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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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At least 433 records · Page 24
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1993

Space transportation alternatives for large space programs: The International Space University Summer Session, 1992

In 1992, the International Space University (ISU) held its Summer Session in Kitakyushu, Japan. This paper summarizes and expands upon some aspects of space solar power and space transportation that were considered during that session. The issues discussed in this paper are the result of a 10-week study by the Space Solar Power Program design project members and the Space Transportation Group to investigate new paradigms in space propulsion and how those paradigms might reduce the costs for large space programs. The program plan was to place a series of power satellites in Earth orbit. Several designs were studied where many kW, MW, or GW of power would be transmitted to Earth or to other spacecraft in orbit. During the summer session, a space solar power system was also detailed and analyzed. A high-cost space transportation program is potentially the most crippling barrier to such a space power program. At ISU, the focus of the study was to foster and develop some of the new paradigms that may eliminate the barriers to low cost for space exploration and exploitation. Many international and technical aspects of a large multinational program were studied. Environmental safety, space construction and maintenance, legal and policy issues of frequency allocation, technology transfer and control and many other areas were addressed. Over 120 students from 29 countries participated in this summer session. The results discussed in this paper, therefore, represent the efforts of many nations.

Palaszewski, Bryan A.↗
NASA NTRS2003

A Participating Scientist Program for the STARDUST Mission

It is the Policy of NASA s Office of Space Science to emphasize and encourage the addition of Participating Scientist Programs (PSP s) to broaden the scientific impact of missions. A Participating Scientist Program for the STARDUST Mission: STARDUST is the fourth Discovery mission, and it is the first sample return mission selected within the Discovery Program. The STARDUST Spacecraft will fly through the coma of comet PIwildt-2 in early January 2004, and return the samples to the Earth in January 2006. The Principal Investigator of the STARDUST mission, Dr. Donald Brownlee, has generously requested the implementation of a PSP for STARDUST in order to provide more community participation in the initial characterization and analysis of the samples from PIwildt-2. In particular participating scientists will fill out the membership of the Preliminary Examination Team (PET) called for in the original 1994 STARDUST proposal accepted by NASA in 1995. The work of the PET will be organized around major subdiscipline areas such as mineralogy and petrology, isotopic abundances, and elemental composition. There will be leaders for each of these areas, and also a number of team members within each. Support will be commensurate with the level of participation.

Morgan, T. H.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Science Enabling Roles and Services of SPDF

The current Heliophysics Science Data Management Policy defines the roles of the Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF) project as a heliophysics active Final Archive, a focus for critical data infrastructure services and a center of excellence for data and ancillary information services. This presentation will highlight some of our current activities and our understanding of why and how our services are useful to researchers, as well as SPDF's programmatic emphasis in the coming year. We will discuss how. in cooperation with the Heliophysics Virtual discipline Observatories (VxOs), we are working closely with the RBSP and MMS mission teams to support their decisions to use CDF as a primary format for their public data products, to leverage the ongoing data flows and capabilities of CDAWeb (directly and through external clients such as Autoplot) to serve their data in a multi-mission context and to use SSCWeb to assist community science planning and analysis. Among other current activities, we will also discuss and demonstrate our continuing effort to make the Virtual Space Physics Observatory (VSPO) service comprehensive in all significant and NASA relevant heliophysics data. The OMNI and OMNI High Resolution datasets remain current and heavily cited in publications. We are expanding our FTP file services to include online archived non-CDF data from all active missions, which is a re-hosting of this function from NSSDC's FTP site. We have extended the definitions of time in CDF to unambiguously and consistently handle leap seconds. We are improving SSCWeb for much faster per1ormance, more capabilities and a web services inter1ace to Query functionality. We will also review how CDAWeb data can be easily accessed within IDL and new features in CDAWeb.

McGuire, Robert E.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Planetary Protection Strategy of the Earth Return Orbiter–Capture, Containment & Return System in the Context of the Mars Sample Return Campaign

The Mars Sample Return Campaign aims at bringing back to Earth the rock and atmospheric samples that the rover Perseverance has started to collect on the surface of Mars with the goal of analyzing them in a facility built specifically for this purpose to answer questions about the habitability of Mars. The Campaign consists of several missions, including the Earth Return Orbiter–Capture, Containment & Return System (ERO-CCRS), which will capture the samples previously put in Martian orbit, contain them in redundant containers to ensure that no unsterilized particles are released, and return them to Earth through a parachute-less entry vehicle. Both NASA and ESA policies address the United Nations’ Outer Space Treaty by addressing potential harm from material returned from solar system bodies beyond the Earth-Moon system. In the conduct of Mars Sample Return, the two agencies have agreed to apply approaches consistent with their own standards to campaign elements each provides. This work presents the overall strategy for both forward and backward planetary protection for the ERO-CCRS mission. Specifically, for forward planetary protection, CCRS is not required to meet specific bioburden requirements as a Category III mission provided the ERO (1) meets orbital lifetime requirements during orbiter operations and (2) any elements jettisoned at Mars meet orbital lifetime requirements. CCRS is required to be built in ISO-8 or better cleanrooms and, by agreement with ERO, be compatible with direct bioburden verification methods. For backward planetary protection, the overall approach includes building robust, highly reliable systems to prevent inadvertent release of unsterilized Mars material through redundant containment vessels and particle transport analyses. Ongoing work to define verification approaches and quantify containment assurance levels for specific sample return systems will also be discussed, along with how those data will inform launch approval for ERO-CCRS.

Giuseppe Cataldo↗
NASA NTRS1987

Long range planning at NASA

NASA's current plans for the U.S. space program are described. Consideration is given to the debate between manned or unmanned exploration of space, missions to the moon versus missions to Mars, and the exploration of space applications or science. NASA has created the Office of Policy and Planning and the Office of Exploration in order to improve the planning of future space activities. Long-range trends such as second-generation Shuttles, cargo launch vehicles with large capacity systems, an advanced Space Station, the use of robotics, closed cycle life support, health maintenance techniques, and the processing of extraterrestrial materials are considered.

Bekey, Ivan↗
NASA NTRS2008

Evolution of Government and Industrial Partnerships to Open the Space Frontier

If the logical extension of the current exploration program is to develop self-sustaining settlements on the Moon and Mars over the next few centuries, then there is a path that takes civilization from its current one planet existence to a multi-world future. By considering the far term goal of space settlements as a desired endpoint and using the current state as a starting point, the policy drivers and potential pathways to the goal of sustainable space settlements can be explored. This paper describes a three-phased evolution of government and industrial partnerships from current day relationships to a time when there are sustainable settlements in space. Phase I details the current state government-led exploration while Phase III describes a desired endpoint of self-sufficient settlements in space. Phase II is an important transition phase, which acts as a bridge between now and the future. This paper discusses the critical evolution that must take place in two key areas to ensure a thriving future in space; space transportation and the right to use space property and resources. This paper focuses on the enabling role of government necessary to achieve United States (U.S.) goals for space exploration and open the frontier.

Martin, Gary L.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Global Positioning System Energetic Particle Data: The Next Space Weather Data Revolution

The Global Positioning System (GPS) has revolutionized the process of getting from point A to point Band so much more. A large fraction of the worlds population relies on GPS (and its counterparts from other nations) for precision timing, location, and navigation. Most GPS users are unaware that the spacecraft providing the signals they rely on are operating in a very harsh space environment the radiation belts where energetic particles trapped in Earths magnetic field dash about at nearly the speed of light. These subatomic particles relentlessly pummel GPS satellites. So by design, every GPS satellite and its sensors are radiation hardened. Each spacecraft carries particle detectors that provide health and status data to system operators. Although these data reveal much about the state of the space radiation environment, heretofore they have been available only to system operators and supporting scientists. Research scientists have long sought a policy shift to allow more general access. With the release of the National Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan organized by the White House Office of Science Technology Policy (OSTP) a sample of these data have been made available to space weather researchers. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the National Center for Environmental Information released a months worth of GPS energetic particle data from an interval of heightened space weather activity in early 2014 with the hope of stimulating integration of these data sets into the research arena. Even before the public data release GPS support scientists from LANL showed the extraordinary promise of these data.

Knipp, Delores J.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Pricing of NASA Space Shuttle transportation system cargo

A two-part pricing policy is investigated as the most feasible method of pricing the transportation services to be provided by NASA's SSTS. Engineering cost estimates and a deterministic operating cost model generate a data base and develop a procedure for pricing the services of the SSTS. It is expected that the SSTS will have a monopoly on space material processing in areas of crystal growth, glass processing, metallurgical space applications, and biomedical processes using electrophoresis which will require efficient pricing. Pricing problems, the SSTS operating costs based on orbit elevation, number of launch sites, and number of flights, capital costs of the SSTS, research and development costs, allocation of joint transportation costs of the SSTS to a particular space processing activity, and rates for the SSTS are discussed. It is concluded that joint costs for commercial cargoes carried in the SSTS can be most usefully handled by making cost allocations based on proportionate capacity utilization.

Hale, C. W.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Motivational contracting in space programs - Government and industry prospectives

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center has used incentive-free policies in contracting for Apollo's Saturn Launch vehicle hardware, as well as award-fee contracts for major development and early production programs in the case of the Space Shuttle Program. These programs have evolved to a point at which multiple incentive fees are useful in motivating cost reductions and assuring timely achievement of delivery requirements and flight mission goals. An examination is presently conducted of the relative success of these motivation-oriented techniques, drawing on the comments of both government and industry personnel.

Clough, D. R.↗
NASA NTRS1993

The International Space Life Sciences Strategic Planning Working Group

Throughout the 1980s, ESA and the space agencies of Canada, Germany, France, Japan, and the U.S. have pursued cooperative projects bilaterally and multilaterally to prepare for, and to respond to, opportunities in space life sciences research previously unapproachable in scale and sophistication. To cope effectively with likely future space research opportunities, broad, multilateral, coordinated strategic planning is required. Thus, life scientists from these agencies have allied to form the International Space Life Sciences Strategic Planning Working Group. This Group is formally organized under a charter that specifies the purpose of the Working Group as the development of an international strategic plan for the space life sciences, with periodic revisions as needed to keep the plan current. The plan will be policy-, not operations-oriented. The Working Group also may establish specific implementation teams to coordinate multilateral science policy in specific areas; such teams have been established for space station utilization, and for sharing of flight equipment.

White, Ronald J.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Microgravity Platforms

The world's space agencies have been conducting microgravity research since the beginning of space flight. Initially driven by the need to understand the impact of less than- earth gravity physics on manned space flight, microgravity research has evolved into a broad class of scientific experimentation that utilizes extreme low acceleration environments. The U.S. NASA microgravity research program supports both basic and applied research in five key areas: biotechnology - focusing on macro-molecular crystal growth as well as the use of the unique space environment to assemble and grow mammalian tissue; combustion science - focusing on the process of ignition, flame propagation, and extinction of gaseous, liquid, and solid fuels; fluid physics - including aspects of fluid dynamics and transport phenomena; fundamental physics - including the study of critical phenomena, low-temperature, atomic, and gravitational physics; and materials science - including electronic and photonic materials, glasses and ceramics, polymers, and metals and alloys. Similar activities prevail within the Chinese, European, Japanese, and Russian agencies with participation from additional international organizations as well. While scientific research remains the principal objective behind these program, all hope to drive toward commercialization to sustain a long range infrastructure which .benefits the national technology and economy. In the 1997 International Space Station Commercialization Study, conducted by the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, some viable microgravity commercial ventures were identified, however, none appeared sufficiently robust to privately fund space access at that time. Thus, government funded micro gravity research continues on an evolutionary path with revolutionary potential.

Del Basso, Steve↗
NASA NTRS2012

Deep Space Mission Trend Analyses: A Briefing to the Next Generation EBRE Study Team

Determination of stakeholder needs for next generation implementations necessitates a multi ]pronged approach. . Future mission set analyses provide a lower gbound h for some of these needs. . Earth ]based analogies provide an upper gbound h for some of these needs. . Interpreting the results requires being mindful of both the near ]term contextual factors and long ]term factors that are in play. . In the context of last year fs analyses, the current budget environment, the potential Pu ]238 shortage, and SMD fs gsingle 34m only h policy may, collectively, create a future deep space mission set that, from a capacity and end ]to ]end link difficulty standpoint, is no more challenging than it is today. . Nonetheless, data rates and volumes continue to increase, suggesting capability and spectrum challenges ahead. These results agree with the results from the Earthbased analogies. . Emerging developments such as smallsats and distributed spacecraft could significantly change the capacity and end ]to ]end link difficulty picture.

future mission analysis↗
NASA NTRS1984

International cooperation in the commercial era of space

NASA plans permitting international participation in space activities are reviewed, with an emphasis on the increasing commercialization of these endeavors. The potential indicated by the recent success of the STS, long-term and large-scale Soviet missions, and the Ariane launcher is discussed; the development of the Space Station concept is traced; the increasing use of remote-sensing and telecommunications satellites is documented; currently planned space science missions are listed; and the NASA policy on international cooperation (full payment by the second nation, clean payload-spacecraft interfaces to prevent technology transfer, and open availability of scientific results) is outlined. It is argued that space activity, having passed through first and second phases dominated by exploration and military goals, respectively, will now soon enter a primarily commercial phase, with competition in telecommunications and remote-sensing services and private investment in space processing, manufacturing, and even launchers.

Allnutt, R. F.↗
NASA NTRS2024

The Planetary Protection Strategy of Mars Sample Return’s Earth Return Orbiter Mission

The Mars Sample Return campaign aims to use three flight missions and one ground element to safely bring rock cores, regolith and atmospheric samples from the surface of Mars to Earth to answer key questions about the geologic and climate history of Mars, including the potential for ancient life. Since its landing in Jezero Crater in 2021, the first mission, NASA’s Mars 2020, has collected a number of samples on the crater floor and on the delta using the Perseverance rover. Subsequent missions would recover the sealed sample tubes, launch them into Mars orbit, and transport them back to Earth. The ground element would be a high-containment facility that would isolate and protect the samples during initial sample characterization, which would include sample safety assessments and time-sensitive scientific investigations. These elements are currently in the planning and design stages of development, and represent an international effort of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and many industry partners. The work presented here provides an overview of the planetary protection strategy of the third flight mission, the ESA-led Earth Return Orbiter, which hosts the NASA-provided Capture, Containment, and Return System. The orbiter would detect and capture the container with up to 30 sealed tubes previously put in Martian orbit, contain them in redundant containers to ensure that no potentially hazardous Mars particles are released, and return them to Earth through an entry vehicle. Both NASA and ESA policies comply with the United Nations’ Outer Space Treaty by planning to protect Earth’s biosphere from any potential adverse effects from material returned from solar system bodies beyond the Earth-Moon system. In the conduct of Mars Sample Return, the two agencies have mutually agreed to apply approaches consistent with their own planetary protection standards to the campaign elements they each provide.

Mars Sample Return↗
NASA NTRS2023

The Planetary Protection Strategy of Mars Sample Return’s Earth Return Orbiter Mission

The Mars Sample Return campaign aims to use three flight missions and one ground element to safely bring rock cores, regolith and atmospheric samples from the surface of Mars to Earth to answer key questions about the geologic and climate history of Mars, including the potential for ancient life. Since its landing in Jezero Crater in 2021, the first mission, NASA’s Mars 2020, has collected a number of samples on the crater floor and on the delta using the Perseverance rover. Subsequent missions would recover the sealed sample tubes, launch them into Mars orbit, and transport them back to Earth. The ground element would be a high-containment facility that would isolate and protect the samples during initial sample characterization, which would include sample safety assessments and time-sensitive scientific investigations. These elements are currently in the planning and design stages of development, and represent an international effort of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and many industry partners. The work presented here provides an overview of the planetary protection strategy of the third flight mission, the ESA-led Earth Return Orbiter (ERO), which hosts the NASA-provided Capture, Containment, and Return System (CCRS). ERO-CCRS would capture the container with up to 30 sealed tubes previously put in Martian orbit, contain them in redundant containers to ensure that no potentially hazardous Mars particles are released, and return them to Earth through an entry vehicle. Both NASA and ESA policies comply with the United Nations’ Outer Space Treaty by planning to protect Earth’s biosphere from any potential adverse effects from material returned from solar system bodies beyond the Earth-Moon system. In the conduct of Mars Sample Return, the two agencies have agreed to apply approaches consistent with their own planetary protection standards to the campaign elements each provides.

Mars Sample Return↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Planetary Protection Strategy of Mars Sample Return Earth Return Orbiter Mission

The Mars Sample Return campaign aims to use three flight missions and one ground element to safely bring rock cores, regolith and atmospheric samples from the surface of Mars to Earth to answer key questions about the geologic and climate history of Mars, including the potential for ancient life. Since its landing in Jezero Crater in 2021, the first mission, NASA’s Mars 2020, has collected a number of samples on the crater floor and on the delta using the Perseverance rover. Subsequent missions would recover the sealed sample tubes, launch them into Mars orbit, and transport them back to Earth. The ground element would be a high-containment facility that would isolate and protect the samples during initial sample characterization, which would include sample safety assessments and time-sensitive scientific investigations. These elements are currently in the planning and design stages of development, and represent an international effort of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and many industry partners. The work presented here provides an overview of the Planetary Protection strategy of the third flight mission, the ESA-led Earth Return Orbiter (ERO), which hosts the NASA-provided Capture, Containment, and Return System (CCRS). ERO-CCRS would detect and capture the container with up to 30 sealed tubes previously put in Martian orbit, contain them in redundant containers to ensure that no potentially hazardous Mars particles are released, and return them to Earth through an entry vehicle. Both NASA and ESA policies comply with the United Nations’ Outer Space Treaty by planning to protect Earth’s biosphere from any potential adverse effects from material returned from solar system bodies beyond the Earth-Moon system. In the conduct of Mars Sample Return, the two agencies have mutually agreed to apply approaches consistent with their own planetary protection standards to the campaign elements they each provides.

mars sample return↗
NASA NTRS1985

Space industrialization opportunities

The current status of efforts to develop commercial space projects is surveyed, with a focus on US programs, in reviews and reports presented at the Second Symposium on Space Industrialization held in Huntsville in February 1984. Areas explored include policy, legal, and economic aspects; communications; materials processing; earth-resources observation; and the role of space carriers and a space station. Also included in the volume are 132 brief descriptions of the NASA Microgravity Science and Applications Program Tasks as of December 1984. These tasks cover the fields electronics materials; solidification of metals, alloys, and composites; fields and transport phenomena; biotechnology; glass and ceramics; combustion science; and experimental technology.

Jernigan, C. M.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Exploitation of rights from the US space program by NASA: Review of the process

The legal environment, and some observations on the policies, procedures, and practices developed and instituted by NASA with regard to the treatment of intellectual property rights arising out of NASA support, are presented. The allocation, protection, and exercise (or exploitation) of such rights are considered. Focus is on the exercise (or exploitation) of intellectual property rights in a manner that provides an incentive to achieve beneficial or commercial use by the private sector of technology resulting from the U.S. space program. While some emphasis is on matters unique to the U.S. space program, many of the policies, procedures, and practices supported research and development activities. The process of making the results of U.S. government supported research and development activities available to the private sector for beneficial or commercial use, whether or not subject to intellectual property rights protection, is commonly known as technology transfer. Consequently, the consideration of intellectual property rights is in the context of the broader technology transfer objectives of NASA.

Kempf, Robert↗