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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 NTRS1993

NASA-UVA Light Aerospace Alloy and Structures Technology Program: LA(2)ST

The NASA-UVA Light Aerospace Alloy and Structures Technology (LA(2)ST) Program continues a high level of activity, with projects being conducted by graduate students and faculty advisors in the Departments of Materials Science and Engineering, Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics, and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Virginia. This work is funded by the NASA-Langley Research Center under Grant NAG-1-745. We report on progress achieved between July 1 and December 31, 1992. The objective of the LA(2)ST Program is to conduct interdisciplinary graduate student research on the performance of next generation, light weight aerospace alloys, composites and thermal gradient structures in collaboration with NASA-Langley researchers. Specific technical objectives are presented for each research project. We generally aim to produce relevant data and basic understanding of material mechanical response, corrosion behavior, and microstructure; new monolithic and composite alloys; advanced processing methods; new solid and fluid mechanics analyses; measurement advances; and critically, a pool of educated graduate students for aerospace technologies.

Gangloff, Richard P.↗
NASA NTRS1991

From Ship to Shuttle: NASA Orbiter Naming Program, September 1988 - May 1989

By congressional action in 1987, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was authorized to provide an opportunity for American school students to name the new Space Shuttle orbiter being built to replace the Challenger. The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), an education organization representing the chief education officials of the nation, was asked by NASA to assist in the development and administration of this exciting and important educational activity. A selection of interdisciplinary activities related to the Space Shuttle that were designed by students for the NASA Orbiter-Naming Program are presented. The national winner's project is first followed by other projects listed in alphabetical order by state, and a bibliography compiled from suggestions by the state-level winning teams.

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NASA NTRS1992

The Earth Observing System

The restructuring of the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS), designed to provide comprehensive long term observations from space of changes occurring on the Earth from natural and human causes in order to have a sound scientific basis for policy decisions on protection of the future, is reported. In response to several factors, the original program approved in the fiscal year 1991 budget was restructured and somewhat reduced in scope. The resulting program uses three different sized launch vehicles to put six different spacecraft in orbit in the first phase, followed by two replacement launches for each of five of the six satellites to maintain a long term observing capability to meet the needs of global climate change research and other science objectives. The EOS system, including the space observatories, the data and information system, and the interdisciplinary global change research effort, are approved and proceeding. Elements of EOS are already in place, such as the research investigations and initial data system capabilities. The flights of precursor satellite and Shuttle missions, the ongoing data analysis, and the evolutionary enhancements to the integrated Earth science data management capabilities are all important building blocks to the full EOS program.

Shaffer, Lisa Robock↗
NASA NTRS1992

Mission to Planet Earth

Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) is NASA's concept for an international science program to produce the understanding needed to predict changes in the Earth's environment. NASA and its interagency and international partners will place satellites carrying advanced sensors in strategic Earth orbits to gather multidisciplinary data. A sophisticated data system will process and archive an unprecedented amount of information about the Earth and how it works as a system. Increased understanding of the Earth system is a basic human responsibility, a prerequisite to informed management of the planet's resources and to the preservation of the global environment. An overview of the MTPE, flight programs, data and information systems, interdisciplinary research efforts, and international coordination, is presented.

Wilson, Gregory S.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Robust nonlinear control of vectored thrust aircraft

An interdisciplinary program in robust control for nonlinear systems with applications to a variety of engineering problems is outlined. Major emphasis will be placed on flight control, with both experimental and analytical studies. This program builds on recent new results in control theory for stability, stabilization, robust stability, robust performance, synthesis, and model reduction in a unified framework using Linear Fractional Transformations (LFT's), Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMI's), and the structured singular value micron. Most of these new advances have been accomplished by the Caltech controls group independently or in collaboration with researchers in other institutions. These recent results offer a new and remarkably unified framework for all aspects of robust control, but what is particularly important for this program is that they also have important implications for system identification and control of nonlinear systems. This combines well with Caltech's expertise in nonlinear control theory, both in geometric methods and methods for systems with constraints and saturations.

Doyle, John C.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Earth observing system. Output data products and input requirements, version 2.0. Volume 1: Instrument data product characteristics

Information on Earth Observing System (EOS) output data products and input data requirements that has been compiled by the Science Processing Support Office (SPSO) at GSFC is presented. Since Version 1.0 of the SPSO Report was released in August 1991, there have been significant changes in the EOS program. In anticipation of a likely budget cut for the EOS Project, NASA HQ restructured the EOS program. An initial program consisting of two large platforms was replaced by plans for multiple, smaller platforms, and some EOS instruments were either deselected or descoped. Updated payload information reflecting the restructured EOS program superseding the August 1991 version of the SPSO report is included. This report has been expanded to cover information on non-EOS data products, and consists of three volumes (Volumes 1, 2, and 3). Volume 1 provides information on instrument outputs and input requirements. Volume 2 is devoted to Interdisciplinary Science (IDS) outputs and input requirements, including the 'best' and 'alternative' match analysis. Volume 3 provides information about retrieval algorithms, non-EOS input requirements of instrument teams and IDS investigators, and availability of non-EOS data products at seven primary Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAAC's).

Lu, Yun-Chi↗
NASA NTRS1992

Earth observing system. Output data products and input requirements, version 2.0. Volume 2: Analysis of IDS input requirements

On 18 Jan. 1991, NASA confirmed 29 Inter-Disciplinary Science (IDS) teams, each involving a group of investigators, to conduct interdisciplinary research using data products from Earth Observing System (EOS) instruments. These studies are multi-disciplinary and require output data products from multiple EOS instruments, including both FI and PI instruments. The purpose of this volume is to provide information on output products expected from IDS investigators, required input data, and retrieval algorithms. Also included in this volume is the revised analysis of the 'best' and 'alternative' match data products for IDS input requirements. The original analysis presented in the August 1991 release of the SPSO Report was revised to incorporate the restructuring of the EOS platform. As a result of the reduced EOS payload, some of EOS instruments were deselected and their data products would not be available for IDS research. Information on these data products is also presented.

Lu, Yun-Chi↗
NASA NTRS1992

Geographic information system for fusion and analysis of high-resolution remote sensing and ground truth data

We seek to combine high-resolution remotely sensed data with models and ground truth measurements, in the context of a Geographical Information System, integrated with specialized image processing software. We will use this integrated system to analyze the data from two Case Studies, one at a bore Al forest site, the other a tropical forest site. We will assess the information content of the different components of the data, determine the optimum data combinations to study biogeophysical changes in the forest, assess the best way to visualize the results, and validate the models for the forest response to different radar wavelengths/polarizations. During the 1990's, unprecedented amounts of high-resolution images from space of the Earth's surface will become available to the applications scientist from the LANDSAT/TM series, European and Japanese ERS-1 satellites, RADARSAT and SIR-C missions. When the Earth Observation Systems (EOS) program is operational, the amount of data available for a particular site can only increase. The interdisciplinary scientist, seeking to use data from various sensors to study his site of interest, may be faced with massive difficulties in manipulating such large data sets, assessing their information content, determining the optimum combinations of data to study a particular parameter, visualizing his results and validating his model of the surface. The techniques to deal with these problems are also needed to support the analysis of data from NASA's current program of Multi-sensor Airborne Campaigns, which will also generate large volumes of data. In the Case Studies outlined in this proposal, we will have somewhat unique data sets. For the Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest (Case I) calibrated DC-8 SAR data and extensive ground truth measurement are already at our disposal. The data set shows documented evidence to temporal change. The Belize Forest Experiment (Case II) will produce calibrated DC-8 SAR and AVIRIS data, together with extensive measurements on the tropical rain forest itself. The extreme range of these sites, one an Arctic forest, the other a tropical rain forest, has been deliberately chosen to find common problems which can lead to generalized observations and unique problems with data which raise issues for the EOS System.

Freeman, Anthony↗
NASA NTRS1992

Knowledge-based assistance for science visualization and analysis using large distributed databases

Within this decade, the growth in complexity of exploratory data analysis and the sheer volume of space data require new and innovative approaches to support science investigators in achieving their research objectives. To date, there have been numerous efforts addressing the individual issues involved in inter-disciplinary, multi-instrument investigations. However, while successful in small scale, these efforts have not proven to be open and scaleable. This proposal addresses four areas of significant need: scientific visualization and analysis; science data management; interactions in a distributed, heterogeneous environment; and knowledge-based assistance for these functions. The fundamental innovation embedded within this proposal is the integration of three automation technologies, namely, knowledge-based expert systems, science visualization and science data management. This integration is based on the concept called the Data Hub. With the Data Hub concept, NASA will be able to apply a more complete solution to all nodes of a distributed system. Both computation nodes and interactive nodes will be able to effectively and efficiently use the data services (access, retrieval, update, etc.) with a distributed, interdisciplinary information system in a uniform and standard way. This will allow the science investigators to concentrate on their scientific endeavors, rather than to involve themselves in the intricate technical details of the systems and tools required to accomplish their work. Thus, science investigators need not be programmers. The emphasis will be on the definition and prototyping of system elements with sufficient detail to enable data analysis and interpretation leading to publishable scientific results. In addition, the proposed work includes all the required end-to-end components and interfaces to demonstrate the completed concept.

Handley, Thomas H., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1992

A distributed system for visualizing and analyzing multivariate and multidisciplinary data

The Linked Windows Interactive Data System (Link Winds) is being developed with NASA support. The objective of this proposal is to adapt and apply that system in a complex network environment containing elements to be found by scientists working multidisciplinary teams on very large scale and distributed data sets. The proposed three year program will develop specific visualization and analysis tools, to be exercised locally and remotely in the Link Winds environment, to demonstrate visual data analysis, interdisciplinary data analysis and cooperative and interactive televisualization and analysis of data by geographically separated science teams. These demonstrations will involve at least two science disciplines with the aim of producing publishable results.

Jacobson, Allan S.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Multi-layer holographic bifurcative neural network system for real-time adaptive EOS data analysis

Optical data processing techniques have the inherent advantage of high data throughout, low weight and low power requirements. These features are particularly desirable for onboard spacecraft in-situ real-time data analysis and data compression applications. The proposed multi-layer optical holographic neural net pattern recognition technique will utilize the nonlinear photorefractive devices for real-time adaptive learning to classify input data content and recognize unexpected features. Information can be stored either in analog or digital form in a nonlinear photorefractive device. The recording can be accomplished in time scales ranging from milliseconds to microseconds. When a system consisting of these devices is organized in a multi-layer structure, a feed forward neural net with bifurcating data classification capability is formed. The interdisciplinary research will involve the collaboration with top digital computer architecture experts at the University of Southern California.

Liu, Hua-Kuang↗
NASA NTRS1993

Planetary Biology and Microbial Ecology: Molecular Ecology and the Global Nitrogen cycle

This report summarizes the results of the Planetary Biology and Molecular Ecology's summer 1991 program, which was held at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The purpose of the interdisciplinary PBME program is to integrate, via lectures and laboratory work, the contributions of university and NASA scientists and student interns. The goals of the 1991 program were to examine several aspects of the biogeochemistry of the nitrogen cycle and to teach the application of modern methods of molecular genetics to field studies of organisms. Descriptions of the laboratory projects and protocols and abstracts and references of the lectures are presented.

Nealson, Molly Stone↗
NASA NTRS1991

Information technologies for astrophysics circa 2001

It is easy to extrapolate current trends to see where technologies relating to information systems in astrophysics and other disciplines will be by the end of the decade. These technologies include miniaturization, multiprocessing, software technology, networking, databases, graphics, pattern computation, and interdisciplinary studies. It is less easy to see what limits our current paradigms place on our thinking about technologies that will allow us to understand the laws governing very large systems about which we have large data sets. Three limiting paradigms are as follows: saving all the bits collected by instruments or generated by supercomputers; obtaining technology for information compression, storage, and retrieval off the shelf; and the linear model of innovation. We must extend these paradigms to meet our goals for information technology at the end of the decade.

Denning, Peter J.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Automated assembly of large space structures

Viewgraphs and discussion on automated assembly of large space structures are presented. The program research objective is to develop technology and demonstrate the potential for automated inspace assembly of large erectable structures. This is accomplished by merging experience in structural assembly and robotics at LaRC into an interdisciplinary program with focused effort on automated assembly of a generic structural configuration with a standard cell and by building into the system the capability to do expanded research with complex configurations.

Rhodes, Marvin D.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Space construction activities

The Center for Space Construction at the University of Colorado at Boulder was established in 1988 as a University Space Engineering Research Center. The mission of the Center is to conduct interdisciplinary engineering research which is critical to the construction of future space structures and systems and to educate students who will have the vision and technical skills to successfully lead future space construction activities. The research activities are currently organized around two central projects: Orbital Construction and Lunar Construction. Summaries of the research projects are included.

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NASA NTRS1991

Mars habitat

The College of Engineering & Architecture at Prairie View A&M University has been participating in the NASA/USRA Advanced Design Program since 1986. The interdisciplinary nature of the program allowed the involvement of students and faculty throughout the College of Engineering & Architecture for the last five years. The research goal for the 1990-1991 year is to design a human habitat on Mars that can be used as a permanent base for 20 crew members. The research is being conducted by undergraduate students from the Department of Architecture.

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NASA NTRS1993

Modernization and new technologies: Coping with the information explosion

Information has become a valuable and strategic resource in all societies and economies. Scientific and technical information is especially important in developing and maintaining a strong national science and technology base. The expanding use of information technology, the growth of interdisciplinary research, and an increase in international collaboration are changing characteristics of information. This modernization effort applies new technology to current processes to provide near-term benefits to the user. At the same time, we are developing a long-term modernization strategy designed to transition the program to a multimedia, global 'library without walls'. Notwithstanding this modernization program, it is recogized that no one information center can hope to collect all the relevant data. We see information and information systems changing and becoming more international in scope. We are finding that many nations are expending resources on national systems which duplicate each other. At the same time that this duplication exists, many useful sources of aerospace information are not being collected to cover expanded sources of information. This paper reviews the NASA modernization program and raises for consideration new possibilities for unification of the various aerospace database efforts toward a cooperative international aerospace database initiative, one that can optimize the cost/benefit equation for all participants.

Blados, Walter R.↗
NASA NTRS1993

NASA-UVA Light Aerospace Alloy and Structures Technology Program (LA2ST)

The NASA-UVA Light Aerospace Alloy and Structures Technology (LA2ST) Program continues a high level of activity. Progress achieved between 1 Jan. and 30 Jun. 1993 is reported. The objective of the LA2ST Program is to conduct interdisciplinary graduate student research on the performance of next generation, light weight aerospace alloys, composites, and thermal gradient structures in collaboration with NASA-Langley researchers. The following projects are addressed: environmental fatigue of Al-Li-Cu alloys; mechanisms of localized corrosion and environmental fracture in Al-Cu-Li-Mg-Ag alloy X2095 and compositional variations; the effect of zinc additions on the precipitation and stress corrosion cracking behavior of alloy 8090; hydrogen interactions with Al-Li-Cu alloy 2090 and model alloys; metastable pitting of aluminum alloys; cryogenic fracture toughness of Al-Cu-Li + In alloys; the fracture toughness of Weldalite (TM); elevated temperature cracking of advanced I/M aluminum alloys; response of Ti-1100/SCS-6 composites to thermal exposure; superplastic forming of Weldalite (TM); research to incorporate environmental effects into fracture mechanics fatigue life prediction codes such as NASA FLAGRO; and thermoviscoplastic behavior.

Gangloff, Richard P.↗