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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 NTRS2012

Space Launch System Accelerated Booster Development Cycle

With the retirement of the Space Shuttle, NASA is seeking to reinvigorate the national space program and recapture the public s interest in human space exploration by developing missions to the Moon, near-earth asteroids, Lagrange points, Mars, and beyond. The would-be successor to the Space Shuttle, NASA s Constellation Program, planned to take humans back to the Moon by 2020, but due to budgetary constraints was cancelled in 2010 in search of a more "affordable, sustainable, and realistic" concept2. Following a number of studies, the much anticipated Space Launch System (SLS) was unveiled in September of 2011. The SLS core architecture consists of a cryogenic first stage with five Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs), and a cryogenic second stage using a new J-2X engine3. The baseline configuration employs two 5-segment solid rocket boosters to achieve a 70 metric ton payload capability, but a new, more capable booster system will be required to attain the goal of 130 metric tons to orbit. To this end, NASA s Marshall Space Flight Center recently released a NASA Research Announcement (NRA) entitled "Space Launch System (SLS) Advanced Booster Engineering Demonstration and/or Risk Reduction." The increased emphasis on affordability is evident in the language used in the NRA, which is focused on risk reduction "leading to an affordable Advanced Booster that meets the evolved capabilities of SLS" and "enabling competition" to "enhance SLS affordability. The purpose of the work presented in this paper is to perform an independent assessment of the elements that make up an affordable and realistic path forward for the SLS booster system, utilizing advanced design methods and technology evaluation techniques. The goal is to identify elements that will enable a more sustainable development program by exploring the trade space of heavy lift booster systems and focusing on affordability, operability, and reliability at the system and subsystem levels5. For this study, affordability is defined as lifecycle cost, which includes design, development, test, and engineering (DDT&E), production and operational costs (P&O). For this study, the system objectives include reducing DDT&E schedule by a factor of three, showing 99.9% reliability, flying up to four times per year, serving both crew and cargo missions, and evolving to a lift capability of 130 metric tons.3 After identifying gaps in the current system s capabilities, this study seeks to identify non-traditional and innovative technologies and processes that may improve performance in these areas and assess their impacts on booster system development. The DDT&E phase may be improved by incorporating incremental development testing and integrated demonstrations to mitigate risk. To further reduce DDT&E, this study will also consider how aspects of the booster system may have commonality with other users, such as the Department of Defense, commercial applications, or international partners; by sharing some of the risk and investment, the overall development cost may be reduced. Consideration is not limited to solid and liquid rocket boosters. A set of functional performance characteristics, such as engine thrust, specific impulse (Isp), mixture ratio, and throttle range are identified and their impacts on the system are evaluated. This study also identifies how such characteristics affect overall life cycle cost, including DDT&E and fixed and variable P&O.

Arockiam, Nicole↗
NASA NTRS2024

The Effects of Peel Ply on the Damage Tolerance Characteristics of the Space Launch System (SLS) Payload Adapter Fitting (PAF)

A payload adaptor fitting (PAF) has been manufactured at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in support of the Space Launch System (SLS) program. This structure is essentially a large cone made up of eight curved “lobes” that are joined together to form the cone. The lobes were manufactured via automated fiber placement (AFP). The PAF will carry predominantly compressive loads thus compression strength will be the focus of this study. The lobes are sandwich structure made with aluminum honeycomb core and carbon/epoxy face sheets. The lobes will be inserted into metallic rings at the top and bottom of the cone to form the full cone. Both front and back exterior surfaces of each lobe have a plain weave fabric placed at ±45⁰ to the vertical direction to help prevent fiber “breakout” during drilling. The face sheet of each lobe is thickest at the top and plies are dropped as the cone reaches the main acreage in the bottom section of the cone. The entire structure used resin impregnated peel ply that, once removed, supplies a good bonding surface for secondary bonding steps. The peel ply can be removed either directly after cure, or just before any bonding operation. Since foreign object impact can occur to the structure at any time during its life, damage tolerance of the PAF structure both with and without peel ply needed to be addressed because a previous study, albeit with limited data, showed some significant differences in damage tolerance whether the peel ply was present or not [1]. A literature search showed no results for comparing impact damage on composite laminates with and without peel ply. Load versus deflection of impact curves, visual damage, dent depth, damage as ascertained by thermography and cross-sectional microscopy were evaluated as part of the damage resistance of the structure. Compression After Impact (CAI) was performed to assess damage tolerance. The impact tests were conducted on representative specimens both with and without the peel ply present.

Sandwich Structure↗
NASA NTRS1980

Magsat scientific investigations

The Magsat spacecraft is providing the first global, vector magnetic survey. Investigations using the Magsat data are being carried out by scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, at the U.S. Geological Survey of the Department of the Interior and by 32 selected investigators. Nineteen of the investigators are from the United States and 13 are from various foreign nations. The investigations described fall into four categories; (1) geomagnetic field modeling; (2) crustal magnetic anomaly studies; (3) investigations of the inner Earth: the core, mantle and core-mantle interface; and (4) studies of external current systems.

Langel, R. A.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA Hybrid Thermally Efficient Core (HyTEC) Project Overview

The HyTEC Project goal is to mature compact core aircraft engine technologies as part of the NASA-led Sustainable Flight National Partnership (SFNP) that contributes to the United States Aviation Climate Action Plan goal for aviation net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Individual technologies were proposed and defined by industry partners, and then selected technology maturation activities are cost shared. Phase 1 contracts were awarded in 2021, and since then, the project has matured numerous technologies to TRL 4-5. Some of the Phase 1 efforts have been completed with successful results. An initial systems analysis study has been completed to estimate the impact of Phase 1 technologies against project performance metrics, with results indicating significant progress is being made toward meeting those metrics. HyTEC will culminate with an engine core demonstration that will integrate many of the Phase 1 technologies into a large-scale integrated ground demonstration that will achieve TRL 6 to enable industry to transition the technologies into the next single-aisle engine architecture. The goal of the demonstration is to fully meet the project performance metrics that define a compact engine core with substantial improvements in efficiency, durability, performance, hybridization, and sustainability over the baseline established in the year 2020. HyTEC will also incorporate hybrid electric technology into the engine core with the intention to bring the first electrified turbofan engines into production. The core demonstration has been awarded with a cost-share partnership and is planned to occur by the end of 2028.

Anthony L Nerone↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Space ROS TOFU: Flying Space ROS with Containerized Hybrid Trust

Space ROS is a distribution of Robot Operating System 2 (ROS2) targeting the specific requirements of flight software and spaceborne robotics while maintaining the flexibility that has made ROS indispensible for robotics research and industrial system integration. With Space ROS, a project can leverage the existing ROS2 ecosystem to reduce redundant development while tackling increasingly complex demands for on-device intelligence; however, there is no substitute for flight heritage to combat the risk-aversion common to spaceflight projects, and Space ROS has yet to fly. To break the collective-action standoff and gain valuable flight experience, the Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy (DSA) team at NASA Ames Research Center developed Opportunistic Software Experiments for Spacecraft Autonomy Testbeds (OSE-SAT) architecture, utilizing containerization to execute lower-trust software under traditionally verified heritage flight software for demonstration on-orbit. OSE-SAT leverages a hybrid-trust model where flexible, complex components like Space ROS can run without risk to the host spacecraft while providing validated feedback to a highly scrutinized, trusted core. We leverage this testbed to demonstrate Space ROS in flight, building heritage, and experience for projects with "Trust On First Use" (TOFU) requirements for flight heritage. We present a Space ROS component for OSE-SAT, lessons learned integrating Space ROS into a flight software stack, and the results of the first known use of Space ROS in orbit.

small satellites↗
NASA NTRS2023

Plug20 Test Report: Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) Measurements

This report provides turbulent flow statistics made using particle image velocimetry (PIV) for several internally mixed exhaust systems with external plugs (Plug20 designs). The tests were conducted at the NASA Glenn Research Center’s Aero-Acoustic Propulsion Laboratory (AAPL) in May and June 2022. The corresponding acoustic data for the configurations and flows presented in this report can be found in an earlier Technical Memorandum, NASA/TM-20210010291, “Plug20 Test Report.” The Plug20 nozzle family was designed to represent commercial supersonic vehicles in the 2025 to 2035 timeframe with a bypass ratio around 4, having an internal mixer, with and without an external plug to improve nacelle boattail drag and shock. The flow conditions measured represent engine cycles for commercial supersonic aircraft at takeoff, having pressure ratios of 2.0 and heated fan and core streams, measured both with and without a flight stream surrounding the plume. A few unheated flow conditions were also tested to tie results to other baseline test results. The PIV measurements in both streamwise and cross-stream planes are described, along with brief analysis to visually catalog the contents and confirm their validity. In this analysis, the streamwise PIV is found to match benchmark datasets within its experimental error. However, the cross-stream turbulent quantities measured by two systems do not match each other or the streamwise measurements in amplitude—caution is required when using the cross-stream data. Data acquired and included in this report are (1) velocity statistics of the plumes in both a streamwise and several cross-stream planes, and (2) the hot nozzle geometry. Tabular forms of the data and computer-aided design (CAD) files of the hot geometry are presented as supplemental files described in Appendix A (TM-20230006779SUPPL1.zip) and Appendix B (TM-20230006779SUPPL2.zip).

Turbulence↗
NASA NTRS2011

Heavy Lift Launch Capability with a New Hydrocarbon Engine (NHE)

The Advanced Concepts Office (ACO) at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center has analyzed over 2000 Ares V and other heavy lift concepts in the last 3 years. These concepts were analyzed for Lunar Exploration Missions, heavy lift capability to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) as well as exploratory missions to other near earth objects in our solar system. With the pending retirement of the Shuttle fleet, our nation will be without a civil heavy lift launch capability, so the future development of a new heavy lift capability is imperative for the exploration and large science missions our Agency has been tasked to deliver. The majority of the heavy lift concepts analyzed by ACO during the last 3 years have been based on liquid oxygen / liquid hydrogen (LOX/LH2) core stage and solids booster stage propulsion technologies (Ares V / Shuttle Derived and their variants). These concepts were driven by the decisions made from the results of the Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS), which in turn, led to the Ares V launch vehicle that has been baselined in the Constellation Program. Now that the decision has been made at the Agency level to cancel Constellation, other propulsion options such as liquid hydrocarbon fuels are back in the exploration trade space. NASA is still planning exploration missions with the eventual destination of Mars and a new heavy lift launch vehicle is still required and will serve as the centerpiece of our nation s next exploration architecture s infrastructure. With an extensive launch vehicle database already developed on LOX/LH2 based heavy lift launch vehicles, ACO initiated a study to look at using a new high thrust (> 1.0 Mlb vacuum thrust) hydrocarbon engine as the primary main stage propulsion in such a launch vehicle.

Threet, Grady E., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2020

Medical Data Architecture Platform and Recommended Requirements for A Medical Data System for Exploration Missions

Minimize or reduce the risk of adverse health outcomes and decrements in performance due to in-flight medical capabilities on human exploration missions. To mitigate this risk, the ExMC MDA project addresses the technical limitations identified in ExMC Gap Med 07: We do not have the capability to comprehensively process medically relevant information to support medical operations during exploration missions. This gap identifies that the current in-flight medical data management includes a combination of data collection and distribution methods that are minimally integrated with on-board medical devices and systems. Furthermore, there are a variety of data sources and methods of data collection. For an exploration mission, the seamless management of such data will enable a more medically autonomous crew than the current paradigm of medical data management on the International Space Station. ExMC has recognized that in order to make informed decisions about a medical data architecture framework, current methods for medical data management must not only be understood, but an architecture must also be identified that provides the crew with actionable insight to medical conditions. This medical data architecture will provide the necessary functionality to address the challenges of executing a self-contained medical system that approaches crew health care delivery without assistance from ground support. Hence, the products derived from the third MDA prototype development will directly inform exploration medical system requirements for Level of Care IV in Gateway missions.In fiscal year 2019, the MDA project developed Test Bed 3, the third iteration in a series of prototypes, that featured integrations with cognition tool data, ultrasound image analytics and core Flight Software (cFS). Maintaining a layered architecture design, the framework implemented a plug-in, modular approach in the integration of these external data sources. An early version of MDA Test Bed 3 software was deployed and operated in a simulated analog environment that was part of the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) Gateway tests of multiple habitat prototypes. In addition, the MDA team participated in the Gateway Test and Verification Demonstration, where the MDA cFS applications was integrated with Gateway-in-a-Box software to send and receive medically relevant data over a simulated vehicle network. This software demonstration was given to ExMC and Gateway Program stakeholders at the NASA Johnson Space Center Integrated Power, Avionics and Software (iPAS) facility. Also, the integrated prototypes served as a vehicle to provide Level 5 requirements for the Crew Health and Performance Habitat Data System for Gateway Missions (Medical Level of Care IV). In the upcoming fiscal year, the MDA project will continue to provide systems engineering and vertical prototypes to refine requirements for medical Level of Care IV and inform requirements for Level of Care V.

Krihak, M.↗
NASA NTRS2020

Medical Data Architecture Platform and Recommended Requirements for a Medical Data System for Exploration Missions

The Medical Data Architecture (MDA) project supports the Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) risk to minimize or reduce the risk of adverse health outcomes and decrements in performance due to in-flight medical capabilities on human exploration missions. To mitigate this risk, the ExMC MDA project addresses the technical limitations identified in ExMC Gap Med 07: We do not have the capability to comprehensively process medically- relevant information to support medical operations during exploration missions. This gap identifies that the current in-flight medical data management includes a combination of data collection and distribution methods that are minimally integrated with on-board medical devices and systems. Furthermore, there are a variety of data sources and methods of data collection. For an exploration mission, the seamless management of such data will enable a more medically autonomous crew than the current paradigm of medical data management on the International Space Station. ExMC has recognized that in order to make informed decisions about a medical data architecture framework, current methods for medical data management must not only be understood, but an architecture must also be identified that provides the crew with actionable insight to medical conditions. This medical data architecture will provide the necessary functionality to address the challenges of executing a self-contained medical system that approaches crew health care delivery without assistance from ground support. Hence, the products derived from the third MDA prototype development will directly inform exploration medical system requirements for Level of Care IV in Gateway missions. In fiscal year 2019, the MDA project developed Test Bed 3, the third iteration in a series of prototypes, that featured integrations with cognition tool data, ultrasound image analytics and core Flight Software (cFS). Maintaining a layered architecture design, the framework implemented a plug-in, modular approach in the integration of these external data sources. An early version of MDA Test Bed 3 software was deployed and operated in a simulated analog environment that was part of the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) Gateway tests of multiple habitat prototypes. In addition, the MDA team participated in the Gateway Test and Verification Demonstration, where the MDA cFS applications was integrated with Gateway-in-a-Box software to send and receive medically relevant data over a simulated vehicle network. This software demonstration was given to ExMC and Gateway Program stakeholders at the NASA Johnson Space Center Integrated Power, Avionics and Software (iPAS) facility. Also, the integrated prototypes served as a vehicle to provide Level 5 requirements for the Crew Health and Performance Habitat Data System for Gateway Missions (Medical Level of Care IV). In the upcoming fiscal year, the MDA project will continue to provide systems engineering and vertical prototypes to refine requirements for medical Level of Care IV and inform requirements for Level of Care V.

Krihak, M.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Implementing Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking for NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Clouds, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) Mission

NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Clouds, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission will be the first NASA science mission to use Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) for routine operations. The DTN Bundle Protocol (BP) is being integrated into the core Flight Software (cFS) for the transfer of house-keeping files. DTN nodes will also be integrated into the Near Space Network (NSN) ground stations and the PACE Mission Operations Center. This paper will describe the DTN implementations, the PACE DTN operations concept and how this mission is a significant step towards the Solar System Internet.

dtn↗
NASA NTRS2017

Building Aerodynamic Databases for the SLS Design Process

NASA's new Space Launch System (SLS) will be the first rocket since the Saturn V (1967-1973) to carry astronauts beyond low earth orbit-and will carry 10% more payload than Saturn V and three times the payload of the space shuttle. The SLS configuration consists of a center core and two solid rocket boosters that separate from the core as their fuel is exhausted two minutes after lift-off. During these first two minutes of flight, the vehicle powers its way through strong shock waves as it accelerates past the speed of sound, then pushes beyond strong aerodynamic loads at the maximum dynamic pressure, and is ultimately enveloped by gaseous plumes from the booster-separation motors. The SLS program relies on computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations to provide much of the data needed to build aerodynamic databases describing the structural load distribution, surface pressures, and aerodynamic forces on the vehicle.

Aerodynamic↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Development of a Virtual Tool to Connect Classrooms to NASA Airborne Science Missions

The NASA Airborne Science Program (ASP) conducts research around the world using various aircraft systems. Researchers have studied monsoons in the Philippines, clouds in Bermuda, fires over the United States, the atmosphere over Antarctica, and so much more. Each of these missions is not only a chance to discover more about our planet, but also to connect students with the scientists making these discoveries. The NASA Airborne Science Mission Tool Suite (MTS) supports NASA flight projects by providing easy to access web-based tools to support planning, communication, and discovery. At its core, MTS links ground science support and flight scientists and provides aircraft situational awareness and visualization of real time data collected during flight. Each mission has different needs, and the basic tools MTS provides are reconfigured for every flight mission. One instance of the MTS, called MTS-Outreach or MTS-O, is being developed and refined to focus on facilitating outreach with students in K-12 schools. As MTS-O continues to be improved and revitalized, versions of it have already been used for group discussions with students in classrooms worldwide. Students using MTS-O can chat with scientists on NASA airborne missions while those scientists fly on the plane and collect data. During the pandemic, this tool was extremely beneficial as in-person classroom visits were not possible. As the tool continues to be refined and developed, we will summarize how it has been used and share its potential applications for the future.

Brenna Crawford Biggs↗
NASA NTRS2007

Assembly and Thermal Hydraulic Test of a Stainless Steel Sodium-Potassium Circuit

Early Flight Fission Test Facilities (EFF-TF) team has been tasked by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Nuclear Systems Office to design, fabricate, and test an actively pumped alkali metal flow circuit. The system was originally built for use with lithium, but due to a shift in focus, it was redesigned for use with a eutectic mixture of sodium potassium (NaK). Basic circuit components include: reactor segment, NaK to gas heat exchanger, electromagnetic (EM) liquid metal pump, load/drain reservoir, expansion reservoir, instrumentation, and a spill reservoir. A 37-pin partial-array core (pin and flow path dimensions are the same as those in a full design) was selected for fabrication and test. This paper summarizes the first fill and checkout testing of the Stainless Steel NaK-Cooled Circuit (SNaKC).

Garber, A.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Adapting the SpaceCube v2.0 Data Processing System for Mission-Unique Application Requirements

The SpaceCube (sup TM) v2.0 system is a superior high performance, reconfigurable, hybrid data processing system that can be used in a multitude of applications including those that require a radiation hardened and reliable solution. This paper provides an overview of the design architecture, flexibility, and the advantages of the modular SpaceCube v2.0 high performance data processing system for space applications. The current state of the proven SpaceCube technology is based on nine years of engineering and operations. Five systems have been successfully operated in space starting in 2008 with four more to be delivered for launch vehicle integration in 2015. The SpaceCube v2.0 system is also baselined as the avionics solution for five additional flight projects and is always a top consideration as the core avionics for new instruments or spacecraft control. This paper will highlight how this multipurpose system is currently being used to solve design challenges of three independent applications. The SpaceCube hardware adapts to new system requirements by allowing for application-unique interface cards that are utilized by reconfiguring the underlying programmable elements on the core processor card. We will show how this system is being used to improve on a heritage NASA GPS technology, enable a cutting-edge LiDAR instrument, and serve as a typical command and data handling (C&DH) computer for a space robotics technology demonstration.

SpaceCube↗
NASA NTRS2015

Adapting the SpaceCube v2.0 Data Processing System for Mission-Unique Application Requirements

The SpaceCubeTM v2.0 system is a superior high performance, reconfigurable, hybrid data processing system that can be used in a multitude of applications including those that require a radiation hardened and reliable solution. This paper provides an overview of the design architecture, flexibility, and the advantages of the modular SpaceCube v2.0 high performance data processing system for space applications. The current state of the proven SpaceCube technology is based on nine years of engineering and operations. Five systems have been successfully operated in space starting in 2008 with four more to be delivered for launch vehicle integration in 2015. The SpaceCube v2.0 system is also baselined as the avionics solution for five additional flight projects and is always a top consideration as the core avionics for new instruments or spacecraft control. This paper will highlight how this multipurpose system is currently being used to solve design challenges of three independent applications. The SpaceCube hardware adapts to new system requirements by allowing for application-unique interface cards that are utilized by reconfiguring the underlying programmable elements on the core processor card. We will show how this system is being used to improve on a heritage NASA GPS technology, enable a cutting-edge LiDAR instrument, and serve as a typical command and data handling (CDH) computer for a space robotics technology demonstration.

Xilinx FPGA↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Space Robot Operating System (Space ROS)

Space Robot Operating System (Space ROS) is an open-source software framework for flight-quality robotic and autonomous space systems. It combines the benefits of open-source software and flight software best-practices into a single framework. Space ROS is predicated on ROS2 and is therefore reusable, modular and adoptable. As an open-source framework, it is accessible to the global space community. Space ROS is intended to be compliant with NASA flight software engineering practices in order to facilitate meeting mission and safety standards. Space ROS has fault management and real-time capabilities at its core.

Will Chambers↗
NASA NTRS2012

NASA Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS) Presentation

The NASA Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS) offers integrated supercomputing, visualization, and data interaction technologies to enhance NASA's weather and climate prediction capabilities. It serves hundreds of users at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, as well as other NASA centers, laboratories, and universities across the US. Over the past year, NCCS has continued expanding its data-centric computing environment to meet the increasingly data-intensive challenges of climate science. We doubled our Discover supercomputer's peak performance to more than 800 teraflops by adding 7,680 Intel Xeon Sandy Bridge processor-cores and most recently 240 Intel Xeon Phi Many Integrated Core (MIG) co-processors. A supercomputing-class analysis system named Dali gives users rapid access to their data on Discover and high-performance software including the Ultra-scale Visualization Climate Data Analysis Tools (UV-CDAT), with interfaces from user desktops and a 17- by 6-foot visualization wall. NCCS also is exploring highly efficient climate data services and management with a new MapReduce/Hadoop cluster while augmenting its data distribution to the science community. Using NCCS resources, NASA completed its modeling contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCG) Fifth Assessment Report this summer as part of the ongoing Coupled Modellntercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). Ensembles of simulations run on Discover reached back to the year 1000 to test model accuracy and projected climate change through the year 2300 based on four different scenarios of greenhouse gases, aerosols, and land use. The data resulting from several thousand IPCC/CMIP5 simulations, as well as a variety of other simulation, reanalysis, and observationdatasets, are available to scientists and decision makers through an enhanced NCCS Earth System Grid Federation Gateway. Worldwide downloads have totaled over 110 terabytes of data.

Webster, William P.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

UASs in the VOG/Edge/FOG Sensor Web Environment

This paper will describe the evolution of information collection, derivation and delivery mechanisms in sensor webs utilizing Uninhabited Aerial Systems (UAS).We will discuss the movement to "Fog Computing", also known as Edge Computing. Fog Computing facilitates the distribution of common operations and networking between edge devices and cloud computing facilities, optimizing the production of actionable intelligence. Initially, UASs utilized onboard data collection as standard, with minimal data downloaded directly. Information products were derived in conventional computational environments, generally desk top computers, and information products made available to the Science Community in weeks or months. With the increased availability, and increasingly lower costs, of beyond line of sight (BLOS) satellite based communication, transmission rates and data volumes increased, and processing migrated to Cloud based services. Contemporary UASs are moving some of that information product derivation to on vehicle services, and are creating a distributed Cloud/Fog environment. The Author will describe the technological advances that have made this possible, including low power multi-core Central Processing Units (CPU), and, more recently, the availability of high end Graphical Processing Units (GPU) that consume only a few watts. Intelligent system software, leveraging these hardware advances, finally allows for information product generation on-board, rather than simple data collection. Additionally, intelligent flight control systems now support mutual vehicle to vehicle collaboration, allowing UASs to create ad-hoc sensor webs on demand, as required. Also discussed will be the lessons learned by the Authors' development of data systems for NASA's large High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) UASs like Predator and Global Hawk, and how those lessons are being applied to other UAS development This paper will focus on applications, rather a deep dive into the technology, and will highlight improving data management through these new technologies.

UAS↗