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This paper describes the tools and technologies that need to be developed for a Caching Rover mission in order to meet the overall Planetary Protection requirements for future Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign. This is the result of an eight-month study sponsored by the Mars Program Office. The goal of this study is to provide a future MSR project with a focused technology development plan for achieving...
As is widely known, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are expected to greatly expand in use within the national airspace system over the coming decades. With UAS civil spectral allocations planned for two bands—L-band (960–977 MHz) and C-band (5030–5091 MHz)—work is already being conducted on air interfaces and network design for control and non-payload communications (CNPC). Since most prior work studied...
The paper proposes a novel power and bandwidth allocation mechanism for a multibeam satellite system in Ka-band or above. At such high frequency bands, rain attenuation severely impacts the performance and the use of PIMT techniques, such as the ACM technique foreseen in the DVB-S2 standard, is crucial. The proposed resource allocation mechanism is based on the observation that it would be more efficient...
Reliability and serviceability1 of jet engines in aviation industry is of paramount importance and is directly related to flight safety. Scheduled maintenance and preventive inspection programs are therefore in place for these engines worldwide. Old age provides maintenance maturity to a system but on the other hand requires focused efforts to ensure reliability due to aging factor. J69-T-25A falls...
In-space transportation technology is the key to unlocking the material resources of near-Earth asteroids for the benefit of human spaceflight activities beyond low-Earth orbit. High-power solar electric propulsion, with power levels of around 50 kW represents the most capable, affordable, near-term propulsion technology available and is enabling for the capture and retrieval of entire small near-Earth...
T-53 series engines1 are presently being used all over the world in aerial platforms such as helicopters. These provide highly competitive performance. Maintenance of these engines is therefore considered important for higher reliability during operations, low Mean Time Between Failures and operating cost. As a regular practice, data of defects is continuously gathered by all users as maintenance...
Circulation Control, which was discovered accidentally by Henry Coanda in 1935, is proven to be an efficient lift augmentation method at low Mach numbers. The objective of this research is to design and develop a Circulation Control Wing (CCW) that will provide increased lift to a fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The configuration (the curvature of the trailing edge on a Clark-Y airfoil)...
A critical part of the assessment of multiple target tracking (MTT) algorithms is the assignment of tracks to truth objects. For real-time experiments and some computer simulations, kinematic assignment is the only option for track-to-truth assignment. However, kinematic assignment is often made to objects without regard to the ability of the sensor to detect and track the objects and this leads to...
In early 2012, Surrey Satellite Technology US LLC (SST-US) published a press release announcing the Orbital Test Bed (OTB) mission [1]. SST-US planned OTB to launch in 2015 to flight test internally developed space technologies and deliberately oversized the platform to accommodate other secondary payloads. The press release was an invitation for external customers, with payloads looking for flight,...
The development of space systems involves complex interdisciplinary systems engineering. To manage such complexity, simulation and calculation models are becoming an integral part of it, where different domain-specific models (power, thermal, structure, propulsion, communication, etc.) are developed using different tools. Every domain model contains valuable knowledge of a respective discipline. However,...
Space Plug-and-Play Architecture (SPA), defined by the Air Force Research Laboratory, is a new standard for spacecraft component interconnections (AIAA-S-133-x-2013) providing new capability for managing intelligent components. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) based on the IEEE 802.15.4 Personal Area Network standard are finding increasing use in the home automation and emerging smart energy markets...
This paper proposes a plan for space solar power (SSP) project governance by US and foreign agencies and participation by industry, universities, and other non-governmental organizations. SSP research has typically focused on the technical aspects, rather than others that are equally important. NASA alone could never implement SSP, because it lacks the expertise required. This paper begins to bridge...
We have developed Representation and Implementation of Temporal Event Sequences (RITES), a domain specific programming language which enables users to precisely specify how software and firmware execute with respect to real time on embedded systems hardware. Precise timing of software and firmware operations is critical to many functions within a space system, including coordination of hardware components,...
When investigating the validity of the basis of estimate for mission phases, it is important to understand how the labor basis of estimate compares with historical missions. As such, it can be very valuable to understand the historical Full Time Equivalent (FTE) labor loading for different historical missions and how the final, actual staffing levels in FTE compared with the initially planned FTEs...
The Mars Science Laboratory entry capsule is used as an example to demonstrate how a blunt body of revolution must be treated as asymmetric in some respects when flying at a non-zero trim angle of attack. A brief description of the axisymmetric moment equations are provided before solving a system of equations describing the lateral-directional moment equations for a blunt body trimming at an angle...
Constellations of small satellites are useful for a number of earth observation and space exploration missions. The Heterogeneous Spacecraft Network project is defining operations concepts and promising technology that can provide greater capability at lower cost. Typically, such spacecraft can communicate with each other in orbit and with ground stations for spacecraft operation and downlink of science...
Some satellite communication links for tracking, telemetry, and command (TT&C) make use of modern digital modulation and spread spectrum to survive in a stressed or interference-filled environment. As compared to the conventional tracking, telemetry, and command (TT&C) with and without subcarriers [3, 4], the TT&C with Interplex modulation which is a direct modulation on RF carrier, is...
This paper presents an industry-unique approach and improved model-based engineering practices for software-reliant aircraft systems aligned with the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE™) open system technical reference architecture.
Nano-satellite platforms, such as cubesats, have recently improved considerably in terms of reliability, and are slowly becoming a financially attractive solution for space exploration missions. As the applications grow more and more complex, a paradigm shift takes place from single cubesat implementation to constellations missions in which the collaboration between multiple satellites is used to...
Advances in Adaptive Optics (AO) systems and image processing techniques have allowed image reconstruction to reach new levels of sophistication with impressive improvements in resolvability. The products of these reconstruction methods are often compared by eye due to a lack of widely agreed-upon objective performance metrics. This paper describes a new technique for assessing the performance of...
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