Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Storage Futures”

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 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Lessons Learned From Designing and Building Low Organic Outgassing Cleanrooms for NASA OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2 Curation Facility

NASA Johnson Space Center Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office completed construction and commissioning of the OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2 cleanroom laboratory suites along with new precision cleaning and advanced curation laboratories consisting of ISO Class 5, 6, and 7 cleanrooms. The new curation facilities are designed for initial receiving, basic characterization, curation processing, and preliminary examination of carbonaceous asteroidal material. The facilities are also designed to enable long-term pristine sample storage to preserve the scientific integrity of each sample to enable future research by the international science community. The scientific study of organics is critical for both missions. The OSIRIS-REx mission instituted a stringent contamination control plan for low organics. Given these mission requirements and long-term storage preservation requirements, cleanroom construction materials were carefully selected to not hinder the scientific search for amino acids and the study of organics in the samples. Cleanroom candidate construction materials were researched for the HVAC system, floors, walls, ceiling, and plenum areas. The team chose several candidate materials that were further tested for their specific outgassing characteristics using ASTM E-595 per ASTM E-2312. The information gained provided the foundation for the final design selection of the cleanroom materials. While material selection is important before and during the facility design phase, the construction phase is where these choices are implemented by the prime construction contractor through final product and material submittals. These submittals are the last check point and changes are often submitted due to engineering/construction conflicts, especially when renovating an existing building. Any new material or equipment/product change must be identified and scrutinized for low particulate shedding and outgassing properties. In some cases, quick testing of new material is required, and compromises must be made in real-time. Careful selection and implementation of cleanroom materials significantly reduced organic and inorganic contamination beyond normal cleanroom baselines.

astromaterials curation↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Lessons Learned From Designing and Building Low Organic Outgassing Cleanrooms for NASA OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2 Curation Facility

NASA Johnson Space Center Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office completed construction and commissioning of the OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2 cleanroom laboratory suites along with new precision cleaning and advanced curation laboratories consisting of ISO Class 5, 6, and 7 cleanrooms. The new curation facilities are designed for initial receiving, basic characterization, curation processing, and preliminary examination of carbonaceous asteroidal material. The facilities are also designed to enable long-term pristine sample storage to preserve the scientific integrity of each sample to enable future research by the international science community. The scientific study of organics is critical for both missions. The OSIRIS-REx mission instituted a stringent contamination control plan for low organics. Given these mission requirements and long-term storage preservation requirements, cleanroom construction materials were carefully selected to not hinder the scientific search for amino acids and the study of organics in the samples. Cleanroom candidate construction materials were researched for the HVAC system, floors, walls, ceiling, and plenum areas. The team chose several candidate materials that were further tested for their specific outgassing characteristics using ASTM E-595 per ASTM E-2312. The information gained provided the foundation for the final design selection of the cleanroom materials. While material selection is important before and during the facility design phase, the construction phase is where these choices are implemented by the prime construction contractor through final product and material submittals. These submittals are the last check point and changes are often submitted due to engineering/construction conflicts, especially when renovating an existing building. Any new material or equipment/product change must be identified and scrutinized for low particulate shedding and outgassing properties. In some cases, quick testing of new material is required, and compromises must be made in real-time. Careful selection and implementation of cleanroom materials significantly reduced organic and inorganic contamination beyond normal cleanroom baselines.

astromaterials curation↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Analysis of Oxygen Liquefaction with Transient Flow Rates for ISRU Systems

Human occupation of lunar and Martian surfaces requires in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) to create a sustainable environment with the limited resources available in space. Fuel and oxidizer generation is essential for developing a refueling capability for spacecraft, significantly reducing the propellant mass required for landing. Liquefaction systems are a key step in producing and storing cryogenic liquids such as oxygen, hydrogen, and methane. All those fluids are critical to propulsion, life support, and other spacecraft systems. NASA has previously confirmed the presence of water on the Moon and an electrolysis process can be used to separate the oxygen from the hydrogen molecules. Oxygen has also been found within lunar regolith and can be separated through ISRU processes. The extracted oxygen gas can then be liquefied inside a storage tank with tube-on-tank heat exchangers for future use as an oxidizer for propellants. While steady state liquefaction performance is easy to model, power limitations and cyclical environments caused by the change in Sun exposure between day and night periods potentially call for transient operations. The following analysis was performed using the Thermal Desktop software to investigate how various transient gaseous oxygen (GOX) flow rates impact the production and storage of liquid oxygen (LOX) in a 1-g liquefaction system. Variations of sinusoidal and exponential step functions were selected to model potential GOX flow rates that could be experienced by ISRU systems on lunar or Martian surfaces. This early computational analysis provides some insight on how transient operations impact oxygen liquefaction systems and helps illustrate operational questions to explore experimentally throughout the design process.

Cryogenic Fluid Management↗
NASA NTRS2011

Design of Multilayer Insulation for the Multipurpose Hydrogen Test Bed

Multilayer insulation (MLI) is a critical component for future, long term space missions. These missions will require the storage of cryogenic fuels for extended periods of time with little to no boil-off and MLI is vital due to its exceptional radiation shielding properties. Several MLI test articles were designed and fabricated which explored methods of assembling and connecting blankets, yielding results for evaluation. Insight gained, along with previous design experience, will be used in the design of the replacement blanket for the Multipurpose Hydrogen Test Bed (MHTB), which is slated for upcoming tests. Future design considerations are discussed which include mechanical testing to determine robustness of such a system, as well as cryostat testing of samples to give insight to the loss of thermal performance of sewn panels in comparison to the highly efficient, albeit laborious application of the original MHTB blanket.

Marlow, Weston A.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Technology Applications that Support Space Exploration

Several enabling technologies have been identified that would provide significant benefits for future space exploration. In-Space demonstrations should be chosen so that these technologies will have a timely opportunity to improve efficiencies and reduce risks for future spaceflight. An early window exists to conduct ground and flight demonstrations that make use of existing assets that were developed for the Space Shuttle and the Constellation programs. The work could be mostly performed using residual program civil servants, existing facilities and current commercial launch capabilities. Partnering these abilities with the emerging commercial sector, along with other government agencies, academia and with international partners would provide an affordable and timely approach to get the launch costs down for these payloads, while increasing the derived benefits to a larger community. There is a wide scope of varied technologies that are being considered to help future space exploration. However, the cost and schedule would be prohibitive to demonstrate all these in the near term. Determining which technologies would yield the best return in meeting our future space needs is critical to building an achievable Space Architecture that allows exploration beyond Low Earth Orbit. The best mix of technologies is clearly to be based on our future needs, but also must take into account the availability of existing assets and supporting partners. Selecting those technologies that have complimentary applications will provide the most knowledge, with reasonable cost, for future use The plan is to develop those applications that not only mature the technology but actually perform a useful task or mission. These might include such functions as satellite servicing, a propulsion stage, processing lunar regolith, generating and transmitting solar power, cryogenic fluid transfer and storage and artificial gravity. Applications have been selected for assessment for future consideration and are addressed in this paper. These applications have been made available to the various NASA study groups that are determining the next steps the Agency must take to secure a sound foundation for future space exploration The paper also addresses how follow-on demonstrations, as launch performance grows, can build on the earlier applications to provide increased benefits for both the commercial and scientific communities. The architecture of incrementally building upon previous successes and insights dramatically lowers the overall associated risk for developing and maturing the key enabling technologies. The goal is to establish a potential business case that encourages commercial activity, thereby reducing the cost for the demonstration while using the technology maturation in developing readiness for future space exploration with overall less risk.

Henderson, Edward M.↗
NASA NTRS2025

Airports as Energy Nodes Activity Summary

Advanced aircraft concepts that use non-traditional aviation energy storage methods such as batteries or cryogenic hydrogen are in development and expected to enter regular service at airports worldwide within the next decade. The energy needs for these aircraft may quickly overwhelm the existing energy infrastructure at airports, particularly at smaller and more remote facilities. Without energy upgrades, these airports will not be able to host these advanced vehicles, but without the advanced vehicle traffic, these airports will not have the rationale or funding to build up their energy infrastructure. The Airports as Energy Nodes (ÆNodes) activity, a collaboration between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), was executed to understand and model the energy needs that advanced aircraft concepts may levy on these smaller airports, determine cost-effective approaches to enhance the airport energy infrastructure, and demonstrate the enhanced resilience of these energy infrastructure upgrades to the airport and surrounding community via “digital twin” simulation at relevant energy and dynamic time scales. The ÆNodes team also investigated future reference aircraft designs and materials to enable cryogenic hydrogen storage for aircraft. The ÆNodes team conducted analysis at two U.S. airport partner sites — Winchester Regional Airport in Winchester, Virginia, and Tweed/New Haven Airport in New Haven, Connecticut. The goal of this partnership was to develop data and reference infrastructure designs that could accommodate advanced aircraft in the future at these airports while also enhancing the resiliency of the energy supply to the surrounding airport community, which could be used to capture funding to enable the infrastructure upgrades. Over the course of the study, a method was developed to estimate air traffic requiring advanced energy services over the course of a year using a mix of historical data and companion studies on advanced aircraft transportation networks. The study has concluded at NASA but continues at NREL, who will develop a final report discussing the energy infrastructure upgrades and digital twin results. Preliminary results indicate that unrestricted adoption of advanced battery-electric aircraft may double traffic at these airports and increase peak daily power usage by an order of magnitude, while increase electricity energy needs by a factor of two to four. The infrastructure upgrades necessary to accommodate these increased energy needs could be used to provide enhanced energy services to the airport community to offset the cost and increase the utility of the upgrades, which will be described in the NREL final report.

Airports↗
NASA NTRS1979

Spacecraft automated operations

Trends in automation of planetary spacecraft are examined using data from missions as far back as Mariner '67 and up to the highly sophisticated Galileo. Nine design considerations which influence the degree of automation such as protection against catastrophic failures, highly repetitive functions, loss of spacecraft communications, and the need for near-real-time adaptivity are discussed. Rapid growth of automation is shown in terms of on-board hardware by plots of number of processors on board, the average speed of processors, and total core memory. The number of commands transmitted from the ground has grown to 5 million bits in Voyager, so that increases in mission complexity have increased both in spacecraft automation and ground operations. Achieving greater automation by transferring ground operations to the spacecraft with the current means of controlling missions, are considered noting proposed changes. For the future, improved computer technology, more microprocessors and increased core storage will be used, and the number of automated functions and their complexity will grow. It is concluded that using the growing computational capability of spacecraft will achieve more autonomy thus reversing the trend of increased mission complexity and cost.

Bird, T. H.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Photovoltaic power for a lunar base

A lunar base is an attractive option for space exploration plans early in the next century. The primary options for a lunar base power system are solar and nuclear. This paper details the requirements for a photovoltaic powered lunar base. Topics covered are (1) requirements for power during the lunar day and during the night, (2) solar cells, present and future availability, efficiency, specific power, and temperature sensitivity, (3) storage options for the lunar night, (4) arrays and system integration, and (5) the potential for production of photovoltaic arrays and storage capability from locally available materials.

Landis, Geoffrey A.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Storage system software solutions for high-end user needs

Today's high-end storage user is one that requires rapid access to a reliable terabyte-capacity storage system running in a distributed environment. This paper discusses conventional storage system software and concludes that this software, designed for other purposes, cannot meet high-end storage requirements. The paper also reviews the philosophy and design of evolving storage system software. It concludes that this new software, designed with high-end requirements in mind, provides the potential for solving not only the storage needs of today but those of the foreseeable future as well.

Hogan, Carole B.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Study of Acoustic Emissions from Composites

The nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of future propulsion systems utilizing advanced composite structures for the storage of cryogenic fuels, such as liquid hydrogen or oxygen, presents many challenges. Economic justification for these structures requires light weight, reusable components with an infrastructure allowing periodic evaluation of structural integrity after enduring demanding stresses during operation. A major focus has been placed on the use of acoustic emission NDE to detect propagating defects, in service, necessitating an extensive study into characterizing the nature of acoustic signal propagation at very low temperatures and developing the methodology of applying AE sensors to monitor cryogenic components. This work addresses the question of sensor performance in the cryogenic environment. Problems involving sensor mounting, spectral response and durability are addressed. The results of this work provides a common point of measure from which sensor selection can be made when testing composite components at cryogenic temperatures.

Walker, James L.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Study Acoustic Emissions from Composites

The nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of future propulsion systems utilizing advanced composite structures for the storage of cryogenic fuels, such as liquid hydrogen or oxygen, presents many challenges. Economic justification for these structures requires, light weight, reusable components with an infrastructure allowing periodic evaluation of structural integrity after enduring demanding stresses during operation. A major focus has been placed on the use of acoustic emission NDE to detect propagating defects, in service, necessitating an extensive study into characterizing the nature of acoustic signal propagation at very low temperatures and developing the methodology of applying AE sensors to monitor cryogenic components. This work addresses the question of sensor performance in the cryogenic environment. Problems involving sensor mounting, spectral response and durability are addressed. The results of this work provides a common point of measure from which sensor selection can be made when testing composite components at cryogenic temperatures.

Walker, James L.↗
NASA NTRS2001

The Need for Optical Means as an Alternative for Electronic Computing

An increasing demand for faster computers is rapidly growing to encounter the fast growing rate of Internet, space communication, and robotic industry. Unfortunately, the Very Large Scale Integration technology is approaching its fundamental limits beyond which the device will be unreliable. Optical interconnections and optical integrated circuits are strongly believed to provide the way out of the extreme limitations imposed on the growth of speed and complexity of nowadays computations by conventional electronics. This paper demonstrates two ultra-fast, all-optical logic gates and a high-density storage medium, which are essential components in building the future optical computer.

Adbeldayem, Hossin↗
NASA NTRS2003

Electrical Systems Analysis at NASA Glenn Research Center: Status and Prospects

An analysis of an electrical power and propulsion system for a 2-place general aviation aircraft is presented to provide a status of such modeling at NASA Glenn Research Center. The thermodynamic/ electrical model and mass prediction tools are described and the resulting system power and mass are shown. Three technology levels are used to predict the effect of advancements in component technology. Methods of fuel storage are compared by mass and volume. Prospects for future model development and validation at NASA as well as possible applications are also summarized.

Freeh, Joshua E.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Properties and Performance Attributes of Novel Co-Extruded Polyolefin Battery Separator Materials: Mechanical Properties - Part 1

As NASA prepares for its next era of manned spaceflight missions, advanced energy storage technologies are being developed and evaluated to address future mission needs and technical requirements and to provide new mission-enabling technologies. Cell-level components for advanced lithium-ion batteries possessing higher energy, more reliable performance and enhanced, inherent safety characteristics are actively under development within the NASA infrastructure. A key component for safe and reliable cell performance is the cell separator, which separates the two energetic electrodes and functions to prevent the occurrence of an internal short-circuit while enabling ionic transport. Recently, a new generation of co-extruded separator films has been developed by ExxonMobil Chemical and introduced into their battery separator product portfolio. Several grades of this new separator material have been evaluated with respect to dynamic mechanical properties and safety-related performance attributes. This paper presents the results of these evaluations in comparison to a current state-ofthe-practice separator material. The results are discussed with respect to potential opportunities to enhance the inherent safety characteristics and reliability of future, advanced lithium-ion cell chemistries.

Baldwin, Richard S.↗
NASA NTRS2010

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Budget Estimates, Fiscal Year 2011

The Budget includes three new robust exploration programs: (1) Technology demonstration program, $7.8 five years. Funds the development and demonstration of technologies that reduce the cost and expand the capabilities of future exploration activities, including in-orbit refueling and storage. (2) Heavy-Lift and Propulsion R&D, $3.1 billion over five years. Funds R&D for new launch systems, propellants, materials, and combustion processes. (3) Robotic precursor missions, $3.0 billion over five years. Funds cost-effective means to scout exploration targets and identify hazards and resources for human visitation and habitation. In addition, the Budget enhances the current Human Research Program by 42%; and supports the Participatory Exploration Program at 5 million per year for activities across many NASA programs.

Civil space programs↗
NASA NTRS2023

Thermal Desktop Modeling of the RRM3 On-Orbit Cryogenic Methane Storage and Active Cooling Experiment

The storing of cryogenic propellants is an enabling technology for NASA as it moves to expand future missions into low Earth orbit (LEO) and beyond. The Robotic Refueling Mission–3 (RRM3) experiment launched in 2018 and was designed to demonstrate tank self-pressurization during storage and active cooling of liquid methane in microgravity. Creating accurate models using existing datasets from flight experiments such as RRM3 is a vital step toward developing appropriate modeling tools to form pre-test predictions for future flight systems. The goal of this work was to create a working model in Thermal Desktop of the RRM3 source Dewar during the microgravity self-pressurization experiment. The pressure rise, temperature distribution of the fluid inside the tank, and the wall temperatures were all tracked and compared with test data. Initial results show good agreement between each of these metrics and the experimental results. This work is ongoing and will yield further insights into the thermal behavior of cryogens in microgravity.

Tank self-pressurization↗
NASA NTRS1991

Key issues in space nuclear power

The future appears rich in missions that will extend the frontiers of knowledge, human presence in space, and opportunities for profitable commerce. Key to the success of these ventures is the availability of plentiful, cost effective electric power and assured, low cost access to space. While forecasts of space power needs are problematic, an assessment of future needs based on terrestrial experience has been made. These needs fall into three broad categories: survival, self sufficiency, and industrialization. The cost of delivering payloads to orbital locations from LEO to Mars has been determined and future launch cost reductions projected. From these factors, then, projections of the performance necessary for future solar and nuclear space power options has been made. These goals are largely dependent upon orbital location and energy storage needs. Finally the cost of present space power systems has been determined and projections made for future systems.

Brandhorst, Henry W.↗