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KSC has spent many years researching Hollow Fiber Membrane Bioreactors as well as research encompassing:Alternate ammonia removal/Advanced oxidation. Brine purification technologies KSC-ISRU has built an electrolysis cell for the removal of acids in ISRU mining brines. Our goal is to combine all such technologies.
The ratio of deuterium to hydrogen on Venus has been accepted as proof of a wetter, more earth-like part on that planet. However, the present-day water abundance and the nonthermal hydrogen escape flux on Venus imply that hydrogen is in a steady state and that a hydrogen source, most likely cometary infall, is present. An alternative interpretation of the D/H ratio is offered, in which the measured value is consistent with a steady-state evolution over the age of the solar system. No past water excess is required to explain the isotopic data.
QuEST is a publication of the NASA Technology Evaluation for Environmental Risk Mitigation Principal Center (TEERM). This issue contains brief articles on: Risk Identification and Mitigation, Material Management and Substitution Efforts--Hexavalent Chrome-free Coatings and Low volatile organic compounds (VOCs) Coatings, Lead-Free Electronics, Corn-Based Depainting Media; Alternative Energy Efforts Hydrogen Sensors and Solar Air Conditioning. Other TEERM Efforts include: Energy and Water Management and Remediation Technology Collaboration.
Concepts are being investigated for exploratory missions to Mars based on Bioinspired Engineering of Exploration Systems (BEES), which is a guiding principle of this effort to develop biomorphic explorers. The novelty lies in the use of a robust telecom architecture for mission data return, utilizing multiple local relays (including the lander itself as a local relay and the explorers in the dual role of a local relay) to enable ranges ~10 to 1,000 km and downlink of color imagery. As illustrated in Figure 1, multiple microflyers that can be both surface or aerially launched are envisioned in shepherding, metamorphic, and imaging roles. These microflyers imbibe key bio-inspired principles in their flight control, navigation, and visual search operations. Honey-bee inspired algorithms utilizing visual cues to perform autonomous navigation operations such as terrain following will be utilized. The instrument suite will consist of a panoramic imager and polarization imager specifically optimized to detect ice and water. For microflyers, particularly at small sizes, bio-inspired solutions appear to offer better alternate solutions than conventional engineered approaches. This investigation addresses a wide range of interrelated issues, including desired scientific data, sizes, rates, and communication ranges that can be accomplished in alternative mission scenarios. The mission illustrated in Figure 1 offers the most robust telecom architecture and the longest range for exploration with two landers being available as main local relays in addition to an ephemeral aerial probe local relay. The shepherding or metamorphic plane are in their dual role as local relays and image data collection/storage nodes. Appropriate placement of the landing site for the scout lander with respect to the main mission lander can allow coverage of extremely large ranges and enable exhaustive survey of the area of interest. In particular, this mission could help with the path planning and risk mitigation in the traverse of the long-distance surface explorer/rover. The basic requirements of design and operation of BEES to implement the scenarios are discussed. Terrestrial applications of such concepts include distributed aerial/surface measurements of meteorological events, i.e., storm watch, seismic monitoring, reconnaissance, biological chemical sensing, search and rescue, surveillance, autonomous security/ protection agents, and/or delivery and lateral distribution of agents (sensors, surface/subsurface crawlers, clean-up agents). Figure 2 illustrates an Earth demonstration that is in development, and its implementation will illustrate the value of these biomorphic mission concepts.
As part of the NASA Vehicle Systems Safety Technologies (VSST), Assuring Safe and Effective Aircraft Control Under Hazardous Conditions (Technical Challenge #3), an effort is underway within Boeing Research and Technology (BR&T) to address Advanced Modeling and Uncertainty Quantification for Flight Dynamics (VSST1-7). The scope of the effort is to develop and evaluate advanced multidisciplinary flight dynamics modeling techniques, including integrated uncertainties, to facilitate higher fidelity response characterization of current and future aircraft configurations approaching and during loss-of-control conditions. This approach is to incorporate multiple flight dynamics modeling methods for aerodynamics, structures, and propulsion, including experimental, computational, and analytical. Also to be included are techniques for data integration and uncertainty characterization and quantification. This research shall introduce new and updated multidisciplinary modeling and simulation technologies designed to improve the ability to characterize airplane response in off-nominal flight conditions. The research shall also introduce new techniques for uncertainty modeling that will provide a unified database model comprised of multiple sources, as well as an uncertainty bounds database for each data source such that a full vehicle uncertainty analysis is possible even when approaching or beyond Loss of Control boundaries. Methodologies developed as part of this research shall be instrumental in predicting and mitigating loss of control precursors and events directly linked to causal and contributing factors, such as stall, failures, damage, or icing. The tasks will include utilizing the BR&T Water Tunnel to collect static and dynamic data to be compared to the GTM extended WT database, characterizing flight dynamics in off-nominal conditions, developing tools for structural load estimation under dynamic conditions, devising methods for integrating various modeling elements into a real-time simulation capability, generating techniques for uncertainty modeling that draw data from multiple modeling sources, and providing a unified database model that includes nominal plus increments for each flight condition. This paper presents status of testing in the BR&T water tunnel and analysis of the resulting data and efforts to characterize these data using alternative modeling methods. Program challenges and issues are also presented.
A regenerable CO2 and humidity control system is presently being developed for potential use on shuttle as an alternative to the baseline lithium hydroxide system. The system utilizes a sorbent material (designated HS-C) to adsorb CO2 and the latent heat load from the cabin atmosphere and desorb the CO2 and water vapor overboard when exposed to a space vacuum, thus reducing the overall vehicle heat rejection load. Continuous operation is achieved by utilizing two beds which are alternatively cycled between adsorption and desorption. The HS-C material process was verified. Design concepts for the auxiliary components for the HS-C prototype system were generated. Performance testing verified system effectiveness in controlling CO2 partial pressure and humidity.
Projected growth of aviation depends on fueling where specific needs must be met. Safety is paramount, and along with political, social, environmental and legacy transport systems requirements, alternate aviation fueling becomes an opportunity of enormous proportions. Biofuels sourced from halophytes, algae, cyanobacteria, and weeds using wastelands, waste water, and seawater have the capacity to be drop-in fuel replacements for petroleum fuels. Biojet fuels from such sources solves the aviation CO2 emissions issue and do not compete with food or freshwater needs. They are not detrimental to the social or environmental fabric and use the existing fuels infrastructure. Cost and sustainable supply remains the major impediments to alternate fuels. Halophytes are the near-term solution to biomass/biofuels capacity at reasonable costs; they simply involve more farming, at usual farming costs. Biofuels represent a win-win approach, proffering as they do at least the ones we are studying massive capacity, climate neutral-to-some sequestration, and ultimately, reasonable costs.
The Pacific Northwest Land Resources Inventory Demonstration Project i s an a ttempt to combine a whole spectrum of heterogeneous geographic, institutional and applications elements in a synergistic approach to the evaluation of remote sensing techniques. This diversity is the prime motivating factor behind a theoretical investigation of alternative economic analysis procedures. For a multitude of reasons--simplicity, ease of understanding, financial constraints and credibility, among others--cost-effectiveness emerges as the most practical tool for conducting such evaluation determinatIons in the Pacific Northwest. Preliminary findings in two water resource application areas suggest, in conformity with most published studies, that Lands at-aided data collection methods enjoy substantial cost advantages over alternative techniques. The pntential for sensitivity analysis based on cost/accuracy tradeoffs is considered on a theoretical plane in the absence of current accuracy figures concerning the Landsat-aided approach.
The fate of highly volatile elements (H, C, F, Cl and S) during planetary accretion and differentiation is debated. Recent analyses of water in non-carbonaceous chondrites (RC, OC, EC) and achondrites (angrites, eucrites) have been used to argue that inner solar system parent bodies accreted and retained their highly volatile element budgets from their primary feedstock without substantial loss during accretion, metamorphism and differentiation. An alternative model posits that differentiated inner solar system parent bodies (e.g., the angrite parent body, 4 Vesta, Earth) derived the majority of their water from a carbonaceous chondrite-like source, delivered during the final stages of accretion. In order to add new constraints to this debate, we have measured water in nominally anhydrous minerals, melt inclusions, and interstitial glass in ureilites, the largest group of primitive achondrites in the terrestrial meteorite collection. Primitive achondrites did not experience global melting and homogenization. Therefore, these meteorites capture part of the transition from chondritic to achondritic parent bodies, allowing us to constrain the fate of water during the earliest stages of differentiation. Our nano-scale secondary ion mass spectrometry (nanoSIMS) analyses allow us to assess the viability of ureilite-like material as a potential source of terrestrial water. Analyses of pigeonite in main group ureilites yield a range of 2.0 – 6.0 µg/g H2O, and analyses of high-Ca pyroxene and glass (glassy melt inclusions and interstitial glass) in the Almahata Sitta ureilitic trachyandesite yield ranges of 13 – 19 µg/g H2O and 44 – 216 µg/g H2O, respectively. Mass balance, incremental melting, and batch melting calculations yield a preferred ureilite parent body H2O content of 2 – 20 µg/g, similar to previous estimates of water in the eucrite parent body (4 Vesta), but lower than estimates of Earth’s water budget. With these data, we demonstrate that 1) the ureilite parent body is H2O-depleted relative to the Earth; 2) ureilite-like material is unlikely to be a primary source of H2O to the Earth; 3) C and H are not necessarily coupled elements during planetary accretion and thermal processing; and 4) accretion, heating, partial melting, and degassing of rocky planetesimals likely results in significant depletion of H2O.
It is suggested that an atmospheric pumping mechanism might be at work in which water is preferentially transported into the north by a mass outflow wind (due to sublimation from polar cap) that is stronger during southern spring than it is during northern spring. The mechanism is provided by the asymmetric seasonal temperature distribution produced by the eccentric martial orbit and by the associated seasonal asymmetry in the carbon dioxide cycle. The alternating condensation and sublimation of CO2 at the poles produces condensation winds which, in turn, contribute to the meridional transport of water vapor.
Leaf Area Index (LAI) is one of the most commonly employed biophysical parameters used to characterize vegetation canopies and scale leaf physiological processes to larger scales. For example, LAI is a critical parameter used in regional scale estimates of evapotranspiration, photosynthesis, primary productivity, and carbon cycling (Running et al., 1989; Dorman and Sellers, 1989; Potter et al., 1993). LAI is typically estimated using ratio-based techniques, such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI: e.g. Tucker 1979; Asrar et al., 1989; Sellers 1985, 1987). The physical basis behind this relationship depends on the high spectral contrast between scattered near-infrared (NIR) and absorbed red radiation in canopies. As the number of leaves present in a canopy increases over a unit area, NIR reflectance increases, while red reflectance decreases, resulting in an increase in the ratio. Through time series and image compositing, NDVI provides an additional temporal measure of how these parameters change, providing a means to monitor fluxes and productivity (Tucker et al., 1983). NDVI, while highly successful for agriculture and grassland ecosystems has been found to be less successful in evergreen chaparral and forested ecosystems (Badhwar et al., 1986; Gamon et al., 1993; Hall et al., 1995). Typically, the relationship between NDVI and LAI becomes progressively more asymptotic at LAI values above three (Sellers, 1985), although linear relationships have been observed in conifers at LAis as high as 13 (Spanner et al., 1990). In this paper, we explore an alternative approach for estimating LAI for remotely sensed data from AVIRIS based on estimates of canopy liquid water. Our primary objective is to test the hypothesis that the depth of the liquid water bands expressed in canopy reflectance spectra at 960, 1200, 1400 and 1900 nm increases with increasing LAI in canopies. This study builds from work by Roberts et al. (1997), in which liquid water was shown to increase following a gradient of increasing LAI ranging from grasslands to coniferous forests. In that study, it was observed that forests, which showed little variation in NDVI, showed significant variation in liquid water. In order to test this hypothesis, we analyzed field spectra measured over Populus resprouts of known LAI and monitored changes in liquid water in young Populus stands as they aged over a 4-year time span. The study was conducted in south-central Washington, in a clonal Populus fiber farm owned and operated by Boise-Cascade near the town of Wallula.
State-of-the-art (SOA) carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction technology for the International Space Station produces methane as a byproduct. This methane is subsequently vented overboard. The associated loss of hydrogen ultimately reduces the mass of oxygen that can be recovered from CO2 in a closed-loop life support system. As an alternative to SOA CO2 reduction technology, NASA is exploring a Series-Bosch system capable of reducing CO2 with hydrogen to form water and solid carbon. This results in 100% theoretical recovery of oxygen from metabolic CO2. In the past, Bosch-based technology did not trade favorably against SOA technology due to a high power demand, low reaction efficiencies, concerns with carbon containment, and large resupply requirements necessary to replace expended catalyst cartridges. An alternative approach to Bosch technology, labeled "Series-Bosch," employs a new system design with optimized multi-stage reactors and a membrane-based separation and recycle capability. Multi-physics modeling of the first stage reactor, along with chemical process modeling of the integrated system, has resulted in a design with potential to trade significantly better than previous Bosch technology. The modeling process and resulting system architecture selection are discussed.
Three small playa lake basins on the Texas High Plains were originally selected as ERTS-1 test sites to attempt correlation of ERTS-1 imagery with the water balance ecosystem and geology/morphology of the lake basins. The 5-mile long large Double Lakes playa complex was also instrumented as an alternate test site. Analysis of bands 6 and 7 of ERTS-1 MSS imagery shows that lake basins as small as 200 m in diameter (+ or - 10 acres) can be reliably classified as being wet or dry, thus supplying the methodology for a rapid, periodic census of surface water. A cost/benefit analysis reveals that the use of MSS imagery for such a census results in a 66 to 200-fold cost reduction when compared to the costs of using other conventional methods.
Based on topographic, morphologic, and stratigraphic evidence, we propose that ancient water-laid sediment is the dominant component of deposits within Hellas Planitia, Mars. Multiply layered sediment is manifested by alternating benches and scarps visible in Mars Orbiting Camera narrow-angle (MOC NA) images. Viking Orbiter camera and MOC NA images were used to map contacts and stratigraphically order the different materials units within Hellas. Mar's Orbiting Laser Altimeter (MOLA) data reveal that the contacts of these sedimentary units, as well as a number of scarps or other abrupt changes in landscape texture, trace contours of constant elevation for thousands of km, and in one case all around the basin. Channels, consensually interpreted to be cut by water, lead into the basin. MOLA results indicate that the area encompassed by greater Hellas' highest closed contour is nearly one-fifth that of the entire northern plains, making the Hellas 'drainage' area much larger than previously reported. If lakes formed under climatic conditions similar to the modern Martian climate, they would develop thick ice carapaces, then the lakes would eventually sublimate away. Two units within Hellas exhibit a reticulate or honeycomb pattern we speculate are impressions made by lake-lowered ice blocks grounding into initially soft mud.
The author has identified the following significant results. Agricultural areas were selected or analysis in southeastern Pennsylvania, north central Montana, and southern Texas. These three sites represent a broad range of soils, soil parent materials, climate, modes of agricultural operation, crops, and field sizes. In each of these three sites, ERTS-1 digital data were processed to determine the feasibility of automatically mapping agricultural land use. In Pennsylvania, forest land, cultivated land, and water were separable within a 25,000 acre area. Four classes of water were also classified and identified, using ground truth. A less complex land use pattern was analyzed in Hill County, Montana. A land use map was prepared shown alternating patterns of summer fallow and stubble fields. The location of farmsteads could be inferred, along with that of a railroad line. A river and a creek flowing into the river were discernible. Six categories of water, related to sediment content and depth, were defined in the reservoir held by the Fresno dam. These classifications were completed on a 150 square mile area. Analysis of the data from Texas is in its formative stages. A test site has been selected and a brightness map has been produced.
Laboratory isotherms for the binding of several nonheterogeneously active atmospheric gases and for HCl to water ice are translated into adsorptive equilibrium constants and surface enthalpies. Extrapolation to polar conditions through the Clausius Clapeyron relation yields coverage estimates below the percent level for N2, Ar, CO2, and CO, suggesting that the crystal faces of type II stratospheric cloud particles may be regarded as clean with respect to these species. For HCl, and perhaps HF and HNO3, estimates rise to several percent, and the adsorbed layer may offer acid or proton sources alternate to the bulk solid for heterogeneous reactions with stratospheric nitrates. Measurements are lacking for many key atmospheric molecules on water ice, and almost entirely for nitric acid trihydrate as substrate. Adsorptive equilibria enter into gas to particle mass flux descriptions, and the binding energy determines rates for desorption of, and encounter between, potential surface reactants.
A brief experimental investigation was made of the landing-impact characteristics of a 1/9-scale dynamic model of a winged space vehicle. The landing tests were made by catapulting a free model onto a hard; surface runway and onto water. The model had a conical fuselage and a flat - plate wing with a basic delta planform and 75 deg sweepback of the leading edge. The use of yielding-metal shock absorbers and various landing-gear arrangements was investigated during landing impact. The basic landing gear consisted of a dual rubber-tired nose wheel and twin main skids aft of the center of gravity near the wing tips. landing motion and acceleration data were obtained over a range of landing attitudes, gross weights, and initial sinking speeds. Brief tests were made with an alternate nose-wheel location. An all-skid configuration also was briefly evaluated for hard-surface and water landings. The landing gear employing yielding struts for impact-energy absorption during hard-surface landings resulted in accelerations of approximately 5 1/2 g near the nose gear over a range of landing parameters. Replacing the nose wheel and tire with a skid did not significantly change the accelerations. Landings in smooth water with rigid struts and adequate planing area at the nose skid resulted in a maximum landing acceleration of approximately 4g.
Radar images from the SEASAT synthetic aperture radar (SAR) produced unusually high returns from corn and sorghum fields, which seem to indicate a correlation between nodal separation in the stalk and the wavelength of the radar. These images also show no difference in return from standing or harvested corn. Further investigation using images from the Shuttle Imaging Radar (SIR-A) substantiated these observations and showed a degradation of the high return with time after harvest. From portions of corn and sweet sorghum stalks that were sampled to measure stalk water content, it was determined that near and after maturity the water becomes more concentrated in the stalk nodes. The stalk then becomes a linear sequence of alternating dielectrics as opposed to a long slender cylinder with uniform dielectric properties.