Federal award (DELIVERY ORDER, fiscal year 2023)
Recipient: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AEROSPACE ASSOCIATES
Awarding agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration / National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Funding agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration / National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Period of performance: 2018-01-08 to 2018-06-08
Current total value of award: $75986.11
Description: COMMERCIAL CREW VEHICLE ENTRY, DECENT, AND LANDING (EDL) INDEPENDENT SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS - EDL INDEPENDENT SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS. NASA HAS A SUCCESSFUL HISTORY DEVELOPING COMPLEX SPACEFLIGHT ATMOSPHERIC REENTRY SYSTEMS FOR BOTH CREWED AND ROBOTIC SYSTEMS. ALL OF THESE HUMAN AND ROBOTIC FLIGHT PROGRAMS HAVE BENEFITED FROM USING INDEPENDENT SYSTEM MODELS AND INTEGRATED SIMULATIONS TO IDENTIFY AND RESOLVE HIGHLY COUPLED SYSTEM FAILURE MODES AND TECHNICAL RISKS, PARTICULARLY THOSE THAT OCCUR AT OR NEAR COMPLEX HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, OR DISCIPLINE INTERFACES. COMPLEX FLIGHT SYSTEMS OFTEN HAVE FAILURE MODES AT ELEMENT AND SUBSYSTEM INTERFACES. THESE FAILURE MODES MAY ONLY MANIFEST THEMSELVES WHEN COMPONENTS ARE OPERATED AS AN INTEGRATED SYSTEM THEY DO NOT NECESSARILY OCCUR WHEN EVALUATING, TESTING, OR OPERATING SINGLE COMPONENTS OR ELEMENTS. NUMEROUS EXAMPLES EXIST IN WHICH FLIGHT PROJECTS AND PROGRAMS HAVE BENEFITED FROM INDEPENDENT PHYSICS-BASED END-TO-END MODELING AND SIMULATION (M&S). COROLLARY EXAMPLES EXIST WHERE FAILURES COULD HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED AND RESOLVED BY INDEPENDENT M&S.  HISTORICALLY, THE ENTRY, DESCENT, AND LANDING (EDL) PHASES OF FLIGHT PRESENT SOME OF THE HIGHEST RISK ELEMENTS OF FLIGHT SYSTEM ARCHITECTURES. FOR COMPLEX FLIGHT SYSTEMS, NASA AND DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES HAVE BENEFITED FROM INDEPENDENT M&S EFFORTS. LOW-, MODERATE-, AND HIGH-FIDELITY MULTIPLE-DOF FLIGHT SIMULATIONS ARE OFTEN UTILIZED TO INTEGRATE AND ANALYTICALLY STRESS CRITICAL ELEMENT AND SUBSYSTEM MODELS AND TO DEFINE AND UNDERSTAND THE BOUNDARIES OF OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS WITHIN WHICH SYSTEMS MUST PERFORM.  THE NASA ENGINEERING AND SAFETY CENTER (NESC) ASSEMBLED A MULTI-CENTER TEAM TO DEVELOP INDEPENDENT 3- AND 6-DEGREE-OF-FREEDOM (DOF) SIMULATION CAPABILITY OF EDL FLIGHT PHASES FOR THE COMMERCIAL CREW VEHICLES, AND TO CONDUCT INDEPENDENT EDL ANALYSIS USING THESE SIMULATIONS. THIS PLAN OUTLINES DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHER-FIDELITY EDL CAPABILITY FOR TWO COMMERCIAL CREW VEHICLES USING CONTRACTOR MODELS. THE DEVELOPMENT WILL BE PERFORMED IN COLLABORATION WITH COMMERCIAL CREW PROGRAM (CCP) PERSONNEL. THE NESC TEAM WILL INDEPENDENTLY ASSESS EDL PERFORMANCE, AND HELP TO IDENTIFY AND MITIGATE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH THE EDL FLIGHT PHASES FOR NASA S CCP.  THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF THIS TASK ORDER IS TO CONVERT SOFTWARE LANGUAGE FORMATS OF COMMERCIAL CREW VEHICLE MODELS INTO THE DYNAMIC AEROSPACE VEHICLE EXCHANGE MARKUP LANGUAGE (DAVE-ML).  DAVE-ML IS A NEW FORM OF EXTENSIBLE MARKUP LANGUAGE (XML)   A MARKUP LANGUAGE THAT DEFINES A SET OF RULES FOR ENCODING DOCUMENTS IN A PARTICULAR FORMAT   RECENTLY DEVELOPED BY THE AIAA MODELING AND SIMULATION TECHNICAL COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT THE EXCHANGE OF AIRCRAFT SIMULATION FLIGHT DYNAMIC MODELS.  DAVE-ML IS CONSIDERED A UNIQUE TECHNOLOGY THAT IS BEING ADOPTED AS A NEW STANDARD AT NASA AND WITHIN THE AEROSPACE INDUSTRY. THIS IS AN OPEN SOURCE LANGUAGE.