Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Spacecraft Automation”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1979

Spacecraft automated operations

Trends in automation of planetary spacecraft are examined using data from missions as far back as Mariner '67 and up to the highly sophisticated Galileo. Nine design considerations which influence the degree of automation such as protection against catastrophic failures, highly repetitive functions, loss of spacecraft communications, and the need for near-real-time adaptivity are discussed. Rapid growth of automation is shown in terms of on-board hardware by plots of number of processors on board, the average speed of processors, and total core memory. The number of commands transmitted from the ground has grown to 5 million bits in Voyager, so that increases in mission complexity have increased both in spacecraft automation and ground operations. Achieving greater automation by transferring ground operations to the spacecraft with the current means of controlling missions, are considered noting proposed changes. For the future, improved computer technology, more microprocessors and increased core storage will be used, and the number of automated functions and their complexity will grow. It is concluded that using the growing computational capability of spacecraft will achieve more autonomy thus reversing the trend of increased mission complexity and cost.

Bird, T. H.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Scientific and technical services directed toward the development of planetary quarantine measures for automated spacecraft

Planetary quarantine requirements and parameters are evaluated for their effects upon automated spacecraft flights data describing the heat resistance of naturally occuring microorganisms and sterilization requirements are analyzed and a possible method for assessment of these data is developed. Pertinent data from planetary mission microbial contamination logs are compiled and maintained in the quarantine document system.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1991

The Generic Spacecraft Analyst Assistant (GenSAA): A tool for automating spacecraft monitoring with expert systems

Flight Operations Analysts (FOAs) in the Payload Operations Control Center (POCC) are responsible for monitoring a satellite's health and safety. As satellites become more complex and data rates increase, FOAs are quickly approaching a level of information saturation. The FOAs in the spacecraft control center for the COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) satellite are currently using a fault isolation expert system named the Communications Link Expert Assistance Resource (CLEAR), to assist in isolating and correcting communications link faults. Due to the success of CLEAR and several other systems in the control center domain, many other monitoring and fault isolation expert systems will likely be developed to support control center operations during the early 1990s. To facilitate the development of these systems, a project was initiated to develop a domain specific tool, named the Generic Spacecraft Analyst Assistant (GenSAA). GenSAA will enable spacecraft analysts to easily build simple real-time expert systems that perform spacecraft monitoring and fault isolation functions. Lessons learned during the development of several expert systems at Goddard, thereby establishing the foundation of GenSAA's objectives and offering insights in how problems may be avoided in future project, are described. This is followed by a description of the capabilities, architecture, and usage of GenSAA along with a discussion of its application to future NASA missions.

Hughes, Peter M.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Tools for automating spacecraft ground systems: The Intelligent Command and Control (ICC) approach

The practical application of scripting languages and World Wide Web tools to the support of spacecraft ground system automation, is reported on. The mission activities and the automation tools used at the Goddard Space Flight Center (MD) are reviewed. The use of the Tool Command Language (TCL) and the Practical Extraction and Report Language (PERL) scripting tools for automating mission operations is discussed together with the application of different tools for the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory ground system.

Stoffel, A. William↗
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 NTRS2018

Automated Spacecraft Conjunction Assessment at Mars and the Moon - A Five Year Update

It is well known that the Earth has an ongoing problem with orbiting space debris. Some Earth orbiting missions have regular warnings of close approaches with debris or other satellites. At Mars and the Moon, due to the growing number of orbiter missions and the current inability to track orbital debris in these environments, the creation of a hazardous debris field must be avoided because a debris field would greatly complicate both existing and future operations. Work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the area of automated spacecraft conjunction assessment at Mars and the Moon has been conducted over the past six years using a process called "MADCAP" ("Multimission Automated Deepspace Conjunction Assessment Process"). A paper introducing this work was presented at Space Ops in Stockholm, Sweden in 2012. In that inaugural paper, the then current state of operations was presented along with a number of items that were identified for potential future work. The fundamental design concepts of MADCAP have not materially changed in the last five years, however, since 2012 a number of the changes to MADCAP identified in the previous paper have been implemented. Some other previously planned work has not progressed appreciably; several of these items remain on a "parking lot" list. In addition to the items that were listed as prospective future work, JPL's Mars/Moon conjunction assessment efforts have also been extended in a few unplanned but important areas. This follow-up paper will provide a five year update on MADCAP operations at Mars and the Moon.

Wilson, Roby S.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Automated Spacecraft Communications Service Demonstration Using NASA's SCaN Testbed

The traditional paradigm for space mission operations relies on inefficient, highly scripted pre-planned activities between space communications & navigation service providers and user ground mission operations centers. Typically there is limited or non-existent automation capabilities on the user spacecraft for requesting space communications services, and on the provider network for request dispositioning and service provisioning. In the past, using these processes for space networks was sufficient with the relatively small number of user spacecraft requesting services. However, with an ever increasing number of satellites being launched to orbit, more complex event-driven science objectives, exploration missions involving collaborative platforms, and more distant missions, approaches that improve automation, flexibility and efficiency are needed. This paper describes NASA's recently completed on-orbit demonstration results of a new space communications service concept called User Initiated Service, and a discussion for infusing this innovation into operations.

waveforms↗
NASA NTRS2018

Automated Spacecraft Communications Service Demonstration Using NASA's SCaN Testbed

The traditional paradigm for space mission operations relies on inefficient, highly scripted pre-planned activities between space communications and navigation service providers and user ground mission operations centers. Typically there is limited or non-existent automation capabilities on the user spacecraft for requesting space communications services, and on the provider network for request dispositioning and service provisioning. In the past, using these processes for space networks was sufficient with the relatively small number of user spacecraft requesting services. However, with an ever increasing number of satellites being launched to orbit, more complex event-driven science objectives, exploration missions involving collaborative platforms, and more distant missions, approaches that improve automation, flexibility and efficiency are needed. This paper describes NASA's recently completed on-orbit demonstration results of a new space communications service concept called User Initiated Service, and a discussion for infusing this innovation into operations.

transmitters receivers↗
NASA NTRS2003

Towards Automating Spacecraft Attitude Sensor Calibration

With a view towards reducing cost and complexity for spacecraft early mission support at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), efforts are being made to automate the attitude sensor calibration process. This paper addresses one of the major components needed by such a system. The beneficiaries of an improved calibration process are missions that demand moderate to high precision attitude knowledge or that need to perform accurate attitude slews. Improved slew accuracy reduces the time needed for re-acquisition of fine-pointing after each attitude maneuver, Rapid target acquisition can be very important for astronomical targeting or for off-nadir surface feature targeting by Earth-oriented spacecraft. The normal sequence of on-orbit calibration starts with alignment calibration of the star trackers and possibly the Sun sensor. Their relative alignment needs to be determined using a sufficiently large data set so their fields of view are adequately sampled. Next, the inertial reference unit (IRU) is calibrated for corrections to its alignment and scale factors. The IRU biases are estimated continuously by the onboard attitude control system, but the IRU alignment and scale factors are usually determined on the ground using a batch-processing method on a data set that includes several slews sufficient to give full observability of all the IRU calibration parameters. Finally, magnetometer biases, alignment, and its coupling to the magnetic torquers are determined in order io improve momentum management and occasionally for use in the attitude determination system. The detailed approach used for automating calibrations will depend on whether the automated system resides on the ground or on the spacecraft with an ultimate goal of autonomous calibration. Current efforts focus on a ground-based system driving subsystems that could run either on the ground or onboard. The distinction is that onboard calibration should process the data sequentially rather than in a single large batch since onboard computer data storage is limited. Very good batch- processing calibration utilities have been developed and used extensively at NASA/GSFC for mission support but no sequential calibration utilities are available. To meet this need, this paper presents the mathematical description of a sequential IRU calibration system. The system has been tested using flight data from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) during a series of attitude slews. The paper also discusses the current state of the overall automated system and describes plans for adding sequential alignment calibration and other additions that will reduce the amount of analyst time and input.

Sedlak, Joseph↗
NASA NTRS1992

A plan for spacecraft automated rendezvous

An automated rendezvous approach has been developed that utilizes advances in technology to reduce real-time/near real-time flight operations support personnel to an acceptable level that is near the minimum without jeopardizing the success of the mission. The on-board flight targeting uses a rule-based system to select the pursuit vehicle phasing orbits and uses precise navigation updates from the pursuit/target spacecraft made possible by the global positioning system receivers/processors on both spacecraft to adjust the phasing orbits and achieve rendezvous. The ascent-to-orbit targeting for the pursuit vehicle has been successfully decoupled from the on-orbit orbit transfer phasing targeting. Typical launch window data have been developed for the heavy lift launch vehicle and cargo transfer vehicle for a Space Station Freedom rendezvous mission.

Deaton, A. W.↗