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NASA NTRS1994

Collection requirements for trace-element analyses of extraterrestrial samples

Trace-element abundances have proven important in understanding the evolution of and interrelationships between different meteorites. Preliminary investigations of the trace-element contents of interplanetary dust particles indicate that trace-element abundances will prove equally important in distinguishing between micrometeorites of different types, comparing the interplanetary dust to the meteorites, and assessing the degree of thermal alteration experienced either on the parent body or during the collection process. Sample collection, delivery, and curation must be accomplished in a manner to avoid contamination with even trace amounts of the elements to be analyzed. The present SXRF sensitivity for micrometeorite analysis is of order 1 femtogram, but anticipated improvements in sensitivity will require sample contamination substantially below this level. Sample collection and handling equipment should be constructed from materials selected for ultrahigh purity, and serious consideration should be given in selecting the particular set of elements from which the collection apparatus is composed so as not to compromise useful information.

Flynn, George J.↗

NASA NTRS1998

Degradation of Hubble Space Telescope Metallized Teflon(trademark) FEP Thermal Control Materials

The mechanical and optical properties of the metallized Teflon Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene (FEP) thermal control materials on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have degraded over the seven years the telescope has been in orbit. Astronaut observations and photographic documentation from the Second Servicing Mission revealed severe cracks of the multi-layer insulation (MLI) blanket outer layer in many locations around the telescope, particularly on solar facing surfaces. Two samples, the outer Teflon FEP MLI layer and radiator surfaces, were characterized post- mission through exhaustive mechanical, thermal, chemical, and optical testing. The observed damage to the thermal control materials, the sample retrieval and handling, and the significant changes to the radiator surfaces of HST will be discussed. Each of these issues is addressed with respect to current and future mission requirements.

Hansen, Patricia A.↗

NASA NTRS2001

The Extraterrestrial Materials Simulation Laboratory

In contrast to fly-by and orbital missions, in situ missions face an incredible array of challenges in near-target navigation, landing site selection, descent, landing, science operations, sample collection and handling, drilling, anchoring, subsurface descent, communications, and contamination. The wide range of materials characteristics and environments threaten mission safety and success. For example, many physical properties are poorly characterized, including strength, composition, heterogeneity, phase change, texture, thermal properties, terrain features, atmospheric interaction, and stratigraphy. Examples of the range of materials properties include, for example: (1) Comets, with a possible compressive strength ranging from a light fluff to harder than concrete: 10(exp 2) to 10 (exp 8) Pa; (2) Europa, including a possible phase change at the surface, unknown strength and terrain roughness; and (3) Titan, with a completely unknown surface and possible liquid ocean. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Green, J. R.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Mars Analog Rio Tinto Experiment (MARTE): An Experimental Demonstration of Key Technologies for Searching for Life on Mars

The discovery of near surface ground ice by the Mars Odyssey mission and the abundant evidence for recent Gulley features observed by the Mars Global Surveyor mission support longstanding theoretical arguments for subsurface liquid water on Mars. Thus, implementing the Mars program goal to search for life points to drilling on Mars to reach liquid water, collecting samples and analyzing them with instrumentation to detect in situ organisms and biomarker compounds. Searching for life in the subsurface of Mars will require drilling, sample extraction and handling, and new technologies to find and identify biomarker compounds and search for living organisms.

Stoker, Carol↗

NASA NTRS2005

Field Simulation of a Drilling Mission to Mars to Search for Subsurface Life

Stoker, C. R.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Icy Soil Acquisition Device for the 2007 Phoenix Mars Lander

The Icy Soil Acquisition Device is a first of its kind mechanism that is designed to acquire ice-bearing soil from the surface of the Martian polar region and transfer the samples to analytical instruments, playing a critical role in the potential discovery of existing water on Mars. The device incorporates a number of novel features that further the state of the art in spacecraft design for harsh environments, sample acquisition and handling, and high-speed low torque mechanism design.

Chu, Philip↗

NASA NTRS2011

NASA Tech Briefs, February 2011

Topics covered include: Multi-Segment Radius Measurement Using an Absolute Distance Meter Through a Null Assembly; Fiber-Optic Magnetic-Field-Strength Measurement System for Lightning Detection; Photocatalytic Active Radiation Measurements and Use; Computer Generated Hologram System for Wavefront Measurement System Calibration; Non-Contact Thermal Properties Measurement with Low-Power Laser and IR Camera System; SpaceCube 2.0: An Advanced Hybrid Onboard Data Processor; CMOS Imager Has Better Cross-Talk and Full-Well Performance; High-Performance Wireless Telemetry; Telemetry-Based Ranging; JWST Wavefront Control Toolbox; Java Image I/O for VICAR, PDS, and ISIS; X-Band Acquisition Aid Software; Antimicrobial-Coated Granules for Disinfecting Water; Range 7 Scanner Integration with PaR Robot Scanning System; Methods of Antimicrobial Coating of Diverse Materials; High-Operating-Temperature Barrier Infrared Detector with Tailorable Cutoff Wavelength; A Model of Reduced Kinetics for Alkane Oxidation Using Constituents and Species for N-Heptane; Thermally Conductive Tape Based on Carbon Nanotube Arrays; Two Catalysts for Selective Oxidation of Contaminant Gases; Nanoscale Metal Oxide Semiconductors for Gas Sensing; Lightweight, Ultra-High-Temperature, CMC-Lined Carbon/Carbon Structures; Sample Acquisition and Handling System from a Remote Platform; Improved Rare-Earth Emitter Hollow Cathode; High-Temperature Smart Structures for Engine Noise Reduction and Performance Enhancement; Cryogenic Scan Mechanism for Fourier Transform Spectrometer; Piezoelectric Rotary Tube Motor; Thermoelectric Energy Conversion Technology for High-Altitude Airships; Combustor Computations for CO2-Neutral Aviation; Use of Dynamic Distortion to Predict and Alleviate Loss of Control; Cycle Time Reduction in Trapped Mercury Ion Atomic Frequency Standards; and A (201)Hg+ Comagnetometer for (199)Hg+ Trapped Ion Space Atomic Clocks.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2013

Complex Indigenous Organic Matter Embedded in Apollo 17 Volcanic Black Glass Surface Deposits

Papers presented at the first Lunar Science Conference [1] and those published in the subsequent Science Moon Issue [2] reported the C content of Apollo II soils, breccias, and igneous rocks as rang-ing from approx.50 to 250 parts per million (ppm). Later Fegley & Swindle [3] summarized the C content of bulk soils from all the Apollo missions as ranging from 2.5 (Apollo 15) to 280 ppm (Apollo 16) with an overall average of 124+/- 45 ppm. These values are unexpectedly low given that multiple processes should have contributed (and in some cases continue to contribute) to the lunar C inventory. These include exogenous accretion of cometary and asteroidal dust, solar wind implantation, and synthesis of C-bearing species during early lunar volcanism. We estimate the contribution of C from exogenous sources alone is approx.500 ppm, which is approx.4x greater than the reported average. While the assessm ent of indigenous organic matter (OM) in returned lunar samples was one of the primary scientific goals of the Apollo program, extensive analysis of Apollo samples yielded no evidence of any significant indigenous organic species. Furthermore, with such low concentrations of OM reported, the importance of discriminating indigenous OM from terrestrial contamination (e.g., lunar module exhaust, sample processing and handling) became a formidable task. After more than 40 years, with the exception of CH4 [5-7], the presence of indigenous lunar organics still remains a subject of considerable debate. We report for the first time the identification of arguably indigenous OM present within surface deposits of black glass grains collected on the rim of Shorty crater during the Apollo 17 mission by astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt.

Thomas-Keprta, Kathie L.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Hermetic Seal Designs for Sample Return Sample Tubes

Prototypes have been developed of potential hermetic sample sealing techniques for encapsulating samples in a ≈1-cm-diameter thin-walled sample tube that are compatible with IMSAH (Integrated Mars Sample Acquisition and Handling) architecture. Techniques include a heat-activated, finned, shape memory alloy plug; a contracting shape memory alloy activated cap; an expanding shape memory alloy plug; and an expanding torque plug. Initial helium leak testing of the shape memory alloy cap and finned shape memory alloy plug seals showed hermetic- seal capability compared against an industry standard of <1×10-8 atm-cc/s He. These tests were run on both clean tubes and dirty tubes dipped in MMS (Mojave Mars Simulant). The leak tests were also performed after thermal cycling between -135 and +55 ºC to ensure seal integrity after Martian diurnal cycles. Developmental testing is currently being done on the expanding torque plug, and expanding shape memory alloy plug seal designs. The finned shape memory alloy (SMA) plug currently shows hermetic sealing capability based on preliminary tests.

Younse, Paulo J.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Results from Testing of Two Rotary Percussive Drilling Systems

The developmental test program for the MSL (Mars Science Laboratory) rotary percussive drill examined the e ect of various drill input parameters on the drill pene- tration rate. Some of the input parameters tested were drill angle with respect to gravity and percussive impact energy. The suite of rocks tested ranged from a high strength basalt to soft Kaolinite clay. We developed a hole start routine to reduce high sideloads from bit walk. The ongoing development test program for the IMSAH (Integrated Mars Sample Acquisition and Handling) rotary percussive corer uses many of the same rocks as the MSL suite. An additional performance parameter is core integrity. The MSL development test drill and the IMSAH test drill use similar hardware to provide rotation and percussion. However, the MSL test drill uses external stabilizers, while the IMSAH test drill does not have external stabilization. In addition the IMSAH drill is a core drill, while the MSL drill uses a solid powdering bit. Results from the testing of these two related drilling systems is examined.

Kriechbaum, Kristopher↗

NASA NTRS2017

Geochronology as a Framework for Planetary History through 2050

Invest this decade in in situ instruments(including sample selection and handling can we choose using VR?) to TRL 6; put them on flight missions in the 2020s and 2030s to relevant destinations where in situ precision can provide meaningful constraints on geologic history.

Cohen, Barbara↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

In Situ Geochronology for the Next Decade

Geochronology, or determination of absolute ages for geologic events, underpins many inquiries into the formation and evolution of planets and our Solar System. The bombardment chronology inferred from lunar samples has played a significant role in the development of models of early Solar System and extrasolar planet dynamics, as well as the timing of volatile, organic, and siderophile element delivery. Absolute ages of ancient and recent magmatic products provide strong constraints on the dynamics of magma oceans and crustal formation, and the longevity and evolution of interior heat engines and distinct mantle/crustal source regions. Absolute dating also relates habitability markers to the timescale of evolution of life on Earth. The number of geochronologically-significant terrains across the inner Solar System far exceeds our ability to conduct sample return to all of them. Therefore NASA has invested in the development of in situ dating techniques; several such instruments will be TRL 6 by the time of the next Decadal Survey. We formulated a set of medium-class (New Frontiers) mission concepts to three different locations (the Moon, Mars, and Vesta) with a notional payload consisting of the CDEX and KArLE instruments to measure radiometric ages, an imaging spectrometer and optical cameras to provide site geologic context and sample characterization, an ICP-MS to augment sample contextualization, and a sample acquisition and handling system. A Vesta hopper and single-site lunar and Mars landers to advance Solar System chronology fit into the New Frontiers cost cap in our study. Such missions would also enable a broad suite of geologic investigations such as basic geologic characterization, geomorphologic analysis, establishing ground truth for remote sensing analyses, analyses of major, minor, trace, and volatile elements, atmospheric and other long-lived monitoring, organic molecule analyses, and soil and geotechnical properties.

Barbara A Cohen↗

NASA NTRS2018

Software System for the Mars 2020 Mission Sampling and Caching Testbeds

The development of the Sampling and Caching Subsystem (SCS) of the Mars 2020 Rover Mission is highly dependent on testing of prototype hardware and software operating in explicit conditions as part of integrated testbeds. To achieve relevant integration of hardware and software while maintaining rapid algorithm development capabilities and high testing throughput, the Controls and Autonomy for Sample Acquisition and Handling (CASAH) software system was developed. CASAH is an implementation of the Intelligent Robotics System Architecture (IRSA),which mimics JPL Flight Software (FSW) in that it is divided into hierarchical modules that run separate processes that communicate via message passing, each module is assigned an owner that is a single developer, and the operator initiates requests via a text-based interface that interprets sequences of commands.IRSA enables a modular breakdown of CASAH that follows that of 2020 Flight Software,so developers can take an algorithm from a module in CASAH and re-code it into the same module in FSW. As deployment of CASAH has grown to ten testbeds - each with different hardware and objectives - bottom-up design decisions have been intentionally made to keep the system lightweight and maintainable by a very small team. To date, CASAH has been used to run 1393 different tests. This work describes CASAH, the testbeds and functionality it supports, the tools used to manage the development and sharing of code, and the features of the software. Lessons learned over the past three years of development and deployment are provided.

Vieira, Peter↗

NASA NTRS2020

CITADEL: an icy worlds simulation testbed

Icy Worlds present an exciting target for in-situ sample acquisition and analysis of surface samples for their potential to contain conditions necessary to support life. The unknown surface composition and topography of icy worlds present a challenging environment for which to develop effective sampling systems. Testing such sampling systems in a relevant environment is a critical part of validating and refining their design. We have developed the Cryogenic Ice Testing, Acquisition Development, and Excavation Laboratory (CITADEL) to enable sample acquisition and handling operations in an icy world or primitive body representative environment of <70K and 10-5 Pa.

Hand, Kevin↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Observations on Fluidization, Particle Entrainment, Sublimation, and Evaporation During Tests Using Hydrated Regolith Simulants .

The presence of water ice in permanently shadowed regions on the lunar surface may enable a sustained human presence on the Moon with minimal need for consumables. In order to successfully extract water from lunar regolith, there are a few physical behaviors that should be accounted for when designing systems to handle icy regolith samples. Many of these behaviors have been observed and recorded in the process of testing ISRU technologies.

A. Paz↗

NASA NTRS2022

A Comprehensive Machine Learning Study to Classify Precipitation Type over Land from Global Precipitation Measurement Microwave Imager (GPM-GMI) Measurements

Precipitation type is a key parameter used for better retrieval of precipitation characteristics as well as to understand the cloud–convection–precipitation coupling processes. Ice crystals and water droplets inherently exhibit different characteristics in different precipitation regimes (e.g., convection, stratiform), which reflect on satellite remote sensing measurements that help us distinguish them. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory’s microwave imager (GMI) and dual-frequency precipitation radar (DPR) together provide ample information on global precipitation characteristics. As an active sensor, the DPR provides an accurate precipitation type assignment, while passive sensors such as the GMI are traditionally only used for empirical understanding of precipitation regimes. Using collocated precipitation type flags from the DPR as the “truth”, this paper employs machine learning (ML) models to train and test the predictability and accuracy of using passive GMI-only observations together with ancillary information from a reanalysis and GMI surface emissivity retrieval products. Out of six ML models, four simple ones (support vector machine, neural network, random forest, and gradient boosting) and the 1-D convolutional neural network (CNN) model are identified to produce 90–94% prediction accuracy globally for five types of precipitation (convective, stratiform, mixture, no precipitation, and other precipitation), which is much more robust than previous similar effort. One novelty of this work is to introduce data augmentation (subsampling and bootstrapping) to handle extremely unbalanced samples in each category. A careful evaluation of the impact matrices demonstrates that the polarization difference (PD), brightness temperature (Tc) and surface emissivity at high-frequency channels dominate the decision process, which is consistent with the physical understanding of polarized microwave radiative transfer over different surface types, as well as in snow and liquid clouds with different microphysical properties. Furthermore, the view-angle dependency artifact that the DPR’s precipitation flag bears with does not propagate into the conical-viewing GMI retrievals. This work provides a new and promising way for future physics-based ML retrieval algorithm development.

machine learning/artificial intelligence↗

NASA NTRS2018

Advanced Curation Development of Tools and Methods for Microparticle Curation

The Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office at NASA Johnson Space Center is currently developing new tools and methods for the collection, storage, handling and characterization of particles less than 100 microns in diameter, or microparticles. Astromaterials Curation currently maintains four microparticle collections: Cosmic Dust that has been collected in Earth’s stratosphere by ER2 and WB-57 aircraft, Comet 81P/Wild 2 dust returned by NASA’s Stardust spacecraft, interstellar dust that was returned by Stardust, and asteroid Itokawa particles that were returned by the JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)’s Hayabusa spacecraft. NASA Curation is currently preparing for the anticipated return of two new astromaterials collections – asteroid Ryugu regolith to be collected by Hayabusa II spacecraft in 2021 (samples will be provided by JAXA as part of an international agreement), and asteroid Bennu regolith to be collected by the OSIRIS-REx (Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security - Regolith Explorer) spacecraft in 2023. In order to maximize the scientific yield from these valuable acquisitions, it will be necessary to develop methods that extend our current microsample handling capabilities. Here we describe recent progress in the development of sample handling techniques that will enhance our microparticle curation capabilities. Further described are: Six-Axis Robot Arms for Particle Manipulation, and Charge-Dissipative Substrates.

Snead, Christopher↗

NASA NTRS2017

Identifying the Effects of X-Ray Computed Tomography on Mars 2020 Tier I Organic Compounds

Mars sample return presents unique challenges for the clean collection, containment, curation and processing of samples. The related issues of life detection and Planetary Protection are of particular importance when developing successful strategies for the acquisition and handling of Mars returned samples. In order to achieve the Mars Sample Return (MSR) science goals, reliable analyses will depend on overcoming some challenging signal/noise-related issues, such that sparse Martian organic compounds will need to be reliably analyzed against the contamination background arising from the complicated MSR campaign. Reliable analyses will depend on clean acquisition, as well as robust documentation of all aspects of both the development and management of the cache.

Weizenbach, L. C.↗