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At least 19 records

Early Warning Look Ahead Metrics: The Percent Milestone Backlog Metric

All complex development projects experience delays and corresponding backlogs of their project control milestones during their acquisition lifecycles. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Flight Projects Directorate (FPD) teamed with The Aerospace Corporation (Aerospace) to develop a collection of Early Warning Look Ahead metrics that would provide GSFC leadership with some independent indication of the programmatic health of GSFC flight projects. As part of the collection of Early Warning Look Ahead metrics, the Percent Milestone Backlog metric is particularly revealing, and has utility as a stand-alone execution performance monitoring tool. This paper describes the purpose, development methodology, and utility of the Percent Milestone Backlog metric. The other four Early Warning Look Ahead metrics are also briefly discussed. Finally, an example of the use of the Percent Milestone Backlog metric in providing actionable insight is described, along with examples of its potential use in other commodities.

acquisition lifecycles↗

Milestones in Rotorcraft Aeromechanics

The subject of this paper is milestones in rotorcraft aeromechanics. Aeromechanics covers much of what the engineer needs: performance, loads, vibration, stability, flight dynamics, noise. These topics cover many of the key performance attributes, and many of the often-encountered problems in rotorcraft designs. A milestone is a critical achievement, a turning point, an event marking a significant change or stage in development. The milestones identified and discussed include the beginnings of aeromechanics with autogyro analysis, ground resonance, aeromechanics books, unsteady aerodynamics and airloads, nonuniform inflow and wakes, beams and dynamics, comprehensive analysis, computational fluid dynamics, and rotor airloads tests. The focus on milestones limits the scope of the history, but allows the author to acknowledge his choices for key steps in the development of the science and engineering of rotorcraft.

Johnson, Wayne↗

Terrestrial Planet Finder Interferometer : TPF-I Technology Milestone #2 Report : formation control performance demonstration

This document reports the achievement of Terrestrial Planet Finder Interferometer (TPF-I) Technology Milestone #2, a ground-based, system-level demonstration of twospacecraft formation synchronized rotation. We review the milestone specification from the Milestone White Paper (May 25, 2007), summarize the experiments performed in the Formation Control Testbed (FCT), detail the procedures and nalysis of the resulting data, and describe and present the data itself.

Lawson, Peter R.↗

Oil-Free Turbomachinery Team Passed Milestone on Path to the First Oil-Free Turbine Aircraft Engine

The Oil-Free Turbine Engine Technology Project team successfully demonstrated a foil-air bearing designed for the core rotor shaft of a turbine engine. The bearings were subjected to test conditions representative of the engine core environment through a combination of high speeds, sustained loads, and elevated temperatures. The operational test envelope was defined during conceptual design studies completed earlier this year by bearing manufacturer Mohawk Innovative Technologies and the turbine engine company Williams International. The prototype journal foil-air bearings were tested at the NASA Glenn Research Center. Glenn is working with Williams and Mohawk to create a revolution in turbomachinery by developing the world's first Oil-Free turbine aircraft engine. NASA's General Aviation Propulsion project and Williams International recently developed the FJX-2 turbofan engine that is being commercialized as the EJ-22. This core bearing milestone is a first step toward a future version of the EJ-22 that will take advantage of recent advances in foil-air bearings by eliminating the need for oil lubrication systems and rolling element bearings. Oil-Free technology can reduce engine weight by 15 percent and let engines operate at very high speeds, yielding power density improvements of 20 percent, and reducing engine maintenance costs. In addition, with NASA coating technology, engines can operate at temperatures up to 1200 F. Although the project is still a couple of years from a full engine test of the bearings, this milestone shows that the bearing design exceeds the expected environment, thus providing confidence that an Oil-Free turbine aircraft engine will be attained. The Oil-Free Turbomachinery Project is supported through the Aeropropulsion Base Research Program.

Bream, Bruce L.↗

SAGE III on ISS: Mission Update and Science Milestone Results and Future Plans

The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III on the International Space Station (SAGE III/ISS) has been collecting data on the stratosphere almost continuously for 4 years since the first light milestone was achieved on March 17, 2017. In that time, the SAGE III/ISS data products have withstood robust assessments both internal and external, using comparisons to data sets both in-situ and spaceborne, and incorporated improvements into the retrieval algorithm and the science data products themselves. With the new v5.2 release of the SAGE III/ISS science data product algorithm, improvements made to the aerosol and water vapor products have produced better correlations with both MLS and balloonsonde data. At this 4-year milestone, we will look back on the last 4 years of data collection highlighting SAGE III/ISS ozone and aerosol data from 2017-2020 in a 6-minute video highlighting the SAGE III mission. An overview of mission operations and the challenges of operating a science mission on the ISS will highlight lessons learned and the mission science objectives completed during the first three years of the mission. The future goals for the SAGE III/ISS mission, as we continue operations and science collection, will round out the presentation.

Marilee M Roell↗

Astrophysics Milestones for Pulsar Timing Array Gravitational-wave Detection

The NANOGrav Collaboration reported strong Bayesian evidence for a common-spectrum stochastic process in its12.5 yr pulsar timing array data set, with median characteristic strain amplitude at periods of a year of A(yr) = 1.92(+0.75,-0.55) x 10^(-15). However, evidence for the quadrupolar Hellings & Downs interpulsar correlations, which are characteristic of gravitational-wave signals, was not yet significant. We emulate and extend the NANOGrav data set, injecting a wide range of stochastic gravitational-wave background(GWB)signals that encompass a variety of amplitudes and spectral shapes, and quantify three key milestones.(I)Given the amplitude measured in the 12.5 yr analysis and assuming this signal is a GWB, we expect to accumulate robust evidence of an interpulsar-correlated GWB signal with 15–17 yr of data, i.e., an additional 2–5 yr from the 12.5 yr data set.(II)At the initial detection, we expect a fractional uncertainty of 40% on the power-law strain spectrum slope, which is sufficient to distinguish a GWB of supermassive black hole binary origin from some models predicting more exotic origins.(III)Similarly, the measured GWB amplitude will have an uncertainty of 44% upon initial detection, allowing us to arbitrate between some population models of supermassive black hole binaries. In addition, power-law models are distinguishable from those having low-frequency spectral turnovers once 20 yr of data are reached. Even though our study is based on the NANOGrav data, we also derive relations that allow for a generalization to other pulsar timing array data sets. Most notably, by combining the data of individual arrays into the International Pulsar Timing Array, all of these milestones can be reached significantly earlier.

Nihan S. Pol↗

Apollo experience report the command and service module milestone review process

The sequence of the command and service module milestone review process is given, and the Customer Acceptance Readiness Review and Flight Readiness Review plans are presented. Contents of the System Summary Acceptance Documents for the two formal spacecraft reviews are detailed, and supplemental data required for presentation to the review boards are listed. Typical forms, correspondence, supporting documentation, and minutes of a board meeting are included.

Brendle, H. L.↗

Apparatus as Milestones in the History of Comparative Psychology

Significant apparatus developments from the history of comparative psychology are reviewed, including the contemporary trend toward computer use in research with nonhuman animals. It is argued that milestone apparatus served not only to open new lines of inquiry but also to shape or delimit the nature of the answers that were obtained.

Washburn, David A.↗

Milestones Achieved for the Fluids and Combustion Facility

In 2004, President Bush outlined a new space exploration vision for NASA. The exploration programs will seek profound answers to questions of our origins, whether life exists beyond Earth, and how we could live in other worlds. In response, research projects from NASA s Fluid Physics Research Program were moved into the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and realigned to support the major milestones of this directorate. A new goal of this research is to obtain an understanding of the physical phenomena that are important in the design of the many space-based and ground-based fluids systems that utilize multiphase flow, such as life support, propulsion, and power systems.

Gati, Frank G.↗

Design concept (milestone 2) for space vehicle entry and landing navigation programs

Detailed specifications and functional flow diagrams for space vehicle entry and landing navigation programs are reported. General design criteria, overall functions, and interfaces between the following three programs are considered: external observations program, noisy observations program, and navigation analysis program.

Diamant, L. S.↗

Shuttle LOX loading transient study. Task 2 milestone report. National space and technology laboratories (NSTL) LOX loading facility analysis

Transient thermodynamic analyses were made of the LOX loading system proposed for the space shuttle main propulsion test article (MPTA). This system is made up of a LOX replenish system and a main LOX line which include the barge tank, the lines, pumps, and valves between the barge and the orbiter (ORB) ground service equipment (GSE) interface, the MPTA fill system, the space shuttle main engine (SSME) chilldown bleed system, and the GSE vent system. System analyses include predictions of system performance sensitivity to operating sequence and LOX flowrate, temperature, and quality at the ORB/GSE interface. The transient thermodynamic conditions at the SSME feed line entrance, ET entrance (tank bottom), and the SSME bleed/GSE vent TEE are also included. The analyses are based on continuous SSME bleed flow during GSE facility chilldown.

Glasgow, V. L.↗

Milestone report TCTP application to the SSME hydrogen system analysis

The Transient Cryogen Transfer Computer Program (TCTP) developed and verified for LOX systems by analyses of Skylab S-1B stage loading data from John F. Kennedy Space Center launches was extended to include hydrogen as the working fluid. The feasibility of incorporating TCTP into the space shuttle main engine dynamic model was studied. The program applications are documented.

Richards, J. S.↗

Task 3 Milestone Report, Kennedy Space Center (KSC) LOX Loading Facility Analyses

Transient thermodynamic analyses have been made for the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) LOX loading system proposed for the space shuttle. The primary objective of these analyses is to predict the sensitivity of system performance to operating procedures, flow rate, temperature, and quality at the orbiter (ORB)/ground service equipment (GSE) interface. A further objective is to establish required system chill-down times. These analyses also include the prediction of transient thermodynamic conditions for the facility vent line, shuttle main engine (SSME) feed line entrance, ORB/ET interface, and the ET entrance (tank bottom).

Glasgow, V. L.↗