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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 NTRS2011

Accurate Radiometry from Space: An Essential Tool for Climate Studies

The Earth s climate is undoubtedly changing; however, the time scale, consequences and causal attribution remain the subject of significant debate and uncertainty. Detection of subtle indicators from a background of natural variability requires measurements over a time base of decades. This places severe demands on the instrumentation used, requiring measurements of sufficient accuracy and sensitivity that can allow reliable judgements to be made decades apart. The International System of Units (SI) and the network of National Metrology Institutes were developed to address such requirements. However, ensuring and maintaining SI traceability of sufficient accuracy in instruments orbiting the Earth presents a significant new challenge to the metrology community. This paper highlights some key measurands and applications driving the uncertainty demand of the climate community in the solar reflective domain, e.g. solar irradiances and reflectances/radiances of the Earth. It discusses how meeting these uncertainties facilitate significant improvement in the forecasting abilities of climate models. After discussing the current state of the art, it describes a new satellite mission, called TRUTHS, which enables, for the first time, high-accuracy SI traceability to be established in orbit. The direct use of a primary standard and replication of the terrestrial traceability chain extends the SI into space, in effect realizing a metrology laboratory in space . Keywords: climate change; Earth observation; satellites; radiometry; solar irradiance

Fox, Nigel↗
NASA NTRS2014

Mixed-field GCR Simulations for Radiobiological Research Using Ground Based Accelerators

Space radiation is comprised of a large number of particle types and energies, which have differential ionization power from high energy protons to high charge and energy (HZE) particles and secondary neutrons produced by galactic cosmic rays (GCR). Ground based accelerators such as the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) are used to simulate space radiation for radiobiology research and dosimetry, electronics parts, and shielding testing using mono-energetic beams for single ion species. As a tool to support research on new risk assessment models, we have developed a stochastic model of heavy ion beams and space radiation effects, the GCR Event-based Risk Model computer code (GERMcode). For radiobiological research on mixed-field space radiation, a new GCR simulator at NSRL is proposed. The NSRL-GCR simulator, which implements the rapid switching mode and the higher energy beam extraction to 1.5 GeV/u, can integrate multiple ions into a single simulation to create GCR Z-spectrum in major energy bins. After considering the GCR environment and energy limitations of NSRL, a GCR reference field is proposed after extensive simulation studies using the GERMcode. The GCR reference field is shown to reproduce the Z and LET spectra of GCR behind shielding within 20% accuracy compared to simulated full GCR environments behind shielding. A major challenge for space radiobiology research is to consider chronic GCR exposure of up to 3-years in relation to simulations with cell and animal models of human risks. We discuss possible approaches to map important biological time scales in experimental models using ground-based simulation with extended exposure of up to a few weeks and fractionation approaches at a GCR simulator.

Kim, Myung-Hee Y.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA Institutional Scientific Collection and Biospecimen Sharing Program at Ames Research Center

For decades, NASA and their international partners have flown and conducted non-human biological experiments in space to understand the effects of spaceflight and address potential biological hazards. It is imperative to understand the basic science and health risks associated with spaceflight, along with developing countermeasures, as humanity ventures back to the Moon, and then to Mars and beyond. Sending organisms into space is a costly endeavor which makes space-flown biological specimens a valuable resource. To enable maximum scientific return, samples not required by the Principal Investigators are harvested, preserved and archived in NASA’s Institutional Scientific Collection (ISC) at Ames Research Center (ARC). These specimens are collected according to well-established SOPs that maintain their quality and integrity. To enable new discoveries, the samples are then made available to the international scientific community through NASA’s Biospecimen Sharing Program (BSP). The NASA ISC currently stores over 32,000 specimens from Shuttle, International Space Station and ground-based investigations. Tissues are predominantly from mice and rats, though samples are also available from bacteria and quail. The specimens include tissues from all biological systems including musculoskeletal, neurosensory, reproductive, respiratory, circulatory, and digestive and are stored at -80°C, -20°C, +4°C, or ambient. Descriptive metadata is available for all samples. Historically, these tissues have been used for a wide range of analyses, including histology, genomics, and transcriptomics. Also available through the ISC are tissue from NASA’s Space Radiation Laboratory. To study the effects of space radiation, researchers irradiate biological specimens and unused samples are made available through the LSDA. These biospecimens and data are made available through the public Life Sciences Data Archive (LSDA) website to promote basic discovery, pre-clinical and clinical science. Visit the NASA ISC-BSP website for more information. Websites: https://lsda.jsc.nasa.gov/ ; https://www.nasa.gov/ames/research/space-biosciences/isc-bsp

Space Flown Biospecimens↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA Institutional Scientific Collection and Biospecimen Sharing Program at Ames Research Center

For decades, NASA and their international partners have flown and conducted non-human biological experiments in space to understand the effects of spaceflight and address potential biological hazards. It is imperative to understand the basic science and health risks associated with spaceflight, along with developing countermeasures, as humanity ventures back to the Moon, and then to Mars and beyond. Sending organisms into space is a costly endeavor which makes space-flown biological specimens a valuable resource. To enable maximum scientific return, samples not required by the Principal Investigators are harvested, preserved and archived in NASA’s Institutional Scientific Collection (ISC) at Ames Research Center (ARC). These specimens are collected according to well-established SOPs that maintain their quality and integrity. To enable new discoveries, the samples are then made available to the international scientific community through NASA’s Biospecimen Sharing Program (BSP). The NASA ISC currently stores over 32,000 specimens from Shuttle, International Space Station and ground-based investigations. Tissues are predominantly from mice and rats, though samples are also available from bacteria and quail. The specimens include tissues from all biological systems including musculoskeletal, neurosensory, reproductive, respiratory, circulatory, and digestive and are stored at -80°C, -20°C, +4°C, or ambient. Descriptive metadata is available for all samples. Historically, these tissues have been used for a wide range of analyses, including histology, genomics, and transcriptomics. Also available through the ISC are tissue from NASA’s Space Radiation Laboratory. To study the effects of space radiation, researchers irradiate biological specimens and unused samples are made available through the LSDA. These biospecimens and data are made available through the public Life Sciences Data Archive (LSDA) website to promote basic discovery, pre-clinical and clinical science. Visit the NASA ISC-BSP website for more information.

Space Flown Biospecimens↗
NASA NTRS1998

Reciprocal Space Mapping of Macromolecular Crystals in the Laboratory

The technique of reciprocal space mapping applied to the physical measurement of macromolecular crystals will be described. This technique uses a triple axis diffractometer setup whereby the monochromator is the first crystal, the sample is the second and the third crystal (of the same material as the monochromator) analyzes the diffracted beam. The geometry is such that it is possible to separate mosaic volume effects from lattice strain effects. The deconvolution of the instrument parameters will also be addressed. Results from measurements at Brookhaven National Synchrotron Radiation Source carried out on microgravity and ground-grown crystals will be presented. The required beam characteristics for reciprocal space mapping are also ideal for topographic studies and the first topographs ever recorded from microgravity protein crystal samples will be shown. We are now working on a system which will enable reciprocal space mapping, mosaicity and topography studies to be carried out in the home laboratory. This system uses a rotating anode X-ray source to provide an intense beam then a Bartels double crystal, four reflection monochromator to provide the spectral and geometric beam conditioning necessary such that the instrument characteristics do not mask the measurement. This is coupled to a high precision diffractometer and sensitive detector. Commissioning data and first results from the system will be presented.

Snell, Edward H.↗
NASA NTRS2014

NASA's Corrosion Technology Laboratory at the Kennedy Space Center: Anticipating, Managing, and Preventing Corrosion

Corrosion is the degradation of a material that results from its interaction with the environment. The marine environment at NASAs Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has been documented by ASM International (formerly American Society for Metals) as the most corrosive in the United States. With the introduction of the Space Shuttle in 1981, the already highly corrosive conditions at the launch pads were rendered even more severe by the 70 tons of highly corrosive hydrochloric acid that were generated by the solid rocket boosters. Numerous failures at the launch pads are caused by corrosion.The structural integrity of ground infrastructure and flight hardware is critical to the success, safety, cost, and sustainability of space missions. As a result of fifty years of experience with launch and ground operations in a natural marine environment that is highly corrosive, NASAs Corrosion Technology Laboratory at KSC is a major source of corrosion control expertise in the launch and other environments. Throughout its history, the Laboratory has evolved from what started as an atmospheric exposure facility near NASAs launch pads into a world-wide recognized capability that provides technical innovations and engineering services in all areas of corrosion for NASA and external customers.This presentation will provide a historical overview of the role of NASAs Corrosion Technology in anticipating, managing, and preventing corrosion. One important challenge in managing and preventing corrosion involves the detrimental impact on humans and the environment of what have been very effective corrosion control strategies. This challenge has motivated the development of new corrosion control technologies that are more effective and environmentally friendly. Strategies for improved corrosion protection and durability can have a huge impact on the economic sustainability of human spaceflight operations.

Corrosion↗
NASA NTRS1992

Design evolution of a telerobotic servicer through neutral buoyancy simulation

This paper briefly recounts the history of telerobotic vehicles in the Space Systems Laboratory. Based on this overview, the design of two vehicles are examined in depth, and directly compared. The Beam Assembly Teleoperator was the first true telerobot designed be the Space Systems Laboratory, and has been used extensively for six years. Ranger is the newest telerobot of the SSL, and is currently under development for operational testing in the summer of 1992. The primary focus of this paper is to compare and contrast the design details of these two telerobots, and to examine in some detail the evolution of design knowledge on some telerobots gained over the years of neutral buoyancy testing in the SSL.

Akin, David L.↗
NASA NTRS2015

NASA's Corrosion Technology Laboratory at the Kennedy Space Center: Anticipating, Managing, and Preventing Corrosion

The marine environment at NASAs Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has been documented by ASM International (formerly American Society for Metals) as the most corrosive in North America. With the introduction of the Space Shuttle in 1981, the already highly corrosive conditions at the launch pads were rendered even more severe by the highly corrosive hydrochloric acid (HCl) generated by the solid rocket boosters (SRBs). Numerous failures at the launch pads are caused by corrosion. The structural integrity of ground infrastructure and flight hardware is critical to the success, safety, cost, and sustainability of space missions. NASA has over fifty years of experience dealing with unexpected failures caused by corrosion and has developed expertise in corrosion control in the launch and other environments. The Corrosion Technology Laboratory at KSC evolved, from what started as an atmospheric exposure test site near NASAs launch pads, into a capability that provides technical innovations and engineering services in all areas of corrosion for NASA, external partners, and customers.This paper provides a chronological overview of NASAs role in anticipating, managing, and preventing corrosion in highly corrosive environments. One important challenge in managing and preventing corrosion involves the detrimental impact on humans and the environment of what have been very effective corrosion control strategies. This challenge has motivated the development of new corrosion control technologies that are more effective and environmentally friendly. Strategies for improved corrosion protection and durability can have a huge impact on the economic sustainability of human spaceflight operations.

Corrosion Control↗
NASA NTRS1999

Exotic Molecules in Space: A Coordinated Astronomical Laboratory and Theoretical Study

The past three years have been a period of great progress in our laboratory investigation of molecules of astrophysical interest-the most productive by far in the 20-year history of a research program which has led to the discovery of over 20% of the 123 known interstellar and circumstellar molecules. Most of the discoveries made during this period have been the result of the construction in late 1995 and early 1996 of a Fourier transform microwave spectrometer working in the centimeter-wave band. The sensitivity of this instrument from the moment that it was turned on has exceeded our expectations by an order of magnitude. The Table below shows the 46 new molecules which have been discovered. Most are carbon chains, the dominant type of molecule which has been found in space. Several comments with respect to these molecules should be made: 1. There are probably no mistakes in any of the identifications, since these have been confirmed by the standard, powerful assays and tests used to check spectroscopic identifications: isotopic substitution, quantum calculations of the expected molecular structures, detection of hyperfine structure, Zeeman effect, etc. 2. The radio laboratory astrophysics of the entire set is complete for the time being, in the sense that essentially all the astronomically interesting radio transitions (including hfs when present) are either directly measured or can now be calculated from the derived spectroscopic constants to better than 1 part per million (or 0.3 km s-1 in radial velocity, and often much better than that). 3. Six of the forty six new molecules have already been identified in space, in every case but one on the basis of our laboratory measurements. 4. Sensitive as they are, our laboratory techniques are far from fundamental limits on sensitivity, and 5. One of the principal motivations of our research is to close the fairly small mass and size gap, now only a factor of a few, between the smallest postulated interstellar grains and the largest identified interstellar molecules.

Thaddeus, Patrick↗
NASA NTRS2014

Organic Contamination Baseline Study in NASA Johnson Space Center Astromaterials Curation Laboratories

Future robotic and human spaceflight missions to the Moon, Mars, asteroids, and comets will require curating astromaterial samples with minimal inorganic and organic contamination to preserve the scientific integrity of each sample. 21st century sample return missions will focus on strict protocols for reducing organic contamination that have not been seen since the Apollo manned lunar landing program. To properly curate these materials, the Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office under the Astromaterial Research and Exploration Science Directorate at NASA Johnson Space Center houses and protects all extraterrestrial materials brought back to Earth that are controlled by the United States government. During fiscal year 2012, we conducted a year-long project to compile historical documentation and laboratory tests involving organic investigations at these facilities. In addition, we developed a plan to determine the current state of organic cleanliness in curation laboratories housing astromaterials. This was accomplished by focusing on current procedures and protocols for cleaning, sample handling, and storage. While the intention of this report is to give a comprehensive overview of the current state of organic cleanliness in JSC curation laboratories, it also provides a baseline for determining whether our cleaning procedures and sample handling protocols need to be adapted and/or augmented to meet the new requirements for future human spaceflight and robotic sample return missions.

Calaway, Michael J.↗
NASA NTRS2007

The International Space Station as a Research Laboratory: A View to 2010 and Beyond

Assembly of International Space Station (ISS) is expected to be complete in 2010, with operations planned to continue through at least 2016. As we move nearer to assembly complete, replanning activities by NASA and ISS International Partners have been completed and the final complement of research facilities on ISS is becoming more certain. This paper will review pans for facilities in the US On-orbit Segment of ISS, including contributions from International Partners, to provide a vision of the research capabilities that will be available starting in 2010. At present, in addition to research capabilities in the Russian segment, the United States Destiny research module houses nine research facilities or racks. These facilities include five multi-purpose EXPRESS racks, two Human Research Facility (HRF) racks, the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG), and the Minus Eighty-degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI), enabling a wide range of exploration-related applied as well as basic research. In the coming years, additional racks will be launched to augment this robust capability: Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR), Fluids Integrated Rack (FIR), Window Observation Rack Facility (WORF), Microgravity Science Research Rack (MSRR), Muscle Atrophy Research Exercise System (MARES), additional EXPRESS racks and possibly a second MELFI. In addition, EXPRESS Logistics Carriers (ELC) will provide attach points for external payloads. The European Space Agency s Columbus module will contain five research racks and provide four external attach sites. The research racks are Biolab, European Physiology Module (EPM), Fluid Science Lab (FSL), European Drawer System (EDS) and European Transport Carrier (ETC). The Japanese Kibo elements will initially support three research racks, Ryutai for fluid science, Saibo for cell science, and Kobairo for materials research, as well as 10 attachment sites for external payloads. As we look ahead to assembly complete, these new facilities represent a threefold increase from the current research laboratory infrastructure on ISS. In addition, the increase in resident crew size will increase from three to six in 2009, will provide the long-term capacity for completing research on board ISS. Transportation to and from ISS for crew and cargo will be provided by a fleet of vehicles from the United States, Russia, ESA and Japan, including accommodations for thermally-conditioned cargo. The completed ISS will have robust research accommodations to support the multidisciplinary research objective of scientists worldwide.

Uri, John J.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Simulating Micrometeoroid Bombardment on Mercury: Identifying New Space Weathering Features in the Laboratory

Airless bodies are continually exposed to the harsh interplanetary space environment, causing the alteration of their surfaces through a process known as space weathering (SW). SW is dominated by solar wind irradiation and micrometeoroid bombardment, which together alter the spectral, microstructural, and chemical characteristics of grains on the surface of airless bodies. The effects of SW are variable and depend on the heliocentric distance and the initial composition of the planetary surface, among other factors. On the Moon and S- type asteroids, it is well established that SW darkens and reddens the surface of these bodies and attenuates absorption bands across the Vis-NIR wavelengths. These spectral effects are largely the result of the production of metallic Fe nanoparticles (npFe). However, Mercury’s SW environment is unique compared to the Moon and S-type asteroids. Mercury is a geochemical endmember, with a surface composition low in Fe (<2 wt.%) and enriched in volatile components, including regions of the surface hypothesized to contain up to 4 wt.% graphite in the low reflectance material (LRM). In fact, the presence of graphite on Mercury has been hypothesized to act as a reducing agent for silicates during SW to produce Si-bearing Fe-rich metal. In addition, its location in the solar system exposes Mercury to an extreme SW environment, with the surface of the planet experiencing an intense solar wind flux and higher flux and velocity of micrometeoroid impactors compared to the Moon and S-type asteroids. The effects that such harsh SW has on materials with the unique compositional characteristics of Mercury are not well constrained. To better understand SW at Mercury, we must investigate these processes in the laboratory. Here, we present the results of our analyses of the spectral, microstructural and chemical characteristics of Mercury analog samples irradiated by pulsed laser to simulate the short duration, high temperature events associated with micrometeoroid impacts.

Nick Bott↗
NASA NTRS1988

A design methodology for neutral buoyancy simulation of space operations

Neutral buoyancy has often been used in the past for EVA development activities, but little has been done to provide an analytical understanding of the environment and its correlation with space. This paper covers a set of related research topics at the MIT Space Systems Laboratory, dealing with the modeling of the space and underwater environments, validation of the models through testing in neutral buoyancy, parabolic flight, and space flight experiments, and applications of the models to gain a better design methodology for creating meaningful neutral buoyancy simulations. Examples covered include simulation validation criteria for human body dynamics, and for applied torques in a beam rotation task, which is the pacing crew operation for EVA structural assembly. Extensions of the dynamics models are presented for powered vehicles in the underwater environment, and examples given from the MIT Space Telerobotics Research Program, including the Beam Assembly Teleoperator and the Multimode Proximity Operations Device. Future expansions of the modeling theory are also presented, leading to remote vehicles which behave in neutral buoyancy exactly as the modeled system would in space.

Akin, David L.↗
NASA NTRS1990

United States microgravity programs

The U.S. Microgravity Program encompasses research initiatives of the NASA Office of Space Science and Applications and Office of Commercial Programs. NASA involvement in space missions extends to the U.S Microgravity Laboratory, the International Microgravity Laboratory, the Space Life Sciences Mission, and planned activities aboard the Japanese and German Spacelab missions. Flight programs under the aegis of NASA's Centers for the Commercial Development of Space will employ the Space Shuttle-based Commercial Middeck Augmentation Module and the Suborbital and Orbital Expendable Launch Vehicles. The projected Space Station will include a significant microgravity program.

Ott, Richard H.↗