NASA is seeking to expand human presence into the solar system in a sustainable way. NASA's g... more NASA is seeking to expand human presence into the solar system in a sustainable way. NASA's goal is not just a destination to reach, but rather it is to develop the capacity for people to work, learn, operate, and live safely beyond the Earth for extended periods of time, ultimately in ways that are more sustainable and even indefinite. The deep space habitation capability is one of the key foundations of this strategy and for human space missions beyond low-Earth orbit (LEO), habitation capabilities represent a critical component of NASA's plans for Mars-class distances and duration missions. An effective habitation capability is comprised of a pressurized volume, and an integrated array of complex habitation systems and components that include a docking capability, environmental control and life support systems, logistics management, radiation mitigation and monitoring, fire safety technologies, autonomy, and crew health capabilities. NASA's habitation development strategy is to test these systems and components on the ground and in LEO on ISS, then with the potential of incremental deployment as an integrated habitation capability for long-duration missions in cislunar space for validation before Mars-class mission transits. This paper will address this incremental and phased approach of NASA's deep-space habitat development strategy including the progression from Earth Reliant activities in LEO to advancing systems and operational capabilities in the Proving Ground of cislunar space and gradually transitioning toward Earth Independent missions. The near-term need for initial short-duration habitation beyond LEO will be explored including how this capability fulfills NASA's Human Exploration Objectives while leading to a validated system to conduct missions beyond the Earth-Moon system. Various implementation approaches will be discussed including potential commercial design concepts that are currently being investigated under the NextSTEP Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) including a summary of Phase 1 activities, a status on the progress of Phase 2 and forward work plans leading to the planned Phase 3. This paper will also address similar approaches and additions that are provided via international contributions as an integrated portion of the strategy for deep space habitation and the final acquisition approaches under consideration for Phase 3. The paper will conclude with a discussion of how each of the potential options and their element and program dependencies feed into decisions on implementation of habitation in deep space and commercial investment in LEO.
Abstract—We report the findings of a month-long online competition in which participants develope... more Abstract—We report the findings of a month-long online competition in which participants developed algorithms for augmenting the digital version of patent documents published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The goal was to detect figures and part labels in U.S. patent drawing pages. The challenge drew 232 teams of two, of which 70 teams (30%) submitted solutions. Collectively, teams submitted 1,797 solutions that were compiled on the competition servers. Participants reported spending an average of 63 hours developing their solutions, resulting in a total of 5,591 hours of development time. A manually labeled dataset of 306 patents was used for training, online system tests, and evaluation. The design and performance of the top-5 systems are presented, along with a system developed after the competition which illustrates that winning teams produced near state-of-the-art results under strict time and computation constraints. For the 1st place system, the har...
We report the findings of a month-long online competition in which participants developed algorit... more We report the findings of a month-long online competition in which participants developed algorithms for augmenting the digital version of patent documents published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The goal was to detect figures and part labels in U.S. patent drawing pages. The challenge drew 232 teams of two, of which 70 teams (30%) submitted solutions. Collectively, teams submitted 1,797 solutions that were compiled on the competition servers. Participants reported spending an average of 63 hours developing their solutions, resulting in a total of 5,591 hours of development time. A manually labeled dataset of 306 patents was used for training, online system tests, and evaluation. The design and performance of the top-5 systems are presented, along with a system developed after the competition which illustrates that winning teams produced near state-of-the-art results under strict time and computation constraints. For the 1st place system, the harmonic mea...
This paper contributes a systems engineering perspective to the discussion of where open innovati... more This paper contributes a systems engineering perspective to the discussion of where open innovation methods can (and could) work and can (and should) be used. It maps the existing experience-base of applying open methods to real-world problems, illustrating an apparent gap in applicability. The paper then explores the theoretical basis for expanding the use of open innovation methods. The discussion is structured around efficiency tradeoffs associated with (a) upfront system decomposition on the part of seekers, (b) the amenability of different kinds of problems to be solved by solvers with different levels of expertise, and (c) incentives for solvers to contribute solutions. These three dimensions of tradeoffs are then used to categorize existing innovation methods and frame the challenge of screening future systems problems for "openability.
The two mini-radio-frequency (mini-RF) radars flown in near-polar lunar orbits (on Chandrayaan-1 ... more The two mini-radio-frequency (mini-RF) radars flown in near-polar lunar orbits (on Chandrayaan-1 and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) were the first of their kind, hybrid-polarimetric. This new paradigm transmits circular polarization, and receives coherently on orthogonal linear polarizations. The resulting data support calculation of the 2 Â 2 covariance matrix of the backscattered field, from which follow the four Stokes parameters. These are the basis of science products from the observations, which include images that are traditional in radar astronomy, as well as polarimetric decompositions. The instruments all have mass less than 15 kg, antenna areas of about 1 m 2 , and modest power and spacecraft accommodation requirements. Data quality and instrument characteristics suggest that hybrid polarity is highly desirable for future exploratory radar missions in the Solar system.
Woodside led the development of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry in Australia, operating ... more Woodside led the development of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry in Australia, operating 6% of global supply in 2019. From the first LNG plant in the southern hemisphere, to the largest ‘not-normally crewed’ offshore platform, innovation is part of Woodside’s DNA. Woodside was the first Australian oil and gas company to start working with global space agencies on remote operations challenges. Through exchanging people, knowledge, experiences and ideas, the collective impact of individual responses to these challenges is enhanced. From a direct, collaborative partnership with the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Australian Space Agency, to cross-sector collaborations such as the Australian Remote Operations for Space and Earth, the company’s approach to innovation is to adopt an open way of problem solving that does not presume that all the answers are in one place, nor that all solutions have only one application. This paper reviews experie...
International Journal on Document Analysis and Recognition (IJDAR), 2016
We report the findings of a month-long online competition in which participants developed algorit... more We report the findings of a month-long online competition in which participants developed algorithms for augmenting the digital version of patent documents published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The goal was to detect figures and part labels in U.S. patent drawing pages. The challenge drew 232 teams of two, of which 70 teams (30%) submitted solutions. Collectively, teams submitted 1,797 solutions that were compiled on the competition servers. Participants reported spending an average of 63 hours developing their solutions, resulting in a total of 5,591 hours of development time. A manually labeled dataset of 306 patents was used for training, online system tests, and evaluation. The design and performance of the top-5 systems are presented, along with a system developed after the competition which illustrates that winning teams produced near state-of-the-art results under strict time and computation constraints. For the 1st place system, the harmonic mean of recall and precision (f-measure) was 88.57% for figure region detection, 78.81% for figure regions with correctly recognized figure titles, and 70.98% for part label detection and character recognition. Data and software from the competition are available through the online UCI Machine Learning repository to inspire follow-on work by the image processing community.
In an increasingly connected and networked world, the National Aeronautics and Space Administrati... more In an increasingly connected and networked world, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recognizes the value of the public as a strategic partner in addressing some of our most pressing challenges. The agency is working to more effectively harness the expertise, ingenuity, and creativity of individual members of the public by enabling, accelerating, and scaling the use of open innovation approaches including prizes, challenges, and crowdsourcing. As NASA's use of open innovation tools to solve a variety of types of problems and advance of number of outcomes continues to grow, challenge design is also becoming more sophisticated as our expertise and capacity (personnel, platforms, and partners) grows and develops. NASA has recently pivoted from talking about the benefits of challenge-driven approaches, to the outcomes these types of activities yield. Challenge design should be informed by desired outcomes that align with NASA's mission. This paper provides several case studies of NASA open innovation activities and maps the outcomes of those activities to a successful set of outcomes that challenges can help drive alongside traditional tools such as contracts, grants and partnerships.
The Miniature Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) system is manifested on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ... more The Miniature Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) system is manifested on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) as a technology demonstration and an extended mission science instrument. Mini-RF represents a significant step forward in spaceborne RF technology and architecture. It combines synthetic aperture radar (SAR) at two wavelengths (S-band and X-band) and two resolutions (150 m and 30 m) with interferometric and communications functionality in one lightweight (16 kg) package. Previous radar observations (Earth-based, and one bistatic data set from Clementine) of the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar poles seem to indicate areas of high circular polarization ratio (CPR) consistent with volume scattering from volatile deposits (e.g. water ice) buried at shallow (0.1-1 m) depth, but only at unfavorable viewing geometries, and with inconclusive results. The LRO Mini-RF utilizes new wideband hybrid polarization architecture to measure the Stokes parameters of the reflected signal. These data will help to differentiate "true" volumetric ice reflections from "false" returns due to angular surface regolith. Additional lunar science investigations (e.g. pyroclastic deposit characterization) will also be attempted during the LRO extended mission. LRO's lunar operations will be contemporaneous with India's Chandrayaan-1, which carries the Forerunner Mini-SAR (S-band wavelength and 150-m resolution), and bistatic radar (S-Band) measurements may be possible. On orbit calibration, procedures for LRO
... Mini-SAR: an imaging radar experiment for the Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon Paul Spudis 1... more ... Mini-SAR: an imaging radar experiment for the Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon Paul Spudis 1, *, Stewart Nozette 1 , Ben Bussey 2 , Keith Raney 2 , Helene Winters 2 , Christopher L. Lichtenberg 3 , William Marinelli 4 , Jason C. Crusan 4 and Michele M. Gates 4 ...
NASA is seeking to expand human presence into the solar system in a sustainable way. NASA's g... more NASA is seeking to expand human presence into the solar system in a sustainable way. NASA's goal is not just a destination to reach, but rather it is to develop the capacity for people to work, learn, operate, and live safely beyond the Earth for extended periods of time, ultimately in ways that are more sustainable and even indefinite. The deep space habitation capability is one of the key foundations of this strategy and for human space missions beyond low-Earth orbit (LEO), habitation capabilities represent a critical component of NASA's plans for Mars-class distances and duration missions. An effective habitation capability is comprised of a pressurized volume, and an integrated array of complex habitation systems and components that include a docking capability, environmental control and life support systems, logistics management, radiation mitigation and monitoring, fire safety technologies, autonomy, and crew health capabilities. NASA's habitation development strategy is to test these systems and components on the ground and in LEO on ISS, then with the potential of incremental deployment as an integrated habitation capability for long-duration missions in cislunar space for validation before Mars-class mission transits. This paper will address this incremental and phased approach of NASA's deep-space habitat development strategy including the progression from Earth Reliant activities in LEO to advancing systems and operational capabilities in the Proving Ground of cislunar space and gradually transitioning toward Earth Independent missions. The near-term need for initial short-duration habitation beyond LEO will be explored including how this capability fulfills NASA's Human Exploration Objectives while leading to a validated system to conduct missions beyond the Earth-Moon system. Various implementation approaches will be discussed including potential commercial design concepts that are currently being investigated under the NextSTEP Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) including a summary of Phase 1 activities, a status on the progress of Phase 2 and forward work plans leading to the planned Phase 3. This paper will also address similar approaches and additions that are provided via international contributions as an integrated portion of the strategy for deep space habitation and the final acquisition approaches under consideration for Phase 3. The paper will conclude with a discussion of how each of the potential options and their element and program dependencies feed into decisions on implementation of habitation in deep space and commercial investment in LEO.
Abstract—We report the findings of a month-long online competition in which participants develope... more Abstract—We report the findings of a month-long online competition in which participants developed algorithms for augmenting the digital version of patent documents published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The goal was to detect figures and part labels in U.S. patent drawing pages. The challenge drew 232 teams of two, of which 70 teams (30%) submitted solutions. Collectively, teams submitted 1,797 solutions that were compiled on the competition servers. Participants reported spending an average of 63 hours developing their solutions, resulting in a total of 5,591 hours of development time. A manually labeled dataset of 306 patents was used for training, online system tests, and evaluation. The design and performance of the top-5 systems are presented, along with a system developed after the competition which illustrates that winning teams produced near state-of-the-art results under strict time and computation constraints. For the 1st place system, the har...
We report the findings of a month-long online competition in which participants developed algorit... more We report the findings of a month-long online competition in which participants developed algorithms for augmenting the digital version of patent documents published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The goal was to detect figures and part labels in U.S. patent drawing pages. The challenge drew 232 teams of two, of which 70 teams (30%) submitted solutions. Collectively, teams submitted 1,797 solutions that were compiled on the competition servers. Participants reported spending an average of 63 hours developing their solutions, resulting in a total of 5,591 hours of development time. A manually labeled dataset of 306 patents was used for training, online system tests, and evaluation. The design and performance of the top-5 systems are presented, along with a system developed after the competition which illustrates that winning teams produced near state-of-the-art results under strict time and computation constraints. For the 1st place system, the harmonic mea...
This paper contributes a systems engineering perspective to the discussion of where open innovati... more This paper contributes a systems engineering perspective to the discussion of where open innovation methods can (and could) work and can (and should) be used. It maps the existing experience-base of applying open methods to real-world problems, illustrating an apparent gap in applicability. The paper then explores the theoretical basis for expanding the use of open innovation methods. The discussion is structured around efficiency tradeoffs associated with (a) upfront system decomposition on the part of seekers, (b) the amenability of different kinds of problems to be solved by solvers with different levels of expertise, and (c) incentives for solvers to contribute solutions. These three dimensions of tradeoffs are then used to categorize existing innovation methods and frame the challenge of screening future systems problems for "openability.
The two mini-radio-frequency (mini-RF) radars flown in near-polar lunar orbits (on Chandrayaan-1 ... more The two mini-radio-frequency (mini-RF) radars flown in near-polar lunar orbits (on Chandrayaan-1 and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) were the first of their kind, hybrid-polarimetric. This new paradigm transmits circular polarization, and receives coherently on orthogonal linear polarizations. The resulting data support calculation of the 2 Â 2 covariance matrix of the backscattered field, from which follow the four Stokes parameters. These are the basis of science products from the observations, which include images that are traditional in radar astronomy, as well as polarimetric decompositions. The instruments all have mass less than 15 kg, antenna areas of about 1 m 2 , and modest power and spacecraft accommodation requirements. Data quality and instrument characteristics suggest that hybrid polarity is highly desirable for future exploratory radar missions in the Solar system.
Woodside led the development of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry in Australia, operating ... more Woodside led the development of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry in Australia, operating 6% of global supply in 2019. From the first LNG plant in the southern hemisphere, to the largest ‘not-normally crewed’ offshore platform, innovation is part of Woodside’s DNA. Woodside was the first Australian oil and gas company to start working with global space agencies on remote operations challenges. Through exchanging people, knowledge, experiences and ideas, the collective impact of individual responses to these challenges is enhanced. From a direct, collaborative partnership with the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Australian Space Agency, to cross-sector collaborations such as the Australian Remote Operations for Space and Earth, the company’s approach to innovation is to adopt an open way of problem solving that does not presume that all the answers are in one place, nor that all solutions have only one application. This paper reviews experie...
International Journal on Document Analysis and Recognition (IJDAR), 2016
We report the findings of a month-long online competition in which participants developed algorit... more We report the findings of a month-long online competition in which participants developed algorithms for augmenting the digital version of patent documents published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The goal was to detect figures and part labels in U.S. patent drawing pages. The challenge drew 232 teams of two, of which 70 teams (30%) submitted solutions. Collectively, teams submitted 1,797 solutions that were compiled on the competition servers. Participants reported spending an average of 63 hours developing their solutions, resulting in a total of 5,591 hours of development time. A manually labeled dataset of 306 patents was used for training, online system tests, and evaluation. The design and performance of the top-5 systems are presented, along with a system developed after the competition which illustrates that winning teams produced near state-of-the-art results under strict time and computation constraints. For the 1st place system, the harmonic mean of recall and precision (f-measure) was 88.57% for figure region detection, 78.81% for figure regions with correctly recognized figure titles, and 70.98% for part label detection and character recognition. Data and software from the competition are available through the online UCI Machine Learning repository to inspire follow-on work by the image processing community.
In an increasingly connected and networked world, the National Aeronautics and Space Administrati... more In an increasingly connected and networked world, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recognizes the value of the public as a strategic partner in addressing some of our most pressing challenges. The agency is working to more effectively harness the expertise, ingenuity, and creativity of individual members of the public by enabling, accelerating, and scaling the use of open innovation approaches including prizes, challenges, and crowdsourcing. As NASA's use of open innovation tools to solve a variety of types of problems and advance of number of outcomes continues to grow, challenge design is also becoming more sophisticated as our expertise and capacity (personnel, platforms, and partners) grows and develops. NASA has recently pivoted from talking about the benefits of challenge-driven approaches, to the outcomes these types of activities yield. Challenge design should be informed by desired outcomes that align with NASA's mission. This paper provides several case studies of NASA open innovation activities and maps the outcomes of those activities to a successful set of outcomes that challenges can help drive alongside traditional tools such as contracts, grants and partnerships.
The Miniature Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) system is manifested on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ... more The Miniature Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) system is manifested on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) as a technology demonstration and an extended mission science instrument. Mini-RF represents a significant step forward in spaceborne RF technology and architecture. It combines synthetic aperture radar (SAR) at two wavelengths (S-band and X-band) and two resolutions (150 m and 30 m) with interferometric and communications functionality in one lightweight (16 kg) package. Previous radar observations (Earth-based, and one bistatic data set from Clementine) of the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar poles seem to indicate areas of high circular polarization ratio (CPR) consistent with volume scattering from volatile deposits (e.g. water ice) buried at shallow (0.1-1 m) depth, but only at unfavorable viewing geometries, and with inconclusive results. The LRO Mini-RF utilizes new wideband hybrid polarization architecture to measure the Stokes parameters of the reflected signal. These data will help to differentiate "true" volumetric ice reflections from "false" returns due to angular surface regolith. Additional lunar science investigations (e.g. pyroclastic deposit characterization) will also be attempted during the LRO extended mission. LRO's lunar operations will be contemporaneous with India's Chandrayaan-1, which carries the Forerunner Mini-SAR (S-band wavelength and 150-m resolution), and bistatic radar (S-Band) measurements may be possible. On orbit calibration, procedures for LRO
... Mini-SAR: an imaging radar experiment for the Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon Paul Spudis 1... more ... Mini-SAR: an imaging radar experiment for the Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon Paul Spudis 1, *, Stewart Nozette 1 , Ben Bussey 2 , Keith Raney 2 , Helene Winters 2 , Christopher L. Lichtenberg 3 , William Marinelli 4 , Jason C. Crusan 4 and Michele M. Gates 4 ...
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