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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
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2013

Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Graphics Processing Board (GPB) Radiation Test Evaluation Report

Large round trip communications latency for deep space missions will require more onboard computational capabilities to enable the space vehicle to undertake many tasks that have traditionally been ground-based, mission control responsibilities. As a result, visual display graphics will be required to provide simpler vehicle situational awareness through graphical representations, as well as provide capabilities never before done in a space mission, such as augmented reality for in-flight maintenance or Telepresence activities. These capabilities will require graphics processors and associated support electronic components for high computational graphics processing. In an effort to understand the performance of commercial graphics card electronics operating in the expected radiation environment, a preliminary test was performed on five commercial offthe- shelf (COTS) graphics cards. This paper discusses the preliminary evaluation test results of five COTS graphics processing cards tested to the International Space Station (ISS) low earth orbit radiation environment. Three of the five graphics cards were tested to a total dose of 6000 rads (Si). The test articles, test configuration, preliminary results, and recommendations are discussed.

Salazar, George A.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Avionics Configuration Assessment for Flightdeck Interval Management: A Comparison of Avionics and Notification Methods

Flightdeck Interval Management is one of the NextGen operational concepts that FAA is sponsoring to realize requisite National Airspace System (NAS) efficiencies. Interval Management will reduce variability in temporal deviations at a position, and thereby reduce buffers typically applied by controllers - resulting in higher arrival rates, and more efficient operations. Ground software generates a strategic schedule of aircraft pairs. Air Traffic Control (ATC) provides an IM clearance with the IM spacing objective (i.e., the TTF, and at which point to achieve the appropriate spacing from this aircraft) to the IM aircraft. Pilots must dial FIM speeds into the speed window on the Mode Control Panel in a timely manner, and attend to deviations between actual speed and the instantaneous FIM profile speed. Here, the crew is assumed to be operating the aircraft with autothrottles on, with autopilot engaged, and the autoflight system in Vertical Navigation (VNAV) and Lateral Navigation (LNAV); and is responsible for safely flying the aircraft while maintaining situation awareness of their ability to follow FIM speed commands and to achieve the FIM spacing goal. The objective of this study is to examine whether three Notification Methods and four Avionics Conditions affect pilots' performance, ratings on constructs associated with performance (workload, situation awareness), or opinions on acceptability. Three Notification Methods (alternate visual and aural alerts that notified pilots to the onset of a speed target, conformance deviation from the required speed profile, and reminded them if they failed to enter the speed within 10 seconds) were examined. These Notification Methods were: VVV (visuals for all three events), VAV (visuals for all three events, plus an aural for speed conformance deviations), and AAA (visual indications and the same aural to indicate all three of these events). Avionics Conditions were defined by the instrumentation (and location) used to present IM information to crews: (1) Integrated (IM information is embedded in extant PFD (Primary Flight Display), ND (Navigation Display), EICAS (Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System) displays); (2) EFB_Aft (IM information is only supplied in an EFB and mounted in location similar to that for MITRE's UPS work); (3) EFB_Fore (IM information is only supplied in an EFB which is mounted more forward, under the side window), and (4) EFB_Aft plus use of an AGD (the same IM information is supplied in an EFB and on an AGD, both mounted in locations similar to that in MITRE's UPS work ). Twelve commercial pilot crews flew descent scenarios (VNAV Speed with the mode control panel (MCP) speed window open until flaps extended, then VNAV Path) in a commercial transport flight simulator with realistic visual scene and communications. The results of this study serve three practical aims: (1) contribute to the down-select of avionics configuration for future assessment of the ASTAR spacing algorithm at NASA; (2) provide information useful to the FAA Human Factors Division (ANG-C1)'s mission to identify issues pertinent to flight certification of, and flight standards; (3) identify methodological considerations in support of future FIM human-in-the-loop (HITL) investigations.

Latorella, Kara A.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA's Research & Development in Airspace Management for Drones, Air Taxis, and Beyond

Today's National Airspace System is extremely safe. Multiple people and organizations are involved in the handling of flights at all phases. We are, however, at the dawn of a new era in aviation where new entrants are emerging from multiple domains. These new entrants will need to be integrated into the airspace safely and given the flexibility to scale. With that integration and flexibility comes the need and responsibility to develop concepts and systems that will work with the regulatory and operational needs of the Federal Aviation Administration while accounting for the needs of industry. NASA is at the leading edge of research, development, and testing across multiple domains to enable the realization of new entrants such as drones, air cargo and taxis, and high altitude vehicles. Addressing the potential for public good coming from these new capabilities is also a NASA focus area. While there has been considerable effort in the engineering aspects of this research, another thrust that is of importance is that of data integration and visualization. With respect to visualization, NASA Ames Research Center has been leading the advancement in data visualization for these new domains and has spent considerable efforts in the exploration of incorporating Augmented and Mixed Reality as a situation awareness platform. This presentation will outline the new developments in airspace integration and tie in NASA's efforts in visualizing the associated operational data.

airspace management↗
NASA NTRS2009

Flight Deck Display Technologies for 4DT and Surface Equivalent Visual Operations

NASA research is focused on flight deck display technologies that may significantly enhance situation awareness, enable new operating concepts, and reduce the potential for incidents/accidents for terminal area and surface operations. The display technologies include surface map, head-up, and head-worn displays; 4DT guidance algorithms; synthetic and enhanced vision technologies; and terminal maneuvering area traffic conflict detection and alerting systems. This work is critical to ensure that the flight deck interface technologies and the role of the human participants can support the full realization of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) and its novel operating concepts.

Prinzel, Lawrence J., III↗
NASA NTRS2006

Intelligent Weather Agent

Method and system for automatically displaying, visually and/or audibly and/or by an audible alarm signal, relevant weather data for an identified aircraft pilot, when each of a selected subset of measured or estimated aviation situation parameters, corresponding to a given aviation situation, has a value lying in a selected range. Each range for a particular pilot may be a default range, may be entered by the pilot and/or may be automatically determined from experience and may be subsequently edited by the pilot to change a range and to add or delete parameters describing a situation for which a display should be provided. The pilot can also verbally activate an audible display or visual display of selected information by verbal entry of a first command or a second command, respectively, that specifies the information required.

Spirkovska, Liljana↗
NASA NTRS1994

Flight test of takeoff performance monitoring system

The Takeoff Performance Monitoring System (TOPMS) is a computer software and hardware graphics system that visually displays current runway position, acceleration performance, engine status, and other situation advisory information to aid pilots in their decision to continue or to abort a takeoff. The system was developed at the Langley Research Center using the fixed-base Transport Systems Research Vehicle (TSRV) simulator. (The TSRV is a highly modified Boeing 737-100 research airplane.) Several versions of the TOPMS displays were evaluated on the TSRV B-737 simulator by more than 40 research, United States Air Force, airline and industry and pilots who rated the system satisfactory and recommended further development and testing. In this study, the TOPMS was flight tested on the TSRV. A total of 55 takeoff and 30 abort situations were investigated at 5 airfields. TOPMS displays were observed on the navigation display screen in the TSRV research flight deck during various nominal and off-nominal situations, including normal takeoffs; reduced-throttle takeoffs; induced-acceleration deficiencies; simulated-engine failures; and several gross-weight, runway-geometry, runway-surface, and ambient conditions. All tests were performed on dry runways. The TOPMS software executed accurately during the flight tests and the displays correctly depicted the various test conditions. Evaluation pilots found the displays easy to monitor and understand. The algorithm provides pretakeoff predictions of the nominal distances that are needed to accelerate the airplane to takeoff speed and to brake it to a stop; these predictions agreed reasonably well with corresponding values measured during several fully executed and aborted takeoffs. The TOPMS is operational and has been retained on the TSRV for general use and demonstration.

Middleton, David B.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Solid carbon monoxide in the Serpens dark cloud

The 4.67 micrometer absorption feature of solid CO is an important signature of grain mantles in molecular clouds. This paper presents new observations of solid CO absorption in the spectra of four infrared sources in and behind the Serpens dark cloud. We also present supplementary 2.0-2.5 micrometer spectra which clarify the nature of selected sources. Solid CO profiles are compared with models based on laboratory data. In common with previous studies of other clouds, we find that the observed profiles are consistent with the presence of two distinct phases of CO-bearing ice, one dominated either by CO itself or by CO mixed with absorption relative to that of the water-ice feature at 3.1 micrometers is unusually high in Serpens: we deduce column densities for CO and H2O in solid form and conclude that the mean CO abundance in dust is 40% of the H2O abundance, compared with values in the range 0%-30% typical of other molecular clouds. On the basis of its 2.0-2.5 micrometer spectrum and near-infrared colors, we deduce the infrared source CK 2 to be a K5-M0 III field star situated behind the Serpens cloud and suffering 40-50 mag of visual extinction. Assuming empirical correlations between extinction and total (gas + dust) CO column density, we estimate the CO depletion (i.e., the fraction of interstellar CO in the line of sight tied up in grains) to be approximately 40% in the intracloud medium of the Serpens cloud, comparable with previous estimates for the Taurus dark cloud, and much higher than that found in the environments of protostellar objects.

Chiar, J. E.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Human Factors Research Needs for In-Time Aviation Safety Management Systems (IASMS) Design: Enabling the NASA “Sky for All” Future Airspace Vision

Integrated safety management will be paramount for safely enabling the envisioned transformations of the future National Airspace System. Addressing the increasing need for advanced data analytics and fusion of aviation safety data, managed by human decision-makers, is essential for realizing the vision. The proposal, if accepted, will discuss safety management system challenges and how the concept of In-time Aviation Safety Management Systems addresses the need. It will also discuss human factors challenges involved in future integrated safety management, including trust, over-reliance, human-optimized data visualization, human-autonomy teaming, training, communication and dissemination of data, situation awareness, task load, and accountability.

Lawrence J Prinzel III↗
DOE OSTI2026

Watching for light: An enterprise roadmap for trustworthy laser threat warning (LTW) to protect national assets

Comprehensive space force protection must include effective and trustworthy laser threat warning (LTW). Effective LTW will detect and characterize threats to space assets and thus enhance space deterrence. LTW must be trustworthy: able to categorize threats and non-threats by being both sensitive to true events and resistant to false alarms. Outside of the laboratory, the statistics and even the roles of lasers become unclear. In the chain of events leading to an attack, the laser may be the last link to be understood. Human situational awareness and informal reasoning must blend statistics with circumstantial evidence to visualize these chains before they are clear. This paper sets out an industrial model for an enterprise that will routinely produce trustworthy LTW. By incorporating psychology and economics, this enterprise can overcome the difficulties and perils of cooperation in networked defense and intelligence. This roadmap suggests how the enterprise can incentivize distracted actors with different goals to share what they know and coordinate what they do.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗
NASA NTRS2005

Database Integrity Monitoring for Synthetic Vision Systems Using Machine Vision and SHADE

In an effort to increase situational awareness, the aviation industry is investigating technologies that allow pilots to visualize what is outside of the aircraft during periods of low-visibility. One of these technologies, referred to as Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS), provides the pilot with real-time computer-generated images of obstacles, terrain features, runways, and other aircraft regardless of weather conditions. To help ensure the integrity of such systems, methods of verifying the accuracy of synthetically-derived display elements using onboard remote sensing technologies are under investigation. One such method is based on a shadow detection and extraction (SHADE) algorithm that transforms computer-generated digital elevation data into a reference domain that enables direct comparison with radar measurements. This paper describes machine vision techniques for making this comparison and discusses preliminary results from application to actual flight data.

Cooper, Eric G.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Safely Conducting Airport Surface Trajectory-Based Operations

A piloted simulation study was conducted at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center (LaRC) to evaluate the ability to safely conduct surface trajectory-based operations (STBO) by assessing the impact of providing traffic intent information, conflict detection and resolution (CD&R) system capability, and the display of STBO guidance to the flight crew on both head-down and head-up displays (HUD). Nominal and off-nominal conflict scenarios were conducted using 12 airline crews operating in a simulated Memphis International Airport terminal environment. The flight crews met their required time-of-arrival at route end within 10 seconds on 98 percent of the trials, well within the acceptable performance bounds of 15 seconds. Traffic intent information was found to be useful in determining the intent of conflict traffic, with graphical presentation preferred. The CD&R system was only minimally effective during STBO because the prevailing visibility was sufficient for visual detection of incurring traffic. Overall, the pilots indicated STBO increased general situation awareness but also negatively impacted workload, reduced the ability to watch for other traffic, and increased head-down time.

Jones, Denise R.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Conducting Safe and Efficient Airport Surface Operations in a NextGen Environment

The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) vision proposes many revolutionary operational concepts, such as surface trajectory-based operations (STBO) and technologies, including display of traffic information and movements, airport moving maps (AMM), and proactive alerts of runway incursions and surface traffic conflicts, to deliver an overall increase in system capacity and safety. A piloted simulation study was conducted at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center to evaluate the ability of a flight crew to conduct safe and efficient airport surface operations while utilizing an AMM. Position accuracy of traffic was varied, and the effect of traffic position accuracy on airport conflict detection and resolution (CD&R) capability was measured. Another goal was to evaluate the crew's ability to safely conduct STBO by assessing the impact of providing traffic intent information, CD&R system capability, and the display of STBO guidance to the flight crew on both head-down and head-up displays (HUD). Nominal scenarios and off-nominal conflict scenarios were conducted using 12 airline crews operating in a simulated Memphis International Airport terminal environment. The data suggest that all traffic should be shown on the airport moving map, whether qualified or unqualified, and conflict detection and resolution technologies provide significant safety benefits. Despite the presence of traffic information on the map, collisions or near-collisions still occurred; when indications or alerts were generated in these same scenarios, the incidents were averted. During the STBO testing, the flight crews met their required time-of-arrival at route end within 10 seconds on 98 percent of the trials, well within the acceptable performance bounds of 15 seconds. Traffic intent information was found to be useful in determining the intent of conflicting traffic, with graphical presentation preferred. The CD&R system was only minimally effective during STBO because the prevailing visibility was sufficient for visual detection of conflicting traffic. Overall, the pilots indicated STBO increased general situation awareness but also negatively impacted workload, reduced the ability to watch for other traffic, and increased head-down time.

Jones, Denise R.↗
NASA NTRS2016

RACE: Building Airspace Simulations Faster and Better with Actors

Large, distributed aerospace simulations traditionally have been the domain of customized, closed designs, using statically compiled code based on specialized messaging systems such as DDS and HLA. While this can be suitable for one-off systems or specialized in-house product lines, it increases development costs and lowers extensibility. We propose to use contemporary internet software technology to solve this problem.Our Runtime for Airspace Concept Evaluation (RACE) architecture was born out of the need to rapidly develop and evaluate what-if scenarios that involve the whole National Airspace System (NAS), live NAS data feeds such as the FAA's System Wide Information Management (SWIM) servers, and existing flight simulators. It had to run on off-the-shelf hardware, be open sourced, and support visualization components up to multiple synchronized large screen geo viewers used in situation rooms. Most of all, it had to be extensible - being a viable platform for the development of future simulation components.

Mehlitz, Peter↗
NASA NTRS2008

The NASA Real Time Mission Monitor - A Situational Awareness Tool for Conducting Tropical Cyclone Field Experiments

The NASA Real Time Mission Monitor (RTMM) is a situational awareness tool that integrates satellite, aircraft state information, airborne and surface instruments, and weather state data in to a single visualization package for real time field experiment management. RTMM optimizes science and logistic decision-making during field experiments by presenting timely data and graphics to the users to improve real time situational awareness of the experiment's assets. The RTMM is proven in the field as it supported program managers, scientists, and aircraft personnel during the NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (investigated African easterly waves and Tropical Storm Debby and Helene) during August-September 2006 in Cape Verde, the Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling experiment during July-August 2007 in Costa Rica, and the Hurricane Aerosonde mission into Hurricane Noel in 2-3 November 2007. The integration and delivery of this information is made possible through data acquisition systems, network communication links, and network server resources built and managed by collaborators at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC). RTMM is evolving towards a more flexible and dynamic combination of sensor ingest, network computing, and decision-making activities through the use of a service oriented architecture based on community standards and protocols. Each field experiment presents unique challenges and opportunities for advancing the functionality of RTMM. A description of RTMM, the missions it has supported, and its new features that are under development will be presented.

Goodman, Michael↗
NASA NTRS1992

Stereokinetic effect and its relation to the kinetic depth effect

The stereokinetic effect (SKE) has been defined and studied by nested circular patterns rotating on a turntable. Circles must appear not to rotate as they revolve, which in turn results in their appearing to translate relative to one another. A powerful illusion of object depth results even though the individual circles do not undergo an appropriate foreshortening consistent with their apparent changes in slant. It is suggested and tested that the SKE is based on the changing positions between the nested contours despite the absence of any change within each contour, whereas the kinetic depth effect (KDE) entails both kinds of change. It follows that a turntable method of presentation is not necessary, and between-contour transformations can be simulated by computer animation. Displays consisting of simple translations were shown to evoke robust depth impressions as were patterns consisting of contours of varying shapes. Comparisons of the depth, compellingness, and rigidity of matched SKE and KDE displays are reported. The SKE is taken to be paradigmatic for how the visual system perceives depth when observing small object rotations that occur in everyday situations.

Proffitt, Dennis R.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Utilizing AI in Temporal, Spatial, and Resource Scheduling

Aurora is a software system enabling the rapid, easy solution of complex scheduling problems involving spatial and temporal constraints among operations and scarce resources (such as equipment, workspace, and human experts). Although developed for use in the International Space Station Processing Facility, Aurora is flexible enough that it can be easily customized for application to other scheduling domains and adapted as the requirements change or become more precisely known over time. Aurora s scheduling module utilizes artificial-intelligence (AI) techniques to make scheduling decisions on the basis of domain knowledge, including knowledge of constraints and their relative importance, interdependencies among operations, and possibly frequent changes in governing schedule requirements. Unlike many other scheduling software systems, Aurora focuses on resource requirements and temporal scheduling in combination. For example, Aurora can accommodate a domain requirement to schedule two subsequent operations to locations adjacent to a shared resource. The graphical interface allows the user to quickly visualize the schedule and perform changes reflecting additional knowledge or alterations in the situation. For example, the user might drag the activity corresponding to the start of operations to reflect a late delivery.

Stottler, Richard↗
NASA NTRS2005

Reactions of Air Transport Flight Crews to Displays of Weather During Simulated Flight

Display of information in the cockpit has long been a challenge for aircraft designers. Given the limited space in which to present information, designers have had to be extremely selective about the types and amount of flight related information to present to pilots. The general goal of cockpit display design and implementation is to ensure that displays present information that is timely, useful, and helpful. This suggests that displays should facilitate the management of perceived workload, and should allow maximal situation awareness. The formatting of current and projected weather displays represents a unique challenge. As technologies have been developed to increase the variety and capabilities of weather information available to flight crews, factors such as conflicting weather representations and increased decision importance have increased the likelihood for errors. However, if formatted optimally, it is possible that next generation weather displays could allow for clearer indications of weather trends such as developing or decaying weather patterns. Important issues to address include the integration of weather information sources, flight crew trust of displayed weather information, and the teamed reactivity of flight crews to displays of weather. Past studies of weather display reactivity and formatting have not adequately addressed these issues; in part because experimental stimuli have not approximated the complexity of modern weather displays, and in part because they have not used realistic experimental tasks or participants. The goal of the research reported here was to investigate the influence of onboard and NEXRAD agreement, range to the simulated potential weather event, and the pilot flying on flight crew deviation decisions, perceived workload, and perceived situation awareness. Fifteen pilot-copilot teams were required to fly a simulated route while reacting to weather events presented in two graphical formats on a separate visual display. Measures of flight crew reactions included performance-based measures such as deviation decision accuracy, and judgment-based measures such as perceived decision confidence, workload, situation awareness, and display trust. Results demonstrated that pilots adopted a conservative reaction strategy, often choosing to deviate from weather rather than ride through it. When onboard and NEXRAD displays did not agree, flight crews reacted in a complex manner, trusting the onboard system more but using the NEXRAD system to augment their situation awareness. Distance to weather reduced situation awareness and heightened workload levels. Overall, flight crews tended to adopt a participative leadership style marked by open communication. These results suggest that future weather displays should exploit the existing benefits of NEXRAD presentation for situation awareness while retaining the display structure and logic inherent in the onboard system.

Bliss, James P.↗
NASA NTRS1971

Gyroscopic stimulation of the semicircular canals during sensory deprivation.

A static object revolving at a constant velocity is stationary with respect to that environment. When the object is rotated outside the plane of spin, a gyroscopic or cross-coupled acceleration is produced orthogonal to the two planes of rotation. In this situation, a man feels himself moving in a direction other than that which his visual or proprioceptive sensors perceive. The conflict in spatial orientation is the cross-coupled acceleration imposed on the semicircular canals. This perceptual conflict and the thresholds involved were studied by partial isolation of the physiological stimuli through sensory deprivation. Subjects weighted to neutral buoyancy were submerged in 94 F water in the dark. The subjects were then rotated while being revolved about a displaced axis. Thresholds for detection of angular acceleration were higher than those reported in the literature for detection of acceleration of a single plane. This discrepancy may be attributable to the length of time the stimuli are imposed to each of the canals and the cupular response periods.

Newsom, B. D.↗