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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
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1998

Improving Customer Satisfaction in an R and D Environment

Satisfying customer needs is critical to the sustained competitive advantage of service suppliers. It is therefore important to understand the types of customer needs which, if fulfilled or exceeded, add value and contribute to overall customer satisfaction. This study identifies the needs of various research and development (R&D) customers who contract for engineering and design support services. The Quality Function Deployment (QFD) process was used to organize and translate each customer need into performance measures that, if implemented, can improve customer satisfaction. This study also provides specific performance measures that will more accurately guide the efforts of the engineering supplier. These organizations can either implement the QFD methodology presented herein or extract a few performance measures that are specific to the quality dimensions in need of improvement. Listening to 'what' customers talk about is a good first start.

Alexander, Anita↗
NASA NTRS2005

Data and Information Exchange System for the "Reindeer Mapper" Project

During this past year, the Reindeer Mapper Intranet system has been set up on the NASA system, 8 team members have been established, a Reindeer Mapper reference list containing 696 items has been entered, 6 power point presentations have been put on line for review among team members, 304 satellite images have been catalogued (including 16 Landsat images, 288 NDVI 10-day composited images and an anomaly series- May 1998 to December 2002, and 56 SAR CEOS S A R format files), schedules and meeting dates are being shared, students at the Nordic Sami Institute are experimenting with the system for reindeer herder indigenous knowledge sharing, and an "address book" is being developed. Several documents and presentations have been translated and made available in Russian for our Russian colleagues. This has enabled our Russian partners to utilize documents and presentations for use in their research (e.g., SAR imagery comparisons with Russian GIS of specific study areas) and discussion with local colleagues.

Maynard, Nancy↗
NASA NTRS2008

Fiber-Optic Determination of N2, O2, and Fuel Vapor in the Ullage of Liquid-Fuel Tanks

A fiber-optic sensor system has been developed that can remotely measure the concentration of molecular oxygen (O2), nitrogen (N2), hydrocarbon vapor, and other gases (CO2, CO, H2O, chlorofluorocarbons, etc.) in the ullage of a liquid-fuel tank. The system provides an accurate and quantitative identification of the above gases with an accuracy of better than 1 percent by volume (for O2 or N2) in real-time (5 seconds). In an effort to prevent aircraft fuel tank fires or explosions similar to the tragic TWA Flight 800 explosion in 1996, OBIGGS are currently being developed for large commercial aircraft to prevent dangerous conditions from forming inside fuel tanks by providing an inerting gas blanket that is low in oxygen, thus preventing the ignition of the fuel/air mixture in the ullage. OBIGGS have been used in military aircraft for many years and are now standard equipment on some newer large commercial aircraft (such as the Boeing 787). Currently, OBIGGS are being developed for retrofitting to existing commercial aircraft fleets in response to pending mandates from the FAA. Most OBIGGS use an air separation module (ASM) that separates O2 from N2 to make nitrogen-enriched air from compressed air flow diverted from the engine (bleed air). Current OBIGGS systems do not have a closed-loop feedback control, in part, due to the lack of suitable process sensors that can reliably measure N2 or O2 and at the same time, do not constitute an inherent source of ignition. Thus, current OBIGGS operate with a high factor-of-safety dictated by process protocol to ensure adequate fuel-tank inerting. This approach is inherently inefficient as it consumes more engine bleed air than is necessary compared to a closed-loop controlled approach. The reduction of bleed air usage is important as it reduces fuel consumption, which translates to both increased flight range and lower operational costs. Numerous approaches to developing OBIGGS feedback-control sensors have been under development by many research groups and companies. However, the direct measurement of nitrogen (N2) is a challenge to most OBIGGS ullage sensors (such as tunable diode laser absorption) as they cannot measure N2 directly but depend on the measurement of oxygen (O2). The problem with a singular measure of O2, is that as the concentration (number density) of O2 decreases due to the inerting process or due to lower pressures from high altitudes, the precision and accuracy of the O2 measurement decreases. However, measuring O2 density in combination with N2 density (which is more abundant in air and in a N2-inerted fuel tank) can provide a much more accurate and reliable determination of the OBIGGS efficacy.

Nguyen, Quang-Viet↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Marshall 100-Meter X-ray Beamline

The Marshall 100-Meter X-ray Beamline is a user facility for x-ray and EUV optics and instrumentation calibration, located at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Also known as the Stray Light Test Facility, the Marshall-100 provides a range of focal plane detectors, x-ray sources, translation stages, cleanrooms, and high-vacuum level capability to the high-energy astrophysics community. Facility time is made available to Astronomy and Physics Research and Analysis (APRA) funded projects and is also available to the broader community upon request made to beamline management. The beamline has successfully been employed in the calibration of larger scope projects such as the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma Astronomical Roentgen Telescope X-ray Concentrator (ART-XC) telescope and the Small Explorer (SMEX) class Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) Space Telescope. Additionally, the Marshall-100 is instrumental in supporting testing related to MSFC’s high-angular resolution optics development program.

X-ray Beamline, Test Facility, X-ray Calibration↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Inception of a Spaceflight-specific Mouse to Human Expression Profiling Translation Model

Rodents are foundational model organisms often utilized due to their seemingly analogous morphologies and biological responses to humans. However, recent studies have demonstrated that murine model data are limited in their applicability, particularly in inflammatory disease. In space studies, accurately predicting human response from mouse data is critical due to extreme limiting factors in both rodent and human spaceflight research. With successful prediction, spaceflight ailments can be predicted and prevented while respecting the constraints of the spaceflight industry and minimizing danger to humans. To do so, novel methodologies must be developed that predict human response from murine data after considering biological differences between rodents and humans in spaceflight. After considering terrestrial models, we determined that a spaceflight-based expression profiting translation tool should be created to accurately capture predictions of human gene expression in spaceflight from mouse data. To prepare to build this model, we organized known human spaceflight risks, chose analog human diseases as training data categories, then identified existing RNASeq disease datasets from GEO as potential training data. In addition, we classified existing Genelab mouse differential gene expression datasets for use as experimental data.

Translation↗
NASA NTRS2000

Primate translational vestibuloocular reflexes. III. Effects of bilateral labyrinthine electrical stimulation

The effects of functional, reversible ablation and potential recruitment of the most irregular otolith afferents on the dynamics and sensitivity of the translational vestibuloocular reflexes (trVORs) were investigated in rhesus monkeys trained to fixate near and far targets. Translational motion stimuli consisted of either steady-state lateral and fore-aft sinusoidal oscillations or short-lasting transient lateral head displacements. Short-duration (usually <2 s) anodal (inhibitory) and cathodal (excitatory) currents (50-100 microA) were delivered bilaterally during motion. In the presence of anodal labyrinthine stimulation, trVOR sensitivity and its dependence on viewing distance were significantly decreased. In addition, anodal currents significantly increased phase lags. During transient motion, anodal stimulation resulted in significantly lower initial eye acceleration and more sluggish responses. Cathodal currents tended to have opposite effects. The main characteristics of these results were simulated by a simple model where both regularly and irregularly discharging afferents contribute to the trVORs. Anodal labyrinthine currents also were found to decrease eye velocity during long-duration, constant velocity rotations, although results were generally more variable compared with those during translational motion.

NASA Program Biomedical Research and Countermeasur↗
NASA NTRS2000

New Web Server - the Java Version of Tempest - Produced

A new software design and development effort has produced a Java (Sun Microsystems, Inc.) version of the award-winning Tempest software (refs. 1 and 2). In 1999, the Embedded Web Technology (EWT) team received a prestigious R&D 100 Award for Tempest, Java Version. In this article, "Tempest" will refer to the Java version of Tempest, a World Wide Web server for desktop or embedded systems. Tempest was designed at the NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field to run on any platform for which a Java Virtual Machine (JVM, Sun Microsystems, Inc.) exists. The JVM acts as a translator between the native code of the platform and the byte code of Tempest, which is compiled in Java. These byte code files are Java executables with a ".class" extension. Multiple byte code files can be zipped together as a "*.jar" file for more efficient transmission over the Internet. Today's popular browsers, such as Netscape (Netscape Communications Corporation) and Internet Explorer (Microsoft Corporation) have built-in Virtual Machines to display Java applets.

York, David W.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA Plans for In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Development, Demonstration, and Implementation

The United States (US) National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Artemis Moon to Mars program has four major goals: (1) Returning Americans to the Moon: 1st Woman & 1st Person of Color, (2) Learning to live and work on the Moon, (3) Translating lessons learned so that the United States has capabilities and operational experience for a mission to Mars, and (4) Inspires the next generation of explorers, researchers, scientists, and engineers worldwide. Overarching all of this, the NASA Artemis program also continues to follow Space Policy Directive One (SPD-1) which directs the US to lead an innovative and sustainable exploration program with commercial and international partners. A major objective to achieve the Artemis program goals and SPD-1 is to understand and characterize the resources that exist at these destinations, and to learn how to utilize these resources for sustained human exploration and the commercialization of space. This ability, commonly known as In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), involves any hardware or operation that harnesses and utilizes local resources to create products and services for robotic and human explo-ration. The NASA ISRU program is focused on the production of mission consumables and com-modities to enable sustained human exploration, such as rocket propellants, life support consuma-bles, fuel cell reactants, feedstock for manufacturing and construction, and nutrients for food and plant growth. In particular, propellants make up a significant fraction of the mass launched from Earth, are critical to mission success, and can reduce the cost for reusable transportation. Important for enabling long term surface stays, greater independence from Earth, and growing lunar infra-structure are the abilities to perform construction and manufacturing from in situ-derived metals and materials to create and expand on the infrastructure and reduce the logistical resupply needed for sustained surface and space operations. To achieve these ISRU capabilities, NASA, in partner-ship with industry, academia, and international partners has initiated a multi-faceted program which involves (i) Determining Customer Needs (Type and Quantity of Commodities), (ii) supporting ground Development of Hardware and Systems until Ready for Lunar Flight, (iii) utilize Commer-cial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) flights to fly resource assessment missions with the Science Mission Directorate (SMD), and public-private partnership (PPP) ISRU demonstrations of critical technologies and processes, and (iv) performing commercial-led end-to-end ‘Pilot’ Plant production of commodities and demonstration of usage at a scale and duration that minimizes or eliminates risk for full implementation of ISRU-derived commodities in mission critical applications. This paper will discuss the technologies, mission studies, and accomplishments achieved to date for the ISRU multi-faceted program, and plans for continued ground development and flight missions to reduce the risk of full ISRU implementation.

In situ resource utilization↗
NASA NTRS2017

Dissociation and Internal Excitation of Molecular Nitrogen Due to N + N2 Collisions Using Direct Molecular Simulation

In this work we present a molecular level study of N2+N collisions, focusing on excitation of internal energy modes and non-equilibrium dissociation. The computation technique used here is the direct molecular simulation (DMS) method and the molecular interactions have been modeled using an ab−initio potential energy surface (PES) developed at NASA's Ames Research Center. We carried out vibrational excitation calculations between 5000K and 30000K and found that the characteristic vibrational excitation time for the N + N2 process was an order of magnitude lower than that predicted by the Millikan and White correlation. It is observed that during vibrational excitation the high energy tail of the vibrational energy distribution gets over populated first and the lower energy levels get populated as the system evolves. It is found that the non-equilibrium dissociation rate coefficients for the N + N2 process are larger than those for the N2 + N2 process. This is attributed to the non-equilibrium vibrational energy distributions for the N + N2 process being less depleted than that for the N2 +N2 process. For an isothermal simulation we find that the probability of dissociation goes as 1/T(sub tr) for molecules with internal energy (epsilon(sub int)) less than approximately 9.9eV, while for molecules with epsilon (sub int) greater than 9.9eV the dissociation probability was weakly dependent on translational temperature of the system. We compared non-equilibrium dissociation rate coefficients and characteristic vibrational excitation times obtained by using the ab-initio PES developed at NASA's Ames Research Center to those obtained by using an ab-initio PES developed at the University of Minnesota. Good agreement was found between the macroscopic properties and molecular level description of the system obtained by using the two PESs.

Grover, Maninder S.↗
NASA NTRS1995

V/STOL systems research aircraft: A tool for cockpit integration

The next generation ASTOVL aircraft will have a complicated propulsion system. The configuration choices include Direct Lift, Lift-Fan and Lift + Lift/Cruise but the aircraft must also have supersonic performance and low-observable characteristics. The propulsion system may have features such as flow blockers, vectoring nozzles and flow transfer schemes. The flight control system will necessarily fully integrate the aerodynamic surfaces and the propulsive elements. With a fully integrated, fly-by-wire flight/propulsion control system, the options for cockpit integration are interesting and varied. It is possible to de-couple longitudinal and vertical responses allowing the pilot to close the loop on flightpath and flightpath acceleration directly. In the hover, the pilot can control the translational rate directly without having to stabilize the inner rate and attitude loops. The benefit of this approach, reduced workload and increased precision, has previously been demonstrated through several motion-based simulations. In order to prove the results in flight, the V/STOL System Research Aircraft (VSRA) was developed at the NASA Ames Research Center. The VSRA is the YAV-8B Prototype modified with a research flight control system using a series-parallel servo configuration in all the longitudinal degrees of freedom (including thrust and thrust vector angle) to provide an integrated flight and propulsion control system in a limited envelope. Development of the system has been completed and flight evaluations of the response types have been performed. In this paper we will discuss the development of the VSRA, the evolution of the flightpath command and translational rate command response types and the Guest Pilot evaluations of the system. Pilot evaluation results are used to draw conclusions regarding the suitability of the system to satisfy V/STOL requirements.

Stortz, Michael W.↗
NASA NTRS1995

V/STOL Systems Research Aircraft: A Tool for Cockpit Integration

The next generation ASTOVL aircraft will have a complicated propulsion System. The configuration choices include Direct Lift, Lift-Fan and Lift+Lift /Cruise but the aircraft must also have supersonic performance and low-observable characteristics. The propulsion system may have features such as flow blockers, vectoring nozzles and flow transfer schemes. The flight control system will necessarily fully integrate the aerodynamic surfaces and the propulsive elements. With a fully integrated, fly-by-wire flight/propulsion control system, the options for cockpit integration are interesting and varied. It is possible to decouple longitudinal and vertical responses allowing the pilot to close the loop on flight path and flight path acceleration directly. In the hover, the pilot can control the translational rate directly without having to stabilize the inner rate and attitude loops. The benefit of this approach, reduced workload and increased precision. has previously been demonstrated through several motion-based simulations. In order to prove the results in flight, the V/STOL System Research Aircraft (VSRA) was developed at the NASA Ames Research Center. The VSRA is the YAV-8B Prototype modified with a research flight control system using a series-parallel servo configuration in all the longitudinal degrees of freedom (including thrust and thrust vector angle) to provide an integrated flight and propulsion control system in a limited envelope. Development of the system has been completed and flight evaluations of the response types have been performed. In this paper we will discuss the development of the VSRA, the evolution of the flight path command and translational rate command response types and the Guest Pilot evaluations of the system. Pilot evaluation results will be used to draw conclusions regarding the suitability of the system to satisfy V/STOL requirements.

Stortz, Michael W.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Flow quality studies of the NASA Lewis Research Center Icing Research Tunnel

A series of studies have been conducted to determine the flow quality in the NASA Lewis Icing Research Tunnel. The primary purpose of these studies was to document airflow characteristics, including flow angularity, in the test section and tunnel loop. A vertically mounted rake was used to survey total and static pressure and two components of flow angle at three axial stations within the test section (test section inlet, test plane, and test section exit; 15 survey stations total). This information will be used to develop methods of improving the aerodynamic and icing characteristics within the test section. The data from surveys made in the tunnel loop were used to determine areas where overall tunnel flow quality and efficiency can be improved. A separate report documents similar flow quality surveys conducted in the diffuser section of the Icing Research Tunnel. The flow quality studies were conducted at several locations around the tunnel loop. Pressure, velocity, and flow angularity measurements were made by using both fixed and translating probes. Although surveys were made throughout the tunnel loop, emphasis was placed on the test section and tunnel areas directly upstream of the test section (settling chamber, bellmouth, and cooler). Flow visualization, by video recording smoke and tuft patterns, was also used during these studies. A great deal of flow visualization work was conducted in the area of the drive fan. Information gathered there will be used to improve the flow quality upstream and downstream of the fan.

Arrington, E. Allen↗
NASA NTRS2006

Incorporating Research Findings into Standards and Requirements for Space Medicine

The Vision for Exploration has been the catalyst for NASA to refocus its life sciences research. In the future, life sciences research funded by NASA will be focused on answering questions that directly impact setting physiological standards and developing effective countermeasures to the undesirable physiological and psychological effects of spaceflight for maintaining the health of the human system. This, in turn, will contribute to the success of exploration class missions. We will show how research will impact setting physiologic standards, such as exposure limits, outcome limits, and accepted performance ranges. We will give examples of how a physiologic standard can eventually be translated into an operational requirement, then a functional requirement, and eventually spaceflight hardware or procedures. This knowledge will be important to the space medicine community as well as to vehicle contractors who, for the first time, must now consider the human system in developing and constructing a vehicle that can achieve the goal of success.

Duncan, J. Michael↗
NASA NTRS2019

Supplying a Pharmacy for NASA Exploration Spaceflight: Challenges and Current Understanding

In order to maintain crew health and performance during long-duration spaceflight outside of low-Earth orbit, NASA and its international partners must be capable of providing a safe and effective pharmacy. Given few directed studies of pharmaceuticals in the space environment, it is difficult to characterize pharmaceutical effectiveness or stability during spaceflight; this in turn makes it challenging to select an appropriate formulary for exploration. Here we present the current state of literature regarding pharmaceutical stability, metabolism, and effectiveness during spaceflight. In particular, we have attempted to highlight the gaps in current knowledge and the difficulties in translating terrestrial-based drug studies to a meaningful interpretation of drug stability, safety, and effectiveness in space. We hope to identify high-yield opportunities for future research that might better define and mitigate pharmaceutical risk for exploration missions.

Rebecca S Blue↗
NASA NTRS1988

Research In Optical Processing Of Data

Report describes current research in optical processing of data at NASA's Ames Research Center. Describes advanced optical feature extractor performing Fourier-Mellin transform to generate feature vector invariant under changes of scale and position and responds to rotation with simple translation. Potential advantages include high speed and low cost.

Ennis, David↗
NASA NTRS1989

Analysis and use of VAS satellite data

Four interrelated investigations have examined the analysis and use of VAS satellite data. A case study of VAS-derived mesoscale stability parameters suggested that they would have been a useful supplement to conventional data in the forecasting of thunderstorms on the day of interest. A second investigation examined the roles of first guess and VAS radiometric data in producing sounding retrievals. Broad-scale patterns of the first guess, radiances, and retrievals frequently were similar, whereas small-scale retrieval features, especially in the dew points, were often of uncertain origin. Two research tasks considered 6.7 micron middle tropospheric water vapor imagery. The first utilized radiosonde data to examine causes for two areas of warm brightness temperature. Subsidence associated with a translating jet streak was important. The second task involving water vapor imagery investigated simulated imagery created from LAMPS output and a radiative transfer algorithm. Simulated image patterns were found to compare favorably with those actually observed by VAS. Furthermore, the mass/momentum fields from LAMPS were powerful tools for understanding causes for the image configurations.

Fuelberg, Henry E.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Phase structure rewrite systems in information retrieval

Operational level automatic indexing requires an efficient means of normalizing natural language phrases. Subject switching requires an efficient means of translating one set of authorized terms to another. A phrase structure rewrite system called a Lexical Dictionary is explained that performs these functions. Background, operational use, other applications and ongoing research are explained.

Klingbiel, P. H.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Design of a mixer for the thrust-vectoring system on the high-alpha research vehicle

One of the advanced control concepts being investigated on the High-Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV) is multi-axis thrust vectoring using an experimental thrust-vectoring (TV) system consisting of three hydraulically actuated vanes per engine. A mixer is used to translate the pitch-, roll-, and yaw-TV commands into the appropriate TV-vane commands for distribution to the vane actuators. A computer-aided optimization process was developed to perform the inversion of the thrust-vectoring effectiveness data for use by the mixer in performing this command translation. Using this process a new mixer was designed for the HARV and evaluated in simulation and flight. An important element of the Mixer is the priority logic, which determines priority among the pitch-, roll-, and yaw-TV commands.

Pahle, Joseph W.↗