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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 127 records · Page 7

Onboard Processor for Compressing HSI Data

With EO-1 Hyperion and MightySat in orbit NASA and the DoD are showing their continued commitment to hyperspectral imaging (HSI). As HSI sensor technology continues to mature, the ever-increasing amounts of sensor data generated will result in a need for more cost effective communication and data handling systems. Lockheed Martin, with considerable experience in spacecraft design and developing special purpose onboard processors, has teamed with Applied Signal & Image Technology (ASIT), who has an extensive heritage in HSI, to develop a real-time and intelligent onboard processing (OBP) system to reduce HSI sensor downlink requirements. Our goal is to reduce the downlink requirement by a factor greater than 100, while retaining the necessary spectral fidelity of the sensor data needed to satisfy the many science, military, and intelligence goals of these systems. Our initial spectral compression experiments leverage commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) spectral exploitation algorithms for segmentation, material identification and spectral compression that ASIT has developed. ASIT will also support the modification and integration of this COTS software into the OBP. Other commercially available COTS software for spatial compression will also be employed as part of the overall compression processing sequence. Over the next year elements of a high-performance reconfigurable OBP will be developed to implement proven preprocessing steps that distill the HSI data stream in both spectral and spatial dimensions. The system will intelligently reduce the volume of data that must be stored, transmitted to the ground, and processed while minimizing the loss of information.

Cook, Sid↗

An Automated Approach for Acquiring Onboard Rover Science

Rover traverse distances are increasing at a faster rate than downlink capacity is increasing. As this trend continues, the quantity of data that can be returned to Earth per meter traversed is reduced. The capacity of the rover to collect data, however, remains high. This circumstance leads to an opportunity to increase mission science return by carefully selecting the data with the highest science interest for downlink. We have developed an onboard science analysis technology for increasing science return from missions. Our technology evaluates the geologic data gathered by the rover. This analysis is used to prioritize the data for transmission, so that the data with the highest science value is transmitted to Earth. In addition, the onboard analysis results are used to identify additional science gathering opportunities. A planning and scheduling component of the system enables the rover to take advantage of the identified science opportunity.

Anderson, R. C.↗

Detecting the Use of Intentionally Transmitting Personal Electronic Devices Onboard Commercial Aircraft

The need to detect unauthorized usage of intentionally transmitting portable electronic devices (PEDs) onboard commercial aircraft is growing, while still allowing passengers to use selected unintentionally transmitting devices, such as laptop computers and CD players during non-critical stages of flight. The following paper presents an installed system for detecting PEDs over multiple frequency bands. Additionally, the advantages of a fixed verses mobile system are discussed. While data is presented to cover the frequency range of 20 MHz to 6.5 GHz, special attention was given to the Cellular/PCS bands as well as Bluetooth and the FRS radio bands. Measurement data from both the semi-anechoic and reverberation chambers are then analyzed and correlated with data collected onboard a commercial aircraft to determine the dominant mode of coupling inside the passenger cabin of the aircraft versus distance from the source. As a final check of system feasibility, several PEDs transmission signatures were recorded and compared with the expected levels.

Woods, Randy↗

Realtime Decision Making on EO-1 Using Onboard Science Analysis

Recent autonomy experiments conducted on Earth Observing 1 (EO-1) using the Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment (ASE) flight software has been used to classify key features in hyperspectral images captured by EO-1. Furthermore, analysis is performed by this software onboard EO-1 and then used to modify the operational plan without interaction from the ground. This paper will outline the overall operations concept and provide some details and examples of the onboard science processing, science analysis, and replanning.

Sherwood, Robert↗

Expanding Remote Science Operations Capabilities Onboard the International Space Station

EXPRESS Racks have been supporting payload science operations onboard the International Space Station (ISS) since April of 2001. EXPRESS is an acronym that stands for "EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments to Space Station." This name reflects NASA's focus to simplify the process of manifesting experiments and maximizing scientific research capabilities by providing a robust, remotely operated payload support platform. The EXPRESS Rack System was developed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and built by The Boeing Company in Huntsville, Alabama. Eight EXPRESS racks were built and five are currently onboard the ISS supporting science operations. The design and development of the EXPRESS Rack System is a long story that has been documented in previous publications. This paper briefly describes the facilities used to develop and verify flight software, test operational capabilities. It then traces the advancements made in the operational capabilities of the EXPRESS Racks from the time they were launched on STS-100 through the present. The paper concludes with a description of potential enhancements that will make the EXPRESS racks one of the most advanced and capable remote science platforms ever developed.

Cruzen, Craig A.↗

B-ISBN Onboard Processing Fast Packet Switch Developed

Future satellite communications applications will require a packet-switched onboard satellite processing system to route packets at very high speeds from uplink beams to different downlink beams. The rapid emergence of point-to-multipoint services, and the important role of satellites in a national and global information infrastructure, makes the multicast function essential to a fast packet switch (FPS). NASA Lewis Research Center's Digital System Technology Branch has been studying possible architectures for high-speed onboard-processing satellite systems. As part of this research, COMSAT Laboratories developed a broadband integrated services digital network (B-ISDN) fast packet switch for Lewis that was delivered on December 1994. The fast packet switch consists of eight inputs and eight outputs that can receive and transmit data, respectively, at a rate of 155 Mbps. The switch features multiple priorities (three) and multiple-size (three) satellite virtual cells that are similar to ATM cells in length (52 bytes). In addition, the fast packet switch features a congestion-control algorithm that allows users to set different thresholds for individual destination ports, thus throttling back the traffic from the transmitting port.

Source record↗

The spacecraft onboard interface standardization activity

The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) is an international organization of national space agencies (such as NASA in the United States) that is organized to promote the interchange of space related information. Now, CCSDS is branching out to provide new standards for the interchange of information, and the interconnection of subsystems and devices onboard of a spacecraft. This effort is know as Spacecraft Onboard Interface (SOIF). SOIF will publish standards that will allow for the enhanced reuse of spacecraft equipment and software. SOIF expects that these standards will be well known and used within the space community, and that they will be based on or similar to the well-known Internet protocols. This paper will provide a description of the SOIF work by reviewing this work with three orthogonal views. The first of these views is the Protocol view, which describes the protocols and services that are to be implemented in order to provide the users with the advantages of the SOIF architecture. The second of these views is the Services View, which describes the data communications services that are provided to the users. And finally, the Interoperability view provides a description to users how SOIF can be used to interchange between different spacecraft data busses. This paper will give the reader an excellent introduction to the work of the international SOIF team.

spacecraft interfaces standard interfaces CCSDS↗

The spacecraft onboard interface standardization activity

The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) is an international organization of national space agencies (such as NASA in the United States) that is organized to promote the interchange of space related information. Now, CCSDS is branching out to provide new standards for the interchange of information, and the interconnection of subsystems and devices onboard of a spacecraft. This effort is know as Spacecraft Onboard Interface (SOIF). SOIF will publish standards that will allow for the enhanced reuse of spacecraft equipment and software. SOIF expects that these standards will be well known and used within the space community, and that they will be based on or similar to the well-known Internet protocols. This paper will provide a description of the SOIF work by reviewing this work with three orthogonal views. The first of these views is the Protocol view, which describes the protocols and services that are to be implemented in order to provide the users with the advantages of the SOIF architecture. The second of these views is the Services View, which describes the data communications services that are provided to the users. And finally, the Interoperability view provides a description to users how SOIF can be used to interchange between different spacecraft data busses. This paper will give the reader an excellent introduction to the work of the international SOIF team.

spacecraft interfaces standard interfaces CCSDS↗

Standardization activity for the spacecraft onboard interfaces

The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) is an international organization of national space agencies that is organized to promote theinterchange of space related information. CCSDS is branching out to provide new standards to enhanced reuse of spacecraft equipment and software onboard of a spacecraft. This effort is know as Spacecraft Onboard Interface (SOIF). SOIF expects that these standards will be well used within the space community, and that they will be based on the well-known Internet protocols. This paper will provide a description of the SOIF work by reviewing this work with three orthogonal views. The Services View describes the data communications services that are provided to the users. The Interoperability view provides a description to users on how to use SOIF to interchange between different spacecraft data busses. And finally, the Protocol view, describes the protocols and services that are to be implemented in order to provide the users with the advantages of the SOIF architecture. This paper will give the reader an excellent introduction to the work of the international SOIF team.

Spacecraft interfaces standard interfaces CCSDS↗

Onboard autonomy on the Three Corner Sat mission

In 2003, the student-built three satellite constellation Three Corner Sat (3CS) Mission will demonstrate onboard autonomy including: science data validation and prioritization, mission re-planning, and robust execution. Future observations will be planned onboard based on the quality of aquired science, available memory and power, and anticipated downlinks. These capabilities will allow 3CS to aquire additional science data if resources are available and to return only the highest quality science data.

Planning scheduling autonomy↗

Onboard autonomy on the Three Corner Sat Mission

Three Corner Sat (3CS) is a mission of three university nanosatellites scheduled for launch on September 2002. The 3CS misison will utilize significan onboard autonomy to perform onboard science data validation and replanning.

scheduling planning resources model based systems↗

DEMO: the Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment onboard the EO-1 spacecraft

The Autonomous Sciencececraft Experiment (ASE), currently flying onboard the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) spacecraft, integrates several autnomoy software technologies enabling autnomous science analysis and mission planning. The experiment demonstrates the potential for future space missions to use onboard decision-making to respond autonomously to capture short-lived science phenomena. The AAAI software demonstration will consist of two sections: a real-time display of an ASE-commanded ground contact from the EO-1 spacecraft, and a simulation of the full ASE autonomous science-response scenario.

EO-1 spacecraft↗

The autonomous sciencecraft experiment onboard the EO-1 spacecraft

The Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment (ASE), currently flying onboard the Earth Observing-1 (EO-I) spacecraft, integrates several autonomy software technologies enabling autonomous science analysis and mission planning. The experiment demonstrates the potential for future space missions to use onboard decision-making to respond autonomously to capture short-lived science phenomena. The AAAI software demonstration will consist of two sections: a real-time display of an ASE-commanded ground contact from the EO-1 spacecraft, and a simulation of the full ASE autonomous science-response scenario.

Earth Observatory (EO)↗

Standardized Spacecraft Onboard Interfaces

The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS), an international organization of national space agencies, is branching out to provide new standards to enhanced reuse of onboard spacecraft equipment and software. These Spacecraft Onboard Interface (SOIF) standards will be, in part, based on the well-known Internet protocols. This paper will provide a description of the SOIF work by describing three orthogonal views: the Services View that describes data communications services, the Interoperability view shows how to exchange data and messages between different spacecraft elements, and the Protocol view, that describes the SOIF protocols and services. We will also provide a description of the present state of the services that will be provided to SOIF users, and are the basis of the utility of these standards.

space interfaces↗

Onboard Classifiers for Science Event Detection on a Remote Sensing Spacecraft

Typically, data collected by a spacecraft is downlinked to Earth and pre-processed before any analysis is performed. We have developed classifiers that can be used onboard a spacecraft to identify high priority data for downlink to Earth, providing a method for maximizing the use of a potentially bandwidth limited downlink channel. Onboard analysis can also enable rapid reaction to dynamic events, such as flooding, volcanic eruptions or sea ice break-up. Four classifiers were developed to identify cryosphere events using hyperspectral images. These classifiers include a manually constructed classifier, a Support Vector Machine (SVM), a Decision Tree and a classifier derived by searching over combinations of thresholded band ratios. Each of the classifiers was designed to run in the computationally constrained operating environment of the spacecraft. A set of scenes was hand-labeled to provide training and testing data. Performance results on the test data indicate that the SVM and manual classifiers outperformed the Decision Tree and band-ratio classifiers with the SVM yielding slightly better classifications than the manual classifier.

classification↗

Improved Path Planning Onboard the Mars Exploration Rovers

A revised version of the AutoNav (autonomous navigation with hazard avoidance) software running onboard each Mars Exploration Rover (MER) affords better obstacle avoidance than does the previous version. Both versions include GESTALT (Grid-based Estimation of Surface Traversability Applied to Local Terrain), a navigation program that generates local-terrain models from stereoscopic image pairs captured by onboard rover cameras; uses this information to evaluate candidate arcs that extend across the terrain from the current rover location; ranks the arcs with respect to hazard avoidance, minimization of steering time, and the direction towards the goal; and combines the rankings in a weighted vote to select an arc, along which the rover is then driven. GESTALT works well in navigating around small isolated obstacles, but tends to fail when the goal is on the other side of a large obstacle or multiple closely spaced small obstacles. When that occurs, the goal seeking votes and hazard avoidance votes conflict severely. The hazard avoidance votes will not allow the rover to drive through the unsafe area, and the waypoint votes will not allow enough deviation from the straight-line path for the rover to get around the hazard. The rover becomes stuck and is unable to reach the goal. The revised version of AutoNav utilizes a global path-planning program, Field D*, to evaluate the cost of traveling from the end of each GESTALT arc to the goal. In the voting process, Field D* arc votes supplant GESTALT goal-seeking arc votes. Hazard avoidance, steering bias, and Field D* votes are merged and the rover is driven a preset distance along the arc with the highest vote. Then new images are acquired and the process as described is repeated until the goal is reached. This new technology allows the rovers to autonomously navigate around much more complex obstacle arrangements than was previously possible. In addition, this improved autonomy enables longer traverses per Sol (a day on Mars), and can make planning drives easier for operators on Earth.

Stentz, Anthony↗

Analysis of Noise Exposure Measurements Made Onboard the International Space Station

The International Space Station (ISS) is a unique workplace environment for U.S. astronauts and Russian cosmonauts to conduct research and live for a period of six months or more. Noise has been an enduring environmental physical hazard that has been a challenge for the U.S. space program since before the Apollo era. Noise exposure in ISS poses significant risks to the crewmembers, such as; hearing loss (temporary or permanent), possible disruptions of crew sleep, interference with speech intelligibility and communication, possible interference with crew task performance, and possible reduction in alarm audibility. Acoustic measurements are made aboard ISS and compared to requirements in order to assess the acoustic environment to which the crewmembers are exposed. The purpose of this paper is to describe in detail the noise exposure monitoring program as well as an assessment of the acoustic dosimeter data collected to date. The hardware currently being used for monitoring the noise exposure onboard ISS will be discussed. Acoustic data onboard ISS has been collected since the beginning of ISS (Increment 1, November 2000). Noise exposure data analysis will include acoustic dosimetry logged data from crew-worn during work and sleep periods and also fixed-location measurements from Increment 1 to present day. Noise exposure levels (8-, 16- and 24-hr), LEQ, will also be provided and discussed in this paper. Discussions related to hearing protection will also be included. Future directions and recommendations for the noise exposure monitoring program will be highlighted. This acoustic data is used to ensure a safe and healthy working and living environment for the crewmembers aboard the ISS.

Limardo, Jose G.↗

Innovative Imagery System for Enhanced Habitability Onboard ISS: Desired Features and Possible Hardware Applications

With the advent of the ISS and the experience of Russian, European, and US crewmembers on Mir, the importance of the psychological element in long duration missions is increasingly recognized. An integrated imagery system or Magic Window System could enhance the habitability, performance, and productivity for long term stays in space. Because this is type of system is a new concept for space, functional and technical requirements need to be determined. As part of a three-year project, the functional and technical requirements for an Imagery System onboard the International Space Station (ISS) have been explored. Valuable information was gathered from a survey completed by participants that had been in analog environments (remote/isolated) such as Antarctica, Aquarius, ISS crewmember debriefs, and crew support meetings to identify key functions desired for an integrated Magic Window System. Exercise and medical care activities were identified as areas that could benefit from such a system. It was determined that for exercise, it was worth exploring the concept of displaying a dynamic screen that changes as the crewmember's speed changes while showing physiological measures in a combined display. In terms of enhancing the interfaces for medical care activities, the Magic Window System could show video clips along side procedures for just-in-time training scenarios through a heads-up display. In addition, the portability, usability, and reliability were stressed as important considerations for an integrated system of technologies or Magic Window System. In addition, a review of state-of-the-art screens and other existing technologies such as tablet PCs and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) was conducted and contributed to defining technical requirements and feasibility of systems. Some heuristic evaluations of large displays and PDAs were conducted. Finally, feasibility for implementation onboard ISS has been considered. Currently, specific headset units are undergoing usability testing. The outcome of these activities will be valuable to determine the best candidates for an integrated system that could accommodate different needs depending on task.

Whitmore, Mihriban↗