Operations Coordination Plan Status
This will be presented at the Earth Science Constellation Mission Operations Working Group meeting to discuss Operations Coordination Plan Status.
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This will be presented at the Earth Science Constellation Mission Operations Working Group meeting to discuss Operations Coordination Plan Status.
This presentation provides the history of the Constellation Operations Coordination Plan and a summary of the changes since the previous version was published in 2011.
This will be presented at the Earth Science Constellation Mission Operations Working Group meeting June 13-15, 2017, to discuss Operatioins Coordination Plan Status.
The 2001 Mars Surveyor Program Mission includes an orbiter with a gamma ray spectrometer and a multispectral thermal imager, and a lander with an extensive set of instrumentation, a robotic arm, and the Marie Curie Rover. The Mars 2001 Science Operations Working Group (SOWG) is a subgroup of the Project Science Group that has been formed to provide coordinated planning and implementation of scientific observations, particularly for the landed portion of the mission. The SOWG will be responsible for delivery of a science plan and, during operations, generation and delivery of conflict-free sequences. This group will also develop an archive plan that is compliant with Planetary Data System (PDS) standards, and will oversee generation, validation, and delivery of integrated archives to the PDS. In this report we cover one element of the SOWG planning activities, the development of a plan that maximizes the scientific return from lander-based observations by treating the instrument packages as an integrated payload. Scientific objectives for the lander mission have been defined. They include observations focused on determining the bedrock geology of the site through analyses of rocks and also local materials found in the soils, and the surficial geology of the site, including windblown deposits and the nature and history of formation of indurated sediments such as duricrust. Of particular interest is the identification and quantification of processes related to early warm, wet conditions and the presence of hydrologic or hydrothermal cycles. Determining the nature and origin of duricrust and associated salts is -very important in this regard. Specifically, did these deposits form in the vadose zone as pore water evaporated from soils or did they form by other processes, such as deposition of volcanic aerosols? Basic information needed to address these questions includes the morphology, topography, and geologic context of landforms and materials exposed at the site, together with quantitative information on material mineralogy, chemistry, and physical properties (rock textures; soil grain size and shape distributions; degree and nature of soil induration; soil magnetic properties). The calibration targets provide radiometric and mineralogical control surfaces. The magnets allow observations of magnetic phases. Patch plates are imaged to determine adhesive and abrasive properties of soils. Coordinated mission planning is crucial for optimizing the measurement synergy among the packages included on the lander. This planning has already begun through generation of multi-sol detailed operations activities. One focus has been to develop a scenario to use the arm to dig a soil trench to a depth of tens of centimeters. The activity will be monitored through use of Pancam and RAC to ensure nominal operations and to acquire data to determine subsurface physical properties (e.g., angle of repose of trench walls). Pancam and Mini-TES observations would also provide constraints on mineralogy and texture for the walls and bottom of the trench during excavation. If desired, soils excavated at depth could be deposited on the surface and Mossbauer and APXS measurements could be acquired for these materials. Soil samples from various depths would be delivered to MECA for characterization of aqueous geochemistry and physical properties of soil grains, particularly size, shape, and hardness. These physical properties would be determined by optical and atomic force microscopy. When completed, detailed information of soil properties as a function of depth would be obtained. These various data sets would constrain our understanding of whether or not there are systematic variations in soil characteristics as a function of depth. These variations might be related, for example, to evaporative moisture losses and formation of salt deposits, thereby indicating water transport processes occurred fairly recently. Many other value-added measurement scenarios are being developed. For example, characterizing the nature and dynamics of dust deposition will be done using MIP/DART to provide deposition rates, Pancam and RAC imaging of lander and rover surfaces to extrapolate these measurements to other areas, and a variety of measurements to determine if the bulk loose soil has the same characteristics as dust that accumulates during the mission. Bedrock geology of the site is primarily an APEX-focus setting, mineralogy, and texture, and APXS data to be we interest will be to determine the extent to which rock hydrothermal processes, given that APEX is the precursor 4 and 2005 rover missions. Additional information is contained in the original.
This presentation will introduce topics of note for the Earth Science Constellation (ESC) Mission Operations Working Group (MOWG) meeting being held in Toulouse, France from June 5-7, 2019.
There are no author-identified significant results in this report.
Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is a new air transportation service concept to carry passengers or cargo in metropolitan areas, leveraged by innovative aircraft and air traffic automation technologies. NASA has conducted a series of simulations, called the X-series simulation, to evaluate the UAM concept of operations and support the development of airspace procedures and services for UAM operations. The simulation called “X5” was conducted in 2023 to test a Provider of Services for UAM (PSU) prototype developed by NASA for UAM flight planning, strategic conflict management support, and data exchange between UAM operators. In this simulation, two strategic conflict management capabilities, Demand-Capacity Balancing and Sequencing and Scheduling, were further investigated. This document describes the UAM system architecture modeled, the X5 simulation environment to be executed (e.g., traffic scenario and UAM airspace construct), and the strategic conflict management processes developed and evaluated in this study. Then, the simulation results are provided using several system performance metrics, such as the number of operations planned and activated, demand-capacity imbalances detected and resolved, and pre-departure delays. Based on these metrics, the test findings and lessons learned from this simulation are discussed. NASA developed a PSU prototype as part of a reference implementation of UAM system architecture and evolved strategic conflict management capabilities for UAM operations from the previous collaborative simulations with industry partners. Below is the summary of the achievements: - Aligned NASA’s UAM reference architecture with the FAA’s UAM ConOps notional architecture - Extended UAM airspace management capabilities to include 1) Demand-Capacity Balancing (DCB) to ensure operators coordinate planned usage of shared vertiports, and 2) Sequencing and Scheduling (S&S) at UAM corridor entry and exit points to help facilitate an orderly flow of traffic - Defined the PSU information exchange APIs and requirements towards informing industry standards - Developed and tested a NASA PSU prototype as reference implementation to validate the requirements and APIs - Developed a prototype service connecting NASA’s PSU and the FAA system for testing future PSU-ATM interface requirements - Tested NASA-developed assumptions for UAM operations such as airspace design, procedures, vehicle performance, and strategic conflict management methods to inform future Cooperative Operating Practices (COPs) development with industry - Evaluated system performance metrics such as number of simultaneous operations and ground delays that can help define system-level requirements. The simulation results showed that the UAM traffic demand could be managed to minimize the needs of tactical separation provision with ground delays assigned by DCB and S&S. These accomplishments and the lessons learned from the PSU Prototype X5 simulation activities will be valuable inputs for the Air Mobility Pathfinders (AMP) project, which is NASA’s new project to create and evaluate a reference architecture for safe, secure, and scalable UAM operations.
The Mars Relay Operations Service (MaROS) is designed to provide planning and analysis tools in support of ongoing Mars Network relay operations. Strategic relay planning requires coordination between lander and orbiter mission ground data system (GDS) teams to schedule and execute relay communications passes. MaROS centralizes this process, correlating all data relevant to relay coordination to provide a cohesive picture of the relay state. Service users interact with the system through thin-layer command line and web user interface client applications. Users provide and utilize data such as lander view periods of orbiters, Deep Space Network (DSN) antenna tracks, and reports of relay pass performance. Users upload and download relevant relay data via formally defined and documented file structures including some described in Extensible Markup Language (XML). Clients interface with the system via an http-based Representational State Transfer (ReST) pattern using Javascript Object Notation (JSON) formats. This paper will provide a general overview of the service architecture and detail the software interfaces and considerations for interface design.
Electricity markets in the bulk grid are beginning to implement market mechanisms that support the procurement of flexible capabilities from wide range of technologies, including distributed energy resources (DERs). The flexibility of these resources will help counterbalance supply uncertainties from large-scale integration of variable renewable generation. To encourage development of distributed and aggregated market participants, FERC Order 2222 was issued in September 2020 to require each Independent System Operator (ISO) in the US to implement rules that enable broader participation from aggregations of DERs in the bulk market. The following paper first describes the generic design of ISO markets before introducing the new market participation rules that ISOs have proposed for compliance with Order 2222. The paper then describes how software performance issues may continue to affect the eligibility requirements and offer structures for DER aggregations participating in ISOs, noting that continued research on computational methods may help reduce burdens for DER integration. The prospects for transmission and distribution system coordination is second major issue discussed, which will require minor changes to existing processes in the short term. In the longer term, there is more opportunity for more wide-ranging reforms, such as the development of a Distribution System Operator (DSO) framework. Newly proposed market rules may affect how Transactive Energy Systems (TES) will help facilitate efficient formation of DER aggregations and operation of the individual DERs within an aggregation. Within the TES context, the challenge is to fully understand how resource eligibility and operational and planning coordination methods will affect the design and implementation of TES.
Reliability and resilience are the core principles of power system planning and operations around the world. Power systems in South Asia are transforming with increasing penetration of clean energy generation resources, emerging technologies, increasing electricity demand and electrification. At the same time, these power systems are facing challenges posed by extreme weather events and climate change. All these factors would add furthermore importance to the reliability and resilience of future power systems in South Asia. This has motivated us to better understand the country specific challenges and chalk out the pathways for research, modelling and implementation in South Asia. Our research, experience in the region and feedback from key stakeholders indicate following as the key areas where more work is needed to improve reliability and resilience of power systems in the region: Renewable energy Data for power system studies, New Tools and Studies, Resilience Planning, Resource Adequacy, Advanced RE Forecasting, Cybersecurity, Load Forecasting, and Coordinated Planning and Operations.
The Heuristic Scheduling Testbed System (HSTS), a software architecture for integrated planning and scheduling, is discussed. The architecture has been applied to the problem of generating observation schedules for the Hubble Space Telescope. This problem is representative of the class of problems that can be addressed: their complexity lies in the interaction of resource allocation and auxiliary task expansion. The architecture deals with this interaction by viewing planning and scheduling as two complementary aspects of the more general process of constructing behaviors of a dynamical system. The principal components of the software architecture are described, indicating how to model the structure and dynamics of a system, how to represent schedules at multiple levels of abstraction in the temporal database, and how the problem solving machinery operates. A scheduler for the detailed management of Hubble Space Telescope operations that has been developed within HSTS is described. Experimental performance results are given that indicate the utility and practicality of the approach.
The high penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) on modern distribution systems introduces intermittent power generation, stochastic system operating conditions, and bi-directional power flows that impact the system responses to various types of disturbances and may pose challenges to the operations and reliability of the Bulk Electric System (BES). In order to understand the impact of DERs on the planning and operation of the BES, the distribution system can no longer be represented as a single load at a node on the transmission system. At the same time, advanced control capabilities of DERs offer potential opportunities for improving BES reliability by transforming DERs from a passive “do no harm” resource to an active “support reliability” resource when applied in a planned and well-thought-out manner. This concept is often described as DER “flexibility.” With the persistent trend towards a high- penetration of DERs in distribution systems, regulators such as the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), planning coordinators and grid operators are in serious need of understanding the full-spectrum impact of DERs on the BES to ensure secure and reliable grid planning and operations.
The International Space Station (ISS) Payload Operations and Integration Center (POIC) at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama, United States, has gone through an evolution from supporting exclusively government ISS users to providing 50% (or more) of their support to commercial users. At the same time, they have expanded ground and facility operations to support a United States Orbital Segment crew expansion from three to four astronauts allowing an additional of 34 hours crew time per week. These additional hours are dedicated to utilization and have already surpassed the 100 hour peak weekly milestone in July 2018. This paper discusses the Center's changes in planning, staffing, coordination, and operations while addressing topics from the addition of secondary flight control positions to dynamic operations product reviews. MSFC's Human Exploration and Development Operations Office, which manages payload operations, seeks through this paper to highlight the higher priority commercial users now receive in replanning and in additional crew time.
To tackle the challenges introduced by the fast-growing charging demand of electric vehicles (EVs), the power distribution systems (PDSs) and fast charging stations (FCSs) of EVs should be planned and operated in a more coordinated fashion. However, existing planning approaches generally aim to minimize investment costs in PDSs while ignoring the risk of worsening traffic conditions. To overcome this research gap, this article integrates the interests of traffic networks into PDS and FCS joint planning model to mitigate negative impacts on traffic conditions caused by installing FCSs. First, a novel microscopic method that is different from traditional assignment methods is proposed to simulate the influences of FCSs on traffic flows and EV charging loads. Then, a multiobjective joint planning model is developed to minimize both the planning costs and unbalanced traffic flows. A new bilayer Benders decomposition algorithm is designed to solve the proposed joint planning model. Numerical results on two practical systems in China validate the feasibility of our microscopic method by comparing the simulated results with real data. Compared with existing approaches, it is also demonstrated that the proposed joint planning approach helps to balance traffic flow assignments and relieve traffic congestion.
Energy Systems Integration (ESI) is the process of coordinating the operation and planning of energy systems across multiple pathways and/or geographical scales to deliver reliable, cost-effective energy services with minimal impact on the environment. Energy systems have evolved from individual systems with little or no dependencies into a complex set of integrated systems at scales that include customers, cities, and regions. This evolution has been driven by political, economic, and environmental objectives. As we try to meet the globally recognized imperative to reduce carbon emissions through the deployment of large renewable energy capacities while also maintaining reliability and competitiveness, flexible energy systems are required. This flexibility can be attained through integrating various systems: by physically linking energy vectors, namely electricity, heat, and fuels; by coordinating these vectors across other infrastructures, namely water, data, and transport; by institutionally coordinating energy markets; and, spatially, by increasing market footprint with granularity all the way down to the customer level. Smart grids and ESI are related, in particular, the coupling between electricity, consumers, data and transport. This special section focuses on the aspects of ESI where electricity is coupled to water, heat and fuels and where this coupling brings challenges and/or opportunities.
Multicarrier energy systems (MCESs) are characterized by strong coordination in operation and planning across multiple energy vectors and/or sectors to deliver reliable, cost-effective energy services to end users/customers with minimal impact on the environment. They have efficiency and flexibility benefits and are deployed in large and small scales on the supply and demand sides and at the network level but are more complex to control and manage. Here, MCESs are reviewed in the context of future low carbon energy systems based on electrification and very high variable renewable energy penetrations. Fully exploiting these systems requires some cost reductions, more sophisticated operations enabled by standardized communications and control capabilities detailed planning paradigms, and addressing their corresponding economic challenges. All these point toward the direction of analysis, markets, and technology research and development coupled with better policy and regulatory frameworks. One futuristic vision of a very low carbon energy system is proposed that illustrates potential pathways to an MCES-dominated energy future.
The motivation of the Integrated Water Power Resilience Project is to identify and develop opportunities for improving resilience in the water and power sectors through coordinated planning, investment, and operations and thereby provide benefits to power and water utilities, consumers, and the environment. Water and power systems are interdependent, subject to many of the same natural and manmade hazards, and are critical for the well-being of communities and society. Because of the interconnectedness of water and power systems, there are substantial economic, social, and environmental benefits to co-managing the market sectors for resilience instead of managing them separately. To support this initiative and future research in this area, a county level water and energy flow dataset was developed to build, calculate, and visualize interconnections in water and energy between various sectors. This report presents county and regional water and energy visualizations across nine economic sectors of the United States: agriculture, commercial, electricity generation, industrial, mining, public water supply, residential, transportation, and wastewater treatment.