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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 NTRS2005

Hybrid Power Management

An engineering discipline denoted as hybrid power management (HPM) has emerged from continuing efforts to increase energy efficiency and reliability of hybrid power systems. HPM is oriented toward integration of diverse electric energy-generating, energy-storing, and energy-consuming devices in optimal configurations for both terrestrial and outer-space applications. The basic concepts of HPM are potentially applicable at power levels ranging from nanowatts to megawatts. Potential applications include terrestrial power-generation, terrestrial transportation, biotechnology, and outer-space power systems. Instances of this discipline at prior stages of development were reported (though not explicitly labeled as HPM) in three prior NASA Tech Briefs articles: "Ultracapacitors Store Energy in a Hybrid Electric Vehicle"(LEW-16876), Vol. 24, No. 4 (April 2000), page 63; "Photovoltaic Power Station With Ultracapacitors for Storage" (LEW-17177), Vol. 27, No. 8 (August 2003), page 38; and "Flasher Powered by Photovoltaic Cells and Ultracapacitors" (LEW-17246), Vol. 24, No. 10 (October 2003), page 37. As the titles of the cited articles indicate, the use of ultracapacitors as energy-storage devices lies at the heart of HPM. An ultracapacitor is an electrochemical energy-storage device, but unlike in a conventional rechargeable electrochemical cell or battery, chemical reactions do not take place during operation. Instead, energy is stored electrostatically at an electrode/electrolyte interface. The capacitance per unit volume of an ultracapacitor is much greater than that of a conventional capacitor because its electrodes have much greater surface area per unit volume and the separation between the electrodes is much smaller. Power-control circuits for ultracapacitors can be simpler than those for batteries, for two reasons: (1) Because of the absence of chemical reactions, charge and discharge currents can be greater than those in batteries, limited only by the electrical resistances of conductors; and (2) whereas the charge level of a battery depends on voltage, temperature, age, and load condition, the charge level of an ultracapacitor, like that of a conventional capacitor, depends only on voltage.

Eichenberg, Dennis↗

NASA NTRS2003

NASA Tech Briefs, October 2003

Topics covered include: Cryogenic Temperature-Gradient Foam/Substrate Tensile Tester; Flight Test of an Intelligent Flight-Control System; Slat Heater Boxes for Thermal Vacuum Testing; System for Testing Thermal Insulation of Pipes; Electrical-Impedance-Based Ice-Thickness Gauges; Simulation System for Training in Laparoscopic Surgery; Flasher Powered by Photovoltaic Cells and Ultracapacitors; Improved Autoassociative Neural Networks; Toroidal-Core Microinductors Biased by Permanent Magnets; Using Correlated Photons to Suppress Background Noise; Atmospheric-Fade-Tolerant Tracking and Pointing in Wireless Optical Communication; Curved Focal-Plane Arrays Using Back-Illuminated High-Purity Photodetectors; Software for Displaying Data from Planetary Rovers; Software for Refining or Coarsening Computational Grids; Software for Diagnosis of Multiple Coordinated Spacecraft; Software Helps Retrieve Information Relevant to the User; Software for Simulating a Complex Robot; Software for Planning Scientific Activities on Mars; Software for Training in Pre-College Mathematics; Switching and Rectification in Carbon-Nanotube Junctions; Scandia-and-Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia for Thermal Barriers; Environmentally Safer, Less Toxic Fire-Extinguishing Agents; Multiaxial Temperature- and Time-Dependent Failure Model; Cloverleaf Vibratory Microgyroscope with Integrated Post; Single-Vector Calibration of Wind-Tunnel Force Balances; Microgyroscope with Vibrating Post as Rotation Transducer; Continuous Tuning and Calibration of Vibratory Gyroscopes; Compact, Pneumatically Actuated Filter Shuttle; Improved Bearingless Switched-Reluctance Motor; Fluorescent Quantum Dots for Biological Labeling; Growing Three-Dimensional Corneal Tissue in a Bioreactor; Scanning Tunneling Optical Resonance Microscopy; The Micro-Arcsecond Metrology Testbed; Detecting Moving Targets by Use of Soliton Resonances; and Finite-Element Methods for Real-Time Simulation of Surgery.

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NASA NTRS2014

Origami-Inspired Folding of Thick, Rigid Panels

To achieve power of 250 kW or greater, a large compression ratio of stowed-to-deployed area is needed. Origami folding patterns were used to inspire the folding of a solar array to achieve synchronous deployment; however, origami models are generally created for near-zero-thickness material. Panel thickness is one of the main challenges of origami-inspired design. Three origami-inspired folding techniques (flasher, square twist, and map fold) were created with rigid panels and hinges. Hinge components are added to the model to enable folding of thick, rigid materials. Origami models are created assuming zero (or near zero) thickness. When a material with finite thickness is used, the panels are required to bend around an increasingly thick fold as they move away from the center of the model. The two approaches for dealing with material thickness are to use membrane hinges to connect the panels, or to add panel hinges, or hinges of the same thickness, at an appropriate width to enable folding.

Trease, Brian P.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Global Light System for JEM-EUSO

The Global Light System (GLS) is a network of ground-based Xenon flash lamps and steered UV lasers to validate the key functions of the JEM-EUSO instrument. These functions include triggering efficiency, the accuracy of intrinsic luminosity measurements, and the reconstructed pointing direction accuracy. GLS units will generate benchmark optical signatures in the atmosphere with similar characteristics to the optical signals of cosmic ray EASs. The lasers will generate tracks and the flashers will generate point flashes. But unlike air showers, the number, energy, precise time, direction (lasers) can be specified. JEM-EUSO will reconstruct the pointing directions of the lasers and the energy of the lasers and flash lamps to monitor the detector's triggers, and accuracy of energy and direction reconstruction. 12 GLS units will be deployed at selected sites around the globe. The JEM-EUSO footprint will pass over a GLS unit on average once per (near) moonless night under clear conditions for appropriately selected sites. The 12 units will be supplemented by campaign style measurements with an airborne unit that will be flown over the open ocean at selected altitudes under JEM-EUSO. A GLS prototype in an airplane will support a high-altitude balloon flight in 2014 of a proto-type JEM-EUSO telescope. We will describe the concept and system design and report on the status of prototyping and the selection process for candidates sites.

Christl, Mark↗

NASA NTRS2014

Deployment Methods for an Origami-Inspired Rigid-Foldable Array

The purpose of this work is to evaluate several deployment methods for an origami-inspired solar array at two size scales: 25-meter array and CubeSat array. The array enables rigid panel deployment and introduces new concepts for actuating CubeSat deployables. The design for the array was inspired by the origami flasher model (Lang, 1997; Shafer, 2001). Figure 1 shows the array prototyped from Garolite and Kapton film at the CubeSat scale. Prior work demonstrated that rigid panels like solar cells could successfully be folded into the final stowed configuration without requiring the panels to flex (Zirbel, Lang, Thomson, & al., 2013). The design of the array is novel and enables efficient use of space. The array can be wrapped around the central bus of the spacecraft in the case of the large array, or can accommodate storage of a small instrument payload in the case of the CubeSat array. The radial symmetry of this array around the spacecraft is ideally suited for spacecraft that need to spin. This work focuses on several actuation methods for a one-time deployment of the array. The array is launched in its stowed configuration and it will be deployed when it is in space. Concepts for both passive and active actuation were considered.

Zirbel, Shannon A.↗