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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Biological Research and Space Health Enabled by Machine Learning to Support Deep Space Missions

A key science goal of the NASA “Moon to Mars” campaign is to understand how biology responds to the Lunar, Martian, and deep space environments in order to advance fundamental knowledge and support human space missions. Through artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), a paradigm shift has begun in space biosciences and engineered astronaut health systems, to enable Earth-independence and mission operations autonomy. We describe current AI/ML methods to support 1) fundamental biology, 2) in situ analytics, 3) high performance computing, 4) automated science, 5) self-driving labs, 6) remote data management, 7) integrated mission biomonitoring, and 8) a Precision Space Health system. AI/ML approaches that can be integrated to support these domains include active learning, explainable AI, adaptive learning, causal inference, knowledge graphs, federated learning, transfer learning, and large language models. Finally, we present results from several current ML projects that are underway in the space biology field to address key challenges of small sample n, high feature count, heterogeneity, and sparse data. These include 1) connecting omics to phenotypic data using an ensemble model to infer causality of rodent liver health disruption, 2) usage of explainable ML to interrogate muscular underpinnings of muscle atrophy, 3) ML models analyzing and determining directed acyclic graphs of human health risk leveraging rodent bone datasets, 4) usage of large pre-trained models connecting biomedical knowledgebases with small spaceflight datasets to understand gene-to-gene interactions, and 5) a suite of benchmarked open science datasets enabling programmers to identify best algorithms to answer space biology questions.

space biology↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Propeller Source Noise Separation from Flight Test Measurements of the Joby Aviation Aircraft

The Vold-Kalman order-tracking filter is applied to full-scale acoustic flight test measurements of the Joby Aviation eVTOL aircraft. Using synchronized acquisition of the aircraft position, time-varying rotation rates of each propeller, and any given single-channel acoustic signal, harmonic and nonharmonic acoustic content can be separated. Furthermore, this time-domain technique can also separate harmonic content amongst individual propellers, providing additional physical insight into the total acoustic field. A 60 kt level flyover and hover are used to exemplify the effectiveness of the method. Results clearly demonstrate the ability to rank propulsors in terms of their relative importance without the use of phased arrays. Frequency- and order-domain results are provided, as well as noise hemispheres to illustrate directivity and individual propeller contributions. Differences can be associated with interactional or installation effects due to the similarities in propeller states for each condition. Simulated signals that track the measured time-varying shaft rates were used to assess the proper filter pole count and bandwidth.

evtol↗

DOE OSTI2025

Measuring the Debye energy in superconductors via two-electron photoemission spectroscopy

In this work, we demonstrate theoretically that double angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (2eARPES) can directly probe the existence of Cooper pairs away from the Fermi surface, and can thus provide insight into the characteristic energy scale around the Fermi surface, the Debye energy, in which electrons are bound into Cooper pairs. To this end, we compute the photoelectron counting rate 𝑃 (2) in two different types of unconventional superconductors, a 𝑑 𝑥 2 −𝑦 2 -wave superconductor, and a topological superconductor with a broken time-reversal symmetry. We show that 𝑃 (2) provides insight into the relative strength of intra- and interband pairing in multiband systems, as well as into the spin polarization of the bands.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

DOE OSTI2024

Extraction of Vibration Data with Imaging

To date, the primary sensing technology used to measure the vibration response has been accelerometers and strain gages mounted directly to the structure and using either wired or, more recently, wireless telemetry. Cost issues with these sensors and the associated data acquisition systems typically limit the numbers that are deployed on in situ structures. Although there are a few structures with larger sensing counts that in some cases exceed over 1000 sensors, more typical numbers range from ten to one hundred sensors resulting in low spatial resolution when they are applied to physically large systems. When one considers that nuclear power plant structures usually have complex geometries, material properties, connectivity and boundary conditions, it is clear these current approaches to vibration measurements can only provide limited information about a system’s dynamics response characteristics. As an alternative, many non-contact measurement technologies have emerged, including point wise measurement methods such as Global Positioning System (GPS), microwave interferometry, and laser Doppler vibrometry (LDV), as well as simultaneous full-field measurement methods such as electronic speckle pattern interferometry, holography interferometry, and muon tomography, some of which can provide high spatial resolution measurements. Among these methods, digital video imaging techniques have emerged as a feasible solution for full-field vibration measurements that provide significantly more detailed dynamic response information because every pixel becomes a measurement point. Furthermore, recent advances in image processing and computer vision algorithms have been successfully used to process video data for experimental and operational modal analysis. Such full-field measurements have the potential to significantly improve many current structural assessment procedures including system identification (modal parameter estimation), structural health monitoring, load reconstruction, model validation, and model updating. Furthermore, more recent full-field imaging techniques can be accomplished with relatively low-cost, commercially-available off-the-shelf cameras. However, these measurement procedures have other limitations that must be considered such as the ability to only measure visibly accessible points on a structure and a more limited dynamic range and bandwidth than can be achieved with accelerometers or strain gages.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

NASA NTRS1974

A field-ionization neutral-particle mass spectrometer

Description of laboratory model of a neutral-particle mass spectrometer that could make localized direct measurements of the neutral densities at 1 AU. Using a magnet that has a circular pole face 2.54 cm in diameter and a gap flux density of 8.0 kG, the following sensitivities were obtained for the various species: 10 to the 10th power counts per second per Torr for H2, 3 times 10 to the eighth power counts per second per Torr for He, and 2 times 10 to the 9th power counts per second per Torr for N2. Overall sensitivity may be increased through the use of electrostatic focusing elements between the ion source and the magnetic analyzer.

Curtis, C. C.↗

NASA NTRS1980

The visual accommodation response during concurrent mental activity

The direction and magnitude of the human visual accommodation response during concurrent mental activity are investigated. Subject focusing responses to targets at distances of 0.0 D, 3.0 D and an indeterminate distance were monitored by means of an optometer during the performance of a backwards counting task and a visual imagery task (thinking near and thinking far). In both experiments a shift in accommodation towards the visual far point is observed particularly for the near target, which increases with the duration of the task. The results can be interpreted in terms of both the capacity model of Kahneman (1973) and the autonomic arousal model of Hess and Polt (1964), and are not inconsistent with the possibility of an intermediate resting position.

Malmstrom, F. V.↗

DOE OSTI2025

Laser repair welding of irradiated alloy 182

Welding repair of irradiated nickel-based alloys, such as Alloy 182, poses a significant challenge due to helium-induced cracking (HeIC) and grain boundary degradation (GBD) in the heat affected zone, driven by helium accumulation at grain boundaries and welding-induced tensile stresses. This study investigates the weldability of irradiated Alloy 182 up to 15 wppm doped boron using both conventional laser welding and the Auxiliary Beam Stress Improved (ABSI) laser welding technique. While HeIC was observed at the weld toe of the entry pass in both methods due to the higher effective heat input associated with the initial pass directly on the base metal, no additional cracking occurred elsewhere, even at elevated helium concentrations. Optical and scanning electron microscopy analysis revealed that the ABSI technique, which introduces additional compressive stresses to counteract solidification-induced tensile stresses, significantly reduced GBD formation, lowering its total count from 1,230 to 339 and decreasing both average and maximum GBD lengths. In conclusion, these results demonstrate that the ABSI technique is a promising approach to mitigate helium-induced damage and improve the weldability of irradiated Alloy 182, offering a viable solution for structural repairs for long-term operation of existing nuclear reactors.

grain boundary degradation↗

NASA NTRS1982

Soft X-rays from the sunlit earth's atmosphere

Observations of soft X-ray emission from the sunlit earth atmosphere are presented and compared with the predictions of an earth albedo X-ray theory. The exact theory accounts for the flux of Thomson scattered solar X rays and fluorescently excited K X rays that arise following the absorption of incident X rays as a function of observing geometry. Observations were made at widely separated geometries with the two low-energy detectors of the A-2 experiment on the HEAO-1 satellite. Fitting of the model to the observed spectra results in values for the solar coronal temperature and emission measure that are in good agreement with expected values for the nonflaring sun, indicating that X-ray observations of the sunlit atmosphere may be a useful monitor of solar activity for satellites unable to view the sun directly. The total measured fluorescent line flux is also in agreement with calculations, although the N/O line ratio is not. X-ray fluorescence measurements from the sunlit atmosphere will thus be useful in monitoring atmospheric composition only to the extent that the total line counting rates depend upon the composition.

Mckenzie, D. L.↗

NASA NTRS1992

A rare gas optics-free absolute EUV photon spectrometer for solar system studies

We have developed a prototype spectrometer for space applications which require long term absolute EUV photon flux measurements. In this recently developed spectrometer, the energy spectrum of the incoming photons is transformed directly into an electron energy spectrum by taking advantage of the photoelectric effect in one of several rare gases at low pressures. Using an electron energy spectrometer operating at a few eV, and followed by an electron multiplying detector, pulses due to individual electrons are counted. The overall efficiency of this process is essentially independent of gain drifts in the signal path, and the secular degradation of optical components which is often a problem in other techniques is avoided.

Daybell, M. D.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Additive Manufacturing Design Considerations for Liquid Engine Components

The Marshall Space Flight Center's Propulsion Systems Department has gained significant experience in the last year designing, building, and testing liquid engine components using additive manufacturing. The department has developed valve, duct, turbo-machinery, and combustion device components using this technology. Many valuable lessons were learned during this process. These lessons will be the focus of this presentation. We will present criteria for selecting part candidates for additive manufacturing. Some part characteristics are 'tailor made' for this process. Selecting the right parts for the process is the first step to maximizing productivity gains. We will also present specific lessons we learned about feature geometry that can and cannot be produced using additive manufacturing machines. Most liquid engine components were made using a two-step process. The base part was made using additive manufacturing and then traditional machining processes were used to produce the final part. The presentation will describe design accommodations needed to make the base part and lessons we learned about which features could be built directly and which require the final machine process. Tolerance capabilities, surface finish, and material thickness allowances will also be covered. Additive Manufacturing can produce internal passages that cannot be made using traditional approaches. It can also eliminate a significant amount of manpower by reducing part count and leveraging model-based design and analysis techniques. Information will be shared about performance enhancements and design efficiencies we experienced for certain categories of engine parts.

Whitten, Dave↗

DOE OSTI2023

Scalable self attraction and loading calculations for unstructured ocean tide models

Self attraction and earth-loading effects are important for accurately modeling global tides. A common approach of handling this forcing is to expand mass anomalies into spherical harmonics, which are scaled by load Love numbers to account for elastic earth deformation. We investigate two different approaches to perform these calculations for ocean models that employ unstructured meshes and distributed memory parallelization. The first approach leverages a highly efficient spherical harmonics library, but requires all-to-one and one-to-all communications and interpolation operations between the unstructured and a structured mesh. This approach is compared to a parallel algorithm that computes the spherical harmonic transformations directly on the unstructured mesh with an all-reduce communication. Here, our results show that although the unstructured mesh calculations are more expensive, the scalability of the unstructured mesh approach allows for more efficient spherical harmonics transforms for high-resolution meshes and large processor counts. This methodology enables the efficient inclusion of tidal dynamics large-scale Earth system model simulations.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2026

Identifying neutron sources using recoil and time-of-flight spectroscopy

Identification of neutron sources is central to nuclear physics and its applications, from planetary science to nuclear security, yet direct source discrimination from measured neutron spectra remains fundamentally elusive. Here, we introduce a Bayesian protocol that directly infers source ensembles from measured neutron spectra by combining full-spectrum template matching with probabilistic evidence evaluation. Applying this protocol to recoil and time-of-flight spectroscopy, we recover single- and two-source configurations with strong statistical significance (beyond 4⁢𝜎) at event counts as low as ∼10 3 . These results demonstrate that neutron spectral signatures can be leveraged for robust source identification, opening a new observational window for both fundamental research and operationally driven applications.

neutron physics↗

DOE OSTI2025

Discriminator Threshold Study for Scint 1

During electronics testing at NSRL, the fluence/spill is recorded from the QC1 chamber. This chamber, which is a permanent fixture on the NSRL beamline, requires calibration from an external radiation detector that can measure ion flux directly. A 1.0 × 1.0 × 0.5 cm 3 scintillator is used at the testing location to calibrate all NSRL beams for electronic experiments. A calibration factor is derived by comparing the ions observed by the scintillator and QC1 during an exposure of at least 10 5 scintillator counts or total ions.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

NASA NTRS1985

Characteristics of cloud-to-ground lightning flashes along the east coast of the United States

A magnetic direction-finding network for the detection of lightning cloud-to-ground strikes has been installed along the east coast of the United States. Most of the lightning occurring from Maine to Florida and as far west as Ohio is detected. Time, location, flash polarity, stroke count, and peak signal amplitude are recorded in real time. Flash locations, time, and polarity are displayed routinely for research and operational purposes. Flash density maps have been generated for the summers of 1983 and 1984, when the network only extended to North Carolina, and show density maxima in northern Virginia and Maryland.

Orville, R. E., Sr.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Plasticity of Neurovestibular Systems Following Micro- and Hyper-Gravity Exposure and Readaptation to Earth's 1G

The gravity-sensing organs sense the sum of inertial force due to head translation and head orientation relative to gravity. Normally gravity is constant, and yet the neural sensors show remarkable plasticity. When the force of gravity changes, such as in spaceflight or during centrifugation, the neurovestibular system responds by regulating its neural output, and this response is similar for the vertebrate utricular nerve afferents and for the statocyst hair cell in invertebrates. First, we examine the response of utricular afferents in toadfish following exposure to G on two orbital missions (STS-90 and 95). Within the first day after landing, magnitude of neural response to an applied acceleration was significantly elevated, and re-adaptation back to control values occurred within approximately 30 hours. Time course of return to normal approximately parallels the decrease in vestibular disorientation in astronauts following return. Next, we use well-controlled hyper-G experiments in the vertebrate model to address: If G leads to adaptation and subsequent re-adaptation neural processes, does the transfer from 1G to hyper-G impart the opposite effects and do the effects accompanying transfer from the hyper-G back to the 1G conditions resemble as an analog the transfer from 1G to the microG Results show a biphasic pattern in reaction to 3G exposures: an initial sensitivity up-regulation (3- and 4-day) followed by a significant decrease after longer exposure. Return to control values is on the order of 4-8 days. Utricular sensitivity is strongly regulated up or down by gravity load and the duration of exposure. Interestingly, we found no correlation of response and hair cell synaptic body counts despite the large gain difference between 4- and 16-Day subjects. Lastly, we examine responses of statocyst receptors in land snail following exposure to G on two unmanned Russian Orbital missions (Foton M-2 and -3). Here, we have the ability to measure the output directly from the hair cells. Similar to afferents in vertebrates the hair cells increased their response sensitivity to vestibular stimulation. Two major pieces of information are needed: the precise vertebrate hair cell response to altered gravity and the impact of longer duration exposures on sensory plasticity.

Boyle, Richard D.↗

NASA NTRS2016

Initial Incidence of White Matter Hyperintensities on MRI in Astronauts

Introduction: Previous literature has described the increase in white matter hyperintensity (WMH) burden associated with hypobaric exposure in the U-2 and altitude chamber operating personnel. Although astronauts have similar hypobaric exposure pressures to the U2 pilot population, astronauts have far fewer exposures and each exposure would be associated with a much lower level of decompression stress due to rigorous countermeasures to prevent decompression sickness. Therefore, we postulated that the WMH burden in the astronaut population would be less than in U2 pilots. Methods: Twenty-one post-flight de-identified astronaut MRIs (5 mm slice thickness FLAIR sequences) were evaluated for WMH count and volume. The only additional data provided was an age range of the astronauts (43-57) and if they had ever performed an EVA (13 yes, 8 no). Results: WMH count in these 21 astronaut MRI was 21.0 +/- 24.8 (mean+/- SD) and volume was 0.382 +/- 0.602 ml, which was significantly higher than previously published results for the U2 pilots. No significant differences between EVA and no EVA groups existed. Age range of astronaut population is not directly comparable to the U2 population. Discussion: With significantly less frequent (sometimes none) and less stressful hypobaric exposures, yet a much higher incidence of increased WMH, this indicates the possibility of additional mechanisms beyond hypobaric exposure. This increase unlikely to be attributable just to the differences in age between astronauts and U2 pilots. Forward work includes continuing review of post-flight MRI and evaluation of pre to post flight MRI changes if available. Data mining for potential WMH risk factors includes collection of age, sex, spaceflight experience, EVA hours, other hypobaric exposures, hyperoxic exposures, radiation, high performance aircraft experience and past medical history. Finally, neurocognitive and vision/eye results will be evaluated for any evidence of impairment linked to increased WMH.

Norcross, Jason↗

NASA NTRS2004

Background Count Rates and the Anti-Coincidence Detector on the Instrument on Astro-E2

Minimum ionizing particles incident on the XRS microcalorimeter array will deposit energy in the pixels on the same scale as an x-ray photon and would be confused with x-rays without an anti-coincidence detector. The XRS anti-coincidence detector is a silicon ionization detector placed directly behind the calorimeter array. Given an isotropic particle flux, 98% of those particles that pass through a calorimeter pixel will also deposit energy in the anti-coincidence detector. Particle events that are not rejected by coincidence are those that pass through at small angles relative to the plane of the array, and thus deposit more energy. Modeling with GEANT4 showed that only 0.1% of all protons incident on the array miss the anti-coincidence detector yet deposit less than 10 keV in a pixel. The unrejected background will thus be dominated by secondary events; we will provide an estimate of this rate. Protons incident on the thick silicon frame around the active area of the array deposit enough energy t o heat the whole chip slightly. This results in small simultaneous pulses on multiple pixels. These can be easily rejected by pixel-to-pixel coincidence. We will discuss the impact of these events on the instrument dead time and will present the expected rate. We will present laboratory background data demonstrating the performance of the anti-coincidence detector and the effectiveness of coincidence analysis in the laboratory environment.

Kilbourne, C. A.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Biological Research and Space Health Enabled by Machine Learning to Support Deep Space Missions

A key science goal of the NASA “Moon to Mars” campaign is to understand how biology responds to the Lunar, Martian, and deep space environments in order to advance fundamental knowledge, reduce risk, and support safe, productive human space missions. Through the powerful emerging computer science approaches of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), a paradigm shift has begun in biomedical science and engineered astronaut health systems, to enable Earth-independence and autonomy of mission operations. We present a decadal view of AI/ML architecture to support deep space mission goals, developed in concert with leaders in the field. We describe current AI/ML methods to support 1) fundamental biology, 2) in situ analytics, 3) high performance computing hardware, 4) automated science, 5) self-driving labs, 6) remote data management, 7) integrated real-time mission biomonitoring, and 8) a Precision Space Health system. Cutting-edge AI/ML approaches that can be integrated to support these domains include active learning, explainable AI, adaptive learning, causal inference, knowledge graphs, federated learning, transfer learning, and large language models. Finally, we present results from several current ML projects that are underway in the field to address key challenges of small sample n, high feature count, heterogeneity, and sparse data. These include 1) connecting omics data to phenotypic data using an ensemble model to infer causality of spaceflight rodent liver health disruption, 2) usage of explainable ML to interrogate the muscular underpinnings of spaceflight muscle atrophy, 3) ML models analyzing and determining directed acyclic graphs of human space health risk leveraging rodent bone datasets, 4) usage of large pre-trained models connecting biomedical knowledgebases with small spaceflight datasets to understand gene-to-gene interaction networks, and 5) a suite of benchmarked open science datasets (spaceflight mouse liver; radiation DNA damage) enabling programmers to identify the best ML algorithms to answer space biological science questions.

space biology↗