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NASA NTRS2021

Methods for Recording and Documenting Ambient Environmental Sound for use in Listening Devices

The potential for implementing Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) vehicles as a viable new transportation system into communities will likely be significantly affected by the psychoacoustic impact of these new noise sources into the existing ambient soundscape. This document addresses a need within the research community for a consistent means of documenting recordings of the ambient soundscape via a metadata framework (Rizzi, et al. 2020). Such recordings can provide a cognitive context for AAM vehicle sounds, as well as a fixed condition or independent variable against which experimental manipulations of vehicle sounds can be evaluated in listening tests. This document also provides recommendations for recording and reproduction techniques of ambient sound. A brief review is made of the use of ambient recordings in prior aircraft noise studies, and of psychoacoustic motivations for its implementation is reviewed from the fields of soundscape, auditory scene analysis, and time-varying partial specific loudness research.

urban air mobility↗

NASA NTRS2007

Unofficial Road Building in the Amazon: Socioeconomic and Biophysical Explanations

Roads have manifold social and environmental impacts, including regional development, social conflicts and habitat fragmentation. 'Road ecology' has emerged as an approach to evaluate the various ecological and hydrological impacts of roads. This article aims to complement road ecology by examining the socio-spatial processes of road building itself. Focusing on the Brazilian Amazon, a heavily-studied context due to forest fragmentation by roads, the authors consider non-state social actors who build 'unofficial roads' for the purpose of gaining access to natural resources to support livelihoods and community development. They examine four case studies of roads with distinct histories in order to explain the socio-spatial processes behind road building in terms of profit maximization, land tenure claims, co-operative and conflictive political ecologies, and constraints as well as opportunities afforded by the biophysical environment. The study cases illustrate the need for a multi-pronged theoretical approach to understanding road building, and call for more attention to the role of non-state actors in unofficial road construction.

Perz, Stephen G.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Prototype Environmental Assessment of the impacts of siting and construction of an SPS ground receiving station

A prototype assessment of the environmental impacts of siting and constructing a Satellite Power System (SPS) Ground Receiving Station (GRS) is reported. The objectives of the study were: (1) to develop an assessment of the nonmicrowave related impacts of the reference system SPS GRS on the natural environment; (2) to assess the impacts of GRS construction and operations in the context of actual baseline data for a site in the California desert; and (3) to identify critical GRS characteristics or parameters that are most significant in terms of the natural environment.

Hill, J.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Caenorhabditis elegans - A model system for space biology studies

The utility of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans in studies spanning aspects of development, aging, and radiobiology is reviewed. These topics are interrelated via cellular and DNA repair processes especially in the context of oxidative stress and free-radical metabolism. The relevance of these research topics to problems in space biology is discussed and properties of the space environment are outlined. Exposure to the space-flight environment can induce rapid changes in living systems that are similar to changes occurring during aging; manipulation of these environmental parameters may represent an experimental strategy for studies of development and senescence. The current and future opportunities for such space-flight experimentation are presented.

Johnson, Thomas E.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Knowledge Management

The emergence of rapidly expanding technologies for distribution and dissemination of information and knowledge has brought to focus the opportunities for development of knowledge-based networks, knowledge dissemination and knowledge management technologies and their potential applications for enhancing productivity of knowledge work. The challenging and complex problems of the future can be best addressed by developing the knowledge management as a new discipline based on an integrative synthesis of hard and soft sciences. A knowledge management professional society can provide a framework for catalyzing the development of proposed synthesis as well as serve as a focal point for coordination of professional activities in the strategic areas of education, research and technology development. Preliminary concepts for the development of the knowledge management discipline and the professional society are explored. Within this context of knowledge management discipline and the professional society, potential opportunities for application of information technologies for more effectively delivering or transferring information and knowledge (i.e., resulting from the NASA's Mission to Planet Earth) for the development of policy options in critical areas of national and global importance (i.e., policy decisions in economic and environmental areas) can be explored, particularly for those policy areas where a global collaborative knowledge network is likely to be critical to the acceptance of the policies.

Shariq, Syed Z.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Contribution of Near Real Time MODIS-Based Forest Disturbance Detection Products to a National Forest Threat Early Warning System

This presentation discusses an effort to compute and post weekly MODIS forest change products for the conterminous US (CONUS), as part of national forest threat early warning system (EWS) known as the U.S. Forest Change Assessment Viewer (FCAV). The US Forest Service, NASA, USGS, and ORNL are working collaboratively to contribute weekly change products to this EWS. Large acreages of the nation's forests are being disturbed by a growing multitude of biotic and abiotic threats that can act either singularly or in combination. When common at regional scales, such disturbances can pose hazards and threats to floral and faunal bio-diversity, ecosystem sustainability, ecosystem services, and human settlements across the conterminous US. Regionally evident forest disturbances range from ephemeral periodic canopy defoliation to stand replacement mortality events due to insects, disease, fire, hurricanes, tornadoes, ice, hail, and drought. Mandated by the Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003, this forest threat EWS has been actively developed since 2006 and on-line since 2010. This FCAV system employs 250-meter MODIS NDVI-based forest change products as a key element of the system, providing regional and CONUS scale products in near real time every 8 days. Each forest change product in FCAV is based on current versus historical 24 day composite NDVI data gridded at 231.66 meter resolution. Current NDVI is derived from USGS eMODIS expedited products. MOD13 NDVI is used for constructing historical baselines. CONUS change products are computed for all forests as % change in the current versus historical NDVI. Change products are computed according to previous year, previous 3 years and previous 8 year historical baselines. The use of multiple baselines enables disturbance anomaly phenology to be more fully assessed. CONUS forest change products are posted each week on the FCAV, a web mapping service maintained by the National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center. The FCAV EWS has been used to aid multiple Federal and State agency forest management activities, including aerial disturbance detection surveys, as well as rapid response preliminary assessments of timber loss due to tornadoes, regional drought studies, and fire damage assessments. The FCAV allows end-users to assess the context of apparent forest vegetation change with respect to ancillary data, such as land cover, topography, hydrology, climate variables, and administrative boundaries. Such change products are being evaluated through case studies involving comparison with higher spatial resolution satellite, aerial, and field data. The presentation will include multiple examples in which regionally evident forest disturbances were successfully detected and monitored with the MODIS-based change products, as part of the FCAV. FCAV's MODIS forest change products enable end-users (e.g., resource managers) to monitor forest hazards at regional scales throughout the year and across the nation.

Spruce, Joseph P.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Lunar Dust Mitigation Technology Development

NASA s plans for implementing the Vision for Space Exploration include returning to the moon as a stepping stone for further exploration of Mars, and beyond. Dust on the lunar surface has a ubiquitous presence which must be explicitly addressed during upcoming human lunar exploration missions. While the operational challenges attributable to dust during the Apollo missions did not prove critical, the comparatively long duration of impending missions presents a different challenge. Near term plans to revisit the moon places a primary emphasis on characterization and mitigation of lunar dust. Comprised of regolith particles ranging in size from tens of nanometers to microns, lunar dust is a manifestation of the complex interaction of the lunar soil with multiple mechanical, electrical, and gravitational effects. The environmental and anthropogenic factors effecting the perturbation, transport, and deposition of lunar dust must be studied in order to mitigate it s potentially harmful effects on exploration systems. This paper presents the current perspective and implementation of dust knowledge management and integration, and mitigation technology development activities within NASA s Exploration Technology Development Program. This work is presented within the context of the Constellation Program s Integrated Lunar Dust Management Strategy. The Lunar Dust Mitigation Technology Development project has been implemented within the ETDP. Project scope and plans will be presented, along with a a perspective on lessons learned from Apollo and forensics engineering studies of Apollo hardware. This paper further outlines the scientific basis for lunar dust behavior, it s characteristics and potential effects, and surveys several potential strategies for its control and mitigation both for lunar surface operations and within the working volumes of a lunar outpost.

Hyatt, Mark J.↗

NASA NTRS1993

NASA/MSFC FY92 Earth Science and Applications Program Research Review

A large amount of attention has recently been given to global issues such as the ozone hole, tropospheric temperature variability, etc. A scientific challenge is to better understand atmospheric processes on a variety of spatial and temporal scales in order to predict environmental changes. Measurement of geophysical parameters such as wind, temperature, and moisture are needed to validate theories, provide analyzed data sets, and initialize or constrain numerical models. One of NASA's initiatives is the Mission to Planet Earth Program comprised of an Earth Observation System (EOS) and the scientific strategy to analyze these data. This work describes these efforts in the context of satellite data analysis and fundamental studies of atmospheric dynamics which examine selected processes important to the global circulation.

Arnold, James E.↗

NASA NTRS1996

Distant Operational Care Centre: Design Project Report

The goal of this project is to outline the design of the Distant Operational Care Centre (DOCC), a modular medical facility to maintain human health and performance in space, that is adaptable to a range of remote human habitats. The purpose of this project is to outline a design, not to go into a complete technical specification of a medical facility for space. This project involves a process to produce a concise set of requirements, addressing the fundamental problems and issues regarding all aspects of a space medical facility for the future. The ideas presented here are at a high level, based on existing, researched, and hypothetical technologies. Given the long development times for space exploration, the outlined concepts from this project embodies a collection of identified problems, and corresponding proposed solutions and ideas, ready to contribute to future space exploration efforts. In order to provide a solid extrapolation and speculation in the context of the future of space medicine, the extent of this project's vision is roughly within the next two decades. The Distant Operational Care Centre (DOCC) is a modular medical facility for space. That is, its function is to maintain human health and performance in space environments, through prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Furthermore, the DOCC must be adaptable to meet the environmental requirements of different remote human habitats, and support a high quality of human performance. To meet a diverse range of remote human habitats, the DOCC concentrates on a core medical capability that can then be adapted. Adaptation would make use of the DOCC's functional modularity, providing the ability to replace, add, and modify core functions of the DOCC by updating hardware, operations, and procedures. Some of the challenges to be addressed by this project include what constitutes the core medical capability in terms of hardware, operations, and procedures, and how DOCC can be adapted to different remote habitats.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1987

Adaptation, plant evolution, and the fossil record

The importance of adaptation in determining patterns of evolution has become an important focus of debate in evolutionary biology. As it pertains to paleobotany, the issue is whether or not adaptive evolution mediated by natural selection is sufficient to explain the stratigraphic distributions of taxa and character states observed in the plant fossil record. One means of addressing this question is the functional evaluation of stratigraphic series of plant organs set in the context of paleoenvironmental change and temporal patterns of floral composition within environments. For certain organ systems, quantitative estimates of biophysical performance can be made on the basis of structures preserved in the fossil record. Performance estimates for plants separated in time or space can be compared directly. Implicit in different hypotheses of the forces that shape the evolutionary record (e.g. adaptation, mass extinction, rapid environmental change, chance) are predictions about stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental trends in the efficacy of functional performance. Existing data suggest that following the evolution of a significant structural innovation, adaptation for improved functional performance can be a major determinant of evolutionary changes in plants; however, there are structural and development limits to functional improvement, and once these are reached, the structure in question may no longer figure strongly in selection until and unless a new innovation evolves. The Silurian-Devonian paleobotanical record is consistent with the hypothesis that the succession of lowland floodplain dominants preserved in the fossil record of this interval was determined principally by the repeated evolution of new taxa that rose to ecological importance because of competitive advantages conferred by improved biophysical performance. This does not seem to be equally true for Carboniferous-Jurassic dominants of swamp and lowland floodplain environments. In these cases, environmental disruption appears to have been a major factor in shaping the fossil record. This does not mean that continuing adaptation was not important during this interval, but it may indicate that adaptive evolution was strongest in environments other than those best represented in the paleobotanical record.

NASA Discipline Exobiology↗

NASA NTRS1998

Design and Specification of Optical Bandpass Filters for Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS)

Advanced optical bandpass filters for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) have been developed on a filter-by-filter basis through detailed studies which take into account the instrument's science goals, available optical filter fabrication technology, and developments in ACS's charge-coupled-device (CCD) detector technology. These filters include a subset of filters for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) which are optimized for astronomical photometry using today's charge-coupled-devices (CCD's). In order for ACS to be truly advanced, these filters must push the state-of-the-art in performance in a number of key areas at the same time. Important requirements for these filters include outstanding transmitted wavefront, high transmittance, uniform transmittance across each filter, spectrally structure-free bandpasses, exceptionally high out of band rejection, a high degree of parfocality, and immunity to environmental degradation. These constitute a very stringent set of requirements indeed, especially for filters which are up to 90 mm in diameter. The highly successful paradigm in which final specifications for flight filters were derived through interaction amongst the ACS Science Team, the instrument designer, the lead optical engineer, and the filter designer and vendor is described. Examples of iterative design trade studies carried out in the context of science needs and budgetary and schedule constraints are presented. An overview of the final design specifications for the ACS bandpass and ramp filters is also presented.

Leviton, Douglas B.↗

NASA NTRS1992

The adult literacy evaluator: An intelligent computer-aided training system for diagnosing adult illiterates

An important part of NASA's mission involves the secondary application of its technologies in the public and private sectors. One current application being developed is The Adult Literacy Evaluator, a simulation-based diagnostic tool designed to assess the operant literacy abilities of adults having difficulties in learning to read and write. Using ICAT system technology in addition to speech recognition, closed-captioned television (CCTV), live video and other state-of-the art graphics and storage capabilities, this project attempts to overcome the negative effects of adult literacy assessment by allowing the client to interact with an intelligent computer system which simulates real-life literacy activities and materials and which measures literacy performance in the actual context of its use. The specific objectives of the project are as follows: (1) To develop a simulation-based diagnostic tool to assess adults' prior knowledge about reading and writing processes in actual contexts of application; (2) to provide a profile of readers' strengths and weaknesses; and (3) to suggest instructional strategies and materials which can be used as a beginning point for remediation. In the first and developmental phase of the project, descriptions of literacy events and environments are being written and functional literacy documents analyzed for their components. Examples of literacy events and situations being considered included interactions with environmental print (e.g., billboards, street signs, commercial marquees, storefront logos, etc.), functional literacy materials (e.g., newspapers, magazines, telephone books, bills, receipts, etc.) and employment related communication (i.e., job descriptions, application forms, technical manuals, memorandums, newsletters, etc.). Each of these situations and materials is being analyzed for its literacy requirements in terms of written display (i.e., knowledge of printed forms and conventions), meaning demands (i.e., comprehension and word knowledge) and social situation. From these descriptions, scripts are being generated which define the interaction between the student, an on-screen guide and the simulated literacy environment. The proposed outcome of the Evaluator is a diagnostic profile which will present broad classifications of literacy behaviors across the major areas of metacognitive abilities, word recognition, vocabulary knowledge, comprehension and writing. From these classifications, suggestions for materials and strategies for instruction with which to begin corrective action will be made. The focus of the Literacy Evaluator will be essentially to provide an expert diagnosis and an interpretation of that assessment which then can be used by a human tutor to further design and individualize a remedial program as needed through the use of an authoring system.

Yaden, David B., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Modeling crop responses to environmental change

Potential biophysical responses of crops to climate change are studied focusing on the primary environmental variables which define the limits to agricultural crop growth and production, and the principal methods for predicting climate change impacts on crop geography and production. It is concluded that the principal uncertainties in the prediction of the impacts of climate change on agriculture reside in the contribution of the direct effects of increasing CO2, in potential changes inclimate variability, and the effects of adjustments mechanisms in the context of climatic changes.

Rosenzweig, Cynthia↗

NASA NTRS2015

The Process of Bringing Dark Data to Light: The Rescue of the Early Nimbus Satellite Data

Myriad environmental satellite missions are currently orbiting the earth. The comprehensive monitoring by these sensors provide scientists, policymakers, and the public critical information on the earths weather and climate system. The state of the art technology of our satellite monitoring system is the legacy of the first environment satellites, the Nimbus systems launched by NASA in the mid-1960s. Such early data can extend our climate record and provide important context in longer-term climate changes. However, the data was stowed away and, over the years, largely forgotten. It was nearly lost before its value was recognized and attempts to recover the data were undertaken. This paper covers what it took the authors to recover, navigate and reprocess the data into modern formats so that it could be used as a part of the satellite climate record. The procedures to recover the Nimbus data, from both film and tape, could be used by other data rescue projects, however the algorithms presented will tend to be Nimbus specific. Data rescue projects are often both difficult and time consuming but the data they bring back to the science community makes these efforts worthwhile.

dark↗

NASA NTRS2020

Design of Autonomous Medical Response Agent (AMRA) Aggregate Information Dashboard (AID)

Future astronauts in deep space missions will rely on tools and technologies empowering them to self-diagnose and self-treat medical conditions. Given communications delays and limited bandwidth in future long-duration exploration missions (LDEMs), medical decision support technologies must empower the crew to manage routine medical activities, acute medical incidents, as well as emergency medical scenarios independently from ground support.The Autonomous Medical Response Agent (AMRA) is envisioned as a digital tool enabling crew to issue medical complaints and interact with a medical decision support algorithm which develops a differential diagnosis and recommends a treatment protocol for the condition. AMRA will draw from individual crew medical history in addition to crew symptoms to more efficiently identify high-risk medical conditions. A new symptom could be indicative of a chronic condition or a normal adaptation to long-duration spaceflight, but could just as easily be indicative of an adverse vehicle condition affecting the entire crew.While real-time communication with a flight surgeon may not possible, the crew will nonetheless require a means to communicate and document both routine and emergency medical incidents to ground support. Conversely, flight surgeons and medical specialists on the ground will need to understand information such as crew vitals or responses to medical check-ups and examinations within the larger context of crew schedule, mission activities, and vehicle performance. A user interface which establishes communication protocols between an individual crew member and AMRA, as well as ground support to the crew is a significant area of research demanding input and consideration.The design of AMRA AID is intended to: a) represent routine medical activities as well as new (unplanned) medical incidents within the larger context of crew schedule and mission activities, and b) increase confidence between ground support and crew members over the course of LDEMs. Maintaining situation awareness of unplanned medical incidents between ground and crew will be a critical element within LDEMs. Two medical incidents headache and difficulty breathing are being explored within a user interface prototype which captures communications protocols between crew members and mission control, human health monitoring, vehicle or environmental monitoring, as well as crew schedule and mission activities holistically.

Yashar, M.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

DAA Use Case for Auto Cargo m:N Operations

A detect and avoid use-case was developed to highlight detect and avoid issues associated with m:N operations in the auto cargo domain. This work is being done in conjunction with industry partners and developed for the Operational Scenario and Environmental Description (OSED) for RTCA SC-228. The detect and avoid function is critical, required technology for unmanned aircraft to operation in the national airspace. RTCA SC-228 has published MOPS (phase 1 & 2) detailing the requirements and methods of compliance. This work will help address additional operational aspects of how/when DAA will be employed by unmanned systems. Specifically, this work focuses on “auto cargo” operations. Auto cargo, in this context, refers to regularly scheduled cargo-size aircraft that are flown remotely. The Remote Pilot In Command (RPIC), in this case, is responsible for multiple aircraft, flown simultaneously. The use-case details the use of DAA in this context, the potential issues and gaps that exist.

multi-vehicle control↗

NASA NTRS1993

Engineering stategies and implications of using higher plants for throttling gas and water exchange in a controlled ecological life support system

Engineering stategies for advanced life support systems to be used on Lunar and Mars bases involve a wide spectrum of approaches. These range from purely physical-chemical life support strategies to purely biological approaches. Within the context of biological based systems, a bioengineered system can be devised that would utilize the metabolic mechanisms of plants to control the rates of CO2 uptake and O2 evolution (photosynthesis) and water production (transpiration). Such a mechanism of external engineering control has become known as throttling. Research conducted at the John F. Kennedy Space Center's Controlled Ecological Life Support System Breadboard Project has demonstrated the potential of throttling these fluxes by changing environmental parameters affecting the plant processes. Among the more effective environmental throttles are: light and CO2 concentration for controllingthe rate of photsynthesis and humidity and CO2 concentration for controlling transpiration. Such a bioengineered strategy implies control mechanisms that in the past have not been widely attributed to life support systems involving biological components and suggests a broad range of applications in advanced life support system design.

Chamberland, Dennis↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Developing and Testing a Common Space Systems Ontology using the Ontological Modeling Language

This paper describes the development and testing of the initial version of a common space systems ontology (CoSSO) for use by the Advanced Concepts Office (ACO) at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. The ontology provides a shared conceptualization of concepts of interest to the ACO for modeling aerospace systems concepts in a pre-phase A context to aid with the transition to a more model-based paradigm. The ontological concepts and relations, as well as the anticipated use cases, were developed through interactions with the relevant subject matter experts at the ACO and implemented in the Ontological Modeling Language (OML). The ontology builds on the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) and the Common Core Ontologies (CCO). While most of the ontology is still in the initial stages, an Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) ontology is being built on top of the main CoSSO and heavily developed as a proof of concept. The ECLSS ontology is designed with different use cases in mind, namely predicting and diagnosing errors in ECLS systems on long-duration missions, with a focus on the Four-Bed CO$_2$ carbon dioxide scrubber currently on board the ISS. The ECLSS ontology is being developed in a similar manner to the CoSSO, and designed to be compatible with it. The current state of both ontologies is presented and discussed, along with plans for future development and testing.

Conceptual Design↗