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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 271 records · Page 15
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2005

Bounding the Spacecraft Atmosphere Design Space for Future Exploration Missions

The selection of spacecraft and space suit atmospheres for future human space exploration missions will play an important, if not critical, role in the ultimate safety, productivity, and cost of such missions. Internal atmosphere pressure and composition (particularly oxygen concentration) influence many aspects of spacecraft and space suit design, operation, and technology development. Optimal atmosphere solutions must be determined by iterative process involving research, design, development, testing, and systems analysis. A necessary first step in this process is the establishment of working bounds on the atmosphere design space.

Lange, Kevin E.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Limits on Interconnection Bandwidth for On-Board Processing

This viewgraph presentation reviews the constraints, and concerns of spacecraft design, in particular spacecraft instrumentation design and the issues concerning space communication. The advantages and disadvantages of several communication options are reviewed. Ultimately there will be spacecraft communication not between boxes on spacecraft, but between spacecraft. The future of spacecraft communication is interplanetary networks.

interconnects↗
NASA NTRS1999

A Web Based Collaborative Design Environment for Spacecraft

In this era of shrinking federal budgets in the USA we need to dramatically improve our efficiency in the spacecraft engineering design process. We have come up with a method which captures much of the experts's expertise in a dataflow design graph.

collaborative↗
NASA NTRS2007

Two-Stage Path Planning Approach for Designing Multiple Spacecraft Reconfiguration Maneuvers

The paper presents a two-stage approach for designing optimal reconfiguration maneuvers for multiple spacecraft. These maneuvers involve well-coordinated and highly-coupled motions of the entire fleet of spacecraft while satisfying an arbitrary number of constraints. This problem is particularly difficult because of the nonlinearity of the attitude dynamics, the non-convexity of some of the constraints, and the coupling between the positions and attitudes of all spacecraft. As a result, the trajectory design must be solved as a single 6N DOF problem instead of N separate 6 DOF problems. The first stage of the solution approach quickly provides a feasible initial solution by solving a simplified version without differential constraints using a bi-directional Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT) planner. A transition algorithm then augments this guess with feasible dynamics that are propagated from the beginning to the end of the trajectory. The resulting output is a feasible initial guess to the complete optimal control problem that is discretized in the second stage using a Gauss pseudospectral method (GPM) and solved using an off-the-shelf nonlinear solver. This paper also places emphasis on the importance of the initialization step in pseudospectral methods in order to decrease their computation times and enable the solution of a more complex class of problems. Several examples are presented and discussed.

Aoude, Georges S.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Design guidelines for assessing and controlling spacecraft charging effects

The need for uniform criteria, or guidelines, to be used in all phases of spacecraft design is discussed. Guidelines were developed for the control of absolute and differential charging of spacecraft surfaces by the lower energy space charged particle environment. Interior charging due to higher energy particles is not considered. A guide to good design practices for assessing and controlling charging effects is presented. Uniform design practices for all space vehicles are outlined.

Purvis, C. K.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Design guidelines for assessing and controlling spacecraft charging effects

The need for uniform criteria, or guidelines, to be used in all phases of spacecraft design is discussed. Guidelines were developed for the control of absolute and differential charging of spacecraft surfaces by the lower energy space charged particle environment. Interior charging due to higher energy particles is not considered. A guide to good design practices for assessing and controlling charging effects is presented. Uniform design practices for all space vehicles are outlined.

Purvis, C. K.↗
NASA NTRS2007

The Human as a System - Monitoring Spacecraft Net Habitable Volume throughout the Design Lifecycle

Spacecraft design has historically allocated specific volume and mass "not to exceed" requirements upon individual systems and their accompanying hardware (e.g., life support, avionics) early in their conceptual design in an effort to align the spacecraft with propulsion capabilities. If the spacecraft is too heavy or too wide for the launch stack - it does not get off the ground. This approach has predictably ended with the crew being allocated whatever open, pressurized volume remains. With the recent inauguration of a new human-rated spacecraft - NASA human factors personnel have found themselves in the unique position to redefine the human as a system from the very foundation of design. They seek to develop and monitor a "not to fall below" requirement for crew net habitable volume (NHV) - balanced against the "not to exceed" system volume requirements, with the spacecraft fitting the crew versus the crew having to fit inside the spacecraft.

Szabo, Richard↗
NASA NTRS1994

Vulnerability of manned spacecraft to crew loss from orbital debris penetration

Orbital debris growth threatens the survival of spacecraft systems from impact-induced failures. Whereas the probability of debris impact and spacecraft penetration may currently be calculated, another parameter of great interest to safety engineers is the probability that debris penetration will cause actual spacecraft or crew loss. Quantifying the likelihood of crew loss following a penetration allows spacecraft designers to identify those design features and crew operational protocols that offer the highest improvement in crew safety for available resources. Within this study, a manned spacecraft crew survivability (MSCSurv) computer model is developed that quantifies the conditional probability of losing one or more crew members, P(sub loss/pen), following the remote likelihood of an orbital debris penetration into an eight module space station. Contributions to P(sub loss/pen) are quantified from three significant penetration-induced hazards: pressure wall rupture (explosive decompression), fragment-induced injury, and 'slow' depressurization. Sensitivity analyses are performed using alternate assumptions for hazard-generating functions, crew vulnerability thresholds, and selected spacecraft design and crew operations parameters. These results are then used to recommend modifications to the spacecraft design and expected crew operations that quantitatively increase crew safety from orbital debris impacts.

Williamsen, J. E.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Systems design study of the Pioneer Venus spacecraft. Volume 1. Technical analyses and tradeoffs, sections 1-4 (part 1 of 4)

The results are reported of the Pioneer Venus studies from 2 October 1972 through 30 June 1973. Many missions were considered, involving two launch vehicles (Thor/Delta and Atlas/Centaur), and different launch opportunities and spacecraft configurations to meet varying science requirements, all at minimum cost. The sequence of events is described and the specific studies conducted are summarized. The effects of science payload on mission and spacecraft design are discussed along with the mission analyses.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1976

Standard spacecraft economic analysis. Volume 1: Executive summary

A study of the comparative program costs associated with use of various standardized spacecraft for Air Force space test program missions to be flown on the space shuttle during the 1980-1990 time period is reviewed. The first phase of the study considered a variety of procurement mixes composed of existing or programmed NASA standard spacecraft designs and a Air Force standard spacecraft design. The results were briefed to a joint NASA/Air Force audience on July 11, 1976. The second phase considered additional procurement options using an upgraded version of an existing NASA design. The results of both phases are summarized.

Harris, E. D.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Standard spacecraft economic analysis. Volume 2: Findings and conclusions

The comparative program costs associated with use of various standardized spacecraft for Air Force space test program missions to be flown on the space shuttle were studied in two phases. In the first phase, a variety of procurement mixes composed of existing or programmed NASA standard spacecraft designs and an Air Force standard spacecraft design were considered. The second phase dealt with additional procurement options using an upgraded version of an existing NASA design. The results of both phases are discussed.

Harris, E. D.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Variable structure controller design for spacecraft nutation damping

Variable structure systems theory is used to design an automatic controller for active nutation damping in momentum biased stabilized spacecraft. Robust feedback stabilization of roll and yaw angular dynamics is achieved with prescribed qualitative characteristics which are totally independent of the spacecraft defining parameters.

Sira-Ramirez, Hebertt↗