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Software for Application of HHT Technologies to Time Series Analysis Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:27:16.000ZThe proposed innovation is a robust and user-friendly software environment where NASA researchers can customize the latest HHT technologies for the LISA (and LIGO) application. The proposed technology will include the latest discoveries and inventions not available in the state-of-the-art. Its taxonomy includes gravitational sensors and sources, expert systems, portable data analysis tools, software development environments, and software tools for distributed analysis and simulation. The disturbance caused by the passage of a gravitational wave is expected to be very small and will be measured with laser interferometry. The Hilbert-HuangTransform (HHT)and related analysis technologies developed since the original concept has been used successfully in other applications to extract non-linear and transient signal comonents of very small magnitude with respect to the measured signal. The proposed research and development team has participated in the latest cycle of technology development related to the HHT at the theoretical, implementation, and application levels. Not only will the creation of the proposed software contribute to the data analysis of the gravitational wave signals in the laser interferometry measurements (for both LIGO and LISA data), but also in other applications within and outside NASA's mission.
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Novel Versatile Intelligent Drug Delivery Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:23:14.000ZThis SBIR project will demonstrate and develop a novel micro-pump capable of controlled and selective chemical transport. Phase I will create, characterize, and model a robust and readily fabricated low-power miniaturized pump achieving "forceless" dissolved ion transport compatible with microgravity conditions. The compact technology will be extremely versatile, low-cost, stable, easily tailorable, and readily scaleable to higher fluxes via structure duplication and application in parallel. The device will be physically stable, chemically inert, and pH insensitive while its small dimensions result in lower power consumption and reduced mass. The result will be a more versatile and general pump capable of moving a variety of drugs. Phase I will explore the pump performance, stability, and design optimization using selected ionic compounds as model transport subjects by running designed experiments exploring pump operations as a function of key pump structural and operation variables. This data will determine the controlling variables, their effects on the system performance, and will be utilized with first-principles system physics analysis to develop a pump operation model. This model will allow rapid technology configuration exploration, operation performance refinement, and will provide critical insights into preferred, better optimized, structures to be evaluated during Phase II.
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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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Vibration-Free Cooling Cycle Pump for Space Vehicles and Habitats Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:26:51.000ZMainstream Engineering Corporation completed the design of a high-speed pump for International Space Station (ISS) Environmental Control and Life Support Systems and future spacecraft and extraterrestrial outpost applications. Specifications for this pump were derived from an existing pump currently operating as part of the thermal control loop on the ISS. The design includes magnetic bearings so that a vibration-reducing control algorithm can be implemented. A digital controller was designed, which measured and reduced vibration-causing fluctuations in shaft displacement due to rotor unbalance in multiple axes. The controller was tested over an operating speed range of 600 to 7200 rpm with excellent results. The controller reduced mean shaft displacement by 71% over the entire operating range, and reduced it by more than 80% at higher operating speeds where synchronous vibration was dominant. In Phase II the magnetic bearing equipped cooling loop pump designed in Phase I will be fabricated and tested. Mainstream will demonstrate the added efficiency, reliability, and low vibration of the system as compared with the existing pump. The pump assembly will undergo vibration characterization testing with support from Marshall Space Flight Center.
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Stable, Extreme Temperature, High Radiation, Compact. Low Power Clock Oscillator for Space, Geothermal, Down-Hole & other High Reliability Applications Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:30:08.000ZEfficient and stable clock signal generation requirements at extreme temperatures (-180C to +450C)and radiation (>250 Krad TID) are not met with the current solutions.Chronos technology proposes to design and fabricate RTXO as a new, comprehensive and scalable solution that simultaneously addresses the attributes of a reliable clock source in extreme environments. RTXO offers very small form-factor 5X7mm surface mount device utilizing high-Q Quartz material and CMOS/SOI for the extreme cold temperatures of Mars surface up to +110C. For extreme high temperature (to +450C) it uses Silicon Carbide (SiC-4H) semiconductor technology, high quality Gallium Orthophisphate (GaPO4) piezo-electric resonator material in a non-adhesive configured innovative assembly. All the different elements and processes used in the RTXO technology have been investigated in phase I to comply with the intended performance. This includes the individual elements, packaging, interconnecting method and manufacturing processes. RTXO offers standard signal interface, wide operating voltage range, conventional microelectronic packaging, and industry standard and reliable metal to metal as well as glass to metal sealing processes. RTXO delivers its exceptional performance over a wide (application specific) frequency range to 100 MHz from a single supply voltage and requires very low power.
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Robust Optimal Fragmentation and Dispersion of Near-Earth Objects Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:31:30.000Z<p> During the past 2 decades, various concepts for mitigating the impact threats from NEOs have been proposed, but many of these concepts were impractical and not technically credible. In particular, all non-nuclear techniques require mission lead times larger than 10 years. However, for the most probable impact threat with a warning time less than 10 years, the use of high-energy nuclear explosives in space becomes inevitable for proper fragmentation and dispersion of an NEO in a collision course with Earth. However, the existing nuclear subsurface penetrator technology limits the impact velocity to less than 300m/s because higher impact velocities destroy prematurely the detonation electronic equipment. Thus, an innovative space system architecture utilizing high-energy nuclear explosives must be developed for a worst-case intercept mission resulting in relative closing velocities as high as 5-30km/s. An advanced system concept is proposed for nuclear subsurface explosion missions. The concept blends a hypervelocity kinetic-energy impactor with nuclear subsurface explosion, and exploits a 2-body space vehicle consisting of a fore body and an aft body. These 2 spacecraft bodies may be connected by a deployable boom. The fore body provides proper kinetic impact crater conditions for an aft body carrying nuclear explosives to make a deeper penetration into an asteroid body. For such a complex mission architecture design study, non-traditional, multidisciplinary research efforts in the areas of hypervelocity impact dynamics, nuclear explosion modeling, high-temperature thermal shielding, shock-resistant electronic systems, and advanced space system technologies are required. Expanding upon the current research activities, the Iowa State Asteroid Deflection Research Center will develop an innovative, advanced space system architecture that provides the planetary defense capabilities needed to enable a future real space mission more efficient, affordable, and reliable.</p>
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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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Solid-Solid Vacuum Regolith Heat-Exchanger for Oxygen Production Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:17:45.000ZThis SBIR Phase-1 project will demonstrate the feasibility of using a novel coaxial counterflow solid-solid heat exchanger to recover heat energy from spent regolith at 1050<SUP>o</SUP>C to pre-heat inlet regolith to 750<SUP>o</SUP>C, either continuously, or in 20kg batches. In granular solids the area of contacts between 'touching' grains is quite small. Thus, solid-solid conduction often plays only a minor role in heat transfer through granular solids (i.e., 'effective' conduction), and when an interstitial gas is present, heat transfer occurs primarily via conduction through the gas. If the granular solid is also flowing, then solids convection becomes a significant factor in overall heat transfer and effective 'conduction'. Under vacuum conditions, and at temperatures above 700<SUP>o</SUP>C, radiation will dominate most heat transfer processes; however, solids convection can also play a very significant secondary role. Utilizing judicious placement of radiation baffles, and a novel counterflow configuration, the approach proposed in this SBIR can accomplish the desired heat transfer between spent and fresh regolith with only one moving mechanical part, by making effective use of both radiative heat transfer and solids convection. Discrete-element simulations of regolith flow will be utilized to refine the concept. Utilization of an existing ~1.4 cubic meter partial-vacuum facility at the University of Florida will facilitate construction of feasibility demonstration prototypes during Phase-1 and/or Phase-2. The Phase-1 project will demonstrate the effectiveness of combining solids convection with radiative heat transfer to rapidly transfer heat from 1050C spent material to heat fresh regolith to 750C under vacuum conditions.
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Additive Manufacturing Technology Development Project
nasa-test-0.demo.socrata.com | Last Updated 2015-07-20T05:39:10.000Z<p>The 3D Printing In Zero-G (3D Print) technology demonstration project is a proof-of-concept test designed to assess the properties of melt deposition modeling additive manufacturing in the microgravity environment experienced on the International Space Station (ISS). The lessons learned from this technology demonstration will be used for the next generation of melt deposition modeling in the permanent NanoRacks Additive Manufacturing Facility (AMF) as well as for any future additive manufacturing technology NASA plans to use, such as metals or electronics in-space manufacturing, on both the ISS and Deep Space Missions. This demonstration is the first step towards realizing a &ldquo;machine shop&rdquo; in space, a critical enabling component of any Deep Space Mission.</p><p>The 3D Print payload consists of a 3D printer (a two-axis extruder mobility system, a single-axis print tray mobility system, the extruder and accompanying feedstock cartridge, the print tray, Environmental Control Unit (ECU, a prototype for the permanent AMF), an electronics box, and all of the necessary cables and bolts to attach the device to the ISS Microgravity Science Glovebox&nbsp;(MSG) cold plate, MSG laptop computer, and MSG power supply) and all identified spare parts. The 3D Print payload will operate within the MSG. The payload uses extrusion-based additive manufacturing technology to fabricate objects. Additive manufacturing is the process of creating three dimensional objects from a Computer Aided Design (CAD) model where material is deposited layer by layer. The 3D Print payload will extrude a bead of thermo-polymer material from a larger diameter feedstock material. When one layer is complete, the next layer is printed on top and bonded to the lower layer while still molten. This creates an adhesive bond as opposed to a solid material extrusion.</p><p>Performance goals were defined realizing the 3D Print is a technology demonstration. The following is a list of minimum success criteria:<br />1. Successful integration and safe operation in the MSG on the ISS<br />2. Demonstration of extrusion based additive manufacturing using polymeric material<br />3. Successful extrusion and traversing<br />4. Printing of one part while in ISS microgravity<br />5. Mitigation of functional risks for future facilities<br />6. Comparison of ISS printed parts with those printed on Earth (dimensional and strength testing).</p>