2008 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

network linking the payload instruments to
a common server, and a user-transparent
satellite communications system that extends
the network to a ground operations center.
It will also utilize standard communications
protocols and data formats, including the
IWG-1 format developed by the IWGADTS.
Data visualization tools, customized to the
individual instrument types, are also essential
to present the information to the science
teams in a useable form for decision-making.
NSERC and the Real Time Mission Monitor
team at Marshall Space Flight Center are
jointly developing the software to achieve this.
Elements of the NASA Collaborative Decision
Environment (CDE) will also be incorporated
to foster communication and data sharing with
extended science teams across the Internet.
Derived from software used at NASA Ames
to manage the Mars planetary rovers, and
adapted to airborne platforms for the Western
States Fire Missions, the CDE promises to
greatly expand data accessibility, enabling
investigators around the world to actively
participate in airborne science missions.
Along with the complex software required
to support the real-time data environment,
specialized flight hardware is also required.
One essential element is an enhanced
version of the navigation data recorders
currently in use on the ER-2 and WB-57
aircraft. These units capture platform and
other state data from the aircraft avionics
systems and re-broadcast them to the payload
instruments. Incorporating the Ethernet
network functionality developed at NASA
Dryden on the REVEAL project, the nextgeneration
of these systems will be called the
NASDAT (NASA Airborne Science Data and
Telemetry) system and is scheduled to deploy
in late 2009. Accompanying this will be a new
standard Experimenter Interface Panel (EIP),
which will provide electrical power, network
communications, and the state data feeds to
the various aircraft payload areas.
The new EIPs will be first installed on the
Global Hawk, initially hosted by a modified
REVEAL box, pending the availability of the
new NASDAT units. The EIP/NASDAT
combination will eventually be installed on
all the core NASA science platforms. In
addition, the Global Hawk UAS has unique
hardware requirements to transform it into a
science platform. A Master Payload Control
System/Power Distribution Unit (MPCS/
PDU) system will allow the mission pilot to
monitor and control the power and basic
functionality of each instrument individually. A
separate telemetry link module is also being
developed to interface with the high-speed
Ku-band sat-com system slated for the Global
Hawk. The link module will also include
mass storage for buffering science data, and
a dedicated payload computer for onboard
processing with mission-specific software.
This flight hardware is being developed at the
Airborne Science and Technology Lab (ASTL)
at NASA Ames.
This overall communications and datasharing
concept will be initially demonstrated
on the Global Hawk UAS during its first
science missions in 2009, with the associated
visualization and web-based tools being
hosted in the Global Hawk Operations
Center at NASA Dryden. It will then be
gradually implemented across the NASA
airborne science fleet as platforms are
upgraded and satellite communications
systems become more widely available.
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