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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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This review brings rigorous life cycle cost (LCC) analysis into discussions about COTS program costs. We gather publicly available cost data, review the data for credibility, check for consistency among sources, and rigorously define and analyze specific cost metrics.
All COTS parts are not created equal. Because they are not created equal, the notion that one can force the commercial industry to follow a set of military specifications and standards, along with the certifications, audits and qualification commitments that go with them, is unrealistic for the sale of a few parts. The part technologies that are Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) certified or Military Specification (MS) qualified, are several generations behind the state-of-the-art high-performance parts that are required for the compact, higher performing systems for the next generation of spacecraft and instruments. The majority of the part suppliers are focused on the portion of the market that is producing high-tech commercial products and systems. To that end, in order to compete in the high performance and leading edge advanced technological systems, an alternative approach to risk assessment and reliability prediction must be considered.
NASA has a long history of using commercial grade electronics in space. In this talk, a brief history of NASAâ's trends and approaches to commercial grade electronics focusing on processing and memory systems will be presented. This will include providing summary information on the space hazards to electronics as well as NASA mission trade space. We will also discuss developing recommendations for risk management approaches to Electrical, Electronic and Electromechanical (EEE) parts and reliability in space. The final portion of the talk will discuss emerging aerospace trends and the future for Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) usage.
The Four Bed Carbon Dioxide (4BCO2) scrubber Air-Save Pump (ASP) operates as part of the adsorbent bed regeneration cycle. The ASP removes residual air from the bed for return to the cabin prior to heat and vacuum exposure which drives out the CO2 regenerating the bed. 4BCO2 employs a Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) scroll type air pump, repackaged in an acoustically insulated enclosure to reduce noise and mounted to a cold plate. The International Space Station (ISS) Low Temperature Loop (LTL) flow (operating between 38°F and 50°F) first cools the process air, and then flows through the cold plate, cooling the pump. This results in competing ASP thermal design goals: (1) to keep the pump and motor sufficiently cool and (2) to avoid forming condensation due to over-cooling. Surfaces below 60°F typically warrant careful consideration of condensation. A test-calibrated thermal model demonstrates such a balanced design is feasible with temperatures above 60°F. A separate, coupled fluid model predicts the potential for condensation formation, allowing risk assessment of flying with the unmodified design.
The high-performance, scalability and miniaturization requirements together with the power, mass and cost constraints mandate the use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components and standards in the X2000 avionics system architecture for deep-space missions.
This guideline is written to help facilitate adoption of COTS components by space flight projects by elucidating the radiation effects that various types of components are susceptible to, by describing potential mitigations, and by recommending component selection strategies that minimize radiation risks.
Limitations of a traditional approach to screening and qualification of COTS capacitors for space applications that is based on burn-in and life test requirements described in the relevant military specifications are analyzed. An alternative approach that is originated from analysis of highly accelerated life testing (HALT) of capacitors susceptible to wear-out failures and allows for assessments of the risks of failure during the mission is suggested. Examples include results of reliability testing of advanced BME ceramic capacitors, polymer tantalum capacitors and multianode manganese oxide tantalum capacitors.
The NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) and other partners have developed and verified a software suite intended to allow users with little-to-no experience with star trackers/attitude estimation to assemble, deploy, calibrate, and operate a star tracker using COTS cameras and computers. This software is open source, written in Python 3, and has been demonstrated across a variety of computers, operating systems, and cameras. The first release of the software is now available to download at the link below. We’re excited to see what you do with it! Please contact us for more information.
Building on previous collaborations, maxon and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) established a partnership to modify Ø20mm & Ø32mm Commerical-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) BrushLess Direct Current (BLDC) flat motors and a Ø22mm planetary gearbox.The commercial design was modified to meet the requirements for the Mars2020 rover, a Class B [1], Martian surface environment, interplanetary mission, whilst maintain as much of the industrial heritage as possible. Despite numerous problems encountered during the development, these were all overcome and qualification of the design and acceptance testing for the 10 Flight Model (FM) actuators that were installed on the Mars2020 rover was completed on-time for the rover assembly schedule.
This is a 12-minute presentation that highlights many of the actual experiential elements from the use COTS in space, covering a time span of over 20 years.
The primary objective of this study was to simulate lunar thermal environments to qualify a modified Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) camera for potential flight applications. A comprehensive testing regimen was developed, including both vacuum and thermal vacuum testing. The tests subjected the camera to temperatures corresponding to expected extrema, and thermal performance was recorded throughout the process. The testing demonstrated that both the camera and its thermal protection systems were able to maintain operational functionality under most of the simulated conditions. The results of the testing indicate that the implemented thermal protection system is effective for the expected lunar environments. Despite the decrease in operational time in comparison with terrestrial usage, the camera's overall performance supports its suitability for use in both flight and lunar missions.
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Fault-tolerant systems are traditionally divided into fault containment regions and custom logic is added to ensure the effects of a fault within a containment region would not propagate to the other regions.
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Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.