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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2006

Miniature GC-Minicell Ion Mobility Spectrometer (IMS) for In Situ Measurements in Astrobiology Planetary Missions

Astrobiology flight experiments require highly sensitive instrumentation for in situ analysis of volatile chemical species and minerals present in the atmospheres and surfaces of planets, moons, and asteroids. The complex mixtures encountered place a heavy burden on the analytical instrumentation to detect and identify all species present. The use of land rovers and balloon aero-rovers place additional emphasis on miniaturization of the analytical instrumentation. In addition, smaller instruments, using tiny amounts of consumables, allow the use of more instrumentation and/or ionger mission life for stationary landers/laboratories. The miniCometary Ice and Dust Experiment (miniCIDEX), which combined Gas Chromatography (GC) with helium Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS), was capable of providing the wide range of analytical information required for Astrobiology missions. The IMS used here was based on the PCP model 111 IMS. A similar system, the Titan Ice and Dust Experiment (TIDE), was proposed as part of the Titan Orbiter Aerorover Mission (TOAM). Newer GC systems employing Micro Electro- Mechanical System (MEMS) based technology have greatly reduced both the size and resource requirements for space GCs. These smaller GCs, as well as the continuing miniaturization of Astrobiology analytical instruments in general, has highlighted the need for smaller, dry helium IMS systems. We describe here the development of a miniature, MEMS GC-IMS system (MEMS GC developed by Thorleaf Research Inc.), employing the MiniCell Ion Mobility Spectrometer (IMS), from Ion Applications Inc., developed through NASA's Astrobiology Science and Technology Instrument Development (ASTID) Program and NASA s Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Program.

Kojiro, Daniel R.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Retrievals of Cloud Droplet Size from the Research Scanning Polarimeter Data: Validation Using In Situ Measurements

We present comparisons of cloud droplet size distributions (DSDs) retrieved from the research scanning polarimeter (RSP) data with correlative in situ measurements made during the North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES). The airborne portion of this field experiment was based out of St. John's airport, Newfoundland, Canada with the focus of this paper being on the deployment in May - June 2016. RSP was onboard the NASA C-130 aircraft together with an array of in situ and other remote sensing instrumentation. The RSP is an along-track scanner measuring the polarized and total reflectance in 9 spectral channels. Its uniquely high angular resolution allows for characterization of liquid water droplet sizes using the rainbow structure observed in the polarized reflectance over the scattering angle range from 135 to 165.degrees The rainbow is dominated by single scattering of light by cloud droplets, so its structure is characteristic specifically of the droplet sizes at cloud top (within unit optical depth into the cloud, equivalent to approximately 50m). A parametric fitting algorithm applied to the polarized reflectance provides retrievals of the droplet effective radius and variance assuming a prescribed size distribution shape (gamma distribution). In addition to this, we use a non-parametric method, the Rainbow Fourier Transform (RFT), which allows us to retrieve the droplet size distribution itself. The latter is important in the case of clouds with complex microphysical structure, or multiple layers of cloud, which result in multi-modal DSDs. During NAAMES the aircraft performed a number of flight patterns specifically designed for comparisons between remote sensing retrievals and in situ measurements. These patterns consisted of two flight segments above the same straight ground track. One of these segments was flown above clouds allowing for remote sensing measurements, while the other was near the cloud top where cloud droplets were sampled. We compare the DSDs retrieved from the RSP data with in situ measurements made by the Cloud Droplet Probe (CDP). The comparisons generally show good agreement (better than 1 micron for effective radius and in most cases better than 0.02 for effective variance) with deviations explainable by the position of the aircraft within the cloud, or by the presence of additional cloud layers between the cloud being sampled by the in situ instrumentation and the altitude of the remote sensing segment. In the latter case, the multi-modal DSDs retrieved from the RSP data were consistent with the multi-layer cloud structures observed in the correlative High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) profiles. The results of these comparisons provide a rare validation of polarimetric droplet size retrieval techniques, demonstrating their accuracy and robustness and the potential of satellite data of this kind on a global scale.

Remote Sensing↗
NASA NTRS2009

An Evaluation of Soil Moisture Retrievals Using Aircraft and Satellite Passive Microwave Observations during SMEX02

The Soil Moisture Experiments conducted in Iowa in the summer of 2002 (SMEX02) had many remote sensing instruments that were used to study the spatial and temporal variability of soil moisture. The sensors used in this paper (a subset of the suite of sensors) are the AQUA satellite-based AMSR-E (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer- Earth Observing System) and the aircraft-based PSR (Polarimetric Scanning Radiometer). The SMEX02 design focused on the collection of near simultaneous brightness temperature observations from each of these instruments and in situ soil moisture measurements at field- and domain- scale. This methodology provided a basis for a quantitative analysis of the soil moisture remote sensing potential of each instrument using in situ comparisons and retrieved soil moisture estimates through the application of a radiative transfer model. To this end, the two sensors are compared with respect to their estimation of soil moisture.

Bolten, John D.↗
NASA NTRS2012

The Cabauw Intercomparison Campaign for Nitrogen Dioxide Measuring Instruments (CINDI): Design, Execution, and Early Results

From June to July 2009 more than thirty different in-situ and remote sensing instruments from all over the world participated in the Cabauw Intercomparison campaign for Nitrogen Dioxide measuring Instruments (CINDI). The campaign took place at KNMI's Cabauw Experimental Site for Atmospheric Research (CESAR) in the Netherlands. Its main objectives were to determine the accuracy of state-ofthe- art ground-based measurement techniques for the detection of atmospheric nitrogen dioxide (both in-situ and remote sensing), and to investigate their usability in satellite data validation. The expected outcomes are recommendations regarding the operation and calibration of such instruments, retrieval settings, and observation strategies for the use in ground-based networks for air quality monitoring and satellite data validation. Twenty-four optical spectrometers participated in the campaign, of which twenty-one had the capability to scan different elevation angles consecutively, the so-called Multi-axis DOAS systems, thereby collecting vertical profile information, in particular for nitrogen dioxide and aerosol. Various in-situ samplers and lidar instruments simultaneously characterized the variability of atmospheric trace gases and the physical properties of aerosol particles. A large data set of continuous measurements of these atmospheric constituents has been collected under various meteorological conditions and air pollution levels. Together with the permanent measurement capability at the CESAR site characterizing the meteorological state of the atmosphere, the CINDI campaign provided a comprehensive observational data set of atmospheric constituents in a highly polluted region of the world during summertime. First detailed comparisons performed with the CINDI data show that slant column measurements of NO2, O4 and HCHO with MAX-DOAS agree within 5 to 15%, vertical profiles of NO2 derived from several independent instruments agree within 25% of one another, and MAX-DOAS aerosol optical thickness agrees within 20-30% with AERONET data. For the in-situ NO2 instrument using a molybdenum converter, a bias was found as large as 5 ppbv during day time, when compared to the other in-situ instruments using photolytic converters.

Atmospheric composition↗
NASA NTRS2007

Mineralogical In-situ Investigation of Acid-Sulfate Samples from the Rio Tinto River, Spain, with a Portable XRD/XRF Instrument

A field campaign was organized in September 2006 by Centro de Astobiologica (Spain) and Washington University (St Louis, USA) for the geological study of the Rio Tinto river bed sediments using a suite of in-situ instruments comprising an ASD reflectance spectrometer, an emission spectrometer, panoramic and close-up color imaging cameras, a life detection system and NASA's CheMin 4 XRD/XRF prototype. The primary objectives of the field campaign were to study the geology of the site and test the potential of the instrument suite in an astrobiological investigation context for future Mars surface robotic missions. The results of the overall campaign will be presented elsewhere. This paper focuses on the results of the XRD/XRF instrument deployment. The specific objectives of the CheMin 4 prototype in Rio Tinto were to 1) characterize the mineralogy of efflorescent salts in their native environments; 2) analyze the mineralogy of salts and oxides from the modern environment to terraces formed earlier as part of the Rio Tinto evaporative system; and 3) map the transition from hematite-dominated terraces to the mixed goethite/salt-bearing terraces where biosignatures are best preserved.

Sarrazin, P.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Detecting Pyrolysis Products from Bacteria in a Mars Soil Analogue

One of the primary objectives of the 1976 Viking missions was to determine whether organic compounds, possibly of biological origin, were present in the Martian surface soils. The Viking gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS) instruments found no evidence for any organic compounds of Martian origin above a few parts per billion in the upper 10 cm of surface soil, suggesting the absence of a widely distributed Martian biota. However, it is now known that key organic compounds important to biology, such as amino acids, carboxylic acids and nucleobases, would likely have been missed by the Viking GCMS instruments. In this study, a Mars soil analogue that was inoculated with approx. 10 billion Escherichia coli cells was heated at 500 C under Martian ambient pressure to release volatile organic compounds from the sample. The pyrolysis products were then analyzed for amino acids and nucleobases using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and GCMS. Our experimental results indicate that at the part per billion level, the degradation products generated from several million bacterial cells per gram of Martian soil would not have been detected by the Viking GCMS instruments. Upcoming strategies for Mars exploration will require in-situ analyses by instruments that can assess whether any organic compounds, especially those that might be associated with life, are present in Martian surface samples.

Glavin, D. P.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Optical Classification of Lower Amazon Waters Based on In Situ Data and Sentinel-3 Ocean and Land Color Instrument Imagery

Optical water types (OWTs) were identified from an in situ dataset of concomitant biogeochemical and optical parameters acquired in the Amazon River and its tributaries, in the Lower Amazon region, at different hydrological conditions from 2014 to 2017. A seasonal bio-optical characterization was performed. The k-means classification was applied to the in situ normalized reflectance spectra (rn(λ)), allowing the identification of four OWTs. An optical index method was also applied to the rn(λ) defining the thresholds of the OWTs. Next, level-3 Sentinel-3 Ocean and Land Color Instrument images representative of the seasonal discharge conditions were classified using the identified in situ OWTs as reference. The differences between Amazon River and clearwater tributary OWTs were dependent on the hydrological dynamics of the Amazon River, also showing a strong seasonal variability. Each OWT was associated with a specific bio-optical and biogeochemical environment assessed from the corresponding absorption coefficient values of colored dissolved organic matter (aCDOM) and particulate matter (ap), chlorophyll-a and suspended particulate matter (SPM) concentrations, and aCDOM/ap ratio. The rising water season presented a unique OWT with high SPM concentration and high relative contribution of ap to total absorption compared to the other OWTs. This bio-optical characterization of Lower Amazon River waters represents a first step for developing remote sensing inversion models adjusted to the optical complexity of this region.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Overview/Recap of the 2020 Accelerated Irradiation of Reactor Structural Materials Workshop

The workshop provided a snapshot look at current international, in-reactor testing and irradiation capabilities. Gaps were identified where possible, and discussions focused on potential mitigation strategies and recommended paths forward. As new material innovations are being developed for in-reactor applications for reactor life extension long-term operation, and advanced reactor technologies, there is an increased need for materials qualification and assessment programs. In-reactor testing capabilities are vital to the on-going success of these DOE-NE programs and initiatives. In recent years, multiple international research reactors have been placed in a permanent shut-down state and have begun full decommissioning. These activities have created new risks in the delivery of on-going and/or expected research programs. Beyond performing simple irradiations in test reactors, few facilities exist internationally which can perform instrumented, in-situ irradiations on structural materials, and with the recent shut down of facilities hosted at Halden and NRU (example: instrumented fatigue loop, and in-situ creep), there are further gaps in the industry left un-filled. A new focus is being placed on the use of accelerator- based technologies to fill in some of these gaps, but these must be viewed as supplemental, and not surrogates to in-reactor capabilities

36 - MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1981

In situ correlative measurements for the ultraviolet differential absorption lidar and the high spectral resolution lidar air quality remote sensors: 1980 PEPE/NEROS program

In situ correlative measurements were obtained with a NASA aircraft in support of two NASA airborne remote sensors participating in the Environmental Protection Agency's 1980persistent elevated pollution episode (PEPE) and Northeast regional oxidant study (NEROS) field program in order to provide data for evaluating the capability of two remote sensors for measuring mixing layer height, and ozone and aerosol concentrations in the troposphere during the 1980 PEPE/NEROS program. The in situ aircraft was instrumented to measure temperature, dewpoint temperature, ozone concentrations, and light scattering coefficient. In situ measurements for ten correlative missions are given and discussed. Each data set is presented in graphical and tabular format aircraft flight plans are included.

Gregory, G. L.↗
DOE OSTI2022

The Critical Need for Innovations in Instruments and Techniques to Enable In-Situ Cold Ion and Cold Electron Measurements within the Magnetosphere

Relatively few studies have focused on the cold plasma populations of the magnetosphere due to difficulties associated with obtaining measurements. The cold particle populations are defined here as those with total energy approximately <100 eV which is an energy range for which measurements are difficult (regardless of species), but which often make up the bulk of the plasma density. These populations have known and suspected impacts on the structure and dynamics of the magnetosphere. Unfortunately, the lack of accurate measurements of the cold ion and cold electron populations through the magnetosphere makes closure of these science questions extremely difficult if not impossible. In a complex system of interconnected parts like the Earth’s magnetosphere, a lack of understanding of one part of the system (the cold electron and ion populations) is disabling. Hence, until cold electron and cold ion measurements are obtained robustly with every mission, the magnetospheric plasma environment cannot be completely understood. This will require innovations in plasma spectrometers and associated techniques required to obtain high-fidelity in-situ measurements of the cold ion and cold electron populations in the magnetosphere. This paper seeks to review the instruments and techniques that have been used to date and present possible options for future missions.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS2017

The Potassium-Argon Laser Experiment (KArLE): Design Concepts

The absolute ages of geologic events are fundamental information for understanding the timing and duration of surface processes on planetary bodies. Absolute ages can place a planet's history in the context of the solar system evolution. For example, "when was Mars warm and wet?" is one of the key questions of planetary science. If Mars was warm and wet until 3.7 billion years ago, for instance, it suggests that Mars was still warm and wet when life appeared on Earth. Mars history has been discussed so far based on crater chronology, but the current constraints for Martian chronology models come from the cratering history of the Moon [1]. Moreover, the lunar chronology model itself is fraught with uncertainty because our understanding of lunar chronology is constrained only in a few time periods and itself needs further investigation relating crater-counting ages to absolute ages [2]. Although sample return missions would provide highly accurate radiometric ages of returned samples, they are very expensive and technically challenging. In situ geochronology is highly valuable because they would have larger number of mission opportunities and the capability of iterative measurements for multiple rocks from multiple geologic units. The capability of flight instruments to perform in situ dating is required in the NASA Planetary Science Decadal Survey and the NASA Technology Roadmap. Beagle 2 is the only mission launched to date with the explicit aim to perform in situ potassium-argon (K-Ar) dating [3], but it did not happen because of the communication failure to the spacecraft. The first in situ K-Ar dating on Mars, using SAM and APXS measurements on the Cumberland mudstone [4], yielded an age of 4.21 +/- 0.35 Ga and validated the idea of K-Ar dating on other planets. However, the Curiosity method is not purposebuilt for dating and requires many assumptions that degrade its accuracy. To obtain more accurate and meaningful ages, multiple groups are developing dedicated in situ dating instruments [5-8].

design↗
NASA NTRS2015

Continued Development of in Situ Geochronology for Planetary Missions

The instrument 'Potassium (K) Argon Laser Experiment' (KArLE) is developed and designed for in situ absolute dating of rocks on planetary surfaces. It is based on the K-Ar dating method and uses the Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy - Laser Ablation - Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry (LIBSLA- QMS) technique. We use a dedicated interface to combine two instruments similar to SAM of Mars Science Laboratory (for the QMS) and ChemCam (for the LA and LIBS). The prototype has demonstrated that KArLE is a suitable and promising instrument for in situ absolute dating.

geochronology↗
NASA NTRS2016

The Potassium-Argon Laser Experiment (karle): In Situ Geochronology for Planetary Missions

Isotopic dating is an essential tool to establish an absolute chronology for geological events. It enables a planet's crystallization history, magmatic evolution, and alteration to be placed into the framework of solar system history. The capability for in situ geochronology will open up the ability for this crucial measurement to be accomplished as part of lander or rover complement. An in situ geochronology package can also complement sample return missions by identifying the most interesting rocks to cache or return to Earth. Appropriate application of in situ dating will enable geochronology on more terrains than can be reached with sample-return missions to the Moon, Mars, asteroids, outer planetary satellites, and other bodies that contain rocky components. The capability of flight instruments to conduct in situ geochronology is called out in the NASA Planetary Science Decadal Survey and the NASA Technology Roadmap as needing development to serve the community's needs. Beagle 2 is the only mission launched to date with the explicit aim to perform in situ K-Ar isotopic dating [1], but it failed to communicate and was lost. The first in situ K-Ar date on Mars, using SAM and APXS measurements on the Cumberland mudstone [2], yielded an age of 4.21 +/- 0.35 Ga and validated the idea of K-Ar dating on other planets, though the Curiosity method is not purpose-built for dating and requires many assumptions that degrade its precision. To get more precise and meaningful ages, multiple groups are developing dedicated in situ dating instruments.

planetary↗
NASA NTRS1972

An instrument for real time detection of contamination in space environmental tests chambers

An instrument for in situ vacuum detection of surface reflectance changes at 1216A was designed. Using successive reflections, this instrument is more sensitive as an indicator of reflectance changes than similar instruments having only a single reflection. The selection of each component of the instrument and its operational performance is discussed.

Richmond, R. G.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Galileo Probe Mass Spectrometer experiment

The chemical and isotopic composition of the Jupiter atmosphere's constituents, including their vertical variations, will be measured by the Galileo Probe Mass Spectrometer instrument through in situ sampling; batch sampling will also be undertaken for noble gas composition and isotopic ratio determinations. The instrument's gas-sampling system is connected to a quadrupole mass analyzer for molecular weight analysis. Threshold values are lowered through sample enrichment by a factor of 100-500 for stable hydrocarbons and by a factor of 10 for noble gases. The instrument follows a sampling sequence of 8192 steps, at a rate of 2 steps/sec.

Niemann, H. B.↗
NASA NTRS2016

A Laser-Induced Fluorescence Instrument for Aircraft Measurements of Sulfur Dioxide in the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere

This work describes the development and testing of a new instrument for in situ measurements of sulfur dioxide (SO2) on airborne platforms in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS). The instrument is based on the laser-induced fluorescence technique and uses the fifth harmonic of a tunable fiber-amplified semiconductor diode laser system at 1084.5 nm to excite SO2 at 216.9 nm. Sensitivity and background checks are achieved in flight by additions of SO2 calibration gas and zero air, respectively. Aircraft demonstration was performed during the NASA Volcano Plume Investigation Readiness and Gas-Phase and Aerosol Sulfur (VIRGAS) experiment, which was a series of flights using the NASA WB-57F during October 2015 based at Ellington Field and Harlingen, Texas. During these flights, the instrument successfully measured SO2 in the UTLS at background (non-volcanic) conditions with a precision of 2 ppt at 10 s and an overall uncertainty determined primarily by instrument drifts of +/- (16% + 0.9 ppt).

tunable fiber-amplified semiconductor diode laser ↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies Project: Final Year

The Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies (ARADS) project, a simulated Mars rover biomarker detection mission, was iteratively developed over four years from 2015 -2019, including three NASA centers, the Centro de Astrobiologia, Johns Hopkins University, Honeybee Robotics, Maxar and the University of Antofagasta. The final (4th) ARADS field season, in 2019, tested an integrated mobile life-prospecting platform loosely inspired by the 2000’s Astrobiology Field Laboratory concept, with a 1m rotary-percussive drill and sample transfer robot arm that fed three astrobiology instruments operating in-situ on the KREX2 medium rover prototype. A fourth instrument was field tested earlier in 2019 due to flight mission requirements. In the final ARADS field deployment in September 2019, the project conducted a remote mission operation simulation (Stoker 2022)demonstrating sample drilling, acquisition and transfer into the rover instruments (while minimizing cross-contamination), performing in-situ analysis of the samples, and returning the results to a remote science operations team(which commanded the daily science goals and uploaded operations sequences).

astrobiology↗
NASA NTRS1992

A Backscatter Moessbauer Spectrometer (BaMS) for use on Mars

The use of Moessbauer spectroscopy for in situ analysis on the surface of Mars was proposed and the design and implementation of a backscatter Moessbauer spectrometer (BaMS) instrument suitable for planetary missions to the surfaces of Mars (MESUR), the Moon (Artemis and lunar outpost), asteroids, or other solid solar system objects is discussed. The BaMS instrument is designed to be capable of analysis of a sample for the mineralogy of its iron-bearing phases without any sample preparation. A requirement of lander missions to Mars is instrumentation for in situ mineralogical analyses. Such analyses provide data needed for primary characterization as to the type of surface materials present and by inference the processes that formed and subsequently modified them. For purposes of providing diagnostic information about naturally occurring materials, the element iron is particularly important because it is abundant and multivalent (primarily 0, +2, and +3 oxidation states). Knowledge of the oxidation state of iron and its distribution among iron-bearing mineralogies tightly constrains the types of materials present. The pivotal role of iron was already recognized in 1978 by COMPLEX, who recommended development of flight instruments that would identify mineralogy and the oxidation state of iron in planetary surface materials. The near-term U.S. strategy for the exploration of Mars is the MESUR (Mars Environmental SURvey) program, which entails emplacement of a network of small, long-lived surface landers. For the Moon, BaMS was recommended as part of a three-instrument landed payload for the Artemis missions, targeted for 1997. BaMS would prospect for ilmenite, an oxygen resource material, and provide data to assess the maturity of lunar soil. Because instrumental characteristics are low mass, low volume, and low power consumption, BaMS is suitable for implementation on even small landers and rovers, as are being envisioned in MESUR and Artemis concepts. In addition to providing highly diagnostic data, a BaMS analyzer is inherently simple and, as is highly desirable for remote operation, no sample preparation is required.

Agresti, D. G.↗