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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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29 records · Page 2

Comparison of Space Radiation GCR Models to Recent AMS Data

This paper is the third in a series of comparisons of American (NASA) and Russian (ROSCOSMOS) space radiation calculations. The present work focuses on calculation of fluxes of galactic cosmic rays (GCR), which are a constant source of radiation that constitutes one of the major hazards during deep space exploration missions for both astronauts/cosmonauts and hardware. In this work, commonly used GCR models are compared with recently published measurements of cosmic ray Hydrogen, Helium, and the Boron-to-Carbon ratio from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). All of the models were developed and calibrated prior to the publication of the AMS data, therefore this an opportunity to validate the models against an independent data set.

John W. Norbury↗

Ion Trap Mass Spectrometers for Identity, Abundance and Behavior of Volatiles on the Moon

NASA GSFC and The Open University (UK) are collaborating to deploy an Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer on the Moon to investigate the lunar water cycle. The ITMS is flight-proven throughthe Rosetta Philae comet lander mission. It is also being developed under ESA funding to analyse samples drilled from beneath the lunar surface on the Roscosmos Luna-27 lander (2025).Now, GSFC and OU will now develop a compact ITMS instrument to study the near-surface lunar exosphere on board a CLPS Astrobotic lander at Lacus Mortis in 2021.

Barber, S. J.↗

No detection of methane on Mars from early ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter observations

The detection of methane on Mars has been interpreted as indicating that geochemical or biotic activities could persist on Mars today. A number of different measurements of methane show evidence of transient, locally elevated methane concentrations and seasonal variations in background methane concentrations. These measurements, however, are difficult to reconcile with our current understanding of the chemistry and physics of the Martian atmosphere, which—given methane’s lifetime of several centuries—predicts an even, well mixed distribution of methane. Here we report highly sensitive measurements of the atmosphere of Mars in an attempt to detect methane, using the ACS and NOMAD instruments onboard the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter from April to August 2018. We did not detect any methane over a range of latitudes in both hemispheres, obtaining an upper limit for methane of about 0.05 parts per billion by volume, which is 10 to 100 times lower than previously reported positive detections. We suggest that reconciliation between the present findings and the background methane concentrations found in the Gale crater would require an unknown process that can rapidly remove or sequester methane from the lower atmosphere before it spreads globally.

Michael Doyle Smith↗

Communications with Curiosity during solar conjunction

This study examines the methodology for operating and communicating with NASA's Curiosity Rover (MSL) during the 2019 solar conjunction. For MSL, solar conjunction occurs when the viewing angle between the Sun and Mars from Earth's perspective falls below 3 degrees, which occurs roughly every two Earth years and lasts for about two weeks. This presents a challenge for engineers operating a vehicle on Mars because the degraded signal to noise ratio disrupts data flow between Earth and the spacecraft. As a result, operators designate a command moratorium in which no commands are sent to the rover and instead design long-term plans that are uplinked weeks in advance (rather than the nominal case of daily uplinks). Coordinating communications with the rover leading up to and following conjunction requires negotiations with several orbiters, another lander, and the Deep Space Network (DSN) each with their own set of constraints. It is the Strategic Comm Planning T coordination, which acts as a baseline for the conjunction Comm team faced additional complications such as the arrival of two new spacecraft at Mars - Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO).

Laubach, Sharon↗

A Process Model of Interpersonal Relationship Formation in Isolated and Confined Environments

Future space crews will face several challenges such as living and working in a confined environment, isolated from others. These circumstances increase the importance of interpersonal compatibility, teamwork, and team performance. The interpersonal compatibility of space crews has been and continues to be of interest to both NASA and the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP), whose research informs operations for Roscosmos. In NASA-sponsored research, interpersonal compatibility has been examined in terms of how the combination of team members’ personality traits, values, and demographics shape team member relationships and team performance overtime. IBMP-sponsored research mostly has moved away from trait-based approaches toward an idiographic (in-depth, heavily descriptive) approach to researching crew interpersonal relations. This research uses software such as Personal Self-Perception and Attitudes (PSPA), network approaches to team member relations, and content analysis of interactions to assess interpersonal compatibility, and infer states and team dynamics. Our research program integrated these ideas. Our primary research aim was to develop and empirically test a process model of interpersonal relationship formation in isolated and confinement environments. We created a model, collected data from teams in an isolated and confined environment, and applied a novel analytical strategy that combines trait, state, and interaction data (i.e., relational events). We focused specifically on the formation of strained relationships in isolation and confinement—or with whom fellow crewmembers find it difficult to work.

S T Bell↗

Enabling International Data Relay at Mars

The most commonly used mode of communications be-tween Earth and a Mars surface mission is ultra-high fre-quency (UHF) radio relay via a Mars orbiter. There are four orbiters and two surface rovers operating at Mars and by October there should be five orbiters and three landers or rovers. There has been some collaboration between ESA’s Mars Express orbiter and NASA’s rovers, but 2016 is when Mars relay becomes fully international. In October, ESA will deliver the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and En-try, Descent, and Landing (EDL) Demonstrator Module (EDM) lander to Mars. The ExoMars program includes both ESA and ROSCOSMOS, with NASA participation (the Electra UHF transceiver on TGO). NASA orbiters will pro-vide relay for EDM and future ESA Mars landers and rov-ers. TGO will provide relay for NASA's current and future surface assets (as Mars Express will continue to do). Inter-national collaboration is enabled in several steps. At the in-struction of the space agencies, the Mars mission projects negotiate and write a “Service Agreement.” This describes at a high level how a new Mars orbiter would operate with its corresponding surface missions or how a new surface mis-sion would operate with its corresponding orbiters. It in-cludes the roles of the different projects, how the new mis-sion would communicate with existing or planned missions, the general flow of data and commands, and the capabilities or requirements of the new mission. After completing the Service Agreement, the projects write Interface Control Doc-uments (ICDs), each of which describes data and command flow in greater detail and quantitative aspects of the relay link and operations timeline between an orbiter and a cor-responding lander/rover. Interfaces and operations are test-ed before a new mission arrives at Mars. Once at Mars, a new orbiter performs some “practice” relay contacts with its partners. For a new lander (e.g. EDM), relay operations gen-erally begin before atmospheric entry at Mars, with record-ing of the UHF relay signal from the lander (including open-loop wide-bandwidth recording) as it enters and traverses Mars’s atmosphere and lands on its surface. After Mars EDL or orbit injection, each relay contact is negotiat-ed and scheduled using the Mars Relay Operations Service (MaROS). This paper describes the international approach to develop inter-agency agreements, inter-project interfaces, and specifics of how MaROS is used in actual relay opera-tions between international partners.

Winton, Alistair J.↗

Future Orbiting and In-Situ Exploration of Venus: Mount Etna as Terrestrial Analog

The exploration of Venus will soon experience a new golden era thanks to the recently selected NASA Deep Atmosphere of Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry and Imaging (DAVINCI) mission, NASA Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography & Spectroscopy (VERITAS) mission, and ESA EnVision mission. The DAVINCI mission will focus on the analysis of the the atmospheric vertical structure and composition of Earth’s twin planet and on the geologic structure of a tesserae terrain. The VERITAS mission will investigate the geologic features of its surface as well as geodynamic characteristics of the subsurface, providing high-resolution emissivity data, a global radar map at an approximate resolution of 30 meters/pixel, and estimation of the gravity anomaly of the shallow crust of the planet. The ESA EnVision mission will be complementary to the two NASA missions, providing high resolution 0.8-2.5 micron emissivity data, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data, and Subsurface Radar Sounder (SRS) data. Beyond those, the proposed Roscosmos-NASA Venera-D mission will also be equipped with an orbiter that will investigate the atmospheric composition and circulation, as well as a lander that will analize the in-situ chemical composition and the surface-atmosphere interactions.

P. D’Incecco↗

Enabling Simulation Interoperability between International Standards in the Space Domain

Today, the design and development of space systems are conducted cooperatively by historical space agencies in this area such as NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, and JAXA together with their industrial partners. The space system lifecycle is characterized by high costs, uncertain conditions, and dangerous scenarios. To mitigate these issues, space agencies rely heavily on Modelling and Simulation as a key technology to support the analysis, design, and operation of space systems. To support large-scale distributed simulations, the scientific community has developed several standards to support the reuse and interoperability of simulation models such as IEEE 1516 High-Level Architecture (HLA), Real-time Platform Reference Federation Object Model (RPR FOM), Simulation Model Portability (SMP), and the novel Space Reference Federation Object Model (SpaceFOM). While the SpaceFOM standard has been specifically conceptualized for handling space systems, the other ones are more general-purpose and can be used to design and simulate generic complex systems. As a consequence, there is a lake of rules and guidelines to enable interoperability among these standards. The paper presents solutions and experiences for enabling interoperability and transferability of HLA, RPR FOM, and SMP simulation models with SpaceFOM.

Simulation↗

Idunn Mons as the landing site of the Venera-D mission: scientific relevance and possible operational tests on Mount Etna.

Along with the recently selected NASA DAVINCI [1] and VERITAS [2] missions, and with the ESA EnVision mission [3], the Roscosmos Venera-D mission [4,5] opens the new decade of Venus exploration. Among these missions, the Venera-D is the only one to be equipped with a lander which could drill the surface of Venus and analyze its chemical composition. For this reason, it is crucial to select a future landing site based on its scientific relevance, as well as on safety constraints. We propose here Idunn Mons (Figure 1a), a major large volcano of Imdr Regio, as the landing site for the Venera-D mission. We also indicate Mount Etna in Italy (Figure 1b) as a suitable test site on Earth for drilling tests and in-situ elemental and mineralogical analyses [6,7].

venus↗

Geologically Recent Areas as One Key Target for Identifying Active Volcanism on Venus

The recently selected NASA VERITAS and DAVINCI missions, the ESA EnVision, the Roscosmos Venera-D will open a new era in the exploration of Venus. One of the key targets of the future orbiting and in-situ investigations of Venus is the identification of volcanically active areas on the planet. The study of the areas characterized by recent or ongoing volcano-tectonic activity can inform us on how volcanism and tectonism are currently evolving on Venus. Following this key target, the manuscript by Brossier et al. (2022) (https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL099765) extends the successful approach and methodology used by previous works to Ganis Chasma in Atla Regio. We comment here on the main results of the manuscript published by Brossier et al. (2022) (https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL099765) and discuss the important implications of their work for the future orbiting and in-situ investigations of Venus. Their results add further lines of evidence indicating possibly recent volcanism on Venus.

Solar system↗

Sleep Issues in Aviation and Space

This article describes the factors that cause sleep issues in aviation and spaceflight. There are many causes of sleep disruption that are common to both domains, including, irregular schedules, circadian misalignment, and inadequate sleep environment. There are also factors that are unique to each type of operation that may lead to the manifestation of sleep disorders among these populations. Each of these factors, and their subsequent impact on sleep, are reviewed in this article.

Astronaut↗