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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 NTRS2008

Integrated Docking Simulation and Testing with the Johnson Space Center Six-Degree of Freedom Dynamic Test System

The Exploration Systems Architecture defines missions that require rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking (RPOD) of two spacecraft both in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and in Low Lunar Orbit (LLO). Uncrewed spacecraft must perform automated and/or autonomous rendezvous, proximity operations and docking operations (commonly known as Automated Rendezvous and Docking, AR&D). The crewed versions may also perform AR&D, possibly with a different level of automation and/or autonomy, and must also provide the crew with relative navigation information for manual piloting. The capabilities of the RPOD sensors are critical to the success of the Constellation Program; this is carried as one of the CEV Project top risks. The Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP) AR&D Sensor Technology Project seeks to reduce this risk by increasing technology maturation of selected relative navigation sensor technologies through testing and simulation. One of the project activities is a series of "pathfinder" testing and simulation activities to integrate relative navigation sensors with the Johnson Space Center Six-Degree-of-Freedom Test System (SDTS). The SDTS will be the primary testing location for the Orion spacecraft s Low Impact Docking System (LIDS). Project team members have integrated the Orion simulation with the SDTS computer system so that real-time closed loop testing can be performed with relative navigation sensors and the docking system in the loop during docking and undocking scenarios. Two relative navigation sensors are being used as part of a "pathfinder" activity in order to pave the way for future testing with the actual Orion sensors. This paper describes the test configuration and test results.

Mitchell, Jennifer D.↗
NASA NTRS2008

In-situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) to Support the Lunar Outpost and the Rationale for Precursor Missions

One of the ways that the Constellation Program can differ from Apollo is to employ a live-off-the-land or In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) supported architecture. The options considered over the past decades for using indigenous materials have varied considerably in terms of what resources to attempt to acquire, how much to acquire, and what the motivations are to acquiring these resources. The latest NASA concepts for supporting the lunar outpost have considered many of these plans and compared these options to customers requirements and desires. Depending on the architecture employed, ISRU technologies can make a significant contribution towards a sustainable and affordable lunar outpost. While extensive ground testing will reduce some mission risk, one or more flight demonstrations prior to the first crew's arrival will build confidence and increase the chance that outpost architects will include ISRU as part of the early outpost architecture. This presentation includes some of the options for using ISRU that are under consideration for the lunar outpost, the precursor missions that would support these applications, and a notional timeline to allow the lessons learned from the precursor missions to support outpost hardware designs.

Simon, Thomas M.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Effects of Varying Surface Inclines and Suit Pressure: Implications on Space Suit Design

Suited human performance studies in reduced gravity environments to date include limited observations from Apollo Lunar surface Extravehicular Activities (EVA) and from previous studies conducted in partial gravity simulation environments. The Constellation Program EVA Systems Project office has initiated tests to develop design requirements for the next generation Lunar EVA suit. Theses studies were conducted in the Space Vehicle Mock-Up Facility (SVMF) at Johnson Space Center from which the results provided recommendations for suit weight, mass, center of gravity, pressure, and suit kinematic constraints that optimize human performance in partial gravity environments.

Clowers, Kurt↗
NASA NTRS2008

Lunar Outpost Life Support Trade Studies

Engineering trade-off studies of life support system architecture and technology options were conducted for potential lunar surface mission scenarios within NASA's Constellation Program. The scenarios investigated are based largely on results of the NASA Lunar Architecture Team (LAT) Phase II study. In particular, the possibility of Hosted Sortie missions, the high cost of power during eclipse periods, and the potential to reduce life support consumables through scavenging, in-situ resources, and alternative EVA technologies were all examined. These trade studies were performed within the Systems Integration, Modeling and Analysis (SIMA) element of NASA's Exploration Life Support (ELS) technology development project. The tools and methodology used in the study are described briefly, followed by a discussion of mission scenarios, life support technology options and results presented in terms of equivalent system mass for various regenerative life support technologies and architectures. Three classes of repeated or extended lunar surface missions were investigated in this study along with several life support resource scenarios for each mission class. Individual mission durations of 14 days, 90 days and 180 days were considered with 10 missions assumed for each at a rate of 2 missions per year. The 14-day missions represent a class of Hosted Sortie missions where a pre-deployed and potentially mobile habitat provides life support for multiple crews at one or more locations. The 90-day and 180-day missions represent lunar outpost expeditions with a larger fixed habitat. The 180-day missions assume continuous human presence and must provide life support through eclipse periods of up to 122 hours while the 90-day missions are planned for best-case periods of nearly continuous sunlight. This paper investigates system optimization within the assumptions of each scenario and addresses how the scenario selected drives the life support system to different designs. Subsequently, these analysis results can be used to determine which technologies may be good choices throughout a broad range of architectures.

Lange, Kevin E.↗
NASA NTRS2008

The Development of the Ares I-X Flight Test

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Constellation Program (CxP) has identified a series of tests to provide insight into the design and development of the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV) and the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV). Ares I-X was created as the first suborbital development flight test to help meet CxP objectives. The Ares I-X flight vehicle is an early operational model of Ares, with specific emphasis on Ares I and ground operation characteristics necessary to meet Ares I-X flight test objectives. Ares I-X will encompass the design and construction of an entire system that includes the Flight Test Vehicle (FTV) and associated operations. The FTV will be a test model based on the Ares I design. Select design features will be incorporated in the FTV design to emulate the operation of the CLV in order to meet the flight test objectives. The operations infrastructure and processes will be customized for Ares I-X, while still providing data to inform the developers of the launch processing system for Ares/Orion. The FTV is comprised of multiple elements and components that will be developed at different locations. The components will be delivered to the launch/assembly site, Kennedy Space Center (KSC), for assembly of the elements and components into an integrated, flight-ready, launch vehicle. The FTV will fly a prescribed trajectory in order to obtain the necessary data to meet the objectives. Ares I-X will not be commanded or controlled from the ground during flight, but the FTV will be equipped with telemetry systems, a data recording capability and a flight termination system (FTS). The in-flight part of the test includes a trajectory to simulate maximum dynamic pressure during flight and perform a stage separation representative of the CLV. The in-flight test also includes separation of the Upper Stage Simulator (USS) from the First Stage and recovery of the First Stage. The data retrieved from the flight test will be analyzed and used in the design and development of the Ares I vehicle. This paper will discuss the challenges in developing a new launch vehicle in a very short timeframe. The duration from formal Authority to Proceed to launch is 32 months with launch scheduled for April, 2009. The discussion will include changes to organizational structure, system engineering approaches, and early lessons learned for a fast tracked and highly visible project.

Ess, Robert H.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Computational Plume Modeling of COnceptual ARES Vehicle Stage Tests

The plume-induced environment of a conceptual ARES V vehicle stage test at the NASA Stennis Space Center (NASA-SSC) was modeled using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). A full-scale multi-element grid was generated for the NASA-SSC B-2 test stand with the ARES V stage being located in a proposed off-center forward position. The plume produced by the ARES V main power plant (cluster of five RS-68 LOX/LH2 engines) was simulated using a multi-element flow solver - CRUNCH. The primary objective of this work was to obtain a fundamental understanding of the ARES V plume and its impingement characteristics on the B-2 flame-deflector. The location, size and shape of the impingement region were quantified along with the un-cooled deflector wall pressures, temperatures and incident heating rates. Issues with the proposed tests were identified and several of these addressed using the CFD methodology. The final results of this modeling effort will provide useful data and boundary conditions in upcoming engineering studies that are directed towards determining the required facility modifications for ensuring safe and reliable stage testing in support of the Constellation Program.

Allgood, Daniel C.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Life Support Systems for Lunar Landers

Engineers designing life support systems for NASA s next Lunar Landers face unique challenges. As with any vehicle that enables human spaceflight, the needs of the crew drive most of the lander requirements. The lander is also a key element of the architecture NASA will implement in the Constellation program. Many requirements, constraints, or optimization goals will be driven by interfaces with other projects, like the Crew Exploration Vehicle, the Lunar Surface Systems, and the Extravehicular Activity project. Other challenges in the life support system will be driven by the unique location of the vehicle in the environments encountered throughout the mission. This paper examines several topics that may be major design drivers for the lunar lander life support system. There are several functional requirements for the lander that may be different from previous vehicles or programs and recent experience. Some of the requirements or design drivers will change depending on the overall Lander configuration. While the configuration for a lander design is not fixed, designers can examine how these issues would impact their design and be prepared for the quick design iterations required to optimize a spacecraft.

Anderson, Molly↗
NASA NTRS2008

Environment Challenges for Exploration of the Moon

NASA's Constellation Program is designing a new generation of human rated launch and space transportation vehicles to first replace the Space Shuttle fleet, then support develop of a permanent human habitat on the Moon, and ultimately prepare for human exploration of Mars. The ambitious first step beyond low Earth orbit is to develop the infrastructure required for conducting missions to a variety of locations on the lunar surface for periods of a week and establishment of a permanent settlement at one of the lunar poles where crews will serve for periods on the order of approx.200 days. We present an overview of the most challenging aspects of the lunar environment that will need to be addressed when developing transport and habitat infrastructure for long term human presence on the Moon including low temperatures and dusty regolith surfaces, radiation environments due to galactic cosmic rays and solar energetic particles, charging of lunar infrastructure when exposed to lunar plasma environments, and secondary meteor environments generated by primary impacts on the lunar surface.

Minow, Joseph I.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Technical Excellence: A Requirement for Good Engineering

Technical excellence is a requirement for good engineering. Technical excellence has many different ways of expressing itself within engineering. NASA has initiatives that address the enhancement of the Agency's technical excellence and thrust to maintain the associated high level of performance by the Agency on current programs/projects and as it moves into the Constellation Program and the return to the Moon with plans to visit Mars. This paper addresses some of the key initiatives associated with NASA's technical excellence thrust. Examples are provided to illustrate some results being achieved and plans to enhance these initiatives.

Gill, Paul S.↗
NASA NTRS2008

High-Performance, Radiation-Hardened Electronics for Space and Lunar Environments

The Radiation Hardened Electronics for Space Environments (RHESE) project develops advanced technologies needed for high performance electronic devices that will be capable of operating within the demanding radiation and thermal extremes of the space, lunar, and Martian environment. The technologies developed under this project enhance and enable avionics within multiple mission elements of NASA's Vision for Space Exploration. including the Constellation program's Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. the Lunar Lander project, Lunar Outpost elements, and Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) elements. This paper provides an overview of the RHESE project and its multiple task tasks, their technical approaches, and their targeted benefits as applied to NASA missions.

Keys, Andrew S.↗
NASA NTRS2007

CEV Trajectory Design Considerations for Lunar Missions

The Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) translational maneuver Delta-V budget must support both the successful completion of a nominal lunar mission and an "anytime" emergency crew return with the potential for much more demanding orbital maneuvers. This translational Delta-V budget accounts for Earth-based LEO rendezvous with the lunar surface access module (LSAM)/Earth departure stage (EDS) stack, orbit maintenance during the lunar surface stay, an on-orbit plane change to align the CEV orbit for an in-plane LSAM ascent, and the Moon-to-Earth trans-Earth injection (TEI) maneuver sequence as well as post-TEI TCMs. Additionally, the CEV will have to execute TEI maneuver sequences while observing Earth atmospheric entry interface objectives for lunar high-latitude to equatorial sortie missions as well as near-polar sortie and long duration missions. The combination of these objectives places a premium on appropriately designed trajectories both to and from the Moon to accurately size the translational V and associated propellant mass in the CEV reference configuration and to demonstrate the feasibility of anytime Earth return for all lunar missions. This report examines the design of the primary CEV translational maneuvers (or maneuver sequences) including associated mission design philosophy, associated assumptions, and methodology for lunar sortie missions with up to a 7-day surface stay and with global lunar landing site access as well as for long duration (outpost) missions with up to a 210-day surface stay at or near the polar regions. The analyses presented in this report supports the Constellation Program and CEV project requirement for nominal and anytime abort (early return) by providing for minimum wedge angles, lunar orbit maintenance maneuvers, phasing orbit inclination changes, and lunar departure maneuvers for a CEV supporting an LSAM launch and subsequent CEV TEI to Earth return, anytime during the lunar surface stay.

Condon, Gerald L.↗
NASA NTRS2007

The Next Giant Leap: NASA's Ares Launch Vehicles Overview

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s Constellation Program is developing new launch vehicles (Ares) and spacecraft (Orion) to send astronauts to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. This paper presents plans, projections, and progress toward fielding the Ares I and Ares V vehicles, and the Ares I-X test flight in 2009. NASA is building on both new research and aeronautical capabilities, as well as lessons learned from almost 50 years of aerospace experience. The Ares Projects Office (APO) completed the Ares I System Requirements Review (SRR) in 2006 and the System Definition Review in autumn 2007; and will focus on the Preliminary Design Review in 2008. Ares I is currently being refined to meet safety, operability, reliability, and affordability goals. The Ares team is simultaneously testing Ares I elements and building hardware for Ares I-X, while the Ares V is in the early design stage, with the team validating requirements and ensuring commonality with Ares I. Ares I and V are key to opening the space frontier for peaceful endeavors.

Cook, Stephen A.↗
NASA NTRS2008

GRCop-84 Rolling Parameter Study

This report is a section of the final report on the GRCop-84 task of the Constellation Program and incorporates the results obtained between October 2000 and September 2005, when the program ended. NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has developed a new copper alloy, GRCop-84 (Cu-8 at.% Cr-4 at.% Nb), for rocket engine main combustion chamber components that will improve rocket engine life and performance. This work examines the sensitivity of GRCop-84 mechanical properties to rolling parameters as a means to better define rolling parameters for commercial warm rolling. Experiment variables studied were total reduction, rolling temperature, rolling speed, and post rolling annealing heat treatment. The responses were tensile properties measured at 23 and 500 C, hardness, and creep at three stress-temperature combinations. Understanding these relationships will better define boundaries for a robust commercial warm rolling process. The four processing parameters were varied within limits consistent with typical commercial production processes. Testing revealed that the rolling-related variables selected have a minimal influence on tensile, hardness, and creep properties over the range of values tested. Annealing had the expected result of lowering room temperature hardness and strength while increasing room temperature elongations with 600 C (1112 F) having the most effect. These results indicate that the process conditions to warm roll plate and sheet for these variables can range over wide levels without negatively impacting mechanical properties. Incorporating broader process ranges in future rolling campaigns should lower commercial rolling costs through increased productivity.

Loewenthal, William S.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Ares Integrated Vehicle System Safety Team

NASA is working on the Constellation Program to go to the Moon and beyond. The Program contains a number of projects: a) The Ares I Launch Vehicle for the Orion Crew Module; b) The Ares V Launch Vehicle to launch large payloads into orbit, including the Earth Departure Stage (EDS); d) The Orion vehicle to transport the crew to orbit and to other destinations; and d - The Altair Lunar Lander

Wetherholt, Jon↗
NASA NTRS2008

An Alternative Method Of Specifying Shock Test Criteria

Shock testing of aerospace vehicle hardware has presented many challenges over the years due to the high magnitude and short duration of the specifications. Recently, component structural failures have occurred during testing that have not manifested themselves on over 200 Space Shuttle solid rocket booster (SRB) flights (two boosters per flight). It is suspected that the method of specifying shock test criteria may be leaving important information out of the test process. The traditional test criteria specification, the shock response spectrum, can be duplicated by any number of waveforms that may not resemble the actual flight test recorded time history. One method of overcoming this limitation is described herein, which may prove useful for qualifying hardware for the upcoming Constellation Program.

Ferebee, R. C.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Developments in Test Facility and Data Networking for the Altitude Test Stand at the John C. Stennis Space Center, MS - A General Overview

May 2007, NASA's Constellation Program selected John C Stennis Space Center (SSC) near Waveland Mississippi as the site to construct an altitude test facility for the developmental and qualification testing of the Ares1 upper stage (US) engine. Test requirements born out of the Ares1 US propulsion system design necessitate exceptional Data Acquisition System (DAS) design solutions that support facility and propellant systems conditioning, test operations control and test data analysis. This paper reviews the new A3 Altitude Test Facility's DAS design requirements for real-time deterministic digital data, DAS technology enhancements, system trades, technology validation activities, and the current status of this system's new architecture. Also to be discussed will be current network technologies to improve data transfer.

Hebert, Phillip W., Sr.↗
NASA NTRS2008

From Concept to Design: Progress on the J-2X Upper Stage Engine for the Ares Launch Vehicles

In accordance with national policy and NASA's Global Exploration Strategy, the Ares Projects Office is embarking on development of a new launch vehicle fleet to fulfill the national goals of replacing the space shuttle fleet, returning to the moon, and exploring farther destinations like Mars. These goals are shaped by the decision to retire the shuttle fleet by 2010, budgetary constraints, and the requirement to create a new fleet that is safer, more reliable, operationally more efficient than the shuttle fleet, and capable of supporting long-range exploration goals. The present architecture for the Constellation Program is the result of extensive trades during the Exploration Systems Architecture Study and subsequent refinement by the Ares Projects Office at Marshall Space Flight Center.

Byrd, Thomas↗
NASA NTRS2008

Evolution and Reengineering of NASA's Flight Dynamics Facility (FDF)

The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Flight Dynamics Facility (FDF) is a multimission support facility that performs ground navigation and spacecraft trajectory design services for a wide range of scientific satellites. The FDF also supports the NASA Space Network by providing orbit determination and tracking data evaluation services for the Tracking Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). The FDF traces its history to early NASA missions in the 1960's, including navigation support to the Apollo lunar missions. Over its 40 year history, the FDF has undergone many changes in its architecture, services offered, missions supported, management approach, and business operation. As a fully reimbursable facility (users now pay 100% of all costs for FDF operations and sustaining engineering activities), the FDF has faced significant challenges in recent years in providing mission critical products and services at minimal cost while defining and implementing upgrades necessary to meet future mission demands. This paper traces the history of the FDF and discusses significant events in the past that impacted the FDF infrastructure and/or business model, and the events today that are shaping the plans for the FDF in the next decade. Today's drivers for change include new mission requirements, the availability of new technology for spacecraft navigation, and continued pressures for cost reduction from FDF users. Recently, the FDF completed an architecture study based on these drivers that defines significant changes planned for the facility. This paper discusses the results of this study and a proposed implementation plan. As a case study in how flight dynamics operations have evolved and will continue to evolve, this paper focuses on two periods of time (1992 and the present) in order to contrast the dramatic changes that have taken place in the FDF. This paper offers observations and plans for the evolution of the FDF over the next ten years. Finally, this paper defines the mission model of the future for the FDF based on NASA's current mission list and planning for the Constellation Program. As part of this discussion the following are addressed: the relevance and benefits of a multi-mission facility for NASA's navigation operations in the future; anticipated technologies affecting ground orbit determination; continued incorporation of Commercial Off-the-shelf (COTS) software into the FDF; challenges of a business model that relies entirely on user fees to fund facility upgrades; anticipated changes in flight dynamics services required; and considerations for defining architecture upgrades given a set of cost drivers.

Stengle, Thomas↗