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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 217 records · Page 12

An overview of aeroelasticity studies for the National Aerospace Plane

The National Aero-Space Plane (NASP), or X-30, is a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle that is designed to takeoff and land on conventional runways. Research in aeroelasticity was conducted by NASA and the Wright Laboratory to support the design of a flight vehicle by the national contractor team. This research includes the development of new computational codes for predicting unsteady aerodynamic pressures. In addition, studies were conducted to determine the aerodynamic heating effects on vehicle aeroelasticity and to determine the effects of fuselage flexibility on the stability of the control systems. It also includes the testing of scale models to better understand the aeroelastic behavior of the X-30 and to obtain data for code validation and correlation. This paper presents an overview of the aeroelastic research which has been conducted to support the airframe design.

Ricketts, Rodney H.↗

An overview of aeroelasticity studies for the National Aero-Space Plane

The National Aero-Space Plane (NASP), or X-30, is a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle that is designed to takeoff and land on conventional runways. Research in aeroelasticity was conducted by the NASA and the Wright Laboratory to support the design of a flight vehicle by the national contractor team. This research includes the development of new computational codes for predicting unsteady aerodynamic pressures. In addition, studies were conducted to determine the aerodynamic heating effects on vehicle aeroelasticity and to determine the effects of fuselage flexibility on the stability of the control systems. It also includes the testing of scale models to better understand the aeroelastic behavior of the X-30 and to obtain data for code validation and correlation. This paper presents an overview of the aeroelastic research which has been conducted to support the airframe design.

Ricketts, Rodney H.↗

Spaceborne imaging radar - Geologic and oceanographic applications

Synoptic, large-area radar images of the earth's land and ocean surface, obtained from the Seasat orbiting spacecraft, show the potential for geologic mapping and for monitoring of ocean surface patterns. Structural and topographic features such as lineaments, anticlines, folds and domes, drainage patterns, stratification, and roughness units can be mapped. Ocean surface waves, internal waves, current boundaries, and large-scale eddies have been observed in numerous images taken by the Seasat imaging radar. This article gives an illustrated overview of these applications.

Elachi, C.↗

Report of the magnetospheric physics panel

Magnetospheric research is a relatively new area in the study of the Earth's environment. The present report attempts to overview past and future research on this topic. The goals of magnetospheric research are numerous, and include: understanding large scale magnetospheres of the Earth and other planets; understanding the plasma physical processes operating within the various magnetospheres; to understand how mass, energy and momentum are transmitted from the solar wind; to understand quantitatively the coupling between magnetospheres and their ionospheres; and to understand the magnetospheric mechanisms which accelerate particles to high energies, as well as the ultimate fate of these particles. The report continues on to summarize a number of proposed space missions aimed at data acquisition. Finally, there is a brief discussion of the theory and modeling of magnetospheres.

Burch, James L.↗

The next century astrophysics program

The Astrophysics Division within the NASA Office of Space Science and Applications (OSSA) has defined a set of flagship and intermediate missions that are presently under study for possible launch during the next 20 years. These missions and tentative schedules, referred to as the Astrotech 21 Mission Set, are summarized. The missions are in three groups corresponding to the cognizant science branch within the Astrophysics Division. Phase C/D refers to the pre-launch construction and delivery of the spacecraft, and the Operations Phase refers to the period when the mission is active in space. Approximately 1.5 years before the start of Phase C/D, a non-advocate review (NAR) is held to ensure that the mission/system concept and the requisite technology are at an appropriate stage of readiness for full scale development to begin. Therefore, technology development is frozen (usually) as of the date of a successful NAR. An overview of the technology advances required for each of the three wavelength groups is provided in the following paragraphs, along with a brief description of the individual missions.

Swanson, Paul N.↗

Arctic Research NASA's Cryospheric Sciences Program

Much of NASA's Arctic Research is run through its Cryospheric Sciences Program. Arctic research efforts to date have focused primarily on investigations of the mass balance of the largest Arctic land-ice masses and the mechanisms that control it, interactions among sea ice, polar oceans, and the polar atmosphere, atmospheric processes in the polar regions, energy exchanges in the Arctic. All of these efforts have been focused on characterizing, understanding, and predicting, changes in the Arctic. NASA's unique vantage from space provides an important perspective for the study of these large scale processes, while detailed process information is obtained through targeted in situ field and airborne campaigns and models. An overview of NASA investigations in the Arctic will be presented demonstrating how the synthesis of space-based technology, and these complementary components have advanced our understanding of physical processes in the Arctic.

Waleed, Abdalati↗

Large Liquid Rocket Testing: Strategies and Challenges

Rocket propulsion development is enabled by rigorous ground testing in order to mitigate the propulsion systems risks that are inherent in space flight. This is true for virtually all propulsive devices of a space vehicle including liquid and solid rocket propulsion, chemical and non-chemical propulsion, boost stage and in-space propulsion and so forth. In particular, large liquid rocket propulsion development and testing over the past five decades of human and robotic space flight has involved a combination of component-level testing and engine-level testing to first demonstrate that the propulsion devices were designed to meet the specified requirements for the Earth to Orbit launchers that they powered. This was followed by a vigorous test campaign to demonstrate the designed propulsion articles over the required operational envelope, and over robust margins, such that a sufficiently reliable propulsion system is delivered prior to first flight. It is possible that hundreds of tests, and on the order of a hundred thousand test seconds, are needed to achieve a high-reliability, flight-ready, liquid rocket engine system. This paper overviews aspects of earlier and recent experience of liquid rocket propulsion testing at NASA Stennis Space Center, where full scale flight engines and flight stages, as well as a significant amount of development testing has taken place in the past decade. The liquid rocket testing experience discussed includes testing of engine components (gas generators, preburners, thrust chambers, pumps, powerheads), as well as engine systems and complete stages. The number of tests, accumulated test seconds, and years of test stand occupancy needed to meet varying test objectives, will be selectively discussed and compared for the wide variety of ground test work that has been conducted at Stennis for subscale and full scale liquid rocket devices. Since rocket propulsion is a crucial long-lead element of any space system acquisition or development, the appropriate plan and strategy must be put in place at the outset of the development effort. A deferment of this test planning, or inattention to strategy, will compromise the ability of the development program to achieve its systems reliability requirements and/or its development milestones. It is important for the government leadership and support team, as well as the vehicle and propulsion development team, to give early consideration to this aspect of space propulsion and space transportation work.

Rahman, Shamim A.↗

Geologic Mapping of V-19

A geologic map of the Sedna Planitia (V-19) quadrangle is being completed at 1:5,000,000 scale as part of the NASA Planetary Geologic Mapping Program, and will be submitted for review by September 2010. Overview: The Sedna Planitia quadrangle (V-19) extends from 25 N - 50 N latitude, 330 - 0 longitude. The quadrangle contains the northernmost portion of western Eistla Regio and the Sedna Planitia lowlands. Sedna Planitia consists of low-lying plains units, with numerous small volcanic edifices including shields, domes and cones. The quadrangle also contains several tholi, the large flowfield Neago Fluctus, the Manzan-Gurme Tesserae, and Zorile Dorsa and Karra-mahte Fossae which run NW-SE through the southwestern part of the quadrangle. There are six coronae in the quadrangle (Table 1), the largest of which is Nissaba (300 km x 220 km), and there are fourteen impact craters (Table 2). The V-19 quadrangle contains a variety of mappable volcanic landforms including two shield volcanoes (Evaki Tholus and Toci Tholus) and the southern portion of a large flow field (Neago Fluctus). A total of sixteen units associated with volcanoes have been mapped in this quadrangle, with multiple units mapped at Sif Mons, Sachs Patera and Neago Fluctus. An oddly textured, radarbright flow is also mapped in the Sedna plains, which appears to have originated from a several hundred kilometer long fissure. The six coronae within V-19 have a total of eighteen associated flow units. Several edifice fields are also mapped, in which the small volcanic edifices both predate and postdate the other units. Impact crater materials are also mapped.

Martin, Paula↗

An overview of the ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) project: aerosol–cloud–radiation interactions in the southeast Atlantic basin

Southern Africa produces almost a third of the Earth’s biomass burning (BB) aerosol particles, yet the fate of these particles and their influence on regional and global climate is poorly understood. ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) is a 5-year NASA EVS-2 (Earth Venture Suborbital-2) investigation with three intensive observation periods designed to study key atmospheric processes that determine the climate impacts of these aerosols. During the Southern Hemisphere winter and spring (June–October), aerosol particles reaching 3–5 km in altitude are transported westward over the southeast Atlantic, where they interact with one of the largest subtropical stratocumulus (Sc) cloud decks in the world. The representation of these interactions in climate models remains highly uncertain in part due to a scarcity of observational constraints on aerosol and cloud properties, as well as due to the parameterized treatment of physical processes. Three ORACLES deployments by the NASA P-3 aircraft in September 2016, August 2017, and October 2018 (totaling ~ 350 science flight hours), augmented by the deployment of the NASA ER-2 aircraft for remote sensing in September 2016 (totaling ~ 100 science flight hours), were intended to help fill this observational gap. ORACLES focuses on three fundamental science themes centered on the climate effects of African BB aerosols: (a) direct aerosol radiative effects, (b) effects of aerosol absorption on atmospheric circulation and clouds, and (c) aerosol–cloud microphysical interactions. This paper summarizes the ORACLES science objectives, describes the project implementation, provides an overview of the flights and measurements in each deployment, and highlights the integrative modeling efforts from cloud to global scales to address science objectives. Significant new findings on the vertical structure of BB aerosol physical and chemical properties, chemical aging, cloud condensation nuclei, rain and precipitation statistics, and aerosol indirect effects are emphasized, but their detailed descriptions are the subject of separate publications. The main purpose of this paper is to familiarize the broader scientific community with the ORACLES project and the dataset it produced.

Jens Redemann↗

The Great Plains Irrigation Experiment (GRAINEX)

Extensive expansion in irrigated agriculture has taken place over the last half century. Due to increased irrigation and resultant land-use–land-cover change, the central United States has seen a decrease in temperature and changes in precipitation during the second half of the twentieth century. To investigate the impacts of widespread commencement of irrigation at the beginning of the growing season and continued irrigation throughout the summer on local and regional weather, the Great Plains Irrigation Experiment (GRAINEX) was conducted in the spring and summer of 2018 in southeastern Nebraska. GRAINEX consisted of two 15-day intensive observation periods. Observational platforms from multiple agencies and universities were deployed to investigate the role of irrigation in surface moisture content, heat fluxes, diurnal boundary layer evolution, and local precipitation. This article provides an overview of the data collected and an analysis of the role of irrigation in land–atmosphere interactions on time scales from the seasonal to the diurnal. The analysis shows that a clear irrigation signal was apparent during the peak growing season in mid-July. This paper shows the strong impact of irrigation on surface fluxes, near-surface temperature and humidity, and boundary layer growth and decay.

Atmosphere-land interaction↗

As Seen by Parker Solar Probe: In-Situ Signatures of Wave-Particle Interactions Driven by Solar Ejecta

Parker Solar Probe (PSP) is sampling regions of the inner heliosphere never seen before to address where and why energy flows between the Sun and earth. With the onset of solar maximum, recent encounters have witnessed the increase in solar activity. We present in-situ signatures of coronal mass ejections and other smaller transients of coronal origin. Using simultaneous measurements from the SWEAP and FIELDS instrument suite, both ion and electron-scale dynamics are investigated in coincidence with both lower frequency electromagnetic and higher frequency electrostatic waves. We present an overview of these wave-particle interaction observations and hypothesize on their role in plasma energization and subsequent solar wind heating.

J. L. Verniero↗

Overview of Nanobiotechnology

The ability to manipulate matter at the atomic and molecular levels is likely to change the way almost everything is designed and made, from computers to engineering systems to objects not yet imagined. For nanometer-scale objects, biological systems provide a rich storehouse of interesting ideas and strategies, and this is why there has been synergistic coupling between nanotechnology and biotechnology. The field of nanobiotechnology is garnering much interest around the world. In January 2000, the President announced the establishment of the National Nanotechnology Initiative and has made it a top priority. An attempt is made in this overview to define some of the buzzwords and set the stage for the succeeding presentations. This presentation is divided into four parts. The first part identifies the major characteristics of future aerospace systems that distinguish them from the current systems. The second and third parts describe the revolutionary and key technologies and future research and learning environments required for the realization of future systems. The fourth part lists the objectives of the workshop and the sources of information about nano and biotechnologies. This document consists of viewgraphs with an explanation for each slide.

Ahmed K. Noor↗

Overview of SBIR Phase II Work on Hollow Graphite Fibers

Ultra-Lightweight materials are enabling for producing space based optical components and support structures. Heretofore, innovative designs using existing materials has been the approach to produce lighter-weight optical systems. Graphite fiber reinforced composites, because of their light weight, have been a material of frequent choice to produce space based optical components. Hollow graphite fibers would be lighter than standard solid graphite fibers and, thus, would save weight in optical components. The Phase I SBIR program demonstrated it is possible to produce hollow carbon fibers that have strengths up to 4.2 GPa which are equivalent to commercial fibers, and composites made from the hollow fibers had substantially equivalent composite strengths as commercial fiber composites at a 46% weight savings. The Phase II SBIR program will optimize processing and properties of the hollow carbon fiber and scale-up processing to produce sufficient fiber for fabricating a large ultra-lightweight mirror for delivery to NASA. Information presented here includes an overview of the strength of some preliminary hollow fibers, photographs of those fibers, and a short discussion of future plans.

Stallcup, Michael↗

Earth Radiation Imbalance from a Constellation of 66 Iridium Satellites: Climate Science Aspects

The "global warming hiatus" since the 1998 El Nino, highlighted by Meehl et al., and the resulting "missing energy" problem highlighted by Trenberth et al., has opened the door to a more fundamental view of climate change than mere surface air temperature. That new view is based on two variables which are strongly correlated: the rate of change of ocean heat content d(OHC)/dt; and Earth Radiation Imbalance (ERI) at the top of the atmosphere, whose guesstimated range is 0.4 to 0.9 Watts per square meters (this imbalance being mainly due to increasing CO2). The Argo float array is making better and better measurements of OHC. But existing satellite systems cannot measure ERI to even one significant digit. So, climate model predictions of ERI are used in place of real measurements of it, and the satellite data are tuned to the climate model predictions. Some oceanographers say "just depend on Argo for understanding the global warming hiatus and the missing energy", but we don't think this is a good idea because d(OHC)/dt and ERI have different time scales and are never perfectly correlated. We think the ERB community needs to step up to measuring ERI correctly, just as oceanographers have deployed Argo to measure OHC correctly. This talk will overview a proposed constellation of 66 Earth radiation budget instruments, hosted on Iridium satellites, that will actually be able to measure ERI to at least one significant digit, thus enabling a crucial test of climate models. This constellation will also be able to provide ERI at two-hourly time scales and 500-km spatial scales without extrapolations from uncalibrated narrowband geostationary instruments, using the highly successful methods of GRACE to obtain spatial resolution. This high time resolution would make ERI a synoptic variable like temperature, and allow studies of ERI's response to fast-evolving phenomena like dust storms and hurricanes and even brief excursions of Total Solar Irradiance. Time permitting, we will also discuss the emerging view of clear vs. cloudy and its implications for the traditional ERB approach.

Wiscombe, W.↗

CELSS System Control Overview

A CELSS presents unique control problems at all levels. The question of how much control is necessary (as opposed to just useful) is addressed. On the largest scale, that of overall system control, this reduces to the question, ""Is a CELSS that has been designed for steady-state balance in all its flows, with the addition of reasonable amounts of buffering, stable in the face of perturbations from that operating point?'' That is, if some inadvertent perturbation occurs (temporary shutdown of some component, for example), will the system return to its original operating point without the imposition of a global control scheme? If the system is stable in that sense, any kind of large-scale control scheme will be useful for optimizing the system, but will not be necessary.

Auslander, D. M.↗

9+ Years of CALIPSO PSC Observations: An Evolving Climatology

Polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) play a crucial role in the springtime chemical depletion of ozone at high latitudes. PSC particles (primarily supercooled ternary solution, or STS droplets) provide sites for heterogeneous chemical reactions that transform stable chlorine and bromine reservoir species into highly reactive ozone-destructive forms. Furthermore, large nitric acid trihydrate (NAT) PSC particles can irreversibly redistribute odd nitrogen through gravitational sedimentation (a process commonly known as denitrification), which prolongs the ozone depletion process by slowing the reformation of the stable chlorine reservoirs. Spaceborne observations from the CALIOP (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization) lidar on the CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations) satellite are providing a rich new dataset for studying PSCs. CALIPSO is an excellent platform for studying polar processes with CALIOP acquiring, on average, over 300,000 backscatter profiles daily at latitudes between 55o and 82o in both hemispheres. PSCs are detected in the CALIOP backscatter profiles using a successive horizontal averaging scheme that enables detection of strongly scattering PSCs (e.g., ice) at the finest possible spatial resolution (5 km), while enhancing the detection of very tenuous PSCs (e.g., low number density NAT) at larger spatial scales (up to 135 km). CALIOP PSCs are separated into composition classes (STS; liquid/NAT mixtures; and ice) based on the ensemble 532-nm scattering ratio (the ratio of total-to-molecular backscatter) and 532-nm particulate depolarization ratio (which is sensitive to the presence of non-spherical, i.e. NAT and ice particles). In this paper, we will provide an overview of the CALIOP PSC detection and composition classification algorithm and then examine the vertical and spatial distribution of PSCs in the Arctic and Antarctic on vortex-wide scales for entire PSC seasons over the more than nine-year data record from 2006- 2015.

Pitts, Michael C.↗