Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “concept trade study”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 181 records · Page 10
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2011

Parametric Modeling of the Safety Effects of NextGen Terminal Maneuvering Area Conflict Scenarios

The goal of this work was to analytically identify and quantify the issues, challenges, technical hurdles, and pilot-vehicle interface issues associated with conflict detection and resolution (CD&R)in emerging operational concepts for a NextGen terminal aneuvering area, including surface operations. To this end, the work entailed analytical and trade studies focused on modeling the achievable safety benefits of different CD&R strategies and concepts in the current and future airport environment. In addition, crew-vehicle interface and pilot performance enhancements and potential issues were analyzed based on review of envisioned NextGen operations, expected equipage advances, and human factors expertise. The results of perturbation analysis, which quantify the high-level performance impact of changes to key parameters such as median response time and surveillance position error, show that the analytical model developed could be useful in making technology investment decisions.

Rogers, William H.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Lightweight Inflatable Solar Array: Providing a Flexible, Efficient Solution to Space Power Systems for Small Spacecraft

Affordable and convenient access to electrical power is critical to consumers, spacecraft, military and other applications alike. In the aerospace industry, an increased emphasis on small satellite flights and a move toward CubeSat and NanoSat technologies, the need for systems that could package into a small stowage volume while still being able to power robust space missions has become more critical. As a result, the Marshall Space Flight Center's Advanced Concepts Office identified a need for more efficient, affordable, and smaller space power systems to trade in performing design and feasibility studies. The Lightweight Inflatable Solar Array (LISA), a concept designed, prototyped, and tested at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama provides an affordable, lightweight, scalable, and easily manufactured approach for power generation in space or on Earth. This flexible technology has many wide-ranging applications from serving small satellites to soldiers in the field. By using very thin, ultraflexible solar arrays adhered to an inflatable structure, a large area (and thus large amount of power) can be folded and packaged into a relatively small volume (shown in artist rendering in Figure 1 below). The proposed presentation will provide an overview of the progress to date on the LISA project as well as a look at its potential, with continued development, to revolutionize small spacecraft and portable terrestrial power systems.

Johnson, Les↗
NASA NTRS2014

Lightweight Inflatable Solar Array: Providing a Flexible, Efficient Solution to Space Power Systems for Small Spacecraft

Affordable and convenient access to electrical power is critical to consumers, spacecraft, military and other applications alike. In the aerospace industry, an increased emphasis on small satellite flights and a move toward CubeSat and NanoSat technologies, the need for systems that could package into a small stowage volume while still being able to power robust space missions has become more critical. As a result, the Marshall Space Flight Center's Advanced Concepts Office identified a need for more efficient, affordable, and smaller space power systems to trade in performing design and feasibility studies. The Lightweight Inflatable Solar Array (LISA), a concept designed, prototyped, and tested at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama provides an affordable, lightweight, scalable, and easily manufactured approach for power generation in space or on Earth. This flexible technology has many wide-ranging applications from serving small satellites to soldiers in the field. By using very thin, ultraflexible solar arrays adhered to an inflatable structure, a large area (and thus large amount of power) can be folded and packaged into a relatively small volume (shown in artist rendering in Figure 1 below). The proposed presentation will provide an overview of the progress to date on the LISA project as well as a look at its potential, with continued development, to revolutionize small spacecraft and portable terrestrial power systems.

Johnson, Len↗
NASA NTRS2016

JPL's Foundry Furnace: Web-Based Concurrent Engineering for Formulation

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Innovation Foundry is an enterprise tasked with shepherding space mission concepts through the formulation lifecycle. It oversees a number of “virtual teams” for the various stages of formulation. Among these is Team X, which has had considerable success over its more than 20-year history. In a Team X study, domain experts (including engineers devoted to the various spacecraft subsystems) work concurrently and collaboratively over several days to arrive at a feasible point design with a reasonable cost estimate. They use a set of linked Excel workbooks, each developed and approved by a responsible “line organization” within JPL. This toolset has served Team X well over the years, and has evolved since its inception. At the same time, the Innovation Foundry’s portfolio of formulation teams has expanded, and so has the scope of the design challenges they face. The A-Team runs workshop-like architecture studies to focus science investigations, generate mission concepts, assess feasibility, and explore trade spaces. Team Xc performs rapid point design in the style of Team X, but for CubeSats and small spacecraft, using a different toolset. Proposal teams further mature concepts to the point where they can be proposed. Recognizing the importance of trade space modeling combined with new IT services for providing and integrating data, JPL is developing the Foundry Furnace web-based software infrastructure. It will support A-Team, Team Xc, and Team X, providing study management, a catalog of hardware components, a library of re-usable analyses, and a design environment. It is a modernization of JPL’s concurrent engineering infrastructure, embracing the core concepts of Model-Based Systems Engineering, and built with modern software design philosophies.

Murphy, Jonathan↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Design Analysis for Lunar Safe Haven Concepts

NASA’s plan to return humans to the lunar surface faces many challenges, especially in the sustained phases of the Artemis program. In combination with a habitat, a Lunar Safe Haven (LSH) would provide additional protection to crew, electronics, and equipment from the hazards of the space environment such as radiation, thermal extremes, micrometeoroids, and lunar dust. Influenced by the NASA Artemis program goals, the Lunar Safe Haven Study defined the high-level requirements, outlined the trade space for a LSH concept, and evaluated a set of concepts using a decision analysis structure. This paper will provide additional detail for two concepts that were designed and evaluated during the LSH study, the logic behind the choices, and some of the main driving design parameters.

lunar↗
NASA NTRS1972

RAM environment control and life support subsystem.

The Research and Application Modules (RAMs) are shuttle payloads designed to provide economical manned facilities for earth orbital research and development. Support of the habitable environment in the sortie class RAMs can be accomplished by an independent ECLSS installation or by integration with the shuttle ECLSS. The RAM study evaluated advantages and disadvantages of various degrees of the two alternative installations. Selection of the optimum subsystem was made from an overall shuttle/RAM standpoint. These trade studies are presented and the resulting ECLSS support concept are discussed.

Arras, R. P.↗
NASA NTRS1977

AAFE large deployable antenna development program: Executive summary

The large deployable antenna development program sponsored by the Advanced Applications Flight Experiments of the Langley Research Center is summarized. Projected user requirements for large diameter deployable reflector antennas were reviewed. Trade-off studies for the selection of a design concept for 10-meter diameter reflectors were made. A hoop/column concept was selected as the baseline concept. Parametric data are presented for 15-meter, 30-meter, and 100-meter diameters. A 1.82-meter diameter engineering model which demonstrated the feasiblity of the concept is described.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1984

Definition of technology development missions for early space stations: Large space structures

The objectives studied are the definition of the tested role of an early Space Station for the construction of large space structures. This is accomplished by defining the LSS technology development missions (TDMs) identified in phase 1. Design and operations trade studies are used to identify the best structural concepts and procedures for each TDMs. Details of the TDM designs are then developed along with their operational requirements. Space Station resources required for each mission, both human and physical, are identified. The costs and development schedules for the TDMs provide an indication of the programs needed to develop these missions.

Gates, R. M.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Designing the Space Transfer Vehicle (STV)

The most significant challenges facing the Space Transfer Vehicle (STV) program are making space basing affordable and developing an easily evolvable STV. Study efforts try minimizing the high cost of astronauts activities and Space Station modification to enhance affordability. Modularity, design margins, and simple interfaces are being evaluated to develop an evolutionary approach for space basing starting in the 1990's. In this STV study, the concept definition approach is presented, including concept optimization trades as well as concept selection and sensitivity analyses.

Austin, Gene↗
NASA NTRS2014

Rendezvous and Docking Strategy for Crewed Segment of the Asteroid Redirect Mission

This paper will describe the overall rendezvous, proximity operations and docking (RPOD) strategy in support of the Asteroid Redirect Crewed Mission (ARCM), as part of the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM). The focus of the paper is on the crewed mission phase of ARM, starting with the establishment of Orion in the Distant Retrograde Orbit (DRO) and ending with docking to the Asteroid Redirect Vechicle (ARV). The paper will detail the sequence of maneuvers required to execute the rendezvous and proximity operations mission phases along with the on-board navigation strategies, including the final approach phase. The trajectories to be considered will include target vehicles in a DRO. The paper will also discuss the sensor requirements for rendezvous and docking and the various trade studies associated with the final sensor selection. Building on the sensor requirements and trade studies, the paper will include a candidate sensor concept of operations, which will drive the selection of the sensor suite; concurrently, it will be driven by higher level requirements on the system, such as crew timeline constraints and vehicle consummables. This paper will address how many of the seemingly competing requirements will have to be addressed to create a complete system and system design. The objective is to determine a sensor suite and trajectories that enable Orion to successfully rendezvous and dock with a target vehicle in trans lunar space. Finally, the paper will report on the status of a NASA action to look for synergy within RPOD, across the crewed and robotic asteroid missions.

Hinkel, Heather D.↗
NASA NTRS2018

An Energy-Based Low-Order Approach for Mission Analysis of Air Vehicles in LEAPS

Mission analysis methods that allow rapid analysis of conceptual aircraft provide great benefits to designers because a large number of feasibility and optimization studies can be performed quickly. This paper presents a novel low-order mission analysis approach that will be included in a new aircraft analysis tool called the Layered and Extensible Aircraft Performance System, also known as LEAPS. This approach is based on the mission analysis method used in the Flight Optimization System, also known as FLOPS. FLOPS has been developed at NASA Langley Research Center for over 30 years, and it is mainly used to analyze conventional aircraft (e.g., gas turbine-powered aircraft). One of the main features of FLOPS is its ability to perform rapid mission analysis. This quick analysis turnaround makes FLOPS a suitable tool to perform a large number of trade studies and optimizations. For this reason, the main concepts applied in FLOPS will be used and expanded in LEAPS to allow the analysis of unconventional aircraft that use novel propulsion systems. This expanded approach includes the capability to handle electric propulsion systems as well as multiple propulsor classes at the same time. A novel hybrid-electric aircraft configuration is used to investigate the potential benefits of the proposed mission analysis approach. The results show that the design space increases which can potentially lead to better designs.

Capristan, Francisco M.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Single Throttle Design for the Subsonic Single Aft Engine (SUSAN) Transport Aircraft

NASA is conducting trade studies for a new hybrid-electric aircraft concept called the SUbsonic Single Aft eNgine (SUSAN) Electrofan. The SUSAN airplane is being designed as a 180-passenger commercial airplane and is expected to fly in the 2040 time frame. The flight deck of the SUSAN airplane is envisioned to resemble a typical two person flightcrew transport. Pilot control research issues include interfaces and display state elements needed for the 17 engine hybrid-electric propulsion system. A pilot study was conducted where one, two, and three throttle handles were the independent variable in a simulation experiment. The results from the study showed that the three throttle concepts were equivalent in terms of workload, situation awareness, and thrust control. However, the pilots rated the usability of the single throttle test case to be “good” compared to the rating of “excellent” for the two- and three-throttle cases. From these results, a follow-on pilot study is described to explore a redesigned single throttle concept with associated engine display concepts.

flight deck displays↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Single Throttle Design for the Single Aft Engine (SUSAN) Transport Aircraft

NASA is conducting trade studies for a new hybrid-electric aircraft concept called the SUbsonic Single Aft eNgine (SUSAN) Electrofan. The SUSAN airplane is being designed as a 180-passenger commercial airplane and is expected to fly in the 2040 time frame. The flight deck of the SUSAN airplane is expected to resemble a typical two person flightcrew transport. Pilot control research issues include interfaces and display state elements needed for the hybrid-electric propulsion system. This document describes some of the initial flight deck concepts for the SUSAN airplane and areas for future research. The final paper will include results from a piloted research study conducted in a high-fidelity simulation facility at NASA Langley Research Center.

flight deck displays↗
NASA NTRS2024

Optimized bandpasses for the Habitable Worlds Observatory's exoEarth survey

A primary scientific goal of the future Habitable Worlds Observatory will be the direct detection and characterization of Earth-like planets. Estimates of the exoplanet yields for this concept will help guide mission design through detailed trade studies. It is therefore critical that yield estimation codes optimally adapt observations to the mission’s performance parameters to ensure accurate trade studies. To aid in this, we implement wavelength optimization in yield calculations for the first time, allowing the yield code to determine the ideal detection and characterization bandpasses. We use this capability to confirm the observational wavelength assumptions made for the large UV/Optical/IR surveyor, design B (LUVOIR-B) study, namely that the optimum detection wavelength is 500 nm for the majority of targets and the optimum wavelength to detect water is near 1000 nm, given LUVOIR-B’s assumed instrument performance parameters. We show that including the wavelength-dependent albedo of an Earth twin as a prior provides no significant benefit to the yields of exoEarth candidates and caution against tuning observations to modern Earth twins. We also show that coronagraphs whose inner working angles are similar to step functions may benefit from wavelength optimization and demonstrate how wavelength-dependent instrument performance can impact the optimum wavelengths for detection and characterization. The optimization methods we implement automate wavelength selection and remove uncertainties regarding these choices, helping to adapt the observations to the instrument’s performance parameters.

telescopes↗
NASA NTRS2010

Cost/Effort Drivers and Decision Analysis

Engineering trade study analyses demand consideration of performance, cost and schedule impacts across the spectrum of alternative concepts and in direct reference to product requirements. Prior to detailed design, requirements are too often ill-defined (only goals ) and prone to creep, extending well beyond the Systems Requirements Review. Though lack of engineering design and definitive requirements inhibit the ability to perform detailed cost analyses, affordability trades still comprise the foundation of these future product decisions and must evolve in concert. This presentation excerpts results of the recent NASA subsonic Engine Concept Study for an Advanced Single Aisle Transport to demonstrate an affordability evaluation of performance characteristics and the subsequent impacts on engine architecture decisions. Applying the Process Based Economic Analysis Tool (PBEAT), development cost, production cost, as well as operation and support costs were considered in a traditional weighted ranking of the following system-level figures of merit: mission fuel burn, take-off noise, NOx emissions, and cruise speed. Weighting factors were varied to ascertain the architecture ranking sensitivities to these performance figures of merit with companion cost considerations. A more detailed examination of supersonic variable cycle engine cost is also briefly presented, with observations and recommendations for further refinements.

Seidel, Jonathan↗
NASA NTRS1973

Design, capability, and cost of a Versatile Upper Stage /VUS/ family of vehicles.

Trade-off studies and a preliminary design were accomplished to investigate the Versatile Upper Stage (VUS) concept. This concept entails the development by one contractor of a family of stages with a great deal of commonality to perform a spectrum of potential unmanned automated missions planned through 1990. The trade studies and analyses revealed areas where the penalty for commonality between stages was excessive in weight and performance loss. This occurred in the selection of the vehicle structural shell. In many of the expensive subsystems, especially astrionics, it was found that establishing the requirements for all family members and the application of commonality in subsystem selection could result in significant savings.

Haltermann, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Space Shuttle Reaction Control Subsystem propellant acquisition

A surface tension propellant acquisition/expulsion configuration was selected for the Space Shuttle Reaction Control Subsystem tankage to supply gas-free propellant during the low- and high-g operational environment (.00001 to 3.0 g) plus the numerous omnidirectional intermittent (pulse) demands of each mission. Candidate concepts to meet these stringent requirements were identified; this was followed by analysis and design sensitivity evaluations. A trade study resulted in the selection of a compartmented tank with individual flow channels as the preferred concept. Details of the analysis and design are presented.

Fester, D. A.↗