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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 199 records · Page 11
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NASA NTRS2004

Assessment and Control of Spacecraft Charging Risks on the International Space Station

The International Space Station (ISS) operates in the F2 region of Earth's ionosphere, orbiting at altitudes ranging from 350 to 450 km at an inclination of 51.6 degrees. The relatively dense, cool F2 ionospheric plasma suppresses surface charging processes much of the time, and the flux of relativistic electrons is low enough to preclude deep dielectric charging processes. The most important spacecraft charging processes in the ISS orbital environment are: 1) ISS electrical power system interactions with the F2 plasma, 2) magnetic induction processes resulting from flight through the geomagnetic field and, 3) charging processes that result from interaction with auroral electrons at high latitude. Recently, the continuing review and evaluation of putative ISS charging hazards required by the ISS Program Office revealed that ISS charging could produce an electrical shock hazard to the ISS crew during extravehicular activity (EVA). ISS charging risks are being evaluated in an ongoing measurement and analysis campaign. The results of ISS charging measurements are combined with a recently developed model of ISS charging (the Plasma Interaction Model) and an exhaustive analysis of historical ionospheric variability data (ISS Ionospheric Specification) to evaluate ISS charging risks using Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) methods. The PRA combines estimates of the frequency of occurrence and severity of the charging hazards with estimates of the reliability of various hazard controls systems, as required by NASA s safety and risk management programs, to enable design and selection of a hazard control approach that minimizes overall programmatic and personnel risk. The PRA provides a quantitative methodology for incorporating the results of the ISS charging measurement and analysis campaigns into the necessary hazard reports, EVA procedures, and ISS flight rules required for operating ISS in a safe and productive manner.

Koontz, Steve↗
NASA NTRS2004

Simulations of Solar Wind Plasma Flow Around a Simple Solar Sail

In recent years, a number of solar sail missions of various designs and sizes have been proposed (e.g., Geostorm). Of importance to these missions is the interaction between the ambient solar wind plasma environment and the sail. Assuming a typical 1 AU solar wind environment of 400 km/s velocity, 3.5 cu cm density, ion temperature of approx.10 eV, electron temperature of 40 eV, and an ambient magnetic field strength of 10(exp -4) G, a first order estimate of the plasma interaction with square solar sails on the order of the sizes being considered for a Geostorm mission (50 m x 50 m and 75 m x 75 m corresponding to approx.2 and approx.3 times the Debye length in the plasma) is carried out. First, a crude current balance for the sail surface immersed in the plasma environment and in sunlight was used to estimate the surface potential of the model sails. This gave surface potentials of approx.10 V positive relative to the solar wind plasma. A 3-D, Electrostatic Particle-in-Cell (PIC) code was then used to simulate the solar wind flowing around the solar sail. It is assumed in the code that the solar wind protons can be treated as particles while the electrons follow a Boltzmann distribution. Next, the electric field and particle trajectories are solved self-consistently to give the proton flow field, the electrostatic field around the sail, and the plasma density in 3-D. The model sail was found to be surrounded by a plasma sheath within which the potential is positive compared to the ambient plasma and followed by a separate plasma wake which is negative relative to the plasma. This structure departs dramatically from a negatively charged plate such as might be found in the Earth s ionosphere on the night side where both the plate and its negative wake are contiguous. The implications of these findings are discussed as they apply to the proposed Geostorm solar sail mission.

Garrett, Henry B.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Low Frequency Radio Astronomy from the Moon

The radio sky at frequencies of several MHz and below is essentially unexpected with high angular resolution due to refraction and opacity in the Earth's ionosphere.

Radio astronomy Moon Refraction Opacity ionized hy↗
NASA NTRS1997

Spacecraft Doppler Tracking as a Narrow-Band Detector of Gravitational Waves

We discuss spacecraft Doppler tracking for detecting gravitational waves in which Doppler data recorded on the ground are linearly combined with Doppler measurements made on board a spacecraft. By using the four-link radio system first proposed by Vessot and Levine, we derive a new method for removing from the combined data the frequency fluctuations due to the Earth troposphere, ionosphere, and mechanical vibrations of the antenna on the ground.

Spacecraft Doppler↗
NASA NTRS1995

Spacecraft Doppler Tracking as a Xylophone Detector of Gravitational Radiation

Spacecraft Doppler tracking is discussed for detecting gravitational waves in which Doppler data recorded on the ground are linearly combined with Doppler measurements made on board a spacecraft. A new method is derived for removing from combined data the frequency fluctuations due to the Earth troposphere, ionosphere, and mechanical vibrations of the antenna on the ground. The remaining non-zero gravitational wave signal could be used for detecting gravitational waves.

Doppler tracking gravitational waves signal proces↗
NASA NTRS1995

A Low-Frequency Radio Sky Survey from Space

The frequency range below 30 MHz has not been explored with high angular resolution due to the opacity and refraction of the Earth's ionosphere. An interferometer array in space could provide high dynamic range images of the entire sky with arcminute angular resolution.

interferometer array space survey low frequency ap↗
NASA NTRS2007

Progress in Spacecraft Environment Interactions: International Space Station (ISS) Development and Operations

The set of spacecraft interactions with the space flight environment that have produced the largest impacts on the design, verification, and operation of the International Space Station (ISS) Program during the May 2000 to May 2007 time frame are the focus of this paper. In-flight data, flight crew observations, and the results of ground-based test and analysis directly supporting programmatic and operational decision-making are reported as are the analysis and simulation efforts that have led to new knowledge and capabilities supporting current and future space explorations programs. The specific spacecraft-environment interactions that have had the greatest impact on ISS Program activities during the first several years of flight are: 1) spacecraft charging, 2) micrometeoroids and orbital debris effects, 3) ionizing radiation (both total dose to materials and single event effects [SEE] on avionics), 4) hypergolic rocket engine plume impingement effects, 5) venting/dumping of liquids, 6) spacecraft contamination effects, 7) neutral atmosphere and atomic oxygen effects, 8) satellite drag effects, and 9) solar ultraviolet effects. Orbital inclination (51.6deg) and altitude (nominally between 350 km and 460 km) determine the set of natural environment factors affecting the performance and reliability of materials and systems on ISS. ISS operates in the F2 region of Earth s ionosphere in well-defined fluxes of atomic oxygen, other ionospheric plasma species, solar UV, VUV, and x-ray radiation as well as galactic cosmic rays, trapped radiation, and solar cosmic rays. The micrometeoroid and orbital debris environment is an important determinant of spacecraft design and operations in any orbital inclination. The induced environment results from ISS interactions with the natural environment as well as environmental factors produced by ISS itself and visiting vehicles. Examples include ram-wake effects, hypergolic thruster plume impingement, materials out-gassing, venting and dumping of fluids, and specific photovoltaic (PV) power system interactions with the ionospheric plasma. Vehicle size (L) and velocity (v), combined with the magnitude and direction of the geomagnetic field (B) produce operationally significant magnetic induction voltages (VxB.L) in ISS conducting structure during high latitude flight (>+/- 45deg) during each orbit. In addition, ISS is a large vehicle and produces a deep wake structure from which both ionospheric plasma and neutrals species are largely excluded. ISS must fly in a very limited number of approved flight attitudes, so that exposure of a particular material or system to environmental factors depends upon: 1) location on ISS, 2) ISS flight configuration, 3) ISS flight attitude, and 4) variation of solar exposure (Beta angle), and hence thermal environment, with time. Finally, an induced ionizing radiation environment is produced by trapped radiation and solar/cosmic ray interactions with the relatively massive ISS structural shielding.

Koontz, Steve↗
NASA NTRS2006

The Living with a Star Radiation Belt Storm Probes Mission and Related Missions of Opportunity

This presentation provides an overview of the Living With a Star (LWS) Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) mission in the context of the broader Geospace program. Missions to Geospace offer an opportunity to observe in situ the fundamental processes that operate throughout the solar system and in particular those that generate hazardous space weather effects in the vicinity of Earth. The recently selected investigations on NASA's LWS program's RBSP will provide the measurements needed to characterize and quantify the processes that supply and remove energetic particles from the Earth's Van Allen radiation belts. Instruments on the RBSP spacecraft will observe charged particles that comprise the Earth's radiation belts over the full energy range from 1 eV to more than 10 MeV (including composition), the plasma waves which energize them, the electric fields which transport them, and the magnetic fields which guide their motion. The two-point measurements by the RBSP spacecraft will enable researchers to discriminate between spatial and temporal effects, and therefore between the various proposed mechanisms for particle acceleration and loss. The measurements taken by the RBSP spacecraft will be used in data modeling projects in order to improve the understanding of these fundamental processes and allow better predictions to be made. NASA's LWS program has also recently selected three teams to study concepts for Missions of Opportunity that will augment the RBSP program, by (1) providing an instrument for a Canadian spacecraft in the Earth's radiation belts, (2) quantifying the flux of particles precipitating into the Earth's atmosphere from the Earth's radiation belts, and (3) remotely sensing both spatial and temporal variations in the Earth's ionosphere and thermosphere.

Sibeck, David G.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Polarization Rotation and the Third Stokes Parameter: The Effects of Spacecraft Attitude and Faraday Rotation

The third Stokes parameter of ocean surface brightness temperatures measured by the WindSat instrument is sensitive to the rotation angle between the polarization vectors at the ocean surface and the instrument. This rotation angle depends on the spacecraft attitude (roll, pitch, yaw) as well as the Faraday rotation of the electromagnetic radiation passing through the Earth's ionosphere. Analyzing the WindSat antenna temperatures, we find biases in the third Stokes parameter as function of the along-scan position of up to 1.5 K in all feedhorns. This points to a misspecification of the reported spacecraft attitude. A single attitude correction of -0.16deg roll and 0.18deg pitch for the whole instrument eliminates all the biases. We also study the effect of Faraday rotation at 10.7 GHz on the accuracy of the third Stokes parameter and the sea surface wind direction retrieval and demonstrate how this error can be corrected using values from the International Reference Ionosphere for the total electron content when computing Faraday rotation.

Meissner, Thomas↗
NASA NTRS2010

ISS Plasma Environment: Status of CCMC Products for ISS Mission Ops

ISS Program currently using FPMU Ne, Te in-situ measurements to support operations and anomaly investigations. Working to acquire alternative data sources if FPMU is not available. Work is progressing on CCMC tools for low Earth orbit ionosphere characterization. Validation against FPMU data required before model output can be used for ISS operational support. MSFC plans to continue comparing CTIP output during FPMU campaigns. Results to date have been useful in identifying ionospheric origins of high latitude charging environments.

Minow, Joseph↗
NASA NTRS2011

On the Importance of the Flare's Late Phase for the Solar Extreme Ultraviolet Irradiance

The new solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) irradiance observations from NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) have revealed a new class of solar flares that are referred to as late phase flares. These flares are characterized by the hot 2-5 MK coronal emissions (e.g., Fe XVI 33.5 nm) showing large secondary peaks that appear many minutes to hours after an eruptive flare event. In contrast, the cool 0.7-1.5 MK coronal emissions (e.g., Fe IX 17.1 nm) usually dim immediately after the flare onset and do not recover until after the delayed second peak of the hot coronal emissions. We refer to this period of 1-5 hours after the fl amrea sin phase as the late phase, and this late phase is uniquely different than long duration flares associated with 2-ribbon flares or large filament eruptions. Our analysis of the late phase flare events indicates that the late phase involves hot coronal loops near the flaring region, not directly related to the original flaring loop system but rather with the higher post-eruption fields. Another finding is that space weather applications concerning Earth s ionosphere and thermosphere need to consider these late phase flares because they can enhance the total EUV irradiance flare variation by a factor of 2 when the late phase contribution is included.

Woods, Thomas N.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Solar EUV Variability from FISM and SDO/EVE During Solar Minimum, Active, and Flaring Time Periods

The Living With a Star (LWS) Focus Science Team has identified three periods of different solar activity levels for which they will be determining the Earth's Ionosphere and Thermosphere response. Not only will the team be comparing individual models (e.g. FLIP, T1MEGCM, GLOW) outcome driven by the various levels of solar activity, but the models themselves will also be compared. These models all rely on the input solar EUV (0.1 -190 nm) irradiance to drive the variability. The Flare Irradiance Spectral Model (FISM) and the EUV Variability Experiment (EVE) onboard provide the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) provide the most accurate quantification of these irradiances. Presented and discussed are how much the solar EUV irradiance changes during these three scenarios, both as a function of activity and wavelength.

Chamberlin, Phillip C.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO): Overview of Science Objectives, Instrument Design, Data Products, and Model Developments

The highly variable solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation is the major energy input to the Earth's upper atmosphere, strongly impacting the geospace environment, affecting satellite operations, communications, and navigation. The Extreme ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) onboard the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) will measure the solar EUV irradiance from 0.1 to 105 nm with unprecedented spectral resolution (0.1 nm), temporal cadence (ten seconds), and accuracy (20%). EVE includes several irradiance instruments: The Multiple EUV Grating Spectrographs (MEGS)-A is a grazingincidence spectrograph that measures the solar EUV irradiance in the 5 to 37 nm range with 0.1-nm resolution, and the MEGS-B is a normal-incidence, dual-pass spectrograph that measures the solar EUV irradiance in the 35 to 105 nm range with 0.1-nm resolution. To provide MEGS in-flight calibration, the EUV SpectroPhotometer (ESP) measures the solar EUV irradiance in broadbands between 0.1 and 39 nm, and a MEGS-Photometer measures the Sun s bright hydrogen emission at 121.6 nm. The EVE data products include a near real-time space-weather product (Level 0C), which provides the solar EUV irradiance in specific bands and also spectra in 0.1-nm intervals with a cadence of one minute and with a time delay of less than 15 minutes. The EVE higher-level products are Level 2 with the solar EUV irradiance at higher time cadence (0.25 seconds for photometers and ten seconds for spectrographs) and Level 3 with averages of the solar irradiance over a day and over each one-hour period. The EVE team also plans to advance existing models of solar EUV irradiance and to operationally use the EVE measurements in models of Earth s ionosphere and thermosphere. Improved understanding of the evolution of solar flares and extending the various models to incorporate solar flare events are high priorities for the EVE team.

Woods, T. N.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Performance of the IRI-2007 and SAMI2 Models during Extreme Solar Minimum

During the recent solar minimum, solar activity reached the lowest levels observed during the space age. This extremely low solar activity has accompanied a number of unexpected observations in the Earth's ionosphere and thermosphere when compared to previous solar minima. Among these is the fact that the ionosphere is significantly contracted beyond expectations based on empirical models. Data from the CINDI instrument on board C/NOFS is used to evaluate the performance of the IRI-2007 and SAMI2 models during the deepest part of the minimum. Additionally, the inputs to SAMI2 are modified in order to estimate the contributions of a contracted thermosphere and reduced EUV on the resultant ionosphere.

Klenzing, J.↗
NASA NTRS2012

FISM 2.0: Improved Spectral Range, Resolution, and Accuracy

The Flare Irradiance Spectral Model (FISM) was first released in 2005 to provide accurate estimates of the solar VUV (0.1-190 nm) irradiance to the Space Weather community. This model was based on TIMED SEE as well as UARS and SORCE SOLSTICE measurements, and was the first model to include a 60 second temporal variation to estimate the variations due to solar flares. Along with flares, FISM also estimates the tradition solar cycle and solar rotational variations over months and decades back to 1947. This model has been highly successful in providing driving inputs to study the affect of solar irradiance variations on the Earth's ionosphere and thermosphere, lunar dust charging, as well as the Martian ionosphere. The second version of FISM, FISM2, is currently being updated to be based on the more accurate SDO/EVE data, which will provide much more accurate estimations in the 0.1-105 nm range, as well as extending the 'daily' model variation up to 300 nm based on the SOLSTICE measurements. with the spectral resolution of SDO/EVE along with SOLSTICE and the TIMED and SORCE XPS 'model' products, the entire range from 0.1-300 nm will also be available at 0.1 nm, allowing FISM2 to be improved a similar 0.1nm spectral bins. FISM also will have a TSI component that will estimate the total radiated energy during flares based on the few TSI flares observed to date. Presented here will be initial results of the FISM2 modeling efforts, as well as some challenges that will need to be overcome in order for FISM2 to accurately model the solar variations on time scales of seconds to decades.

Chamberlin, Phillip C.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Addressing the Influence of Space Weather on Airline Navigation

The advent of satellite-based augmentation systems has made it possible to navigate aircraft safely using radio signals emitted by global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) such as the Global Positioning System. As a signal propagates through the earth's ionosphere, it suffers delay that is proportional to the total electron content encountered along the raypath. Since the magnitude of this total electron content is strongly influenced by space weather, the safety and reliability of GNSS for airline navigation requires continual monitoring of the state of the ionosphere and calibration of ionospheric delay. This paper examines the impact of space weather on GNSS-based navigation and provides an overview of how the Wide Area Augmentation System protects its users from positioning error due to ionospheric disturbances

airline navigation↗
NASA NTRS2013

Tuning and Robustness Analysis for the Orion Absolute Navigation System

The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) is currently under development as NASA's next-generation spacecraft for exploration missions beyond Low Earth Orbit. The MPCV is set to perform an orbital test flight, termed Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1), some time in late 2014. The navigation system for the Orion spacecraft is being designed in a Multi-Organizational Design Environment (MODE) team including contractor and NASA personnel. The system uses an Extended Kalman Filter to process measurements and determine the state. The design of the navigation system has undergone several iterations and modifications since its inception, and continues as a work-in-progress. This paper seeks to show the efforts made to-date in tuning the filter for the EFT-1 mission and instilling appropriate robustness into the system to meet the requirements of manned space ight. Filter performance is affected by many factors: data rates, sensor measurement errors, tuning, and others. This paper focuses mainly on the error characterization and tuning portion. Traditional efforts at tuning a navigation filter have centered around the observation/measurement noise and Gaussian process noise of the Extended Kalman Filter. While the Orion MODE team must certainly address those factors, the team is also looking at residual edit thresholds and measurement underweighting as tuning tools. Tuning analysis is presented with open loop Monte-Carlo simulation results showing statistical errors bounded by the 3-sigma filter uncertainty covariance. The Orion filter design uses 24 Exponentially Correlated Random Variable (ECRV) parameters to estimate the accel/gyro misalignment and nonorthogonality. By design, the time constant and noise terms of these ECRV parameters were set to manufacturer specifications and not used as tuning parameters. They are included in the filter as a more analytically correct method of modeling uncertainties than ad-hoc tuning of the process noise. Tuning is explored for the powered-flight ascent phase, where measurements are scarce and unmodelled vehicle accelerations dominate. On orbit, there are important trade-off cases between process and measurement noise. On entry, there are considerations about trading performance accuracy for robustness. Process Noise is divided into powered flight and coasting ight and can be adjusted for each phase and mode of the Orion EFT-1 mission. Measurement noise is used for the integrated velocity measurements during pad alignment. It is also used for Global Positioning System (GPS) pseudorange and delta- range measurements during the rest of the flight. The robustness effort has been focused on maintaining filter convergence and performance in the presence of unmodeled error sources. These include unmodeled forces on the vehicle and uncorrected errors on the sensor measurements. Orion uses a single-frequency, non-keyed GPS receiver, so the effects due to signal distortion in Earth's ionosphere and troposphere are present in the raw measurements. Results are presented showing the efforts to compensate for these errors as well as characterize the residual effect for measurement noise tuning. Another robustness tool in use is tuning the residual edit thresholds. The trade-off between noise tuning and edit thresholds is explored in the context of robustness to errors in dynamics models and sensor measurements. Measurement underweighting is also presented as a method of additional robustness when processing highly accurate measurements in the presence of large filter uncertainties.

Holt, Greg N.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Improving Decision-Making Activities for Meningitis and Malaria

Public health professionals are increasingly concerned about the potential impact that climate variability and change can have on infectious disease. The International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) is developing new products to increase the public health community's capacity to understand, use and demand the appropriate climate data and climate information to mitigate the public health impacts of climate on infectious disease, in particular meningitis and malaria. In this paper, we present the new and improved products that have been developed for: (i) estimating dust aerosol for forecasting risks of meningitis and (ii) for monitoring temperature and rainfall and integrating them into a vectorial capacity model for forecasting risks of malaria epidemics. We also present how the products have been integrated into a knowledge system (IRI Data Library Map Room, SERVIR) to support the use of climate and environmental information in climate-sensitive health decision-making.

parasitic diseases↗