Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “ISA”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 145 records · Page 8

Curation of Microscopic Astromaterials by NASA: "Gathering Dust Since 1981"

Employing the philosophy that "Small is Beautiful", NASA has been collecting and curating microscopic astromaterials since 1981. These active collections now include interplanetary dust collected in Earth's stratosphere by U-2, ER-2 and WB-57F aircraft (the Cosmic Dust Program - our motto is "Gathering dust since 1981"), comet Wild-2 coma dust (the Stardust Mission), modern interstellar dust (also the Stardust Mission), asteroid Itokawa regolith dust (the Hayabusa Mission - joint curation with JAXA-ISAS), and interplanetary dust impact features on recovered portions of the following spacecraft: Skylab, the Solar Maximum Satellite, the Palapa Satellite, the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), the MIR Space Station, the International Space Station, and the Hubble Space Telescope (all in the Space Exposed Hardware Laboratory).

Frank, D. R.↗

NASA System Safety Handbook. Volume 2: System Safety Concepts, Guidelines, and Implementation Examples

This is the second of two volumes that collectively comprise the NASA System Safety Handbook. Volume 1 (NASASP-210-580) was prepared for the purpose of presenting the overall framework for System Safety and for providing the general concepts needed to implement the framework. Volume 2 provides guidance for implementing these concepts as an integral part of systems engineering and risk management. This guidance addresses the following functional areas: 1.The development of objectives that collectively define adequate safety for a system, and the safety requirements derived from these objectives that are levied on the system. 2.The conduct of system safety activities, performed to meet the safety requirements, with specific emphasis on the conduct of integrated safety analysis (ISA) as a fundamental means by which systems engineering and risk management decisions are risk-informed. 3.The development of a risk-informed safety case (RISC) at major milestone reviews to argue that the systems safety objectives are satisfied (and therefore that the system is adequately safe). 4.The evaluation of the RISC (including supporting evidence) using a defined set of evaluation criteria, to assess the veracity of the claims made therein in order to support risk acceptance decisions.

Safety Case↗

Reconfigurable Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) Processor

Future NASA missions will depend on radiation-hardened, power-efficient processing systems-on-a-chip (SOCs) that consist of a range of processor cores custom tailored for space applications. Aries Design Automation, LLC, has developed a processing SOC that is optimized for software-defined radio (SDR) uses. The innovation implements the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) RazorII voltage management technique, a microarchitectural mechanism that allows processor cores to self-monitor, self-analyze, and selfheal after timing errors, regardless of their cause (e.g., radiation; chip aging; variations in the voltage, frequency, temperature, or manufacturing process). This highly automated SOC can also execute legacy PowerPC 750 binary code instruction set architecture (ISA), which is used in the flight-control computers of many previous NASA space missions. In developing this innovation, Aries Design Automation has made significant contributions to the fields of formal verification of complex pipelined microprocessors and Boolean satisfiability (SAT) and has developed highly efficient electronic design automation tools that hold promise for future developments.

Velev, Miroslav N.↗

High Leverage Technologies for In-Space Assembly of Complex Structures

In-space assembly (ISA), the ability to build structures in space, has the potential to enable or support a wide range of advanced mission capabilities. Many different individual assembly technologies would be needed in different combinations to serve many mission concepts. The many-to-many relationship between mission needs and technologies makes it difficult to determine exactly which specific technologies should receive priority for development and demonstration. Furthermore, because enabling technologies are still immature, no realistic, near-term design reference mission has been described that would form the basis for flowing down requirements for such development and demonstration. This broad applicability without a single, well-articulated mission makes it difficult to advance the technology all the way to flight readiness. This paper reports on a study that prioritized individual technologies across a broad field of possible missions to determine priority for future technology investment.

Hamill, Doris↗

GeneLab Phase 2: Integrated Search Data Federation of Space Biology Experimental Data

The GeneLab project is a science initiative to maximize the scientific return of omics data collected from spaceflight and from ground simulations of microgravity and radiation experiments, supported by a data system for a public bioinformatics repository and collaborative analysis tools for these data. The mission of GeneLab is to maximize the utilization of the valuable biological research resources aboard the ISS by collecting genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic (so-called omics) data to enable the exploration of the molecular network responses of terrestrial biology to space environments using a systems biology approach. All GeneLab data are made available to a worldwide network of researchers through its open-access data system. GeneLab is currently being developed by NASA to support Open Science biomedical research in order to enable the human exploration of space and improve life on earth. Open access to Phase 1 of the GeneLab Data Systems (GLDS) was implemented in April 2015. Download volumes have grown steadily, mirroring the growth in curated space biology research data sets (61 as of June 2016), now exceeding 10 TB/month, with over 10,000 file downloads since the start of Phase 1. For the period April 2015 to May 2016, most frequently downloaded were data from studies of Mus musculus (39) followed closely by Arabidopsis thaliana (30), with the remaining downloads roughly equally split across 12 other organisms (each 10 of total downloads). GLDS Phase 2 is focusing on interoperability, supporting data federation, including integrated search capabilities, of GLDS-housed data sets with external data sources, such as gene expression data from NIHNCBIs Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), proteomic data from EBIs PRIDE system, and metagenomic data from Argonne National Laboratory's MG-RAST. GEO and MG-RAST employ specifications for investigation metadata that are different from those used by the GLDS and PRIDE (e.g., ISA-Tab). The GLDS Phase 2 system will implement a Google-like, full-text search engine using a Service-Oriented Architecture by utilizing publicly available RESTful web services Application Programming Interfaces (e.g., GEO Entrez Programming Utilities) and a Common Metadata Model (CMM) in order to accommodate the different metadata formats between the heterogeneous bioinformatics databases. GLDS Phase 2 completion with fully implemented capabilities will be made available to the general public in September 2017.

Space Biology↗

The ASTRO-H SXT Performance to the Large Off-Set Angles

The X-ray astronomy satellite ASTRO-H, which is the 6th Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite and is renamed Hitomi after launch, is designed to observe celestial X-ray objects in a wide energy band from a few hundred eV to 600 keV. The Soft X-ray Telescopes (SXTs) onboard ASTRO-H play a role of collecting and imaging X-rays up to approximately 12 keV. Although the field of view of the SXT is approximately 15' (FWHM), due to the thin-foil-nested Wolter-I type optics adopted in the SXTs, X-rays out of the field of view can reach the focal plane without experiencing a normal double reflection. This component is referred to as 'stray light'. Owing to investigation of the stray light so far, 'secondary reflection' is now identified as the main component of the stray light, which is composed of X-rays reflected only by secondary reflectors. In order to cut the secondary reflections, a 'pre-collimator' is equipped on top of the SXTs. However, we cannot cut all the stray lights with the pre-collimator in some off-axis angle domain. In this study, we measure the brightness of the stray light of the SXTs at some representative off-axis angles by using the ISAS X-ray beam line. ASTRO-H is equipped with two modules of the SXT; one is for the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS), an X-ray calorimeter, and the other is for the Soft X-ray Imager (SXI), an X-ray CCD camera. These SXT modules are called SXT-S and SXT-I, respectively. Of the two detector systems, the SXI has a large field of view, a square with 38' on a side. To cope with this, we have made a mosaic mapping of the stray light at a representative off-axis angle of 30' in the X-ray beam line at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science. The effective area of the brightest secondary reflection is found of order approximately 0.1% of the on-axis effective area at the energy of 1.49 keV. The other components are not so bright (less than 5 x 10(exp -4) times smaller than the on-axis effective area). On the other hand, we have found that the effective area of the stray light in the SXS field of view (approximately 3' x 3') at large off-axis angles (greater than 15') are approximately 1(exp -4) times smaller than the on-axis effective area (approximately 590 sq cm at 1.49 keV).

X-rays↗

Orbit Determination Strategy and Simulation Performance for OSIRIS-REx Proximity Operations

The Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRISREx)is a NASA New Frontiers mission to the near-earth asteroid Bennu that will rendez vousin 2018, create a comprehensive and detailed set of observations over several years, collect a regolith sample, and return the sample to Earth in 2023. The Orbit Determination (OD) team isa sub-section of the Flight Dynamics System responsible for generating precise reconstructions and predictions of the spacecraft trajectory. The OD team processes radiometric data, LIDAR, as well as center-finding and landmark-based Optical Navigation images throughout the proximity operations phase to estimate and predict the spacecraft location within several meters. Stringent knowledge requirements stress the OD teams concept of operations and procedures to produce verified and consistent high quality solutions for observation planning, maneuver planning, and onboard sequencing. This paper will provide insight into the OD concept of operations and summarize the OD performance expected during the approach and early proximity operation phases,based on our pre-encounter knowledge of Bennu. Strategies and methods used to compare and evaluate predicted and reconstructed solutions are detailed. The use of high fidelity operational tests during early 2017 will stress the teams concept of operations and ability to produce precise OD solutions with minimal turn-around delay.

Leonard, Jason M.↗

Estimating Alpine Snow Depth by Combining Multi-Frequency Passive Radiance Observations with Ensemble Snowpack Modeling

This paper presents a physically-based snow depth retrieval algorithm adapted for deep mountainous snowpack and airborne multifrequency (10.7, 18.7, 37.0 and 89.0 GHz) passive microwave (PM) radiance observations from a single flight. The algorithm employs a single forecast-analysis cycle of a traditional sequential assimilation scheme. It uses an ensemble of multi-layer snowpack model runs to resolve snow microstructure and melt-refreeze crusts, andmicrowave radiative transfer models to relate snow properties to microwave measurements.Snow depth was retrieved at a 120 m spatial resolution over three 1 km2 Intensive Study Area (ISA) within the Rabbit Ears Meso-Cell Study Area (MSA) from the NASA Cold Land Processes Experiment (CLPX) in Colorado (United States) for one date in February 2003. When evaluated against in situ observations, root mean square error (RMSE) of the snow depth from the assimilation was 13.3 cm for areas with low (<5 %) forest cover, which was a reduction of 48 % in the RMSE compared with the modeled snow depth when the PM observations were not assimilated; indicating a ~5% relative error of the posterior snow depth with respect to the average snow depth (200 cm) measured at these pixels. For pixels with forest cover ranging from 5-15% and 15-30%, results were improved (R2 increased from 0.65 to 0.71 and from 0 to 0.38, respectively) by introducing a forest radiative transfer model during the assimilation.

Airborne Multifrequency↗

Infrared Telescopes: An Invaluable Resource to Unravel the Mysteries of the Universe

Infrared telescopes are a powerful tool to probe a wide range of environments in the universe in order to understand how galaxies evolved over billions of years, how stars and planets form, and how life came to be. Observing in the infrared enables detecting the faint heat signals emitted by these far-distant objects, providing unique insights into the physical processes leading to the evolution of the universe and its contents.This presentation will provide an overview of some of the NASA missions under development, which aim to design, build and operate state-of-the art telescopes to address such scientific questions. Emphasis will be given to the James Webb Space Telescope, the technological challenges encountered during its realization and the countless spin-offs it has generated, which benefit life on Earth every day. My specific contributions to this project, as well as those from some ISAE-SUPAERO students who have worked with me, will be briefly highlighted.

Cataldo, Giuseppe↗

Persistent Assets in Zero-G and on Planetary Surfaces: Enabled by Modular Technology and Robotic Operations

Space operations are on the cusp of a revolutionary new operational paradigm that leverages modular systems and recurring robotic visits to “Persistent Assets” enabling asset maintenance, repair, and enhancement. A “Persistent Asset” is defined here as any zero-g or planetary surface system that benefits from in-space assembly (ISA) or multiple visits for servicing, repairs, and upgrades. This term is an extension of the term “Persistent Platform” used by Ms. Pam Melroy at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to describe the vision of the Agency for a geosynchronous Earth orbiting platform. In this paper, the term “Persistent Asset” is introduced to encompass not only zero-g systems; such as telecommunication platforms, Earth observing science platform, Department of Defense platforms, and scientific telescope systems, but also planetary surface systems that support missions such as human outposts, science stations, and in-situ resource utilization systems. In contrast to the current state of the art, where space systems are typically launched as a single unit and operated without any further physical intervention after launch; future systems will be maintained, enhanced and reconfigured in-situ as new technology becomes available or mission needs change. Visits to the persistent asset can be regularly scheduled or dictated by funding constraints enabling a pay-as-you-go approach, which is largely independent of time-constraints and able to exploit launches of opportunity. In this paper, historical in-space assembly activities which relied heavily on astronaut extra-vehicular activity will be reviewed as well as early robotic assembly activities. These approaches will be contrasted with emerging modular approaches supporting realization of a new Persistent Asset operational paradigm. The paper will define attributes of the Persistent Asset paradigm and illustrate advantages by applying the paradigm to two relevant applications: 1) a large space telescope backing structure and 2) the backbone structure for a solar electric transport vehicle. Finally, recently developed unique Persistent Asset elements (modules, and interface approaches) will be described.

Doggett, William R.↗

Persistent Assets in Zero-G and on Planetary Surfaces: Enabled by Modular Technology and Robotic Operations

Space operations are on the cusp of a revolutionary new operational paradigm that leverages modular systems and recurring robotic visits to “Persistent Assets” enabling asset maintenance, repair, and enhancement. A “Persistent Asset” is defined here as any zero-g or planetary surface system that benefits from in-space assembly (ISA) or multiple visits for servicing, repairs, and upgrades. This term is an extension of the term “Persistent Platform” used by Ms. Pam Melroy at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to describe the vision of the Agency for a geosynchronous Earth orbiting platform. In this paper, the term “Persistent Asset” is introduced to encompass not only zero-g systems; such as telecommunication platforms, Earth observing science platform, Department of Defense platforms, and scientific telescope systems, but also planetary surface systems that support missions such as human outposts, science stations, and in-situ resource utilization systems. In contrast to the current state of the art, where space systems are typically launched as a single unit and operated without any further physical intervention after launch; future systems will be maintained, enhanced and reconfigured in-situ as new technology becomes available or mission needs change. Visits to the persistent asset can be regularly scheduled or dictated by funding constraints enabling a pay-as-you-go approach, which is largely independent of time-constraints and able to exploit launches of opportunity. In this paper, historical in-space assembly activities which relied heavily on astronaut extra-vehicular activity will be reviewed as well as early robotic assembly activities. These approaches will be contrasted with emerging modular approaches supporting realization of a new Persistent Asset operational paradigm. The paper will define attributes of the Persistent Asset paradigm and illustrate advantages by applying the paradigm to two relevant applications: 1) a large space telescope backing structure and 2) the backbone structure for a solar electric transport vehicle. Finally, recently developed unique Persistent Asset elements (modules, and interface approaches) will be described.

William R Doggett↗

TPSAS-NF1676L-35628-DND

CHARISMA responds to the Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science (CAPS)'s recommendation to study a large/medium-class dedicated space telescope for planetary science. We are nearing the end of the Hubble Space Telescope lifetime, at which point the continuity of solar system UV measurements will be lost. Scientific objectives critically dependent on UV capabilities include studies of exospheric and auroral emissions in planetary atmospheres and plumes. CHARISMA will also revolutionize our understanding of time-dependent phenomena in our solar system currently not supported by programs intended to observe and visit new targets. The time-domain phenomena to be explored by CHARISMA include interaction of planetary magnetospheres with the solar wind, Venus and giant planet atmospheric dynamics, icy satellite geologic activity and surface evolution, cometary evolution, and evolving ring phenomena. CHARISMA also enables a comprehensive survey of the spectral characterization of minor bodies across the solar system, which requires a large time allocation not supported by existing facilities. CHARISMA will examine the benefits of advanced in-Space Assembly (iSA) technologies that enable a 10-m class aperture at New-Frontiers cost. CHARISMA will have the greatest impacts on science objectives particularly sensitive to dynamically evolving phenomena.

C L Young↗

Clementine Engineering Experiments Program.

Spacecraft must survive and operate reliably in the space environment for long periods of time. Radiation, temperature variations, spacecraft charging, surface contamination, and micrometeoroids/space debris all present environmental challenges to spacecraft missions. The environmental issues associated with these effects require in-situ space experiments to properly quantify the environment and its effects. To obtain data on specific microelectronic and sensor systems in the space environment, several engineering experiments were developed for the Clementine spacecraft and the Clementine lunar transfer booster or Interstage Adapter Satellite (ISAS). These platforms allowed testing of advanced spacecraft microelectronic and sensor devices in a lunar transfer orbit that intersects Earth's radiation belts and debris environment and in interplanetary space where direct exposure to solar flares, Galactic Cosmic Rays, and micrometeoroids was possible. A suite of experiments was developed by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), the Aerospace Corporation, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to investigate in detail specific radiation and environmental reliability issues. This paper presents an introduction to the issues being investigated, the instruments provided for the mission, and the rationale for the engineering program.

Spacecraft↗

The MUSES CN Rover and Asteroid Exploration Mission

NASA and Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) have agreed to cooperate on the first mission to collect samples from the surface of an asteroid and return them to Earth for in-dept study.

asteroid↗

Orbit Determination of Hiten for Insertion into Lunar Orbit

On Feb. 15, 1992 the HITEN spacecraft was inserted into orbit about the Moon. HITEN was launched on 24 January 1990, by Japan's Institute for Space and Astronautic Science (ISAS) and traversed the Earth's geotail region survived two aerobraking passes in the Earth's atmosphere (March 1991), and visited the regions near the Earth-Moon.

Hiten↗

Hiten Mission

The Hiten mission (formerly the MUSES-A) was the first space engineering experimental satellite of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) and was launched from Kagoshima Space Center (JKSC) in Japan in January 1990. After the successful insertion into a highly elliptical orbit around the Earth, the Hiten mission carried out several objectives to demonstrate space technologies for swing-by (or gravity assist) techniques and insertion of a sub-satellite into orbital space around the Moon. The results from these engineering missions have also led to follow-on missions, including aerobraking techniques and an excursion to the Lagrange points of the Earth-Moon system.

Caitlin Ahrens↗

SPHEREx: NASA’s Near-Infrared Spectrophotmetric All-Sky Survey

SPHEREx, the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and ices Explorer, isa NASA MIDEX mission planned for launch in 2024. SPHEREx will carry out the first all-sky spectral survey at wavelengths between 0.75μm and 5μm with spectral resolving power ~40 between 0.75 and 3.8μm and ~120 between 3.8 and 5μm At the end of its two-year mission, SPHEREx will provide 14 billion 0.75-to-5μm spectra of each 6."2 x 6."2 pixel on the sky. This paper updates an earlier description of SPHEREx presenting changes made during the mission's Preliminary Design Phase, including a discussion of instrument integration and test flow and a summary of the data processing, analysis, and distribution plans.

Zemcov, Michael↗

Aqueous alteration of Cb-type asteroid Ryugu

The samples from the asteroid Ryugu, which returned to Earth in the winter of 2020 [1], were stored under pure Nitrogen conditions at the Extraterrestrial Materials Curation Center of ISAS. After basic description [2-3], they were distributed to six initial analysis teams in Japan in June 2021. The initial analysis "Stone" team, which was responsible for the analysis of coarse particles (>1 mm in size), consisted of about 150 scientists from Japan and abroad, and conducted a series of analyses We analyzed sixteen coarse Ryugu particles 1 ~ 8 mm in size: six from the 1st touch-down site and ten from the 2nd touch-down site. Individual coarse samples were cut by Xe-FIB or wire-saw to expose particular objects or textures to be exposed on the surface based on 3D structure and element distribution obtained by synchrotron X-ray CT analysis and XRF analysis, respectively. FE-SEM/EDS and FE-EPMA/WDS analysis were made on all polished sections. TEM observation of many FIB sections was made to see microstructures and to compare with carbonaceous chondrites. Many other analyses were carried out to characterize mineralogical and compositional properties and summary of the analysis procedures is described in [4]. X-ray CT analysis showed that all sixteen Ryugu particles are composed of fine-grained material, with no chondrules and CAIs larger than 100 μm in size. FE-EPMA observation showed that Ryugu samples are breccias, consisting of many small rock fragments of different compositions, lithologies, and histories. The most common lithology includes Mg-rich saponite and serpentine, dolomite, magnesite, hydroxyapatite, pyrrhotite, and magnetite as main constituents. The mineralogy of this major lithology supports the classification of Ryugu samples as CI chondrites, which experienced extensive aqueous alteration in Ryugu’s parent asteroid. Based on the obtained mineralogical properties, we performed chemical modeling of aqueous alteration of Ryugu’s parent asteroid [5]. Numerical simulations [6-8] to reproduce thermal history and impact-induced destruction of the Ryugu’s parent asteroid were also carried out using mineralogical and physical properties of the Ryugu samples. In the talk, I would like to explain the conditions of aqueous alteration occurred in the parent asteroid of Ryugu in order to show how the water in the asteroid changed the mineralogy and chemistry of the nebular dust.

T. Nakamura↗