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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A HIRF-Map Certification Approach for UAM, AAM, and UAS Vehicles

Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), Urban Air Mobility (UAM), and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) vehicles will fly in airspace similar to Transport Category Rotorcraft, requiring them to meet stringent requirements for High-Intensity Radiated Fields (HIRF) certification. The environment is notably severe, particularly compared to fixed-wing aircraft, due to operations at lower altitudes. This potentially exposes the vehicles to high-power transmitters on the ground, leading to significant challenges. High-level HIRF exposure can result in avionic system upsets, interference, and undesirable effects. Shielding and circuit protection against HIRF pose significant barriers concerning size, weight, and cost, especially for emerging electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) and electric short take-off and landing (eSTOL) vehicles. This paper proposes a novel HIRF protection approach, aiming to reduce costs by certifying vehicles to a "vehicle tolerance level" lower than that required for Transport Category Rotorcraft. The remaining protection is achieved by maintaining a safe distance from known HIRF sources. This distance is calculated based on the vehicle's tolerance level and transmitter characteristics, such as transmit power, antenna beamwidth, and direction. Tailored flight maps are developed to identify transmitters and avoidance zones within an operating area or along a flight path, enabling restricted vehicle operations. Vehicles with higher tolerance levels could have smaller HIRF avoidance zones, allowing them to operate closer to transmitters. Transmitter data are sourced from government databases, such as those of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A map tool is developed using Matlab to calculate and visualize HIRF avoidance zones based on available databases. The tool determines stand-off distances based on input vehicle tolerance levels, displaying results on various base maps depicting HIRF-restricted areas. Illustrations cover various FCC transmitters, including AM/FM/TV transmitters, satellite earth stations, and NOAA weather radars. The HIRF zones of smaller transmitters, such as land-mobile radios, pagers, microwave links, and cellular towers, are also illustrated. An example of flight planning around transmitters is provided. For now, airports and government-owned lands are excluded due to limited access to sensitive transmitter data. Despite this approach, a minimum HIRF tolerance level for vehicles may still be necessary to cover mobile devices, cellular base stations, transmitters on other AAM vehicles, and other small power devices not included in the FCC databases. The paper discusses findings and areas for improving existing databases and suggests an approach for better access to sanitized data in more restricted government databases. This method significantly deviates from the standard approach and introduces slightly higher flight-planning complexity. However, the potential cost savings are considerable. Future AAM/UAM/UAS aeronautical charts could potentially incorporate these new HIRF avoidance zones. Keywords—HIRF; Map; AAM; UAM; UAS; Advanced Air Mobility; Urban Air Mobility; Unmanned Aerial Systems; Certification.

HIRF↗

NASA NTRS1987

The theory of ionospheric focused heating

Ionospheric modification by high power radio waves and by chemical releases are combined in a theoretical study of ionospheric focused heating. The release of materials which promote electron-ion recombination creates a hole in the bottomside ionosphere. The ionospheric hole focuses high power radio waves from a ground-based transmitter to give a 20 dB or greater enhancement in power density. The intense radio beam excites atomic oxygen by collisions with accelerated electrons. Airglow from the excited oxygen provides a visible trace of the focused beam. The large increase in the intensity of the radio beam stimulates new wave-plasma interactions. Numerical simulations show that the threshold for the two-plasmon decay instability is exceeded. The interaction of the pump electromagnetic wave with the backward plasmon produces a scattered electromagnetic wave at 3/2 the pump frequency. The scattered wave provides a unique signature of the two-plasmon decay process for ground-based detection.

Bernhardt, P. A.↗

NASA NTRS2007

Advances in Ground Transmitters for the NASA Deep Space Network

The Deep Space Network (DSN), managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA, is equipped with multiple microwave transmitters ranging in average radiated power from 200 W to 400 kW. The transmitters are used for routine or emergency communication with spacecraft, for navigation, and for radio science tasks. The latest advances in transmitter engineering were implemented in a new generation of 20-kW dual-band transmitters developed for the DSN 34-m beam waveguide antennas. Innovations include additional X-band communication capability for near Earth missions, new control algorithms, automated calibration, improved and expanded computerized monitoring and diagnostics, reduced cabling, and improved maintainability. The innovations were very beneficial for the DSN 'overload' during the Mars 2003/2004 missions and will benefit other missions throughout the next decade. This paper describes the current design of the new transmitters and possible future developments.

microwaves↗

NASA NTRS1980

Heart rate, multiple body temperature, long-range and long-life telemetry system for free-ranging animals

The design details and rationale for a versatile, long-range, long-life telemetry data acquisition system for heart rates and body temperatures at multiple locations from free-ranging animals are presented. The design comprises an implantable transmitter for short to medium range transmission, a receiver retransmitter collar to be worn for long-range transmission, and a signal conditioner interface circuit to assist in signal discrimination and demodulation of receiver or tape-recorded audio outputs. Implanted electrodes are used to obtain an ECG, from which R-wave characteristics are selected to trigger a short RF pulse. Pulses carrying heart rate information are interrupted periodically by a series of pulse interval modulated RF pulses conveying temperature information sensed at desired locations by thermistors. Pulse duration and pulse sequencing are used to discriminate between heart rate and temperature pulses as well as radio frequency interference. The implanted transmitter may be used alone for medium and short-range tracking, or with a receiver-transmitter collar that employs commercial tracking equipment for transmissions of up to 12 km. A system prototype has been tested on a dog.

Lund, G. F.↗

NASA NTRS1977

A study of satellite emergency locator systems

Satellite emergency locator systems were studied. The objective of the study was to determine the feasibility and hardware requirements for satellite systems capable of identifying and locating the position emergency locator transmitters and emergency position indicating radio beacons. Both geosynchronous and near-polar-orbiting satellites were considered. One of the most important aspects of the study was to minimize the cost of the hardware required.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1982

Impact-Energized Transmitter

Impact-induced strain in piezoelectric ceramic could power a short-range transmitter. Proposed impact-energized radio transmission would eliminate the need for external power sources for batteries, which are often short lived and impractical to replace under operating conditions. Piezoelectric ceramic attached to impact head supplies energy to drive resonant circuit and antenna. Receiver tuned to resonant frequency receives short pulse.

Broussard, P. H. J.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Concurrent communication among multi-transceiver stations over shared media

In order to increase a local-area network's throughput beyond a single bus data rate without using dedicated switching nodes, multiple buses and multitransceiver stations are required. The design space of single-hop interconnections is explored among such stations. Interconnections are presented whose throughput can grow quadratically with the number of transmitters and receivers per station. These are referred to as selective broadcast interconnections (SBIs). The performance of various SBIs are studied. A spread-spectrum channel can accommodate several current successful transmission, and a single-transceiver node can thus utilize only a small fraction of the channel capacity. In order to allocate the appropriate fraction of capacity to a busy node, it is proposed to equip it with several transmitters and receivers, thereby turning it into a supernode. Several architectures and operation policies for supernodes are suggested and compared. It is shown that a supernode can significantly outperform a collection of independent conventional nodes with the same total numbers of transmitters and receivers. Packet-radio networks with half-duplex nodes, as well as networks with full-duplex nodes, are considered.

Birk, Yitzhak↗

NASA NTRS2018

Radio Science System Design and Measurement Results for the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN)

Radio science measurements have been performed using the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) with many different spacecraft over several decades. Radio science has been used for the study of planetary atmospheres, the solar corona and the search for gravity waves, among other things. The majority of these measurements are made using the X and Ka-band deep space bands. Although the primary mission for the DSN is tracking, telemetry and command (TT&C) for NASA’s many deep-space spacecraft, radio science measurements continue to be an important secondary mission. The science requirements for these measurements have resulted in stringent performance requirements for both the spacecraft and ground system equipment. In particular, the requirements for amplitude stability, phase stability (Allen deviation) and phase noise are very demanding. The system Allen deviation requirement at Ka-band is < 2.4 E-15 over 1000 seconds, while the phase noise requirement is < -50 dBc/Hz for a 1 Hz offset. Various design techniques have been used for the DSN radio frequency (RF) electronics, high power transmitters and antenna structures to meet the stringent requirements for all 3 of these parameters. Some details for the design techniques will be described in the paper. Another important consideration for a radio science system is the verification approach for components, as well as for individual subsystems and then the overall system. Phase-locked oscillators (PLOs) are one of the key component types that determine overall phase noise and Allen deviation system performance. Measurement techniques used for PLOs, as well as for the overall ground system, will be discussed. Measurement results for the 2 new DSN antennas, recently built under the DSN Aperture Enhancement Project (DAEP) will also be shown. In addition, some recent radio science measurements from the Cassini and JUNO missions, using the new antennas, will be presented.

LaBelle, Remi C.↗

NASA NTRS1978

The search and rescue satellite mission - A basis for international cooperation

The use of geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites to monitor and locate signals of the Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) and Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIB) of general aviation aircraft and inspected marine vessels respectively is described. The joint U.S. Canada/France SARSAT demonstration program will require a minimum of four minutes of mutual visibility of distress transmitter, local user terminal and satellite to obtain a location by Doppler tracking. The program consisting of placing instrumentation on-board three of the Tiros-N series of NOAA operational satellites is attracting interest also from other countries including the USSR, Norway, Australia, and Japan.

Redisch, W. N.↗

NASA NTRS1958

Microlock- a minimum weight radio instrumentation system for a satellite

The design, construction and laboratory testing of a satellite tracking system are described. The tracking mechanism employs a low power, lightweight flight transmitter in conjunction with a receiving system of advanced design. The flight transmitter will radiate 3 mw for three months and will provide two narrow hand telemetering channels in a unit having a total weight of 2 lb. The ground receiving equipment is capable of acquiring and tracking the beacon signal at a line-of-sight distance of 3000 miles and at any azimuth and elevation angle. Interferometer antennas could he used to determine the angular position of the satellite with an accuracy of one milliradian, which is equivalent to approximately ±0.04 sec in the determination of the period.

Earth Satellites↗

NASA NTRS2013

Closed-Loop Analysis of Soft Decisions for Serial Links

We describe the benefit of using closed-loop measurements for a radio receiver paired with a counterpart transmitter. We show that real-time analysis of the soft decision output of a receiver can provide rich and relevant insight far beyond the traditional hard-decision bit error rate (BER) test statistic. We describe a Soft Decision Analyzer (SDA) implementation for closed-loop measurements on single- or dual- (orthogonal) channel serial data communication links. The analyzer has been used to identify, quantify, and prioritize contributors to implementation loss in live-time during the development of software defined radios. This test technique gains importance as modern receivers are providing soft decision symbol synchronization as radio links are challenged to push more data and more protocol overhead through noisier channels, and software-defined radios (SDRs) use error-correction codes that approach Shannon's theoretical limit of performance.

Lansdowne, Chatwin A.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Soft Decision Analyzer

Lansdowne, Chatwin↗

NASA NTRS2005

UWB EMI To Aircraft Radios: Field Evaluation on Operational Commercial Transport Airplanes

Ultrawideband (UWB) transmitters may soon be integrated into a wide variety of portable electronic devices (PEDs) that passengers routinely carry on board commercial airplanes. Airlines and the FAA will have difficulty controlling passenger use of UWB transmitters during flights with current airline policies and existing wireless product standards. The aeronautical community is concerned as to whether evolving FCC UWB rules are adequate to protect legacy and emerging aeronautical radio systems from electromagnetic interference (EMI) from emerging UWB products. To address these concerns, the NASA Office of Space Communications and Chief Spectrum Managers assembled a multidisciplinary team from NASA LaRC, NASA JPL, NASA ARC, FAA, United Airlines, Sky West Airlines, and Eagles Wings Inc. to carry out a comprehensive series of tests aimed at determining the nature and extent of any EMI to aeronautical communication and navigation systems from UWB devices meeting FCCapproved and proposed levels for unlicensed handheld transmitters.

Oria, A. J.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Emergency-Radio Modulation Would Identify Type of Vehicle

New emergency beacon similar to conventional one, except modulation interrupted periodically while unmodulated carrier is transmitted. Modulation scheme for emergency radio beacons aids searchers by indicating kind of vehicle in distress. Transmitted signal similar to present standard signal of emergency locator transmitters (ELT's) and emergency position-indicating radio beacons (EPIRB's) but also includes periods of unmodulated carrier.

Wren, Paul↗

NASA NTRS1986

A directed search for extraterrestrial laser signals

This paper analyzes the technical feasibility of interstellar communication at infrared frequencies, both in its own right and in comparison with communication at radio frequencies. The analysis considers both the practical and fundamental limits affecting communication over interstellar distances and concludes that for specified transmitter and receiver locations communications at infrared and radio frequencies can be equally effective. On this basis a search for extraterrestrial signals at infrared wavelengths is equally as valid as any planned microwave effort. Work is now in progress to adapt a 10 micrometers heterodyne spectrometer to search for CO2 laser signals from 200 nearby stars.

NASA Discipline Exobiology↗

NASA NTRS2013

Demonstration of Space Optical Transmitter Development for Multiple High Frequency Bands

As the demand for multiple radio frequency carrier bands continues to grow in space communication systems, the design of a cost-effective compact optical transmitter that is capable of transmitting selective multiple RF bands is of great interest, particularly for NASA Space Communications Network Programs. This paper presents experimental results that demonstrate the feasibility of a concept based on an optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technique that enables multiple microwave bands with different modulation formats and bandwidths to be combined and transmitted all in one unit, resulting in many benefits to space communication systems including reduced size, weight and complexity with corresponding savings in cost. Experimental results will be presented including the individual received RF signal power spectra for the L, C, X, Ku, Ka, and Q frequency bands, and measurements of the phase noise associated with each RF frequency. Also to be presented is a swept RF frequency power spectrum showing simultaneous multiple RF frequency bands transmission. The RF frequency bands in this experiment are among those most commonly used in NASA space environment communications.

Nguyen, Hung↗

NASA NTRS1987

Power density measurements in the near field of the DSS 13 26-meter antenna

Power density measurements were made at Deep Space Station (DSS) 13 in the near field of the 26-m antenna to determine if radio frequency (rf) fields generated by the 20-kW transmitters could be responsible for the failure of three solid state rf amplifiers. These amplifiers are used in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Radio Spectrum Surveillance System, which is currently located at the site. Measurements were made independently for one transmitter at 7150 MHz, and both transmitters together. Measurement results are tabulated and compared with predicted power densities under the measurement conditions. The results agree with the predictions within a factor of two. The predictions appear to give worst case values. Measurements indicated that amplifier failures are not attributable to the transmitter.

Jackson, E. B.↗

NASA NTRS1978

Human arm may act as antenna

Wrist strap with copper strips is used as coupler of radio-frequency energy. Wires at midpoints of strips lead to radio-frequency device that acts as transmitter or receiver. Varying widths of copper strips produces somewhat different characteristics.

Gaddie, J. C.↗