Human space travel is inherently dangerous. Hazardous conditions will exist. Real time health monitoring of critical subsystems is essential for providing a safe abort timeline in the event of a catastrophic subsystem failure. In this paper, we discuss a practical and cost effective process for developing critical subsystem failure detection, diagnosis and response (FDDR). We also present the results of a real time health monitoring simulation of a propellant ullage pressurization subsystem failure. The health monitoring development process identifies hazards, isolates hazard causes, defines software partitioning requirements and quantifies software algorithm development. The process provides a means to establish the number and placement of sensors necessary to provide real time health monitoring. We discuss how health monitoring software tracks subsystem control commands, interprets off-nominal operational sensor data, predicts failure propagation timelines, corroborate failures predictions and formats failure protocol.

Date Published: 3 May 2007
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 6555, Sensors and Systems for Space Applications, 65550R (3 May 2007); doi: 10.1117/12.718703

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6555:
Sensors and Systems for Space Applications
Richard T. Howard; Robert D. Richards, Editor(s)