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At least 145 records · Page 8

The Aviation Performance Measuring System (APMS): An Integrated Suite of Tools for Measuring Performance and Safety

This is a report of work in progress. In it, I summarize the status of the research and development of the Aviation Performance Measuring System (APMS) for managing, processing, and analyzing digital flight-recorded data, The objectives of the NASA-FAA APMS research project are to establish a sound scientific and technological basis for flight-data analysis, to define an open and flexible architecture for flight-data analysis systems, and to articulate guidelines for a standardized database structure on which to continue to build future flight-data-analysis extensions. APMS offers to the air transport community an open, voluntary standard for flight-data-analysis software; a standard that will help to ensure suitable functionality and data interchangeability among competing software programs. APMS will develop and document the methodologies, algorithms, and procedures for data management and analyses to enable users to easily interpret the implications regarding safety and efficiency of operations. APMS does not entail the implementation of a nationwide flight-data-collection system. It is intended to provide technical tools to ease the large-scale implementation of flight-data analyses at both the air-carrier and the national-airspace levels in support of their Flight Operations and Quality Assurance (FOQA) Programs and Advanced Qualifications Programs (AQP). APMS cannot meet its objectives unless it develops tools that go substantially beyond the capabilities of the current commercially available software and supporting analytic methods that are mainly designed to count special events. These existing capabilities, while of proven value, were created primarily with the needs-of aircrews in mind. APMS tools must serve the needs of the government and air carriers, as well as aircrews, to fully support the FOQA and AQP programs. They must be able to derive knowledge not only through the analysis of single flights (special-event detection), but also through statistical evaluation of the performance of large groups of flights. This paper describes the integrated suite of tools that will assist analysts in evaluating the operational performance and safety of the national air transport system, the air carrier, and the aircrew.

Statler, Irving C.↗

Overview of Fluid Dynamics Activities at the Marshall Space Flight Center

Since its inception 40 years ago, Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has had the need to maintain and advance state-of-the-art flow analysis and cold-flow testing capability to support its roles and missions. This overview discusses the recent organizational changes that have occurred at MSFC with emphasis on the resulting three groups that form the core of fluid dynamics expertise at MSFC: the Fluid Physics and Dynamics Group, the Applied Fluid Dynamics Analysis Group, and the Experimental Fluid Dynamics Group. Recently completed activities discussed include the analysis and flow testing in support of the Fastrac engine design, the X-33 vehicle design, and the X34 propulsion system design. Ongoing activities include support of the RLV vehicle design, Liquid Fly Back Booster aerodynamic configuration definition, and RLV focused technologies development. Other ongoing activities discussed are efforts sponsored by the Center Director's Discretionary Fund (CDDF) to develop an advanced incompressible flow code and to develop optimization techniques. Recently initiated programs and their anticipated required fluid dynamics support are discussed. Based on recent experiences and on the anticipated program needs, required analytical and experimental technique improvements are presented. Due to anticipated budgetary constraints, there is a strong need to leverage activities and to pursue teaming arrangements in order to advance the state-of-the-art and to adequately support concept development. Throughout this overview there is discussion of the lessons learned and of the capabilities demonstrated and established in support of the hardware development programs.

Garcia, Roberto↗

Systems identification and application systems development for monitoring the physiological and health status of crewmen in space

The use of automated, analytical techniques to aid medical support teams is suggested. Recommendations are presented for characterizing crew health in terms of: (1) wholebody function including physiological, psychological and performance factors; (2) a combination of critical performance indexes which consist of multiple factors of measurable parameters; (3) specific responses to low noise level stress tests; and (4) probabilities of future performance based on present and periodic examination of past performance. A concept is proposed for a computerized real time biomedical monitoring and health care system that would have the capability to integrate monitored data, detect off-nominal conditions based on current knowledge of spaceflight responses, predict future health status, and assist in diagnosis and alternative therapies. Mathematical models could play an important role in this approach, especially when operating in a real time mode. Recommendations are presented to update the present health monitoring systems in terms of recent advances in computer technology and biomedical monitoring systems.

Leonard, J. I.↗

Equiaxed Dendritic Solidification Experiment (EDSE)

The objective of the research is to quantitatively determine and understand the fundamental mechanisms that control the microstructural evolution during solidification of an assemblage of equiaxed dendritic crystals. A microgravity experiment will be conducted to obtain benchmark data on the transient growth and interaction of up to four equiaxed crystals of a pure and transparent metal analog (succinonitrile, SCN) under strictly diffusion dominated conditions. Of interest in the experiment are the transient evolution of the primary and secondary dendrite tip speeds, the dendrite morphology (i.e., tip radii, branch spacings, etc.) and solid fraction, the tip selection criterion, and the temperature field in the melt for a range of initial supercoolings and, thus, interaction "strengths" between the crystals. The experiment thus extends the microgravity measurements of Glicksman and coworkers for steady growth of a single dendrite [Isothermal Dendritic Growth Experiment (IDGE), first flown on USMP-2] to a case where growth transients are introduced due to thermal interactions between neighboring dendrites - a situation more close to actual casting conditions. Corresponding earth-based experiments will be conducted to ascertain the influence of melt convection. The experiments are supported by a variety of analytical models and numerical simulations. The data will primarily be used to develop and test theories of transient dendritic growth and the solidification of multiple interacting equiaxed crystals in a supercooled melt.

Beckermann, C.↗

Capabilities of the Natural Environments Branch at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

The Natural Environment Branch at NASA s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has the responsibility to provide engineering support to programs and projects in natural environments. The Natural Environments Branch (EV13) is responsible for natural environments definitions, modelling, database development and effects assessments. EV13 personnel develop requirements for flight projects and provide operational support for space and launch vehicle systems. To accomplish these responsibilities, Branch . personnel have developed modelling and analytical tools which include planetary atmospheres, meteoroids, ionizing radiation, plasmas and ionospheres, magnetic and gravitational fields, spacecraft charging modelling, and radiation effects on electronic parts. NASA s Meteoroid Environment Office is operated within the EV13 and provides meteoroid engineering models and shower forecasts to spacecraft designers and operators. This paper will describe the capabilities within the Natural Environments Effects Branch including; examples of natural environment definitions, radiation transport, output from the Global Reference Atmosphere Models for Earth, Venus, Mars, Titan, and Neptune), recent NASCAP 2K results from solar sail modelling, and meteor stream models

Edwards, David L.↗

Introduction to NASA Goddard Workshop on Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a collection of advanced technologies that allows machines to think and act, both humanly and rationally, through sensing, comprehending, acting and learning. AI's foundations lie at the intersection of several traditional fields Philosophy, Mathematics, Economics, Neuroscience, Psychology and Computer Science. Although the inception of AI started in the 1950's, it has recently made a strong comeback in all aspects of society and all over the world; this is mainly due to the timely combination of increased data volumes, advanced and mature algorithms, and improvements in computing power and storage. Current AI applications include big data analytics, robotics, intelligent sensing, assisted decision making, and speech recognition just to name a few.This workshop will be investigating how AI technologies can be adapted or developed to address the following challenges: Discover events of interest and correlations in large amounts of science data; improve the outcomes of science modeling and data assimilation using improved data processing, integration, and analysis. Design advisors for mission planning and operations, including anomaly detection and spacecraft health monitoring. Develop tools for engineering support, including advanced manufacturing, orbit determination, new component design and system engineering. Customize intelligent user interfaces, including visual analytics and natural language processing.

Le Moigne, Jacqueline↗

CROSS: A GDSS for the Evaluation and Prioritization of Engineering Support Requests and Advanced Technology Projects at NASA

Objective evaluation and prioritization of engineering support requests (ESRs) is a difficult task at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Shuttle Project Engineering Office. The difficulty arises from the complexities inherent in the evaluation process and the lack of structured information. The purpose of this project is to implement the consensus ranking organizational support system (CROSS), a multiple criteria decision support system (DSS) developed at KSC that captures the decision maker's beliefs through a series of sequential, rational, and analytical processes. CROSS utilizes the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), subjective probabilities, entropy concept, and maximize agreement heuristic (MAH) to enhance the decision maker's intuition in evaluation ESRs. Some of the preliminary goals of the project are to: (1) revisit the structure of the ground systems working team (GWST) steering committee, (2) develop a template for ESR originators to provide more comple and consistent information to the GSWT steering committee members to eliminate the need for a facilitator, (3) develop an objective and structured process for the initial screening of ESRs, (4) extensive training of the stakeholders and the GWST steering committee to eliminate the need for a facilitator, (5) automate the process as much as possible, (6) create an environment to compile project success factor data on ESRs and move towards a disciplined system that could be used to address supportability threshold issues at the KSC, and (7) investigate the possibility of an organization-wide implementation of CROSS.

Tavana, Madjid↗

Restoration of NASA's Mobile Analytical Lunar Platform (MALP) as a Prototype Science Exploration Device using a Public, Private, Academic (PPA) Model

A prototype 6-wheeled rover originally developed by NASA JSC for astronaut transport has been modernized and augmented to support concepts for telerobotic exploration of the lunar surface. The ongoing project has employed teams of undergraduate senior engineering students at Texas A&M University (TAMU) to retrofit the Mobile Analytical Lunar Platform (MALP) with wireless technology for telerobotic operations, and to add a robotic arm for regolith sample collection, sieving, storage and transportation.

Telerobotic Rover↗

MMIC antenna technology development in the 30/20 gigahertz band

This paper presents a progress summary of NASA's efforts in developing 20 and 30 GHz GaAs MMIC devices and an advanced satellite communications antenna system using these devices. In the interest of preserving resources such as frequency spectrum and orbital space the antenna system is being developed with multiple fixed spot beams and multiple scanning spot beams. NASA set high goals for the MMIC development to pushc GaAs technology. These goals and the main features of the MMIC devices are discussed. Some packaging and characterization considerations are also discussed. The 20 GHz transmit antenna and 30 GHz receive antenna are being developed separately. The approach selected is to perform contractual configuration studies, purchase a 20-GHz experimental antenna system (EAS) and perform in-house evaluation. The features and key specifications of the EAS are discussed. Additional supporting technologies such as effects of coupling on modest sized arrays, MMIC matching techniques, in-house analytical capability, wideband and dual frequency microstrip patch array development, and MMIC packaging techniques are described. Some plans for future are also discussed.

Smetana, J.↗

MMIC antenna technology development in the 30/20 gigahertz band

This paper presents a progress summary of NASA's efforts in developing 20 and 30 GHz GaAs MMIC devices and an advanced satellite communications antenna system using these devices. In the interest of preserving resources such as frequency spectrum and orbital space the antenna system is being developed with multiple fixed spot beams and multiple scanning spot beams. NASA set high goals for the MMIC development to push GaAs technology. These goals and the main features of the MMIC devices are discussed. Some packaging and characterization considerations are also discussed. The 20 GHz transmit antenna and 30 GHz receive antenna are being developed separately. The approach selected is to perform contractual configuration studies, purchase a 20-GHz experimental antenna system (EAS) and perform in-house evaluation. The features and key specifications of the EAS are discussed. Additional supporting technologies such as effects of coupling on modest sized arrays, MMIC matching techniques, in-house analytical capability, wideband and dual frequency microstrip patch array development, and MMIC packaging techniques are described. Some plans for future work are also discussed.

Smetana, J.↗

Scramjet analysis, testing

A survey of supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) engine development in the US covers development of this unique engine cycle from its inception in the early 1960's through the various programs currently being pursued and, in some instances, describing the future direction of the programs. These include developmental efforts supported by the US Navy, NASA, and US Air Force. Results of inlet, combustor, and nozzle component tests, free-jet engine tests, analytical techniques developed to analyze and predict component and engine performance, and flight-weight hardware development are presented. These results show that efficient scramjet propulsion is attainable in a variety of flight configurations with a variety of fuels. Since the scramjet is the most efficient engine cycle for hypersonic flight within the atmosphere, it should be given serious consideration in future propulsion schemes.

Leingang, J. L.↗

NASA Technical Management Report (533Q)

The objective of this task is analytical support of the NASA Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) program in the areas of SLR data analysis, software development, assessment of SLR station performance, development of improved models for atmospheric propagation and interpretation of station calibration techniques, and science coordination and analysis functions for the NASA led Central Bureau of the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS). The contractor shall in each year of the five year contract: (1) Provide software development and analysis support to the NASA SLR program and the ILRS. Attend and make analysis reports at the monthly meetings of the Central Bureau of the ILRS covering data received during the previous period. Provide support to the Analysis Working Group of the ILRS including special tiger teams that are established to handle unique analysis problems. Support the updating of the SLR Bibliography contained on the ILRS web site; (2) Perform special assessments of SLR station performance from available data to determine unique biases and technical problems at the station; (3) Develop improvements to models of atmospheric propagation and for handling pre- and post-pass calibration data provided by global network stations; (4) Provide review presentation of overall ILRS network data results at one major scientific meeting per year; (5) Contribute to and support the publication of NASA SLR and ILRS reports highlighting the results of SLR analysis activity.

Klosko, S. M.↗

Liquefaction of Cryogenic Fluids for Production and Storage of Commodities on Extra-Terrestrial Surfaces

The Cryogenic Fluid In-situ Liquefaction for Landers (CryoFILL) activity has been investigating concepts for the liquefaction of cryogenic fluids produced on the surface of the Moon and Mars. CryoFILL consists of four activities: liquid nitrogen liquefaction testing that was completed in 2019, liquid oxygen liquefaction testing planned to begin in early 2022, fiber-optic sensor temperature measurement system development, and lightweight vacuum jacketed systems designed for the atmosphere of Mars. Additional activities include the development and validation of numerical modeling systems at three stages: thermodynamic models of the liquefaction process for basic energy/mass estimates, nodal models to predict liquefaction tank system level performance, and computational fluid dynamics to assess fluid phenomena occurring within the tank, specifically condensation and stratification within the ullage. These developments form a combined liquefaction and storage solution to support Lunar and Martian exploration. Key testing results from liquid nitrogen testing as well as plans for liquid oxygen testing will be discussed including key sensitivities from analytical evaluation of completed test results. Progress on the development and improvements on fiber optic sensor testing and developments will also be provided. Finally, work on the progress of the lightweight vacuum jacketed systems being co-developed by NASA and industry will be summarized.

Liquefaction↗

User interactive electric propulsion software design

As electric propulsion technology matures from laboratory development to flight application, mission planners and spacecraft designers are increasingly required to determine the benefits and integration issues of using this propulsion capability. A computer software tool for supporting these analyses is presented. This tool combines detailed analytical models describing electric propulsion engine performance and subsystem design, and a software structure that is highly user interactive and adaptable. The software design methodology used to develop this software tool is presented in this paper.

Aston, Martha B.↗

Moisture Content and Migration Dynamics in Unsaturated Porous Media

Fundamental studies of fluid mechanics and transport in partially saturated soils are presented. Solution of transient diffusion problems in support of the development of probes for the in-situ measurement of moisture content is given. Numerical and analytical methods are used to study the fundamental problem of meniscus and saturation front propagation in geometric models of porous media.

Homsy, G. M.↗

Main Chamber and Preburner Injector Technology

This document reports the experimental and analytical research carried out at the Penn State Propulsion Engineering Research Center in support of NASA's plan to develop advanced technologies for future single stage to orbit (SSTO) propulsion systems. The focus of the work is on understanding specific technical issues related to bi-propellant and tri-propellant thrusters. The experiments concentrate on both cold flow demonstrations and hot-fire uni-element tests to demonstrate concepts that can be incorporated into hardware design and development. The analysis is CFD-based and is intended to support the design and interpretation of the experiments and to extrapolate findings to full-scale designs. The research is divided into five main categories that impact various SSTO development scenarios. The first category focuses on RP-1/gaseous hydrogen (GH2)/gaseous oxygen (GO2) tri-propellant combustion with specific emphasis on understanding the benefits of hydrogen addition to RP-1/oxygen combustion and in developing innovative injector technology. The second category investigates liquid oxygen (LOX)/GH2 combustion at main chamber near stoichiometric conditions to improve understanding of existing LOX/GH2 rocket systems. The third and fourth categories investigate the technical issues related with oxidizer-rich and fuel-rich propulsive concepts, issues that are necessary for developing the full-flow engine cycle. Here, injector technology issues for both LOX/GH2 and LOX/RP-1 propellants are examined. The last category, also related to the full-flow engine cycle, examines injector technology needs for GO2/GH2 propellant combustion at near-stoichiometric conditions for main chamber application.

Santoro, Robert J.↗

Influence of electrolytes on growth, phototropism, nutation and surface potential in etiolated cucumber seedlings

A variety of electrolytes (10-30 mol m-3) increased the relative growth rate of etiolated cucumber (Cucumis sativus L. cv. Burpee's Pickler) hypocotyls by 20-50% relative to water-only controls. The nonelectrolyte mannitol inhibited growth by 10%. All salts tested were effective, regardless of chemical composition or valence. Measurements of cell-sap osmolality ruled out an osmotic mechanism for the growth stimulation by electrolytes. This, and the nonspecificity of the response, indicate that an electrical property of the solutions was responsible for their growth-stimulating activity. Measurements of surface electrical potential supported this reasoning. Treatment with electrolytes also enhanced nutation and altered the pattern of phototropic curvature development. A novel analytical method for quantitating these effects on growth was developed. The evidence indicates that electrolytes influence an electrophysiological parameter that is involved in the control of cell expansion and the coordination of growth underlying tropisms and nutations.

Non-NASA Center↗