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NASA NTRS2005

National Space Biomedical Research Institute

NSBRI partners with NASA to develop countermeasures against the deleterious effects of long duration space flight. NSBRI's science and technology projects are directed toward this goal, which is accomplished by: 1. Designing, testing and validating effective countermeasures to address the biological and environmental impediments to long-term human space flight. 2. Defining the molecular, cellular, organ-level, integrated responses and mechanistic relationships that ultimately determine these impediments, where such activity fosters the development of novel countermeasures. 3. Establishing biomedical support technologies to maximize human performance in space, reduce biomedical hazards to an acceptable level and deliver quality medical care. 4. Transferring and disseminating the biomedical advances in knowledge and technology acquired through living and working in space to the general benefit of humankind; including the treatment of patients suffering from gravity- and radiation-related conditions on Earth. and 5. ensuring open involvement of the scientific community,industry and the public in the Institute's activities and fostering a robust collaboration with NASA, particularly through JSC.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2003

Experimental Evaluation of Verification and Validation Tools on Martian Rover Software

To achieve its science objectives in deep space exploration, NASA has a need for science platform vehicles to autonomously make control decisions in a time frame that excludes intervention from Earth-based controllers. Round-trip light-time is one significant factor motivating autonomy capability, another factor is the need to reduce ground support operations cost. An unsolved problem potentially impeding the adoption of autonomy capability is the verification and validation of such software systems, which exhibit far more behaviors (and hence distinct execution paths in the software) than is typical in current deepspace platforms. Hence the need for a study to benchmark advanced Verification and Validation (V&V) tools on representative autonomy software. The objective of the study was to access the maturity of different technologies, to provide data indicative of potential synergies between them, and to identify gaps in the technologies with respect to the challenge of autonomy V&V. The study consisted of two parts: first, a set of relatively independent case studies of different tools on the same autonomy code, second a carefully controlled experiment with human participants on a subset of these technologies. This paper describes the second part of the study. Overall, nearly four hundred hours of data on human use of three different advanced V&V tools were accumulated, with a control group that used conventional testing methods. The experiment simulated four independent V&V teams debugging three successive versions of an executive controller for a Martian Rover. Defects were carefully seeded into the three versions based on a profile of defects from CVS logs that occurred in the actual development of the executive controller. The rest of the document is structured a s follows. In section 2 and 3, we respectively describe the tools used in the study and the rover software that was analyzed. In section 4 the methodology for the experiment is described; this includes the code preparation, seeding of defects, participant training and experimental setup. Next we give a qualitative overview of how the experiment went from the point of view of each technology; model checking (section 5), static analysis (section 6), runtime analysis (section 7) and testing (section 8). The find section gives some preliminary quantitative results on how the tools compared.

Brat, Guillaume↗

NASA NTRS2010

A History of NASA Remote Sensing Contributions to Archaeology

During its long history of developing and deploying remote sensing instruments, NASA has provided a scientific data that have benefitted a variety of scientific applications among them archaeology. Multispectral and hyperspectral instrument mounted on orbiting and suborbital platforms have provided new and important information for the discovery, delineation and analysis of archaeological sites worldwide. Since the early 1970s, several of the ten NASA centers have collaborated with archaeologists to refine and validate the use of active and passive remote sensing for archeological use. The Stennis Space Center (SSC), located in Mississippi USA has been the NASA leader in archeological research. Together with colleagues from Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), SSC scientists have provided the archaeological community with useful images and sophisticated processing that have pushed the technological frontiers of archaeological research and applications. Successful projects include identifying prehistoric roads in Chaco canyon, identifying sites from the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery exploration and assessing prehistoric settlement patterns in southeast Louisiana. The Scientific Data Purchase (SDP) stimulated commercial companies to collect archaeological data. At present, NASA formally solicits "space archaeology" proposals through its Earth Science Directorate and continues to assist archaeologists and cultural resource managers in doing their work more efficiently and effectively. This paper focuses on passive remote sensing and does not consider the significant contributions made by NASA active sensors. Hyperspectral data offers new opportunities for future archeological discoveries.

Giardino, Marco J.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Innovations in mission architectures for exploration beyond low Earth orbit

Through the application of advanced technologies and mission concepts, architectures for missions beyond Earth orbit have been dramatically simplified. These concepts enable a stepping stone approach to science driven; technology enabled human and robotic exploration. Numbers and masses of vehicles required are greatly reduced, yet the pursuit of a broader range of science objectives is enabled. The scope of human missions considered range from the assembly and maintenance of large aperture telescopes for emplacement at the Sun-Earth libration point L2, to human missions to asteroids, the moon and Mars. The vehicle designs are developed for proof of concept, to validate mission approaches and understand the value of new technologies. The stepping stone approach employs an incremental buildup of capabilities, which allows for future decision points on exploration objectives. It enables testing of technologies to achieve greater reliability and understanding of costs for the next steps in exploration. c2003 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

United States National Aeronautics and Space Admin↗

NASA NTRS2015

Technology Demonstration Missions

Technology Demonstration Missions (TDM) is in its third year of execution, being initiated in 2010 and baselined in January of 2012. There are 11 projects that NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has contributed to or led: (1) Evolvable Cryogenics (eCryo): Cyrogenic Propellant Storage and Transfer Engineering Development Unit (EDU), a proof of manufacturability effort, used to enhance knowledge and technology related to handling cryogenic propellants, specifically liquid hydrogen. (2) Composites for Exploration Upper Stage (CEUS): Design, build, test, and address flight certification of a large composite shell suitable for the second stage of the Space Launch System (SLS). (3) Deep Space Atomic Clock (DSAC): Spaceflight to demo small, low-mass atomic clock that can provide unprecedented stability for deep space navigation. (4) Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM): Demo of high-performance, green propellant propulsion system suitable for Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA)-class spacecraft. (5) Human Exploration Telerobotics (HET): Demonstrating how telerobotics, remote control of a variety of robotic systems, can take routine, highly repetitive, dangerous or long-duration tasks out of human hands. (6) Laser Communication Relay Demo (LCRD): Demo to advance optical communications technology toward infusion into deep space and near Earth operational systems, while growing the capabilities of industry sources. (7) Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD): Demo new supersonic inflatable decelerator and parachute technologies to enable Mars landings of larger payloads with greater precision at a wider range of altitudes. (8) Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Entry Descent & Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI): Demo of embedded sensors embedded in the MSL heat shield, designed to record the heat and atmospheric pressure experienced during the spacecraft's high-speed, hot entry in the Martian atmosphere. (9) Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP): 50-kW class spacecraft that uses flexible blanket solar arrays for power generation and an electric propulsion system that delivers payload from low-Earth orbit to higher orbits. (10) Solar Sail Demonstration (SSD): Demo to validate sail deployment techniques for solar sails that are propelled by the pressure of sunlight. (11) Terrestrial HIAD Orbit Reentry (THOR): Demo of a 3.7-m Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) entry vehicle to test second generation aerothermal performance and modeling.

McDougal, John↗

NASA NTRS2000

Nozomi Cis-Lunar Phase Orbit Determination

Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) launched Nozomi, its first mission to the planet Mars using the newly developed M-V launch vehicle on July 3, 1998. Scientific objectives of the mission are to study the structure and dynamics of the Martian upper atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind. Nozomi is a cooperative mission between ISAS and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The NASA contribution includes navigation and tracking services provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The spacecraft also serves as an engineering demonstration of basic technology for planetary exploration. One of the new technologies was a unique trajectory, developed by ISAS, which used solar gravitational perturbations at the weak stability boundary as an aid to achieve an Earth-Mars transfer orbit. This trajectory saves approximately 120 m/s of Delta V compared to direct hyperbolic insertion and is considered an enabling technology for the mission. Nozomi was the first spacecraft to employ this trajectory and provided on-orbit validation of the technique. The trajectory was achieved by initially placing the spacecraft in a highly elliptical cis-lunar phasing orbit. Six maneuvers were performed during this period to correct injection errors and target an outbound lunar swingby in September 1998. The gravity assist from the lunar swingby raised apogee to the vicinity of the weak stability boundary. After three more targeting maneuvers, Nozomi performed an inbound lunar swingby followed immediately by a powered Earth swingby in late December 1998. A 420 m/s Trans Mars Insertion (TMI) burn at the final Earth periapsis was intended to place the spacecraft on a heliocentric trajectory leading to Mars orbit insertion in October 1999. Orbit determination for Nozomi is performed in parallel by both ISAS and the Multi-Mission Navigation (MMNAV) group at JPL. This was an advantage for the mission because each group would generate solutions based on data collected from their respective tracking networks. Spacecraft events, such as sequence uplinks and maneuvers, were generally scheduled during passes at the Usuda tracking station in Japan. As a result, maneuver design and reconstruction was derived from MMNAV solutions based on JPL tracking data obtained immediately prior to or following maneuvers. Data was also exchanged between ISAS and MMNAV so orbit determination could be performed on joint data sets in support of critical targeting late in the cis-lunar phase. In this paper, information regarding the MMNAV orbit determination effort for the first six months of the mission is presented. The spacecraft trajectory is characterized first, followed by a discussion of the orbit determination estimation procedure and models. Results from selected orbit solutions are presented and compared against reconstructed trajectories. One area of emphasis in this paper is orbit determination in the vicinity of the weak stability boundary. Precise navigation was necessary to target the second lunar swingby and the powered Earth swingby. Delivery accuracy of 150 m was required for these critical encounters, but a number of factors contributed to the general degradation of orbit determination accuracy. This included the fact that the spacecraft was at apogee, at a range of 1.7 million km and moving at less than I km/sec perpendicular to the line of sight. Nozomi was also close to zero degrees declination where there are known limitations on orbit determination performance. Finally, S-band tracking data was acquired through the Nozomi backup low gain antenna. This antenna is offset from the axis of this spin stabilized spacecraft and superimposed large signatures in the Doppler and range data. These difficulties were overcome by combining long data arcs, spanning several maneuvers, with a high fidelity solar pressure model. The model included a physically accurate representation of the spacecraft structure and a high time resolution orientation model. Observation modeling included the removal of the spin induced Doppler bias, spin signature and per pass correction of range calibration errors applied for data leading up to critical events. As a result, all orbit determination goals were met. A second area of emphasis in this paper is the JPL tracking and orbit determination effort in support of the TMI maneuver. TMI occurred out of contact with ground stations and the JPL Goldstone tracking complex had the first pass following the bum. As a result, MMNAV had the responsibility to make a rapid assessment of the maneuver performance. MMNAV made the determination that a 100 m/s under bum had occurred and promptly informed ISAS via voice lines. ISAS immediately began preparations for a correction maneuver (TMIc), which had to be performed during the next Usuda pass. The near real time assessment by MMNAV provided accurate antenna frequency and pointing updates for the spacecraft acquisition at Usuda and the close coordination between the two agencies enabled the design and successful execution of the TMc maneuver. Propellant consumption during the correction burn dictated that the mission be redesigned. ISAS developed a new plan which adds 3 full solar orbits, two Earth swingbys and one lunar swingby with arrival at Mars in January 2004. The final Mars orbit will still enable the mission to achieve all of its science objectives.

Ryne, Mark↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Culture-Independent Fungal Profiling for the International Space Station using Nanopore Sequencing: Method Development

Microbial monitoring of the International Space Station (ISS) environment is a crew health requirement that encompasses both bacterial and fungal identification. To achieve this currently, culture-based methods are used for sample collection, and these samples must be returned to the laboratory for analysis. The use of culture and the need for sample return to Earth results in a bias toward culturable organisms and causes a significant delay between sample collection and delivery of final data (weeks to months), respectively. Recently, advancements in molecular technology have aided a broad range of applications, including medical, industrial, and basic sciences. Additionally, increases in portability and ease-of-use of molecular platforms have provided point-of-use capabilities demonstrated by the miniPCR thermal cycler (miniPCR bio) and the MinION sequencer (Oxford Nanopore Technologies). Together, these devices have been applied to, and validated for, the identification of bacteria onboard the ISS. Building on this work, we have developed a spaceflight-compatible fungal workflow. Molecular-based fungal analysis is complicated by low biomass, difficult-to-lyse spores, debate regarding the region for taxonomic assignment, and the lack of bioinformatic pipelines and reference databases. To overcome these difficulties, primers yielding an ~ 2 Kb amplicon were validated against a wide range of ISS fungal isolates. The current spaceflight library preparation was substantially optimized, a bioinformatic pipeline was created, and refinements to the UNITE database were implemented. To compare this optimized method to the current culture-based standard, 30 sample sets (60 total swabs, two swabs held in tandem) were evaluated. Parallel fungal profiles were obtained between the two methods, with the culture-independent method revealing increased diversity. The addition of this method to the already established bacterial process fulfills the crew health identification requirement. Moreover, the implementation of this method onboard ISS will enhance our understanding of its unique fungal microbiome.

Hang N. Nguyen↗

NASA NTRS2001

Evolution of telemedicine in the space program and earth applications

Remote monitoring of crew, spacecraft, and environmental health has always been an integral part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) operations. Crew safety and mission success face a number of challenges in outerspace, including physiological adaptations to microgravity, radiation exposure, extreme temperatures and vacuum, and psychosocial reactions to space flight. The NASA effort to monitor and maintain crew health, system performance, and environmental integrity in space flight is a sophisticated and coordinated program of telemedicine combining cutting-edge engineering with medical expertise. As missions have increased in complexity, NASA telemedicine capabilities have grown apace, underlying its role in the field. At the same time, the terrestrial validation of telemedicine technologies to bring healthcare to remote locations provides feedback, improvement, and enhancement of the space program. As NASA progresses in its space exploration program, astronauts will join missions lasting months, even years, that take them millions of miles from home. These long-duration missions necessitate further technological breakthroughs in tele-operations and autonomous technology. Earth-based monitoring will no longer be real-time, requiring telemedicine capabilities to advance with future explorers as they travel deeper into space. The International Space Station will serve as a testbed for the telemedicine technologies to enable future missions as well as improve the quality of healthcare delivery on Earth.

long duration↗

NASA NTRS2018

Armstrong Flight Research Center Research Technology and Engineering 2017

I am delighted to present this report of accomplishments at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center. Our dedicated innovators possess a wealth of performance, safety, and technical capabilities spanning a wide variety of research areas involving aircraft, electronic sensors, instrumentation, environmental and earth science, celestial observations, and much more. They not only perform tasks necessary to safely and successfully accomplish Armstrong's flight research and test missions but also support NASA missions across the entire Agency. Armstrong's project teams have successfully accomplished many of the nation's most complex flight research projects by crafting creative solutions that advance emerging technologies from concept development and experimental formulation to final testing. We are developing and refining technologies for ultra-efficient aircraft, electric propulsion vehicles, a low boom flight demonstrator, air launch systems, and experimental x-planes, to name a few. Additionally, with our unique location and airborne research laboratories, we are testing and validating new research concepts. Summaries of each project highlighting key results and benefits of the effort are provided in the following pages. Technology areas for the projects include electric propulsion, vehicle efficiency, supersonics, space and hypersonics, autonomous systems, flight and ground experimental test technologies, and much more. Additional technical information is available in the appendix, as well as contact information for the Principal Investigator of each project. I am proud of the work we do here at Armstrong and am pleased to share these details with you. We welcome opportunities for partnership and collaboration, so please contact us to learn more about these cutting-edge innovations and how they might align with your needs.

yearbook↗

NASA NTRS2022

Compact Midwave Imaging System: Results from an Airborne Demonstration

The Compact Midwave Imaging System (CMIS) is a wide field of view, multi-angle, multi-spectral push frame imager that relies on the forward motion of the satellite to create a two-dimensional (2D) image swath. An airborne demonstration of CMIS was successfully completed in January-February 2021 on the NASA Langley Research Center Gulfstream III. The primary objective of the four-flight campaign was to demonstrate the capability of this unique instrument to perform stereo observations of clouds and other particulates (e.g. smoke) in the atmosphere. It is shown that the midwave infrared (MWIR) spectral bands of CMIS provide a unique 24/7 capability with high resolution for accurate stereo sensing.The instrument relies on new focal plane array (FPA) technology, which provides excellent sensitivity at much warmer detector temperatures than traditional technologies. This capability enabled a compact, low-cost design that can provide atmospheric motion vectors and cloud heights to support requirements for atmospheric winds in the 2017-2027 Earth Science Decadal Survey. Applications include day/night observations of the planetary boundary layer, severe weather, and wildfires. A comparison with current space-based earth science instruments demonstrates that the SWIR/MWIR multi-spectral capability of CMIS is competitive with larger, more expensive instrumentation. Imagery obtained over a controlled burn and operating nuclear power plant demonstrated the sensitivity of the instrument to temperature variations. The system relies on a mature stereoscopic imaging technique applied to the same scene from two independent platforms to unambiguously retrieve atmospheric motion vectors (AMVs) with accurate height assignment.This capability has been successfully applied to geostationary and low-earth orbit satellites to achieve excellent accuracy. When applied to a ground-point validation case, the accuracy for the CMIS aircraft observations was 20 m and 0.3 m/s for cloud heights and motion vectors, respectively. This result was confirmed by a detailed error analysis with analytical and covariance models. The results for CMIS cases with under flights of Aeolus, CALIPSO and Aqua provided a good validation of expected accuracies. The paper also showed the feasibility of accommodating CMIS on CubeSats to enable multiple instruments to be flown in a leader-follower mode.

stereo winds↗

NASA NTRS2000

The Deep Space 1 and Space Technology 4/Champollion Missions

NASA's New Millennium Program (NMP) is designed to develop, test, and flight validate new, advanced technologies for planetary and Earth exploration missions, using a series of low cost spacecraft. Two of NMP's current missions include encounters with comets and asteroids. The Deep Space 1 mission was launched on October 24, 1998 and will fly by asteroid 1992 KD on July 29, 1999, and possibly Comet Wilson-Harrington and/or Comet Borrelly in 2001. The Space Technology 4/Champollion mission will be launched in April, 2003 and will rendezvous with, orbit and land on periodic Comet Tempel 1 in 2006. ST-4/Champollion is a joint project with CNES, the French space agency. The DS-1 mission is going well since launch and has already validated several major technologies, including solar electric propulsion (SEP), solar concentrator arrays, a small deep space transponder, and autonomous navigation. The spacecraft carries two scientific instruments: MICAS, a combined visible camera and UV and IR spectrometers, and PEPE, an ion and electron spectrometer. Testing of the science instruments is ongoing. Following the asteroid encounter in July, 1999, DS-1 will go on to encounters with one or both comets if NASA approves funding for an extended mission. The ST-4/Champollion mission will use an advanced, multi-engine SEP system to effect a rendezvous with Comet P/Tempel 1 in February, 2006, after a flight time of 2.8 years. After orbiting the comet for several months in order to map its surface and determine its gravity field, ST-4/Champollion will descend to the comet's surface and will anchor itself with a 3-meter long harpoon. Scientific experiments include narrow and wide angle cameras for orbital mapping, panoramic and near-field cameras for landing site mapping, a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer, a combined microscope and infrared spectrometer, and physical properties probes. Cometary samples will be obtained from depths up to 1.4 meters. The spacecraft is solar powered with rechargeable batteries, thus allowing a long duration mission on the nucleus surface. At the time of this writing, the ST-4/Champollion spacecraft was undergoing a major redesign to fit within NASA cost constraints, and approval of the mission is pending.

Weissman, Paul R.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Comet and Asteroid Missions in NASA's New Millennium Program

NASA's New Millennium Program (NMP) is designed to develop, test, and flight validate new, advanced technologies for planetary and Earth exploration missions, using a series of low cost spacecraft. Two of NMP's current missions include encounters with comets and asteroids. The Deep Space 1 mission was launched on October 24, 1998 and will fly by asteroid 1992 KD on July 29, 1999, and possibly Comet Wilson-Harrington and/or Comet Borrelly in 2001. The Space Technology 4/Champollion mission will be launched in April, 2003 and will rendezvous with, orbit and land on periodic Comet Tempel 1 in 2006. ST-4/Champollion is a joint project with CNES, the French space agency. The DS-1 mission is going well since launch and has already validated several major technologies, including solar electric propulsion (SEP), solar concentrator arrays, a small deep space transponder, and autonomous navigation. The spacecraft carries two scientific instruments: MICAS, a combined visible camera and UV and IR spectrometers, and PEPE, an ion and electron spectrometer. Testing of the science instruments is ongoing. Following the asteroid encounter in July, 1999, DS-1 will go on to encounters with one or both comets if NASA approves funding for an extended mission. The ST-4/Champollion mission will use an advanced, multi-engine SEP system to effect a rendezvous with Comet P/Tempel 1 in February, 2006, after a flight time of 2.8 years. After orbiting the comet for several months in order to map its surface and determine its gravity field, ST-4/Chainpollion will descend to the comet's surface and will anchor itself with a 3-meter long harpoon. Scientific experiments include narrow and wide angle cameras for orbital mapping, panoramic and near-field cameras for landing site mapping, a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer, a combined microscope and infrared spectrometer, and physical properties probes. Cometary samples will be obtained from depths up to 1.4 meters. The spacecraft is solar powered with rechargeable batteries, thus allowing a long duration mission on the nucleus surface. At the time of this writing, the ST-4/Champollion spacecraft was undergoing a major redesign to fit within NASA cost constraints, and approval of the mission is pending.

Weissman, Paul R.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Enabling Spacecraft Formation Flying in Any Earth Orbit Through Spaceborne GPS and Enhanced Autonomy Technologies

Formation flying is quickly revolutionizing the way the space community conducts autonomous science missions around the Earth and in space. This technological revolution will provide new, innovative ways for this community to gather scientific information, share this information between space vehicles and the ground, and expedite the human exploration of space. Once fully matured, this technology will result in swarms of space vehicles flying as a virtual platform and gathering significantly more and better science data than is possible today. Formation flying will be enabled through the development and deployment of spaceborne differential Global Positioning System (GPS) technology and through innovative spacecraft autonomy techniques, This paper provides an overview of the current status of NASA/DoD/Industry/University partnership to bring formation flying technology to the forefront as quickly as possible, the hurdles that need to be overcome to achieve the formation flying vision, and the team's approach to transfer this technology to space. It will also describe some of the formation flying testbeds, such as Orion, that are being developed to demonstrate and validate these innovative GPS sensing and formation control technologies.

Bauer, F. H.↗

NASA NTRS2000

ISS Utilization and Countermeasure Validation: Implementing the Critical Path Roadmap to Reduce Uncertainties of Extended Human Spaceflight Expeditions

Human exploration of space requires the ability to understand and mitigate risks to crews exposed to the conditions associated with such missions. This becomes a greater imperative as we prepare for interplanetary expeditions involving humans who will be subjected to long transit periods in microgravity as they travel to a distant planet such as Mars, embark and live on the planet's surface for an extended time, and finally, return to the 1 g environment of Earth. We need to know, more definitively, what the human health, safety, and performance risks are, and how to prevent or counteract them throughout all phases of a long duration mission. The Johnson Space Center's Space and Life Sciences Directorate along with the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) have been engaged in a strategic planning effort that identifies the most critical risks confronting humans who will venture forth on such missions and the types of research and technology efforts required to mitigate and otherwise reduce the probability and/or severity of those risks. This paper describes the unique approach used to define, assess and prioritize the risks and presents the results of the assessment with an emphasis on the research and technology priorities that will help us to meet the challenge of long duration human spaceflight missions.

Leveton, Lauren B.↗

NASA NTRS1996

Medical and surgical applications of space biosensor technology

Researchers in space life sciences are rapidly approaching a technology impasse. Many of the critical questions on the impact of spaceflight on living systems simply cannot be answered with the limited available technologies. Research subjects, particularly small animal models like the rat, must be allowed to function relatively untended and unrestrained for long periods to fully reflect the impact of microgravity and spaceflight on their behavior and physiology. These requirements preclude the use of present hard-wired instrumentation techniques and limited data acquisition systems. Implantable sensors and miniaturized biotelemetry are the only means of capturing the fundamental and critical data. This same biosensor and biotelemetry technology has direct application to Earth-based medicine and surgery. Continuous, on-line data acquisition and improved measurement capabilities combined with the ease and flexibility offered by automated, wireless, and portable instruments and data systems, should provide a boon to the health care industry. Playing a key role in this technology revolution is the Sensors 2000! (S2K!) Program at NASA Ames Research Center. S2K!, in collaboration with space life sciences researchers and managers, provides an integrated capability for sensor technology development and applications, including advanced biosensor technology development, spaceflight hardware development, and technology transfer and commercialization. S2K! is presently collaborating on several spaceflight projects with dual-use medical applications. One prime example is a collaboration with the Fetal Treatment Center (FTC) at the University of California at San Francisco. The goal is to develop and apply implantable chemical sensor and biotelemetry technology to continuously monitor fetal patients during extra-uterine surgery, replacement into the womb, through birth and beyond. Once validated for ground use, the method will be transitioned to spaceflight applications to remotely monitor key biochemical parameters in flight animals. Successful application of NASA implantable biosensor and biotelemetry technologies should accelerate the advancement of this and other modern medical procedures while furthering the exploration of life in space.

NASA Discipline General Space Life Sciences↗

NASA NTRS2017

Deployable Propulsion and Power Systems for Solar System Exploration

NASA is developing thin-film based, deployable propulsion, power and communication systems for small spacecraft that could provide a revolutionary new capability allowing small spacecraft exploration of the solar system. The Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout reconnaissance mission will demonstrate solar sail propulsion on a 6U CubeSat interplanetary spacecraft and lay the groundwork for their future use in deep space science and exploration missions. Solar sails use sunlight to propel vehicles through space by reflecting solar photons from a large, mirror-like sail made of a lightweight, highly reflective material. This continuous photon pressure provides propellantless thrust, allowing for very high delta V maneuvers on long-duration, deep space exploration. Since reflected light produces thrust, solar sails require no onboard propellant. The Lightweight Integrated Solar Array and Transceiver (LISA-T) is a launch stowed, orbit deployed array on which thin-film photovoltaic and antenna elements are embedded. Inherently, small satellites are limited in surface area, volume, and mass allocation; driving competition between power, communications, and GN&C (guidance navigation and control) subsystems. This restricts payload capability and limits the value of these low-cost satellites. LISA-T is addressing this issue, deploying large-area arrays from a reduced volume and mass envelope - greatly enhancing power generation and communications capabilities of small spacecraft. The NEA Scout mission, funded by NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems Program and managed by NASA MSFC, will use the solar sail as its primary propulsion system, allowing it to survey and image one or more NEA's of interest for possible future human exploration. NEA Scout uses a 6U cubesat (to be provided by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory), an 86 sq m solar sail and will weigh less than 12 kilograms. NEA Scout will be launched on the first flight of the Space Launch System in 2018. Similar in concept to the NEA Scout solar sail, the LISA-T array is designed to fit into a very small volume and provide abundant power and omnidirectional communications in just about any deployment configuration. The technology is being proposed for flight validation as early as 2019 in a low earth orbit demonstration using a 3U cubesat, of which less than 1U will be devoted to the LISA-T power and propulsion system. By leveraging recent advancements in thin films, photovoltaics and miniaturized electronics, new mission-level capabilities will be enabled aboard lower-cost small spacecraft instead of their more expensive, traditional counterparts, enabling a new generation of frequent, inexpensive deep space missions.

Johnson, Les↗

NASA NTRS2007

A Web 2.0 and OGC Standards Enabled Sensor Web Architecture for Global Earth Observing System of Systems

This paper will describe the progress of a 3 year research award from the NASA Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) that began October 1, 2006, in response to a NASA Announcement of Research Opportunity on the topic of sensor webs. The key goal of this research is to prototype an interoperable sensor architecture that will enable interoperability between a heterogeneous set of space-based, Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)-based and ground based sensors. Among the key capabilities being pursued is the ability to automatically discover and task the sensors via the Internet and to automatically discover and assemble the necessary science processing algorithms into workflows in order to transform the sensor data into valuable science products. Our first set of sensor web demonstrations will prototype science products useful in managing wildfires and will use such assets as the Earth Observing 1 spacecraft, managed out of NASA/GSFC, a UASbased instrument, managed out of Ames and some automated ground weather stations, managed by the Forest Service. Also, we are collaborating with some of the other ESTO awardees to expand this demonstration and create synergy between our research efforts. Finally, we are making use of Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) suite of standards and some Web 2.0 capabilities to Beverage emerging technologies and standards. This research will demonstrate and validate a path for rapid, low cost sensor integration, which is not tied to a particular system, and thus be able to absorb new assets in an easily evolvable, coordinated manner. This in turn will help to facilitate the United States contribution to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), as agreed by the U.S. and 60 other countries at the third Earth Observation Summit held in February of 2005.

Mandl, Daniel↗

NASA NTRS1999

Standard Reference Rainfall Products Used in the TRMM Ground Efforts

The Primary goal of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Ground Validation (GV) effort is to provide basic validation of satellite-derived precipitation measurements over monthly climatologies. To this end, the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET) at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County produces monthly rainfall accumulation reference products for each of the four primary TRMM GV sites. These products, standard methodology for deriving monthly, gauge-adjusted rainfall products, are utilized for each primary site. The monthly rainfall GV reference products are developed in discrete, modular steps with distinct intermediate products. These developmental steps, which will be fully discussed, include: (1) extracting radar data over locations of rain gauges, (2) merging rain gauge and radar data in time and space with user-defined options, (3) quality control of radar and gauge merged data by tracking accumulations from each instrument, and (4) deriving Z_R relationship from quality-controlled merged data over monthly time scales. A summary of all gauge statistics and GV rainfall reference products available for TRMM science users will be presented. Basic reference product results and trends involving monthly accumulation, Z-R relationship, and gauge statistics for primary GV site will be discussed. Finally, the sample impact on monthly rainfall reference products, through varying the time interval between intermediate rainfall accumulations, will be analyzed and presented.

Marks, David A.↗