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This conference poster reviews the development of the usability lab at Marshall Space Flight Center. The purpose of the lab was to integrate a fully functioning usability laboratory to provide a resource for future human factor assessments. and to implement preliminary usability testing on a MSFC website to validate the functionality of the lab.
The Ames Life Science Data Archive (ALSDA) at NASA Ames Research Center is managed by the Space Biosciences Division and has been operational since 1993. The ALSDA is responsible for archiving information and biospecimens collected from life science spaceflight experiments and matching ground control experiments. They are stored in the Ames biobank, which is located in the Biospecimen Storage Facility (BSF). The ALSDA also manages a Biospecimen Sharing Program, performs curation and long-term storage operations, and makes biospecimens available to the scientific community for research purposes via the Life Science Data Archive public website (https:lsda.jsc.nasa.gov). The BSF maintains both fixed and frozen spaceflight and ground tissues, collected from recent and past spaceflight missions. Due to the ever increasing demand for space to preserve current and future flight biospecimens, the ALSDA has initiated the development of a culling plan for biospecimens currently stored in the BSF. Culling enables the ALSDA to assess the quality of archived samples, and supports the development of standardized culling procedures that improve the operational efficiency of the BSF. The culling plan focuses on generating disposition recommendations for samples in the BSF, and currently is based on measuring ribonucleic acid (RNA) integrity number (RIN). The culling process includes (1) sorting and identification of candidate samples for RIN analysis, (2) completion of RIN analysis on select samples, and (3) development of disposition recommendations for specimens based on the RIN values. Furthermore, our approach allows for unique scientific opportunities, including development of a RIN-based methodology for culling, and temporal assessment of the quality of the tissues that have been stored in BSF since the 1980s. Results of this work will also support NASA open science initiatives.
Recent developments in high altitude balloon platform capabilities, specifically long duration flights in excess of 50 days at over 100,000 ft and precision pointing with performance at the arc sec level or better have raised the question whether this platform can be utilized for high-value planetary science observations. In January of 2012 a workshop was held at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio to explore what planetary science can be achieved utilizing such a platform. Over 40 science concepts were identified by the scientists and engineers attending the workshop. Those ideas were captured and then posted to a public website for all interested planetary scientists to review and give their comments. The results of the workshop, and subsequent community review, have demonstrated that this platform appears to have potential for high-value science at very competitive costs. Given these positive results, the assessment process was extended to include 1) examining, in more detail, the requirements for the gondola platform and the mission scenarios 2) identifying technical challenges and 3) developing one or more platform concepts in enough fidelity to enable accurate estimating of development and mission costs. This paper provides a review of the assessment, a summary of the achievable science and the challenges to make that science a reality with this platform.
The objectives of the Technology Watch process are to identify emerging, high-impact technologies that augment current ExMC development efforts, and to work with academia, industry, and other government agencies to accelerate the development of medical care and research capabilities for the mitigation of potential health issues that could occur during space exploration missions. The establishment of collaborations with these entities is beneficial to technology development, assessment and/or insertion. Such collaborations also further NASA s goal to provide a safe and healthy environment for human exploration. The Tech Watch project addresses requirements and capabilities identified by knowledge and technology gaps that are derived from a discrete set of medical conditions that are most likely to occur on exploration missions. These gaps are addressed through technology readiness level assessments, market surveys, collaborations and distributed innovation opportunities. Ultimately, these gaps need to be closed with respect to exploration missions, and may be achieved through technology development projects. Information management is a key aspect to this process where Tech Watch related meetings, research articles, collaborations and partnerships are tracked by the HRP s Exploration Medical Capabilities (ExMC) Element. In 2011, ExMC will be introducing the Tech Watch external website and evidence wiki that will provide access to ExMC technology and knowledge gaps, technology needs and requirements documents.
At American Geophysical Union(AGU) 2016 Fall Meeting, Goddard Earth Sciences Data Information Services Center (GES DISC) unveiled a novel way to access data: Datalist. Currently, datalist is a collection of predefined data variables from one or more archived datasets, curated by our subject matter expert (SME). Our science support team has curated a predefined Hurricane Datalist and received very positive feedback from the user community. Datalist uses the same architecture our new website uses and have the same look and feel as other datasets on our web site. and also provides a one-stop shopping for data, metadata, citation, documentation, visualization and other available services. Since the last AGU Meeting, we have further developed a few new datalists corresponding to the Big Earth Data Initiative (BEDI) Societal Benefit Areas and A-Train data. We now have four datalists: Hurricane, Wind Energy, Greenhouse Gas and A-Train. We have also started working with our User Working Group members to create their favorite datalists and working with other DAAC to explore the possibility to include their products in our datalists that may also lead to a future of potential federated (cross-DAAC) datalists. Since our datalist prototype effort was a success, we are planning to make datalist operational. It's extremely important to have a common metadata model to support datalist, this will also be the foundation of federated datalist. We mapped our datalist metadata model to the unpublished UMM(Universal Metadata Model)-Var (Variable) (June version) and found that the UMM-var together with UMM-C (Collection) and possible UMM-S (Service) will meet our basic requirements. For example: Dataset shortname, and version are already specified in UMM-C, variable name, long name, units, dimensions are all specified in UMM-Var. UMM-Var also facilitates Science Keywords to allow tagging at variable level and Characteristics for optional variable characteristics. Measurements is useful for grouping of the variables and Set is promising to define datalist. And finally, the UMM-Service model to specify the available services for the variable will be very beneficial. In summary, UMM-Var, UMM-C and UMM-S are the basis of federated datalist and the development and deployment of datalist will contribute to the evolution of the UMM.
The Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) Data Model was developed to provide a metadata standard for describing Heliophysics (Space and Solar Physics) data within that science discipline. The SPASE Data Model has matured over the many years of its creation and is presently represented by Version 2.2.1. Information about SPASE can be obtained from the website group.org. The Data Model defines terms and values as well as the relationships between them in order to describe the data resources in the Heliophysics data environment. This data environment is quite complex, consisting of Virtual Observatories, Resident Archives, Data Providers, Partnering Data Centers, Services, Final Archives, and a Deep Archive. SPASE is the metadata language standard intended to permeate the complexity and provide a common method of obtaining and understanding data. Is it working in this capacity? SPASE has been used to describe a wide range of data. Examples range from ground-based magnetometer data to interplanetary satellite measurements to space weather model results. Has it achieved the goal of making the data easier to find and use? To find data of interest it is necessary that all the data of importance be described using the SPASE Data Model. Within the part of the data community associated with NASA (supported through NASA funding) there are obligations to use SPASE and (0 describe the old and new data using the SPASE XML schema. Although this pan of the community is not near 100% compliance with the mandate, there is good progress being made and the goal should be reachable in the future. Outside of the NASA data community there is still work to be done to convince the international community that SPASE descriptions are w011h the cost of their generation. Some of these groups such as Cluster, HELlO, GAIA, NOAA/NGDe. CSSDP, VSTO, SuperMAG, and IUGONET have agreed to use SPASE. but there are still other groups of importance that need (0 be reached. It is also assumed that the terminology is sufficiently broad and the descriptions are sufficiently complete that researchers needing data of a specific type or from a specific period can find and acquire what they need. A valid SPASE description can be very brief or very thorough depending on the willingness of the author to spend the time necessary to make the description useful. There is evidence that users are finding what they need through the SPASE descriptions, and this standard is a big step forward in Heliophysics data location. Does SPASE make it easier to use the data once they are found,) Thorough descriptions of data using SPASE can describe the data down to the level of individual parameters and exactly how the data are organized and stored. Should the SPASE data descriptions be written in such a way that they can be automatically ingested and understood by software tools'? Heliophysics instruments are becoming morc versatile all the time and the complexity of the data makes it tedious and time consuming to write SPASE descriptions with this level of sophistication even with the improvement of the tools used to generate the descriptions. Is it better to just write human-readable descriptions of the data at the parameter level or to refer to references that provide this information? This is a debate that is presently taking place and software is being developed to test what is possible.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the Climate and Forecast (CF) Metadata Conventions and netCDF standard have influenced the recommendations and guidance provided to producers of data products based on NASA’s Earth observations. It has been long-recognized that interoperable datasets and use of standards and conventions are beneficial to the users of these datasets, especially those who make use of multiple datasets for their research and applications. The Dataset Interoperability Working Group (DIWG), one of NASA’s Earth Science Data System Working Groups (ESDSWGs), was established in 2013, and has developed and published many recommendations. The Data Product Development Guide (DPDG) Working Group, established in 2018 as another of the ESDSWGs, has published a DPDG for Data Producers and a Quick Start Guide, incorporating guidance from many sources, including the recommendations from the DIWG. The DPDG includes recommendations regarding data formats (prominently netCDF-4) and metadata based primarily on the CF Metadata Conventions and the Attribute Convention for Data Discovery (ACDD). In early 2023, it was decided that the Resource Center for Data Producers (RCDP) Working Group be established as another ESDSWG, with the goals of providing all the information relevant and helpful for data producers via an easily accessible website, and of recommending how the DPDG and QSG could be maintained as living documents, given the rapidly changing technologies, and the need for incorporating the experience and feedback from the users of these documents.
This document provides a step-by-step tutorial on how to set up OpenCSP for both users and developers. It is meant to support novice users and does not require software engineering experience. It is a detailed extension of the OpenCSP getting started on-line documentation, found here: https://opencsp.readthedocs.io/en/main/contributing.html#getting-started. For an overview of OpenCSP overall, see the OpenCSP website: https://opencsp.sandia.gov. For details on OpenCSP components and algorithm, see the references.
This document is a system level Concept of Operations (CONOPS) from the perspective of future High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) service providers and National Airspace System (NAS) users. It describes current systems (existing UAS), describes HALE UAS functions and operations to be performed (via sample missions), and offers insight into the user s environment (i.e., the UAS as a system of systems). It is intended to be a source document for NAS UAS operational requirements, and provides a construct for government agencies to use in guiding their regulatory decisions, architecture requirements, and investment strategies. Although it does not describe the technical capabilities of a specific HALE UAS system (which do, and will vary widely), it is intended to aid in requirements capture and to be used as input to the functional requirements and analysis process. The document provides a basis for development of functional requirements and operational guidelines to achieve unrestricted access into the NAS. This document is an FY06 update to the FY05 Access 5 Project-approved Concept of Operations document previously published in the Public Domain on the Access 5 open website. This version is recommended to be approved for public release also. The updates are a reorganization of materials from the previous version with the addition of an updated set of operational requirements, inclusion of sample mission scenarios, and identification of roles and responsibilities of interfaces within flight phases.
The Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) is tasked with implementation of the Arctic Research Plan (ARP) by coordinating representatives from federal and state agencies, academic, industry, and Indigenous partners with interests in Arctic research. IARPC is organized into several collaboration teams and discipline-specific communities of practice that interface on the IARPC Collaborations website. The Early Career Community of Practice (ECCoP) is one such community that was established to promote the research of early career researchers (ECR) and increase ECR engagement with the ARP, program managers, collaboration teams, and communities of practice. The ECCoP has grown to develop regular newsletters promoting recent ECR research publications ad sharing training, job, funding, and collaboration opportunities relevant to community members at all life stages that self-identify as ECRs. Within IARPC, the ECCoP continues to promote ECR participation in monthly community of practice meetings and webinars and to report on ECR efforts that contribute to deliverables of the ARP Biennial Implementation Plan. Recent activity of the ECCoP includes developing an annual survey of the ECR cohort on IARPC to follow change in demographics over time and to identify community needs to improve diversity and inclusion in the polar research space and to address gaps in training needs for ECRs.
This website provides measured scintillation properties of many inorganic and organic materials and citations to published papers in which the original measurements were reported. It is intended for two main uses: a web-accessible reference to useful scintillation detector materials and properties; an aid in developing fundamental theories or empirical relations between basic material properties and scintillation performance. To this end, both strong and weak scintillators have been included as well as those where sensitive measurements have not detected any scintillation emissions.
Hubble's Next Generation Spectral Library (NGSL) consists of R-l000 spectra of 374 stars of assorted temperature, gravity, and metallicity. Each spectrum covers the wavelength range, 0.18-1.00 microns. The library can be viewed and/or downloaded from the website, http://archive.stsci.edu/prepds/stisngsll. Stars in the NGSL are now being used as absolute flux standards at ground-based observatories. However, the uncertainty in the absolute flux is about 2%, which does not meet the requirements of dark-energy surveys. We are therefore developing an observing procedure that should yield fluxes with uncertainties less than 1 % and will take part in an HST proposal to observe up to 15 stars using this new procedure.
The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) was established as NASA's first space flight center in 1959. Its 12,000 personnel are active in the Earth and space sciences, astronomy, space physics, tracking and communications. GSFC's mission is to expand our knowledge of the Earth and its environment, the solar system, and the universe through observations from space. The main Goddard campus is located in Greenbelt, Maryland, USA, just north of Washington, D.C. The Wallops Flight Facility (operational since 1945), located on the Atlantic coast of Virginia was consolidated with the Goddard Space Flight Center in 1982. Wallops is now NASA's principal facility for management and implementation of suborbital research programs, and supports a wide variety of airborne science missions as well. As the lead Center for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise (ESE)--a long-term, coordinated research effort to study the Earth as a global environmental system--GSFC scientists and engineers are involved in a wide range of Earth Science remote sensing activities. Their activities range from basic geoscience research to the development of instruments and technology for space missions, as well as the associated Calibration/Validation (Cal/Val) work. The shear breadth of work in these areas precludes an exhaustive description here. Rather, this article presents selected brief overviews of microwave-related Earth Science applications and the ground-based, airborne, and space instruments that are in service, under development, or otherwise significantly involving GSFC. Likewise, contributing authors are acknowledged for each section, but the results and projects they describe represent the cumulative efforts of many persons at GSFC as well as at collaborating institutions. For further information, readers are encouraged to consult the listed websites and references.
Current data quality monitoring (DQM) tools at CMS offer granularity limited to per-run analysis. Consequently, issues manifesting at the per-lumisection level can go unnoticed or, even if detectable, often lead to the classification of the whole run as bad, resulting in unnecessary data loss. Additionally, shifters have to evaluate a large set of monitoring elements during their long shifts, increasing the probability of human errors or overlooked problems. In this contribution, we present ongoing work on the development of tools that will provide shifters with an accessible, granularity-enhanced view of DQM data through interactive and dynamic visualizations. Furthermore, we introduce a reference run selection tool currently under development, which will automate the selection based on data-taking conditions and will offer a curated set of training data for machine learning models that will be used for the partial automation of the offline data certification process. These endeavors will be integrated into the DIALS website, enabling enhancements in data certification accuracy and improving the accessibility of DQM at CMS.
Generative AI has brought innovations across multiple fields, offering great tools for enhanced communication and efficiency. This project focused on developing a custom AI chatbot using OpenAI's Chat GPT (GPT-4o) to support the Fermilab communications team. An analysis identified Chat GPT as the optimal choice, leading to the adoption of its team version and the implementation of a real-time JSON schema for website scanning. Four distinct personas were created to tailor responses to specific audiences, and Fermilab's published content was uploaded to ensure tone consistency. The training involved iterative prompt trials, resulting in a responsive and effective communication assistant. Initial evaluations indicate that the custom GPT shows promise.
This slide presentation reviews the history, and development of NASA-STD-3001, NASA Space Flight Human-System Standard Human Factors, Habitability, and Environmental Health, and the related Human Integration Design Handbook. Currently being developed from NASA-STD-3000, this project standard currently in review will be available in two volumes, (i.e., Volume 1 -- VCrew Health and Volume 2 -- Human Factors, Habitability, and Environmental Health) and the handbook will be both available as a pdf file and as a interactive website.
These presentation slides introduce the Astrobiology Resource Metadata Standard (ARMS), a new metadata standard under development at NASA Ames Research Center, in conjunction with the Astrobiology Habitable Environments Database (AHED) project. The intent of this standard is to enable uniform, internet-based search and discovery of astrobiology 'resources', i.e. virtually any product of astrobiology research, including datasets, physical samples, software, publications, websites, images, video, presentations, etc. The current draft of ARMS defines 16 different metadata properties used to describe a given resource, including routine information such as name, resource type, description, personnel, funding, and related publications. But the true power in ARMS lies in four astrobiology-specific pieces of metadata: field site location enables geospatially-restricted search for resources using placenames or geospatial coordinates; research theme associates resources with one of six broad areas of astrobiological research (as identified in the 2015 NASA Astrobiology Strategy document); astrobiology disciplines captures the set of science disciplines most relevant to creation or use of resources; and finally, astrobiology keywords characterize resources in much in the same summarizing way that journal article keywords describe publications. An initial draft of the ARMS standard is being prepared for circulation to the astrobiology community for feedback and revision.
Generative AI has brought great innovations across multiple fields, offering great tools for enhanced communication and efficiency. This project focused on developing a custom AI chatbot using OpenAI's Chat GPT (GPT-4o) to support the Fermilab communications team. An analysis identified Chat GPT as the optimal choice, leading to the adoption of its team version and the implementation of a real-time JSON schema for website scanning. Four distinct personas were created to tailor responses to specific audiences, and Fermilab's published content was uploaded to ensure tone consistency. The training involved iterative prompt trials, resulting in a responsive and effective communication assistant. Initial evaluations indicate that the custom GPT shows promise.