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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Gateway Program Progress and Overview

This paper provides an overview and status of the Gateway, which will be a small, human-tended space station in orbit around the Moon. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) leads the Program and serves as the integrator of the spaceflight capabilities and contributions of U.S. commercial partners and international partners to develop the Gateway. Gateway is the cornerstone of sustainable deep space human exploration and is an essential element of the infrastructure necessary for the execution of the Artemis missions to the Moon. This paper will outline the current planned configuration and deployment of the station, describing the concept of operations and how Gateway supports both lunar surface missions and also serves as the springboard for exploration deeper in space. Calendar year 2022 will see the accomplishments of major milestones such as over twenty systems preliminary design reviews (PDRs), a Program-wide PDR-informed synchronization review, and NASA Key Decision Point marking the evolution of the program as a whole from the formulation phase and into implementation. This paper will provide a progress update for each major component of the Gateway: The Power and Propulsion Element; the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO); Deep Space Logistics; the International Habitation module; the European System Providing Refueling, Infrastructure, and Telecommunications (ESPRIT), which includes a Refueler Module and the HALO Lunar Communications System; External Robotics System; and an Airlock with both science and crew capabilities. For each component, the paper will describe the current maturity of the modules, acquisition strategy, contracts, and if applicable, international partnership status. This paper will also outline the integration function the Gateway Program Office performs at the NASA Johnson Space Center, including the multilateral governance structure and cross-program interfaces across Artemis.

Gateway↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Development of an Ejectable Data Recorder Ejection Mechanism for the Low Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator

On November 10, 2022, the 1100kg (2,425 lbs.) LOFTID Reentry Vehicle (RV) was launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V as a secondary payload with the Joint Polar Surveyor System-2. The 6-meter diameter (~20 ft.) aeroshell (a type of heat shield) entered the atmosphere at 8 kilometers per second (18,000 miles per hour), and flew nominally, enduring the intended heat pulse that saw temperatures exceeding 1371˚C (2500˚F) on the front side while the payload skin remained only about 38˚C (100˚F). The RV exceeded Mach 30 and the heat-affected aeroshell withstood a pressure pulse that exerted 9g’s deceleration maintaining stable flight through the hypersonic, supersonic, transonic, and subsonic regimes to the parachute deployment. As part of the Agency’s strategic goal “to extend human presence deeper into space and to the moon for sustainable long-term exploration and utilization”, the LOFTID inflatable aerodynamic decelerator or aeroshell technology could one day help land humans on Mars. As with any flight test, data collection is of utmost importance. Without a data downlink and a possibility of the RV sinking before the recovery crew got to it, a secondary data collection method was introduced. The RV would eject a data recorder, which would have a duplicate copy of the on-board flight date, before splashdown and be retrieved separately. This paper discusses the development of the ejection mechanism used to eject the data recorder from the RV during the test flight. The development includes discussions of design constraints, a design overview, the testing program, and lessons learned throughout the process all the way through successful data recorder recovery.

mechanism↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

In Space Manufacturing and Extraterrestrial Construction: How Did We Get Here?Where Are We? Where Should We Be Going? THE CHALLENGE: Will We Be Ready?

NASA has held multiple workshops and sought inputs from a broad spectrum of sources, including international partners, other space agencies, industry, large and small businesses, academia, and private citizens to develop its Moon to Mars Strategy and Objectives. The goals and objectives set forth in the resulting documents are “designed to achieve the vision to create a blueprint for sustained human presence and exploration throughout the solar system.” The objectives were categorized into four distinct tracks: Operations, Infrastructure, Transportation and Habitation, and Science. In addition, common themes across the objectives were captured under Recurring Tenets. Within the Infrastructure category, several objectives directly address the need for manufacturing and construction on the lunar surface to support continuous human lunar presence and a robust lunar economy. In exploring the vision for creation of on-demand infrastructure on the lunar surface and beyond, this presentation will examine the development of these capabilities, starting in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, up to the current state, and offer a perspective on the challenges facing operational implementation of these technologies. In the early 2000’s, the destination was the Moon. The International Space Station (ISS) was to be the test bed for demonstration of in space manufacturing technologies. Additive construction was in its infancy. These pioneering initiatives, having begun primarily under NASA’s Office of Biological and Physical Research In Situ Fabrication and Repair (ISFAR) Project, were short-lived. It was not until the early 2010’s that in space manufacturing and later extraterrestrial construction experienced renewed interest and support. At this time, the destination was Mars. This period saw the initial in space additive manufacturing experiments on the ISS, creation of a roadmap for development of in space manufacturing technologies, and development of additive construction systems for terrestrial use at scale. The period also included NASA’s 3D Printed Mars Habitat Centennial Challenge, which catalyzed interest in extraterrestrial construction. With NASA’s announcement of the intention to return to the Moon, and the subsequent release of the Artemis Accords in 2020, and the commensurate Moon to Mars Strategy, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate initiated the Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative (LSII). The LSII has spurred technology development and maturation efforts across a spectrum of capabilities that would be needed to live on the lunar surface. The presentation will provide an overview of current technology developments in the areas of in space manufacturing and extraterrestrial construction. Looking forward from the current state, a perspective will be offered on capabilities that are still needed to “institutionalize” in space manufacturing and extraterrestrial construction to achieve the vision of NASA’s Moon to Mars Strategy. Finally, a challenge will be posed to the community to accelerate the development of these capabilities. When the explorers of the future need these enabling capabilities, will they be ready?

Raymond G Clinton Jr.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Aircraft Engine Particle Emissions during the 2023 NASA-Boeing ecoDemonstrator Field Measurements

Aerosol aircraft emissions are responsible for the formation of contrail cirrus clouds which can alter Earth’s radiation and water budgets exerting substantial effects on climate. However, at present, the impact of aviation on climate forcing remaining uncertain. Recently, NASA has collaborated with Boeing ecoDemonstrator program to improve the understanding of air traffic emissions and the impact of different jet fuel compositions on contrail microphysics. As part of the program, in October 2023 the NASA DC-8 aircraft was used to sample engine exhausts emitted by a Boeing ecoDemonstrator Explorer 737-10 burning sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and conventional jet fuel over the north western US. In this study, we present unique observations of aerosols properties relevant for contrail-cirrus cloud formation collected during the 2023 ecoDemonstrator research flights and we will discuss the variations of key microphysical contrail parameters in function of different jet fuel compositions and engine conditions.

Francesca Gallo↗
NASA NTRS2019

Evolution and Impact of Saturn V on Space Launch System from a Guidance, Navigation, and Mission Analysis Perspective

The Saturn V launch vehicle represented a jump in capability for heavy lift launch vehicles, enabling the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous approach to planetary exploration employed by the Apollo program 50 years ago. Following Apollo, and the development of the Space Transportation System, the NASA space exploration program shifted focus from lunar exploration to long-term, sustained, re-usable access to Low Earth Orbit. With the recent focus of NASA on the Artemis program and continued exploration of cislunar space as a precursor to Martian exploration, the shift has swung back to heavy lift capability. To meet this need, NASA has developed the Space Launch System. While the vehicle is a new design, it is heavily influenced by the engineering solutions and approach used on the Saturn V while taking advantage of the state of the art of launch vehicle design. The approach to abort, for example, shares many familiarities with the triggers and concept of operations used on Saturn V. Analysis approaches to dispersed trajectory performance are also very similar, but advances in computing technology have enabled a much more expanded set of inputs that can be modelled and assessed in a rapid manner. Additionally, guided flight algorithms share similar first principles but have expanded to include day of launch wind information. Trajectory optimization has also advanced significantly due to the availability of computing resources, but similar maneuvers and profiles are flown across both vehicles. Also, while the approach of onboard inertial navigation has been maintained between the two programs, the shift from platform to strapdown systems enables reduced complexity in the system design while maintaining required performance. As described, the Space Launch System is the evolution of NASA launch vehicle designs, owing a large heritage to the Saturn vehicle program and incorporating advances in propulsion systems, avionics, computing, and sensor technology over the past 50 years.

Ahmad, Naeem↗
NASA NTRS2006

Working Group Reports and Presentations: Cis-lunar

Space agencies are committed to the "safe, sustained, affordable human and robotic exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond." However, we recommend that they explicitly define our ultimate goal and motivation in order to portray a sense of purpose to the public. Our goal is sustainable human settlement of the Moon and Mars and our motivation is to preserve the human race. All secondary exploration and science objectives flow from this main goal and are still imperative to our success. As an economic guiding principle, governments should be limited to those areas where only government can perform the activity and should recognize and coordinate with the larger private and military sectors. Also, space agencies must continue to fund the interdisciplinary science necessary to characterize environmental hazards associated with dust, radiation, surface charging, topology, and meteorites in order to make our first attempts at extraterrestrial living viable.

Laubscher, Bryan↗
NASA NTRS2007

Educating and Inspiring Young People for the Next Generation of Exploration

With the graying of the nation's scientific workforce and the decline in students pursuing science, technological, engineering, and math related-studies, real challenges lie ahead if America is to continue to sustain the Vision for Space Exploration in the foreseeable future. Likewise, challenges exist in the economic arena as the United States seeks to maintain its preeminence among the technological leaders of the world. Currently, less than 6 percent of high school seniors are pursuing engineering degrees, down from 36 percent a decade ago. Today, China produces six times as many engineers as does the United States and Japan, at half our population, develops twice as many engineers. Despite spending more per capita on public education than any other nation, except Switzerland, U.S. students of high school age are failing to compete with many foreign countries. These trends do not bode well for America's future competitiveness in space and other technically driven areas, such as defense.

Armstrong, Robert C., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Strategic Research Partnerships for Exploration

NASA s Space Product Development Program has completed a significant transformation from an industry driven program focused on the commercial use of space, to a NASA space exploration driven program focused on providing research and technologies for space exploration through leveraged research partnerships. Initiated in 1985 under the NASA Office of Commercial Programs, the Space Product Development Program and associated Research Partnership Centers have worked with private industry to fulfill the NASA objective of ". . .enabling io the maximum extent possible the fullest commercial use of space." In 2001, the program began to place greater emphasis on dual use activities. In particular, those activities that enable commercial use of space, while at the Same time fulfill a NASA mission need. With the President s exploration, announcement in January 2004, the transformation of the Space Product Development program further focused on NASA exploration requirements. The Program s experience in successfully assisting industry with technology maturation is now being utilized by the Agency to affordably develop the technologies needed for sustainable human and robotic space exploration.

Nall, Mark↗
NASA NTRS2012

Materials in NASA's Space Launch System: The Stuff Dreams are Made of

Mr. Todd May, Program Manager for NASA's Space Launch System, will showcase plans and progress the nation s new super-heavy-lift launch vehicle, which is on track for a first flight to launch an Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle around the Moon in 2017. Mr. May s keynote address will share NASA's vision for future human and scientific space exploration and how SLS will advance those plans. Using new, in-development, and existing assets from the Space Shuttle and other programs, SLS will provide safe, affordable, and sustainable space launch capabilities for exploration payloads starting at 70 metric tons (t) and evolving through 130 t for entirely new deep-space missions. Mr. May will also highlight the impact of material selection, development, and manufacturing as they contribute to reducing risk and cost while simultaneously supporting the nation s exploration goals.

May, Todd A.↗
NASA NTRS2008

NASA In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Technology and Development Project Overview

Since the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) was released in 2004, NASA, in conjunction with international space agencies, industry, and academia, has continued to define and refine plans for sustained and affordable robotic and human exploration of the Moon and beyond. With the goal of establishing a lunar Outpost on the Moon to extend human presence, pursue scientific activities, use the Moon to prepare for future human missions to Mars, and expand Earth s economic sphere, a change in how space exploration is performed is required. One area that opens up the possibility for the first time of breaking our reliance on Earth supplied consumables and learn to live off the land is In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). ISRU, which involves the extraction and processing of space resources into useful products, can have a substantial impact on mission and architecture concepts. In particular, the ability to make propellants, life support consumables, and fuel cell reagents can significantly reduce the cost, mass, and risk of sustained human activities beyond Earth. However, ISRU is an unproven capability for human lunar exploration and can not be put in the critical path of lunar Outpost success until it has been proven. Therefore, ISRU development and deployment needs to take incremental steps toward the desired end state. To ensure ISRU capabilities are available for pre-Outpost and Outpost deployment by 2020, and mission and architecture planners are confident that ISRU can meet initial and long term mission requirements, the ISRU Project is developing technologies and systems in three critical areas: (1) Regolith Excavation, Handling and Material Transportation; (2) Oxygen Extraction from Regolith; and (3) Volatile Extraction and Resource Prospecting, and in four development stages: (I) Demonstrate feasibility; (II) Evolve system w/ improved technologies; (III) Develop one or more systems to TRL 6 before start of flight development; and (IV) Flight development for Outpost. To minimize cost and ensure that ISRU technologies, systems, and functions are integrated properly into the Outpost, technology development efforts are being coordinated with other development areas such as Surface Mobility, Surface Power, Life Support, EVA, and Propulsion. Lastly, laboratory and field system-level tests and demonstrations will be performed as often as possible to demonstrate improvements in: Capabilities (ex. digging deeper); Performance (ex. lower power); and Duration (ex. more autonomy or more robustness). This presentation will provide the status of work performed to date within the NASA ISRU project with respect to technology and system development and field demonstration activities, as well as the current strategy to implement ISRU in future robotic and human lunar exploration missions.

Sanders, Gerald B.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Constellation Architecture Team-Lunar: Lunar Habitat Concepts

This paper will describe lunar habitat concepts that were defined as part of the Constellation Architecture Team-Lunar (CxAT-Lunar) in support of the Vision for Space Exploration. There are many challenges to designing lunar habitats such as mission objectives, launch packaging, lander capability, and risks. Surface habitats are required in support of sustaining human life to meet the mission objectives of lunar exploration, operations, and sustainability. Lunar surface operations consist of crew operations, mission operations, EVA operations, science operations, and logistics operations. Habitats are crewed pressurized vessels that include surface mission operations, science laboratories, living support capabilities, EVA support, logistics, and maintenance facilities. The challenge is to deliver, unload, and deploy self-contained habitats and laboratories to the lunar surface. The CxAT-Lunar surface campaign analysis focused on three primary trade sets of analysis. Trade set one (TS1) investigated sustaining a crew of four for six months with full outpost capability and the ability to perform long surface mission excursions using large mobility systems. Two basic habitat concepts of a hard metallic horizontal cylinder and a larger inflatable torus concept were investigated as options in response to the surface exploration architecture campaign analysis. Figure 1 and 2 depicts the notional outpost configurations for this trade set. Trade set two (TS2) investigated a mobile architecture approach with the campaign focused on early exploration using two small pressurized rovers and a mobile logistics support capability. This exploration concept will not be described in this paper. Trade set three (TS3) investigated delivery of a "core' habitation capability in support of an early outpost that would mature into the TS1 full outpost capability. Three core habitat concepts were defined for this campaign analysis. One with a four port core habitat, another with a 2 port core habitat, and the third investigated leveraging commonality of the lander ascent module and airlock pressure vessel hard shell. The paper will describe an overview of the various habitat concepts and their functionality. The Crew Operations area includes basic crew accommodations such as sleeping, eating, hygiene and stowage. The EVA Operations area includes additional EVA capability beyond the suit-port airlock function such as redundant airlock(s), suit maintenance, spares stowage, and suit stowage. The Logistics Operations area includes the enhanced accommodations for 180 days such as closed loop life support systems hardware, consumable stowage, spares stowage, interconnection to the other Hab units, and a common interface mechanism for future growth and mating to a pressurized rover. The Mission & Science Operations area includes enhanced outpost autonomy such as an IVA glove box, life support, and medical operations.

Toups, Larry↗
NASA NTRS2009

United States Human Access to Space, Exploration of the Moon and Preparation for Mars Exploration

In the past, men like Leonardo da Vinci and Jules Verne imagined the future and envisioned fantastic inventions such as winged flying machines, submarines, and parachutes, and posited human adventures like transoceanic flight and journeys to the Moon. Today, many of their ideas are reality and form the basis for our modern world. While individual visionaries like da Vinci and Verne are remembered for the accuracy of their predictions, today entire nations are involved in the process of envisioning and defining the future development of mankind, both on and beyond the Earth itself. Recently, Russian, European, and Chinese teams have all announced plans for developing their own next generation human space vehicles. The Chinese have announced their intention to conduct human lunar exploration, and have flown three crewed space missions since 2003, including a flight with three crew members to test their extravehicular (spacewalking) capabilities in September 2008. Very soon, the prestige, economic development, scientific discovery, and strategic security advantage historically associated with leadership in space exploration and exploitation may no longer be the undisputed province of the United States. Much like the sponsors of the seafaring explorers of da Vinci's age, we are motivated by the opportunity to obtain new knowledge and new resources for the growth and development of our own civilization. NASA's new Constellation Program, established in 2005, is tasked with maintaining the United States leadership in space, exploring the Moon, creating a sustained human lunar presence, and eventually extending human operations to Mars and beyond. Through 2008, the Constellation Program developed a full set of detailed program requirements and is now completing the preliminary design phase for the new Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle, and the associated infrastructure necessary for humans to explore the Moon. Component testing is well underway, and integrated flight testing will begin in 2009. This white paper summarizes 3 years of Constellation Program progress and accomplishments, and it describes the foundation set for human lunar return in 2020.

Rhatigan, Jennifer L.↗
NASA NTRS2008

RESOLVE Projects: Lunar Water Resource Demonstration and Regolith Volatile Characterization

To sustain affordable human and robotic space exploration, the ability to live off the land at the exploration site will be essential. NASA calls this ability in situ resource utilization (ISRU) and is focusing on finding ways to sustain missions first on the Moon and then on Mars. The ISRU project aims to develop capabilities to technology readiness level 6 for the Robotic Lunar Exploration Program and early human missions returning to the Moon. NASA is concentrating on three primary areas of ISRU: (1) excavating, handling, and moving lunar regolith, (2) extracting oxygen from lunar regolith, and (3) finding, characterizing, extracting, separating, and storing volatile lunar resources, especially in the permanently shadowed polar craters. To meet the challenges related to technology development for these three primary focus areas, the Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatile Extraction (RESOLVE) project was initiated in February 2005, through funding by the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. RESOLVE's objectives are to develop requirements and conceptual designs and to perform breadboard concept verification testing of each experiment module. The final goal is to deliver a flight prototype unit that has been tested in a relevant lunar polar environment. Here we report progress toward the third primary area creating ways to find, characterize, extract, separate, and store volatile lunar resources. The tasks include studying thermal, chemical, and electrical ways to collect such volatile resources as hydrogen, water, nitrogen, methane, and ammonia. We approached this effort through two subtasks: lunar water resource demonstration (LWRD) and regolith volatile characterization (RVC).

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2015

In-Space Manufacturing: Pioneering a Sustainable Path to Mars

In order to provide meaningful impacts to exploration technology needs, the In-Space Manufacturing (ISM) Initiative must influence exploration systems design now. In-space manufacturing offers: dramatic paradigm shift in the development and creation of space architectures; efficiency gain and risk reduction for low Earth orbit and deep space exploration; and "pioneering" approach to maintenance, repair, and logistics leading to sustainable, affordable supply chain model. In order to develop application-based capabilities in time to support NASA budget and schedule, ISM must be able to leverage the significant commercial developments, which requires innovative, agile collaborative mechanisms (contracts, challenges, SBIR's, etc.); and NASA-unique investments to focus primarily on adapting the technologies and processes to the microgravity environment. We must do the foundational work - it is the critical path for taking these technologies from lab curiosities to institutionalized capabilities: characterize, certify, institutionalize, design for Additive Manufacturing (AM). Ideally, International Space Station (ISS) U.S. lab rack or partial rack space should be identified for in-space manufacturing utilization in order to continue technology development of a suite of capabilities required for exploration missions, as well as commercialization on ISS.

Werkheiser, Niki↗
NASA NTRS2011

NASA Technology Area 07: Human Exploration Destination Systems Roadmap

This paper gives an overview of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Office of Chief Technologist (OCT) led Space Technology Roadmap definition efforts. This paper will given an executive summary of the technology area 07 (TA07) Human Exploration Destination Systems (HEDS). These are draft roadmaps being reviewed and updated by the National Research Council. Deep-space human exploration missions will require many game changing technologies to enable safe missions, become more independent, and enable intelligent autonomous operations and take advantage of the local resources to become self-sufficient thereby meeting the goal of sustained human presence in space. Taking advantage of in-situ resources enhances and enables revolutionary robotic and human missions beyond the traditional mission architectures and launch vehicle capabilities. Mobility systems will include in-space flying, surface roving, and Extra-vehicular Activity/Extravehicular Robotics (EVA/EVR) mobility. These push missions will take advantage of sustainability and supportability technologies that will allow mission independence to conduct human mission operations either on or near the Earth, in deep space, in the vicinity of Mars, or on the Martian surface while opening up commercialization opportunities in low Earth orbit (LEO) for research, industrial development, academia, and entertainment space industries. The Human Exploration Destination Systems (HEDS) Technology Area (TA) 7 Team has been chartered by the Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT) to strategically roadmap technology investments that will enable sustained human exploration and support NASA s missions and goals for at least the next 25 years. HEDS technologies will enable a sustained human presence for exploring destinations such as remote sites on Earth and beyond including, but not limited to, LaGrange points, low Earth orbit (LEO), high Earth orbit (HEO), geosynchronous orbit (GEO), the Moon, near-Earth objects (NEOs), which > 95% are asteroidal bodies, Phobos, Deimos, Mars, and beyond. The HEDS technology roadmap will strategically guide NASA and other U.S. Government agency technology investments that will result in capabilities enabling human exploration missions to diverse destinations generating high returns on investments.

Kennedy, Kriss J.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Sustainable Resource Recovery from Trash, Waste, and Overboard Venting

Space travel and planetary missions for long-endurance human presence require Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) loop-closure. The air and water resource loops are generally closed with their processes having been established through extensive development, testing, and long-term use on International Space Station. Closure of the air and water loops have enabled oxygen and hydrogen sustainability. Carbon sustainability has yet to be addressed. Waste and trash, which also contains hydrogen and oxygen and abundant carbon have not been developed to the extent air and water have. Waste and trash have generally been dealt with in terms of simple safening, storage, and disposal. In externally disposing of waste, which includes C1 and C2 hydrocarbon gases, lost resources not only increase mission cost they can result in space and planetary pollution that can lead to unfavorable public opinion. With all this in mind, we explore the idea of carbon sustainability within closed-cycle waste, trash, and C1/C2 reprocessing. Starting from the current ECLS System roadmap, we identify resources that are not yet captured in closed-cycle processes but are lost when crossing the thermodynamic boundaries of an open system. Such pseudo-resources are trash, waste, and the gaseous carbon products of carbon dioxide reduction. We then consider different means and processes for minimizing pseudo-resource loss so as to “close the carbon loop.” There are cases in which pseudo-resources need to be externally discarded, such as reducing spacecraft acceleration mass. In this case we examine various processes that can be beneficial to missions even when these pseudo-resources are lost. An example would be the conversion of waste into propellant, which can produce thrust while at the same time reducing mass for transit acceleration (and ultimately propellant mass at launch), in which case we propose a means for evaluating the value of converting waste into propellant for different propulsion systems.

waste↗