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Shuttle Abort Flight Management (SAFM) - Application OverviewOne of the most demanding tasks that must be performed by the Space Shuttle flight crew is the process of determining whether, when and where to abort the vehicle should engine or system failures occur during ascent or entry. Current Shuttle abort procedures involve paging through complicated paper checklists to decide on the type of abort and where to abort. Additional checklists then lead the crew through a series of actions to execute the desired abort. This process is even more difficult and time consuming in the absence of ground communications since the ground flight controllers have the analysis tools and information that is currently not available in the Shuttle cockpit. Crew workload specifically abort procedures will be greatly simplified with the implementation of the Space Shuttle Cockpit Avionics Upgrade (CAU) project. The intent of CAU is to maximize crew situational awareness and reduce flight workload thru enhanced controls and displays, and onboard abort assessment and determination capability. SAFM was developed to help satisfy the CAU objectives by providing the crew with dynamic information about the capability of the vehicle to perform a variety of abort options during ascent and entry. This paper- presents an overview of the SAFM application. As shown in Figure 1, SAFM processes the vehicle navigation state and other guidance information to provide the CAU displays with evaluations of abort options, as well as landing site recommendations. This is accomplished by three main SAFM components: the Sequencer Executive, the Powered Flight Function, and the Glided Flight Function, The Sequencer Executive dispatches the Powered and Glided Flight Functions to evaluate the vehicle's capability to execute the current mission (or current abort), as well as more than IS hypothetical abort options or scenarios. Scenarios are sequenced and evaluated throughout powered and glided flight. Abort scenarios evaluated include Abort to Orbit (ATO), Transatlantic Abort Landing (TAL), East Coast Abort Landing (ECAL) and Return to Launch Site (RTLS). Sequential and simultaneous engine failures are assessed and landing footprint information is provided during actual entry scenarios as well as hypothetical "loss of thrust now" scenarios during ascent.
Document ID
20100036582
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Extended Abstract
Authors
Hu, Howard
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Straube, Tim
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Madsen, Jennifer
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Ricard, Mike
(Draper (Charles Stark) Lab., Inc. United States)
Date Acquired
August 25, 2013
Publication Date
November 19, 2002
Subject Category
Space Transportation And Safety
Report/Patent Number
JSC-CN-7966
Report Number: JSC-CN-7966
Meeting Information
Meeting: 2002 Core Technologies for Space Svstems Conference
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Country: United States
Start Date: November 19, 2002
End Date: November 21, 2002
Sponsors: American Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, American Astronautical Society, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
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