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Surface Turbulent Fluxes, 1x1 deg Daily Grid, Set1 V2c
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-19T08:49:10.000ZThese data are the Goddard Satellite-based Surface Turbulent Fluxes Version-2c (GSSTF2c) Dataset recently produced through a MEaSUREs funded project led by Dr. Chung-Lin Shie (UMBC/GEST, NASA/GSFC), converted to HDF-EOS5 format. The stewardship of this HDF-EOS5 dataset is part of the MEaSUREs project, http://earthdata.nasa.gov/our-community/community-data-system-programs/measures-projects/surface-turbulent-fluxes-esdr http://earthdata.nasa.gov/our-community/community-data-system-programs/measures-projects GSSTF version 2b (Shie et al. 2010, Shie et al. 2009) generally agreed better with available ship measurements obtained from several field experiments in 1999 than GSSTF2 (Chou et al. 2003) did in all three flux components, i.e., latent heat flux [LHF], sensible heat flux [SHF], and wind stress [WST] (Shie 2010a,b). GSSTF2b was also found favorable, particularly for LHF and SHF, in an intercomparison study that accessed eleven products of ocean surface turbulent fluxes, in which GSSTF2 and GSSTF2b were also included (Brunke et al. 2011). However, a temporal trend appeared in the globally averaged LHF of GSSTF2b, particularly post year 2000. Shie (2010a,b) attributed the LHF trend to the trends originally found in the globally averaged SSM/I Tb's, i.e., Tb(19v), Tb(19h), Tb(22v) and Tb(37v), which were used to retrieve the GSSTF2b bottom-layer (the lowest atmospheric 500 meter layer) precipitable water [WB], then the surface specific humidity [Qa], and subsequently LHF. The SSM/I Tb's trends were recently found mainly due to the variations/trends of Earth incidence angle (EIA) in the SSM/I satellites (Hilburn and Shie 2011a,b). They have further developed an algorithm properly resolving the EIA problem and successfully reproducing the corrected Tb's by genuinely removing the "artifactitious" trends. An upgraded production of GSSTF2c (Shie et al. 2011) using the corrected Tb's has been completed very recently. GSSTF2c shows a significant improvement in the resultant WB, and subsequently the retrieved LHF - the temporal trends of WB and LHF are greatly reduced after the proper adjustments/treatments in the SSM/I Tb's (Shie and Hilburn 2011). In closing, we believe that the insightful "Rice Cooker Theory" by Shie (2010a,b), i.e., "To produce a good and trustworthy 'output product' (delicious 'cooked rice') depends not only on a well-functioned 'model/algorithm' ('rice cooker'), but also on a genuine and reliable 'input data' ('raw rice') with good quality" should help us better comprehend the impact of the improved Tb on the subsequently retrieved LHF of GSSTF2c. This is the Daily (24-hour) product; data are projected to equidistant Grid that covers the globe at 1x1 degree cell size, resulting in data arrays of 360x180 size. A finer resolution, 0.25 deg, of this product has been released as Version 3. The GSSTF, Version 2c, daily fluxes have first been produced for each individual available SSM/I satellite tapes (e.g., F08, F10, F11, F13, F14 and F15). Then, the Combined daily fluxes are produced by averaging (equally weighted) over available flux data/files from various satellites. These Combined daily flux data are considered as the "final" GSSTF, Version 2c, and are stored in this HDF-EOS5 collection. There are only one set of GSSTF, Version 2c, Combined data, "Set1" It contains 9 variables: "E" 'latent heat flux' (W/m**2), "STu" 'zonal wind stress' (N/m**2), "STv" 'meridional wind stress' (N/m**2), "H" 'sensible heat flux' (W/m**2), "Qair" 'surface air (~10-m) specific humidity' (g/kg), "WB" 'lowest 500-m precipitable water' (g/cm**2), "U" '10-m wind speed' (m/s), "DQ" 'sea-air humidity difference' (g/kg) "Tot_Precip_Water" 'total precipitable water' (g/cm**2) The double-quoted labels are the short names of the data fields in the HDF-EOS5 files. The "individual" daily flux data files, produced for each individual satellite, are also available in HDF-EOS5, although from differe...
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Procedure Execution and Projection System
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:15:38.000ZThere is a persistent pressure upon NASA crew members to achieve very high productivity during their missions. Significant challenges exist to maintaining manageable workload while the crew is performing their many and varied tasks allotted for each day while ensuring the crew maintain situation awareness. NASA crew members deal with a large amount of very high technology equipment and perform experiments and procedures that can be extremely long and complex. The solution will require the development of automated management technologies that will operate synergistically with the crew, automating tasks of varying complexity in a dynamic, flexible manner with representations of automation state that the crew is familiar and comfortable with. In this proposal, Cybernet proposes to leverage crew members' capabilities with the design of a distributed Procedure Execution and Projection (PEP) system that focuses on supporting automation of complex procedures while ensuring crew situational awareness and anticipating future problems. Our team will leverage the recent work on the Procedure Representation Language (PRL) and the flexible, distributed and hierarchical capabilities of holonic systems. PRL is an XML encoding of the vehicle/habitat procedures in a form that both crew and automation can use, and the PEP systems' intelligent holonic modules will support crew with a range of capabilities, including automation of procedures, projection of procedures to look for problems and determine courses of action to prevent or mitigate the problems, and make sure that the crew maintain situational awareness of the procedural state. The objectives of the Phase I project are to establish critical requirements for NASA vehicle and habitat crew automation and to design and implement a prototype of the PEP system to demonstrate approach viability.
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Approximate Cartesian Control for Robotic Tool Usage with Graceful Degradation Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:31:39.000ZMany of NASA's exploration scenarios include important roles for autonomous or partially autonomous robots. It is desirable for them to utilize human tools when possible, rather than needing to build custom tools for each robot. Control of robotic manipulators for tool usage generally requires a very precise Cartesian-space trajectory of the tool tip (e.g., moving a marker along the surface of a whiteboard or rotating a screwdriver about an axis). Well-known techniques exist for manipulator control in Cartesian space, most of which necessitate solving a series of Inverse Kinematics (IK) problems. Closed-form IK solvers work well for 7-degree-of-freedom (DOF) arms with rigid tool attachments, but cannot handle non-rigid tools that slip in the robot's hands. Numerical IK approaches are more generic and can handle non-rigid links to tools, but can be slow to converge. More importantly, if any joints fail or become limited in their range of motion, the robot arm essentially becomes 6-DOF or lower. IK solvers often fail in these lower DOF spaces because the configuration space becomes non-continuous and full of "holes". As a result, a 7-DOF robotic arm in space might be rendered largely useless if a single joint fails or even loses mobility until it can be serviced. TRACLabs proposes to investigate an alternative approach to traditional Cartesian control approaches, which rely on complex IK solvers that go from Cartesian space backwards to joint space. We propose to leverage cheap memory and modern processing speeds to instead perform simple computations that go from joint space forwards to Cartesian space. Such techniques should overcome common changes to a manipulation chain caused by tool slippage or the grasping of a new tool and to overcome uncommon changes to a chain caused by joint failures, reduced joint mobility, changes in joint geometry or range of motion, or added joints.
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Auditory Presentation of H/OZ Critical Flight Data Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:08:03.000ZAutomation of a flight control system to perform functions normally attributed to humans is often not robust and limited to specific operating conditions and types of operation and a small set of fixed behaviors (i.e. modes). eSky has shown that metrics such as the time delay between a required control input from the crew and the actual input is sensitive to crew functional degradation through external distraction. We are currently developing strategies for using such crew state metrics to modulate the level of automation support provided to the flight crew. Dynamic reallocation of function between crew and automation can reduce the cognitive workload on the crew, enhance their ability to supervise the automation and help them intervene in the event of any failure or operation outside the desired operating conditions. eSky is exploring function reallocation in a collaborative flight control system (HFCS) design pioneered at NASA Langley. HFCS combines precise flight control automation with rudimentary intelligence that the flight crew can guide using relatively simple mechanisms. HFCS automation manages short-term control tasks (e.g. path following) while the crew is required to direct every significant trajectory change using flight controls rather than an FMS interface to keep them engaged in conduct of the flight. The automation communicates intentions to the pilot through visual and haptic (tactile) feedback; the crew communicates intentions to the automation through conventional controls. The HFCS user interface is primarily visual and tactile with limited auditory elements, mainly limited to a few alerts and warnings. eSky proposes to establish the auditory channel as a key element in providing flight dynamic information and cueing of required crew in puts in addition to envelope protection warnings. These new interface elements will be integrated into eSky's evolving strategies for functionality reallocation of between automation and crew.
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Surface Turbulent Fluxes, 1x1 deg Daily Grid, Set1 V2c
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T04:51:34.000ZThese data are the Goddard Satellite-based Surface Turbulent Fluxes Version-2c (GSSTF2c) Dataset recently produced through a MEaSUREs funded project led by Dr. Chung-Lin Shie (UMBC/GEST, NASA/GSFC), converted to HDF-EOS5 format. The stewardship of this HDF-EOS5 dataset is part of the MEaSUREs project, http://earthdata.nasa.gov/our-community/community-data-system-programs/measures-projects/surface-turbulent-fluxes-esdr http://earthdata.nasa.gov/our-community/community-data-system-programs/measures-projects GSSTF version 2b (Shie et al. 2010, Shie et al. 2009) generally agreed better with available ship measurements obtained from several field experiments in 1999 than GSSTF2 (Chou et al. 2003) did in all three flux components, i.e., latent heat flux [LHF], sensible heat flux [SHF], and wind stress [WST] (Shie 2010a,b). GSSTF2b was also found favorable, particularly for LHF and SHF, in an intercomparison study that accessed eleven products of ocean surface turbulent fluxes, in which GSSTF2 and GSSTF2b were also included (Brunke et al. 2011). However, a temporal trend appeared in the globally averaged LHF of GSSTF2b, particularly post year 2000. Shie (2010a,b) attributed the LHF trend to the trends originally found in the globally averaged SSM/I Tb's, i.e., Tb(19v), Tb(19h), Tb(22v) and Tb(37v), which were used to retrieve the GSSTF2b bottom-layer (the lowest atmospheric 500 meter layer) precipitable water [WB], then the surface specific humidity [Qa], and subsequently LHF. The SSM/I Tb's trends were recently found mainly due to the variations/trends of Earth incidence angle (EIA) in the SSM/I satellites (Hilburn and Shie 2011a,b). They have further developed an algorithm properly resolving the EIA problem and successfully reproducing the corrected Tb's by genuinely removing the "artifactitious" trends. An upgraded production of GSSTF2c (Shie et al. 2011) using the corrected Tb's has been completed very recently. GSSTF2c shows a significant improvement in the resultant WB, and subsequently the retrieved LHF - the temporal trends of WB and LHF are greatly reduced after the proper adjustments/treatments in the SSM/I Tb's (Shie and Hilburn 2011). In closing, we believe that the insightful "Rice Cooker Theory" by Shie (2010a,b), i.e., "To produce a good and trustworthy 'output product' (delicious 'cooked rice') depends not only on a well-functioned 'model/algorithm' ('rice cooker'), but also on a genuine and reliable 'input data' ('raw rice') with good quality" should help us better comprehend the impact of the improved Tb on the subsequently retrieved LHF of GSSTF2c. This is the Daily (24-hour) product; data are projected to equidistant Grid that covers the globe at 1x1 degree cell size, resulting in data arrays of 360x180 size. A finer resolution, 0.25 deg, of this product has been released as Version 3. The GSSTF, Version 2c, daily fluxes have first been produced for each individual available SSM/I satellite tapes (e.g., F08, F10, F11, F13, F14 and F15). Then, the Combined daily fluxes are produced by averaging (equally weighted) over available flux data/files from various satellites. These Combined daily flux data are considered as the "final" GSSTF, Version 2c, and are stored in this HDF-EOS5 collection. There are only one set of GSSTF, Version 2c, Combined data, "Set1" It contains 9 variables: "E" 'latent heat flux' (W/m**2), "STu" 'zonal wind stress' (N/m**2), "STv" 'meridional wind stress' (N/m**2), "H" 'sensible heat flux' (W/m**2), "Qair" 'surface air (~10-m) specific humidity' (g/kg), "WB" 'lowest 500-m precipitable water' (g/cm**2), "U" '10-m wind speed' (m/s), "DQ" 'sea-air humidity difference' (g/kg) "Tot_Precip_Water" 'total precipitable water' (g/cm**2) The double-quoted labels are the short names of the data fields in the HDF-EOS5 files. The "individual" daily flux data files, produced for each individual satellite, are also available in HDF-EOS5, although from differe...
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Ceramic Composite Mechanical Fastener System for High-Temperature Structural Assemblies Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:24:27.000ZUnder Phase I, the feasibility of a novel thermal stress-free ceramic composite mechanical fastener system suitable for assembly of high-temperature composite structures was successfully demonstrated. The innovative 2-dimensional (2D) fastener design facilitates joining load-bearing hot structural assemblies and can be produced at a cost much lower than other competing designs and methods. Functional SiCf/SiCm composite fasteners having two (2) fiber reinforcement orientations of 0/90-degrees (cross-ply) and 145-degrees (bias-ply) were fabricated for characterization. Testing of the respective fasteners included both axial tension and single-lap shear. The cross-ply reinforced SiCf/SiCm fasteners exhibited axial tensile and single-lap shear strengths of 38.0 and 33.1 ksi, respectively. The bias-ply fasteners exhibited axial tensile and single-lap shear strengths of 31.3 and 29.8 ksi, respectively. Using a generalized analytical method for determining the distribution of forces and stresses in the 2D mechanical fastener developed in Phase I, optimized configurations will be designed and produced in Phase II for evaluation. The metallic subcomponents used for Phase I demonstration will be produced using a high temperature-capable material (e.g., ceramic, superalloy). Aerodynamically smooth Cf/SiCm and SiCf/SiCm composite structural lap joints will be assembled using the optimized composite fastener system for characterization. Testing of the lap joint assemblies will performed to determine the flexibility and structural efficiency of the joint as a function of off-axis loading relative to the principal axis of the fasteners. Elevated temperature testing will be performed to establish the effects of temperature on the mechanical properties of the joint.
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Low Cost Automated Manufacture of High Efficiency THINS ZTJ PV Blanket Technology (P-NASA12-007) Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:37:03.000ZNASA needs lower cost solar arrays with high performance for a variety of missions. While high efficiency, space-qualified solar cells are in themselves costly, > $250/Watt, there is considerable additional cost associated with the parts and labor needed to integrate the Photovoltaic Assembly. The standard approach has evolved with only minor changes, sacrificing cost because of risk aversion. Integration cost can be as much as double the bare cell cost – i.e. >$500/watt. Dramatic cost savings can be realized through manufacturing engineering of more efficient automated assembly processes. If the design of the Photovoltaic Assembly could be modified to be compatible with conventional and automatable electronic assembly and terrestrial solar panel assembly approaches, there could be considerable cost savings. There are many additional benefits with automation which include higher quality and consistency. This can reduce failures, increase production throughput, speed turnaround, and improve overall reliability. Cost and quality improvements can be realized on both thin and rigid arrays, increasing current capabilities, and enabling future high power missions. The benefits of automation are enhanced by the need for high power generation in support of energy intensive space missions. A 300kW array at $500/W would cost $150M just for the solar cell integrated array panels. A $150/W cell integration cost reduction would translate into savings of $45M, before considering the immediate and substantial benefits in consistency, reliability, and schedule. The Phase I effort demonstrates feasibility of a low cost array using an automated and integrated manufacturing approach, performed on an automation friendly solar cell, verified with environmental testing, and is used to predict array cost for a high power mission. Meeting these technical objectives will demonstrate reduced cost and justify a Phase II SBIR program preparing for a flight experiment.
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Non-Thermal Sanitation By Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:11:23.000ZORBITEC's Non-Thermal Sanitation by Atmospheric Pressure Plasma technology sanitizes fresh fruits and vegetables without the use of consumable chemicals and without significantly raising the temperature of the food, so food taste and quality are not affected. Atmospheric pressure plasma is well known to be highly effective in promoting oxidation, enhancing molecular dissociation, and producing free radicals and other types of high energies. It has recently attracted much attention in the food industry due to its potential for being a non-thermal and highly effective sanitation method. The proposed technology will support surface sanitation of delivered fresh fruit and vegetables, and freshly prepared foods in a space-based habitat. It can function in reduced gravity and pressure environments, and is efficient in terms of waste and resource use. During this Phase 2 effort, designs of the primary operating components of the system will be refined and incorporated into a plasma processing chamber prototype capable of treating one to two servings of fresh food at a time. The antimicrobial performance of the prototype will be tested with a number of fruits/vegetables and different inoculums. The prototype will also be evaluated for the effect of plasma treatment on food quality.
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The High resolution Coronal Imager Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:42:37.000Z<p align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: times new roman,times,serif;">The telescope design is a direct continuation of the development from NIXT to TRACE and AIA: we propose a Ritchey-Chr&acute;etien with plate scale sufficient to provide 0.1 arcsec pixel size, and multilayer coatings on two D-shaped halves, so that there are two wavelength channels available. The detector is a large-format back-illuminated CCD, providing high quan tum efficiency and rapid readout for high im age cadence. Channel selection is made via selectable focal plane filters. An H-telescope with NTSC (TV) output is included for real-time pointing verification during the flight.</span></span></p> <p align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: times new roman,times,serif;">Major components of this new payload have been developed and qualified for the Hinode XRT instrument, SDO program (AIA &amp; HMI) and for the Solar Ultraviolet Magnetograph Investigation (SUMI) sounding rocket. This has helped keep the development costs for Hi-C sig nificantly lower than they otherwise would have been. </span></span></p> <p align="LEFT"> <font face="CMR10" size="3"><font face="CMR10" size="3"><font face="CMR10" size="3"><font face="CMR10" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: times new roman,times,serif;">The vehicle layout includes all major components needed for the flight demonstration. . It has a to total length of 108.9 inches and a launch weight of 562.9 pounds. The vehicle is the standard NASA 22-inch diameter shell. The proposed experiment design is based on the SAO NIXT and TXI instrument designs. A detailed weight breakdown is provided in Figure 5. As evidenced by Table 1, every component in the proposed mission has heritage in multiple successful instruments. Now we propose to ex tend the telescope magnification to the diffrac</span></span></font></font></font></font></p> <p> <span style="font-size: 12px;"><font face="CMR10"><font face="CMR10"><font face="CMR10"><font face="CMR10"><font face="CMR10"><font face="CMR10"><span style="font-family: times new roman,times,serif;">tion limit. AIA chose to extend the TRACE resolution to a full-sun field of view and now we are proposing to extend TRACE by increasing the magnification on the secondary mirror. The technologies required to build AIA are identical to that for Hi-C and every major contribution to the development of Hi-C is performed by the teams that built AIA (SAO, LMSAL)</span></font></font></font></font></font></font></span></p> <p align="LEFT"> &nbsp;</p> <p> &nbsp;</p>
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Aircraft Nodal Data Acquisition System (ANDAS) Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:27:51.000ZDevelopment of an Aircraft Nodal Data Acquisition System (ANDAS) is proposed. The proposed methodology employs the development of a very thin (135&#61549;m) hybrid microminiature sensor assembly (MSA) incorporating a micro-electro-mechanical-sensor (MEMS) array, a short-haul radio transceiver, a data mux, memory, power management module, a replaceable battery cartridge, and an antenna. Various MSA packaging concepts will be evaluated using modified MEMS and commercially available ICs (in die form). A final packaging design for batch fabrication in Phase II will be developed. The MSA would be designed as a cement-and-forget-device (except for the battery). A cpomactPCI modular host would manage the MSA nodes as a part of a scatternet/piconet arrangement. The host will be almost entirely made up of COTS hardware and software. Cost estimates for MSA and the host system will be provided.