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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 235 records · Page 13

KSC SBIR/STTR 2004 Program Year Report

The Kennedy Space Center Level III SBIR/STTR management staff is under the Technology Transfer Office within the Spaceport Engineering and Technology Directorate. The SBIR and STTR programs provide an opportunity for small high technology companies and research institutions to participate in Government-sponsored research and development (R&D) programs in key technology areas. The SBIR program was established by Congress in 1982 to provide increased opportunities for small businesses to participate in R&D programs, increase employment, and improve U.S. competitiveness. The program's specific objectives are to stimulate U.S. technological innovation, use small businesses to meet Federal research and development needs, increase private sector commercialization of innovations, and foster and encourage participation by socially disadvantaged businesses. Legislation enacted in December 2000 reauthorized the program and strengthened emphasis on pursuing commercial applications of SBIR projects. An SBIR Phase I contract is the opportunity to establish the feasibility and technical merit of a proposed innovation. Selected competitively, the Phase I contract lasts for 6 months and is funded up to $70,000. SBIR Phase II contracts continue the most promising Phase I projects based on scientific! technical merit, expected value to NASA, company capability, and commercial potential. Phase II contracts are usually for a period of 24 months and may not exceed $600,000. NASA usually selects approximately 40 percent of Phase I projects to continue to the Phase II level. Phase III is the process of furthering the development of a product to make it commercially available. The STTR program awards contracts to small business concerns for cooperative R&D with a nonprofit research institution. Research institutions include nonprofit research organizations, Federal laboratories, or universities. The goal of the program established by Congress is to facilitate the transfer of technology developed by a research institution through the entrepreneurship of a small business. The STIR program is smaller in funding than the SBIR program. While the proposal is submitted by the small business concern, at least 30 percent of the funding and work must originate with the research institution. STTR Phase I projects receive up to $100K for a one-year effort, and a Phase II contract receives up to $600K for two years.

Source record↗

Report of the Interagency Optical Network Testbeds Workshop 2, NASA Ames Research Center, September 12-14, 2005

The Optical Network Testbeds Workshop 2 (ONT2), held on September 12-14, 2005, was cosponsored by the Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE/SC) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in cooperation with the Joint Engineering Team (JET) of the Federal Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program's Large Scale Networking (LSN) Coordinating Group. The ONT2 workshop was a follow-on to an August 2004 Workshop on Optical Network Testbeds (ONT1). ONT1 recommended actions by the Federal agencies to assure timely development and implementation of optical networking technologies and infrastructure. Hosted by the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, the ONT2 workshop brought together representatives of the U.S. advanced research and education (R&E) networks, regional optical networks (RONs), service providers, international networking organizations, and senior engineering and R&D managers from Federal agencies and national research laboratories. Its purpose was to develop a common vision of the optical network technologies, services, infrastructure, and organizations needed to enable widespread use of optical networks; recommend activities for transitioning the optical networking research community and its current infrastructure to leading-edge optical networks over the next three to five years; and present information enabling commercial network infrastructure providers to plan for and use leading-edge optical network services in that time frame.

OEP(Open Exchange Points)↗

Land use and environmental assessment in the central Atlantic region

Data from high altitude aircraft, LANDSAT and Skylab were used in a comprehensive regional survey of land use and its associated environmental impact in the Central Atlantic Regional Ecological Test Site (CARETS). Each sensor system has advantages that were demonstrated by producing experimental land use maps and other data products, applying them to typical problems encountered in regional planning and environmental impact assessment, and presenting the results to prospective users for evaluation. An archival collection of imagery, maps, data summaries, and technical reports was assembled, constituting an environmental profile of the central Atlantic region. The investigation was organized into four closely-related modules, a land use information module, an environmental impact module, a user interaction and evaluation module, and a geographic information systems module. Results revealed a heterogeneous user community with diverse information needs, tending, however, definitely toward the higher-resolution sensor data and the larger-scale land use maps and related information products. Among project recommendations are greater efforts toward improving compatibility of federal, state, and local land use information programs, and greater efforts toward a broader exchange of imagery, computer tapes, and land use information derived therefrom.

Alexander, R. H.↗

Examination of the costs, benefits and enery conservation aspects of the NASA aircraft fuel conservation technology program

The costs and benefits of the NASA Aircraft Fuel Conservation Technology Program are discussed. Consideration is given to a present worth analysis of the planned program expenditures, an examination of the fuel savings to be obtained by the year 2005 and the worth of this fuel savings relative to the investment required, a comparison of the program funding with that planned by other Federal agencies for energy conservation, an examination of the private industry aeronautical research and technology financial posture for the period FY 76 - FY 85, and an assessment of the potential impacts on air and noise pollution. To aid in this analysis, a computerized fleet mix forecasting model was developed. This model enables the estimation of fuel consumption and present worth of fuel expenditures for selected commerical aircraft fleet mix scenarios.

Source record↗

Solar energy in California industry - Applications, characteristics and potential

Results of a survey to determine the potential applicability of solar thermal energy to industrial processes in California are presented. It is found that if the heat for all industrial processes at temperatures below 212 F were supplied by solar energy, total state energy consumption could be reduced by 100 trillion Btus (2%), while the use of solar energy in processes between 212 and 350 F could displace 500 trillion Btus. The issues and problems with which solar energy must contend are illustrated by a description of fluid milk processing operations. Solar energy application is found to be technically feasible for processes with thermal energy requirements below 212 F, with design, and degree of technical, economic and management feasibility being site specific. It is recommended that the state provide support for federal and industrial research, development and demonstration programs in order to stimulate acceptance of solar process heat application by industry.

Barbieri, R. H.↗

Designs for surge immunity in critical electronic facilities

In recent years, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) embarked on a program replacing older tube type electronic equipment with newer solid state equipment. This replacement program dramatically increased the susceptibility of the FAA's facilities to lightning related damages. The proposal is presented of techniques which may be employed to lessen the susceptibility of new FAA electronic facility designs to failures resulting from lightning related surges and transients as well as direct strikes. The general concept espoused is one of a consistent system approach employing both perimeter and internal protection. It compares the technique presently employed to reduce electronic noise with other techniques which reduce noise while lowering susceptibility to lightning related damage. It is anticipated that these techniques will be employed in the design of an Air Traffic Control Tower in a high isokeraunic area. This facility would be subjected to rigorous monitoring over a multi-year period to provide quantitative data hopefully supporting the advantage of this design.

Roberts, Edward F., Jr.↗

Applied Computational Fluid Dynamics at NASA Ames Research Center

The field of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has advanced to the point where it can now be used for many applications in fluid mechanics research and aerospace vehicle design. A few applications being explored at NASA Ames Research Center will be presented and discussed. The examples presented will range in speed from hypersonic to low speed incompressible flow applications. Most of the results will be from numerical solutions of the Navier-Stokes or Euler equations in three space dimensions for general geometry applications. Computational results will be used to highlight the presentation as appropriate. Advances in computational facilities including those associated with NASA's CAS (Computational Aerosciences) Project of the Federal HPCC (High Performance Computing and Communications) Program will be discussed. Finally, opportunities for future research will be presented and discussed. All material will be taken from non-sensitive, previously-published and widely-disseminated work.

Holst, Terry L.↗

CRM Assessment: Determining the Generalization of Rater Calibration Training. Summary of Research Report: Gold Standards Training

The extent to which pilot instructors are trained to assess crew resource management (CRM) skills accurately during Line-Oriented Flight Training (LOFT) and Line Operational Evaluation (LOE) scenarios is critical. Pilot instructors must make accurate performance ratings to ensure that proper feedback is provided to flight crews and appropriate decisions are made regarding certification to fly the line. Furthermore, the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Advanced Qualification Program (AQP) requires that instructors be trained explicitly to evaluate both technical and CRM performance (i.e., rater training) and also requires that proficiency and standardization of instructors be verified periodically. To address the critical need for effective pilot instructor training, the American Institutes for Research (AIR) reviewed the relevant research on rater training and, based on "best practices" from this research, developed a new strategy for training pilot instructors to assess crew performance. In addition, we explored new statistical techniques for assessing the effectiveness of pilot instructor training. The results of our research are briefly summarized below. This summary is followed by abstracts of articles and book chapters published under this grant.

Baker, David P.↗

New Technology for the Fire Attire

Although little can be done to reduce the risks of firefighting, something can be done to curb the injuries and fatalities. This is the goal of Project FIRES, a program jointly sponsored by NASA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency's U.S. Fire Administration with technical management provided by Marshall Space Flight Center. Project FIRES (Firefighter's Integrated Response Equipment System) involves applications of advanced materials and design concepts, derived from Apollo to update existing gear which does not adequately protect against many of the hazards encountered in fire suppression activities. A major focus of the effort involves application to the FIRES ensemble of lightweight, fire-resistant, heat-protective materials originally developed for use in astronauts' space suits or in spacecraft components which require thermal protection. Data from the fourteen municipal fire departments participating in the field evaluation will form a basis for development of new nationwide protective ensemble students.

Source record↗

Safe Grid

The biggest users of GRID technologies came from the science and technology communities. These consist of government, industry and academia (national and international). The NASA GRID is moving into a higher technology readiness level (TRL) today; and as a joint effort among these leaders within government, academia, and industry, the NASA GRID plans to extend availability to enable scientists and engineers across these geographical boundaries collaborate to solve important problems facing the world in the 21 st century. In order to enable NASA programs and missions to use IPG resources for program and mission design, the IPG capabilities needs to be accessible from inside the NASA center networks. However, because different NASA centers maintain different security domains, the GRID penetration across different firewalls is a concern for center security people. This is the reason why some IPG resources are been separated from the NASA center network. Also, because of the center network security and ITAR concerns, the NASA IPG resource owner may not have full control over who can access remotely from outside the NASA center. In order to obtain organizational approval for secured remote access, the IPG infrastructure needs to be adapted to work with the NASA business process. Improvements need to be made before the IPG can be used for NASA program and mission development. The Secured Advanced Federated Environment (SAFE) technology is designed to provide federated security across NASA center and NASA partner's security domains. Instead of one giant center firewall which can be difficult to modify for different GRID applications, the SAFE "micro security domain" provide large number of professionally managed "micro firewalls" that can allow NASA centers to accept remote IPG access without the worry of damaging other center resources. The SAFE policy-driven capability-based federated security mechanism can enable joint organizational and resource owner approved remote access from outside of NASA centers. A SAFE enabled IPG can enable IPG capabilities to be available to NASA mission design teams across different NASA center and partner company firewalls. This paper will first discuss some of the potential security issues for IPG to work across NASA center firewalls. We will then present the SAFE federated security model. Finally we will present the concept of the architecture of a SAFE enabled IPG and how it can benefit NASA mission development.

Chow, Edward T.↗

NASA's Potential Contributions for Using Solar Ultraviolet Radiation in Conjunction with Photocatalysis for Urban Air Pollution Mitigation

More than 75 percent of the U.S. population lives in urban communities where people are exposed to levels of smog or pollution that exceed the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) safety standards. Urban air quality presents a unique problem because of a number of complex variables, including traffic congestion, energy production, and energy consumption activities, all of which can contribute to and affect air pollution and air quality in this environment. In environmental engineering, photocatalysis is an area of research whose potential for environmental clean-up is rapidly developing popularity and success. Photocatalysis, a natural chemical process, is the acceleration of a photoreaction in the presence of a catalyst. Photocatalytic agents are activated when exposed to near UV (ultraviolet) light (320-400 nm) and water. In recent years, surfaces coated with photocatalytic materials have been extensively studied because pollutants on these surfaces will degrade when the surfaces are exposed to near UV light. Building materials, such as tiles, cement, glass, and aluminum sidings, can be coated with a thin film of a photocatalyst. These coated materials can then break down organic molecules, like air pollutants and smog precursors, into environmentally friendly compounds. These surfaces also exhibit a high affinity for water when exposed to UV light. Therefore, not only are the pollutants decomposed, but this superhydrophilic nature makes the surface self-cleaning, which helps to further increase the degradation rate by allowing rain and/or water to wash byproducts away. According to the Clean Air Act, each individual state is responsible for implementing prevention and regulatory programs to control air pollution. To operate an air quality program, states must adopt and/or develop a plan and obtain approval from the EPA. Federal approval provides a means for the EPA to maintain consistency among different state programs and ensures that they comply with the requirements of the Clean Air Act.

Ryan, robert E.↗

NASA Tools for Climate Impacts on Water Resources

Climate and environmental change are expected to fundamentally alter the nation's hydrological cycle and water availability. Satellites provide global or near-global coverage using instruments, allowing for consistent, well-calibrated, and equivalent-quality data of the Earth system. A major goal for NASA climate and environmental change research is to create multi-instrument data sets to span the multi-decadal time scales of climate change and to combine these data with those from modeling and surface-based observing systems to improve process understanding and predictions. NASA and Earth science data and analyses will ultimately enable more accurate climate prediction, and characterization of uncertainties. NASA's Applied Sciences Program works with other groups, including other federal agencies, to transition demonstrated observational capabilities to operational capabilities. A summary of some of NASA tools for improved water resources management will be presented.

Toll, David↗

The Roots of Beowulf

The first Beowulf Linux commodity cluster was constructed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in 1994 and its origins are a part of the folklore of high-end computing. In fact, the conditions within Goddard that brought the idea into being were shaped by rich historical roots, strategic pressures brought on by the ramp up of the Federal High-Performance Computing and Communications Program, growth of the open software movement, microprocessor performance trends, and the vision of key technologists. This multifaceted story is told here for the first time from the point of view of NASA project management.

Beowulf↗

Survey and analysis of potential users of remote sensing data

Remote sensing applications for the activities of the regional interstate organizations, the federal agencies, and the private sector are examined. The survey covered activities in all 50 states. Emphasis has been placed on on-going operational programs and no attempt was made to cover the activities of the federal agencies except insofar as they impinged on State or other regional or metropolitan programs.

Source record↗

Joint University Program for Air Transportation Research, 1983

The research conducted during 1983 under the NASA/FAA sponsored Joint University Program for Air Transportation Research is summarized. The material was presented at a conference held at the Federal Aviation Administration Technical Center, Altantic City, New Jersey, December 16, 1983. The Joint University Program is a coordinated set of three grants sponsored by NASA Langley Research Center and the Federal Aviation Administration, one each with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ohio University, and Princeton University. Completed works, status reports, and bibliographies are presented for research topics, which include navigation, guidance, control, and display concepts. An overview of the year's activities for each of the universities is also presented.

Morrell, Frederick R.↗

Standardized Protocol for Real-Time APIs as Required by Title 23 CFR 680.116(c)

Improving the ability of drivers to easily locate working and available chargers is key to improving the public charging experience. Electric vehicle charging providers who are recipients of federal funds through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program, Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) Discretionary Grant Program, and other funding programs as identified under Title 23 of the U.S. Code must deploy and maintain an application programming interface (API) to access information about charging stations they operate.1 This includes information about individual charging ports, pricing, and availability in accordance with the Federal Highway Administration’s National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Standards and Requirements, 23 CFR 680.116(c), herein referred to as the minimum standards (Federal Highway Administration 2023). Specifically outlined in the minimum standards, states and other designated recipients are required to ensure that charging station information including location, connector type, power level, real-time status, and real-time price to charge are available free of charge to third-party software developers through an API. These requirements are intended to enable effective communication with consumers about available charging stations and help consumers make informed decisions about trip planning, including when and where to charge. This document provides a standardized protocol for how to structure data, data update frequency, and practices for making the data required to be shared via API usable for improving public transparency and the customer experience. These are recommendations only and do not modify the Federal Highway Administration’s minimum standards in any way.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Space Technology Mission Directorate Game Changing Development Program FY2015 Annual Program Review: Advanced Manufacturing Technology

The Advance Manufacturing Technology (AMT) Project supports multiple activities within the Administration's National Manufacturing Initiative. A key component of the Initiative is the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office (AMNPO), which includes participation from all federal agencies involved in U.S. manufacturing. In support of the AMNPO the AMT Project supports building and Growing the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation through a public-private partnership designed to help the industrial community accelerate manufacturing innovation. Integration with other projects/programs and partnerships: STMD (Space Technology Mission Directorate), HEOMD, other Centers; Industry, Academia; OGA's (e.g., DOD, DOE, DOC, USDA, NASA, NSF); Office of Science and Technology Policy, NIST Advanced Manufacturing Program Office; Generate insight within NASA and cross-agency for technology development priorities and investments. Technology Infusion Plan: PC; Potential customer infusion (TDM, HEOMD, SMD, OGA, Industry); Leverage; Collaborate with other Agencies, Industry and Academia; NASA roadmap. Initiatives include: Advanced Near Net Shape Technology Integrally Stiffened Cylinder Process Development (launch vehicles, sounding rockets); Materials Genome; Low Cost Upper Stage-Class Propulsion; Additive Construction with Mobile Emplacement (ACME); National Center for Advanced Manufacturing.

Vickers, John↗