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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 343 records · Page 19

STEREO Education and Public Outreach Efforts

STEREO has had a big year this year with its launch and the start of data collection. STEREO has mostly focused on informal educational venues, most notably with STEREO 3D images made available to museums through the NASA Museum Alliance. Other activities have involved making STEREO imagery available though the AMNH network and Viewspace, continued partnership with the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium, data sonification projects, preservice teacher training, and learning activity development.

Kucera, Therese↗

Shuttle Case Study Collection Website Development

As a continuation from summer 2012, the Shuttle Case Study Collection has been developed using lessons learned documented by NASA engineers, analysts, and contractors. Decades of information related to processing and launching the Space Shuttle is gathered into a single database to provide educators with an alternative means to teach real-world engineering processes. The goal is to provide additional engineering materials that enhance critical thinking, decision making, and problem solving skills. During this second phase of the project, the Shuttle Case Study Collection website was developed. Extensive HTML coding to link downloadable documents, videos, and images was required, as was training to learn NASA's Content Management System (CMS) for website design. As the final stage of the collection development, the website is designed to allow for distribution of information to the public as well as for case study report submissions from other educators online.

Ransom, Khadijah S.↗

Terra MODIS: 20 years of on-orbit calibration and performance

Since its launch in December 1999, Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) has successfully operated for more than 20 years, with its observations generating a broad range of science data products that have greatly enabled the remote sensing community and users worldwide in their studies of many key geophysical parameters of the Earth’s systems. MODIS collects data in 36 spectral bands, covering wavelengths from 0.41 to 14.4 μm, which are calibrated by a set of onboard calibrators (OBCs). Also contributing to the sensor’s mission-long on-orbit calibration and characterization are near-monthly scheduled lunar observations and multiple time series of the sensor’s responses over select ground targets at a variety of scan angles. To a large extent, the quality of MODIS data products relies strongly on the dedicated efforts to operate and calibrate the instrument, to derive and update calibration parameters, and to develop and implement new calibration strategies and algorithms in response to on-orbit changes of the sensor’s characteristics and its OBC functions. We provide an overview of the Terra MODIS on-orbit operation and calibration activities over the last 20 years, including changes made to extend and preserve the instrument and OBC functions and their operation strategies. It also illustrates the sensor’s on-orbit performance with results derived from its OBC, lunar observations, and select ground targets and discusses major changes in sensor characteristics and corrections applied to the L1B algorithms as well as calibration lookup table updates. To date, the Terra MODIS instrument and its OBCs continue to operate and function normally. Except for those identified prelaunch, most spectral bands and detectors continue to meet their specified calibration requirements. Also discussed in our paper are lessons learned from Terra MODIS operation and calibration, as well as future efforts to further extend and maintain the quality of its long-term data records.

Terra↗

Development of a machine learning model for polyethylene pyrolysis using a detailed reaction mechanism

Waste plastics have recently received significant attention as the issue of waste generation continues to increase. Thermal conversion processes, such as pyrolysis and gasification, are attractive potential technologies for utilizing waste plastics and reducing overall waste generation. Efficient utilization of plastics requires a detailed understanding of the conversion process such as pyrolysis and gasification. However, a mechanistic understanding of these processes lead to large and complex kinetic schemes that are not suited for large-scale and long-time simulation methods. Currently, most modeling approaches for pyrolysis and gasification rely on globally lumped, simplified kinetic schemes that provide results that are classified by their product type and not individual species, which limit the level of fidelity achieved via modeling. A machine learning (ML) model has been developed for the primary reactions of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) in an attempt to increase computational efficiency while still maintaining a high level of detail and accuracy. The ML model is trained on a detailed reaction mechanism containing 42 total species and 737 chemical reactions. A DeepONet branch and trunk architecture was adopted to train the model using time-steps relevant to computational fluid dynamics simulations. The ML used physics-informed loss functions to ensure mass conservation. The surrogate model has been deployed in simple MFiX CFD simulations, single particle and an experimental drop tube reactor, and has shown promising performance compared to the original scheme.

Houston, Ross↗

BioSentinel: Forging the path for Deep Space CubeSat Missions

The BioSentinel mission was launched in 2022 aboard the SLS launch vehicle as part of the Artemis-I campaign and continues mission operations into 2024. The 6U CubeSat has been characterizing deep space radiation at large distances from Earth. This presentation gives a status of the mission performance to date, as well as some of the lessons learned from project. BioSentinel has achieved unprecedented performance as an SLS secondary payload due to preparation, planning, and a robust design. Pre-launch antenna and interface testing with both DSN and ESA confirmed command and data pathways and allowed for operational flexibility in the critical early hours post-deployment. Mission Operations simulations prior to launch identified potential risks and trained operators to respond in flight, preparing the team to react quickly and successfully to detumble the spacecraft and enter a power-positive state. The spacecraft would not have survived without the inclusion of the trailblazing 3D-printed composite cold gas propulsion system. The non-standard tank geometry enabled efficient use of the limited space available in the CubeSat form factor as well as the capability to detumble the spacecraft and manage momentum for extended mission durations, while providing sufficient margin to execute potential delta-V maneuvers. Following the conclusion of the primary science mission, the Linear Energy Transfer (LET) Spectrometer has continued to collect solar and galactic radiation data from its unique location in heliocentric orbit. The free space dataset offered by the BioSentinel LET is a valuable source of data for both model validation and future mission planning. As the spacecraft travels farther from Earth it is poised to provide longitudinally distributed measurements of solar particle events during solar maximum. NASA Ames led development of the BioSentinel spacecraft to operate for long durations in deep space. The novel subsystems and COTS components that comprise the BioSentinel bus can serve as a template for future deep space missions, while the lessons the team has learned from well over a year of continuous operations will enable improved performance in the generation of deep space CubeSat missions.

BioSentinel↗

Machine Learning of Plasma Science for Next Generation Microelectronics (Project Final Report)

Low temperature plasmas (LTPs) are an enabling technology behind reducing device dimensions and the continuation of Moore’s Law. It is estimated that 40-45% of all process steps necessary to manufacture semiconductor devices involve LTPs. However, challenges in plasma process design and continuous incorporation of novel materials for new device architectures are pushing the limits of what is possible with current plasma technology. For example, creating higher aspect ratio structures and etching features at the atomic scale both require finer control of the ion energy/velocity at wafer surfaces. To support these types of future innovations in the plasma processing systems that Sandia and the DOE rely upon, we have developed novel diagnostics, simulations, and machine learning capabilities to discover, characterize, and predict plasma phenomena affecting the ion energy/velocity distribution function (IEDF). These efforts also supported research program development and external collaboration with industry and academia through Sandia’s Plasma Research Facility (PRF). This report will focus on the following topics and accomplishments of this three year LDRD project, briefly summarized.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Evolving fuzzy rules in a learning classifier system

The fuzzy classifier system (FCS) combines the ideas of fuzzy logic controllers (FLC's) and learning classifier systems (LCS's). It brings together the expressive powers of fuzzy logic as it has been applied in fuzzy controllers to express relations between continuous variables, and the ability of LCS's to evolve co-adapted sets of rules. The goal of the FCS is to develop a rule-based system capable of learning in a reinforcement regime, and that can potentially be used for process control.

Valenzuela-Rendon, Manuel↗

Lessons Learned During Instrument Testing for the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS)

The Themal InfraRed Sensor (TIRS) instrument, set to launch on the Landsat Data Continuity Mission in 2013, features a passively cooled telescope and IR detectors which are actively cooled by a two stage cryocooler. In order to proceed to the instrument level test campaign, at least one full functional test was required, necessitating a thermal vacuum test to sufficiently cool the detectors and demonstrate performance. This was fairly unique in that this test occurred before the Pre Environmental Review, but yielded significant knowledge gains before the planned instrument level test. During the pre-PER test, numerous discrepancies were found between the model and the actual hardware, which were revealed by poor correlation between model predictions and test data. With the inclusion of pseudo-balance points, the test also provided an opportunity to perform a pre-correlation to test data prior to the instrument level test campaign. Various lessons were learned during this test related to modeling and design of both the flight hardware and the Ground Support Equipment and test setup. The lessons learned in the pre-PER test resulted in a better test setup for the nstrument level test and the completion of the final instrument model correlation in a shorter period of time. Upon completion of the correlation, the flight predictions were generated including the full suite of off-nominal cases, including some new cases defined by the spacecraft. For some of these ·new cases, some components now revealed limit exceedances, in particular for a portion of the hardware that could not be tested due to its size and chamber limitations.. Further lessons were learned during the completion of flight predictions. With a correlated detalled instrument model, significant efforts were made to generate a reduced model suitable for observatory level analyses. This proved a major effort both to generate an appropriate network as well as to convert to the final model to the required format and yielded additional lessons learned. In spite of all the challenges encountered by TIRS, the instrument was successfully delivered to the spacecraft and will soon be tested at observatory level in preparation for a successful mission launch.

Peabody, Hume L.↗

S AP F LOWER : an automated tool for sap flow data preprocessing, gap-filling, and analysis using deep learning

Sap flow, a critical process in plant water use and ecosystem water cycles, is often measured using thermal dissipation probes (TDP) due to their ease of installation and continuous data collection. However, sap flow data frequently include noise, outliers, and gaps, creating challenges for analysis and requiring substantial manual processing. We developed S AP F LOWER , a tool that automates data preprocessing, model training, gap-filling, sapwood area scaling and modeling, and water use analysis. It integrates autocleaning, machine learning and deep learning models (e.g. random forest, Gaussian process regression, long short-term memory (LSTM), bidirectional LSTM (BiLSTM)), and efficient workflows to process sap flow data. S AP F LOWER can remove over 90% of noisy data while preserving legitimate variations and achieve high accuracy in gap-filling based on user-determined parameters. Random forest, LSTM, and BiLSTM models reduced root mean square error to 10% or less for long-term gaps. Model training and prediction can be performed efficiently within seconds. S AP F LOWER significantly enhances the efficiency and accessibility of TDP data analysis by automating complex tasks, enabling researchers without programming expertise to employ advanced techniques. Future improvements will focus on species-specific corrections for TDP and support for additional measurement methods. S AP F LOWER is openly available on GitHub (https://github.com/JiaxinWang123/SapFlower) and Zenodo (doi: 10.5281/zenodo.13665919).

ecosystem water balance↗

SSTDR and FDR Detection of Un-Energized and Energized Cable Anomalies Including Thermal Degradation Using Machine Learning

Historically, cables are initially qualified for nuclear power plant use for 40 years. As plants extend their operating license to 60 and 80 years, continued use of these cables must shift to a performance-based approach since it is cost prohibitive to completely replace cables that are likely still capable of performing their design function. A variety of cable tests are available and are commonly applied during outages when the cables can be taken out of service. Frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) is one of these test methods that is being more broadly accepted and used because it not only detects anomalies along the cable with a low-voltage signal that does not stress the cable insulation, but the technique also locates the anomalies. This supports follow-up local inspection and local repair or partial replacement of a damaged cable segment. Currently, FDR testing is only applied to cables that are taken out of service since the test instrument would be damaged by operational voltages. A related technology that has found some acceptance in the aircraft and rail industry is spread spectrum time domain reflectometry (SSTDR). This technology has been implemented with a custom commercial instrument by LiveWire Innovation that is designed to operate on live cables up to 1000 volts and with a bandwidth of 48 MHz. Initial evaluation by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) of the Live Wire system indicated that a broader bandwidth (BW) SSTDR may be better for many kinds of flaws. This led PNNL to develop an SSTDR laboratory instrument suitable for tests up to 500 MHz bandwidth. Testing on energized cables is also desirable for online monitoring systems so an inductive clamshell coupler was developed that allows energized cables to be tested up to at least 5 kV and likely higher voltage levels. Dielectric spectroscopy and tan delta testing plus various laboratory destructive tests were included in this data acquisition campaign directed to feed a machine learning (ML) study. With these kinds of developments, online energized cable tests may be possible with industrial adoption of such hardware advances but it will be completely impractical to have highly skilled data analysts continually examine these complex signals for indications of damage or compromised conditions. If online testing is to be implemented in new test hardware, it must be accompanied by software that can interpret the signals and alert plant operators of changing or degraded conditions. The thermally aged, shielded cable investigated here was separately treated for ML analysis. Visual analysis of electrical data showed generally increasing peaks where the cable entered and exited the oven. These peaks were not exactly aligned with expected locations, but these differences were attributed to velocity of propagation calibration errors. Only supervised ML was applied to the thermally aged data as this data was only available shortly before the committed publication date of this report. The supervised ML was structured to divide the 0 to 70-day responses as ‘normal’ from 0 to 35 days or ‘anomalous’ from 36 to 70 days, based on cable tensile elongation at break (EAB) insulation characterization. Using 80% of the data for training and 20% for testing, the supervised ML predicted normal versus anomalous was 70% accurate. Important conclusions include: • Accuracy to predict the presence of cable damage is improved from the 2023 effort by more training data. Weighted accuracies for comparisons among the instruments ranged from 67 to 89 % for unsupervised ML and 71 to 99% for supervised ML. • Based on the synthetic data tests, the unsupervised models are more generalizable to unseen anomalies. The Multi-Layer Perceptron classifier (MLP) model reported as high as 99.7% accuracy on the test data, but this dropped to 58.3% when tested on the synthetic data. In contrast, the unsupervised Pointwise model only achieved 89.7% accuracy on the experimental data but reported 78.3% accuracy on the synthetic data. • The best anomaly indicators are higher frequency (400 MHz BW) FDR data. Other tests may be interesting but for this study, this was the best predicter.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Graph Representation Learning for Dengue Forecasting

In 2017, the largest recorded dengue outbreak in Sri Lanka’s history occurred. Since then, dengue has continued to threaten national health across Sri Lanka. The development of an effective Early Warning System (EWS) for dengue outbreaks is essential for Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health to take preventative measures. We propose the use of Graph Neural Networks as EWS. Using earth observational data from NASAs global satellites and dengue incidence data from Sri Lanka s Ministry of Health, we developed a series of traditional and graph representation EWS to forecast Dengue cases across Sri Lanka’s 25 districts between 2013 and 2022. We demonstrate empirically that Graph Neural Networks which incorporate spatiotemporal relations significantly outperform traditional EWS such as Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA), Random Forest, and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM). Our source code is available on GitHub and will be provided in the final submission.

Graph Neural Networks↗

EdgeCortix SAKURA-I Machine-Learning, PCIe Accelerator SEE Heavy Ion Test Report

To enable autonomy in space, machine-learning and computer vision applications become invaluable for sensor processing. However, these algorithms are computationally complex and unfeasible for many embedded central processing units (CPUs) and usually require external coprocessors, such as graphics processing units (GPUs) or accelerators specific to the application, including application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). In power-constrained systems, GPUs tend to consume more power than is acceptable (>40W), so lower-power accelerators have shown promise to provide the performance needed under spacecraft constraints. For radiation engineers, developing methodologies that can properly test CPUs, GPUs, and accelerators, and enable comparisons between them remains a necessary complication to solve as the devices become more complex. The methodology in this test aims to be a start in developing a baseline single-event effect (SEE) test for client-device machine learning accelerators. This category of devices do not host their own operating system. This testing campaign is a continuation of a previous 200 MeV proton test performed in January 2024. This report covers two heavy ion tests of the SAKURA-I card: one in April 2024, and one in June 2024. Additional data was needed after the April test due to ion-range issues experienced at higher linear-energy transfers (LETs). These range issues are described in more detail in Section 8. This experiment characterizes SEEs and data error susceptibility of the EdgeCortix SAKURA-I machine-learning accelerator under heavy ions. The device was monitored for single event upsets (SEUs) and single event functional interrupts (SEFIs) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 88-inch cyclotron. The SAKURA-I board accelerates machine-learning inference applications on a host computer through a PCIex16 connection. For the purposes of devising an end to end automated analysis workflow for this experiment, the YOLO-V5 and SSD300 objection-detection models, and the ResNet-50, EfficientNet, and MobileNetV2 image classification models were used as a representative suite of analytical machine-learning models.

Seth S Roffe↗

AIVT: Inference of turbulent thermal convection from measured 3D velocity data by physics-informed Kolmogorov-Arnold networks

We propose the artificial intelligence velocimetry-thermometry (AIVT) method to reconstruct a continuous and differentiable representation of the temperature and velocity in turbulent convection from measured three-dimensional (3D) velocity data. AIVT is based on physics-informed Kolmogorov-Arnold networks and trained by optimizing a loss function that minimizes residuals of the velocity data, boundary conditions, and governing equations. We apply AIVT to a set of simultaneously measured 3D temperature and velocity data of Rayleigh-Bénard convection, obtained by combining particle image thermometry and Lagrangian particle tracking. This enables us to directly compare machine learning results to true volumetric, simultaneous temperature and velocity measurements. We demonstrate that AIVT can reconstruct and infer continuous, instantaneous velocity and temperature fields and their gradients from sparse experimental data at a high resolution, providing an additional approach for understanding thermal turbulence.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗

The Galaxy platform for accessible, reproducible, and collaborative data analyses: 2024 update

Galaxy (https://galaxyproject.org) is deployed globally, predominantly through free-to-use services, supporting user-driven research that broadens in scope each year. Users are attracted to public Galaxy services by platform stability, tool and reference dataset diversity, training, support and integration, which enables complex, reproducible, shareable data analysis. Applying the principles of user experience design (UXD), has driven improvements in accessibility, tool discoverability through Galaxy Labs/subdomains, and a redesigned Galaxy ToolShed. Galaxy tool capabilities are progressing in two strategic directions: integrating general purpose graphical processing units (GPGPU) access for cutting-edge methods, and licensed tool support. Engagement with global research consortia is being increased by developing more workflows in Galaxy and by resourcing the public Galaxy services to run them. The Galaxy Training Network (GTN) portfolio has grown in both size, and accessibility, through learning paths and direct integration with Galaxy tools that feature in training courses. Code development continues in line with the Galaxy Project roadmap, with improvements to job scheduling and the user interface. Environmental impact assessment is also helping engage users and developers, reminding them of their role in sustainability, by displaying estimated CO 2 emissions generated by each Galaxy job.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Discovery of Probabilistic Dirichlet-to-Neumann Maps on Graphs

Dirichlet-to-Neumann maps enable the coupling of multiphysics simulations across computational subdomains by ensuring continuity of state variables and fluxes at artificial interfaces. We present a novel method for learning Dirichlet-to-Neumann maps on graphs using Gaussian processes, specifically for problems where the data obey a conservation law arising from an underlying partial differential equation. Our approach combines discrete exterior calculus and nonlinear optimal recovery to infer relationships between vertex and edge values. This framework yields data-driven predictions with uncertainty quantification across the entire graph, even when observations are limited to a subset of vertices and edges. By minimizing the reproducing kernel Hilbert space norm while penalizing kernel complexity through maximum likelihood estimation, our method ensures that the resulting surrogate strictly enforces conservation laws without overfitting. We demonstrate our method on two representative applications: subsurface flow in fracture networks and arterial blood flow. Finally, the results demonstrate that the method maintains high accuracy and well-calibrated uncertainty estimates even under severe data scarcity, highlighting its potential for scientific applications where limited data and reliable uncertainty quantification are critical.

Dirichlet-to-Neumann map↗

Lessons from Testing the First Three US HL-LHC Cryo-Assemblies at FNAL

The US High-Luminosity LHC Accelerator Upgrade Project (AUP) collaborates with CERN to deliver 10 cryo-assemblies for the High-Luminosity LHC upgrade at CERN. Those comprise the Q1/Q3 quadrupole optical elements in the accelerator and are based on Nb3Sn technology, for the first time in a large particle accelerator. So far three cryo-assemblies were tested at the Fermilab’s horizontal magnet test facility, specifically redesigned to serve those needs. This work gives an overview of the facility and its necessary evolution as the campaign progressed; main results and observations from the cryo-assembly tests are presented and discussed in the context of overall performance and expectations toward the completion of efforts. Lessons learned after multiple cryo-assembly tests by the same team are critical to ensure continuous success of the whole enterprise – those are openly shared.

Stoynev, Stoyan [Fermilab]↗

Learning from Inconsistency

This position paper argues that inconsistencies that occur during the development of a software specification offer an excellent way of learning more about the development process. We base this argument on our work on inconsistency management. Much attention has been devoted recently to the need to allow inconsistencies to occur during software development, to facilitate flexible development strategies, especially for collaborative work. Recent work has concentrated on reasoning in the presence of inconsistency, tracing inconsistencies with 'pollution markers' and supporting resolution. We argue here that one of the most important aspects of inconsistency is the learning opportunity it provides. We are therefore concerned with how to capture this learning outcome so that its significance is not lost. We present a small example of how apprentice software engineers learn from their mistakes, and outline how an inconsistency management tool could support this learning. We then argue that the approach can be used more generally as part of continuous process improvement.

Easterbrook, Steve↗

SONEX: NASA SASS Ozone and Nitrogen Oxide Experiment

This final report follows closely on our 1998 Annual Progress Report which was forwarded to NASA on November 19, 1998. Rather than reiterate the material therein we note here the continuation of the various items covered. SONEX has proN,Ided a number of opportunities to learn more about the fine-scale structure of the atmosphere. Coupled with the MOZAIC work on layers we can synthesize a new 3-D view of the fine scales that influence atmospheric chemistry. As a side issue we are also relating the features to clear air turbulence which would be, we think, a useful connection for commercial aviation.

Newell, Reginald E.↗