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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

Television systems for remote manipulation

An analytical and experimental study was conducted to specify a video system for remote manipulation in space. An operator function analysis identified two basic characteristics, work volume and element relationship, which define four manipulation tasks chosen for examination. A visual function analysis developed a set of elemental scene parameters which grouped the visual dimensions into major areas of influence. Simulation testing was conducted with a four degree-of-freedom motion frame which allowed an operator to perform the manipulation tasks. Four video systems were included in the simulation testing: a black and white and a color monoscopic system, a stereoscopic system, and a black and white two-view system. A sequential experimental plan first provided an overall analysis of the effects of tasks, scene parameters, and video systems. This was followed by a detailed experimental examination of the critical dimensions identified in the first experiment. Results are discussed in terms of a recommended TV system.

Crooks, W. H.↗

Hypersonic Flight Experimentation - Status and Shortfalls

For some 50 years, man has flown, very successfully, in and through the hypersonic flow regime up to Mach Number 35 and beyond with very few "surprises." In general, hypersonic vehicles have performed successfully with good-to-excellent comparisons between flight, ground facility extrapolations and computations being the norm. A consistent and glaring shortfall to date is in the boundary layer transition arena, due primarily to the dominance for flight vehicles of roughness induced transition where the roughness characteristics are extremely vehicle specific and dictated by either vehicle operational exigencies such as antennas, handling plugs, and field joints, etc. or characteristics of the thermal protection system. Emerging shortfalls for future systems which require research flight tests include transition and air-breathing propulsion-related technology for both cruise and space access. Specific flight test recommendations include "systems demonstrations" for various air-breathing propulsion options and efforts to correct a pervasive lack of adequate analysis of the existing, and very expensive to replicate, hypersonic flight data base.

Bushnell, Dennis M.↗

Preliminary Design of an 'Autonomous Medical Response Agent' Interface Prototype for Long Duration Spaceflight

Major challenges for astronauts in future long-duration exploration missions (LDEMs) will be that crewmembers are not expected to be medical professionals, may be under high workload and stress, are facing physiological challenges caused by spaceflight, and will have limited, delayed voice communications with medical support from Earth. An autonomous medical response agent (AMRA) is envisioned to help astronauts address medical complaints, develop a differential diagnosis, and guide self-treatment until a healthy state is restored. AMRA develops a process of personalized diagnosis and treatment through a Bayesian predictive control system that recommends therapeutic control actions including diagnostic tests and treatments to crewmembers (Menon, 2020). The Human Computer Interaction (HCI) lab from NASA Ames Research Center’s Human Systems Integration Division (Code TH) has collaborated with Nahlia Inc in human-centered design augmentation research for AMRA. The project, titled Design of ‘Autonomous Medical Response Agent Interface Prototype for Long Duration Spaceflight, has been funded by the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) and introduces an interactive user-interface prototype that guides astronauts through self-diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation while communicating with remote specialists in ground support (most notably a patient’s flight surgeon). Our project develops the interaction design for the crewmember using AMRA through user research, iterative design, and usability testing to evaluate the user interface and workflow designed. The interface design deliverable for this project, titled AMRA Aggregate Information Display (AMRA AID) is an integrated information display system for comprehensive autonomous medical guidance, diagnosis, and treatment of in-flight medical conditions experienced by crewmembers. AMRA AID demonstrates how we might ensure crew autonomy, increase the crew’s medical capabilities, and decrease cognitive burden within a front-end user interface. AMRA AID refrains from relying on input from ground or mission control for self-treatment of medical issues—though ground awareness and communication with ground is maintained as a means of ensuring trust between mission control and crew. AMRA AID demonstrates how the crew’s on-board medical system might integrate with information from vehicle monitoring and crew schedule, without assuming causal relationships. AMRA AID’s comprehensive view enables efficient information access for both crew and ground support, reducing cognitive burden in the event of an unplanned or emergency medical incident and enabling informed analytical decisions to be made based on both crew and vehicle health. Human-centered design augmentation advanced within the prototype included: enhanced workflow and treatment guidance for two medical scenarios for a non-specialist user base with various levels of medical training, interaction design which considered speech (conversational user interface) elements and on-screen interactions to be developed in future iterations of the project, communication design and functional requirements relevant to self-care versus caring for another astronaut, as well as user testing of the prototype with an international space medical community. This project arrives at critical findings regarding usability needs, communication requirements, and integrated information requirements for a future technology interface functioning to increase confidence between ground support and LDEM crewmembers.

TRISH↗

Tracing NASA Contributions Toward Aviation Safety Stakeholder Guidance

The System-Wide Safety project at NASA is developing the concept and a subset of supporting technologies for evolving safety management from a post-accident iterative improvement on safety performed by large commercial operators only to predictive and increasingly autonomous safety functions that are performed during operations across vehicles, airports, and services. The system of interest is the In-time Aviation Safety Management System (IASMS), recommended by the National Academies for NASA to develop the concept in coordination with the broad and diverse community of stakeholders in aviation safety. Because the system context is the airspace and aviation industry, it is important to create and maintain traceability from the research work and system architecture elements developed at NASA to community-created roadmaps and aviation agency guidance.

IASMS↗

Energize the Future - Systems Engineering Processes and Methods: Tracing NASA Contributions Toward Aviation Safety Stakeholder Guidance

The System-Wide Safety project at NASA is developing the concept and a subset of supporting technologies for evolving safety management from a post-accident iterative improvement on safety performed by large commercial operators only to predictive and increasingly autonomous safety functions that are performed during operations across vehicles, airports, and services. The system of interest is the In-time Aviation Safety Management System (IASMS), recommended by the National Academies for NASA to develop the concept in coordination with the broad and diverse community of stakeholders in aviation safety. Because the system context is the airspace and aviation industry, it is important to create and maintain traceability from the research work and system architecture elements developed at NASA to community-created roadmaps and aviation agency guidance.

MBSE↗

Mark 4A antenna control system data handling architecture study

A high-level review was conducted to provide an analysis of the existing architecture used to handle data and implement control algorithms for NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas and to make system-level recommendations for improving this architecture so that the DSN antennas can support the ever-tightening requirements of the next decade and beyond. It was found that the existing system is seriously overloaded, with processor utilization approaching 100 percent. A number of factors contribute to this overloading, including dated hardware, inefficient software, and a message-passing strategy that depends on serial connections between machines. At the same time, the system has shortcomings and idiosyncrasies that require extensive human intervention. A custom operating system kernel and an obscure programming language exacerbate the problems and should be modernized. A new architecture is presented that addresses these and other issues. Key features of the new architecture include a simplified message passing hierarchy that utilizes a high-speed local area network, redesign of particular processing function algorithms, consolidation of functions, and implementation of the architecture in modern hardware and software using mainstream computer languages and operating systems. The system would also allow incremental hardware improvements as better and faster hardware for such systems becomes available, and costs could potentially be low enough that redundancy would be provided economically. Such a system could support DSN requirements for the foreseeable future, though thorough consideration must be given to hard computational requirements, porting existing software functionality to the new system, and issues of fault tolerance and recovery.

Briggs, H. C.↗

Nuclear electric propulsion reactor control systems status

The thermionic reactor control system design studies conducted over the past several years for a nuclear electric propulsion system are described and summarized. The relevant reactor control system studies are discussed in qualitative terms, pointing out the significant advantages and disadvantages including the impact that the various control systems would have on the nuclear electric propulsion system design. A recommendation for the reference control system is made, and a program for future work leading to an engineering model is described.

Ferg, D. A.↗

Decision Support Systems for Research and Management in Advanced Life Support

Decision support systems have been implemented in many applications including strategic planning for battlefield scenarios, corporate decision making for business planning, production planning and control systems, and recommendation generators like those on Amazon.com(Registered TradeMark). Such tools are reviewed for developing a similar tool for NASA's ALS Program. DSS are considered concurrently with the development of the OPIS system, a database designed for chronicling of research and development in ALS. By utilizing the OPIS database, it is anticipated that decision support can be provided to increase the quality of decisions by ALS managers and researchers.

Rodriquez, Luis F.↗

Extravehicular mobility unit subcritical liquid oxygen storage and supply system

The storage of life support oxygen in the Extravehicular Mobility Unit in the liquid state offers some advantages over the current method of storing the oxygen as a high pressure gas. Storage volume is reduced because of the increased density associated with liquid. The lower storage and operating pressures also reduce the potential for leakage or bursting of the storage tank. The potential for combustion resulting from adiabatic combustion of the gas within lines and components is substantially reduced. Design constraints on components are also relaxed due to the lower system pressures. A design study was performed to determine the requirements for a liquid storage system and prepare a conceptual design. The study involved four tasks. The first was to identify system operating requirements that influence or direct the design of the system. The second was to define candidate storage system concepts that could possibly satisfy the requirements. An evaluation and comparison of the candidate concepts was conducted in the third task. The fourth task was devoted to preparing a conceptual design of the recommended storage system and to evaluate concerns with integration of the concept into the EMU. The results are presented.

Anderson, John↗

Airline Operations Aid

C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS), a NASA-developed expert systems program, is used by American Airlines for three purposes: as a rapid prototyping tool; to develop production prototypes; and to develop production application. An example of the latter is CLIPS' use in "Hub S1AAshing," a knowledge based system that recommends contingency plans when severe schedule reductions must be made. Hub S1AAshing has replaced a manual, labor intensive process. It saves time and allows Operations Control Coordinators to handle more difficult situations. Because the system assimilates much of the information necessary to facilitate educated decision making, it minimizes negative impact in situations where it is impossible to operate all flights.

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Requirements for particulate monitoring system for Space Station

We recommend that a stereo camera system be utilized as a diagnostic for the particulate environment surrounding the Space Station. This system should have sufficient sensitivity to identify contaminated periods, to isolate the effects of sources and activities and to determine optical clearing times. A reasonable compromise between sensitivity and other operational constraints is recommended. Sensitivity comparable to the film camera systems should suffice, but long periods of unattended operation and remotely controlled exposure sequences are essential requirements.

Green, Byron David↗

Advanced scanners and imaging systems for earth observations

Assessments of present and future sensors and sensor related technology are reported along with a description of user needs and applications. Five areas are outlined: (1) electromechanical scanners, (2) self-scanned solid state sensors, (3) electron beam imagers, (4) sensor related technology, and (5) user applications. Recommendations, charts, system designs, technical approaches, and bibliographies are included for each area.

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An evaluation of NASA's program for improving aircraft fuel efficiency

The report provides commentary and recommendations where appropriate on each of the major elements of the program. Key findings of the committee included a recommendation that closer ties be established between NASA and the FAA to expedite the use and acceptance of the new technology. The committee also cited the potential for fuel savings through an imporved air traffic control system and recommended that the management of NASA and the FAA discuss ways and means to work together to exploit more effectively the capabilities and responsibilities of each to develop air traffic control.

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Linear Regression Model for Predictive Service Provider Selection

The increasing number of satellites in orbit has led to a growing reliance on third-party service providers for data transfer between Earth and space. Traditional approaches to managing satellite communications require human intervention, which becomes more burdensome with the escalating number of satellites. This research addresses the need for an efficient and automated system to optimize service provider selection for NASA space communication. Previous research has utilized human-operated approaches for service provider management. Our study fills a gap by developing a cognitive algorithm that automates and optimizes the selection process based on various parameters, such as data volume, priority, quality of service and cost. This novel solution reduces user burden, facilitates service management, and contributes to the development of cognitive spaceflight missions, ultimately supporting NASA’s research into Cognitive Communications technology. The algorithm design consists of three major steps: modeling data, developing a Link Selection Algorithm (LSA) based on a grading system, and applying machine learning using linear regression. The LSA evaluates providers based on user-defined constraints, considering factors such as delivery time, cost, and quality of service. We define a suitability metric which allows our algorithm to make a recommendation to a user regarding which commercial service providers to select. The addition of Linear Regression predicts the future suitability value. Our main findings demonstrate that the resulting algorithm can autonomously manage connections between satellites and providers, maximizing communication channel efficiency. This research has significant implications, as it not only addresses a pressing issue in satellite communication management but also advances the field of cognitive spaceflight missions.

Linear regression↗

Asteroid Redirect Crewed Mission Space Suit and EVA System Architecture Trade Study

The Asteroid Redirect Crewed Mission (ARCM) requires a Launch/Entry/Abort (LEA) suit capability and short duration Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) capability for Orion. The EVAs will involve a two-person crew for approximately four hours. Currently, two EVAs are planned with one contingency EVA in reserve. Providing this EVA capability is very challenging due to system level constraints and a new and unknown environment. The goal of the EVA architecture for ARCM is one that builds upon previously developed technologies and lessons learned, and that accomplishes the ARCM mission while providing a stepping stone to future missions and destinations. The primary system level constraints are to 1) minimize system mass and volume and 2) minimize the interfacing impacts to the baseline Orion design. In order to minimize the interfacing impacts and to not perturb the baseline Orion schedule, the concept of adding "kits" to the baseline system is proposed. These kits consist of: an EVA kit (converts LEA suit to EVA suit), EVA Servicing and Recharge Kit (provides suit consumables), the EVA Tools, Translation Aids & Sample Container Kit (the tools and mobility aids to complete the tasks), the EVA Communications Kit (interface between the EVA radio and the MPCV), and the Cabin Repress Kit (represses the MPCV between EVAs). This paper will focus on the trade space, analysis, and testing regarding the space suit (pressure garment and life support system). Historical approaches and lessons learned from all past EVA operations were researched. Previous and current, successfully operated EVA hardware and high technology readiness level (TRL) hardware were evaluated, and a trade study was conducted for all possible pressure garment and life support options. Testing and analysis was conducted and a recommended EVA system architecture was proposed. Pressure garment options that were considered for this mission include the currently in-use ISS EVA Mobility Unit (EMU), all variations of the Advanced Crew Escape Suit (ACES), and the Exploration Z-suit. For this mission, the pressure garment that was selected is the Modified ACES (MACES) with EVA enhancements. Life support options that were considered included short closed-loop umbilicals, long open-loop umbilicals, the currently in-use ISS EMU Portable Life Support System (PLSS), and the currently in development Exploration PLSS. For this mission, the life support option that was selected is the Exploration PLSS. The greatest risk in the proposed architecture is viewed to be the comfort and mobility of the baseline MACES and the delicate balance between adding more mobility features while not compromising landing safety. Feasibility testing was accomplished in low fidelity analogs and in the JSC Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) to validate the concept before a final recommendation on the architecture was made. The proposed architecture was found to meet the mission constraints, but much more work is required to determine the details of the required suit upgrades, the integration with the PLSS, and the rest of the tools and equipment required to accomplish the mission. This work and further definition of the remaining kits will be conducted in government fiscal year 14.

Blanco, Raul A.↗

Evaluation of half wave induction motor drive for use in passenger vehicles

Research performed at the University of Missouri-Columbia to devise and design a lower cost inverter induction motor drive for electrical propulsion of passenger vehicles is described. A two phase inverter motor system is recommended. The new design is predicted to provide comparable vehicle performance, improved reliability and a cost advantage for a high production vehicle, decreased total rating of the power semiconductor switches, and a somewhat simpler control hardware compared to the conventional three phase bridge inverter motor drive system. The major disadvantages of the two phase inverter motor drive are that it is larger and more expensive than a three phase machine, the design of snubbers for the power leakage inductances produce higher transient voltages, and the torque pulsations are relatively large because of the necessity to limit the inverter switching frequency to achieve high efficiency.

Hoft, R. G.↗

Optimization in the design of a 12 gigahertz low cost ground receiving system for broadcast satellites. Volume 2: Antenna system and interference

The antenna characteristics are analyzed of a low cost mass-producible ground station to be used in broadcast satellite systems. It is found that a prime focus antenna is sufficient for a low-cost but not a low noise system. For the antenna feed waveguide systems are the best choice for the 12 GHz band, while printed-element systems are recommended for the 2.6 GHz band. Zoned reflectors are analyzed and appear to be attractive from the standpoint of cost. However, these reflectors suffer a gain reduction of about one db and a possible increase in sidelobe levels. The off-axis gain of a non-auto-tracking station can be optimized by establishing a special illumination function at the reflector aperture. A step-feed tracking system is proposed to provide automatic procedures for searching for peak signal from a geostationary satellite. This system uses integrated circuitry and therefore results in cost saving under mass production. It is estimated that a complete step-track system would cost only $512 for a production quantity of 1000 units per year.

Ohkubo, K.↗

Design study LANDSAT follow-on mission unique communications system

Spacecraft subsystem design, performance evaluation, and system tradeoffs are presented for the LANDSAT follow-on mission (LF/O) spacecraft to TDRSS link for the transmission of thematic mapper (TM) and multispectral scanner (MSS) data and for the LF/O spacecraft to STDN and other direct users link for the transmission of TM data. Included are requirements definition, link analysis, subsystem and hardware tradeoffs, conceptual selection, hardware definition, and identification of required new technology. Cost estimates of the recommended communication system including both recurring and non recurring costs are discussed.

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