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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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NASA NTRS2002

The Stellar Imager (SI) Mission Concept

The Stellar Imager (SI) is envisioned as a space-based, UV-optical interferometer composed of 10 or more one-meter class elements distributed with a maximum baseline of 0.5 km. It is designed to image stars and binaries with sufficient resolution to enable long-term studies of stellar magnetic activity patterns, for comparison with those on the sun. It will also support asteroseismology (acoustic imaging) to probe stellar internal structure, differential rotation, and large-scale circulations. SI will enable us to understand the various effects of the magnetic fields of stars, the dynamos that generate these fields, and the internal structure and dynamics of the stars. The ultimate goal of the mission is to achieve the best-possible forecasting of solar activity as a driver of climate and space weather on time scales ranging from months up to decades, and an understanding of the impact of stellar magnetic activity on life in the Universe. In this paper we describe the scientific goals of the mission, the performance requirements needed to address these goals, the "enabling technology" development efforts being pursued, and the design concepts now under study for the full mission and a possible pathfinder mission.

Carpenter, Kenneth G.↗
NASA NTRS2002

The Stellar Imager (SI): An Ultra-High Angular Resolution UV/Optical Observatory

The Stellar Imager (SI) is envisioned as a space-based, UV-optical interferometer composed of 10 or more one-meter class elements distributed with a maximum baseline of 0.5-km and providing a resolution of 60 micro-arcseconds at 1550 A. It will image stars and binaries with one hundred to one thousand resolution elements on their surface and enable long-term studies of stellar magnetic activity patterns and their evolution with time, for comparison with those on the sun. It will also sound their interiors through asteroseismology to image internal structure, differential rotation, and large-scale circulations. SI will enable us to understand the various effects of magnetic fields of stars, the dynamos that generate these fields, and the internal structure and dynamics of the stars in which these dynamos operate. The ultimate goal of the mission is to achieve the best-possible forecasting of solar activity as a driver of climate and space weather on times scales ranging from months up to decades, and an understanding of the impact of stellar magnetic activity on life in the Universe. The road to that goal will revolutionize our understanding of stars and stellar systems, the building blocks of the Universe. Fitting naturally within the NASA and ESA long-term time lines, SI complements defined missions, and with them will show us entire other solar systems, from the central star to their orbiting planets. In this paper we will describe the scientific goals of the mission, the performance requirements needed to address those goals, and the design concepts now under study.

Carpenter, Kenneth G.↗
NASA NTRS2002

The Stellar Imager (SI) Mission Concept: Imaging the Surfaces and Interiors of Other Stars

The Stellar Imager (SI) is envisioned as a space-based, uv-optical interferometer composed of 10 or more one-meter class elements distributed with a maximum. baseline of 0.5-km and providing a resolution of 60 micro-arcseconds at 1550 A. It will image stars and binaries with one hundred to one thousand resolution elements on their surface and enable long-term studies of stellar magnetic activity patterns and their evolution with time, for comparison with those on the sun. It will also sound their interiors through asteroseismology to image internal structure, differential rotation, and large-scale circulations. SI will enable us to understand the various effects of magnetic fields of stars, the dynamos that generate these fields, and the internal structure and dynamic the stars in which these dynamos operate. The ultimate goal of the mission is to achieve the best-possible forecasting of solar activity as a driver of climate and space weather on times scales ranging from months up to decades, and an understanding of the impact of stellar magnetic activity on life in the universe. The road to that goal will revolutionize our understanding of stars and stellar systems, the building blocks of the universe. Fitting naturally within the NASA and ESA long-term time lines, SI complements defined missions, and with them will show us entire other solar systems, from the central star to their orbiting planets. in this paper we describe the scientific goals of the mission, the performance requirements needed to address those goals, and the design concepts now under study.

Carpenter, Kenneth G.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Microphysics, Radiation and Surface Processes in the Goddard Cumulus Ensemble (GCE) Model

One of the most promising methods to test the representation of cloud processes used in climate models is to use observations together with Cloud Resolving Models (CRMs). The CRMs use more sophisticated and realistic representations of cloud microphysical processes, and they can reasonably well resolve the time evolution, structure, and life cycles of clouds and cloud systems (size about 2-200 km). The CRMs also allow explicit interaction between out-going longwave (cooling) and in-coming solar (heating) radiation with clouds. Observations can provide the initial conditions and validation for CRM results. The Goddard Cumulus Ensemble (GCE) Model, a CRM, has been developed and improved at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center over the past two decades. The GCE model has been used to understand the following: 1) water and energy cycles and their roles in the tropical climate system; 2) the vertical redistribution of ozone and trace constituents by individual clouds and well organized convective systems over various spatial scales; 3) the relationship between the vertical distribution of latent heating (phase change of water) and the large-scale (pre-storm) environment; 4) the validity of assumptions used in the representation of cloud processes in climate and global circulation models; and 5) the representation of cloud microphysical processes and their interaction with radiative forcing over tropical and midlatitude regions. Four-dimensional cloud and latent heating fields simulated from the GCE model have been provided to the TRMM Science Data and Information System (TSDIS) to develop and improve algorithms for retrieving rainfall and latent heating rates for TRMM and the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS). More than 90 referred papers using the GCE model have been published in the last two decades. Also, more than 10 national and international universities are currently using the GCE model for research and teaching. In this talk, five specific major GCE improvements: (1) ice microphysics, (2) longwave and shortwave radiative transfer processes, (3) land surface processes, (4) ocean surface fluxes and (5) ocean mixed layer processes are presented. The performance of these new GCE improvements will be examined. Observations are used for model validation.

Tao, Wei-Kuo↗
NASA NTRS2003

Efficient Plasma Production in Low Background Neutral Pressures with the M2P2 Prototype

Mini-Magnetospheric Plasma Propulsion (M2P2) seeks the creation of a large-scale (10 km radius) magnetic wall or bubble (i.e. a magnetosphere) by the electromagnetic inflation of a small-scale (20 cm radius) dipole magnet. The inflated magnetosphere will intercept the solar wind and thereby provide high-speed propulsion with modest power and fuel requirements due to the gain provided by the ambient medium. Magnetic field inflation is produced by the injection of plasma onto the dipole magnetic field eliminating the need for large mechanical structures and added material weight at launch. For successful inflation of the magnetic bubble a beta near unity must be achieved along the imposed dipole field. This is dependent on the plasma parameters that can be achieved with a plasma source that provide continuous operation at the desired power levels of 1 to 2 kilowatts. Over the last two years we have been developing a laboratory prototype to demonstrate the inflation of the magnetic field under space-like conditions. In this paper we will present some of the latest results from the prototype development at the University of Washington and show that the prototype can produce high ionization efficiencies while operating in near space like neutral background pressures producing electron temperatures of a few tens of electron volts. This allows for operation with propellant expenditures lower than originally estimated.

Ziemba, T.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Formation Flying and the Stellar Imager Mission Concept

The Stellar Imager (SI) is envisioned as a space-based, W-optical interferometer composed of 10 or more one-meter class elements distributed with a maximum baseline of 0.5 km. image stars and binaries with sufficient resolution to enable long-term studies of stellar magnetic activity patterns, for comparison with those on the sun. It will also support asteroseismology (acoustic imaging) to probe stellar internal structure, differential rotation, and large-scale circulations. SI will enable us to understand the various effects of the magnetic fields of stars, the dynamos that generate these fields, and the internal structure and dynamics of the stars. The ultimate goal of the mission is to achieve the best-possible forecasting of solar activity as a driver of climate and space weather on time scales ranging from months up to decades, and an understanding of the impact of stellar magnetic activity on life in the Universe. In this paper we briefly describe the scientific goals of the mission, the performance requirements needed to address these goals, and the "enabling technology" development efforts required, with specific attention for this meeting to the formation-flying aspects. It is designed to

Carpenter, Kenneth G.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Surveying Galaxy Evolution in the Far-Infrared: A Far-Infrared All-Sky Survey Concept

Half of the total luminosity in the Universe is emitted at rest wavelengths approximately 80-100 microns. At the highest known galaxy redshifts (z greater than or equal to 6) this energy is redshifted to approximately 600 microns. Quantifying the evolution of galaxies at these wavelengths is crucial to our understanding of the formation of structure in the Universe following the big bang. Surveying the whole sky will find the rare and unique objects, enabling follow-up observations. SIRCE, the Survey of Infrared Cosmic Evolution, is such a mission concept under study at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. A helium-cooled telescope with ultrasensitive detectors can image the whole sky to the confusion limit in 6 months. Multiple wavelength bands permit the extraction of photometric redshifts, while a large telescope yields a low confusion limit. We discuss the implications of such a survey for galaxy formation and evolution, large-scale structure, star formation, and the structure of interstellar dust.

Benford, D. J.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Magnetotail Current Sheet Thinning and Magnetic Reconnection Dynamics in Global Modeling of Substorms

Magnetotail current sheet thinning and magnetic reconnection are key elements of magnetospheric substorms. We utilized the global MHD model BATS-R-US with Adaptive Mesh Refinement developed at the University of Michigan to investigate the formation and dynamic evolution of the magnetotail thin current sheet. The BATSRUS adaptive grid structure allows resolving magnetotail regions with increased current density up to ion kinetic scales. We investigated dynamics of magnetotail current sheet thinning in response to southwards IMF turning. Gradual slow current sheet thinning during the early growth phase become exponentially fast during the last few minutes prior to nightside reconnection onset. The later stage of current sheet thinning is accompanied by earthward flows and rapid suppression of normal magnetic field component $B-z$. Current sheet thinning set the stage for near-earth magnetic reconnection. In collisionless magnetospheric plasma, the primary mechanism controlling the dissipation in the vicinity of the reconnection site is non-gyrotropic effects with spatial scales comparable with the particle Larmor radius. One of the major challenges in global MHD modeling of the magnetotail magnetic reconnection is to reproduce fast reconnection rates typically observed in smallscale kinetic simulations. Bursts of fast reconnection cause fast magnetic field reconfiguration typical for magnetospheric substorms. To incorporate nongyritropic effects in diffusion regions we developed an algorithm to search for magnetotail reconnection sites, specifically where the magnetic field components perpendicular to the local current direction approaches zero and form an X-type configuration. Spatial scales of the diffusion region and magnitude of the reconnection electric field are calculated self-consistently using MHD plasma and field parameters in the vicinity of the reconnection site. The location of the reconnection sites and spatial scales of the diffusion region are updated during the simulations. Such an approach allows quantifying the interaction between large-scale global magnetospheric dynamics and microphysical processes in diffusion regions localized near reconnection sites. To clarify the role of smallscale non-MHD effects in diffusion region on the global magnetospheric dynamic and to test different models of dissipation we perform simulations with steady southward IMF driving of the magnetosphere.

Kuznetsova, M. M.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Development of the US3D Code for Advanced Compressible and Reacting Flow Simulations

Aerothermodynamics and hypersonic flows involve complex multi-disciplinary physics, including finite-rate gas-phase kinetics, finite-rate internal energy relaxation, gas-surface interactions with finite-rate oxidation and sublimation, transition to turbulence, large-scale unsteadiness, shock-boundary layer interactions, fluid-structure interactions, and thermal protection system ablation and thermal response. Many of the flows have a large range of length and time scales, requiring large computational grids, implicit time integration, and large solution run times. The University of Minnesota NASA US3D code was designed for the simulation of these complex, highly-coupled flows. It has many of the features of the well-established DPLR code, but uses unstructured grids and has many advanced numerical capabilities and physical models for multi-physics problems. The main capabilities of the code are described, the physical modeling approaches are discussed, the different types of numerical flux functions and time integration approaches are outlined, and the parallelization strategy is overviewed. Comparisons between US3D and the NASA DPLR code are presented, and several advanced simulations are presented to illustrate some of novel features of the code.

CFD↗