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At least 1,513 records · Page 84

MicroMAPS CO Measurements over North America and Europe during Summer-Fall 2004

The MicroMAPS instrument is a nadir-viewing, gas filter-correlated radiometer which operating in the 4.67 micrometer fundamental band of carbon monoxide. Originally designed and built for a space mission, this CO remote sensor is being flown in support of satellite validation and science instrument demonstrations for potential UAV applications. The MicroMAPS instrument system, as flown on Proteus, was designed by a senior student design project in the Aerospace Engineering Department, Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, VA. and then revised by Systems Engineers at NASA Langley. The final instrument system was integrated and tested at NASA LaRC, in partnership with Scaled Composites and Virginia Space Grant Consortium (VSGC). VSGC supervised the fabrication of the nacelle that houses the instrument system on the right rear tail boom of Proteus. Full system integration and flight testing was performed at Scaled Composites, in Mojave, in June 2004. Its successful performance enabled participation in four international science missions on Proteus: in 2004, INTEX -NA over eastern North America in July, ADRIEX over the Mediterranean region and EAQUATE over the United Kingdom region in September,and TWP-ICE over Darwin, Australia and the surrounding oceans in Jan-Feb 2006. These flights resulted in nearly 300 hours of data. In parallel with the engineering developments, theoretical radiative transfer models were developed specifically for the MicroMAPS instrument system at the University of Virginia, Mechanical Engineering Department by a combined undergraduate and graduate student team. With technical support from Resonance Ltd. in June 2005, the MicroMAPS instrument was calibrated for the conditions under which the Summer-Fall 2004 flights occurred. The analyses of the calibration data, combined with the theoretical radiative transfer models, provide the first data reduction for the science flights reported here. These early results and comparisons with profile data from the NASA DC-8, the coincident AIRS CO retrievals, and selected CO measurements from the MOZAIC program will be presented.

Connors, Vickie S.↗

A Comparison of Flow-Through Versus Non-Flow-Through Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Systems for NASA's Exploration Missions

As part of the Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP) under the auspices of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD), NASA is developing both primary fuel cell power systems and regenerative fuel cell (RFC) energy storage systems within the fuel cell portion of the Energy Storage Project. This effort is being led by the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) in partnership with the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC), and industrial partners. The development goals are to improve fuel cell and electrolysis stack electrical performance, reduce system mass, volume, and parasitic power requirements, and increase system life and reliability. A major focus of this effort has been the parallel development of both flow-through and non-flow-through proton exchange membrane (PEM) primary fuel cell power systems. The plan has been, at the appropriate time, to select a single primary fuel cell technology for eventual flight hardware development. Ideally, that appropriate time would occur after both technologies have achieved a technology readiness level (TRL) of six, which represents an engineering model fidelity PEM fuel cell system being successfully tested in a relevant environment. Budget constraints in fiscal year 2009 and beyond have prevented NASA from continuing to pursue the parallel development of both primary fuel cell options. Because very limited data exists for either system, a toplevel, qualitative assessment based on engineering judgement was performed expeditiously to provide guidance for a selection. At that time, the non-flow-through technology was selected for continued development because of potentially major advantages in terms of weight, volume, parasitic power, reliability, and life. This author believes that the advantages are significant enough, and the potential benefits great enough, to offset the higher state of technology readiness of flow-through technology. This paper summarizes the technical considerations which helped form the engineering judgement that led to the final decision.

Hoberecht, Mark A.↗

"One-Stop Shopping" for Ocean Remote-Sensing and Model Data

OurOcean Portal 2.0 (http:// ourocean.jpl.nasa.gov) is a software system designed to enable users to easily gain access to ocean observation data, both remote-sensing and in-situ, configure and run an Ocean Model with observation data assimilated on a remote computer, and visualize both the observation data and the model outputs. At present, the observation data and models focus on the California coastal regions and Prince William Sound in Alaska. This system can be used to perform both real-time and retrospective analyses of remote-sensing data and model outputs. OurOcean Portal 2.0 incorporates state-of-the-art information technologies (IT) such as MySQL database, Java Web Server (Apache/Tomcat), Live Access Server (LAS), interactive graphics with Java Applet at the Client site and MatLab/GMT at the server site, and distributed computing. OurOcean currently serves over 20 real-time or historical ocean data products. The data are served in pre-generated plots or their native data format. For some of the datasets, users can choose different plotting parameters and produce customized graphics. OurOcean also serves 3D Ocean Model outputs generated by ROMS (Regional Ocean Model System) using LAS. The Live Access Server (LAS) software, developed by the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is a configurable Web-server program designed to provide flexible access to geo-referenced scientific data. The model output can be views as plots in horizontal slices, depth profiles or time sequences, or can be downloaded as raw data in different data formats, such as NetCDF, ASCII, Binary, etc. The interactive visualization is provided by graphic software, Ferret, also developed by PMEL. In addition, OurOcean allows users with minimal computing resources to configure and run an Ocean Model with data assimilation on a remote computer. Users may select the forcing input, the data to be assimilated, the simulation period, and the output variables and submit the model to run on a backend parallel computer. When the run is complete, the output will be added to the LAS server for

Li, P. Peggy↗

A fast and accurate domain decomposition nonlinear manifold reduced order model

Here, this paper integrates nonlinear-manifold reduced order models (NM-ROMs) with domain decomposition (DD). NM ROMs approximate the full order model (FOM) state in a nonlinear-manifold by training a shallow, sparse autoencoder using FOM snapshot data. These NM-ROMs can be advantageous over linear-subspace ROMs (LS-ROMs) for problems with slowly decaying Kolmogorov n-width. However, the number of NM-ROM parameters that need to be trained scales with the size of the FOM. Moreover, for “extreme-scale” problems, the storage of high-dimensional FOM snapshots alone can make ROM training expensive. To alleviate the training cost, this paper applies DD to the FOM, computes NM-ROMs on each subdomain, and couples them to obtain a global NM-ROM. This approach has several advantages: Subdomain NM-ROMs can be trained in parallel, involve fewer parameters to be trained than global NM-ROMs, require smaller subdomain FOM dimensional training data, and can be tailored to subdomain specific features of the FOM. The shallow, sparse architecture of the autoencoder used in each subdomain NM-ROM allows application of hyper-reduction (HR), reducing the complexity caused by nonlinearity and yielding computational speedup of the NM-ROM. This paper provides the first application of NM-ROM (with HR) to a DD problem. In particular, this paper details an algebraic DD reformulation of the FOM, training a NM-ROM with HR for each sub domain, and a sequential quadratic programming (SQP) solver to evaluate the coupled global NM-ROM. Theoretical convergence results for the SQP method and a priori and a posteriori error estimates for the DD NM-ROM with HR are provided. The proposed DD NM-ROM with HR approach is numerically compared to a DD LS-ROM with HR on the 2D steady-state Burgers’ equation, showing an order of magnitude improvement in accuracy of the proposed DD NM-ROM over the DD LS-ROM.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Orbital management and design considerations for NiCd satellite power systems

Several recently manufactured 50 and 60 ampere hour aerospace NiCd battery cell lots, produced by Gates Aerospace Batteries, are prone to premature on orbit performance degradation. The failure mechanism is cadmium migration, and the consequent development of soft shorts. A Martin Marietta Astronautics satellite program instituted an orbital management strategy for a set of these batteries that reduced the rate of degradation and brought the system to stable operation. This strategy involves: (1) minimizing the accumulated battery overcharge; (2) regular discharge exercises; and (3) periodic battery reconditioning. Because of changes in the NiCd cell manufacturing process, the actual performance of subsequent lots of NiCd cells is open to question. Future NiCd based power system designs should therefore allow for fine control of charge parameters, and an on orbit battery reconditioning capability. To minimize risk, it is much better to perform a full life test to qualify the cells before launch, rather than in parallel with orbital operations. If there are any changes in the manufacturing process of cells, it is extremely important to maintain very strong cognizance of secondary subcontractors, recognizing that the cell and battery manufacturing discipline is easily atrophied.

Tausch, Benjamin J., II↗

Impact Testing of 410 Stainless Steel for Material Impact Model Development

A project is underway to develop a consistent set of material properties, impact test data, and failure analysis for a variety of metallic aircraft materials that can be used to develop improved impact failure and deformation models. This project is jointly funded by the NASA Glenn Research Center and the Federal Aviation Administration William J. Hughes Technical Center. Particular features of this set of data are that all material property and impact test data are obtained using traceable material, the test methods and procedures are extensively documented, and all the raw data are available. Four parallel efforts are currently underway: measurement of material deformation and failure response over a wide range of strain rates and temperatures, failure analysis of material property specimens and impact test articles, development of improved numerical modeling techniques for deformation and failure, and impact testing of flat panels and substructures for model validation. This report describes impact testing performed on 410 stainless steel sheet and plate samples of different thicknesses with two different types of projectiles, one a regular cylinder and one with a more complex geometry incorporating features representative of a jet engine fan blade. Data from this testing will be used in validating material models developed under this program. The material tests and the material models developed in this program will be published in separate reports.

410 Stainless Steel↗

Solid propellant rocket motor internal ballistics performance variation analysis, phase 3

Results of research aimed at improving the predictability of off nominal internal ballistics performance of solid propellant rocket motors (SRMs) including thrust imbalance between two SRMs firing in parallel are reported. The potential effects of nozzle throat erosion on internal ballistic performance were studied and a propellant burning rate low postulated. The propellant burning rate model when coupled with the grain deformation model permits an excellent match between theoretical results and test data for the Titan IIIC, TU455.02, and the first Space Shuttle SRM (DM-1). Analysis of star grain deformation using an experimental model and a finite element model shows the star grain deformation effects for the Space Shuttle to be small in comparison to those of the circular perforated grain. An alternative technique was developed for predicting thrust imbalance without recourse to the Monte Carlo computer program. A scaling relationship used to relate theoretical results to test results may be applied to the alternative technique of predicting thrust imbalance or to the Monte Carlo evaluation. Extended investigation into the effect of strain rate on propellant burning rate leads to the conclusion that the thermoelastic effect is generally negligible for both steadily increasing pressure loads and oscillatory loads.

Sforzini, R. H.↗

Distributed communications and control network for robotic mining

The application of robotics to coal mining machines is one approach pursued to increase productivity while providing enhanced safety for the coal miner. Toward that end, a network composed of microcontrollers, computers, expert systems, real time operating systems, and a variety of program languages are being integrated that will act as the backbone for intelligent machine operation. Actual mining machines, including a few customized ones, have been given telerobotic semiautonomous capabilities by applying the described network. Control devices, intelligent sensors and computers onboard these machines are showing promise of achieving improved mining productivity and safety benefits. Current research using these machines involves navigation, multiple machine interaction, machine diagnostics, mineral detection, and graphical machine representation. Guidance sensors and systems employed include: sonar, laser rangers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, clinometers, and accelerometers. Information on the network of hardware/software and its implementation on mining machines are presented. Anticipated coal production operations using the network are discussed. A parallelism is also drawn between the direction of present day underground coal mining research to how the lunar soil (regolith) may be mined. A conceptual lunar mining operation that employs a distributed communication and control network is detailed.

Schiffbauer, William H.↗

Object oriented Simulation of Maintenance and Operations for Space Systems (OSMOSSYS)

This paper describes the NASA/JSC Research Technology Opportunity Program (RTOP) activity to assess the supportability of space systems throughout their life cycles. Supportability analyses for space systems present unique attributes and problems. The OSMOSSYS (Object oriented Simulation of Maintenance and Operations for Space Systems) was developed using object-oriented design concepts to provide NASA an analysis tool which addresses the question `Will a proposed space facility be able to successfully perform the missions for which it is designed?' This model integrates the complete configuration of the system including the reliability and maintainability characteristics of each component, the logistics support, and the mission operations of the facility to assess the success rate of the planned mission(s). Two parallel design processes are being utilized; developing core modules utilizing C++, and incorporating as much code and ideas as possible from existing NASA models. The space station was used as a test case to demonstrate the applicability of the model.

Doran, Linda↗

Classic and Quantum Task-Based Intelligent Runtime for QIRs Running on Multiple QPUs

High-performance computing systems are rapidly evolving into heterogeneous platforms that fuse quantum accelerators with traditional classical processing units (CPUs) and graphical processing units (GPUs). This convergence calls for runtimes capable of managing both classical and quantum workloads in a unified manner. We introduce an intelligent, task-based runtime that marries the Intelligent RuntIme System (IRIS) asynchronous scheduler with a quantum programming stack through the Quantum Intermediate Representation Execution Engine (QIR-EE). Our design allows programs written in the quantum intermediate representation (QIR) to be dispatched concurrently to a variety of back-ends, including multiple quantum simulators and nascent quantum processors, enabling genuine hybrid execution on a single node. To illustrate its practicality, we partition a 4-qubit and 20-qubit circuit into three sub-circuits using quantum circuit cutting via the QCut library. Each sub-circuit is simulated independently by the QIR-EE driver within IRIS, after which a classical post-processing step merges the simulation results to recover the outcome of the original full-circuit computation. This case study demonstrates how finer task granularity can enable the parallel execution and lower the simulation burden per quantum task while preserving overall accuracy, highlighting the feasibility of our hybrid approach.

Miniskar, Narasinga Rao [ORNL] (ORCID:000000018259↗

The Origins Space Telescope Integration and Testing

This paper describes the plans, flows, key facilities, test beds, pathfinders, simulators and ground support equipment that could be used to fully integrate, functionally test and qualify the Origins Space Telescope (Origins). The Origins Observatory consists of the Spacecraft Bus Module (SBM) and the Cryogenic Payload Module (CPM), which comprises the telescope and three science instruments. The telescope is a Three Mirror Anastigmat (TMA) and is composed of four mirrors: three with optical power (the elliptical primary, hyperbolic secondary, and elliptical tertiary mirrors) and a flat field-steering mirror (FSM). The three science instruments spanning the wavelength range 2.8 to 588 μm provide the powerful new spectroscopic and imaging capabilities required to achieve the scientific objectives. The Origins Survey Spectrometer (OSS) uses six gratings in parallel to take multi-beam spectra simultaneously across the 25 to 588 μm window through long slits enabling deep 3D extra-galactic surveys. The Far-IR Imager/Polarimeter (FIP) provides imaging and polarimetric measurement capabilities at 50 and 250 μm. Its fast mapping enables rapid follow-up of transient or variable sources and efficient monitoring campaigns. The Mid-Infrared Spectrometer (MISC-T) provides spectroscopy simultaneously over 2.8 to 20 μm with exquisite stability and precision (<5 ppm between 2.8 to 10 μm, <20 ppm between 11 to 20 μm). All the instruments are delivered for Integration and Test fully qualified and calibrated. The Integration and Test program implemented at each level of assembly is discussed as well as the separation of thermal vacuum testing between the hot and cold zones of the Observatory. Portions of this manuscript appear in the Origins Study Final Report.

Origins↗

Full power level development of the Space Shuttle main engine

Development of the Space Shuttle main engine for nominal operation at full power level (109 percent rated power) is continuing in parallel with the successful flight testing of the Space Transportation System. Verification of changes made to the rated power level configuration currently being flown on the Orbiter Columbia is in progress and the certification testing of the full power level configuration has begun. The certification test plan includes the accumulation of 10,000 seconds on each of two engines by early 1983. Certification testing includes the simulation of nominal mission duty cycles as well as the two abort thrust profiles: abort to orbit and return to launch site. Several of the certification tests are conducted at 111 percent power to demonstrate additional safety margins. In addition to the flight test and development program results, future plans for life demonstration and engine uprating will be discussed.

Johnson, J. R.↗

Time accurate application of the MacCormack 2-4 scheme on massively parallel computers

Many recent computational efforts in turbulence and acoustics research have used higher order numerical algorithms. One popular method has been the explicit MacCormack 2-4 scheme. The MacCormack 2-4 scheme is second order accurate in time and fourth order accurate in space, and is stable for CFL's below 2/3. Current research has shown that the method can give accurate results but does exhibit significant Gibbs phenomena at sharp discontinuities. The impact of adding Jameson type second, third, and fourth order artificial viscosity was examined here. Category 2 problems, the nonlinear traveling wave and the Riemann problem, were computed using a CFL number of 0.25. This research has found that dispersion errors can be significantly reduced or nearly eliminated by using a combination of second and third order terms in the damping. Use of second and fourth order terms reduced the magnitude of dispersion errors but not as effectively as the second and third order combination. The program was coded using Thinking Machine's CM Fortran, a variant of Fortran 90/High Performance Fortran, and was executed on a 2K CM-200. Simple extrapolation boundary conditions were used for both problems.

Hudson, Dale A.↗

Modeling and Prediction of the Noise from Non-Axisymmetric Jets

The new source model was combined with the original sound propagation model developed for rectangular jets to produce a new version of the rectangular jet noise prediction code. This code was validated using a set of rectangular nozzles whose geometries were specified by NASA. Nozzles of aspect ratios two, four and eight were studied at jet exit Mach numbers of 0.5, 0.7 and 0.9, for a total of nine cases. Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes solutions for these jets were provided to the contactor for use as input to the code. Quantitative comparisons of the predicted azimuthal and polar directivity of the acoustic spectrum were made with experimental data provided by NASA. The results of these comparisons, along with a documentation of the propagation and source models, were reported in a journal article publication (Ref. 4). The complete set of computer codes and computational modules that make up the prediction scheme, along with a user's guide describing their use and example test cases, was provided to NASA as a deliverable of this task. The use of conformal mapping, along with simplified modeling of the mean flow field, for noise propagation modeling was explored for other nozzle geometries, to support the task milestone of developing methods which are applicable to other geometries and flow conditions of interest to NASA. A model to represent twin round jets using this approach was formulated and implemented. A general approach to solving the equations governing sound propagation in a locally parallel nonaxisymmetric jet was developed and implemented, in aid of the tasks and milestones charged with selecting more exact numerical methods for modeling sound propagation, and developing methods that have application to other nozzle geometries. The method is based on expansion of both the mean-flowdependent coefficients in the governing equation and the Green's function in series of orthogonal functions. The method was coded and tested on two analytically prescribed mean flows which were meant to represent noise reduction concepts being considered by NASA. Testing (Ref. 5) showed that the method was feasible for the types of mean flows of interest in jet noise applications. Subsequently, this method was further developed to allow use of mean flow profiles obtained from a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solution of the flow. Preliminary testing of the generalized code was among the last tasks completed under this contract. The stringent noise-reduction goals of NASA's Fundamental Aeronautics Program suggest that, in addition to potentially complex exhaust nozzle geometries, next generation aircraft will also involve tighter integration of the engine with the airframe. Therefore, noise generated and propagated by jet flows in the vicinity of solid surfaces is expected to be quite significant, and reduced-order noise prediction tools will be needed that can deal with such geometries. One important source of noise is that generated by the interaction of a turbulent jet with the edge of a solid surface (edge noise). Such noise is generated, for example, by the passing of the engine exhaust over a shielding surface, such as a wing. Work under this task supported an effort to develop a RANS-based prediction code for edge noise based on an extension of the classical Rapid Distortion Theory (RDT) to transversely sheared base flows (Refs. 6 and 7). The RDT-based theoretical analysis was applied to the generic problem of a turbulent jet interacting with the trailing edge of a flat plate. A code was written to evaluate the formula derived for the spectrum of the noise produced by this interaction and results were compared with data taken at NASA Glenn for a variety of jet/plate configurations and flow conditions (Ref. 8). A longer-term goal of this task was to work toward the development of a high-fidelity model of sound propagation in spatially developing non-axisymmetric jets using direct numerical methods for solving the relevant equations. Working with NASA Glenn Acoustics Branch personnel, numerical methods and boundary conditions appropriate for use in a high-resolution calculation of the full equations governing sound propagation in a steady base flow were identified. Computer codes were then written (by NASA) and tested (by OAI) for an increasingly complex set of flow conditions to validate the methods. The NASA-supplied codes were ported to the High-End Computing resources of the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility for testing and validation against analytical (where possible) and independent numerical solutions. The cases which were completed during the course of this contract were solutions of the two-dimensional linearized Euler equations with no mean flow, a uniform mean flow and a nonuniform mean flow representative of a parallel flow jet.

Leib, Stewart J.↗

Mineralization of collagen may occur on fibril surfaces: evidence from conventional and high-voltage electron microscopy and three-dimensional imaging

The interaction between collagen and mineral crystals in the normally calcifying leg tendons from the domestic turkey, Meleagris gallopavo, has been investigated at an ultrastructural level with conventional and high-voltage electron microscopy, computed tomography, and three-dimensional image reconstruction methods. Specimens treated by either aqueous or anhydrous techniques and resin-embedded were appropriately sectioned and regions of early tendon mineralization were photographed. On the basis of individual photomicrographs, stereoscopic pairs of images, and tomographic three-dimensional image reconstructions, platelet-shaped crystals may be demonstrated for the first time in association with the surface of collagen fibrils. Mineral is also observed in closely parallel arrays within collagen hole and overlap zones. The mineral deposition at these spatially distinct locations in the tendon provides insight into possible means by which calcification is mediated by collagen as a fundamental event in skeletal and dental formation among vertebrates.

NASA Discipline Musculoskeletal↗

Traffic Flow Management and Optimization

This talk will present an overview of Traffic Flow Management (TFM) research at NASA Ames Research Center. Dr. Rios will focus on his work developing a large-scale, parallel approach to solving traffic flow management problems in the national airspace. In support of this talk, Dr. Rios will provide some background on operational aspects of TFM as well a discussion of some of the tools needed to perform such work including a high-fidelity airspace simulator. Current, on-going research related to TFM data services in the national airspace system and general aviation will also be presented.

linear programming↗

Cloud Computing Option for Modeling the Debris Environment

NASA’s Digital Transformation Initiative aims to promote the agency’s adoption of current and evolving digital technologies. Through agency-wide collaboration with other NASA teams, the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) has directed the Orbital Debris Program Office and the Meteoroid Environment Office to integrate cloud computing technologies into their publicly released software models: the Orbital Debris Engineering Model (ORDEM) and the Meteoroid Engineering Model (MEM). Decoupling the user interface from the backend processor was key for the software packages to run on a cloud computing framework. Benefits to this design include horizontal scaling of computing resources, user authentication and authorization, and automated deployment. Both models are hosted on a cloud computing platform supported by the NASA authorized IT security and compliance framework. This paper focuses on the new ORDEM web application, which includes the current features of the publicly released ORDEM software with an upgraded frontend design, although parallels between ORDEM and MEM are also discussed. The underlying ORDEM processor is run on a cloud container, allowing the user to run multiple spacecraft and telescope/radar mode simulations. Features exclusive to the ORDEM web application, such as importing multiple TLEs, auto-generated plotting, and the ability to check runtime progress are discussed. Comparisons between the current ORDEM software and the web application are summarized.

Andrew Vavrin↗

The Rubidium-Crystal Oscillator Hybrid Development Program

The rubidium-crystal oscillator hybrid (RbXO) will make precise time available to systems that lack the power required by atomic frequency standards. The RbXO consists of two subassemblies in separate enclosures. One contains a small rubidium frequency standard (RFS) without its internal oven-controlled crystal oscillator (OCXO), plus interface circuits. The second contains a low-power OCXO, and additional interface circuits. The OCXO is on continuously. Periodically, e.g., once a week, the user system applies power to the RFS. After the few necessary for the warmup of the RFS, the interface circuits adjust the frequency of the OCXO to the RFS reference, then shut off the RFS. The OCXO enclosure is separable from the RFS enclosure so that manpacks will be able to operate with minimum size, weight, and power consumption, while having the accuracy of the RFS for the duration of a mission. A prototype RbXO's RFS has operated successfully for 4200 on-off cycles. Parallel efforts on a Phase 2 RbXO development are in progress. Two sources for the RbXO are scheduled to be available during 1986.

Vig, J. R.↗