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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 1,045 records · Page 58
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1991

Dynamics and control of hypersonic vehicles - The integration challenge for the 1990's

The dynamic characteristics of hypersonic vehicles are reviewed, with special attention to the interactions between the airframe, engine, and structural dynamics. Based on a preliminary investigation of the dynamics of a generic vehicle configuration similar to the X-30 with Scramjet propulsion, an assessment of these interactions is presented. The control effectors include aerodynamic pitch-control surfaces, as well as engine fuel flow and diffuser area ratio. The study configuration is statically instable in pitch, and exhibits strong airframe/engine/elastic coupling in the attitude dynamics and engine responses. This strong coupling will require a highly integrated airframe-engine control system, and the performance of the attitude control system will be contingent upon the ability to adequately deal with the structural aeroelastic response and engine dynamics.

Schmidt, David K.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Design of mission operations systems for scientific remote sensing

The present work describes the mission operations system (MOS) design process for remote-sensing missions. A MOS is defined as the system required to perform, monitor, and control an operation, encompassing personnel, hardware, software and/or documentation. Attention is given to telecommunications and remote-sensing instrumentation, MOS definition program phases and reviews, and MOS organization, management, and staffing. Also treated are the uplink and downlink processes, anomalies and contingency plans, the illustrative case of the MOS for the Magellan radar sensing mission, and a projection of future MOSs incorporating AI.

Wall, Stephen D.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Rocket Propulsion Research at Lewis Research Center

A small contingent of engineers at NASA Lewis Research Center pioneered in basic research on liquid propellants for rockets shortly after World War II. Carried on through the 1950s, this work influenced the important early decisions made by Abe Silverstein when he took charge of the Office of Space Flight Programs for NASA. He strongly supported the development of liquid hydrogen as a propulsion fuel in the face of resistance from Wernher von Braun. Members of the Lewis staff played an important role in bringing liquid hydrogen technology to the point of reliability through their management of the Centaur Program. This paper demonstrates how the personality and engineering intuition of Abe Silverstein shaped the Centaur program and left a lasting imprint on the laboratory research tradition. Many of the current leaders of Lewis Research Center received their first hands-on engineering experience when they worked on the Centaur program in the 1960s.

Dawson, Virginia P.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Galileo completing VEEGA - A mid-term report

In December Galileo will complete its Venus-Earth-Earth-Gravity Assist (VEEGA) mission phase and will be placed on a direct trajectory to Jupiter arriving in December 1995. Galileo will be the first aircraft to orbit Jupiter and send a probe into its atmosphere and will perform an intensive and comprehensive investigation of the planet. Observations made during the October 1991 encounter with the asteroid Gaspra are discussed. The observation plan to be used for earth and moon observations during the December 1992 gravity assist encounter is described. The Galileo High-Gain Antenna (HGA) deployment anomaly status is reported and future corrective actions are outlined. The low-gain antenna contingency mission to be implemented if the HGA cannot be deployed is described and overall performance and status of the space craft are discussed. The selected tour for the Galileo Jupiter satellite-gravity-assist orbital tour is described and the decision rationale for performing the August 1993 asteroid Ida flyby option is presented.

O'Neil, William J.↗
NASA NTRS1992

The Deep Space Network information system in the year 2000

The Deep Space Network (DSN), the largest, most sensitive scientific communications and radio navigation network in the world, is considered. Focus is made on the telemetry processing, monitor and control, and ground data transport architectures of the DSN ground information system envisioned for the year 2000. The telemetry architecture will be unified from the front-end area to the end user. It will provide highly automated monitor and control of the DSN, automated configuration of support activities, and a vastly improved human interface. Automated decision support systems will be in place for DSN resource management, performance analysis, fault diagnosis, and contingency management.

Markley, R. W.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Role of automation in the ACRV operations

The Assured Crew Return Vehicle (ACRV) will provide the Space Station Freedom with contingency means of return to earth (1) of one disabled crew member during medical emergencies, (2) of all crew members in case of accidents or failures of SSF systems, and (3) in case of interruption of the Space Shuttle flights. A wide range of vehicle configurations and system approaches are currently under study. The Program requirements focus on minimizing life cycle costs by ensuring simple operations, built-in reliability and maintainability. The ACRV philosophy of embedded operations is based on maximum use of existing facilities, resources and processes, while minimizing the interfaces and impacts to the Space Shuttle and Freedom programs. A preliminary integrated operations concept based on this philosophy and covering the ground, flight, mission support, and landing and recovery operations has been produced. To implement the ACRV operations concept, the underlying approach has been to rely on vehicle autonomy and automation, to the extent possible. Candidate functions and processes which may benefit from current or near-term automation and robotics technologies are identified. These include, but are not limited to, built-in automated ground tests and checkouts; use of the Freedom and the Orbiter remote manipulator systems, for ACRV berthing; automated passive monitoring and performance trend analysis, and periodic active checkouts during dormant periods. The major ACRV operations concept issues as they relate to the use of automation are discussed.

Sepahban, S. F.↗
NASA NTRS1992

The MICRO-BOSS scheduling system: Current status and future efforts

In this paper, a micro-opportunistic approach to factory scheduling was described that closely monitors the evolution of bottlenecks during the construction of the schedule and continuously redirects search towards the bottleneck that appears to be most critical. This approach differs from earlier opportunistic approaches, as it does not require scheduling large resource subproblems or large job subproblems before revising the current scheduling strategy. This micro-opportunistic approach was implemented in the context of the MICRO-BOSS factory scheduling system. A study comparing MICRO-BOSS against a macro-opportunistic scheduler suggests that the additional flexibility of the micro-opportunistic approach to scheduling generally yields important reductions in both tardiness and inventory. Current research efforts include: adaptation of MICRO-BOSS to deal with sequence-dependent setups and development of micro-opportunistic reactive scheduling techniques that will enable the system to patch the schedule in the presence of contingencies such as machine breakdowns, raw materials arriving late, job cancellations, etc.

Sadeh, Norman M.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Completable scheduling: An integrated approach to planning and scheduling

The planning problem has traditionally been treated separately from the scheduling problem. However, as more realistic domains are tackled, it becomes evident that the problem of deciding on an ordered set of tasks to achieve a set of goals cannot be treated independently of the problem of actually allocating resources to the tasks. Doing so would result in losing the robustness and flexibility needed to deal with imperfectly modeled domains. Completable scheduling is an approach which integrates the two problems by allowing an a priori planning module to defer particular planning decisions, and consequently the associated scheduling decisions, until execution time. This allows a completable scheduling system to maximize plan flexibility by allowing runtime information to be taken into consideration when making planning and scheduling decision. Furthermore, through the criteria of achievability placed on deferred decision, a completable scheduling system is able to retain much of the goal-directedness and guarantees of achievement afforded by a priori planning. The completable scheduling approach is further enhanced by the use of contingent explanation-based learning, which enables a completable scheduling system to learn general completable plans from example and improve its performance through experience. Initial experimental results show that completable scheduling outperforms classical scheduling as well as pure reactive scheduling in a simple scheduling domain.

Gervasio, Melinda T.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Numerical Simulation of a High Mach Number Jet Flow

The recent efforts to develop accurate numerical schemes for transition and turbulent flows are motivated, among other factors, by the need for accurate prediction of flow noise. The success of developing high speed civil transport plane (HSCT) is contingent upon our understanding and suppression of the jet exhaust noise. The radiated sound can be directly obtained by solving the full (time-dependent) compressible Navier-Stokes equations. However, this requires computational storage that is beyond currently available machines. This difficulty can be overcome by limiting the solution domain to the near field where the jet is nonlinear and then use acoustic analogy (e.g., Lighthill) to relate the far-field noise to the near-field sources. The later requires obtaining the time-dependent flow field. The other difficulty in aeroacoustics computations is that at high Reynolds numbers the turbulent flow has a large range of scales. Direct numerical simulations (DNS) cannot obtain all the scales of motion at high Reynolds number of technological interest. However, it is believed that the large scale structure is more efficient than the small-scale structure in radiating noise. Thus, one can model the small scales and calculate the acoustically active scales. The large scale structure in the noise-producing initial region of the jet can be viewed as a wavelike nature, the net radiated sound is the net cancellation after integration over space. As such, aeroacoustics computations are highly sensitive to errors in computing the sound sources. It is therefore essential to use a high-order numerical scheme to predict the flow field. The present paper presents the first step in a ongoing effort to predict jet noise. The emphasis here is in accurate prediction of the unsteady flow field. We solve the full time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations by a high order finite difference method. Time accurate spatial simulations of both plane and axisymmetric jet are presented. Jet Mach numbers of 1.5 and 2.1 are considered. Reynolds number in the simulations was about a million. Our numerical model is based on the 2-4 scheme by Gottlieb & Turkel. Bayliss et al. applied the 2-4 scheme in boundary layer computations. This scheme was also used by Ragab and Sheen to study the nonlinear development of supersonic instability waves in a mixing layer. In this study, we present two dimensional direct simulation results for both plane and axisymmetric jets. These results are compared with linear theory predictions. These computations were made for near nozzle exit region and velocity in spanwise/azimuthal direction was assumed to be zero.

Hayder, M. Ehtesham↗
NASA NTRS1991

Demonstration of automated proximity and docking technologies

An autodock was demonstrated using straightforward techniques and real sensor hardware. A simulation testbed was established and validated. The sensor design was refined with improved optical performance and image processing noise mitigation techniques, and the sensor is ready for production from off-the-shelf components. The autonomous spacecraft architecture is defined. The areas of sensors, docking hardware, propulsion, and avionics are included in the design. The Guidance Navigation and Control architecture and requirements are developed. Modular structures suitable for automated control are used. The spacecraft system manager functions including configuration, resource, and redundancy management are defined. The requirements for autonomous spacecraft executive are defined. High level decisionmaking, mission planning, and mission contingency recovery are a part of this. The next step is to do flight demonstrations. After the presentation the following question was asked. How do you define validation? There are two components to validation definition: software simulation with formal and vigorous validation, and hardware and facility performance validated with respect to software already validated against analytical profile.

Anderson, Robert L.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Results of prototype software development for automation of shuttle proximity operations

The effort involves demonstration of expert system technology application to Shuttle rendezvous operations in a high-fidelity, real-time simulation environment. The JSC Systems Engineering Simulator (SES) served as the test bed for the demonstration. Rendezvous applications were focused on crew procedures and monitoring of sensor health and trajectory status. Proximity operations applications were focused on monitoring, crew advisory, and control of the approach trajectory. Guidance, Navigation, and Control areas of emphasis included the approach, transition and stationkeeping guidance, and laser docking sensor navigation. Operator interface displays for monitor and control functions were developed. A rule-based expert system was developed to manage the relative navigation system/sensors for nominal operations and simple failure contingencies. Testing resulted in the following findings; (1) the developed guidance is applicable for operations with LVLH stabilized targets; (2) closing rates less than 0.05 feet per second are difficult to maintain due to the Shuttle translational/rotational cross-coupling; (3) automated operations result in reduced propellant consumption and plume impingement effects on the target as compared to manual operations; and (4) braking gates are beneficial for trajectory management. A versatile guidance design was demonstrated. An accurate proximity operations sensor/navigation system to provide relative attitude information within 30 feet is required and redesign of the existing Shuttle digital autopilot should be considered to reduce the cross-coupling effects. This activity has demonstrated the feasibility of automated Shuttle proximity operations with the Space Station Freedom. Indications are that berthing operations as well as docking can be supported.

Hiers, Hal↗
NASA NTRS1991

Proximity operations considerations affecting spacecraft design

Proximity operations can be defined as the maneuvering of two or more spacecraft within 1 nautical mile range, with relative velocity less than 10 feet per second. The passive vehicle is nontranslating and should provide for maintenance of the desired approach attitude. It must accommodate the active (translating) vehicle induced structural loads and performance characteristics (mating hardware tolerances), and support sensor compatibility (transponder, visual targets, etc.). The active vehicle must provide adequate sensor systems (relative state information, field-of-view, redundancy), flight control hardware (thruster sizing, minimal cross-coupling, performance margins, redundancy) and software (reconfigurable, attitude/rate modes, translation and rotation fine control authority) characteristic, and adequate non-propulsive consumables such as power. Operational concerns must be considered. These include the following: (1) the desired approach trajectory and relative orientation; (2) the active vehicle thruster plume effects (forces, torques, contamination) on the passive vehicle; and (3) procedures for contingencies such as loss of communications, sensor or propulsion failures, and target vehicle loss of control.

Staas, Steven K.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Flight Support System (FSS) docking and umbilical services systems

The Satellite Servicing Project at GSFC in the early 80's developed a facility for servicing observatories in orbit when docked on the shuttle. The facility includes a three point docking ring and one or two umbilicals to provide power, data and command capability to docked payloads. This facility was used in the 1984 repair of the Solar Maximum satellite. It will be used for the Hubble repair mission in 1993, and it is planned to be used on the Explorer Platform retrieval mission in 1995 and for servicing AXAF in the late 90's. The basic three point docking mechanisms and umbilical interfaces were adopted by the OMU Project for that vehicle's remote rendezvous and docking mission capability. This would have assured a common interface for a serviceable payload for either shuttle based or remote servicing, i.e., HST. For OMU remote servicing, quick reaction docking latches were under development when that Project was cancelled. Although there is no remote servicing capability being funded at present, the EOS spacecraft configuration does include three pins compatible with the FSS latches as a contingency planning measure.

Falkenhayn, Edward↗
NASA NTRS1991

Spacecraft rendezvous operational considerations affecting vehicle systems design and configuration

One lesson learned from Orbiting Maneuvering Vehicle (OMV) program experience is that Design Reference Missions must include an appropriate balance of operations and performance inputs to effectively drive vehicle systems design and configuration. Rendezvous trajectory design is based on vehicle characteristics (e.g., mass, propellant tank size, and mission duration capability) and operational requirements, which have evolved through the Gemini, Apollo, and STS programs. Operational constraints affecting the rendezvous final approach are summarized. The two major objectives of operational rendezvous design are vehicle/crew safety and mission success. Operational requirements on the final approach which support these objectives include: tracking/targeting/communications; trajectory dispersion and navigation uncertainty handling; contingency protection; favorable sunlight conditions; acceptable relative state for proximity operations handover; and compliance with target vehicle constraints. A discussion of the ways each of these requirements may constrain the rendezvous trajectory follows. Although the constraints discussed apply to all rendezvous, the trajectory presented in 'Cargo Transfer Vehicle Preliminary Reference Definition' (MSFC, May 1991) was used as the basis for the comments below.

Prust, Ellen E.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Design issues for a reinforcement-based self-learning fuzzy controller

Fuzzy logic controllers have some often cited advantages over conventional techniques such as PID control: easy implementation, its accommodation to natural language, the ability to cover wider range of operating conditions and others. One major obstacle that hinders its broader application is the lack of a systematic way to develop and modify its rules and as result the creation and modification of fuzzy rules often depends on try-error or pure experimentation. One of the proposed approaches to address this issue is self-learning fuzzy logic controllers (SFLC) that use reinforcement learning techniques to learn the desirability of states and to adjust the consequent part of fuzzy control rules accordingly. Due to the different dynamics of the controlled processes, the performance of self-learning fuzzy controller is highly contingent on the design. The design issue has not received sufficient attention. The issues related to the design of a SFLC for the application to chemical process are discussed and its performance is compared with that of PID and self-tuning fuzzy logic controller.

Yen, John↗
NASA NTRS1993

A functional description of the Buffered Telemetry Demodulator (BTD)

This article gives a functional description of the buffered telemetry demodulator (BTD), which operates on recorded digital samples to extract the symbols from the received signal. The key advantages of the BTD are as follows: (1) its ability to reprocess the signal to reduce acquisition time; (2) its ability to use future information about the signal and to perform smoothing on past samples; and (3) its minimum transmission bandwidth requirement as each sub carrier harmonic is processed individually. The first application of the BTD would be the Galileo S-band contingency mission, where the signal is so weak that reprocessing to reduce the acquisition time is crucial. Moreover, in the event of employing antenna arraying with full spectrum combining, only the sub carrier harmonics need to be transmitted between sites, resulting in significant reduction in data rate transmission requirements. Software implementation of the BTD is described for various general-purpose computers.

Tsou, H.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Testing of the on-board attitude determination and control algorithms for SAMPEX

Algorithms for on-board attitude determination and control of the Solar, Anomalous, and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX) have been expanded to include a constant gain Kalman filter for the spacecraft angular momentum, pulse width modulation for the reaction wheel command, an algorithm to avoid pointing the Heavy Ion Large Telescope (HILT) instrument boresight along the spacecraft velocity vector, and the addition of digital sun sensor (DSS) failure detection logic. These improved algorithms were tested in a closed-loop environment for three orbit geometries, one with the sun perpendicular to the orbit plane, and two with the sun near the orbit plane - at Autumnal Equinox and at Winter Solstice. The closed-loop simulator was enhanced and used as a truth model for the control systems' performance evaluation and sensor/actuator contingency analysis. The simulations were performed on a VAX 8830 using a prototype version of the on-board software.

Mccullough, Jon D.↗
NASA NTRS1993

SOYUZ escape trajectory analysis from Space Station Freedom

It has been proposed to utilize the Russian built SOYUZ as an assured crew return vehicle (ACRV) for Space Station Freedom. Three departure directions (nadir, zenith, minus velocity) are evaluated to determine escape path clearances. In addition, the effects of the following parameters were also evaluated: delta-V magnitude, configuration dependent ballistic coefficients, atmospheric density, Freedom attitude control, and canted docking adaptors. The primary factor influencing the escape trajectory was station contingency attitude rate. The nadir and zenith departures were preferable to minus velocity. The impact of atmospheric density and relative ballistic coefficients was minimal.

Heck, Michael L.↗