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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 NTRSDate not supplied

Designing for Advanced Aerial Mobility: Human-Autonomy Teaming and In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance

The continued growth of aviation shall require new innovative technologies and operational concepts to meet the ever-increasing demands on air transportation. The NASA Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) project focuses on emerging aviation markets, such as Urban Air Mobility (UAM). UAM is defined as “...a safe and efficient system for air passenger and cargo transportation within an urban area. It is inclusive of small package delivery and other urban unmanned aerial system services and supports a mix of onboard/ground-piloted and increasingly autonomous operations” ([1]). The AAM project emphasizes technology development and validating system-level concepts and solutions in coordination with other NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) projects to enable UAM metro- and micro-plex vertiport and airspace concepts of operations. The NASA AAM research portfolio includes the concepts of Remote Supervisor-in-Command (RSC) and Fleet and Airspace Manager (FAM) as possible human roles for consumer fleet providers. NASA research in RSC is focused on development of guidelines and standards for remote pilots/operators passively and actively controlling a large fleet of autonomous aircraft. For FAM, flight and ground system concepts and technologies to enable high density homogeneous operations at increased scale from vertiport(s), and coordination with other humans in the systems (e.g., UAM urban airspace manager, Air Traffic Control) are key research areas. The envisioned UAM operations are posited to require autonomous systems to enable functions ranging from fleet and resource management to vehicle control. Although automation has become increasingly sophisticated and ubiquitous in civil aviation, autonomy represents a significant evolution in automation, which has generally been limited in functional scope and capability. As autonomy takes on increasing responsibilities, humans and machines will be required to work together in new and different ways [2], rather than traditional design approaches focused on how machines (i.e., autonomy) can do the work of people. The emerging field of human-autonomy teaming (HAT) represents a comprehensive and prioritized research-driven approach to enable the success of future emerging aviation market applications through capabilities and principles that facilitate humans and machine working and thinking better together. The NASA Transformational Tools and Technologies (TTT) Autonomous System (AS) Sub-project was created to assist with the transition into higher levels of autonomy to enable new modes of air transportation, such as UAM. TTT-AS has identified HAT as a key research need to enable UAM while maintaining today’s ultra-safe aviation system safety levels. The latter challenge has been taken up by the NASA System-Wide Safety (SWS) Project, which recognizes that aviation safety, as it evolves, shall require new ways of thinking about safety to include integration of a wide-range of existing and new safety systems and practices, enhanced tools and technologies, increased access to data and data fusion, improved data analysis capabilities, enhanced in-time risk monitoring and detection, hazard prioritization and mitigation, safety assurance decision-support, and in-time integrated system analytics [3].The operational concept of UAM represents a variety of work that has been termed, “work-as-imagined” to characterize the idea that how people think that work is done and how work is actually done are often not the same [4]. To ensure design success and system safety, looking at “work-as-done” provides a comparative approach toward UAM concept and technology design through examination of corresponding analogs found today in aviation (e.g., on-demand operations) and other transportation domains (e.g., port operations). The paper shall discuss various alternative applications with specific focus on airline operation center (AOC) operations, and unmanned aerial system (UAS) command-and-control to inform scaled-versions of FAM and RSC, respectively, and with consideration of the national airspace system contextual environment. The tenets and principles of the HAT field and current NASA research efforts under the TTT-AS sub-project shall also be described. Finally, the SWS sub-project efforts to develop In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance (ISSA) and In-Time Safety Management Systems (IASMS) are discussed in terms of how “in-time” safety assurance may be conceptualized for the on-demand mobility air taxi “work-as-imagined” operational concept [5]. As part of this effort, concepts from the emerging field of resilience engineering, are being studied. Traditional approaches to aviation safety have focused on what can go wrong and how to prevent it. Another approach to thinking about system safety should reflect not only “avoiding things that go wrong” (protective safety) but also “ensuring that things go right” (productive safety), that enables a system to exhibit the resilient performance [6] necessary for the success of the future aviation system emerging concepts of operations. The paper shall describe efforts focused on how productive safety and resilience may enable a more complete approach to system safety thinking and design of ISSA and IASMS for UAM. Future directions and research needs shall also be discussed.

resilience↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA Centers and Universities Collaborate in Annual Smallsat Technology Partnerships

The Small Spacecraft Technology program within the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate sponsors the Smallsat Technology Partnerships (STP) initiative. The STP initiative awards cooperative agreements between NASA centers and university teams for technology development efforts that advance the capabilities of small spacecraft to achieve NASA mission objectives in unique and more affordable ways. NASA’s announcement to return humans to the Moon by 2024 raises new opportunities for Smallsats to contribute to missions in cislunar space, though technical challenges are to be overcome to establish their value in this environment. Precursor missions utilizing small spacecraft will blaze the trail for lunar exploration, establishing infrastructure such as communication and navigation networks, and performing assembly and repair services for larger structures and human habitats. To achieve these goals, certain novel Smallsat technologies will need to be developed and demonstrated. The 2020 STP solicitation sought proposals for specific technologies to enable these lunar missions. For the 2020 STP cycle, NASA selected nine university teams to mature new systems and capabilities in the laboratory, and in some cases, demonstrate in suborbital or orbital spaceflights. This paper describes the STP portfolio, past and present efforts, and the nine partnerships selected.

James J. Cockrell↗
NASA NTRS2021

Aircraft System Noise of the NASA D8 Subsonic Transport Concept

A vehicle-level noise assessment has been performed for the NASA D8 (ND8) concept aircraft in the NASA Advanced Air Transport Technology Project portfolio. The NASA research-level Aircraft Noise Prediction Program was used to predict the noise from each source component on the ND8 to build up a noise estimate for the full aircraft. The propulsion airframe aeroacoustic effects of the ND8 (namely, boundary-layer ingestion, with its influence on fan noise; and the noise shielding, reflection, and diffraction mechanisms of the unconventional airframe) were empirically modeled using experimental data. Far-term noise reduction technology concepts were modeled and added to the noise prediction to evaluate the low-noise potential of the ND8 in the far-term timeframe. Results indicate that the increase in fan noise due to boundary-layer ingestion, as well as the lack of aft shielding, prevents the aircraft from approaching NASA’s noise goals for either the midterm or far term. The aircraft achieves margins to Stage 4 of only 9.4 and 17.3 effective perceived noise in decibels (EPNdB) in the midterm and far-term configurations, respectively, compared with goals of 32–42 EPNdB in the midterm and 42-52 EPNdB in the far term.

aircraft system noise↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Comparison of Exploration Oxygen Recovery Technology Options Using ESM and LSMAC

In preparation for long duration manned space flight, numerous technology development efforts are ongoing in the area of environmental control and life support (ECLS). In cooperation with international, industry, and academic partners, NASA seeks to leverage the International Space Station as a testbed for technologies targeted for Exploration-class missions. In recent years, Equivalent Systems Mass (ESM) analyses have been conducted to evaluate the relative breakeven points and to compare technologies as part of ECLS architectural trades. While these studies have provided important data pertaining to key engineering metrics, additional considerations are important to more fully understand the potential impacts and costs associated with selecting a specific architecture. A tool, called the Life Support Multi-Dimensional Assessment Criteria (LSMAC), was recently proposed by Sierra Nevada Corporation in an attempt to incorporate influences of these additional considerations including Maintainability, Risk Analysis, Technology Readiness Level, Radiation Impacts, Manufacturing Costs, Reliability, Human Factors, and Un-Crewed Operations. As a first step toward evaluating and implementing this tool, LSMAC was used to revisit the ISS oxygen recovery trade from the 1990’s wherein Sabatier was selected over Bosch technology. Second, the tool was used to compare oxygen recovery developmental technologies currently in work. The results of these studies as well as a comparison with standalone ESM analyses are reported. Further, a discussion of the potential application of the tool across the ECLS portfolio and its potential use in future technology selection for ISS flight demonstrations is provided.

Morgan B Abney↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Hail Storm Risk Assessment Using Space-Borne Remote Sensing Observations and Reanalyses

Much of the world is impacted by severe thunderstorms, but whether they become disasters depends upon resilience--our capacity to prepare, mitigate, respond, and recover. Hail is the costliest severe weather hazard for the insurance industry, generating ~70% of severe convective storm losses due to damage to assets such as homes, businesses, agriculture, and infrastructure. Most insurance companies do not reserve enough capital to cover catastrophes, so they acquire reinsurance. The reinsurance industry uses catastrophe models (CatModels) to statistically estimate risk to an insurer’s portfolio. Hail CatModels are developed with climatologies that define hailstorm frequency and severity. Hail-prone areas can be defined using hail reports from trained spotters, the media, and the general public. Extremely severe hail (2+ inch diameter) occurs nearly every day across the world. Weather radars can detect hail because hailstones strongly reflect microwave signals that they emit. However, hail climatologies are difficult to derive because hail covers small areas and there are neither hail reporting mechanisms (e.g. website or mobile app) nor radar networks in most places outside the US and Europe. This lack of ground truth on severe hail puts society and economies at risk. Hail is generated within storms by strong updrafts. These updrafts exhibit unique signatures in NASA and other agency satellite observations, offering new opportunities for hailstorm analysis. Geostationary (GEO) visible and infrared imagery has been collected for ~15-25 years across the world (region dependent) and methods have been developed at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) to detect hailstorm updrafts using GEO imagery. Climatological GEO updraft data has been used by Willis Towers Watson (WTW), a leader in catastrophe risk assessment for the insurance industry, and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology to develop CatModels over Europe and Australia. Hail can also be inferred with passive microwave imagery collected by low-Earth-orbiting sensors such as the GPM GMI, TRMM TMI, AMSR-E, AMSR-2, SSM/I, and SSMIS over the last 20+ years using methods developed at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Hailstorms generate enhanced lightning flash rates that can be tracked using new GOES-R series GEO Lightning Mapping (GLM) imagery. Atmospheric reanalyses can be used to define favorable hailstorm environments for combination with the satellite-based storm detections. This presentation will describe a framework for developing continental to global hail climatologies and CatModels based on NASA satellite data and capabilities. This is a collaboration between LaRC and MSFC, WTW, and partners in Brazil, Argentina, and South Africa. This project seeks to mitigate hail disasters by aiding development of new satellite-based severe storm nowcasting tools by regional partners and developing climatologies to improve societal understanding of hail frequency. GEOO visible and infrared metrics of storm intensity, environmental conditions based on reanalyses, spotter hail reports and radar MESH observations are intercompared to quantify the detectability of hailstorms, and our ability to discriminate hailstorms from other severe storms. We are also maturing methods using land surface imaging satellite data (e.g. MODIS, Landsat, Sentinel 1 and 2) to identify hail damage to agriculture. Work with WTW will improve socioeconomic resilience through development of new CatModels. Southern Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina feature some of the most intense thunderstorms on Earth. South America and South Africa are developing insurance markets of interest to WTW clients, and is similar to other regions routinely impacted by hail that do not have comprehensive hail reporting or radars to assess hailstorm frequency. Project datasets will be made available via online GIS-enabled tools developed at the LaRC Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) which will visualize data and provide it in multiple formats for use in a wide range of open source and commercial tools.

Kristopher Michael Bedka↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Establishing Electrified Aircraft Propulsion Concepts—How AATT identified viable propulsion concepts and established foundational technologies

In the mid 2000’s NASA challenged the aeronautics industry to identify the routes for achieving ambitious improvements in fuel burn, emission, and noise reductions. These so-called “N+3” studies were exploring broad changes three commercial aircraft generations, or nominally 30 years, in the future. Many intriguing propulsion-airframe integrated solutions were proposed and pursued, which incorporated technologies such as high-aspect-ratio wings, boundary-layer ingestion, and hybrid-electric powertrains. When the Advanced Air Transport Technology (AATT) Project introduced “Technical Challenge 5.2-Establish viable concept for 5-10 MW hybrid gas-electric propulsion system for a commercial transport aircraft” in 2014, industry was very skeptical that electrified propulsion could make a significant impact in commercial air transport over the subsequent 30 years. Yet there were many practical reasons why improvements in electric power system and electric powertrains were advancing at a rapid rate and could lead to paradigm changes in aircraft propulsion. The challenge to the aeronautics community was to discover how to harness this power revolution and apply it to aircraft propulsion. This talk summarizes the approaches and achievements from the Hybrid Gas-Electric Propulsion Concept Technical Challenge that concluded in 2019. The balanced portfolio of concepts studies anchored with practical technology development demonstrated that electrified aircraft propulsion is an aircraft revolution whose time has come.

electric propulsion↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Cryogenic Fluid Management Technologies Enabling for the Artemis Program and Beyond

NASA is endeavoring on an ambitious return to the Moon and eventually on to Mars through the Artemis Program leveraging innovative technologies to establish sustainable exploration architectures collaborating with US commercial and international partners[1]. Future NASA architectures have baselined cryogenic propulsion systems to support lunar missions and ultimately future missions to Mars. NASA has been investing in maturing CFM active and passive storage, transfer, and gauging technologies over the last decade plus primarily focused on ground development with a few small-scale microgravity fluid experiments. Recently, NASA created a Cryogenic Fluid Management (CFM)Technology Roadmap identifying the critical gaps requiring further development to reach a technology readiness level (TRL) of 6 prior to infusion to flight applications. To address the technology gaps the Space Technology Mission Directorate(STMD)strategically plans to invest in a diversified CFM portfolio approach through ground and flight demonstrations ,collaborating with international partners, and leveraging Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) opportunities with US industry through the Tipping Point and Announcement of Collaborative Opportunities (ACO) solicitations. Once proven, these system capabilities will enable the high performing cryogenic propellant systems needed for the Artemis Program and beyond.

Cryogenic Fluid Management↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Cryogenic Fluid Management for the Artemis Program and Beyond

NASA is endeavoring on an ambitious return to the Moon and eventually on to Mars through the Artemis Program leveraging innovative technologies to establish sustainable exploration architectures collaborating with US commercial and international partners [1]. Future NASA architectures have baselined cryogenic propulsion systems to support lunar missions and ultimately future missions to Mars. NASA has been investing in maturing CFM active and passive storage, transfer, and gauging technologies over the last decade plus primarily focused on ground development with a few small-scale microgravity fluid experiments. Recently, NASA created a Cryogenic Fluid Management (CFM) Technology Roadmap identifying the critical gaps requiring further development to reach a technology readiness level (TRL) of 6 prior to infusion to flight applications. To address the technology gaps the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) strategically plans to invest in a diversified CFM portfolio approach through ground and flight demonstrations, collaborating with international partners, and leveraging Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) opportunities with US industry through the Tipping Point and Announcement of Collaborative Opportunities (ACO) solicitations. Once proven, these system capabilities will enable the high performing cryogenic propellant systems needed for the Artemis Program and beyond.

Cryogenic Fluid Management↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Some NASA Perspectives on H2

This presentation provides the NASA perspective for government and industry technology developers world-wide who are exploring the potential for hydrogen (H2) in aviation applications including electric aircraft, airport vehicles, and airport related equipment. NASA’s H2 interest has been related to vehicle-level technology development and integration only, but NASA is keenly aware of the necessity of work focused on solving the challenges of H2 airport infrastructure. Some historical perspectives are provided on NASA efforts in H2 fuel cell development for space and aeronautics applications. NASA’s current research portfolio includes some investigation of H2 energy storage and hydrocarbon conversion for fuel cells on electric aircraft. There is no current emphasis on the other H2-related challenges. Over the years NASA has conducted research into “Quiet Green Transport” with a H2 fuel cell powered aircraft, an Emissionless Aircraft Study with Non Flow Through – Regenerative Fuel Cell (NFT-RFC) technology which captures the water, and an H2 fuel cell powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) study. NASA has flown a long endurance UAV using a RFC in the Low Emissions Alternative Power (LEAP) program. Recently, NASA conducted feasibility studies on hybrid SOFC with onboard hydrocarbon fuel reformation for aircraft primary propulsive power and secondary power under the Fostering Ultra-Efficient, Low-Emitting Aviation Power (FUELEAP) program. NASA currently has a multiyear program with the Center for Cryogenic High-Efficiency Electrical Technologies for Aircraft (CHEETA) to explore the benefits of using cryogenic H2 on aircraft for fuel cell propulsion and to provide superconductivity in electrical power management on the aircraft.

Power↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Decade of NASA Strategic Astrophysics Technology Investments: Technology Maturation, Infusion, and Other Benefits

NASA’s Astrophysics Division (APD) funds development of cutting-edge technology to enable its missions to achieve ambitious and groundbreaking science goals. These technology development efforts are managed by the Physics of the Cosmos (PCOS), Cosmic Origins (COR), and Exoplanet Exploration (ExE) Programs. The NASA Strategic Astrophysics Technology (SAT) Program was established in 2009 as a new technology maturation program to fill the gap in the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) range from 3 to 6. Since program inception, 100 SAT grants have been openly competed and awarded, along with dozens of direct-funded projects, leading to a host of technologies advancing their TRLs and/or being infused into space and suborbital missions and ground-based projects. We present the portfolio distribution in terms of specific technology areas addressed, including optics, detectors, coatings, coronagraphs, starshades, lasers, electronics, cooling systems, and micro-thruster subsystems. We show an analysis of the rate of TRL advances, infusion success stories, and other benefits such as training the future astrophysics workforce, including students and postdoctoral fellows hired by projects. Finally, we present APD’s current strategic technology maturation priorities for investment, enabling a range of future strategic astrophysics missions

NASA, astrophysics, technology development, optics↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Applications of Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Systems for Deep Space Science Missions

Nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) systems occupy a unique area in the space propulsion technology landscape, due to their ability to combine moderate-to-high thrust systems normally seen in chemical propulsion systems with specific impulses that are higher than those of more traditional chemical propulsion systems. Thus, NTP systems have the potential to greatly expand our access to deep space and can enable or enhance capabilities for a variety of missions that achieve science goals as outlined in NASA’s decadal surveys. This paper leverages previous work performed on applying NTP systems for multiple science missions. It also expands the mission portfolio to additional NTP-powered science mission profiles, evaluating the system performance benefits delivered by this propulsion option. This paper will also outline efforts to improve the fidelity of the existing NTP design concepts and vehicles that are utilized, leveraging previous work on nuclear propulsion systems for human-Mars missions to enhance the fidelity of results obtained from previous science mission concept studies – specifically Triton lander, solar polar orbiter, and the interstellar medium probe missions. The work outlined in this paper will also examine additional missions that have been highlighted in the recent decadal surveys, which may include robotic missions to the ice giant Uranus, robotic missions to Venus, and missions to various Kuiper belt objects (KBOs).

K A Polzin↗
NASA NTRS2017

Program Options to Explore Ocean Worlds

Including Earth, roughly a dozen water ocean worlds exist in the solar system: the relict worlds Ceres and Mars, vast oceans inside most of the large Jovian and Saturnian icy moons, and Kuiper Belt Objects like Triton, Charon, and Pluto whose geologies are dominated by water and ammonia. Key pieces of the ocean-world science puzzle – which when completed may reveal whether life is widespread in the cosmos, why it exists where it does, and how it originates – are distributed among them. The eventual exploration of all these worlds will yield humanity’s total tangible knowledge about life in the universe, essentially forever. Thus, their exploration has existential significance for humanity’s self-regard, and indeed perhaps of our place in the natural scheme. The matter of planning how to pursue such a difficult and unprecedented exploration opportunity is therefore historic. The technical challenges are formidable, far harder than at Mars: missions to the Jovian and Saturnian ocean worlds are severely power-limited; trip times can be as much as a half decade and decade, respectively. And the science targets are global-scale oceans beneath kilometers of cryogenic ice. Reaching and exploring them would be a multi-generational undertaking, so again it is essential to plan and prepare. Today, we lack the instrumentation, subsystems, and remote operational-intelligence technologies needed to build and use exploration avatars as good as what we can envision needing. Each ocean world holds a piece of the puzzle, but the three priority targets are Europa at Jupiter, and Enceladus and Titan at Saturn. As with the systematic exploration of Mars, exploring these diverse worlds poses a complex technical and programmatic challenge – a strategic challenge – that needs to be designed and managed if each generation is to see its work bear fruit, and if the space science community is to make most effective use of the public money devoted to the quest. Strategic programs benefit from coherence. In only 15 years, the Mars Exploration Program (MEP) has transformed humanity’s view of Mars as a once and future habitable place, a world quite possibly holding relict evidence of life. Finding such evidence, we would study it to know if that life shared an origin common with Earth life. However, life in the ocean worlds could not have shared our origin, so exploring them opens another level in our quest to understand life in the universe: not only to places with vast salt-water seas known to contain organics and hydrothermal seafloors active today, but to places where anything alive cannot be related to us. MEP’s success – from its presence in the public consciousness to its rewriting of planetary habitability – make it an obvious template and source of lessons learned for a viable ocean worlds exploration program (OWEP). Six attributes of the MEP are analyzed for application to a potential OWEP. From this, five hypothetical programmatic scenarios are compared to the default case, and conclusions drawn. A coherent OWEP should have several parts: first, dedicated continuous investment in enabling technologies; and second, two directed-purpose, medium-class (~$1B) missions per decade that conduct pivotal investigations on a documented roadmap. Science could start in 2035, informing development of decadal flagship missions after Europa Clipper, to the places revealed to hold the most promise. The fastest pace of scientific discoveries would require access to high-performance propulsion infrastructure, e.g., the Space Launch System, Falcon Heavy, and high-power in-space solar electric propulsion, all capable of halving trip time. Not including these boosts, such a program would cost about a half-billion dollars more per year than NASA’s existing mission portfolio; the program architecture funded today cannot deliver a strategic OWEP while also sustaining balance among other solar system exploration priorities and opportunities.

Naderi, F.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Space fission power: NASA's best bet to continue to explore the outer solar system

Implementation of balanced, cost-efficient programs to develop power technologies would enable future Voyager- and Cassini-class missions at the outermost planets; open up subsurface missions at Europa, Enceladus, and Titan; and facilitate orbiter and lander missions at Neptune and Triton. A rebalancing of the NASA power technology portfolio could establish the option of using fission power in space. The timing is right for the development of a small nuclear reactor design (such as KRUSTY) that can provide power for multi-year robotic missions and serve as a pathfinder and risk reduction strategy for the larger needs of future human exploration space power systems.

Cassini, John↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Thermally Conductive Insulation for High Power Density Electric Machines

In the mid 2000’s NASA challenged the aeronautics industry to identify the routes for achieving ambitious improvements in fuel burn, emission, and noise reductions. These so-called “N+3” studies were exploring broad changes three commercial aircraft generations, or nominally 30 years, in the future. Many intriguing propulsion-airframe integrated solutions were proposed and pursued, which incorporated technologies such as high-aspect-ratio wings, boundary-layer ingestion, and hybrid electric powertrains. This talk summarizes the approaches and achievements from the Hybrid Gas-Electric Propulsion Concept Technical Challenge that concluded in 2019. The balanced portfolio of concepts studies anchored with practical technology development demonstrated that electrified aircraft propulsion is an aircraft revolution whose time has come. Advanced materials will play a key role with enabling the increase in operating efficiencies and lifetime of these high power-dense electric machines. Progress made in materials development as part of NASA’s Advanced Air Transport Technology project will also be discussed.

electrical insulation↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

International Space Station as a Testbed for Exploration Environmental Control and Life Support Systems - 2021 Status

Human exploration missions beyond low earth orbit, such as NASA’s Artemis Program, present significant challenges to spacecraft system design and supportability. A particularly challenging area is the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) that maintains a habitable and life-sustaining environment for crewmembers. NASA is utilizing the experience gained from its current and prior spaceflight programs to mature life support technologies for exploration missions to deep space. The intent is to establish a portfolio of life support system capabilities with proven performance and reliability to enable human exploration missions and reduce risk to success of those missions. As a fully operational human-occupied platform in microgravity, the International Space Station (ISS) presents a unique opportunity to act as a testbed for exploration-class ECLSS, such that these systems may be tested, proven, and refined for eventual deployment on deep space human exploration missions. This paper will provide an updated status on the testbed development including hardware and ISS vehicle integration progress to date as well as future plans for efforts to design, select, build, test and fly Exploration ECLSS on the ISS.

Laura A Shaw↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Science Utilizing Data from Spire Global as Part of the NASA Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition (CSDA) Program

As part of the Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition (CSDA) Program, NASA has evaluated data from Spire Global, Inc. and subsequently established a sustained purchase agreement with them. The primary goal of this agreement is to acquire and make available Spire datasets to the research community with the aim of enhancing the science objectives through the Earth Science Division (ESD), though there are noted applications to the NASA Heliophysics Division as well. This talk will present the data access details and holdings of Spire data by the CSDA Program, including those from radio occultation and reflectometry. It will also present selected scientific results and applications of these data from both the pilot evaluation and the sustained purchase stages to highlight their use within the ESD research portfolio.

Wil McCarty↗
NASA NTRS2021

NASA Strategy for Technology Development

At the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), foresight is a coordinated, iterative, and continual process for making informed decisions. NASA faces diverse and relatively unique challenges and opportunities as the leading U.S. agency for aeronautics development, cutting-edge scientific discovery, and human space exploration. To address these challenges and leverage opportunities, NASA uses foresight to strategically plan technology development across four mission directorates: Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, Space Technology Mission Directorate, Science Mission Directorate, and Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. The mission directorates leverage a broad community of experts and partners to incorporate technology foresight into mission and program planning. Through this process NASA realizes tangible benefits to the agency’s science, technology, and exploration programs. As an independent office, NASA’s Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT) serves as a trusted authority to inform technology strategy and advocacy at the agency, enabling future missions and advancing U.S. economic competitiveness. Specifically, OCT coordinates and uses inputs from abroad community of experts, both internal and external to NASA, to inform decision making for technology plans, investments, and partnerships. OCT develops the NASA Technology Taxonomy to standardize communication across the agency’s diverse technology portfolio and the related Strategic Technology Investment Plan that integrates priorities and informs technology investment. Through these efforts, OCT has refined elements of foresight-informed strategic planning that may be applicable to other technology-driven industries where foresight is essential for resilience. This chapter describes the processes of foresight for technology development at NASA and provides insight into the value the agency derives from these processes. The chapter further describes the role of OCT as an independent advisory office that supports NASA’s efforts to capitalize on foresight and strategic technology planning. We present these examples with consideration for how organizations in defense, security, and other technology-driven industries can operationalize foresight in their own strategic technology development.

Erica Rodgers↗