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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Trends in Small Satellite Presentations from 2017-2019

As the small satellite community expands and new technologies emerge, it is important to understand and interpret these changes over time. In doing so, we observe progress and aid future development within the field. During the summer of 2020 we compiled for assessment purposes, archived presentation data for years 2017-2019 from three primary sources: the CubeSat Developers Workshop, Interplanetary Small Satellite Conference, and the Small Satellite Conference. A few examples of the information we recorded and compiled were presenter names and affiliations, presentation topic, and mission progress status. Ultimately, we reviewed roughly 600 presentations between the three conferences and the data obtained therein form the basis of our trend assessment. The paper focuses on trends interpreted through the assessment of key elements available in the content of each presentation to include: SmallSat mission developers, subsystem developments and the expanded scope for small satellite destinations. Data was generalized using various forms of analysis depending on the type of information being assessed. In the end, we achieved our goal of reducing the content to its key points and major takeaways from the conference proceedings. In this presentation, the observed trends in data and our findings will be discussed. First, we will cover changes in presentation topics by categorizing them as either: science, technology, science/technology, or other. Our next topic will be about the agencies and organizations at the forefront of small satellite research and development. The following section will explain trends in subsystem developments for telecommunications, propulsion, power, and thermal management. Further discussion will highlight how the scope of interplanetary spaceflight has expanded since 2017 as new small spacecraft missions venture beyond low-Earth orbit into deep space exploration. And finally, we will observe what information was lacking in archived presentations which included but not limited to: mission’s funding source, presentation focus area, and software used.

Small Satellite↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Trends in Small Satellite Presentations from 2017 - 2019

Small Satellites↗

NASA NTRS1981

A Voyager attitude control perspective on fault tolerant systems

In current spacecraft design, a trend can be observed to achieve greater fault tolerance through the application of on-board software dedicated to detecting and isolating failures. Whether fault tolerance through software can meet the desired objectives depends on very careful consideration and control of the system in which the software is imbedded. The considered investigation has the objective to provide some of the insight needed for the required analysis of the system. A description is given of the techniques which have been developed in this connection during the development of the Voyager spacecraft. The Voyager Galileo Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem (AACS) fault tolerant design is discussed to emphasize basic lessons learned from this experience. The central driver of hardware redundancy implementation on Voyager was known as the 'single point failure criterion'.

Rasmussen, R. D.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Surface Temperature Data Analysis

Small global mean temperature changes may have significant to disastrous consequences for the Earth's climate if they persist for an extended period. Obtaining global means from local weather reports is hampered by the uneven spatial distribution of the reliably reporting weather stations. Methods had to be developed that minimize as far as possible the impact of that situation. This software is a method of combining temperature data of individual stations to obtain a global mean trend, overcoming/estimating the uncertainty introduced by the spatial and temporal gaps in the available data. Useful estimates were obtained by the introduction of a special grid, subdividing the Earth's surface into 8,000 equal-area boxes, using the existing data to create virtual stations at the center of each of these boxes, and combining temperature anomalies (after assessing the radius of high correlation) rather than temperatures.

Hansen, James↗

NASA NTRS1978

The determination of measures of software reliability

Measurement of software reliability was carried out during the development of data base software for a multi-sensor tracking system. The failure ratio and failure rate were found to be consistent measures. Trend lines could be established from these measurements that provide good visualization of the progress on the job as a whole as well as on individual modules. Over one-half of the observed failures were due to factors associated with the individual run submission rather than with the code proper. Possible application of these findings for line management, project managers, functional management, and regulatory agencies is discussed. Steps for simplifying the measurement process and for use of these data in predicting operational software reliability are outlined.

Maxwell, F. D.↗

NASA NTRS1994

An overview of the Software Engineering Laboratory

This report describes the background and structure of the SEL organization, the SEL process improvement approach, and its experimentation and data collection process. Results of some sample SEL studies are included. It includes a discussion of the overall implication of trends observed over 17 years of process improvement efforts and looks at the return on investment based on a comparison of total investment in process improvement with the measurable improvements seen in the organization's software product.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1982

Galileo spacecraft power distribution and autonomous fault recovery

There is a trend in current spacecraft design to achieve greater fault tolerance through the implemenation of on-board software dedicated to detecting and isolating failures. A combination of hardware and software is utilized in the Galileo power system for autonomous fault recovery. Galileo is a dual-spun spacecraft designed to carry a number of scientific instruments into a series of orbits around the planet Jupiter. In addition to its self-contained scientific payload, it will also carry a probe system which will be separated from the spacecraft some 150 days prior to Jupiter encounter. The Galileo spacecraft is scheduled to be launched in 1985. Attention is given to the power system, the fault protection requirements, and the power fault recovery implementation.

Detwiler, R. C.↗

NASA NTRS1977

Reliability measurement during software development

During the development of data base software for a multi-sensor tracking system, reliability was measured. The failure ratio and failure rate were found to be consistent measures. Trend lines were established from these measurements that provided good visualization of the progress on the job as a whole as well as on individual modules. Over one-half of the observed failures were due to factors associated with the individual run submission rather than with the code proper. Possible application of these findings for line management, project managers, functional management, and regulatory agencies is discussed. Steps for simplifying the measurement process and for use of these data in predicting operational software reliability are outlined.

Hecht, H.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Using SFOC to fly the Magellan Venus mapping mission

Traditionally, spacecraft flight operations at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have been performed by teams of spacecraft experts utilizing ground software designed specifically for the current mission. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory set out to reduce the cost of spacecraft mission operations by designing ground data processing software that could be used by multiple spacecraft missions, either sequentially or concurrently. The Space Flight Operations Center (SFOC) System was developed to provide the ground data system capabilities needed to monitor several spacecraft simultaneously and provide enough flexibility to meet the specific needs of individual projects. The Magellan Spacecraft Team utilizes the SFOC hardware and software designed for engineering telemetry analysis, both real-time and non-real-time. The flexibility of the SFOC System has allowed the spacecraft team to integrate their own tools with SFOC tools to perform the tasks required to operate a spacecraft mission. This paper describes how the Magellan Spacecraft Team is utilizing the SFOC System in conjunction with their own software tools to perform the required tasks of spacecraft event monitoring as well as engineering data analysis and trending.

Bucher, Allen W.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Technical Data Interoperability (TDI) Pathfinder Via Emerging Standards

The TDI project (TDI) investigates trending technical data standards for applicability to NASA vehicles, space stations, payloads, facilities, and equipment. TDI tested COTS software compatible with a certain suite of related industry standards for capabilities of individual benefits and interoperability. These standards not only esnable Information Technology (IT) efficiencies, but also address efficient structures and standard content for business processes. We used source data from generic industry samples as well as NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) data from space systems.

Technical Data↗

NASA NTRS1996

Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensor Bearing Anomaly

Early in 1993, a servo motor within one of three Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) reached stall torque levels on several occasions. Little time was left to plan replacement during the first servicing mission, scheduled at the end of '93. Accelerated bearing life tests confirmed that a small angle rocking motion, known as Coarse Track (CT), accelerated bearing degradation. Saturation torque levels were reached after approximately 20 million test cycles, similar to the flight bearings. Reduction in CT operation, implemented in flight software, extended FGS life well beyond the first servicing mission. However in recent years, bearing torques have resumed upward trends and together with a second, recent bearing torque anomaly has necessitated a scheduled FGS replacement during the upcoming second servicing mission in '97. The results from two series of life tests to quantify FGS bearing remaining life, discussion of bearing on-orbit performance, and future plans to service the FGS servos are presented in this paper.

Loewenthal, S.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Scheduling for Parallel Supercomputing: A Historical Perspective of Achievable Utilization

The NAS facility has operated parallel supercomputers for the past 11 years, including the Intel iPSC/860, Intel Paragon, Thinking Machines CM-5, IBM SP-2, and Cray Origin 2000. Across this wide variety of machine architectures, across a span of 10 years, across a large number of different users, and through thousands of minor configuration and policy changes, the utilization of these machines shows three general trends: (1) scheduling using a naive FIFO first-fit policy results in 40-60% utilization, (2) switching to the more sophisticated dynamic backfilling scheduling algorithm improves utilization by about 15 percentage points (yielding about 70% utilization), and (3) reducing the maximum allowable job size further increases utilization. Most surprising is the consistency of these trends. Over the lifetime of the NAS parallel systems, we made hundreds, perhaps thousands, of small changes to hardware, software, and policy, yet, utilization was affected little. In particular these results show that the goal of achieving near 100% utilization while supporting a real parallel supercomputing workload is unrealistic.

Jones, James Patton↗

NASA NTRS2015

Pi-Sat: A Low Cost Small Satellite and Distributed Spacecraft Mission System Test Platform

Current technology and budget trends indicate a shift in satellite architectures from large, expensive single satellite missions, to small, low cost distributed spacecraft missions. At the center of this shift is the SmallSatCubesat architecture. The primary goal of the Pi-Sat project is to create a low cost, and easy to use Distributed Spacecraft Mission (DSM) test bed to facilitate the research and development of next-generation DSM technologies and concepts. This test bed also serves as a realistic software development platform for Small Satellite and Cubesat architectures. The Pi-Sat is based on the popular $35 Raspberry Pi single board computer featuring a 700Mhz ARM processor, 512MB of RAM, a flash memory card, and a wealth of IO options. The Raspberry Pi runs the Linux operating system and can easily run Code 582s Core Flight System flight software architecture. The low cost and high availability of the Raspberry Pi make it an ideal platform for a Distributed Spacecraft Mission and Cubesat software development. The Pi-Sat models currently include a Pi-Sat 1U Cube, a Pi-Sat Wireless Node, and a Pi-Sat Cubesat processor card.The Pi-Sat project takes advantage of many popular trends in the Maker community including low cost electronics, 3d printing, and rapid prototyping in order to provide a realistic platform for flight software testing, training, and technology development. The Pi-Sat has also provided fantastic hands on training opportunities for NASA summer interns and Pathways students.

Software↗

NASA NTRS1988

Evolving impact of Ada on a production software environment

Many aspects of software development with Ada have evolved as our Ada development environment has matured and personnel have become more experienced in the use of Ada. The Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) has seen differences in the areas of cost, reliability, reuse, size, and use of Ada features. A first Ada project can be expected to cost about 30 percent more than an equivalent FORTRAN project. However, the SEL has observed significant improvements over time as a development environment progresses to second and third uses of Ada. The reliability of Ada projects is initially similar to what is expected in a mature FORTRAN environment. However, with time, one can expect to gain improvements as experience with the language increases. Reuse is one of the most promising aspects of Ada. The proportion of reusable Ada software on our Ada projects exceeds the proportion of reusable FORTRAN software on our FORTRAN projects. This result was noted fairly early in our Ada projects, and experience shows an increasing trend over time.

Mcgarry, F.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Impact of flight systems integration on future aircraft design

Integrations trends in aircraft are discussed with an eye to manifestations in future aircraft designs through interdisciplinary technology integration. Current practices use software changes or small hardware fixes to solve problems late in the design process, e.g., low static stability to upgrade fuel efficiency. A total energy control system has been devised to integrate autopilot and autothrottle functions, thereby eliminating hardware, reducing the software, pilot workload, and cost, and improving flight efficiency and performance. Integrated active controls offer reduced weight and larger payloads for transport aircraft. The introduction of vectored thrust may eliminate horizontal and vertical stabilizers, and location of the thrust at the vehicle center of gravity can provide vertical takeoff and landing capabilities. It is suggested that further efforts will open a new discipline, aeroservoelasticity, and tests will become multidisciplinary, involving controls, aerodynamics, propulsion and structures.

Hood, R. V.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Determining Damping Trends from a Range of Cable Harness Assemblies on a Launch Vehicle Panel from Test Measurements

The team of authors at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has been investigating estimating techniques for the vibration response of launch vehicle panels excited by acoustics and/or aero-fluctuating pressures. Validation of the approaches used to estimate these environments based on ground tests of flight like hardware is of major importance to new vehicle programs. The team at MSFC has recently expanded upon the first series of ground test cases completed in December 2010. The follow on tests recently completed are intended to illustrate differences in damping that might be expected when cable harnesses are added to the configurations under test. This validation study examines the effect on vibroacoustic response resulting from the installation of cable bundles on a curved orthogrid panel. Of interest is the level of damping provided by the installation of the cable bundles and whether this damping could be potentially leveraged in launch vehicle design. The results of this test are compared with baseline acoustic response tests without cables. Damping estimates from the measured response data are made using a new software tool that employs a finite element model (FEM) of the panel in conjunction with advanced optimization techniques. This paper will report on the \damping trend differences. observed from response measurements for several different configurations of cable harnesses. The data should assist vibroacoustics engineers to make more informed damping assumptions when calculating vibration response estimates when using model based analysis approach. Achieving conservative estimates that have more flight like accuracy is desired. The paper may also assist analysts in determining how ground test data may relate to expected flight response levels. Empirical response estimates may also need to be adjusted if the measured response used as an input to the study came from a test article without flight like cable harnesses.

Smith, Andrew↗

NASA NTRS2013

Inflight Performance of Cassini Reaction Wheel Bearing Drag in 1997-2013

As the first spacecraft to achieve orbit at Saturn in 2004, Cassini has collected science data throughout its four-year prime mission (2004-08), and has since been approved for a first and second extended missions through September 2017. Cassini is a three-axis stabilized spacecraft. It uses reaction wheels to achieve high level of spacecraft pointing stability that is needed during imaging operations of several science instruments. The Cassini flight software makes in-flight estimates of reaction wheel bearing drag torque and made them available to the mission operations team. These telemetry data are being trended for the purpose of monitoring the long-term health of the reaction wheel bearings. Anomalous drag torque signatures observed over the past 15 years are described in this paper. One of these anomalous drag conditions is bearing cage instability that appeared (and disappeared) spontaneously and unpredictably. Cage instability is an uncontrolled vibratory motion of the bearing cage that can produce high-impact forces internal to the bearing that will cause intermittent and erratic torque transients. Characteristics of the observed cage instabilities and other drag torque "spikes" are described in this paper. In day-to-day operations, the reaction wheels' rates must be neither too high nor too low. To protect against operating the wheels in any undesirable conditions (such as prolonged low spin rate operations), a ground software tool named Reaction Wheel Bias Optimization Tool (RBOT) was developed for the management of the wheels. Disciplined and long-term use of this ground software has led to significant reduction in the daily consumption rate of the wheels' low spin rate dwell time. Flight experience on the use of this ground software tool as well as other lessons learned on the management of Cassini reaction wheels is given in this paper.

Cassini/Huygens Mission↗

NASA NTRS2003

High End Computing Technologies for Earth Science Applications: Trends, Challenges, and Innovations

Earth science applications of the future will stress the capabilities of even the highest performance supercomputers in the areas of raw compute power, mass storage management, and software environments. These NASA mission critical problems demand usable multi-petaflops and exabyte-scale systems to fully realize their science goals. With an exciting vision of the technologies needed, NASA has established a comprehensive program of advanced research in computer architecture, software tools, and device technology to ensure that, in partnership with US industry, it can meet these demanding requirements with reliable, cost effective, and usable ultra-scale systems. NASA will exploit, explore, and influence emerging high end computing architectures and technologies to accelerate the next generation of engineering, operations, and discovery processes for NASA Enterprises. This article captures this vision and describes the concepts, accomplishments, and the potential payoff of the key thrusts that will help meet the computational challenges in Earth science applications.

Parks, John↗