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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 163 records · Page 9
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2024

A High-Performance Computing Predictive GNSS Performance Monitor for Autonomous Air Vehicles in Urban Environments

This report offers analysis and design insights for leveraging High-Performance Computing (HPC) to predict line-of-sight (LOS) Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) availability in a city. This work is motivated by the emerging fields of Advanced and Urban Air Mobility (AAM/UAM), where regulatory authorities are seeking city-scale, meter-resolution risk forecasting in order to safely integrate new flight missions with existing urban life and infrastructure. This work addresses the technical challenge of efficiently computing urban GNSS satellite visibility to predict GNSS performance metrics under these requirements. We present a new HPC-optimized shadow casting algorithm variant as a ray-based approach to forecasting satellite visibility. We apply this algorithm variant in a software-defined prognostic service which generates a GNSS navigation risk-correlated map as a path planning-style potential field. We detail dominant computational burdens, viable simplifying assumptions, and different algorithmic implementations, intending to demonstrate a baseline of computation time needed by each stage in such a service. We conclude by analyzing the prototype service’s prediction accuracy compared to receiver data from Corpus Christi, Texas. This informs design trade-offs along the dimensions of hardware, computation time, and tolerable forecasting error (including proportions of false positives and false negatives).

GNSS↗
NASA NTRS2002

Pre-Hardware Optimization of Spacecraft Image Processing Algorithms and Hardware Implementation

Spacecraft telemetry rates and telemetry product complexity have steadily increased over the last decade presenting a problem for real-time processing by ground facilities. This paper proposes a solution to a related problem for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Spacecraft (GOES-8) image data processing and color picture generation application. Although large super-computer facilities are the obvious heritage solution, they are very costly, making it imperative to seek a feasible alternative engineering solution at a fraction of the cost. The proposed solution is based on a Personal Computer (PC) platform and synergy of optimized software algorithms, and reconfigurable computing hardware (RC) technologies, such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and Digital Signal Processors (DSP). It has been shown that this approach can provide superior inexpensive performance for a chosen application on the ground station or on-board a spacecraft.

Kizhner, Semion↗
DOE OSTI2024

A portable parton-level event generator for the high-luminosity LHC

The rapid deployment of computing hardware different from the traditional CPU+RAM model in data centers around the world mandates a change in the design of event generators for the Large Hadron Collider, in order to provide economically and ecologically sustainable simulations for the high-luminosity era of the LHC. Parton-level event generation is one of the most computationally demanding parts of the simulation and is therefore a prime target for improvements. We present a production-ready leading-order parton-level event generation framework capable of utilizing most modern hardware and discuss its performance in the standard candle processes of vector boson and top-quark pair production with up to five additional jets.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Low Power, Radiation Resilient Synchronous Edge Processing for Remote Monitoring

Next-generation space remote sensing systems may be equipped with imaging arrays that sense data at a rate that outstrips the processing capability of any computing hardware that can operate within a satellite’s power budget. This project developed novel convolutional and recurrent neural networks to detect and estimate point-like events amid clutter, and investigated their efficient and accurate implementation on analog in-memory computing systems that are 10-1000× more energy-efficient than digital processors. This project leveraged two memory devices at different levels of technological maturity: a large-scale analog computing prototype using commercial SONOS charge-trap memory, and electrochemical memory (ECRAM) with intrinsic radiation hardness. We experimentally demonstrated end-to-end analog processing of our neural networks on SONOS and characterized the radiation response of both SONOS and ECRAM. We advanced the state-of-the-art in ECRAM precision and reliability, and developed co-design methods to enable accurate long-term operation of SONOS analog accelerators in space radiation environments.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
NASA NTRS2006

Medical Signal-Conditioning and Data-Interface System

A general-purpose portable, wearable electronic signal-conditioning and data-interface system is being developed for medical applications. The system can acquire multiple physiological signals (e.g., electrocardiographic, electroencephalographic, and electromyographic signals) from sensors on the wearer s body, digitize those signals that are received in analog form, preprocess the resulting data, and transmit the data to one or more remote location(s) via a radiocommunication link and/or the Internet. The system includes a computer running data-object-oriented software that can be programmed to configure the system to accept almost any analog or digital input signals from medical devices. The computing hardware and software implement a general-purpose data-routing-and-encapsulation architecture that supports tagging of input data and routing the data in a standardized way through the Internet and other modern packet-switching networks to one or more computer(s) for review by physicians. The architecture supports multiple-site buffering of data for redundancy and reliability, and supports both real-time and slower-than-real-time collection, routing, and viewing of signal data. Routing and viewing stations support insertion of automated analysis routines to aid in encoding, analysis, viewing, and diagnosis.

Braun, Jeffrey↗
NASA NTRS1996

Downsizing Visualization Platforms: From Crays to Indigos and Beyond

Despite its increasingly negative connotation in other domains, "downsizing" is a positive trend as it applies to the computer hardware necessary to perform scientific visualization. In this talk, we will consider how the visualization of a particular data set, the Digital Terrain Model (DTM) derived from the Viking Orbiter imagery, has been realized in three distinct projects over the past decade. These examples serve to demonstrate how the vast improvements in computational performance both decrease the cost of such visualization efforts, and permit an increasing level of interactivity. We then consider how even today's graphical systems require the visualization designer to make intelligent choices and trade-offs in database rendering. Finally, we discuss how insights from an understanding of human visual perception can guide these design decisions, and suggest new options for visualization hardware and software.

Kaiser, Mary K.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Visual Analytics of Performance of Quantum Computing Systems and Circuit Optimization

Driven by potential exponential speedups in business, security, and scientific scenarios, interest in quantum computing is surging. This interest feeds the development of quantum computing hardware, but several challenges arise in optimizing application performance for hardware metrics (e.g., qubit coherence and gate fidelity). In this work, we describe a visual analytics approach for analyzing the performance properties of quantum devices and quantum circuit optimization. Our approach allows users to explore spatial and temporal patterns in quantum device performance data and it computes similarities and variances in key performance metrics. Detailed analysis of the error properties characterizing individual qubits is also supported. We also describe a method for visualizing the optimization of quantum circuits. The resulting visualization tool allows researchers to design more efficient quantum algorithms and applications by increasing the interpretability of quantum computations.

Chae, Junghoon↗
NASA NTRS1978

Cost-effective use of minicomputers to solve structural problems

Minicomputers are receiving increased use throughout the aerospace industry. Until recently, their use focused primarily on process control and numerically controlled tooling applications, while their exposure to and the opportunity for structural calculations has been limited. With the increased availability of this computer hardware, the question arises as to the feasibility and practicality of carrying out comprehensive structural analysis on a minicomputer. This paper presents results on the potential for using minicomputers for structural analysis by (1) selecting a comprehensive, finite-element structural analysis system in use on large mainframe computers; (2) implementing the system on a minicomputer; and (3) comparing the performance of the minicomputers with that of a large mainframe computer for the solution to a wide range of finite element structural analysis problems.

Storaasli, O. O.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Developing And Scaling an OpenFOAM Model to Study Turbulent Flow in a HFIR Coolant Channel

Improving the understanding of how computational fluid dynamics (CFD) direct numerical simulations (DNS) of flows in the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) perform when run in parallel using the high performance computing (HPC) platform Summit at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) is of particular importance to boost the computational tools used to support HFIR conversion to low enriched fuel (LEU). Evaluation of scaling performance was driven by the increasing importance of graphics processing unit (GPU) usage in HPC, which is becoming the standard for modern supercomputers such as Summit. The desired results are to obtain a strong positive correlation between the computational resources dedicated to a problem and the relative speed-up of the simulation in comparison to a benchmark. This capability will allow substantially improvement in HFIR flow analytical capabilities, specifically when predicting turbulence properties at high Reynolds numbers. The study leverages previous simulation results performed with code PHASTA (finite element) on HPC platforms Cori (NERSC) and Theta (ALCF) [1] with computing options provided in the computing platform OpenFOAM (finite volume) at OLCF. Transitioning from PHASTA to OpenFOAM will (1) eliminate dependence on third-party software for mesh generation and manipulation, (2) reduce resource needs by employing modern architectures, and (3) build expertise for future modeling of HFIR-specific problems like heat transfer in involute geometry, entrance effects, flow structure in channel corners, and so on—all important issues when defining the available thermal margins in the transition to LEU. CPUs and GPUs differ significantly in their architecture and utilization, as discussed in the literature [2]. The most important differences are in the approach to computations and their memory. A single GPU contains a large quantity of cores, enabling it to perform with a much higher throughput than a CPU, but execution requires a different approach. GPU codes execute instructions using the Single-Instruction Multiple-Thread (SIMT) approach in which a single instruction is used for groups of threads called warps. A warp typically consists of 32 threads which must execute the same set of instructions, although on separate threads. Alternately, a CPU has far fewer cores that are much more flexible in their operation, excelling at quickly performing more complex serial computations. This is why GPUs have greater throughput when properly utilized. The second important difference is seen when comparing their memory spaces. Limited memory allocations and CPU–GPU communications cause a significant bottleneck in GPU-accelerated programs. Further study was required to properly take advantage of GPU resources. A comprehensive analysis of code performance and the model-specific features of turbulence constitutes the core of this work. In this study, a DNS simulation of HFIR channel turbulence was performed with the finite volume CFD code OpenFOAM v2112 and CUDA v11.0 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux v8.2. The OpenFOAM installation had AMGx integrated to enable GPU acceleration and utilizes the PETSc4FOAM library. The computational resources and the problem size were scaled on CPU and CPU + GPU architectures to gain a better understanding of the performance of a DNS problem on modern computing hardware. The study aimed to analyze the scaling of the code exclusively on CPUs and then to examine the scaling of the codes with GPU acceleration enabled. Scaling studies included CPU and GPU acceleration on a mesh of varying resolution to analyze the impact of problem size relative to computational resources. In the course of preparing the GPU configuration on Summit, mainly using the AMGX solvers, difficulties were encountered stemming from constant changes resulting from extensive ongoing development activities and the changing environment. This resulted in the inability to complete the GPU portion of the work. The code was compiled and tested, but production runs to assess acceleration were not performed because the used discretional compute time allocation expired as year-end approached. The Summit HPC platform is scheduled for decommissioning in 2024, making it unattractive for future use with Nvidia-based GPUs. Therefore, the work will be moved onto NERSC machines in FY24. An application was prepared and submitted, and sufficient node-hours were awarded to continue the research in the next calendar year. This report summarizes work performed thus far, which mostly focused on CPU OpenFOAM computing.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
NASA NTRS1988

Goldstone solar system radar

Planning, direction, experimental design, and coordination of data-acquisition and engineering activities in support of all Goldstone planetary radar astronomy were performed. This work demands familiarity with the various components of a planetary radar telescope (transmitter, receiver, antenna, computer hardware and software) as well as knowledge of how the entire system must function as a cohesive unit to meet the particular scientific objectives at hand in a given observation. Support radar data-processing facilities, currently being used for virtually all Goldstone data reduction includes: a VAX 11/780 computer system, an FPS 5210 array processor, terminals, tape drives, and image-display devices, as well as a large body of data-reduction software to accommodate the variety of data-acquisition formats and strategems. Successful 113-cm radar observation of Callisto and the near-Earth asteroid 1981 Midas and Goldstone/VLA radar observations of Saturn's rings were obtained. Quick-look verification programs from data taken with phase-coded cw (i.e., ranging) waveforms, applicable to Venus, the Moon, and small bodies were completed. Definition of scientific and engineering requirements on instrument performance, radar system configuration, and personnel, for all 1988 Goldstone radar investigations was accomplished.

Jurgens, Raymond F.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Space station Simulation Computer System (SCS) study for NASA/MSFC. Volume 6: Study issues report

The Simulation Computer System (SCS) is the computer hardware, software, and workstations that will support the Payload Training Complex (PTC) at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). The PTC will train the space station payload specialists and mission specialists to operate the wide variety of experiments that will be on-board the Freedom Space Station. This simulation Computer System (SCS) study issues report summarizes the analysis and study done as task 1-identify and analyze the CSC study issues- of the SCS study contract.This work was performed over the first three months of the SCS study which began in August of 1988. First issues were identified from all sources. These included the NASA SOW, the TRW proposal, and working groups which focused the experience of NASA and the contractor team performing the study-TRW, Essex, and Grumman. The final list is organized into training related issues, and SCS associated development issues. To begin the analysis of the issues, a list of all the functions for which the SCS could be used was created, i.e., when the computer is turned on, what will it be doing. Analysis was continued by creating an operational functions matrix of SCS users vs. SCS functions to insure all the functions considered were valid, and to aid in identification of users as the analysis progressed. The functions will form the basis for the requirements, which are currently being developed under task 3 of the SCS study.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1999

Information Technology and the Autonomous Control of a Mars In-Situ Propellant Production System

With the rapidly increasing performance of information technology, i.e., computer hardware and software systems, as well as networks and communication systems, a new capability is being developed that holds the clear promise of greatly increased exploration capability, along with dramatically reduced design, development, and operating costs. These new intelligent systems technologies, utilizing knowledge-based software and very high performance computer systems, will provide new design and development tools, scheduling mechanisms, and vehicle and system health monitoring capabilities. In addition, specific technologies such as neural nets will provide a degree of machine intelligence and associated autonomy which has previously been unavailable to the mission and spacecraft designer and to the system operator. One of the most promising applications of these new information technologies is to the area of in situ resource utilization. Useful resources such as oxygen, compressed carbon dioxide, water, methane, and buffer gases can be extracted and/or generated from planetary atmospheres, such as the Martian atmosphere. These products, when used for propulsion and life-support needs can provide significant savings in the launch mass and costs for both robotic and crewed missions. In the longer term the utilization of indigenous resources is an enabling technology that is vital to sustaining long duration human presence on Mars. This paper will present the concepts that are currently under investigation and development for mining the Martian atmosphere, such as temperature-swing adsorption, zirconia electrolysis etc., to create propellants and life-support materials. This description will be followed by an analysis of the information technology and control needs for the reliable and autonomous operation of such processing plants in a fault tolerant manner, as well as the approach being taken for the development of the controlling software. Finally, there will be a brief discussion of the verification and validation process so crucial to the implementation of mission-critical software.

Gross, Anthony R.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Implementation and Testing of VLBI Software Correlation at the USNO

The Washington Correlator (WACO) at the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO) is a dedicated VLBI processor based on dedicated hardware of ASIC design. The WACO is currently over 10 years old and is nearing the end of its expected lifetime. Plans for implementation and testing of software correlation at the USNO are currently being considered. The VLBI correlation process is, by its very nature, well suited to a parallelized computing environment. Commercial off-the-shelf computer hardware has advanced in processing power to the point where software correlation is now both economically and technologically feasible. The advantages of software correlation are manifold but include flexibility, scalability, and easy adaptability to changing environments and requirements. We discuss our experience with and plans for use of software correlation at USNO with emphasis on the use of the DiFX software correlator.

Fey, Alan↗
NASA NTRS1995

Advanced in Visualization of 3D Time-Dependent CFD Solutions

Numerical simulations of complex 3D time-dependent (unsteady) flows are becoming increasingly feasible because of the progress in computing systems. Unfortunately, many existing flow visualization systems were developed for time-independent (steady) solutions and do not adequately depict solutions from unsteady flow simulations. Furthermore, most systems only handle one time step of the solutions individually and do not consider the time-dependent nature of the solutions. For example, instantaneous streamlines are computed by tracking the particles using one time step of the solution. However, for streaklines and timelines, particles need to be tracked through all time steps. Streaklines can reveal quite different information about the flow than those revealed by instantaneous streamlines. Comparisons of instantaneous streamlines with dynamic streaklines are shown. For a complex 3D flow simulation, it is common to generate a grid system with several millions of grid points and to have tens of thousands of time steps. The disk requirement for storing the flow data can easily be tens of gigabytes. Visualizing solutions of this magnitude is a challenging problem with today's computer hardware technology. Even interactive visualization of one time step of the flow data can be a problem for some existing flow visualization systems because of the size of the grid. Current approaches for visualizing complex 3D time-dependent CFD solutions are described. The flow visualization system developed at NASA Ames Research Center to compute time-dependent particle traces from unsteady CFD solutions is described. The system computes particle traces (streaklines) by integrating through the time steps. This system has been used by several NASA scientists to visualize their CFD time-dependent solutions. The flow visualization capabilities of this system are described, and visualization results are shown.

Lane, David A.↗
DOE OSTI2019

Collaborative Computing Center (C3)

High Performance Computing (HPC) compliments theory and informs experimental processes in support of NE programs Big Data Analytics capabilities aid in the discovery of science-relevant relationships in data The C520 staff is made up of 19 Staff – Engineering, Basic Sciences, Computer Science, Statistics, Data Science, Technology Computer Computing Hardware Operations include: Falcon is fully utilized with an average 3X over subscription of waiting jobs over the past year Lemhi recently deployed in Feb 2019 Sawtooth procurement underway with Fall 2019 delivery 509 HPC accounts, lab, industry, university users 1.2 PB disk storage, 1.0 PB scratch storage, 0.8 PB disaster recovery storage Collaborative Computing Center nearing completion with approximately 200 staff -- Office space and 200 racks -- Data Center space for computer equipment

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
NASA NTRS2016

The Caltech-NRAO Stripe 82 Survey (CNSS) Paper. I. The Pilot Radio Transient Survey in 50 Deg.(exp. 2)

We have commenced a multiyear program, the Caltech-NRAO Stripe 82 Survey (CNSS), to search for radio transients with the Jansky VLA in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82 region. The CNSS will deliver five epochs over the entire approx. 270 deg.(exp. 2) of Stripe 82, an eventual deep combined map with an rms noise of approx. 40 proper motion epoch y and catalogs at a frequency of 3 GHz, and having a spatial resolution of 3 inches. This first paper presents the results from an initial pilot survey of a 50 deg.(exp. 2) region of Stripe 82, involving four epochs spanning logarithmic timescales between 1 week and 1.5 yr, with the combined map having a median rms noise of 35 proper motion epoch y. This pilot survey enabled the development of the hardware and software for rapid data processing, as well as transient detection and follow-up, necessary for the full 270 deg.(exp. 2) survey. Data editing, calibration, imaging, source extraction, cataloging, and transient identification were completed in a semi-automated fashion within 6 hr of completion of each epoch of observations, using dedicated computational hardware at the NRAO in Socorro and custom-developed data reduction and transient detection pipelines. Classification of variable and transient sources relied heavily on the wealth of multiwavelength legacy survey data in the Stripe 82 region, supplemented by repeated mapping of the region by the Palomar Transient Factory. A total of 3.9(+0.5%/-0.9%) of the few thousand detected point sources werefound to vary by greater than 30%, consistent with similar studies at 1.4 and 5 GHz. Multiwavelength photometric data and light curves suggest that the variability is mostly due to shock-induced flaring in the jets of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Although this was only a pilot survey, we detected two bona fide transients, associated with an RS CVn binary and a dKe star. Comparison with existing legacy survey data (FIRST, VLA-Stripe 82) revealed additional highly variable and transient sources on timescales between 5 and 20 yr, largely associated with renewed AGN activity. The rates of such AGNs possibly imply episodes of enhanced accretion and jet activity occurring once every approx. 40,000 yr in these galaxies. We compile the revised radio transient rates and make recommendations for future transient surveys and joint radio-optical experiments.

galaxies: active – radio continuum: galaxies –↗
DOE OSTI2020

Correlating AGP on a quantum computer

For variational algorithms on the near term quantum computing hardware, it is highly desirable to use very accurate ansatze with low implementation cost. Recent studies have shown that the antisymmetrized geminal power (AGP) wavefunction can be an excellent starting point for ansatze describing systems with strong pairing correlations, as those occurring in superconductors. In this work, we show how AGP can be efficiently implemented on a quantum computer with circuit depth, number of CNOTs, and number of measurements being linear in system size. Using AGP as the initial reference, we propose and implement a unitary correlator on AGP and benchmark it on the ground state of the pairing Hamiltonian. Furthermore, the results show highly accurate ground state energies in all correlation regimes of this model Hamiltonian.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS1996

The Impact of Information Technology on the Design, Development, and Implementation of a Lunar Exploration Mission

From the beginning to the present expeditions to the Moon have involved a large investment of human labor. This has been true for all aspects of the process, from the initial design of the mission, whether scientific or technological, through the development of the instruments and the spacecraft, to the flight and operational phases. In addition to the time constraints that this situation imposes, there is also a significant cost associated with the large labor costs. As a result lunar expeditions have been limited to a few robotic missions and the manned Apollo program missions of the 1970s. With the rapid rise of the new information technologies, new paradigms are emerging that promise to greatly reduce both the time and cost of such missions. With the rapidly increasing capabilities of computer hardware and software systems, as well as networks and communication systems, a new balance of work is being developed between the human and the machine system. This new balance holds the promise of greatly increased exploration capability, along with dramatically reduced design, development, and operating costs. These new information technologies, utilizing knowledge-based software and very highspeed computer systems, will provide new design and development tools, scheduling mechanisms, and vehicle and system health monitoring capabilities that have hitherto been unavailable to the mission and spacecraft designer and the system operator. This paper will utilize typical lunar missions, both robotic and crewed, as a basis to describe and illustrate how these new information system technologies could be applied to all aspects such missions. In particular, new system design tradeoff tools will be described along with technologies that will allow a very much greater degree of autonomy of exploration vehicles than has heretofore been possible. In addition, new information technologies that will significantly reduce the human operational requirements will be discussed.

Gross, Anthony R.↗