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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 181 records · Page 10

Silicone Contamination Camera for Developed for Shuttle Payloads

On many shuttle missions, silicone contamination from unknown sources from within or external to the shuttle payload bay has been a chronic problem plaguing experiment payloads. There is currently a wide range of silicone usage on the shuttle. Silicones are used to coat the shuttle tiles to enhance their ability to shed rain, and over 100 kg of RTV 560 silicone is used to seal white tiles to the shuttle surfaces. Silicones are also used in electronic components, potting compounds, and thermal control blankets. Efforts to date to identify and eliminate the sources of silicone contamination have not been highly successful and have created much controversy. To identify the sources of silicone contamination on the space shuttle, the NASA Lewis Research Center developed a contamination camera. This specially designed pinhole camera utilizes low-Earth-orbit atomic oxygen to develop a picture that identifies sources of silicone contamination on shuttle-launched payloads. The volatile silicone species travel through the aperture of the pinhole camera, and since volatile silicone species lose their hydrocarbon functionalities under atomic oxygen attack, the silicone adheres to the substrate as SiO_x. This glassy deposit should be spatially arranged in the image of the sources of silicone contamination. To view the contamination image, one can use ultrasensitive thickness measurement techniques, such as scanning variable-angle ellipsometry, to map the surface topography of the camera's substrate. The demonstration of a functional contamination camera would resolve the controversial debate concerning the amount and location of contamination sources, would allow corrective actions to be taken, and would demonstrate a useful tool for contamination documentation on future shuttle payloads, with near negligible effect on cost and weight.

Source record↗

Payload crew interface design criteria and techniques. Task 1: Inflight operations and training for payloads

Guidelines are developed for use in control and display panel design for payload operations performed on the aft flight deck of the orbiter. Preliminary payload procedures are defined. Crew operational concepts are developed. Payloads selected for operational simulations were the shuttle UV optical telescope (SUOT), the deep sky UV survey telescope (DUST), and the shuttle UV stellar spectrograph (SUSS). The advanced technology laboratory payload consisting of 11 experiments was selected for a detailed evaluation because of the availability of operational data and its operational complexity.

Carmean, W. D.↗

Use of Model Payload for Europa Mission Development

This paper discusses the basis for the Model Payload and how it was used to develop the mission design, observation and data acquisition strategy, needed spacecraft capabilities, spacecraft-payload interface needs, mission system requirements and operational scenarios.

Lewis, Kari↗

The development of STS payload environmental engineering standards

The presently reported effort to provide a single set of standards for the design, analysis and testing of Space Transportation System (STS) payloads throughout the NASA organization must be viewed as essentially experimental, since the concept of incorporating the diverse opinions and experiences of several separate field research centers may in retrospect be judged too ambitious or perhaps even naive. While each STS payload may have unique characteristics, and the project should formulate its own criteria for environmental design, testing and evaluation, a reference source document providing coordinated standards is expected to minimize the duplication of effort and limit random divergence of practices among the various NASA payload programs. These standards would provide useful information to all potential STS users, and offer a degree of standardization to STS users outside the NASA organization.

Bangs, W. F.↗

System concept for the pinhole/occulter facility payload

The results of a study of the systems concept of the Pinhole/Occulter Facility (PDF) to fly on the Shuttle as a Spacelab payload are reported. In particular, attention is given to the POF configuration and structural/mechanical concepts; POF payload structural concept development; POF payload new baseline configuration; POF pointing requirements and the Spacelab Instrument Pointing System capabilities and limitations; and pointing control implementation approach. The discussion also covers POF command and data management system configuration; POF processor software assessment; and thermal design concept.

Srinivas, R.↗

Use of a Magnetic Azimuth-Indicator System Developed for Balloon Payloads of the Planetary Entry Parachute Program

An azimuth-sensing system was used for continuous ground monitoring of the azimuth orientation of the balloon-borne Planetary Entry Parachute Program (PEPP) spacecraft. The system utilized two magnetic field sensors located in the spacecraft so as to produce a unique set of voltage outputs for any azimuth. Electronics onboard the spacecraft encoded the magnetometer outputs and fed the encoded signal to a C-band modulator which imposed the intelligence onto the radar tracking beacon pulses. A conveniently located ground radar received the modulated pulses and the magnetometer outputs were reproduced after demodulation. For fast, direct readout, an X-Y plotter was calibrated to cross plot the reproduced signal of the two magnetometers on a combination rectangular-polar graph indicating the correct true azimuth in real time. The method was used successfully on three of the PEPP balloon-borne spacecraft to determine when the spacecraft was pointed in the most advantageous direction for release from the balloon, at 130,000 ft altitude. The use of such a system of azimuth monitoring is suitable to balloon payloads which are virtually stable with respect to the horizontal but may be rotating about the vertical axis. Angular accuracies within plus or minus 10 deg. could generally be expected.

Darnell, Wayne L.↗

GeoSTAR : developing a new payload for GOES satellites

The Geostationary Synthetic Thinned Aperture Radiometer (GeoSTAR) is a new concept for a microwave sounder, intended to be deployed on NOAA's next generation of geostationary weather satellites, the GOES-R series - due to first launch in 2012. This will fill a serious gap in OW remote sensing capabilities of long standing - a key capability that NOAA is book keeping at the top of its list of 'pre-planned product improvements' for GOES-R - i.e. the most urgently needed additional payload, which will be added as soon as funding has been allocated and programmatic issues resolved. Although real-aperture GEO microwave sounders have been proposed over the years, only GeoSTAR is capable of meeting the measurement requirements and is therefore now the leading candidate.

microwave↗

The Development of Small-Payload Rideshare Capabilities: A 2000-2008 Summary

This paper summarizes the development from 200 to the present of rideshare capabilities by various Government agencies and Organizations. This development will allow acceptable, low cost access to space for small satellites and payloads. The paper reviews the needs for such capabilities and provides an overview of the development and status of the enabling technologies, hardware, etc. required to achieve the desired capability. It reviews the development and status of each principal element necessary in developing an acceptable, low cost, access to space capability for small satellites and payloads.

secondary payloads↗

Commercial investigation results for the generic bioprocessing apparatus flown on United States Microgravity Laboratory-1

The Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (BPA) payload was developed by BioServe to support the commercial flight development needs of our specialized consortia comprised of business, academic, and government entities. The consortia have commitments to explore commercial opportunities in bioprocessing, biomedical models, and closed agricultural systems. In addition, some members of BioServe have interests in the development and/or qualification of enabling flight hardware used in life sciences space flight testing. Some business and academic entities have interests in more than one of these consortia. To aid in payload development, flight, and analysis, each consortium member contributes resources ranging from proprietary expertise and materials, to hardware and cash. Professionals from business, academia, and government often interact with each other via graduate research assistants who do much of the 'hands-on' payload preparation and subsequent data analyses. The GBA supported research, testing, and development activities for each different BioServe consortium. It produced an environment in which professionals from diverse backgrounds came together with a single focus. And, it provided a truly novel learning environment for a youthful new cadre of space professionals committed to the exploration of commercial opportunities presented by space. Since the GBA supported a large number of different experiments, this paper briefly describes the payload characteristics and the essential operations of the payload. A summary of the experiments is presented. Finally, a few of the experiments are described in detail highlighting some novel effects of space flight on life science systems. Portions of the reported work have or will appear in appropriate archival journals as cited in the bibliography. In several instances, data collected from USML-1 have been supplemented with related data collected on more recent STS missions.

Stodieck, Louis S.↗

Flow Boiling in Microgap Coolers - Suborbital Flight Results

Flow Boiling in Microgap Coolers (FBMC) is a thermal management technique that provides embedded, on-site heat removal for power dense electronic components and systems. The dielectric coolant undergoes liquid-to-vapor phase change as it passes through channels integrated within or between devices. By facilitating direct contact between the coolant and heat-generating devices and relying on phase change, the system provides tight temperature control, hot spot mitigation, very high heat transfer coefficients, and low pumping power. Ground tests demonstrated removal of high heat fluxes (up to 500 kW/m2), very high coefficients of performance (up to 40 W of heat transferred per W of pumping power), and consistent performance across five evaporator orientations under the appropriate conditions. As a follow-on study and to better assess the role of gravity on such two-phase systems, the FBMC payload was developed and flown twice aboard the Blue Origin New Shepard space vehicle in January and May 2019. Each flight exposed the payload to weightlessness (150 seconds below 0.01 g) and shorter periods of high-g during ascent (up to 3 g) and descent (up to 5 g). The flow boiling performance was consistent independent of the acceleration levels, which provides confidence that such systems will provide consistent performance when tested on the ground, orbiting or traveling through weightlessness, and operating on the surface of the Moon, Mars, and other planetary bodies. Details of the flight results, payload development, flight environment, and planned future testing will be presented.

Flow boiling↗

LSMS–L35, Miniature Crane for Payload Offloading and Manipulation: Development, and Application

The Lightweight Surface Manipulation System (LSMS) is a robotic agent for autonomous surface construction activities on planetary surfaces, that was designed at NASA Langley Research Center and has over a decade of research and development. The LSMS is a key component to achieving many goals of the NASA Artemis program. The LSMS is lightweight, structurally efficient system that can be easily packaged for launch and deployment on-surface, capable of a suite of surface activities enabled by modular end-effectors at the wrist. The focus of recent development work has been on using the LSMS for payload offloading and handling from lunar landers. Discussed in the paper is the development of the LSMS-L35 hardware (35 kg wrist lifting capacity on the lunar surface), designed to integrate with a Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) lander to offload payloads to the surface. The LSMS-L35 hardware development is part of a larger effort to enable autonomous payload handling and manipulation.

Iok M. Wong↗

Prediction of force and acceleration control spectra for Space Shuttle orbiter sidewall-mounted payloads

The development of force and acceleration control spectra for vibration testing of Space Shuttle (STS) orbiter sidewall-mounted payloads requiresreliable estimates of the sidewall apparent weight and free (i.e. unloaded) vibration during lift-off. The feasibility of analytically predicting these quantities has been investigated through the development and analysis of a finite element model of the STS cargo bay. Analytical predictions of the sidewall apparent weight were compared with apparent weight measurements made on OV-101, and analytical predictions of the sidewall free vibration response during lift-off were compared with flight measurements obtained from STS-3 and STS-4. These analysis suggest that the cargo bay finite element model has potential application for the estimation of force and acceleration control spectra for STS sidewall-mounted payloads.

Hipol, Philip J.↗

The attached payload facility: A technology development facility for International Space Station

An alliance between three constructors was created in order to supply the International Space Station with commercial attached payload services to NASA, other governmental agencies, and commercial customers. This alliance will develop, own, and operate a family of experiment carriers and will provide complete experiment analytical and physical integration for use in the Shuttle payload bay, SPACEHAB module rooftop, and the International Space Station.

Overmyer, Carolyn↗

Payload test philosophy

The implications of STS development for payload testing at the Goddard Space Flight Center are reviewed. The biggest impact of STS may be that instead of testing the entire payload, most of the testing may have to be limited to the subsystem or subassembly level. Particular consideration is given to the Goddard protoflight concept in which the test is geared to the design qualification levels, the test durations being those that are expected during the actual launch sequence.

Arman, A.↗