Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Spacecraft Operations”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1991

Report on phase 2 of 1990 OSSA data census

The 1990 NASA Office of Space Science and Applications (OSSA) data census contributed significantly to a database intended to identify and briefly describe all archived data and potentially archive-desirable data from active and inactive NASA/OSSA spaceflight investigations. This database is being created at the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) and will be more comprehensive than the databases describing data held at individual sites such as NSSDC. Active investigations are defined as those flying on currently operational spacecraft or those that flew on recently operational spacecraft for which project-coordinated data archiving is continuing. Inactive investigations are those that flew on spacecraft that are no longer operational, and for which systematic archiving has ended. The principal purpose of this report is to describe phase two of the 1990 census. The previously reported phase one of this census, as well as a relevant 1981 census, are briefly discussed. The phase two survey instrument is described, those surveyed and respondents/reponses are identified, and data sets from inactive OSSA investigations discovered during the 1990 census (phase two) are briefly discussed individually.

King, Joseph H.↗
NASA NTRS2026

Deep RL for Fast Long-Horizon Operations Scheduling on NASA's Carruthers Geocorona Observatory Mission

Spacecraft operations scheduling is a highly constrained, long-horizon combinatorial optimization problem that traditionally relies on heuristics, constraint programming, or manual planning. We present a scalable deep reinforcement learning framework developed and deployed for NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory mission. Our framework introduces a macro-action abstraction known as activity blocks coupled with dynamic action-masking to navigate the intractably large search space and strictly enforce complex power, thermal, and instrument constraints. The resulting architecture generates globally feasible schedules with overwhelming probability, establishes operational trust, and executes a full training cycle in under six hours, circumventing the need for policy robustness by enabling rapid, on-demand retraining. Further, resulting schedules outperform baseline heuristics in scheduled science quality. The deep reinforcement learning framework was deployed as the default operational scheduler for the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory mission from the outset of the mission, demonstrating that deep reinforcement learning can be trusted for real spacecraft operations under complex, evolving constraints.

Geocorona↗
NASA NTRS1981

Man-made space debris - Does it restrict free access to space

Consideration is given to the hazards posed by existing and future man-made space debris to spacecraft operations. The components of the hazard are identified as those fragments resulting from spacecraft explosions and spent stages which can be tracked, those fragments which are too small to be tracked at their present distances, and future debris, which, if present trends in spacecraft design and operation continue, may lead to an unacceptably high probability of collision with operational spacecraft within a decade. It is argued that a coordinated effort must be undertaken by all space users to evaluate means of space debris control in order to allow for the future unrestricted use of near-earth space. A plan for immediate action to forestall the space debris problem by activities in the areas of education, debris monitoring and collection technology, space vehicle design, space operational procedures and practices and space policies and treaties is proposed.

Wolfe, M.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Tools Automate Spacecraft Testing, Operation

"NASA began the Small Explorer (SMEX) program to develop spacecraft to advance astrophysics and space physics. As one of the entities supporting software development at Goddard Space Flight Center, the Hammers Company Inc. (tHC Inc.), of Greenbelt, Maryland, developed the Integrated Test and Operations System to support SMEX. Later, the company received additional Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding from Goddard for a tool to facilitate the development of flight software called VirtualSat. NASA uses the tools to support 15 satellites, and the aerospace industry is using them to develop science instruments, spacecraft computer systems, and navigation and control software."

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2001

Contamination Effects Due to Space Environmental Interactions

Molecular and particulate contaminants are commonly generated from the orbital spacecraft operations that are under the influence of the space environment. Once generated, these contaminants may attach to the surfaces of the spacecraft or may remain in the vicinity of the spacecraft. In the event these contaminants come to rest on the surfaces of the spacecraft or situated in the line-of-sight of the observation path, they will create various degrees of contamination effect which may cause undesirable effects for normal spacecraft operations, There will be circumstances in which the spacecraft may be subjected to special space environment due to operational conditions. Interactions between contaminants and special space environment may alter or greatly increase the contamination effect due to the synergistic effect. This paper will address the various types of contamination generation on orbit, the general effects of the contamination on spacecraft systems, and the typical impacts on the spacecraft operations due to the contamination effect. In addition, this paper will explain the contamination effect induced by the space environment and will discuss the intensified contamination effect resulting from the synergistic effect with the special space environment.

Chen, Philip T.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Development and Testing of a Vehicle Management System for Autonomous Spacecraft Habitat Operations

As the increased distance between Earth-based mission control and the spacecraft results in increasing communication delays, small crews cannot take on all functions performed by ground today, and so vehicles must be more automated to reduce the crew workload for such missions. In addition, both near-term and future missions will feature significant periods when crew is not present, meaning the vehicles will need to operate themselves autonomously. NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems Program pioneers new approaches for rapidly developing prototype systems, demonstrating key capabilities, and validating operational concepts for future human missions beyond low-Earth orbit. Under this program, NASA has developed and demonstrated multiple technologies to enable the autonomous operation of a dormant space habitat. These technologies included a fault-tolerant avionics architecture, novel spacecraft power system and power system controller, and autonomy software to control the habitat. The demonstration involved simulation of the habitat and multiple spacecraft sub-systems (power storage and distribution, avionics, and air-side life-support) during a multi-day test at NASA's Johnson Space Center. The foundation of the demonstration was ‘quiescent operations' of a habitat during a 55 minute eclipse period. For this demonstration, the spacecraft power distribution system and air-side life support system were simulated at a high level of fidelity; additional systems were managed, but with lower fidelity operational constraints and system behavior. Operational constraints for real and simulated loads were developed by analyzing on-orbit hardware and evaluating future Exploration capable technology. A total of 13 real and simulated loads were used during the test. Eight scenarios including both nominal and off-nominal conditions were performed. Over the course of the test, every application performed its desired functions successfully during the simulated tests. The results will inform both future tests, as well as provide insight to NASA's domestic and international partners, as they construct the next generation of space habitats to be used on beyond-Earth missions.

Autonomous Systems and Operations↗
NASA NTRS1993

An Intelligent computer-aided tutoring system for diagnosing anomalies of spacecraft in operation

A new rule-based, expert system for diagnosing spacecraft anomalies is under development. The knowledge base consists of over two-hundred (200) rules and provides links to historical and environmental databases. Environmental causes considered are bulk charging, single event upsets (SEU), surface charging, and total radiation dose. The system's driver translates forward chaining rules into a backward chaining sequence, prompting the user for information pertinent to the causes considered. When the user selects the novice mode, the system automatically gives detailed explanations and descriptions of terms and reasoning as the session progresses, in a sense teaching the user. As such it is an effective tutoring tool. The use of heuristics frees the user from searching through large amounts of irrelevant information and allows the user to input partial information (varying degrees of confidence in an answer) or 'unknown' to any question. The system is available on-line and uses C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS), an expert shell developed by the NASA Johnson Space Center AI Laboratory in Houston.

Rolincik, Mark↗
NASA NTRS2008

JBoss Middleware for Spacecraft Trajectory Operations

This viewgraph presentation reviews the use of middleware for spacecraft trajectory planning. It reviews the following areas and questions: 1. Project Background - What is the environment where we are considering Open Source Middleware? 2. System Architecture - What technologies and design did we apply? 3. Testing overview - What are the quality scenarios and test points? 4. Project Conclusion - What did we learn about Open Source Middleware?

Stensrud, Kjell↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Exploring the Effectiveness of Maneuvering Guidelines for Space Traffic Management

The number of objects in space has been increasing rapidly, and the risk of collision has grown as well. Many spacecraft operators are now receiving multiple collision warnings a day. Despite this, systems to manage space traffic have been limited: there are no broadly agreed upon guidelines or rules governing the response to predicted potential collisions. Instead, spacecraft operators generally determine whether, when, and how to respond to these warnings on a manual and ad hoc basis. Coordination between operators, if it occurs, often requires repeated communication and negotiation. Some space actors have suggested that the space community should develop right of way rules, similar to those in the ground, sea, and air domains, to guide collision response decisions. However, it is unclear whether such rules would be effective, and it’s unknown whether such rules would have an equitable impact across various spacecraft operators. To address these issues, we developed the Virtual Environment for Space Traffic Analysis (VESTA), a software tool that was used to simulate the space environment with a recent catalog of objects obtained from the U.S. Space-Track.org system. We implemented multiple potential right of way rules within this model. The analysis confirmed that the choice of right of way rule makes a meaningful difference in terms of both efficiency and distributional effects in terms of collision avoidance maneuvers. For example, our analysis shows that rules in which the less massive satellite is required to maneuver results in a more equitable distribution of maneuver responsibility among space actors and also requires less fuel mass, compared to a rule in which the more massive satellite maneuvers.

space traffic management↗
NASA NTRS1990

Automated procedure execution for space vehicle autonomous control

Increased operational autonomy and reduced operating costs have become critical design objectives in next-generation NASA and DoD space programs. The objective is to develop a semi-automated system for intelligent spacecraft operations support. The Spacecraft Operations and Anomaly Resolution System (SOARS) is presented as a standardized, model-based architecture for performing High-Level Tasking, Status Monitoring and automated Procedure Execution Control for a variety of spacecraft. The particular focus is on the Procedure Execution Control module. A hierarchical procedure network is proposed as the fundamental means for specifying and representing arbitrary operational procedures. A separate procedure interpreter controls automatic execution of the procedure, taking into account the current status of the spacecraft as maintained in an object-oriented spacecraft model.

Broten, Thomas A.↗
NASA NTRS1978

PC-403: Pioneer Venus multiprobe spacecraft mission operational characteristics document, volume 1

The operational characteristics of the multiprobe system and its subsystem are described. System level, description of the nominal phases, system interfaces, and the capabilities and limitations of system level performance are presented. Bus spacecraft functional and operational descriptions at the subsystem and unit level are presented. The subtleties of nominal operation as well as detailed capabilities and limitations beyond nominal performance are discussed. A command and telemetry logic flow diagram for each subsystem is included. Each diagram identifies in symbolic logic all signal conditioning encountered along each command signal path into, and each telemetry signal path out of the subsystem.

Barker, F. C.↗
NASA NTRS2006

JSC Orbital Debris Website Description

Purpose: The website provides information about the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office at JSC, which is the lead NASA center for orbital debris research. It is recognized world-wide for its leadership in addressing orbital debris issues. The NASA Orbital Debris Program Office has taken the international lead in conducting measurements of the environment and in developing the technical consensus for adopting mitigation measures to protect users of the orbital environment. Work at the center continues with developing an improved understanding of the orbital debris environment and measures that can be taken to control its growth. Major Contents: Orbital Debris research is divided into the following five broad efforts. Each area of research contains specific information as follows: 1) Modeling - NASA scientists continue to develop and upgrade orbital debris models to describe and characterize the current and future debris environment. Evolutionary and engineering models are described in detail. Downloadable items include a document in PDF format and executable software. 2) Measurements - Measurements of near-Earth orbital debris are accomplished by conducting ground-based and space-based observations of the orbital debris environment. The data from these sources provide validation of the environment models and identify the presence of new sources. Radar, optical and surface examinations are described. External links to related topics are provided. 3) Protection - Orbital debris protection involves conducting hypervelocity impact measurements to assess the risk presented by orbital debris to operating spacecraft and developing new materials and new designs to provide better protection from the environment with less weight penalty. The data from this work provides the link between the environment defined by the models and the risk presented by that environment to operating spacecraft and provides recommendations on design and operations procedures to reduce the risk as required. These data also help in the analysis and interpretation of impact features on returned spacecraft surfaces. 4) Mitigation - Controlling the growth of the orbital debris population is a high priority for NASA, the United States, and the major space-faring nations of the world to preserve near-Earth space for future generations. Mitigation measures can take the form of curtailing or preventing the creation of new debris, designing satellites to withstand impacts by small debris, and implementing operational procedures ranging from utilizing orbital regimes with less debris, adopting specific spacecraft attitudes, and even maneuvering to avoid collisions with debris. Downloadable items include several documents in PDF format and executable software.and 5) Reentry - Because of the increasing number of objects in space, NASA has adopted guidelines and assessment procedures to reduce the number of non-operational spacecraft and spent rocket upper stages orbiting the Earth. One method of postmission disposal is to allow reentry of these spacecraft, either from orbital decay (uncontrolled entry) or with a controlled entry. Orbital decay may be achieved by firing engines to lower the perigee altitude so that atmospheric drag will eventually cause the spacecraft to enter. However, the surviving debris impact footprint cannot be guaranteed to avoid inhabited landmasses. Controlled entry normally occurs by using a larger amount of propellant with a larger propulsion system to drive the spacecraft to enter the atmosphere at a steeper flight path angle. It will then enter at a more precise latitude, longitude, and footprint in a nearly uninhabited impact region, generally located in the ocean.

Johnson, Nicholas L.↗
NASA NTRS1994

SCOSII OL: A dedicated language for mission operations

The Spacecraft Control and Operations System 2 (SCOSII) is the new generation of Mission Control Systems (MCS) to be used at ESOC. The system is generic because it offers a collection of standard functions configured through a database upon which a dedicated MCS is established for a given mission. An integral component of SCOSII is the support of a dedicated Operations Language (OL). The spacecraft operation engineers edit, test, validate, and install OL scripts as part of the configuration of the system with, e.g., expressions for computing derived parameters and procedures for performing flight operations, all without involvement of software support engineers. A layered approach has been adopted for the implementation centered around the explicit representation of a data model. The data model is object-oriented defining the structure of the objects in terms of attributes (data) and services (functions) which can be accessed by the OL. SCOSII supports the creation of a mission model. System elements as, e.g., a gyro are explicit, as are the attributes which described them and the services they provide. The data model driven approach makes it possible to take immediate advantage of this higher-level of abstraction, without requiring expansion of the language. This article describes the background and context leading to the OL, concepts, language facilities, implementation, status and conclusions found so far.

Baldi, Andrea↗
NASA NTRS2019

Prototyping Operational Autonomy for Space Traffic Management

Current state of the art in Space Traffic Management (STM) relies on a handful of providers for surveillance and collision prediction, and manual coordination between operators. Neither is scalable to support the expected 10x increase in spacecraft population in less than 10 years, nor does it support automated manuever planning. We present a software prototype of an STM architecture based on open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), drawing on previous work by NASA to develop an architecture for low-altitude Unmanned Aerial System Traffic Management. The STM architecture is designed to provide structure to the interactions between spacecraft operators, various regulatory bodies, and service suppliers, while maintaining flexibility of these interactions and the ability for new market participants to enter easily. Autonomy is an indispensable part of the proposed architecture in enabling efficient data sharing, coordination between STM participants and safe flight operations. Examples of autonomy within STM include syncing multiple non-authoritative catalogs of resident space objects, or determining which spacecraft maneuvers when preventing impending conjunctions between multiple spacecraft. The STM prototype is based on modern micro-service architecture adhering to OpenAPI standards and deployed in industry standard Docker containers, facilitating easy communication between different participants or services. The system architecture is designed to facilitate adding and replacing services with minimal disruption. We have implemented some example participant services (e.g. a space situational awareness provider/SSA, a conjunction assessment supplier/CAS, an automated maneuver advisor/AMA) within the prototype. Different services, with creative algorithms folded into then, can fulfil similar functional roles within the STM architecture by flexibly connecting to it using pre-defined APIs and data models, thereby lowering the barrier to entry of new players in the STM marketplace. We demonstrate the STM prototype on a multiple conjunction scenario with multiple maneuverable spacecraft, where an example CAS and AMA can recommend optimal maneuvers to the spacecraft operators, based on a predefined reward function. Such tools can intelligently search the space of potential collision avoidance maneuvers with varying parameters like lead time and propellant usage, optimize a customized reward function, and be implemented as a scheduling service within the STM architecture. The case study shows an example of autonomous maneuver planning is possible using the API-based framework. As satellite populations and predicted conjunctions increase, an STM architecture can facilitate seamless information exchange related to collision prediction and mitigation among various service applications on different platforms and servers. The availability of such an STM network also opens up new research topics on satellite maneuver planning, scheduling and negotiation across disjoint entities.

space traffic management↗