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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Multi-Disciplinary Analysis Framework for the Design of Small Launch Vehicles

The decisions made in the conceptual design phase have large impacts on the resulting vehicle capability and cost. With the large and varied design space of Small Launch Vehicles(SLVs), it is even more important to have the data necessary to make informed design choices during the conceptual design phase. To enable extensive exploration of the SLV design space, a multi-disciplinary design framework was created. The design framework consists of trajectory, aerodynamics, propulsion, and structures disciplines. The framework then integrates and automates these tools, thus allowing for rapid design space exploration at the conceptual design phase. The outputs of the framework provide preliminary information on SLV size and structural configurations as well as propulsion and aerodynamic characteristics. Finally, the framework provides information necessary for the designer to make informed decisions on what variables lead to the desired performance characteristics and what segment of the design space would benefit from more detailed exploration.

Nikita Birbasov↗
NASA NTRS2020

Deep Space Human-Systems Research Recommendations for Future Human-Automation/Robotic Integration

Appropriate integration between automation and robotics systems and their human operators is essential for future space exploration. The Human Factors and Behavioral Performance Element of NASA’s Human Research Program requires a systematic understanding of the critical human-automation/robotic (HAR) integration, or HARI, design challenges for future space exploration. This document reports the results of a systematic assessment of the spaceflight-relevant HARI technologies and research topics addressing critical gaps in spaceflight-relevant HARI knowledge, and prioritizes research required for successful human performance and HAR integration. We reviewed relevant literature across the past ten years and interviewed ten subject matter experts to investigate the current state of HARI technology, challenges facing development, the state of HARI research across a wide range of fields, and opportunities for advancing the state of the art through directed research. This information was used to identify relevant HARI technologies and research topics, as well as factors to assess relative priority of HARI technologies. We worked with NASA stakeholders to weight the factors relevant to assessing HARI specific technologies. A multi-dimensional trade analysis was performed to objectively score HARI research topics and specific technologies to recommended investment priorities for NASA.

human-automation interaction↗
NASA NTRS1978

Pathophysiological aspects of the problem of prolonged hypokinesia

The changes in man's acitivity due to modern life with automation and sedentary activities and man's exploration of space in a state of weightlessness have accentuated the importance of hypokinesia. The pathogenesis of hypokinesia is discussed. Experiments and results made on man and animals are included.

Kovalenko, Y. A.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Launching AI in NASA ground systems

This paper will discuss recent operational successes in implementing expert systems to support the complex functions of NASA mission control systems at the Goddard Space Flight Center, including fault detection and diagnosis for real time and engineering analysis functions in the Cosmic Background Explorer and Gamma Ray Observatory missions and automation of resource planning and scheduling functions for various missions. It will also discuss ongoing developments and prototypes that will lead to increasingly sophisticated applications of artificial intelligence. These include the use of neural networks to perform telemetry monitoring functions, the implementation of generic expert system shells that can be customized to telemetry handling functions specific to NASA control centers, the applications of AI in training and user support, the long-term potential of implementing systems based around distributed, cooperative problem solving, and the use of AI to control and assist system development activities.

Perkins, Dorothy C.↗
NASA NTRS1992

From an automated flight-test management system to a flight-test engineer's workstation

Described here are the capabilities and evolution of a flight-test engineer's workstation (called TEST PLAN) from an automated flight-test management system. The concept and capabilities of the automated flight-test management system are explored and discussed to illustrate the value of advanced system prototyping and evolutionary software development.

Duke, E. L.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Analyzing Mode Confusion via Model Checking

Mode confusion is one of the most serious problems in aviation safety. Today's complex digital flight decks make it difficult for pilots to maintain awareness of the actual states, or modes, of the flight deck automation. NASA Langley leads an initiative to explore how formal techniques can be used to discover possible sources of mode confusion. As part of this initiative, a flight guidance system was previously specified as a finite Mealy automaton, and the theorem prover PVS was used to reason about it. The objective of the present paper is to investigate whether state-exploration techniques, especially model checking, are better able to achieve this task than theorem proving and also to compare several verification tools for the specific application. The flight guidance system is modeled and analyzed in Murphi, SMV, and Spin. The tools are compared regarding their system description language, their practicality for analyzing mode confusion, and their capabilities for error tracing and for animating diagnostic information. It turns out that their strengths are complementary.

Luettgen, Gerald↗
NASA NTRS2003

Experiments with Test Case Generation and Runtime Analysis

Software testing is typically an ad hoc process where human testers manually write many test inputs and expected test results, perhaps automating their execution in a regression suite. This process is cumbersome and costly. This paper reports preliminary results on an approach to further automate this process. The approach consists of combining automated test case generation based on systematically exploring the program's input domain, with runtime analysis, where execution traces are monitored and verified against temporal logic specifications, or analyzed using advanced algorithms for detecting concurrency errors such as data races and deadlocks. The approach suggests to generate specifications dynamically per input instance rather than statically once-and-for-all. The paper describes experiments with variants of this approach in the context of two examples, a planetary rover controller and a space craft fault protection system.

Artho, Cyrille↗
NASA NTRS2010

H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) and the Operations Concept for Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Hardware

With the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet imminent in 2011, a new concept of operations will become reality to meet the transportation challenges of the International Space Station (ISS). The planning associated with the retirement of the Space Shuttle has been underway since the announcement in 2004. Since then, several companies and government entities have had to look for innovative low-cost commercial orbital transportation systems to continue to achieve the objectives of ISS delivery requirements. Several options have been assessed and appear ready to meet the large and demanding delivery requirements of the ISS. Options that have been identified that can facilitate the challenge include the Russian Federal Space Agency's Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA's) H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) and the Boeing Delta IV Heavy (DIV-H). The newest of these options is the JAXA's HTV. This paper focuses on the HTV, mission architecture and operations concept for Extra-Vehicular Activities (EVA) hardware, the associated launch system, and details of the launch operations approach.

Chullen, Cinda↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Plant Water Management in Microgravity

The NASA Plant Water Management (PWM) technology demonstrations aboard ISS apply recent advances in microgravity capillary fluidics research towards the mundane yet problematic challenges of simply watering plants in space. Plant growth in a low-g environment is often hampered by inadequate aeration and oversaturation of the root zone. The present effort aims to exploit the passive capillary forces of poorly wetting liquids (i.e., contaminated water) within unique system geometries that effectively replace the role of gravity in providing sufficient aeration and hydration for simulated plants. Several flight demonstrations have been completed on ISS, including soil and hydroponic models in single and parallel channel networks. The results demonstrate proof-of-concept, system stability, limits of operation, more. The implications are discussed in relation to plant growth facilities for further near-term microgravity plant science research as well as automated food production for long duration human exploration missions.

microgravity↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Plant Water Management in Microgravity

The NASA Plant Water Management (PWM) technology demonstrations aboard ISS apply recent advances in microgravity capillary fluidics research towards the mundane yet problematic challenges of simply watering plants in space. Plant growth in a low-g environment is often hampered by inadequate aeration and over-saturation of the root zone. The present effort aims to exploit the passive capillary forces of poorly wetting liquids (i.e., contaminated water) within unique system geometries that effectively replace the role of gravity in providing sufficient aeration and hydration for simulated plants. Several flight demonstrations have been completed on ISS, including soil and hydroponic models in single and parallel channel networks. Two future demonstrations are still in work and plan to further develop the system to handle sustained plant growth with additional sensors to monitor the growth environment. The results to date demonstrate proof-of-concept, system stability, limits of operation, and more, for simulated plant models. Eventually, real plants will be incorporated into these systems and tested on orbit. The implications are discussed in relation to plant growth facilities for further near-term microgravity plant science research as well as for automated food production for long duration human exploration missions.

microgravity↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Supervisory Control with Dual Tasking in Post G-Transition Vehicle Landings

BACKGROUND Landing during exploration spaceflight may consist of both planned automated supervisory control and unplanned crew override. Supervisory control, particularly when performed under cognitive load with additional monitoring tasks, is essential for ensuring overall mission success during landing contingencies. Evaluating performance in a relevant Human Landing System (HLS) supervisory landing task after long-duration microgravity exposure can help identify potential risks from human error and sensorimotor alterations. Adaptive changes in the sensorimotor system can manifest during g-transitions as spatial disorientation. Although training and landing aids facilitate successful landings despite disorientation, these adaptive changes may heighten cognitive demand, which must be considered in the landing strategy. It is important to characterize these effects as soon as possible following the G-transition while the sensorimotor system remains in a state of adaptive flux to inform appropriate countermeasures. METHODS A Multi-attribute Lunar Table Battery (MALTB) task was developed for an iOS tablet device to provide flexible crew testing and training capabilities in-flight and on the ground. Elements of the tablet task were derived from the Multi-Attribute Task Battery (MATB, Cegarra et al. 2020). The task requires crew members to study a map of a planned landing site and memorizing the terrain and surface landmarks to inform potential divert maneuvers during landing. The user will oversee a series of approaches through touchdown simulations on the tablet with an external camera view of the Lunar surface. The primary responsibility of the crew member will be to execute a divert if the guidance recommended site is erroneous (e.g., the guidance projected landing target is not within 10m of the planned landing site center), or the projected landing site is no longer suitable due to surface obstacles. Considering vehicle maneuverability and fuel reserves, the divert capabilities will diminish as the task progresses. In cases where a divert is initiated, a new landing target will need to be designated by the user and will be evaluated for the proximity to the original pre-planned site. A secondary operational monitoring task will challenge the user's cognitive reserve by requiring the user to maintain several gauges within acceptable limits and respond to a visual indicator while completing the landing approach. Outcome measures include distance from the planned landing site to the user-initiate divert landing location, ground slope at the new landing site, time to divert, the ability to accomplish the secondary monitoring tasks, and perceived workload. The tablet task is being evaluated in a ground-based study to determine the learning effect of first-time users. The tablet task will be utilized in a flight study to test performance multiple times postflight. Future potential testing in-flight have been identified for capsules with iOS tablet devices. Multi-attribute Lunar Table Battery Task MALTB comprises video footage of thirty distinct landing conditions. The landing scenarios feature various landing sites (n = 3), hazardous object sizes (n = 6), sun azimuth degrees (n = 4), camera modes (i.e., fixed or gimbaled), and navigation bias (i.e., true or false). Each seventy second trial uses a sixty-degree constant glideslope trajectory. The application architecture and layout include user identification setup and data storing, a guided walkthrough of the task and interface components, practice mode for task familiarization, and a modified Bedford workload scale administered following task completion. The time-based dependent measures are saved locally to the iOS Files application and post-processing scripts have been developed to evaluate the remaining measures of performance. RELEVANCE This project will deliver an operational demonstration of crew monitoring capability following spaceflight and identify potential deficits that may require remediation. Comparison of individual vestibular and cognitive changes with crew performance will help better characterize the landing risks associated with sensorimotor alterations. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This project is funded by NASA’s Human Research Program Human Health Countermeasures Element. REFERENCES Cegarra J, Valery B, Avril E, Calmettes C, Navarro J (2020) OpenMATB: A Multi-Attribute Task Battery promoting task customization, software extensibility and experiment replicability. Behav Res Methods 52:1980-1990 doi: 10.3758/s13428-020-01364-w

Matthew McDonnell↗
NASA NTRS2011

Experiences with Text Mining Large Collections of Unstructured Systems Development Artifacts at JPL

Often repositories of systems engineering artifacts at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are so large and poorly structured that they have outgrown our capability to effectively manually process their contents to extract useful information. Sophisticated text mining methods and tools seem a quick, low-effort approach to automating our limited manual efforts. Our experiences of exploring such methods mainly in three areas including historical risk analysis, defect identification based on requirements analysis, and over-time analysis of system anomalies at JPL, have shown that obtaining useful results requires substantial unanticipated efforts - from preprocessing the data to transforming the output for practical applications. We have not observed any quick 'wins' or realized benefit from short-term effort avoidance through automation in this area. Surprisingly we have realized a number of unexpected long-term benefits from the process of applying text mining to our repositories. This paper elaborates some of these benefits and our important lessons learned from the process of preparing and applying text mining to large unstructured system artifacts at JPL aiming to benefit future TM applications in similar problem domains and also in hope for being extended to broader areas of applications.

text mining↗
NASA NTRS1977

Direct delivery of automated spacecraft using the Shuttle - Thoughts for the designer

Following an outline of the main functions of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) and the Astrophysics Transient Explorer (ATREX), the design options of the delivery into orbit of automated spacecraft, ATREX in particular, on board the Shuttle are discussed. The proportional counters used as detectors in ATREX need protection from humidity, so the spacecraft will be shipped in a sealed container filled with dry nitrogen and not opened until it is safely in the clean room at the launch site. The spacecraft and its booster will be loaded into a canister maintaining low humidity, to protect them all the way through the payload changeout room and into the Shuttle itself. After launching the Shuttle into orbit, the spacecraft will be tested on board the Shuttle just before releasing it. The future applications of this technique in Extravehicular Activity (EVA) and Gamma Ray Astronomy Observatories are discussed.

Townsend, M. R.↗
NASA NTRS1980

An improved evaluation of surface finish with a three dimensional tester

The design and programming of an automated three dimensional surface finish tester is described. The device produces a three dimensional image of the microscopic texture of the examined surface. The surface finish tester presents the following advantages over conventional profilometry: (1) more complete exploration of surface texture by successive probe sweeps; (2) automation of measuring and calculating; (3) more accurate representation of the derived parameters; (4) analysis of the degree of homogeneity of the surface; (5) three dimensional graphic representation accurately depicting the state of the surface; (6) detection of local imperfections; and (7) detection of scoring that occurred during machining.

GRANDADAM↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Automated Reconfigurable Mission Adaptive Digital Assembly Systems (ARMADAS)

To meet the needs of future deep space exploration, NASA is interested in large-scale hardware systems in the agency’s thrust areas of solar power, communications, habitats and science interests. Scalable in-space assembly of physical systems is critical to massless exploration and in-space reliance goals. The ARMADAS project demonstrates the autonomous assembly of digital materials and structures. This provides automation technologies with potential for meeting long duration and deep space infrastructure needs, such as construction and maintenance of long duration spaceport, surface infrastructure, and habitat scale systems. Project demonstrations to date include a system that can fit into a small satellite-sized payload, which automatically assembles into primary structures, such as a small habitat module or array/antenna, using onboard robotic assemblers.

In Space Assembly↗
NASA NTRS1987

Simplifying the construction of domain-specific automatic programming systems: The NASA automated software development workstation project

An overview is presented of the Automated Software Development Workstation Project, an effort to explore knowledge-based approaches to increasing software productivity. The project focuses on applying the concept of domain specific automatic programming systems (D-SAPSs) to application domains at NASA's Johnson Space Center. A version of a D-SAPS developed in Phase 1 of the project for the domain of space station momentum management is described. How problems encountered during its implementation led researchers to concentrate on simplifying the process of building and extending such systems is discussed. Researchers propose to do this by attacking three observed bottlenecks in the D-SAPS development process through the increased automation of the acquisition of programming knowledge and the use of an object oriented development methodology at all stages of the program design. How these ideas are being implemented in the Bauhaus, a prototype workstation for D-SAPS development is discussed.

Allen, Bradley P.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Simplifying the construction of domain-specific automatic programming systems: The NASA automated software development workstation project

An overview is presented of the Automated Software Development Workstation Project, an effort to explore knowledge-based approaches to increasing software productivity. The project focuses on applying the concept of domain specific automatic programming systems (D-SAPSs) to application domains at NASA's Johnson Space Flight Center. A version of a D-SAPS developed in Phase 1 of the project for the domain of space station momentum management is described. How problems encountered during its implementation led researchers to concentrate on simplifying the process of building and extending such systems is discussed. Researchers propose to do this by attacking three observed bottlenecks in the D-SAPS development process through the increased automation of the acquisition of programming knowledge and the use of an object oriented development methodology at all stages of the program design. How these ideas are being implemented in the Bauhaus, a prototype workstation for D-SAPS development is discussed.

Allen, Bradley P.↗
NASA NTRS1993

NASA Automatic Information Security Handbook

This handbook details the Automated Information Security (AIS) management process for NASA. Automated information system security is becoming an increasingly important issue for all NASA managers and with rapid advancements in computer and network technologies and the demanding nature of space exploration and space research have made NASA increasingly dependent on automated systems to store, process, and transmit vast amounts of mission support information, hence the need for AIS systems and management. This handbook provides the consistent policies, procedures, and guidance to assure that an aggressive and effective AIS programs is developed, implemented, and sustained at all NASA organizations and NASA support contractors.

Source record↗