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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Advanced Processing of Rare Earth Elements and Critical Minerals from Acid Mine Drainage Feedstocks

Ongoing work by the project team identified a process for extracting rare earths and critical mineral (REE/CM) concentrates from acid mine drainage from coal mines, a major stream pollutant. The process removes harmful metals and separates REE/CM into economically attractive concentrates. This project explored the processing of those concentrates into individually separated, high purity metals, suitable for domestic manufacturers. The team brought unique experience in working with AMD-based feedstocks since the inception of USDOE’s coal-based REE/CM program in 2016. The project team has pioneered the recovery of rare earth/critical minerals (REE/CM) from acid mine drainage (AMD). This environmentally beneficial strategy will incentivize AMD treatment while recovering materials critical to the Nation’s defense and advanced manufacturing industries. In addition, the project will investigate the co-production of five high purity CMs from AMD, namely Co, Mn, Li, Cr, Ge. This team’s upstream and midstream recovery and processing technology has been demonstrated at the continuous, small scale pilot scale. In conjunction with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, the team is constructing a full-scale, integrated, 500 gpm AMD treatment plant coupled with an REE/CM facility that will produce 21 tons REE/CM per year. Commissioning is scheduled for September 2021. This will provide feedstock for the team’s proprietary downstream processes that met the project objective: production of individually separated, high purity (ISHP) REE/CM oxides and their further processing to elemental metals (REM). To facilitate entry into the U.S. market, we have teamed up with companies that would use our products to strengthen their domestic supply chains and grow REE/CM based manufacturing in the U.S. They include Rockwell Automation, Rivian, Endress+Hauser, Inc., Northrop Grumman and Hela Novel Metals.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
NASA NTRS2016

Manufacturing Challenges and Benefits when Scaling the HIAD Stacked-Torus Aeroshell to a 15m Class System

Over a decade of work has been conducted in the development of NASA's Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) deployable aeroshell technology. This effort has included multiple ground test campaigns and flight tests culminating in the HIAD project's second generation (Gen-2) aeroshell system. The HIAD project team has developed, fabricated, and tested stacked-torus inflatable structures (IS) with flexible thermal protection systems (F-TPS) ranging in diameters from 3-6m, with cone angles of 60 and 70 deg. To meet NASA and commercial near term objectives, the HIAD team must scale the current technology up to 12-15m in diameter. The HIAD project's experience in scaling the technology has reached a critical juncture. Growing from a 6m to a 15m class system will introduce many new structural and logistical challenges to an already complicated manufacturing process. Although the general architecture and key aspects of the HIAD design scale well to larger vehicles, details of the technology will need to be reevaluated and possibly redesigned for use in a 15m-class HIAD system. These include: layout and size of the structural webbing that transfers load throughout the IS, inflatable gas barrier design, torus diameter and braid construction, internal pressure and inflation line routing, adhesives used for coating and bonding, and F-TPS gore design and seam fabrication. The logistics of fabricating and testing the IS and the F-TPS also become more challenging with increased scale. Compared to the 6m aeroshell (the largest HIAD built to date), a 12m aeroshell has four times the cross-sectional area, and a 15m one has over six times the area. This means that fabrication and test procedures will need to be reexamined to account for the sheer size and weight of the aeroshell components. This will affect a variety of steps in the manufacturing process, such as: stacking the tori during assembly, stitching the structural webbing, initial inflation of tori, and stitching of F-TPS gores. Additionally, new approaches and hardware will be required for handling and ground testing of both individual tori and the fully assembled HIADs. There are also noteworthy benefits of scaling up the HIAD aeroshell to 15m-class system. Two complications in working with handmade textiles structures are the non-linearity of the materials and the role of human accuracy during fabrication. Larger, more capable, HIAD structures should see much larger operational loads, potentially bringing the structural response of the materials out of the non-linear regime and into the preferred linear response range. Also, making the reasonable assumption that the magnitude of fabrication accuracy remains constant as the structures grow, the relative effect of fabrication errors should decrease as a percentage of the textile component size. Combined, these two effects improve the predictive capability and the uniformity of the structural response for a 12-15m class HIAD. In this paper, the challenges and associated mitigation plans related to scaling up the HIAD stacked-torus aeroshell to a 15m class system will be discussed. In addition, the benefits of enlarging the structure will be further explored.

Decellerators↗
NASA NTRS2016

Manufacturing Challenges and Benefits when Scaling the HIAD Stacked-Torus Aeroshell to a 15m-Class System

Over a decade of work has been conducted in the development of NASAs Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) deployable aeroshell technology. This effort has included multiple ground test campaigns and flight tests culminating in the HIAD projects second generation (Gen-2) aeroshell system. The HIAD project team has developed, fabricated, and tested stacked-torus inflatable structures (IS) with flexible thermal protection systems (F-TPS) ranging in diameters from 3-6m, with cone angles of 60 and 70 deg. To meet NASA and commercial near term objectives, the HIAD team must scale the current technology up to 12-15m in diameter. Therefore, the HIAD projects experience in scaling the technology has reached a critical juncture. Growing from a 6m to a 15m-class system will introduce many new structural and logistical challenges to an already complicated manufacturing process.Although the general architecture and key aspects of the HIAD design scale well to larger vehicles, details of the technology will need to be reevaluated and possibly redesigned for use in a 15m-class HIAD system. These include: layout and size of the structural webbing that transfers load throughout the IS, inflatable gas barrier design, torus diameter and braid construction, internal pressure and inflation line routing, adhesives used for coating and bonding, and F-TPS gore design and seam fabrication. The logistics of fabricating and testing the IS and the F-TPS also become more challenging with increased scale. Compared to the 6m aeroshell (the largest HIAD built to date), a 12m aeroshell has four times the cross-sectional area, and a 15m one has over six times the area. This means that fabrication and test procedures will need to be reexamined to ac-count for the sheer size and weight of the aeroshell components. This will affect a variety of steps in the manufacturing process, such as: stacking the tori during assembly, stitching the structural webbing, initial inflation of tori, and stitching of F-TPS gores. Additionally, new approaches and hardware will be required for handling and ground testing of both individual tori and the fully assembled HIADs.There are also noteworthy benefits of scaling up the HIAD aeroshell to a 15m-class system. Two complications in working with handmade textile structures are the non-linearity of the material components and the role of human accuracy during fabrication. Larger, more capable, HIAD structures should see much larger operational loads, potentially bringing the structural response of the material components out of the non-linear regime and into the preferred linear response range. Also, making the reasonable assumption that the magnitude of fabrication accuracy remains constant as the structures grow, the relative effect of fabrication errors should decrease as a percentage of the textile component size. Combined, these two effects improve the predictive capability and the uniformity of the structural response for a 12-15m HIAD.In this presentation, a handful of the challenges and associated mitigation plans will be discussed, as well as an update on current 12m aeroshell manufacturing and testing that is addressing these challenges

Infatables↗
DOE OSTI2024

Traffic Signal Control for Large-Scale Urban Traffic Networks: Real-World Experiments using Vision-Based Sensors

Effective control of traffic signals plays a critical role in ensuring smooth vehicle flow in urban areas. Expertly engineered traffic signal controllers can considerably minimize travel delays and enhance sustainability. In this paper, the team proposes the Model Predictive Control (MPC) traffic signal control strategy using real-time traffic flow data from a vision-based camera as feedback information. Also, a realistic signal timing plan that considers National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) constraints has been developed to be applied to real-world scenarios. The primary aim is to reduce the number of vehicles across all links in the controlled area, thereby optimizing traffic flow and reducing energy consumption. To validate the proposed method, several real-life experiments were conducted at 24 intersections in Chattanooga, Tennessee, by collaborating with traffic field engineers. These experiments demonstrated significant performance improvements in comparison to the existing method.

data processing↗
NASA NTRS2010

Comparison of Autoclave and Out-of-Autoclave Composites

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Exploration Systems Mission Directorate initiated an Advanced Composite Technology Project through the Exploration Technology Development Program in order to support the polymer composite needs for future heavy lift launch architectures. As an example, the large composite dry structural applications on Ares V inspired the evaluation of autoclave and out-of-autoclave (OOA) composite materials. A NASA and industry team selected the most appropriate materials based on component requirements for a heavy lift launch vehicle. Autoclaved and OOA composites were fabricated and results will highlight differences in processing conditions, laminate quality, as well as initial room temperature thermal and mechanical performance. Results from this study compare solid laminates that were both fiber-placed and hand-laid. Due to the large size of heavy-lift launch vehicle composite structures, there is significant potential that the uncured composite material or prepreg will experience significant out-life during component fabrication. Therefore, prepreg out-life was a critical factor examined in this comparison. In order to rigorously test material suppliers recommended out-life, the NASA/Industry team extended the out-time of the uncured composite prepreg to values that were approximately 50% beyond the manufacturers out-time limits. Early results indicate that the OOA prepreg composite materials suffered in both composite quality and mechanical property performance from their extended out-time. However, the OOA materials performed similarly to the autoclaved composites when processed within a few days of exposure to ambient "shop" floor handling. Follow on studies evaluating autoclave and OOA aluminum honeycomb core sandwich composites are planned.

Sutter, James K.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Manufacturing Challenges and Benefits When Scaling the HIAD Stacked-Torus Aeroshell to a 15 Meter Class System

Over a decade of work has been conducted in the development of NASA's Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) deployable aeroshell technology. This effort has included multiple ground test campaigns and flight tests culminating in the HIAD project's second generation (Gen-2) aeroshell system. The HIAD project team has developed, fabricated, and tested stacked-torus inflatable structures (IS) with flexible thermal protection systems (F-TPS) ranging in diameters from 3-6 meters, with cone angles of 60 and 70 degrees. To meet NASA and commercial near-term objectives, the HIAD team must scale the current technology up to 12-15 meters in diameter. Therefore, the HIAD project's experience in scaling the technology has reached a critical juncture. Growing from a 6-meter to a 15-meter class system will introduce many new structural and logistical challenges to an already complicated manufacturing process. Although the general architecture and key aspects of the HIAD design scale well to larger vehicles, details of the technology will need to be reevaluated and possibly redesigned for use in a 15-meter-class HIAD system. These include: layout and size of the structural webbing that transfers load throughout the IS, inflatable gas barrier design, torus diameter and braid construction, internal pressure and inflation line routing, adhesives used for coating and bonding, and F-TPS gore design and seam fabrication. The logistics of fabricating and testing the IS and the F-TPS also become more challenging with increased scale. Compared to the 6-meter aeroshell (the largest HIAD built to date), a 12-meter aeroshell has four times the cross-sectional area, and a 15-meter one has over six times the area. This means that fabrication and test procedures will need to be reexamined to account for the sheer size and weight of the aeroshell components. This will affect a variety of steps in the manufacturing process, such as: stacking the tori during assembly, stitching the structural webbing, initial inflation of tori, and stitching of F-TPS gores. Additionally, new approaches and hardware will be required for handling and ground testing of both individual tori and the fully assembled HIADs. There are also noteworthy benefits of scaling up the HIAD aeroshell to a 15m-class system. Two complications in working with handmade textile structures are the non-linearity of the material components and the role of human accuracy during fabrication. Larger, more capable, HIAD structures should see much larger operational loads, potentially bringing the structural response of the material components out of the non-linear regime and into the preferred linear response range. Also, making the reasonable assumption that the magnitude of fabrication accuracy remains constant as the structures grow, the relative effect of fabrication errors should decrease as a percentage of the textile component size. Combined, these two effects improve the predictive capability and the uniformity of the structural response for a 12-15-meter HIAD. In this presentation, a handful of the challenges and associated mitigation plans will be discussed, as well as an update on current manufacturing and testing that addressing these challenges.

Infatables↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

AVT-297 Development of a Framework for Validation of Computational Tools

Design of aerospace vehicles relies on system models. These models rely on validation data to ensure accurate representation of the system. This paper provides an introduction to the problem and an overview of a NATO STO Activity, AVT-297, which developed a framework to determine validation experiments required to support system level models. The goals of the research group were to develop a process to identify a validation database for intended uses of a vehicle system, demonstrate the process on vehicles and document the process. Applying this process to multiple intended uses and collecting this set of validation databases identifies a set of validation experiments that could be applied to the design of multiple vehicles, further reducing the cost and time to develop air and naval vehicles. Four subgroup teams focused on different aspects of the validation database process: two focused on different aspects of a missile, and two focused on different aspects of a fixed-wing mobility transport class vehicle. This resulted in three different processes to decompose the multi-disciplinary problem to identify critical validation data. All four of the teams demonstrated their process on a sample problem demonstrating the benefit of the process.

Validation↗
NASA NTRS2016

Experiences with Extra-Vehicular Activities in Response to Critical ISS Contingencies

Initial "Big 14" work was put to the test for the first time in 2010. Deficiencies were found in some of the planning and approaches to that work; Failure Response Assessment Team created in 2010 to address deficiencies -Identify and perform engineering analysis in operations products prior to failure; incorporate results into operations products -Identify actions for protecting ISS against a Next Worse Failure after the first failure occurs -Better document not only EVA products but also planning products, assumptions, and open actions; Pre-failure investments against critical failures best postures ISS for swift response and recovery -A type of insurance policy -Has proven effective in a number of contingency EVA cases since 2010. Planning for MBSU R&R in 2012, Second PM R&R in 2013, EXT MDM R&R in 2014; Current FRAT schedule projects completion of all analysis in 2018

Van Cise, Edward A.↗
NASA NTRS1998

A modernized approach to meet diversified earth observing system (EOS) AM-1 mission requirements

From a flight dynamics perspective, the EOS AM-1 mission design and maneuver operations present a number of interesting challenges. The mission design itself is relatively complex for a low Earth mission, requiring a frozen, Sun-synchronous, polar orbit with a repeating ground track. Beyond the need to design an orbit that meets these requirements, the recent focus on low-cost, 'lights out' operations has encouraged a shift to more automated ground support. Flight dynamics activities previously performed in special facilities created solely for that purpose and staffed by personnel with years of design experience are now being shifted to the mission operations centers (MOCs) staffed by flight operations team (FOT) operators. These operators' responsibilities include flight dynamics as a small subset of their work; therefore, FOT personnel often do not have the experience to make critical maneuver design decisions. Thus, streamlining the analysis and planning work required for such a complicated orbit design and preparing FOT personnel to take on the routine operation of such a spacecraft both necessitated increasing the automation level of the flight dynamics functionality. The FreeFlyer(TM) software developed by AI Solutions provides a means to achieve both of these goals. The graphic interface enables users to interactively perform analyses that previously required many parametric studies and much data reduction to achieve the same result In addition, the fuzzy logic engine enables the simultaneous evaluation of multiple conflicting constraints, removing the analyst from the loop and allowing the FOT to perform more of the operations without much background in orbit design. Modernized techniques were implemented for EOS AM-1 flight dynamics support in several areas, including launch window determination, orbit maintenance maneuver control strategies, and maneuver design and calibration automation. The benefits of implementing these techniques include increased fuel available for on-orbit maneuvering, a simplified orbit maintenance process to minimize science data downtime, and an automated routine maneuver planning process. This paper provides an examination of the modernized techniques implemented for EOS AM-1 to achieve these benefits.

Newman, Lauri Kraft↗
NASA NTRS1998

A Modernized Approach to Meet Diversified Earth Observing System (EOS) AM-1 Mission Requirements

From a flight dynamics perspective, the EOS AM-1 mission design and maneuver operations present a number of interesting challenges. The mission design itself is relatively complex for a low Earth mission, requiring a frozen, Sun-synchronous, polar orbit with a repeating ground track. Beyond the need to design an orbit that meets these requirements, the recent focus on low-cost, "lights out" operations has encouraged a shift to more automated ground support. Flight dynamics activities previously performed in special facilities created solely for that purpose and staffed by personnel with years of design experience are now being shifted to the mission operations centers (MOCs) staffed by flight operations team (FOT) operators. These operators' responsibilities include flight dynamics as a small subset of their work; therefore, FOT personnel often do not have the experience to make critical maneuver design decisions. Thus, streamlining the analysis and planning work required for such a complicated orbit design and preparing FOT personnel to take on the routine operation of such a spacecraft both necessitated increasing the automation level of the flight dynamics functionality. The FreeFlyer(trademark) software developed by AI Solutions provides a means to achieve both of these goals. The graphic interface enables users to interactively perform analyses that previously required many parametric studies and much data reduction to achieve the same result. In addition, the fuzzy logic engine .enables the simultaneous evaluation of multiple conflicting constraints, removing the analyst from the loop and allowing the FOT to perform more of the operations without much background in orbit design. Modernized techniques were implemented for EOS AM-1 flight dynamics support in several areas, including launch window determination, orbit maintenance maneuver control strategies, and maneuver design and calibration automation. The benefits of implementing these techniques include increased fuel available for on-orbit maneuvering, a simplified orbit maintenance process to minimize science data downtime, and an automated routine maneuver planning process. This paper provides an examination of the modernized techniques implemented for EOS AM-1 to achieve these benefits.

Newman, Lauri Kraft↗
DOE OSTI2024

Cutaneous Radiation Injuries: REAC/TS Clinical Experience

Abstract The Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site (REAC/TS) is one of the US Department of Energy (DOE)/National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Nuclear Emergency Response Team (NEST) assets and has been responding to radiological incidents since 1976. REAC/TS is in the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE). A critical part of the REAC/TS mission is to provide emergency response, advice, and consultation on injuries and illnesses caused from ionizing radiation. Fortunately, radiation injuries are not frequent, but when they occur, they are more likely to be cutaneous radiation injuries (CRI) or internal contamination. In this paper, we will review selected cases from the REAC/TS experience in order to illustrate cutaneous patterns of injury and treatment options.

Public, Environmental & Occupational Health↗
DOE OSTI2022

Anisotropic superconductivity of niobium based on its response to nonmagnetic disorder

Niobium is one of the most studied superconductors, both theoretically and experimentally. It is tremendously important for applications, and it has the highest superconducting transition temperature, T c = 9.32 K, of all pure metals. In addition to power applications in alloys, pure niobium is used for sensitive magnetosensing, radio-frequency cavities, and, more recently, as circuit metallization layers in superconducting qubits. A detailed understanding of its electronic and superconducting structure, especially its normal and superconducting state anisotropies, is crucial for mitigating the loss of quantum coherence in such devices. Recently, a microscopic theory of the anisotropic properties of niobium with the disorder was put forward. To verify theoretical predictions, we studied the effect of disorder produced by 3.5 MeV proton irradiation of thin Nb films grown by the same team and using the same protocols as those used in transmon qubits. By measuring the superconducting transition temperature and upper critical fields, we show a clear suppression of T c by potential (nonmagnetic) scattering, which is directly related to the anisotropic order parameter. Here, we obtain a very close quantitative agreement between the theory and the experiment.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2025

ICSBEP Benchmarking Tutorial for DNCSH

As part of the DOE/NRC Collaboration for Criticality Safety Support for Commercial-Scale HALEU for Fuel Cycles and Transportation (DNCSH), a workshop was held on Teams on how to write a ICSBEP benchmark that meets modern standards. The workshop prepared people performing experiments and writing benchmarks so that they have an increased chance of submitting a benchmark that will be accepted. The workshop was led by experts from LANL, LLNL and Sandia.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
NASA NTRS2005

Multiple Payload Ejector for Education, Science and Technology Experiments

The education research community no longer has a means of being manifested on Space Shuttle flights, and small orbital payload carriers must be flown as secondary payloads on ELV flights, as their launch schedule, secondary payload volume and mass permits. This has resulted in a backlog of small payloads, schedule and cost problems, and an inability for the small payloads community to achieve routine, low-cost access to orbit. This paper will discuss Goddard's Wallops Flight Facility funded effort to leverage its core competencies in small payloads, sounding rockets, balloons and range services to develop a low cost, multiple payload ejector (MPE) carrier for orbital experiments. The goal of the MPE is to provide a low-cost carrier intended primarily for educational flight research experiments. MPE can also be used by academia and industry for science, technology development and Exploration experiments. The MPE carrier will take advantage of the DARPAI NASA partnership to perform flight testing of DARPA s Falcon small, demonstration launch vehicle. The Falcon is similar to MPE fiom the standpoint of focusing on a low-cost, responsive system. Therefore, MPE and Falcon complement each other for the desired long-term goal of providing the small payloads community with a low-cost ride to orbit. The readiness dates of Falcon and MPE are complementary, also. MPE is being developed and readied for flight within 18 months by a small design team. Currently, MPE is preparing for Critical Design Review in fall 2005, payloads are being manifested on the first mission, and the carrier will be ready for flight on the first Falcon demonstration flight in summer, 2006. The MPE and attached experiments can weigh up to 900 lb. to be compatible with Falcon demonstration vehicle lift capabilities fiom Wallops, and will be delivered to the Falcon demonstration orbit - 100 nautical mile circular altitude.

Lechworth, Gary↗
NASA NTRS2018

Initial Criticality Assessments to Guide FMEAs on Rocket Engine Hot Fire Testing

Presented is an explanation of the use of the Initial Criticality Assessment (ICA) technique, a triage process for prioritizing required Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEAs), for the European Service Module's main propulsion system's hot-fire test bed at White Sands New Mexico. Rather than instinctively performing many FMEAs of subsystems, or one large system level FMEA where every subcomponent is analyzed, the ICA guided an informed analysis of only the hardware that had a large impact to hazards. The low criticality hardware was documented via the ICA and no FMEA was performed; the work could then focus on the high criticality hardware. Thus a savings of Program resources was achieved. The experiences gained in creating these ICAs for this international collaborative project confirmed that the need for continuous communication across the technical teams is one of the greatest areas of emphasis. The European Space Agency (ESA) is developing the European Service Module (ESM), with its primary contractor, Airbus Defence and Space in Germany, for delivery to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The module will be equipped with a total of 21 engines to support NASA’s Orion spacecraft: one U.S. Space Shuttle Orbital Maneuvering System-Engine (OMS-E), eight auxiliary thrusters and 12 smaller RCS (Reaction Control System) thrusters. The main ESM propulsion system, used for large translational maneuvers, consists of one OMS-E... To qualify the design of the ESM propulsion subsystem (PSS) an all-steel Propulsion Qualification Module (PQM) structure is used to test the propulsion systems on Orion, including “hot firing” of the OMS engine, thrusters, and RCS. The PQM has been developed as a hot-fire test bed to be tested at the NASA White Sands Test Facility (WSTF). One of the objectives of the testing is to assure that the OMS-E can be safely operated with the PQM. Testing will also demonstrate that the PQM can set the proper upstream pressures and temperatures for the OMS-E to operate nominally given the PQM has never been tested in hot-fire operation with OMS-E before. In order to safely conduct the test campaign, hardware such as the engine subassembly, fluid feed lines, valves, electrical power lines, instrumentation, stiff links, installation Ground Support Equipment (GSE), and diffuser [whose objectives are to collect the exhaust of the OMS-E to actively cool down the exhaust gases, reduce thermal exchanges, and create a vacuum at OMS-E level before igniting], had to be analyzed for any hazards and failure modes.

Fault Tolerance↗
DOE OSTI2025

MCNP® Code Version 6.3.1 Release Notes

The Monte Carlo N-Particle® (MCNP® ) code is a general-purpose, continuous-energy, generalized-geometry, time-dependent, radiation transport code developed by the MCNP development team. MCNP calculations provide predictive capabilities that can replace expensive or impossible-to-perform experiments. Specific application problems include simulations of experimental diagnostics, intrinsic radiation, radiation detection and measurement, criticality safety, nuclear threat reduction and response, radiation health protection, nuclear weapons effects, and nuclear forensics. This MCNP code, version 6.3.1, follows the MCNP6.3.0 version. Since the release of MCNP6.3.0, a variety of bug fixes and code enhancements have been completed for MCNP6.3.1. A few new features have also been added to this release to support both ongoing research and the release of the latest ENDF/B-VIII.1 nuclear data library. The MCNP code, version 6.3.1, theory and user input information is documented in MCNP® Code Version 6.3.1 Theory & User Manual, the build guidance for various platforms is documented in MCNP® Code Version 6.3.1 Build Guide, and the verification and validation testing for various application benchmark test suites is documented in MCNP® Code Version 6.3.1 Verification & Validation Testing.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

An Agile-Like Approach to Hardware Development: The Ejectable Data Recorder (EDR) for Orion's Ascent Abort 2 (AA-2) Test Flight

On July 2, 2019, the Ascent Abort 2 (AA-2) Flight Test Vehicle was launched from Cape Canaveral, with the goal of demonstrating the performance of Orion’s Launch Abort System (LAS) and collecting data from hundreds of sensors throughout the vehicle. The data collected during this test flight is of paramount importance, as it will be used to certify the Orion vehicle for human spaceflight. Originally, the data was to be downlinked via a single string network of antennas on the LAS, with the associated risk of potential data dropouts, as well as loss of data once the LAS was jettisoned. Thus, additional antennas were added onto the crew module (CM) to support data downlink post-LAS jettison, a buffer rebroadcast capability was added to fill in any gaps in data downlink transmissions, and an ejectable data recorder (EDR) subsystem was added to the CM as a redundant measure to collect all the instrumentation data. The EDR subsystem was added to the project about one year after the project commenced, which significantly reduced the available development time when compared with the other subsystems of the AA-2 Test Flight. The project was further accelerated by six months, around the critical design review gate. Due to the schedule compression challenge and the fact that the EDR subsystem was a backup system and not flight critical, the EDR subsystem was further challenged to find a new and more efficient way to develop hardware. Thus, the EDR subsystem experimented with different management and systems engineering processes, team sizes, communication methods, and tools. Some examples are novel uses of SharePoint as a Data-centric Project Management & Systems Engineering environment, a continuous testing approach through the lifecycle, and a Skunkworks approach to managing the team. The EDR subsystem blended Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) hardware with in-house developed hardware and software to create a novel data retrieval capability. The capability evolved rapidly through a hardware in the loop simulation environment that enabled incremental component updates for not only the EDR subsystem but across the entire Crew Module. This paper will present an overview of how the EDR subsystem was managed and compare it to an Agile approach to managing projects. The paper will further provide a recommended approach to future Agile-like hardware development that incorporates lessons learned from the EDR experience.

Agile↗
DOE OSTI2021

HydrogenAR: Interactive Data-Driven Presentation of Dispenser Reliability: Preprint

When delivering presentations to a co-located audience, we typically use slides with text and 2D graphics to complement the spoken narrative. Though presentations have largely been explored on 2D media, augmented reality (AR) allows presentation designers to add data and augmentations to existing physical infrastructure on display. This could provide a more engaging experience to the audience and support comprehension. With HydrogenAR, we present a novel application that leverages the benefits of data-driven storytelling with those of AR to explain the unique challenges of hydrogen dis- penser reliability. Utilizing physical props, situated data, and virtual augmentations and animations, HydrogenAR serves as a unique presentation tool, particularly critical for stakeholders, tour groups, and VIPs. HydrogenAR is a product of multiple collaborative de- sign iterations with a local Hydrogen Fuel research team and is evaluated through interviews with team members and a user study with end-users to evaluate the usability and quality of the interactive AR experience. Through this work, we provide design considera- tions for AR data-driven presentations and discuss how AR could be used for innovative content delivery beyond traditional slide-based presentations.

augmented reality↗