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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
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2000

Response of soybean rhizosphere communities to human hygiene water addition as determined by community level physiological profiling (CLPP) and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) analysis

In this report, we describe an experiment conducted at Kennedy Space Center in the biomass production chamber (BPC) using soybean plants for purification and processing of human hygiene water. Specifically, we tested whether it was possible to detect changes in the root-associated bacterial assemblage of the plants and ultimately to identify the specific microorganism(s) which differed when plants were exposed to hygiene water and other hydroponic media. Plants were grown in hydroponics media corresponding to four different treatments: control (Hoagland's solution), artificial gray water (Hoagland's+surfactant), filtered gray water collected from human subjects on site, and unfiltered gray water. Differences in rhizosphere microbial populations in all experimental treatments were observed when compared to the control treatment using both community level physiological profiles (BIOLOG) and molecular fingerprinting of 16S rRNA genes by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis (TRFLP). Furthermore, screening of a clonal library of 16S rRNA genes by TRFLP yielded nearly full length SSU genes associated with the various treatments. Most 16S rRNA genes were affiliated with the Klebsiella, Pseudomonas, Variovorax, Burkholderia, Bordetella and Isosphaera groups. This molecular approach demonstrated the ability to rapidly detect and identify microorganisms unique to experimental treatments and provides a means to fingerprint microbial communities in the biosystems being developed at NASA for optimizing advanced life support operations.

NASA Discipline Life Support Systems↗
DOE OSTI2020

Artificial Intelligence for Natural Gas Utilities: A Primer

Modern natural gas utilities face numerous challenges and competing priorities from various stakeholders. Policymakers, customers, and advocacy groups want to see gas utilities improve performance on safety, reliability, resilience, affordability, and environmental stewardship. State utility regulators — public utility commissions — are responsible for overseeing utility performance, ensuring that ratepayer funds are being spent in the public interest, and aligning utility goals with public goals. The use of new technologies is critical to enabling cost-effective performance on these attributes. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a widely used term among utilities and regulators, but the term means different things to different stakeholders, and it is often used to describe data analytics approaches that fall short of the formal definition of AI, which is: “…the ability of a machine to receive inputs and produce a behavior or reaction similar to that of an intelligent human being.” AI (and related tools, techniques, and technologies) can help utilities solve current and emerging challenges. By combining customer and system data with analytical tools and technologies, AI can augment human decision-makers by assisting in identifying problems and events before they occur, enabling resources to be more efficiently directed across utility infrastructure. The intended primary audience for this primer is state regulators, although utilities and other stakeholders might also find it useful and relevant to improve their awareness of AI. The objectives of this primer are to: (a) offer a set of broadly applicable definitions for AI and related terms, allowing regulators, utilities, and other stakeholders to speak the same language; (b) discuss how AI is currently being implemented in the gas utility sector; and (c) understand the challenges affecting AI solutions and how tools might be implemented in the future. This primer fits within NARUC’s goals of providing impartial information to improve the ability of public utility commissions to regulate in the public interest. As such, this primer does not seek to recommend AI over any other investment, nor does it endorse any particular vendor, product, or approach. It does seek to prepare state regulators to oversee AI investments by sharing information about the current landscape of commercially available tools. To these ends, the primer is organized as follows: Section I discusses the current environment in which natural gas utilities operate and how AI, when thoughtfully designed and implemented, can enable utilities to achieve performance goals; Section II offers definitions of AI and related terms within the data analytics discipline; Section III provides three current opportunities for which AI can offer solutions: replacing aging gas distribution infrastructure, preventing excavator damage to gas distribution infrastructure, and improving energy efficiency programs. This section discusses each problem statement in detail. Second, Section III includes a discussion of how costs and benefits of investments to solve each problem are measured. And third, this section offers real-world examples of utility implementation of AI solutions; Section IV discusses challenges with implementing AI, both from the perspective of utilities and regulators; Section V suggests areas in which AI could feasibly be implemented in the near future; Finally, Section VI offers concluding thoughts and areas for further research.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Machine Intelligence to Detect, Characterise, and Defend against Influence Operations in the Information Environment

Social media has enabled a new era of manipulation in the information and cognitive domains. Deceptive content—misleading, falsified, and fabricated—is routinely created and spread in the modern social media environment with the intent to create confusion and widen political and social divides, and exploit the societal conflict exacerbated by these divides in the real-world (aka physical domain). Such disinformation campaigns demonstrate a threat to the integrity of economic, political, cultural, public health, and national security institutions around the world. In this work we overview our artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to detect, describe, and defend against information operations on Twitter as an example social platform to understand the influence of misleading and falsified content diffusion and better enable those charged with defending against such manipulation to enable responsive parties to counter it. We first present novel linguistically-informed deep learning (DL) models for misinformation and disinformation detection, and present an in-depth linguistic analysis of psycho-linguistic markers across broad deception categories. We then demonstrate how our models perform in the multilingual and multimodal setting and categorize falsified and misleading content based on the intent to deceive. We also provide a large-scale analysis to describe user behavior and spread patterns while engaging with deceptive content and report novel findings about the immediate diffusion of deceptive content by characterizing the vulnerable sub-populations and their demographics, and explicitly measuring speed and scale of deception spread to uncover who shares deceptive content, how quickly, how much, and how evenly. In addition, we measure audience reactions to misinformation and disinformation at scale, distinguishing the reactions of users identified as bots versus humans. Finally, we take advantage of deep translation and generation models to create unique solutions for real-time defense against digital deception and discuss how to apply causal inference to prescribe and intervene into strategic communications jointly across information, cognitive, and physical domains.

artificial intelligence, deep learning, neural lan↗
NASA NTRS1976

An experimental study for determining human discomfort response to roll vibration

An experimental study using a passenger ride quality apparatus (PRQA) was conducted to determine the subjective reactions of passengers to roll vibrations. The data obtained illustrate the effect upon human comfort of several roll-vibration parameters: namely, roll acceleration level, roll frequency, and seat location (i.e., distance from axis of rotation). Results of an analysis of variance indicated that seat location had no effect on discomfort ratings of roll vibrations. The effect of roll acceleration level was significant, and discomfort ratings increased markedly with increasing roll acceleration level at all roll frequencies investigated. Of particular interest, is the fact that the relationship between discomfort ratings and roll acceleration level was linear in nature. The effect of roll frequency also was significant as was the interaction between roll acceleration level and roll frequency.

Leatherwood, J. D.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Countermeasures to Neurobehavioral Deficits from Cumulative Partial Sleep Deprivation During Space Flight

This project is concerned with identifying ways to prevent neurobehavioral and physical deterioration due to inadequate sleep in astronauts during long-duration manned space flight. The performance capability of astronauts during extended-duration space flight depends heavily on achieving recovery through adequate sleep. Even with appropriate circadian alignment, sleep loss can erode fundamental elements of human performance capability including vigilance, cognitive speed and accuracy, working memory, reaction time, and physiological alertness. Adequate sleep is essential during manned space flight not only to ensure high levels of safe and effective human performance, but also as a basic regulatory biology critical to healthy human functioning. There is now extensive objective evidence that astronaut sleep is frequently restricted in space flight to averages between 4 hr and 6.5 hr/day. Chronic sleep restriction during manned space flight can occur in response to endogenous disturbances of sleep (motion sickness, stress, circadian rhythms), environmental disruptions of sleep (noise, temperature, light), and curtailment of sleep due to the work demands and other activities that accompany extended space flight operations. The mechanism through which this risk emerges is the development of cumulative homeostatic pressure for sleep across consecutive days of inadequate sleep. Research has shown that the physiological sleepiness and performance deficits engendered by sleep debt can progressively worsen (i.e., accumulate) over consecutive days of sleep restriction, and that sleep limited to levels commonly experienced by astronauts (i.e., 4 - 6 hr per night) for as little as 1 week, can result in increased lapses of attention, degradation of response times, deficits in complex problem solving, reduced learning, mood disturbance, disruption of essential neuroendocrine, metabolic, and neuroimmune responses, and in some vulnerable persons, the emergence of uncontrolled sleep attacks. The prevention of cumulative performance deficits and neuroendocrine disruption from sleep restriction during extended duration space flight involves finding the most effective ways to obtain sleep in order to maintain the high-level cognitive and physical performance functions required for manned space flight. There is currently a critical deficiency in knowledge of the effects of how variations in sleep duration and timing relate to the most efficient return of performance per unit time invested in sleep during long-duration missions, and how the nature of sleep physiology (i.e., sleep stages, sleep electroencephalographic [EEG] power spectral analyses) change as a function of sleep restriction and performance degradation. The primary aim of this project is to meet these critical deficiencies through utilization of a response surface experimental paradigm, testing in a dose-response manner, varying combinations of sleep duration and timing, for the purpose of establishing how to most effectively limit the cumulative adverse effects on human performance and physiology of chronic sleep restriction in space operations.

Dinges, David F.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Microgravity Investigation of Crew Reactions in 0-G (MICRO-G)

There is a need for a human factors, technology-based bioastronautics research effort to develop an integrated system that reduces risk and provides scientific knowledge of astronaut-induced loads and motions during long-duration missions on the International Space Station (ISS), which will lead to appropriate countermeasures. The primary objectives of the Microgravity Investigation of Crew Reactions in 0-G (MICRO-GI research effort are to quantify astronaut adaptation and movement as well as to model motor strategies for differing gravity environments. The overall goal of this research program is to improve astronaut performance and efficiency through the use of rigorous quantitative dynamic analysis, simulation and experimentation. The MICRO-G research effort provides a modular, kinetic and kinematic capability for the ISS. The collection and evaluation of kinematics (whole-body motion) and dynamics (reacting forces and torques) of astronauts within the ISS will allow for quantification of human motion and performance in weightlessness, gathering fundamental human factors information for design, scientific investigation in the field of dynamics and motor control, technological assessment of microgravity disturbances, and the design of miniaturized, real-time space systems. The proposed research effort builds on a strong foundation of successful microgravity experiments, namely, the EDLS (Enhanced Dynamics Load Sensors) flown aboard the Russian Mir space station (19961998) and the DLS (Dynamic Load Sensors) flown on Space Shuttle Mission STS-62. In addition, previously funded NASA ground-based research into sensor technology development and development of algorithms to produce three-dimensional (3-0) kinematics from video images have come to fruition and these efforts culminate in the proposed collaborative MICRO-G flight experiment. The required technology and hardware capitalize on previous sensor design, fabrication, and testing and can be flight qualified for a fraction of the cost of an initial spaceflight experiment. Four dynamic load sensors/restraints are envisioned for measurement of astronaut forces and torques. Two standard ISS video cameras record typical astronaut operations and prescribed IVA motions for 3-D kinematics. Forces and kinematics are combined for dynamic analysis of astronaut motion, exploiting the results of the detailed dynamic modeling effort for the quantitative verification of astronaut IVA performance, induced-loads, and adaptive control strategies for crewmember whole-body motion in microgravity. This comprehensive effort, provides an enhanced human factors approach based on physics-based modeling to identify adaptive performance during long-duration spaceflight, which is critically important for astronaut training as well as providing a spaceflight database to drive countermeasure design.

Newman, Dava↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Fixed-Bed Columns for Adsorption of C2H2 in Metal Organic Frameworks for Hydrogen Recovery in Long-Duration Human Space Flight

To live and work in space, astronauts must have a breathable atmosphere. Current life support system technology utilizes the electrolysis of water to recover O2 as the main method of Oxygen recovery. In addition, the Sabatier Reaction is used to recover H2O from the CO2 produced by human respiration. The current atmosphere revitalization architecture onboard the International Space Station (ISS) has an efficiency of approximately 54% oxygen recovery. Therefore, these systems require substantial resupplies of water to sustain this environment, which make long-duration space flight missions, such as Martian transit, expensive and difficult. In order to support these missions, oxygen recovery must exceed 75-90% efficiency. Additional research has shown that with the addition of a Plasma Pyrolysis system, CH4 produced by the Sabatier reaction may be broken down into H2 and C2H2 and the H2 may be recycled. However, the Hydrogen must be separated from the highly volatile C2H2. There are many potential separation methods. A promising method includes the adsorption of the C2H2 into Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) using Vacuum Swing Adsorption. Due to the fragile nature of the MOFs and hazards present in producing C2H2, the columns must have a design that is compatible to both materials and that has the potential to operate in extraterrestrial environments. Successful design and testing of this Hydrogen separation system would allow the PPA to be fully integrated into the current oxygen regeneration system, resulting in a theoretical O2 recovery of 91.3%.

Hannah K Davis↗
NASA NTRS1975

Static-kinetic reactions of man under conditions of brief weightlessness

Physical characteristics of human responses to weightlessness simulation during parabolic flights establish body immobilization and visual illusions as the most manifest causes of sensory distrubances. Repeated brief weightlessness exposures gradually decreased expressions of static-kinetic disorders.

Kolosov, I. A.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Autonomous Flow Electrochemistry for Accelerated Catalyst Discovery

Our objective is to develop an Autonomous Chemical Experimentation (ACE) platform that accelerates discovery of new catalytic transformations and other energy-relevant chemical reactions and processes. We intentionally designed ACE to be highly modular, both with respect to its rapid deployment to different chemistries and experimental workflows as well as incorporation of a wide range of different AI algorithms. In addition to the development of the core software architecture, initial efforts were made to incorporate Large Language Models to provide human-interpretable reasoning of the optimizer’s actions, and to develop a user-friendly graphical interface for experimental researchers. ACE was demonstrated using a flow electrocatalysis platform containing an inline FTIR spectrometer for real-time analysis and quantification of the reaction outcome. Human-in-the-loop experiments were performed in which a human researcher conducted an experiment using electrode potentials suggested by ACE, then fed the spectral data back to ACE for decision making. After confirming the successful function of the optimizer, efforts were next directed to automation of the hardware and performed full autonomy tests using three reactions: catalytic oxidation of formate, catalytic oxidation of cyclohexanol, and oxidation of hydroquinone. These studies confirm that ACE can close the loop between reaction execution, analysis, and optimization. They also reveal that more improved product detection methods will be essential for ACE to make well-informed decisions for reactions with low conversions.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
NASA NTRS2009

Extravehicular Activity Testing in Analog Environments: Evaluating the Effects of Center of Gravity and Environment on Human Performance

The EVA Physiology, Systems and Performance (EPSP) Project is performing tests in different analog environments to understand human performance during Extravehicular Activity (EVA) with the aim of developing more safe and efficient systems for lunar exploration missions and the Constellation Program. The project is characterizing human EVA performance in studies using several test beds, including the underwater NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) and Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) facilities, JSC fs Partial Gravity Simulator (POGO), and the NASA Reduced Gravity Office (RGO) parabolic flight aircraft. Using these varied testing environments, NASA can gain a more complete understanding of human performance issues related to EVA and the limitations of each testing environment. Tests are focused on identifying and understanding the EVA system factors that affect human performance such as center of gravity (CG), inertial mass, ground reaction forces (GRF), suit weight, and suit pressure. The test results will lead to the development of lunar EVA systems operations concepts and design requirements that optimize human performance and exploration capabilities. METHODS: Tests were conducted in the NBL and during NEEMO missions in the NOAA Aquarius Habitat. A reconfigurable back pack with repositionable mass was used to simulate Perfect, Low, Forward, High, Aft and NASA Baseline CG locations. Subjects performed simulated exploration tasks that included ambulation, kneel and recovery, rock pick-up, and shoveling. Testing using POGO, that simulates partial gravity via pneumatic weight offload system and a similar reconfigurable rig, is underway for a subset of the same tasks. Additionally, test trials are being performed on the RGO parabolic flight aircraft. Subject performance was assessed using a modified Cooper-Harper scale to assess operator compensation required to achieve desired performance. All CG locations are based on the assumption of a standardized 6 ft 180 lb subject. RESULTS: The modified Cooper-Harper Scale assesses desired task performance described as performance in a reduced gravity environment as compared to a 1G environment. Modified Cooper-Harper ratings of . 3 indicate no improvements are needed, ratings of 4-6 indicate improvements are desirable, and ratings . 7 indicate improvements are mandatory. DISCUSSION: Differences were noted in suited CH results based on environment at the same CG and suit pressure. Additionally, results suggest that CG location affects unsuited human performance. Subjects preferred locations near their natural CG over those that are high, aft, or a combination of high and aft. Further testing and analyses are planned to compare these unsuited results to suited performance.

Gernhardt, M.L.↗
NASA NTRS2010

What the Heck is Going On at NASA?

On February 1, 2010, the federal budget for Fiscal Year 2011 was released. NASA received an increase, unlike almost any other federal agency. At the same time, the budget revealed that the Constellation Program would be cancelled and that NASA would look to private sector providers for transportation of cargo, and eventually crew members, to the International Space Station. The Constellation Program had included a human return to the Moon by the year 2020, and the program plans called for a permanent surface facility capable of supporting human explorers. In the FY2011 announcement, the prescription of a lunar objective was replaced by a concept called flexible path that was advertised to open possibilities of other types of human missions beyond low Earth orbit. The policy direction has polarized the U.S. space community, where the reactions have been swift and polemical. The new policy has been described both as the death knell of human space exploration and as the only hope to save human space exploration. Some members of Congress have threatened legal action based on the current law regarding appropriation of funds to NASA, which states that Constellation cannot be cancelled without prior consultation with Congress. As might be expected, some of the reaction is directly related to losses or gains of jobs in districts associated with NASA facilities. However, various statements show high emotional content, suggesting that personal belief systems have been challenged. Meanwhile, many details of the new policy are not yet clear; and some aspects seem to be shifting in response to political reaction. The final direction for NASA will not be known until the FY2011 budget has been passed by Congress and signed by the President. I will draw upon my 28 years of studying, writing, and speaking on the topic of future human exploration beyond low Earth orbit to discuss the various issues at stake and the historical context for the debate. My own work has had a central theme of lunar exploration and development, but I have also come to believe that human exploration will never be more than a political sideshow until a significant economic sector can be created in space off of the Earth. Disclaimer: The views presented will be my own and in no way reflect official policies of the NASA.

Mendell, Wendell↗
DOE OSTI2024

Carbonic Anhydrase Variants Catalyze the Reduction of Dialkyl Ketones with High Enantioselectivity

Abstract Human carbonic anhydrase II (hCAII) naturally catalyzes the reaction between two achiral molecules—water and carbon dioxide—to yield the achiral product carbonic acid through a zinc hydroxide intermediate. We have previously shown that a zinc hydride, instead of a hydroxide, can be generated in this enzyme to create a catalyst for the reduction of aryl ketones. Dialkyl ketones are more challenging to reduce, and the enantioselective reduction of dialkyl ketones with two alkyl groups that are similar in size and electronic properties, is a particularly challenging transformation to achieve with high activity and selectivity. Here, we show that hCAII, as well as a double mutant of it, catalyzes the enantioselective reduction of dialkyl ketones with high yields and enantioselectivities, even when the two alkyl groups are similar in size. We also show that variants of hCAII catalyze the site‐selective reduction of one ketone over the other in an unsymmetrical aliphatic diketone. Computational docking of a dialkyl ketone to variants of hCAII containing the zinc hydride provides insights into the origins of the reactivity of various substrates and the high enantioselectivity of the transformations and show how a confined environment can control the enantioselectivity of an abiological intermediate.

Chen, Reichi↗
DOE OSTI2025

An unusual Co–S bond links B 12 chaperones in an interprotein complex

Chaperones in trafficking pathways ensure specificity of transition metal loading and protection against adventitious side reactions. In B 12 , an essential cofactor for humans, a cobalt ion is coordinated to a >1.3 kDa tetrapyrrolic scaffold, posing logistical challenges for its translocation. In this study, we report the 3.4 Å crystal structure of the human MMACHC and MMADHC B 12 chaperones, tethered via a rarely seen covalent cobalt–sulfur bond. B 12 is bound in the base-off state to MMACHC, with Cys-261 on MMADHC serving as the upper axial ligand; the lower-axial position is vacant. The propensity of thiolato-cobalamin derivatives bound to MMACHC to undergo spontaneous decomposition via general acid catalysis or reduction/oxidation chemistry is averted in the interprotein complex with MMADHC. An exposed face in the complex suggests an exit route for B 12 . No known clinical variants localize to the interprotein interface, consistent with the cobalt–sulfur bond being key to forming the high-affinity complex.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗
NASA NTRS1974

The problem of hypoxia, hyperoxia and hypercapnia in space physiology

The dynamics of basic functional systems and behavioral reactions depend on the oxygen regime of the human body when confined in pressurized compartments during space flight. Permissible concentrations of oxygen, carbon dioxide and other gases to avoid symptoms of hypoxia, hyperoxia and hypercapnia are discussed in relation to numerous human tolerance studies.

Agadzhanyan, N. A.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Task switching and response correspondence in the psychological refractory period paradigm

Three experiments examined the effects of task switching and response correspondence in a psychological refractory period paradigm. A letter task (vowel-consonant) and a digit task (odd-even) were combined to form 4 possible dual-task pairs in each trial: letter-letter, letter-digit, digit-digit, and digit-letter. Foreknowledge of task transition (repeat or switch) and task identity (letter or digit) was varied across experiments: no foreknowledge in Experiment 1, partial foreknowledge (task transition only) in Experiment 2, and full foreknowledge in Experiment 3. For all experiments, the switch cost for Task 2 was additive with stimulus onset asynchrony, and the response-correspondence effect for Task 2 was numerically smaller in the switch condition than in the repeat condition. These outcomes suggest that reconfiguration for Task 2 takes place after the central processing of Task 1 and that the crosstalk correspondence effect is due to response activation by way of stimulus-response associations.

Cognition↗
NASA NTRS2003

The effects of study-task relevance on perceptual repetition priming

Repetition priming is easily elicited in many traditional paradigms, and the possibility that perceptual priming may be other than an automatic consequence of perception has received little consideration. This issue is explored in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants named the target from a four-item category search study task more quickly than the nontarget study items at a later naming test. Experiment 2 extended this finding to conditions in which stimuli were individually presented at study. In three different study tasks, stimuli relevant to study-task completion elicited priming on a later test, but stimuli presented outside the context of a task did not. In both experiments, recognition was above chance for nonrelevant stimuli, suggesting that participants explicitly remembered stimuli that did not elicit priming. Results suggest that priming is sensitive to study-task demands and may reflect a more adaptive and flexible mechanism for modification of perceptual processing than previously appreciated.

Visual Perception↗
NASA NTRS2002

An expert system for fault management assistance on a space sleep experiment

The expert system, Principal Investigator-in-a-box, or [PI], was designed to assist astronauts or other operators in performing experiments outside their expertise. Currently, the software helps astronauts calibrate instruments for a Sleep and Respiration Experiment without contact with the investigator on the ground. It flew on the Space Shuttle missions STS-90 and STS-95. [PI] displays electrophysiological signals in real time, alerts astronauts via the indicator lights when a poor signal quality is detected, and advises astronauts how to restore good signal quality. Thirty subjects received training on the sleep instrumentation and the [PI] interface. A beneficial effects of [PI] and training reduced troubleshooting time. [PI] benefited subjects on the most difficult scenarios, even though its lights were not 100% accurate. Further, questionnaires showed that most subjects preferred monitoring waveforms with [PI] assistance rather than monitoring waveforms alone. This study addresses problems of complex troubleshooting and the extended time between training and execution that is common to many human operator situations on earth such as in power plant operation, and marine exploration.

NASA Discipline Neuroscience↗