Parametric cost model for solar space power and DIPS systems

A detailed cost model has been developed to parametrically determine the program development and production cost of photovoltaic, solar dynamic, and dynamic isotope (DIPS) space power systems. The model is applicable in the net electrical power range of 3 to 300 kWe for solar power and 0.5 to 10 kWe for DIPS. Application of the cost model allows spacecraft or space-based power system architecture and design trade studies or budgetary forecasting and cost benefit analyses. The cost model considers all major power subsystems (i.e., power generation, power conversion, energy storage, thermal management, and power management/distribution/control). It also considers system cost effects such as integration, testing, and management. The cost breakdown structure, model assumptions, ground rules, bases, cost estimation relationship format, and rationale are presented, and the application of the cost model to 100-kWe solar space power plants and to a 1.0-kWe DIPS is demonstrated     

A unified approach to the design of decentralized detection systems

A unified approach to the design of decentralized detection networks with arbitrary topologies is proposed and analyzed. In this approach, a decentralized detection system of arbitrary topology is represented by a communication matrix that specifies the interconnection structure of the detection network. This matrix is used to derive the general decision rule using the person-by-person-optimal (PBPO) solution methodology. It is shown that the PBPO decision rule is a likelihood ratio test for statistically independent observations. The threshold of the test is shown to be a function of the decision input vector of the detector under consideration. This unified approach is used to obtain the PBPO decision rules of decentralized detection systems with various topologies. Various results in the literature are verified. In addition, the PBPO decision rules for a decentralized detection system with peer communication are presented. Numerical examples are presented for illustration     

An integrated systems engineering approach to aircraft design

The challenge in Aerospace Engineering, in the next two decades as set by Vision 2020, is to meet the targets of reduction of nitric oxide emission by 80%, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide both by 50%, reduce noise by 50% and of course with reduced cost and improved safety. All this must be achieved with expected increase in capacity and demand. Such a challenge has to be in a background where the understanding of physics of flight has changed very little over the years and where industrial growth is driven primarily by cost rather than new technology.The way forward to meet the challenges is to introduce innovative technologies and develop an integrated, effective and efficient process for the life cycle design of aircraft, known as systems engineering (SE). SE is a holistic approach to a product that comprises several components. Customer specifications, conceptual design, risk analysis, functional analysis and architecture, physical architecture, design analysis and synthesis, and trade studies and optimisation, manufacturing, testing validation and verification, delivery, life cycle cost and management. Further, it involves interaction between traditional disciplines such as Aerodynamics, Structures and Flight Mechanics with people- and process-oriented disciplines such as Management, Manufacturing, and Technology Transfer.SE has become the state-of-the-art methodology for organising and managing aerospace production. However, like many well founded methodologies, it is more difficult to embody the core principles into formalised models and tools. The key contribution of the paper will be to review this formalisation and to present the very latest knowledge and technology that facilitates SE theory. Typically, research into SE provides a deeper understanding of the core principles and interactions, and helps one to appreciate the required technical architecture for fully exploiting it as a process, rather than a series of events.There are major issues as regards to systems approach to aircraft design and these include lack of basic scientific/practical models and tools for interfacing and integrating the components of SE and within a given component, for example, life cycle cost, basic models for linking the key drivers. The paper will review the current state of art in SE approach to aircraft design and identify some of the major challenges, the current state of the art and visions for the future. The review moves from an initial basis in traditional engineering design processes to consideration of costs and manufacturing in this integrated environment. Issues related to the implementation of integration in design at the detailed physics level are discussed in the case studies.     

Electric space propulsion systems

Active development of electric thrustors began 10 years ago. Today, several kinds of thrustors have achieved efficiencies above 90 % and lifetimes of several thousand hours. The following article derives the basic theory of electric thrust production at constant exhaust velocity, and at variable exhaust velocity programmed for optimum vehicle performance. Electrothermal or arcjet; electrostatic or ion; and electrodynamic or plasma thrustors are described. At the present time, ion thrustors of the electron bombardment and of the surface ionization types are the most promising systems. Electric power in space may be generated by solar cells or nuclear-electric generators. It is expected that the incore thermionic converter will eventually be the preferred system. A variety of missions with electric propulsion systems appear feasible and highly desirable, among them orbital station keeping, attitude control, planetary probes, solar and out-of-the-ecliptic probes, deep-space probes, and manned Mars and Venus exploration. For each mission, a careful systems-design study must be made, which will provide the optimum selection of thrustor type, thrust level, exhaust velocity, thrust program, power source, trajectory, and flight plan.     

Future space suit design considerations

Future space travel to the moon and Mars will present new challenges in space suit design. This paper examines the impact that working on the surface environment of the moon and Mars will have on the requirements of space suits. In particular, habitat pressures will impact suit weight and design. Potential structural materials are explored, as are the difficulties in designing a suit to withstand the severe dust conditions expected.     

A localizer design to improve missed approach guidance

A novel VHF localizer system has been designed, built and successfully tested to provide increased reliability and safety of commercial and general aviation air transportation. Additional benefits are more precise tracks for aircraft executing a missed approach, reduced volume of the airspace needed for missed approaches, and reduced sizes of areas affected by noise. The design uses contemporary instrument landing system (ILS) hardware to provide dual independent front and back course directional localizer operation with two carriers in the receiver passband offset 4 kHz from the nominal carrier frequency. An example is given of an application and solution to an ILS problem at Reno, NV. Relevant data are presented     

Low cost satellite ground control facility design

A design approach common to the areas of satellite operations command and control, tracking, subsystem analysis, system planning and scheduling, orbit determination and maintenance, and data routing and control is discussed. Specific satellite mission applications and operations are isolated from the remainder of the design to allow application to a broad variety of satellite systems. Discussions of specific satellite missions are limited to the context of understanding the general magnitude and scope of what a ground control facility is required to support. By isolating the common satellite operational functions, a low cost generic approach that allows for phased implementation of system changes with minimal impact to on-orbit assets and mission performance is developed. The goals of this approach are to provide the capability for growth, maintainability, and operability of the satellite system. A brief discussion of satellite systems followed by the introduction of the general function of any satellite control facility sets the stage for the overall design approach. The factors that define the design along with the key design features are presented, with a discussion of each product available in each functional area     

COTS software design minimizes ATS lifecycle cost

This paper identifies the design features of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software that impact the lifecycle cost of automatic test system (ATS) solutions and provides a set of design guidelines. It demonstrates that the architecture of COTS software must be modular, based on correct functional allocation, should possess distribution capabilities, and contain open interfaces that remain backwards compatible. In the case of COTS development tools, the programmatic interface should be simple, extensible, and enforced in the development environment.     

Variable-fidelity optimization with design space reduction

Advanced engineering systems, like aircraft, are defined by tens or even hundreds of design variables. Building an accurate surrogate model for use in such high-dimensional optimization problems is a difficult task owing to the curse of dimensionality. This paper presents a new algorithm to reduce the size of a design space to a smaller region of interest allowing a more accurate surrogate model to be generated. The framework requires a set of models of different physical or numerical fidelities. The low-fidelity (LF) model provides physics-based approximation of the high-fidelity (HF) model at a fraction of the computational cost. It is also instrumental in identifying the small region of interest in the design space that encloses the high-fidelity optimum. A surrogate model is then constructed to match the low-fidelity model to the high-fidelity model in the identified region of interest. The optimization process is managed by an update strategy to prevent convergence to false optima. The algorithm is applied on mathematical problems and a two-dimen-sional aerodynamic shape optimization problem in a variable-fidelity context. Results obtained are in excellent agreement with high-fidelity results, even with lower-fidelity flow solvers, while showing up to 39% time savings.     

A minimax approach to the design of Doppler filters

The detection of a target in correlated clutter, thermal noise, and extraneous interference is considered. The amplitude, phase and Doppler frequency of the signal are not known a priori. A general criterion is presented which measures the performance of a suboptimal test relative to an optimal test. The criterion is encompassed into a design procedure used to design Doppler filters. The procedure allows many design considerations to be taken into account, and results in a design which attempts to minimize the number of filters required. For low dimensionality the procedure results in single filter designs; for higher dimensionality multiple filters are designed. The performances of these systems are compared with the results obtained by Emerson (1978) and Andrews (1974). It is found that the procedure yields good filter designs under general conditions and may reduce the number of filters required compared with classical designs     

New architectures for space power systems

Electric power generation and conditioning have experienced revolutionary development over the past two decades. Furthermore, new materials such as high energy magnets and high temperature superconductors are either available or on the horizon. Our work is based on the premise that new technologies are an important driver of new power system concepts and architectures. This observation is borne out by the historical evolution of power systems both in terrestrial and aerospace applications. This paper introduces new approaches to designing space power systems by using several new technologies. Two new architectures are introduced: the current source current intensive system and the articulate system. Basic characteristics of these systems have been investigated. Some aspects of the articulate system architecture, as discussed in this paper can be implemented in the short term. Flexible AC transmission systems which are now undergoing rapid development and implementation, can be regarded as a subset of the family of control methodologies which constitute the realm of articulate systems     

Next generation GPS-aided space navigation systems

The next generation of low cost Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers for space navigation and attitude determination are positioned to take full advantage of the improvements made in the commercial GPS receivers used for terrestrial applications. There have been recent improvements made to the GPS receivers that include the addition of extra GPS satellite channels that can be tracked simultaneously. The older style GPS receivers were only able to handle five channels at a time. In order for proper determination of three-dimensional position, a minimum of four channels was required and the fifth channel of the receiver was reserved to perform search functions for finding the next satellite. This included searching for satellites that could be used to replace exiting satellites moving out of the Field of View (FOV). The search function also enables the GPS receiver to search for the best constellation for maximum performance accuracy. The fifth roaming channel also provided a best next-satellite selection capability in case the field of view to one of the satellites was blocked or shaded.     

A set of systems for labor standards computer-aided design

A set of systems for labor standard computer-aided design is described, namely, initial developments, advance and state-of-the art.     

自适应设计空间扩展的高效代理模型气动优化设计方法

对基于Kriging模型气动优化的加点方法和设计空间的构建问题进行了研究。首先,针对高效全局优化（EGO）方法收敛缓慢的问题,提出了一种混合加点方法,该方法通过引入期望提高（EI）阈值控制EI和最小预测值（MP）加点准则,利用先全局再局部的优化思想,提高了EGO方法在确定设计空间内的收敛性。其次,针对设计空间的构建问题,对比了扩大设计变量范围和多轮优化两种不同的设计空间构建方法,分析了设计变量范围对设计空间大小和样本密度的影响,进而提出了自适应设计空间扩展的代理模型优化方法。相对于传统固定设计空间的方法,自适应设计空间扩展的方法在动态的设计空间中进行优化搜索,只在有潜力的维度扩展设计变量范围,通过构建自适应设计空间,实现了样本的高效配置。最后,通过ADODG标准翼型优化算例证实,自适应设计空间优化方法可以大幅提高气动优化设计效率。     

A combined approach to scheduling aperiodic problems in real-time systems

A problem on dynamic determination of a time interval in scheduling aperiodic requests in real-time systems is considered. It is shown that the application of a combined approach based on the combination of the probability method and the method of fuzzy sets provides an effective problem solution.     

Testing autonomous systems for deep space exploration

NASA is moving into an era of Increasing spacecraft autonomy. However, before autonomy can be routinely utilized, we must develop techniques for providing assurance that the system will perform correctly in flight. We describe why autonomous systems require advanced verification techniques, and offer some management and technical techniques for addressing the differences. Autonomous goal-driven spacecraft require advances in verification techniques because optimization (e.g., planning and scheduling) algorithms are at the core of much of autonomy. It Is the nature of such algorithms that over much of the input space an intuitively "small" change in the input results in a correspondingly "small" change in the output: This type of response typically leads one to conclude, quite reasonably, that if the two responses are correct, those responses "between" them will probably also be correct. However, there are certain regions in the input space where a "small" change in the input will result in a radically different output: One is not so inclined to conclude that all responses in these transition zones are likely to be correct. We believe, for two reasons, that these transition zones are one place where autonomous systems are likely to fail. First, boundary conditions, often a rich source of faults, are highly exercised in the transition zones, and so increase the likelihood of faults. Second, within the transition zone the algorithm outputs are likely to appear unusual, and, since the outputs of the algorithm become inputs to the remainder of the system, the whole system is probably pushed outside of its nominal usage profile: historically shown to be another good source of faults. We close with a discussion of risk management. Autonomous systems have many well-known management risk factors. Risk management and quality concerns must be pervasive, throughout all team members and the whole life-cycle of the project.     

Portable approach landing system design

This paper presents a design concept for an azimuth and an elevation antenna suitable for the light weight Portable Approach Landing System (PALS). The proposed design complies with the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Annex 10. Based on a proven technology, the proposed design offers a low risk and a cost effective approach     

基于设计变量空间范围自适应优化设计方法研究

通过对翼型优化设计方法的研究,对设计变量在设计空间的分布进行了探讨,建立了设计变量空间范围自适应优化设计方法,解决了优化设计模型建立过程中的设计变量空间范围的选择问题.该方法建立了聚集度的概念,利用聚集度对优化设计过程中设计变量在设计空间内的分布规律进行统计分析,并根据统计分布规律对设计变量的设计空间进行调整,将设计变量重构,实现了优化设计过程中的设计变量空间自适应.该设计变量空间范围自适应优化设计方法,一方面能够在给定的条件下扩大搜索范围来搜索满足工程设计需要的最优解,一方面又能够通过对设计变量的重构提高搜索算法的搜索效率.利用该方法对NACA 0012和NLF(1) 0416翼型进行了优化设计,并与固定设计变量空间范围的优化设计方法进行对比分析.优化结果验证了本文提出的优化设计方法具有一定的可行性,可以在更大范围内找到最优解,并具有较高的优化搜索效率.