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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 NTRS2004

JPL's Approach for Helping Flight Project Managers Meet Today's Management Challenges

All across NASA project managers are facing tough new challenges. NASA has imposed increased oversight and the number of projects at Centers such as JPL has exploded from a handful of large projects to a much greater number of smaller ones. Experienced personnel are retiring at increasing rates and younger, less experienced managers are being rapidly promoted up the ladder. Budgets are capped, competition among NASA Centers and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) has increased significantly and there is no longer any tolerance to cost overruns. On top of all this, implementation schedules have been reduced by 25 to 50% to reduce run-out costs, making it even more difficult to define requirements, validate heritage assumptions and make accurate cost estimates during the early phases of the life-cycle.JPL's executive management, under the leadership of the Associate Director for Flight Projects and Mission Success, have attempted to meet these challenges by improving operations in five areas: (1) increased standardization, where it is judged to have significant benefit; (2) better balance and more effective partnering between projects and the line management; (3) increased infrastructure support; (4) improved management training; and (5) more effective review and oversight.

oversights↗
NASA NTRS2004

GeoSTAR - A Synthetic Aperture Microwave Sounder for Geostationary Missions

The Geostationary Synthetic Thinned Aperture Radiometer (GeoSTAR) is a new microwave atmospheric sounder under development. It will bring capabilities similar to those now available on low-earth orbiting environmental satellites to geostationary orbit - where such capabilities have not been available. GeoSTAR will synthesize the multimeter aperture needed to achieve the required spatial resolution, which will overcome the obstacle that has prevented a GEO microwave sounder from being implemented until now. The synthetic aperture approach has until recently not been feasible, due to the high power needed to operate the on-board high-speed massively parallel processing system required for 2D-synthesis, as well as a number of system and calibration obstacles. The development effort under way at JPL, with important contributions from the Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Michigan, is intended to demonstrate the measurement concept and retire much of the technology risk.

geostationary↗
NASA NTRS2007

Application of Risk within Net Present Value Calculations for Government Projects

In January 2004, President Bush announced a new vision for space exploration. This included retirement of the current Space Shuttle fleet by 2010 and the development of new set of launch vehicles. The President's vision did not include significant increases in the NASA budget, so these development programs need to be cost conscious. Current trade study procedures address factors such as performance, reliability, safety, manufacturing, maintainability, operations, and costs. It would be desirable, however, to have increased insight into the cost factors behind each of the proposed system architectures. This paper reports on a set of component trade studies completed on the upper stage engine for the new launch vehicles. Increased insight into architecture costs was developed by including a Net Present Value (NPV) method and applying a set of associated risks to the base parametric cost data. The use of the NPV method along with the risks was found to add fidelity to the trade study and provide additional information to support the selection of a more robust design architecture.

Grandl, Paul R.↗
NASA NTRS2007

An Exploration Perspective of Beamed Energy Propulsion

The Vision for Exploration is currently focused on flying the Space Shuttle safely to complete our Space Station obligations, retiring the Shuttle in 2010, then returning humans to the Moon and learning how to proceed to Mars and beyond. The NASA budget still includes funds for science and aeronautics but the primary focus is on human exploration. Fiscal constraints have led to pursuing exploration vehicles that use heritage hardware, particularly existing boosters and engines, with the minimum modifications necessary to satisfy mission requirements. So, pursuit of immature technologies is not currently affordable by NASA. Beamed energy is one example of an immature technology, from a human exploration perspective, that may eventually provide significant benefits for human exploration of space, but likely not in the near future. Looking to the more distant future, this paper will examine some of the criteria that must be achieved by beamed energy propulsion to eventually contribute to human exploration of the solar system. The analysis focuses on some of the implications of increasing the payload fraction of a launch vehicle, with a quick look at trans-lunar injection. As one would expect, there is potential for benefit, and there are concerns. The analysis concludes with an assessment of the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) for some beamed energy propulsion components, indicating that TRL 2 is close to being completed.

Cole, John W.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Constellation Program Flight Test Methodology and Strategy

Main projects elements: a) Orion & Ares b) New & Modified heritage hardware. c) Shuttle retirement in 2010. Methodology: a) Flight test objectives. b) Risk reduction. Strategy a) Mapping Flight Test Objectives. b) Build incremental capability.

Vigil, Art↗
NASA NTRS2008

On the Shoulders of Giants - Apollo's Contribution to Ares

It has been over 35 years since NASA developed new human spaceflight capabilities. As NASA builds vehicles to once again venture beyond Earth's orbit, it has the advantage of a powerful legacy of seasoned professionals who have already been there. Apollo-era veterans are lending their knowledge and expertise to nearly every aspect of the new Ares I crew launch vehicle and the Ares V cargo launch vehicle, from management to design and manufacturing techniques. Through group discussions, personal interviews, and consultant relationships, these talented individuals are sharing their "lessons lived" to help a new generation of engineers repeat the successes and avoid some of the pitfalls of America's first journeys to the Moon. In addition to learning from resident and retired experts, Ares will draw on legacy facilities, tooling, and hardware like the J-2 engine from the Apollo era and the Reusable Solid Rocket Boosters from the Space Shuttle Program. NASA needs to re-learn the skills required to send astronauts to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The new Ares team is training with the best and building on the work of their eminent predecessors. They are standing on the shoulders of giants to see a future that is bright with possibilities on the space frontier.

Cook, Stephen A.↗
NASA NTRS2008

NASA's Elementary and Secondary Education Program: Review and Critique

The federal role in precollege science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is receiving increasing attention in light of the need to support public understanding of science and to develop a strong scientific and technical workforce in a competitive global economy. Federal science agencies, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), are being looked to as a resource for enhancing precollege STEM education and bringing more young people to scientific and technical careers. For NASA and other federal science agencies, concerns about workforce and public understanding of science also have an immediate local dimension. The agency faces an aerospace workforce skewed toward those close to retirement and job recruitment competition for those with science and engineering degrees. In addition, public support for the agency s missions stems in part from public understanding of the importance of the agency s contributions in science, engineering, and space exploration.

Quinn, Helen R.↗
NASA NTRS2008

NASA Perspective on Requirements for Development of Advanced Methods Predicting Unsteady Aerodynamics and Aeroelasticity

Over the past three years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has initiated design, development, and testing of a new human-rated space exploration system under the Constellation Program. Initial designs within the Constellation Program are scheduled to replace the present Space Shuttle, which is slated for retirement within the next three years. The development of vehicles for the Constellation system has encountered several unsteady aerodynamics challenges that have bearing on more traditional unsteady aerodynamic and aeroelastic analysis. This paper focuses on the synergy between the present NASA challenges and the ongoing challenges that have historically been the subject of research and method development. There are specific similarities in the flows required to be analyzed for the space exploration problems and those required for some of the more nonlinear unsteady aerodynamic and aeroelastic problems encountered on aircraft. The aggressive schedule, significant technical challenge, and high-priority status of the exploration system development is forcing engineers to implement existing tools and techniques in a design and application environment that is significantly stretching the capability of their methods. While these methods afford the users with the ability to rapidly turn around designs and analyses, their aggressive implementation comes at a price. The relative immaturity of the techniques for specific flow problems and the inexperience with their broad application to them, particularly on manned spacecraft flight system, has resulted in the implementation of an extensive wind tunnel and flight test program to reduce uncertainty and improve the experience base in the application of these methods. This provides a unique opportunity for unsteady aerodynamics and aeroelastic method developers to test and evaluate new analysis techniques on problems with high potential for acquisition of test and even flight data against which they can be evaluated. However, researchers may be required to alter the geometries typically used in their analyses, the types of flows analyzed, and even the techniques by which computational tools are verified and validated. This paper discusses these issues and provides some perspective on the potential for new and innovative approaches to the development of methods to attack problems in nonlinear unsteady aerodynamics.

Schuster, David M.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Civil Service Workforce Market Supply and the Effect on the Cost Estimating Relationships (CERs) that may effect the Productivity Factors for Future NASA Missions

The upcoming retirement of the Baby Boomers on the horizon will leave a performance gap between younger generation (the future NASA decision makers) and the gray beards. This paper will reflect on the average age of workforce across NASA Centers, the Aerospace Industry and other Government Agencies, like DoD. This papers will dig into Productivity and Realization Factors and how they get applied to bimonthly (payroll data) for true FTE calculations that could be used at each of the NASA Centers and other business systems that are on the forefront in being implemented. This paper offers some comparative costs solutions, from simple - full time equivalent (FTE) cost estimating relationships CERs, to complex - CERs for monthly time-phasing activities for small research projects that start and get completed within a government fiscal year. This paper will present the results of a parametric study investigating the cost-effectiveness of different alternatives performance based cost estimating relationships (CERs) and how they get applied into the Center s forward pricing rate proposals (FPRP). True CERs based on the relationship of a younger aged workforce will have some effects on labor rates used in both commercial cost models and internal home-grown cost models which may impact the productivity factors for future NASA missions.

Sterk, Steve↗
NASA NTRS2006

ISS Utilization for Exploration-Class Missions

Exercise countermeasures are the most commonly utilized approach for maintaining the health and performance of astronauts during spaceflight missions. However, International Space Station (ISS) exercise countermeasure hardware reliability and prescriptions are not at a point of departure to support exploration-class missions. The JSC Exercise Countermeasures Project (ECP) plans to use ISS as a research and hardware evaluation platform to define and validate improved exercise hardware, prescriptions, and monitoring strategies to support crewmember operations on the Moon and Mars. The ECP will partner with JSC's Space Medicine Division to standardize elements of ISS exercise prescriptions to better understand their efficacy and to propose modified prescriptions for implementation that may be used in the crew exploration vehicle and/or lunar habitat. In addition, evaluations of the ISS treadmill harness will be conducted to define and improve fit and function, and assess the next generation medical monitoring devices such as the portable unit for metabolic analysis and the muscle atrophy research and exercise system for completion of periodic fitness evaluations during lunar and Mars travel. Finally, biomechanical data from ISS crew exercise sessions will be obtained to better understand loading and restraint systems, and identify the physiologic requirements during ISS extravehicular activities that may be analogous to extended excursions from the lunar habitat. It is essential to optimize exercise prescriptions, hardware, and monitoring strategies for exploration initiatives using ISS as a platform before the planned retirement of the Shuttle in 2010 and the declining NASA emphasis on ISS to maximize knowledge before embarking on travel to the Moon and Mars.

FIncke, R.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Safety and Mission Assurance Knowledge Management Retention

This viewgraph presentation reviews the issues surrounding the management of knowledge in regards to safety and mission assurance. The JSC workers who were hired in the 1960's are slated to retire in the next two to three years. The experiences and knowledge of these NASA workers must be identified, and disseminated. This paper reviews some of the strategies that the S&MA is developing to capture that valuable institutional knowledge.

Johnson, Teresa A.↗
NASA NTRS2008

NASA's Ares I and Ares V Launch Vehicles--Effective Space Operations Through Efficient Ground Operations

The United States (U.S.) is charting a renewed course for lunar exploration, with the fielding of a new human-rated space transportation system to replace the venerable Space Shuttle, which will be retired after it completes its missions of building the International Space Station (ISS) and servicing the Hubble Space Telescope. Powering the future of space-based scientific exploration will be the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle, which will transport the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle to orbit where it will rendezvous with the Altair Lunar Lander, which will be delivered by the Ares V Cargo Launch Vehicle (fig. 1). This configuration will empower rekindled investigation of Earth's natural satellite in the not too distant future. This new exploration infrastructure, developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), will allow astronauts to leave low-Earth orbit (LEO) for extended lunar missions and preparation for the first long-distance journeys to Mars. All space-based operations - to LEO and beyond - are controlled from Earth. NASA's philosophy is to deliver safe, reliable, and cost-effective architecture solutions to sustain this multi-billion-dollar program across several decades. Leveraging SO years of lessons learned, NASA is partnering with private industry and academia, while building on proven hardware experience. This paper outlines a few ways that the Engineering Directorate at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is working with the Constellation Program and its project offices to streamline ground operations concepts by designing for operability, which reduces lifecycle costs and promotes sustainable space exploration.

Singer, Christopher E.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Summary of Liquid Propulsion System Needs in Support of the Constellation Program

In January 2004, the President of the United States established the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) to complete the International Space Station, retire the Space Shuttle and develop its replacement, and expand the human presence on the Moon as a stepping stone to human exploration of Mars and worlds beyond. In response, NASA developed the Constellation Program, consisting of the components shown in Figure 1. This paper will summarize the manned spaceflight liquid propulsion system needs in support of the Constellation Program over the next 10 years. It will address all liquid engine needs to support human exploration from low Earth orbit (LEO) to the lunar surface, including an overview of engines currently under contract, those baselined but not yet under contract, and those propulsion needs that have yet to be initiated. There may be additional engine needs for early demonstrators, but those will not be addressed as part of this paper. Also, other portions of the VSE architecture, including the planned Orion abort test boosters and the Lunar Precursor Robotic Program, are not addressed here as they either use solid motors or are focused on unmanned elements of returning humans to the Moon.

Lorier, Terry↗
NASA NTRS2008

Operational Concept for the NASA Constellation Program's Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle

Ares I design brings together innovation and new technologies with established infrastructure and proven heritage hardware to achieve safe, reliable, and affordable human access to space. NASA has 50 years of experience from Apollo and Space Shuttle. The Marshall Space Flight Center's Mission Operations Laboratory is leading an operability benchmarking effort to compile operations and supportability lessons learned from large launch vehicle systems, both domestically and internationally. Ares V will be maturing as the Shuttle is retired and the Ares I design enters the production phase. More details on the Ares I and Ares V will be presented at SpaceOps 2010 in Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.A., April 2010.

Best, Joel↗
NASA NTRS2008

NASA's Ares I and Ares V Launch Vehicles -- Effective Space Operations Through Efficient Ground Operations

The United States (U.S.) plans to return to the Moon by 2020, with the development of a new human-rated space transportation system to replace the Space Shuttle, which is due for retirement in 2010 after it completes its missions of building the International Space Station and servicing the Hubble Space Telescope. Powering the future of space-based scientific exploration will be the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle, which will transport the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle to orbit where it will rendezvous with the Lunar Lander. which will be delivered by the Ares V Cargo Launch Vehicle. This new transportation infrastructure, developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), will allow astronauts to leave low-Earth orbit for extended lunar exploration and preparation for the first footprint on Mars. All space-based operations begin and are controlled from Earth. NASA's philosophy is to deliver safe, reliable, and cost-effective solutions to sustain a multi-billion-dollar program across several decades. Leveraging 50 years of lessons learned, NASA is partnering with private industry, while building on proven hardware experience. This paper will discuss how the Engineering Directorate at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is working with the Ares Projects Office to streamline ground operations concepts and reduce costs. Currently, NASA's budget is around $17 billion, which is less than 1 percent of the U.S. Federal budget. Of this amount, NASA invests approximately $4.5 billion each year in Space Shuttle operations, regardless of whether the spacecraft is flying or not. The affordability requirement is for the Ares I to reduce this expense by 50 percent, in order to allow NASA to invest more in space-based scientific operations. Focusing on this metric, the Engineering Directorate provides several solutions-oriented approaches, including Lean/Six Sigma practices and streamlined hardware testing and integration, such as assembling major hardware elements before shipping to the Kennedy Space Center for launch operations. This paper provides top-level details for several cost saving initiatives, including both process and product improvements that will result in space transportation systems that are designed with operations efficiencies in mind. The Engineering Directorate provides both the intellectual capital embodied in an experienced workforce and unique facilities in which to validate the information technology tools that allow a nationwide team to collaboratively connect across miles that separate them and the engineering disciplines that integrate various piece parts into a whole system. As NASA transforms ground-based operations, it also is transitioning its workforce from an era of intense hands-on labor to a new one of mechanized conveniences and robust hardware with simpler interfaces. Ensuring that space exploration is on sound footing requires that operations efficiencies be designed into the transportation system and implemented in the development stage. Applying experience gained through decades of ground and space op'erations, while using value-added processes and modern business and engineering tools, is the philosophy upon which a new era of exploration will be built to solve some of the most pressing exploration challenges today -- namely, safety, reliability, and affordability.

Dumbacher, Daniel L.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Ares V: Refining a New Heavy Lift Capability

The Ares V cargo launch vehicle represents a significant new national commitment to expand human space exploration beyond low Earth orbit. Viewed more broadly, this new heavy-lift rocket will be an advancement over the national strategic capability lost when the Saturn V program ended more than three decades ago. The Ares V is one of two new launch vehicles being designed by NASA to support U.S. Space Exploration Policy. NASA selected the Ares I crew launch vehicle and the Ares V (Figure 1) during extensive independent and internal architecture and vehicle trade studies to complete the International Space Station, retire the current Space Shuttle fleet, return to the Moon by 2020, and journey to destinations beyond. These vehicles share components derived from the Apollo-era Saturn, Space Shuttle, and contemporary launch vehicle programs to provide safe, affordable, reliable, versatile sustainable space transportation to support national space goals for decades to come.

Creech, Steve↗
NASA NTRS2008

Ares Launch Vehicles Development Awakens Historic Test Stands at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

This paper chronicles the rebirth of two national rocket testing assets located at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center: the Dynamic Test Stand (also known as the Ground Vibration Test Stand) and the Static Test Stand (also known as the Main Propulsion Test Stand). It will touch on the historical significance of these special facilities, while introducing the requirements driving modifications for testing a new generation space transportation system, which is set to come on line after the Space Shuttle is retired in 2010. In many ways, America's journey to explore the Moon begins at the Marshall Center, which is developing the Ares I crew launch vehicle and the Ares V cargo launch vehicle, along with managing the Lunar Precursor Robotic Program and leading the Lunar Lander descent stage work, among other Constellation Program assignments. An important component of this work is housed in Marshall's Engineering Directorate, which manages more than 40 facilities capable of a full spectrum of rocket and space transportation technology testing - from small components to full-up engine systems. The engineers and technicians who operate these test facilities have more than a thousand years of combined experience in this highly specialized field. Marshall has one of the few government test groups in the United States with responsibility for the overall performance of a test program from conception to completion. The Test Laboratory has facilities dating back to the early 1960s, when the test stands needed for the Apollo Program and other scientific endeavors were commissioned and built along the Marshall Center's southern boundary, with logistics access by air, railroad, and barge or boat on the Tennessee River. NASA and its industry partners are designing and developing a new human-rated system based on the requirements for safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation solutions. Given below are summaries of the Dynamic Test Stand and the Static Test Stand capabilities, along with an introduction to the new missions that these sleeping giants will be fulfilling as NASA readies the Ares I for service in the 2015 timeframe, and plans the development work for fielding the Ares V late next decade (fig. 1). Validating modern computer design models and techniques requires the sorts of data that can only be generated by these one-of-a-kind facilities.

Dumbacher, Daniel L.↗
NASA NTRS2008

From Concept to Design: Progress on the J-2X Upper Stage Engine for the Ares Launch Vehicles

In accordance with national policy and NASA's Global Exploration Strategy, the Ares Projects Office is embarking on development of a new launch vehicle fleet to fulfill the national goals of replacing the space shuttle fleet, returning to the moon, and exploring farther destinations like Mars. These goals are shaped by the decision to retire the shuttle fleet by 2010, budgetary constraints, and the requirement to create a new fleet that is safer, more reliable, operationally more efficient than the shuttle fleet, and capable of supporting long-range exploration goals. The present architecture for the Constellation Program is the result of extensive trades during the Exploration Systems Architecture Study and subsequent refinement by the Ares Projects Office at Marshall Space Flight Center.

Byrd, Thomas↗