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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 NTRS2026

Smart Process Planning for Automated Fiber Placement

Many industries, including aerospace, automotive, wind energy, maritime, and sporting goods, rely on strong, lightweight materials called composites. These materials are made by layering fibers, which can come in the form of narrow strips or wider sheets, and setting them in a polymer matrix. One of the most advanced ways to make these parts is through automated fiber placement, where a machine lays down the fibers in precise patterns. This method can create very efficient and strong designs, but it is complex, expensive, and often depends heavily on the experience of skilled engineers. Today, the design, manufacturing, and inspection stages of composite production are usually handled separately. This separation means that important information, such as how a part will be built or what defects might occur, is not always shared between stages. As a result, parts may not be as lightweight, strong, or defect-free as possible, and the process can take longer and cost more. This research develops a smart process planning system that connects design, manufacturing, and inspection into one continuous process. Built as software that works with existing tools, the system can automatically plan how the fibers are placed, predicting and reducing defects while improving both manufacturability and strength. The system optimizes not only individual layers but also how defects are distributed across all layers, preventing them from stacking up in ways that weaken the final part. It also uses inspection results from completed parts to improve future designs, creating a feedback loop where each stage informs the others. The system was tested by designing a composite panel using this new approach and comparing it to a panel made with state-of-the-art manual planning methods. The results showed that the system could intentionally control where defects appeared and increase the efficiency of the planning process. By unifying design, manufacturing, and inspection, this research shows a way to make advanced composite manufacturing more efficient, consistent, and cost-effective. This approach lowers the barrier to using automated fiber placement and opens the door for its wider adoption not only in aerospace but also in industries such as automotive, wind energy, maritime, and sporting goods, where strong and lightweight structures are essential.

Computer-Aided Process Planning↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Advanced Materials for the Lunar Surface: Multiscale Computational Design of Refractory Alloys and Carbides

Emerging operational environments, such as the lunar surface, present novel challenges for NASA and drive the need for advanced materials in applications like fission surface power systems. To address these demands, computational materials science is rapidly evolving to augment or replace costly and hazardous empirical testing. Although materials selection at NASA remains predominantly experimentally driven, advanced simulation methodologies are being steadily integrated into the engineering lifecycle. This work details the application of multiscale simulation techniques—including first-principles calculations, CALPHAD, dislocation dynamics, and molecular dynamics—at NASA's Ames Research Center to evaluate advanced materials for extreme environments. First, we present contributions to the Space Nuclear Propulsion Project. Be-cause propellant channel coatings in nuclear thermal rockets must withstand high-pressure, high-temperature hydro-gen, optimizing these materials is critical. First-principles calculations were employed to establish a rigorous quantitative and qualitative understanding of the behavior of the refractory carbides ZrC, NbC, and their mixtures in high-enthalpy hydrogen environments. This necessitated the generation of high-fidelity thermodynamic models for both stoichiometric and carbon-depleted carbides, both with and without the presence of hydrogen. Furthermore, we highlight efforts under the Refractory Alloy Additive Manufacturing Build Optimization (RAAMBO) project, where existing and novel alloy compositions were assessed for additive manufacturing printability and subsequent performance in applications such as heat pipes and rocket nozzle extensions. This was accomplished through a comprehensive multiscale simulation framework that bridged the gap from the nanometer to the millimeter scale. Across both initiatives, rigorous validation against empirical data was prioritized. By systematically employing a verified and validated computational frame-work, we demonstrate how simulation effectively supports multidisciplinary engineering efforts, builds project-wide confidence, and drives critical materials development.

computational materials↗
NASA NTRS2026

Advanced Materials Testing Plan for the Space Suit Portable Life Support System

The Space Suit Portable Life Support System (PLSS) has a tight mass requirement to meet while also meeting other requirements for supporting a crewmember in space, on the Moon, or on Mars. To meet these requirements, atypical materials must be considered to close the mass budget allocations. However, many of these materials and processes are relatively new and untested. Therefore, initial analysis and testing of some new and advanced processes have been conducted following a roadmap presented last year. This material testing has focused primarily on thermoplastics, both additively manufactured and machined, to assess plating and fastening operations that will be required. These processes will provide additional strength and shielding capability typically only achieved with metallics. This testing has also helped to define a forward plan to certify these materials and processes for critical spaceflight applications. This report will review testing plated thermoplastics both for strength and thermal properties. It will also review fastener and fastening options and look at insert and fastener testing. It will also review state-of-the-art methods being considered elsewhere and some additional testing being conducted. Using the testing results researched here, there will be recommendations on applications for each of these types of methods going forward.

Ryan Ogilvie↗
NASA NTRS2026

Advanced Materials Testing Plan for the Space Suit Portable Life Support System

The Space Suit Portable Life Support System (PLSS) has a tight mass requirement to meet while also meeting other requirements for supporting a crewmember in space, on the Moon, or on Mars. To meet these requirements, atypical materials must be considered to close the mass budget allocations. However, many of these materials and processes are relatively new and untested. Therefore, initial analysis and testing of some new and advanced processes have been conducted following a roadmap presented last year. This material testing has focused primarily on thermoplastics, both additively manufactured and machined, to assess plating and fastening operations that will be required. These processes will provide additional strength and shielding capability typically only achieved with metallics. This testing has also helped to define a forward plan to certify these materials and processes for critical spaceflight applications. This report will review testing plated thermoplastics both for strength and thermal properties. It will also review fastener and fastening options and look at insert and fastener testing. It will also review state-of-the-art methods being considered elsewhere and some additional testing being conducted. Using the testing results researched here, there will be recommendations on applications for each of these types of methods going forward.

Ryan Ogilvie↗
NASA NTRS1993

Data Analysis for GOPEX Image Frames

This article describes the data analysis based on the image frames received at the Solid State Imaging (SSI) camera of the Galileo Optical Experiment (GOPEX) demonstration conducted between December 9 and 16, 1992. Laser uplink was successfully established between the ground and the Galileo spacecraft during its second Earth-gravity-assist phase in December 1992. SSI camera frames were acquired which contained images of detected laser pulses transmitted from the Table Mountain Facility (TMF), Wrightwood, California, and the Starfire Optical Range (SOR), Albuquerque, New Mex/co. Laser pulse data were processed using standard image-processing techniques at the Multimission Image Processing Laboratory (MIPL) for preliminary pulse identification and to produce public re/ease images. Subsequent image analysis corrected for background noise to measure received pulse intensities. Data were plotted to obtain histograms on a dmly basis and were then compared with theoretical results derived from applicable weak-turbulence and strong-turbulence considerations. This article describes processing steps and compares the theories with the experimented results. Quantitative agreement was found in both turbulence regimes, and better agreement would have been found, given more received laser pulses. Future experiments should consider methods to reliably measure low-intensity pulses, and through experimented planning to geometrically locate pulse positions with greater certainty.

B M Levine↗
NASA NTRS1994

Orbital Processing of High-Quality CdTe Compound Semiconductors

CdZnTe crystals were grown in one-g and in micro-g for comparative analysis. The two micro-g crystals were grown in the Crystal Growth Furnace during the First United States Microgravity Laboratory mission (USML-1). The samples were analyzed for chemical homogeneity, structural perfection, and optoelectronic performance (infrared transmission). Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) transmission of both ground and flight materials showed that the infrared transmission was close to theoretical, 63% versus 66%, suggesting that the material was close to the stochiometric composition during both the ground and flight experiments. Infrared microscopy confirmed that the principal precipitates were Te and their size (1-10 microns) and density suggested that the primary flight and ground base samples experienced similar cooling rates. Macrosegregation was predicted, using scaling analysis, to be low even in one-g crystals and this was confirmed experimentally, with nearly diffusion controlled growth achieved even in the partial mixing regime on the ground. Radial segregation was monitored in the flight samples and was found to vary with fraction solidified, but was disturbed due to the asymmetric grvitational and thermal fields experienced by the flight samples. The flight samples, however, were found to be much higher in structural perfection than the ground samples produced in the same furnace under identical growth conditions except for the gravitational level. Rocking curve widths were found to be substantially reduced, from 20/35 (one-g) to 9/20 (micro-g) for the best regions of the crystals. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 9 arc seconds is as good as the best reported terrestrially for this material. The ground samples were found to have a fully developed mosaic structure consisting of subgrains, whereas the flight sample dislocations were discrete and no mosaic substructure was evident. The defect density was reduced from 50-100,000 (one-g) to 500-25000 EPD (micro-g). These results were confirmed using rocking curve analysis, synchrotron topography, and etch pit analysis. The low dislocation density is thought to have resulted from the near-absence of hydrostatic pressure which allowed the melt to solidify with minimum or no wall contact, resulting in very low stress being exerted on the crystal during growth or during post-solidification cooling.

D J Larson, Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1968

Processing and Manufacture of Composite Propellants

This paper is a chemical engineering unit processing treatment of the steps involved in the manufacture of solid propellant motors. The author treats the major processes of raw material preparation, mixing, casting and curing by describing equipment, the processing, steps and some engineering considerations associated therewith. The three simultaneous processes occurring within the solid propellant nixing, namely, homogenization, wetting and curing, are discussed in more detail, briefly touching on control of these reactions and the engineering trade-offs among them.

J F Tormey↗
NASA NTRS1974

Proceedings of the Third Space Processing Symposium Skylab Results: Volume 1

This publication contains the presentations from the Third Space Processing Symposium. These papers cover the results of Materials Processing Experiments conducted on NASA's SKYLAB flights and several related research activities for Materials Processing in Space beyond SKYLAB. Contents consist of the Welcoming Address by Dr. Rocco Petrone, Director, Marshall Space Flight Center; Introduction to Space Processing by Dr. Mathias P. Siebel, Director, Process Engineering Laboratory, Marshall Space Flight Center; thirty-eight papers; and the closing presentation titled Projected Future Space Processing Activities by Dr. James H. Bredt, Office of Applications, National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Keynote Address was presented by Mr. Charles W. Mathews, Office of Applications, National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

W K Vardaman↗