 2000-2011 is a testament to the research that was underway even as the ISS laboratory was being built. It reflects the scientific knowledge gained from ISS research, and how it impact the fields of science in both space and traditional science disciplines on Earth. Now, during a time when utilization is at its busiest, and with extension of the ISS through at least 2024, the ISS partners work together to track the accomplishments and the new knowledge gained in a way that will impact humanity like no laboratory on Earth. The ISS Program Science Forum will continue to capture and report on these results in the form of journal publications, conference proceedings, and patents. We anticipate that successful ISS research will continue to contribute to the science literature in a way that helps to formulate new hypotheses and conclusions that will enable science advancements across a wide range of scientific disciplines both in space and on Earth.

Ruttley, Tara M.↗

Broader Impacts and Outreach Videos on Ocean Physics and Biogeochemistry

This is just a preliminary NF1676 in advance of filming for a project....A convergent team of experts in biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, mathematics, and computational modeling examine how dynamic and coupled phytoplankton-pathogen-particle-predator linkages coalesce to explain the observed high spatial variability in the efficiency of the export of particulate organic carbon (POC) to the deep ocean. They elucidate and quantify the linkages between viruses and ballast minerals to increase understanding of carbon cycling in the oceanic biological carbon pump and the impact of viruses within it. By providing knowledge than can be used to improve the parameterization of carbon export in Earth system models, the project will help reduce uncertainty in regional marine biogeochemical projections, potentially improving marine ecosystem and fisheries management on timescales from seasons to decades. The project includes activities that provide teaching resources and hands-on training to educators within a ‘Tools of Science’ program that provides a simple and succinct way to communicate the process of scientific research to students in a way that is useful to teachers. The project couples laboratory-based experiments on model host-virus-grazer systems with extensive field based observational and manipulative studies on natural populations of diatoms and coccolithophores, the two phytoplankton groups that account for most of the estimated particulate organic matter flux to the deep ocean. Experiments and measurements integrate diagnostic biological and chemical controls on infection and particle coagulation theory with microscale physics and grazing to quantify links to each hypothesized export mechanism under field-relevant turbulent conditions. Cutting-edge engineering and analytical tools are used to diagnose and track infection dynamics while characterizing and quantifying particle aggregation and disaggregation, mineral dissolution, sinking dynamics, grazing rates, and fecal pellet production at unprecedented resolution and under well-defined, microscale physical regimes. Field campaigns elucidate the relative efficiency of hypothesized mechanisms in stimulating POC export in natural blooms, while providing bulk and size-resolved estimates of POC flux.

Daniel B Whitt↗

LCTV Holographic Imaging

Astronauts are required to interface with complex systems that require sophisticated displays to communicate effectively. Lightweight, head-mounted real-time displays that present holographic images for comfortable viewing may be the ideal solution. We describe an implementation of a liquid crystal television (LCTV) as a spatial light modulator (SLM) for the display of holograms. The implementation required the solution of a complex set of problems. These include field calculations, determination of the LCTV-SLM complex transmittance characteristics and a precise knowledge of the signal mapping between the LCTV and frame grabbing board that controls it. Realizing the hologram is further complicated by the coupling that occurs between the phase and amplitude in the LCTV transmittance. A single drive signal (a gray level signal from a framegrabber) determines both amplitude and phase. Since they are not independently controllable (as is true in the ideal SLM) one must deal with the problem of optimizing (in some sense) the hologram based on this constraint. Solutions for the above problems have been found. An algorithm has been for field calculations that uses an efficient outer product formulation. Juday's MEDOF 7 (Minimum Euclidean Distance Optimal Filter) algorithm used for originally for filter calculations has been successfully adapted to handle metrics appropriate for holography. This has solved the problem of optimizing the hologram to the constraints imposed by coupling. Two laboratory methods have been developed for determining an accurate mapping of framegrabber pixels to LCTV pixels. A friendly software system has been developed that integrates the hologram calculation and realization process using a simple set of instructions. The computer code and all the laboratory measurement techniques determining SLM parameters have been proven with the production of a high quality test image.

Knopp, Jerome↗