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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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NASA NTRS2000

Olympus: The Ultimate Summit for Science

High above the world-class observatories that dot Hawaii's dormant Mauna Kea volcano, floating farther yet over the hostile and nearly inaccessible peaks of Mt. Everest, lies a summit waiting to be conquered. Here above the clouds and city lights and over 99.7% of the atmosphere is a platform on the edge of space, home to a broad range of astronomy and physics experiments. Today, balloons are lifting experiments longer, higher and more inexpensively than ever before, and returning them safely to Earth for reuse. Week-long flights at altitudes of approximately 35 kilometers carrying payloads in excess of several tons are the norm. NASA now plans to extend this platform and create a new generation of balloons capable of staying afloat with such cargo for 100 days and ultimately 1,000 days. What do some scientists hope to accomplish with 100 or even 1,000 days at the edge of space? To name but a few proposals on the table: Jupiter-size planet searches, large-aperture solar astronomy, large-aperture infrared astronomy, cosmic-ray investigations, long-duration Earth science missions, and hard x-ray imaging experiments. Olympus defines a new era in scientific ballooning. Advances in material science and trajectory control are enabling revolutionary capabilities. Very large scientific payloads can now be reliably launched and retrieved for reflight at a range of altitudes. Balloon flight still remains a fraction of the cost of a rocket launch. The ultra long duration balloon, with its 100-day maiden flight planned for 2001, provides a long-term facility in a near-space environment for many types of science. This is a stratospheric mountaintop well worth the climb.

Kelly, Darrell↗

DOE OSTI2023

Five grand challenges of offshore wind financing in the United States

Offshore wind energy has the potential to play a critical role in fostering a renewable energy transformation in the United States. This owes to its massive technical potential, strategic location near densely populated coastlines, and - relative to onshore wind and solar - high capacity factors and consistent production. The Biden Administration's target to build 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 (from 0.04 GW today) requires the creation and swift development of a new industry that interlinks the wind and power industries with the maritime sector. Critical to its success is financing. While financial capital is abundant, deploying it for offshore wind faces major challenges. We identify and describe five grand challenges affecting offshore wind finance in the U.S. Failing to address these challenges may put deployment targets at risk. The challenges include (1) Early years financing: navigating the complexities, timing mismatches, and high costs of projects in the development phase; (2) Policy support for project financial solvency: addressing the uncertainty and systematic transfers of tax credits away from offshore wind, characteristic of the U.S. Investment Tax Credit; (3) Workforce development: building a skilled workforce for an emerging market; (4) Transmission and integration barriers: upgrading the power grid to reliably support large scale offshore wind integration; and (5) Floating wind development: financing the development and scale-up of floating offshore wind technologies. The second challenge has already been solved to a large extent by the Inflation Reduction Act.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

NASA NTRS2001

Water Ice and Life's Roots in Space

Nearly three decades ago as Voyager 2 spacecraft raced out of the Solar System. NASA engineers turned its camera arm around (at the request of the American astronomer Carl Sagan) to take a parting snapshot of Earth. Earth's image was a single pale blue pixel, its color caused by the Rayleigh scattering of sunlight in the water of our oceans. Earth is a water planet, and this is the color of life. No matter how far we travel on our planet, no matter how high or deep, if we find liquid water, we find some form of life that manages to survive there. And yet there is a cruel irony. Water in its solid crystalline form is hostile to life. Organisms can roost in geysers, wallow in brine and gulp down acid, but they cowered from ice. The rigid ordering of water molecules in ice crystals expels impurities and tears organic tissue beyond repair. In fact, about the only good thing you can say about ice is that it gets out of the way: Its low density ensures that it floats and leaves the water dwelling creatures in peace. Recent discoveries have caused us to rethink this basic premise. New lines of evidence both observational and experimental - suggest that prebiotic organic compounds are not only comfortable in, but in fact had their origin in a peculiar form of solid water ice that is ubiquitous in interstellar space, but completely absent from Earth. Only recently have we been able to create even submicroscopic quantities of this ice in terrestrial laboratories, yet it constitutes the most abundant form of water in the universe. Interstellar ice is a far cry from the ice we are so familiar with on Earth. This interstellar ice has no crystalline structure, and despite the fact that its temperature is a scant few degrees above absolute zero (where all molecular motion ceases), it is highly reactive and can flow like water when exposed to radiation. It is in fact this ice's similarity to liquid water that allows it to participate in the creation of the very first organic compounds.

Blake, David↗

NASA NTRS2013

Space Weather Monitoring for ISS Geomagnetic Storm Studies

The International Space Station (ISS) space environments community utilizes near real time space weather data to support a variety of ISS engineering and science activities. The team has operated the Floating Potential Measurement Unit (FPMU) suite of plasma instruments (two Langmuir probes, a floating potential probe, and a plasma impedance probe) on ISS since 2006 to obtain in-situ measurements of plasma density and temperature along the ISS orbit and variations in ISS frame potential due to electrostatic current collection from the plasma environment (spacecraft charging) and inductive (vxB) effects from the vehicle motion across the Earth s magnetic field. An ongoing effort is to use FPMU for measuring the ionospheric response to geomagnetic storms at ISS altitudes and investigate auroral charging of the vehicle as it passes through regions of precipitating auroral electrons. This work is challenged by restrictions on FPMU operations that limit observation time to less than about a third of a year. As a result, FPMU campaigns ranging in length from a few days to a few weeks are typically scheduled weeks in advance for ISS engineering and payload science activities. In order to capture geomagnetic storm data under these terms, we monitor near real time space weather data from NASA, NOAA, and ESA sources to determine solar wind disturbance arrival times at Earth likely to be geoeffective (including coronal mass ejections and high speed streams associated with coronal holes) and activate the FPMU ahead of the storm onset. Using this technique we have successfully captured FPMU data during a number of geomagnetic storm periods including periods with ISS auroral charging. This presentation will describe the strategies and challenges in capturing FPMU data during geomagnetic storms, the near real time space weather resources utilized for monitoring the space weather environment, and provide examples of auroral charging data obtained during storm operations.

Minow, Joseph I.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Space Weather Monitoring for ISS Geomagnetic Storm Studies

Minow, Joseph I.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Coplanar back contacts for thin silicon solar cells

The type of coplanar back contact solar cell described was constructed with interdigitated n(+) and p(+) type regions on the back of the cell, such that both contacts are made on the back with no metallization grid on the front. This cell construction has several potential advantages over conventional cells for space use namely, convenience of interconnects, lower operating temperatures and higher efficiency due to the elimination of grid shadowing. However, the processing is more complex, and the cell is inherently more radiation sensitive. The latter problem can be reduced substantially by making the cells very thin (approximately 50 micrometers). Two types of interdigitated back contact cells are possible, the types being dependent on the character of the front surface. The front surface field cell has a front surface region that is of the same conductivity type as the bulk but is more heavily doped. This creates an electric field at the surface which repels the minority carriers. The tandem junction cell has a front surface region of a conductivity type that is opposite to that of the bulk. The junction thus created floats to open circuit voltage on illumination and injects carriers into the bulk which then can be collected at the rear junction. For space use, the front surface field cell is potentially more radiation resistant than the tandem junction cell because the flow of minority carriers (electrons) into the bulk will be less sensitive to the production of recombination centers, particularly in the space charge region at the front surface.

Storti, G.↗

DOE OSTI2025

The Imprint of Southern Ocean Storms on Modeled Surface Chlorophyll, Their Drivers and Satellite Biases

Southern Ocean (SO) phytoplankton chlorophyll is highly variable on sub-seasonal time scales. Although the SO is the windiest ocean basin globally, it is not conclusively understood how storms impact SO phytoplankton dynamics. Much of our existing knowledge stems from satellites, but biases due to data gaps from cloud cover and low solar angles remain unquantified. Here, we use ocean–sea-ice simulations with the Community Earth System Model to quantify the climatological 1997–2018 imprint of storms on chlorophyll and phytoplankton dynamics in the ice-free SO. Additionally, by comparing the full-field model output to synthetic satellite observations, we quantify sampling biases in satellite-derived estimates. We find that both the sign and the magnitude of the average surface chlorophyll imprint vary substantially across storms but last for at least 4 days after the storm passing. Based on our analysis, more than one third of the storms explain the majority of local non-seasonal chlorophyll variability, but satellite-derived storm imprints are often too large in magnitude. On the day of the storm passing, changes in vertical mixing predominantly cause surface chlorophyll anomalies, and reduced light availability due to enhanced cloud cover outweighs the enhanced nutrient availability due to entrainment. Interestingly, storms imprint differently on total net primary production than on surface chlorophyll, demonstrating the difficulty to derive carbon-cycle impacts from a surface-chlorophyll assessment. With SO future storm activity projected to increase, complementing satellite observations with other observing technologies, for example, profiling floats, is necessary to better constrain how storms impact biological carbon cycling in the SO.

Nissen, Cara [University of Colorado, Boulder, CO ↗

NASA NTRS2014

The Situational Awareness Sensor Suite for the ISS (SASSI): A Mission Concept to Investigate ISS Charging and Wake Effects

The complex interaction between the International Space Station (ISS) and the surrounding plasma environment often generates unpredictable environmental situations that affect operations. Examples of affected systems include extravehicular activity (EVA) safety, solar panel efficiency, and scientific instrument integrity. Models and heuristically‐derived best practices are well‐suited for routine operations, but when it comes to unusual or anomalous events or situations, especially those driven by space weather, there is no substitute for real‐time monitoring. Space environment data collected in real‐time (or near‐real time) can be used operationally for both real‐time alarms and data sources in assimilative models to predict environmental conditions important for operational planning. Fixed space weather instruments mounted to the ISS can be used for monitoring the ambient space environment, but knowing whether or not (or to what extent) the ISS affects the measurements themselves requires adequate space situational awareness (SSA) local to the ISS. This paper presents a mission concept to use a suite of plasma instruments mounted at the end of the ISS robotic arm to systematically explore the interaction between the Space Station structure and its surrounding environment. The Situational Awareness Sensor Suite for the ISS (SASSI) would be deployed and operated on the ISS Express Logistics Carrier (ELC) for long‐term "survey mode" observations and the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) for short‐term "campaign mode" observations. Specific areas of investigation include: 1) ISS frame and surface charging during perturbations of the local ISS space environment, 2) calibration of the ISS Floating Point Measurement Unit (FPMU), 3) long baseline measurements of ambient ionospheric electric potential structures, 4) electromotive force-induced currents within large structures moving through a magnetized plasma, and 5) wake‐induced ion waves in both electrostatic (i.e. particles) and electromagnetic modes. SASSI will advance the understanding of plasma‐boundary interaction phenomena, demonstrate a suite a sensors acting in concert to provide effective SSA, and validate and/or calibrate existing ISS space environment instruments and models.

Krause, L. Habash↗

NASA NTRS2012

Earth Radiation Imbalance from a Constellation of 66 Iridium Satellites: Climate Science Aspects

The "global warming hiatus" since the 1998 El Nino, highlighted by Meehl et al., and the resulting "missing energy" problem highlighted by Trenberth et al., has opened the door to a more fundamental view of climate change than mere surface air temperature. That new view is based on two variables which are strongly correlated: the rate of change of ocean heat content d(OHC)/dt; and Earth Radiation Imbalance (ERI) at the top of the atmosphere, whose guesstimated range is 0.4 to 0.9 Watts per square meters (this imbalance being mainly due to increasing CO2). The Argo float array is making better and better measurements of OHC. But existing satellite systems cannot measure ERI to even one significant digit. So, climate model predictions of ERI are used in place of real measurements of it, and the satellite data are tuned to the climate model predictions. Some oceanographers say "just depend on Argo for understanding the global warming hiatus and the missing energy", but we don't think this is a good idea because d(OHC)/dt and ERI have different time scales and are never perfectly correlated. We think the ERB community needs to step up to measuring ERI correctly, just as oceanographers have deployed Argo to measure OHC correctly. This talk will overview a proposed constellation of 66 Earth radiation budget instruments, hosted on Iridium satellites, that will actually be able to measure ERI to at least one significant digit, thus enabling a crucial test of climate models. This constellation will also be able to provide ERI at two-hourly time scales and 500-km spatial scales without extrapolations from uncalibrated narrowband geostationary instruments, using the highly successful methods of GRACE to obtain spatial resolution. This high time resolution would make ERI a synoptic variable like temperature, and allow studies of ERI's response to fast-evolving phenomena like dust storms and hurricanes and even brief excursions of Total Solar Irradiance. Time permitting, we will also discuss the emerging view of clear vs. cloudy and its implications for the traditional ERB approach.

Wiscombe, W.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Sampling of Trace Atmospheric Constituents Above the Surface of Mars from a Montgolfiere Balloon

We suggest that use of an aerially deployed, solar-heated balloon, or Montgolfiere, during a Martian polar summer could provide an optimal platform for atmospheric measurements near the surface. Solar Montgolfieres are empty balloons with a hole in the bottom that fill with ambient atmosphere while failing and are rapidly heated in by the sun, thus providing buoyancy. Such a balloon would be driven by the Martian winds in the constant sunlight of a high latitude entry and could provide a traverse of thousands of kilometers. It would encircle the Martian north polar region over a period,likely lasting over one earth month, and its altitude could be controlled as low as 100 meters to as high as 4000 meters above the surface. The significant payload of tens of kilograms allowed by this technology could readily accommodate the mass of instrumentation and the power source needed for a sensitive search for disequilibrium species that might provide the atmospheric signature of localized subsurface biological or geological activity. A mass spectrometer used in combination with gas enrichment techniques can provide sensitivities to sub parts per billion for several species of interest. Additional highly specific and sensitive detectors can search for other species or measurements of their mixing ratio variation along the path of the balloon. It would be useful to combine these atmospheric measurements with electromagnetic sounding to search for variations in subsurface conductivity that might indicate the presence of subsurface water. After a month of operation, the balloon could also soft land the DBMS to provide additional data on soil samples from a 1-2 meter subsurface drill. In order to float a 30-kg payload at altitudes between 100 m and 4000 m above the Martian north polar surface, an aluminized polyethylene Montgolfiere would be approximately 29 meters in diameter and have a mass of 27 kg. Altitude variations could be accomplished by means of an upper vent to release hot gas, as has been tested at JPL, or be means of a simple, internal winch mechanism to decrease the volume of the balloon. JPL has successfully deployed three polyethylene Montgolfieres at 4-6 mbar pressure in the Earth's stratosphere and will be deploying a 20-m diameter polyethylene Montgolfiere later in 2001.

Jones, Jack A.↗

NASA NTRS2005

Research Needs in Electrostatics for Lunar and Mars Space Missions

The new space exploratory vision announced by President Bush on January 14, 2004, initiated new activities at the National Science and Space Administration (NASA) for human space missions to further explore our solar system. NASA is undertaking Lunar exploration to support sustained human and robotic exploration of Mars and beyond. A series of robotic missions to the Moon by 2008 to prepare for human exploration as early as 2015 but no later than 2020 are anticipated. In a similar way, missions to the Moon and Mars are being planned in Europe, Japan and Russia. These space missions will require international participation to solve problems in a number of important technological areas where research is needed, including biomedical risk mitigation as well as life support and habitability on the surface of Mars. Mitigation of dust hazards is one of the most important problems to be resolved for both Lunar and Mars missions. Both Lunar and Martian regolith are unique materials and completely different from the terrestrial soils that we are exposed to on earth. The total absence of water and an atmosphere on the moon and the formation of soil and fine dust by micrometeorite impacts over billions of years resulted in a layer of soil with unique properties. The soil is primarily basaltic in composition with a high glass concentration. The depth of the soil layer varies from a few meters in the mare areas (dark areas on the Lunar near side) to tens of meters in the highland areas (the lighter mountainous areas) and the particle size distribution of this dust layer varies widely with a major mass fraction less than 10 micrometer in diameter. The hard soil from the moon which has been extensively studied by several researchers showed clearly unique properties of Lunar soil. Apollo astronauts became aware of the potentially serious threat to crew health and mission hardware that can be caused by the lunar dust. As reported by McKay and Carrier the mass fraction of the lunar dust with particle diameter smaller than 20p.m probably represents up to 30% of the total mass of regolith. Apollo astronaut Dr. Harrison Schmidt reported that these fine dust particles were clinging to the Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) suits and to the visors and were limiting the activity on the surface of the moon. The dust particles that were transported with the EVA suits into the lunar module floated throughout the cabin. Crews inhaled the dust particles and noted that they smelled like gun smoke, caused a chocking sensation in the throat and eye irritation. In addition,, some of the mechanical systems were not functioning well because of the dust deposition. It appeared that the dust particles are highly charged electrostatically and Dr. Schmidt noted that future successful Lunar missions will require appropriate dust mitigation technology for protecting astronauts from inhaling toxic particles and mission's life supporting equipment from contamination with the dust particles.

Calle, Carlos I.↗