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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 289 records · Page 16
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2012

Restoration and Reexamination of Data from the Apollo 11, 12, 14, and 15 Dust, Thermal and Radiation Engineering Measurements Experiments

As part of an effort by the Lunar Data Node (LDN) we are restoring data returned by the Apollo Dust, Thermal, and Radiation Engineering Measurements (DTREM) packages emplaced on the lunar surface by the crews of Apollo 11, 12, 14, and 15. Also commonly known as the Dust Detector experiments, the DTREM packages measured the outputs of exposed solar cells and thermistors over time. They operated on the surface for up to nearly 8 years, returning data every 54 seconds. The Apollo 11 DTREM was part of the Early Apollo Surface Experiments Package (EASEP), and operated for a few months as planned following emplacement in July 1969. The Apollo 12, 14, and 15 DTREMs were mounted on the central station as part of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) and operated from deployment until ALSEP shutdown in September 1977. The objective of the DTREM experiments was to determine the effects of lunar and meteoric dust, thermal stresses, and radiation exposure on solar cells. The LDN, part of the Geosciences Node of the Planetary Data System (PDS), operates out of the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) at Goddard Space Flight Center. The goal of the LDN is to extract lunar data stored on older media and/or in obsolete formats, restore the data into a usable digital format, and archive the data with PDS and NSSDC. For the DTREM data we plan to recover the raw telemetry, translate the raw counts into appropriate output units, and then apply calibrations. The final archived data will include the raw, translated, and calibrated data and the associated conversion tables produced from the microfilm, as well as ancillary supporting data (metadata) packaged in PDS format.

McBride, Marie J.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Entrainment and Optical Properties of an Elevated Forest Fire Plume Transported into the Planetary Boundary Layer near Washington, D.C.

Smoke and pollutants from Canadian forest fires were transported over the northeastern United States in July 2002. Lidar observations at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center show the smoke from these fires arriving in an elevated plume that was subsequently transported to the surface. Trajectory and three-dimensional model calculations confirm the origin of the smoke and show that it mixed to the surface after it was intercepted by the turbulent planetary boundary layer. Modeled smoke optical properties agreed well with aircraft and remote sensing observations provided coagulation of smoke particles was accounted for in the model. Our results have important implications for the long-range transport of pollutants and their subsequent entrainment to the surface, as well as the evolving optical properties of smoke from boreal forest fires.

Colarco, P. R.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Entrainment and Optical Properties of an Elevated Canadian Forest Fire Plume Transported into the Planetary Boundary Layer near Washington, D.C.

Smoke and pollutants from Canadian forest fires were transported over the northeastern United States in July 2002. Lidar observations at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center show the smoke from these fires arriving in an elevated plume that was subsequently mixed to the surface. Trajectory and three-dimensional model calculations confirm the origin of the smoke and show that it mixed to the surface after it was intercepted by the turbulent planetary boundary layer. Modeled smoke optical properties agreed well with aircraft and remote sensing observations provided coagulation of smoke particles was accounted for in the model. Our results have important implications for the long-range transport of pollutants and their subsequent entrainment to the surface, as well as the evolving optical properties of smoke from boreal forest fires.

Colarco, P. R.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Multi-Mission Earth Vehicle Subsonic Dynamic Stability Testing and Analyses

Multi-Mission Earth Entry Vehicles (MMEEVs) are blunt-body vehicles designed with the purpose of transporting payloads from outer space to the surface of the Earth. To achieve high-reliability and minimum weight, MMEEVs avoid use of limited-reliability systems, such as parachutes, retro-rockets, and reaction control systems and rely on the natural aerodynamic stability of the vehicle throughout the Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) phase of flight. The Multi-Mission Systems Analysis for Planetary Entry (M-SAPE) parametric design tool is used to facilitate the design of MMEEVs for an array of missions and develop and visualize the trade space. Testing in NASA Langley?s Vertical Spin Tunnel (VST) was conducted to significantly improve M-SAPE?s subsonic aerodynamic models. Vehicle size and shape can be driven by entry flight path angle and speed, thermal protection system performance, terminal velocity limitations, payload mass and density, among other design parameters. The objectives of the VST testing were to define usable subsonic center of gravity limits, and aerodynamic parameters for 6-degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) simulations, for a range of MMEEV designs. The range of MMEEVs tested was from 1.8m down to 1.2m diameter. A backshell extender provided the ability to test a design with a much larger payload for the 1.2m MMEEV.

Glaab, Louis J.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Lunar impact: A history of Project Ranger

Complete history of the Ranger project is provided as a tool for understanding the evolution and operational form of NASA's continuing progress of unmanned space exploration. Basic management techniques, flight operating procedures and technology for NASA's later unmanned lunar and planetary missions were reviewed. Methods for selecting experiments and integrating them with the spacecraft were also investigated.

Hall, R. C.↗
NASA NTRS1987

A crisis in the NASA space and earth sciences programme

Problems in the space and earth science programs are examined. Changes in the research environment and requirements for the space and earth sciences, for example from small Explorer missions to multispacecraft missions, have been observed. The need to expand the computational capabilities for space and earth sciences is discussed. The effects of fluctuations in funding, program delays, the limited number of space flights, and the development of the Space Station on research in the areas of astronomy and astrophysics, planetary exploration, solar and space physics, and earth science are analyzed. The recommendations of the Space and Earth Science Advisory Committee on the development and maintenance of effective space and earth sciences programs are described.

Lanzerotti, Louis, J.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Making a home in space

NASA's Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology has undertaken a series of manned space presence-development efforts under the aegis of the Civil Space Technology Initiative (CSTI) and Project Pathfinder. Typical of these CSTI efforts is the Aeroassist Flight Experiment, which will demonstrate techniques suitable in aerobrake design for slow trajectories to Mars and for lunar mission return. Long-duration human operations in space are a major element of Pathfinder, giving attention to such problems as space radiation exposure effects that could be several orders of magnitude greater on interplanetary exploration missions than on typical Space Shuttle flights. Mars Observer and Lunar Observer orbital missions are planned as a steppingstone to manned planetary exploration.

Aaron, John↗
NASA NTRS2004

Examination of B. subtilis var. niger Spore Killing by Dry Heat Methods

Dry heat microbial reduction is the only NASA approved sterilization method to reduce the microbial bioburden on space-flight hardware prior to launch. Reduction of the microbial bioburden on spacecraft is necessary to meet planetary protection requirements specific for the mission. Microbial bioburden reduction also occurs if a spacecraft enters a planetary atmosphere (e.g., Mars) and is heated due to frictional forces. Temperatures reached during atmospheric entry events (>200 C) are sufficient to damage or destroy flight hardware and also kill microbial spores that reside on the in-bound spacecraft. The goal of this research is to determine the survival rates of bacterial spores when they are subjected to conditions similar to those the spacecraft would encounter (i.e., temperature, pressure, etc.). B. subtilis var. niger spore coupons were exposed to a range of temperatures from 125 C to 200 C in a vacuum oven (at <1 Torr). After the exposures, the spores were removed by sonication, dilutions were made, and the spores were plated using the pour plate method with tryptic soy agar. After 3 days incubation at 32 C, the number of colony-forming units was counted. Lethality rate constants and D-values were calculated at each temperature. The calculated D-values were: 27 minutes (at 125 C), 13 minutes (at 135 C), and <0.1 minutes (at 150 C). The 125 C and 135 C survivor curves appeared as concavedownward curves. The 150 C survivor curve appeared as a straight-line. Due to the prolonged ramp-up time to the exposure conditions, spore killing during the ramp-up resulted in insufficient data to draw curves for exposures at 160 C, 175 C, and 200 C. Exploratory experiments using novel techniques, with short ramp times, for performing high temperature exposures were also examined. Several of these techniques, such as vacuum furnaces, thermal spore exposure vessels, and laser heating of the coupons, will be discussed.

bacillus subtilis var niger↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Landing Humans and Human-Class Cargo on the Moon and Mars

For more than a decade, efforts have been ongoing at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama, to land humans and large, human-rated cargo on planetary bodies like the Moon and Mars. This work continues today under the Center’s Lander Programs (LP) office. Recognizing MSFC’s heritage, NASA stood up the Human Landing System program at the Center in August 2019 to be responsible for spacecrafts that will land the next American astronauts on the Moon under Artemis. With work well underway for the historic Artemis III mission to land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface through the Appendix H Option A contract with SpaceX, LP is focused on the development of landers that will support the Agency’s long-term Artemis efforts at the Moon and NASA’s future at Mars. In March 2022, NASA announced its plan to solicit a second industry provider in addition to SpaceX to develop and demonstrate a lander that meets the program’s extended set of requirements for missions beyond Artemis III. Under the umbrella of Sustaining Lunar Development, these requirements will meet NASA’s needs for recurring, long-term access to the lunar surface, such as accommodating an increased crew size and delivering more mass to the surface. Additionally, NASA plans to leverage crewed lander development activities to procure and certify the design of landers capable of human-class cargo delivery. This paper will examine how the Lander Program office at MSFC is bridging from the initial demonstration phase of development for the Human Landing System program to the Sustaining Lunar Development phase and feeding forward to Mars. The requirements and lines of effort for landing humans and human class cargo will be discussed, as well as near-term and future milestones for the program.

Lemuel Carpenter↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Online Rapid Analysis of Laser Heterodyne Radiometer (LHR) Data Using the Planetary Spectrum Generator (PSG)

One of the biggest challenges in developing scientific instruments is not just the build and testing of an instrument, but the method for processing the data and producing a consistent, well characterized data product that can be confidently used by the public and scientific community. Raw data products are frequently an array of numbers that are a read-out of voltages. The challenge is to convert these arrays into meaningful information as well as remove noise and interferences. Because this can be a tedious and time-consuming, the goal is to automate the process so that data ca be processed rapidly and be available in real-time for event monitoring. Here we present a rapid analysis method for Laser Heterodyne Radiometer (LHR) data that can be used to analyze data taken from a range of LHR observation modes (column, limb, etc.). This online tool uses the versatile Planetary Spectrum Generator (PSG) and allows LHR users to quickly analyze their own data using a NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) monitored capability to ensure quality and reproducibility in the data products. Background: Development of a miniaturized LHR (mini-LHR) as a ground instrument for measuring carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and methane (CH 4 ) in the atmospheric column started in 2009 with the commercial availability of distributive feedback lasers (DFB) in wavelengths that could measure absorption of gases in the near-IR. As new DFB lasers, detectors and hardware emerged at different wavelengths, additional gases were added to the capability. The mini-LHR was adapted into an occultation-viewing CubeSat with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) for observing CO 2 , CH 4 , and H 2 O in the limb and was launched in 2019. Other versions of the LHR technology have been designed for observation of water vapor in the lunar exosphere as well as observations of trace gases in planetary atmospheres and plumes from icy moons. The PSG is an online tool developed at GSFC that can be used for synthesizing Earth and planetary spectra (atmospheres and surfaces) over a broad range of wavelengths (0.1 μm to 100 mm) for any observatory, orbiter or lander. Spectra are simulated by combining several state-of-the-art radiative transfer models, spectroscopic databases, planetary databases, as well as modern-era retrospective analysis for research and applications, version 2 (MERRA-2) data set which provides meteorological inputs such as modeled surface pressure for calculating dry-air columns.

Emily Wilson↗
NASA NTRS2011

TBCC Discipline Overview. Hypersonics Project

The "National Aeronautics Research and Development Policy" document, issued by the National Science and Technology Council in December 2006, stated that one (among several) of the guiding objectives of the federal aeronautics research and development endeavors shall be stable and long-term foundational research efforts. Nearly concurrently, the National Academies issued a more technically focused aeronautics blueprint, entitled: the "Decadal Survey of Civil Aeronautics - Foundations for the Future." Taken together these documents outline the principles of an aeronautics maturation plan. Thus, in response to these overarching inputs (and others), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) organized the Fundamental Aeronautics Program (FAP), a program within the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD). The FAP initiated foundational research and technology development tasks to enable the capability of future vehicles that operate across a broad range of Mach numbers, inclusive of the subsonic, supersonic, and hypersonic flight regimes. The FAP Hypersonics Project concentrates on two hypersonic missions: (1) Air-breathing Access to Space (AAS) and (2) the (Planetary Atmospheric) Entry, Decent, and Landing (EDL). The AAS mission focuses on Two-Stage-To-Orbit (TSTO) systems using air-breathing combined-cycle-engine propulsion; whereas, the EDL mission focuses on the challenges associated with delivering large payloads to (and from) Mars. So, the FAP Hypersonic Project investments are aligned to achieve mastery and intellectual stewardship of the core competencies in the hypersonic-flight regime, which ultimately will be required for practical systems with highly integrated aerodynamic/vehicle and propulsion/engine technologies. Within the FAP Hypersonics, the technology management is further divided into disciplines including one targeting Turbine-Based Combine-Cycle (TBCC) propulsion. Additionally, to obtain expertise and support from outside (including industry and academia) the hypersonic uses both NASA Research Announcements (NRAs) and a jointly sponsored, Air Force Office of Scientific Research and NASA, National Hypersonic Science Center that are focused on propulsion research. Finally, these two disciplines use selected external partnership agreements with both governmental agencies and industrial entities. The TBCC discipline is comprised of analytic and experimental tasks, and is structured into the following two research topic areas: (1) TBCC Integrated Flowpath Technologies, and (2) TBCC Component Technologies. These tasks will provide experimental data to support design and analysis tool development and validation that will enable advances in TBCC technology.

Thomas, Scott R.↗
NASA NTRS2010

26th Space Simulation Conference Proceedings. Environmental Testing: The Path Forward

Topics covered include: A Multifunctional Space Environment Simulation Facility for Accelerated Spacecraft Materials Testing; Exposure of Spacecraft Surface Coatings in a Simulated GEO Radiation Environment; Gravity-Offloading System for Large-Displacement Ground Testing of Spacecraft Mechanisms; Microscopic Shutters Controlled by cRIO in Sounding Rocket; Application of a Physics-Based Stabilization Criterion to Flight System Thermal Testing; Upgrade of a Thermal Vacuum Chamber for 20 Kelvin Operations; A New Approach to Improve the Uniformity of Solar Simulator; A Perfect Space Simulation Storm; A Planetary Environmental Simulator/Test Facility; Collimation Mirror Segment Refurbishment inside ESA s Large Space; Space Simulation of the CBERS 3 and 4 Satellite Thermal Model in the New Brazilian 6x8m Thermal Vacuum Chamber; The Certification of Environmental Chambers for Testing Flight Hardware; Space Systems Environmental Test Facility Database (SSETFD), Website Development Status; Wallops Flight Facility: Current and Future Test Capabilities for Suborbital and Orbital Projects; Force Limited Vibration Testing of JWST NIRSpec Instrument Using Strain Gages; Investigation of Acoustic Field Uniformity in Direct Field Acoustic Testing; Recent Developments in Direct Field Acoustic Testing; Assembly, Integration and Test Centre in Malaysia: Integration between Building Construction Works and Equipment Installation; Complex Ground Support Equipment for Satellite Thermal Vacuum Test; Effect of Charging Electron Exposure on 1064nm Transmission through Bare Sapphire Optics and SiO2 over HfO2 AR-Coated Sapphire Optics; Environmental Testing Activities and Capabilities for Turkish Space Industry; Integrated Circuit Reliability Simulation in Space Environments; Micrometeoroid Impacts and Optical Scatter in Space Environment; Overcoming Unintended Consequences of Ambient Pressure Thermal Cycling Environmental Tests; Performance and Functionality Improvements to Next Generation Thermal Vacuum Control System; Robotic Lunar Lander Development Project: Three-Dimensional Dynamic Stability Testing and Analysis; Thermal Physical Properties of Thermal Coatings for Spacecraft in Wide Range of Environmental Conditions: Experimental and Theoretical Study; Molecular Contamination Generated in Thermal Vacuum Chambers; Preventing Cross Contamination of Hardware in Thermal Vacuum Chambers; Towards Validation of Particulate Transport Code; Updated Trends in Materials' Outgassing Technology; Electrical Power and Data Acquisition Setup for the CBER 3 and 4 Satellite TBT; Method of Obtaining High Resolution Intrinsic Wire Boom Damping Parameters for Multi-Body Dynamics Simulations; and Thermal Vacuum Testing with Scalable Software Developed In-House.

Packard, Edward A.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Analytic theory of orbit contraction and ballistic entry into planetary atmospheres

A space object traveling through an atmosphere is governed by two forces: aerodynamic and gravitational. On this premise, equations of motion are derived to provide a set of universal entry equations applicable to all regimes of atmospheric flight from orbital motion under the dissipate force of drag through the dynamic phase of reentry, and finally to the point of contact with the planetary surface. Rigorous mathematical techniques such as averaging, Poincare's method of small parameters, and Lagrange's expansion, applied to obtain a highly accurate, purely analytic theory for orbit contraction and ballistic entry into planetary atmospheres. The theory has a wide range of applications to modern problems including orbit decay of artificial satellites, atmospheric capture of planetary probes, atmospheric grazing, and ballistic reentry of manned and unmanned space vehicles.

Longuski, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS2021

An Innovative Approach to Modeling VIPER Rover Software Life Cycle Cost

NASA’s “Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover” (VIPER) will be the first robotic mission to prospect for water ice near the south pole of the Moon in late 2023 on a 100-Earth-day mission. The information that the VIPER rover provides will help improve understanding of the composition, distribution, and accessibility of Lunar polar volatiles and will help determine how the Moon’s resources can support future human space exploration. VIPER, however, represents a radical departure from the way that NASA has traditionally developed planetary robotic missions. A key consequence of these differences is that estimating the cost of VIPER’s rover software is challenging and complex.For example, VIPER is being developed using management procedures typically applied to NASA research and technology projects, rather than space flight programs. In addition, key portions of the rover’s software are being designed as ground software to run on mission control computers (rather than on-board the rover as flight software as with prior planetary missions) taking advantage of continuous, interactive data communications between the Moon and Earth and higher performance computing available on the ground. Moreover, the rover’s software is being engineered using Agile software development practices and incorporates a significant amount of open-source, rather than following traditional (spiral, waterfall, etc.) development methods and in-house code. In this paper, we present an innovative process to estimate the life cycle cost of VIPER’s rover software. We first describe how we modeled the architecture and code counts for three software elements: Rover Flight Software (RFSW), Rover Ground Software (RGSW), and Rover Simulation Software (RSIM). We then discuss key challenges and unique aspects of our approach, such as the lack of Lunar rover analogies, the need to integrate and test large open source software, and the strategies developed to account for use of non-space flight management practices and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We conclude with a summary of our results, including cumulative distribution, nearest neighbors and cluster analysis, as well as heuristics used to confirm the reasonableness of the cost estimate.

Utz, Hans↗
NASA NTRS2003

Space Environment Factors Affecting the Performance of International Space Station Materials: The First Two Years of Flight Operations

In this paper, the natural and induced space environment factors affecting materials performance on ISS are described in some detail. The emphasis will be on ISS flight experience and the more significant design and development issues of the last two years. The intent is to identify and document the set of space environment factors, affecting materials, that are producing the largest impacts on the ISS flight hardware verification and acceptance process and on ISS flight operations. Orbital inclination (S1.6 ) and altitude (nominal3S0 km to 400 km altitude) determine the set of natural environment factors affecting the functional life of materials and subsystems on ISS. ISS operates in the F2 region of Earth's ionosphere in well-defined fluxes of atomic oxygen, other ionospheric plasma species, and solar UV, VUV, and x-ray radiation, as well as galactic cosmic rays, trapped radiation, and solar cosmic rays (1,2). The high latitude orbital environment also exposes external surfaces to significantly less well-defined or predictable fluxes of higher energy trapped electrons and auroral electrons (3 ,4). The micrometeoroid and orbital debris environment is an important determinant of spacecraft design and operations in any orbital inclination. Environment factors induced by ISS flight operations include ram-wake effects, magnetic induction voltages arising from flight through Earth's magnetic field, hypergolic thruster plume impingement from proximity operations of visiting vehicles, materials outgassing, venting and dumping of fluids, ISS thruster operations, as well as specific electrical power system interactions with the ionospheric plasma (S-7). ISS must fly in a very limited number of approved flight attitudes leading to location specific environmental exposures and extreme local thermal environments (8). ISS is a large vehicle and produces a deep wake structure from which both ionospheric plasma and neutrals (atomic oxygen) are largely excluded (9-11). At high latitude, the ISS wake may produce a spacecraft charging environment similar to that experienced by the DMSP and Freja satellites (800 to 100 km altitude polar orbits), especially during geo-magnetic disturbances (12-14). ISS is also subject to magnetic induction voltages (VxB L) on conducting structure, a result of high velocity flight through Earth's magnetic field. The magnitude of the magnetic induction voltage varies with location on ISS, as well as the relative orientation of the vehicle velocity vector and planetary magnetic field vector, leading to maximum induction voltages at high latitude (15). The space environment factors, natural and induced, that have had the largest impact on pre-launch ISS flight hardware verification and flight operations during the first two years of ISS flight operations are listed below and grouped according to the physical and chemical processes driving their interaction with ISS materials.

Koontz, Steven L.↗