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Standardizing Rodent Models to Provide the Most Valid Translation to Human Risks from Spaceflight
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History and Logic Model NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Instrument and Payload Systems Engineering Technical Performance Study
Get PDFHistorically, some NASA missions have exceeded schedule and cost commitments. Studies suggest technical performance is a contributor. The 1980 NASA Project Management Study concluded, "one of the most significant contributors to cost and schedule growth is inadequate definition of technical and management aspects of a program..." (as cited in GAO/NSIAD-93-97, p. 11). The 1991 NASA Roles and Missions Report identified a "need for increased emphasis on technological readiness and requirements on the front end of a program" (as cited in GAO/NSIAD-93-97, p. 11). The 1992 NASA Program Costs Report stated that NASA officials identified, among other things, "insufficient definition studies... [and] program redesigns and technical complexities" as reasons for cost and schedule overruns (GAO/NSAID-93-97, p. 11). The 2002 Task Force on Acquisition of National Security Space Programs found "requirements definition and control issues, unhealthy cost bias in proposal evaluation, widespread lack of budget reserves required to implement high risk programs on schedule, and an overall underappreciation of the importance of appropriately staffed and trained system engineering staff to manage the technologically demanding and unique aspects of space programs" (DoD, 2003, p.i.) In 2007, The NASA Office of the Chief Engineer chartered the NASA Instrument Capability Study (NICS) to determine whether NASA instrument developers are facing challenges that impact the capability to design and build quality instruments or whether there are flaws in the acquisition strategy evidenced by schedule delays, cost overruns, and increased technical risk via design deficiencies. The... team was also chartered to determine if occurrences [are]... isolated cases or if there are generic issues... If the issues [are] found to be generic, the team [is] to offer solutions to recover such capability" (NICS Report, 2008, p. vi). The 2008 NICS Report, led by Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), identified challenges to instrument technical performance consistent with findings from previous reports. In 2017, the Instrument Project Division (IPD) Implementation Study was initiated to determine if there was a change in meeting schedule and cost commitments after implementing certain NICS recommendations. In 2018, the Instrument Technical Performance Study was initiated to determine the current state of Instrument Technical Performance in the GSFC Payload & Instrument Systems Engineering Branch. The purpose of the combined studies is to answer the question, "Is there a relationship between meeting NASA scientific instrument technical success and meeting schedule and cost commitments? If yes, what is the relationship?" References Department of Defense Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics. (2003). The report of the defense science board/ air force scientific advisory board joint task force on acquisition of national security space programs. Washington DC. Government Accounting Office. (1992). NASA program costs: Space missions require substantially more funding than initially estimated. GAO/NSIAD-93-97. Washington DC. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, Department of Defense. (2008). The NASA instrument capability study final report. NP-2008-11-058-GSFC. Washington DC
NASA SBIR/STTR Successes, Opportunities, and Pathways for EVA
Get PDFThis presentation discusses NASA's SBIR/STTR Program including its goals, process, successes, opportunities, and pathways
Space-Based Precipitation Measurements in Tropical Cyclones: Past, Present, and Future
Get PDFPassive and active remote sensing of precipitation from space has led to significant advances in the understanding and prediction of tropical cyclones around the globe. This presentation will highlight the role of past NASA space-based measurements of precipitation by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM, 1998-2015), ongoing measurements by the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission (2014-current), and future measurements from the Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS, nominal launch date in 2020) as well as a potential new mission on Aerosols, Clouds, Convection, and Precipitation (ACCP) from the 2017 NASA Earth Science Decadal Survey. TRMM, which flew the first precipitation radar in space, provided the first systematic descriptions of the radial and azimuthal variations of rainfall in tropical cyclones around the globe and their relationship to storm motion and vertical wind shear. GPM is the lynchpin of a global constellation of precipitation satellites that provides high spatial (0.1) and temporal (30 min) resolution real-time estimates of precipitation globally, making them essential to applications related to tropical cyclone prediction, disaster response, flood and landslide monitoring, and vector-borne disease monitoring. TROPICS will be a constellation of 6 Cubesat satellites with microwave imaging and sounding channels that will provide information on temperature and humidity in the storm environment, as well as estimates of precipitation and tropical cyclone intensity. ACCP is yet to be fully defined, but is envisioned to potentially carry multi-frequency radar with possible Doppler capability
Architecture and Information Requirements to Assess and Predict Flight Safety Risks During Highly Autonomous Urban Flight Operations
Get PDFAs aviation adopts new and increasingly complex operational paradigms, vehicle types, and technologies to broaden airspace capability and efficiency, maintaining a safe system will require recognition and timely mitigation of new safety issues as they emerge and before significant consequences occur. A shift toward a more predictive risk mitigation capability becomes critical to meet this challenge. In-time safety assurance comprises monitoring, assessment, and mitigation functions that proactively reduce risk in complex operational environments where the interplay of hazards may not be known (and therefore not accounted for) during design. These functions can also help to understand and predict emergent effects caused by the increased use of automation or autonomous functions that may exhibit unexpected non-deterministic behaviors. The envisioned monitoring and assessment functions can look for precursors, anomalies, and trends (PATs) by applying model-based and data-driven methods. Outputs would then drive downstream mitigation(s) if needed to reduce risk. These mitigations may be accomplished using traditional design revision processes or via operational (and sometimes automated) mechanisms. The latter refers to the in-time aspect of the system concept. This report comprises architecture and information requirements and considerations toward enabling such a capability within the domain of low altitude highly autonomous urban flight operations. This domain may span, for example, public-use surveillance missions flown by small unmanned aircraft (e.g., infrastructure inspection, facility management, emergency response, law enforcement, and/or security) to transportation missions flown by larger aircraft that may carry passengers or deliver products. Caveat: Any stated requirements in this report should be considered initial requirements that are intended to drive research and development (R&D). These initial requirements are likely to evolve based on R&D findings, refinement of operational concepts, industry advances, and new industry or regulatory policies or standards related to safety assurance
Spectrometer Scan Mechanism for Encountering Jovian Orbit Trojan Asteroids
Get PDFThis paper describes the design, testing, and lessons learned during the development of the Lucy Ralph (L'Ralph) Scan Mirror System (SMS), composed of the Scan Mirror Mechanism (SMM), Differential Position Sensor System (DPSS) and Mechanism Control Electronics (MCE). The L'Ralph SMS evolved from the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) Beam Steering Mechanism (BSM), so design comparisons will be made. Lucy is scheduled to launch in October 2021, embarking upon a 12-year mission to make close range encounters in 2025 and 2033 with seven Trojan asteroids and one main belt asteroid that are within the Jovian orbit. The L'Ralph instrument is based upon the New Horizons Ralph instrument, which is a panchromatic and color visible imager and infrared spectroscopic mapper that slewed the spacecraft for imaging. The L'Ralph SMM is to provide scanning for imaging to eliminate the need to slew the spacecraft. One purpose of this paper is to gain understanding of the reasoning behind some of the design features as compared with the ATLAS BSM. We will identify similarities and differences between the ATLAS BSM and the L'Ralph SMM that resulted from the latter's unique requirements. Another purpose of this paper is to focus upon "Lessons Learned" that came about during the development of the L'Ralph SMM and its MCE, both mechanism engineering issues and solutions as well as Ground Support Equipment (GSE) issues and solutions that came about during the validation of requirements process. At the time of this writing, the L'Ralph SMM has been flight qualified and delivered to the project
Atmospheric Methane in GEOS-5: Development of the Methane Module in GEOS, Current Status and Planned Capabilities
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Small Unmanned Aircraft System Off Nominal Operations Reporting System Unmanned Aircraft System: Traffic Management Technical Capability Level 4 Implementation, Data Collection and Analysis
Get PDFNASA performed research and development of technologies and requirements for traffic management of small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). In this effort, a small UAS off-nominal situation reporting system was developed to capture information from off-nominal situations to understand their nature and reduce occurrences. This Technical Memorandum (TM) describes the reporting system and analysis of 116 off-nominal situation reports from 352 small UAS operations, which were conducted at two flight test ranges in Summer 2019