nasa trek software

NEWS | August 5, 2015

New online exploring tools bring nasa's journey to mars to new generation.

On the three-year anniversary of the Mars landing of NASA's Curiosity rover, NASA is unveiling two new online tools that open the mysterious terrain of the Red Planet to a new generation of explorers, inviting the public to help with its journey to Mars.

Mars Trek is a free, Web-based application that provides high-quality, detailed visualizations of the planet using real data from 50 years of NASA exploration and allowing astronomers, citizen scientists and students to study the Red Planet's features.

A NASA team already is using Mars Trek to aid in the selection of possible landing sites for the agency's Mars 2020 rover , and the application will be used as part of NASA's newly announced process to examine and select candidate sites for the first human exploration mission to Mars in the 2030s.

Mars Trek was developed by NASA's Lunar Mapping and Modeling Project , which provides mission planners, lunar scientists and the public with analysis and data visualization tools for our moon.

Experience Curiosity also uses real science data to create a realistic and game-ready rover model based entirely on real mechanisms and executed commands. Users can manipulate the rover's tools and view Mars through each of its cameras.

"We've done a lot of heavy 3-D processing to make Experience Curiosity work in a browser. Anybody with access to the Web can take a journey to Mars," said Kevin Hussey, manager of the Visualization Applications and Development group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena , California, which manages and operates the Curiosity rover.

"At three years old, Curiosity already has had a rich and fascinating life. This new program lets the public experience some of the rover's adventures first-hand," said Jim Erickson, the project manager for the mission at JPL.

NASA has been on Mars for five decades with robotic explorers, and August traditionally has been a busy month for exploration of the planet. Viking 2 was put into orbit around Mars 39 years ago on Aug. 7, 1976, making NASA's second successful landing on the Martian surface weeks later. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched on Aug. 12, 2005, and still is in operation orbiting Mars. And Tuesday, Aug. 4, marked the eight-year anniversary of the launch of the Phoenix mission to the north polar region of the Red Planet.

NASA's orbiters and rovers have changed the way we look at Mars and enable continued scientific discoveries that one day will pave the way for astronauts to explore the Red Planet.

More information about NASA's journey to Mars is available online at: https://www.nasa.gov/topics/journeytomars

For more information about Curiosity, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/msl http://mars.nasa.gov/msl

To download and print a 3-D model of Curiosity, go to: http://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/mars-rover-curiosity

Guy Webster / Whitney Clavin Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-6278 / 818-354-4673 [email protected] / [email protected]

Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo NASA Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077 [email protected] / [email protected]

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Mars Trek provides an exciting way for students, citizen scientists, and the public to explore some of Mars' most spectacular landforms as well as NASA areas of operation on Mars' surface. Data gathered from multiple instruments aboard multiple NASA Mars missions provide diverse views for Mars Trek's user-friendly set of tools including interactive maps, 3-D printer-exportable topography, and standard keyboard gaming controls for flying high or low above Mars' surface.

Vesta trek is a free, web-based application that provides detailed visualizations of the asteroid Vesta, one of the largest asteroids in our solar system. Data gathered from multiple instruments aboard NASA's Dawn spacecraft have been compiled into Vesta Trek's user-friendly set of tools including interactive maps, 3-D printer-exportable topography, and standard keyboard gaming controls for flying high or low above Vesta's surface.

NASA's Lunar Mapping and Modeling Portal (LMMP) is a sophisticated suite of web-based data visualization tools designed for mission planning, lunar science, and public outreach. Data from a wide range of instruments across a wide range of lunar missions are integrated into interactive stackable layers and analysis tools. LMMP supports downloading of data from the Planetary Data System, and supports collaborative work, allowing open sharing as well as posting of data to private groups.

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NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Available downloads, related records.

Wing-design algorithm based on modified linear theory taking into account effects of attainable leading-edge thrust. Provides analysis as well as design capability and applicable to both subsonic and supersonic flow.

Create Augmented Reality (AR)/Virtual Reality (VR) tools for integrating spacecraft designs and real-time mission telemetry for multiple domains over a mission lifecycle: Pre-phase A concept design Hardware integration & test planning and execution Tele-robotic operations

• General Public Release: For codes with a broad release and no nondisclosure or export control restrictions
• Open Source Release: For collaborative efforts in which programmers improve upon codes originally developed by NASA and share the changes
• U.S. Release Only: For codes available to U.S. persons only
• U.S. and Foreign Release: For codes that are available to U.S. persons and persons outside of the U.S. (who meet certain export control restrictions)
• U.S. Government Purpose Release: For codes that are to be used on behalf of the U.S. government by a federal agency or business/university under a federal contract/grant/agreement.

ISS On-Orbit Status Report

ISS Daily Summary Report – 3/21/2024

Soyuz 71S Launch: 71S launch was planned for today at 8:21 AM CDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome but was scrubbed on the pad. NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya are safe, along with the 71S Soyuz spacecraft.

SpX-30 Cargo Dragon Launch: The SpX-30 Dragon spacecraft successfully launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 40A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 21 st at 3:55 PM CDT. Phasing burns will occur over the next day before the vehicle docks to the ISS on March 23 rd at approximately 6:30 AM CDT. The spacecraft will deliver new science investigations, food, and hardware to the ISS.

Complement of Integrated Protocols for Human Exploration Research on Varying Mission Durations (CIPHER): A Node 3 Camcorder was setup, and Isometric Mid-Thigh Pull (IMTP) operations were performed on ARED for CIPHER. The CIPHER investigation aims to improve our understanding of physiological and psychological changes in humans on missions that range from weeks, to one year in duration. Conducting the same research over missions of different durations allows scientists to extrapolate the data to multi-year missions, such as a potential three-year round-trip to Mars. This data could provide deeper knowledge about the changes that may occur on such missions, and support the development of countermeasures to promote astronaut health and well-being.

EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments for Space Station Racks (EXPRESS Rack): An EXPRESS Rack-8 (ER8) software update was performed on the EXPRESS Laptop Computer- 8 (ELC-8). The EXPRESS Racks support science experiments in any discipline by providing structural interfaces, power, data, cooling, water, and other items needed to operate science experiments in space.

Immunity Assay: The post-incubation centrifugation of eight purple and black-framed and labelled Reaction Tubes was performed in the Human Resource Facility (HRF) Centrifuge before being  prepared for cold stowage. The Monitoring the Cellular Immunity by In Vitro Delayed Type Hypersensitivity (DTH) Assay on the ISS (Immunity Assay) investigation aims to monitor the impact of spaceflight stressors on cellular immune functions in blood samples, with the help of a functional immune test.

RadMap Telescope: The Ethernet Cable was connected, and the LAB 20-Port Network Switch was power cycled for RadMap Telescope in an attempt to re-establish telemetry with the unit. Understanding and overcoming the human risks from space radiation is one of the major challenges facing future space exploration. The Validating New Radiation-Sensing Technologies (RadMap Telescope) demonstrates new radiation-sensing technologies for applications in autonomous and crewed spacecraft. These technologies, which have just become sufficiently mature for large-scale applications, enable the creation of compact yet highly capable radiation monitors, allowing future spacecrafts to benefit from increased measurement capabilities with fewer sensors.

Space Automated Bioproduct Laboratory (SABL): The CO 2 Incubator Controller valve was opened inside SABL-1. The SABL unit supports a wide variety of investigations in the life, physical, and material sciences with a focus on supporting research into biological systems and processes. SABL has over 23 liters of temperature-controlled volume with LED lighting for scientific hardware and investigations. It can be fitted to provide 5% CO 2 (or any required concentration of CO 2 ) for cell cultures or other types of investigations and has two USB 2.0 ports and two Ethernet LAN connections. The SABL unit also has switchable 28V DC and 5V DC power supplies for investigation use.

Sleep in Orbit: The Sleep in Orbit data recording was terminated, hardware was restowed, an EveryWear questionnaire was filled out, and data was downlinked. The Long-term Sleep Monitoring Before, During and After Extended Spaceflight (Sleep In Orbit) investigation studies the physiological differences between sleep on Earth and in space using ear-EEG based sleep monitoring.

Hatch Seal Inspection & Cleaning: The crew cleaned and inspected the Node 3 (Forward, Nadir, and Starboard), PMM, Airlock (Port and Starboard), JPM (Zenith), and JLP hatch seals, hatch plate sealing surfaces, crank handle mechanisms, and hatch seal interlocking joints. When closed, hatches are used to provide a pressure seal between modules or between the ISS and the space environment. When open, they provide a translation path between modules.

Max Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation & Stabilization (CEVIS): Today, the crew completed a Max CEVIS session, which is used by the medical community to evaluate astronauts’ aerobic fitness. Max CEVIS activities satisfies ISS medical requirements to measure crew heart rate, electrocardiogram, and oxygen consumption.

Health Maintenance System (HMS) On-Orbit Hearing Assessment (OOHA): The crew performed a hearing test using an OOHA Headset and KUDUwave software. The assessment measures hearing function while crewmembers are exposed to noise and microgravity during long-duration spaceflight.

Look Ahead Plan

Friday, March 22 (GMT 082) Payloads:

• Astrobee Off
• CIPHER Falcon-Goggle Setup and VSTB Exam
• ELF Holder Change
• EML Reprogramming Cable Install
• Standard Measures Collections
• Dragon Cargo Operations Conference
• Transfer Cygnus Cargo Operations
• Dragon Zenith – SSC Relocate
• IFM Hatch Seal Inspections

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Understanding risk, artificial intelligence, and improving software quality.

Meagan Chappell

The software discipline has broad involvement across each of the NASA Mission Directorates. Some recent discipline focus and development areas are highlighted below, along with a look at the Software Technical Discipline Team’s (TDT) approach to evolving discipline best practices toward the future.

Understanding Automation Risk

Software creates automation. Reliance on that automation is increasing the amount of software in NASA programs. This year, the software team examined historical software incidents in aerospace to characterize how, why, and where software or automation is mostly likely to fail. The goal is to better engineer software to minimize the risk of errors, improve software processes, and better architect software for resilience to errors (or improve fault-tolerance should errors occur).

Some key findings shown in the above charts, indicate that software more often does the wrong thing rather than just crash. Rebooting was found to be ineffective when software behaves erroneously. Unexpected behavior was mostly attributed to the code or logic itself, and about half of those instances were the result of missing software—software not present due to unanticipated situations or missing requirements. This may indicate that even fully tested software is exposed to this significant class of error. Data misconfiguration was a sizeable factor that continues to grow with the advent of more modern data-driven systems. A final subjective category assessed was “unknown unknowns”—things that could not have been reasonably anticipated. These accounted for 19% of software incidents studied.

The software team is using and sharing these findings to improve best practices. More emphasis is being placed on the importance of complete requirements, off-nominal test campaigns, and “test as you fly” using real hardware in the loop. When designing systems for fault tolerance, more consideration should be given to detecting and correcting for erroneous behavior versus just checking for a crash. Less confidence should be placed on rebooting as an effective recovery strategy. Backup strategies for automations should be employed for critical applications—considering the historic prevalence of absent software and unknown unknowns. More information can be found in NASA/TP-20230012154, Software Error Incident Categorizations in Aerospace.

Employing AI and Machine Learning Techniques

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques has allowed NASA to examine data in new ways that were not previously possible. While NASA has been employing autonomy since its inception, AI/ML techniques provide teams the ability to expand the use of autonomy outside of previous bounds. The Agency has been working on AI ethics frameworks and examining standards, procedures, and practices, taking security implications into account. While AI/ML generally uses nondeterministic statistical algorithms that currently limit its use in safety-critical flight applications, it is used by NASA in more than 400 AI/ML projects aiding research and science. The Agency also uses AI/ML Communities of Practice for sharing knowledge across the centers. The TDT surveyed AI/ML work across the Agency and summarized it for trends and lessons.

Common usages of AI/ML include image recognition and identification. NASA Earth science missions use AI/ML to identify marine debris, measure cloud thickness, and identify wildfire smoke (examples are shown in the satellite images below). This reduces the workload on personnel. There are many applications of AI/ML being used to predict atmospheric physics. One example is hurricane track and intensity prediction. Another example is predicting planetary boundary layer thickness and comparing it against measurements, and those predictions are being fused with live data to improve the performance over previous boundary layer models.

The Code Analysis Pipeline: Static Analysis Tool for IV&V and Software Quality Improvement

The Code Analysis Pipeline (CAP) is an open-source tool architecture that supports software development and assurance activities, improving overall software quality. The Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Program is using CAP to support software assurance on the Human Landing System, Gateway, Exploration Ground Systems, Orion, and Roman. CAP supports the configuration and automated execution of multiple static code analysis tools to identify potential code defects, generate code metrics that indicate potential areas of quality concern (e.g., cyclomatic complexity), and execute any other tool that analyzes or processes source code. The TDT is focused on integrating Modified Condition/Decision Coverage analysis support for coverage testing. Results from tools are consolidated into a central database and presented in context through a user interface that supports review, query, reporting, and analysis of results as the code matures.

The tool architecture is based on an industry standard DevOps approach for continuous building of source code and running of tools. CAP integrates with GitHub for source code control, uses Jenkins to support automation of analysis builds, and leverages Docker to create standard and custom build environments that support unique mission needs and use cases.

Improving Software Process & Sharing Best Practices

The TDT has captured the best practice knowledge from across the centers in NPR 7150.2, NASA Software Engineering Requirements, and NASA-HDBK-2203, NASA Software Engineering and Assurance Handbook (https://swehb.nasa.gov.) Two APPEL training classes have been developed and shared with several organizations to give them the foundations in the NPR and software engineering management. The TDT established several subteams to help programs/projects as they tackle software architecture, project management, requirements, cybersecurity, testing and verification, and programmable logic controllers. Many of these teams have developed guidance and best practices, which are documented in NASA-HDBK-2203 and on the NASA Engineering Network.

NPR 7150.2 and the handbook outline best practices over the full lifecycle for all NASA software. This includes requirements development, architecture, design, implementation, and verification. Also covered, and equally important, are the supporting activities/functions that improve quality, including software assurance, safety configuration management, reuse, and software acquisition. Rationale and guidance for the requirements are addressed in the handbook that is internally and externally accessible and regularly updated as new information, tools, and techniques are found and used.

The Software TDT deputies train software engineers, systems engineers, chief engineers, and project managers on the NPR requirements and their role in ensuring these requirements are implemented across NASA centers. Additionally, the TDT deputies train software technical leads on many of the advanced management aspects of a software engineering effort, including planning, cost estimating, negotiating, and handling change management.