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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 NTRS2019

UAS Service Supplier Checkout: How UTM Confirmed Readiness of Flight Tests with UAS Service Suppliers

NASA collaborated with industry partners to develop and test the small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) Traffic Management (UTM) research platform, a software prototype used for developing airspace integration requirements for sUAS operations. The lessons learned from these activities will help inform the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on what is needed to safely manage sUAS operations. A core component of the UTM platform is the UAS Service Supplier (USS), which acts as a communications bridge to meet the regulatory and operational requirements. As the UTM partners began USS flight tests, NASA found that it was difficult to get all USSs functioning at comparable quality levels to ensure successful flight tests. Also, NASA anticipated that the FAA would encounter similar challenges when they begin to register USSs for operational use. These realizations led to the development of USS Checkout, a set of processes and tools designed to increase flight test efficiency. We learned that a good USS Checkout process is balanced for simplicity versus test coverage, and is amenable to automation. We also learned that when USS Checkout is a USS prerequisite for flight tests, flight tests were more efficient and effective.

Smith, Irene Skupniewicz↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Advancing Open Source Science Initiatives Through Public-Private Partnerships

Collaboration is fundamental to advancing open science within the science community. With the recent developments in technology and research, the establishment of formal partnerships between the private sector and government agencies are needed to bridge the knowledge gaps and expedite the time to actionable science. NASA’s Interagency Implementation and Advanced Concepts Team (IMPACT) seeks to address this challenge by establishing non-reimbursable Space Act Agreements with industry leaders in cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. The purpose of these agreements is to advance open source science initiatives in the areas of data discovery, access and use of high value NASA science data sets on the cloud. As well as, jointly work on common research problems to accelerate the development and adoption of new AI technologies. Current success stories include co-locating NASA datasets from multiple science disciplines on one platform using Amazon Web Services Open Data Registry, developing AI Foundation Models for Science with IBM and co-hosting training workshops and tutorials for the science community aimed at providing hands-on experience with using NASA data and AI models on the cloud. In summary, we will present an overview of our partnerships supporting open source science initiatives, describe current activities and lessons learned that may be useful to others considering similar partnerships with the private sector.

Elizabeth Fancher↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

2023 NASA SmallSat In-Person LEARN Forum: Announcements

NASA’s SmallSat LEARN Forum is an activity aimed at providing the NASA SmallSat Community with collaboration resources. LEARN stands for Learning from Experiences, Achievements, and Resolution Navigation and through the forum attendees share and learn together as a community to become smarter implementers of small spacecraft missions. Held October 11-12, the Annual In-Person LEARN Forum announcements presentation summarizes current and upcoming events and solicitations for the community.

Bruce D Yost↗
NASA NTRS2003

Conceptual Design of In-Space Vehicles for Human Exploration of the Outer Planets

During FY-2002, a team of engineers from TD30/Advanced Concepts and TD40/Propulsion Research Center embarked on a study of potential crewed missions to the outer solar system. The study was conducted under the auspices of the Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts activity administered by Langley Research Center (LaRC). The Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) team interacted heavily with teams from other Centers including Glenn Research Center, LaRC, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Johnson Space Center. The MSFC team generated five concept missions for this project. The concept missions use a variety of technologies, including magnetized target fusion (MTF), magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters, solid core reactors, and molten salt reactors in various combinations. The Technical Publication (TP) reviews these five concepts and the methods used to generate them. The analytical methods used are described for all significant disciplines and subsystems. The propulsion and power technologies selected for each vehicle are reviewed in detail. The MSFC team also expended considerable effort refining the MTF concept for use with this mission. The results from this effort are also contained within this TP. Finally, the lessons learned from this activity are summarized in the conclusions section.

Adams, R. B.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Assimilating Lessons Learned – From URGE to NASA's Student Airborne Science Activation (SaSa) Project

In the first half of 2021, formal and informal pods at several universities and NASA Center affiliates participated in the Unlearning Racism in Geosciences (URGE) curriculum and deliverables. As a result, several members from different URGE pods are propagating and applying the URGE lessons learned to the new 5-year NASA Student Airborne Science Activation project (SaSa). Starting in the Summer of 2022, SaSa will provide an 8-week summer Earth Science research experience focused on attracting and retaining early undergraduate students from historically underrepresented groups from minority-serving institutions (MSIs). The multicenter and field-based research experience will provide the students access to and experience with NASA airborne resources. Additionally, integrating NASA material into the MSI curricula and providing student mentorship at both MSIs and NASA Centers will enhance students' exposure to Earth Science research. The objectives of URGE and SaSa are highly compatible with one another, and the project timing allows for the integration of URGE lessons early in the SaSa curriculum design phase. As of December 2021, the first SaSa summer program application will be open and the first SaSa semester at the host MSIs will be completed. This presentation will discuss the assimilation of URGE lessons learned from our respective pods into the first SaSa academic semester and into the preparations for the first SaSa summer cohort. We will welcome additional feedback from the broader URGE community in advance of SaSa's first summer session.

Kristina Pistone↗
DOE OSTI2025

Peatland fires in Alaska will double by the end of the century

During recent summers, warm and dry conditions have increased the occurrence of wildfires and potentially peat-fires across Alaska. Limitations in resolving the fine-scale distribution of peatlands and climate observations have constrained our ability to accurately predict peat-fire dynamics. Using a new high-resolution peatland map of Alaska, we evaluated the climate and environmental controls of past and future peat-fire activity. Ensemble machine learning models identified reduced soil moisture, higher temperatures, and evapotranspiration as key predictors of annual total burned peatland area (tenfold CV R 2 = 0.62, RMSE = 221.1 km 2 ). By the end of the twenty-first century, models forced with climate datasets from representative concentration pathways (RCPs) 4.5, 6.0, and 8.5 emission scenarios project a statewide doubling of burned peatlands (increasing 61–121%), with regional increases ranging from 25–165% in polar, 61–95% in boreal, and 102–106% in maritime ecoregions. These projections indicate that wildfires will progressively encroach further into organic-rich moist and wet peaty soils, potentially amplifying soil carbon release across Alaska.

climate-change ecology↗
NASA NTRS1991

Structural integrity of future aging airplanes

A multitude of design considerations is involved in ensuring the structural integrity of Boeing jet transports that have common design concepts validated by extensive analyses, tests, and three decades of service. As airplanes approach their design service objectives, the incidences of fatigue and corrosion may become widespread. Continuing airworthiness of the aging jet fleet requires diligent performance from the manufacturer, the airlines, and airworthiness authorities. Aging fleet support includes timely development of supplemental structural inspection documents applicable to selected older airplanes, teardown inspections of high-time airframes retired from service, fatigue testing of older airframes, and structural surveys of more than 130 airplanes operated throughout the world. Lessons learned from these activities are incorporated in service bulletin recommendations, production line modifications, and design manual updates. An overview of traditional Boeing fleet support activities and the anticipated benefits for future generations of commercial airplanes based on the continuous design improvement process are presented.

Aging Aircraft↗
NASA NTRS1997

Glacier Bay, Alaska, from the Ground, Air, and Space

This tape uses a combination of video, three-dimensional computer imaging, and still photographs to provide a descriptive overview of the life-cycle and environmental effects of glaciers. An historical prospective of researchers and the contribution that they have made to the understanding of glaciers and Glacier Bay is presented. The data collected from these scientists have been documented and used by means of scientific visualization in the hope of learning how glacial activity relates to climate changes.

Hall, Dorothy K.↗
NASA NTRS2002

On the nature and evolution of the neural bases of human language

The traditional theory equating the brain bases of language with Broca's and Wernicke's neocortical areas is wrong. Neural circuits linking activity in anatomically segregated populations of neurons in subcortical structures and the neocortex throughout the human brain regulate complex behaviors such as walking, talking, and comprehending the meaning of sentences. When we hear or read a word, neural structures involved in the perception or real-world associations of the word are activated as well as posterior cortical regions adjacent to Wernicke's area. Many areas of the neocortex and subcortical structures support the cortical-striatal-cortical circuits that confer complex syntactic ability, speech production, and a large vocabulary. However, many of these structures also form part of the neural circuits regulating other aspects of behavior. For example, the basal ganglia, which regulate motor control, are also crucial elements in the circuits that confer human linguistic ability and abstract reasoning. The cerebellum, traditionally associated with motor control, is active in motor learning. The basal ganglia are also key elements in reward-based learning. Data from studies of Broca's aphasia, Parkinson's disease, hypoxia, focal brain damage, and a genetically transmitted brain anomaly (the putative "language gene," family KE), and from comparative studies of the brains and behavior of other species, demonstrate that the basal ganglia sequence the discrete elements that constitute a complete motor act, syntactic process, or thought process. Imaging studies of intact human subjects and electrophysiologic and tracer studies of the brains and behavior of other species confirm these findings. As Dobzansky put it, "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution" (cited in Mayr, 1982). That applies with as much force to the human brain and the neural bases of language as it does to the human foot or jaw. The converse follows: the mark of evolution on the brains of human beings and other species provides insight into the evolution of the brain bases of human language. The neural substrate that regulated motor control in the common ancestor of apes and humans most likely was modified to enhance cognitive and linguistic ability. Speech communication played a central role in this process. However, the process that ultimately resulted in the human brain may have started when our earliest hominid ancestors began to walk.

Review, Tutorial↗
NASA NTRS2004

NASA Celebrates the World Year of Physics

One of the goals of NASA's Exploration Systems Education and Outreach team is to provide educators and students authentic, relevant opportunities and activities. In celebration of the World Year of Physics 2005, there will be several NASA-sponsored events and classroom activities geared to the teaching and learning of physics. Proposed events and activities include a contest for high school classes to design a reduced gravity experiment or demonstration for flight on an aircraft executing a parabolic flight path, amusement park activities with a NASA twist, and a symposium bringing together prominent leaders in the diverse areas of physics research.

Szofran, Frank↗
NASA NTRS2005

Meeting the Challenges of Exploration Systems: Health Management Technologies for Aerospace Systems With Emphasis on Propulsion

The constraints of future Exploration Missions will require unique Integrated System Health Management (ISHM) capabilities throughout the mission. An ambitious launch schedule, human-rating requirements, long quiescent periods, limited human access for repair or replacement, and long communication delays all require an ISHM system that can span distinct yet interdependent vehicle subsystems, anticipate failure states, provide autonomous remediation, and support the Exploration Mission from beginning to end. NASA Glenn Research Center has developed and applied health management system technologies to aerospace propulsion systems for almost two decades. Lessons learned from past activities help define the approach to proper ISHM development: sensor selection- identifies sensor sets required for accurate health assessment; data qualification and validation-ensures the integrity of measurement data from sensor to data system; fault detection and isolation-uses measurements in a component/subsystem context to detect faults and identify their point of origin; information fusion and diagnostic decision criteria-aligns data from similar and disparate sources in time and use that data to perform higher-level system diagnosis; and verification and validation-uses data, real or simulated, to provide variable exposure to the diagnostic system for faults that may only manifest themselves in actual implementation, as well as faults that are detectable via hardware testing. This presentation describes a framework for developing health management systems and highlights the health management research activities performed by the Controls and Dynamics Branch at the NASA Glenn Research Center. It illustrates how those activities contribute to the development of solutions for Integrated System Health Management.

Melcher, Kevin J.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Overview of Pre-Flight Physical Training, In-Flight Exercise Countermeasures and the Post-Flight Reconditioning Program for International Space Station Astronauts

International Space Station (ISS) astronauts receive supervised physical training pre-flight, utilize exercise countermeasures in-flight, and participate in a structured reconditioning program post-flight. Despite recent advances in exercise hardware and prescribed exercise countermeasures, ISS crewmembers are still found to have variable levels of deconditioning post-flight. This presentation provides an overview of the astronaut medical certification requirements, pre-flight physical training, in-flight exercise countermeasures, and the post-flight reconditioning program. Astronauts must meet medical certification requirements on selection, annually, and prior to ISS missions. In addition, extensive physical fitness testing and standardized medical assessments are performed on long duration crewmembers pre-flight. Limited physical fitness assessments and medical examinations are performed in-flight to develop exercise countermeasure prescriptions, ensure that the crewmembers are physically capable of performing mission tasks, and monitor astronaut health. Upon mission completion, long duration astronauts must re-adapt to the 1 G environment, and be certified as fit to return to space flight training and active duty. A structured, supervised postflight reconditioning program has been developed to prevent injuries, facilitate re-adaptation to the 1 G environment, and subsequently return astronauts to training and space flight. The NASA reconditioning program is implemented by the Astronaut Strength, Conditioning, and Rehabilitation (ASCR) team and supervised by NASA flight surgeons. This program has evolved over the past 10 years of the International Space Station (ISS) program and has been successful in ensuring that long duration astronauts safely re-adapt to the 1 g environment and return to active duty. Lessons learned from this approach to managing deconditioning can be applied to terrestrial medicine and future exploration space flight missions.

Kerstman, Eric↗
NASA NTRS2015

Use of a Closed-Loop Tracking Algorithm for Orientation Bias Determination of an S-Band Ground Station

The Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Testbed project completed installation and checkout testing of a new S-Band ground station at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio in 2015. As with all ground stations, a key alignment process must be conducted to obtain offset angles in azimuth (AZ) and elevation (EL). In telescopes with AZ-EL gimbals, this is normally done with a two-star alignment process, where telescope-based pointing vectors are derived from catalogued locations with the AZ-EL bias angles derived from the pointing vector difference. For an antenna, the process is complicated without an optical asset. For the present study, the solution was to utilize the gimbal control algorithms closed-loop tracking capability to acquire the peak received power signal automatically from two distinct NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) spacecraft, without a human making the pointing adjustments. Briefly, the TDRS satellite acts as a simulated optical source and the alignment process proceeds exactly the same way as a one-star alignment. The data reduction process, which will be discussed in the paper, results in two bias angles which are retained for future pointing determination. Finally, the paper compares the test results and provides lessons learned from the activity.

ground station↗
NASA NTRS2015

Use of a Closed-Loop Tracking Algorithm for Orientation Bias Determination of an S-Band Ground Station

The Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Testbed project completed installation and checkout testing of a new S-Band ground station at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio in 2015. As with all ground stations, a key alignment process must be conducted to obtain offset angles in azimuth (AZ) and elevation (EL). In telescopes with AZ-EL gimbals, this is normally done with a two-star alignment process, where telescope-based pointing vectors are derived from catalogued locations with the AZ-EL bias angles derived from the pointing vector difference. For an antenna, the process is complicated without an optical asset. For the present study, the solution was to utilize the gimbal control algorithms closed-loop tracking capability to acquire the peak received power signal automatically from two distinct NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) spacecraft, without a human making the pointing adjustments. Briefly, the TDRS satellite acts as a simulated optical source and the alignment process proceeds exactly the same way as a one-star alignment. The data reduction process, which will be discussed in the paper, results in two bias angles which are retained for future pointing determination. Finally, the paper compares the test results and provides lessons learned from the activity.

reflector antenna↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Exploring Self-Scheduling Strategies and Heuristics in Novice Schedulers

Missions beyond low Earth orbit will require crews to act with greater autonomy. Increasing communication delays will require crews to take on tasks currently supported by Mission Control, including the involved process of scheduling and rescheduling their own complex spaceflight timelines to fit a variety of restrictions and constraints. Astronauts, unlike Mission Control, are not expert planners, however, and determining simple strategies and heuristics that enable them to schedule successfully can increase the range of problems they can solve successfully. In two human-in-the-loop scheduling experiments, we analyzed 1) common strategies among novice schedules, and 2) the development of self-scheduling heuristics. We find that, even when participants are instructed to follow a given strategy, they rapidly develop their own self-scheduling heuristics as they learn to successfully complete the scheduling task. Participants conducting naturally learn to schedule activities with the most constraints first, while participants vary in heuristics in the rescheduling task.

self-scheduling↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Exploring Self-Scheduling Strategies and Heuristics in Novice Schedulers

Missions beyond low Earth orbit will require crews to act with greater autonomy. Increasing communication delays will require crews to take on tasks currently supported by Mission Control, including the involved process of scheduling and rescheduling their own complex spaceflight timelines to fit a variety of restrictions and constraints. Unlike Mission Control, astronauts are not expert planners, and determining strategies and heuristics that enable crews to schedule successfully may increase the range of problems they can solve. In two human-in-the-loop scheduling experiments, we analyzed 1) common strategies among novice schedulers and 2) the development of self-scheduling heuristics. We find that, even when participants are instructed to follow a given strategy, they rapidly develop their own self-scheduling heuristics as they learn to successfully complete the scheduling task. While scheduling, participants naturally learn to arrange activities with the most constraints first, whereas while rescheduling, they display greater variability in their heuristics.

self-scheduling↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3): Mechanisms and Lessons Learned from a CubeSat Solar Sail Deployer

This is an overview of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) technology demonstration project mechanisms, their development, the testing they underwent, as well as the lessons learned in those activities. This overview includes an overall description of the primary deployment mechanisms and ground support equipment (GSE) needed for packaging the solar sail system.

Mechanisms↗