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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 145 records · Page 8

Use of Soft Computing Technologies for a Qualitative and Reliable Engine Control System for Propulsion Systems

The problem to be addressed in this paper is to explore how the use of Soft Computing Technologies (SCT) could be employed to improve overall vehicle system safety, reliability, and rocket engine performance by development of a qualitative and reliable engine control system (QRECS). Specifically, this will be addressed by enhancing rocket engine control using SCT, innovative data mining tools, and sound software engineering practices used in Marshall's Flight Software Group (FSG). The principle goals for addressing the issue of quality are to improve software management, software development time, software maintenance, processor execution, fault tolerance and mitigation, and nonlinear control in power level transitions. The intent is not to discuss any shortcomings of existing engine control methodologies, but to provide alternative design choices for control, implementation, performance, and sustaining engineering, all relative to addressing the issue of reliability. The approaches outlined in this paper will require knowledge in the fields of rocket engine propulsion (system level), software engineering for embedded flight software systems, and soft computing technologies (i.e., neural networks, fuzzy logic, data mining, and Bayesian belief networks); some of which are briefed in this paper. For this effort, the targeted demonstration rocket engine testbed is the MC-1 engine (formerly FASTRAC) which is simulated with hardware and software in the Marshall Avionics & Software Testbed (MAST) laboratory that currently resides at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, building 4476, and is managed by the Avionics Department. A brief plan of action for design, development, implementation, and testing a Phase One effort for QRECS is given, along with expected results. Phase One will focus on development of a Smart Start Engine Module and a Mainstage Engine Module for proper engine start and mainstage engine operations. The overall intent is to demonstrate that by employing soft computing technologies, the quality and reliability of the overall scheme to engine controller development is further improved and vehicle safety is further insured. The final product that this paper proposes is an approach to development of an alternative low cost engine controller that would be capable of performing in unique vision spacecraft vehicles requiring low cost advanced avionics architectures for autonomous operations from engine pre-start to engine shutdown.

Trevino, Luis↗

Complexity-Based Link Assignment for NASA’s Deep Space Network for Follow-the-Sun Operations

NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) recently underwent a paradigm shift in its operations approach called Follow the Sun Operations (FtSO) in an effort to increase efficiency for forthcoming expansion of the network. This change requires each Deep Space Communications Complex (DSCC) to remotely control the other two complexes’ antennas during their local day shift, in contrast to locally controlling only their own antennas 24x7. Remote operations increases the workload of each complex during their day shift, specifically that of the Link Control Operators (LCOs), and presents a new challenge for planning and managing the distribution of responsibility for each link. A new DSN software assembly, the Link Complexity and Maintenance (LCM) software, was developed to support workload management for LCOs, as well as for planning site-local maintenance activities. The LCM deployment was a vital part of the transition to FtSO in November 2017. This paper discusses the architecture of LCM, its feature set, and lessons learned during its development and rollout.

Lee, Carlyn↗

Management of atmospheric data

The establishment and maintenance of meteorological data archives to support various research projects are outlined. Consideration is given to overall data needs for meteorological and climatic research in the university community and to establish the climatology of the Southern Hemisphere from the surface to 10 kPa (100 millibars).

Jenne, R. L.↗

Space station advanced automation

In the development of a safe, productive and maintainable space station, Automation and Robotics (A and R) has been identified as an enabling technology which will allow efficient operation at a reasonable cost. The Space Station Freedom's (SSF) systems are very complex, and interdependent. The usage of Advanced Automation (AA) will help restructure, and integrate system status so that station and ground personnel can operate more efficiently. To use AA technology for the augmentation of system management functions requires a development model which consists of well defined phases of: evaluation, development, integration, and maintenance. The evaluation phase will consider system management functions against traditional solutions, implementation techniques and requirements; the end result of this phase should be a well developed concept along with a feasibility analysis. In the development phase the AA system will be developed in accordance with a traditional Life Cycle Model (LCM) modified for Knowledge Based System (KBS) applications. A way by which both knowledge bases and reasoning techniques can be reused to control costs is explained. During the integration phase the KBS software must be integrated with conventional software, and verified and validated. The Verification and Validation (V and V) techniques applicable to these KBS are based on the ideas of consistency, minimal competency, and graph theory. The maintenance phase will be aided by having well designed and documented KBS software.

Woods, Donald↗

Space shuttle low cost/risk avionics study

All work breakdown structure elements containing any avionics related effort were examined for pricing the life cycle costs. The analytical, testing, and integration efforts are included for the basic onboard avionics and electrical power systems. The design and procurement of special test equipment and maintenance and repair equipment are considered. Program management associated with these efforts is described. Flight test spares and labor and materials associated with the operations and maintenance of the avionics systems throughout the horizontal flight test are examined. It was determined that cost savings can be achieved by using existing hardware, maximizing orbiter-booster commonality, specifying new equipments to MIL quality standards, basing redundancy on cost effective analysis, minimizing software complexity and reducing cross strapping and computer-managed functions, utilizing compilers and floating point computers, and evolving the design as dictated by the horizontal flight test schedules.

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Shuttle mission simulator requirements report, volume 1, revision C

The contractor tasks required to produce a shuttle mission simulator for training crew members and ground personnel are discussed. The tasks will consist of the design, development, production, installation, checkout, and field support of a simulator with two separate crew stations. The tasks include the following: (1) review of spacecraft changes and incorporation of appropriate changes in simulator hardware and software design, and (2) the generation of documentation of design, configuration management, and training used by maintenance and instructor personnel after acceptance for each of the crew stations.

Burke, J. F.↗

Data collection system: Earth Resources Technology Satellite-1

Subjects covered at the meeting concerned results on the overall data collection system including sensors, interface hardware, power supplies, environmental enclosures, data transmission, processing and distribution, maintenance and integration in resources management systems.

Cooper, S.↗

Overview of the Telescience Testbed Program

The NASA's Telescience Testbed Program (TTP) conducted by the Ames Research Center is described with particular attention to the objectives, the approach used to achieve these objectives, and the expected benefits of the program. The goal of the TTP is to gain operational experience for the Space Station Freedom and the Earth Observing System programs, using ground testbeds, and to define the information and communication systems requirements for the development and operation of these programs. The results of TTP are expected to include the requirements for the remote coaching, command and control, monitoring and maintenance, payload design, and operations management. In addition, requirements for technologies such as workstations, software, video, automation, data management, and networking will be defined.

Rasmussen, Daryl N.↗

Use of Soft Computing Technologies For Rocket Engine Control

The problem to be addressed in this paper is to explore how the use of Soft Computing Technologies (SCT) could be employed to further improve overall engine system reliability and performance. Specifically, this will be presented by enhancing rocket engine control and engine health management (EHM) using SCT coupled with conventional control technologies, and sound software engineering practices used in Marshall s Flight Software Group. The principle goals are to improve software management, software development time and maintenance, processor execution, fault tolerance and mitigation, and nonlinear control in power level transitions. The intent is not to discuss any shortcomings of existing engine control and EHM methodologies, but to provide alternative design choices for control, EHM, implementation, performance, and sustaining engineering. The approaches outlined in this paper will require knowledge in the fields of rocket engine propulsion, software engineering for embedded systems, and soft computing technologies (i.e., neural networks, fuzzy logic, and Bayesian belief networks), much of which is presented in this paper. The first targeted demonstration rocket engine platform is the MC-1 (formerly FASTRAC Engine) which is simulated with hardware and software in the Marshall Avionics & Software Testbed laboratory that

Trevino, Luis C.↗

Integrated Systems Health Management for Intelligent Systems

The implementation of an integrated system health management (ISHM) capability is fundamentally linked to the management of data, information, and knowledge (DIaK) with the purposeful objective of determining the health of a system. Management implies storage, distribution, sharing, maintenance, processing, reasoning, and presentation. ISHM is akin to having a team of experts who are all individually and collectively observing and analyzing a complex system, and communicating effectively with each other in order to arrive at an accurate and reliable assessment of its health. In this chapter, concepts, procedures, and approaches are presented as a foundation for implementing an ISHM capability relevant to intelligent systems. The capability stresses integration of DIaK from all elements of a system, emphasizing an advance toward an on-board, autonomous capability. Both ground-based and on-board ISHM capabilities are addressed. The information presented is the result of many years of research, development, and maturation of technologies, and of prototype implementations in operational systems.

Figueroa, Fernando↗

Applying reliability models to the maintenance of Space Shuttle software

Software reliability models provide the software manager with a powerful tool for predicting, controlling, and assessing the reliability of software during maintenance. We show how a reliability model can be effectively employed for reliability prediction and the development of maintenance strategies using the Space Shuttle Primary Avionics Software Subsystem as an example.

Schneidewind, Norman F.↗

NASA work unit system file maintenance manual

The NASA Work Unit System is a management information system for research tasks (i.e., work units) performed under NASA grants and contracts. It supplies profiles on research efforts and statistics on fund distribution. The file maintenance operator can add, delete and change records at a remote terminal or can submit punched cards to the computer room for batch update. The system is designed for file maintenance by a person with little or no knowledge of data processing techniques.

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Space Transportation System Cargo projects: inertial stage/spacecraft integration plan. Volume 1: Management plan

The Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Management System for the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) - spacecraft processing from KSC arrival through launch is described. The roles and responsibilities of the agencies and test team organizations involved in IUS-S/C processing at KSC for non-Department of Defense missions are described. Working relationships are defined with respect to documentation preparation, coordination and approval, schedule development and maintenance, test conduct and control, configuration management, quality control and safety. The policy regarding the use of spacecraft contractor test procedures, IUS contractor detailed operating procedures and KSC operations and maintenance instructions is defined. Review and approval requirements for each documentation system are described.

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Development of a change management system

The complexity and interdependence of software on a computer system can create a situation where a solution to one problem causes failures in dependent software. In the computer industry, software problems arise and are often solved with 'quick and dirty' solutions. But in implementing these solutions, documentation about the solution or user notification of changes is often overlooked, and new problems are frequently introduced because of insufficient review or testing. These problems increase when numerous heterogeneous systems are involved. Because of this situation, a change management system plays an integral part in the maintenance of any multisystem computing environment. At the NASA Ames Advanced Computational Facility (ACF), the Online Change Management System (OCMS) was designed and developed to manage the changes being applied to its multivendor computing environment. This paper documents the research, design, and modifications that went into the development of this change management system (CMS).

Parks, Cathy Bonifas↗

Characterizing and Modeling the Cost of Rework in a Library of Reusable Software Components

In this paper we characterize and model the cost of rework in a Component Factory (CF) organization. A CF is responsible for developing and packaging reusable software components. Data was collected on corrective maintenance activities for the Generalized Support Software reuse asset library located at the Flight Dynamics Division of NASA's GSFC. We then constructed a predictive model of the cost of rework using the C4.5 system for generating a logical classification model. The predictor variables for the model are measures of internal software product attributes. The model demonstrates good prediction accuracy, and can be used by managers to allocate resources for corrective maintenance activities. Furthermore, we used the model to generate proscriptive coding guidelines to improve programming, practices so that the cost of rework can be reduced in the future. The general approach we have used is applicable to other environments.

Basili, Victor R.↗

Skylab Experiment M516 - Crew Activities/Maintenance Study

Skylab required daily movement about the interior of a 340 cu m vehicle and the handling and transfer of numerous loose items. Planned and unplanned maintenance tasks were also included in the daily routine of activity. Experiment M516, Crew Activities/Maintenance Study, involved an investigation of crew activity during routine daily operations. The overall objective was to secure in-flight data relevant to the performance of tasks in the weightless environment. This paper will present an evaluation of man's ability to handle and transport items of various sizes and masses (logistics management) and to make equipment repairs (maintenance). Results and conclusions are based on subjective crew comments, motion-picture film, and television transmissions.

Bond, R. L.↗