Aperture Valve for the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA)

NASA's participation in the multi-nation ExoMars 2018 Rover mission includes a critical astrobiology Mass Spectrometer Instrument on the Rover called the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA). The Aperture Valve is a critical electromechanical valve used by the Mass Spectrometer to facilitate the transfer of ions from Martian soil to the Mass Spectrometer for analysis. The MOMA Aperture Valve development program will be discussed in terms of the initial valve design and subsequent improvements that resulted from prototype testing. The initial Aperture Valve concept seemed promising, based on calculations and perceived merits. However, performance results of this design were disappointing, due to delamination of TiN and DLC coatings applied to the titanium base metals, causing debris from the coatings to seize the valve. While peer reviews and design trade studies are important forums to vet a concept design, results from testing should not be underestimated. Despite the lack of development progress to meet requirements, valuable information from weakness discovered in the initial Valve design was used to develop a second, more robust Aperture Valve. Based on a check-ball design, the ETU / flight valve design resulted in significantly less surface area to create the seal. Moreover, PVD coatings were eliminated in favor of hardened, non-magnetic corrosion resistant alloys. Test results were impressive, with the valve achieving five orders of magnitude better sealing leak rate over end of life requirements. Cycle life was equally impressive, achieving 280,000 cycles without failure

Aperture Valve for the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA)

NASA's participation in the multi-nation ExoMars 2018 Rover mission includes a critical astrobiology Mass Spectrometer Instrument on the Rover called the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA). The Aperture Valve is a critical electromechanical valve used by the Mass Spectrometer to facilitate the transfer of ions from Martian soil to the Mass Spectrometer for analysis. The MOMA Aperture Valve development program will be discussed in terms of the Initial valve design and subsequent improvements that resulted from prototype testing. The Initial Aperture Valve concept seemed promising, based on calculations and perceived merits. However, performance results of this design were disappointing, due to delamination of TiN and DLC coatings applied to the Titanium base metals, causing debris from the coatings to seize the valve. While peer reviews and design trade studies are important forums to vet a concept design, results from testing should not be underestimated. Despite the lack of development progress to meet requirements, valuable information from weakness discovered in the Initial Valve design was used to develop a second, more robust Aperture valve. Based on a check-ball design, the ETU /flight valve design resulted in significantly less surface area to create the seal. Moreover, PVD coatings were eliminated in favor of hardened, nonmagnetic corrosion resistant alloys. Test results were impressive, with the valve achieving five orders of magnitude better sealing leak rate over end of life requirements. Cycle life was equally impressive, achieving 280,000 cycles without failure

Aseptic Operations for Post DHMR Processing of MOMA Mass Spectrometer

Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer - Mass Spectrometer (MOMA-MS) is an instrument in the MOMA instrument suite for the European Space Agency (ESA) ExoMars 2020 Rover. The rover is Planetary Protection Mission Category IVb, the first IVb mission since the Viking missions in the 1970s. Within the sample path of the MOMA instrument suite, the hardware surfaces of the must be sanitized to a level of less than 0.03 spore/m sq. To meet this requirement, the MS sample path was subjected to Dry Heat Microbial Reduction (DHMR) to decrease the number of viable spores by 4 orders of magnitude from a measured 88 spores/m sq to 0.009 spores/m sq. Before DHMR, the hardware is handled using standard cleanroom practices. After DHMR, planetary protection filters protect the sample path for most of integration, but when sample path exposure is required, aseptic operations are instituted and exposure times are kept to an absolute minimum. The surface area of exposure is also taken into account to determine safe exposure times. Before work begins, the ISO class 5 aseptic workspace is cleaned and tested for surface and airborne bioburden, and all tools that will contact or be used near sample path surfaces are sterilized. During the exposure activity, sterile garments are worn, sterile gloves are changed as often as necessary, and the environment is monitored with active and passive fallout for bioburden and real time airborne particle counts. Sterile tools are handled by a two person team so that the operator touches only the tool and not the exterior surfaces of the sterilization pouch, and a sterile operating field is established as a safe place to organize tools or parts during the aseptic operations. In cases where aseptic operations are not feasible, localized DHMR is used after exposure. Any breach in the planetary protection cleanliness can necessitate repeating instrument level DHMR, which not only has significant cost and schedule implications, it also become a risk to hardware that is not rated for repeated long exposures to high temperatures

Landscape dynamics of northeastern forests

This project involves collaborative research with Stephen W. Pacala and Simon A. Levin of Princeton University to calibrate, test, and analyze models of heterogeneous forested landscapes containing a diverse array of habitats. The project is an extension of previous, NASA-supported research to develop a spatially-explicit model of forest dynamics at the scale of an individual forest stand (hectares to square kilometer spatial scales). That model (SORTIE) has been thoroughly parameterized from field studies in the modal upland environment of western Connecticut. Under our current funding, we are scaling-up the model and parameterizing it for the broad range of upland environments in the region. Our most basic goal is to understand the linkages between stand-level dynamics (as revealed in our previous research) and landscape-level dynamics of forest composition and structure

Qualification and Issues with Space Flight Laser Systems and Components

The art of flight quality solid-state laser development is still relatively young, and much is still unknown regarding the best procedures, components, and packaging required for achieving the maximum possible lifetime and reliability when deployed in the harsh space environment. One of the most important issues is the limited and unstable supply of quality, high power diode arrays with significant technological heritage and market lifetime. Since Spectra Diode Labs Inc. ended their involvement in the pulsed array business in the late 199O's, there has been a flurry of activity from other manufacturers, but little effort focused on flight quality production. This forces NASA, inevitably, to examine the use of commercial parts to enable space flight laser designs. System-level issues such as power cycling, operational derating, duty cycle, and contamination risks to other laser components are some of the more significant unknown, if unquantifiable, parameters that directly effect transmitter reliability. Designs and processes can be formulated for the system and the components (including thorough modeling) to mitigate risk based on the known failures modes as well as lessons learned that GSFC has collected over the past ten years of space flight operation of lasers. In addition, knowledge of the potential failure modes related to the system and the components themselves can allow the qualification testing to be done in an efficient yet, effective manner. Careful test plan development coupled with physics of failure knowledge will enable cost effect qualification of commercial technology. Presented here will be lessons learned from space flight experience, brief synopsis of known potential failure modes, mitigation techniques, and options for testing from the system level to the component level

The effect of an emergency department clinical “triggers” program based on abnormal vital signs

AbstractObjectiveTo determine the effect of a clinical triggers program in the Emergency Department (ED) setting that utilized predetermined abnormal vital signs to activate a rapid assessment by an emergency physician led multidisciplinary team.MethodsA retrospective, separate sample, pre-post intervention study following implementation of an ED triggers program. Abnormal vital sign criteria that warranted a trigger response included: heart rate <40 or >130 beats/min, respiratory rate <8 or >30 respirations/min, systolic blood pressure <90 mm Hg, or oxygen saturation <90% on room air. The primary outcome investigated was time to physician evaluation with secondary outcomes being the time to disposition decision and time to first critical therapeutic intervention.ResultsThe median time to physician evaluation was reduced by 25% from 28 min to 21 min (P<0.05). The median time to disposition decision was decreased by 12% from 154 minutes to 135 minutes (P<0.05). The median time to first intervention was 46 min and 43 min (P=0.33) in the before and after groups, which did not represent a statistically significant difference.ConclusionsIn our model, the implementation of an ED triggers program resulted in a modest decreased time to physician evaluation and disposition decision but not time to intervention

Developing the Cleanliness Requirements for an Organic-detection Instrument MOMA-MS

The cleanliness requirements for an organic-detection instrument, like the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer Mass Spectrometer (MOMA-MS), on a Planetary Protection Class IVb mission can be extremely stringent. These include surface molecular and particulate, outgassing, and bioburden. The prime contractor for the European Space Agencys ExoMars 2018 project, Thales Alenia Space Italy, provided requirements based on a standard, conservative approach of defining limits which yielded levels that are unverifiable by standard cleanliness verification methods. Additionally, the conservative method for determining contamination surface area uses underestimation while conservative bioburden surface area relies on overestimation, which results in inconsistencies for the normalized reporting. This presentation will provide a survey of the challenge to define requirements that can be reasonably verified and still remain appropriate to the core science of the ExoMars mission

Development and Implementation of Aseptic Operations for the MOMA-Mass Spectrometer

The ExoMars 2020 Rover is a life detection mission, and is classified as Planetary Protection (PP) Mission Category IVb, the first IVb mission since the Viking missions. Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer Mass Spectrometer (MOMA-MS) is a life detection instrument for the rover. To meet the stringent bioburden requirement of 0.03 spore/m2, the MS is subjected to Dry Heat Microbial Reduction (DHMR) to decrease the bioburden from a measured 88 spores/m2 to 0.009 spores/m2. After DHMR, exposure of the sample path must be kept to an absolute minimum and requires aseptic operations. Aseptic operations include determining the safe exposure time based on the surface area of exposure and particle fallout expected in the aseptic ISO class 5 workspace, preparing an aseptic ISO class 5 workspace, and using sterile garments and tools. During the exposure activity the environment is monitored with active and passive fallout for bioburden and real time airborne particle counts. Sterile tools are handled by a two person team so the operator touches only the tool and not the exterior surfaces of the sterilization pouch, and a sterile operating field is established as a safe place to organize tools or parts during the aseptic operations. In cases where aseptic operations are not feasible, localized DHMR is used after exposure. Any breach in the PP cleanliness can necessitate repeating instrument level DHMR, which not only has significant cost and schedule implications, but also is a risk to hardware that is not rated for repeated long exposures to high temperatures

Shade tolerance, canopy gaps and mechanisms of coexistence of forest trees

The belief that canopy gaps are important for the maintenance of tree species diversity appears to be widespread, but there have been no formal theoretical models to assess under what conditions gap phase processes allow coexistence. Much of the empirical research on niche diff erentiation in response to gaps has focused on evidence for an interspecific tradeoff between low light survival and high light growth. The objectives of this study are first to distinguish the possible mechanisms allowing coexistence based on this tradeoff, and second, to explore their limitations. We present a theory of forest dynamics driven by small-scale disturbances as a special case of the theory of coexistence in variable environments. We demonstrate that temporal and spatial heterogeneity in light conditions that results from canopy gaps can allow stable coexistence as a result of three previously documented general mechanisms: ‘relative non-linearity’, ‘the successional niche’ and the ‘storage eff ect’. We find that temporal fluctuations in light availability alone allow the stable coexistence of only two species. Spatial variation in disturbance synchronicity and intensity allows three species to coexist in a narrow parameter space. The rate of extinction is, however, extremely slow and there is transient coexistence of a larger number of species for a long period of time. We conclude that while the low light survival/high light growth tradeoff may be ubiquitous in forest tree species, it is unlikely to function as an important mechanism for the stable coexistence of several tree species