Threads of Mission Success

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gavin, Thomas R.

2006-01-01

This viewgraph presentation reviews the many parts of the JPL mission planning process that the project manager has to work with. Some of them are: NASA & JPL's institutional requirements, the mission systems design requirements, the science interactions, the technical interactions, financial requirements, verification and validation, safety and mission assurance, and independent assessment, review and reporting.

A modeling analysis program for the JPL table mountain Io sodium cloud

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smyth, W. H.; Goldberg, B. A.

1985-01-01

Progress and achievements in the first year are discussed in three main areas: (1) review and assessment of the massive JPL Table Mountain Io sodium cloud data set, (2) formulation and execution of a plan to perform further processing of this data set, and (3) initiation of modeling activities. The complete 1976-79 and 1981 data sets are reviewed. Particular emphasis is placed on the superior 1981 Region B/C images which provide a rich base of information for studying the structure and escape of gases from Io as well as possible east-west and magnetic longitudinal asymmetries in the plasma torus. A data processing plan is developed and is undertaken by the Multimission Image Processing Laboratory of JPL for the purpose of providing a more refined and complete data set for our modeling studies in the second year. Modeling priorities are formulated and initial progress in achieving these goals is reported.

Model Checking Verification and Validation at JPL and the NASA Fairmont IV and V Facility

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schneider, Frank; Easterbrook, Steve; Callahan, Jack; Montgomery, Todd

1999-01-01

We show how a technology transfer effort was carried out. The successful use of model checking on a pilot JPL flight project demonstrates the usefulness and the efficacy of the approach. The pilot project was used to model a complex spacecraft controller. Software design and implementation validation were carried out successfully. To suggest future applications we also show how the implementation validation step can be automated. The effort was followed by the formal introduction of the modeling technique as a part of the JPL Quality Assurance process.

Use of a multimission system for cost effective support of planetary science data processing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Green, William B.

1994-01-01

JPL's Multimission Operations Systems Office (MOSO) provides a multimission facility at JPL for processing science instrument data from NASA's planetary missions. This facility, the Multimission Image Processing System (MIPS), is developed and maintained by MOSO to meet requirements that span the NASA family of planetary missions. Although the word 'image' appears in the title, MIPS is used to process instrument data from a variety of science instruments. This paper describes the design of a new system architecture now being implemented within the MIPS to support future planetary mission activities at significantly reduced operations and maintenance cost.

Space Missions Trade Space Generation and Assessment Using JPL Rapid Mission Architecture (RMA) Team Approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moeller, Robert C.; Borden, Chester; Spilker, Thomas; Smythe, William; Lock, Robert

2011-01-01

The JPL Rapid Mission Architecture (RMA) capability is a novel collaborative team-based approach to generate new mission architectures, explore broad trade space options, and conduct architecture-level analyses. RMA studies address feasibility and identify best candidates to proceed to further detailed design studies. Development of RMA first began at JPL in 2007 and has evolved to address the need for rapid, effective early mission architectural development and trade space exploration as a precursor to traditional point design evaluations. The RMA approach integrates a small team of architecture-level experts (typically 6-10 people) to generate and explore a wide-ranging trade space of mission architectures driven by the mission science (or technology) objectives. Group brainstorming and trade space analyses are conducted at a higher level of assessment across multiple mission architectures and systems to enable rapid assessment of a set of diverse, innovative concepts. This paper describes the overall JPL RMA team, process, and high-level approach. Some illustrative results from previous JPL RMA studies are discussed.

Planetary image conversion task

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martin, M. D.; Stanley, C. L.; Laughlin, G.

1985-01-01

The Planetary Image Conversion Task group processed 12,500 magnetic tapes containing raw imaging data from JPL planetary missions and produced an image data base in consistent format on 1200 fully packed 6250-bpi tapes. The output tapes will remain at JPL. A copy of the entire tape set was delivered to US Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Ariz. A secondary task converted computer datalogs, which had been stored in project specific MARK IV File Management System data types and structures, to flat-file, text format that is processable on any modern computer system. The conversion processing took place at JPL's Image Processing Laboratory on an IBM 370-158 with existing software modified slightly to meet the needs of the conversion task. More than 99% of the original digital image data was successfully recovered by the conversion task. However, processing data tapes recorded before 1975 was destructive. This discovery is of critical importance to facilities responsible for maintaining digital archives since normal periodic random sampling techniques would be unlikely to detect this phenomenon, and entire data sets could be wiped out in the act of generating seemingly positive sampling results. Reccomended follow-on activities are also included.

GRACE-Based Analysis of Total Water Storage Trends and Groundwater Fluctuations in the North-Western Sahara Aquifer System (NWSAS) and Tindouf Aquifer in Northwest Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lezzaik, K. A.; Milewski, A.

2013-12-01

Optimal water management practices and strategies, in arid and semi-arid environments, are often hindered by a lack of quantitative and qualitative understanding of hydrological processes. Moreover, progressive overexploitation of groundwater resources to meet agricultural, industrial, and domestic requirements is drawing concern over the sustainability of such exhaustive abstraction levels, especially in environments where groundwater is a major source of water. NASA's GRACE (gravity recovery and climate change experiment) mission, since March 2002, has advanced the understanding of hydrological events, especially groundwater depletion, through integrated measurements and modeling of terrestrial water mass. In this study, GLDAS variables (rainfall rate, evapotranspiration rate, average soil moisture), and TRMM 3B42.V7A precipitation satellite data, were used in combination with 95 GRACE-generated gravitational anomalies maps, to quantify total water storage change (TWSC) and groundwater storage change (GWSC) from January 2003 to December 2010 (excluding June 2003), in the North-Western Sahara Aquifer System (NWSAS) and Tindouf Aquifer System in northwestern Africa. Separately processed and computed GRACE products by JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA), CSR (Center of Space Research, UT Austin), and GFZ (German Research Centre for Geoscience, Potsdam), were used to determine which GRACE dataset(s) best reflect total water storage and ground water changes in northwest Africa. First-order estimates of annual TWSC for NWSAS (JPL: +5.297 BCM; CSR: -5.33 BCM; GFZ: -9.96 BCM) and Tindouf Aquifer System (JPL: +1.217 BCM; CSR: +0.203 BCM; GFZ: +1.019 BCM), were computed using zonal averaging over a span of eight years. Preliminary findings of annual GWSC for NWSAS (JPL: +2.45 BCM; CSR: -2.278 BCM; GFZ: -6.913 BCM) and Tindouf Aquifer System (JPL: +1.108 BCM; CSR: +0.094 BCM; GFZ: +0.910 BCM), were calculating using a water budget approach, parameterized by GLDAS-derived soil moisture and evapotranspiration values with GRACE-based TWSC. Initial results suggest CSR-processed datasets as being most representative of TWSC/GWSC values in the NWSAS, given groundwater abstraction estimates of 2.5 BCM/year, a conservative estimate considering it does not include unaccounted abstractions or increased consumption in recent years. Conversely, high abstraction rates and negligibly low recharge rates indicate the positive TWSC/GWSC values generated from JPL-processed datasets are not accurately representative of hydrologic changes in NWSAS. Consistently positive TWSC/GWSC values for the Tindouf Aquifer System, by JPL, CSR, and GFZ datasets are indicative of sustainable groundwater abstraction levels (recharge rate > abstraction rate). GWSC time series, computed for each of the three different processed datasets (JPL, CSR, GFZ), account for significant withdrawals in groundwater in both NWSAS (February 2006 and from August 2008 to January 2009) and Tindouf Aquifer System (November/October 2003, February/March 2006, and September/October 2010).

Photographer : JPL Range :12.2 million kilometers (7.6 million miles) The view in this photo shows

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1979-01-01

Photographer : JPL Range :12.2 million kilometers (7.6 million miles) The view in this photo shows Jupiter's Great Red Spot emerging from the five-hour Jovian night. One of the three bright, oval clouds which were observed to form approximately 40 years ago can be seen immediately below the Red Spot. Most of the other features appearing in this view are too small to be seen clearly from Earth. The color picture was assembled from three black and white photos in the Image Processing Lab at JPL.

Space nuclear safety from a user's viewpoint

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Campbell, R. W.

1985-01-01

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) two Voyager spacecraft to Jupiter in 1977, each using three radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) supplied by the Department of Energy (DOE) for onboard electric power. In 1986 NASA will launch JPL's Galileo spacecraft to Jupiter equipped with two DOE supplied RTGs of an improved design. NASA and JPL are also responsible for obtaining a single RTG of this type from DOE and supplying it to the European Space Agency as part of its participation in the International Solar Polar Mission. As a result of these missions, JPL has been deeply involved in space nuclear safety as a user. This paper will give a brief review of the user contributions by JPL - and NASA in general - to the nuclear safety processes and relate them to the overall nuclear safety program necessary for the launch of an RTG. The two major safety areas requiring user support are the ground operations involving RTGs at the launch site and the failure modes and probabilities associated with launch accidents.

MEMS Reliability Assurance Activities at JPL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kayali, S.; Lawton, R.; Stark, B.

2000-01-01

An overview of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) reliability assurance and qualification activities at JPL is presented along with the a discussion of characterization of MEMS structures implemented on single crystal silicon, polycrystalline silicon, CMOS, and LIGA processes. Additionally, common failure modes and mechanisms affecting MEMS structures, including radiation effects, are discussed. Common reliability and qualification practices contained in the MEMS Reliability Assurance Guideline are also presented.

JPL Development Ephemeris number 96

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Standish, E. M., Jr.; Keesey, M. S. W.; Newhall, X. X.

1976-01-01

The fourth issue of JPL Planetary Ephemerides, designated JPL Development Ephemeris No. 96 (DE96), is described. This ephemeris replaces a previous issue which has become obsolete since its release in 1969. Improvements in this issue include more recent and more accurate observational data, new types of data, better processing of the data, and refined equations of motion which more accurately describe the actual physics of the solar system. The descriptions in this report include these new features as well as the new export version of the ephemeris. The tapes and requisite software will be distributed through the NASA Computer Software Management and Information Center (COSMIC) at the University of Georgia.

Centralized database for interconnection system design. [for spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Billitti, Joseph W.

1989-01-01

A database application called DFACS (Database, Forms and Applications for Cabling and Systems) is described. The objective of DFACS is to improve the speed and accuracy of interconnection system information flow during the design and fabrication stages of a project, while simultaneously supporting both the horizontal (end-to-end wiring) and the vertical (wiring by connector) design stratagems used by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) project engineering community. The DFACS architecture is centered around a centralized database and program methodology which emulates the manual design process hitherto used at JPL. DFACS has been tested and successfully applied to existing JPL hardware tasks with a resulting reduction in schedule time and costs.

The Deep Space Network Array

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gatti, Mark S.

2006-01-01

This document is a viewgraph presentation that reviews the costs, and technological processing required to replace the current network of Deep Space Antennas. The concept of using an array for space communications is much less of a concern than the cost of implementing and operating such an array. Within the cost question, the cost uncertainty of the front-end components (repeated n-times) is of most importance. The activities at JPL have focused on both these aspects of the cost. A breadboard array of three antennas at JPL has been the vehicle to perform many investigations into the development of the new DSN. Several pictures of the antennas at JPL are shown.

NASA's Preparations for ESA's L3 Gravitational Wave Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stebbins, Robin

2016-01-01

Telescope Subsystem - Jeff Livas (GSFC): Demonstrate pathlength stability, straylight and manufacturability. Phase Measurement System - Bill Klipstein (JPL): Key measurement functions demonstrated. Incorporate full flight functionality. Laser Subsystem - Jordan Camp (GSFC): ECL master oscillator, phase noise of fiber power amplifier, demonstrate end-to-end performance in integrated system, lifetime. Micronewton Thrusters - John Ziemer (JPL): Propellant storage and distribution, system robustness, manufacturing yield, lifetime. Arm-locking Demonstration - Kirk McKenzie (JPL): Studying a demonstration of laser frequency stabilization with GRACE Follow-On. Torsion Pendulum - John Conklin (UF): Develop U.S. capability with GRS and torsion pendulum test bed. Multi-Axis Heterodyne Interferometry - Ira Thorpe (GSFC): Investigate test mass/optical bench interface. UV LEDs - John Conklin+ (UF): Flight qualify UV LEDs to replace mercury lamps in discharging system. Optical Bench - Guido Mueller (UF): Investigate alternate designs and fabrication processes to ease manufacturability. LISA researchers at JPL are leading the Laser Ranging Interferometer instrument on the GRACE Follow-On mission.

KSC-2014-2978

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-06-18

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Personnel from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory JPL in California secure the protective cover around NASA's International Space Station-RapidScat during testing of its rotating radar antenna and its flight computer and airborne support equipment, at left, in the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. From left are RapidScat project manager John Wirth and JPL flight technician Kieran McKay. Built at JPL, the radar scatterometer is the first scientific Earth-observing instrument designed to operate from the exterior of the space station. It will measure Earth's ocean surface wind speed and direction, providing data to be used in weather and marine forecasting. ISS-RapidScat will be delivered to the station on the SpaceX-4 commercial cargo resupply flight targeted for August 2014. For more information, visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/iss-rapidscat. Photo credit: NASA/Daniel Casper

In-Situ Mosaic Production at JPL/MIPL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Deen, Bob

2012-01-01

Multimission Image Processing Lab (MIPL) at JPL is responsible for (among other things) the ground-based operational image processing of all the recent in-situ Mars missions: (1) Mars Pathfinder (2) Mars Polar Lander (3) Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) (4) Phoenix (5) Mars Science Lab (MSL) Mosaics are probably the most visible products from MIPL (1) Generated for virtually every rover position at which a panorama is taken (2) Provide better environmental context than single images (3) Valuable to operations and science personnel (4) Arguably the signature products for public engagement

The NASA Exploration Design Team; Blueprint for a New Design Paradigm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oberto, Robert E.; Nilsen, Erik; Cohen, Ron; Wheeler, Rebecca; DeFlorio, Paul

2005-01-01

NASA has chosen JPL to deliver a NASA-wide rapid-response real-time collaborative design team to perform rapid execution of program, system, mission, and technology trade studies. This team will draw on the expertise of all NASA centers and external partners necessary. The NASA Exploration Design Team (NEDT) will be led by NASA Headquarters, with field centers and partners added according to the needs of each study. Through real-time distributed collaboration we will effectively bring all NASA field centers directly inside Headquarters. JPL's Team X pioneered the technique of real time collaborative design 8 years ago. Since its inception, Team X has performed over 600 mission studies and has reduced per-study cost by a factor of 5 and per-study duration by a factor of 10 compared to conventional design processes. The Team X concept has spread to other NASA centers, industry, academia, and international partners. In this paper, we discuss the extension of the JPL Team X process to the NASA-wide collaborative design team. We discuss the architecture for such a process and elaborate on the implementation challenges of this process. We further discuss our current ideas on how to address these challenges.

A Journey with MOM

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Helfrich, Cliff; Berry, David S.; Bhat, Ramachandra; Border, James; Graat, Eric; Halsell, Allen; Kruizinga, Gerhard; Lau, Eunice; Mottinger, Neil; Rush, Brian;

Multimission image processing and science data visualization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Green, William B.

1993-01-01

The Operational Science Analysis (OSA) Functional area supports science instrument data display, analysis, visualization and photo processing in support of flight operations of planetary spacecraft managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). This paper describes the data products generated by the OSA functional area, and the current computer system used to generate these data products. The objectives on a system upgrade now in process are described. The design approach to development of the new system are reviewed, including use of the Unix operating system and X-Window display standards to provide platform independence, portability, and modularity within the new system, is reviewed. The new system should provide a modular and scaleable capability supporting a variety of future missions at JPL.

Research and Development of External Occultor Technology for the Direct Observation of Extrasolar Planetary Systems : JPL Starshades Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Franz, Herbert; Stadeler, Mehnert

2012-01-01

Our group conducted work during the Summer of 2012 assembling and developing JPL's Starshades Project under the Technology Development for Exoplanet Missions(TDEM) initiative created by NASA, specifically TDEM stage 2. The goal of the work conducted at JPL by our group was to construct four occultor petals, the main optical components of the Starshade, for the analysis of joint deployment characteristics and of mechanical strain. A Starshade is an optical structure measuring approximately 30 meters in diameter that uses the effects of light diffraction off sheer edges, light scattering, and negative interference between waves to negate all on-axis light in a telescope's image, providing very high contrast that allows planets orbiting a target star to be observed. We completed our engineering goals in the time span of 10 weeks, during which the assembly processes of manufacture, alignment, and structural bonding took place. The Starshade technology and construction process is further discussed in the body of this paper.

Real-Time GNSS Positioning with JPL's new GIPSYx Software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bar-Sever, Y. E.

2016-12-01

The JPL Global Differential GPS (GDGPS) System is now producing real-time orbit and clock solutions for GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, and Galileo. The operations are based on JPL's next generation geodetic analysis and data processing software, GIPSYx (also known at RTGx). We will examine the impact of the nascent GNSS constellations on real-time kinematic positioning for earthquake monitoring, and assess the marginal benefits from each constellation. We will discus the options for signal selection, inter-signal bias modeling, and estimation strategies in the context of real-time point positioning. We will provide a brief overview of the key features and attributes of GIPSYx. Finally we will describe the current natural hazard monitoring services from the GDGPS System.

Global view of Venus from Magellan, Pioneer, and Venera data

NASA Image and Video Library

1991-10-29

This global view of Venus, centered at 270 degrees east longitude, is a compilation of data from several sources. Magellan synthetic aperature radar mosaics from the first cycle of Magellan mapping are mapped onto a computer-simulated globe to create the image. Data gaps are filled with Pioneer-Venus orbiter data, or a constant mid-range value. Simulated color is used to enhance small-scale structure. The simulated hues are based on color images recorded by the Soviet Venera 13 and 14 spacecraft. The image was produced at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Multimission Image Processing Laboratory and is a single frame from a video released at the JPL news conference, 10-29-91. View provided by JPL with alternate number P-39225 MGN81.

Virtual time and time warp on the JPL hypercube. [operating system implementation for distributed simulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jefferson, David; Beckman, Brian

1986-01-01

This paper describes the concept of virtual time and its implementation in the Time Warp Operating System at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Virtual time is a distributed synchronization paradigm that is appropriate for distributed simulation, database concurrency control, real time systems, and coordination of replicated processes. The Time Warp Operating System is targeted toward the distributed simulation application and runs on a 32-node JPL Mark II Hypercube.

Protecting Against Faults in JPL Spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morgan, Paula

2007-01-01

A paper discusses techniques for protecting against faults in spacecraft designed and operated by NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The paper addresses, more specifically, fault-protection requirements and techniques common to most JPL spacecraft (in contradistinction to unique, mission specific techniques), standard practices in the implementation of these techniques, and fault-protection software architectures. Common requirements include those to protect onboard command, data-processing, and control computers; protect against loss of Earth/spacecraft radio communication; maintain safe temperatures; and recover from power overloads. The paper describes fault-protection techniques as part of a fault-management strategy that also includes functional redundancy, redundant hardware, and autonomous monitoring of (1) the operational and health statuses of spacecraft components, (2) temperatures inside and outside the spacecraft, and (3) allocation of power. The strategy also provides for preprogrammed automated responses to anomalous conditions. In addition, the software running in almost every JPL spacecraft incorporates a general-purpose "Safe Mode" response algorithm that configures the spacecraft in a lower-power state that is safe and predictable, thereby facilitating diagnosis of more complex faults by a team of human experts on Earth.

Artwork Separation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1983-01-01

Under a grant from California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) used image enhancement techniques to separate x-ray images of paintings when one had been painted on top of another. The technique is derived from computer processing of spacecraft-acquired imagery, and will allow earlier paintings, some of which have been covered for centuries, to be evaluated. JPL developed the program for "subtracting" the top painting and enhancing the bottom one, and believes an even more advanced system is possible.

A Roadmap for Using Agile Development in a Traditional Environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Streiffert, Barbara; Starbird, Thomas; Grenander, Sven

2006-01-01

One of the newer classes of software engineering techniques is called 'Agile Development'. In Agile Development software engineers take small implementation steps and, in some cases, they program in pairs. In addition, they develop automatic tests prior to implementing their small functional piece. Agile Development focuses on rapid turnaround, incremental planning, customer involvement and continuous integration. Agile Development is not the traditional waterfall method or even a rapid prototyping method (although this methodology is closer to Agile Development). At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) a few groups have begun Agile Development software implementations. The difficulty with this approach becomes apparent when Agile Development is used in an organization that has specific criteria and requirements handed down for how software development is to be performed. The work at the JPL is performed for the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA). Both organizations have specific requirements, rules and processes for developing software. This paper will discuss some of the initial uses of the Agile Development methodology, the spread of this method and the current status of the successful incorporation into the current JPL development policies and processes.

JPL Thermal Design Modeling Philosophy and NASA-STD-7009 Standard for Models and Simulations - A Case Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Avila, Arturo

2011-01-01

The Standard JPL thermal engineering practice prescribes worst-case methodologies for design. In this process, environmental and key uncertain thermal parameters (e.g., thermal blanket performance, interface conductance, optical properties) are stacked in a worst case fashion to yield the most hot- or cold-biased temperature. Thus, these simulations would represent the upper and lower bounds. This, effectively, represents JPL thermal design margin philosophy. Uncertainty in the margins and the absolute temperatures is usually estimated by sensitivity analyses and/or by comparing the worst-case results with "expected" results. Applicability of the analytical model for specific design purposes along with any temperature requirement violations are documented in peer and project design review material. In 2008, NASA released NASA-STD-7009, Standard for Models and Simulations. The scope of this standard covers the development and maintenance of models, the operation of simulations, the analysis of the results, training, recommended practices, the assessment of the Modeling and Simulation (M&S) credibility, and the reporting of the M&S results. The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project thermal control system M&S activity was chosen as a case study determining whether JPL practice is in line with the standard and to identify areas of non-compliance. This paper summarizes the results and makes recommendations regarding the application of this standard to JPL thermal M&S practices.

New reflective symmetry design capability in the JPL-IDEAS Structure Optimization Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Strain, D.; Levy, R.

1986-01-01

The JPL-IDEAS antenna structure analysis and design optimization computer program was modified to process half structure models of symmetric structures subjected to arbitrary external static loads, synthesize the performance, and optimize the design of the full structure. Significant savings in computation time and cost (more than 50%) were achieved compared to the cost of full model computer runs. The addition of the new reflective symmetry analysis design capabilities to the IDEAS program allows processing of structure models whose size would otherwise prevent automated design optimization. The new program produced synthesized full model iterative design results identical to those of actual full model program executions at substantially reduced cost, time, and computer storage.

NBC detection in air and water

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hartley, Frank T.; Smith, Steven J.; McMurtry, Gary M.

2003-01-01

Participating in a Navy STTR project to develop a system capable of the 'real-time' detection and quanitification of nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) warfare agents, and of related industrial chemicals including NBC agent synthesis by-products in water and in air immediately above the water's surface. This project uses JPL's Soft Ionization Membrane (SIM) technology which totally ionizes molecules without fragmentation (a process that can markedly improve the sensitivity and specificity of molecule compostition identification), and JPL's Rotating Field Mass Spectrometer (RFMS) technology which has large enough dynamic mass range to enable detection of nuclear materials as well as biological and chemical agents. This Navy project integrates these JPL Environmental Monitoring UnitS (REMUS) an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). It is anticipated that the REMUS AUV will be capable of 'real-time' detection and quantification of NBC warefare agents.

Advancing the practice of systems engineering at JPL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jansma, Patti A.; Jones, Ross M.

2006-01-01

In FY 2004, JPL launched an initiative to improve the way it practices systems engineering. The Lab's senior management formed the Systems Engineering Advancement (SEA) Project in order to "significantly advance the practice and organizational capabilities of systems engineering at JPL on flight projects and ground support tasks." The scope of the SEA Project includes the systems engineering work performed in all three dimensions of a program, project, or task: 1. the full life-cycle, i.e., concept through end of operations 2. the full depth, i.e., Program, Project, System, Subsystem, Element (SE Levels 1 to 5) 3. the full technical scope, e.g., the flight, ground and launch systems, avionics, power, propulsion, telecommunications, thermal, etc. The initial focus of their efforts defined the following basic systems engineering functions at JPL: systems architecture, requirements management, interface definition, technical resource management, system design and analysis, system verification and validation, risk management, technical peer reviews, design process management and systems engineering task management, They also developed a list of highly valued personal behaviors of systems engineers, and are working to inculcate those behaviors into members of their systems engineering community. The SEA Project is developing products, services, and training to support managers and practitioners throughout the entire system lifecycle. As these are developed, each one needs to be systematically deployed. Hence, the SEA Project developed a deployment process that includes four aspects: infrastructure and operations, communication and outreach, education and training, and consulting support. In addition, the SEA Project has taken a proactive approach to organizational change management and customer relationship management - both concepts and approaches not usually invoked in an engineering environment. This paper'3 describes JPL's approach to advancing the practice of systems engineering at the Lab. It describes the general approach used and how they addressed the three key aspects of change: people, process and technology. It highlights a list of highly valued personal behaviors of systems engineers, discusses the various products, services and training that were developed, describes the deployment approach used, and concludes with several lessons learned.

Processing and Analysis of Mars Pathfinder Science Data at JPL's Science Data Processing Section

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

LaVoie, S.; Green, W.; Runkle, A.; Alexander, D.; Andres, P.; DeJong, E.; Duxbury, E.; Freda, D.; Gorjian, Z.; Hall, J.;

EDI at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Library

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Amago, B.

1994-01-01

The JPL Library and Information Center orders and claims material elecronically whenever feasible. The NASA Aerospace Research Information Network (ARIN) is used to order books for the library collection; BIP Plus on CD-ROM is used to order office copies. Paper copies of invoices are processed when material is received. Subscriptions are ordered using the vendor's online system; monthly and annual invoices are received both in paper and electronic format (diskette of FTP). Library-developed dbase programs complement or duplicate functions available through ARIN and/or the JPL institutional accounting system.

Venus - Global View Centered at 180 degrees

NASA Image and Video Library

1996-11-26

This global view of the surface of Venus is centered at 180 degrees east longitude. Magellan synthetic aperture radar mosaics from the first cycle of Magellan mapping, and a 5 degree latitude-longitude grid, are mapped onto a computer-simulated globe to create this image. Data gaps are filled with Pioneer-Venus Orbiter data, or a constant mid-range value. The image was produced by the Solar System Visualization project and the Magellan Science team at the JPL Multimission Image Processing Laboratory. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00478

Next Generation Simulation Framework for Robotic and Human Space Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cameron, Jonathan M.; Balaram, J.; Jain, Abhinandan; Kuo, Calvin; Lim, Christopher; Myint, Steven

2012-01-01

The Dartslab team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has a long history of developing physics-based simulations based on the Darts/Dshell simulation framework that have been used to simulate many planetary robotic missions, such as the Cassini spacecraft and the rovers that are currently driving on Mars. Recent collaboration efforts between the Dartslab team at JPL and the Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) have led to significant enhancements to the Dartslab DSENDS (Dynamics Simulator for Entry, Descent and Surface landing) software framework. The new version of DSENDS is now being used for new planetary mission simulations at JPL. JSC is using DSENDS as the foundation for a suite of software known as COMPASS (Core Operations, Mission Planning, and Analysis Spacecraft Simulation) that is the basis for their new human space mission simulations and analysis. In this paper, we will describe the collaborative process with the JPL Dartslab and the JSC MOD team that resulted in the redesign and enhancement of the DSENDS software. We will outline the improvements in DSENDS that simplify creation of new high-fidelity robotic/spacecraft simulations. We will illustrate how DSENDS simulations are assembled and show results from several mission simulations.

Certification of vapor phase hydrogen peroxide sterilization process for spacecraft application

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rohatgi, N.; Schubert, W.; Koukol, R.; Foster, T. L.; Stabekis, P. D.

2002-01-01

This paper describes the selection process and research activities JPL is planning to conduct for certification of hydrogen peroxide as a NASA approved technique for sterilization of various spacecraft parts/components and entire modern spacecraft.

Microbial Burden Approach : New Monitoring Approach for Measuring Microbial Burden

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Venkateswaran, Kasthuri; Vaishampayan, Parag; Barmatz, Martin

2013-01-01

Advantages of new approach for differentiating live cells/ spores from dead cells/spores. Four examples of Salmonella outbreaks leading to costly destruction of dairy products. List of possible collaboration activities between JPL and other industries (for future discussion). Limitations of traditional microbial monitoring approaches. Introduction to new approach for rapid measurement of viable (live) bacterial cells/spores and its areas of application. Detailed example for determining live spores using new approach (similar procedure for determining live cells). JPL has developed a patented approach for measuring amount of live and dead cells/spores. This novel "molecular" method takes less than 5 to 7 hrs. compared to the seven days required using conventional techniques. Conventional "molecular" techniques can not discriminate live cells/spores among dead cells/spores. The JPL-developed novel method eliminates false positive results obtained from conventional "molecular" techniques that lead to unnecessary delay in the processing and to unnecessary destruction of food products.

Comparison of Polar Motion Excitation Series Derived from GRACE and from Analyses of Geophysical Fluids

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nastula, J.; Ponte, R. M.; Salstein, D. A.

2007-01-01

Three sets of degree-2, order-1 harmonics of the gravity field, derived from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data processed at the Center for Space Research (CSR), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and GeoforschungsZentrum (GFZ), are used to compute polar motion excitation functions X1 and X2. The GFZ and JPL excitations and the CSR X2, excitation compare generally well with geodetically observed excitation after removal of effects of oceanic currents and atmospheric winds. The agreement considerably exceeds that from previous GRACE data releases. For the JPL series, levels of correlation with the geodetic observations and the variance explained are comparable to, but still lower than, those obtained independently from available models and analyses of the atmosphere, ocean, and land hydrology. Improvements in data quality of gravity missions are still needed to deliver even tighter constraints on mass-related excitation of polar motion.

Comparison of polar motion excitation series derived from GRACE and from analyses of geophysical fluids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nastula, J.; Ponte, R. M.; Salstein, D. A.

2007-06-01

Three sets of degree-2, order-1 harmonics of the gravity field, derived from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data processed at the Center for Space Research (CSR), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and GeoforschungsZentrum (GFZ), are used to compute polar motion excitation functions χ 1 and χ 2. The GFZ and JPL excitations and the CSR χ 2 excitation compare generally well with geodetically observed excitation after removal of effects of oceanic currents and atmospheric winds. The agreement considerably exceeds that from previous GRACE data releases. For the JPL series, levels of correlation with the geodetic observations and the variance explained are comparable to, but still lower than, those obtained independently from available models and analyses of the atmosphere, ocean, and land hydrology. Improvements in data quality of gravity missions are still needed to deliver even tighter constraints on mass-related excitation of polar motion.

Structural analyses of the JPL Mars Pathfinder impact

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gwinn, K.W.

1994-12-31

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that finite element analysis can be used in the design process for high performance fabric structures. These structures exhibit extreme geometric nonlinearity; specifically, the contact and interaction of fabric surfaces with the large deformation which necessarily results from membrane structures introduces great complexity to analyses of this type. All of these features are demonstrated here in the analysis of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Mars Pathfinder impact onto Mars. This lander system uses airbags to envelope the lander experiment package, protecting it with large deformation upon contact. Results from the analysis showmore » the stress in the fabric airbags, forces in the internal tendon support system, forces in the latches and hinges which allow the lander to deploy after impact, and deceleration of the lander components. All of these results provide the JPL engineers with design guidance for the success of this novel lander system.« less

Structural analyses of the JPL Mars Pathfinder impact

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gwinn, Kenneth W.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that finite element analysis can be used in the design process for high performance fabric structures. These structures exhibit extreme geometric nonlinearity; specifically, the contact and interaction of fabric surfaces with the large deformation which necessarily results from membrane structures introduces great complexity to analyses of this type. All of these features are demonstrated here in the analysis of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Mars Pathfinder impact onto Mars. This lander system uses airbags to envelope the lander experiment package, protecting it with large deformation upon contact. Results from the analysis show the stress in the fabric airbags, forces in the internal tendon support system, forces in the latches and hinges which allow the lander to deploy after impact, and deceleration of the lander components. All of these results provide the JPL engineers with design guidance for the success of this novel lander system.

Olympus receiver evaluation and phase noise measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Campbell, Richard L.; Wang, Huailiang; Sweeney, Dennis

1990-01-01

A set of measurements performed by the Michigan Tech Sensing and Signal Processing Group on the analog receiver built by the Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for propagation measurements using the Olympus Satellite is described. Measurements of local oscillator (LO) phase noise were performed for all of the LOs supplied by JPL. In order to obtain the most useful set of measurements, LO phase noise measurements were made using the complete VPI receiver front end. This set of measurements demonstrates the performance of the receiver from the Radio Frequency (RF) input through the high Intermediate Frequency (IF) output. Three different measurements were made: LO phase noise with DC on the voltage controlled crystal oscillator (VCXO) port; LO phase noise with the 11.381 GHz LO locked to the reference signal generator; and a reference measurement with the JPL LOs out of the system.

The Snow Data System at NASA JPL

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Horn, J.; Painter, T. H.; Bormann, K. J.; Rittger, K.; Brodzik, M. J.; Skiles, M.; Burgess, A. B.; Mattmann, C. A.; Ramirez, P.; Joyce, M.; Goodale, C. E.; McGibbney, L. J.; Zimdars, P.; Yaghoobi, R.

2017-12-01

The Snow Data System at NASA JPL includes data processing pipelines built with open source software, Apache 'Object Oriented Data Technology' (OODT). Processing is carried out in parallel across a high-powered computing cluster. The pipelines use input data from satellites such as MODIS, VIIRS and Landsat. They apply algorithms to the input data to produce a variety of outputs in GeoTIFF format. These outputs include daily data for SCAG (Snow Cover And Grain size) and DRFS (Dust Radiative Forcing in Snow), along with 8-day composites and MODICE annual minimum snow and ice calculations. This poster will describe the Snow Data System, its outputs and their uses and applications. It will also highlight recent advancements to the system and plans for the future.

The Snow Data System at NASA JPL

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Joyce, M.; Laidlaw, R.; Painter, T. H.; Bormann, K. J.; Rittger, K.; Brodzik, M. J.; Skiles, M.; Burgess, A. B.; Mattmann, C. A.; Ramirez, P.; Goodale, C. E.; McGibbney, L. J.; Zimdars, P.; Yaghoobi, R.

2016-12-01

The Snow Data System at NASA JPL includes data processing pipelines built with open source software, Apache 'Object Oriented Data Technology' (OODT). Processing is carried out in parallel across a high-powered computing cluster. The pipelines use input data from satellites such as MODIS, VIIRS and Landsat. They apply algorithms to the input data to produce a variety of outputs in GeoTIFF format. These outputs include daily data for SCAG (Snow Cover And Grain size) and DRFS (Dust Radiative Forcing in Snow), along with 8-day composites and MODICE annual minimum snow and ice calculations. This poster will describe the Snow Data System, its outputs and their uses and applications. It will also highlight recent advancements to the system and plans for the future.

Results from CrIS/ATMS Obtained Using an "AIRS Version-6 Like" Retrieval Algorithm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Susskind, Joel; Kouvaris, Louis; Iredell, Lena; Blaisdell, John

2015-01-01

AIRS and CrIS Version-6.22 O3(p) and q(p) products are both superior to those of AIRS Version-6.Monthly mean August 2014 Version-6.22 AIRS and CrIS products agree reasonably well with OMPS, CERES, and witheach other. JPL plans to process AIRS and CrIS for many months and compare interannual differences. Updates to thecalibration of both CrIS and ATMS are still being finalized. We are also working with JPL to develop a joint AIRS/CrISlevel-1 to level-3 processing system using a still to be finalized Version-7 retrieval algorithm. The NASA Goddard DISCwill eventually use this system to reprocess all AIRS and recalibrated CrIS/ATMS. .

Reengineering the JPL Spacecraft Design Process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Briggs, C.

1995-01-01

This presentation describes the factors that have emerged in the evolved process of reengineering the unmanned spacecraft design process at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Topics discussed include: New facilities, new design factors, new system-level tools, complex performance objectives, changing behaviors, design integration, leadership styles, and optimization.

Reengineering the Acquisition/Procurement Process: A Methodology for Requirements Collection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Taylor, Randall; Vanek, Thomas

2011-01-01

This paper captures the systematic approach taken by JPL's Acquisition Reengineering Project team, the methodology used, challenges faced, and lessons learned. It provides pragmatic "how-to" techniques and tools for collecting requirements and for identifying areas of improvement in an acquisition/procurement process or other core process of interest.

Towards an Intelligent Planning Knowledge Base Development Environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chien, S.

1994-01-01

ract describes work in developing knowledge base editing and debugging tools for the Multimission VICAR Planner (MVP) system. MVP uses artificial intelligence planning techniques to automatically construct executable complex image processing procedures (using models of the smaller constituent image processing requests made to the JPL Multimission Image Processing Laboratory.

Medical Image Analysis Facility

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1978-01-01

To improve the quality of photos sent to Earth by unmanned spacecraft. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) developed a computerized image enhancement process that brings out detail not visible in the basic photo. JPL is now applying this technology to biomedical research in its Medical lrnage Analysis Facility, which employs computer enhancement techniques to analyze x-ray films of internal organs, such as the heart and lung. A major objective is study of the effects of I stress on persons with heart disease. In animal tests, computerized image processing is being used to study coronary artery lesions and the degree to which they reduce arterial blood flow when stress is applied. The photos illustrate the enhancement process. The upper picture is an x-ray photo in which the artery (dotted line) is barely discernible; in the post-enhancement photo at right, the whole artery and the lesions along its wall are clearly visible. The Medical lrnage Analysis Facility offers a faster means of studying the effects of complex coronary lesions in humans, and the research now being conducted on animals is expected to have important application to diagnosis and treatment of human coronary disease. Other uses of the facility's image processing capability include analysis of muscle biopsy and pap smear specimens, and study of the microscopic structure of fibroprotein in the human lung. Working with JPL on experiments are NASA's Ames Research Center, the University of Southern California School of Medicine, and Rancho Los Amigos Hospital, Downey, California.

JPL-20170926-TECHf-0001-Robot Descends into Alaska Moulin

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-09-26

JPL engineer Andy Klesh lowers a robotic submersible into a moulin. Klesh and JPL's John Leichty used robots and probes to explore the Matanuska Glacier in Alaska this past July. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Underground coal mining section data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gabrill, C. P.; Urie, J. T.

1981-01-01

A set of tables which display the allocation of time for ten personnel and eight pieces of underground coal mining equipment to ten function categories is provided. Data from 125 full shift time studies contained in the KETRON database was utilized as the primary source data. The KETRON activity and delay codes were mapped onto JPL equipment, personnel and function categories. Computer processing was then performed to aggregate the shift level data and generate the matrices. Additional, documented time study data were analyzed and used to supplement the KETRON databased. The source data including the number of shifts are described. Specific parameters of the mines from which there data were extracted are presented. The result of the data processing including the required JPL matrices is presented. A brief comparison with a time study analysis of continuous mining systems is presented. The procedures used for processing the source data are described.

JPL Project Information Management: A Continuum Back to the Future

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reiz, Julie M.

2009-01-01

This slide presentation reviews the practices and architecture that support information management at JPL. This practice has allowed concurrent use and reuse of information by primary and secondary users. The use of this practice is illustrated in the evolution of the Mars Rovers from the Mars Pathfinder to the development of the Mars Science Laboratory. The recognition of the importance of information management during all phases of a project life cycle has resulted in the design of an information system that includes metadata, has reduced the risk of information loss through the use of an in-process appraisal, shaping of project's appreciation for capturing and managing the information on one project for re-use by future projects as a natural outgrowth of the process. This process has also assisted in connection of geographically disbursed partners into a team through sharing information, common tools and collaboration.

Program for Continued Development and Use of Ocean Acoustic/GPS Geodetic Techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spiess, Fred N.

1997-01-01

Under prior NASA grants our group, with collaboration from scientists at the CalTech Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), visualized and carried out the initial development of a combined GPS and underwater acoustic (GPS/A) method for determining the location of points on the deep sea floor with accuracy relevant to studies of crustal deformation. Under an immediately preceding grant we built, installed and surveyed a set of the necessary seafloor marker precision transponders just seaward of the Cascadia Subduction Zone off British Columbia. The JPL group carried out processing of the GPS data.

Photographer : JPL Range : 4.2 million km. ( 2.6 million miles ) Jupiter's moon Europa, the size of

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1979-01-01

Photographer : JPL Range : 4.2 million km. ( 2.6 million miles ) Jupiter's moon Europa, the size of earth's moon, is apparently covered by water ice, as indicated by ground spectrometers and its brightness. In this view, global scale dark sreaks discovered by Voyager 1 that criss-cross the the satelite are becoming visible. Bright rayed impact craters, which are abundant on Ganymede and Callisto, would be easily visible at this range, suggesting that Europa's surface is young and that the streaks are reflections of currently active internal dynamic processes.

The navigation system of the JPL robot

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thompson, A. M.

1977-01-01

The control structure of the JPL research robot and the operations of the navigation subsystem are discussed. The robot functions as a network of interacting concurrent processes distributed among several computers and coordinated by a central executive. The results of scene analysis are used to create a segmented terrain model in which surface regions are classified by traversibility. The model is used by a path planning algorithm, PATH, which uses tree search methods to find the optimal path to a goal. In PATH, the search space is defined dynamically as a consequence of node testing. Maze-solving and the use of an associative data base for context dependent node generation are also discussed. Execution of a planned path is accomplished by a feedback guidance process with automatic error recovery.

Automating the SMAP Ground Data System to Support Lights-Out Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sanders, Antonio

2014-01-01

The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Mission is a first tier mission in NASA's Earth Science Decadal Survey. SMAP will provide a global mapping of soil moisture and its freeze/thaw states. This mapping will be used to enhance the understanding of processes that link the terrestrial water, energy, and carbon cycles, and to enhance weather and forecast capabilities. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been selected as the lead center for the development and operation of SMAP. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has an extensive history of successful deep space exploration. JPL missions have typically been large scale Class A missions with significant budget and staffing. SMAP represents a new area of JPL focus towards low cost Earth science missions. Success in this new area requires changes to the way that JPL has traditionally provided the Mission Operations System (MOS)/Ground Data System (GDS) functions. The operation of SMAP requires more routine operations activities and support for higher data rates and data volumes than have been achieved in the past. These activities must be addressed by a reduced operations team and support staff. To meet this challenge, the SMAP ground data system provides automation that will perform unattended operations, including automated commanding of the SMAP spacecraft.

Peregrine Rocket Motor Test at the Ames Outdoor Aerodynamic Rese

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-02-15

From Left to Right: Ashley Karp (NASA JPL), Hunjoo Kim (NASA JPL), Brian Schratz (NASA JPL) and Kyle Botteon (NASA JPL) Testing the Peregrine Hybrid Rocket Engine at the Outdoor Aerodynamic Research Facility (building N249, OARF) at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

NASA Planetary Science Summer School: Preparing the Next Generation of Planetary Mission Leaders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lowes, L. L.; Budney, C. J.; Sohus, A.; Wheeler, T.; Urban, A.; NASA Planetary Science Summer School Team

2011-12-01

Sponsored by NASA's Planetary Science Division, and managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Planetary Science Summer School prepares the next generation of engineers and scientists to participate in future solar system exploration missions. Participants learn the mission life cycle, roles of scientists and engineers in a mission environment, mission design interconnectedness and trade-offs, and the importance of teamwork. For this professional development opportunity, applicants are sought who have a strong interest and experience in careers in planetary exploration, and who are science and engineering post-docs, recent PhDs, and doctoral students, and faculty teaching such students. Disciplines include planetary science, geoscience, geophysics, environmental science, aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, and materials science. Participants are selected through a competitive review process, with selections based on the strength of the application and advisor's recommendation letter. Under the mentorship of a lead engineer (Dr. Charles Budney), students select, design, and develop a mission concept in response to the NASA New Frontiers Announcement of Opportunity. They develop their mission in the JPL Advanced Projects Design Team (Team X) environment, which is a cross-functional multidisciplinary team of professional engineers that utilizes concurrent engineering methodologies to complete rapid design, analysis and evaluation of mission concept designs. About 36 students participate each year, divided into two summer sessions. In advance of an intensive week-long session in the Project Design Center at JPL, students select the mission and science goals during a series of six weekly WebEx/telecons, and develop a preliminary suite of instrumentation and a science traceability matrix. Students assume both a science team and a mission development role with JPL Team X mentors. Once at JPL, students participate in a series of Team X project design sessions, during which their mentors aid them in finalizing their mission design and instrument suite, and in making the necessary trade-offs to stay within the cost cap. Tours of JPL facilities highlight the end-to-end life cycle of a mission. At week's end, students present their Concept Study to a "proposal review board" of JPL scientists and engineers and NASA Headquarters executives, who feed back the strengths and weaknesses of their proposal and mission design. A survey of Planetary Science Summer School alumni administered in summer of 2011 provides information on the program's impact on students' career choices and leadership roles as they pursue their employment in planetary science and related fields. Preliminary results will be discussed during the session. Almost a third of the approximately 450 Planetary Science Summer School alumni from the last 10 years of the program are currently employed by NASA or JPL. The Planetary Science Summer School is implemented by the JPL Education Office in partnership with JPL's Team X Project Design Center.

Peregrine Rocket Motor Test at the Ames Outdoor Aerodynamic Rese

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-02-15

From Left to Right: 1. Hunjoo Kim (NASA JPL) 2. Kyle Botteon (NASA JPL) 3. Ashley Karp (NASA JPL) 4. Brian Schratz (NASA JPL) Testing the Peregrine Hybrid Rocket Engine at the Outdoor Aerodynamic Research Facility (building N249, OARF) at Ames Research Center.

Ceres From Dawn, Processed

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-01-19

This processed image, taken Jan. 13, 2015, shows the dwarf planet Ceres as seen from the Dawn spacecraft. The image hints at craters on the surface of Ceres. Dawn framing camera took this image at 238,000 miles 383,000 kilometers from Ceres. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19167

Space Images for NASA/JPL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Boggs, Karen; Gutheinz, Sandy C.; Watanabe, Susan M.; Oks, Boris; Arca, Jeremy M.; Stanboli, Alice; Peez, Martin; Whatmore, Rebecca; Kang, Minliang; Espinoza, Luis A.

2010-01-01

Space Images for NASA/JPL is an Apple iPhone application that allows the general public to access featured images from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). A back-end infrastructure stores, tracks, and retrieves space images from the JPL Photojournal Web server, and catalogs the information into a streamlined rating infrastructure.

JPL Non-NASA Programs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cox, Robert S.

2006-01-01

A viewgraph presentation describing JPL's non-NASA Programs is shown. The contents include: 1) JPL/Caltech: National Security Heritage; 2) Organization and Portfolio; 3) Synergistic Areas of Interest; 4) Business Environment; 5) National Space Community; 6) New Business Environment; 7) Technology Transfer Techniques; 8) Innovative Partnership Program (IPP); and 9) JPL's Track Record.

The JPL functional requirements tool

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Giffin, Geoff; Skinner, Judith; Stoller, Richard

1987-01-01

Planetary spacecraft are complex vehicles which are built according to many thousands of requirements. Problems encountered in documenting and maintaining these requirements led to the current attempt to reduce or eliminate these problems by a computer automated data base Functional Requirements Tool. The tool developed at JPL and in use on several JPL Projects is described. The organization and functionality of the Tool, together with an explanation of the data base inputs, their relationships, and use are presented. Methods of interfacing with external documents, representation of tables and figures, and methods of approval and change processing are discussed. The options available for disseminating information from the Tool are identified. The implementation of the Requirements Tool is outlined, and the operation is summarized. The conclusions drawn from this work is that the Requirements Tool represents a useful addition to the System Engineer's Tool kit, it is not currently available elsewhere, and a clear development path exists to expand the capabilities of the Tool to serve larger and more complex projects.

Image Acquisition in Real Time

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

In 1995, Carlos Jorquera left NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to focus on erasing the growing void between high-performance cameras and the requisite software to capture and process the resulting digital images. Since his departure from NASA, Jorquera s efforts have not only satisfied the private industry's cravings for faster, more flexible, and more favorable software applications, but have blossomed into a successful entrepreneurship that is making its mark with improvements in fields such as medicine, weather forecasting, and X-ray inspection. Formerly a JPL engineer who constructed imaging systems for spacecraft and ground-based astronomy projects, Jorquera is the founder and president of the three-person firm, Boulder Imaging Inc., based in Louisville, Colorado. Joining Jorquera to round out the Boulder Imaging staff are Chief Operations Engineer Susan Downey, who also gained experience at JPL working on space-bound projects including Galileo and the Hubble Space Telescope, and Vice President of Engineering and Machine Vision Specialist Jie Zhu Kulbida, who has extensive industrial and research and development experience within the private sector.

Ada and the rapid development lifecycle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Deforrest, Lloyd; Gref, Lynn

1991-01-01

JPL is under contract, through NASA, with the US Army to develop a state-of-the-art Command Center System for the US European Command (USEUCOM). The Command Center System will receive, process, and integrate force status information from various sources and provide this integrated information to staff officers and decision makers in a format designed to enhance user comprehension and utility. The system is based on distributed workstation class microcomputers, VAX- and SUN-based data servers, and interfaces to existing military mainframe systems and communication networks. JPL is developing the Command Center System utilizing an incremental delivery methodology called the Rapid Development Methodology with adherence to government and industry standards including the UNIX operating system, X Windows, OSF/Motif, and the Ada programming language. Through a combination of software engineering techniques specific to the Ada programming language and the Rapid Development Approach, JPL was able to deliver capability to the military user incrementally, with comparable quality and improved economies of projects developed under more traditional software intensive system implementation methodologies.

Credit WCT. Original 2'" x 2'" color negative is housed ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

Credit WCT. Original 2-'" x 2-'" color negative is housed in the JPL Photography Laboratory, Pasadena, California. View shows small autoclave demonstrated by JPL staff member Milton Clay (JPL negative no. JPL-10286AC, 27 January 1989). - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Liner Laboratory, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

DDP - a tool for life-cycle risk management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cornford, S. L.; Feather, M. S.; Hicks, K. A.

2001-01-01

At JPL we have developed, and implemented, a process for achieving life-cycle risk management. This process has been embodied in a software tool and is called Defect Detection and Prevention (DDP). The DDP process can be succinctly stated as: determine where we want to be, what could get in the way and how we will get there.

Planetary Family Portrait

NASA Image and Video Library

2013-05-09

This image shows the HR 8799 planets with starlight optically suppressed and data processing conducted to remove residual starlight. Project 1640, NASA JPL used the Palomar Observatory near San Diego to obtain detailed spectra of the four planets.

Visualization of Earth and Space Science Data at JPL's Science Data Processing Systems Section

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Green, William B.

1996-01-01

This presentation will provide an overview of systems in use at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for processing data returned by space exploration and earth observations spacecraft. Graphical and visualization techniques used to query and retrieve data from large scientific data bases will be described.

A Rapid, Flexible Approach to Conceptual Space Mission Tradespace Definition and Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Girerd, Andre R.

2005-01-01

This paper provides an overview of the Mission Tradespace Tool (MTT), a methodology and software framework developed to improve JPL's early design process by offering a rapid, structured, and inexpensive way to identify feasible design architectures from a wide array of candidate architectures. There has been a growing consensus at JPL that to improve the quality of service offered to design customers it is desirable to explore a wide tradespace of candidate architectures prior to forming a conceptual design baseline. This paper describes the rationale behind the MTT's approach to meet this need. Notable features of the framework are introduced and explained.

Photographer: JPL P-21744 C Range: 4.2 million kilometers (2.6 million miles) In this image of

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1979-01-01

Photographer: JPL P-21744 C Range: 4.2 million kilometers (2.6 million miles) In this image of Europa acquired by Voyager 2, global scale dark streaks are becoming visible. Europa, the size of the earth's moon, is apparently covered by water ice as indicated by ground based spectrometers and its brightness. The central longitude of this view is 235 west. Bright rayed impact craters which are abundant on ancient Ganymede and Callisto would easily be visible at this range. The suggestion is that Europa's surface is young and that the streaks are reflections of currently active internal dynamic processes.

Software to Manage the Unmanageable

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2005-01-01

In 1995, NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) contracted Redmond, Washington-based Lucidoc Corporation, to design a technology infrastructure to automate the intersection between policy management and operations management with advanced software that automates document workflow, document status, and uniformity of document layout. JPL had very specific parameters for the software. It expected to store and catalog over 8,000 technical and procedural documents integrated with hundreds of processes. The project ended in 2000, but NASA still uses the resulting highly secure document management system, and Lucidoc has managed to help other organizations, large and small, with integrating document flow and operations management to ensure a compliance-ready culture.

Advanced Technology: It's Available at JPL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Edberg, James R.

1996-01-01

Non-NASA activities at JPL are the province of the JPL Technology and Applications Programs Directorate, and include working relationships with industry, academia, and other government agencies. Within this Directorate, the JPL Undersea Technology Program endeavors to apply and transfer these capabilities to the area of underwater research and operations. Of particular interest may be a Reversed Electron Attachment Detector (READ). It is a man-portable device capabable of unambiguous detection of unique chemical signatures associated with mines. In addition, there are other JPL technologies which merit investigation for marine applications.

The InSAR Scientific Computing Environment (ISCE): An Earth Science SAR Processing Framework, Toolbox, and Foundry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Agram, P. S.; Gurrola, E. M.; Lavalle, M.; Sacco, G. F.; Rosen, P. A.

2016-12-01

The InSAR Scientific Computing Environment (ISCE) provides both a modular, flexible, and extensible framework for building software components and applications that work together seamlessly as well as a toolbox for processing InSAR data into higher level geodetic image products from a diverse array of radar satellites and aircraft. ISCE easily scales to serve as the SAR processing engine at the core of the NASA JPL Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) Center for Natural Hazards as well as a software toolbox for individual scientists working with SAR data. ISCE is planned as the foundational element in processing NISAR data, enabling a new class of analyses that take greater advantage of the long time and large spatial scales of these data. ISCE in ARIA is also a SAR Foundry for development of new processing components and workflows to meet the needs of both large processing centers and individual users. The ISCE framework contains object-oriented Python components layered to construct Python InSAR components that manage legacy Fortran/C InSAR programs. The Python user interface enables both command-line deployment of workflows as well as an interactive "sand box" (the Python interpreter) where scientists can "play" with the data. Recent developments in ISCE include the addition of components to ingest Sentinel-1A SAR data (both stripmap and TOPS-mode) and a new workflow for processing the TOPS-mode data. New components are being developed to exploit polarimetric-SAR data to provide the ecosystem and land-cover/land-use change communities with rigorous and efficient tools to perform multi-temporal, polarimetric and tomographic analyses in order to generate calibrated, geocoded and mosaicked Level-2 and Level-3 products (e.g., maps of above-ground biomass or forest disturbance). ISCE has been downloaded by over 200 users by a license for WinSAR members through the Unavco.org website. Others may apply directly to JPL for a license at download.jpl.nasa.gov.

Development of vapor phase hydrogen peroxide sterilization process for spacecraft applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rohatgi, N.; Schubert, W.; Knight, J.; Quigley, M.; Forsberg, G.; Ganapathi, G.; Yarbrough, C.; Koukol, R.

2001-01-01

This paper will present test data and discussion on the work we are conducting at JPL to address the following issues: 1) efficacy of sterilization process; 2) diffusion of hydrogen peroxide under sterilization process conditions into hard to reach places; 3) materials and components compatibility with the sterilization process and 4) development of methodology to protect sensitive components from hydrogen peroxide vapor.

Hydrogen Transport to Mars Enables the Sabatier/Electrolysis Process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mueller, P. J.; Rapp, D.

1997-01-01

The Sabatier/Electrolysis (S/E) process is an attractive approach to in situ propellant production (ISPP), and a breadboard demonstration of this process at Lockheed Martin Astronautics funded by JPL performed very well, with high conversion efficiency, and reliable diurnal operation. There is a net usage of hydrogen in the S/E process, and this has been the principal problem for this approach to ISPP.

Space Qualification Testing of a Shape Memory Alloy Deployable CubeSat Antenna

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-09-15

the SMA deployment in the space environment. The HCT QHA successfully passed all required NASA General Environmental Verification Standards space... NASA /JPL parabolic deployable antenna design [28] .................. 19 Figure 11. SERC and NASA /JPL parabolic antenna prototype [28...19 Figure 12. SERC and NASA /JPL parabolic antenna stowed configuration [28] ............. 20 Figure 13. JPL KaPDA antenna [29

4. Credit WCT. Original 2'" x 21" color negative is ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

4. Credit WCT. Original 2-'" x 2-1" color negative is housed in the JPL Photography Laboratory, Pasadena, California. This view shows the control room in use, with JPL employees Ron Wright, Harold Anderson, and John Morrow presiding. (JPL negative no. JPL-10288A, 27 January 1989.) - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Weigh & Control Building, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

Jupiter

NASA Image and Video Library

1998-06-04

This processed color image of Jupiter was produced in 1990 by the U.S. Geological Survey from a Voyager image captured in 1979. Zones of light-colored, ascending clouds alternate with bands of dark, descending clouds. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00343

Technology Readiness Level (TRL) Advancement of the MSPI On-Board Processing Platform for the ACE Decadal Survey Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pingree, Paula J.; Werne, Thomas A.; Bekker, Dmitriy L.; Wilson, Thor O.

2011-01-01

The Xilinx Virtex-5QV is a new Single-event Immune Reconfigurable FPGA (SIRF) device that is targeted as the spaceborne processor for the NASA Decadal Survey Aerosol-Cloud-Ecosystem (ACE) mission's Multiangle SpectroPolarimetric Imager (MSPI) instrument, currently under development at JPL. A key technology needed for MSPI is on-board processing (OBP) to calculate polarimetry data as imaged by each of the 9 cameras forming the instrument. With funding from NASA's ESTO1 AIST2 Program, JPL is demonstrating how signal data at 95 Mbytes/sec over 16 channels for each of the 9 multi-angle cameras can be reduced to 0.45 Mbytes/sec, thereby substantially reducing the image data volume for spacecraft downlink without loss of science information. This is done via a least-squares fitting algorithm implemented on the Virtex-5 FPGA operating in real-time on the raw video data stream.

A modeling analysis program for the JPL Table Mountain Io sodium cloud data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smyth, W. H.; Goldberg, B. A.

1986-01-01

Progress and achievements in the second year are discussed in three main areas: (1) data quality review of the 1981 Region B/C images; (2) data processing activities; and (3) modeling activities. The data quality review revealed that almost all 1981 Region B/C images are of sufficient quality to be valuable in the analyses of the JPL data set. In the second area, the major milestone reached was the successful development and application of complex image-processing software required to render the original image data suitable for modeling analysis studies. In the third area, the lifetime description of sodium atoms in the planet magnetosphere was improved in the model to include the offset dipole nature of the magnetic field as well as an east-west electric field. These improvements are important in properly representing the basic morphology as well as the east-west asymmetries of the sodium cloud.

NASA Planetary Science Summer School: Preparing the Next Generation of Planetary Mission Leaders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Budney, C. J.; Lowes, L. L.; Sohus, A.; Wheeler, T.; Wessen, A.; Scalice, D.

2010-12-01

Sponsored by NASA’s Planetary Science Division, and managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Planetary Science Summer School prepares the next generation of engineers and scientists to participate in future solar system exploration missions. Participants learn the mission life cycle, roles of scientists and engineers in a mission environment, mission design interconnectedness and trade-offs, and the importance of teamwork. For this professional development opportunity, applicants are sought who have a strong interest and experience in careers in planetary exploration, and who are science and engineering post-docs, recent PhDs, and doctoral students, and faculty teaching such students. Disciplines include planetary science, geoscience, geophysics, environmental science, aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, and materials science. Participants are selected through a competitive review process, with selections based on the strength of the application and advisor’s recommendation letter. Under the mentorship of a lead engineer (Dr. Charles Budney), students select, design, and develop a mission concept in response to the NASA New Frontiers Announcement of Opportunity. They develop their mission in the JPL Advanced Projects Design Team (Team X) environment, which is a cross-functional multidisciplinary team of professional engineers that utilizes concurrent engineering methodologies to complete rapid design, analysis and evaluation of mission concept designs. About 36 students participate each year, divided into two summer sessions. In advance of an intensive week-long session in the Project Design Center at JPL, students select the mission and science goals during a series of six weekly WebEx/telecons, and develop a preliminary suite of instrumentation and a science traceability matrix. Students assume both a science team and a mission development role with JPL Team X mentors. Once at JPL, students participate in a series of Team X project design sessions, during which their mentors aid them in finalizing their mission design and instrument suite, and in making the necessary trade-offs to stay within the cost cap. Tours of JPL facilities highlight the end-to-end life cycle of a mission. At week’s end, students present their Concept Study to a “proposal review board” of JPL scientists and engineers and NASA Headquarters executives, who feed back the strengths and weaknesses of their proposal and mission design. The majority of students come from top US universities with planetary science or engineering programs, such as Brown University, MIT, Georgia Tech, University of Colorado, Caltech, Stanford, University of Arizona, UCLA, and University of Michigan. Almost a third of Planetary Science Summer School alumni from the last 10 years of the program are currently employed by NASA or JPL. The Planetary Science Summer School is implemented by the JPL Education Office in partnership with JPL’s Team X Project Design Center.

Test Waveform Applications for JPL STRS Operating Environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lux, James P.; Peters, Kenneth J.; Taylor, Gregory H.; Lang, Minh; Stern, Ryan A.; Duncan, Courtney B.

2013-01-01

This software demonstrates use of the JPL Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) Operating Environment (OE), tests APIs (application programming interfaces) presented by JPL STRS OE, and allows for basic testing of the underlying hardware platform. This software uses the JPL STRS Operating Environment ["JPL Space Tele com - munications Rad io System Operating Environment,"(NPO-4776) NASA Tech Briefs, commercial edition, Vol. 37, No. 1 (January 2013), p. 47] to interact with the JPL-SDR Software Defined Radio developed for the CoNNeCT (COmmunications, Navigation, and Networking rEconfigurable Testbed) Project as part of the SCaN Testbed installed on the International Space Station (ISS). These are the first applications that are compliant with the new NASA STRS Architecture Standard. Several example waveform applications are provided to demonstrate use of the JPL STRS OE for the JPL-SDR platform used for the CoNNeCT Project. The waveforms provide a simple digitizer and playback capability for the SBand RF slice, and a simple digitizer for the GPS slice [CoNNeCT Global Positioning System RF Module, (NPO-47764) NASA Tech Briefs, commercial edition, Vol. 36, No. 3 (March 2012), p. 36]. These waveforms may be used for hardware test, as well as for on-orbit or laboratory checkout. Additional example waveforms implement SpaceWire and timer modules, which can be used for time transfer and demonstration of communication between the two Xilinx FPGAs in the JPLSDR. The waveforms are also compatible with ground-based use of the JPL STRS OE on radio breadboards and Linux.

The Synthetic Aperture Radar Science Data Processing Foundry Concept for Earth Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosen, P. A.; Hua, H.; Norton, C. D.; Little, M. M.

2015-12-01

Since 2008, NASA's Earth Science Technology Office and the Advanced Information Systems Technology Program have invested in two technology evolutions to meet the needs of the community of scientists exploiting the rapidly growing database of international synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. JPL, working with the science community, has developed the InSAR Scientific Computing Environment (ISCE), a next-generation interferometric SAR processing system that is designed to be flexible and extensible. ISCE currently supports many international space borne data sets but has been primarily focused on geodetic science and applications. A second evolutionary path, the Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) science data system, uses ISCE as its core science data processing engine and produces automated science and response products, quality assessments and metadata. The success of this two-front effort has been demonstrated in NASA's ability to respond to recent events with useful disaster support. JPL has enabled high-volume and low latency data production by the re-use of the hybrid cloud computing science data system (HySDS) that runs ARIA, leveraging on-premise cloud computing assets that are able to burst onto the Amazon Web Services (AWS) services as needed. Beyond geodetic applications, needs have emerged to process large volumes of time-series SAR data collected for estimation of biomass and its change, in such campaigns as the upcoming AfriSAR field campaign. ESTO is funding JPL to extend the ISCE-ARIA model to a "SAR Science Data Processing Foundry" to on-ramp new data sources and to produce new science data products to meet the needs of science teams and, in general, science community members. An extension of the ISCE-ARIA model to support on-demand processing will permit PIs to leverage this Foundry to produce data products from accepted data sources when they need them. This paper will describe each of the elements of the SAR SDP Foundry and describe their integration into a new conceptual approach to enable more effective use of SAR instruments.

6. Credit WCT. Original 21" x 2Y" color negative is ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

6. Credit WCT. Original 2-1" x 2-Y" color negative is housed in the JPL Photography Laboratory, Pasadena, California. JPL staff members Harold Anderson and John Morrow weigh out small amounts of an undetermined substance according to a solid propellant formula (JPL negative no. JPL-10277AC, 27 January 1989). - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Weigh & Control Building, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

JPL-20170915-CASSINf-0002-Cassini End of Mission Post Event Press ConferenceAVAIL

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-09-15

This press briefing summarizes the end of NASA-ESA's Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and presents the final images made by the spacecraft before its planned disintegration in Saturn's atmosphere on September 15, 2017. Featured: Earl Maize, Cassini Program Manager, JPL; Linda Spilker, Cassini Project Scientist, JPL; Julie Webster, Cassini Spacecraft operations Manager, JPL; and Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA HQ.

GNSS-Based Space Weather Systems Including COSMIC Ionospheric Measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Komjathy, Attila; Mandrake, Lukas; Wilson, Brian; Iijima, Byron; Pi, Xiaoqing; Hajj, George; Mannucci, Anthony J.

2006-01-01

The presentation outline includes University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) product comparisons, assimilating ground-based global positioning satellites (GPS) and COSMIC into JPL/University of Southern California (USC) Global Assimilative Ionospheric Model (GAIM), and JPL/USC GAIM validation. The discussion of comparisons examines Abel profiles and calibrated TEC. The JPL/USC GAIM validation uses Arecibo ISR, Jason-2 VTEC, and Abel profiles.

Cost Validation Using PRICE H

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jack, John; Kwan, Eric; Wood, Milana

2011-01-01

PRICE H was introduced into the JPL cost estimation tool set circa 2003. It became more available at JPL when IPAO funded the NASA-wide site license for all NASA centers. PRICE H was mainly used as one of the cost tools to validate proposal grassroots cost estimates. Program offices at JPL view PRICE H as an additional crosscheck to Team X (JPL Concurrent Engineering Design Center) estimates. PRICE H became widely accepted ca, 2007 at JPL when the program offices moved away from grassroots cost estimation for Step 1 proposals. PRICE H is now one of the key cost tools used for cost validation, cost trades, and independent cost estimates.

JPL, NASA and the Historical Record: Key Events/Documents in Lunar and Mars Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hooks, Michael Q.

1999-01-01

This document represents a presentation about the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) historical archives in the area of Lunar and Martian Exploration. The JPL archives documents the history of JPL's flight projects, research and development activities and administrative operations. The archives are in a variety of format. The presentation reviews the information available through the JPL archives web site, information available through the Regional Planetary Image Facility web site, and the information on past missions available through the web sites. The presentation also reviews the NASA historical resources at the NASA History Office and the National Archives and Records Administration.

Test results of JPL LiSOCl sub 2 cells

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Halpert, G.; Subbarao, S.; Dawson, S.; Ang, V.; Deligiannis, E.

1986-01-01

In the development of high rate Li-SO-Cl2 cells for various applications, the goal is to achieve 300 watt-hours per kilogram at the C/2 (5 amp) rate in a D cell configuration. The JPL role is to develop the understanding of the performance, life, and safety limiting characteristics in the cell and to transfer the technology to a manufacturer to produce a safe, high quality product in a reproducible manner. The approach taken to achieve the goals is divided into four subject areas: cathode processes and characteristics; chemical reactions and safety; cell design and assembly; and performance and abuse testing. The progress made in each of these areas is discussed.

Case Study of 'Engineering Peer Meetings' in JPL's ST-6 Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chao, Lawrence P.; Tumer, Irem

2004-01-01

This design process error-proofing case study describes a design review practice implemented by a project manager at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. There are many types of reviews at NASA: required and not, formalized and informal, programmatic and technical. Standing project formal reviews such as the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and Critical Design Review (CDR) are a required part of every project and mission development. However, the engineering peer reviews that support teams technical work on such projects are often informal, ad hoc, and inconsistent across the organization. This case study discusses issues and innovations identified by a project manager at JPL and implemented in 'engineering peer meetings' for his group.

Case Study of "Engineering Peer Meetings" in JPL's ST-6 Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tumer, Irem Y.; Chao, Lawrence P.

2003-01-01

This design process error-proofing case study describes a design review practice implemented by a project manager at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. There are many types of reviews at NASA: required and not, formalized and informal, programmatic and technical. Standing project formal reviews such as the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and Critical Design Review (CDR) are a required part of every project and mission development. However, the engineering peer reviews that support teams technical work on such projects are often informal, ad hoc, and inconsistent across the organization. This case study discusses issues and innovations identified by a project manager at JPL and implemented in "engineering peer meetings" for his group.

Shuttle Imaging Radar B (SIR-B) Weddell Sea ice observations - A comparison of SIR-B and scanning multichannel microwave radiometer ice concentrations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martin, Seelye; Holt, Benjamin; Cavalieri, Donald J.; Squire, Vernon

1987-01-01

Ice concentrations over the Weddell Sea were studied using SIR-B data obtained during the October 1984 mission, with special attention given to the effect of ocean waves on the radar return at the ice edge. Sea ice concentrations were derived from the SIR-B data using two image processing methods: the classification scheme at JPL and the manual classification method at Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI), England. The SIR ice concentrations were compared with coincident concentrations from the Nimbus-7 SMMR. For concentrations greater than 40 percent, which was the smallest concentration observed jointly by SIR-B and the SMMR, the mean difference between the two data sets for 12 points was 2 percent. A comparison between the JPL and the SPRI SIR-B algorithms showed that the algorithms agree to within 1 percent in the interior ice pack, but the JPL algorithm gives slightly greater concentrations at the ice edge (due to the fact that the algorithm is affected by the wind waves in these areas).

ARC-1989-AC89-7001

NASA Image and Video Library

1989-08-21

Photo by Voyager 2 (JPL) During August 16 and 17, 1989, the Voyager 2 narrow-angle camera was used to photograph Neptune almost continuously, recording approximately two and one-half rotations of the planet. These images represent the most complete set of full disk Neptune images that the spacecraft will acquire. This picture from the sequence shows two of the four cloud features which have been tracked by the Voyager cameras during the past two months. The large dark oval near the western limb (the left edge) is at a latitude of 22 degrees south and circuits Neptune every 18.3 hours. The bright clouds immediately to the south and east of this oval are seen to substantially change their appearances in periods as short as four hours. The second dark spot, at 54 degrees south latitude near the terminator (lower right edge), circuits Neptune every 16.1 hours. This image has been processed to enchance the visibility of small features, at some sacrifice of color fidelity. The Voyager Mission is conducted by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications. (JPL Ref: A-34611 Voyager 2-N29)

Revisiting Training and Verification Process Implementation for Risk Reduction on New Missions at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bryant, Larry W.; Fragoso, Ruth S.

2007-01-01

In 2003 we proposed an effort to develop a core program of standardized training and verification practices and standards against which the implementation of these practices could be measured. The purpose was to provide another means of risk reduction for deep space missions to preclude the likelihood of a repeat of the tragedies of the 1998 Mars missions. We identified six areas where the application of standards and standardization would benefit the overall readiness process for flight projects at JPL. These are Individual Training, Team Training, Interface and Procedure Development, Personnel Certification, Interface and procedure Verification, and Operations Readiness Testing. In this paper we will discuss the progress that has been made in the tasks of developing the proposed infrastructure in each of these areas. Specifically we will address the Position Training and Certification Standards that are now available for each operational position found on our Flight Operations Teams (FOT). We will also discuss the MGSS Baseline Flight Operations Team Training Plan which can be tailored for each new flight project at JPL. As these tasks have been progressing, the climate and emphasis for Training and for V and V at JPL has changed, and we have learned about the expansion, growth, and limitations in the roles of traditional positions at JPL such as the Project's Training Engineer, V and V Engineer, and Operations Engineer. The need to keep a tight rein on budgets has led to a merging and/or reduction in these positions which pose challenges to individual capacities and capabilities. We examine the evolution of these processes and the roles involved while taking a look at the impact or potential impact of our proposed training related infrastructure tasks. As we conclude our examination of the changes taking place for new flight projects, we see that the importance of proceeding with our proposed tasks and adapting them to the changing climate remains an important element in reducing the risk in the challenging business of space exploration.

Zero to Integration in Eight Months, the Dawn Ground Data System Engineering Challange

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dubon, Lydia P.

2006-01-01

The Dawn Project has presented the Ground Data System (GDS) with technical challenges driven by cost and schedule constraints commonly associated with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Discovery Projects. The Dawn mission consists of a new and exciting Deep Space partnership among: the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), responsible for project management and flight operations; Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC), spacecraft builder and responsible for flight system test and integration; and the University of California, at Los Angeles (UCLA), responsible for science planning and operations. As a cost-capped mission, one of Dawn s implementation strategies is to leverage from both flight and ground heritage. OSC's ground data system is used for flight system test and integration as part of the flight heritage strategy. Mission operations, however, are to be conducted with JPL s ground system. The system engineering challenge of dealing with two heterogeneous ground systems emerged immediately. During the first technical interchange meeting between the JPL s GDS Team and OSC's Flight Software Team, August 2003, the need to integrate the ground system with the flight software was brought to the table. This need was driven by the project s commitment to enable instrument engineering model integration in a spacecraft simulator environment, for both demonstration and risk mitigation purposes, by April 2004. This paper will describe the system engineering approach that was undertaken by JPL's GDS Team in order to meet the technical challenge within a non-negotiable eight-month schedule. Key to the success was adherence to an overall systems engineering process and fundamental systems engineering practices: decomposition of the project request into manageable requirements; definition of a structured yet flexible development process; integration of multiple ground disciplines and experts into a focused team effort; in-process risk management; and aggregation of the intermediate products to an integrated final product. In addition, this paper will highlight the role of lessons learned from the integration experience. The lessons learned from an early GDS deployment have served as the foundation for the design and implementation of the Dawn Ground Data System.

Remote Access Multi-Mission Processing and Analysis Ground Environment (RAMPAGE)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, Y.; Specht, T.

2000-01-01

At Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a goal of providing easy and simple data access to the mission engineering data using web-based standards to a wide variety of users is now possible by the RAMPAGE development.

Credit WCT. Original 21/4"x21/4" color negative is housed in the ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

Credit WCT. Original 2-1/4"x2-1/4" color negative is housed in the JPL Photography Laboratory, Pasadena, California. JPL staff member Leonard "Dutch" Sebring loads propellant grain into tube for a BATES (Ballistic And Test Evaluation System) test (JPL negative no. JPL-10279BC, 27 January 1989) - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Weigh & Test Preparation Building, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

JPL preferred parts list: Reliable electronic components

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Covey, R. E.; Scott, W. R.; Hess, L. M.; Steffy, T. G.; Stott, F. R.

1982-01-01

The JPL Preferred Parts List was prepared to provide a basis for selection of electronic parts for JPL spacecraft programs. Supporting tests for the listed parts were designed to comply with specific spacecraft environmental requirements. The list tabulates the electronic, magnetic, and electromechanical parts applicable to all JPL electronic equipment wherein reliability is a major concern. The parts listed are revelant to equipment supplied by subcontractors as well as fabricated at the laboratory.

Signal processing for order 10 pm accuracy displacement metrology in real-world scientific applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Halverson, Peter G.; Loya, Frank M.

2004-01-01

This paper describes heterodyne displacement metrology gauge signal processing methods that achieve satisfactory robustness against low signal strength and spurious signals, and good long-term stability. We have a proven displacement-measuring approach that is useful not only to space-optical projects at JPL, but also to the wider field of distance measurements.

(abstract) NDE and Advanced Actuators at JPL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bar-Cohen, Yoseph

1996-01-01

JPL is responsible for deep space exploration using spacecraft and telerobotic technologies. Since all JPL's missions are one of a kind and hardware dependent, the requirements for nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of the materials and structures that are employed are significantly more stringent than the ones for conventional aerospace needs. The multidisciplinary technologies that are developed at JPL, particularily the ones for the exploration of Mars, are finding applications to a wide variety of NDE applications. Further, technology spin-offs are enabling the development of advanced actuators that are being used to drive various types of telerobotic devices. A review will be given of the recent JPL NDE and advanced actuators activity and it will include several short videos.

Activities of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 1 January - 31 December 1983

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1984-01-01

There are many facets to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, for JPL is an organization of multiple responsibilities and broad scope, of diverse talents and great enterprise. The Laboratory's philosophy, mission, and goals have been shaped by its ties to the California Institute of Technology (JPL's parent organization) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (JPL's principal sponsor). JPL's activities for NASA in planetary, Earth, and space sciences currently account for almost 75 percent of the Laboratory's overall effort. JPL Research activities in the following areas are discussed: (1) deep space exploration; (2) telecommunications systems; (3) Earth observations; (4) advanced technology; (5) defense programs; and (6) energy and technology applications.

A Summer Research Program of NASA/Faculty Fellowships at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Albee, Arden

2004-01-01

The NASA Faculty Fellowship Program (NFFP) is designed to give college and university faculty members a rewarding personal as well as enriching professional experience. Fellowships are awarded to engineering and science faculty for work on collaborative research projects of mutual interest to the fellow and his or her JPL host colleague. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have participated in the NASA Faculty Fellowship Program for more than 25 years. Administrative offices are maintained both at the Caltech Campus and at JPL; however, most of the activity takes place at JPL. The Campus handles all fiscal matters. The duration of the program is ten continuous weeks. Fellows are required to conduct their research on-site. To be eligible to participate in the program, fellows must be a U.S. citizen and hold a teaching or research appointment at a U.S. university or college. The American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) contracts with NASA and manages program recruitment. Over the past several years, we have made attempts to increase the diversity of the participants in the NFFP Program. A great deal of attention has been given to candidates from minority-serving institutions. There were approximately 100 applicants for the 34 positions in 2002. JPL was the first-choice location for more than half of them. Faculty from 16 minority-serving institutions participated as well as four women. The summer began with an orientation meeting that included introduction of key program personnel, and introduction of the fellows to each other. During this welcome, the fellows were briefed on their obligations to the program and to their JPL colleagues. They were also given a short historical perspective on JPL and its relationship to Caltech and NASA. All fellows received a package, which included information on administrative procedures, roster of fellows, seminar program, housing questionnaire, directions to JPL, maps of the local area, and a copy of the JPL Universe (a JPL newsletter). A calendar of events for the 2002 NFFP Program was designed to expose the fellows to the full range of JPL activities, seminars, tours, and trips to NASA Dryden, Goldstone, and Palomar Observatory. Weekly brown-bag lunches were also scheduled. The lunches provided a time for airing problems that may have arisen during the previous week, soliciting suggestions for program enhancement, announcements, and general socializing. Professor and Mrs. Albee also hosted the annual Summer Faculty Welcome Party at their home. During their ten-week tenure at JPL, the visiting faculty carried out projects in a wide variety of JPL's science, engineering, and technology disciplines, including communication, planetary science, materials research, reliability and quality assurance, astronomy, guidance and control, and micro-sensors. At the end of the NFFP Program, all fellows were required to complete a one-page summary of their summer s work. This was in addition to any documentation required by their host organization. Distribution of the final paycheck was dependent upon submission of this one-page summary and completion of NASA's NFFP evaluation in the EdCATS system. Fellows were also asked to complete a questionnaire for JPL, which enables the program administrators to make any appropriate changes to make the program more beneficial and effective for all involved. The 2002 NFFP Program at JPUCaltech was considered unanimously highly successful by both fellows and JPL colleagues. It provided a significant experience to most faculty members and fresh ideas to JPL researchers. Each year, suggestions for improvement include expansion of the program, longer terms, larger stipends, funds to support graduate students, and funds to continue collaborative research. The NASA Faculty Fellowship Program continues to occupy a significant place in JPL programs and serves to strengthen the ties between NASA, JPL, Caltech, and t academic community. This program is an important part of NASA's commitment to education. No inventions or patents were created during this program.

Ariel at Voyager Closest Approach

NASA Image and Video Library

2000-06-02

This picture is part of NASA Voyager 2 imaging sequence of Ariel, a moon of Uranus taken on January 24, 1986. The complexity of Ariel surface indicates that a variety of geologic processes have occurred. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00037

Multispectral Mosaic of the Aristarchus Crater and Plateau

NASA Image and Video Library

1998-06-03

The Aristarchus region is one of the most diverse and interesting areas on the Moon. About 500 images from NASA's Clementine spacecraft were processed and combined into a multispectral mosaic of this region. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00090

Amazonis Planitia yardangs

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-11-26

This wind-swept region of Amazonis Planitia, imaged here by NASA Mars Odyssey spacecraft, has been so uniformly dissected into yardangs that only two craters provide any indication that other processes have ever been active on the surface. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04010

GeoSAR: A Radar Terrain Mapping System for the New Millennium

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thompson, Thomas; vanZyl, Jakob; Hensley, Scott; Reis, James; Munjy, Riadh; Burton, John; Yoha, Robert

2000-01-01

GeoSAR Geographic Synthetic Aperture Radar) is a new 3 year effort to build a unique, dual-frequency, airborne Interferometric SAR for mapping of terrain. This is being pursued via a Consortium of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Calgis, Inc., and the California Department of Conservation. The airborne portion of this system will operate on a Calgis Gulfstream-II aircraft outfitted with P- and X-band Interferometric SARs. The ground portions of this system will be a suite of Flight Planning Software, an IFSAR Processor and a Radar-GIS Workstation. The airborne P-band and X-band radars will be constructed by JPL with the goal of obtaining foliage penetration at the longer P-band wavelengths. The P-band and X-band radar will operate at frequencies of 350 Mhz and 9.71 Ghz with bandwidths of either 80 or 160 Mhz. The airborne radars will be complemented with airborne laser system for measuring antenna positions. Aircraft flight lines and radar operating instructions will be computed with the Flight Planning Software The ground processing will be a two-step step process. First, the raw radar data will be processed into radar images and interferometer derived Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). Second, these radar images and DEMs will be processed with a Radar GIS Workstation which performs processes such as Projection Transformations, Registration, Geometric Adjustment, Mosaicking, Merging and Database Management. JPL will construct the IFSAR Processor and Calgis, Inc. will construct the Radar GIS Workstation. The GeoSAR Project was underway in November 1996 with a goal of having the radars and laser systems fully integrated onto the Calgis Gulfstream-II aircraft in early 1999. Then, Engineering Checkout and Calibration-Characterization Flights will be conducted through November 1999. The system will be completed at the end of 1999 and ready for routine operations in the year 2000.

A Rapid Turn-around, Scalable Big Data Processing Capability for the JPL Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO) Mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mattmann, C. A.

2014-12-01

The JPL Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO) is an integrated LIDAR and Spectrometer measuring snow depth and rate of snow melt in the Sierra Nevadas, specifically, the Tuolumne River Basin, Sierra Nevada, California above the O'Shaughnessy Dam of the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, and the Uncompahgre Basin, Colorado, amongst other sites. The ASO data was delivered to water resource managers from the California Department of Water Resources in under 24 hours from the time that the Twin Otter aircraft landed in Mammoth Lakes, CA to the time disks were plugged in to the ASO Mobile Compute System (MCS) deployed at the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory (SNARL) near the airport. ASO performed weekly flights and each flight took between 500GB to 1 Terabyte of raw data, which was then processed from level 0 data products all the way to full level 4 maps of Snow Water Equivalent, albedo mosaics, and snow depth from LIDAR. These data were produced by Interactive Data analysis Language (IDL) algorithms which were then unobtrusively and automatically integrated into an Apache OODT and Apache Tika based Big Data processing system. Data movement was both electronic and physical including novel uses of LaCie 1 and 2 TeraByte (TB) data bricks and deployment in rugged terrain. The MCS was controlled remotely from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology (JPL) in Pasadena, California on behalf of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Communication was aided through the use of novel Internet Relay Chat (IRC) command and control mechanisms and through the use of the Notifico open source communication tools. This talk will describe the high powered, and light-weight Big Data processing system that we developed for ASO and its implications more broadly for airborne missions at NASA and throughout the government. The lessons learned from ASO show the potential to have a large impact in the development of Big Data processing systems in the years to come.

JPL Tech Works Mars 2020 Descent Stage

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-03-13

A technician works on the descent stage for NASA's Mars 2020 mission inside JPL's Spacecraft Assembly Facility. Mars 2020 is slated to carry NASA's next Mars rover to the Red Planet in July of 2020. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22342

Credit WCT. Original 21" x 2A" color negative is housed ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

Credit WCT. Original 2-1" x 2-A" color negative is housed in the JPL Photography Laboratory, Pasadena, California. The mixing pot of the 150-gallon (Size 16-PVM) Baker-Perkins vertical mixer appears in its lowered position, exposing the mixer paddles. JPL employees Harold "Andy" Anderson and Ron Wright in protective clothing demonstrate how to scrape mixed propellant from mixer blades (JPL negative JPL10284BC, 27 January 1989) - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Mixer, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

Publications of the JPL Solar Thermal Power Systems Project 1976 Through 1985

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Panda, P. (Compiler); Gray, V. (Compiler); Marsh, C. (Compiler)

1985-01-01

Bibliographical listings are documentation products associated with the Solar Thermal Power Systems Project carried out by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1976 to 1986. Documents are categorized as conference and journal papers, JPL external reports, JPL internal reports, or contractor reports (i.e., deliverable documents produced under contract to JPL). Alphabetical listings by titles are used in the bibliography itself to facilitate location of the document by subject. Two indexes are included for ease of reference; an author index; and a topical index.

Credit WCT. Original 21/4"x21/4" color negative is housed in the ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

Credit WCT. Original 2-1/4"x2-1/4" color negative is housed in the JPL Photography Laboratory, Pasadena, California. At one time, Building 4285/E-86 accommodated tensile testing of propellant samples. This view shows a tensile strength tester set up for propellant tests, under the supervision of JPL staff member Milton Clay (JPL negative no. JPL-10291AC, 27 January 1989) - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Casting & Curing Building, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

Archived 1976-1985 JPL Aircraft SAR Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thompson, Thomas W.; Blom, Ronald G.

2016-01-01

This report describes archived data from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) aircraft radar expeditions in the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s collected by Ron Blom, JPL Radar Geologist. The dataset was collected during Ron's career at JPL from the 1970s through 2015. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data in the 1970s and 1980s were recorded optically on long strips of film. SAR imagery was produced via an optical, holographic technique that resulted in long strips of film imagery.

Dawn Spacecraft Processing

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-04-10

In Astrotech's Payload Processing Facility, technicians help secure the Dawn spacecraft onto a moveable stand. Dawn will be moved into clean room C for unbagging and further processing. Dawn's mission is to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.

Dawn Spacecraft Processing

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-04-10

In Astrotech's Payload Processing Facility, an overhead crane lifts the Dawn spacecraft from its transporter. Dawn will be moved into clean room C for unbagging and further processing. Dawn's mission is to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C

Dawn Spacecraft Processing

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-04-10

The Dawn spacecraft is seen here in clean room C of Astrotech's Payload Processing Facility. In the clean room, the spacecraft will undergo further processing. Dawn's mission is to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.

Navigating the "Research-to-Operations" Bridge of Death: Collaborative Transition of Remotely-Sensed Snow Data from Research into Operational Water Resources Forecasting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miller, W. P.; Bender, S.; Painter, T. H.; Bernard, B.

2016-12-01

Water and resource management agencies can benefit from hydrologic forecasts during both flood and drought conditions. Improved predictions of seasonal snowmelt-driven runoff volume and timing can assist operational water managers with decision support and efficient resource management within the spring runoff season. Using operational models and forecasting systems, NOAA's Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (CBRFC) produces hydrologic forecasts for stakeholders and water management groups in the western United States. Collaborative incorporation of research-oriented remote sensing data into CBRFC operational models and systems is one route by which CBRFC forecasts can be improved, ultimately for the benefit of water managers. Successful navigation of research-oriented remote sensing products across the "research-to-operations"/R2O gap (also known as the "valley of death") to operational destinations requires dedicated personnel on both the research and operations sides, working in a highly collaborative environment. Since 2012, the operational CBRFC has collaborated with the research-oriented Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) under funding from NASA to transition remotely-sensed snow data into CBRFC's operational models and forecasting systems. Two specific datasets from JPL, the MODIS Dust Radiative Forcing in Snow (MODDRFS) and the MODIS Snow Covered-Area and Grain size (MODSCAG) products, are used in CBRFC operations as of 2016. Over the past several years, JPL and CBRFC have worked together to analyze patterns in JPL's remote sensing snow datasets from the operational perspective of the CBRFC and to develop techniques to bridge the R2O gap. Retrospective and real-time analyses have yielded valuable insight into the remotely-sensed snow datasets themselves, CBRFC's operational systems, and the collaborative R2O process. Examples of research-oriented JPL snow data, as used in CBRFC operations, are described. A timeline of the collaboration, challenges encountered during the journey across the R2O gap, or "valley of death", and solutions to those challenges are also illustrated.

A Centaur Reconnaissance Mission: a NASA JPL Planetary Science Summer Seminar mission design experience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chou, L.; Howell, S. M.; Bhattaru, S.; Blalock, J. J.; Bouchard, M.; Brueshaber, S.; Cusson, S.; Eggl, S.; Jawin, E.; Marcus, M.; Miller, K.; Rizzo, M.; Smith, H. B.; Steakley, K.; Thomas, N. H.; Thompson, M.; Trent, K.; Ugelow, M.; Budney, C. J.; Mitchell, K. L.

2017-12-01

The NASA Planetary Science Summer Seminar (PSSS), sponsored by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), offers advanced graduate students and recent doctoral graduates the unique opportunity to develop a robotic planetary exploration mission that answers NASA's Science Mission Directorate's Announcement of Opportunity for the New Frontiers Program. Preceded by a series of 10 weekly webinars, the seminar is an intensive one-week exercise at JPL, where students work directly with JPL's project design team "TeamX" on the process behind developing mission concepts through concurrent engineering, project design sessions, instrument selection, science traceability matrix development, and risks and cost management. The 2017 NASA PSSS team included 18 participants from various U.S. institutions with a diverse background in science and engineering. We proposed a Centaur Reconnaissance Mission, named CAMILLA, designed to investigate the geologic state, surface evolution, composition, and ring systems through a flyby and impact of Chariklo. Centaurs are defined as minor planets with semi-major axis that lies between Jupiter and Neptune's orbit. Chariklo is both the largest Centaur and the only known minor planet with rings. CAMILLA was designed to address high priority cross-cutting themes defined in National Research Council's Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022. At the end of the seminar, a final presentation was given by the participants to a review board of JPL scientists and engineers as well as NASA headquarters executives. The feedback received on the strengths and weaknesses of our proposal provided a rich and valuable learning experience in how to design a successful NASA planetary exploration mission and generate a successful New Frontiers proposal. The NASA PSSS is an educational experience that trains the next generation of NASA's planetary explorers by bridging the gap between scientists and engineers, allowing for participants to learn how to design a mission and build a spacecraft in a collaborative and fast-pace environment.

Real-Time On-Board Processing Validation of MSPI Ground Camera Images

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pingree, Paula J.; Werne, Thomas A.; Bekker, Dmitriy L.

2010-01-01

The Earth Sciences Decadal Survey identifies a multiangle, multispectral, high-accuracy polarization imager as one requirement for the Aerosol-Cloud-Ecosystem (ACE) mission. JPL has been developing a Multiangle SpectroPolarimetric Imager (MSPI) as a candidate to fill this need. A key technology development needed for MSPI is on-board signal processing to calculate polarimetry data as imaged by each of the 9 cameras forming the instrument. With funding from NASA's Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) Program, JPL is solving the real-time data processing requirements to demonstrate, for the first time, how signal data at 95 Mbytes/sec over 16-channels for each of the 9 multiangle cameras in the spaceborne instrument can be reduced on-board to 0.45 Mbytes/sec. This will produce the intensity and polarization data needed to characterize aerosol and cloud microphysical properties. Using the Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA including PowerPC440 processors we have implemented a least squares fitting algorithm that extracts intensity and polarimetric parameters in real-time, thereby substantially reducing the image data volume for spacecraft downlink without loss of science information.

Defect measurement and analysis of JPL ground software: a case study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Powell, John D.; Spagnuolo, John N., Jr.

2004-01-01

Ground software systems at JPL must meet high assurance standards while remaining on schedule due to relatively immovable launch dates for spacecraft that will be controlled by such systems. Toward this end, the Software Quality Improvement (SQI) project's Measurement and Benchmarking (M&B) team is collecting and analyzing defect data of JPL ground system software projects to build software defect prediction models. The aim of these models is to improve predictability with regard to software quality activities. Predictive models will quantitatively define typical trends for JPL ground systems as well as Critical Discriminators (CDs) to provide explanations for atypical deviations from the norm at JPL. CDs are software characteristics that can be estimated or foreseen early in a software project's planning. Thus, these CDs will assist in planning for the predicted degree to which software quality activities for a project are likely to deviation from the normal JPL ground system based on pasted experience across the lab.

Mission operations and command assurance: Instilling quality into flight operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Welz, Linda L.; Witkowski, Mona M.; Bruno, Kristin J.; Potts, Sherrill S.

1993-01-01

Mission Operations and Command Assurance (MO&CA) is a Total Quality Management (TQM) task on JPL projects to instill quality in flight mission operations. From a system engineering view, MO&CA facilitates communication and problem-solving among flight teams and provides continuous process improvement to reduce the probability of radiating incorrect commands to a spacecraft. The MO&CA task has evolved from participating as a member of the spacecraft team to an independent team reporting directly to flight project management and providing system level assurance. JPL flight projects have benefited significantly from MO&CA's effort to contain risk and prevent rather than rework errors. MO&CA's ability to provide direct transfer of knowledge allows new projects to benefit from previous and ongoing flight experience.

A Kalman-Filter-Based Approach to Combining Independent Earth-Orientation Series

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gross, Richard S.; Eubanks, T. M.; Steppe, J. A.; Freedman, A. P.; Dickey, J. O.; Runge, T. F.

1998-01-01

An approach. based upon the use of a Kalman filter. that is currently employed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for combining independent measurements of the Earth's orientation, is presented. Since changes in the Earth's orientation can be described is a randomly excited stochastic process, the uncertainty in our knowledge of the Earth's orientation grows rapidly in the absence of measurements. The Kalman-filter methodology allows for an objective accounting of this uncertainty growth, thereby facilitating the intercomparison of measurements taken at different epochs (not necessarily uniformly spaced in time) and with different precision. As an example of this approach to combining Earth-orientation series, a description is given of a combination, SPACE95, that has been generated recently at JPL.

Thermoelectric Energy Conversion: Future Directions and Technology Development Needs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fleurial, Jean-Pierre

2007-01-01

This viewgraph presentation reviews the process of thermoelectric energy conversion along with key technology needs and challenges. The topics include: 1) The Case for Thermoelectrics; 2) Advances in Thermoelectrics: Investment Needed; 3) Current U.S. Investment (FY07); 4) Increasing Thermoelectric Materials Conversion Efficiency Key Science Needs and Challenges; 5) Developing Advanced TE Components & Systems Key Technology Needs and Challenges; 6) Thermoelectrics; 7) 200W Class Lightweight Portable Thermoelectric Generator; 8) Hybrid Absorption Cooling/TE Power Cogeneration System; 9) Major Opportunities in Energy Industry; 10) Automobile Waste Heat Recovery; 11) Thermoelectrics at JPL; 12) Recent Advances at JPL in Thermoelectric Converter Component Technologies; 13) Thermoelectrics Background on Power Generation and Cooling Operational Modes; 14) Thermoelectric Power Generation; and 15) Thermoelectric Cooling.

Commercial Parts Technology Qualification Processes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cooper, Mark S.

2013-01-01

Many high-reliability systems, including space systems, use selected commercial parts (including Plastic Encapsulated Microelectronics or PEMs) for unique functionality, small size, low weight, high mechanical shock resistance, and other factors. Predominantly this usage is subjected to certain 100% tests (typically called screens) and certain destructive tests usually (but not always) performed on the flight lot (typically called qualification tests). Frequently used approaches include those documented in EEE-INST-002 and JPL DocID62212 (which are sometimes modified by the particular aerospace space systems manufacturer). In this study, approaches from these documents and several space systems manufacturers are compared to approaches from a launch systems manufacturer (SpaceX), an implantable medical electronics manufacturer (Medtronics), and a high-reliability transport system process (automotive systems). In the conclusions section, these processes are outlined for all of these cases and presented in tabular form. Then some simple comparisons are made. In this introduction section, the PEM technology qualification process is described, as documented in EEE-INST-002 (written by the Goddard Space Flight Center, GSFC), as well as the somewhat modified approach employed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Approaches used at several major NASA contractors are also described

JPL stories: story on the story (series) Careering through JPL, presented by Alice M. Fairhurst

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hendrickson, S.

2002-01-01

Alice Fairhurst, co-author of Effective Teaching, Effective Learning, presented an enthusiastic overview of her tenure as a JPL career development and mentoring coordinator (1991-2001). Among other things, Alice is an expert in Keirseyian Temperament and Myers-Briggs typology.

AVIRIS ground data-processing system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reimer, John H.; Heyada, Jan R.; Carpenter, Steve C.; Deich, William T. S.; Lee, Meemong

1987-01-01

The Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) has been under development at JPL for the past four years. During this time, a dedicated ground data-processing system has been designed and implemented to store and process the large amounts of data expected. This paper reviews the objectives of this ground data-processing system and describes the hardware. An outline of the data flow through the system is given, and the software and incorporated algorithms developed specifically for the systematic processing of AVIRIS data are described.

Progress Towards AIRS Science Team Version-7 at SRT

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Susskind, Joel; Blaisdell, John; Iredell, Lena; Kouvaris, Louis

2016-01-01

The AIRS Science Team Version-6 retrieval algorithm is currently producing level-3 Climate Data Records (CDRs) from AIRS that have been proven useful to scientists in understanding climate processes. CDRs are gridded level-3 products which include all cases passing AIRS Climate QC. SRT has made significant further improvements to AIRS Version-6. At the last Science Team Meeting, we described results using SRT AIRS Version-6.22. SRT Version-6.22 is now an official build at JPL called 6.2.4. Version-6.22 results are significantly improved compared to Version-6, especially with regard to water vapor and ozone profiles. We have adapted AIRS Version-6.22 to run with CrIS/ATMS, at the Sounder SIPS which processed CrIS/ATMS data for August 2014. JPL AIRS Version-6.22 uses the Version-6 AIRS tuning coefficients. AIRS Version-6.22 has at least two limitations which must be improved before finalization of Version-7: Version-6.22 total O3 has spurious high values in the presence of Saharan dust over the ocean; and Version-6.22 retrieved upper stratospheric temperatures are very poor in polar winter. SRT Version-6.28 addresses the first concern. John Blaisdell ran the analog of AIRS Version-6.28 in his own sandbox at JPL for the 14th and 15th of every month in 2014 and all of July and October for 2014. AIRS Version-6.28a is hot off the presses and addresses the second concern.

Delta-Doped Back-Illuminated CMOS Imaging Arrays: Progress and Prospects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hoenk, Michael E.; Jones, Todd J.; Dickie, Matthew R.; Greer, Frank; Cunningham, Thomas J.; Blazejewski, Edward; Nikzad, Shouleh

2009-01-01

In this paper, we report the latest results on our development of delta-doped, thinned, back-illuminated CMOS imaging arrays. As with charge-coupled devices, thinning and back-illumination are essential to the development of high performance CMOS imaging arrays. Problems with back surface passivation have emerged as critical to the prospects for incorporating CMOS imaging arrays into high performance scientific instruments, just as they did for CCDs over twenty years ago. In the early 1990's, JPL developed delta-doped CCDs, in which low temperature molecular beam epitaxy was used to form an ideal passivation layer on the silicon back surface. Comprising only a few nanometers of highly-doped epitaxial silicon, delta-doping achieves the stability and uniformity that are essential for high performance imaging and spectroscopy. Delta-doped CCDs were shown to have high, stable, and uniform quantum efficiency across the entire spectral range from the extreme ultraviolet through the near infrared. JPL has recently bump-bonded thinned, delta-doped CMOS imaging arrays to a CMOS readout, and demonstrated imaging. Delta-doped CMOS devices exhibit the high quantum efficiency that has become the standard for scientific-grade CCDs. Together with new circuit designs for low-noise readout currently under development, delta-doping expands the potential scientific applications of CMOS imaging arrays, and brings within reach important new capabilities, such as fast, high-sensitivity imaging with parallel readout and real-time signal processing. It remains to demonstrate manufacturability of delta-doped CMOS imaging arrays. To that end, JPL has acquired a new silicon MBE and ancillary equipment for delta-doping wafers up to 200mm in diameter, and is now developing processes for high-throughput, high yield delta-doping of fully-processed wafers with CCD and CMOS imaging devices.

Global Assessment of New GRACE Mascons Solutions for Hydrologic Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Save, H.; Zhang, Z.; Scanlon, B. R.; Wiese, D. N.; Landerer, F. W.; Long, D.; Longuevergne, L.; Chen, J.

2016-12-01

Advances in GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite data processing using new mass concentration (mascon) solutions have greatly increased the spatial localization and amplitude of recovered total Terrestrial Water Storage (TWS) signals; however, limited testing has been conduct on land hydrologic applications. In this study we compared TWS anomalies from (1) Center for Space Research mascons (CSR-M) solution with (2) NASA JPL mascon (JPL-M) solution, and with (3) a CSR gridded spherical harmonic rescaled (sf) solution from Tellus (CSRT-GSH.sf) in 176 river basins covering 80% of the global land area. There is good correspondence in TWS anomalies from mascons (CSR-M and JPL-M) and SH solutions based on high correlations between time series (rank correlation coefficients mostly >0.9). The long-term trends in basin TWS anomalies represent a relatively small signal (up to ±20 mm/yr) with differences among GRACE solutions and inter-basin variability increasing with decreasing basin size. Long-term TWS declines are greatest in (semi)arid and irrigated basins. Annual and semiannual signals have much larger amplitudes (up to ±250 mm). There is generally good agreement among GRACE solutions, increasing confidence in seasonal fluctuations from GRACE data. Rescaling spherical harmonics to restore lost signal increases agreement with mascons solutions for long-term trends and seasonal fluctuations. There are many advantages to using GRACE mascons solutions relative to SH solutions, such as reduced leakage from land to ocean increasing signal amplitude, and constraining results by applying geophysical data during processing with little or no post-processing requirements, making mascons more user friendly for non-geodetic users. This inter-comparison of various GRACE solutions should allow hydrologists to better select suitable GRACE products for hydrologic applications.

JPL HAMSR Takes Hurricane Matthew Temperature

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-10-07

JPL's High-Altitude Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit Sounding Radiometer (HAMSR) instrument captured this look inside Hurricane Matthew's spiral clouds on Oct. 7, 2016, flying on a NASA Global Hawk unmanned aircraft. Red colors show cloud bands without precipitation; blues show rain bands. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21093

Photovoltaic Module Encapsulation Design and Materials Selection, Volume 1, Abridged

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cuddihy, E. F.

1982-01-01

A summary version of Volume 1, presenting the basic encapsulation systems, their purposes and requirements, and the characteristics of the most promising candidate systems and materials, as identified and evaluated by the Flat-Plate Solar Array Project is presented. In this summary version considerable detail and much supporting and experimental information has necessarily been omitted. A reader interested in references and literature citations, and in more detailed information on specific topics, should consult Reference 1, JPL Document No. 5101-177, JPL Publication 81-102, DOE/JPL-1012-60 (JPL), June 1, 1982.

Credit WCT. Original 2Y4" x 2Y4" color negative is housed ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

Credit WCT. Original 2-Y4" x 2-Y4" color negative is housed in the JPL Photography Laboratory, Pasadena, California. JPL staff members Harold Anderson and John Morrow cast grain from the 1-gallon BakerPerkins model 4-PU mixer. A 1-pint Baker-Perkins model 2-PX mixer stands to the left in this view (JPL negative no. JPL-10295BC, 27 January 1989) - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Mixer & Casting Building, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

Vice President Pence Tours Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-04-28

JPL Director Michael Watkins, standing, explains the history of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the use of the Mission Support Area to Vice President Mike Pence, seated next to his wife Karen and daughter Charlotte Pence, during a tour of JPL, Saturday, April 28, 2018 in Pasadena, California. Joining the Vice President was, JPL Distinguished Visiting Scientist and Spouse of UAG Chairman James Ellis, Elisabeth Pate-Cornell, left, UAG Chairman, Admiral (Ret) James Ellis, JPL Deputy Director Lt. Gen. (Ret) Larry James, and California Institute of Technology President Thomas Rosenbaum. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

NASA Planetary Surface Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hayati, Samad

1999-01-01

Managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is the lead U.S. center for robotic exploration of the solar system. JPL spacecraft have visited all known planets except Pluto (a Pluto mission is currently under study). In addition to its work for NASA, JPL conducts tasks for a variety of other federal agencies. In addition, JPL manages the worldwide Deep Space Network, which communicates with spacecraft and conducts scientific investigations from its complexes in California's Mojave Desert near Goldstone; near Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia. JPL employs about 6000 people.

Methodologies for Improving Flight Project Information Capture, Storage, and Dissemination

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Equils, Douglas J.

2011-01-01

This paper will discuss the drawbacks and risks of the current documentation paradigm, how Document QuickStart improves on that process and ultimately how this stream-lined approach will reduce risk and costs to the next generation of Flight Projects at JPL

Using DSP technology to simplify deep space ranging

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bryant, S.

2000-01-01

Commercially available Digital Signal Processing (DSP) technology has enabled a new spacecraft ranging design. The new design reduces overall size, parts count, and complexity. The design implementation will also meet the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) requirements for both near-Earth and deep space ranging.

Reliability and paste process optimization of eutectic and lead-free for mixed packaging

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramkumar, S. M.; Ganeshan, V.; Thenalur, K.; Ghaffarian, R.

2002-01-01

This paper reports the results of an experiment that utilized the JPL's area array consortium test vehicle design, containing a myriad of mixed technology components with an OSP finish. The details of the reliability study are presented in this paper.

The Snow Data System at NASA JPL

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laidlaw, R.; Painter, T. H.; Mattmann, C. A.; Ramirez, P.; Bormann, K.; Brodzik, M. J.; Burgess, A. B.; Rittger, K.; Goodale, C. E.; Joyce, M.; McGibbney, L. J.; Zimdars, P.

2014-12-01

NASA JPL's Snow Data System has a data-processing pipeline powered by Apache OODT, an open source software tool. The pipeline has been running for several years and has successfully generated a significant amount of cryosphere data, including MODIS-based products such as MODSCAG, MODDRFS and MODICE, with historical and near-real time windows and covering regions such as the Artic, Western US, Alaska, Central Europe, Asia, South America, Australia and New Zealand. The team continues to improve the pipeline, using monitoring tools such as Ganglia to give an overview of operations, and improving fault-tolerance with automated recovery scripts. Several alternative adaptations of the Snow Covered Area and Grain size (SCAG) algorithm are being investigated. These include using VIIRS and Landsat TM/ETM+ satellite data as inputs. Parallel computing techniques are being considered for core SCAG processing, such as using the PyCUDA Python API to utilize multi-core GPU architectures. An experimental version of MODSCAG is also being developed for the Google Earth Engine platform, a cloud-based service.

Dawn Spacecraft Processing

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-04-10

In clean room C of Astrotech's Payload Processing Facility, a worker wears a "bunny suit," or clean-room attire, next to the Dawn spacecraft, which will be unbagged and undergo further processing. Dawn's mission is to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.

Caltech/JPL Conference on Image Processing Technology, Data Sources and Software for Commercial and Scientific Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Redmann, G. H.

1976-01-01

Recent advances in image processing and new applications are presented to the user community to stimulate the development and transfer of this technology to industrial and commercial applications. The Proceedings contains 37 papers and abstracts, including many illustrations (some in color) and provides a single reference source for the user community regarding the ordering and obtaining of NASA-developed image-processing software and science data.

Summary and status of the Horizons ephemeris system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giorgini, J.

2011-10-01

Since 1996, the Horizons system has provided searchable access to JPL ephemerides for all known solar system bodies, several dozen spacecraft, planetary system barycenters, and some libration points. Responding to 18 400 000 requests from 300 000 unique addresses, the system has recently averaged 420 000 ephemeris requests per month. Horizons is accessed and automated using three interfaces: interactive telnet, web-browser form, and e-mail command-file. Asteroid and comet ephemerides are numerically integrated from JPL's database of initial conditions. This small-body database is updated hourly by a separate process as new measurements and discoveries are reported by the Minor Planet Center and automatically incorporated into new JPL orbit solutions. Ephemerides for other objects are derived by interpolating previously developed solutions whose trajectories have been represented in a file. For asteroids and comets, such files may be dynamically created and transferred to users, effectively recording integrator output. These small-body SPK files may then be interpolated by user software to reproduce the trajectory without duplicating the numerically integrated n-body dynamical model or PPN equations of motion. Other Horizons output is numerical and in the form of plain-text observer, vector, osculating element, or close-approach tables, typically expected be read by other software as input. About one hundred quantities can be requested in various time-scales and coordinate systems. For JPL small-body solutions, this includes statistical uncertainties derived from measurement covariance and state transition matrices. With the exception of some natural satellites, Horizons is consistent with DE405/DE406, the IAU 1976 constants, ITRF93, and IAU2009 rotational models.

The Snow Data System at NASA JPL

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laidlaw, R.; Painter, T. H.; Mattmann, C. A.; Ramirez, P.; Brodzik, M. J.; Rittger, K.; Bormann, K. J.; Burgess, A. B.; Zimdars, P.; McGibbney, L. J.; Goodale, C. E.; Joyce, M.

2015-12-01

The Snow Data System at NASA JPL includes a data processing pipeline built with open source software, Apache 'Object Oriented Data Technology' (OODT). It produces a variety of data products using inputs from satellites such as MODIS, VIIRS and Landsat. Processing is carried out in parallel across a high-powered computing cluster. Algorithms such as 'Snow Covered Area and Grain-size' (SCAG) and 'Dust Radiative Forcing in Snow' (DRFS) are applied to satellite inputs to produce output images that are used by many scientists and institutions around the world. This poster will describe the Snow Data System, its outputs and their uses and applications, along with recent advancements to the system and plans for the future. Advancements for 2015 include automated daily processing of historic MODIS data for SCAG (MODSCAG) and DRFS (MODDRFS), automation of SCAG processing for VIIRS satellite inputs (VIIRSCAG) and an updated version of SCAG for Landsat Thematic Mapper inputs (TMSCAG) that takes advantage of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) for faster processing speeds. The pipeline has been upgraded to use the latest version of OODT and its workflows have been streamlined to enable computer operators to process data on demand. Additional products have been added, such as rolling 8-day composites of MODSCAG data, a new version of the MODSCAG 'annual minimum ice and snow extent' (MODICE) product, and recoded MODSCAG data for the 'Satellite Snow Product Intercomparison and Evaluation Experiment' (SnowPEx) project.

Project Bibliographies: Tracking the Expansion of Knowledge Using JPL Project Publications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coppin, Ann

2016-01-01

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Library defines a project bibliography as a bibliography of publicly available publications relating to a specific JPL instrument or mission. These bibliographies may be used to share information between distant project team members, as part of the required Education and Public Outreach effort, or as part of…

Mars Express Interplanetary Navigation from Launch to Mars Orbit Insertion: The JPL Experience

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Han, Dongsuk; Highsmith, Dolan; Jah, Moriba; Craig, Diane; Border, James; Kroger, Peter

2004-01-01

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) played a significant role in supporting the safe arrival of the European Space Agency (ESA) Mars Express (MEX) orbiter to Mars on 25 December 2003. MEX mission is an international collaboration between member nations of the ESA and NASA, where NASA is supporting partner. JPL's involvement included providing commanding and tracking service with JPL's Deep Space Network (DSN), in addition to navigation assurance. The collaborative navigation effort between European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) and JPL is the first since ESA's last deep space mission, Giotto, and began many years before the MEX launch. This paper discusses the navigational experience during the cruise and final approach phase of the mission from JPL's perspective. Topics include technical challenges such as orbit determination using non-DSN tracking data and media calibrations, and modeling of spacecraft physical properties for accurate representation of non-gravitational dynamics. Also mentioned in this paper is preparation and usage of DSN Delta Differential Oneway Range ((Delta)DOR) measurements, a key element to the accuracy of the orbit determination.

Dawn Spacecraft Processing

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-04-10

In clean room C of Astrotech's Payload Processing Facility, technicians dressed in "bunny suits," or clean-room attire, begin working on the Dawn spacecraft. Dawn's mission is to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.

Architectures for mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davidson, Reger A.; Murphy, Susan C.

1992-01-01

JPL is currently converting to an innovative control center data system which is a distributed, open architecture for telemetry delivery and which is enabling advancement towards improved automation and operability, as well as new technology, in mission operations at JPL. The scope of mission control within mission operations is examined. The concepts of a mission control center and how operability can affect the design of a control center data system are discussed. Examples of JPL's mission control architecture, data system development, and prototype efforts at the JPL Operations Engineering Laboratory are provided. Strategies for the future of mission control architectures are outlined.

Vice President Pence Tours Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-04-28

JPL Director Michael Watkins, left, explains the history of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the use of the Mission Support Area to Vice President Mike Pence, seated 4th from left, during a tour of JPL, Saturday, April 28, 2018 in Pasadena, California. Joining the Vice President was, JPL Distinguished Visiting Scientist and Spouse of UAG Chairman James Ellis, Elisabeth Pate-Cornell, left, UAG Chairman, Admiral (Ret) James Ellis, Executive Director of the National Space Council Scott Pace, wife of Mike Pence, Karen Pence, daughter of Mike Pence, Charlotte Pence, and JPL Deputy Director Lt. Gen. (Ret) Larry James. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Planning the future of JPL's management and administrative support systems around an integrated database

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ebersole, M. M.

1983-01-01

JPL's management and administrative support systems have been developed piece meal and without consistency in design approach over the past twenty years. These systems are now proving to be inadequate to support effective management of tasks and administration of the Laboratory. New approaches are needed. Modern database management technology has the potential for providing the foundation for more effective administrative tools for JPL managers and administrators. Plans for upgrading JPL's management and administrative systems over a six year period evolving around the development of an integrated management and administrative data base are discussed.

Jupiter Great Red Spot

NASA Image and Video Library

1998-12-05

This view of Jupiter was taken by Voyager 1. This image was taken through color filters and recombined to produce the color image. This photo was assembled from three black and white negatives by the Image Processing Lab at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01384

Mission operations and command assurance: Flight operations quality improvements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Welz, Linda L.; Bruno, Kristin J.; Kazz, Sheri L.; Potts, Sherrill S.; Witkowski, Mona M.

1994-01-01

Mission Operations and Command Assurance (MO&CA) is a Total Quality Management (TQM) task on JPL projects to instill quality in flight mission operations. From a system engineering view, MO&CA facilitates communication and problem-solving among flight teams and provides continuous solving among flight teams and provides continuous process improvement to reduce risk in mission operations by addressing human factors. The MO&CA task has evolved from participating as a member of the spacecraft team, to an independent team reporting directly to flight project management and providing system level assurance. JPL flight projects have benefited significantly from MO&CA's effort to contain risk and prevent rather than rework errors. MO&CA's ability to provide direct transfer of knowledge allows new projects to benefit from previous and ongoing flight experience.

KSC-97PC1070

NASA Image and Video Library

1997-07-18

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) workers use a borescope to verify pressure relief device bellows integrity on a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) which has been installed on the Cassini spacecraft in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility. The activity is part of the mechanical and electrical verification testing of RTGs during prelaunch processing. RTGs use heat from the natural decay of plutonium to generate electric power. The three RTGs on Cassini will enable the spacecraft to operate far from the Sun where solar power systems are not feasible. They will provide electrical power to Cassini on its 6.7-year trip to the Saturnian system and during its four-year mission at Saturn. The Cassini mission is scheduled for an Oct. 6 launch aboard a Titan IVB/Centaur expendable launch vehicle. Cassini is built and managed for NASA by JPL

Methods for Retrievals of CO2 Mixing Ratios from JPL Laser Absorption Spectrometer Flights During a Summer 2011 Campaign

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Menzies, Robert T.; Spiers, Gary D.; Jacob, Joseph C.

2013-01-01

The JPL airborne Laser Absorption Spectrometer instrument has been flown several times in the 2007-2011 time frame for the purpose of measuring CO2 mixing ratios in the lower atmosphere. This instrument employs CW laser transmitters and coherent detection receivers in the 2.05- micro m spectral region. The Integrated Path Differential Absorption (IPDA) method is used to retrieve weighted CO2 column mixing ratios. We present key features of the evolving LAS signal processing and data analysis algorithms and the calibration/validation methodology. Results from 2011 flights in various U.S. locations include observed mid-day CO2 drawdown in the Midwest and high spatial resolution plume detection during a leg downwind of the Four Corners power plant in New Mexico.

Improvement of Operational Streamflow Prediction with MODIS-derived Fractional Snow Covered Area Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bender, S.; Burgess, A.; Goodale, C. E.; Mattmann, C. A.; Miller, W. P.; Painter, T. H.; Rittger, K. E.; Stokes, M.; Werner, K.

2013-12-01

Water managers in the western United States depend heavily on the timing and magnitude of snowmelt-driven runoff for municipal supply, irrigation, maintenance of environmental flows, and power generation. The Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (CBRFC) of the National Weather Service issues operational forecasts of snowmelt-driven streamflow for watersheds within the Colorado River Basin (CRB) and eastern Great Basin (EGB), across a wide variety of scales. Therefore, the CBRFC and its stakeholders consider snowpack observations to be highly valuable. Observations of fractional snow covered area (fSCA) from satellite-borne instrumentation can better inform both forecasters and water users with respect to subsequent snowmelt runoff, particularly when combined with observations from ground-based station networks and/or airborne platforms. As part of a multi-year collaborative effort, CBRFC has partnered with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) under funding from NASA to incorporate observations of fSCA from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) into the operational CBRFC hydrologic forecasting and modeling process. In the first year of the collaboration, CBRFC and NASA/JPL integrated snow products into the forecasting and decision making processes of the CBRFC and showed preliminary improvement in operational streamflow forecasts. In late 2012, CBRFC and NASA/JPL began retrospective analysis of relationships between the MODIS Snow Covered Area and Grain size (MODSCAG) fSCA and streamflow patterns for several watersheds within the CRB and the EGB. During the 2013 snowmelt runoff season, CBRFC forecasters used MODIS-derived fSCA semi-quantitatively as a binary indicator of the presence or lack of snow. Indication of the presence or lack of snow by MODIS assisted CBRFC forecasters in determining the cause of divergence between modeled and recently observed streamflow. Several examples of improved forecasts from across the CRB and EGB, informed by MODIS-derived fSCA, are described. Our analysis shows the value of MODIS fSCA to CBRFC and to users of CBRFC's streamflow forecasts. The relationships between the MODIS fSCA and the melt season streamflow vary with the magnitude of runoff, which is important to resource managers. The analysis also emphasizes the importance of the invaluable collaboration between an operational forecasting agency (CBRFC) and a research-oriented agency (NASA/JPL) specializing in remote sensing science. The collaboration is expected to continue over the next several years as CBRFC and JPL work to further improve modeling of snowmelt and prediction of snowmelt-driven streamflow in the CRB and EGB.

Temporal Investment Strategy to Enable JPL Future Space Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lincoln, William P.; Hua, Hook; Weisbin, Charles R.

2006-01-01

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) formulates and conducts deep space missions for NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration). The Chief Technologist of JPL has the responsibility for strategic planning of the laboratory's advanced technology program to assure that the required technological capabilities to enable future JPL deep space missions are ready as needed; as such he is responsible for the development of a Strategic Plan. As part of the planning effort, he has supported the development of a structured approach to technology prioritization based upon the work of the START (Strategic Assessment of Risk and Technology) team. A major innovation reported here is the addition of a temporal model that supports scheduling of technology development as a function of time. The JPL Strategic Technology Plan divides the required capabilities into 13 strategic themes. The results reported here represent the analysis of an initial seven.

Jupiterrise

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-10-19

This image of the sunlit part of Jupiter and its swirling atmosphere was created by a citizen scientist (Alex Mai) using data from Juno's JunoCam instrument. JunoCam's raw images are available at www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam for the public to peruse and process into image products. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21108

SEQ-REVIEW: A tool for reviewing and checking spacecraft sequences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maldague, Pierre F.; El-Boushi, Mekki; Starbird, Thomas J.; Zawacki, Steven J.

1994-11-01

A key component of JPL's strategy to make space missions faster, better and cheaper is the Advanced Multi-Mission Operations System (AMMOS), a ground software intensive system currently in use and in further development. AMMOS intends to eliminate the cost of re-engineering a ground system for each new JPL mission. This paper discusses SEQ-REVIEW, a component of AMMOS that was designed to facilitate and automate the task of reviewing and checking spacecraft sequences. SEQ-REVIEW is a smart browser for inspecting files created by other sequence generation tools in the AMMOS system. It can parse sequence-related files according to a computer-readable version of a 'Software Interface Specification' (SIS), which is a standard document for defining file formats. It lets users display one or several linked files and check simple constraints using a Basic-like 'Little Language'. SEQ-REVIEW represents the first application of the Quality Function Development (QFD) method to sequence software development at JPL. The paper will show how the requirements for SEQ-REVIEW were defined and converted into a design based on object-oriented principles. The process starts with interviews of potential users, a small but diverse group that spans multiple disciplines and 'cultures'. It continues with the development of QFD matrices that related product functions and characteristics to user-demanded qualities. These matrices are then turned into a formal Software Requirements Document (SRD). The process concludes with the design phase, in which the CRC (Class, Responsibility, Collaboration) approach was used to convert requirements into a blueprint for the final product.

SEQ-REVIEW: A tool for reviewing and checking spacecraft sequences

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Maldague, Pierre F.; El-Boushi, Mekki; Starbird, Thomas J.; Zawacki, Steven J.

1994-01-01

A key component of JPL's strategy to make space missions faster, better and cheaper is the Advanced Multi-Mission Operations System (AMMOS), a ground software intensive system currently in use and in further development. AMMOS intends to eliminate the cost of re-engineering a ground system for each new JPL mission. This paper discusses SEQ-REVIEW, a component of AMMOS that was designed to facilitate and automate the task of reviewing and checking spacecraft sequences. SEQ-REVIEW is a smart browser for inspecting files created by other sequence generation tools in the AMMOS system. It can parse sequence-related files according to a computer-readable version of a 'Software Interface Specification' (SIS), which is a standard document for defining file formats. It lets users display one or several linked files and check simple constraints using a Basic-like 'Little Language'. SEQ-REVIEW represents the first application of the Quality Function Development (QFD) method to sequence software development at JPL. The paper will show how the requirements for SEQ-REVIEW were defined and converted into a design based on object-oriented principles. The process starts with interviews of potential users, a small but diverse group that spans multiple disciplines and 'cultures'. It continues with the development of QFD matrices that related product functions and characteristics to user-demanded qualities. These matrices are then turned into a formal Software Requirements Document (SRD). The process concludes with the design phase, in which the CRC (Class, Responsibility, Collaboration) approach was used to convert requirements into a blueprint for the final product.

Former Administration Building

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-10-27

This archival image was released as part of a gallery comparing JPL's past and present, commemorating the 80th anniversary of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Oct. 31, 2016. Building 11, one of the oldest buildings on lab, was once JPL's central administration building. It is now the Space Sciences Laboratory. This picture dates back to May 1943. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21201

A Snowy Entrance

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-10-27

This archival image was released as part of a gallery comparing JPL's past and present, commemorating the 80th anniversary of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Oct. 31, 2016. This photograph from 1949 shows the main entrance gate to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, after a snowstorm. To the left is JPL's administration building at the time (Building 67). Building 67 is the Materials Research Building today. The Space Flight Operations Facility (Building 230), which houses JPL's Mission Control, now stands over the parking area on the right. As the lab expanded, the main entrance gate moved farther south. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21118

2. Credit JPL. Photographic copy of photograph, looking northeast at ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

2. Credit JPL. Photographic copy of photograph, looking northeast at unfinished original Test Stand 'C' construction. A portion of the corrugated steel tunnel tube connecting Test Stand 'C' to the first phase of JPL tunnel system construction is visible in the foreground. The steel frame used to support propellant tanks and engine equipment has been erected. The open trap door leads to a chamber inside the Test Stand 'C' base where gaseous nitrogen is distributed via manifolds to Test Stand 'C' control valves. (JPL negative no. 384-1568-A, 19 March 1957) - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Test Stand C, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

A cognitive operating system (COGNOSYS) for JPL's robot, phase 1 report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mathur, F. P.

1972-01-01

The most important software requirement for any robot development is the COGNitive Operating SYStem (COGNOSYS). This report describes the Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Laboratory's hand eye software system from the point of view of developing a cognitive operating system for JPL's robot. In this, the Phase 1 of the JPL robot COGNOSYS task the installation of a SAIL compiler and a FAIL assembler on Caltech's PDP-10 have been accomplished and guidelines have been prepared for the implementation of a Stanford University type hand eye software system on JPL-Caltech's computing facility. The alternatives offered by using RAND-USC's PDP-10 Tenex operating sytem are also considered.

Benefits of Spacecraft Level Vibration Testing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gordon, Scott; Kern, Dennis L.

2015-01-01

NASA-HDBK-7008 Spacecraft Level Dynamic Environments Testing discusses the approaches, benefits, dangers, and recommended practices for spacecraft level dynamic environments testing, including vibration testing. This paper discusses in additional detail the benefits and actual experiences of vibration testing spacecraft for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) flight projects. JPL and GSFC have both similarities and differences in their spacecraft level vibration test approach: JPL uses a random vibration input and a frequency range usually starting at 5 Hz and extending to as high as 250 Hz. GSFC uses a sine sweep vibration input and a frequency range usually starting at 5 Hz and extending only to the limits of the coupled loads analysis (typically 50 to 60 Hz). However, both JPL and GSFC use force limiting to realistically notch spacecraft resonances and response (acceleration) limiting as necessary to protect spacecraft structure and hardware from exceeding design strength capabilities. Despite GSFC and JPL differences in spacecraft level vibration test approaches, both have uncovered a significant number of spacecraft design and workmanship anomalies in vibration tests. This paper will give an overview of JPL and GSFC spacecraft vibration testing approaches and provide a detailed description of spacecraft anomalies revealed.

Zero to Integration in Eight Months, the Dawn Ground Data System Engineering Challenge

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dubon, Lydia P.

2006-01-01

The Dawn Project has presented the Ground Data System (GDS) with technical challenges driven by cost and schedule constraints commonly associated with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Discovery Projects. The Dawn mission consists of a new and exciting Deep Space partnership among: the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), manages the project and is responsible for flight operation; Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC), is the spacecraft builder and is responsible for flight system test and integration; and the University of California, at Los Angeles (UCLA), is responsible for science planning and operations. As a cost-capped mission, one of Dawn's implementation strategies is to leverage from both flight and ground heritage. OSC's ground data system is used for flight system test and integration as part of the flight heritage strategy. Mission operations, however, are to be conducted with JPL's ground system. The system engineering challenge of dealing with two heterogeneous ground systems emerged immediately. During the first technical interchange meeting between the JPL's GDS Team and OSC's Flight Software Team, August 2003, the need to integrate the ground system with the flight software was brought to the table. This need was driven by the project's commitment to enable instrument engineering model integration in a spacecraft simulator environment, for both demonstration and risk mitigation purposes, by April 2004. This paper will describe the system engineering approach that was undertaken by JPL's GDS Team in order to meet the technical challenge within a non-negotiable eight-month schedule. Key to the success was adherence to fundamental systems engineering practices: decomposition of the project request into manageable requirements; integration of multiple ground disciplines and experts into a focused team effort; definition of a structured yet flexible development process; definition of an in-process risk reduction plan; and aggregation of the intermediate products to an integrated final product. In addition, this paper will highlight the role of lessons learned from the integration experience. The lessons learned from an early GDS deployment have served as the foundation for the design and implementation of the Dawn Ground Data System.

Global evaluation of new GRACE mascon products for hydrologic applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scanlon, Bridget R.; Zhang, Zizhan; Save, Himanshu; Wiese, David N.; Landerer, Felix W.; Long, Di; Longuevergne, Laurent; Chen, Jianli

2016-12-01

Recent developments in mascon (mass concentration) solutions for GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite data have significantly increased the spatial localization and amplitude of recovered terrestrial Total Water Storage anomalies (TWSA); however, land hydrology applications have been limited. Here we compare TWSA from April 2002 through March 2015 from (1) newly released GRACE mascons from the Center for Space Research (CSR-M) with (2) NASA JPL mascons (JPL-M), and with (3) CSR Tellus gridded spherical harmonics rescaled (sf) (CSRT-GSH.sf) in 176 river basins, ˜60% of the global land area. Time series in TWSA mascons (CSR-M and JPL-M) and spherical harmonics are highly correlated (rank correlation coefficients mostly >0.9). The signal from long-term trends (up to ±20 mm/yr) is much less than that from seasonal amplitudes (up to 250 mm). Net long-term trends, summed over all 176 basins, are similar for CSR and JPL mascons (66-69 km3/yr) but are lower for spherical harmonics (˜14 km3/yr). Long-term TWSA declines are found mostly in irrigated basins (-41 to -69 km3/yr). Seasonal amplitudes agree among GRACE solutions, increasing confidence in GRACE-based seasonal fluctuations. Rescaling spherical harmonics significantly increases agreement with mascons for seasonal fluctuations, but less for long-term trends. Mascons provide advantages relative to spherical harmonics, including (1) reduced leakage from land to ocean increasing signal amplitude, and (2) application of geophysical data constraints during processing with little empirical postprocessing requirements, making it easier for nongeodetic users. Results of this product intercomparison should allow hydrologists to better select suitable GRACE solutions for hydrologic applications.

Recent changes in terrestrial water storage in the Upper Nile Basin: an evaluation of commonly used gridded GRACE products

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shamsudduha, Mohammad; Taylor, Richard G.; Jones, Darren; Longuevergne, Laurent; Owor, Michael; Tindimugaya, Callist

2017-09-01

GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite data monitor large-scale changes in total terrestrial water storage (ΔTWS), providing an invaluable tool where in situ observations are limited. Substantial uncertainty remains, however, in the amplitude of GRACE gravity signals and the disaggregation of TWS into individual terrestrial water stores (e.g. groundwater storage). Here, we test the phase and amplitude of three GRACE ΔTWS signals from five commonly used gridded products (i.e. NASA's GRCTellus: CSR, JPL, GFZ; JPL-Mascons; GRGS GRACE) using in situ data and modelled soil moisture from the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) in two sub-basins (LVB: Lake Victoria Basin; LKB: Lake Kyoga Basin) of the Upper Nile Basin. The analysis extends from January 2003 to December 2012, but focuses on a large and accurately observed reduction in ΔTWS of 83 km3 from 2003 to 2006 in the Lake Victoria Basin. We reveal substantial variability in current GRACE products to quantify the reduction of ΔTWS in Lake Victoria that ranges from 80 km3 (JPL-Mascons) to 69 and 31 km3 for GRGS and GRCTellus respectively. Representation of the phase in TWS in the Upper Nile Basin by GRACE products varies but is generally robust with GRGS, JPL-Mascons, and GRCTellus (ensemble mean of CSR, JPL, and GFZ time-series data), explaining 90, 84, and 75 % of the variance respectively in "in situ" or "bottom-up" ΔTWS in the LVB. Resolution of changes in groundwater storage (ΔGWS) from GRACE ΔTWS is greatly constrained by both uncertainty in changes in soil-moisture storage (ΔSMS) modelled by GLDAS LSMs (CLM, NOAH, VIC) and the low annual amplitudes in ΔGWS (e.g. 1.8-4.9 cm) observed in deeply weathered crystalline rocks underlying the Upper Nile Basin. Our study highlights the substantial uncertainty in the amplitude of ΔTWS that can result from different data-processing strategies in commonly used, gridded GRACE products; this uncertainty is disregarded in analyses of ΔTWS and individual stores applying a single GRACE product.

Team RoboSimian

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-06-09

Many members of Team RoboSimian and a few guests gather with competition hardware at a "Meet the Robots" event during the DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals in Pomona, California, on June 6, 2015. The RoboSimian team at JPL is collaborating with partners at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19329

The InSight Team at JPL

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-01-25

The InSight Team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL, in June 2015. The InSight team is comprised of scientists and engineers from multiple disciplines and is a unique collaboration between countries and organizations around the world. The science team includes co-investigators from the U.S., France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Japan, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22234

Dawn Spacecraft Processing

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-04-10

In clean room C of Astrotech's Payload Processing Facility, a worker wearing a "bunny suit," or clean-room attire, begins removing the protective cover surrounding the Dawn spacecraft. In the clean room, the spacecraft will undergo further processing. Dawn's mission is to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.

Dawn Spacecraft Processing

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-04-10

In clean room C of Astrotech's Payload Processing Facility, a worker wearing a "bunny suit," or clean-room attire, looks over the Dawn spacecraft after removing the protective cover, at bottom right. In the clean room, the spacecraft will undergo further processing. Dawn's mission is to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.

Photographer : JPL Range : 76 million km. ( 47 million miles) P-22892C This, Voyager 1 image shows

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1980-01-01

Photographer : JPL Range : 76 million km. ( 47 million miles) P-22892C This, Voyager 1 image shows Saturn and five of its satellites. Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is clearly seen in the upper right corner. The smaller satellites, Dione & Tethys, are shown in the upper left corner, top and bottom respectively. Two of the innermost satellites, Mimas & Enceladus, appear to the lower right of the planet, with Mimas closest to Satun. The bright object to the left of the rings is not a moon, but an artifact of processing. Voyager 1 will make its closest approach November 12th, 1980, ata distance of 124,200 km. (77,176 mi.). this photo is just one of 17,000 images taken of Saturn, its rings, and its satellites by Voyager 1.

Application of modified VICAR/IBIS GIS to analysis of July 1991 Flevoland AIRSAR data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Norikane, L.; Broek, B.; Freeman, A.

1992-01-01

Three overflights of the Flevoland calibration/agricultural site were made by the JPL Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) on 3, 12, and 28 July 1991 as part of MAC-Europe '92. A polygon map was generated at TNO-FEL which overlayed the slant range projected July 3 data set. Each polygon was identified by a sequence of points and a crop label. The polygon map was composed of 452 uniquely identified polygons and 15 different crop types. Analysis of the data was done using our modified Video Image Communication and Retrieval/Image Based Information System Geographic Information System (VICAR/IBIS GIS). This GIS is an extension of the VICAR/IBIS GIS first developed by Bryant in the 1970's which is itself an extension of the VICAR image processing system also developed at JPL.

Making Sense of Rocket Science - Building NASA's Knowledge Management Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Holm, Jeanne

2002-01-01

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has launched a range of KM activities-from deploying intelligent "know-bots" across millions of electronic sources to ensuring tacit knowledge is transferred across generations. The strategy and implementation focuses on managing NASA's wealth of explicit knowledge, enabling remote collaboration for international teams, and enhancing capture of the key knowledge of the workforce. An in-depth view of the work being done at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) shows the integration of academic studies and practical applications to architect, develop, and deploy KM systems in the areas of document management, electronic archives, information lifecycles, authoring environments, enterprise information portals, search engines, experts directories, collaborative tools, and in-process decision capture. These systems, together, comprise JPL's architecture to capture, organize, store, and distribute key learnings for the U.S. exploration of space.

Results from the JPL IGS Analysis Center IGS14 Reprocessing Campaign

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ries, P. A.; Amiri, N.; Heflin, M. B.; Sakumura, C.; Sibois, A. E.; Sibthorpe, A.; David, M. W.

2017-12-01

The JPL IGS analysis center has begun a campaign to reprocess GPS orbits and clocks in the IGS14 reference frame. Though the new frame is only a few millimeters offset from the previous IGb08 frame, a reprocessing is required for consistent use of the new frame due to a change in the satellite phase center offsets between the frames. We will present results on the reprocessing campaign from 2002 to present in order to evaluate any effects caused by the new frame. We also create long-term time-series and periodograms of translation, rotation, and scale parameters to see if there is any divergence between the frames. We will also process long-term PPP time series and derived velocities for a well-distributed set of stations in each frame to compare with the published frame offsets.

Capability Investment Strategy to Enable JPL Future Space Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lincoln, William; Merida, Sofia; Adumitroaie, Virgil; Weisbin, Charles R.

2006-01-01

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) formulates and conducts deep space missions for NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration). The Chief Technologist of JPL has responsibility for strategic planning of the laboratory's advanced technology program to assure that the required technological capabilities to enable future missions are ready as needed. The responsibilities include development of a Strategic Plan (Antonsson, E., 2005). As part of the planning effort, a structured approach to technology prioritization, based upon the work of the START (Strategic Assessment of Risk and Technology) (Weisbin, C.R., 2004) team, was developed. The purpose of this paper is to describe this approach and present its current status relative to the JPL technology investment.

Credit WCT. Original 214" x 21/4" color negative is housed ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

Credit WCT. Original 2-14" x 2-1/4" color negative is housed in the JPL Photography Laboratory, Pasadena, California. This image depicts the tray dryer for "AP" (ammonium perchlorate, an oxidizer). The dryer was heated by a water jacket; insulated pipes appear at left in the view. In the extreme left foreground appears a marble table similar to the tables used for scales in the weighing room of Building E-35. Note the use of gloves, fireresistant coveralls and breathing apparatus by the JPL employee in view (JPL negative no. JPL-10283BC, 27 January 1989) - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Oxidizer Dryer Blender Building, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

Science Opportunity Analyzer (SOA): Not Just Another Pretty Face

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Polanskey, Carol A.; Streiiffert, Barbara; O'Reilly, Taifun

2004-01-01

This viewgraph presentation reviews the Science Opportunity Analyzer (SOA). For the first time at JPL, the Cassini mission to Saturn is using distributed science operations for sequence generation. This means that scientist at other institutions has more responsibility to build the spacecraft sequence. Tools are required to support the sequence development. JPL tools required a complete configuration behind a firewall, and the tools that the user community had developed did not interface with the JPL tools. Therefore the SOA was created to bridge the gap between the remote scientists and the JPL operations teams. The presentation reviews the development of the SOA, and what was required of the system. The presentation reviews the functions that the SOA performed.

Managing Analysis Models in the Design Process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Briggs, Clark

2006-01-01

Design of large, complex space systems depends on significant model-based support for exploration of the design space. Integrated models predict system performance in mission-relevant terms given design descriptions and multiple physics-based numerical models. Both the design activities and the modeling activities warrant explicit process definitions and active process management to protect the project from excessive risk. Software and systems engineering processes have been formalized and similar formal process activities are under development for design engineering and integrated modeling. JPL is establishing a modeling process to define development and application of such system-level models.

Optical information processing for NASA's space exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chao, Tien-Hsin; Ochoa, Ellen; Juday, Richard

1990-01-01

The development status of optical processing techniques under development at NASA-JPL, NASA-Ames, and NASA-Johnson, is evaluated with a view to their potential applications in future NASA planetary exploration missions. It is projected that such optical processing systems can yield major reductions in mass, volume, and power requirements relative to exclusively electronic systems of comparable processing capabilities. Attention is given to high-order neural networks for distortion-invariant classification and pattern recognition, multispectral imaging using an acoustooptic tunable filter, and an optical matrix processor for control problems.

Image processing and analysis of Saturn's rings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yagi, G. M.; Jepsen, P. L.; Garneau, G. W.; Mosher, J. A.; Doyle, L. R.; Lorre, J. J.; Avis, C. C.; Korsmo, E. P.

1981-01-01

Processing of Voyager image data of Saturn's rings at JPL's Image Processing Laboratory is described. A software system to navigate the flight images, facilitate feature tracking, and to project the rings has been developed. This system has been used to make measurements of ring radii and to measure the velocities of the spoke features in the B-Ring. A projected ring movie to study the development of these spoke features has been generated. Finally, processing to facilitate comparison of the photometric properties of Saturn's rings at various phase angles is described.

The software product assurance metrics study: JPL's software systems quality and productivity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bush, Marilyn W.

1989-01-01

The findings are reported of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)/Software Product Assurance (SPA) Metrics Study, conducted as part of a larger JPL effort to improve software quality and productivity. Until recently, no comprehensive data had been assembled on how JPL manages and develops software-intensive systems. The first objective was to collect data on software development from as many projects and for as many years as possible. Results from five projects are discussed. These results reflect 15 years of JPL software development, representing over 100 data points (systems and subsystems), over a third of a billion dollars, over four million lines of code and 28,000 person months. Analysis of this data provides a benchmark for gauging the effectiveness of past, present and future software development work. In addition, the study is meant to encourage projects to record existing metrics data and to gather future data. The SPA long term goal is to integrate the collection of historical data and ongoing project data with future project estimations.

Effects of mass transfer between Martian satellites on surface geology

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-12-21

University Affiliated Research Center (UARC). Thanks to Bill Folkner (JPL/Caltech) for high-fidelity long-term Phobos/Deimos SPICE orbit propagations, and...created by JPL/Caltech to SPICE ephemeris information from NASA’s Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility (naif.jpl.nasa.gov) (Acton et al., 2002...References Acton, C. et al., 2002. Extending NASA’s SPICE ancillary information system to meet future mission needs. In: 2002 AIAA Space Operations

Vice President Pence Tours Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-04-28

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, left, thanks JPL Deputy Director Lt. Gen. (Ret) Larry James, JPL Director Michael Watkins, JPL Distinguished Visiting Scientist and Spouse of UAG Chairman James Ellis, Elisabeth Pate-Cornell , UAG Chairman, Admiral (Ret) James Ellis , and California Institute of Technology President Thomas Rosenbaum, right, for giving him a tour of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Saturday, April 28, 2018 in Pasadena, California. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Hayabusa: Navigation Challenges for Earth Return

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Haw, Robert J.; Bhaskaran, S.; Strauss, W.; Sklyanskiy, E.; Graat, E. J.; Smith, J. J.; Menom, P.; Ardalan, S.; Ballard, C.; Williams, P.;

Reform of the National Security Science and Technology Enterprise

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-10-01

still attract the very best S&E talent.54 Table 1. National Academy Membership (Source: National Academies Website) ANL BNL JPL LANL LL LLNL IBM...ANL BNL JPL LANL LLNL NIH NIST NRL Articles 1023 761 705 1526 1038 4305 350 957 Government S&E Workforce—Tomorrow With the significant exception...ANL), Brookhaven National Laboratory ( BNL ), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Lincoln Laboratory (LL), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL

Advanced dendritic web growth development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hopkins, R. H.

1985-01-01

A program to develop the technology of the silicon dendritic web ribbon growth process is examined. The effort is being concentrated on the area rate and quality requirements necessary to meet the JPL/DOE goals for terrestrial PV applications. Closed loop web growth system development and stress reduction for high area rate growth is considered.

Lesson Learning at JPL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oberhettinger, David

2011-01-01

A lessons learned system is a hallmark of a mature engineering organization A formal lessons learned process can help assure that valuable lessons get written and published, that they are well-written, and that the essential information is "infused" into institutional practice. Requires high-level institutional commitment, and everyone's participation in gathering, disseminating, and using the lessons

KSC-2014-4252

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-10-15

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – A forklift is enlisted to offload the transportation container protecting NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive, or SMAP, spacecraft from the truck that delivered it from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, to the Astrotech payload processing facility on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. SMAP will launch on a Delta II 7320 configuration vehicle featuring a United Launch Alliance first stage booster powered by an Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-27A main engine and three Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, strap-on solid rocket motors. Once on station in Earth orbit, SMAP will provide global measurements of soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state. These measurements will be used to enhance understanding of processes that link the water, energy and carbon cycles, and to extend the capabilities of weather and climate prediction models. SMAP data also will be used to quantify net carbon flux in boreal landscapes and to develop improved flood prediction and drought monitoring capabilities. Launch from Space Launch Complex 2 is targeted for Jan. 29, 2015. To learn more about SMAP, visit http://smap.jpl.nasa.gov. Photo credit: NASA/Stephen Greenberg, JPL

KSC-2014-2480

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-05-01

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – In the Astrotech payload processing facility on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, Orbital Sciences workers and technicians move their work platforms away from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, or OCO-2, in preparation for its lift from the transportation trailer. Testing and launch preparations now will get underway for its launch from Space Launch Complex 2 aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket, scheduled for July 1, 2014. The observatory will collect precise global measurements of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere and provide scientists with a better idea of the chemical compound's impacts on climate change. Scientists will analyze this data to improve our understanding of the natural processes and human activities that regulate the abundance and distribution of this important atmospheric gas. OCO-2 is a NASA Earth System Science Pathfinder Program mission managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory JPL in Pasadena, California, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Orbital Sciences built the spacecraft and provides mission operations under JPL’s leadership. To learn more about OCO-2, visit http://oco.jpl.nasa.gov. Photo credit: NASA/Doug Gruben, 30th Space Wing

High-efficiency UV/optical/NIR detectors for large aperture telescopes and UV explorer missions: development of and field observations with delta-doped arrays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nikzad, Shouleh; Jewell, April D.; Hoenk, Michael E.; Jones, Todd J.; Hennessy, John; Goodsall, Tim; Carver, Alexander G.; Shapiro, Charles; Cheng, Samuel R.; Hamden, Erika T.; Kyne, Gillian; Martin, D. Christopher; Schiminovich, David; Scowen, Paul; France, Kevin; McCandliss, Stephan; Lupu, Roxana E.

2017-07-01

Exciting concepts are under development for flagship, probe class, explorer class, and suborbital class NASA missions in the ultraviolet/optical spectral range. These missions will depend on high-performance silicon detector arrays being delivered affordably and in high numbers. To that end, we have advanced delta-doping technology to high-throughput and high-yield wafer-scale processing, encompassing a multitude of state-of-the-art silicon-based detector formats and designs. We have embarked on a number of field observations, instrument integrations, and independent evaluations of delta-doped arrays. We present recent data and innovations from JPL's Advanced Detectors and Systems Program, including two-dimensional doping technology, JPL's end-to-end postfabrication processing of high-performance UV/optical/NIR arrays and advanced coatings for detectors. While this paper is primarily intended to provide an overview of past work, developments are identified and discussed throughout. Additionally, we present examples of past, in-progress, and planned observations and deployments of delta-doped arrays.

Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor Outreach Compilation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1999-09-01

This videotape is a compilation of the best NASA JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) videos of the Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor missions. The mission is described using animation and narration as well as some actual footage of the entire sequence of mission events. Included within these animations are the spacecraft orbit insertion; descent to the Mars surface; deployment of the airbags and instruments; and exploration by Sojourner, the Mars rover. JPL activities at spacecraft control during significant mission events are also included at the end. The spacecraft cameras pan the surrounding Mars terrain and film Sojourner traversing the surface and inspecting rocks. A single, brief, processed image of the Cydonia region (Mars face) at an oblique angle from the Mars Global Surveyor is presented. A description of the Mars Pathfinder mission, instruments, landing and deployment process, Mars approach, spacecraft orbit insertion, rover operation are all described using computer animation. Actual color footage of Sojourner as well as a 360 deg pan of the Mars terrain surrounding the spacecraft is provided. Lower quality black and white photography depicting Sojourner traversing the Mars surface and inspecting Martian rocks also is included.

Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor Outreach Compilation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1999-01-01

This videotape is a compilation of the best NASA JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) videos of the Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor missions. The mission is described using animation and narration as well as some actual footage of the entire sequence of mission events. Included within these animations are the spacecraft orbit insertion; descent to the Mars surface; deployment of the airbags and instruments; and exploration by Sojourner, the Mars rover. JPL activities at spacecraft control during significant mission events are also included at the end. The spacecraft cameras pan the surrounding Mars terrain and film Sojourner traversing the surface and inspecting rocks. A single, brief, processed image of the Cydonia region (Mars face) at an oblique angle from the Mars Global Surveyor is presented. A description of the Mars Pathfinder mission, instruments, landing and deployment process, Mars approach, spacecraft orbit insertion, rover operation are all described using computer animation. Actual color footage of Sojourner as well as a 360 deg pan of the Mars terrain surrounding the spacecraft is provided. Lower quality black and white photography depicting Sojourner traversing the Mars surface and inspecting Martian rocks also is included.

Parametric Cost Modeling of Space Missions Using the Develop New Projects (DMP) Implementation Process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rosenberg, Leigh; Hihn, Jairus; Roust, Kevin; Warfield, Keith

2000-01-01

This paper presents an overview of a parametric cost model that has been built at JPL to estimate costs of future, deep space, robotic science missions. Due to the recent dramatic changes in JPL business practices brought about by an internal reengineering effort known as develop new products (DNP), high-level historic cost data is no longer considered analogous to future missions. Therefore, the historic data is of little value in forecasting costs for projects developed using the DNP process. This has lead to the development of an approach for obtaining expert opinion and also for combining actual data with expert opinion to provide a cost database for future missions. In addition, the DNP cost model has a maximum of objective cost drivers which reduces the likelihood of model input error. Version 2 is now under development which expands the model capabilities, links it more tightly with key design technical parameters, and is grounded in more rigorous statistical techniques. The challenges faced in building this model will be discussed, as well as it's background, development approach, status, validation, and future plans.

SRT Status and Plans for Version-7

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Susskind, Joel; Blaisdell, John; Iredell, Lena; Kouvaris, Louis

2015-01-01

The AIRS Science Team Version-6 retrieval algorithm is currently producing level-3 Climate Data Records (CDRs) from AIRS that have been proven useful to scientists in understanding climate processes. CDRs are gridded level-3 products which include all cases passing AIRS Climate QC. SRT has made significant further improvements to AIRS Version-6. Research is continuing at SRT toward the development of AIRS Version-7. At the last Science Team Meeting, we described results using SRT AIRS Version-6.19. SRT Version-6.19 is now an official build at JPL called 6.2. SRTs latest version is AIRS Version-6.22. We have also adapted AIRS Version-6.22 to run with CrISATMS. AIRS Version-6.22 and CrIS Version- 6.22 both run now on JPL computers, but are not yet official builds. The main reason for finalization of Version-7, and using it in the relatively near future for the future processing and reprocessing of old AIRS data, is to produce even better CDRs for use by climate scientists. For this reason all results shown in this talk use only AIRS Climate QC.

KSC-07pd0860

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-04-11

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In Astrotech's Payload Processing Facility, technicians roll the Dawn spacecraft into clean room C for unbagging and further processing. Dawn's mission is to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton

Summaries of the Sixth Annual JPL Airborne Earth Science Workshop. Volume 2; AIRSAR Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kim, Yun-Jin (Editor)

1996-01-01

The Sixth Annual JPL Airborne Earth Science Workshop, held in Pasadena, California, on March 4-8, 1996, was divided into two smaller workshops:(1) The Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) workshop, and The Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) workshop. This current paper, Volume 2 of the Summaries of the Sixth Annual JPL Airborne Earth Science Workshop, presents the summaries for The Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) workshop.

Proceedings of the 11th JPL Airborne Earth Science Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Green, Robert O.

2002-01-01

This publication contains the proceedings of the JPL Airborne Earth Science Workshop forum held to report science research and applications results with spectral images measured by the NASA Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS). These papers were presented at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from March 5-8, 2001. Electronic versions of these papers may be found at the A VIRIS Web http://popo.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/docs/workshops/aviris.proceedings.html

AirMSPI Level 1B2 V006 New Data for the NASA/JPL/Caltech ImPACT-PM Campaign

Atmospheric Science Data Center

2018-05-17

AirMSPI Level 1B2 V006 New Data for the NASA/JPL/Caltech ImPACT-PM Campaign ImPACT-PM Wednesday, May 16, 2018 The NASA Langley Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) and Jet Propulsion ... flight campaign.   AirMSPI flies in the nose of NASA's high-altitude ER-2 aircraft. The instrument was built by JPL and the ...

JPL future missions and energy storage technology implications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pawlik, Eugene V.

1987-01-01

The mission model for JPL future programs is presented. This model identifies mission areas where JPL is expected to have a major role and/or participate in a significant manner. These missions are focused on space science and applications missions, but they also include some participation in space station activities. The mission model is described in detail followed by a discussion on the needs for energy storage technology required to support these future activities.

Automated Camera Array Fine Calibration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clouse, Daniel; Padgett, Curtis; Ansar, Adnan; Cheng, Yang

2008-01-01

Using aerial imagery, the JPL FineCalibration (JPL FineCal) software automatically tunes a set of existing CAHVOR camera models for an array of cameras. The software finds matching features in the overlap region between images from adjacent cameras, and uses these features to refine the camera models. It is not necessary to take special imagery of a known target and no surveying is required. JPL FineCal was developed for use with an aerial, persistent surveillance platform.

Credit WCT. This view is an enlargement of an original ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

Credit WCT. This view is an enlargement of an original 2-A" x 2-Y4" color negative housed in the JPL Photography Laboratory, Pasadena, California. The doors of the conditioning chamber have been opened to reveal the arrangement of wrapped motors ready for treatment (JPL negative no. JPL-10281BC, 27 January 1989) - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Solid Propellant Conditioning Building, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

Studying the Sky/Planets Can Drown You in Images: Machine Learning Solutions at JPL/Caltech

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fayyad, U. M.

1995-01-01

JPL is working to develop a domain-independent system capable of small-scale object recognition in large image databases for science analysis. Two applications discussed are the cataloging of three billion sky objects in the Sky Image Cataloging and Analysis Tool (SKICAT) and the detection of possibly one million small volcanoes visible in the Magellan synthetic aperture radar images of Venus (JPL Adaptive Recognition Tool, JARTool).

A spaceborne optical interferometer: The JPL CSI mission focus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laskin, R. A.

1989-08-01

The JPL Control Structure Interaction (CSI) program is part of the larger NASA-wide CSI program. Within this larger context, the JPL CSI program will emphasize technology for systems that demand micron or sub-micron level control, so-called Micro-Precision Controlled Structures (u-PCS). The development of such technology will make it practical to fly missions with large optical or large precision antenna systems. In keeping with the focused nature of the desired technology, the JPL approach is to identify a focus mission, develop the focus mission CSI system design to a preliminary level, and then use this design to drive out requirements for CSI technology development in the design and analysis, ground test bed, and flight experiment areas.

Evaluation of various cleaning methods to remove bacillus spores from spacecraft hardware materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Venkateswaran, Kasthuri; Chung, Shirley; Allton, Judith; Kern, Roger

2004-01-01

A detailed study was made of the biological cleaning effectiveness, defined in terms of the ability to remove bacterial spores, of a number of methods used to clean hardware surfaces. Aluminum (Al 6061) and titanium (Ti 6Al-4V) were chosen for the study as they were deemed the two materials most likely to be used in spacecraft extraterrestrial sampler construction. Metal coupons (1 cm x 2.5 cm) were precleaned and inoculated with 5.8 x 10(3) cultivable Bacillus subtilis spores, which are commonly found on spacecraft surfaces and in the assembly environments. The inoculated coupons were subsequently cleaned using: (1) 70% isopropyl alcohol wipe; (2) water wipe; (3) multiple-solvent flight-hardware cleaning procedures used at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL); (4) Johnson Space Center-developed ultrapure water rinse; and (5) a commercial, semi-aqueous, multiple-solvent (SAMS) cleaning process. The biological cleaning effectiveness was measured by agar plate assay, sterility test (growing in liquid media), and epifluorescent microscopy. None of the cleaning protocols tested completely removed viable spores from the surface of the aluminum. In contrast, titanium was capable of being cleaned to sterility by two methods, the JPL standard and the commercial SAMS cleaning process. Further investigation showed that the passivation step employed in the JPL standard method is an effective surface sterilant on both metals but not compatible with aluminum. It is recommended that titanium (Ti 6Al-4V) be considered superior to aluminum (Al 6061) for use in spacecraft sampling hardware, both for its potential to be cleaned to sterilization and for its ability to withstand the most effective cleaning protocols.

Sentry: An Automated Close Approach Monitoring System for Near-Earth Objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chamberlin, A. B.; Chesley, S. R.; Chodas, P. W.; Giorgini, J. D.; Keesey, M. S.; Wimberly, R. N.; Yeomans, D. K.

2001-11-01

In response to international concern about potential asteroid impacts on Earth, NASA's Near-Earth Object (NEO) Program Office has implemented a new system called ``Sentry'' to automatically update the orbits of all NEOs on a daily basis and compute Earth close approaches up to 100 years into the future. Results are published on our web site (http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/) and updated orbits and ephemerides made available via the JPL Horizons ephemeris service (http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.html). Sentry collects new and revised astrometric observations from the Minor Planet Center (MPC) via their electronic circulars (MPECs) in near real time as well as radar and optical astrometry sent directly from observers. NEO discoveries and identifications are detected in MPECs and processed appropriately. In addition to these daily updates, Sentry synchronizes with each monthly batch of MPC astrometry and automatically updates all NEO observation files. Daily and monthly processing of NEO astrometry is managed using a queuing system which allows for manual intervention of selected NEOs without interfering with the automatic system. At the heart of Sentry is a fully automatic orbit determination program which handles outlier rejection and ensures convergence in the new solution. Updated orbital elements and their covariances are published via Horizons and our NEO web site, typically within 24 hours. A new version of Horizons, in development, will allow computation of ephemeris uncertainties using covariance data. The positions of NEOs with updated orbits are numerically integrated up to 100 years into the future and each close approach to any perturbing body in our dynamic model (all planets, Moon, Ceres, Pallas, Vesta) is recorded. Significant approaches are flagged for extended analysis including Monte Carlo studies. Results, such as minimum encounter distances and future Earth impact probabilities, are published on our NEO web site.

Evaluation of Various Cleaning Methods to Remove Bacillus Spores from Spacecraft Hardware Materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Venkateswaran, Kasthuri; Chung, Shirley; Allton, Judith; Kern, Roger

2004-09-01

A detailed study was made of the biological cleaning effectiveness, defined in terms of the ability to remove bacterial spores, of a number of methods used to clean hardware surfaces. Aluminum (Al 6061) and titanium (Ti 6Al-4V) were chosen for the study as they were deemed the two materials most likely to be used in spacecraft extraterrestrial sampler construction. Metal coupons (1 cm × 2.5 cm) were precleaned and inoculated with 5.8 × 103 cultivable Bacillus subtilis spores, which are commonly found on spacecraft surfaces and in the assembly environments. The inoculated coupons were subsequently cleaned using: (1) 70% isopropyl alcohol wipe; (2) water wipe; (3) multiple-solvent flight-hardware cleaning procedures used at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL); (4) Johnson Space Center-developed ultrapure water rinse; and (5) a commercial, semi-aqueous, multiple-solvent (SAMS) cleaning process. The biological cleaning effectiveness was measured by agar plate assay, sterility test (growing in liquid media), and epifluorescent microscopy. None of the cleaning protocols tested completely removed viable spores from the surface of the aluminum. In contrast, titanium was capable of being cleaned to sterility by two methods, the JPL standard and the commercial SAMS cleaning process. Further investigation showed that the passivation step employed in the JPL standard method is an effective surface sterilant on both metals but not compatible with aluminum. It is recommended that titanium (Ti 6Al-4V) be considered superior to aluminum (Al 6061) for use in spacecraft sampling hardware, both for its potential to be cleaned to sterilization and for its ability to withstand the most effective cleaning protocols.

Evaluation of various cleaning methods to remove bacillus spores from spacecraft hardware materials.

PubMed

Venkateswaran, Kasthuri; Chung, Shirley; Allton, Judith; Kern, Roger

2004-01-01

A detailed study was made of the biological cleaning effectiveness, defined in terms of the ability to remove bacterial spores, of a number of methods used to clean hardware surfaces. Aluminum (Al 6061) and titanium (Ti 6Al-4V) were chosen for the study as they were deemed the two materials most likely to be used in spacecraft extraterrestrial sampler construction. Metal coupons (1 cm x 2.5 cm) were precleaned and inoculated with 5.8 x 10(3) cultivable Bacillus subtilis spores, which are commonly found on spacecraft surfaces and in the assembly environments. The inoculated coupons were subsequently cleaned using: (1) 70% isopropyl alcohol wipe; (2) water wipe; (3) multiple-solvent flight-hardware cleaning procedures used at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL); (4) Johnson Space Center-developed ultrapure water rinse; and (5) a commercial, semi-aqueous, multiple-solvent (SAMS) cleaning process. The biological cleaning effectiveness was measured by agar plate assay, sterility test (growing in liquid media), and epifluorescent microscopy. None of the cleaning protocols tested completely removed viable spores from the surface of the aluminum. In contrast, titanium was capable of being cleaned to sterility by two methods, the JPL standard and the commercial SAMS cleaning process. Further investigation showed that the passivation step employed in the JPL standard method is an effective surface sterilant on both metals but not compatible with aluminum. It is recommended that titanium (Ti 6Al-4V) be considered superior to aluminum (Al 6061) for use in spacecraft sampling hardware, both for its potential to be cleaned to sterilization and for its ability to withstand the most effective cleaning protocols.

The NASA-JPL advanced propulsion program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frisbee, Robert H.

1994-01-01

The NASA Advanced Propulsion Concepts (APC) program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) consists of two main areas: The first involves cooperative modeling and research activities between JPL and various universities and industry; the second involves research at universities and industry that is directly supported by JPL. The cooperative research program consists of mission studies, research and development of ion engine technology using C-60 (Buckminsterfullerene) propellant, and research and development of lithium-propellant Lorentz-force accelerator (LFA) engine technology. The university/industry- supported research includes research (modeling and proof-of-concept experiments) in advanced, long-life electric propulsion, and in fusion propulsion. These propulsion concepts were selected primarily to cover a range of applications from near-term to far-term missions. For example, the long-lived pulsed-xenon thruster research that JPL is supporting at Princeton University addresses the near-term need for efficient, long-life attitude control and station-keeping propulsion for Earth-orbiting spacecraft. The C-60-propellant ion engine has the potential for good efficiency in a relatively low specific impulse (Isp) range (10,000 - 30,000 m/s) that is optimum for relatively fast (less than 100 day) cis-lunar (LEO/GEO/Lunar) missions employing near-term, high-specific mass electric propulsion vehicles. Research and modeling on the C-60-ion engine are currently being performed by JPL (engine demonstration), Caltech (C-60 properties), MIT (plume modeling), and USC (diagnostics). The Li-propellant LFA engine also has good efficiency in the modest Isp range (40,000 - 50,000 m/s) that is optimum for near-to-mid-term megawatt-class solar- and nuclear-electric propulsion vehicles used for Mars missions transporting cargo (in support of a piloted mission). Research and modeling on the Li-LFA engine are currently being performed by JPL (cathode development), Moscow Aviation Institute (engine testing), Thermacore (electrode development), as well as at MIT (plume modeling), and USC (diagnostics). Also, the mission performance of a nuclear-electric propulsion (NEP) Li-LFA Mars cargo vehicle is being modeled by JPL (mission analysis; thruster and power processor modeling) and the Rocketdyne Energy Technology and Engineering Center (ETEC) (power system modeling). Finally, the fusion propulsion research activities that JPL is supporting at Pennsylvania State University (PSU) and at Lawrenceville Plasma Physics (LPP) are aimed at far-term fast (less than 100 day round trip) piloted Mars missions and, in the very far term, interstellar missions.

Natural Satellite Ephemerides at JPL

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jacobson, Robert Arthur; Brozovic, Marina

2015-08-01

There are currently 176 known natural planetary satellites in the solar system; 150 are officially recognized by the IAU and 26 have IAU provisional designations. We maintain ephemerides for all of the satellites at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and make them available electronically through the On-Line Solar System Data Service known as Horizons(http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons) and in the form of generic Spice Kernels (SPK files) from NASA's Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility (http://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/naif). General satellite information such as physical constants and descriptive orbital elements can be found on the JPL Solar System Dynamics Website (http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov). JPL's ephemerides directly support planetary spacecraft missions both in navigation and science data analysis. They are also used in general scientific investigations of planetary systems. We produce the ephemerides by fitting numerically integrated orbits to observational data. Our model for the satellite dynamics accounts for the gravitational interactions within a planetary system and the external gravitational perturbations from the Sun and planets. We rely on an extensive data set to determine the parameters in our dynamical models. The majority of the observations are visual, photographic, and CCD astrometry acquired from Earthbased observatories worldwide and the Hubble Space Telescope. Additional observations include optical and photoelectric transits, eclipses, occultations, Earthbased radar ranging, spacecraft imaging,and spacecraft radiometric tracking. The latter data provide information on the planet and satellite gravity fields as well as the satellite position at the times of spacecraft close encounters. In this paper we report on the status of the ephemerides and our plan for future development, specifically that in support of NASA's Juno, Cassini, and New Horizons missions to Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto, respectively.

Vice President Pence Tours Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-04-28

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, 2nd from left, poses for a group photograph with JPL Director Michael Watkins, left, JPL Deputy Director Lt. Gen. (Ret) Larry James, California Institute of Technology President Thomas Rosenbaum, JPL Distinguished Visiting Scientist and Spouse of UAG Chairman James Ellis, Elisabeth Pate-Cornell, and UAG Chairman, Admiral (Ret) James Ellis, right, after having toured NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Saturday, April 28, 2018 in Pasadena, California. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Electronic neuroprocessors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thakoor, Anil

1991-01-01

The JPL Center for Space Microelectronics Technology (CSMT) is actively pursuing research in the neural network theory, algorithms, and electronics as well as optoelectronic neural net hardware implementations, to explore the strengths and application potential for a variety of NASA, DoD, as well as commercial application problems, where conventional computing techniques are extremely time-consuming, cumbersome, or simply non-existent. An overview of the JPL electronic neural network hardware development activities and some of the striking applications of the JPL electronic neuroprocessors are presented.

The TOPSAR interferometric radar topographic mapping instrument

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zebker, Howard A.; Madsen, Soren N.; Martin, Jan; Alberti, Giovanni; Vetrella, Sergio; Cucci, Alessandro

1992-01-01

The NASA DC-8 AIRSAR instrument was augmented with a pair of C-band antennas displaced across track to form an interferometer sensitive to topographic variations of the Earth's surface. The antennas were developed by the Italian consortium Co.Ri.S.T.A., under contract to the Italian Space Agency (ASI), while the AIRSAR instrument and modifications to it supporting TOPSAR were sponsored by NASA. A new data processor was developed at JPL for producing the topographic maps, and a second processor was developed at Co.Ri.S.T.A. All the results presented below were processed at JPL. During the 1991 DC-8 flight campaign, data were acquired over several sites in the United States and Europe, and topographic maps were produced from several of these flight lines. Analysis of the results indicate that statistical errors are in the 2-3 m range for flat terrain and in the 4-5 m range for mountainous areas.

Minority University System Engineering: A Small Satellite Design Experience Held at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory During the Summer of 1996

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ordaz, Miguel Angel

1997-01-01

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in conjunction with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), North Carolina A&T and California State University of Los Angeles participated during the summer of 1996 in a prototype program known as Minority University Systems Engineering (MUSE). The program consisted of a ten week internship at JPL for students and professors of the three universities. The purpose of MUSE as set forth in the MUSE program review August 5, 1996 was for the participants to gain experience in the following areas: 1) Gain experience in a multi-disciplinary project; 2) Gain experience working in a culturally diverse atmosphere; 3) Provide field experience for students to reinforce book learning; and 4) Streamline the design process in two areas: make it more financially feasible; and make it faster.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knosp, B.; Neely, S.; Zimdars, P.; Mills, B.; Vance, N.

2007-12-01

The Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) Science Computing Facility (SCF) stores over 50 terabytes of data, has over 240 computer processing hosts, and 64 users from around the world. These resources are spread over three primary geographical locations - the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Raytheon RIS, and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT). A need for a grid network system was identified and defined to solve the problem of users competing for finite, and increasingly scarce, MLS SCF computing resources. Using Sun's Grid Engine software, a grid network was successfully created in a development environment that connected the JPL and Raytheon sites, established master and slave hosts, and demonstrated that transfer queues for jobs can work among multiple clusters in the same grid network. This poster will first describe MLS SCF resources and the lessons that were learned in the design and development phase of this project. It will then go on to discuss the test environment and plans for deployment by highlighting benchmarks and user experiences.

JPL-20180430-JPLf-0001-Vice President Pence Visits NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-04-30

Vice President Mike Pence toured NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California on Saturday, April 28 with his wife, Karen, and their daughter, Charlotte. JPL is the birthplace of numerous past, present and future robotic missions. Pence saw and heard more about JPL missions, which support the nation’s goals of furthering exploration of the Moon and Mars. JPL Director Mike Watkins led the tour for Pence and his guests. Vice President Pence toured JPL’s Mission Control where engineers communicate with spacecraft across the solar system through NASA’s Deep Space Network. While there, Charlotte Pence uplinked commands to the Mars Curiosity rover to execute its next science activities. The signal took about seven minutes to reach the rover, which is about 80-million miles from Earth. Pence also saw the Spacecraft Assembly Facility, where the Mars 2020 mission hardware is being assembled in a giant “clean room.” Mars 2020 will not only look for signs of habitable conditions on Mars in the ancient past, but will also search for signs of past microbial life itself.

Test Rover at JPL During Preparation for Mars Rover Low-Angle Selfie

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-08-19

This view of a test rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, results from advance testing of arm positions and camera pointings for taking a low-angle self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. This rehearsal in California led to a dramatic Aug. 5, 2015, selfie of Curiosity, online at PIA19807. Curiosity's arm-mounted Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera took 92 of component images that were assembled into that mosaic. The rover team positioned the camera lower in relation to the rover body than for any previous full self-portrait of Curiosity. This practice version was taken at JPL's Mars Yard in July 2013, using the Vehicle System Test Bed (VSTB) rover, which has a test copy of MAHLI on its robotic arm. MAHLI was built by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19810

KSC-07pd0864

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-04-11

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Dawn spacecraft is seen here in clean room C of Astrotech's Payload Processing Facility. In the clean room, the spacecraft will undergo further processing. Dawn's mission is to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton

This view of Jupiter was taken by Voyager 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1998-01-01

This view of Jupiter was taken by Voyager 1. This image was taken through color filters and recombined to produce the color image. This photo was assembled from three black and white negatives by the Image Processing Lab at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. JPL manages and controls the VOyager project for NASA's Office of Space Science.

Visualizing a Solar Storm's Effect on Mars Atmosphere (Illustration)

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-13

This illustration depicts charged particles from a solar storm stripping away charged particles of Mars' atmosphere, one of the processes of Martian atmosphere loss studied by NASA's MAVEN mission, beginning in 2014. Unlike Earth, Mars lacks a global magnetic field that could deflect charged particles emanating from the Sun. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22076

JPL initiative on historically black colleges and universities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allen, Lew; Forte, Paul, Jr.; Leipold, Martin H.

1989-01-01

Executive order number 12320 of September 15, 1981, established a program designed to significantly increase the participation of historically black colleges and universities (HBCU's) in Federal programs. Because of its geographical remoteness and position as a contractor operated center, JPL had not participated in grant and training programs with the HBCU's. In recognition of JPL's responsibility to the national commitment on behalf of the historically black colleges and universities, an initiative with effective, achievable guidelines and early progress for a better and more productive interaction between JPL and the HBCU's is described. Numerous areas of interaction with the historically black colleges and universities have been identified and are being inplemented. They have two broad objectives: research interactions and faculty/student interactions. Plans and progress to date for each specific area are summarized.

Credit WCT. Original 2¾" x 2Y4" color negative is housed ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

Credit WCT. Original 2-¾" x 2-Y4" color negative is housed in the JPL Photography Laboratory, Pasadena, California. View shows JPL staff member John Morrow loading the grinder hopper. The hopper has a 10 mesh screen to filter out particles too large for the mill. Oxidizer is passed steadily to the hammers by a stainless steel feed screw. Oxidizer may be passed through the mill several times depending on the fineness required by a given propellant formula; the maximum charge is 130 pounds (59.0 Kg). The drum below the mill has an electrically conductive plastic liner which receives the ground oxidizer (JPL negative no. JPL10279AC, 27 January 1989) - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Oxidizer Grinder Building, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

This photocopy of an engineering drawing shows the floor plan ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

This photocopy of an engineering drawing shows the floor plan of the Liner Lab, including room functions. Austin, Field & Fry, Architects Engineers, 22311 West Third Street, Los Angeles 57, California: Edwards Test Station Complex Phase II, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Edwards Air Force Base, Edwards, California: "Liner Laboratory, Floor Plan and Schedules," drawing no. E33/4-2, 26 June 1962. California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Plant Engineering: engineering drawings of structures at JPL Edwards Facility. Drawings on file at JPL Plant Engineering, Pasadena, California. California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Plant Engineering: engineering drawings of structures at JPL Edwards Facility. Drawings on file at JPL Plant Engineering, Pasadena, California - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Liner Laboratory, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

Vapor hydrogen peroxide as alternative to dry heat microbial reduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chung, S.; Kern, R.; Koukol, R.; Barengoltz, J.; Cash, H.

2008-09-01

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in conjunction with the NASA Planetary Protection Officer, has selected vapor phase hydrogen peroxide (VHP) sterilization process for continued development as a NASA approved sterilization technique for spacecraft subsystems and systems. The goal was to include this technique, with an appropriate specification, in NASA Procedural Requirements 8020.12 as a low-temperature complementary technique to the dry heat sterilization process. The VHP process is widely used by the medical industry to sterilize surgical instruments and biomedical devices, but high doses of VHP may degrade the performance of flight hardware, or compromise material compatibility. The goal for this study was to determine the minimum VHP process conditions for planetary protection acceptable microbial reduction levels. Experiments were conducted by the STERIS Corporation, under contract to JPL, to evaluate the effectiveness of vapor hydrogen peroxide for the inactivation of the standard spore challenge, Geobacillus stearothermophilus. VHP process parameters were determined that provide significant reductions in spore viability while allowing survival of sufficient spores for statistically significant enumeration. In addition to the obvious process parameters of interest: hydrogen peroxide concentration, number of injection cycles, and exposure duration, the investigation also considered the possible effect on lethality of environmental parameters: temperature, absolute humidity, and material substrate. This study delineated a range of test sterilizer process conditions: VHP concentration, process duration, a process temperature range for which the worst case D-value may be imposed, a process humidity range for which the worst case D-value may be imposed, and the dependence on selected spacecraft material substrates. The derivation of D-values from the lethality data permitted conservative planetary protection recommendations.

Assimilation and implications of AE-9/AP-9 in the design process of JPL missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Soria-Santacruz Pich, M.; Jun, I.

2015-12-01

The NASA AE-8/AP-8 has been the standard geospace environment specification for decades. This model describes the energetic particle environment around the Earth and is currently the default model used in the design of space missions at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Moreover, the model plays a critical role in the determination of the shielding and survivability of the satellites orbiting our planet. A recent update supported by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the AE-9/AP-9 model, was released in September 2012 and included many improvements like increased spatial resolution and the specification of the uncertainty due to instrument errors or space weather variability. A current effort at JPL is in place with the objective of making a decision within the Laboratory on the transition from AE-8/AP-8 to the new AE-9/AP-9. In this study we present the results of this effort, which involves the comparison between both versions of the model for different satellite orbits, the comparison between AE-9/AP-9 and in-situ satellite data from the Van Allen Probes and the OSTM/Jason 2 satellite, and the implications of adopting the new model for spacecraft design in terms of survivability, shielding, single event effects, and spacecraft charging.

JPL's GNSS Real-Time Earthquake and Tsunami (GREAT) Alert System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bar-Sever, Yoaz; Miller, Mark; Vallisneri, Michele; Khachikyan, Robert; Meyer, Robert

2017-04-01

We describe recent developments to the GREAT Alert natural hazard monitoring service from JPL's Global Differential GPS (GDGPS) System. GREAT Alert provides real-time, 1 Hz positioning solutions for hundreds of GNSS tracking sites, from both global and regional networks, aiming to monitor ground motion in the immediate aftermath of earthquakes. We take advantage of the centralized data processing, which is collocated with the GNSS orbit determination operations of the GDGPS System, to combine orbit determination with large-scale point-positioning in a grand estimation scheme, and as a result realize significant improvement to the positioning accuracy compared to conventional stand-alone point positioning techniques. For example, the measured median site (over all sites) real-time horizontal positioning accuracy is 2 cm 1DRMS, and the median real-time vertical accuracy is 4 cm RMS. The GREAT Alert positioning service is integrated with automated global earthquake notices from the United States Geodetic Survey (USGS) to support near-real-time calculations of co-seismic displacements with attendant formal errors based both short-term and long-term error analysis for each individual site. We will show the millimeter-level resolution of co-seismic displacement can be achieved by this system. The co-seismic displacements, in turn, are fed into a JPL geodynamics and ocean models, that estimate the Earthquake magnitude and predict the potential tsunami scale.

Satellite Radar Detects Damage from Sept. 2017 Chiapas, Mexico Quake

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-09-19

The Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and Caltech, also in Pasadena, created this Damage Proxy Map (DPM) depicting areas of Southern Mexico that are likely damaged (shown by red and yellow pixels) from the magnitude 8.1 Chiapas earthquake of Sept. 7, 2017 (near midnight local time, early morning on Sept. 8 UTC). The map is derived from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images from the Copernicus Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B satellites, operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). The images were taken before (Sept. 7, 2017 UTC) and after (Sept. 13, 2017 UTC) the earthquake. The map covers an area of 155 by 106 miles (250 by 170 kilometers). Each pixel measures about 33 yards (30 meters) across. The color variation from yellow to red indicates increasingly more significant ground surface change. Preliminary validation was done by comparing the SAR images to optical satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe. This damage proxy map should be used as guidance to identify damaged areas, and may be less reliable over vegetated areas. Sentinel-1 data were accessed through the Copernicus Open Access Hub. The image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA and analyzed by the NASA-JPL/Caltech ARIA team. This research was carried out at JPL under a contract with NASA. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21956

Credit WCT. Original 21/4"x21/4" color negative is housed in the ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

Credit WCT. Original 2-1/4"x2-1/4" color negative is housed in the JPL Photography Laboratory, Pasadena, California. This interior view of the Xray chamber shows operator Leonard "Dutch" Sebring positioning the 1 million electron volt X-ray machine to make an image of a Syncom 2 motor (JPL negative no. JPL-10285BC, 27 January 1989) - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Radiographic Inspection Building, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

Publications of the JPL Solar Thermal Power Systems Project, 1976 to 1983

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gray, V. (Compiler); Marsh, C. (Compiler); Panda, P. (Compiler)

1984-01-01

The bibliographical listings in this publication are documentation products associated with the solar thermal power system project carried out by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1976 to 1983. Documents listed are categorized as conference and journal papers, JPL external reports, JPL internal reports, or contractor reports. Alphabetical listings by title were used in the bibliography itself to facilitate location of the document by subject. Two indexes are included for ease of reference: one, an author index; the other, a topical index.

Publications of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory: 1990 and 1991

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1993-01-01

JPL Bibliography 39-32 describes and indexes by primary author the externally distributed technical reporting, released during calendar years 1990 and 1991, that resulted from scientific and engineering work performed or managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Three classes of publications are included: (1) JPL publications (90- and 91-series) in which the information is complete for a specific accomplishment; (2) articles from the quarterly Telecommunications and Data Acquisition (TDA) Progress Report (42-series); and (3) articles published in the open literature.

3. Credit WCT. Original 4"x5" black and white negative is ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

3. Credit WCT. Original 4"x5" black and white negative is housed in the JPL Archives, Pasadena, California. This view of the vibrator shows a large mounted ATS (Advanced Technology Satellite) motor. Accelerometer instrumentation has been added. JPL caption reads "C-210E Vibration Exciter ATS Accelerometer Installation on Q4TX AXIS" (JPL negative no. 384-5848B, 31 March 1966). - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Test Stand G, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

10. Photographic copy of engineering drawing showing the plumbing layout ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

10. Photographic copy of engineering drawing showing the plumbing layout of Test Stand 'C' Cv Cell, vacuum line, and scrubber-condenser as erected in 1977-78. JPL drawing by VTN Consolidated, Inc. Engineers, Architects, Planners, 2301 Campus Drive, Irvine, California 92664: 'JPL-ETS E-18 (C-Stand Modifications) Flow Diagram,' sheet M-2 (JPL sheet number E18/41-0), September 1, 1977. - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Test Stand C, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

9. Photographic copy of engineering drawing showing the mechanical layout ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

9. Photographic copy of engineering drawing showing the mechanical layout of Test Stand 'C' Cv Cell, vacuum line, and scrubber-condenser as erected in 1977-78. JPL drawing by VTN Consolidated, Inc. Engineers, Architects, Planners, 2301 Campus Drive, Irvine, California 92664: 'JPL-ETS E-18 (C-Stand Modifications) Control Elevations & Schematics,' sheet M-5 (JPL sheet number E18/44-0), 1 September 1977. - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Test Stand C, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

Software-Engineering Process Simulation (SEPS) model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lin, C. Y.; Abdel-Hamid, T.; Sherif, J. S.

1992-01-01

The Software Engineering Process Simulation (SEPS) model is described which was developed at JPL. SEPS is a dynamic simulation model of the software project development process. It uses the feedback principles of system dynamics to simulate the dynamic interactions among various software life cycle development activities and management decision making processes. The model is designed to be a planning tool to examine tradeoffs of cost, schedule, and functionality, and to test the implications of different managerial policies on a project's outcome. Furthermore, SEPS will enable software managers to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of software project development and perform postmodern assessments.

U.S. data processing for the IRAS project. [by Jet Propulsion Laboratory Scientific Data Analysis System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Duxbury, J. H.

1983-01-01

The JPL's Scientific Data Analysis System (SDAS), which will process IRAS data and produce a catalogue of perhaps a million infrared sources in the sky, as well as other information for astronomical records, is described. The purposes of SDAS are discussed, and the major SDAS processors are shown in block diagram. The catalogue processing is addressed, mentioning the basic processing steps which will be applied to raw detector data. Signal reconstruction and conversion to astrophysical units, source detection, source confirmation, data management, and survey data products are considered in detail.

NASA's Mobile and Telecom Antenna Development at JPL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huang, John

1997-01-01

Chartered by NASA to develop and demonstrate enabling technologies for mobile and satellite telecommuniation systems, JPL has developed various antenna technologies throughout the microwave spectrum in the past two decades.

RoboSimian and Friends

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-07-16

Limbed robot RoboSimian was developed at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, seen here with Brett Kennedy, supervisor of the JPL Robotic Vehicles and Manipulators Group, and Chuck Bergh, a senior engineer in JPL Robotic Hardware Systems Group.

Cascade Helps JPL Explore the Solar System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burke, G. R.

1996-01-01

At Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), we are involved with the unmanned exploration of the solar system. Unmanned probes observe the planet surfaces using radar and optical cameras to take a variety of measurements.

RoboSimian Exits Vehicle

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-06-09

JPL's RoboSimian exits its vehicle following a brief drive through a slalom course at the DARPA Robotics Challenge in Pomona, California. This image was taken June 6, 2015. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19324

RoboSimian Driving

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-06-09

JPL's RoboSimian drives a four-wheeled vehicle through a slalom course at the DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals in Pomona, California. This image was taken on June 6, 2015. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19325

Rover Rehearses Roll-Off at JPL

NASA Image and Video Library

2004-01-15

Footage from the JPL In-Situ Instruments Laboratory, or testbed, shows engineers rehearsing a crucial maneuver called egress in which NASA Mars Exploration Rover Spirit rolls off its lander platform and touches martian soil.

JPL Innovation Foundry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sherwood, Brent; McCleese, Daniel J.

2012-01-01

NASA supports the community of mission principal investigators by helping them ideate, mature, and propose concepts for new missions. As NASA's Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC), JPL is a primary resource for providing this service. The environmental context for the formulation lifecycle evolves continuously. Contemporary trends include: more competitors; more-complex mission ideas; scarcer formulation resources; and higher standards for technical evaluation. Derived requirements for formulation support include: stable, clear, reliable methods tailored for each stage of the formulation lifecycle; on-demand access to standout technical and programmatic subject-matter experts; optimized, outfitted facilities; smart access to learning embodied in a vast oeuvre of prior formulation work; hands-on method coaching. JPL has retooled its provision of integrated formulation lifecycle support to PIs, teams, and program offices in response to this need. This mission formulation enterprise is the JPL Innovation Foundry.

JPL Contamination Control Engineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blakkolb, Brian

2013-01-01

JPL has extensive expertise fielding contamination sensitive missions-in house and with our NASA/industry/academic partners.t Development and implementation of performance-driven cleanliness requirements for a wide range missions and payloads - UV-Vis-IR: GALEX, Dawn, Juno, WFPC-II, AIRS, TES, et al - Propulsion, thermal control, robotic sample acquisition systems. Contamination control engineering across the mission life cycle: - System and payload requirements derivation, analysis, and contamination control implementation plans - Hardware Design, Risk trades, Requirements V-V - Assembly, Integration & Test planning and implementation - Launch site operations and launch vehicle/payload integration - Flight ops center dot Personnel on staff have expertise with space materials development and flight experiments. JPL has capabilities and expertise to successfully address contamination issues presented by space and habitable environments. JPL has extensive experience fielding and managing contamination sensitive missions. Excellent working relationship with the aerospace contamination control engineering community/.

JPL Innovation Foundry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sherwood, Brent; McCleese, Daniel

2012-01-01

Space science missions are increasingly challenged today: in ambition, by increasingly sophisticated hypotheses tested; in development, by the increasing complexity of advanced technologies; in budgeting, by the decline of flagship-class mission opportunities; in management, by expectations for breakthrough science despite a risk-averse programmatic climate; and in planning, by increasing competition for scarce resources. How are the space-science missions of tomorrow being formulated? The paper describes the JPL Innovation Foundry, created in 2011, to respond to this evolving context. The Foundry integrates methods, tools, and experts that span the mission concept lifecycle. Grounded in JPL's heritage of missions, flight instruments, mission proposals, and concept innovation, the Foundry seeks to provide continuity of support and cost-effective, on-call access to the right domain experts at the right time, as science definition teams and Principal Investigators mature mission ideas from "cocktail napkin" to PDR. The Foundry blends JPL capabilities in proposal development and concurrent engineering, including Team X, with new approaches for open-ended concept exploration in earlier, cost-constrained phases, and with ongoing research and technology projects. It applies complexity and cost models, projectformulation lessons learned, and strategy analyses appropriate to each level of concept maturity. The Foundry is organizationally integrated with JPL formulation program offices; staffed by JPL's line organizations for engineering, science, and costing; and overseen by senior Laboratory leaders to assure experienced coordination and review. Incubation of each concept is tailored depending on its maturity and proposal history, and its highest leverage modeling and analysis needs.

Validation of the TOLNet lidars during SCOOP (Southern California Ozone Observation Project)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leblanc, Thierry; Granados-Munoz, Maria-Jose; Strawbridge, Kevin; Senff, Chris; Langford, Andy; Berkoff, Tim; Gronoff, Guillaume; DeYoung, Russel; Carion, Bill; Chen, G.; Sullivan, John; McGee, Tom; Jonhson, M.; Kuang, S.; Newchurch, Mike

2018-04-01

Five TOLNet lidars participated to a validation campaign at the JPL-Table Mountain Facility, CA in August 2016. All lidars agreed within ±10% of each other and within ±7% of the ozonesondes. Centralized data processing was used to compare the uncertainty budgets. The results highlight the TOLNet potential to address science questions ranging from boundary layer processes to long range transport. TOLNet can now be seen as a robust network for use in field campaigns and long term monitoring.

KSC-07pd0861

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-04-11

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In clean room C of Astrotech's Payload Processing Facility, a worker wears a "bunny suit," or clean-room attire, next to the Dawn spacecraft, which will be unbagged and undergo further processing. Dawn's mission is to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton

KSC-07pd0858

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-04-11

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In Astrotech's Payload Processing Facility, an overhead crane lifts the Dawn spacecraft from its transporter. Dawn will be moved into clean room C for unbagging and further processing. Dawn's mission is to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton

A modeling analysis program for the JPL table mountain Io sodium cloud data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smyth, W. H.; Goldberg, B. A.

1984-01-01

A detailed review of 110 of the 263 Region B/C images of the 1981 data set is undertaken and a preliminary assessment of 39 images of the 1976-79 data set is presented. The basic spatial characteristics of these images are discussed. Modeling analysis of these images after further data processing will provide useful information about Io and the planetary magnetosphere. Plans for data processing and modeling analysis are outlined. Results of very preliminary modeling activities are presented.

Technology transfer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Handley, Thomas

1992-01-01

The requirements for a successful technology transfer program and what such a program would look like are discussed. In particular, the issues associated with technology transfer in general, and within the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) environment specifically are addressed. The section on background sets the stage, identifies the barriers to successful technology transfer, and suggests actions to address the barriers either generally or specifically. The section on technology transfer presents a process with its supporting management plan that is required to ensure a smooth transfer process. Viewgraphs are also included.

Reducing NPR 7120.5D to Practice: Transitioning from Design Reviews to the SIR Hardware Review

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Taylor, Randall

2011-01-01

The Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission was the first Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) project initiated under NASA's revised rules for space flight project management, NPR 7120.5D, "NASA Space Flight Program and Project Management Requirements." NASA selected GRAIL through a competitive Announcement of Opportunity process and funded its Phase B Preliminary Design effort. The team's first major milestone was a JPL institutional milestone, the Project Mission System Review (PMSR), which proved an excellent tune-up for the end-of-Phase-B NASA life-cycle review, the Preliminary Design Review (PDR). Building on JPL experience on the Prometheus and Juno projects, the team successfully organized for and conducted these reviews on an aggressive schedule. For the Project Critical Design Review (CDR), lessons learned from the PDR and updated Standing Review Board (SRB) practices from the Agency were factored into the review preparation effort. Additionally, the review was held at the Principal Investigator's institution, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, rather than at the project management center (JPL), which necessitated additional cross-country coordination steps. The PMSR, PDR, and CDR were design reviews and largely paper-oriented. For the System Integration Review (SIR), the project needed to transition to a hardware review and deal with paper in a very different manner. While many of the practices employed for the design reviews were modified and retained (e.g., review preparation team, gate products management, pre-reviews, SRB coordination), the review agenda, presentation style, and slide templates were significantly changed. A key success factor concerned the handling of project open paper, which was succinctly and effectively communicated to the SRB in presentations.This paper provides a brief overview of the GRAIL mission and its project management challenges, provides a detailed description of project SIR preparation and execution activities, including positive and negative lessons learned and identifies recommendations for future NASA (and non- NASA) project teams.

Galle Crater Floor

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-02-05

The unusual texture seen in this image of Galle Crater is likely layered deposits that have been eroded. Small dune and windstreak features in this image from NASA 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft, indicate that winds are part of the erosive process. Orbit Number: 57733 Latitude: -51.7743 Longitude: 329.135 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2014-12-19 11:13 http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19191

Juling Crater

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-03-14

This view from NASA's Dawn mission shows where ice has been detected in the northern wall of Ceres' Juling Crater, which is in almost permanent shadow. Dawn acquired the picture with its framing camera on Aug. 30, 2016, and it was processed with the help of NASA Ames Stereo Pipeline (ASP), to estimate the slope of the cliff. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21918

Hypercube technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parker, Jay W.; Cwik, Tom; Ferraro, Robert D.; Liewer, Paulett C.; Patterson, Jean E.

1991-01-01

The JPL designed MARKIII hypercube supercomputer has been in application service since June 1988 and has had successful application to a broad problem set including electromagnetic scattering, discrete event simulation, plasma transport, matrix algorithms, neural network simulation, image processing, and graphics. Currently, problems that are not homogeneous are being attempted, and, through this involvement with real world applications, the software is evolving to handle the heterogeneous class problems efficiently.

The browse file of NASA/JPL quick-look radar images from the Loch Linnhe 1989 experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, Walter E., Jr. (Editor)

1989-01-01

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Aircraft Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) was deployed to Scotland to obtain radar imagery of ship wakes generated in Loch Linnhe. These observations were part of a joint US and UK experiment to study the internal waves generated by ships under partially controlled conditions. The AIRSAR was mounted on the NASA-Ames DC-8 aircraft. The data acquisition sequence consisted of 8 flights, each about 6 hours in duration, wherein 24 observations of the instrumented site were made on each flight. This Browse File provides the experimenters with a reference of the real time imagery (approximately 100 images) obtained on the 38-deg track. These radar images are copies of those obtained at the time of observation and show the general geometry of the ship wake features. To speed up processing during this flight, the images were all processed around zero Doppler, and thus azimuth ambiguities often occur when the drift angel (yaw) exceeded a few degrees. However, even with the various shortcomings, it is believed that the experimenter will find the Browse File useful in establishing a basis for further investigations.

Calling Home in 2003: JPL Roadmap to Standardized TT&C Customer Support

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kurtik, S.; Berner, J.; Levesque, M.

2000-01-01

The telecommunications and Mission Operations Directorate (TMOD at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) provides tracking, telemetry and command (TT&C) services for execution of a broad spectrum of deep space missions.

Mixed Reality Technology at NASA JPL

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-05-16

NASA's JPL is a center of innovation in virtual and augmented reality, producing groundbreaking applications of these technologies to support a variety of missions. This video is a collection of unedited scenes released to the media.

JPL Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) data availability, version 1-94

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1994-01-01

The Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) archive at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) includes satellite data sets for the ocean sciences and global-change research to facilitate multidisciplinary use of satellite ocean data. Parameters include sea-surface height, surface-wind vector, sea-surface temperature, atmospheric liquid water, and integrated water vapor. The JPL PO.DAAC is an element of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) and is the United States distribution site for Ocean Topography Experiment (TOPEX)/POSEIDON data and metadata.

Vice President Pence Tours Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-04-28

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, 3rd from right, tours NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory along with his wife Karen, and daughter Charlotte, Saturday, April 28, 2018 in Pasadena, California. Joining the Vice President t and his family on the tour are: UAG Chairman, Admiral (Ret) James Ellis , left, JPL Distinguished Visiting Scientist and Spouse of UAG Chairman James Ellis, Elisabeth Pate-Cornell, behind Mrs. Pence, California Institute of Technology President Thomas Rosenbaum, JPL Director Michael Watkins, and JPL Deputy Director Lt. Gen. (Ret) Larry James, right. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Atlas of Absorption Lines from 0 to 17900 cm-1

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-09-01

Hampton, Virginia H. M. Pickett Jet Propulsion Laboratory Pasadena, California D. J. Richardson and J. S. Namkung ST Systems Corporation (STX...2 NH3 HN03 OH HF HCi HBr HI CIO OCS H2CO H0C1 N2 HCN CH3C! H202 C2H2 C2H6 PH3 Oj(JPL) +- 0(3P)(JPL) H02(JPL) Solor CO...Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts. H. M. Pickett: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. D. J. Richardson and J. S. Namkung: ST Systems Corporation

Mission Control, 1964

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-10-27

This archival image was released as part of a gallery comparing JPL's past and present, commemorating the 80th anniversary of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Oct. 31, 2016. When spacecraft in deep space "phone home," they do it through NASA's Deep Space Network. Engineers in this room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory -- known as Mission Control -- monitor the flow of data. This image was taken in May 1964, when the building this nerve center is in, the Space Flight Operations Facility (Building 230), was dedicated at JPL. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21120

JPL Administration Building

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-10-27

This archival image was released as part of a gallery comparing JPL's past and present, commemorating the 80th anniversary of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Oct. 31, 2016. The Administration Building of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Building 180) is pictured in January 1965. What appears as a parking lot in this photograph later becomes "The Mall", a landscaped open-air gathering place. A small security control post can be seen at the left of the 1965 image. And Building 167, one of the lab's cafeterias, is on the right. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21121

3. Credit JPL. Photographic copy of photograph, view south into ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

3. Credit JPL. Photographic copy of photograph, view south into oxidizer tank enclosure and controls on the north side of Test Stand 'C' shortly after the stand's construction in 1957 (oxidizer contents not determined). To the extreme left appear fittings for mounting an engine for tests. Note the robust stainless steel flanges and fittings necessary to contain highly pressurized corrosive chemicals. (JPL negative no. 384-1608-C, 29 August 1957) - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Test Stand C, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

JPL Testbed Image of Airbag Retraction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2004-01-01

This image shows the deflated airbags retracted underneath the lander petal at the JPL In-Situ Instrument Laboratory. Retracting the airbags helps clear the path for the rover to roll off the lander and onto the martian surface.

Cloud Arcs

Atmospheric Science Data Center

2013-04-19

... series of quasi-circular arcs. Clues regarding the formation of these arcs can be found by noting that larger clouds exist in the ... in Hampton, VA. Image credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team. Other formats available at JPL March 11, 2002 - ...

Using LabVIEW for Telemetry Monitoring and Display

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wells, G.; Baroth, E.

1994-01-01

Part of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL's) Instrumentation Section, the Measurement Technology Center (MTC) evaluates data acquisition hardware and software products for inclusion into the Instrument Loan Pool, which are the made available to JPL experimenters.

Team X Report #1401: Exoplanet Coronagraph STDT Study 2013-06

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Warfield, Keith

2013-01-01

This document is intended to stimulate discussion of the topic described. All technical and cost analyses are preliminary. This document is not a commitment to work, but is a precursor to a formal proposal if it generates sufficient mutual interest. The data contained in this document may not be modified in any way. Cost estimates described or summarized in this document were generated as part of a preliminary, first-order cost class identification as part of an early trade space study, are based on JPL-internal parametric cost modeling, assume a JPL in-house build, and do not constitute a commitment on the part of JPL or Caltech. JPL and Team X add cost reserves for development and operations. Unadjusted estimate totals and cost reserve allocations would be revised as needed in future more-detailed studies as appropriate for the specific cost-risks for a given mission concept.

Planetary CubeSats Come of Age

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sherwood, Brent; Spangelo, Sara; Frick, Andreas; Castillo-Rogez, Julie; Klesh, Andrew; Wyatt, E. Jay; Reh, Kim; Baker, John

2015-01-01

Jet Propulsion Laboratory initiatives in developing and formulating planetary CubeSats are described. Six flight systems already complete or underway now at JPL for missions to interplanetary space, the Moon, a near-Earth asteroid, and Mars are described at the subsystem level. Key differences between interplanetary nanospacecraft and LEO CubeSats are explained, as well as JPL's adaptation of vendor components and development of system solutions to meet planetary-mission needs. Feasible technology-demonstration and science measurement objectives are described for multiple modes of planetary mission implementation. Seven planetary-science demonstration mission concepts, already proposed to NASA by Discovery-2014 PIs partnered with JPL, are described for investigations at Sun-Earth L5, Venus, NEA 1999 FG3, comet Tempel 2, Phobos, main-belt asteroid 24 Themis, and metal asteroid 16 Psyche. The JPL staff and facilities resources available to PIs for analysis, design, and development of planetary nanospacecraft are catalogued.

The JPL optical communications telescope laboratory (OCTL) test bed for the future optical Deep Space Network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilson, K. E.; Page, N.; Wu, J.; Srinivasan, M.

2003-01-01

Relative to RF, the lower power-consumption and lower mass of high bandwidth optical telecommunications make this technology extremely attractive for returning data from future NASA/JPL deep space probes.

Engineers Test Roll-Off at JPL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2004-01-01

This image taken at JPL shows engineers testing the route by which the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity will roll off its lander. Opportunity touched down at Meridiani Planum, Mars on Jan. 24, 9:05 p.m. PST, 2004, Earth-received time.

Peregrine Rocket Motor Test at the Ames Outdoor Aerodynamic Rese

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-02-15

Ashley Karp, NASA JPL (Left) and Hunjoo Kim, NASA JPL (Right) attaching heat sensors the Peregrine Hybrid Rocket Engine prior to its test at the Outdoor Aerodynamic Research Facility (OARF, N-249) at NASA's Ames Research Center.

Antarctica's Larsen C Ice Shelf Crack

Atmospheric Science Data Center

2016-12-30

... square kilometers), greater than the size of Maryland. Computer modeling by Project MIDAS predicts that the crack will continue to ... Virginia. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.   Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, ...

Roll-Off Test at JPL

NASA Image and Video Library

2004-01-11

This still image illustrates what the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit will look like as it rolls off the northeastern side of the lander on Mars. The image was taken from footage of rover testing at JPL In-Situ Instruments Laboratory, or Testbed.

The Mars Express/NASA Project at JPL

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thompson, T. W.; Horttor, R. L.; Acton, C. H., Jr.; Zamani, P.; Johnson, W. T. K.; Plaut, J. J.; Holmes, D. P.; No, S.; Asmar, S.; Goltz, G.

2006-03-01

The Mars Express/NASA Project at JPL supports much of the U.S. involvement in ESA's Mars Express mission. Mars Express has just completed its prime mission in late 2005 and has embarked on its first extended mission cycle.

Jupiter's Auroras Acceleration Processes

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-09-06

This image, created with data from Juno's Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (UVS), marks the path of Juno's readings of Jupiter's auroras, highlighting the electron measurements that show the discovery of the so-called discrete auroral acceleration processes indicated by the "inverted Vs" in the lower panel (Figure 1). This signature points to powerful magnetic-field-aligned electric potentials that accelerate electrons toward the atmosphere to energies that are far greater than what drive the most intense aurora at Earth. Scientists are looking into why the same processes are not the main factor in Jupiter's most powerful auroras. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21937

Digital processing of Mariner 9 television data.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Green, W. B.; Seidman, J. B.

1973-01-01

The digital image processing performed by the Image Processing Laboratory (IPL) at JPL in support of the Mariner 9 mission is summarized. The support is divided into the general categories of image decalibration (the removal of photometric and geometric distortions from returned imagery), computer cartographic projections in support of mapping activities, and adaptive experimenter support (flexible support to provide qualitative digital enhancements and quantitative data reduction of returned imagery). Among the tasks performed were the production of maximum discriminability versions of several hundred frames to support generation of a geodetic control net for Mars, and special enhancements supporting analysis of Phobos and Deimos images.

Conversion of bioprocess ethanol to industrial chemical products - Applications of process models for energy-economic assessments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rohatgi, Naresh K.; Ingham, John D.

1992-01-01

An assessment approach for accurate evaluation of bioprocesses for large-scale production of industrial chemicals is presented. Detailed energy-economic assessments of a potential esterification process were performed, where ethanol vapor in the presence of water from a bioreactor is catalytically converted to ethyl acetate. Results show that such processes are likely to become more competitive as the cost of substrates decreases relative to petrolium costs. A commercial ASPEN process simulation provided a reasonably consistent comparison with energy economics calculated using JPL developed software. Detailed evaluations of the sensitivity of production cost to material costs and annual production rates are discussed.

Using AI Planning Techniques to Automatically Generate Image Processing Procedures: A Preliminary Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chien, S.

1994-01-01

This paper describes work on the Multimission VICAR Planner (MVP) system to automatically construct executable image processing procedures for custom image processing requests for the JPL Multimission Image Processing Lab (MIPL). This paper focuses on two issues. First, large search spaces caused by complex plans required the use of hand encoded control information. In order to address this in a manner similar to that used by human experts, MVP uses a decomposition-based planner to implement hierarchical/skeletal planning at the higher level and then uses a classical operator based planner to solve subproblems in contexts defined by the high-level decomposition.

Dominica Hurricane Damage Mapped by NASA's ARIA Team

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-09-29

The Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and Caltech, also in Pasadena, created this Damage Proxy Map (DPM) depicting areas including the Commonwealth of Dominica, that are likely damaged (shown by red and yellow pixels) as a result of Hurricane Maria (a Category 5 storm at landfall in Dominica on Sept. 18, 2017). The map is derived from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites, operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). The images were taken before (March 27, 2017) and after (Sept. 23, 2017) the landfall of the storm. The map covers the area within the large red polygon, which measures 53 by 106 miles (85 by 170 kilometers). Each pixel measures about 98 feet (30 meters) across. The color variation from yellow to red indicates increasingly more significant ground surface change. Preliminary validation was done by comparing the data to a crowdsourced map by Clemson Center for Geospatial Technologies and optical satellite imagery feom DigitalGlobe. This damage proxy map should be used as guidance to identify damaged areas, and may be less reliable over vegetated areas. Sentinel-1 data were accessed through the Copernicus Open Access Hub. The image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA and analyzed by the NASA/JPL-Caltech ARIA team. This research was carried out at JPL under a contract with NASA. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22037

NASA/JPL aircraft SAR operations for 1984 and 1985

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thompson, T. W. (Editor)

1986-01-01

The NASA/JPL aircraft synthetic aperture radar (SAR) was used to conduct major data acquisition expeditions in 1983 through 1985. Substantial improvements to the aircraft SAR were incorporated in 1981 through 1984 resulting in an imaging radar that could simultaneously record all four combinations of linear horizontal and vertical polarization (HH, HV, VH, VV) using computer control of the radar logic, gain setting, and other functions. Data were recorded on high-density digital tapes and processed on a general-purpose computer to produce 10-km square images with 10-m resolution. These digital images yield both the amplitude and phase of the four polarizations. All of the digital images produced so far are archived at the JPL Radar Data Center and are accessible via the Reference Notebook System of that facility. Sites observed in 1984 and 1985 included geological targets in the western United States, as well as agricultural and forestry sites in the Midwest and along the eastern coast. This aircraft radar was destroyed in the CV-990 fire at March Air Force Base on 17 July 1985. It is being rebuilt for flights in l987 and will likely be operated in a mode similar to that described here. The data from 1984 and 1985 as well as those from future expeditions in 1987 and beyond will provide users with a valuable data base for the multifrequency, multipolarization Spaceborne Imaging Radar (SIR-C) scheduled for orbital operations in the early 1990's.

Key and Driving Requirements for the Juno Payload of Instruments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dodge, Randy; Boyles, Mark A.; Rasbach, Chuck E.

2007-01-01

The Juno Mission was selected in the summer of 2005 via NASA's New Frontiers competitive AO process (refer to http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2005/jun/HQ_05138_New_Frontiers_2.html). The Juno project is led by a Principle Investigator based at Southwest Research Institute [SwRI] in San Antonio, Texas, with project management based at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory [JPL] in Pasadena, California, while the Spacecraft design and Flight System Integration are under contract to Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company [LM-SSC] in Denver, Colorado. the payload suite consists of a large number of instruments covering a wide spectrum of experimentation. The science team includes a lead Co-investigator for each one of the following experiments: A Magnetometer experiment (consisting of both a FluxGate Magnetometer (FGM) built at Goddard Space Flight Center GSFC] and a Scalar Helium Magnetometer (SHM) built at JPL, a MicroWave Radiometer (MWR) also built at JPL, a Gravity Science experiment (GS) implemented via the telecom subsystem, two complementary particle instruments (Jovian Auroral Distribution Experiment, JADE developed by SwRI and Juno Energetic-particle Detector Instrument, JEDI from the Applied Physics Lab (APL)--JEDI and JADE both measure electrons and ions), an Ultraviolet Spectrometer (UVS) also developed at SwRI, and a radio and plasma (WAVES) experiment (from the University of Iowa). In addition, a visible camera (JunoCam) is included in the payload to facilitate education and public outreach (designed & fabricated by Malin Space Science Systems [MSSS]).

E-mail on the Move

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1999-01-01

PocketScience, Inc. was a member of the NASA Ames Technology Commercialization Center. Their PocketMail product is an email service that brings email capabilities to new hand-held devices. The PocketMail service uses technology originally developed at JPL. Through its involvement with the ATCC, PocketScience, Inc. was able to use this space probe communications technology and adapt it for advanced signal processing on Earth.

Deep Space Network equipment performance, reliability, and operations management information system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cooper, T.; Lin, J.; Chatillon, M.

2002-01-01

The Deep Space Mission System (DSMS) Operations Program Office and the DeepSpace Network (DSN) facilities utilize the Discrepancy Reporting Management System (DRMS) to collect, process, communicate and manage data discrepancies, equipment resets, physical equipment status, and to maintain an internal Station Log. A collaborative effort development between JPL and the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex delivered a system to support DSN Operations.

Assessing uncertainties of GRACE-derived terrestrial water-storage fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fereria, Vagner; Montecino, Henry

2017-04-01

Space-borne sensors are producing many remotely sensed data and, consequently, different measurements of the same field are available to end users. Furthermore, different satellite processing centres are producing extensive products based on the data of only one mission. This is exactly the case with the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission, which has been monitoring terrestrial water storage (TWS) since April 2002, while the Centre for Space Research (CSR), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ), the Groupe de Recherche de Géodésie Spatiale (GRGS), among others, provide individual monthly solutions in the form of Stokes's coefficients. The inverted TWS maps from Stokes's coefficients are being used in many applications and, therefore, as no ground truth data exist, the uncertainties are unknown. An assessment of the uncertainties associated with these different products is mandatory in order to guide data producers and support the users to choose the best dataset. However, the estimation of uncertainties of space-borne products often relies on ground truth data, and in the absence of such data, an assessment of their qualities is a challenge. A recent study (Ferreira et al. 2016) evaluates the quality of each processing centre (CSR, JPL, GFZ, and GRGS) by estimating their individual uncertainties using a generalised formulation of the three-cornered hat (TCH) method. It was found that the TCH results for the study period of August 2002 to June 2014 indicate that on a global scale, the CSR, GFZ, GRGS, and JPL present uncertainties of 9.4, 13.7, 14.8, and 13.2 mm, respectively. On a basin scale, the overall good performance of the CSR is observed at 91 river basins. The TCH-based results are confirmed by a comparison with an ensemble solution from the four GRACE processing centres. Reference Ferreira VG, Montecino HDC, Yakubu CI and Heck B (2016) Uncertainties of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment time-variable gravity-field solutions based on three-cornered hat method. Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, 10(1), pp 015015-(1-20). doi: 10.1117/1.JRS.10.015015

Peregrine Rocket Motor Test at the Ames Outdoor Aerodynamic Rese

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-02-15

Hunjoo Kim, NASA JPL (Left) and Ashley Karp, NASA JPL (Right) attaching heat sensors the Peregrine Hybrid Rocket Engine prior to its test at the Outdoor Aerodynamic Research Facility (OARF, N-249) at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

Patchwork Chemical Garden

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-08-05

A laboratory-created "chemical garden" made of a combination of black iron sulfide and orange iron hydroxide/oxide is shown in this photo. Chemical gardens are a nickname for chimney-like structures that form at bubbling vents on the seafloor. Some researchers think that life may have originated at structures like these billions of years ago. JPL's research team is part of the Icy Worlds team of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, based at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. JPL is managed by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena for NASA. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19835

8. Credit JPL. Photographic copy of photograph, view west down ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

8. Credit JPL. Photographic copy of photograph, view west down from Test Stand 'A' tower across newly installed tunnel tube to corner of Building 4201/E-2, Test Stand 'A' Workshop (demolished in 1985). Note the wooden retaining structure erected in the foreground to retain earth once the tunnel trench is backfilled (this retaining wall remained in 1994). Note also the propellant control piping on the Test Stand 'A' platform in the immediate foreground. (JPL negative no. 384-1547-C, 6 February 1957) - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Test Stand A, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

NASA-JPL overview, space technology and relevance to medicine (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Zyl, Jakob

2017-05-01

There is special synergy between NASA space instruments and medical devices, especially those that may be implanted in the human body. For example, in both cases instruments have to be small, typically have to consume little power and often have to operate in harsh environments. JPL has a long history in using this synergy to leverage from the technology developed for space missions for application in medical fields. In this talk, we discuss the general overlap of technological requirements in the medical field and space science. We will highlight some examples where JPL instrumentation and engineering has been transferred successfully.

The MPD thruster program at JPL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barnett, John; Goodfellow, Keith; Polk, James; Pivirotto, Thomas

1991-01-01

The main topics covered include: (1) the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) context; (2) critical issues of MPD Thruster design; and (3) the Magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) Thruster Program at JPL. Under the section on the SEI context the nuclear electric propulsion system and some electric thruster options are addressed. The critical issues of MPD Thruster development deal with the requirements, status, and approach taken. The following areas are covered with respect to the MPD Thruster Program at JPL: (1) the radiation-cooled MPD thruster; (2) the High-Current Cathode Test Facility; (3) thruster component thermal modeling; and (4) alkali metal propellant studies.

ARC-1994-AC94-0353-2B

NASA Image and Video Library

1994-07-01

Photo Artwork composite by JPL This depiction of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacting Jupiter is shown from several perspectives. IMAGE B shows the perspective from Galileo spacecraft which can observe the impact point directly. For visual appeal, most of the large cometary fragments are shown close to one another in this image. At the time of Jupiter impact, the fragments will be separated from one another by serveral times the distances shown. This image was created by D.A. Seal of JPL's Mission Design Section using orbital computations provIded by P.W. Chodas and D.K. Yeomans of JPL's Navigation Section.

ARC-1994-AC94-0353-2A

NASA Image and Video Library

1994-07-01

Photo Artwork composite by JPL This depiction of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacting Jupiter is shown from several perspectives. IMAGE A is shown from the perspective of Earth based observers. For visual appeal, most of the large cometary fragments are shown close to one another in this image. At the time of Jupiter impact, the fragments will be separated from one another by serveral times the distances shown. This image was created by D.A. Seal of JPL's Mission Design Section using orbital computations provIded by P.W. Chodas and D.K. Yeomans of JPL's Navigation Section.

ARC-1994-AC94-0353-2D

NASA Image and Video Library

1994-07-01

Photo Artwork composite by JPL This depiction of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacting Jupiter is shown from several perspectives. IMAGE D depicts a generic view from Jupiter's south pole. For visual appeal, most of the large cometary fragments are shown close to one another in this image. At the time of Jupiter impact, the fragments will be separated from one another by serveral times the distances shown. This image was created by D.A. Seal of JPL's Mission Design Section using orbital computations provIded by P.W. Chodas and D.K. Yeomans of JPL's Navigation Section.

1. Credit WCT. Original 2 1/4" x 2 1/4" color ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

1. Credit WCT. Original 2- 1/4" x 2- 1/4" color negative is housed in the JPL Photography Laboratory, Pasadena, California. Photo shows John Morrow in charge of milling operations on coupons ("dogbones") of propellant on an Index milling machine. Coupons were milled to precise dimensions for tensile tests. Note that two sprinkler heads have been placed in very close proximity to the milling table for fire suppression purposes (JPL negative no. JPL-10283AC, 27 January 1989) - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Preparation Building, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

Bioconversion study conducted by JPL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kalvinskas, J.

1978-01-01

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of Caltech conducted a study of bioconversion as a means of identifying the role of biomass for meeting the national energy fuel and chemical requirements and the role and means for JPL-Caltech involvement in bioconversion. The bioconversion study included the following categories; biomass sources, chemicals from biomass, thermochemical conversion of biomass to fuels, biological conversion of biomass to fuels and chemicals, and basic bioconversion sciences. A detailed review is included of the bioconversion fields cited with specific conclusions and recommendations given for future research and development and overall biomass system engineering and economic studies.

Automated synthesis of image processing procedures using AI planning techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chien, Steve; Mortensen, Helen

1994-01-01

This paper describes the Multimission VICAR (Video Image Communication and Retrieval) Planner (MVP) (Chien 1994) system, which uses artificial intelligence planning techniques (Iwasaki & Friedland, 1985, Pemberthy & Weld, 1992, Stefik, 1981) to automatically construct executable complex image processing procedures (using models of the smaller constituent image processing subprograms) in response to image processing requests made to the JPL Multimission Image Processing Laboratory (MIPL). The MVP system allows the user to specify the image processing requirements in terms of the various types of correction required. Given this information, MVP derives unspecified required processing steps and determines appropriate image processing programs and parameters to achieve the specified image processing goals. This information is output as an executable image processing program which can then be executed to fill the processing request.

The airborne Laser Absorption Spectrometer - A new instrument of remote measurement of atmospheric trace gases

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shumate, M. S.; Menzies, R. T.

1978-01-01

The Laser Absorption Spectrometer is a portable instrument developed by JPL for remote measurement of trace gases from an aircraft platform. It contains two carbon dioxide lasers, two optical heterodyne receivers, appropriate optics to aim the lasers at the ground and detect the backscattered energy, and signal processing and recording electronics. Operating in the differential-absorption mode, it is possible to monitor one atmospheric gas at a time and record the data in real time. The system can presently measure ozone, ethylene, water vapor, and chlorofluoromethanes with high sensitivity. Airborne measurements were made in early 1977 from the NASA/JPL twin-engine Beechcraft and in May 1977 from the NASA Convair 990 during the ASSESS-II Shuttle Simulation Study. These flights resulted in measurements of ozone concentrations in the lower troposphere which were compared with ground-based values provided by the Air Pollution Control District. This paper describes the details of the instrument and results of the airborne measurements.

Power processor for a 20CM ion thruster

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Biess, J. J.; Schoenfeld, A. D.; Cohen, E.

1973-01-01

A power processor breadboard for the JPL 20CM Ion Engine was designed, fabricated, and tested to determine compliance with the electrical specification. The power processor breadboard used the silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) series resonant inverter as the basic power stage to process all the power to the ion engine. The breadboard power processor was integrated with the JPL 20CM ion engine and complete testing was performed. The integration tests were performed without any silicon-controlled rectifier failure. This demonstrated the ruggedness of the series resonant inverter in protecting the switching elements during arcing in the ion engine. A method of fault clearing the ion engine and returning back to normal operation without elaborate sequencing and timing control logic was evolved. In this method, the main vaporizer was turned off and the discharge current limit was reduced when an overload existed on the screen/accelerator supply. After the high voltage returned to normal, both the main vaporizer and the discharge were returned to normal.

A modeling analysis program for the JPL table mountain Io sodium cloud data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smyth, William H.; Goldberg, Bruce A.

1988-01-01

Research in the third and final year of this project is divided into three main areas: (1) completion of data processing and calibration for 34 of the 1981 Region B/C images, selected from the massive JPL sodium cloud data set; (2) identification and examination of the basic features and observed changes in the morphological characteristics of the sodium cloud images; and (3) successful physical interpretation of these basic features and observed changes using the highly developed numerical sodium cloud model at AER. The modeling analysis has led to a number of definite conclusions regarding the local structure of Io's atmosphere, the gas escape mechanism at Io, and the presence of an east-west electric field and a System III longitudinal asymmetry in the plasma torus. Large scale stability, as well as some smaller scale time variability for both the sodium cloud and the structure of the plasma torus over a several year time period are also discussed.

Software Transition Project Retrospectives and the Application of SEL Effort Estimation Model and Boehm's COCOMO to Complex Software Transition Projects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McNeill, Justin

1995-01-01

The Multimission Image Processing Subsystem (MIPS) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has managed transitions of application software sets from one operating system and hardware platform to multiple operating systems and hardware platforms. As a part of these transitions, cost estimates were generated from the personal experience of in-house developers and managers to calculate the total effort required for such projects. Productivity measures have been collected for two such transitions, one very large and the other relatively small in terms of source lines of code. These estimates used a cost estimation model similar to the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) Effort Estimation Model. Experience in transitioning software within JPL MIPS have uncovered a high incidence of interface complexity. Interfaces, both internal and external to individual software applications, have contributed to software transition project complexity, and thus to scheduling difficulties and larger than anticipated design work on software to be ported.

Single Still Image

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1999-01-01

This narrow angle image taken by Cassini's camera system of the Moon is one of the best of a sequence of narrow angle frames taken as the spacecraft passed by the Moon on the way to its closest approach with Earth on August 17, 1999. The 80 millisecond exposure was taken through a spectral filter centered at 0.33 microns; the filter bandpass was 85 Angstroms wide. The spatial scale of the image is about 1.4 miles per pixel (about 2.3 kilometers). The imaging data were processed and released by the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS) at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Tucson, AZ.

Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Cassini Imaging Team/University of Arizona

Cassini, launched in 1997, is a joint mission of NASA, the European Space Agency and Italian Space Agency. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.

High Accuracy Ground-based near-Earth-asteroid Astrometry using Synthetic Tracking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhai, Chengxing; Shao, Michael; Saini, Navtej; Sandhu, Jagmit; Werne, Thomas; Choi, Philip; Ely, Todd A.; Jacobs, Chirstopher S.; Lazio, Joseph; Martin-Mur, Tomas J.; Owen, William M.; Preston, Robert; Turyshev, Slava; Michell, Adam; Nazli, Kutay; Cui, Isaac; Monchama, Rachel

2018-01-01

Accurate astrometry is crucial for determining the orbits of near-Earth-asteroids (NEAs). Further, the future of deep space high data rate communications is likely to be optical communications, such as the Deep Space Optical Communications package that is part of the baseline payload for the planned Psyche Discovery mission to the Psyche asteroid. We have recently upgraded our instrument on the Pomona College 1 m telescope, at JPL's Table Mountain Facility, for conducting synthetic tracking by taking many short exposure images. These images can be then combined in post-processing to track both asteroid and reference stars to yield accurate astrometry. Utilizing the precision of the current and future Gaia data releases, the JPL-Pomona College effort is now demonstrating precision astrometry on NEAs, which is likely to be of considerable value for cataloging NEAs. Further, treating NEAs as proxies of future spacecraft that carry optical communication lasers, our results serve as a measure of the astrometric accuracy that could be achieved for future plane-of-sky optical navigation.

Ganymede at 3.4 million miles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1979-01-01

This color picture of Ganymede, Jupiter's largest satellite, was taken on the afternoon of March 2, 1979, by Voyager 1 from a distance of about 3.4 million kilometers (2.1 million miles). This photograph was assembled from three black-and-white pictures in the Image Processing Laboratory at JPL. This face of Ganymede is centered on the 260=B0 meridian. Ganymede is slightly larger than the planet Mercury but has a density almost three times less than Mercury. Therefore, Ganymede probably consists in large part of ice. At this resolution the surface shows light and dark markings interspersed with bright spots. The large darkish area near the center of the satellite is crossed by irregular light streaks somewhat similar to rays seen on the Moon. The bright patch in the southern hemisphere is reminiscent of some of the larger rayed craters on the Moon caused by meteorite impact. JPL manages and controls the Voyager project for NASA's Office of Space Science.

Evaluation of Various Cleaning Methods to Remove Bacillus Spores from Spacecraft Hardware Materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Venkateswaran, Kasthuri; Chung, Shirley; Allton, Judith; Kern, Roger

2004-01-01

A detailed study was made of the biological cleaning effectiveness, defined in terms of the ability to remove bacterial spores, of a number of methods used to clean hardware surfaces. Aluminum (Al 6061) and titanium (Ti 6Al-4V) were chosen for the study as they were deemed the two materials most likely to be used in spacecraft extraterrestrial sampler construction. None of the cleaning protocols tested completely removed viable spores from the surface of the aluminum. In contrast, titanium was capable of being cleaned to sterility by two methods, the JPL standard and the commercial SAMS cleaning process. Further investigation showed that the passivation step employed in the JPL standard method is an effective surface sterilant on both metals but not compatible with aluminum. It is recommended that titanium (Ti 6Al-4V) be considered superior to aluminum (Al 6061) for use in spacecraft sampling hardware, both for its potential to be cleaned to sterilization and for its ability to withstand the most effective cleaning protocols.

High Accuracy Ground-based near-Earth-asteroid Astrometry using Synthetic Tracking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhai, C.; Shao, M.; Saini, N. S.; Sandhu, J. S.; Werne, T. A.; Choi, P.; Ely, T. A.; Jacobs, C.; Lazio, J.; Martin-Mur, T. J.; Owen, W. K.; Preston, R. A.; Turyshev, S. G.

2017-12-01

Accurate astrometry is crucial for determining the orbits of near-Earth-asteroids (NEAs). Further, the future of deep space high data rate communications is likely to be optical communications, such as the Deep Space Optical Communications package to be carried on the Psyche Discovery mission to the Psyche asteroid. We have recently upgraded our instrument on the Pomona College 1 m telescope, at JPL's Table Mountain Facility, for conducting synthetic tracking by taking many short exposure images. These images can be then combined in post-processing to track both asteroid and reference stars to yield accurate astrometry. Utilizing the precision of the current and future Gaia data releases, the JPL-Pomona College effort is now demonstrating precision astrometry on NEAs, which is likely to be of considerable value for cataloging NEAs. Further, treating NEAs as proxies of future spacecraft that carry optical communication lasers, our results serve as a measure of the astrometric accuracy that could be achieved for future plane-of-sky optical navigation.

Nonlinear Dynamic Behavior in the Cassini Spacecraft Modal Survey

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carney, Kelly S.

1997-01-01

In October 1997, the 6-ton robotic spacecraft, Cassini, will lift off from Cape Canaveral atop a Titan IV B rocket, beginning a 7-year journey to Saturn. Upon completion of that voyage, Cassini will send the Huygens probe into the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Cassini will then spend years studying Saturn's vast realm of rings, icy moons, and magnetic fields. The size and complexity of this endeavor mandates the involvement of many organizations. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) manages the project for NASA and is responsible for the spacecraft design, development, and assembly. The NASA Lewis Research Center is the launch system integrator. As is typical for such a spacecraft, a test-verified finite element model is required for loads analysis. JPL had responsibility for the Cassini modal survey and the development of the spacecraft test-verified finite element model. Test verification is a complex and sometimes subjective process. Because of this, NASA Lewis independently verified and validated the Cassini spacecraft modal survey.

Vice President Pence Tours Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-04-28

JPL Director Michael Watkins, standing, explains the history of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the use of the Mission Support Area to Vice President Mike Pence during a tour of JPL, Saturday, April 28, 2018 in Pasadena, California. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Video Clip of a Rover Rock-Drilling Demonstration at JPL

NASA Image and Video Library

2013-02-20

This frame from a video clip shows moments during a demonstration of drilling into a rock at NASA JPL, Pasadena, Calif., with a test double of the Mars rover Curiosity. The drill combines hammering and rotation motions of the bit.

Preparing MarCO

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-04-19

Joel Steinkraus, MarCO lead mechanical engineer from JPL, makes an adjustment on the CubeSat prior to integration in a deployment box as seen inside the cleanroom lab at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Monday, March 12, 2018. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22321

Simplifying operations with an uplink/downlink integration toolkit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murphy, Susan C.; Miller, Kevin J.; Guerrero, Ana Maria; Joe, Chester; Louie, John J.; Aguilera, Christine

1994-01-01

The Operations Engineering Lab (OEL) at JPL has developed a simple, generic toolkit to integrate the uplink/downlink processes, (often called closing the loop), in JPL's Multimission Ground Data System. This toolkit provides capabilities for integrating telemetry verification points with predicted spacecraft commands and ground events in the Mission Sequence Of Events (SOE) document. In the JPL ground data system, the uplink processing functions and the downlink processing functions are separate subsystems that are not well integrated because of the nature of planetary missions with large one-way light times for spacecraft-to-ground communication. Our new closed-loop monitoring tool allows an analyst or mission controller to view and save uplink commands and ground events with their corresponding downlinked telemetry values regardless of the delay in downlink telemetry and without requiring real-time intervention by the user. An SOE document is a time-ordered list of all the planned ground and spacecraft events, including all commands, sequence loads, ground events, significant mission activities, spacecraft status, and resource allocations. The SOE document is generated by expansion and integration of spacecraft sequence files, ground station allocations, navigation files, and other ground event files. This SOE generation process has been automated within the OEL and includes a graphical, object-oriented SOE editor and real-time viewing tool running under X/Motif. The SOE toolkit was used as the framework for the integrated implementation. The SOE is used by flight engineers to coordinate their operations tasks, serving as a predict data set in ground operations and mission control. The closed-loop SOE toolkit allows simple, automated integration of predicted uplink events with correlated telemetry points in a single SOE document for on-screen viewing and archiving. It automatically interfaces with existing real-time or non real-time sources of information, to display actual values from the telemetry data stream. This toolkit was designed to greatly simplify the user's ability to access and view telemetry data, and also provide a means to view this data in the context of the commands and ground events that are used to interpret it. A closed-loop system can prove especially useful in small missions with limited resources requiring automated monitoring tools. This paper will discuss the toolkit implementation, including design trade-offs and future plans for enhancing the automated capabilities.

Simplifying operations with an uplink/downlink integration toolkit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murphy, Susan C.; Miller, Kevin J.; Guerrero, Ana Maria; Joe, Chester; Louie, John J.; Aguilera, Christine

1994-11-01

The Operations Engineering Lab (OEL) at JPL has developed a simple, generic toolkit to integrate the uplink/downlink processes, (often called closing the loop), in JPL's Multimission Ground Data System. This toolkit provides capabilities for integrating telemetry verification points with predicted spacecraft commands and ground events in the Mission Sequence Of Events (SOE) document. In the JPL ground data system, the uplink processing functions and the downlink processing functions are separate subsystems that are not well integrated because of the nature of planetary missions with large one-way light times for spacecraft-to-ground communication. Our new closed-loop monitoring tool allows an analyst or mission controller to view and save uplink commands and ground events with their corresponding downlinked telemetry values regardless of the delay in downlink telemetry and without requiring real-time intervention by the user. An SOE document is a time-ordered list of all the planned ground and spacecraft events, including all commands, sequence loads, ground events, significant mission activities, spacecraft status, and resource allocations. The SOE document is generated by expansion and integration of spacecraft sequence files, ground station allocations, navigation files, and other ground event files. This SOE generation process has been automated within the OEL and includes a graphical, object-oriented SOE editor and real-time viewing tool running under X/Motif. The SOE toolkit was used as the framework for the integrated implementation. The SOE is used by flight engineers to coordinate their operations tasks, serving as a predict data set in ground operations and mission control. The closed-loop SOE toolkit allows simple, automated integration of predicted uplink events with correlated telemetry points in a single SOE document for on-screen viewing and archiving. It automatically interfaces with existing real-time or non real-time sources of information, to display actual values from the telemetry data stream. This toolkit was designed to greatly simplify the user's ability to access and view telemetry data, and also provide a means to view this data in the context of the commands and ground events that are used to interpret it. A closed-loop system can prove especially useful in small missions with limited resources requiring automated monitoring tools. This paper will discuss the toolkit implementation, including design trade-offs and future plans for enhancing the automated capabilities.

Satellite and terrestrial narrow-band propagation measurements at 2.05 GHz

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vaisnys, Arv; Vogel, Wolf

1995-01-01

A series of satellite and terrestrial propagation measurements were conducted on 15 and 16 Dec. 1994 in the vicinity of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California, in support of the VOA/JPL DBS-Radio Program. The reason for including terrestrial measurements was the possible use of terrestrial boosters to improve reception in some satellite digital audio broadcasting system service areas. The signal sources used were the NASA TDRS satellite located at 171 degrees West and a terrestrial transmitter located on a high point on JPL property. Both signals were unmodulated carriers near 2.05 GHz, spaced a few kHz apart so that both could be received simultaneously by a single receiver. An unmodulated signal was used in order to maximize the dynamic range of the signal strength measurement. A range of greater than 35 dB was achieved with the satellite signal, and over 50 dB was achieved with the terrestrial signal measurements. Three test courses were used to conduct the measurements: (1) a 33 km round trip drive from JPL through Pasadena was used to remeasure the propagation of the satellite signal over the path previously used in DBS-Radio experiments in mid 1994. A shortened portion of this test course, approximately 20 km, was used to measure the satellite and terrestrial signals simultaneously; (2) a 9 km round trip drive through JPL property, going behind buildings and other obstacles, was used to measure the satellite and terrestrial signals simultaneously; and (3) a path through one of the buildings at JPL, hand carrying the receiver, was also used to measure the satellite and terrestrial signals simultaneously.

Rule-Based Flight Software Cost Estimation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stukes, Sherry A.; Spagnuolo, John N. Jr.

2015-01-01

This paper discusses the fundamental process for the computation of Flight Software (FSW) cost estimates. This process has been incorporated in a rule-based expert system [1] that can be used for Independent Cost Estimates (ICEs), Proposals, and for the validation of Cost Analysis Data Requirements (CADRe) submissions. A high-level directed graph (referred to here as a decision graph) illustrates the steps taken in the production of these estimated costs and serves as a basis of design for the expert system described in this paper. Detailed discussions are subsequently given elaborating upon the methodology, tools, charts, and caveats related to the various nodes of the graph. We present general principles for the estimation of FSW using SEER-SEM as an illustration of these principles when appropriate. Since Source Lines of Code (SLOC) is a major cost driver, a discussion of various SLOC data sources for the preparation of the estimates is given together with an explanation of how contractor SLOC estimates compare with the SLOC estimates used by JPL. Obtaining consistency in code counting will be presented as well as factors used in reconciling SLOC estimates from different code counters. When sufficient data is obtained, a mapping into the JPL Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) from the SEER-SEM output is illustrated. For across the board FSW estimates, as was done for the NASA Discovery Mission proposal estimates performed at JPL, a comparative high-level summary sheet for all missions with the SLOC, data description, brief mission description and the most relevant SEER-SEM parameter values is given to illustrate an encapsulation of the used and calculated data involved in the estimates. The rule-based expert system described provides the user with inputs useful or sufficient to run generic cost estimation programs. This system's incarnation is achieved via the C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) and will be addressed at the end of this paper.

Information processing of earth resources data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zobrist, A. L.; Bryant, N. A.

1982-01-01

Current trends in the use of remotely sensed data include integration of multiple data sources of various formats and use of complex models. These trends have placed a strain on information processing systems because an enormous number of capabilities are needed to perform a single application. A solution to this problem is to create a general set of capabilities which can perform a wide variety of applications. General capabilities for the Image-Based Information System (IBIS) are outlined in this report. They are then cross-referenced for a set of applications performed at JPL.

KSC-07pd0862

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-04-11

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In clean room C of Astrotech's Payload Processing Facility, a worker wearing a "bunny suit," or clean-room attire, begins removing the protective cover surrounding the Dawn spacecraft. In the clean room, the spacecraft will undergo further processing. Dawn's mission is to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton

KSC-07pd0863

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-04-11

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In clean room C of Astrotech's Payload Processing Facility, a worker wearing a "bunny suit," or clean-room attire, looks over the Dawn spacecraft after removing the protective cover, at bottom right. In the clean room, the spacecraft will undergo further processing. Dawn's mission is to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton

Spatial data software integration - Merging CAD/CAM/mapping with GIS and image processing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Logan, Thomas L.; Bryant, Nevin A.

1987-01-01

The integration of CAD/CAM/mapping with image processing using geographic information systems (GISs) as the interface is examined. Particular emphasis is given to the development of software interfaces between JPL's Video Image Communication and Retrieval (VICAR)/Imaged Based Information System (IBIS) raster-based GIS and the CAD/CAM/mapping system. The design and functions of the VICAR and IBIS are described. Vector data capture and editing are studied. Various software programs for interfacing between the VICAR/IBIS and CAD/CAM/mapping are presented and analyzed.

4. Credit JPL. Original 4" x 5" black and white ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

4. Credit JPL. Original 4" x 5" black and white negative housed in the JPL Archives, Pasadena, California. This interior view displays the machine shop in the Administration/Shops Building (the compass angle of the view is undetermined). Looking clockwise from the lower left, the machine tools in view are a power hacksaw, a heat-treatment oven (with white gloves on top), a large hydraulic press with a tool grinder at its immediate right; along the wall in the back of the view are various unidentified machine tool attachments and a vertical milling machine. In the background, a machinist is operating a radial drilling machine, to the right of which is a small drill press. To the lower right, another machinist is operating a Pratt & Whitney engine lathe; behind the operator stand a workbench and vertical bandsaw (JPL negative no. 384-10939, 29 July 1975). - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Administration & Shops Building, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

JPL Earth Science Center Visualization Multitouch Table

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, R.; Dodge, K.; Malhotra, S.; Chang, G.

2014-12-01

JPL Earth Science Center Visualization table is a specialized software and hardware to allow multitouch, multiuser, and remote display control to create seamlessly integrated experiences to visualize JPL missions and their remote sensing data. The software is fully GIS capable through time aware OGC WMTS using Lunar Mapping and Modeling Portal as the GIS backend to continuously ingest and retrieve realtime remote sending data and satellite location data. 55 inch and 82 inch unlimited finger count multitouch displays allows multiple users to explore JPL Earth missions and visualize remote sensing data through very intuitive and interactive touch graphical user interface. To improve the integrated experience, Earth Science Center Visualization Table team developed network streaming which allows table software to stream data visualization to near by remote display though computer network. The purpose of this visualization/presentation tool is not only to support earth science operation, but specifically designed for education and public outreach and will significantly contribute to STEM. Our presentation will include overview of our software, hardware, and showcase of our system.

DAQ: Software Architecture for Data Acquisition in Sounding Rockets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ahmad, Mohammad; Tran, Thanh; Nichols, Heidi; Bowles-Martinez, Jessica N.

2011-01-01

A multithreaded software application was developed by Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) to collect a set of correlated imagery, Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and GPS data for a Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) sounding rocket flight. The data set will be used to advance Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) technology algorithms being researched at JPL. This paper describes the software architecture and the tests used to meet the timing and data rate requirements for the software used to collect the dataset. Also discussed are the challenges of using commercial off the shelf (COTS) flight hardware and open source software. This includes multiple Camera Link (C-link) based cameras, a Pentium-M based computer, and Linux Fedora 11 operating system. Additionally, the paper talks about the history of the software architecture's usage in other JPL projects and its applicability for future missions, such as cubesats, UAVs, and research planes/balloons. Also talked about will be the human aspect of project especially JPL's Phaeton program and the results of the launch.

JPL/USC GAIM: Validating COSMIC and Ground-Based GPS Assimilation Results to Estimate Ionospheric Electron Densities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Komjathy, A.; Wilson, B.; Akopian, V.; Pi, X.; Mannucci, A.; Wang, C.

2008-12-01

We seem to be in the midst of a revolution in ionospheric remote sensing driven by the abundance of ground and space-based GPS receivers, new UV remote sensing satellites, and the advent of data assimilation techniques for space weather. In particular, the COSMIC 6-satellite constellation was launched in April 2006. COSMIC now provides unprecedented global coverage of GPS occultations measurements, each of which yields electron density information with unprecedented ~1 km vertical resolution. Calibrated measurements of ionospheric delay (total electron content or TEC) suitable for input into assimilation models is currently made available in near real-time (NRT) from the COSMIC with a latency of 30 to 120 minutes. The University of Southern California (USC) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have jointly developed a real-time Global Assimilative Ionospheric Model (GAIM) to monitor space weather, study storm effects, and provide ionospheric calibration for DoD customers and NASA flight projects. JPL/USC GAIM is a physics- based 3D data assimilation model that uses both 4DVAR and Kalman filter techniques to solve for the ion and electron density state and key drivers such as equatorial electrodynamics, neutral winds, and production terms. Daily (delayed) GAIM runs can accept as input ground GPS TEC data from 1200+ sites, occultation links from CHAMP, SAC-C, and the COSMIC constellation, UV limb and nadir scans from the TIMED and DMSP satellites, and in situ data from a variety of satellites (DMSP and C/NOFS). Real-Time GAIM (RTGAIM) ingests multiple data sources in real time, updates the 3D electron density grid every 5 minutes, and solves for improved drivers every 1-2 hours. Since our forward physics model and the adjoint model were expressly designed for data assimilation and computational efficiency, all of this can be accomplished on a single dual- processor Unix workstation. Customers are currently evaluating the accuracy of JPL/USC GAIM 'nowcasts' for ray tracing applications and trans-ionospheric path delay calibration. In the presentation, we will discuss the expected impact of NRT COSMIC occultation and NRT ground-based measurements and present validation results for ingest of COSMIC data into GAIM using measurements from World Days. We will quality check our COSMIC-derived products by comparing Abel profiles and JPL- processed results. Furthermore, we will validate GAIM assimilation results using Incoherent Scatter Radar measurements from Arecibo, Jicamarca and Millstone Hill datasets. We will conclude by characterizing the improved electron density states using dual-frequency altimeter-derived Jason vertical TEC measurements.

This photographic copy of an engineering drawing shows floor plans, ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

This photographic copy of an engineering drawing shows floor plans, sections and elevations of Building E-86, with details typical of the steel frame and "Transite" building construction at JPL Edwards Facility. California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Facilities Engineering and Construction Office: "Casting & Curing, Building E-86, Floor Plan, Elevations & Section," drawing no. E86/6, 25 February 1977. California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Plant Engineering: engineering drawings of structures at JPL Edwards Facility. Drawings on file at JPL Plant Engineering, Pasadena, California - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Casting & Curing Building, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

JPL IGS Analysis Center Report, 2001-2003

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heflin, M. B.; Bar-Sever, Y. E.; Jefferson, D. C.; Meyer, R. F.; Newport, B. J.; Vigue-Rodi, Y.; Webb, F. H.; Zumberge, J. F.

2004-01-01

Three GPS orbit and clock products are currently provided by JPL for consideration by the IGS. Each differs in its latency and quality, with later results being more accurate. Results are typically available in both IGS and GIPSY formats via anonymous ftp. Current performance based on comparisons with the IGS final products is summarized. Orbit performance was determined by computing the 3D RMS difference between each JPL product and the IGS final orbits based on 15 minute estimates from the sp3 files. Clock performance was computed as the RMS difference after subtracting a linear trend based on 15 minute estimates from the sp3 files.

Performance of a low data rate speech codec for land-mobile satellite communications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gersho, Allen; Jedrey, Thomas C.

1990-01-01

In an effort to foster the development of new technologies for the emerging land mobile satellite communications services, JPL funded two development contracts in 1984: one to the Univ. of Calif., Santa Barbara and the other to the Georgia Inst. of Technology, to develop algorithms and real time hardware for near toll quality speech compression at 4800 bits per second. Both universities have developed and delivered speech codecs to JPL, and the UCSB codec was extensively tested by JPL in a variety of experimental setups. The basic UCSB speech codec algorithms and the test results of the various experiments performed with this codec are presented.

Developing sensor activity relationships for the JPL electronic nose sensors using molecular modeling and QSAR techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shevade, A. V.; Ryan, M. A.; Homer, M. L.; Jewell, A. D.; Zhou, H.; Manatt, K.; Kisor, A. K.

2005-01-01

We report a Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships (QSAR) study using Genetic Function Approximations (GFA) to describe the polymer-carbon composite sensor activities in the JPL Electronic Nose, when exposed to chemical vapors at parts-per-million concentration levels.

Expanding the analyte set of the JPL Electronic Nose to include inorganic compounds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ryan, M. A.; Homer, M. L.; Zhou, H.; Mannat, K.; Manfreda, A.; Kisor, A.; Shevade, A.; Yen, S. P. S.

2005-01-01

An array-based sensing system based on 32 polymer/carbon composite conductometric sensors is under development at JPL. Until the present phase of development, the analyte set has focuses on organic compounds and a few selected inorganic compounds, notably ammonia and hydrazine.

Ridges and Flows

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-11-16

Located southwest of Olympus Mons, this image captured by NASA 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of a complex region that has undergone several geologic processes. The hills have been modified by wind, creating narrow ridges, and then the entire region has been covered with volcanic flows from Olympus Mons. Orbit Number: 60744 Latitude: 13.4267 Longitude: 220.554 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2015-08-24 10:00 http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20093

KSC-07pd0856

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-04-10

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In Astrotech's Payload Processing Facility, a crane lifts the shipping container from the Dawn spacecraft. Dawn's mission is to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

(abstract) Formal Inspection Technology Transfer Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Welz, Linda A.; Kelly, John C.

1993-01-01

A Formal Inspection Technology Transfer Program, based on the inspection process developed by Michael Fagan at IBM, has been developed at JPL. The goal of this program is to support organizations wishing to use Formal Inspections to improve the quality of software and system level engineering products. The Technology Transfer Program provides start-up materials and assistance to help organizations establish their own Formal Inspection program. The course materials and certified instructors associated with the Technology Transfer Program have proven to be effective in classes taught at other NASA centers as well as at JPL. Formal Inspections (NASA tailored Fagan Inspections) are a set of technical reviews whose objective is to increase quality and reduce the cost of software development by detecting and correcting errors early. A primary feature of inspections is the removal of engineering errors before they amplify into larger and more costly problems downstream in the development process. Note that the word 'inspection' is used differently in software than in a manufacturing context. A Formal Inspection is a front-end quality enhancement technique, rather than a task conducted just prior to product shipment for the purpose of sorting defective systems (manufacturing usage). Formal Inspections are supporting and in agreement with the 'total quality' approach being adopted by many NASA centers.

Mars Exploration Rovers Landing Dispersion Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Knocke, Philip C.; Wawrzyniak, Geoffrey G.; Kennedy, Brian M.; Desai, Prasun N.; Parker, TImothy J.; Golombek, Matthew P.; Duxbury, Thomas C.; Kass, David M.

2004-01-01

Landing dispersion estimates for the Mars Exploration Rover missions were key elements in the site targeting process and in the evaluation of landing risk. This paper addresses the process and results of the landing dispersion analyses performed for both Spirit and Opportunity. The several contributors to landing dispersions (navigation and atmospheric uncertainties, spacecraft modeling, winds, and margins) are discussed, as are the analysis tools used. JPL's MarsLS program, a MATLAB-based landing dispersion visualization and statistical analysis tool, was used to calculate the probability of landing within hazardous areas. By convolving this with the probability of landing within flight system limits (in-spec landing) for each hazard area, a single overall measure of landing risk was calculated for each landing ellipse. In-spec probability contours were also generated, allowing a more synoptic view of site risks, illustrating the sensitivity to changes in landing location, and quantifying the possible consequences of anomalies such as incomplete maneuvers. Data and products required to support these analyses are described, including the landing footprints calculated by NASA Langley's POST program and JPL's AEPL program, cartographically registered base maps and hazard maps, and flight system estimates of in-spec landing probabilities for each hazard terrain type. Various factors encountered during operations, including evolving navigation estimates and changing atmospheric models, are discussed and final landing points are compared with approach estimates.

Applications of digital image processing techniques to problems of data registration and correlation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Green, W. B.

1978-01-01

An overview is presented of the evolution of the computer configuration at JPL's Image Processing Laboratory (IPL). The development of techniques for the geometric transformation of digital imagery is discussed and consideration is given to automated and semiautomated image registration, and the registration of imaging and nonimaging data. The increasing complexity of image processing tasks at IPL is illustrated with examples of various applications from the planetary program and earth resources activities. It is noted that the registration of existing geocoded data bases with Landsat imagery will continue to be important if the Landsat data is to be of genuine use to the user community.

Close-up of M27, the Dumbbell Nebula

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-11

An aging star last hurrah creates a flurry of glowing knots of gas that appear to be streaking through space. This closeup image of the Dumbbell Nebula was taken by the JPL-built and designed WFC3 camera, onboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04249

An industrial application of the JPL ACTS with energy recovery

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Humphrey, M. F.; Wilson, G. E.; Schroepfer, T. W.

1980-01-01

The JPL Activated Carbon Treatment System (ACTS) uses sewage solids derived from municipal wastewater treatment systems as a source of organic material for powdered activated carbons (PAC). The PAC is used for the COD removal from wastewater and as a filter aid in the recovery of additional sewage solids.

Transforming Systems Engineering through Model Centric Engineering

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-08-08

12 Figure 5. Semantic Web Technologies related to Layers of Abstraction ................................. 23 Figure 6. NASA /JPL Instantiation...of OpenMBEE (circa 2014) ................................................. 24 Figure 7. NASA /JPL Foundational Ontology for Systems Engineering...Engineering (DE) Transformation initiative, and our relationship that we have fostered with National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) Jet

Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Space Explorations. Part 1; History of JPL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chau, Savio

2005-01-01

This slide presentation briefly reviews the history of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from its founding by Dr von Karman in 1936 for research in rocketry through the post-Sputnik shift to unmanned space exploration in 1957. The presentation also reviews the major JPL missions with views of the spacecraft.

Preparing project managers for faster-better-cheaper robotic planetary missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gowler, P.; Atkins, K.

2003-01-01

The authors have developed and implemented a week-long workshop for Jet Propulsion Laboratory Project Managers, designed around the development phases of the JPL Project Life Cycle. The workshop emphasizes the specific activities and deliverables that pertain to JPL managers of NASA robotic space exploration and instrument development projects.

Emerging Array Antenna Technologies at JPL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huang, J.

1998-01-01

JPL/NASA's Earth remote sensing and deep-space exploration programs have been placing emphasis on their spacecraft's high-gain and large-aperture antennas. At the same time, however, low mass and small storage volume are demanded in order to reduce payload weight and reduce shroud size and thus reduce launch cost.

Leveraging Knowledge: Impact on Low Cost Planetary Mission Design.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Momjian, Jennifer

This paper discusses innovations developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) librarians to reduce the information query cycle time for teams planning low-cost, planetary missions. The first section provides background on JPL and its library. The second section addresses the virtual information environment, including issues of access, content,…

JPL Ephemeris Tapes E9510, E9511, and E9512

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Peabody, P. R.; Scott, J. F.; Orozco, E. G.

1964-01-01

The first issue of JPL Ephemeris Tapes is described. These tapes carry the positions and velocities of the planets and of the Moon, plus nutations and nutation rates in longitude and obliquity, together with second and fourth modified differences, for the interval December 30, 1949, to January 5, 2000.

Results of an Internet-Based Dual-Frequency Global Differential GPS System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Muellerschoen, R.; Bertiger, W.; Lough, M.

2000-01-01

Observables from a global network of 18 GPS receivers are returned in real-time to JPL over the open Internet. 30 - 40 cm RSS global GPS orbits and precise dual-frequency GPS clocks are computed in real-time with JPL's Real Time Gipsy (RTG) software.

The Mars Express/NASA Project at JPL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thompson, Thomas W.; Horttor, R. L.; Acton, C. H., Jr.; Zamani, P.; Johnson, W. T. K.; Plaut, J. J.; Holmes, D. P.; No, S.; Asmar, S. W.; Goltz, G.

2005-01-01

An overview of the Mars Express/NASA Project at JPL is presented. The topics include: 1) Mars Express Mission Experiments and Investigators; 2) Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Soundig (MARSIS) Overview; 3) MARSIS Experiment Overview; 4) Interoperability Concept; 5) Mars Express Science Operations; 6) Mars Express Schedule (2003-2007);

The application of automated operations at the Institutional Processing Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barr, Thomas H.

1993-01-01

The JPL Institutional and Mission Computing Division, Communications, Computing and Network Services Section, with its mission contractor, OAO Corporation, have for some time been applying automation to the operation of JPL's Information Processing Center (IPC). Automation does not come in one easy to use package. Automation for a data processing center is made up of many different software and hardware products supported by trained personnel. The IPC automation effort formally began with console automation, and has since spiraled out to include production scheduling, data entry, report distribution, online reporting, failure reporting and resolution, documentation, library storage, and operator and user education, while requiring the interaction of multi-vendor and locally developed software. To begin the process, automation goals are determined. Then a team including operations personnel is formed to research and evaluate available options. By acquiring knowledge of current products and those in development, taking an active role in industry organizations, and learning of other data center's experiences, a forecast can be developed as to what direction technology is moving. With IPC management's approval, an implementation plan is developed and resources identified to test or implement new systems. As an example, IPC's new automated data entry system was researched by Data Entry, Production Control, and Advance Planning personnel. A proposal was then submitted to management for review. A determination to implement the new system was made and elements/personnel involved with the initial planning performed the implementation. The final steps of the implementation were educating data entry personnel in the areas effected and procedural changes necessary to the successful operation of the new system.

Using the JPL Tropical Cyclone Information System to study the climatology of hurricane precipitation structure from 10 years of passive microwave satellite observations in the Atlantic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hristova-Veleva, Svetla; Haddad, Ziad; Knosp, Brian; Lambrigtsen, Bjorn; Li, P. Peggy; Poulsen, William; Seo, Eun-Kyoung; Shen, Tsae-Pyng; Turk, Francis J.; Vu, Quoc

2013-04-01

In spite of recent improvements in hurricane track forecast accuracy, currently there are still many unanswered questions about the physical processes that determine hurricane genesis, and evolution. Furthermore, a significant amount of work remains to be done in validating and improving hurricane forecast models. None of this can be accomplished without a comprehensive set of multi-parameter observations that are relevant to both the large-scale and the storm-scale processes in the atmosphere and in the ocean. Despite the significant amount of satellite observations today, they are still underutilized in hurricane research and operations, due to complexity and volume. To facilitate hurricane research, we developed the JPL Tropical Cyclone Information System (TCIS) of multi-instrument satellite observations pertaining to: i) the thermodynamic and microphysical structure of the storms; ii) the air-sea interaction processes; iii) the larger-scale environment as depicted by the SST and the Total Precipitable Water of the environment (Hristova-Veleva et al., 2008, 2011). Our goal was to create a one-stop place to provide the researchers with an extensive set of observed hurricane data, and their graphical representation, organized in an easy way to determine when coincident observations from multiple instruments are available. In this study we use the 10+ years of passive microwave observations of Atlantic hurricanes to create composite structures that are segregated by hurricane category and by intensification rate. The use of composite structures provides a statistically robust framework (e.g. Rogers et al., 2012). We analyze the storm asymmetry as depicted by several factors - brightness temperatures and their derivatives such as a newly-develop Rain Indicator and a new convective/stratiform separation that is based on the value and the spatial variability of this Rain Indicator. The goal is to determine whether the storm morphology (in particular, the storm asymmetry or lack thereof) carries predictive skills regarding the potential for intensification. The presentation will describe the JPL TCIS and the results of our analysis of the passive microwave satellite observations of the Atlantic hurricanes. Refernces: Hristova-Veleva, S. M., C. Ao, Y. Chao, V. Dang, R. Fovell, M. Garay, Z. Haddad, B. Knosp, B. Lambrigtsen, P. P. Li, K. J. Park, W. Poulsen, H. Su, S. Tanelli, D. Vane, Q. A. Vu, J. Willis, D. L. Wu, 2008: "Using the JPL Tropical Cyclone Information System for Research and Applications", AMS 28th Hurricane and Tropical Meteorology Conference, Orlando, FL, 28Apr.-02May 2008 Hristova-Veleva, S. M., A. Chau, Z. Haddad, B. Knosp, B. Lambrigtsen, P. P. Li, E. Rodriguez, T. -. P. Shen, B. Stiles, H. Su, J. Turk, and Q. Vu, 2011: "Impact of microphysical parameterizations on the structure and intensity of simulated hurricanes: Using satellite data to determine the parameterizations that produce most realistic storms", 14th Conference on Mesoscale Processes, 1-4 August 2011, Los Angeles, California Rogers, R., S. Lorsolo, P. Reasor, J. Gamache, F. Marks, 2012: Multiscale Analysis of Tropical Cyclone Kinematic Structure from Airborne Doppler Radar Composites. Mon. Wea. Rev., 140, 77-99.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Annual Report 2005

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2006-01-01

What an amazing host of new sights 2005 brought us. With impeccable choreography, one spacecraft sent an impactor slamming into a comet, reversing the traditional view of these space wayfarers by revealing it to be buried in deep drifts of a fine talcum-like powder. Another spacecraft delivered a probe from our European partners to the surface of Saturn's haze-shrouded moon Titan, disclosing a landscape eerily like Earth's, if we had methane rivers cascading down hillsides of ice. An orbiting observatory for the first time showed us the light from planets circling other stars, which astronomers previously knew to exist only from indirect clues. Throughout the year we also amassed continually expanding views of Earth as well as Mars, by far the most-explored planet after our own. In all, 18 spacecraft and five instruments were stationed across the solar system, studying our own world, other planets, comets and the deeper universe. These missions were enabled by the efforts of everyone at JPL. The Deep Space Network of communications complexes across three continents continued to experience a period of remarkable activity. Others were at work creating technologies both for NASA missions and other uses. JPL's contingent of scientific researchers was equally busy coordinating the science activities of our missions or pursuing independent investigations. None of this would be possible without the support of world-class business and administrative teams. All of our missions in one way or another support our nations Vision for Space Exploration, which envisages a gradually widening robotic and human presence across the solar system in the years ahead. The year was not without its challenges. NASA set forth to implement the Vision for Space Exploration, which resulted in some flight projects and technology efforts being terminated. To adjust to this new direction, it was necessary for us to reduce the JPL workforce by about five percent. Taking steps like this is painful, but we tried to make the process as orderly as possible. In the end, the adjustments made have left JPL on a healthy footing for the years ahead.

Image processing and products for the Magellan mission to Venus

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clark, Jerry; Alexander, Doug; Andres, Paul; Lewicki, Scott; Mcauley, Myche

1992-01-01

The Magellan mission to Venus is providing planetary scientists with massive amounts of new data about the surface geology of Venus. Digital image processing is an integral part of the ground data system that provides data products to the investigators. The mosaicking of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image data from the spacecraft is being performed at JPL's Multimission Image Processing Laboratory (MIPL). MIPL hosts and supports the Image Data Processing Subsystem (IDPS), which was developed in a VAXcluster environment of hardware and software that includes optical disk jukeboxes and the TAE-VICAR (Transportable Applications Executive-Video Image Communication and Retrieval) system. The IDPS is being used by processing analysts of the Image Data Processing Team to produce the Magellan image data products. Various aspects of the image processing procedure are discussed.

Advanced Algorithms and High-Performance Testbed for Large-Scale Site Characterization and Subsurface Target Detecting Using Airborne Ground Penetrating SAR

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fijany, Amir; Collier, James B.; Citak, Ari

1997-01-01

A team of US Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District and Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville, let Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Stanford Research Institute (SRI), and Montgomery Watson is currently in the process of planning and conducting the largest ever survey at the Former Buckley Field (60,000 acres), in Colorado, by using SRI airborne, ground penetrating, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). The purpose of this survey is the detection of surface and subsurface Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) and in a broader sense the site characterization for identification of contaminated as well as clear areas. In preparation for such a large-scale survey, JPL has been developing advanced algorithms and a high-performance restbed for processing of massive amount of expected SAR data from this site. Two key requirements of this project are the accuracy (in terms of UXO detection) and speed of SAR data processing. The first key feature of this testbed is a large degree of automation and a minimum degree of the need for human perception in the processing to achieve an acceptable processing rate of several hundred acres per day. For accurate UXO detection, novel algorithms have been developed and implemented. These algorithms analyze dual polarized (HH and VV) SAR data. They are based on the correlation of HH and VV SAR data and involve a rather large set of parameters for accurate detection of UXO. For each specific site, this set of parameters can be optimized by using ground truth data (i.e., known surface and subsurface UXOs). In this paper, we discuss these algorithms and their successful application for detection of surface and subsurface anti-tank mines by using a data set from Yuma proving Ground, A7, acquired by SRI SAR.

NASA Damage Map Aids Northern California Wildfire Response

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-10-18

The Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and Caltech, also in Pasadena, created this Damage Proxy Map depicting areas in Northern California that are likely damaged (shown by red and yellow pixels) as a result of the region's current outbreak of wildfires. The map is derived from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites, operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). The images were taken before (Sep. 27, 2017, 7 p.m. PDT) and after (Oct. 9, 2017, 7 p.m. PDT) the onset of the fires. The map has been provided to various agencies to aid in the wildfire response. The map covers the area within the large red polygon, and measures 155 by 106 miles (250 by 170 kilometers). The illustrative figure from the map depicted in the inset shows damage in the city of Santa Rosa. Each pixel in the Damage Proxy Map measures about 98 feet (30 meters) across. The color variation from yellow to red indicates increasingly more significant ground surface change. Preliminary validation was done by comparing to optical satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe. This Damage Proxy Map should be used as guidance to identify damaged areas, and may be less reliable over vegetated areas. Sentinel-1 data were accessed through the Copernicus Open Access Hub. The image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA and analyzed by the NASA-JPL/Caltech ARIA team. This research was carried out at JPL under a contract with NASA. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22048

Technologies for low radio frequency observations of the Cosmic Dawn

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jones, D. L.

2014-03-01

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is developing concepts and technologies for low frequency radio astronomy space missions aimed at observing highly redshifted neutral Hydrogen from the Dark Ages. This is the period of cosmic history between the recombination epoch when the microwave background radiation was produced and the re-ionization of the intergalactic medium by the first generation of stars (Cosmic Dawn). This period, at redshifts z > ~20, is a critical epoch for the formation and evolution of large-scale structure in the universe. The 21-cm spectral line of Hydrogen provides the most promising method for directly studying the Dark Ages, but the corresponding frequencies at such large redshifts are only tens of MHz and thus require space-based observations to avoid terrestrial RFI and ionospheric absorption and refraction. This paper reports on the status of several low frequency technology development activities at JPL, including deployable bi-conical dipoles for a planned lunar-orbiting mission, and both rover-deployed and inflation-deployed long dipole antennas for use on the lunar surface. In addition, recent results from laboratory testing of low frequency receiver designs are presented. Finally, several concepts for space-based imaging interferometers utilizing deployable low frequency antennas are described. Some of these concepts involve large numbers of antennas and consequently a large digital cross-correlator will be needed. JPL has studied correlator architectures that greatly reduce the DC power required for this step, which can dominate the power consumption of real-time signal processing. Strengths and weaknesses of each mission concept are discussed in the context of the additional technology development required.

Analysis of CrIS/ATMS using AIRS Version-7 Retrieval and QC Methodology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Susskind, J.; Kouvaris, L. C.; Blaisdell, J. M.; Iredell, L. F.

2017-12-01

The objective of the proposed research is to develop, implement, test, and refine a CrIS/ATMS retrieval algorithm which will produce monthly mean data products that are compatible with those of the soon to be operational AIRS V7 retrieval algorithm. This is a necessary condition for CrIS/ATMS on NPP and future missions to serve as adequate follow-ons to AIRS for the monitoring of climate variability and trends. Of particular importance toward this end is achieving agreement of monthly mean fields of CrIS and AIRS geophysical parameters on a 1 deg by 1 deg spatial scale, and, more significantly, agreement of their interannual differences. Indications are that the best way to achieve this is to use scientific retrieval and Quality Control (QC) methodology for CrIS/ATMS which is analogous to that which will be used in AIRS V7. We refer to the current scientific candidate for AIRS V7 as AIRS Sounder Research Team (SRT) V6.42, which currently runs at JPL on the AIRS Team Leader Scientific Facility (TLSCF). We ported CrIS SRT V6.42 Level 2 (L2) retrieval code and QC methodology to run at the Sounder SIPS at JPL. The months of January and July 2015 were both processed at JPL using AIRS and CrIS at the TLSCF and SIPS respectively. This paper shows excellent agreement of AIRS and CrIS single day and monthly mean products on a 1 deg lat by 1 deg long spatial grid with each other and with the other satellites measures of the same products.

Satellite Radar Detects Damage from Sept. 19, 2017 Raboso, Mexico, Quake

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-09-20

The Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and Caltech, also in Pasadena, created this Damage Proxy Map (DPM) depicting areas of Central Mexico, including Mexico City, that are likely damaged (shown by red and yellow pixels) from the magnitude 7.1 Raboso earthquake of Sept. 19, 2017 (local time). The map is derived from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images from the Copernicus Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B satellites, operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). The images were taken before (Sept. 8, 2017) and after (Sept. 20, 2017) the earthquake. The map covers an area of 109 by 106 miles (175 by 170 kilometers). Each pixel measures about 33 yards (30 meters) across. The color variation from yellow to red indicates increasingly more significant ground and building surface change. Preliminary validation was done by comparing the DPM to a crowd-sourced Google Map (https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1_-V97lbdgLFHpx-CtqhLWlJAnYY&ll=19.41452166501326%2C-99.16498240436704&z=16). This damage proxy map should be used as guidance to identify damaged areas, and may be less reliable over vegetated areas. Sentinel-1 data were accessed through the Copernicus Open Access Hub. The image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA and analyzed by the NASA-JPL/Caltech ARIA team. This research was carried out at JPL under contract with NASA. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21963

NASA JPL Distributed Systems Technology (DST) Object-Oriented Component Approach for Software Inter-Operability and Reuse

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, Laverne; Hung, Chaw-Kwei; Lin, Imin

2000-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to provide a description of NASA JPL Distributed Systems Technology (DST) Section's object-oriented component approach to open inter-operable systems software development and software reuse. It will address what is meant by the terminology object component software, give an overview of the component-based development approach and how it relates to infrastructure support of software architectures and promotes reuse, enumerate on the benefits of this approach, and give examples of application prototypes demonstrating its usage and advantages. Utilization of the object-oriented component technology approach for system development and software reuse will apply to several areas within JPL, and possibly across other NASA Centers.

JPL Mission Bibliometrics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Coppin, Ann

2013-01-01

For a number of years ongoing bibliographies of various JPL missions (AIRS, ASTER, Cassini, GRACE, Earth Science, Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit & Opportunity)) have been compiled by the JPL Library. Mission specific bibliographies are compiled by the Library and sent to mission scientists and managers in the form of regular (usually quarterly) updates. Charts showing publications by years are periodically provided to the ASTER, Cassini, and GRACE missions for supporting Senior Review/ongoing funding requests, and upon other occasions as a measure of the impact of the missions. Basically the Web of Science, Compendex, sometimes Inspec, GeoRef and Aerospace databases are searched for the mission name in the title, abstract, and assigned keywords. All get coded for journal publications that are refereed publications.

The JPL near-real-time VLBI system and its application to clock synchronization and earth orientation measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Callahan, P. S.; Eubanks, T. M.; Roth, M. G.; Steppe, J. A.; Esposito, P. B.

1983-01-01

The JPL near-real-time VLBI system called Block I is discussed. The hardware and software of the system are described, and the Time and Earth Motion Precision Observations (TEMPO) which utilize Block I are discussed. These observations are designed to provide interstation clock synchronization to 10 nsec and to determine earth orientation (UT1 and polar motion - UTPM) to 30 cm or better in each component. TEMPO results for clock synchronization and UTPM are presented with data from the July 1980-August 1981 analyzed using the most recent JPL solution software and source catalog. Future plans for TEMPO and Block I are discussed.

Electric vehicle chassis dynamometer test methods at JPL and their correlation to track tests

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Marte, J.; Bryant, J.

1983-01-01

Early in its electric vehicle (EV) test program, JPL recognized that EV test procedures were too vague and too loosely defined to permit much meaningful data to be obtained from the testing. Therefore, JPL adopted more stringent test procedures and chose the chassis dynamometer rather than the track as its principal test technique. Through the years, test procedures continued to evolve towards a methodology based on chassis dynamometers which would exhibit good correlation with track testing. Based on comparative dynamometer and track test results on the ETV-1 vehicle, the test methods discussed in this report demonstrate a means by which excellent track-to-dynamometer correlation can be obtained.

The JPL Cryogenic Dilatometer: Measuring the Thermal Expansion Coefficient of Aerospace Materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Halverson, Peter G.; Dudick, Matthew J.; Karlmann, Paul; Klein, Kerry J.; Levine, Marie; Marcin, Martin; Parker, Tyler J.; Peters, Robert D.; Shaklan, Stuart; VanBuren, David

2007-01-01

This slide presentation details the cryogenic dilatometer, which is used by JPL to measure the thermal expansion coefficient of materials used in Aerospace. Included is a system diagram, a picture of the dilatometer chamber and the laser source, a description of the laser source, pictures of the interferometer, block diagrams of the electronics and software and a picture of the electronics, and software. Also there is a brief review of the accurace.error budget. The materials tested are also described, and the results are shown in strain curves, JPL measured strain fits are described, and the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) is also shown for the materials tested.

All-Terrain Intelligent Robot Braves Battlefront to Save Lives

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2005-01-01

As NASA s lead center for creating robotic spacecraft and rovers, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) builds smart machines that can perform very complicated tasks, far, far away from the homeland. JPL s robotic proficiency is making an impact millions of miles away on Mars, where two rovers are presently unlocking the secrets of the Red Planet s rugged terrain, and thousands of miles away in the embattled regions of Iraq and Afghanistan, where robots sown from the seeds of JPL machines have been deployed to be the "eyes and ears" of humans on the front line. This commercial offspring, known as the PackBot Tactical Mobile Robot, is manufactured by iRobot, Inc., of Burlington, Massachusetts.

ARC-1994-AC94-0353-2C

NASA Image and Video Library

1994-07-01

Photo Artwork composite by JPL This depiction of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacting Jupiter is shown from several perspectives. IMAGE C is shown from the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which may observe the event from its unique position at the outer reaches of the solar system. For visual appeal, most of the large cometary fragments are shown close to one another in this image. At the time of Jupiter impact, the fragments will be separated from one another by serveral times the distances shown. This image was created by D.A. Seal of JPL's Mission Design Section using orbital computations provIded by P.W. Chodas and D.K. Yeomans of JPL's Navigation Section.

Mars Science Laboratory Rover Taking Shape

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2008-01-01

This image taken in August 2008 in a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., shows NASA's next Mars rover, the Mars Science Laboratory, in the course of its assembly, before additions of its arm, mast, laboratory instruments and other equipment.

The rover is about 9 feet wide and 10 feet long.

Viewing progress on the assembly are, from left: NASA Associate Administrator for Science Ed Weiler, California Institute of Technology President Jean-Lou Chameau, JPL Director Charles Elachi, and JPL Associate Director for Flight Projects and Mission Success Tom Gavin.

JPL, a division of Caltech, manages the Mars Science Laboratory project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

NESC Independent Review of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Contamination Thermal/Vacuum (T/V) Anomaly Technical Consultation Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sutter, James K.; Leidecker, Henning W.; Panda, Binayak; Piascik, Robert S.; Muirhead, Brian K.; Peeler, Debra

2009-01-01

The NESC eras requested by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to conduct an independent review of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Thermal/Vacuum (T/V) Anomaly Assessment. Because the anomaly resulted in the surface contamination of the MRO, selected members of the Materials Super Problem Resolution Team (SPRT) and the NASA technical community having technical expertise relative to contamination issues were chosen for the independent review. The consultation consisted of a review of the MRO Project's reported response to the assessment findings, a detailed review of JPL technical assessment final report, and detailed discussions with the JPL assessment team relative to their findings.

6. Credit WCT. Photographic copy of photograph, Advanced Solid Rocket ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

6. Credit WCT. Photographic copy of photograph, Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM) test in progress at Test Stand 'E.' It was a JPL/Marshall Space Flight Center project. (JPL negative no. 344-4816 19 February 1982) - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Test Stand E, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

Software risk estimation and management techniques at JPL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hihn, J.; Lum, K.

2002-01-01

In this talk we will discuss how uncertainty has been incorporated into the JPL software model, probabilistic-based estimates, and how risk is addressed, how cost risk is currently being explored via a variety of approaches, from traditional risk lists, to detailed WBS-based risk estimates to the Defect Detection and Prevention (DDP) tool.

Vice President Pence Tours Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-04-28

JPL Director Michael Watkins, standing, explains the history of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the use of the Mission Support Area to Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Executive Director of the National Space Council Scott Pace during a tour of JPL, Saturday, April 28, 2018 in Pasadena, California. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Payload test philosophy. [JPL views on qualification/acceptance testing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gindorf, T.

1979-01-01

The general philosophy of how JPL views payload qualification/acceptance testing for programs that are done either in-house or by contractors is described. Particular attention is given to mission risk classifications, preliminary critical design reviews, environmental design requirements, the thermal and dynamics development tests, and the flight spacecraft system test.

The Interplay of Surface Mount Solder Joint Quality and Reliability of Low Volume SMAs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ghaffarian, R.

1997-01-01

Spacecraft electronics including those used at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), demand production of highly reliable assemblies. JPL has recently completed an extensive study, funded by NASA's code Q, of the interplay between manufacturing defects and reliability of ball grid array (BGA) and surface mount electronic components.

JPL CMOS Active Pixel Sensor Technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fossum, E. R.

1995-01-01

This paper will present the JPL-developed complementary metal- oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) active pixel sensor (APS) technology. The CMOS APS has achieved performance comparable to charge coupled devices, yet features ultra low power operation, random access readout, on-chip timing and control, and on-chip analog to digital conversion. Previously published open literature will be reviewed.

A Contracign out Success Story

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davis, Esker K.

1993-01-01

This paper is based on the highly successfull Mission and Computing Support (MACS) Contract, between the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and OAO Corporation, which encompasses a comprehensive set of work for information systems and services. JPL awarded the MACS contract in 1988 and saw very succeful operation during the first five years which were recently completed.

Telerobot task planning and reasoning: Introduction to JPL artificial intelligence research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Atkinson, D. J.

1987-01-01

A view of the capabilities and areas of artificial intelligence research which are required for autonomous space telerobotics extending through the year 2000 is given. In the coming years, JPL will be conducting directed research to achieve these capabilities, as well as drawing heavily on collaborative efforts conducted with other research laboratories.

The Deep Impact Network Experiment Operations Center Monitor and Control System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, Shin-Ywan (Cindy); Torgerson, J. Leigh; Schoolcraft, Joshua; Brenman, Yan

2009-01-01

The Interplanetary Overlay Network (ION) software at JPL is an implementation of Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) which has been proposed as an interplanetary protocol to support space communication. The JPL Deep Impact Network (DINET) is a technology development experiment intended to increase the technical readiness of the JPL implemented ION suite. The DINET Experiment Operations Center (EOC) developed by JPL's Protocol Technology Lab (PTL) was critical in accomplishing the experiment. EOC, containing all end nodes of simulated spaces and one administrative node, exercised publish and subscribe functions for payload data among all end nodes to verify the effectiveness of data exchange over ION protocol stacks. A Monitor and Control System was created and installed on the administrative node as a multi-tiered internet-based Web application to support the Deep Impact Network Experiment by allowing monitoring and analysis of the data delivery and statistics from ION. This Monitor and Control System includes the capability of receiving protocol status messages, classifying and storing status messages into a database from the ION simulation network, and providing web interfaces for viewing the live results in addition to interactive database queries.

Description of data base management systems activities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1983-01-01

One of the major responsibilities of the JPL Computing and Information Services Office is to develop and maintain a JPL plan for providing computing services to the JPL management and administrative community that will lead to improved productivity. The CISO plan to accomplish this objective has been titled 'Management and Administrative Support Systems' (MASS). The MASS plan is based on the continued use of JPL's IBM 3032 Computer system for administrative computing and for the MASS functions. The current candidate administrative Data Base Management Systems required to support the MASS include ADABASE, Cullinane IDMS and TOTAL. Previous uses of administrative Data Base Systems have been applied to specific local functions rather than in a centralized manner with elements common to the many user groups. Limited capacity data base systems have been installed in microprocessor based office automation systems in a few Project and Management Offices using Ashton-Tate dBASE II. These experiences plus some other localized in house DBMS uses have provided an excellent background for developing user and system requirements for a single DBMS to support the MASS program.

A Tidal Disruption Event in Arp299B

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-06-15

An image of the galaxy Arp299B, which is undergoing a merging process with Arp299A (the galaxy to the left), captured by NASA's Hubble space telescope. The inset features an artist's illustration of a tidal disruption event (TDE), which occurs when a star passes fatally close to a supermassive black hole. A TDE was recently observed near the center of Arp299B. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22356

Views of Ceres on Approach

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-02-25

These images of dwarf planet Ceres, processed to enhance clarity, were taken on Feb. 19, 2015, from a distance of about 29,000 miles 46,000 kilometers, by NASA Dawn spacecraft. Dawn observed Ceres completing one full rotation, lasting about nine hours. The images show the full range of different crater shapes that can be found at Ceres' surface: from shallow, flattish craters to those with peaks at their centers. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19183

Gullies in a Central Pit Crater

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-10-14

Sometimes a central pit forms inside some Martian craters, especially when there substantial ground ice. Such is the case in this observation from NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. Sometimes what we call "mass wasting" processes (think small avalanches or landslides) occur on the slopes of the central pit. We took this image to search for any recent activity that would add to or modify previously identified gullies. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20005

Elysium Fossae

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-01-14

This image captured by NASA 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows a portion of one of the larger depressions on the NW edge of the Elysium volcanic complex. Portions of this large channel system appear to have been created by liquid flow, while other portions appear to have tectonic action as the formation process. Orbit Number: 61770 Latitude: 28.4502 Longitude: 138.828 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2015-11-16 21:51 http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20236

KSC-07pd0857

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-04-10

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In Astrotech's Payload Processing Facility, a crane is being attached to the Dawn spacecraft to lift it from the transporter. Dawn's mission is to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

KSC-07pd0855

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-04-10

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In Astrotech's Payload Processing Facility, a crane is attached to the shipping container to remove it from around the Dawn spacecraft. Dawn's mission is to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

KSC-2014-2515

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-05-12

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The components of NASA's International Space Station-RapidScat scatterometer instrument await processing inside Kennedy Space Center's Space Station Processing Facility. ISS-RapidScat is the first scientific Earth-observing instrument designed to operate from the exterior of the space station. It will measure Earth's ocean surface wind speed and direction, providing data to be used in weather and marine forecasting. Built at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, ISS-RapidScat is slated to fly on the SpaceX-4 commercial cargo resupply flight in 2014. For more information, visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/iss-rapidscat. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis

Autonomous precision landing using terrain-following navigation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vaughan, R. M.; Gaskell, R. W.; Halamek, P.; Klumpp, A. R.; Synnott, S. P.

1991-01-01

Terrain-following navigation studies that have been done over the past two years in the navigation system section at JPL are described. A descent to Mars scenario based on Mars Rover and Sample Return mission profiles is described, and navigation and image processing issues pertaining to descent phases where landmark picture can be obtained are examined. A covariance analysis is performed to verify that landmark measurements from a terrain-following navigation system can satisfy precision landing requirements. Image processing problems involving known landmarks in actual pictures are considered. Mission design alternatives that can alleviate some of these problems are suggested.

The 'Face' of Jupiter

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-06-29

JunoCam images aren't just for art and science -- sometimes they are processed to bring a chuckle. This image, processed by citizen scientist Jason Major, is titled "Jovey McJupiterface." By rotating the image 180 degrees and orienting it from south up, two white oval storms turn into eyeballs, and the "face" of Jupiter is revealed. The original image was acquired by JunoCam on NASA's Juno spacecraft on May 19, 2017 at 11:20 a.m. PT (2: 20 p.m. ET) from an altitude of 12,075 miles (19,433 kilometers). https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21394

Real-time on-board orbit determination with DORIS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Berthias, J.-P.; Jayles, C.; Pradines, D.

1993-01-01

A spaceborne orbit determination system is being developed by the French Space Agency (CNES) for the SPOT 4 satellite. It processes DORIS measurements to produce an orbit with an accuracy of about 50O meters rms. In order to evaluate the reliability of the software, it was combined with the MERCATOR man/machine interface and used to process the TOPEX/Poseidon DORIS data in near real time during the validation phase of the instrument, at JPL and at CNES. This paper gives an overview of the orbit determination system and presents the results of the TOPEX/Poseidon experiment.

NASA/JPL CLIMATE DAY: Middle and High School Students Get the Facts about Global Climate Change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Richardson, Annie; Callery, Susan; Srinivasan, Margaret

2013-04-01

In 2007, NASA Headquarters requested that Earth Science outreach teams brainstorm new education and public outreach activities that would focus on the topic of global climate change. At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Annie Richardson, outreach lead for the Ocean Surface Topography missions came up with the idea of a "Climate Day", capitalizing on the popular Earth Day name and events held annually throughout the world. JPL Climate Day would be an education and public outreach event whose objectives are to provide the latest scientific facts about global climate change - including the role the ocean plays in it, the contributions that NASA/JPL satellites and scientists make to the body of knowledge on the topic, and what we as individuals can do to promote global sustainability. The primary goal is that participants get this information in a fun and exciting environment, and walk away feeling empowered and capable of confidently engaging in the global climate debate. In March 2008, JPL and its partners held the first Climate Day event. 950 students from seven school districts heard from five scientists; visited exhibits, and participated in hands-on-activities. Pleased with the outcome, we organized JPL Climate Day 2010 at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, California, reaching more than 1700 students, teachers, and members of the general public over two days. Taking note of this successful model, NASA funded a multi-center, NASA Climate Day proposal in 2010 to expand Climate Day nation-wide. The NASA Climate Day proposal is a three-pronged project consisting of a cadre of Earth Ambassadors selected from among NASA-affiliated informal educators; a "Climate Day Kit" consisting of climate-related electronic resources available to the Earth Ambassadors; and NASA Climate Day events to be held in Earth Ambassador communities across the United States. NASA/JPL continues to host the original Climate Day event and in 2012 held its 4th event, at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, California. Although our goals and objectives remain the same, we continue to improve the event, which now includes student staff and student exhibitors. Our poster will give an overview and highlights of the November 16, 2012 event.

Tropical Cyclone Information System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Li, P. Peggy; Knosp, Brian W.; Vu, Quoc A.; Yi, Chao; Hristova-Veleva, Svetla M.

2009-01-01

The JPL Tropical Cyclone Infor ma tion System (TCIS) is a Web portal (http://tropicalcyclone.jpl.nasa.gov) that provides researchers with an extensive set of observed hurricane parameters together with large-scale and convection resolving model outputs. It provides a comprehensive set of high-resolution satellite (see figure), airborne, and in-situ observations in both image and data formats. Large-scale datasets depict the surrounding environmental parameters such as SST (Sea Surface Temperature) and aerosol loading. Model outputs and analysis tools are provided to evaluate model performance and compare observations from different platforms. The system pertains to the thermodynamic and microphysical structure of the storm, the air-sea interaction processes, and the larger-scale environment as depicted by ocean heat content and the aerosol loading of the environment. Currently, the TCIS is populated with satellite observations of all tropical cyclones observed globally during 2005. There is a plan to extend the database both forward in time till present as well as backward to 1998. The portal is powered by a MySQL database and an Apache/Tomcat Web server on a Linux system. The interactive graphic user interface is provided by Google Map.

Estimate of procession and polar motion errors from planetary encounter station location solutions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pease, G. E.

1978-01-01

Jet Propulsion Laboratory Deep Space Station (DSS) location solutions based on two JPL planetary ephemerides, DE 84 and DE 96, at eight planetary encounters were used to obtain weighted least squares estimates of precession and polar motion errors. The solution for precession error in right ascension yields a value of 0.3 X 10 to the minus 5 power plus or minus 0.8 X 10 to the minus 6 power deg/year. This maps to a right ascension error of 1.3 X 10 to the minus 5 power plus or minus 0.4 X 10 to the minus 5 power deg at the first Voyager 1979 Jupiter encounter if the current JPL DSS location set is used. Solutions for precession and polar motion using station locations based on DE 84 agree well with the solution using station locations referenced to DE 96. The precession solution removes the apparent drift in station longitude and spin axis distance estimates, while the encounter polar motion solutions consistently decrease the scatter in station spin axis distance estimates.

Evaluation of Refractivity Profiles from CHAMP and SAC-C GPS Radio Occultation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Poli, Paul; Ao, Chi On; Joiner, Joanna; delaTorreJuarez, Manuel; Hoff, Raymond

2002-01-01

The GeoForschungsZentrum's Challenging Minisatellite Payload for Geophysical Research and Application (CHAMP, Germany-US) and the Comision Nacional de Actividades Especiales' Satelite de Aplicaciones Cientificas-C (SAC-C, Argentina-US) missions are the first missions to carry a second-generation Blackjack Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. One of the new features of this receiver is its ability to sense the lower troposphere closer to the surface than the proof-of-concept GPS Meteorology experiment (GPS/MET). Since their launch, CHAMP and SAC-C have collected thousands of GPS radio occultations, representing a wealth of measurements available for data assimilation and Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP). In order to evaluate the refractivity data derived by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) from raw radio occultation measurements, we use Data Assimilation Office (DAO) 6-hour forecasts as an independent state of the atmosphere. We compare CHAMP and SAC-C refractivity (processed by JPL) with refractivity calculated from the DAO global fields of temperature, water vapor content and humidity. We show statistics of the differences as well as histograms of the differences.

A new approach for performing contamination control bakeouts in JPL thermal vacuum test chambers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Kenneth R.; Taylor, Daniel M.; Lane, Robert W.; Cortez, Maximo G.; Anderson, Mark R.

1992-01-01

Contamination control requirements for the Wide Field/Planetary Camera II (WF/PC II) are necessarily stringent to protect against post-launch contamination of the sensitive optical surfaces, particularly the cold charge coupled device (CCD) imaging surfaces. Typically, thermal vacuum test chambers have employed a liquid nitrogen (LN2) cold trap to collect outgassed contaminants. This approach has the disadvantage of risking recontamination of the test article from shroud offgassing during post-test warmup of the chamber or from any shroud warming of even a few degrees during the bakeout process. By using an enclave, essentially a chamber within a chamber, configured concentrically and internally within an LN2 shroud, a method was developed, based on a design concept by Taylor, for preventing recontamination of test articles during bakeouts and subsequent post-test warmup of the vacuum chamber. Enclaves for testing WF/PC II components were designed and fabricated, then installed in three of JPL's Environmental Test Lab chambers. The design concepts, operating procedures, and test results of this development are discussed.

Performance of the Satellite Test Assistant Robot in JPL's Space Simulation Facility

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mcaffee, Douglas; Long, Mark; Johnson, Ken; Siebes, Georg

1995-01-01

An innovative new telerobotic inspection system called STAR (the Satellite Test Assistant Robot) has been developed to assist engineers as they test new spacecraft designs in simulated space environments. STAR operates inside the ultra-cold, high-vacuum, test chambers and provides engineers seated at a remote Operator Control Station (OCS) with high resolution video and infrared (IR) images of the flight articles under test. STAR was successfully proof tested in JPL's 25-ft (7.6-m) Space Simulation Chamber where temperatures ranged from +85 C to -190 C and vacuum levels reached 5.1 x 10(exp -6) torr. STAR's IR Camera was used to thermally map the entire interior of the chamber for the first time. STAR also made several unexpected and important discoveries about the thermal processes occurring within the chamber. Using a calibrated test fixture arrayed with ten sample spacecraft materials, the IR camera was shown to produce highly accurate surface temperature data. This paper outlines STAR's design and reports on significant results from the thermal vacuum chamber test.

Applications of different design methodologies in navigation systems and development at JPL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thurman, S. W.

1990-01-01

The NASA/JPL deep space navigation system consists of a complex array of measurement systems, data processing systems, and support facilities, with components located both on the ground and on-board interplanetary spacecraft. From its beginings nearly 30 years ago, this system has steadily evolved and grown to meet the demands for ever-increasing navigation accuracy placed on it by a succession of unmanned planetary missions. Principal characteristics of this system are its capabilities and great complexity. Three examples in the design and development of interplanetary space navigation systems are examined in order to make a brief assessment of the usefulness of three basic design theories, known as normative, rational, and heuristic. Evaluation of the examples indicates that a heuristic approach, coupled with rational-based mathematical and computational analysis methods, is used most often in problems such as orbit determination strategy development and mission navigation system design, while normative methods have seen only limited use is such applications as the development of large software systems and in the design of certain operational navigation subsystems.

Earth observation photo taken by JPL with the Shuttle Imaging Radar-A

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

Earth observation photo taken by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) with the Shuttle Imaging Radar-A (SIR-A). This image shows the Los Angeles basin. The area's freeways are visible as dark lines. The Los Angles harbor breakwater off Long Beach is seen as a bright line. Vessels in the harbor show as bright points.

Enabling novel planetary and terrestrial mechanisms using electroactive materials at the JPL's NDEAA Lab

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bar-Cohen, Yoseph; Sherrit, Stewart; Bao, Xiaoqi; Chang, Zensheu; Lih, Shyh-Shiuh

2004-01-01

Increasingly, electroactive materials are used to produce acutators, sensors, displays and other elements of mechanisms and devices. In recognition of the potential of these materials, research at the JPL's NDEAA Lab have led to many novel space and terrestrial applications. This effort involves mostly the use of piezoelectric and electroactive polymers (EAP).

1. Credit WCT. Original 2 1/4" x 2 1/4" color ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

1. Credit WCT. Original 2- 1/4" x 2- 1/4" color negative is housed in the JPL Photography Laboratory, Pasadena, California. This view shows the remote charge trimmer, a vertical lathe for turning propellant castings ("grain") in the front room of this structure. Ron Wright is shown in charge of the procedure; the hoist operator is unidentified. Grain for a BATES (Ballistic And Test Evaluation System) motor is being lowered into the lathe with a hoist and specially designed BATES fitting. The spout and waste barrel, in the foreground, collects waste trimmings for disposal (JPL negative no. JPL10286BC, 27 January 1989) - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Preparation Building, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

Implementing the President's Vision: JPL and NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sander, Michael J.

2006-01-01

As part of the NASA team the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is involved in the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) work to implement the President's Vision for Space exploration. In this slide presentation the roles that are assigned to the various NASA centers to implement the vision are reviewed. The plan for JPL is to use the Constellation program to advance the combination of science an Constellation program objectives. JPL's current participation is to contribute systems engineering support, Command, Control, Computing and Information (C3I) architecture, Crew Exploration Vehicle, (CEV) Thermal Protection System (TPS) project support/CEV landing assist support, Ground support systems support at JSC and KSC, Exploration Communication and Navigation System (ECANS), Flight prototypes for cabin atmosphere instruments

Improvements in Speed and Functionality of a 670-GHz Imaging Radar

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dengler, Robert J.; Cooper, Ken B.; Mehdi, Imran; Siegel, Peter H.; Tarsala, Jan A.; Bryllert, Thomas E.

2011-01-01

Significant improvements have been made in the instrument originally described in a prior NASA Tech Briefs article: Improved Speed and Functionality of a 580-GHz Imaging Radar (NPO-45156), Vol. 34, No. 7 (July 2010), p. 51. First, the wideband YIG oscillator has been replaced with a JPL-designed and built phase-locked, low-noise chirp source. Second, further refinements to the data acquisition and signal processing software have been performed by moving critical code sections to C code, and compiling those sections to Windows DLLs, which are then invoked from the main LabVIEW executive. This system is an active, single-pixel scanned imager operating at 670 GHz. The actual chirp signals for the RF and LO chains were generated by a pair of MITEQ 2.5 3.3 GHz chirp sources. Agilent benchtop synthesizers operating at fixed frequencies around 13 GHz were then used to up-convert the chirp sources to 15.5 16.3 GHz. The resulting signals were then multiplied 36 times by a combination of off-the-shelf millimeter- wave components, and JPL-built 200- GHz doublers and 300- and 600-GHz triplers. The power required to drive the submillimeter-wave multipliers was provided by JPL-built W-band amplifiers. The receive and transmit signal paths were combined using a thin, high-resistivity silicon wafer as a beam splitter. While the results at present are encouraging, the system still lacks sufficient speed to be usable for practical applications in a contraband detection. Ideally, an image acquisition speed of ten seconds, or a factor of 30 improvement, is desired. However, the system improvements to date have resulted in a factor of five increase in signal acquisition speed, as well as enhanced signal processing algorithms, permitting clearer imaging of contraband objects hidden underneath clothing. In particular, advances in three distinct areas have enabled these performance enhancements: base source phase noise reduction, chirp rate, and signal processing. Additionally, a second pixel was added, automatically reducing the imaging time by a factor of two. Although adding a second pixel to the system doubles the amount of submillimeter components required, some savings in microwave hardware can be realized by using a common low-noise source.

High Temperature Boost (HTB) Power Processing Unit (PPU) Formulation Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chen, Yuan; Bradley, Arthur T.; Iannello, Christopher J.; Carr, Gregory A.; Mohammad, Mojarradi M.; Hunter, Don J.; DelCastillo, Linda; Stell, Christopher B.

2013-01-01

This technical memorandum is to summarize the Formulation Study conducted during fiscal year 2012 on the High Temperature Boost (HTB) Power Processing Unit (PPU). The effort is authorized and supported by the Game Changing Technology Division, NASA Office of the Chief Technologist. NASA center participation during the formulation includes LaRC, KSC and JPL. The Formulation Study continues into fiscal year 2013. The formulation study has focused on the power processing unit. The team has proposed a modular, power scalable, and new technology enabled High Temperature Boost (HTB) PPU, which has 5-10X improvement in PPU specific power/mass and over 30% in-space solar electric system mass saving.

Spitzer Telemetry Processing System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stanboli, Alice; Martinez, Elmain M.; McAuley, James M.

2013-01-01

The Spitzer Telemetry Processing System (SirtfTlmProc) was designed to address objectives of JPL's Multi-mission Image Processing Lab (MIPL) in processing spacecraft telemetry and distributing the resulting data to the science community. To minimize costs and maximize operability, the software design focused on automated error recovery, performance, and information management. The system processes telemetry from the Spitzer spacecraft and delivers Level 0 products to the Spitzer Science Center. SirtfTlmProc is a unique system with automated error notification and recovery, with a real-time continuous service that can go quiescent after periods of inactivity. The software can process 2 GB of telemetry and deliver Level 0 science products to the end user in four hours. It provides analysis tools so the operator can manage the system and troubleshoot problems. It automates telemetry processing in order to reduce staffing costs.

Chemical Kinetics and Photochemical Data for Use in Atmospheric Studies: Evaluation Number 18

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burkholder, J. B.; Sander, S. P.; Abbatt, J. P. D.; Barker, J. R.; Huie, R. E.; Kolb, C. E.; Kurylo, M. J.; Orkin, V. L.; Wilmouth, D. M.; Wine, P. H.

2015-01-01

This is the eighteenth in a series of evaluated sets of rate constants, photochemical cross sections, heterogeneous parameters, and thermochemical parameters compiled by the NASA Panel for Data Evaluation. The data are used primarily to model stratospheric and upper tropospheric processes, with particular emphasis on the ozone layer and its possible perturbation by anthropogenic and natural phenomena. The evaluation is available in electronic form from the following Internet URL: http://jpldataeval.jpl.nasa.gov/

KSC-07pd0865

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-04-11

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In clean room C of Astrotech's Payload Processing Facility, technicians dressed in "bunny suits," or clean-room attire, begin working on the Dawn spacecraft. Dawn's mission is to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton

Example of Weathering And Sun Angle

NASA Image and Video Library

1996-12-12

The letter 'B' or perhaps the figure '8' appears to have been etched into the Mars rock at the left edge of this picture taken yesterday by NASA's Viking 1 Lander. It is believed to be an illusion caused by weathering processes and the angle of the sun as it illuminated the scene for the spacecraft camera. The object at lower left is the housing containing the surface sampler scoop. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00386

Update on parts SEE suspectibility from heavy ions. [Single Event Effects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nichols, D. K.; Smith, L. S.; Schwartz, H. R.; Soli, G.; Watson, K.; Koga, R.; Crain, W. R.; Crawford, K. B.; Hansel, S. J.; Lau, D. D.

1991-01-01

JPL and the Aerospace Corporation have collected a fourth set of heavy ion single event effects (SEE) test data. Trends in SEE susceptibility (including soft errors and latchup) for state-of-the-art parts are displayed. All data are conveniently divided into two tables: one for MOS devices, and one for a shorter list of recently tested bipolar devices. In addition, a new table of data for latchup tests only (invariably CMOS processes) is given.

Plasma Treatment to Remove Carbon from Indium UV Filters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Greer, Harold F.; Nikzad, Shouleh; Beasley, Matthew; Gantner, Brennan

2012-01-01

The sounding rocket experiment FIRE (Far-ultraviolet Imaging Rocket Experiment) will improve the science community fs ability to image a spectral region hitherto unexplored astronomically. The imaging band of FIRE (.900 to 1,100 Angstroms) will help fill the current wavelength imaging observation hole existing from approximately equal to 620 Angstroms to the GALEX band near 1,350 Angstroms. FIRE is a single-optic prime focus telescope with a 1.75-m focal length. The bandpass of 900 to 1100 Angstroms is set by a combination of the mirror coating, the indium filter in front of the detector, and the salt coating on the front of the detector fs microchannel plates. Critical to this is the indium filter that must reduce the flux from Lymanalpha at 1,216 Angstroms by a minimum factor of 10(exp -4). The cost of this Lyman-alpha removal is that the filter is not fully transparent at the desired wavelengths of 900 to 1,100 Angstroms. Recently, in a project to improve the performance of optical and solar blind detectors, JPL developed a plasma process capable of removing carbon contamination from indium metal. In this work, a low-power, low-temperature hydrogen plasma reacts with the carbon contaminants in the indium to form methane, but leaves the indium metal surface undisturbed. This process was recently tested in a proof-of-concept experiment with a filter provided by the University of Colorado. This initial test on a test filter showed improvement in transmission from 7 to 9 percent near 900 with no process optimization applied. Further improvements in this performance were readily achieved to bring the total transmission to 12% with optimization to JPL's existing process.

Medicine Delivery Device with Integrated Sterilization and Detection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shearn, Michael J.; Greer, Harold F.; Manohara, Harish

2013-01-01

Sterile delivery devices can be created by integrating a medicine delivery instrument with surfaces that are coated with germicidal and anti-fouling material. This requires that a large-surface-area template be developed within a constrained volume to ensure good contact between the delivered medicine and the germicidal material. Both of these can be integrated using JPL-developed silicon nanotip or cryo-etch black silicon technologies with atomic layer deposition (ALD) coating of specific germicidal layers. The application of semiconductor processing techniques and technologies to the problems of fluid manipulation and delivery has enabled the integration of chemical, electrical, and mechanical manipulation of samples all within a single microfluidic device. This approach has been successfully applied at JPL to the automated processing, detection, and analysis of minute quantities (parts per trillion level) of biomaterials to develop instruments for in situ exploration or extraterrestrial bodies. The same nanofabrication techniques that are used to produce a microfluidics device are also capable of synthesizing extremely high-surface-area templates in precise locations, and coating those surfaces with conformal films to manipulate their surface properties. This methodology has been successfully applied at JPL to produce patterned and coated silicon nanotips (also known as black silicon) to manipulate the hydrophilicity of surfaces to direct the spreading of fluids in microdevices. JPL's ALD technique is an ideal method to produce the highly conformal coatings required for this type of application. Certain materials, such as TiO2, have germicidal and anti-fouling properties when they are illuminated with UV light. The proposed delivery device contacts medicine with this high-surface-area black silicon surface coated with a thin-film germicidal deposited conformally with ALD. The coating can also be illuminated with ultraviolet light for the purpose of sterilization or identification of the medicine itself. This constrained volume that is located immediately prior to delivery into a patient, ensures that the medicine delivery device is inherently sterile. An additional benefit to integrating a high-surface-area template within the fluid channel of a medicine delivery device is that one can envision a number of different functional coatings that could facilitate the capture and analysis of either microbial contaminants or the medicine itself. For example, one could attach antibodies or some other binding agent with a specific affinity to the silicon nanotip template. Once a target molecule or microbe is bound to the high-surface- area template, one could use an optical analytical technique such as fluorescence or adsorption to determine the identity and potentially the concentration of the species of interest. By illuminating the bound species from the back, it may also be possible to probe only the molecules with an evanescent wave, making detection of the species from the front side of the device much simpler.

Integrated testing of the Thales LPT9510 pulse tube cooler and the iris LCCE electronics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Johnson, Dean L.; Rodriguez, Jose I.; Carroll, Brian A.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has identified the Thales LPT9510 pulse tube cryocooler as a candidate low cost cryocooler to provide active cooling on future cost-capped scientific missions. The commercially available cooler can provide refrigeration in excess of 2 W at 100K for 60W of power. JPL purchased the LPT9510 cooler for thermal and dynamic performance characterization, and has initiated the flight qualification of the existing cooler design to satisfy near-term JPL needs for this cooler. The LPT9510 has been thermally tested over the heat reject temperature range of 0C to +40C during characterization testing. The cooler was placed onmore » a force dynamometer to measure the selfgenerated vibration of the cooler. Iris Technology has provided JPL with a brass board version of the Low Cost Cryocooler Electronics (LCCE) to drive the Thales cooler during characterization testing. The LCCE provides precision closed-loop temperature control and embodies extensive protection circuitry for handling and operational robustness; other features such as exported vibration mitigation and low frequency input current filtering are envisioned as options that future flight versions may or may not include based upon the mission requirements. JPL has also chosen to partner with Iris Technology for the development of electronics suitable for future flight applications. Iris Technology is building a set of radiation-hard, flight-design electronics to deliver to the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Test results of the thermal, dynamic and EMC testing of the integrated Thales LPT9510 cooler and Iris LCCE electronics is presented here.« less

Involving Scientists in the NASA / JPL Solar System Educators Program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brunsell, E.; Hill, J.

2001-11-01

The NASA / JPL Solar System Educators Program (SSEP) is a professional development program with the goal of inspiring America's students, creating learning opportunities, and enlightening inquisitive minds by engaging them in the Solar System exploration efforts conducted by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). SSEP is a Jet Propulsion Laboratory program managed by Space Explorers, Inc. (Green Bay, WI) and the Virginia Space Grant Consortium (Hampton, VA). The heart of the program is a large nationwide network of highly motivated educators. These Solar System Educators, representing more than 40 states, lead workshops around the country that show teachers how to successfully incorporate NASA materials into their teaching. During FY2001, more than 9500 educators were impacted through nearly 300 workshops conducted in 43 states. Solar System Educators attend annual training institutes at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory during their first two years in the program. All Solar System Educators receive additional online training, materials and support. The JPL missions and programs involved in SSEP include: Cassini Mission to Saturn, Galileo Mission to Jupiter, STARDUST Comet Sample Return Mission, Deep Impact Mission to a Comet, Mars Exploration Program, Outer Planets Program, Deep Space Network, JPL Space and Earth Science Directorate, and the NASA Office of Space Science Solar System Exploration Education and Public Outreach Forum. Scientists can get involved with this program by cooperatively presenting at workshops conducted in their area, acting as a content resource or by actively mentoring Solar System Educators. Additionally, SSEP will expand this year to include other missions and programs related to the Solar System and the Sun.

Parameter sensitivity analysis and optimization for a satellite-based evapotranspiration model across multiple sites using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer and flux data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Kun; Ma, Jinzhu; Zhu, Gaofeng; Ma, Ting; Han, Tuo; Feng, Li Li

2017-01-01

Global and regional estimates of daily evapotranspiration are essential to our understanding of the hydrologic cycle and climate change. In this study, we selected the radiation-based Priestly-Taylor Jet Propulsion Laboratory (PT-JPL) model and assessed it at a daily time scale by using 44 flux towers. These towers distributed in a wide range of ecological systems: croplands, deciduous broadleaf forest, evergreen broadleaf forest, evergreen needleleaf forest, grasslands, mixed forests, savannas, and shrublands. A regional land surface evapotranspiration model with a relatively simple structure, the PT-JPL model largely uses ecophysiologically-based formulation and parameters to relate potential evapotranspiration to actual evapotranspiration. The results using the original model indicate that the model always overestimates evapotranspiration in arid regions. This likely results from the misrepresentation of water limitation and energy partition in the model. By analyzing physiological processes and determining the sensitive parameters, we identified a series of parameter sets that can increase model performance. The model with optimized parameters showed better performance (R2 = 0.2-0.87; Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) = 0.1-0.87) at each site than the original model (R2 = 0.19-0.87; NSE = -12.14-0.85). The results of the optimization indicated that the parameter β (water control of soil evaporation) was much lower in arid regions than in relatively humid regions. Furthermore, the optimized value of parameter m1 (plant control of canopy transpiration) was mostly between 1 to 1.3, slightly lower than the original value. Also, the optimized parameter Topt correlated well to the actual environmental temperature at each site. We suggest that using optimized parameters with the PT-JPL model could provide an efficient way to improve the model performance.

Optimization of 100-meter Green Bank Telescope

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Strain, Douglas

1994-01-01

Candidate designs for NRAO's 100-m clear-aperture radio telescope were evaluated and optimized by JPL using JPL-developed structural optimization and analysis software. The weight of a non-optimum design was reduced from 9.4 million pounds to 9.2 million pounds. The half-pathlength error due to gravity deformations was reduced from 0.041-inch rms to 0.034-inch rms.

Stardust Blazes MOA Trail

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Faris, Grant B.; Bryant, Larry W.

2010-01-01

Mission Operations Assurance (MOA) started at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) with the Magellan and Galileo missions of the late 80's. It continued to develop and received a significant impetus with the failures of two successive missions to Mars in the late 90's. MOA continued to evolve with each successive project at JPL achieving its current maturity with the Stardust sample return to Earth.

Climate Variability Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Halpern, David (Editor)

2002-01-01

The Annual Report of the Climate Variability Program briefly describes research activities of Principal Investigators who are funded by NASA's Earth Science Enterprise Research Division. The report is focused on the year 2001. Utilization of satellite observations is a singularity of research on climate science and technology at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory). Research at JPL has two foci: generate new knowledge and develop new technology.

Mars Navigator: An Interactive Multimedia Program about Mars, Aerospace Engineering, Astronomy, and the JPL Mars Missions. [CD-ROM

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gramoll, Kurt

This CD-ROM introduces basic astronomy and aerospace engineering by examining the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor missions to Mars. It contains numerous animations and narrations in addition to detailed graphics and text. Six interactive laboratories are included to help understand topics such as the…

The JPL Cost Risk Analysis Approach that Incorporates Engineering Realism

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Harmon, Corey C.; Warfield, Keith R.; Rosenberg, Leigh S.

2006-01-01

This paper discusses the JPL Cost Engineering Group (CEG) cost risk analysis approach that accounts for all three types of cost risk. It will also describe the evaluation of historical cost data upon which this method is based. This investigation is essential in developing a method that is rooted in engineering realism and produces credible, dependable results to aid decision makers.

JPL-20170811-CASSINf-0001a-A World Unveiled Cassini at TItan

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-08-11

A look at the Cassini-Huygens mission's discoveries at Saturn's moon Titan and a description of how flybys of Titan allowed the mission to change to new orbits repeatedly without wasting fuel. Featuring Linda Spilker, Cassini Project Scientist, JPL; Jonathan Lunine, Cassini Titan Scientist, Cornell University; and Elizabeth "Zibi" Turtle, Cassini Imaging Team, John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

Earth observation photo taken by JPL with the Shuttle Imaging Radar-A

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

Photos of earth observations taken by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) with the Shuttle Imaging Radar-A (SIR-A). This image shows Lake Okeechobee (right) and Lake Istokopoga (left) in Central Florida. Lake Okeechobee is bounded on the east by rectangular agricultural fields and to the south and west by swamps and wetlands which appear as bright features.

Photographer : JPL Range : 862,200 km. ( 500,000 miles ) This photograph shows subspacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1979-01-01

Photographer : JPL Range : 862,200 km. ( 500,000 miles ) This photograph shows subspacecraft longitude of approximately 146 degrees of Jupiter's moon Io. Circular features are seen that may be meteorite impact craters or features of internal origins. Irregular depressions are seen that indicate surface modifications. The bright irregular patches appear to be younger deposits masking the surface detail.

Credit WCT. Original 4" x 5" black and white negative ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

Credit WCT. Original 4" x 5" black and white negative is housed in the JPL Archives, Pasadena, California. This view shows the original furnace for burning scrap propellant, the surrounding incinerator pit, and the earth mound personnel shield (JPL negative no. 381-2737, 11 February 1963) - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Incinerator, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

Bowling Ball Spotting

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1985-01-01

Exactatron, an accurate weighing and spotting system in bowling ball manufacture, was developed by Ebonite International engineers with the assistance of a NASA computer search which identified Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) technology. The JPL research concerned a means of determining the center of an object's mass, and an apparatus for measuring liquid viscosity, enabling Ebonite to identify the exact spotting of the drilling point for top weighting.

Publications of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory 1989

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1990-01-01

This bibliography describes and indexes by primary author the externally distributed technical reporting, released during 1989, that resulted from scientific and engineering work performed, or managed, by JPL. Three classes of publications are included: JPL publications in which the information is complete for a specific accomplishment; articles from the quarterly Telecommunications and Data Acquisition (TDA) Progress Report; and articles published in the open literature.

Absolute Charge Exchange Cross Sections for ^3He^2+ Collisions with ^4He and H_2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mawhorter, R. J.; Greenwood, J.; Smith, S. J.; Chutjian, A.

2002-05-01

The JPL charge exchange beam-line(J.B. Greenwood, et al., Phys. Rev A 63), 062707 (2001) was modified to increase the forward acceptance angle and enable the measurement of total charge-exchange cross sections for slow, light, highly-charged ion collisions with neutral targets(R. E. Olson and M. Kimura, J. Phys. B 15), 4231 (1982). Data are presented for single charge exchange cross sections for ^3He^2+ nuclei scattered by ^4He and H2 in the energy range 0.33-4.67 keV/amu. For both targets there is good agreement with Kusakabe, et al.(T. Kusakabe, et al., J. Phys. Soc. Japan 59), 1218 (1990). Angular collection is studied by a comparison with differential measurements(D. Bordenave-Montesquieu and R. Dagnac, J. Phys. B 27), 543 (1994), as well as with earlier JPL results(J.B. Greenwood, et al., Ap. J. 533), L175 (2000), ibid. 529, 605 (2000) using heavier projectiles and targets. This work was carried out at JPL/Caltech, and was supported through contract with NASA. RJM thanks the NRC for a Senior Associateship at JPL.

"Teachers Touch the Sky:" A Workshop in Astronomy for Teachers in Grades 3-9

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buratti, B. J.

2012-08-01

Eight times during the past two decades, JPL technical staff, assisted by master teachers, conducted a one-week workshop for teachers in grades 3-9. In these workshops, the teachers are walked through hands-on activities that are all based on current projects in astronomy and space science at JPL. The activities are inquiry-based and emphasize the scientific method and fundamental math and science skills. Each year the workshop focuses on a NASA theme: in 2011 it was the Dawn Mission to the asteroid 4 Vesta, as orbit insertion occurred right before the workshop. Several activities are based on the Lawrence Livermore Lab's Great Exploration in Math and Science (GEMS) guides. Teachers tour JPL's facilities such as the Space Flight Operations Center, the Spacecraft Assembly Facility, and the Mars Yard. The integration of the lessons into the teachers' own curricula is discussed, and a field trip to JPL's Table Mountain Observatory is included. Teachers learn of the resources NASA makes available to them, and they have the opportunity to talk to "real" scientists about their work. Teachers receive an honorarium for participation plus classroom materials.

Final Report: MaRSPlus Sensor System Electrical Cable Management and Distributed Motor Control Computer Interface

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reil, Robin

2011-01-01

The success of JPL's Next Generation Imaging Spectrometer (NGIS) in Earth remote sensing has inspired a follow-on instrument project, the MaRSPlus Sensor System (MSS). One of JPL's responsibilities in the MSS project involves updating the documentation from the previous JPL airborne imagers to provide all the information necessary for an outside customer to operate the instrument independently. As part of this documentation update, I created detailed electrical cabling diagrams to provide JPL technicians with clear and concise build instructions and a database to track the status of cables from order to build to delivery. Simultaneously, a distributed motor control system is being developed for potential use on the proposed 2018 Mars rover mission. This system would significantly reduce the mass necessary for rover motor control, making more mass space available to other important spacecraft systems. The current stage of the project consists of a desktop computer talking to a single "cold box" unit containing the electronics to drive a motor. In order to test the electronics, I developed a graphical user interface (GUI) using MATLAB to allow a user to send simple commands to the cold box and display the responses received in a user-friendly format.

Global View of Io (Natural and False/Enhanced Color)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1996-01-01

Global view of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io obtained on 07 September, 1996 Universal Time using the near-infrared, green, and violet filters of the Solid State Imaging system aboard NASA/JPL's Galileo spacecraft. The top disk is intended to show the satellite in natural color, similar to what the human eye would see (but colors will vary with display devices), while the bottom disk shows enhanced color to highlight surface details. The reddest and blackest areas are closely associated with active volcanic regions and recent surface deposits. Io was imaged here against the clouds of Jupiter. North is to the top of the frames. The finest details that can discerned in these frames are about 4.9 km across.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is an operating division of California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the World Wide Web, on the Galileo mission home page at URL http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov. Background information and educational context for the images can be found at URL http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo

Various Landscapes and Features on Europa

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1997-01-01

These 15 frames show the great variety of surface features on Jupiter's icy moon, Europa, which have been revealed by the Galileo spacecraft Solid State Imaging (CCD) system during its first six orbits around Jupiter from June 1996 to February 1997. North is to the top of each of the images. The features seen on Europa's surface document both internal and external processes shaping the icy crust. Internal processes and the possible presence of liquid water beneath the ice are indicated by features such as 'dark spots', lobe-shaped flow features, 'puddles','mottled terrain', knobs, pits, and the darker areas along ridges and triple bands.

Europa is subjected to constant tugging from the giant planet, Jupiter, as well as from its neighboring moons, Io and Ganymede. This causes 'tidal' forces that affect Europa's interior and surface. Evidence for such forces includes ridges, fractures, wedge-shaped bands, and areas of 'chaos'. Some of these features result from alternate extension and compression buckling and pulling apart Europa's icy shell.

Impact craters document external effects on a planet's surface. Although present on Europa, impact craters are relatively scarce compared to the number seen on Ganymede, Callisto, and on the surfaces of most other 'rocky' planets and moons in our solar system. This scarcity of craters suggests that the surface of Europa is very young. 'Maculae' on Europa may be the scars from large impact events.

These images have resolutions from 27 meters (89 feet) to 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) per picture element (pixel) and were taken by Galileo at ranges of 2,500 kilometers (1,525 miles) to 677,000 kilometers (413,000 miles) from Europa.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is an operating division of California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the World Wide Web, on the Galileo mission home page at URL http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov. Background information and educational context for the images can be found at URL http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo

Man-machine interface issues in space telerobotics: A JPL research and development program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bejczy, A. K.

1987-01-01

Technology issues related to the use of robots as man-extension or telerobot systems in space are discussed and exemplified. General considerations are presentd on control and information problems in space teleoperation and on the characteristics of Earth orbital teleoperation. The JPL R and D work in the area of man-machine interface devices and techniques for sensing and computer-based control is briefly summarized. The thrust of this R and D effort is to render space teleoperation efficient and safe through the use of devices and techniques which will permit integrated and task-level (intelligent) two-way control communication between human operator and telerobot machine in Earth orbit. Specific control and information display devices and techniques are discussed and exemplified with development results obtained at JPL in recent years.

The Telecommunications and Data Acquisition Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yuen, Joseph H. (Editor)

1994-01-01

This quarterly publication provides archival reports on developments in programs managed by JPL's Office of Telecommunications and Data Acquisition (TDA). In space communications, radio navigation, radio science, and ground-based radio and radar astronomy, it reports on activities of the Deep Space Network (DSN) in planning, supporting research and technology, implementation, and operations. Also included are standards activity at JPL for space data and information systems and reimbursable DSN work performed for other space agencies through NASA. The preceding work is all performed for NASA's Office of Space Communications (OSC). The TDA Office also performs work funded by other NASA program offices through and with the cooperation of OSC. Finally, tasks funded under the JPL Director's Discretionary Fund and the Caltech President's Fund that involve the TDA Office are included.

Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) Briefing

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-06-12

NASA Headquarters Public Affairs Officer Steve Cole, standing, moderates a Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) briefing with (from left), Betsy Edwards, OCO-2 program executive with the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, Ralph Basilio, OCO-2 project manager with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, Mike Gunson, OCO-2 project scientist with JPL, and Annmarie Eldering, OCO-2 deputy project scientist JPL, , Thursday, June 12, 2014, at NASA Headquarters in Washington. OCO-2, NASA’s first spacecraft dedicated to studying carbon dioxide, is set for a July 1, 2014 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Its mission is to measure the global distribution of carbon dioxide, the leading human-produced greenhouse gas driving changes in Earth’s climate. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Internet Business Solutions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1997-01-01

Cogent Software, Inc. was formed in January 1995 by David Atkinson and Irene Woerner, both former employees of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Several other Cogent employees also worked at JPL. Atkinson headed JPL's Information Systems Technology section and Woerner lead the Advanced User Interfaces Group. Cogent's mission is to help companies organize and manage their online content by developing advanced software for the next generation of online directories and information catalogs. The company offers a complete range of Internet solutions, including Internet access, Web site design, local and wide-area networks, and custom software for online commerce applications. Cogent also offers DesignSphere Online, an electronic community for the communications arts industry. Customers range from small offices to manufacturers with thousands of employees, including Chemi-Con, one of the largest manufacturers of capacitors in the world.

Forest Structure Characterization Using JPL's UAVSAR Multi-Baseline Polarimetric SAR Interferometry and Tomography

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Neumann, Maxim; Hensley, Scott; Lavalle, Marco; Ahmed, Razi

2013-01-01

This paper concerns forest remote sensing using JPL's multi-baseline polarimetric interferometric UAVSAR data. It presents exemplary results and analyzes the possibilities and limitations of using SAR Tomography and Polarimetric SAR Interferometry (PolInSAR) techniques for the estimation of forest structure. Performance and error indicators for the applicability and reliability of the used multi-baseline (MB) multi-temporal (MT) PolInSAR random volume over ground (RVoG) model are discussed. Experimental results are presented based on JPL's L-band repeat-pass polarimetric interferometric UAVSAR data over temperate and tropical forest biomes in the Harvard Forest, Massachusetts, and in the La Amistad Park, Panama and Costa Rica. The results are partially compared with ground field measurements and with air-borne LVIS lidar data.

Forest Structure Characterization Using Jpl's UAVSAR Multi-Baseline Polarimetric SAR Interferometry and Tomography

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Neumann, Maxim; Hensley, Scott; Lavalle, Marco; Ahmed, Razi

2013-01-01

This paper concerns forest remote sensing using JPL's multi-baseline polarimetric interferometric UAVSAR data. It presents exemplary results and analyzes the possibilities and limitations of using SAR Tomography and Polarimetric SAR Interferometry (PolInSAR) techniques for the estimation of forest structure. Performance and error indicators for the applicability and reliability of the used multi-baseline (MB) multi-temporal (MT) PolInSAR random volume over ground (RVoG) model are discussed. Experimental results are presented based on JPL's L-band repeat-pass polarimetric interferometric UAVSAR data over temperate and tropical forest biomes in the Harvard Forest, Massachusetts, and in the La Amistad Park, Panama and Costa Rica. The results are partially compared with ground field measurements and with air-borne LVIS lidar data.

Mobile Timekeeping Application Built on Reverse-Engineered JPL Infrastructure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Witoff, Robert J.

2013-01-01

Every year, non-exempt employees cumulatively waste over one man-year tracking their time and using the timekeeping Web page to save those times. This app eliminates this waste. The innovation is a native iPhone app. Libraries were built around a reverse- engineered JPL API. It represents a punch-in/punch-out paradigm for timekeeping. It is accessible natively via iPhones, and features ease of access. Any non-exempt employee can natively punch in and out, as well as save and view their JPL timecard. This app is built on custom libraries created by reverse-engineering the standard timekeeping application. Communication is through custom libraries that re-route traffic through BrowserRAS (remote access service). This has value at any center where employees track their time.

Local Surface Reconstruction from MER images using Stereo Workstation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shin, Dongjoe; Muller, Jan-Peter

2010-05-01

The authors present a semi-automatic workflow that reconstructs the 3D shape of the martian surface from local stereo images delivered by PnCam or NavCam on systems such as the NASA Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission and in the future the ESA-NASA ExoMars rover PanCam. The process is initiated with manually selected tiepoints on a stereo workstation which is then followed by a tiepoint refinement, stereo-matching using region growing and Levenberg-Marquardt Algorithm (LMA)-based bundle adjustment processing. The stereo workstation, which is being developed by UCL in collaboration with colleagues at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) within the EU FP7 ProVisG project, includes a set of practical GUI-based tools that enable an operator to define a visually correct tiepoint via a stereo display. To achieve platform and graphic hardware independence, the stereo application has been implemented using JPL's JADIS graphic library which is written in JAVA and the remaining processing blocks used in the reconstruction workflow have also been developed as a JAVA package to increase the code re-usability, portability and compatibility. Although initial tiepoints from the stereo workstation are reasonably acceptable as true correspondences, it is often required to employ an optional validity check and/or quality enhancing process. To meet this requirement, the workflow has been designed to include a tiepoint refinement process based on the Adaptive Least Square Correlation (ALSC) matching algorithm so that the initial tiepoints can be further enhanced to sub-pixel precision or rejected if they fail to pass the ALSC matching threshold. Apart from the accuracy of reconstruction, it is obvious that the other criterion to assess the quality of reconstruction is the density (or completeness) of reconstruction, which is not attained in the refinement process. Thus, we re-implemented a stereo region growing process, which is a core matching algorithm within the UCL-HRSC reconstruction workflow. This algorithm's performance is reasonable even for close-range imagery so long as the stereo -pair does not too large a baseline displacement. For post-processing, a Bundle Adjustment (BA) is used to optimise the initial calibration parameters, which bootstrap the reconstruction results. Amongst many options for the non-linear optimisation, the LMA has been adopted due to its stability so that the BA searches the best calibration parameters whilst iteratively minimising the re-projection errors of the initial reconstruction points. For the evaluation of the proposed method, the result of the method is compared with the reconstruction from a disparity map provided by JPL using their operational processing system. Visual and quantitative comparison will be presented as well as updated camera parameters. As part of future work, we will investigate a method expediting the processing speed of the stereo region growing process and look into the possibility of extending the use of the stereo workstation to orbital image processing. Such an interactive stereo workstation can also be used to digitize points and line features as well as assess the accuracy of stereo processed results produced from other stereo matching algorithms available from within the consortium and elsewhere. It can also provide "ground truth" when suitably refined for stereo matching algorithms as well as provide visual cues as to why these matching algorithms sometimes fail to mitigate this in the future. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 218814 "PRoVisG".

Rose-Colored Jupiter

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-03-15

This image captures a close-up view of a storm with bright cloud tops in the northern hemisphere of Jupiter. NASA's Juno spacecraft took this color-enhanced image on Feb. 7 at 5:38 a.m. PST (8:38 a.m. EST) during its 11th close flyby of the gas giant planet. At the time, the spacecraft was 7,578 miles (12,195 kilometers) from the tops of Jupiter's clouds at 49.2 degrees north latitude. Citizen scientist Matt Brealey processed the image using data from the JunoCam imager. Citizen scientist Gustavo B C then adjusted colors and embossed Matt Brealey's processing of this storm. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21981

The JPL Resource Allocation Planning and Scheduling Office (RAPSO) process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morris, D. G.; Burke, E. S.

2002-01-01

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Resource Allocation Planning and Scheduling Office is chartered to divide the limited amount of tracking hours of the Deep Space Network amongst the various missions in as equitable allotment as can be achieved. To best deal with this division of assets and time, an interactive process has evolved that promotes discussion with agreement by consensus between all of the customers that use the Deep Space Network (DSN). Aided by a suite of tools, the task of division of asset time is then performed in three stages of granularity. Using this approach, DSN loads are either forecasted or scheduled throughout a moving 10-year window.

JPL Facilities and Software for Collaborative Design: 1994 - Present

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

DeFlorio, Paul A.

2004-01-01

The viewgraph presentation provides an overview of the history of the JPL Project Design Center (PDC) and, since 2000, the Center for Space Mission Architecture and Design (CSMAD). The discussion includes PDC objectives and scope; mission design metrics; distributed design; a software architecture timeline; facility design principles; optimized design for group work; CSMAD plan view, facility design, and infrastructure; and distributed collaboration tools.

Data communication between data terminal equipment and the JPL administrative data base management system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Iverson, R. W.

1984-01-01

Approaches to enabling an installed base of mixed data terminal equipment to access a data base management system designed to work with a specific terminal are discussed. The approach taken by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is described. Background information on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), its organization and a description of the Administrative Data Base Management System is included.

Analysis of SIR-A antenna tests

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carver, K. R.; Post, C. C.

1979-01-01

The purpose of this report is: (1) to provide an analysis of antenna test procedures used at JPL for measurement of the SIR-A antenna and (2) to point out that the measured E-plane patterns differ in some significant respects from the true pattern as experienced during the OFT-2 space deployment; this results principally from the finite range length associated with the JPL far-field range.

JPL-20171130-EARTHf-0001-DIY Glacier Modeling with Virtual Earth System Laboratory

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-11-30

Eric Larour, JPL Climate Scientist, explains the NASA research tool "VESL" -- Virtual Earth System Laboratory -- that allows anyone to run their own climate experiment. The user can use a slider to simulate and increase or decrease in the amount of snowfall on a particular glacier then see a video of the results, including the glacier melting's effect on sea level.

Correlation of Spacecraft Mission and Project Costs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Swan, Christopher; Jarrett, Shawn

2007-01-01

A key component of any cost risk analysis is the level of correlation between individual elements of cost. This analysis supplements the available historical records with the cost estimates from the JPL Advanced Design Team. The costs from actual JPL flight projects are then used to validate the results, clearly indicating that, on average, the correlation between elements of cost is between 0.4 and 0.7.

Summer of Innovation Kick Off

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-06-09

A group of Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) engineers are recognized during the kick off of NASA's Summer of Innovation program at JPL in Pasadena, Calif., Thursday, June 10, 2010. Through the program, NASA will engage thousands of middle school students and teachers in stimulating math and science-based education programs with the goal of increasing the number of future scientists, mathematicians, and engineers. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

A highly redundant robot system for inspection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, Thomas S.; Ohms, Tim; Hayati, Samad

1994-01-01

The work on the serpentine inspection system at JPL is described. The configuration of the inspection system consists of 20 degrees of freedom in total. In particular, the design and development of the serpentine micromanipulator end-effector tool which has 12 degrees of freedom is described. The inspection system is used for application in JPL's Remote Surface Inspection project and as a research tool in redundant manipulator control.

Cost Modeling for low-cost planetary missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kwan, Eric; Habib-Agahi, Hamid; Rosenberg, Leigh

2005-01-01

This presentation will provide an overview of the JPL parametric cost models used to estimate flight science spacecrafts and instruments. This material will emphasize the cost model approaches to estimate low-cost flight hardware, sensors, and instrumentation, and to perform cost-risk assessments. This presentation will also discuss JPL approaches to perform cost modeling and the methodologies and analyses used to capture low-cost vs. key cost drivers.

JPL-20170825-CASSINf-0001-Cassini Nears the End of Its Mission Video File

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-08-25

On Sept. 15, 2017, NASA's Cassini spacecraft will end it mission by diving into the atomosphere of Saturn. Animation: one of Cassini's final passes between Saturn and its rings, Cassini's final 22 orbits, final plunge. Footage: construction of Cassini at JPL. Interview excerpts from Linda Spilker, Cassini Project Scientist; Earl Maize, Cassini Project Manager; Julie Webster, Cassini Spacecraft Operations Manager.

Hardware Evolution of Closed-Loop Controller Designs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gwaltney, David; Ferguson, Ian

2002-01-01

Poster presentation will outline on-going efforts at NASA, MSFC to employ various Evolvable Hardware experimental platforms in the evolution of digital and analog circuitry for application to automatic control. Included will be information concerning the application of commercially available hardware and software along with the use of the JPL developed FPTA2 integrated circuit and supporting JPL developed software. Results to date will be presented.

Speed challenge: a case for hardware implementation in soft-computing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Daud, T.; Stoica, A.; Duong, T.; Keymeulen, D.; Zebulum, R.; Thomas, T.; Thakoor, A.

2000-01-01

For over a decade, JPL has been actively involved in soft computing research on theory, architecture, applications, and electronics hardware. The driving force in all our research activities, in addition to the potential enabling technology promise, has been creation of a niche that imparts orders of magnitude speed advantage by implementation in parallel processing hardware with algorithms made especially suitable for hardware implementation. We review our work on neural networks, fuzzy logic, and evolvable hardware with selected application examples requiring real time response capabilities.

Scene analysis for a breadboard Mars robot functioning in an indoor environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Levine, M. D.

1973-01-01

The problem is delt with of computer perception in an indoor laboratory environment containing rocks of various sizes. The sensory data processing is required for the NASA/JPL breadboard mobile robot that is a test system for an adaptive variably-autonomous vehicle that will conduct scientific explorations on the surface of Mars. Scene analysis is discussed in terms of object segmentation followed by feature extraction, which results in a representation of the scene in the robot's world model.

3DRT-MPASS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lickly, Ben

2005-01-01

Data from all current JPL missions are stored in files called SPICE kernels. At present, animators who want to use data from these kernels have to either read through the kernels looking for the desired data, or write programs themselves to retrieve information about all the needed objects for their animations. In this project, methods of automating the process of importing the data from the SPICE kernels were researched. In particular, tools were developed for creating basic scenes in Maya, a 3D computer graphics software package, from SPICE kernels.

Agile Development Methods for Space Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Trimble, Jay; Webster, Chris

2012-01-01

Main stream industry software development practice has gone from a traditional waterfall process to agile iterative development that allows for fast response to customer inputs and produces higher quality software at lower cost. How can we, the space ops community, adopt state of the art software development practice, achieve greater productivity at lower cost, and maintain safe and effective space flight operations? At NASA Ames, we are developing Mission Control Technologies Software, in collaboration with Johnson Space Center (JSC) and, more recently, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Evolution of the Tropical Cyclone Integrated Data Exchange And Analysis System (TC-IDEAS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Turk, J.; Chao, Y.; Haddad, Z.; Hristova-Veleva, S.; Knosp, B.; Lambrigtsen, B.; Li, P.; Licata, S.; Poulsen, W.; Su, H.;

KSC-07pd0852

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-04-10

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- At Astrotech, the shipping container holding the Dawn spacecraft is removed from the truck. The container will then be moved into the high bay of the Payload Processing Facility and the spacecraft removed. Dawn's mission is to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

KSC-07pd0854

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-04-10

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- At Astrotech, the shipping container holding the Dawn spacecraft is moved into the high bay of the Payload Processing Facility. The spacecraft will next be removed from the container. Dawn's mission is to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

Chemical Kinetics and Photochemical Data for Use in Atmospheric Studies Evaluation Number 15

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sander, S. P.; Friedl, R. R.; Golden, D. M.; Kurylo, M. J.; Moortgat, G. K.; Wine, P. H.; Ravishankara, A. R.; Kolb, C. E.; Molina, M. J.; Finlayson-Pitts, B. J.;

Automated Spacecraft Conjunction Assessment at Mars and the Moon

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Berry, David; Guinn, Joseph; Tarzi, Zahi; Demcak, Stuart

2012-01-01

Conjunction assessment and collision avoidance are areas of current high interest in space operations. Most current conjunction assessment activity focuses on the Earth orbital environment. Several of the world's space agencies have satellites in orbit at Mars and the Moon, and avoiding collisions there is important too. Smaller number of assets than Earth, and smaller number of organizations involved, but consequences similar to Earth scenarios.This presentation will examine conjunction assessment processes implemented at JPL for spacecraft in orbit at Mars and the Moon.

Ballet of Loops

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-06-11

Giant, bright coronal loops trace out the magnetic field lines above an active region from June 4-6, 2018. The wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light shown here is emitted by ionized iron travelling along the field lines, super-heated to approximately 1 million degrees K. Coronal loops were not seen in this level of detail until the Solar Dynamics Observatory was launched in 2010 and came online, giving solar scientists new data with which to study the Sun and its processes. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22508

Seeking How Rocky Planets Form

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-01-25

This is an artist's rendition of the InSight lander. InSight is short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport. InSight is a Mars mission, but it's more than a Mars mission. The lander seeks the fingerprints of the processes that formed the rocky planets of the solar system, more than 4 billion years ago. It measures the planet's "vital signs:" its "pulse" (seismology), "temperature" (heat flow) and "reflexes" (precision tracking). https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22229

DASTCOM5: A Portable and Current Database of Asteroid and Comet Orbit Solutions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giorgini, Jon D.; Chamberlin, Alan B.

2014-11-01

A portable direct-access database containing all NASA/JPL asteroid and comet orbit solutions, with the software to access it, is available for download (ftp://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/xfr/dastcom5.zip; unzip -ao dastcom5.zip). DASTCOM5 contains the latest heliocentric IAU76/J2000 ecliptic osculating orbital elements for all known asteroids and comets as determined by a least-squares best-fit to ground-based optical, spacecraft, and radar astrometric measurements. Other physical, dynamical, and covariance parameters are included when known. A total of 142 parameters per object are supported within DASTCOM5. This information is suitable for initializing high-precision numerical integrations, assessing orbit geometry, computing trajectory uncertainties, visual magnitude, and summarizing physical characteristics of the body. The DASTCOM5 distribution is updated as often as hourly to include newly discovered objects or orbit solution updates. It includes an ASCII index of objects that supports look-ups based on name, current or past designation, SPK ID, MPC packed-designations, or record number. DASTCOM5 is the database used by the NASA/JPL Horizons ephemeris system. It is a subset exported from a larger MySQL-based relational Small-Body Database ("SBDB") maintained at JPL. The DASTCOM5 distribution is intended for programmers comfortable with UNIX/LINUX/MacOSX command-line usage who need to develop stand-alone applications. The goal of the implementation is to provide small, fast, portable, and flexibly programmatic access to JPL comet and asteroid orbit solutions. The supplied software library, examples, and application programs have been verified under gfortran, Lahey, Intel, and Sun 32/64-bit Linux/UNIX FORTRAN compilers. A command-line tool ("dxlook") is provided to enable database access from shell or script environments.

Implementation of an Antenna Array Signal Processing Breadboard for the Deep Space Network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Navarro, Robert

2006-01-01

The Deep Space Network Large Array will replace/augment 34 and 70 meter antenna assets. The array will mainly be used to support NASA's deep space telemetry, radio science, and navigation requirements. The array project will deploy three complexes in the western U.S., Australia, and European longitude each with 400 12m downlink antennas and a DSN central facility at JPL. THis facility will remotely conduct all real-time monitor and control for the network. Signal processing objectives include: provide a means to evaluate the performance of the Breadboard Array's antenna subsystem; design and build prototype hardware; demonstrate and evaluate proposed signal processing techniques; and gain experience with various technologies that may be used in the Large Array. Results are summarized..

2. Credit WCT. Original 21/4"x22/4" color negative is housed in ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

2. Credit WCT. Original 2-1/4"x2-2/4" color negative is housed in the JPL Archives, Pasadena, California. This view depicts the interior of Test Stand "G" with its "Vibration System consisting of a MB-C210E Electrodynamic Exciter having a maximum sinusoidal force output of 28,000 lbs. and a noload-peak acceleration sine wave of 80 gs." (Quotation based on JPL photo caption in notebook The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, no date; "80 gs" means 80 times the force of gravity.) This machine could be controlled to deliver a wide variety of perturbations (JPL negative no. 344-3802B, 27 February 1981). - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Test Stand G, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

KSC-97PC1094

NASA Image and Video Library

1997-07-19

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) employees bolt a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) onto the Cassini spacecraft, at left, while other JPL workers, at right, operate the installation cart on a raised platform in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF). Cassini will be outfitted with three RTGs. The power units are undergoing mechanical and electrical verification tests in the PHSF. The RTGs will provide electrical power to Cassini on its 6.7-year trip to the Saturnian system and during its four-year mission at Saturn. RTGs use heat from the natural decay of plutonium to generate electric power. The generators enable spacecraft to operate at great distances from the Sun where solar power systems are not feasible. The Cassini mission is targeted for an Oct. 6 launch aboard a Titan IVB/Centaur expendable launch vehicle. Cassini is built and managed by JPL

Wind-Driven Montgolfiere Balloons for Mars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, Jack A.; Fairbrother, Debora; Lemieux, Aimee; Lachenmeier, Tim; Zubrin, Robert

2005-01-01

Solar Montgolfiere balloons, or solar-heated hot air balloons have been evaluated by use on Mars for about 5 years. In the past, JPL has developed thermal models that have been confirmed, as well as developed altitude control systems to allow the balloons to float over the landscape or carry ground sampling instrumentation. Pioneer Astronautics has developed and tested a landing system for Montgolfieres. JPL, together with GSSL. have successfully deployed small Montgolfieres (<15-m diameter) in the earth's stratosphere, where conditions are similar to a Mars deployment. Two larger Montgolfieres failed, however, and a series of larger scale Montgolfieres is now planned using stronger, more uniform polyethylene bilaminate, combined with stress-reducing ripstitch and reduced parachute deceleration velocities. This program, which is presently under way, is a joint effort between JPL, WFF, and GSSL, and is planned for completion in three years.

Performance capabilities of a JPL dual-arm advanced teleoperation system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Szakaly, Z. F.; Bejczy, A. K.

1991-01-01

The system comprises: (1) two PUMA 560 robot arms, each equipped with the latest JPL developed smart hands which contain 3-D force/moment and grasp force sensors; (2) two general purpose force reflecting hand controllers; (3) a NS32016 microprocessors based distributed computing system together with JPL developed universal motor controllers; (4) graphics display of sensor data; (5) capabilities for time delay experiments; and (6) automatic data recording capabilities. Several different types of control modes are implemented on this system using different feedback control techniques. Some of the control modes and the related feedback control techniques are described, and the achievable control performance for tracking position and force trajectories are reported. The interaction between position and force trajectory tracking is illustrated. The best performance is obtained by using a novel, task space error feedback technique.

Yogi the rock

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1997-01-01

Yogi, a rock taller than rover Sojourner, is the subject of this image, taken by the deployed Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) on Sol 3. The soil in the foreground will be the location of multiple soil mechanics experiments performed by Sojourner's cleated wheels. Pathfinder scientists will be able to control the force inflicted on the soil beneath the rover's wheels, giving them insight into the soil's mechanical properties.

The image was taken by the Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) after its deployment on Sol 3. Mars Pathfinder was developed and managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. JPL is an operating division of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The IMP was developed by the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory under contract to JPL. Peter Smith is the Principal Investigator.

Deep space network software cost estimation model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tausworthe, R. C.

1981-01-01

A parametric software cost estimation model prepared for Jet PRopulsion Laboratory (JPL) Deep Space Network (DSN) Data System implementation tasks is described. The resource estimation mdel modifies and combines a number of existing models. The model calibrates the task magnitude and difficulty, development environment, and software technology effects through prompted responses to a set of approximately 50 questions. Parameters in the model are adjusted to fit JPL software life-cycle statistics.

Acoustic environments for JPL shuttle payloads based on early flight data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oconnell, M. R.; Kern, D. L.

1983-01-01

Shuttle payload acoustic environmental predictions for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Galileo and Wide Field/Planetary Camera projects have been developed from STS-2 and STS-3 flight data. This evaluation of actual STS flight data resulted in reduced predicted environments for the JPL shuttle payloads. Shuttle payload mean acoustic levels were enveloped. Uncertainty factors were added to the mean envelope to provide confidence in the predicted environment.

JPL-20180410-GRACEFOf-0001-Facebook

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-04-10

GRACE-Follow On (GRACE-FO) is a satellite mission scheduled for launch in May 2018. GRACE-FO will continue the work of the GRACE satellite mission tracking Earth's water movement around the globe. These discoveries provide a unique view of Earth's climate and have far-reaching benefits to society and the world's population. For more information about this mission, visit https://www.nasa.gov/missions/grace-fo and https://gracefo.jpl.nasa.gov/

The Telecommunications and Data Acquisition Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Posner, Edward C. (Editor)

1993-01-01

Reports on developments in programs managed by JPL's Office of Telecommunications and Data Acquisition (TDA) are provided. In space communications, radio navigation, radio science, and ground-based radio and radar astronomy, it reports on activities of the Deep Space Network (DSN) in planning, supporting research and technology, implementation, and operations. Also included are standards activity at JPL for space data and information systems and reimbursable DSN work performed for other agencies through NASA.

The Telecommunications and Data Acquisition Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yuen, Joseph H. (Editor)

1994-01-01

Reports on developments in programs managed by JPL's Office of Telecommunications and Data Acquisition (TDA) are provided. In space communications, radio navigation, radio science, and ground-based radio and radar astronomy, it reports on activities of the Deep Space Network (DSN) in planning, supporting research and technology, implementation, and operations. Also included are standards activity at JPL for space data and information systems and reimbursable DSN work performed for other agencies through NASA.

Surrogate Poster Artist Concept

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-03-11

This artist's concept shows Surrogate, a robot that could one day assist in disasters or hazardous situations such as a dangerous chemical laboratory. Surrogate was designed and built at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Its components came from RoboSimian, another JPL-built robot designed for disaster relief and mitigation (see PIA19313). Surrogate rolls on a track rather than moving on its limbs. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19314

JPL-20170427-CASSINf-0002-Cassinis First Dive Between Saturn and Its Rings Video File

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-04-27

After the first-ever dive through the narrow gap between the planet Saturn and its rings, NASA's Cassini spacecraft called home to mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. See highlights from the scene at JPL on April 26-27, 2017, and some of the first raw images the spacecraft sent back from its closest-ever look at Saturn’s atmosphere.

Photographer : JPL Range : 7 million kilometers (5 million miles) Callisto is the outermost Galilean

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1979-01-01

Photographer : JPL Range : 7 million kilometers (5 million miles) Callisto is the outermost Galilean satellite of Jupiter and the darkest of the four, but still twice as bright as Earth's Moon. Mottled appearance from bright and dark patches; bright ones look like rayed or brite craters on our Moon. This face of Callisto is always turned toward Jupiter. Photo taken through violet filter.

Transforming System Engineering through Model-Centric Engineering

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-01-31

story that is being applied and evolved on Jupiter Europa Orbiter (JEO) project [75], and we summarize some aspects of it here, because it goes beyond...JEO Jupiter Europa Orbiter project at NASA/JPL JSF Joint Strike Fighter JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA Linux An operating system created by...Adaptation of Flight-Critical Systems, Digital Avionics Systems Conference, 2009. [75] Rasumussen, R., R. Shishko, Jupiter Europa Orbiter Architecture

Design and development of the CubeSat Infrared Atmospheric Sounder (CIRAS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pagano, Thomas S.; Abesamis, Carlo; Andrade, Andres; Aumann, Hartmut; Gunapala, Sarath; Heneghan, Cate; Jarnot, Robert; Johnson, Dean; Lamborn, Andy; Maruyama, Yuki; Rafol, Sir; Raouf, Nasrat; Rider, David; Ting, Dave; Wilson, Dan; Yee, Karl; Cole, Jerold; Good, Bill; Kampe, Tom; Soto, Juancarlos; Adams, Arn; Buckley, Matt; Nicol, Fred; Vengel, Tony

2017-09-01

The CubeSat Infrared Atmospheric Sounder (CIRAS) is a NASA Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) sponsored mission to demonstrate key technologies used in very high spectral resolution infrared remote sensing of Earth's atmosphere from space. CIRAS was awarded under the ESTO In-flight Validation of Earth Science Technologies (InVEST) program in 2015 and is currently under development at NASA JPL with key subsystems being developed by industry. CIRAS incorporates key new instrument technologies including a 2D array of High Operating Temperature Barrier Infrared Detector (HOT-BIRD) material, selected for its high uniformity, low cost, low noise and higher operating temperatures than traditional materials. The second key technology is an MWIR Grating Spectrometer (MGS) designed to provide imaging spectroscopy for atmospheric sounding in a CubeSat volume. The MGS is under development by Ball Aerospace with the grating and slit developed by JPL. The third key technology is a blackbody fabricated with JPL's black silicon to have very high emissivity in a flat plate construction. JPL will also develop the mechanical, electronic and thermal subsystems for CIRAS, while the spacecraft will be a 6U CubeSat developed by Blue Canyon Technologies. This paper provides an overview of the design and acquisition approach, and provides a status of the current development.

Photo by Voyager 1 (JPL) The spacecraft took this photo of the planet Jupiter on Jan 24, while still

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1979-01-01

Photo by Voyager 1 (JPL) The spacecraft took this photo of the planet Jupiter on Jan 24, while still more than 25 million miles (40 million kilometers) away. As the spacecraft draws closer to the planet (about 1 million kilometers a day) more details are emergng in the turbulent clouds. The Great Red Spot shows prominently below center, surrounded by what scientists call a remarkably complex region of the giant planet's atmosphere. An elongated yellow cloud within the Great Red Spot is swirling around the spot's interior boundary in a counterclockwise direction with a period of a little less than six days, confirming the whirlpool-like circulation that astronomers have suspected from ground-based photographs. Ganymede, Jupiter's largest satellite, can be seen to the lower left of the planet. Ganymede is a planet-sized body larger than Mercury. This color photo was assembled at Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Image Processing Lab from there black and white images taken through filters. The Voyagers are managed for NASA's Office of Space Science by Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (ref: P-20945C Mission Image 1-9)

Managing the Risk of Command File Errors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meshkat, Leila; Bryant, Larry W.

2013-01-01

Command File Error (CFE), as defined by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) Mission Operations Assurance (MOA) is, regardless of the consequence on the spacecraft, either: an error in a command file sent to the spacecraft, an error in the process for developing and delivering a command file to the spacecraft, or the omission of a command file that should have been sent to the spacecraft. The risk consequence of a CFE can be mission ending and thus a concern to space exploration projects during their mission operations. A CFE during space mission operations is often the symptom of some kind of imbalance or inadequacy within the system that comprises the hardware & software used for command generation and the human experts involved in this endeavour. As we move into an era of enhanced collaboration with other NASA centers and commercial partners, these systems become more and more complex and hence it is all the more important to formally model and analyze CFEs in order to manage the risk of CFEs. Here we will provide a summary of the ongoing efforts at JPL in this area and also explain some more recent developments in the area of developing quantitative models for the purpose of managing CFE's.

Design of the MESUR/pathfinder microrover

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stone, Henry W.

1994-01-01

The use of unmanned robotic vehicles to assist in the exploration of Mars and other planets has been of interest to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for several decades and has been the focus of an ongoing research program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for a similar period of time. As a result of these research activities, JPL is in the process of designing and building a small (7-9 kg) microrover to be flown aboard the Mars Environmental Survey Mission (MESUR)/Pathfinder spacecraft, which is tentatively to be launched to Mars in late 1997. The microrover will perform a variety of technology experiments designed to provide information critical to the design of future planetary rovers. In addition, the microrover will perform several science and lander related experiments using specialized onboard instruments. To enable the microrover to perform these experiments at selected target areas and at the same time deal with the long time delays (and limited communications bandwidth), a control/navigation approach combining the use of operator-designated waypoints and onboard behavior control has been adopted. The design of the MESUR/Pathfinder microrover and the overall manner in which it is controlled are described herein.

Demonstrating new technologies to improve atmospheric sounding science using the CubeSat Infrared Atmospheric Sounder (CIRAS).

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pagano, T. S.

2017-12-01

Hyperspectral infrared sounding of the atmosphere has become a vital element in the observational system for weather forecast prediction at National Weather Prediction (NWP) centers worldwide. The NASA Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument was the pathfinder for the hyperspectral infrared observations and was designed to provide accurate atmospheric temperature and water vapor profile information in support of weather prediction, climate processes and weather related applications. AIRS was launched in 2002 and continues to operate well. JPL NASA is offering an alternate hyperspectral IR sounder architecture for the future involving CubeSats under the Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) In-flight Validation of Earth Science Technologies (InVEST) program. The latest technology in large format focal plane assemblies, wide field optics and active cryocoolers enables a reduction in size, mass and cost of the legacy sounders and offer new orbit configurations. The CubeSat Infrared Atmospheric Sounder (CIRAS) employs an MWIR spectrometer operating from 4.08-5.13 µm with 625 channels and spectral resolution of 1.2-2.0 cm-1 to achieve lower tropospheric temperature and water vapor profiles. The CIRAS is packaged in a 6U CubeSat and uses less than 14 W. CIRAS is under development at NASA JPL and scheduled for launch in 2019. This presentation will discuss the CIRAS measurement approach, development status and the plan to demonstrate, in-orbit, higher spatial resolution IR sounding to support new science involving regional weather prediction, applications and weather process studies.

New mode switching algorithm for the JPL 70-meter antenna servo controller

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nickerson, J. A.

1988-01-01

The design of control mode switching algorithms and logic for JPL's 70 m antenna servo controller are described. The old control mode switching logic was reviewed and perturbation problems were identified. Design approaches for mode switching are presented and the final design is described. Simulations used to compare old and new mode switching algorithms and logic show that the new mode switching techniques will significantly reduce perturbation problems.

The Telecommunications and Data Acquisition Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Posner, E. C. (Editor)

1993-01-01

This quarterly publication provides archival reports on developments in programs managed by JPL's Office of Telecommunications and Data Acquisition (TDA). In space communications, radio navigation, radio science, and ground-based radio and radar astronomy, it reports on activities of the Deep Space Network (DSN) in planning, supporting research and technology, implementation, and operations. Also included are standards activity at JPL for space data and information systems and reimbursable DSN work performed for other space agencies through NASA.

The Use of Modeling for Flight Software Engineering on SMAP

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murray, Alexander; Jones, Chris G.; Reder, Leonard; Cheng, Shang-Wen

2011-01-01

The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission proposes to deploy an Earth-orbiting satellite with the goal of obtaining global maps of soil moisture content at regular intervals. Launch is currently planned in 2014. The spacecraft bus would be built at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), incorporating both new avionics as well as hardware and software heritage from other JPL projects. [4] provides a comprehensive overview of the proposed mission

Commercialization of JPL Virtual Reality calibration and redundant manipulator control technologies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kim, Won S.; Seraji, Homayoun; Fiorini, Paolo; Brown, Robert; Christensen, Brian; Beale, Chris; Karlen, James; Eismann, Paul

1994-01-01

Within NASA's recent thrust for industrial collaboration, JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) has recently established two technology cooperation agreements in the robotics area: one on virtual reality (VR) calibration with Deneb Robotics, Inc., and the other on redundant manipulator control with Robotics Research Corporation (RRC). These technology transfer cooperation tasks will enable both Deneb and RRC to commercialize enhanced versions of their products that will greatly benefit both space and terrestrial telerobotic applications.

Credit WCT. Original 4"x5" black and white negative is housed ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

Credit WCT. Original 4"x5" black and white negative is housed in the JPL Archives, Pasadena, California. This view shows the underfloor ductwork of Building E-46 during construction. The ductwork conducts hot or cold air to maintain required temperatures in the curing chamber (JPL negative no. 381-2569, 12 December 1962) - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Solid Propellant Conditioning Building, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

This overview displays the concentration of JPL solid propellant production ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

This overview displays the concentration of JPL solid propellant production buildings as seen looking directly north (6 degrees) from the roof of the Administration Building (4231-E-32). The structures closest to the camera contain the equipment for weighing, grinding, mixing, and casting solid propellant grain for motors. Structures in the distance generally house curing or inspection activities. - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edwards Facility, Edwards Air Force Base, Boron, Kern County, CA

Proceeding With Caution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

E-ViEWS was developed with assistance from the Technology Affiliates Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The system incorporates JPL expertise in the areas of systems engineering, transportation systems, antennas, controls, optical displays, and mechanical systems. It consists of three modules that streamline traffic flow in the presence of emergency vehicles, and act as a guardrail to protect today's motorists from distractions that could result in serious accidents. Although emergency vehicles use sirens and flashing lights to warn others as they rapidly pass through intersections, some drivers may be oblivious to the emergency situation at hand, due to factors such as car radios, cellular phones, air conditioning, rolled-up windows, vehicle sound proofing, and hearing impairment. The company has also the company has launched testing efforts for Intellirail, a highly intelligent locomotive warning system that is based on the JPL/E-ViEWS preemption emergency vehicle platform.

Measurements of atmospheric ethene by solar absorption FTIR spectrometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Toon, Geoffrey C.; Blavier, Jean-Francois L.; Sung, Keeyoon

2018-04-01

Atmospheric ethene (C2H4; ethylene) amounts have been retrieved from high-resolution solar absorption spectra measured by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) MkIV interferometer. Data recorded from 1985 to 2016 from a dozen ground-based sites have been analyzed, mostly between 30 and 67° N. At clean-air sites such as Alaska, Sweden, New Mexico, or the mountains of California, the ethene columns were always less than 1 × 1015 molec cm-2 and therefore undetectable. In urban sites such as JPL, California, ethene was measurable with column amounts of 20 × 1015 molec cm-2 observed in the 1990s. Despite the increasing population and traffic in southern California, a factor 3 decrease in ethene column density is observed over JPL over the past 25 years, accompanied by a decrease in CO. This is likely due to southern California's increasingly stringent vehicle exhaust regulations and tighter enforcement over this period.

Results from the Galileo Laser Uplink: A JPL Demonstration of Deep-Space Optical Communications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilson, K. E.; Lesh, J. R.

1993-01-01

The successful completion of the Galileo Optical Experiment (GOPEX), represented the accomplishment of a significant milestone in JPL's optical communication plan. The experiment demonstrated the first transmission of a narrow laser beam to a deep-space vehicle. Laser pulses were beamed to the Galileo spacecraft by Earth-based transmitters at the Table Mountain Facility (TMF), California, and Starfire Optical Range (SOR), New Mexico. The experiment took place over an eight-day period (December 9 through December 16, 1992) as Galileo receded from Earth on its way to Jupiter, and covered ranges from 1 to 6 million kilometers (15 times the Earth-Moon distance), the laser uplink from TMF covered the longest known range for laser beam transmission and detection. This demonstration is the latest in a series of accomplishments by JPL in the development of deep-space optical communications technology.

Cassini's RTGs undergo mechanical and electrical verification tests in the PHSF

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1997-01-01

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) employees bolt a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) onto the Cassini spacecraft, at left, while other JPL workers, at right, operate the installation cart on a raised platform in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF). Cassini will be outfitted with three RTGs. The power units are undergoing mechanical and electrical verification tests in the PHSF. The RTGs will provide electrical power to Cassini on its 6.7-year trip to the Saturnian system and during its four-year mission at Saturn. RTGs use heat from the natural decay of plutonium to generate electric power. The generators enable spacecraft to operate at great distances from the Sun where solar power systems are not feasible. The Cassini mission is targeted for an Oct. 6 launch aboard a Titan IVB/Centaur expendable launch vehicle. Cassini is built and managed by JPL.

Harnessing Electricity from Chemical Gardens

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-08-05

This photo simulation shows a laboratory-created "chemical garden," which is a chimney-like structure found at bubbling vents on the seafloor. Some researchers think life on Earth might have got its start at structures like these billions of years ago, partly due to their ability to transfer electrical currents -- an essential trait of life as we know it. The battery-like property of these chemical gardens was demonstrated by linking several together in series to light an LED (light-emitting diode) bulb. In this photo simulation, the bulb is not really attached to the chimney. The chimney membranes are made of iron sulfides and iron hydroxides, geologic materials that conduct electrons. JPL's research team is part of the Icy Worlds team of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, based at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. JPL is managed by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena for NASA. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19834

A Mobile Robot for Remote Response to Incidents Involving Hazardous Materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Welch, Richard V.

1994-01-01

This paper will describe a teleoperated mobile robot system being developed at JPL for use by the JPL Fire Department/HAZMAT Team. The project, which began in October 1990, is focused on prototyping a robotic vehicle which can be quickly deployed and easily operated by HAZMAT Team personnel allowing remote entry and exploration of a hazardous material incident site. The close involvement of JPL Fire Department personnel has been critical in establishing system requirements as well as evaluating the system. The current robot, called HAZBOT III, has been especially designed for operation in environments that may contain combustible gases. Testing of the system with the Fire Department has shown that teleoperated robots can successfully gain access to incident sites allowing hazardous material spills to be remotely located and identified. Work is continuing to enable more complex missions through enhancement of the operator interface and by allowing tetherless operation.

Mobile Multi-System Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Witoff, Robert J.; Doody, David F.

2012-01-01

At the time of this reporting, there are 2,589 rich mobile devices used at JPL, including 1,550 iPhones and 968 Blackberrys. Considering a total JPL population of 5,961 employees, mobile applications have a total addressable market of 43 percent of the employees at JPL, and that number is rising. While it was found that no existing desktop tools can realistically be replaced by a mobile application, there is certainly a need to improve access to these desktop tools. When an alarm occurs and an engineer is away from his desk, a convenient means of accessing relevant data can save an engineer a great deal of time and improve his job efficiency. To identify which data is relevant, an engineer benefits from a succinct overview of the data housed in 13+ tools. This need can be well met by a single, rich, mobile application that provides access to desired data across tools in the ops infrastructure.

The NASA research and technology program on batteries

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bennett, Gary L.

1990-01-01

The NASA research and technology program on batteries is being carried out within the Propulsion, Power and Energy Division (Code RP) of NASA's Office of Aeronautics, Exploration and Technology (OAET). The program includes development of high-performance, long-life, cost-effective primary and secondary (rechargeable) batteries. The NASA OAET battery program is being carried out at Lewis Research Center (LeRC) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). LeRC is focusing primarily on nickel-hydrogen batteries (both individual pressure vessel or IPV and bipolar). LeRC is also involved in a planned flight experiment to test a sodium-sulfur battery design. JPL is focusing primarily on lithium rechargeable batteries, having successfully transferred its lithium primary battery technology to the U.S. Air Force for use on the Centaur upper stage. Both LeRC and JPL are studying advanced battery concepts that offer even higher specific energies. The long-term goal is to achieve 100 Wh/kg.

ARC-1994-AC94-0353-2

NASA Image and Video Library

1994-07-01

Photo Artwork composite by JPL This depiction of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacting Jupiter is shown from several perspectives. IMAGE A is shown from the perspective of Earth based observers. IMAGE B shows the perspective from Galileo spacecraft which can observe the impact point directly. IMAGE C is shown from the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which may observe the event from its unique position at the outer reaches of the solar system. IMAGE D depicts a generic view from Jupiter's south pole. For visual appeal, most of the large cometary fragments are shown close to one another in this image. At the time of Jupiter impact, the fragments will be separated from one another by serveral times the distances shown. This image was created by D.A. Seal of JPL's Mission Design Section using orbital computations provIded by P.W. Chodas and D.K. Yeomans of JPL's Navigation Section.