Editor's Note: The following is one of three related articles on NASA's data acquisition system and related work. Please visit Stennis News -NASA Visit the accompanying article.

Just as a steady heartbeat is crucial to keeping life alive, advancing test data is essential to ensuring engine and system performance.

The accuracy of the data generated during the Heat Test at NASA's Stennis Space Center near St. Louis, Mississippi tells the performance story.

So, when NASA needed a standardized approach to collecting Heat data across test facilities, the field team created an adaptive software tool to do this.

“The NASA Data Acquisition System (NDAS) developed by NASA Stennis is a forward-looking solution,” said David Carver, acting director of the Office of Test Data and Information Management. “It conducts unified NASA’s rocket propulsion tests under an adaptive software suite to meet the needs of NASA’s internal and potential future expansion beyond the reach.”

Prior to the NDA, contractors conducting test projects used a variety of proprietary tools to collect performance data, which made cross-cooperation difficult. NDA adopts a cookie-cutter approach that provides NASA with its own system to ensure consistency.

"In the past, testing teams had to develop their own software tools, but now they can focus on advancing testing, while the NDAS teams focus on developing software that collects data," Carver said.

Since the software system is designed to use any test hardware, a more efficient workflow has been followed. It allows engineers to work seamlessly between test areas, and even with upgrades, the hardware changes to support Heat requirements for agents and commercial customers.

With the support and resources of the NASA Rocket Propulsion Testing (RPT) Program Office, a hybrid team of NASA personnel and contractors began developing the NDA in 2011 as part of the agency’s recovery of NASA Stennis testing operations. Business entities have conducted decades of action on behalf of NASA on behalf of NASA.

The NASA Stennis team wrote NDAS software code that has modular components that work independently and can be updated to meet the needs of each test facility. The team used LabView, a graphics platform that allows developers to build software visually, rather than using traditional text-based code.

"These are good decisions for the original team towards the future," said NASA project manager Joe Lacher. "Labview is a new language that is now taught in universities and widely used in the industry. Making the program modularizes it to adapt."

During the propulsion test, the NDAS system captured high-speed and low-speed sensor data. The raw sensor data will be converted into units of real-time monitoring and post-test analysis.

During non-test operations, the system monitors the facility and test article system to help ensure the overall health and safety of facilities and personnel.

"Having quality software for instruments and data logging systems is crucial, and in recent years, it has become increasingly important," said Tristan Mooney, an instrument engineer at NASA. "Long ago, the system used less software, or even no, at all. The amplifier was configured with physical knobs and recorded data on tape or paper maps. Today, we use computers to configure, display and store data for almost everything."

The developers demonstrated a new system on the A-2 test rack for the J-2X engine test project in 2014.

From there, the team launched it on the Fred Haise test bench (formerly the A-1), which has been used in RS-25 engine testing since 2015. A year later, a year later, the team used NDAS (formerly B-2) on the Thad Cochran test bench (formerly B-2) to support future Artemis Missions green running tests for SLS (Space Launch System).

One of the project goals of the system is to provide common user experiences to drive consistency across test complexes and centers.

Kris Mobbs, current NDAS project manager at NASA, said the system was “very bright” during core phase testing. "We did 24-hour shifts, so we had people running green from the people in the test," Mobbs said. "When different transitions start working, there is no need for big transitions. Troubleshooting with the software, getting views and seeing measurements is very common activity, so there isn't a lot of time for each team to support that test."

After success at larger test booths, the team started using NDA in the E-test complex in 2017, first on the E-2 test stand and then on the E-1 and E-3, and on the E-1 and E-3 in 2020.

Rachel recalled that the project's growth was "a bit overwhelming". The team maintained support tests for the software on an active standpoint, while continuing to develop software for other areas and many of its unique requirements.

Each change request must be tracked, implemented into code, tested in the lab, then deployed and verified on the test rack.

"This convergence of requirements tests my understanding of each position and its uniqueness," Lacher said. "I have to understand the needs to meet it, work hard, and then have to make a decision on the priorities of the team's work first."

The creation of the data system and its ongoing updates have transformed into a growth opportunity for a joint effort between the NASA Stennis team.

"From a mechanical test operation perspective, NDA is a very easy-to-learn system," said Derek Zacher, NASA test operations engineer. "Developers are responding to the team's ideas for improvement, and our experience consistently improves with changes, allowing us to view our data in new ways."

Originally designed to support NASA Stennis’ RPT office, the software is expanding to other testing centers in southern Mississippi, attracting interest in a variety of NASA programs and projects and attracting the attention of government agencies that require reliable and scalable data acquisition. "It can be adopted almost anywhere, such as aerospace and defense, R&D agencies and more where data acquisition systems are needed," MOBBS said. "It's an evolving solution."