Title:
Strategic Pressure Measurement System Characterization of the Mars Entry Atmospheric Data System (MEADS)

dc.contributor.author Parker, Peter en_US
dc.contributor.corporatename United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2009-01-20T19:57:19Z
dc.date.available 2009-01-20T19:57:19Z
dc.date.issued 2008-06-25
dc.description This presentation was part of the session : Extreme Environments en_US
dc.description Sixth International Planetary Probe Workshop en_US
dc.description.abstract A primary flight science requirement of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) entry descent and landing instrumentation (MEDLI) project is the direct measurement of pressure at seven locations distributed across the heat shield during the entry and descent phases of the MSL mission. These direct pressure measurements, coupled with other sources of data, enable an estimates of the vehicle's orientation and of the atmospheric density. Estimating these parameters in flight reduces the uncertainty in the design and validation of a robust Mars entry system for future missions. A critical component to achieve these objectives is the experimental characterization of the pressure measurement system over the extreme environmental conditions to support rigorous estimates of pressure measurement uncertainty. The integrity of the mission results can be ensured by the experimental methods and analyses employed in the characterization. In this paper, we propose a systems engineering framework for the pre-flight experimental testing necessary to obtain an estimate of total measurement uncertainty; a framework that is broadly applicable to other instrumentation systems. This systematic approach translates project requirements into the statistical design of a series of experiments that efficiently characterizes the pressure system uncertainty and stability and requires minimal resources. Phases discussed in this paper include the experimental design and pre-execution evaluation, tactical execution protocols that defend against systematic sources, insightful analysis methods to quantify and interpret measurement system performance and sources uncertainty, and the integration of the characterization results into the flight data reduction algorithm thereby allowing for measurement uncertainty as a function of the flight trajectory. By employing a systems engineering viewpoint we seek to strategically allocate resources to meet the project requirements and ensure that the mission results are interpretable, reliable, and defendable. en_US
dc.description.sponsorship NASA Langley Research Center en_US
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/26360
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology en_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries IPPW08. Extreme Environments en_US
dc.subject Measurement uncertainty en_US
dc.subject Instrumentation characterization en_US
dc.subject Mars Entry Atmospheric Data System (MEADS) en_US
dc.subject MEADS
dc.title Strategic Pressure Measurement System Characterization of the Mars Entry Atmospheric Data System (MEADS) en_US
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Proceedings
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.corporatename Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering
local.contributor.corporatename College of Engineering
local.relation.ispartofseries International Planetary Probe Workshop (IPPW)
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication a348b767-ea7e-4789-af1f-1f1d5925fb65
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 7c022d60-21d5-497c-b552-95e489a06569
relation.isSeriesOfPublication 6369d36f-9ab2-422f-a97e-4844b98f173b
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Thumbnail Image
Name:
36-223-1-PB.pdf
Size:
558.05 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
PDF Presentation
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
36-224-1-PB.ppt
Size:
1.11 MB
Format:
Microsoft Powerpoint
Description:
Power Point Presentation
Collections