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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1980

Progress in space power technology

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Space Power Research and Technology Program has the objective of providing the technology base for future space power systems. The current technology program which consists of photovoltaic energy conversion, chemical energy conversion and storage, thermal-to-electric conversion, power systems management and distribution, and advanced energetics is discussed. In each area highlights, current programs, and near-term directions will be presented.

Mullin, J. P.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Future orbital transfer vehicle technology study. Volume 1: Executive summary

Reusable space and ground based LO2/LH2 OTV's, both advanced space engines and aero assist capability were compared. The SB OTV provided advantages in life cycle cost, performance and potential for improvement. An all LO2/LH2 OTV fleet was also compared with a fleet of LO2/.H2 OTV's and electric OTV's. The normal growth technology electric OTV used silicon cells with heavy shielding and argon ion thrusters. In this case, the LO2/LH2 OTV fleet provided a 23% advantage in total transportation cost. An accelerated technology LF2/LH2 OTV provided improvements in performance relative to LO2/.H2 OTV but has higher DDT&E cost which negated its cost effectiveness. The accelerated technology electric vehicle used GaAs cells and annealing but still did not result in the mixed fleet being any cheaper than an all LO2/LH2 OTV fleet. It is concluded that reusable LO2/LH2 OTV's can serve all general purpose cargo roles between LEO and GEO for the forseeable future. The most significant technology for the second generation vehicle would be space debris protection, on orbit propellant storage and transfer and on orbit maintenance capability.

Davis, E. E.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Design knowledge capture for the space station

The benefits of design knowledge availability are identifiable and pervasive. The implementation of design knowledge capture and storage using current technology increases the probability for success, while providing for a degree of access compatibility with future applications. The space station design definition should be expanded to include design knowledge. Design knowledge should be captured. A critical timing relationship exists between the space station development program, and the implementation of this project.

Crouse, K. R.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Power systems for production, construction, life support and operations in space

As one looks to man's future in space it becomes obvious that unprecedented amounts of power are required for the exploration, colonization, and exploitation of space. Activities envisioned include interplanetary travel and LEO to GEO transport using electric propulsion, Earth and lunar observatories, advance space stations, free-flying manufacturing platforms, communications platforms, and eventually evolutionary lunar and Mars bases. These latter bases would start as camps with modest power requirements (kWes) and evolve to large bases as manufacturing, food production, and life support materials are developed from lunar raw materials. These latter activities require very robust power supplies (MWes). The advanced power system technologies being pursued by NASA to fulfill these future needs are described. Technologies discussed will include nuclear, photovoltaic, and solar dynamic space power systems, including energy storage, power conditioning, power transmission, and thermal management. The state-of-the-art and gains to be made by technology advancements will be discussed. Mission requirements for a variety of applications (LEO, GEO, lunar, and Martian) will be treated, and data for power systems ranging from a few kilowatts to megawatt power systems will be represented. In addition the space power technologies being initiated under NASA's new Civilian Space Technology Initiative (CSTI) and Space Leadership Planning Group Activities will be discussed.

Sovie, Ronald J.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Power systems for production, construction, life support, and operations in space

As one looks to man's future in space it becomes obvious that unprecedented amounts of power are required for the exploration, colonization, and exploitation of space. Activities envisioned include interplanetary travel and LEO to GEO transport using electric propulsion, earth and lunar observatories, advance space stations, free-flying manufacturing platforms, communications platforms, and eventually evolutionary lunar and Mars bases. These latter bases would start as camps with modest power requirements (kWes) and evolve to large bases as manufacturing, food production, and life support materials are developed from lunar raw materials. These latter activities require very robust power supplies (MWes). The advanced power system technologies being pursued by NASA to fulfill these future needs are described. Technologies discussed will include nuclear, photovoltaic, and solar dynamic space power systems, including energy storage, power conditioning, power transmission, and thermal management. The state-of-the-art and gains to be made by technology advancements will be discussed. Mission requirements for a variety of applications (LEO, GEO, lunar, and Martian) will be treated, and data for power systems ranging from a few kilowatts to megawatt power systems will be represented. In addition the space power technologies being initiated under NASA's new Civilian Space Technology Initiative (CSTI) and Space Leadership Planning Group Activities will be discussed.

Sovie, Ronald J.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Global Change Data Center: Mission, Organization, Major Activities, and 2001 Highlights

Rapid efficient access to Earth sciences data is fundamental to the Nation's efforts to understand the effects of global environmental changes and their implications for public policy. It becomes a bigger challenge in the future when data volumes increase further and missions with constellations of satellites start to appear. Demands on data storage, data access, network throughput, processing power, and database and information management are increased by orders of magnitude, while budgets remain constant and even shrink. The Global Change Data Center's (GCDC) mission is to provide systems, data products, and information management services to maximize the availability and utility of NASA's Earth science data. The specific objectives are (1) support Earth science missions be developing and operating systems to generate, archive, and distribute data products and information; (2) develop innovative information systems for processing, archiving, accessing, visualizing, and communicating Earth science data; and (3) develop value-added products and services to promote broader utilization of NASA Earth Sciences Enterprise (ESE) data and information. The ultimate product of GCDC activities is access to data and information to support research, education, and public policy.

Wharton, Stephen W.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Organic Contamination Baseline Study: In NASA JSC Astromaterials Curation Laboratories. Summary Report

In preparation for OSIRIS-REx and other future sample return missions concerned with analyzing organics, we conducted an Organic Contamination Baseline Study for JSC Curation Labsoratories in FY12. For FY12 testing, organic baseline study focused only on molecular organic contamination in JSC curation gloveboxes: presumably future collections (i.e. Lunar, Mars, asteroid missions) would use isolation containment systems over only cleanrooms for primary sample storage. This decision was made due to limit historical data on curation gloveboxes, limited IR&D funds and Genesis routinely monitors organics in their ISO class 4 cleanrooms.

Calaway, Michael J.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Extension of Space Food Shelf Life Through Hurdle Approach

The processed and prepackaged space food system is the main source of crew nutrition, and hence central to astronaut health and performance. Unfortunately, space food quality and nutrition degrade to unacceptable levels in two to three years with current food stabilization technologies. Future exploration missions will require a food system that remains safe, acceptable and nutritious through five years of storage within vehicle resource constraints. The potential of stabilization technologies (alternative storage temperatures, processing, formulation, ingredient source, packaging, and preparation procedures), when combined in hurdle approach, to mitigate quality and nutritional degradation is being assessed. Sixteen representative foods from the International Space Station food system were chosen for production and analysis and will be evaluated initially and at one, three, and five years with potential for analysis at seven years if necessary. Analysis includes changes in color, texture, nutrition, sensory quality, and rehydration ratio when applicable. The food samples will be stored at -20 C, 4 C, and 21 C. Select food samples will also be evaluated at -80 C to determine the impacts of ultra-cold storage after one and five years. Packaging film barrier properties and mechanical integrity will be assessed before and after processing and storage. At the study conclusion, if tested hurdles are adequate, formulation, processing, and storage combinations will be uniquely identified for processed food matrices to achieve a five-year shelf life. This study will provide one of the most comprehensive investigations of long duration food stability ever completed, and the achievement of extended food system stability will have profound impacts to health and performance for spaceflight crews and for relief efforts and military applications on Earth.

Cooper, M. R.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Surface and Atmospheric Shortwave Radiative Fluxes From ISCCP Data and Fu-Liou Algorithm at Higher Spatial and Vertical Resolution

NASA/GEWEX Surface Radiation Budget (SRB) has provided surface and TOA shortwave and longwave radiative fluxes using International Satellite Cloud Climatology data as the primary input. Release 4.0 came out in 2019, with data from July 1983 through June 2017, and improved validation stats relative to Release 3.0 (Stackhouse et al., 2012). Release 4.0 used the newly reprocessed ISCCP H data set. The shortwave algorithm for versions 3 and 4 has been based on the Pinker and Laszlo (1992) algorithm, which relies on the satellite-measured shortwave radiance to produce a TOA albedo. This background TOA albedo is made utilizing the background clear-sky visible radiance (called clear-sky composite radiance in the ISCCP data) and applying narrowband-to-broadband angular distribution models. Using a climatological aerosol assumption, the surface albedo is estimated using radiative transfer based (i.e., Fu/Liou radiative transfer model; Fu and Liou, 1993) look-up tables. Using this surface albedo and an instantaneous TOA albedo, the look-up tables are used to adjust both the aerosol optical depth (for clear sky) and cloud optical depth (for cloudy sky) for each scene. These properties and look up tables are then used to generate surface fluxes. While this has worked well to provide useful fluxes, it has occasionally resulted in inaccurate direct and diffuse surface SW fluxes due to the overreliance on aerosol optical depth. With increased computational power and storage now available, a more direct approach is now possible. Here we present a different approach for a future high resolution SRB Release 5.0. We replace the Pinker-Laszlo lookup table approach with a forward call to the Fu-Liou radiative transfer model as modified by the CERES team (Rose et al., 2006). In addition to being a proven radiation code, Fu-Liou allows the calculation of fluxes at different atmospheric levels and spectral bands, which will provide more insight into the surface radiation budget, its variability and attribution. It is expected that horizontal resolution will increase to at least 0.5°x0.5° from the current 1°x1°. Here we demonstrate a preliminary look at the next SRB, and show comparisons with the current release.

Earth Radiation Budget↗
NASA NTRS2021

Estimating Terrestrial Snow Mass via Multi-sensor Assimilation of Synthetic AMSR-E Brightness Temperature Spectral Differences and Synthetic GRACE Terrestrial Water Storage Retrievals

This study explores multi-sensor data assimilation (DA) using synthetic Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) passive microwave brightness temperature spectral differences (∆T(B)) and synthetic Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) terrestrial water storage (TWS) retrievals to improve estimates of snow water equivalent (SWE), subsurface water storage, and TWS across snow-covered terrain. Results show that multi-sensor DA improves SWE estimates by reducing the RMSE by 14.1% relative to a model-only simulation. Multi-sensor assimilation also yields the smallest TWS RMSE (reduced by 13.0% relative to a model-only simulation). However, multi-sensor DA does not always yield complementary updates, and can sometimes lead to conflicting changes to SWE, where the assimilation of synthetic ∆T(b) generates positive SWE increments while the assimilation of synthetic TWS removes SWE, which can ultimately degrade the posterior SWE estimates. This synthetic experiment provides useful insight for future DA experiments using real-world AMSR-E/AMSR-2 ∆T(b) observations and GRACE/GRACE-FO TWS retrievals to better characterize terrestrial freshwater storage across regional scales.

Jing Wang↗
NASA NTRS2024

Validation & Verification of CFD Models for Cryogenic Fluid Management of Propellant Tanks in Space

This article describes the need and the strategy for CFD model development, validation, and verification for Cryogenic Fluid Management (CFM) of Propellant Tanks in Space. It describes the type of CFD models that must be developed to address the future needs of Space CFM. It also discusses the two classes of experiments currently used to validate the fidelity of the CFD models. These two experiment classes are: (a) the small-scale simulant fluid science experiments that are equipped with scientific diagnostics to elucidate the underlying two-phase fluid physics of the CFM processes; and (b) the large-scale cryogenic experiments that assess the engineering performance of the propellant tank for storage and transfer. The current status of the CFD model development and validation is briefly assessed by presenting examples of segregated two-phase flow problems that have been successfully modeled. The future model development directions for CFM situations involving more complex interpenetrating phases are also defined.

Cryogenic Fluid Management↗
NASA NTRS2018

Development of an 400 L Integrated Refrigeration and Storage Cryostat for LNG/LCH4 Research

Research engineers from the Cryogenics Test Laboratory at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida have developed a 400 liter Integrated Refrigeration and Storage (IRAS) cryostat to explore advanced techniques for storage, conditioning, and transfer of liquefied natural gas and/or pure methane. A vertical-cylindrical configuration, the vacuum-jacketed apparatus houses a G-M cryocooler to control the state of the fluid, and sample tubes with corresponding temperature sensors fixed at various elevations to allow for sampling of the liquid. Two additional ports were also included for future instrumentation and/or mechanical feed-throughs. A primary goal of this test apparatus will be to study the effect of IRAS on the behavior of LNG during storage; most notably weathering and stratification of the bulk liquid over time. Additionally, in-situ liquefaction of natural gas can be performed, along with zero boil-off control, liquid densification, and slush production.

Swanger, Adam M.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Future orbital transfer vehicle technology study. Volume 2: Technical report

Missions for future orbit transfer vehicles (1995-2010) are identified and the technology, operations and vehicle concepts that satisfy the transportation requirements are defined. Comparison of reusable space and ground based LO2/LH2 OTV's was made. Both vehicles used advanced space engines and aero assist capability. The SB OTV provided advantages in life cycle cost, performance and potential for improvement. Comparison of an all LO2/LH2 OTV fleet with a fleet of LO2/LH2 OTVs and electric OTV's was also made. The normal growth technology electric OTV used silicon cells with heavy shielding and argon ion thrusters. This provided a 23% advantage in total transportation cost. The impact of accelerated technology was considered in terms of improvements in performance and cost effectiveness. The accelerated technology electric vehicle used GaAs cells and annealing but did not result in the mixed fleet being any cheaper than an all LO2/LH2 OTV fleet. It is concluded that reusable LO2/LH2 OTV's can serve all general purpose cargo roles between LEO and GEO for the forseeable future. The most significant technology for the second generation vehicle would be space debris protection, on-orbit propellant storage and transfer and on-orbit maintenance capability.

Davis, E. E.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Correlation of design with performance of primary lithium-sulfur oxyhalide cells

Results and assessments of a focused literature review of primary lithium sulfur oxyhalide cells are presented. Major emphasis is placed on the effect of component materials and designs on performance (energy density and rate capability), safety, and storage life of these cells. This information is a reference guide for the design of high energy batteries for future use on NASA missions.

Frank, H. A.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Advanced heat receiver conceptual design study

Solar Dynamic space power systems are candidate electrical power generating systems for future NASA missions. One of the key components of the solar dynamic power system is the solar receiver/thermal energy storage (TES) subsystem. Receiver development was conducted by NASA in the late 1960's and since then a very limited amount of work has been done in this area. Consequently the state of the art (SOA) receivers designed for the IOC space station are large and massive. The objective of the Advanced Heat Receiver Conceptual Design Study is to conceive and analyze advanced high temperature solar dynamic Brayton and Stirling receivers. The goal is to generate innovative receiver concepts that are half of the mass, smaller, and more efficient than the SOA. It is also necessary that these innovative receivers offer ease of manufacturing, less structural complexity and fewer thermal stress problems. Advanced Brayton and Stirling receiver storage units are proposed and analyzed in this study which can potentially meet these goals.

Kesseli, James↗
NASA NTRS1989

Challenges for future space power systems

The future appears rich in missions that will extend the frontiers of knowledge, human presence in space, and opportunities for profitable commerce. The key to success of these ventures is the availability of plentiful, cost effective electric power and assured, low cost access to space. While forecasts of space power needs are problematic, an assessment of future needs based on terrestrial experience was made. These needs fall into three broad categories-survival, self sufficiency and industrialization. The cost of delivering payloads to orbital locations from low earth orbit (LEO) to Mars was determined and future launch cost reductions projected. From these factors, then, projections of the performance necessary for future solar and nuclear space power options were made. These goals are largely dependent upon orbital location and energy storage needs.

Brandhorst, Henry W., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Comparison of two matrix data structures for advanced CSM testbed applications

The first section describes data storage schemes presently used by the Computational Structural Mechanics (CSM) testbed sparse matrix facilities and similar skyline (profile) matrix facilities. The second section contains a discussion of certain features required for the implementation of particular advanced CSM algorithms, and how these features might be incorporated into the data storage schemes described previously. The third section presents recommendations, based on the discussions of the prior sections, for directing future CSM testbed development to provide necessary matrix facilities for advanced algorithm implementation and use. The objective is to lend insight into the matrix structures discussed and to help explain the process of evaluating alternative matrix data structures and utilities for subsequent use in the CSM testbed.

Regelbrugge, M. E.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Requirements and concept for an on-orbit construction facility for phase 1 Space Station Freedom

A construction facility attached to NASA's Space Station Freedom (SSF) will be required for the accommodation of assembly activities for large payloads, as well as demonstration of the on-orbit construction of future spacecraft. This facility's capabilities must be sufficiently flexible to address the wide variety of future spacecraft needs without compromising the SSF's phase 1 configuration. The proposed construction facility concept will incorporate a storage module, a construction turntable, equipment-attachment platforms, a surrogate payload bay structure, and a portable workstation. Attention is given to this configuration's resulting mass properties and control characteristics.

Buchan, Robert W.↗