Results for “hardware and software” — Page 7

NASA NTRS1990

GCS support/development system configuration document

The software programming environment used in the development of Guidance and Control Software (GCS) implementations used in a software error studies experiment conducted by the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) and the NASA-Langley is described. The Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics RTCA/DO-178A guidelines are fulfilled, and requirements for document number 9 in which the hardware, software, and processes used to develop and maintain the software for the GCS project are described. The software programming environment for GCS largely consists of tools that are included in Digital Equipment Corporations software layered product library or are a part of the VAX/VMS baseline system.

Lowman, Douglas S.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Demonstration of a Safety Analysis on a Complex System

For the past 17 years, Professor Leveson and her graduate students have been developing a theoretical foundation for safety in complex systems and building a methodology upon that foundation. The methodology includes special management structures and procedures, system hazard analyses, software hazard analysis, requirements modeling and analysis for completeness and safety, special software design techniques including the design of human-machine interaction, verification, operational feedback, and change analysis. The Safeware methodology is based on system safety techniques that are extended to deal with software and human error. Automation is used to enhance our ability to cope with complex systems. Identification, classification, and evaluation of hazards is done using modeling and analysis. To be effective, the models and analysis tools must consider the hardware, software, and human components in these systems. They also need to include a variety of analysis techniques and orthogonal approaches: There exists no single safety analysis or evaluation technique that can handle all aspects of complex systems. Applying only one or two may make us feel satisfied, but will produce limited results. We report here on a demonstration, performed as part of a contract with NASA Langley Research Center, of the Safeware methodology on the Center-TRACON Automation System (CTAS) portion of the air traffic control (ATC) system and procedures currently employed at the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach CONtrol). CTAS is an automated system to assist controllers in handling arrival traffic in the DFW area. Safety is a system property, not a component property, so our safety analysis considers the entire system and not simply the automated components. Because safety analysis of a complex system is an interdisciplinary effort, our team included system engineers, software engineers, human factors experts, and cognitive psychologists.

Leveson, Nancy↗

NASA NTRS1985

Pilot interaction with automated airborne decision making systems

Progress was made in the three following areas. In the rule-based modeling area, two papers related to identification and significane testing of rule-based models were presented. In the area of operator aiding, research focused on aiding operators in novel failure situations; a discrete control modeling approach to aiding PLANT operators was developed; and a set of guidelines were developed for implementing automation. In the area of flight simulator hardware and software, the hardware will be completed within two months and initial simulation software will then be integrated and tested.

Rouse, W. B.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Initial SVS Integrated Technology Evaluation Flight Test Requirements and Hardware Architecture

This document presents the flight test requirements for the Initial Synthetic Vision Systems Integrated Technology Evaluation flight Test to be flown aboard NASA Langley's ARIES aircraft and the final hardware architecture implemented to meet these requirements. Part I of this document contains the hardware, software, simulator, and flight operations requirements for this light test as they were defined in August 2002. The contents of this section are the actual requirements document that was signed for this flight test. Part II of this document contains information pertaining to the hardware architecture that was realized to meet these requirements as presented to and approved by a Critical Design Review Panel prior to installation on the B-757 Airborne Research Integrated Experiments Systems (ARIES) airplane. This information includes a description of the equipment, block diagrams of the architecture, layouts of the workstations, and pictures of the actual installations.

Harrison, Stella V.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Electronic Design Automation: Integrating the Design and Manufacturing Functions

As the complexity of electronic systems grows, the traditional design practice, a sequential process, is replaced by concurrent design methodologies. A major advantage of concurrent design is that the feedback from software and manufacturing engineers can be easily incorporated into the design. The implementation of concurrent engineering methodologies is greatly facilitated by employing the latest Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools. These tools offer integrated simulation of the electrical, mechanical, and manufacturing functions and support virtual prototyping, rapid prototyping, and hardware-software co-design. This report presents recommendations for enhancing the electronic design and manufacturing capabilities and procedures at JSC based on a concurrent design methodology that employs EDA tools.

Bachnak, Rafic↗

NASA NTRS1975

Engineering studies of vectorcardiographs in blood pressure measuring systems, appendix 1

A small, portable, relatively inexpensive computer system was developed for on-line use in clinical or laboratory situations. The system features an integrated hardware-software package that permits use of all peripherals, such as analog-to-digital converter, oscilloscope, plotter, digital bus, with an interpreter constructed around the BASIC programming language. The system is conceptually similar to the LINC system developed in 1962, but is more compact and powerful due to intervening advances in integrated circuit technology. A description of the hardware of the system was given. A reference manual, user manual, and programming guides were also presented. Finally, a stereo display system for vectorcardiograms was described.

Mark, R. G.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Database for propagation models

A propagation researcher or a systems engineer who intends to use the results of a propagation experiment is generally faced with various database tasks such as the selection of the computer software, the hardware, and the writing of the programs to pass the data through the models of interest. This task is repeated every time a new experiment is conducted or the same experiment is carried out at a different location generating different data. Thus the users of this data have to spend a considerable portion of their time learning how to implement the computer hardware and the software towards the desired end. This situation may be facilitated considerably if an easily accessible propagation database is created that has all the accepted (standardized) propagation phenomena models approved by the propagation research community. Also, the handling of data will become easier for the user. Such a database construction can only stimulate the growth of the propagation research it if is available to all the researchers, so that the results of the experiment conducted by one researcher can be examined independently by another, without different hardware and software being used. The database may be made flexible so that the researchers need not be confined only to the contents of the database. Another way in which the database may help the researchers is by the fact that they will not have to document the software and hardware tools used in their research since the propagation research community will know the database already. The following sections show a possible database construction, as well as properties of the database for the propagation research.

Kantak, Anil V.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Performance Monitoring of Distributed Data Processing Systems

Test and checkout systems are essential components in ensuring safety and reliability of aircraft and related systems for space missions. A variety of systems, developed over several years, are in use at the NASA/KSC. Many of these systems are configured as distributed data processing systems with the functionality spread over several multiprocessor nodes interconnected through networks. To be cost-effective, a system should take the least amount of resource and perform a given testing task in the least amount of time. There are two aspects of performance evaluation: monitoring and benchmarking. While monitoring is valuable to system administrators in operating and maintaining, benchmarking is important in designing and upgrading computer-based systems. These two aspects of performance evaluation are the foci of this project. This paper first discusses various issues related to software, hardware, and hybrid performance monitoring as applicable to distributed systems, and specifically to the TCMS (Test Control and Monitoring System). Next, a comparison of several probing instructions are made to show that the hybrid monitoring technique developed by the NIST (National Institutes for Standards and Technology) is the least intrusive and takes only one-fourth of the time taken by software monitoring probes. In the rest of the paper, issues related to benchmarking a distributed system have been discussed and finally a prescription for developing a micro-benchmark for the TCMS has been provided.

Ojha, Anand K.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Spacewire on Earth orbiting scatterometers

The need for a high speed, reliable and easy to implement communication link has led to the development of a space flight oriented version of IEEE 1355 called SpaceWire. SpaceWire is based on high-speed (200 Mbps) serial point-to-point links using Low Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS). SpaceWIre has provisions for routing messages between a large network of processors, using wormhole routing for low overhead and latency. {additionally, there are available space qualified hybrids, which provide the Link layer to the user's bus}. A test bed of multiple digital signal processor breadboards, demonstrating the ability to meet signal processing requirements for an orbiting scatterometer has been implemented using three Astrium MCM-DSPs, each breadboard consists of a Multi Chip Module (MCM) that combines a space qualified Digital Signal Processor and peripherals, including IEEE-1355 links. With the addition of appropriate physical layer interfaces and software on the DSP, the SpaceWire link is used to communicate between processors on the test bed, e.g. sending timing references, commands, status, and science data among the processors. Results are presented on development issues surrounding the use of SpaceWire in this environment, from physical layer implementation (cables, connectors, LVDS drivers) to diagnostic tools, driver firmware, and development methodology. The tools, methods, and hardware, software challenges and preliminary performance are investigated and discussed.

serial↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Production of Flight Instruments for Multi-Satellite Constellations

Recent National Academy of Science Decadal Surveys in space and Earth-science have called for simultaneous, distributed multi-point measurements in and from space, requiring constellations of small spacecraft. Small satellites have demonstrated their utility for enabling high-quality science measurements and observations. NASA missions have leveraged advances in sensor miniaturization, technology innovations, and new small satellite mission architectures to enable meaningful measurement-based scientific investigations that operate on small satellites and that are responsive to science objectives described in National Academy of Science Decadal Surveys. The advent of high capability small spacecraft enables consideration of science missions involving multiple small spacecraft, constellations of a few or many for simultaneous distributed in situ observations or remote observations from a variety of viewpoints. The central challenge for fielding instrumented space-flight constellations is to provide the required multiple sets of fully verified and calibrated instrument hardware, software, and operational processes from within a one-off project-based scientific space flight culture. Although there are numerous commercial entities providing “off-the shelf” spacecraft and avionics, the challenge lies in the multi-unit production of the uniquely targeted instrumentation necessary to perform the specific measurements required for a particular science investigation. Traditionally, the cost of such instrumentation has represented a significant portion of the hardware cost for a mission and posed the highest risk area for implementation. A shift in paradigm from large science platforms to constellations of smaller satellites drives the challenge to build instruments in a quasi-production environment. This paper describes key aspects of, and challenges encountered in the development program for the successful production of instruments for the Fast-Plasma Investigation (FPI) instrument suite of 64 flight plasma spectrometers and supporting electronics on the NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) 4 satellite constellation mission. Although the MMS mission was not composed of small satellites, there are key aspects of the instrument production that apply directly to constellations of small satellites.

Arthur D Jacques↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Production of Flight Instruments for Multi-Satellite Constellations

Recent National Academy of Science Decadal Surveys in space and Earth-science have called for simultaneous, distributed multi-point measurements in and from space, requiring constellations of small spacecraft. Small satellites have demonstrated their utility for enabling high-quality science measurements and observations. NASA missions have leveraged advances in sensor miniaturization, technology innovations, and new small satellite mission architectures to enable meaningful measurement-based scientific investigations that operate on small satellites and that are responsive to science objectives described in National Academy of Science Decadal Surveys. The advent of high capability small spacecraft enables consideration of science missions involving multiple small spacecraft, constellations of a few or many for simultaneous distributed in situ observations or remote observations from a variety of viewpoints. The central challenge for fielding instrumented space-flight constellations is to provide the required multiple sets of fully verified and calibrated instrument hardware, software, and operational processes from within a one-off project-based scientific space flight culture. Although there are numerous commercial entities providing “off-the shelf” spacecraft and avionics, the challenge lies in the multi-unit production of the uniquely targeted instrumentation necessary to perform the specific measurements required for a particular science investigation. Traditionally, the cost of such instrumentation has represented a significant portion of the hardware cost for a mission and posed the highest risk area for implementation. A shift in paradigm from large science platforms to constellations of smaller satellites drives the challenge to build instruments in a quasi-production environment. This paper describes key aspects of, and challenges encountered in the development program for the successful production of instruments for the Fast-Plasma Investigation (FPI) instrument suite of 64 flight plasma spectrometers and supporting electronics on the NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) 4 satellite constellation mission. Although the MMS mission was not composed of small satellites, there are key aspects of the instrument production that apply directly to constellations of small satellites.

Arthur D Jacques↗

NASA NTRS2018

NASA GSFC Avionics Architectures and Future Directions

NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center (GSFC) employs standard avionics hardware and software architectures. Hardware architectures include GMSA (Goddard Modular Smallsat Architecture), MUSTANG (Modular Unified Space Technology Avionics for Next Generation), SpaceCube. The spaceflight software architecture is based on cFS (Core Flight System). Future driving requirements for avionics architectures include increase sensor data rates, increased onboard processing, autonomous applications, and distributed space missions. Architectural concepts that can meet these requirements include the use of the High Performance Spaceflight Computing (HPSC) Chiplet, employing hybrid computing architectures, and increasing network bandwidths.

architectures↗

NASA NTRS2009

Biomorphic Multi-Agent Architecture for Persistent Computing

A multi-agent software/hardware architecture, inspired by the multicellular nature of living organisms, has been proposed as the basis of design of a robust, reliable, persistent computing system. Just as a multicellular organism can adapt to changing environmental conditions and can survive despite the failure of individual cells, a multi-agent computing system, as envisioned, could adapt to changing hardware, software, and environmental conditions. In particular, the computing system could continue to function (perhaps at a reduced but still reasonable level of performance) if one or more component( s) of the system were to fail. One of the defining characteristics of a multicellular organism is unity of purpose. In biology, the purpose is survival of the organism. The purpose of the proposed multi-agent architecture is to provide a persistent computing environment in harsh conditions in which repair is difficult or impossible. A multi-agent, organism-like computing system would be a single entity built from agents or cells. Each agent or cell would be a discrete hardware processing unit that would include a data processor with local memory, an internal clock, and a suite of communication equipment capable of both local line-of-sight communications and global broadcast communications. Some cells, denoted specialist cells, could contain such additional hardware as sensors and emitters. Each cell would be independent in the sense that there would be no global clock, no global (shared) memory, no pre-assigned cell identifiers, no pre-defined network topology, and no centralized brain or control structure. Like each cell in a living organism, each agent or cell of the computing system would contain a full description of the system encoded as genes, but in this case, the genes would be components of a software genome.

Lodding, Kenneth N.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

X-57 Flight Systems Integration Path

The foundation for a safe and successful flight test of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) X-57 Maxwell all-electric experimental airplane, or any X-Plane, is comprehensive system testing on the ground. This test campaign includes verification and validation (V&V) that the integrated system operates as designed and expected, as well as understanding how the system reacts and responds to failures that can occur during flight by performing failure modes and effects testing (FMET). The aircraft should be in the final flight configuration for these test activities because any modifications, even those that appear insignificant, could affect test outcomes. Although the plan was to perform V&V and FMET testing once the airplane was in the flight configuration, due to multiple component redesigns, concurrent software development, and other problems with on-aircraft testing, the X-57 Maxwell never made it into a full-flight configuration. As a result, a build-up approach was followed to test software and hardware as they became ready in order to continue making progress wherever possible. Using this approach revealed problems with the hardware and software faster than waiting for a full-flight configuration, allowing solutions to be found more quickly and in parallel with other project tasks. Other than unloaded motor testing in a lab setting, the only other test setup was on the airplane itself. On-aircraft testing was preferrable in order to test things as close to a flight configuration as possible but was time consuming due to the requirements for testing on the airplane. To overcome some of the on-aircraft barriers, off-aircraft test configurations, such as the Systems Integration Laboratory (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) setups, were used, but each of these setups had limitations to be considered. As a result, solutions found in the SIL or HIL configurations did not always work as expected on the airplane, resulting in an iterative process between on- and off-aircraft testing to find the final solution. Having a dedicated test platform such as an iron bird that closely represents the aircraft - without flight hardware - would have been the most effective off-aircraft test setup, which could have allowed the project to save time and money and potentially reach flight. This paper will highlight the V&V and FMET considerations and testing prerequisites, the build-up approaches to both software and system testing, the benefits and drawbacks to different test configurations, as well as battery testing and operations.

Kassidy M. Mclaughlin↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

X-57 Flight Systems Integration Path

The foundation for a safe and successful flight test of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) X-57 Maxwell all-electric experimental airplane, or any X-Plane, is comprehensive system testing on the ground. This test campaign includes verification and validation (V&V) that the integrated system operates as designed and expected, as well as understanding how the system reacts and responds to failures that can occur during flight by performing failure modes and effects testing (FMET). The aircraft should be in the final flight configuration for these test activities because any modifications, even those that appear insignificant, could affect test outcomes. Although the plan was to perform V&V and FMET testing once the airplane was in the flight configuration, due to multiple component redesigns, concurrent software development, and other problems with on-aircraft testing, the X-57 Maxwell never made it into a full-flight configuration. As a result, a build-up approach was followed to test software and hardware as they became ready in order to continue making progress wherever possible. Using this approach revealed problems with the hardware and software faster than waiting for a full-flight configuration, allowing solutions to be found more quickly and in parallel with other project tasks. Other than unloaded motor testing in a lab setting, the only other test setup was on the airplane itself. On-aircraft testing was preferrable in order to test things as close to a flight configuration as possible but was time consuming due to the requirements for testing on the airplane. To overcome some of the on-aircraft barriers, off-aircraft test configurations, such as the Systems Integration Laboratory (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) setups, were used, but each of these setups had limitations to be considered. As a result, solutions found in the SIL or HIL configurations did not always work as expected on the airplane, resulting in an iterative process between on- and off-aircraft testing to find the final solution. Having a dedicated test platform such as an iron bird that closely represents the aircraft - without flight hardware - would have been the most effective off-aircraft test setup, which could have allowed the project to save time and money and potentially reach flight. This paper will highlight the V&V and FMET considerations and testing prerequisites, the build-up approaches to both software and system testing, the benefits and drawbacks to different test configurations, as well as battery testing and operations.

Kassidy McLaughlin↗

NASA NTRS2007

Online Remote Sensing Interface

BasinTools Module 1 processes remotely sensed raster data, including multi- and hyper-spectral data products, via a Web site with no downloads and no plug-ins required. The interface provides standardized algorithms designed so that a user with little or no remote-sensing experience can use the site. This Web-based approach reduces the amount of software, hardware, and computing power necessary to perform the specified analyses. Access to imagery and derived products is enterprise-level and controlled. Because the user never takes possession of the imagery, the licensing of the data is greatly simplified. BasinTools takes the "just-in-time" inventory control model from commercial manufacturing and applies it to remotely-sensed data. Products are created and delivered on-the-fly with no human intervention, even for casual users. Well-defined procedures can be combined in different ways to extend verified and validated methods in order to derive new remote-sensing products, which improves efficiency in any well-defined geospatial domain. Remote-sensing products produced in BasinTools are self-documenting, allowing procedures to be independently verified or peer-reviewed. The software can be used enterprise-wide to conduct low-level remote sensing, viewing, sharing, and manipulating of image data without the need for desktop applications.

Lawhead, Joel↗

NASA NTRS2013

IT Security Support for the Spaceport Command Control Systems Development Ground Support Development Operations

Security is one of the most if not the most important areas today. After the several attacks on the United States, security everywhere was heightened from Airports to the communication among the military branches legionnaires. With advanced persistent threats (APTs) on the rise following Stuxnet, government branches and agencies are required, more than ever, to follow several standards, policies and procedures to reduce the likelihood of a breach. Attack vectors today are very advanced and are going to continue to get more and more advanced as security controls advance. This creates a need for networks and systems to be in an updated and secured state in a launch control system environment. FISMA is a law that is mandated by the government to follow when government agencies secure networks and devices. My role on this project is to ensure network devices and systems are in compliance with NIST, as outlined in FISMA. I will achieve this by providing assistance with security plan documentation and collection, system hardware and software inventory, malicious code and malware scanning and configuration of network devices i.e. routers and IDSsIPSs. In addition I will be completing security assessments on software and hardware, vulnerability assessments and reporting, conducting patch management and risk assessments. A guideline that will help with compliance with NIST is the SANS Top 20 Critical Controls. SANS Top 20 Critical Controls as well as numerous security tools, security software and the conduction of research will be used to successfully complete the tasks given to me. This will ensure compliance with FISMA and NIST, secure systems and a secured network. By the end of this project, I hope to have carried out stated above as well as gain an immense knowledge about compliance, security tools, networks and network devices, policies and procedures.

computer information security↗

NASA NTRS2014

IT Security Support for the Spaceport Command Control Systems Development Ground Support Development Operations

Security is one of the most if not the most important areas today. After the several attacks on the United States, security everywhere has heightened from airports to the communication among the military branches legionnaires. With advanced persistent threats (APT's) on the rise following Stuxnet, government branches and agencies are required, more than ever, to follow several standards, policies and procedures to reduce the likelihood of a breach. Attack vectors today are very advanced and are going to continue to get more and more advanced as security controls advance. This creates a need for networks and systems to be in an updated and secured state in a launch control system environment. FISMA is a law that is mandated by the government to follow when government agencies secure networks and devices. My role on this project is to ensure network devices and systems are in compliance with NIST, as outlined in FISMA. I will achieve this by providing assistance with security plan documentation and collection, system hardware and software inventory, malicious code and malware scanning, and configuration of network devices i.e. routers and IDS's/IPS's. In addition, I will be completing security assessments on software and hardware, vulnerability assessments and reporting, and conducting patch management and risk assessments. A guideline that will help with compliance with NIST is the SANS Top 20 Critical Controls. SANS Top 20 Critical Controls as well as numerous security tools, security software and the conduction of research will be used to successfully complete the tasks given to me. This will ensure compliance with FISMA and NIST, secure systems and a secured network. By the end of this project, I hope to have carried out the tasks stated above as well as gain an immense knowledge about compliance, security tools, networks and network devices, as well as policies and procedures.

security↗