University of Illinois
Who it subcontracts to
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS TEAM WILL LEAD THRUST I ON SAFETY-CONSTRAINED LEARNING FOR AUTONOMOUS SPACE SYSTEMS. THE TEAM WILL ALSO SUPPORT THE UNIVERSITY ILLINOIS TEAM ON THRUSTS II AND ILL AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNIFYING CASE STUDY.
UAS-MOUNTED CANOPY PENETRATING RADAR SYSTEM FOR UNDERSTORY FUEL SENSING
CONTINUED DEVELOPMENT TOWARDS ROBUST MONITORING OF CROPLAND CARBON BUDGET UNDER MANAGEMENT INTERVENTIONS IN THE US HEARTLAND: INTEGRATING SATELLITE OBSERVATIONS, BOTTOM-UP AND TOP-DOWN MODELING
CONTINUED DEVELOPMENT TOWARDS ROBUST MONITORING OF CROPLAND CARBON BUDGET UNDER MANAGEMENT INTERVENTIONS IN THE US HEARTLAND: INTEGRATING SATELLITE OBSERVATIONS, BOTTOM-UP AND TOP-DOWN MODELING
LUNAR MISSIONS ENABLED BY CHEMICAL-ELECTROSPRAY PROPULSION
LUNAR MISSIONS ENABLED BY CHEMICAL-ELECTROSPRAY PROPULSION
Who it works for
OBJECTIVE: OUR OBJECTIVE IS TO QUANTIFY THE ROLE THAT SOLAR-WIND ION IRRADIATION PLAYS IN ALTERING THE PHYSICAL AND SPECTRAL EFFECTS ON THE REGOLITH SURFACES OF ASTEROIDS. THE GOAL IS THAT OUR RESULTS WILL ENABLE THE COMMUNITY TO RELIABLY INFER THE COMPOSITIONS OF ASTEROID AND TO RELATE A GIVEN PARENT ASTEROID TYPE TO ITS DAUGHTER METEORITE CLASS. APPROACH: WE WILL CARRY OUT LABORATORY SIMULATIONS OF SOLAR-WIND ION IRRADIATION OF ASTEROID REGOLITH. THESE WILL BE THE MOST REALISTIC SUCH LABORATORY STUDIES TO DATE. IN SPECIFIC, REGOLITH"LIKE LOOSE POWDERS WILL BE GENERATED IN AN INERT ENVIRONMENT, TO AVOID CONTAMINATION. THEY WILL THEN BE ION IRRADIATED AND THE SPECTRAL AND SURFACE PROPERTIES STUDIES AS A FUNCTION OF FLUENCE. FLUENCES WILL BE USED WHICH ARE A FACTOR OF 3- 100 TIMES HIGHER THAN HAS BEEN PREVIOUSLY ACHIEVED BY OTHER RESEARCHERS IN THIS AREA. THE IRRADIATION STUDIES WILL BE IN SITU AND IN VACUO TO PREVENT THE ACTIVATED SURFACES FROM REACTING WITH ATMOSPHERE. MOREOVER, WE WILL SIMULATE THE SOLAR WIND COMPOSITION BY NUMBER OF ~95% H AND 5% HE, EACH AT ENERGIES OF 1 KEV/AMU, BY USING USE A DUAL ION-BEAM SYSTEM TO IRRADIATE THE SAMPLES WITH APPROPRIATELY SCALED CURRENTS OF H AND HE. THESE STUDIES WILL BE PERFORMED AS A FUNCTION OF TEMPERATURE FOR LUNAR AND FOR INTERPLANETARY DUST PARTICLE (IDP) GRAIN SIZE DISTRIBUTIONS AND ON BENCHMARK SLABS OF METEORITES AND MINERALS. THESE EXPERIMENTS WILL BE CONDUCTED IN THE NEW UIUC IGNIS FACILITY LED BY PROF. ALLAIN AND IN COLLABORATION WITH DR. DANIEL SAVIN OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. RESULTS: THE PROPOSED LABORATORY STUDIES WILL GENERATE QUANTITATIVE INFORMATION REGARDING THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF REGOLITH-LIKE LOOSE POWERS. ALL DATA WILL BE GENERATED AS A FUNCTION OF TLUENCE. WE WILL ALSO EXPLORE THE EFFECTS OF VARYING: 1) HE/H RATIO OF THE IRRADIATING BEAMS, 2) THE BEAM ENERGY, 3) SAMPLE TEMPERATURE, AND 4) GRAIN SIZE DISTRIBUTION. IRRADIATION STUDIES WILL BE CONDUCTED IN PROF. ALLAIN'S STATE-OF-THE ART IGNIS FACILITY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. MEASUREMENTS AT UNIVERSITY OF RLINOIS WILL BE CONTINGENT ON THE AVAILABILITY OF SUFFICIENT NUMBER OF SAMPLES PROVIDED BY THE TREX TEAM.
Lunar awards as prime
| Award | Description | Period | Obligated |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80NSSC25K7635 | EXECUTE A BALANCED SCIENCE PROGRAM BASED ON DISCIPLINE-SPECIFIC GUIDANCE FROM THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES ENGINEERING AND MEDICINE ADMINISTRATION PRIORITIES AND DIRECTION FROM CONGRESS. PARTICIPATE AS A KEY PARTNER AND ENABLER IN THE AGENCY S EXPLORATION INITIATIVE FOCUSING ON SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH OF ON AND FROM THE MOON LUNAR ORBIT MARS AND BEYOND. ADVANCE DISCOVERY IN EMERGING FIELDS BY IDENTIFYING AND EXPLOITING CROSS-DISCIPLINARY OPPORTUNITIES BETWEEN TRADITIONAL SCIENCE DISCIPLINES DEVELOP A DIRECTORATE-WIDE TARGET-USER FOCUSED APPROACH TO APPLIED PROGRAMS INCLUDING EARTH SCIENCE APPLICATIONS SPACE WEATHER PLANETARY DEFENSE AND SPACE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS | 2025-01-24 → 2028-01-23 | $1.3M |
| 80NSSC20K0304 | NASA IS CHARGED TO GET ASTRONAUTS TO THE MOON IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS FOLLOWED BY MISSIONS TO MARS AND BEYOND. ADDITIONALLY NASA PLANS TO CONTINUE MARS ROBOTIC EXPLORATION VIA THE MARS 2020 AND MARS SAMPLE RETURN MISSIONS. | 2020-01-13 → 2027-12-31 | $855K |
| 80NSSC20M0089 | PROJECT OBJECTIVES OVERALL GOAL: IN-SPACE DEMONSTRATION OF COMBUSTION ELECTROSPRAY PROPULSION OBJECTIVES: (1) ASSESS BENEFITS FOR SPECIFIC NASA LUNAR MISSIONS (2) DESIGN/FAB BRASSBOARD PPU AND FEED SYSTEMS (3) INTEGRATE WITH PROTOTYPE THRUSTER. | 2020-05-17 → 2027-06-30 | $800K |
| 80NSSC25K7209 | EXECUTE A BALANCED SCIENCE PROGRAM BASED ON DISCIPLINE-SPECIFIC GUIDANCE FROM THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES ENGINEERING AND MEDICINE ADMINISTRATION PRIORITIES AND DIRECTION FROM CONGRESS. PARTICIPATE AS A KEY PARTNER AND ENABLER IN THE AGENCY S EXPLORATION INITIATIVE FOCUSING ON SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH OF ON AND FROM THE MOON LUNAR ORBIT MARS AND BEYOND. ADVANCE DISCOVERY IN EMERGING FIELDS BY IDENTIFYING AND EXPLOITING CROSS-DISCIPLINARY OPPORTUNITIES BETWEEN TRADITIONAL SCIENCE DISCIPLINES.DEVELOP A DIRECTORATE-WIDE TARGET-USER FOCUSED APPROACH TO APPLIED PROGRAMS INCLUDING EARTH SCIENCE APPLICATIONS SPACE WEATHER PLANETARY DEFENSE AND SPACE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS | 2024-12-10 → 2027-12-09 | $729K |
| 80NSSC19K0209 | THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO DEVELOP THEORY ALGORITHMS AND DEMONSTRATIONS THAT (I) FORMALIZE SAFETY SPECIFICATIONS PLACED ON INTELLIGENT PHYSICAL SYSTEMS (IPS) IN SPACE AND GUARANTEE THAT AN INTELLIGENT SYSTEM REMAINS SAFE WHILE LEARNING ABOUT THE UNKNOWN ENVIRONMENT (II) INCREASE EFFICIENCY OF THE LEARNING CAPABILITIES OF IPS BY EXPLOITING PRIOR AND SIDE INFORMATION GAINED FROM PREVIOUS OR COMPLEMENTARY MISSIONS AND (III) ENSURE THAT IPS ARE RESILIENT TO SYSTEM DEGRADATION I.E. RETAIN THE ABILITY TO PERFORM THEIR MISSIONS INASMUCH AS POSSIBLE EVEN AFTER UNEXPECTED SIGNIFICANT DEGRADATION OF THEIR CAPABILITIES. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL PROCEED IN THREE THRUSTS. THRUST I IS A FOUNDATIONAL APPROACH TO COMBINING THE NEED FOR IPS TO HAVE LEARNING CAPABILITIES NATURALLY REQUIRED WHEN OPERATING IN PARTLY UNKNOWN ENVIRONMENTS SUCH AS IN THE CASE OF A LUNAR OR PLANETARY ROVER WITH A CLEAR DEMAND FOR IPS TO COMPLETE THEIR TASKS AS SAFELY AS POSSIBLE. IN THIS THRUST WE WILL SEEK TO EXPRESS SAFETY SPECIFICATIONS THAT IPS NEED TO SATISFY WHILE COMPLETING ITS TASKS IN A FORMAL LANGUAGE OF TEMPORAL LOGIC AND BY BUILDING ON OUR PREVIOUS WORK ON REINFORCEMENT LEARNING WITH TEMPORAL LOGIC SPECIFICATIONS DEVELOP THEORETICAL AND ALGORITHMIC METHODS TO ENSURE SAFETY OF THE SYSTEM WHILE IT IS LEARNING ABOUT ITS ENVIRONMENT. THE EFFORT OF THRUST II WILL CONCENTRATE ON DEVELOPING CAPABILITIES THAT ALLOW IPS TO AUTONOMOUSLY REQUEST INTERPRET AND EXPLOIT ANY PRIOR OR SIDE INFORMATION AVAILABLE TO IT; NOTABLY INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM PREVIOUS OR COMPLEMENTARY MISSIONS. BUILDING UPON OUR PREVIOUS WORK ON EXPEDITING THE LEARNING OF TERRAIN DYNAMICS ON EXTRATERRESTRIAL SURFACES BY EXPLOITING ROUGH MAPS FROM ORBITERS WE WILL COMBINE FORMAL SPECIFICATIONS OF MISSION OBJECTIVES WITH PREVIOUSLY OBTAINED KNOWLEDGE TO PROMOTE REINFORCEMENT LEARNING STRATEGIES THAT MINIMIZE THE AMOUNT OF REDUNDANCY IN THE COLLECTED DATA AND COLLECT ONLY DATA IMPORTANT TO MISSION SUCCESS THUS EXPEDITING THE SYSTEM LEARNING AND ADAPTATION. THRUST III WILL SEEK TO ENSURE IPS RESILIENCE BY BUILDING UPON OUR CURRENT WORK THAT PROVIDES A FORMAL METHOD OF DESIGN OF AUTONOMOUS ROBOTIC SYSTEMS THAT ARE GUARANTEED TO REMAIN WITHIN A SAFE SET EVEN UNDER ACTUATOR MALFUNCTION. IN ADDITION TO BASIC SAFETY SPECIFICATIONS IT IS OF CENTRAL INTEREST TO ALLOW IPS TO RETAIN THEIR ABILITIES TO COMPLETE MORE GENERAL TASKS EVEN UNDER SENSING ERRORS OR PARTIAL LOSS OF ACTUATION. SIMPLY DEVELOPING STRATEGIES TO MITIGATE FAILURE ONCE IT OCCURS IS MYOPIC; IPS NEED TO BE A PRIORI DESIGNED IN A WAY THAT GUARANTEES THEIR ADAPTABILITY AND RESILIENCE UNDER A WIDE CLASS OF POTENTIAL ACTUATION OR SENSOR FAILURES. IN THRUST III WE INTEND TO COMBINE OUR WORK WITH METHODS OF FORMAL SPECIFICATIONS AND EFFICIENT LEARNING DEVELOPED IN PREVIOUS THRUSTS IN ORDER TO ENABLE IPS TO SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETE TASKS IN PARTLY UNKNOWN ENVIRONMENTS EVEN UNDER SIGNIFICANT ACTUATOR OR SENSOR MALFUNCTION. IN ADDITION TO THEORETICAL WORK ALL THREE THRUSTS WILL BE CONNECTED BY A COMMON CASE STUDY ON LUNAR ROVER OPERATIONS THUS DIRECTLY RESPONDING TO NASA'S NEEDS. THE CASE STUDY MODEL WILL INCLUDE FUNCTIONALITIES AND CONSTRAINTS TYPICAL FOR MISSIONS OF AUTONOMOUS ROVERS IN SPACE. WHILE FOCUSING ON LUNAR ROVERS FOR THE CASE STUDY WE EXPECT THAT THE MAJORITY OF DEVELOPED THEORY AND ALGORITHMS WILL BE APPLICABLE TO A WIDE CLASS OF ENVIRONMENTAL SETTINGS THUS SERVING TO A RANGE OF FUTURE MISSIONS. | 2018-12-12 → 2023-01-13 | $500K |
| 80NSSC19K0515 | IN THE GIANT IMPACT THEORY THE MOON FORMED IN THE AFTERMATH OF AN OFF-CENTER COLLISION BETWEEN A PLANETARY SIZED BODY AND THE PROTO-EARTH. THE COLLISION LOFTS A RING OF DEBRIS INTO ORBIT AROUND THE EARTH AND THIS PROTO-LUNAR DISK THEN COOLS AND COALESCES TO FORM THE MOON. IN THE CANONICAL GIANT IMPACT MODELS (SEE CANUP 2004) THE IMPACTOR MASS IS COMPARABLE TO MARS AND THE ANGULAR MOMENTUM OF THE EARTH-MOON SYSTEM IS CONSERVED. THIS MODELS SUFFERS FROM AN "ISOTOPE CRISIS" (E.G. MELOSH 2014): THE MOON AND EARTH ARE ISOTOPICALLY SIMILAR WHICH IS UNEXPECTED SINCE THE MOON SHOULD CONTAIN A MATERIAL FROM AN IMPACTOR THAT LIKELY ORIGINATED ELSEWHERE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM. IN NONCANONICAL MODELS (CUK&STEWART 2012; CANUP 2012) ANGULAR MOMENTUM OF THE EARTH-MOON SYSTEM IS REMOVED VIA AN EVECTION RESONANCE. RECENT WORK (LOCK ET AL. 2018) CONSIDERS HIGH ENERGY AND ANGULAR MOMENTUM IMPACTS IN WHICH THE COLLISION OUTCOME IS A RAPIDLY ROTATING WELL-MIXED "SYNESTIA". EXISTING GIANT IMPACT SIMULATIONS USE SMOOTHED PARTICLE HYDRODYNAMICS TECHNIQUES OR AN EULERIAN GRID CODE WITH MAXIMUM RESOLUTION ~ 100KM (SEE CANUP ET AL. 2013). WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP AND APPLY A FAST EULERIAN SCHEME BASED ON THE ATHENA++ CODE THAT IS CAPABLE OF HIGH LINEAR RESOLUTION. OUR CODE WILL INCLUDE THE OPTION TO EVOLVE AN EMBEDDED MAGNETIC FIELD IN THE MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC (MHD) APPROXIMATION MOTIVATED BY RECENT WORK (GAMMIE ET AL. 2016 CARBALLIDO ET AL. 2016) THAT SHOWS THAT MAGNETIC FIELDS COUPLE TO HOT VAPORIZED PARTS OF THE PROTOLUNAR DISK. WE PROPOSE THE FOLLOWING NOVEL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE GIANT IMPACT HYPOTHESIS USING NUMERICAL EXPERIMENTS: (1) BY WHAT FACTOR CAN A GIANT IMPACT AMPLIFY THE MAGNETIC FIELD OF THE TARGET AND IMPACTOR? (2) HOW DOES A MAGNETIZED MODEL DIFFER FROM AN UNMAGNETIZED CONTROL MODEL? (3) CAN A GIANT IMPACT REMNANTS LOSE ANGULAR MOMENTUM THROUGH A MAGNETIZED WIND? (4) WHAT IS THE STRUCTURE (RUN OF DENSITY TEMPERATURE COMPOSITION AND FIELD STRENGTH) OF THE BOUNDARY LAYER BETWEEN THE PROTOLUNAR DISK AND EARTH? (5) WHAT IS THE RATE OF MIXING THROUGH THE BOUNDARY LAYER? (6) WHAT IS THE RATE OF MIXING IN A PROTOLUNAR DISK THAT IS IN CONTACT WITH A DYNAMICALLY ACTIVE BOUNDARY LAYER? WE WILL ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS USING A SPECIAL BRANCH OF THE ATHENA++ ASTROPHYSICAL MHD CODE THAT WE WILL BUILD TEST AND PUBLICLY RELEASE. WE HOPE TO CREATE A TOOL THAT IS USEFUL TO COMMUNITIES INTERESTED IN MOON FORMATION GIANT IMPACTS EXOPLANET FORMATION AND OTHER IMPACT PROBLEMS THAT CAN BE TREATED IN A FLUID APPROXIMATION. THE PI HAS A RECORD OF DEVELOPING AND PUBLICLY RELEASING CODES THAT ARE WIDELY USED IN OTHER CONTEXTS. THE ATHENA++ CODE IS A RIGOROUSLY TESTED HIGHLY OPTIMIZED FRAMEWORK FOR SIMULATING ASTROPHYSICAL FLUIDS. IT IS FULLY VECTORIZED AND THEREFORE FAST IN SCALAR MODE AND IT ALSO SCALES EFFICIENTLY TO HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF CORES. THIS WILL ENABLE NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION AT HIGHER RESOLUTION THAN HERETOFORE POSSIBLE. WE HAVE ADDED TABULAR EQUATION OF STATE CAPABILITY TO THE ATHENA++ CODE AND ARE IN THE PROCESS OF ADDING MATERIAL TRACKING CAPABILITY. THE WORK WILL CONSTITUTE THE PHD THESIS OF ILLINOIS GRADUATE STUDENT PATRICK MULLEN. PI GAMMIE HAS EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE WITH NUMERICAL METHODS ASTROPHYSICAL FLUIDS AND DISK DYNAMICS. FORM NRESS-300 VERSION 3.0 APR 09 THE PROPOSED WORK IS WITHIN THE SCOPE OF THE PROGRAM ELEMENT BECAUSE "EMERGING WORLDS" AIMS TO DISCOVER HOW THE SOLAR SYSTEM FORMED AND EVOLVED AND THIS YEAR THE PLANETARY SCIENCE DIVISION IS PARTICULARLY SOLICITING PROPOSALS THAT FOCUS ON THE MOON. | 2019-02-17 → 2024-02-16 | $327K |
| 80NSSC21K1292 | AUTONOMOUS ROBOTIC CARETAKING IS AN EMERGING TECHNOLOGY CRUCIAL FOR FUTURE DEEP SPACE HABITATS SUCH AS GATEWAY THE ARTEMIS BASE CAMP AND FUTURE MARS MISSIONS. | 2021-08-30 → 2025-08-29 | $325K |
| 80NSSC20K1211 | NASA S GROWING INTEREST IN SPACE EXPLORATION TO THE MOON AND BEYOND HAS LED TO SIGNIFICANT ADVANCEMENTS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF STATE-OF-THE-ART CARBON-BASED THERMAL PROTECTION SYSTEM (TPS) MATERIALS LIKE PHENOLIC-IMPREGNATED CARBON ABLATOR (PICA).. | 2020-08-15 → 2024-08-14 | $245K |
| 80NSSC20K0991 | THE OVERALL GOAL OF THIS THEME 1 PROJECT IS TO INCREASE THE FOUNDATIONAL KNOWLEDGE BASE OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN NASA ARTEMIS RELATED SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF THIS THEME 1 PROJECT IS TO CREATE AND DEVELOP TECHNICAL... | 2020-05-31 → 2023-02-28 | $166K |
| 80NSSC19M0074 | THE PROPOSED EFFORT WILL ASSESS THE FEASIBILITY OF USING X-RAY PULSAR-BASED NAVIGATION IN DEEP SPACE TO SOLVE THE COLD START PROBLEM I.E. DETERMINING ONES POSITION IN INERTIAL SPACE WITHOUT NAVIGATION UPDATES FROM GROUND-BASED ASSETS. THIS CAPABILITY MAY BE IMPORTANT FOR FUTURE EXPLORATION MISSIONS OPERATING FAR FROM EARTH WHERE AUTONOMY IS CRITICAL. THE PROPOSED SOLUTION METHOD USES X-RAY SIGNALS FROM MULTIPLE PULSARS TO GENERATE A SUFFICIENTLY LOW DENSITY OF CANDIDATE POSITION ESTIMATES SUCH THAT THE CORRECT POSITION CAN BE IDENTIFIED IN SOME ASSUMED REGION OF SPACE E.G. CIS-LUNAR SPACE. THE PROPOSED EFFORT WILL MATURE THIS SOLUTION METHOD INTEGRATE REALISTIC SENSOR AND VEHICLE MODELS AND ASSESS FEASIBILITY OF ONBOARD IMPLEMENTATION. | 2019-02-12 → 2020-02-11 | $75K |