NASA Engineers Research Articles

Spirituality and Spaceflight

While the advent of space flight is relatively new, humankind has always had a fascination with the heavens. Ancient religions across numerous civilizations had spiritual and/or religious beliefs as to what lay in the heavens, or what is now referred to as outer space. Humans constantly searched for answers among the stars and believed space to be a place of the Gods. Though religious institutions, such as the Catholic Church, were often at odds with scientific discoveries, the astronomers did not let that dampen their spirits. This overlap between spirituality and space science continued right into the dawn of achievable space flight technology. Important engineers such as Werner von Braun were driven by faith and their belief it was humankind’s destiny to unravel the mysteries of the heavens. Almost all of the NASA astronauts and engineers during the Gemini and Apollo programs held strong spiritual beliefs. And beyond that, many more recent astronauts have described a transformative experience during their time in space, something that several prominent psychologists have begun to explore. With the recent beginning of humankind’s next manned moon mission, Artemis, well underway, it is time to examine the very obvious and powerful connection that exists in humans between spirituality and spaceflight. This paper will examine exactly this, with a slant towards NASA and the West and how spirituality and space will continue to interact into the foreseeable future.

Perfect Preparation.

Perfect Preparation.

Assessing approaches to learning with nonparametric multidimensional scaling.

This article reports on a trace-based assessment of approaches to learning used by middle school aged children who interacted with NASA Mars Mission science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) games in Whyville, an online game environment with 8 million registered young learners. The learning objectives of two games included awareness and knowledge of NASA missions, developing knowledge and skills of measurement and scaling, applying measurement for planetary comparisons in the solar system. Trace data from 1361 interactions were analysed with nonparametric multidimensional scaling methods, which permitted visual examination and statistical validation, and provided an example and proof of concept for the multidimensional scaling approach to analysis of time-based behavioural data from a game or simulation. Differences in approach to learning were found illustrating the potential value of the methodology to curriculum and game-based learning designers as well as other creators of online STEM content for pre-college youth. The theoretical framework of the method and analysis makes use of the Epistemic Network Analysis toolkit as a post hoc data exploration platform, and the discussion centres on issues of semantic interpretation of interaction end-states and the application of evidence centred design in post hoc analysis.

Co-Evolution of Communication and System Performance in Engineering Systems Design: A Stochastic Network-Behavior Dynamics Model

Abstract Engineering systems design is a dynamic socio-technical process where the social factors, such as interdisciplinary interactions, and technical factors, such as design interdependence and the design state, co-evolve. Understanding this co-evolution can lead to behavioral insights, resulting in efficient communication pathways and better designs. In that context, we investigate how to generate behavioral insights to inform effective structuring of interdisciplinary interactions in engineering systems design teams. We present an approach that combines the predictive capabilities of computational modeling with contextual information from empirical data. A stochastic network-behavior dynamics model quantifies the co-evolution of design interdependence, discipline-specific interaction decisions, and the changes in system performance. We employ two datasets, one of the student subjects designing an automotive engine and NASA engineers designing a spacecraft. Then, we apply Bayesian statistical inference to estimate model parameters and compare insights across the two datasets. The results indicate that design interdependence and social network factors such as reciprocity and popularity have strong positive effects on interdisciplinary interactions for the expert and student subjects alike. An additional modulating impact of system performance on the number of interactions is observed for the student subjects. Inversely, the total number of interactions, irrespective of their discipline-wise distribution, has a weak but statistically significant positive effect on system performance in both cases. However, we observe that excessive interactions mirrored with design interdependence and inflexibility in design exploration reduced the system performance. These insights support the case for open boundaries in systems design teams to improve system performance.

Growth of Staphylococcus aureus Using a Rotary Cell Culture System.

The Rotary Cell Culture System (RCCS) is an apparatus that was originally designed by NASA engineers to simulate microgravity conditions for growth of both eukaryotic and bacterial cell cultures. The RCCS growth environment is also characterized by low fluid shear stress, thereby also providing an in vitro growth condition relevant to certain in vivo environments encountered during bacterial infection. This chapter describes a method for growing Staphylococcus aureus under simulated microgravity conditions using the RCCS and disposable High Aspect Ratio Vessels (HARVs). Small samples can be removed and replaced with fresh media during the experiment (continuous sampling method) or the whole culture can be removed at the end of the experiment (end-point sampling method) for larger sample volumes required for follow-up studies such as RNAseq or proteomics.

Statistical Engineering for Wind Tunnel Testing of Mars Parachute Designs

Formal experiment design and analysis techniques featuring design of experiments were applied to a Mars parachute wind tunnel test. The experiments were part of an extensive study conducted in 2014 by the NASA Engineering and Safety Center to evaluate the performance of two candidate parachute systems. Reduced scale models of the legacy Disk-Gap-Band (DGB) parachute and new Supersonic Ringsail (SSRS) were compared for both model fidelity and performance measures. Two tests, conducted in the NASA Langley Transonic Dynamics Tunnel, are described with emphasis on statistical engineering principles. The first test compared drag coefficients between models of the same canopy at Earth atmospheric pressure but at mission dynamic pressures. The experiment proved that any manufacturing differences between models were not detectable in drag coefficient measurements. The second test focused on parachute drag coefficient modeling for both canopy designs and two fabric permeabilities over a representative range of mission dynamic pressures and Mach numbers. The SSRS was found to have higher drag coefficients in comparison to the DGB for both canopy material permeabilities over the operational range of Mach numbers and dynamic pressures.

Special Section: Memorial Festschrift for the Late Professor Frank Kreith Sunrise Delayed but the Sun Shines Brightly: The Energy-Sustainability Quandary and Legacy of Professor Frank Kreith

Special Section: Memorial Festschrift for the Late Professor Frank Kreith Sunrise Delayed but the Sun Shines Brightly: The Energy-Sustainability Quandary and Legacy of Professor Frank Kreith

The first fifty years of ACM SIGCOMM

Network researchers know that packets are not always evenly spaced, they sometimes arrive in bursts. This burstiness is also present in history. Important events sometimes occur almost simultaneously even if there is no direct relationship between them. Fifty years ago, several historical events took place within a period of a few months. In July, after years of efforts, NASA engineers successfully launched Apollo 13 and the Eagle landed on the Moon. The first footsteps of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin have opened the era of space exploration and maybe another human will land on another planet during this century. One month later, hundreds of thousands of music fans gathered at the Woodstock festival. In parallel, a few computer scientists and engineers started to deploy prototype nodes of the ARPANET network. The first packets that they exchanged have initiated the revolution that brought the Internet and today's connected society. At that time, research in computer networks had already started and several members of this emerging community gathered in an interest group that later became ACM SIGCOMM.

Commercial 18650 Lithium-Ion Cells for High-Energy, High-Power, and Radiation Applications

Interest in commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) cylindrical lithium-ion cells for NASA missions has increased in recent years due to their increasing performance and demonstrated reliability. There is particular interest in cells in the 18650 format, due to their wide availability from well-established vendors. Multiple commercial products are available, offering greater than 250 Wh∙kg-1 and/or 3 kW∙kg-1 at the cell level. High specific energy has made small cells competitive with heritage large-format prismatic lithium-ion cells for spacecraft power systems; high power capability could offer an alternative to thermal batteries in some applications. The descent stage of the Europa Lander mission concept was baselined with a combination of a high specific energy lithium primary battery and thermal batteries to provide the required energy content and high-power pulse capability during deorbiting and landing. High specific energy and power lithium-ion cells could fulfill the functions of both of these, while also allowing for cell pre-screening and testing, unlike primary or thermal batteries. In support of this concept and future NASA missions, we have performed extensive evaluation of the components and performance characteristics of a number of COTS 18650 Li-ion cells, including destructive physical analysis, cycle life, rate capability, and ionizing radiation tolerance. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The work described herein was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Support from the Europa Lander Mission concept and the NASA Engineering Safety Commission is gratefully acknowledged. Pre-Decisional Information – For Planning and Discussion Purposes Only.

Evaluating the stability of NASA’s space launch system with adaptive augmenting control

NASA’s baseline space launch system (SLS) flight control system (FCS) design includes an adaptive augmenting control (AAC) component that modifies the attitude control system response by augmenting the classical gain-scheduled architecture with additional performance and robustness. The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) teamed with the SLS Program to perform a comprehensive assessment of the stability and robustness of this FCS with emphasis on the AAC component. Multiple analysis techniques applicable to nonlinear systems were commissioned as part of this assessment, which was conducted in parallel with the program’s standard design analysis cycle. The following analyses were included, with each technique adding unique valuable insights: Lyapunov-based stability analysis, classical stability analysis with static AAC gain variations, circle criterion-based analysis of the FCS with a time-varying gain element, time-domain stability margin assessment, Monte Carlo simulations with expanded dispersions, and an extensive set of stressing cases. Several of the completed analyses focused on determining whether the inclusion of AAC introduced risk to the FCS, while others quantified the benefits of the adaptive augmentation.

Development of a rapidly deployable mobile medical unit for emergency disaster settings

Abstract Background Mobile medical units are essential for rapid delivery of medical care in remote areas during crises. Baylor Global Innovation Center aimed to conceptualise, build, and deploy an Emergency Smart Pod (ESP)—a mobile medical unit customised for global emergencies—with a four-phase approach: human-centred design, development, user testing, and implementation. Methods An initial design was created based on the Ebola Grand Challenge Funding requirements granted by USAID in 2015. The design was then vetted using a 37-question survey via in-depth interviews with experts with field experience: logisticians, health-care workers, and Ebola Treatment Unit directors in the USA, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. This design focused on addressing direct needs of end users by providing a rapidly deployable clinical solution with tablet-based wireless technologies, disinfectable materials, and appropriate storage for biohazard waste and medical supplies. The aluminium design of the unit optimised the lightweight capability, durability, and expandability. Manufacturers meeting these requirements were investigated for affordability, and technologies were developed for customised needs of infection control and emergency response. Feedback from field workers, NASA engineers, and physicians was continually evaluated throughout the building process. Findings A prototype equipped with smart applications optimised to protect health-care workers, improve patient care, and prevent disease transmission was built and tested. An ultraviolet C- heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system was implemented to kill 99·7% of pathogens. Medical record and wireless patient monitoring systems were developed for the high patient throughput in disaster situations. Remote video and push-to-talk systems were implemented to facilitate communication between the hot and cold zones. The ESP was built as an expandable aluminium-based box deployable via ships and trucks. A full simulation was initiated in Houston, TX, USA with simulated patients and health-care workers in full personal protective equipment. Improvements were made prior to shipping the unit to Monrovia, Liberia, for infectious disease care. The ESP was then successfully deployed in September, 2017, at the Eternal Love Winning Africa (ELWA) Hospital as a patient isolation unit. Interpretation Corresponding pharmacy and laboratory units are being developed as additions to the ESP. Similar validation will be used for these units for future deployment. Funding Vulcan Inc's Paul G Allen Ebola Program USAID Bureau for Global Health—Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact.

NASA Started a Propeller set on Board Voyager 1 After 37 Years of Break

If you try to start a car that has been in the garage for decades, you expect the engine not to respond. But a set of propellers onboard the NASA Voyager 1 spacecraft was launched on Wednesday, November 29, 37 years after its last use without any problems. Voyager 1 is the only man-made object that has arrived in interstellar space, being also the space probe created by NASA, which travels at the highest speed and is at the highest distance from Terra. The probe flies for 40 years and can change its position to keep its antenna pointing to the Terra using some small propellers operating in very short halves, in the order of milliseconds. NASA's Voyager team has been able to launch a set of back-up propellants that had not been in use since 1980. The test succeeds in extending Voyager 1's life to a minimum of 2-3 years. In 2014, NASA engineers noticed that Voyager's propellers used to change direction degraded. Over time, propellers end up working longer than normal to get the same effect on the direction of the probe. NASA experts have designed several working scenarios to solve the problem and concluded that it is best to use a series of back-up engines to control the probe's direction. These propellants had not been used for 37 years. NASA has been forced to search for decades old archives and use an obsolete programming language that no one uses to compile commands that have been transmitted by radio waves to the small computer on board to Voyager 1. The probe is more than 20 billion km from Terra. In the early years of the mission, Voyager 1 passed past Jupiter, Saturn and some of the satellites of these planets. In order to maintain the correct distance and orientation of on-board instruments, engineers used a series of Trajectory Correction Maneuvers (TCM) with dedicated, but identical size and functionality to those used for small flight corrections. These propellers used to correct the trajectory are placed on the back of the probe. After the encounter with Saturn, Voyager 1 did not need them, the last use being on November 8, 1980. These propellers had been used in a different way, meaning they were operating for long periods, not for very short-lived pulses. All engines on board Voyager were produced by Aerojet Rocketdyne, the same type of engine being installed on other spacecraft such as Cassini and Dawn. On November 28, Voyager engineers started the four TCM engines and tested their ability to steer the probe using 10 millisecond pulses. Researchers were then forced to wait for the test results to travel through space, in the form of radio waves, to be received after 19 h and 35 min by an antenna from Goldstone, California, part of NASA's Deep Space network.

Cryogenic thermal conductivity measurements on candidate materials for space missions

Spacecraft and instruments on space missions are built using a wide variety of carefully-chosen materials. It is common for NASA engineers to propose new candidate materials which have not been totally characterized at cryogenic temperatures. In many cases a material’s cryogenic thermal conductivity must be known before selecting it for a specific space-flight application. We developed a test facility in 2004 at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to measure the longitudinal thermal conductivity of materials at temperatures between 4 and 300K, and we have characterized many candidate materials since then. The measurement technique is not extremely complex, but proper care to details of the setup, data acquisition and data reduction is necessary for high precision and accuracy. We describe the thermal conductivity measurement process and present results for ten engineered materials, including alloys, polymers, composites, and a ceramic.

Model‐Based Systems Engineering Pathfinder: Informing the Next Steps

AbstractIn 2016, the NASA Engineering and Safety Center established a model‐based systems engineering (MBSE) Pathfinder. The primary motivations for establishing the MBSE Pathfinder were to advance the Agency's applications of MBSE and capture lessons‐learned to inform the next steps. The MBSE Pathfinder had four teams working in parallel for eight months on different topics of interest to NASA. The teams were encouraged to learn, and use creativity and innovation in their system modeling. The results were captured via reports, webinars, and a knowledge capture meeting. The approach taken for the MBSE Pathfinder was very successful in providing a number of lessons‐learned for NASA and for other organizations considering MBSE or pathfinder efforts, and in building a very strong and collaborative user community.

Adapting Poe: Re-Imaginings in Popular Culture

Adapting Poe: Re-Imaginings in Popular Culture

Hypervelocity impact testing of a pressurized composite overwrapped pressure vessel and comparison to numerical analysis

As the outlook for space exploration becomes more ambitious and spacecraft travel deeper into space, it is increasingly important that systems with energetic material storage perform reliably within the space environment. Because hardware mass is limited, the use of high strength-to-weight Composite Overwrap Pressure Vessels (COPV) has enabled designers to store energy at a reduced mass penalty; however, because the composite overwrap carries a high fraction of the stress of pressurization, there is significant concern that damage to the composite overwrap can lead to vessel failure and potentially cause loss-of-vehicle/loss-of-crew. One of the greatest external threats to the integrity of a spacecraft’s COPV is an impact from the meteoroid and orbital debris environments (MMOD). Because the limited research regarding this problem cannot be generalized, the capacity for these vessels to tolerate such impacts is not well understood. This report details some of the early experimental efforts undertaken by the Hypervelocity Impact Technology (HVIT) group in the support of a NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) assessment to understand how hypervelocity impact conditions comparable to MMOD impacts initiate catastrophic COPV failure. In addition to this experimental work, this publication also reports on the development of a numerical method to guide the interpretation of the experimental data and extension to other flight relevant configurations.

Where are the flying cars?

Will the digital revolution actually transform the process of innovation? A professor from NYU spent three years with NASA's engineers and scientists to uncover the significant opportunities and challenges involved with new models for R&D work.

Informing the Development of a Safety and Performance Metric Selection Toolkit

Ensuring safety and optimal performance in Long Distance and Duration Exploration Missions (LDDEM) is critical to enabling success in future missions. However, selecting appropriate metrics for assessing safety and performance remains a challenge. The current research endeavor aims to address this challenge through the development of a metric selection tool architecture. Prior to the current facet of metric toolkit development, a systematic review of NASA documents and literature aided in identifying overarching themes for measuring human-automation interaction. However, many of the studies found in this literature review, were not specific to the spaceflight domain. Since this toolkit is being constructed to serve a specific audience – NASA designers and engineers – it is critical that the toolkit be designed based on their unique needs and preferences. Therefore, so as to inform toolkit design and development for the spaceflight domain, structured interviews were conducted with NASA employees to enhance effectiveness of the measurement selection apparatus. Interviews were coded to detect trends in responses and incorporate feedback into the next prototype design stage. Results provided insight into design features, measurement challenges, current procedures, and work environmental factors that will be integrated into the current toolkit. Respondent feedback implications and future directions for toolkit improvement are discussed.

Connecting NASA Science and Engineering with Earth Science Applications

Abstract The National Research Council (NRC) recently highlighted the dual role of NASA to support both science and applications in planning Earth observations. This article reports the efforts of the NASA Applied Sciences Program and NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission to integrate applications with science and engineering in prelaunch planning. The SMAP Early Adopter program supported the prelaunch applied research that comprises the SMAP Special Collection of the Journal of Hydrometeorology. This research, in turn, has resulted in unprecedented prelaunch preparation for SMAP applications and critical feedback to the mission to improve product specifications and distribution for postlaunch applications. These efforts have been a learning experience that should provide direction for upcoming missions and set some context for the next NRC decadal survey.

SRB Field Joints Failure Analysis Using Fuzzy FMEA

SRB Field Joints Failure Analysis Using Fuzzy FMEA Kouroush Jenab, Raymond M. Blecher, Saeid Moslehpour Abstract The Challenger space shuttle disaster was due to failure of a solid rocket booster field joint. The NASA management and engineering team’s failed in utilizing Failure Mode & Effect Analysis (FMEA) in proper identification and communication of critical system failure modes and their effects. The benefits of fuzzy logic and its application to FMEA methodology could have made a major difference in the outcome as it would have provided more granularities to the risk priority rating. This study reports a platform for performing FMEA that utilizes a conflict resolution module in order to dilute the conflict in risk priority ratings. The platform has been applied to a real case to demonstrated the its application. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/ijpa.v3n1a1