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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 91 records · Page 5

STS-92 Crew Training

Footage shows the crew of STS-92, Commander Brian Duffy, Pilot Pamela A. Melroy, and Mission Specialists Koichi Wakata, Leroy Chiao, Peter J.K. Wisoff, Michael E. Lopez-Alegria, and William S. McArthur during various parts of their training. Clips are seen of the Shuttle bailout training, Shuttle arm and extravehicular activity (EVA) training at the Virtual Reality Lab, EVA training at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, Shuttle operations training, EVA prep and post training in the Full Fuselage Trainer, ascent and post insertion training in the Guidance Navigation Simulator, and Mission Specialist Wakata in the Shuttle Engineering Dome and training on the Manipulator Development Facility.

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STS-110 Post Flight Presentation

The crewmembers of STS-110 (Michael Bloomfield, Commander; Stephen Frick, Pilot; Mission Specialists Ellen Ochoa, Jerry Ross, Rex Walheim, Steve Smith and Lee Morin) narrate this video as footage from the mission is seen, starting with crew suit up, and launch of Atlantis. Various on-orbit activities are shown, including the opening of the payload bay doors, the rendezvous and docking of Atlantis with the International Space Station (ISS). Crew activities shown include loading operations, extravehicular activities (EVAs), robot arm operation and crew living conditions. Specific EVAs footage includes the unloading of the S0 truss from the Atlantis payload bay and installation onto the ISS. The crew is also shown preparing the Mobile Transporter for future use. The video ends with Atlantis undocking from the ISS and landing at Kennedy Space Center.

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Message Brokering Evaluation for Live Spacecraft Telemetry Monitoring, Recorded Playback, and Analysis

Live monitoring and post-flight analysis of telemetry data play a vital role in the development, diagnosis, and deployment of components of a space flight mission. Requirements for such a system include low end-to-end latency between data producers and visualizers, preserved ordering of messages, data stream archiving with random access playback, and real-time creation of derived data streams. We evaluate the RabbitMQ and Kafka message brokering systems, on how well they can enable a real-time, scalable, and robust telemetry framework that delivers telemetry data to multiple clients across heterogeneous platforms and flight projects. In our experiments using an actively developed robotic arm testbed, Kafka yielded a much higher message throughput rate and a consistent publishing rate across the number of topics and consumers. Consumer message rates were consistent across the number of topics but can exhibit bursty behavior with an increase in the contention for a single topic partition with increasing number of consumers.

Lee, Daren↗

STS-112 Flight Day 4 Highlights

On the fourth day of STS-112, its crew (Jeffrey Ashby, Commander; Pamela Melroy, Pilot; David Wolf, Mission Specialist; Piers Sellers, Mission Specialist; Sandra Magnus, Mission Specialist; Fyodor Yurchikhin, Mission Specialist) onboard Atlantis and the Expedition 5 crew (Valery Korzun, Commander; Peggy Whitson, Flight Engineer; Sergei Treschev, Flight Engineer) onboard the International Space Station (ISS) are seen preparing for the installation of the S1 truss structure. Inside the Destiny Laboratory Module, Korzun and other crewmembers are seen as they busily prepare for the work of the day. Sellers dons an oxygen mask and uses an exercise machine in order to purge the nitrogen from his bloodstream, in preparation for an extravehicular activity (EVA). Whitson uses the ISS's Canadarm 2 robotic arm to grapple the S1 truss and remove it from Atlantis' payload bay, with the assistance of Magnus. Using the robotic arm, Whitson slowly maneuvers the 15 ton truss structure into alignment with its attachment point on the starboard side of the S0 truss structure, where the carefully orchestrated mating procedures take place. There is video footage of the entire truss being rotated and positioned by the arm, and ammonia tank assembly on the structure is visible, with Earth in the background. Following the completion of the second stage capture, the robotic arm is ungrappled from truss. Sellers and Wolf are shown exiting the the Quest airlock hatch to begin their EVA. They are shown performing a variety of tasks on the now attached S1 truss structure, including work on the Crew Equipment Translation Cart (CETA), the S-band Antenna Assembly, and umbilical cables that provide power and remote operation capability to cameras. During their EVA, they are shown using a foot platform on the robotic arm. Significant portions of their activities are shown from the vantage of helmet mounted video cameras. The video closes with a final shot of the ISS and its new S1 truss.

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Acceptance test report (MI-74067-009-00). SVWS access arm (Serial number AA-09-03) (drawing 75M08129-13)

Acceptance tests were conducted at Kennedy Space Center of the Saturn Vehicle Workshop Spacecraft Access Arm and related equipment. The tests were conducted to prove complete system capability to operate satisfactorily under conditions required to support spacecraft operations and activities. The SVWS Access Arm, serial number AA-09-03, is a Command Module Service Arm, S/A 9, which was removed from the mobile launcher and modified to support the SVWS operations. The C/M environmental chamber was removed and a completely new chamber was installed. The retract system was redesigned to remove the automatic/remote control capability and replaced with a local manual control. The SVWS Access Arm System was successfully tested and supported spacecraft processing without major problems.

Hagood, J. T.↗

STS-109 Crew Interviews - Currie

STS-109 Mission Specialist 2 Nancy Jane Currie is seen during a prelaunch interview. She answers questions about her inspiration to become an astronaut and her career path. She gives details on the Columbia Orbiter mission which has as its main tasks the maintenance and augmentation of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). While she will do many things during the mission, the most important will be her role as the primary operator of the robotic arm, which is responsible for grappling the HST, bringing it to the Orbiter bay, and providing support for the astronauts during their EVAs (Extravehicular Activities). Additionally, the robotic arm will be responsible for transferring new and replacement equipment from the Orbiter to the HST. This equipment includes: two solar arrays, a Power Control Unit (PCU), the Advanced Camera for Surveys, and a replacement cooling system for NICMOS (Near Infrared Camera Multi-Object Spectrometer).

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Human-like Compliance for Dexterous Robot Hands

This paper describes the Active Electromechanical Compliance (AEC) system that was developed for the Jau-JPL anthropomorphic robot. The AEC system imitates the functionality of the human muscle's secondary function, which is to control the joint's stiffness: AEC is implemented through servo controlling the joint drive train's stiffness. The control strategy, controlling compliant joints in teleoperation, is described. It enables automatic hybrid position and force control through utilizing sensory feedback from joint and compliance sensors. This compliant control strategy is adaptable for autonomous robot control as well. Active compliance enables dual arm manipulations, human-like soft grasping by the robot hand, and opens the way to many new robotics applications.

Compliant Control↗

STS-101 Mission Highlights Resource Tape, Part 1 of 3

An overview of the STS-101 Atlantis mission is given through footage of each flight day. Scenes from flight days one through four show activities such as astronaut prelaunch procedures (breakfast, suit-up, and boarding Atlantis), launch, and on-orbit activities including the robotic arm checkout, docking with the International Space Station, and Mission Specialists Jim Voss' and Jeff Williams' spacewalks. See 'STS-101 Mission Highlights Resource Tape, Part 2 of 3' and 'STS-101 Mission Highlights Resource Tape, Part 3 of 3' for the activities of flight days 5 through 11.

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STS-114: Discovery Crew Arrival

George Diller of NASA Public Affairs narrates the STS-114 Crew arrival at Kennedy Space Center aboard a Gulf Stream aircraft. They were greeted by Center Director Jim Kennedy. Commander Eileen Collins introduced each of her crew members and gave a brief description of their roles in the mission. Mission Specialist 3, Andrew Thomas will be the lead crew member on the inspection on flight day 2; he is the intravehicular (IV) crew member that will help and guide Mission Specialists Souichi Noguchi and Stephen Robinson during their spacewalks. Pilot James Kelly will be operating the shuttle systems in flying the Shuttle; he will be flying the space station robotic arm during the second extravehicular activity and he will be assisting Mission Specialist Wendy Lawrence during the other two extravehicular activities; he will be assisting on the rendezvous on flight day three, and landing of the shuttle. Commander Collins also mentioned Pilot Kelly's recent promotion to Colonel by the United States Air Force. Mission Specialist 1, Souichi Noguchi from JAXA (The Japanese Space Agency) will be flying on the flight deck for ascent; he will be doing three spacewalks on day 5, 7, and 9; He will be the photo/TV lead for the different types of cameras on board to document the flight and to send back the information to the ground for both technical and public affairs reasons. Mission Specialist 5, Charles Camada will be doing the inspection on flight day 2 with Mission Specialist Thomas and Pilot Kelly; he will be transferring the logistics off the shuttle and onto the space station and from the space station back to the shuttle; He will help set up eleven lap tops on board. Mission Specialist 4, Wendy Lawrence will lead the transfer of logistics to the space station; she is the space station arm operator during extravehicular activities 1 and 3; she will be carrying the 6,000 pounds of external storage platform from the shuttle payload bay over to the space station; she is also in charge of the shuttle storage. Mission Specialist 2, Stephen Robinson is the flight engineer of the shuttle; he will be doing spacewalks with Mission Specialist Noguchi; he will set up the 11 lap top computers on board. Each crew member gave a brief message to the press. Commander Eileen later gave her final message and the crew walked back to the Astronaut Corps.

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The JAU-JPL anthropomorphic telerobot

Work in progress on the new anthropomorphic telerobot is described. The initial robot configuration consists of a seven DOF arm and a sixteen DOF hand, having three fingers and a thumb. The robot has active compliance, enabling subsequent dual arm manipulations. To control the rather complex configuration of this robot, an exoskeleton master arm harness and a glove controller were built. The controller will be used for teleoperational tasks and as a research tool to efficiently teach the computer controller advanced manipulation techniques.

Jau, Bruno M.↗

STS-106 Crew Activities Report/Flight Day 04 Highlights

On this fourth day of the STS-106 Atlantis mission, the flight crew, Commander Commander Terrence W. Wilcutt, Pilot Scott D. Altman, and Mission Specialists Daniel C. Burbank, Edward T. Lu, Richard A. Mastracchio, Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko, and Boris V. Morukov are seen preparing for the scheduled space walk. Lu and Malenchenko are seen coming through the hatch of the International Space Station (ISS). Also shown are Lu and Malenchenko attaching a magnetometer and boom to Zvezda. Mastracchio operates the robot arm moving the extravehicular activity (EVA) crew outside of the ISS.

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Robot arm force control through system linearization by nonlinear feedback

Based on a differential geometric feedback linearization technique for nonlinear time-varying systems, a dynamic force control method for robot arms is developed. It uses active force-moment measurements at the robot wrist. The controller design fully incorporate the robot-arm dynamics and is so general that it can be reduced to pure position control, hybrid position/force control, pure force control. The controller design is independent of the tasks to be performed. Computer simulations show that the controller improves the position error by a factor of ten in cases in which position errors generate force measurements. A theorem on linearization of time-varying system is also presented.

Tarn, T. J.↗

Errant-Satellite Simulator

Report describes errant-satellite simulator - machine simulating, in normal gravitational environment of Earth, inertial properties and behavior of spinning artificial satellite floating in outer space near another spacecraft. Designed for use in training astronauts to retrieve or repair satellites with help of remote manipulator arm, or with extravehicular activities (EVA).

Harvey, Robert L.↗

STS Flight 64 Mission Highlights

The pre-launch, launch, in-flight, and landing activities of STS Flight 64 are highlighted in this video. Footage of the astronauts (Richard, Hammond, Lee, Helms, Meade, and Linenger) suiting up, the payload activities with the Shuttle arm, the deployment of the Spartan satellite, the untethered spacewalk of Lee and other in-space experiments with Lee and Meade (including a body roll), the pre-landing shots and actual landing, and some footage of the Mission Operations Control Room watching the Space Shuttle maneuvers are included.

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STS-110 Crew Interviews: Ellen Ochoa

STS-110 Mission Specialist Ellen Ochoa is seen during this preflight interview, where she gives a quick overview of the mission before answering questions about her inspiration to become an astronaut and her career path. Ochoa outlines her role in the mission in general, and specifically her use of the robotic arm during the extravehicular activities (EVAs). She describes the payload (S0 Truss and Mobile Transporter) and the dry run installation of the S0 truss that will take place the day before the EVA for the actual installation. Ochoa discusses the planned EVAs in detail and outlines what supplies will be left for the resident crew of the International Space Station (ISS). She ends with thoughts on the most valuable aspect of the ISS.

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Biological Visualization, Imaging and Simulation(Bio-VIS) at NASA Ames Research Center: Developing New Software and Technology for Astronaut Training and Biology Research in Space

The Bio- Visualization, Imaging and Simulation (BioVIS) Technology Center at NASA's Ames Research Center is dedicated to developing and applying advanced visualization, computation and simulation technologies to support NASA Space Life Sciences research and the objectives of the Fundamental Biology Program. Research ranges from high resolution 3D cell imaging and structure analysis, virtual environment simulation of fine sensory-motor tasks, computational neuroscience and biophysics to biomedical/clinical applications. Computer simulation research focuses on the development of advanced computational tools for astronaut training and education. Virtual Reality (VR) and Virtual Environment (VE) simulation systems have become important training tools in many fields from flight simulation to, more recently, surgical simulation. The type and quality of training provided by these computer-based tools ranges widely, but the value of real-time VE computer simulation as a method of preparing individuals for real-world tasks is well established. Astronauts routinely use VE systems for various training tasks, including Space Shuttle landings, robot arm manipulations and extravehicular activities (space walks). Currently, there are no VE systems to train astronauts for basic and applied research experiments which are an important part of many missions. The Virtual Glovebox (VGX) is a prototype VE system for real-time physically-based simulation of the Life Sciences Glovebox where astronauts will perform many complex tasks supporting research experiments aboard the International Space Station. The VGX consists of a physical display system utilizing duel LCD projectors and circular polarization to produce a desktop-sized 3D virtual workspace. Physically-based modeling tools (Arachi Inc.) provide real-time collision detection, rigid body dynamics, physical properties and force-based controls for objects. The human-computer interface consists of two magnetic tracking devices (Ascention Inc.) attached to instrumented gloves (Immersion Inc.) which co-locate the user's hands with hand/forearm representations in the virtual workspace. Force-feedback is possible in a work volume defined by a Phantom Desktop device (SensAble inc.). Graphics are written in OpenGL. The system runs on a 2.2 GHz Pentium 4 PC. The prototype VGX provides astronauts and support personnel with a real-time physically-based VE system to simulate basic research tasks both on Earth and in the microgravity of Space. The immersive virtual environment of the VGX also makes it a useful tool for virtual engineering applications including CAD development, procedure design and simulation of human-system systems in a desktop-sized work volume.

Smith, Jeffrey↗

NASA Virtual Glovebox (VBX): Emerging Simulation Technology for Space Station Experiment Design, Development, Training and Troubleshooting

The International Space Station demonstrates the greatest capabilities of human ingenuity, international cooperation and technology development. The complexity of this space structure is unprecedented; and training astronaut crews to maintain all its systems, as well as perform a multitude of research experiments, requires the most advanced training tools and techniques. Computer simulation and virtual environments are currently used by astronauts to train for robotic arm manipulations and extravehicular activities; but now, with the latest computer technologies and recent successes in areas of medical simulation, the capability exists to train astronauts for more hands-on research tasks using immersive virtual environments. We have developed a new technology, the Virtual Glovebox (VGX), for simulation of experimental tasks that astronauts will perform aboard the Space Station. The VGX may also be used by crew support teams for design of experiments, testing equipment integration capability and optimizing the procedures astronauts will use. This is done through the 3D, desk-top sized, reach-in virtual environment that can simulate the microgravity environment in space. Additional features of the VGX allow for networking multiple users over the internet and operation of tele-robotic devices through an intuitive user interface. Although the system was developed for astronaut training and assisting support crews, Earth-bound applications, many emphasizing homeland security, have also been identified. Examples include training experts to handle hazardous biological and/or chemical agents in a safe simulation, operation of tele-robotic systems for assessing and diffusing threats such as bombs, and providing remote medical assistance to field personnel through a collaborative virtual environment. Thus, the emerging VGX simulation technology, while developed for space- based applications, can serve a dual use facilitating homeland security here on Earth.

Smith, Jeffrey D.↗

Influence of recreational activity and muscle strength on ulnar bending stiffness in men

Bone bending stiffness (modulus of elasticity [E] x moment of inertia [I]), a measure of bone strength, is related to its mineral content (BMC) and geometry and may be influenced by exercise. We evaluated the relationship of habitual recreational exercise and muscle strength to ulnar EI, width, and BMC in 51 healthy men, 28-61 yr of age. BMC and width were measured by single photon absorptiometry and EI by mechanical resistance tissue analysis. Maximum biceps strength was determined dynamically (1-RM) and grip strength isometrically. Subjects were classified as sedentary (S) (N = 13), moderately (M) (N = 18), or highly active (H) (N = 20) and exercised 0.2 +/- 0.2; 2.2 +/- 1.3; and 6.8 +/- 2.3 h.wk-1 (P < 0.001). H had greater biceps (P < 0.0005) and grip strength (P < 0.05), ulnar BMC (P < 0.05), and ulnar EI (P = 0.01) than M or S, who were similar. Amount of activity correlated with grip and biceps strength (r = 0.47 and 0.49; P < 0.001), but not with bone measurements, whereas muscle strength correlated with both EI and BMC (r = 0.40-0.52, P < 0.005). EI also correlated significantly with both BMC and ulnar width (P < 0.0001). Ulnar width and biceps strength were the only independent predictors of EI (r2 = 0.67, P < 0.0001). We conclude that levels of physical activity sufficient to increase arm strength influence ulnar bending stiffness.

NASA Discipline Musculoskeletal↗