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PRESENTATION ABSTRACT (ROI Approval BOE021811-122) REVIEW OF UPDATED AEROSPACE RECOMMENDED PRACTICES ARP5061A, Guidelines for Testing and Support of Aerospace, Fiber Optic, Inter-Connect Systems RATIONALE: A single source document to capture current best practices, methods, test equipment, and materials that support fiber optic interconnect systems including high-density applications deployed in Aerospace platforms. SCOPE: This presentation will describe how the ARP5061 document provides the maintainer unique guidelines for optical performance testing of short haul fiber optic inter-connect systems used in aerospace vehicles. The focus of this document is to establish common pre and post installation test methods, equipment, materials, and troubleshooting methodologies. QUALIFICATIONS AND TRAINING STANDARDS: The repair and maintenance of a fiber optic system should ONLY BE PERFORMED by qualified personnel.

As a result of recommendation from the Augustine Panel, the direction for Human Space Flight has been altered from the original plan referred to as Constellation. NASA's Human Exploration Framework Team (HEFT) proposes the use of a Shuttle Derived Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (SDLV) and an Orion derived spacecraft (salvaged from Constellation) to support a new flexible direction for space exploration. The SDLV must be developed within an environment of a constrained budget and a preferred fast development schedule. Thus, it has been proposed to utilize existing assets from the Shuttle Program to speed development at a lower cost. These existing assets should not only include structures such as external tanks or solid rockets, but also the Flight Software which has traditionally been a “long pole” in new development efforts. The avionics and software for the Space Shuttle was primarily developed in the 70's and considered state of the art for that time.

A software application has been developed for analysis of the International Space Station Thermal Control System for mission operations. This software serves needs unique to spacecraft mission control. Characteristics include multiple vehicle configurations, multiple equipment rack heat loads, complex fluid-loop heat transfer, and integral orbit propagation for radiator performance prediction at any attitude. Object-oriented programming using a C++ class library provides an integrated, interdisciplinary model. Model runtimes are on the order of one minute per day of mission time. Outputs are selected plots, electronic files, and vector displays. Performance and accuracy are verified by comparison with engineering models.

The purpose of the Space Shuttle Cockpit Avionics Upgrade project (1999 – 2004) was to reduce crew workload and improve situational awareness. The upgrade was to augment the Shuttle avionics system with new hardware and software. A major success of this project was the validation of the hardware architecture and software design. This was significant because the project incorporated new technology and approaches for the development of human rated space software. An early version of this system was tested at the Johnson Space Center for one month by teams of astronauts. The results were positive, but NASA eventually cancelled the project towards the end of the development cycle. The goal to reduce crew workload and improve situational awareness resulted in the need for high performance Central Processing Units (CPUs). The choice of CPU selected was the PowerPC family, which is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) known for its high performance.