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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 NTRS2022

Lunar Rover Localization Using Craters as Landmarks

Onboard localization capabilities for planetary rovers to date have used relative navigation, by integrating combinations of wheel odometry, visual odometry, and inertial measurements during each drive to track position relative to the start of each drive. At the end of each drive, a “ground-in-the-loop” (GITL) interaction is used to get a position update from human operators in a more global reference frame, such as a map frame defined by orbital reconnaissance imaging of a large region around the rover’s current position. For Mars rovers, this typically has involved downlinking imagery from the rover mast cameras and using interactive visualization tools on Earth to register such images to the orbital reconnaissance images. For safety purposes, rover mission operations typically specify “keep out zones”, which human operators recognize as being unsafe in the orbital images. Autonomous rover drives are limited in distance so that accumulated relative navigation error does not risk the possibility of the rover driving into a keep out zone. The allowable autonomous drive distance in this mode of operation depends on the distribution of keep out zones and the accuracy of relative navigation; in practice, drive limits of a few hundred meters between GITL cycles are to be expected. Several rover mission concepts have recently been studied that require much longer drives between GITL cycles, particularly for the Moon. This includes lunar rover mission concepts that involve (1) driving mostly in sunlight at low latitudes, (2) driving in permanently shadowed regions near the south pole, and (3) a mixture of day and night driving in mid-latitudes. These concepts include total traverse distance requirements of up to 1,800 km in 4 Earth years, with individual drives of several kilometers between stops for downlink. These concepts require greater autonomy to minimize GITL cycles to enable such large range; onboard global localization is a key element of such autonomy. Multiple techniques have been studied in the past for onboard rover global localization, including radio navigation aiding from an orbiter, recognizing horizon landmarks that are known in a regional elevation map, and correlating a local elevation map created onboard the rover with a regional elevation map. These techniques all have drawbacks, including requiring an expensive extra mission element (navigation orbiter), unavailability of sufficient regional elevation map data, or limited accuracy in resulting position estimates (e.g. a few hundred meters with horizon landmarks). For the Moon, the ubiquitous craters offer another possibility, which involves mapping craters from orbit, then recognizing crater landmarks with cameras and/or a lidar onboard the rover. This approach is applicable everywhere on the Moon, does not require high resolution stereo imaging from orbit as some other approaches do, and has potential to enable position knowledge with order of 10 m accuracy at all times. This paper will provide more detail on our technical approach to crater-based lunar rover localization and will present initial results on crater detection using 3-D point cloud data from onboard lidar or stereo cameras and using shading cues in monocular onboard imagery.

Ono, M.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Towards Solving the Mixing Problem in the Decomposition of Geophysical Time Series by Independent Component Analysis

The use of the Principal Component Analysis technique for the analysis of geophysical time series has been questioned in particular for its tendency to extract components that mix several physical phenomena even when the signal is just their linear sum. We demonstrate with a data simulation experiment that the Independent Component Analysis, a recently developed technique, is able to solve this problem. This new technique requires the statistical independence of components, a stronger constraint, that uses higher-order statistics, instead of the classical decorrelation a weaker constraint, that uses only second-order statistics. Furthermore, ICA does not require additional a priori information such as the localization constraint used in Rotational Techniques.

Aires, Filipe↗

NASA NTRS2001

Antimatter Production at a Potential Boundary

Current antiproton production techniques rely on high-energy collisions between beam particles and target nuclei to produce particle and antiparticle pairs, but inherently low production and capture efficiencies render these techniques impractical for the cost-effective production of antimatter for space propulsion and other commercial applications. Based on Dirac's theory of the vacuum field, a new antimatter production concept is proposed in which particle-antiparticle pairs are created at the boundary of a steep potential step formed by the suppression of the local vacuum fields. Current antimatter production techniques are reviewed, followed by a description of Dirac's relativistic quantum theory of the vacuum state and corresponding solutions for particle tunneling and reflection from a potential barrier. The use of the Casimir effect to suppress local vacuum fields is presented as a possible technique for generating the sharp potential gradients required for particle-antiparticle pair creation.

LaPointe, Michael R.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Short arc orbit determination for altimeter calibration and validation on TOPEX/POSEIDON

TOPEX/POSEIDON (T/P) is a joint mission of United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and French Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) design launched August 10, 1992. It carries two radar altimeters which alternately share a common antenna. There are two project designated verification sites, a NASA site off the coast at Pt. Conception, CA and a CNES site near Lampedusa Island in the Mediterranean Sea. Altimeter calibration and validation for T/P is performed over these highly instrumented sites by comparing the spacecraft's altimeter radar range to computed range based on in situ measurements which include the estimated orbit position. This paper presents selected results of orbit determination over each of these sites to support altimeter verification. A short arc orbit determination technique is used to estimate a locally accurate position determination of T/P from less than one revolution of satellite laser ranging (SLR) data. This technique is relatively insensitive to gravitational and non-gravitational force modeling errors and is demonstrated by covariance analysis and by comparison to orbits determined from longer arcs of data and other tracking data types, such as Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) and Global Positioning System Demonstration Receiver (GPSDR) data.

Williams, B. G.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Rotation Rate of Saturn's Magnetosphere using CAPS Plasma Measurements

We present the present status of an investigation of the rotation rate of Saturn's magnetosphere using a 3D velocity moment technique being developed at Goddard which is similar to the 2D version used by Sittler et al. for SOI and similar to that used by Thomsen et al.. This technique allows one to nearly cover the full energy range of the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) IMS from 1 V . E/Q < 50 kV. Since our technique maps the observations into a local inertial frame, it does work during roll maneuvers. We make comparisons with the bi-Maxwellian fitting technique developed by Wilson et al. and the similar velocity moment technique by Thomsen et al. . We concentrate our analysis when ion composition data is available, which is used to weight the non-compositional data, referred to as singles data, to separate H+, H2+ and water group ions (W+) from each other. The chosen periods have high enough telemetry rates (4 kbps or higher) so that coincidence ion data, similar to that used by Sittler et al. for SOI is available. The ion data set is especially valuable for measuring flow velocities for protons, which are more difficult to derive using singles data within the inner magnetosphere, where the signal is dominated by heavy ions (i.e., proton peak merges with W+ peak as low energy shoulder). Our technique uses a flux function, which is zero in the proper plasma flow frame, to estimate fluid parameter uncertainties. The comparisons investigate the experimental errors and potential for systematic errors in the analyses, including ours. The rolls provide the best data set when it comes to getting 4PI coverage of the plasma but are more susceptible to time aliasing effects. In the future we will then make comparisons with magnetic field observations, Saturn ionosphere conductivities as presently known and the field aligned currents necessary for the planet to enforce corotation of the rotating plasma.

Sittler, E.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Short Arc Orbit Determination for Altimeter Calibration and Validation on TOPEX/Poseidon

TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) is a joint mission of US NASA and French CNES design launched August 10, 1992. It carries two radar altimeters which alternately share a common antenna. There are two project designated verification sites, a NASA site off the coast at Pt. Conception, CA, and a CNES site near Lampedusa Island in the Mediterranean Sea. Altimeter calibration and validation for T/P is performed over these highly instrumented sites by comparing the spacecraft's altimeter radar range to computed range based on in situ measurements which include the estimated orbit position. This paper presents selected results of orbit determination over each of these sites to support altimeter verification. A short arc orbit determination technique is used to estimate a locally accurate position determination of T/P from less than one revolution of satellite laser ranging (SLR) data. This technique is relatively insensitive to gravitational and nongravitational force modeling errors and is therefore essentially geometrical. The quality of these short arc orbits is demonstrated by covariance analysis and by comparison to orbits determined from longer arcs of data and other tracking data types, such as DORIS and Global Positioning System Demonstration Receiver (GPSDR) data.

radar↗

NASA NTRS2017

Walking the Filament of Feasibility: Global Optimization of Highly-Constrained, Multi-Modal Interplanetary Trajectories Using a Novel Stochastic Search Technique

Interplanetary trajectory optimization problems are highly complex and are characterized by a large number of decision variables and equality and inequality constraints as well as many locally optimal solutions. Stochastic global search techniques, coupled with a large-scale NLP solver, have been shown to solve such problems but are inadequately robust when the problem constraints become very complex. In this work, we present a novel search algorithm that takes advantage of the fact that equality constraints effectively collapse the solution space to lower dimensionality. This new approach walks the filament'' of feasibility to efficiently find the global optimal solution.

Englander, Arnold C.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Walking the Filament of Feasibility: Global Optimization of Highly-Constrained, Multi-Modal Interplanetary Trajectories Using a Novel Stochastic Search Technique

Englander, Arnold C.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Rotation of EOFs by the Independent Component Analysis: Towards A Solution of the Mixing Problem in the Decomposition of Geophysical Time Series

The Independent Component Analysis is a recently developed technique for component extraction. This new method requires the statistical independence of the extracted components, a stronger constraint that uses higher-order statistics, instead of the classical decorrelation, a weaker constraint that uses only second-order statistics. This technique has been used recently for the analysis of geophysical time series with the goal of investigating the causes of variability in observed data (i.e. exploratory approach). We demonstrate with a data simulation experiment that, if initialized with a Principal Component Analysis, the Independent Component Analysis performs a rotation of the classical PCA (or EOF) solution. This rotation uses no localization criterion like other Rotation Techniques (RT), only the global generalization of decorrelation by statistical independence is used. This rotation of the PCA solution seems to be able to solve the tendency of PCA to mix several physical phenomena, even when the signal is just their linear sum.

Aires, Filipe↗

NASA NTRS2000

Rotation of EOFs by the Independent Component Analysis: Towards a Solution of the Mixing Problem in the Decomposition of Geophysical Time Series

Aires, Filipe↗

NASA NTRS2018

MoonBEAM: A Beyond Earth-Orbit Gamma-Ray Burst Detector for Multi-Messenger Astronomy

Moon Burst Energetics All-sky Monitor (MoonBEAM) is a CubeSat concept of deploying gamma-ray detectors in cislunar space to increase gamma-ray burst detections and improve localization precision with the timing triangulation technique. A gamma-ray instrument in cislunar orbit will have greatly reduced sky blockage compared to instruments in low Earth orbit. Working in conjunction with another instrument in low Earth orbit, MoonBEAM can also help constrain the arrival direction of the wavefront to an annulus on the sky by utilizing the light arrival times between the different orbits. This method has been demonstrated by the Interplanetary Gamma- Ray Burst Timing Network. However, delays in data downlink for instruments outside the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite network prevent rapid follow-up observations. We present here a gamma-ray CubeSat concept in Earth-Moon L3 halo orbit that is capable of faster response and provide a timing baseline for localization improvement. Such an instrument would aid in the gravitational wave follow-up observations in other wavelengths to identify the gamma-ray burst afterglow and kilonova emission. Reducing the region of interest makes identifying afterglows much faster, allowing for rapid on-source observations and monitoring of the rise and decay times. It will also prevent source confusion between two transients and enable robust association. A gamma-ray detection could also increase the confidence of a simultaneous but marginal gravitational wave signal, extending the detection horizon. MoonBEAM is a 12U CubeSat concept of deploying gamma-ray detectors in cislunar space to increase gamma-ray burst detections and improve localization precision with the timing triangulation technique. Such an instrument would probe the extreme processes in cosmic collision of compact objects and facilitate multi-messenger time-domain astronomy to explore the end of stellar life cycles and black hole formations.

gamma-ray Cubesat↗

NASA NTRS1993

Calculating intersections of surfaces in screen space

When surfaces intersect, one may desire to highlight the intersection curve in order to make the shape of the penetrating surfaces more visible. Highlighting the intersection is especially helpful when the surfaces become transparent, because transparency makes the intersections less evident. A technique for locating intersections in screen space using only the information locally available to a pixel is discussed. The technique is designed to exploit parallelism at the pixel level and was implemented on the Pixel-Planes 5 graphics supercomputer.

Banks, David C.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Analysis of airfoil leading edge separation bubbles

A local inviscid-viscous interaction technique was developed for the analysis of low speed airfoil leading edge transitional separation bubbles. In this analysis an inverse boundary layer finite difference analysis is solved iteratively with a Cauchy integral representation of the inviscid flow which is assumed to be a linear perturbation to a known global viscous airfoil analysis. Favorable comparisons with data indicate the overall validity of the present localized interaction approach. In addition numerical tests were performed to test the sensitivity of the computed results to the mesh size, limits on the Cauchy integral, and the location of the transition region.

Carter, J. E.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Analysis of airfoil leading-edge separation bubbles

Vatsa, V. N.↗

NASA NTRS1977

A low speed two-dimensional study of flow separation on the GA(W)-1 airfoil with 30-percent chord Fowler flap

Measurements of flow fields with low speed turbulent boundary layers were made for the GA(W)-1 airfoil with a 0.30 c Fowler flap deflected 40 deg at angles of attack of 2.7 deg, 7.7 deg, and 12.8 deg, at a Reynolds number of 2.2 million, and a Mach number of 0.13. Details of velocity and pressure fields associated with the airfoil flap combination are presented for cases of narrow, optimum and wide slot gaps. Extensive flow field turbulence surveys were also conducted employing hot-film anemometry. For the optimum gap setting, the boundaries of the regions of flow reversal within the wake were determined by this technique for two angles of attack. Local skin friction distributions for the basic airfoil and the airfoil with flap (optimum gap) were obtained using the razor blade technique.

Seetharam, H. C.↗

NASA NTRS2015

Effects of Vehicle Weight and True Versus Indicated Airspeed on BVI Noise During Steady Descending Flight

Blade-vortex interaction noise measurements are analyzed for an AS350B helicopter operated at 7000 ft elevation above sea level. Blade-vortex interaction (BVI) noise from four, 6 degree descent conditions are investigated with descents flown at 80 knot true and indicated airspeed, as well as 4400 and 3915 pound take-off weights. BVI noise is extracted from the acquired acoustic signals by way of a previously developed time-frequency analysis technique. The BVI extraction technique is shown to provide a better localization of BVI noise, compared to the standard Fourier transform integration method. Using this technique, it was discovered that large changes in BVI noise amplitude occurred due to changes in vehicle gross weight. Changes in BVI noise amplitude were too large to be due solely to changes in the vortex strength caused by varying vehicle weight. Instead, it is suggested that vehicle weight modifies the tip-path-plane angle of attack, as well as induced inflow, resulting in large variations of BVI noise. It was also shown that defining flight conditions by true airspeed, rather than indicated airspeed, provides more consistent BVI noise signals.

Stephenson, James H.↗

NASA NTRS2021

Local Ultrasonic Resonance Spectroscopy of Lithium Metal Batteries for Aerospace Applications

As next-generation aircraft and vehicles continue to develop, so do their associated energy demands. Lithium metal batteries are a leading candidate to fulfill this energy requirement, but these batteries are prone to internal dendrite defects that can lead to catastrophic thermal runaway events. Current battery management systems are capable of mitigating such risks, but are unable to detect such defects until thermal runaway has already begun. Various nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques, particularly ultrasonic NDE, can directly monitor internal battery parameters giving them the potential to detect critical defects prior to catastrophic failure. However, most of the current battery NDE research has focused on improved battery state-of-charge (SOC) and stateof- health (SOH) monitoring with little emphasis on critical defect detection. Thus, a measurement technique sensitive to subtle battery defects is needed. In addition, the complex mechanics of ultrasound in porous, thin, multilayered batteries prompt the use of physics-based simulation to guide inspections. In this work, an ultrasonic NDE technique has been developed utilizing frequency domain analysis of local battery resonances to detect the presence of battery defects. This technique is a practical extension of local ultrasonic resonance spectroscopy (LURS) – which previously required non-contact laser ultrasonics – to measurements with piezoelectric contact and immersion scan transducers. To extend the technique to work with piezoelectric transducers, ultrasonic battery measurements were compared to a sans-battery calibration measurement. Then, a linear systems deconvolution was used to eliminate the transfer functions of extraneous factors such as the transducer and electronics, leaving only the frequency-dependent battery reflection coefficient. The LURS technique was first validated on stainless steel and aluminum plates, producing reflection coefficients in line with analytical and numerical finite element modeling (FEM) results. Functioning Li-metal pouch cells were then seeded with lithium chip defects prior to LURS measurements. The presence of these defects is shown to cause a measurable shift in the battery’s through-thickness local resonances. 2D, frequency-domain poroelastic models of ultrasonic propagation in a single-cell lithium metal pouch battery were created and corroborated these findings. Thus, this work has both extended and proven the feasibility of the LURS technique in the detection of local battery defects.

Ultrasound↗

NASA NTRS1986

Distribution of calmodulin in corn seedlings - Immunocytochemical localization in coleoptiles and root apices

Immunofluorescence techniques have been used to study the distribution of calmodulin in several tissues in etiolated corn (Zea mays, var. Bear Hybrid) seedlings. Uniform staining was seen in the background cytoplasm of most cell types. Cell walls and vacuoles were not stained. In coleoptile mesophyll cells the nucleoplasm of most nuclei was stained as was the stroma of most amyloplasts. The lumen border of mature tracheary elements in coleoptiles also stained. In the rootcap the most intensely stained regions were the cytoplasms of columella cells and of the outermost cells enmeshed in the layer of secreted slime. Nuclei in the rootcap cells did not stain distinctly, but those in all cell types of the root meristem did. Also in the root meristem, the cytoplasm of metaxylem elements stained brightly. These results are compared and contrasted with previous data on the localization of calmodulin in pea root apices and epicotyls and discussed in relation to current hypotheses on mechanisms of gravitropism.

Dauwalder, M.↗