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At least 109 records · Page 6

Advanced Diagnostic and Prognostic Testbed (ADAPT) Testability Analysis Report

As system designs become more complex, determining the best locations to add sensors and test points for the purpose of testing and monitoring these designs becomes more difficult. Not only must the designer take into consideration all real and potential faults of the system, he or she must also find efficient ways of detecting and isolating those faults. Because sensors and cabling take up valuable space and weight on a system, and given constraints on bandwidth and power, it is even more difficult to add sensors into these complex designs after the design has been completed. As a result, a number of software tools have been developed to assist the system designer in proper placement of these sensors during the system design phase of a project. One of the key functions provided by many of these software programs is a testability analysis of the system essentially an evaluation of how observable the system behavior is using available tests. During the design phase, testability metrics can help guide the designer in improving the inherent testability of the design. This may include adding, removing, or modifying tests; breaking up feedback loops, or changing the system to reduce fault propagation. Given a set of test requirements, the analysis can also help to verify that the system will meet those requirements. Of course, a testability analysis requires that a software model of the physical system is available. For the analysis to be most effective in guiding system design, this model should ideally be constructed in parallel with these efforts. The purpose of this paper is to present the final testability results of the Advanced Diagnostic and Prognostic Testbed (ADAPT) after the system model was completed. The tool chosen to build the model and to perform the testability analysis with is the Testability Engineering and Maintenance System Designer (TEAMS-Designer). The TEAMS toolset is intended to be a solution to span all phases of the system, from design and development through health management and maintenance. TEAMS-Designer is the model-building and testability analysis software in that suite.

Ossenfort, John↗

Integration mockup and process material management system

Work to define and develop a full scale Space Station Freedom (SSF) mockup with the flexibility to evolve into future designs, to validate techniques for maintenance and logistics and verify human task allocations and support trade studies is described. This work began in early 1985 and ended in August, 1991. The mockups are presently being used at MSFC in Building 4755 as a technology and design testbed, as well as for public display. Micro Craft also began work on the Process Material Management System (PMMS) under this contract. The PMMS simulator was a sealed enclosure for testing to identify liquids, gaseous, particulate samples, and specimen including, urine, waste water, condensate, hazardous gases, surrogate gasses, liquids, and solids. The SSF would require many trade studies to validate techniques for maintenance and logistics and verify system task allocations; it was necessary to develop a full scale mockup which would be representative of current SSF design with the ease of changing those designs as the SSF design evolved and changed. The tasks defined for Micro Craft were to provide the personnel, services, tools, and materials for the SSF mockup which would consist of four modules, nodes, interior components, and part task mockups of MSFC responsible engineering systems. This included the Engineering Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) testbed. For the initial study, the mockups were low fidelity, soft mockups of graphics art bottle, and other low cost materials, which evolved into higher fidelity mockups as the R&D design evolved, by modifying or rebuilding, an important cost saving factor in the design process. We designed, fabricated, and maintained the full size mockup shells and support stands. The shells consisted of cylinders, end cones, rings, longerons, docking ports, crew airlocks, and windows. The ECLSS required a heavier cylinder to support the ECLSS systems test program. Details of this activity will be covered. Support stands were designed and built for each module to sufficiently move and rotate each module. Secondary structures such as floors, ceilings, bulkheads, standoffs, racks, etc. were developed and built.

Verble, Adas James, Jr.↗

Use of the Earth Observing One (EO-1) Satellite for the Namibia SensorWeb Flood Early Warning Pilot

The Earth Observing One (EO-1) satellite was launched in November 2000 as a one year technology demonstration mission for a variety of space technologies. After the first year, it was used as a pathfinder for the creation of SensorWebs. A SensorWeb is the integration of variety of space, airborne and ground sensors into a loosely coupled collaborative sensor system that automatically provides useful data products. Typically, a SensorWeb is comprised of heterogeneous sensors tied together with a messaging architecture and web services. Disasters are the perfect arena to use SensorWebs. One SensorWeb pilot project that has been active since 2009 is the Namibia Early Flood Warning SensorWeb pilot project. The Pilot Project was established under the auspices of the Namibian Ministry of Agriculture Water and Forestry (MAWF)/Department of Water Affairs, the Committee on Earth Observing Satellites (CEOS)/Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS) and moderated by the United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER). The effort began by identifying and prototyping technologies which enabled the rapid gathering and dissemination of both space-based and ground sensor data and data products for the purpose of flood disaster management and water-borne disease management. This was followed by an international collaboration to build small portions of the identified system which was prototyped during that past few years during the flood seasons which occurred in the February through May timeframe of 2010 and 2011 with further prototyping to occur in 2012. The SensorWeb system features EO-1 data along with other data sets from such satellites as Radarsat, Terra and Aqua. Finally, the SensorWeb team also began to examine the socioeconomic component to determine the impact of the SensorWeb technology and how best to assist in the infusion of this technology in lesser affluent areas with low levels of basic infrastructure. This paper provides an overview of these efforts, highlighting the EO-1 usage in this SensorWeb.

Mandl, Daniel↗

NASA's Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST): Combining New Observing Strategies and Analytics Frameworks to Build Earth System Digital Twins

NASA's Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) Program is one of several Technology programs managed by the Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) in the Earth Science Division (ESD). The AIST Program focuses on advanced information systems and novel computer science technologies that will be needed by NASA Earth Science in the next 5 to 10 years. The three main thrusts of the AIST Program deal with New Observing Strategies, Analytic Collaborative Frameworks and Earth System Digital Twins. This paper describes these three thrusts and how they work together to create future Earth Science information systems.

Jacqueline Le Moigne↗

Procedures and tools for building large Ada systems

Some of the problems unique to building a very large Ada system are addressed. This is done through examples from experience. In the winter of 1985 and 1986, Intermetrics bootstrapped the Ada compiler, which was being built over the last few years. This system consists of about one million lines of full Ada. Over the last few years a number of procedures and tools were adopted for managing the life cycle of each of the many parts of an Ada system. Many of these procedures are well known to most system builders: release management, quality assurance testing; and source file revision control. Others are unique to working in an Ada language environment; i.e., recompilation management, Ada program library management, and managing multiple implementations. First a look is taken at how a large Ada system is broken down into pieces. The Ada definition leaves unspecified a number of issues that the system builder must address: versions, subsystems, multiple implementations, and synchronization of branched development paths. Having introduced how the Ada systems are decomposed, a look is taken, via a series of examples, at how the life cylces of those parts is managed. The procedures and tools used to manage the evolution of the system are examined. It is hoped that other Ada system builders can build upon the experience of the last few years.

Hyde, Ben↗

Baseline experimental investigation of an electrohydrodynamically assisted heat pipe

The increases in power demand and associated thermal management requirements of future space programs such as potential Lunar/Mars missions will require enhancing the operating efficiencies of thermal management devices. Currently, the use of electrohydrodynamically (EHD) assisted thermal control devices is under consideration as a potential method of increasing thermal management system capacity. The objectives of the currently described investigation included completing build-up of the EHD-Assisted Heat Pipe Test bed, developing test procedures for an experimental evaluation of the unassisted heat pipe, developing an analytical model capable of predicting the performance limits of the unassisted heat pipe, and obtaining experimental data which would define the performance characteristics of the unassisted heat pipe. The information obtained in the currently proposed study will be used in order to provide extensive comparisons with the EHD-assisted performance observations to be obtained during the continuing investigation of EHD-Assisted heat transfer devices. Through comparisons of the baseline test bed data and the EHD assisted test bed data, accurate insight into the performance enhancing characteristics of EHD augmentation may be obtained. This may lead to optimization, development, and implementation of EHD technology for future space programs.

Duncan, A. B.↗

NASA Crew and Cargo Launch Vehicle Development Approach Builds on Lessons from Past and Present Missions

The United States (US) Vision for Space Exploration, announced in January 2004, outlines the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) strategic goals and objectives, including retiring the Space Shuttle and replacing it with new space transportation systems for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) that the new human-rated Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV) lofts into space early next decade will initially ferry astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) Toward the end of the next decade, a heavy-lift Cargo Launch Vehicle (CaLV) will deliver the Earth Departure Stage (EDS) carrying the Lunar Surface Access Module (LSAM) to low-Earth orbit (LEO), where it will rendezvous with the CEV launched on the CLV and return astronauts to the Moon for the first time in over 30 years. This paper outlines how NASA is building these new space transportation systems on a foundation of legacy technical and management knowledge, using extensive experience gained from past and ongoing launch vehicle programs to maximize its design and development approach, with the objective of reducing total life cycle costs through operational efficiencies such as hardware commonality. For example, the CLV in-line configuration is composed of a 5-segment Reusable Solid Rocket Booster (RSRB), which is an upgrade of the current Space Shuttle 4- segment RSRB, and a new upper stage powered by the liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen (LOX/LH2) J-2X engine, which is an evolution of the J-2 engine that powered the Apollo Program s Saturn V second and third stages in the 1960s and 1970s. The CaLV configuration consists of a propulsion system composed of two 5-segment RSRBs and a 33- foot core stage that will provide the LOX/LED needed for five commercially available RS-68 main engines. The J-2X also will power the EDS. The Exploration Launch Projects, managed by the Exploration Launch Office located at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, is leading the design, development, testing, and operations planning for these new space transportation systems. Utilizing a foundation of heritage hardware and management lessons learned mitigates both technical and programmatic risk. Project engineers and managers work closely with the Space Shuttle Program to transition hardware, infrastructure, and workforce assets to the new launch systems, leveraging a wealth of knowledge from Shuffle operations. In addition, NASA and its industry partners have tapped into valuable Apollo databases and are applying corporate wisdom conveyed firsthand by Apollo-era veterans of America s original Moon missions. Learning from its successes and failures, NASA employs rigorous systems engineering and systems management processes and principles in a disciplined, integrated fashion to further improve the probability of mission success.

Dumbacher, Daniel L.↗

NASA's Controlled Environment Agriculture Testing for Space Habitats

NASA and other space agencies have an interest in using plants for human life support in space. The plants could provide food and O2 for the humans, while removing CO2 and helping purify wastewater. Studies to date have shown that a wide range of crops can be grown in controlled environment conditions envisioned for space. Light is a critical factor both for crop productivity and system power costs, and recent improvements in LEDs make them a preferred lighting option for space. Because space systems would be tightly closed, issues such as ethylene build-up and management must be considered. Ultimately, the costs and reliability of biological life support options must be compared with more conventional life support approaches. Findings to date suggest that about 20-25 sq. meters of crops could supply the O2 for one human, while about 50 sq. meters would be required for food (dietary calories).

Bioregenerative↗

Technical Capability Upgrades to the NASA Langley Research Center 6 ft. by 6 ft. Thermal Vacuum Chamber

The 6 ft. by 6 ft. thermal vacuum chamber (TVAC), housed in Building 1250 at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), and managed by the Systems Integration and Test Branch within the Engineering Directorate, has undergone several significant modifications to increase testing capability, safety, and quality of measurements of articles under environmental test. Significant modifications include: a new nitrogen thermal conditioning unit for controlling shroud temperatures from -150degC to +150degC; two horizontal auxiliary cold plates for independent temperature control from -150degC to +200degC; a suite of contamination monitoring sensors for outgassing measurements and species identification; signal and power feed-throughs; new pressure gauges; and a new data acquisition and control commanding system including safety interlocks. This presentation will provide a general overview of the LaRC 6 ft. by 6 ft. TVAC chamber, an overview of the new technical capabilities, and illustrate each upgrade in detail, in terms of mechanical design and predicted performance. Additionally, an overview of the scope of tests currently being performed in the chamber will be documented, and sensor plots from tests will be provided to show chamber temperature and pressure performance with actual flight hardware under test.

Thornblom, Mark N.↗

Technical Capability Upgrades to the NASA Langley Research Center 8 ft. by 15 ft. Thermal Vacuum Chamber

The 8 ft. by 15 ft. thermal vacuum chamber (TVAC), housed in Building 1250 at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), and managed by the Systems Integration and Test Branch within the Engineering Directorate, has undergone several significant modifications to increase testing capability, safety, and quality of measurements of articles under environmental test. Significant modifications include: a new nitrogen distribution manifold for supplying the shroud and other cold surfaces to liquid nitrogen temperatures; a new power supply and distribution system for accurately controlling a quartz IR lamp suite; a suite of contamination monitoring sensors for outgassing measurements and species identification; a new test article support system; signal and power feed-throughs; elimination of unnecessary penetrations; and a new data acquisition and control commanding system including safety interlocks. This paper will provide a general overview of the LaRC 8 ft. by 15 ft. TVAC chamber, an overview of the new technical capabilities, and will illustrate each upgrade in detail, in terms of mechanical design and predicted performance. Additionally, an overview of the scope of tests currently being performed in the chamber will be documented, and sensor plots from tests will be provided to show chamber temperature and pressure performance with actual flight hardware under test.

Thornblom, Mark N.↗

Observation of Hydrological Processes Using Remote Sensing: Volume 2: The Science of Hydrology - Chapter 2.14

Improving water management can make a significant contribution to achieving most of the Millennium Development Goals established by the UN General Assembly in 2000, especially those related to poverty, hunger, and major diseases. The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002 recognized this need. Water and sanitation in particular received great attention from the Summit. The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation recommended to improve water resources management and scientific understanding of the water cycle through joint cooperation and research. For this purpose, it is recommended to promote knowledge sharing, provide capacity building, and facilitate the transfer of technology including remote-sensing (RS) and satellite technologies, especially to developing countries and countries with economies in transition, and to support these countries in their efforts to monitor and assess the quantity and quality of water resources, for example, by establishing and/or further developing national monitoring networks and water resources databases and by developing relevant national indicators. The Johannesburg Plan also adopted integrated water resources management as the overarching concept in addressing and solving water-related issues. As a result of the commitments made in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, several global and regional initiatives have emerged. Current international initiatives such as the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program of the European Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) 10-Year Implementation Plan, have all identified Earth observation (EO) of the water cycle as the key in helping to solve the world s water problems. The availability of spatial information on water quantity and quality will also enable closure of the water budget at river basin and continental scales to the point where effective water management is essential (e.g., as requested by the European Union s Water Framework Directive (WFD), as well as national policies). Geo-information science and EO are vital in achieving a better understanding of the water cycle and better monitoring, analysis, prediction, and management of the world s water resources. The major components of the water cycle of the Earth system and their possible observations are presented. Such observations are essential to understand the global water cycle and its variability, both spatially and temporally, and can only be achieved consistently by means of EOs. Additionally, such observations are essential to advance our understanding of coupling between the terrestrial, atmospheric, and oceanic branches of the water cycle, and how this coupling may influence climate variability and predictability. Water resources management directly interferes with the natural water cycle in the forms of building dams, reservoirs, water transfer systems, and irrigation systems that divert and redistribute part of the water storages and fluxes on land. The water cycle is mainly driven and coupled to the energy cycle in terms of phase changes of water (changes among liquid, water vapor, and solid phases) and transport of water by winds in addition to gravity and diffusion processes. The water-cycle components can be observed with in situ sensors as well as airborne and satellite sensors in terms of radiative quantities. Processing and conversion of these radiative signals are necessary to retrieve the water-cycle components.

Wilder, Peter↗

Object-oriented Approach to High-level Network Monitoring and Management

An absolute prerequisite for the management of large investigating methods to build high-level monitoring computer networks is the ability to measure their systems that are built on top of existing monitoring performance. Unless we monitor a system, we cannot tools. Due to the heterogeneous nature of the hope to manage and control its performance. In this underlying systems at NASA Langley Research Center, paper, we describe a network monitoring system that we use an object-oriented approach for the design, we are currently designing and implementing. Keeping, first, we use UML (Unified Modeling Language) to in mind the complexity of the task and the required model users' requirements. Second, we identify the flexibility for future changes, we use an object-oriented existing capabilities of the underlying monitoring design methodology. The system is built using the system. Third, we try to map the former with the latter. APIs offered by the HP OpenView system.

Mukkamala, Ravi↗

Space Station Environmental Control and Life Support System Test Facility at Marshall Space Flight Center

Different aspects of Space Station Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) testing are currently taking place at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Unique to this testing is the variety of test areas and the fact that all are located in one building. The north high bay of building 4755, the Core Module Integration Facility (CMIF), contains the following test areas: the Subsystem Test Area, the Comparative Test Area, the Process Material Management System (PMMS), the Core Module Simulator (CMS), the End-use Equipment Facility (EEF), and the Pre-development Operational System Test (POST) Area. This paper addresses the facility that supports these test areas and briefly describes the testing in each area. Future plans for the building and Space Station module configurations will also be discussed.

Springer, Darlene↗

Intelligent Systems and Advanced User Interfaces for Design, Operation, and Maintenance of Command Management Systems

Historically Command Management Systems (CMS) have been large, expensive, spacecraft-specific software systems that were costly to build, operate, and maintain. Current and emerging hardware, software, and user interface technologies may offer an opportunity to facilitate the initial formulation and design of a spacecraft-specific CMS as well as a to develop a more generic or a set of core components for CMS systems. Current MOC (mission operations center) hardware and software include Unix workstations, the C/C++ and Java programming languages, and X and Java window interfaces representations. This configuration provides the power and flexibility to support sophisticated systems and intelligent user interfaces that exploit state-of-the-art technologies in human-machine systems engineering, decision making, artificial intelligence, and software engineering. One of the goals of this research is to explore the extent to which technologies developed in the research laboratory can be productively applied in a complex system such as spacecraft command management. Initial examination of some of the issues in CMS design and operation suggests that application of technologies such as intelligent planning, case-based reasoning, design and analysis tools from a human-machine systems engineering point of view (e.g., operator and designer models) and human-computer interaction tools, (e.g., graphics, visualization, and animation), may provide significant savings in the design, operation, and maintenance of a spacecraft-specific CMS as well as continuity for CMS design and development across spacecraft with varying needs. The savings in this case is in software reuse at all stages of the software engineering process.

Mitchell, Christine M.↗

Generic Health Management: A System Engineering Process Handbook Overview and Process

Health Management, a System Engineering Process, is one of those processes-techniques-and-technologies used to define, design, analyze, build, verify, and operate a system from the viewpoint of preventing, or minimizing, the effects of failure or degradation. It supports all ground and flight elements during manufacturing, refurbishment, integration, and operation through combined use of hardware, software, and personnel. This document will integrate Health Management Processes (six phases) into five phases in such a manner that it is never a stand alone task/effort which separately defines independent work functions.

Wilson, Moses Lee↗

Expert system development for probabilistic load simulation

A knowledge based system LDEXPT using the intelligent data base paradigm was developed for the Composite Load Spectra (CLS) project to simulate the probabilistic loads of a space propulsion system. The knowledge base approach provides a systematic framework of organizing the load information and facilitates the coupling of the numerical processing and symbolic (information) processing. It provides an incremental development environment for building generic probabilistic load models and book keeping the associated load information. A large volume of load data is stored in the data base and can be retrieved and updated by a built-in data base management system. The data base system standardizes the data storage and retrieval procedures. It helps maintain data integrity and avoid data redundancy. The intelligent data base paradigm provides ways to build expert system rules for shallow and deep reasoning and thus provides expert knowledge to help users to obtain the required probabilistic load spectra.

Ho, H.↗

Fault-free performance validation of avionic multiprocessors

This paper describes the application of a portion of a validation methodology to NASA's Fault-Tolerant Multiprocessor System (FTMP) and the Software Implemented Fault-Tolerance (SIFT) computer system. The methodology entails a building block approach, starting with simple baseline experiments and building to more complex experiments. The goal of the validation methodology is to thoroughly test and characterize the performance and behavior of ultrareliable computer systems. The validation methodology presented in this paper showed that the methodology is not machine specific and can be used in lieu of life testing approaches. By applying a building block approach at the systems level, the machine complexity was broken down to manageable levels independent of system implementation.

Czeck, Edward W.↗