USA Develops ‘Tomorrow’s Technology’ Today

The ingenuity of a group of USA employees combined with the company’s aggressive Independent Research and Development (IR&D) program are producing a suite of space operations products that truly
represent “tomorrow’s
technology” today.

Known as Questus™, the products represent the first-ever set of integrated applications and tools specifically created for space operations, according to
Jerry Miller, head of USA’s
IR&D program.

“Building upon our unique
experience in human space
flight, USA has developed
Questus™ to support all phases of operations,” said Miller. From hardware development and manufacturing, through ground processing for flight, to mission planning/integration, training and certification and real-time flight execution, Questus™ integrates end-to-end space operations. Its applications and tools uniquely interact across all phases.

Questus™ made its debut at the AIAA Space 2005 Conference in California, where it was featured in USA’s exhibit as a futuristic standalone console with four separate computer monitors.

“The demonstration for the product suite is quite interactive and was very well-received by a wide range of space industry attendees,” Miller said.

Currently, Questus™ consists of four separate products: Attentus™, Ascensio™, Temporis™ and Aptus™. The names, which are Latin, are the result of an extensive trademark search by USA’s legal team.

“So many of the traditional names represented significant trademarking obstacles,” Miller explained. “So the names we came up with are unusual – but their definitions are very descriptive of the function of each of the products.”

The products demonstrate USA’s expertise in four distinct areas of a space flight mission.

Space operations begin with the vehicle, so the “first” piece of the space operations suite is a visual search and retrieval tool for spacecraft design, development and operations data and content. Named Attentus™ (meaning to be particular about one’s property), the tool streamlines the search and retrieval of information necessary for effective project integration by allowing users to visually drill down to a physical or topical locale for specific content associated with the vehicle.

Attentus™ extends beyond flight hardware systems and encompasses the breadth of data covering hardware, software, facilities, ground support equipment, flight management systems and repair/maintenance operations. Attentus™ also includes powerful tools for capturing and classifying digital content as it is created or authored by design or processing activities and integrating content into an overall taxonomy.

“We’ve developed this tool so that it can be adapted to any space vehicle or applied to commercial applications,” said Peter Kent, leader of the development team. Also working Attentus™ are Russ Brucker and Tina Robertson.

Trajectory planning is a key point of mission integration and a USA core competency, affecting not only spacecraft design, but also program policies and mission schedules. The Exploration Trajectory tool, known as Ascensio™ (meaning to place into high or lofty flight), is an advanced system for the design and analysis of interplanetary trajectories.

Ascensio™ designs a spacecraft mission trajectory that includes Earth orbit, lunar/planetary translation, lunar/planetary descent and landing, lunar/planetary ascent and rendezvous with a lunar/planetary-orbiting module, a return trajectory to Earth and Earth entry. Ascensio’s™ modular design can be adapted to a variety of spacecraft configurations and is ideal for mission and vehicle design trade studies, with flexibility for analyzing various guidance schemes, navigation systems and mission timelines.

“We are building on our world-class spaceflight heritage to go to the moon,” said Dave Dannemiller of the Ascensio™ team. He heads a team of more than 20 members.

Temporis™, (Latin meaning for the discrete interval between two or more events), is USA’s new intelligent spaceflight mission management and planning tool. It is designed to enable Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and Constellation astronauts to take control of their own missions.

Christopher Leslie, a former International Space Station flight controller now leading the Temporis™ project, has first-hand knowledge of how necessarily rigid schedules are during a spaceflight mission.

A crew-centric program, Temporis™, is designed for on-board astronaut planning specialists to assign daily objectives to their crewmates according to their unique situation. The volumes of space flight constraints, flight rules, dependencies, sequences, medical guidelines and safety requirements once in hard copy books and flight controller training lessons are all now efficiently embedded into Temporis’ intelligence.

The product has been crafted to tap into the CEV, lunar habitation, L1 base or any vehicle’s power, communication and other consumable or limited resources. Whether in low Earth orbit, lunar translation, lunar orbit or in transit to Mars, as crewmembers schedule their own activities, Temporis™ ensures their individual plans utilize all resources efficiently, feasibly and safely.

“Temporis™ puts exploration mission planning into the hands of the explorers,” said Leslie. The prime programmers and integration specialists for the Temporis™ project working with Leslie are Mike Bishop and Steve Evans from USA’s Flight Operations Engineering directorate.

The final product of the suite is Aptus (meaning fitted, fastened, connected, depending on), the first in a new class of deployable structures. This innovative system, ready to be deployed in Shuttle Ground Operations, shows significant promise for in-space platforms, fuel, supply and repair depots, vehicle structures and booms, large curved apertures, and on-surface infrastructure operations, said Chris Miller, Principal Investigator on the Aptus project.

Aptus can be integrated with inflatable structures for habitat architecture, with the potential to satisfy increased future requirements for strength, dynamic stability and launch packaging density.

“These advanced structures represent self-assembling autonomous systems, which will lay the foundation for future exploration infrastructure and space operations,” said Aptus Project Manager Jim Fletcher. In addition to Miller and Fletcher, Shaun Nerolich and Cliff Manley are working on the Aptus project, along with a small number of subcontractors.

USA’s space operations suite of products is just the beginning, Miller said.

“These products represent the first step in a full-circle of necessary tools to implement the Vision for Space Exploration,” he said. “We expect to be filling in with even more products that will take us to the moon and beyond.”

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