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NASA Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute – Building A SmallSat Community

Small spacecraft (smallsats) continue to find meaningful applications in the exploration of space and the Earth. Many agencies, companies, and universities are successfully exploiting these lower cost platforms, with their associated higher flight frequencies to rapidly develop and test novel technologies, conduct robotic exploration missions, and perform a wide range of science investigations. In addition to their lower costs to develop, integrate, launch, and operate, smallsats foster alternate approaches that can be used to conduct space research. This allows non-traditional individuals, groups, and organizations to contribute to space exploration and science applying novel management approaches spanning mission design, testing, and operations. Many of these approaches are based on collaborations and networks and have origins in related industries. Over time, a smallsat community has evolved to embody a new way of doing space. NASA, through various methods supports the development and growth of these communities, both within the agency and externally. This paper describes the processes, tools, and resources that NASA has developed and deployed to enable, inform, streamline, and sustain the smallsat community for the benefit of the space agency.

Bruce D. Yost↗

NASA NTRS1994

Using spacecraft trace contaminant control systems to cure sick building syndrome

Many residential and commercial buildings with centralized, recirculating, heating ventilation and air conditioning systems suffer from 'Sick Building Syndrome.' Ventilation rates are reduced to save energy costs, synthetic building materials off-gas contaminants, and unsafe levels of volatile organic compounds (VOC's) accumulate. These unsafe levels of contaminants can cause irritation of eyes and throat, fatigue and dizziness to building occupants. Increased ventilation, the primary method of treating Sick Building Syndrome is expensive (due to increased energy costs) and recently, the effectiveness of increased ventilation has been questioned. On spacecraft venting is not allowed, so the primary methods of air quality control are; source control, active filtering, and destruction of VOC's. Four non-venting contaminant removal technologies; strict material selection to provide source control, ambient temperature catalytic oxidation, photocatalytic oxidation, and uptake by higher plants, may have potential application for indoor air quality control.

Graf, John C.↗

NASA NTRS2001

A Library of Rad Hard Mixed-Voltage/Mixed-Signal Building Blocks for Integration of Avionics Systems for Deep Space

To build the sensor intensive system-on-a-chip for the next generation spacecrafts for deep space, Center for Integration of Space Microsystems at JPL (CISM) takes advantage of the lower power rating and inherent radiation resistance of Silicon on Insulator technology (SOI). We are developing a suite of mixed-voltage and mixed-signal building blocks in Honeywell's SOI process that can enable the rapid integration of the next generation avionics systems with lower power rating, higher reliability, longer life, and enhanced radiation tolerance for spacecrafts such as the Europa Orbiter and Europa Lander. The mixed-voltage building blocks are predominantly for design of adaptive power management systems. Their design centers around an LDMOS structure that is being developed by Honeywell, Boeing Corp, and the University of Idaho. The mixed-signal building blocks are designed to meet the low power, extreme radiation requirement of deep space applications. These building blocks are predominantly used to interface analog sensors to the digital CPU of the next generation avionics system on a chip. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Mojarradi, M. M.↗

NASA NTRS1979

Analysis of building heating and cooling

Energy Conservation Program (ECP) gives design engineer methodology and easy-to-use computer program for simulating hourly thermal characteristics over full year for individually characterized zones within building. Inexpensive system can be used to develop thermal model of building to aid selection of most suitable and economical heating and cooling system for building

Chai, V. W.↗

NASA NTRS2016

Meso-Scale Digital Materials: Modular, Reconfigurable, Lattice-Based Structures

We present a modular, reconfigurable system for building large structures. This system uses discrete lattice elements, called digital materials, to reversibly assemble ultralight structures that are 99.7% air and yet maintain sufficient specific stiffness for a variety of structural applications and loading scenarios. Design, manufacturing, and characterization of modular building blocks are described, including struts, nodes, joints, and build strategies. Simple case studies are shown using the same building blocks in three different scenarios: a bridge, a boat, and a shelter. Field implementation and demonstration is supplemented by experimental data and numerical simulation. A simplified approach for analyzing these structures is presented which shows good agreement with experimental results.

Reconfigurable↗

NASA NTRS2005

Building Columbia from the System Administrator View

This document is about NASA advanced supercomputing by building Columbia through the configuration of its software, hardware, and network. The content also includes future plans which include tight scheduling, maintaining production while building Columbia and continued production work while reworking the facilities to acommodate Columbia.

Chan, Davin↗

NASA NTRS1973

Mission building blocks for outer solar system exploration.

Description of the technological building blocks required for exploring the outer planets with maximum scientific yields under stringent resource constraints. Two generic spacecraft types are considered: the Mariner and the Pioneer. Following a discussion of the outer planet mission constraints, the evolutionary development of spacecraft, probes, and propulsion building blocks is presented. Then, program genealogies are shown for Pioneer and Mariner missions and advanced propulsion systems to illustrate the soundness of a program based on spacecraft modification rather than on the development of new spacecraft for each mission. It is argued that, for minimum costs, technological advancement should occur in an evolutionary manner from mission to mission. While this strategy is likely to result in compromises on specific missions, the realization of the overall objectives calls for an advance commitment to the entire mission series.

Herman, D.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Development of a prototype two-phase thermal bus system for Space Station

This paper describes the basic elements of a pumped two-phase ammonia thermal control system designed for microgravity environments, the development of the concept into a Space Station flight design, and design details of the prototype to be ground-tested in the Johnson Space Center (JSC) Thermal Test Bed. The basic system concept is one of forced-flow heat transport through interface heat exchangers with anhydrous ammonia being pumped by a device expressly designed for two-phase fluid management in reduced gravity. Control of saturation conditions, and thus system interface temperatures, is accomplished with a single central pressure regulating valve. Flow control and liquid inventory are controlled by passive, nonelectromechanical devices. Use of these simple control elements results in minimal computer controls and high system reliability. Building on the basic system concept, a brief overview of a potential Space Station flight design is given. Primary verification of the system concept will involve testing at JSC of a 25-kW ground test article currently in fabrication.

Myron, D. L.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Domain-specific functional software testing: A progress report

Software Engineering is a knowledge intensive activity that involves defining, designing, developing, and maintaining software systems. In order to build effective systems to support Software Engineering activities, Artificial Intelligence techniques are needed. The application of Artificial Intelligence technology to Software Engineering is called Knowledge-based Software Engineering (KBSE). The goal of KBSE is to change the software life cycle such that software maintenance and evolution occur by modifying the specifications and then rederiving the implementation rather than by directly modifying the implementation. The use of domain knowledge in developing KBSE systems is crucial. Our work is mainly related to one area of KBSE that is called automatic specification acquisition. One example is the WATSON prototype on which our current work is based. WATSON is an automatic programming system for formalizing specifications for telephone switching software mainly restricted to POTS, i.e., plain old telephone service. Our current approach differentiates itself from other approaches in two antagonistic ways. On the one hand, we address a large and complex real-world problem instead of a 'toy domain' as in many research prototypes. On the other hand, to allow such scaling, we had to relax the ambitious goal of complete automatic programming, to the easier task of automatic testing.

Nonnenmann, Uwe↗

NASA NTRS1995

Making intelligent systems team players. A guide to developing intelligent monitoring systems

This reference guide for developers of intelligent monitoring systems is based on lessons learned by developers of the DEcision Support SYstem (DESSY), an expert system that monitors Space Shuttle telemetry data in real time. DESSY makes inferences about commands, state transitions, and simple failures. It performs failure detection rather than in-depth failure diagnostics. A listing of rules from DESSY and cue cards from DESSY subsystems are included to give the development community a better understanding of the selected model system. The G-2 programming tool used in developing DESSY provides an object-oriented, rule-based environment, but many of the principles in use here can be applied to any type of monitoring intelligent system. The step-by-step instructions and examples given for each stage of development are in G-2, but can be used with other development tools. This guide first defines the authors' concept of real-time monitoring systems, then tells prospective developers how to determine system requirements, how to build the system through a combined design/development process, and how to solve problems involved in working with real-time data. It explains the relationships among operational prototyping, software evolution, and the user interface. It also explains methods of testing, verification, and validation. It includes suggestions for preparing reference documentation and training users.

Land, Sherry A.↗

NASA NTRS1998

SEMS: System for Environmental Monitoring and Sustainability

The goal of this project was to establish a computational and data management system, SEMS, building on our existing system and MTPE-related research. We proposed that the new system would help support Washington University's efforts in environmental sustainability through use in: (a) Problem-based environmental curriculum for freshmen and sophomores funded by the Hewlett Foundation that integrates scientific, cultural, and policy perspectives to understand the dynamics of wetland degradation, deforestation, and desertification and that will develop policies for sustainable environments and economies; (b) Higher-level undergraduate and graduate courses focused on monitoring the environment and developing policies that will lead to sustainable environmental and economic conditions; and (c) Interdisciplinary research focused on the dynamics of the Missouri River system and development of policies that lead to sustainable environmental and economic floodplain conditions.

Arvidson, Raymond E.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Surface Micro-Machining: Progress Towards Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems

Surface micromachining is a technique for building electromechanical systems in silicon. A number of electromechanical systems have been implemented in miniature using the fundamental structural building blocks of tensile and non-tensile springs, differential capacitance sensing cells, and electrostatic drive. The integration of complicated mechanical structures and electrical circuits onto a single chip is expected to improve reliability and testability of systems. Reduction in interconnect wiring, the increased use of automation, and the inherent reliability of integrated circuits will all contribute to increased reliability of systems.

Doscher, James↗

NASA NTRS2019

Mars 2020 Entry, Descent, and Landing system overview

Building upon the success of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) landing and surface mission, the Mars 2020 project is a flagship-class science mission intended to address key questions about the potential for life on Mars and collect samples for possible Earth return by a future mission. [1] Mars 2020 will also demonstrate technologies needed to enable future human expeditions to Mars. Utilizing the groundbreaking entry, descent, and landing (EDL) architecture pioneered by the MSL, [2] [3] Mars 2020 will launch in July 2020 and land on Mars in February 2021.

Lefland, Mallory↗

NASA NTRS1991

Engineering monitoring expert system's developer

This research project is designed to apply artificial intelligence technology including expert systems, dynamic interface of neural networks, and hypertext to construct an expert system developer. The developer environment is specifically suited to building expert systems which monitor the performance of ground support equipment for propulsion systems and testing facilities. The expert system developer, through the use of a graphics interface and a rule network, will be transparent to the user during rule constructing and data scanning of the knowledge base. The project will result in a software system that allows its user to build specific monitoring type expert systems which monitor various equipments used for propulsion systems or ground testing facilities and accrues system performance information in a dynamic knowledge base.

Lo, Ching F.↗

NASA NTRS1982

An overview of expert systems

An expert system is defined and its basic structure is discussed. The knowledge base, the inference engine, and uses of expert systems are discussed. Architecture is considered, including choice of solution direction, reasoning in the presence of uncertainty, searching small and large search spaces, handling large search spaces by transforming them and by developing alternative or additional spaces, and dealing with time. Existing expert systems are reviewed. Tools for building such systems, construction, and knowledge acquisition and learning are discussed. Centers of research and funding sources are listed. The state-of-the-art, current problems, required research, and future trends are summarized.

Gevarter, W. B.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Performance and reliability of the NASA biomass production chamber

The Biomass Production Chamber (BPC) at the Kennedy Space Center is part of the Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) Breadboard Project. Plants are grown in a closed environment in an effort to quantify their contributions to the requirements for life support. Performance of this system is described. Also, in building this system, data from component and subsystem failures are being recorded. These data are used to identify problem areas in the design and implementation. The techniques used to measure the reliability will be useful in the design and construction of future CELSS. Possible methods for determining the reliability of a green plant, the primary component of CELSS, are discussed.

Fortson, R. E.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Performance and reliability of the NASA Biomass Production Chamber

Sager, J. C.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Quantitative risk assessment system (QRAS)

A quantitative risk assessment system (QRAS) builds a risk model of a system for which risk of failure is being assessed, then analyzes the risk of the system corresponding to the risk model. The QRAS performs sensitivity analysis of the risk model by altering fundamental components and quantifications built into the risk model, then re-analyzes the risk of the system using the modifications. More particularly, the risk model is built by building a hierarchy, creating a mission timeline, quantifying failure modes, and building/editing event sequence diagrams. Multiplicities, dependencies, and redundancies of the system are included in the risk model. For analysis runs, a fixed baseline is first constructed and stored. This baseline contains the lowest level scenarios, preserved in event tree structure. The analysis runs, at any level of the hierarchy and below, access this baseline for risk quantitative computation as well as ranking of particular risks. A standalone Tool Box capability exists, allowing the user to store application programs within QRAS.

Weinstock, Robert M↗