ROSES-05 Advanced Information Systems Technology Program

1. Scope of Program

1.1 Introduction

The Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) manages the development of advanced technologies and applications that are needed for cost-effective missions. The ESTO plays a major role in shaping Earth Science Division (ESD) research and application programs of the future, aggressively pursuing promising scientific and engineering concepts, and ensuring that the program maintains an effective balance of investments in order to advance technology development.

Information technology advances play a critical role in collecting, handling, and managing very large amounts of data and information in space and on the ground. The objectives of the Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) Program are to identify, develop, and (where appropriate) demonstrate advanced information system technologies that:

- Enable new observation measurements and information products;

- Increase the accessibility and utility of science data; and

- Reduce the risk, cost, size, and development time for ESD space-based and ground-based information systems.

The AIST Program is designed to bring information system technologies to a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) (https://esto.nasa.gov/AIST-ROSES) that allows integration into existing or future technology/science research and development programs, or infusion into existing or planned subsystems/systems to enable timely and affordable delivery of information to users. The TRL scale is used to assess the maturity of a particular technology. The AIST Program accepts technology developments at various stages of maturity and advances the TRL through appropriate risk reduction activities such as requirements analysis, conceptual design, prototypes and proof-of-concept demonstrations.

1.2 Background and Solicitation Justification

In testimony to Congress in May 2005, NASA Administrator Dr. Mike Griffin included the following statement:

“In the future, NASA plans to develop a “sensor web” to provide timely, on-demand data and analysis to users who can enable practical benefits for scientific research, national policymaking, economic growth, natural hazard mitigation, and the exploration of other planets in this solar system and beyond.”

This followed the release of the February 2005 publication NASA's Direction 2005 & Beyond that stated:

“NASA will develop new space-based technology to monitor the major interactions of the land, oceans, atmosphere, ice, and life that comprise the Earth system. In the years ahead, NASA’s fleet will evolve into human-made constellations of smart satellites that can be reconfigured based on the changing needs of science and technology. From there, researchers envision an intelligent and integrated observation network comprised of sensors deployed to vantage points from the Earth’s subsurface to deep space. This “sensor web” will provide timely, on-demand data and analysis to users who can enable practical benefits for scientific research, national policymaking, economic growth, natural hazard mitigation, and the exploration of other planets in this solar system and beyond.”

The ESTO AIST program is focusing this solicitation on component technologies that will enable the agency to pursue sensor webs as a way to achieve its Earth science objectives in the future.

1.2.1 Concepts and Terminology

ESTO studies addressing sensor web concepts can be found at the ESTO web site (https://esto.nasa.gov/AIST-ROSES) – A Notional Sensor Web Concept / JPL, IS Technologies for a Hazard Monitoring and Mitigation System Using Sensor Webs / Draper Labs, and IS Technologies for 5-day Weather Forecasting Using Sensor Webs / GSFC. The following terms are offered to describe the concepts encompassed by the proposed sensor web approaches:

• Sensors measure the physical properties of interest to scientists and are packaged in instruments which control the sensor and acquire the observation data
• A platform provides the self-contained power, navigation, physical support, computing, storage and communications infrastructure for:
  • One or more scientific sensors (space-based or in-situ)
• Data processing and/or modeling capability
• The communications network (i.e., media, topologies, protocols and devices) permits inter-/intra-platform communications
• A sensor web is a system composed of multiple platforms interconnected by the communication network for the purpose of performing specific observations and processing data required to support specific science goals. It is a networked set of instruments and analysis platforms sharing information in which sensor behavior is modified based on that shared information and the specific science goals.

The goal of the sensor web approach is to employ new data acquisition strategies and systems for integrated Earth sensing that are responsive to environmental events for both application and scientific purposes. Sensor webs can achieve science objectives beyond the abilities of a single platform by:

• Reducing response time (where events unfold rapidly or where time is otherwise constrained)
• Increasing the scientific value, quantity, or quality of the observation (where unique science criteria are met, or when co-incident observations are possible) by enabling collaboration among sensing and analysis assets.

The management of sensor webs involves the following functional areas:

- Workflow management – to plan, monitor and control resources

- Resource management – to allocate sensors, processing streams, models

- Situation awareness – to detect and/or predict events

- Information management – to transform and exchange data.

Figure 1 depicts an example of a basic sensor web in a system of systems configuration. The major systems within the sensor web include:

• The remote sensing components in the sensing system, which performs the data acquisition (e.g., spacecraft), system control (whether autonomous or externally provided), and processing (science data product) elements
• The communications components supporting connectivity among sensors and between sensors and processing and control.

Figure 1. Basic Sensor Web Concept

The other major systems interacting with the sensor web address:

• Science research analysis and data assimilation in the prediction models and analysis tools
• Data utilization and applications in decision support systems
• Planning and scheduling with systems beyond the sensing and processing resources of the sensor web system (e.g., partner nation remote sensing assets).

The activities performed by elements in the sensor web may include dynamic monitoring and control/reconfiguration, smart sensing, autonomous operations, real-time science processing, knowledge management and ubiquitous communications.

1.3 Proposal Research Topics

NASA seeks to support the development of selected key technologies to enable an evolution of distributed Earth system sensors and processing components into sensor webs. This AIST program solicitation will concentrate on the architecture (i.e., the design, structure and behavior) and development of system building blocks leading to autonomous sensor webs. Scenarios are required to show the relevancy of the proposed technology to the objectives of NASA Earth science. During the course of the technology development, the awardees will be required to participate in ESTO-sponsored sensor web technology workshops to advance information sharing on components and concepts.

Testbeds needed for testing, verification, or validation of components, subsystems and/or systems (both hardware and software) can be included and budgeted as an integral part of a proposed technology effort, but will not be funded as a stand-alone proposal. Coordination for the utilization of special purpose equipment, facilities, etc., is the responsibility of the proposer.

Proposers must stipulate only one topic area per proposal.

1.3.1 Topic Area 1: Smart Sensing

Sensor webs of the future may include space-based, airborne, and in-situ sensors, all working together in a semi-closed loop system in which “smart” sensors sense what is happening per their designed sensing capabilities and feed that information into a control system. Based on the sensor inputs, the control system then modifies the environment (instrument pointing, data collection on or off, etc.) and causes the sensors to take in and provide new information to the control system. The system is considered semi-closed because modifications can also be made to the control system by human operators monitoring the sensor web and identified events.

Smart sensing implies sophistication in the sensors themselves, in the functions they perform, and within their operational systems. For sensor webs, the goal of smart sensing is to enable autonomous event detection and reconfiguration of sensor assets. The increased sophistication can be added at the sensor level, the system level, or both. Smart sensing enabling technologies sought in this solicitation include, but are not limited to:

• Communication of the sensor with the system, including interfacing with certain system protocols and sensor addressability, in which sensors can identify themselves and interpret selective signals from the system, providing output only on demand
• Diagnostics to inform the system of an impending failure or to signal that a failure has occurred, as well as self-healing sensors
• On-board processing (up to and including science data products, as appropriate), self-describing sensor languages (e.g., Sensor Model Language (SensorML)), logic and actuation that add the necessary logic and control switching so the sensor can decide what to do and in what sequence.

Another challenge is the separation and recombination of the functions associated with control (sensing input, logic processing, diagnostics and actuation) between the sensor and the other subsystems within the system that yields the most cost-effective system performance for a given application.

1.3.2 Topic Area 2: Sensor Web Communications

The communications component of the sensor web serves to tie the overall system together, forming an infrastructure that allows seamless connectivity among all sensors, nodes and users belonging to the web. The goal of communication enhancements, especially session layer management, is to support dialog control for autonomous operations involving sensors and data processing and/or modeling entities. Reliable communication links allow the components of the sensor web to move freely within some defined environment while maintaining ubiquitous connectivity and highly reliable data transmission. Data communications technologies that are sought to support sensor webs include:

• Adaptive and directive beamforming antennas that can track the dynamic movement of sensor platforms
• Autonomous networks and protocols that can distribute data communication tasks among the sensors and control the flow of data from each sensor to some destination within or outside the sensor web
• Transmission schemes that maximize data throughput and provide optimum use of assigned bandwidth
• Distributed network of storage devices that can be accessed by any node in the sensor web with minimum latency.

1.3.3 Topic Area 3: Enabling Model Interactions in Sensor Webs

Technology is sought to tie prediction and forecasting models and scientific analysis tools to the sensor web framework to enable two-way interaction between the modeling / assimilation system and the sensing system to enhance sensor web performance and usage. The goal is to support the creation and management of new sensor web enabled information products. The related technologies sought in this solicitation include:

• Interoperable data ingest as well as easy plug-and-play structure for scientific algorithms
• Data input from emerging grid and web common languages input such as the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) SensorML
• Flexible hardware interfaces that can adapt to rapidly-changing data ingest protocols as well as ever-evolving algorithms
• Connections to major spacecraft schedulers and task managers
• Semantic metadata to enable the transformation and exchange of data as well as data fusion.