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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
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Voucher Opportunity 5-15: Independent Assessment of Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) Technologies and Practices for Enhanced Rock Weathering (CRADA 718) Abstract

Development of robust, transparent, and precise monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) technologies and practices is critical for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) project developers to comply with regulatory and permitting requirements, voluntary carbon market (VCM) protocols, and to ensure safety while reducing environmental impacts. Enhanced rock weathering (ERW)-based CDR technologies focus on removing atmospheric carbon through conversion into thermodynamically stable solid or aqueous carbonate forms for permanent storage (i.e., mineralization). This highly durable form of CDR enhances naturally occurring silicate rock weathering cycles by optimizing application of finely-ground silicate rock particles (i.e., from basalt) on terrestrial agricultural lands to accelerate natural silicate rock weathering and mineralization. Enhanced rock weathering may also provide improved crop yields and enhance soil health. A critical aspect for commercialization of these technologies is the development of MRV to quantify the net removal and durable storage of atmospheric CO 2 . For ERW systems, it is essential to accurately characterize the mineral feedstock selected for application to establish the baseline geochemical composition, mineral dissolution rates, and carbon removal potential of the feedstocks to estimate overall net removal. Given the difficulty with conducting MRV for ERW in diverse soil/environment types, over large application areas, and due to complex chemical reaction networks, this project will accelerate understanding towards consensus on best practices for MRV. The overall objectives of the proposed voucher project are to: 1) Characterize and analyze feedstock(s) intended for ERW field application by Lithos Carbon (“Voucher Recipient”/ “CRADA Participant”) to determine overall mineralization potential; 2) Facilitate knowledge transfer and documentation of experimental protocols, instrumentation, and other relevant best practices; and 3) Support the Voucher Recipient’s broader technology commercialization and ERW Research Facility development plans. This work will align with the Voucher Recipient’s MRV plans for field sites and build upon complementary efforts conducted by PNNL on mineralization MRV.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2025

Insulation Activation and Contamination in Low-Power Experiments

Among the diverse advanced nuclear reactor concepts being developed are designs that expect to operate at much higher temperatures than conventional light-water reactors, and therefore require alternative materials for components capable of withstanding these extreme temperatures. Insulation is one such component where alternative high-temperature industrial composites are being considered. Low-power experiments can provide an opportunity for advancing our understanding of material behavior under irradiation; however, these experiments are not without occupational hazards. The focus of this paper is the potential for activation of insulating composites when exposed to neutron fluence during reactor experiments, and to discuss the subsequent contamination of the testing area. This paper will also discuss practical measures for preventing the creation and inhalation of activated particulate matter (i.e., dust), such as engineering and administrative controls and personal protective equipment. This paper evaluates the suitability of several insulation materials for use in reactor experiments based on their activation from neutron irradiation. The materials considered are Pyrogel XTE by Aspen Aerogel, Cerablanket and Kaowool by Morgan Advanced Materials, Thermo-12 Gold by Johns Manville, and Maxsil CF6-2000 by McAllister Mills. Although these materials are not yet widely used in the nuclear industry, they are common in other industries due to their thermal insulating properties. These materials produce dust while handling that can pose health and safety hazards, which could be further exacerbated by activation. The analysis presented in this paper utilizes a deterministic method developed to predict the activation source term of the provided insulation materials. The method calculates the atomic density of each element within the composites and simulates their exposure to a specified neutron flux density representative of low power experimental conditions. During the irradiation phase and throughout the extensive cooling period, neutron absorptions and nuclear decays are tracked for relevant isotopes. The residual activity within each composite is then assessed to identify the material with the lowest potential radiological hazard to workers. Dust will be created during installation and removal of insulating materials and may also be generated during the experiment. Contamination of surrounding surfaces due to dispersion is highly likely unless preventative measures are taken. The results of this analysis are used to estimate an internal dose from inhalation of activated dust, which is significantly lower than the allowable whole-body dose. However, the risk of internal exposure may increase if the dust becomes a transport vector for nuclear material. The goals of this paper are to enhance the understanding of the potential activation and contamination hazards from the use of these insulating materials in low-power nuclear experiments and to foster safer work environments through informed decision-making and strategic planning. This work ultimately contributes to a broader understanding of how new non-nuclear materials for advanced reactors impact the radiological safety of co-located workers, helping to ensure the responsible management of radioactive materials during installation and decommissioning activities.

12 - MGMT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTE↗
NASA NTRS2018

CARA Devolution ESMO Pilot Program

Information regarding the current effort ongoing with CARA to determine the steps needed to have a mission move away from being supported by CARA, otherwise referred to as Devolving/Devolution. Information regarding the working group established to undertake this effort, documents agreed that needed to be written and plans for a parallel operations period. The communication between ESMO and CARA during the Parallel Operations period will be as the following: – A daily email will be sent from ESMO to CARA describing each HIE that is being actively planned and worked, and the action that ESMO is planning on taking – A weekly email will be sent from ESMO to CARA listing the progress toward achieving the parallel operations success criteria – The CARA team will remain on distribution for ESMO HIE communications and CAM invitations associated with DAMs/RMMs during the parallel operations period – At a minimum, 2 members of the CARA team will be in attendance at all ESMO planning and review discussions – A monthly email will be sent from ESMO to CARA with the HIE metrics • During parallel operations, ESMO will contact NASA Headquarters to report any redDevolution Working Group laid out and completed all steps needed to begin parallel operations • Parallel Ops for ESMO began on 11/26 (CARA in shadow mode only) • Any lessons learned from parallel ops will be folded back into documents/templates • Hope to achieve all success criteria < 6 months • Decision for permanent devolution will be based on completion of parallel ops and other future documentation creation (CARA Standard and Handbook, etc) and reviews (ORR) event which is less than 2 days from TCA, including the proposed remediation, on an as-needed daily basis flow using SpaceTrack to send and receive data

ESMO pilot devolution program↗
NASA NTRS2015

A Fast Goal Recognition Technique Based on Interaction Estimates

Goal Recognition is the task of inferring an actor's goals given some or all of the actor's observed actions. There is considerable interest in Goal Recognition for use in intelligent personal assistants, smart environments, intelligent tutoring systems, and monitoring user's needs. In much of this work, the actor's observed actions are compared against a generated library of plans. Recent work by Ramirez and Geffner makes use of AI planning to determine how closely a sequence of observed actions matches plans for each possible goal. For each goal, this is done by comparing the cost of a plan for that goal with the cost of a plan for that goal that includes the observed actions. This approach yields useful rankings, but is impractical for real-time goal recognition in large domains because of the computational expense of constructing plans for each possible goal. In this paper, we introduce an approach that propagates cost and interaction information in a plan graph, and uses this information to estimate goal probabilities. We show that this approach is much faster, but still yields high quality results.

gola recognition↗
NASA NTRS2003

Incremental Contingency Planning

There has been considerable work in AI on planning under uncertainty. However, this work generally assumes an extremely simple model of action that does not consider continuous time and resources. These assumptions are not reasonable for a Mars rover, which must cope with uncertainty about the duration of tasks, the energy required, the data storage necessary, and its current position and orientation. In this paper, we outline an approach to generating contingency plans when the sources of uncertainty involve continuous quantities such as time and resources. The approach involves first constructing a "seed" plan, and then incrementally adding contingent branches to this plan in order to improve utility. The challenge is to figure out the best places to insert contingency branches. This requires an estimate of how much utility could be gained by building a contingent branch at any given place in the seed plan. Computing this utility exactly is intractable, but we outline an approximation method that back propagates utility distributions through a graph structure similar to that of a plan graph.

Dearden, Richard↗
NASA NTRS1994

Abstraction Planning in Real Time

When a planning agent works in a complex, real-world domain, it is unable to plan for and store all possible contingencies and problem situations ahead of time. This thesis presents a method for planning a run time that incrementally builds up plans at multiple levels of abstraction. The plans are continually updated by information from the world, allowing the planner to adjust its plan to a changing world during the planning process. All the information is represented over intervals of time, allowing the planner to reason about durations, deadlines, and delays within its plan. In addition to the method, the thesis presents a formal model of the planning process and uses the model to investigate planning strategies.

COMPUTER PROGRAMMING↗
NASA NTRS1994

Abstraction Planning in Real Time

When a planning agent works in a complex, real-world domain, it is unable to plan for and store all possible contingencies and problem situations ahead of time. The agent needs to be able to fall back on an ability to construct plans at run time under time constraints. This thesis presents a method for planning at run time that incrementally builds up plans at multiple levels of abstraction. The plans are continually updated by information from the world, allowing the planner to adjust its plan to a changing world during the planning process. All the information is represented over intervals of time, allowing the planner to reason about durations, deadlines, and delays within its plan. In addition to the method, the thesis presents a formal model of the planning process and uses the model to investigate planning strategies. The method has been implemented, and experiments have been run to validate the overall approach and the theoretical model.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE↗
NASA NTRS1994

Task-level control for autonomous robots

Task-level control refers to the integration and coordination of planning, perception, and real-time control to achieve given high-level goals. Autonomous mobile robots need task-level control to effectively achieve complex tasks in uncertain, dynamic environments. This paper describes the Task Control Architecture (TCA), an implemented system that provides commonly needed constructs for task-level control. Facilities provided by TCA include distributed communication, task decomposition and sequencing, resource management, monitoring and exception handling. TCA supports a design methodology in which robot systems are developed incrementally, starting first with deliberative plans that work in nominal situations, and then layering them with reactive behaviors that monitor plan execution and handle exceptions. To further support this approach, design and analysis tools are under development to provide ways of graphically viewing the system and validating its behavior.

Simmons, Reid↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Trajectory Simulation Using Multi Model Monte Carlo with Python (MXMCPy)

EDL (Entry, Descent and Landing) is the process from a vehicle approaching a surface to landing on it, such as a Mars rover approaching the planet before landing. POST2 (Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories 2) is Langley’s primary EDL simulation tool and is used NASA-wide for simulations. POST2 can generate highly accurate results by running a precise, but time consuming, Monte Carlo (MC) simulation hundreds or thousands of times. Though POST2 can produce highly accurate results, it can take unrealistic time spans to generate these results, which has created a need to speed up the simulations. The new NASA software MXMCPy offers various ways to speed up the simulations while getting just as precise results. Instead of running high-precision POST2 simulations many times for traditional MC, MXMCPy can run fewer high-precision POST2 simulations and many less precise POST2 simulations and merge the results. MXMCPy contains 30+ different methods which will each suggest different allocations between model precision levels, which result in results of varying precision based on the POST2 simulation. I created Python and Bash code to automate the 5 steps of MXMCPy’s application to POST2. I also tested the precision of traditional Monte Carlo simulations to MXMCPy aided simulations and found that MXMCPy can achieve substantially more precise solutions at the same computer runtime. I learned Test Driven Development (TDD), a software programming workflow which involves writing computer-automated tests before writing the code which is being tested. These tests are ran every time the code is changed and they can find glitches in the code much quicker than a human can. This programming workflow saved me a lot of time because the automated tests could tell me exactly where the code had stopped working. I plan on using this software development method for future academic and professional software projects. I have greatly enjoyed my work at NASA, so I have been applying to NASA internships and Pathways positions. In addition, I plan on applying what I have learned about Test Driven Development to my computer science courses next semester

James Warner↗
NASA NTRS2019

Controls and Automation Research in Space Life Support

A highly controlled and automated life support system has long been a NASA goal. It is usually assumed that life support for future long duration missions will use physical/chemical recycling systems that substantially close the oxygen and water circulation loops. Such a tightly coupled life support system has been thought to require an overall supervisory control system to minimize crew operation and maintenance activities. The International Space Station (ISS) Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) was at first expected to have supervisory control and automation. After this was found infeasible during the design of the ISS ECLSS in the early 1990's, it was then expected that the ISS or future mission systems would be upgraded to meet the original expectations. Since then NASA has extensively researched life support system controls and automation. Automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have gone through several cycles of enthusiasm and neglect before their recent great achievements, and NASA life support interest has similarly varied. Since the ISS ECLSS was launched, its on-board operational problems have led NASA to deemphasize system level controls and automation in favor of improving subsystem reliability and maintainability. Recent work has investigated supervisory control for a system similar to the ISS ECLSS. This paper reviews past planning and work on the supervisory control of closed, integrated physical/chemical life support systems similar to the ISS ECLSS and its precursors dating back to the 1960's.

life support↗
NASA NTRS1979

Planning and managing future space facility projects

To learn how ground-based personnel of a space project plan and organize their work and how such planning and organizing relate to work outcomes, longitudinal study of the management and execution of the Space Lab Mission Development Test 3 (SMD 3) was performed at NASA Ames Research Center. A view of the problems likely to arise in organizations and some methods of coping with these problems are presented as well as the conclusions and recommendations that pertain strictly to SMD 3 management. Emphasis is placed on the broader context of future space facility projects and additional problems that may be anticipated. A model of management that may be used to facilitate problem solving and communication - management by objectives (MBO) is presented. Some problems of communication and emotion management that MBO does not address directly are considered. Models for promoting mature, constructive and satisfying emotional relationships among group members are discussed.

Sieber, J. E.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Motion-based carriage simulation of extra-vehicular activity (EVA) rescue

A research program was outlined for a series of Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) rescue studies. The general purpose is to get a better appreciation of the characteristics describing an EVA rescue scenario. Several studies have been completed in the Virtual Interactive Environment Workstation (VIEW) at NASA Ames Research Center. Similar studies are planned for a variety of simulators both to get more reliable results for the EVA rescue problem and to baseline the simulators against one another. Work is planned for a motion-based carriage to expand the validity of the previously obtained results.

Brody, Adam R.↗
NASA NTRS2015

T-38 Primary Flight Display Prototyping and HIVE Support Abstract & Summary

This fall I worked in EV3 within NASA's Johnson Space Center in The HIVE (Human Integrated Vehicles & Environments). The HIVE is responsible for human in the loop testing, getting new technologies in front of astronauts, operators, and users early in the development cycle to make the interfaces more human friendly. Some projects the HIVE is working on includes user interfaces for future spacecraft, wearables to alert astronauts about important information, and test beds to simulate mock missions. During my internship I created a prototype for T-38 aircraft displays using LabVIEW, learned how to use microcontrollers, and helped out with other small tasks in the HIVE. The purpose of developing a prototype for T-38 Displays in LabVIEW is to analyze functions of the display such as navigation in a cost and time effective manner. The LabVIEW prototypes allow Ellington Field AOD to easily make adjustments to the display before hardcoding the final product. LabVIEW was used to create a user interface for simulation almost identical to the real aircraft display. Goals to begin the T-38 PFD (Primary Flight Display) prototype included creating a T-38 PFD hardware display in a software environment, designing navigation for the menu's, incorporating vertical and horizontal navigation bars, and to add a heading bug for compass controls connected to the HSI (Horizontal Situation Indicator). To get started with the project, measurements of the entire display were taken. This enabled an accurate model of the hardware display to be created. Navigation of menu's required some exploration of different buttons on the display. The T-38 simulator and aircraft were used for examining the display. After one piece of the prototype was finished, another trip of to the simulator took place. This was done until all goals for the prototype were complete. Some possible integration ideas for displays in the near future are autopilot selection, touch screen displays, and crew member preferences. Complete navigation, control, and function customization will be achievable once a display is fully developed. Other than the T-38 prototyping, I spent time learning how to design small circuits and write code for them to function. This was done by adding electronic circuit components to breadboard and microcontroller then writing code to speak to those components through the microcontroller. I went through an Arduino starter kit to build circuits and code software that allowed the hardware to act. This work was planned to assist in a lighting project this fall but another solution was discovered for the lighting project. Other tasks that I assisted with, included hands on work such as mock-up construction/removal, logic analyzer repairs, and soldering with circuits. The unique opportunity to be involved work with NASA has significantly changed my educational and career goals. This opportunity has only opened the door to my career with engineering. I have learned over the span of this internship that I am fascinated by the type of work that NASA does. My desire to work in the aerospace industry has increased immensely. I hope to return to NASA to be more involved in the advancement of science, engineering, and spaceflight. My interests for my future education and career lie in NASA’s work - pioneering the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.

Boniface, Andrew↗
NASA NTRS1979

Distribution automation and control support; Analysis and interpretation of DAC working group results for use in project planning

The Executive Summary and Proceedings of the Working Group Meeting was analyzed to identify specific projects appropriate for Distribution Automation and Control DAC RD&D. Specific projects that should be undertaken in the DAC RD&D program were recommended. The projects are presented under broad categories of work selected based on ESC's interpretation of the results of the Working Group Meeting. Some of the projects are noted as utility industry projects. The ESC recommendations regarding program management are presented. Utility versus Government management responsibilities are noted.

Klock, P.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Manned Mars Landing

Following the first Apollo lunar landing mission in 1969, then Vice-President Spiro Agnew called upon NASA to prepare a plan in 30 days. The action was assigned to the newly formed Program Development Organization. A team was formed to prepare a plan which was completed on time and on August 4, 1969, the plan was presented to The Space Task Group (STG) at NASA HQ by Dr. Wernher Von Braun accompanied by Dr. William Lucas, Ron Harris and Gene Austin. The STG was headed by Dr. George Moeller, then AA in the Office of Manned Space Flight, and composed of other senior NASA officials. The charts in this book are copies of those used in the August 4, 1969 briefing. After this briefing, the MSFC attendees met privately with Dr. Moeller and received further comments/actions. The plan was worked further over the next few weeks and subsequently discussions were held with the Vice President and other White House staff members. While no blanket approval was given to the plan, the need for a reusable Space Shuttle was clearly indicated ass a first step ;in achieving the capability to assemble a Mars ship in Earth orbit. Dr. Moeller hence used this as a strong justification in his successful efforts to sell the Space Shuttle Program.

Mars↗
NASA NTRS2008

Update on Development of SiC Multi-Chip Power Modules

Progress has been made in a continuing effort to develop multi-chip power modules (SiC MCPMs). This effort at an earlier stage was reported in 'SiC Multi-Chip Power Modules as Power-System Building Blocks' (LEW-18008-1), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 31, No. 2 (February 2007), page 28. The following recapitulation of information from the cited prior article is prerequisite to a meaningful summary of the progress made since then: 1) SiC MCPMs are, more specifically, electronic power-supply modules containing multiple silicon carbide power integrated-circuit chips and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) control integrated-circuit chips. SiC MCPMs are being developed as building blocks of advanced expandable, reconfigurable, fault-tolerant power-supply systems. Exploiting the ability of SiC semiconductor devices to operate at temperatures, breakdown voltages, and current densities significantly greater than those of conventional Si devices, the designs of SiC MCPMs and of systems comprising multiple SiC MCPMs are expected to afford a greater degree of miniaturization through stacking of modules with reduced requirements for heat sinking; 2) The stacked SiC MCPMs in a given system can be electrically connected in series, parallel, or a series/parallel combination to increase the overall power-handling capability of the system. In addition to power connections, the modules have communication connections. The SOI controllers in the modules communicate with each other as nodes of a decentralized control network, in which no single controller exerts overall command of the system. Control functions effected via the network include synchronization of switching of power devices and rapid reconfiguration of power connections to enable the power system to continue to supply power to a load in the event of failure of one of the modules; and, 3) In addition to serving as building blocks of reliable power-supply systems, SiC MCPMs could be augmented with external control circuitry to make them perform additional power-handling functions as needed for specific applications. Because identical SiC MCPM building blocks could be utilized in such a variety of ways, the cost and difficulty of designing new, highly reliable power systems would be reduced considerably. This concludes the information from the cited prior article. The main activity since the previously reported stage of development was the design, fabrication, and testing a 120- VDC-to-28-VDC modular power-converter system composed of eight SiC MCPMs in a 4 (parallel)-by-2 (series) matrix configuration, with normally-off controllable power switches. The SiC MCPM power modules include closed-loop control subsystems and are capable of operating at high power density or high temperature. The system was tested under various configurations, load conditions, load-transient conditions, and failure-recovery conditions. Planned future work includes refinement of the demonstrated modular system concept and development of a new converter hardware topology that would enable sharing of currents without the need for communication among modules. Toward these ends, it is also planned to develop a new converter control algorithm that would provide for improved sharing of current and power under all conditions, and to implement advanced packaging concepts that would enable operation at higher power density.

Lostetter, Alexander↗
NASA NTRS2018

NASA's Space Launch System Moves into Testing and Integration

NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) has moved from design and manufacturing into testing and integration for its first flight as early as December 2019. In 2017, the NASA/industry team completed manufacturing of all major structural elements for the launch vehicle for Exploration Mission-I (EM-1 ). That work included shipping the first major flight hardware element to the launch site. The team processed all four RS-25 engines for stage integration, cast all 10 booster flight motor segments, and manufactured all five major sections of the core stage. The program also completed major structural work on the B-2 test stand at Stennis Space Center, which will be used for the core stage "green run" test; delivered the core stage and engine simulators used for training; and much of the transportation equipment for the core stage. Engineers completed structural testing on the upper stage/payload section of the vehicle as well as the engine section test article. In 2018, the program will deliver the Orion Stage Adapter (OSA) to Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) at KSC and send the test articles for the core stage liquid hydrogen tank, liquid oxygen tank, and intertank to NASA's Marshall Space Flight center for structural testing. Additionally, workers will begin the challenging process of integrating the major sections of the 212-foot EM-1 core stage. This work is focused on the initial Block 1 variant of SLS, capable of launching more than 70 metric tons (t) to low Earth orbit (LEO). However, work concurrently is underway on the Block lB variant, which will enable 105 t to LEO and more than 37t to trans-lunar injection (TLI). Block lB will be the workhorse vehicle of NASA's lunar exploration plans. As the needs of the nation's deep space exploration program grow, SLS performance is designed to evolve to a payload mass of 130 t to LEO and up to 45t to TLI. The advantages of this mass - as well as volume- are critical to the entire exploration architecture for deep space exploration. They translate to greater capability, greater infrastructure and operational simplicity, less overall mission risk, and opportunities to accomplish unprecedented exploration and discovery. This paper will discuss SLS progress to date and planned future work.

Honeycutt, John↗