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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 307 records · Page 17
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NASA NTRS2022

Systematic Detection of Anomalous Ionospheric Perturbations Above LEOs From GNSS POD Data Including Possible Tsunami Signatures

In this article, we show the capability of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) precise orbit determination (POD) low Earth orbit (LEO) data to detect anomalous ionospheric disturbances in the spectral range of the signals associated with earthquakes and tsunamis, applied to two of these events in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Solomon Islands during 2016. This is achieved thanks to the new PIES approach (POD-GNSS LEO Detrended Ionospheric Electron Content Significant Deviations). The significance of such ionospheric signals above the swarm LEOs is confirmed with different types of independent data: in situ electron density measurements provided by the Langmuir Probe (LP) onboard swarm LEOs, DORIS, and ground-based GNSS colocated measurements, as it is described in this article. In this way, we conclude the possible detection of the tsunami-related ionospheric gravity wave in PNG 2016 event, consistent with the most-recent theory, which shows that a tsunami (which is localized in space and time) excites a spectrum of gravity waves, some of which have faster horizontal phase speeds than the tsunami. We believe that this work shows as well the feasibility of a future potential monitoring system of ionospheric disturbances, to be made possible by hundreds of CubeSats with POD GNSS receivers among other appropriate sensors, and supported for real-time or near real-time confirmation and characterization by thousands of worldwide existing ground GNSS receivers.

Global Navigation Satellite System↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

3GPP Telecommunications Technology on the Moon

Under NASA’s Artemis program, NASA is planning to send astronauts back to the Moon in the next couple of years. Near term missions will be analogous but much more sophisticated versions of the last couple of Apollo missions. However, unlike Apollo, this time NASA intends to put the infrastructure in place to support long term human presence and eventual industrialization of the Moon. To make this vision a reality, NASA plans to collaborate with commercial and international partners as much as possible as opposed to developing, building, and operating equipment on its own. Lunar infrastructure will eventually be built over time by many organizations, public and private, to support sustained human exploration, science, and industrial activities. Obviously, this vision for the future will be impossible without a robust lunar communications and navigation system that can support many users with varying degrees of services. On Earth, most people are very familiar with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) 5G mobile telecommunications technology. NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation office would like to see a lunar communications and navigation network with similar capabilities to the cellular communication networks most of us enjoy today. Building such a network will require participation by many organizations. This paper will provide an overview of NASA’s interest in using 5G and beyond on the lunar surface; it will also describe current work based on 3GPP standards within NASA or funded by NASA, such as Nokia’s upcoming Tipping Point demonstration of 4G / LTE on the lunar surface.

Bernard Edwards↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Evaluating Microgreens Crop Readiness for Space Production.

Microgreens are small-size, nutrient-rich, and fast-grown crops, which are considered as candidates for future space exploration missions. In particular, the ISS, the Lunar Gateway, and Mars and Lunar missions could benefit from growing microgreens to supplement astronaut diets in the near future. Research at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center has focused on (1) the selection of microgreens compatible species, (2) the evaluation of microgreens food safety, (3) the use of passive wicking, on-demand watering, and hydroponics cultivation, (4) simulated microgravity growth, (5) microgreen canopy gas exchange, and (6) harvesting techniques in microgravity. This presentation summarizes this research. Microgreen species will be evaluated for their yield in relationship to the quantity of inputs – water, seeds, substrate, light intensity, photoperiod, crew time – required for their growth; for their organoleptic and sensory factors in order to down select species that are highly acceptable for humans; and for their microbial loads as detected in their growth environment and the food safety metrics of their edible tissue. Passive wicking, on-demand watering, and hydroponic systems are being studied as an efficient way to deliver essential nutrients and water to microgreens, included in a microgravity environment. Growth studies in simulated microgravity (using 3-dimensional clinostats) will assess microgreens growth relative to that in 1g. Gas exchange studies on microgreens canopies in various airflows will assess their photosynthesis and transpiration. Finally, a series of parabolic flights has enabled the evaluation of different harvesting and bagging techniques in microgravity. Indeed, traditional plant harvesting methods (scissors) in microgravity could generate significant microgreen debris in the space station cabin. Two innovative techniques, coupled to a dedicated bagging method, were designed and evaluated against the control, traditional, harvesting technique. This research was supported by grants from NASA KSC’s Independent Research and Technology Development Program, NASA’s Flight Opportunity Program, NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellowships (L.P. & C.J.) supported by NASA’s Space Biology program, and support from NASA’s Human Research Program.

crop↗
NASA NTRS2023

NASA's LCOT (Low-Cost Optical Terminal) FSOS (Free-Space Optical Subsystem): Concept, Design, Build, & Test

We present the status of ongoing work at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to build a prototype, low-cost-of-production, flexibly-configured ground terminal for space optical communication. For laser telecommunication to be cost effective for future missions, a wide-spread global network of operationally responsive optical terminals should be established. There has been a decades-old need for a single modular open systems approach (MOSA) ground terminal architecture capable of supporting multiple space missions ranging from LEO to Lunar distances with 2-way laser communications. At the heart of LCOT’s design concept is the Free-Space Optical Subsytem (FSOS). The major subassemblies of LCOT/FSOS that address most optical comms configurations are : (1) Single 700mm F/12 Nasmyth folded Rx R-C Telescope, (2) Four independent 150mm diameter high-power all-reflective Tx beam directors (XOA), (3) Non-coherent direct detection Rx bench on starboard side of telescope (SOB), and (4) Coherent (possibly Quantum) optical communications bench on port side (POB). The Low-Cost Optical Terminal (LCOT) research and development (R&D) prototype is designed to be a generalized system that can be quickly field-reconfigured to support a wide variety of laser communications missions past, present, & future.

COTS↗
NASA NTRS2023

Tsunami Early-Warning CubeSat Design Reference Mission (DRM)

Global constellation for near real-time detection, characterization, and warning of dangerous tsunami; detection and evaluation of large earthquakes and volcanic eruptions; and study and continuous monitoring of the ionosphere and climate change.

Tsunami, GNSS-R, CubeSats, Ionosphere, Climate Cha↗
NASA NTRS2022

Microthruster-Based Control for Precision Pointing of Next-Generation Space Telescopes

The next generation of space telescopes, such as the Habitable Exoplanet Observatory mission concept (HabEx), are expected to have milli-arcsecond-level pointing requirements at the spacecraft level. The pointing performance of such telescopes tends to be driven by internal rather than external disturbances, in particular reaction wheel jitter. This paper considers an architecture that relies on microthrusters instead of reaction wheels for spacecraft fine pointing, focusing on the HabEx mission concept as a case study. The proposed implementation uses micro-Newton-class colloidal thrusters that were tested in orbit as part of the ST7 payload on the LISA Pathfinder mission to reach Technical Readiness Level (TRL) 7. Key characteristics of these thrusters and the associated system trade-offs are first discussed. The resulting pointing control loop design is then described. Its ability to meet applicable pointing requirements is shown using three-degree-of-freedom simulations, where relevant disturbances are modelled. The control system is shown to reduce the pointing error by several orders of magnitude in about two hours, starting from coarse reaction control system (RCS) handover conditions. Once settled, the system meets the steady-state milli-arcsecond-level performance requirements with significant margin. Overall, the results show that microthruster-based pointing control architectures offer a promising alternative to traditional reaction-wheel-based designs for space telescope applications.

Ziemer, John↗
NASA NTRS2022

Juno Gravity Science: Five Years of Radio Science Operations with Ka-band Uplink

Since entering orbit on July 4, 2016, the Juno spacecraft has executed 34 closest approach passes of Jupiter, completing the prime mission. During each closest approach, called perijove, the spacecraft comes within 4,000 km of the cloud tops and the motion of the spacecraft becomes perturbed by the gravitational field of Jupiter. These small changes in the motion of the spacecraft are detected using the Juno Gravity Science Instrument by measuring the Doppler shift of the radio link between the Juno spacecraft and NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN). During a majority of these closest approach passes, the 34-meter DSS-25 antenna transmits simultaneous X-band and Ka-band uplink to the spacecraft. Juno’s onboard X-band transponder and Ka-band translator phase-coherently return the signals back to Earth for reception at the same DSS-25 antenna. The precise frequency of these signals is measured by processing open-loop recordings of the signal. These measurements, characterized by ~5-10 micron/sec accuracies (after calibration of charged particle noise and Earth troposphere), have probed the gravity field of Jupiter to unprecedented precision, allowing for discoveries of Jupiter’s core size and depth of the zonal winds. Successful operations of the instrument during perijoves requires careful planning and coordination between DSN engineers, the Juno project, and the Juno science team. This work discusses the operations of the Juno Gravity Science Instrument after five years of prime mission operations. Lessons learned are documented to be applied to future missions and the Juno extended mission. Although the Juno extended mission formally started on August 1, 2021, on June 7, 2021, the trajectory was modified with a flyby of Ganymede, the third Galilean moon of Jupiter. Gravity and radio science investigations of Jupiter and its moons will continue to play a key role in Juno’s objectives during the extended mission.

Oudrhiri, Kamal↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Bionutrients: Microbial Production of on-Demand Nutrients on the International Space Station

Providing adequate nutrition to crew members is essential as deep-space missions cannot rely on consistent Earth-based resupply. The current NASA pre-packaged food system is designed for low-earth-orbit missions with a stated shelf-life of two years and notable vitamin degradation over time. One strategy to mitigate nutrient loss is to implement bioregenerative food sources to supplement the pre-packaged food system. The BioNutrients project is designed to provide targeted production of short shelf-life nutrients in a single-use production pack. BioNutrients-1 includes two strains of edible yeast that have been genetically engineered to produce carotenoids, β-carotene, and zeaxanthin. This five-year mission on the International Space Station (ISS), launched in 2019, tests the long-term storage and nutrient production of the microorganisms of interest. Additional microorganisms are also stored in stasis packs to determine the effects of long-duration storage on the ISS. These organisms may be useful for production of fermented foods, pharmaceuticals, or biomanufacturing processes. Improving on the BioNutrients-1 project, BioNutrients-2 has optimized the production pack hardware by reducing the overall mass and volume of the system. Furthermore, BioNutrients-2 has expanded the projects scope by investigating novel products and microbial food sources. BioNutrients-2 is a six-month mission, launched in 2022, which tests production of fresh foods such as yogurt and kefir. The BioNutrients missions seek to provide advances for in-space biomanufacturing by addressing safe and reliable production of high-value nutrients and on-demand foods for future exploration efforts.

BioNutrients↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Application and use of Multi Body Dynamic Simulations for In Space Mechanisms

The Thermal and Mechanical Analysis Branch of the Space System Department (ES22) is actively growing and expanding a new mechanical analysis capability. In recent years, there has been an increase in the demand for Multi Body Dynamics (MBD) analysis to support small ESPA ring size spacecraft, cubesats, lunar surface operations and large spacecraft with complex operations or deployables. Requirements can be balanced for both needs to ensure mechanism is verified for launch. Multi-body dynamics is the study of multiple rigid or flexible bodies that are linked together or are in contact and the associated kinematics and dynamics of the system. The typical outputs include performance information, loads, and deflections of mechanical systems. They routinely support the development of robotic mechanisms, deployment mechanisms, landing simulations, control systems, and conops planning.

Multi Body Dynamics Analysis↗