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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 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2011

The Story Behind the Numbers: Lessons Learned from the Integration of Monitoring Resources in Addressing an ISS Water Quality Anomaly

Beginning in June of 2010 an environmental mystery was unfolding on the International Space Station (ISS). The U.S. Water Processor Assembly (WPA) began to produce water with increasing levels of total organic carbon (TOC). A surprisingly consistent upward TOC trend was observed through weekly in-flight total organic carbon analyzer (TOCA) monitoring. As TOC is a general organics indicator, return of water archive samples was needed to make better-informed crew health decisions and to aid in WPA troubleshooting. TOCA-measured TOC was more than halfway to its health-based screening limit before archive samples could be returned on Soyuz 22 and analyzed. Although TOC was confirmed to be elevated, somewhat surprisingly, none of the typical target compounds were the source. After some solid detective work, it was confirmed that the TOC was associated with a compound known as dimethylsilanediol (DMSD). DMSD is believed to be a breakdown product of silicon-containing compounds present on ISS. A toxicological limit was set for DMSD and a forward plan developed for operations given this new understanding of the source of the TOC. This required extensive coordination with ISS stakeholders and innovative use of available in-flight and archive monitoring resources. Behind the numbers and scientific detail surrounding this anomaly, there exists a compelling story of multi-disciplinary awareness, teamwork, and important environmental lessons learned.

McCoy, Torin↗
DOE OSTI2022

U.S. Pacific Coast Workshop Report on Preconstruction Research Recommendations (U.S. Offshore Wind Synthesis of Environmental Effects Research (SEER) Project)

In May 2022, the U.S. Offshore Wind Synthesis of Environmental Effects Research (SEER) project team hosted a stakeholder workshop focused on preconstruction (baseline) research needs for potential floating offshore wind (OSW) energy development on the U.S. Pacific Coast, including California, Oregon, and Washington. Prior to the workshop, the SEER team developed a set of initial synthesized research recommendations that were identified based on a review of relevant, publicly available resources and with advisory group input. The workshop covered three marine life breakout groups on subsequent days to discuss research recommendations related to 1) marine mammals and sea turtles, 2) fish and invertebrates, and 3) birds and bats. As part of the workshop, over a hundred participants from the public and private sectors provided feedback on various aspects of the initial research recommendations, including associated data and knowledge gaps, benefits/limitations of available methods and technologies, and technological advancements or infrastructure needed to address the recommendation. Approximately 1,000 total comments were received on the workshop MURAL boards and were synthesized in this report. Based on workshop feedback, SEER developed a final database of over 500 specific research recommendations based on more than 40 resources. In Fall 2022, the full database and a tool with updated synthesized research recommendations were disseminated on Tethys (https://tethys.pnnl.gov) to assist with informing future funding opportunities and research programming. There is a continued need to improve awareness of the potential environmental effects, monitoring technologies, and management strategies for floating OSW energy development on the U.S. Pacific Coast. Coordination of these activities will require the sustained involvement of multiple stakeholders from across sectors. Beyond the baseline considerations discussed in this workshop, future state-of-the-science activities should be planned to consider research needs across wind energy life cycle phases for all relevant wildlife taxa and associated habitat and ecosystem processes.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

ARM FY2025 Radar Plan

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility is dedicated to delivering high-quality radar data that significantly advance our understanding of cloud and precipitation processes, improving climate models. With radars operating across diverse frequencies, scanning modes, and global climate conditions, extensive staffing is essential for effective management. Due to current staffing constraints, achieving the expected level of operational excellence requires a more strategic approach. To address this challenge, ARM has developed an operational radar plan for the upcoming Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) based on budget and staffing considerations. This report summarizes the Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) ARM radar-related activities and outlines the strategic plan for FY25. It presents a comprehensive radar plan that includes detailed activities, priorities, and a projected timeline aligned with the ARM radar roadmap. Key tasks, detailed in Table 1, cover various radar operational stages and coordinated efforts among ARM teams.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2011

Design and Demonstration of a Miniature Lidar System for Rover Applications

Public awareness of harmful human environmental effects such as global warming has increased greatly in recent years and researchers have increased their efforts in gaining more knowledge about the Earth's atmosphere. Natural and man-made processes pose threats to the environment and human life, so knowledge of all atmospheric processes is necessary. Ozone and aerosols are important factors in many atmospheric processes and active remote sensing techniques provide a way to analyze their quantity and distribution. A compact ground-based lidar system for a robotic platform meant for atmospheric aerosol measurements was designed, tested, and evaluated. The system will eventually be deployed for ozone and aerosol measurements in Mars and lunar missions to improve our knowledge and understanding of atmospheres on Mars and the Moon. Atmospheric testing was performed to test the operability of the receiver system to acquire the lidar return signal from clouds and aerosols.

Robinson, Benjamin↗
NASA NTRS2011

Design and Demonstration of a Miniature Lidar System for Rover Applications

Public awareness of harmful human environmental effects such as global warming has increased greatly in recent years and researchers have increased their efforts in gaining more knowledge about the Earth s atmosphere. Natural and man-made processes pose threats to the environment and human life, so knowledge of all atmospheric processes is necessary. Ozone and aerosols are important factors in many atmospheric processes and active remote sensing techniques provide a way to analyze their quantity and distribution. A compact ground-based lidar system for a robotic platform meant for atmospheric aerosol measurements was designed, tested, and evaluated. The system will eventually be deployed for ozone and aerosol measurements in Mars and lunar missions to improve our knowledge and understanding of atmospheres on Mars and the Moon. All of the major subsystems were described in detail and atmospheric testing was performed to test the operability of the receiver system to acquire the lidar return signal from clouds and aerosols. The measured backscattered results are discussed and compared with theoretical results.

Robinson, Benjamin↗
NASA NTRS2014

Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Ground Test History

Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) was started in ~1955 under the Atomic Energy Commission as project Rover and was assigned to Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Nevada Test Site was selected in 1956 and facility construction began in 1957. The KIWI-A was tested on July 1, 1959 for 5 minutes at 70MW. KIWI-A1 was tested on July 8, 1960 for 6 minutes at 85MW. KIWI-A3 was tested on October 10, 1960 for 5 minutes at 100MW. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was formed in 1958. On August 31, 1960 the AEC and NASA established the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office and named Harold Finger as Director. Immediately following the formation of SNPO, contracts were awarded for the Reactor In Flight Test (RIFT), master plan for the Nuclear Rocket Engine Development Station (NRDS), and the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA). From December 7, 1961 to November 30, 1962, the KIWI-B1A, KIWI-B1B, and KIWI-B4A were tested at test cell A. The last two engines were only tested for several seconds before noticeable failure of the fuel elements. Harold Finger called a stop to any further hot fire testing until the problem was well understood. The KIWI-B4A cold flow test showed the problem to be related to fluid dynamics of hydrogen interstitial flow causing fuel element vibrations. President Kennedy visited the NTS one week after the KIWI-B4A failure and got to see the engine starting to be disassembled in the maintenance facility. The KIWI-B4D and KIWI-B4E were modified to not have the vibration problems and were tested in test cell C. The NERVA NRX program started testing in early 1964 with NRX-A1 cold flow test series (unfueled graphite core), NRX-A2 and NRX-A3 power test series up to 1122 MW for 13 minutes. In March 1966, the NRX-EST (Engine System Test) was the first breadboard using flight functional relationship and total operating time of 116 minutes. The NRX-EST demonstrated the feasibility of a hot bleed cycle. The NRX-A5 had multiple start-ups in May-June 1966 with 30.75 minutes accumulative operating time at or above 1GW. The NRX-A6 was tested in December 1969 and ran for 62 minutes at 1100 MW. Each engine had post-test examination and found various structure anomalies which were identified for correction and the fuel element corrosion rate was reduced. The Phoebus series of research reactors began testing at test cell C, in June 1965 with Phoebus 1A. Phoebus 1A operated for 10.5 minutes at 1100 MW before unexpected loss of propellant and leading to an engine breakdown. Phoebus 1B ran for 30 minutes in February of 1967. Phoebus 2A was the highest steady state reactor built at 5GW. Phoebus 2A ran for 12 minutes at 4100 MW demonstrating sufficient power is available. The Peewee test bed reactor was tested November- December 1968 in test cell C for 40 minutes at 500MW with overall performance close to pre-run predictions. The XE' engine was the only engine tested with close to a flight configuration and fired downward into a diffuser at the Engine Test Stand (ETS) in 1969. The XE' was 1100 MW and had ~28 start-ups. The nuclear furnace NF-1 was operated at 44 MW with multiple test runs at 90 minutes in the summer of 1972. The NF-1 was the last NTP reactor tested. The Rover/NERVA program was cancelled in 1973. However, before cancellation, a lot of other engineering work was conducted by Aerojet on a 75, 000 lbf prototype flight engine and by Los Alamos on a ~16,000 lbf "Small Engine" nuclear rocket design. The ground test history of NTP at the NRDS also offers many lessons learned on how best to setup, operate, emergency shutdown, and post-test examine NTP engines. The reactor and engine maintenance and disassembly facilities were used for assembly and inspection of radioactive engines after testing. Most reactor/ engines were run at test cell A or test cell C with open air exhaust. The Rover/NERVA program became aware of a new environmental regulation that would restrict the amount of radioactive particulates allowed to be release in open air and successfully demonstrated a scrubber concept with the NF-1. The ETS stand was the only one with a high altitude test chamber used for XE'. The ETS and other test cells showed the effects the engine's radiation had on the facility materials and instrumentation as well as side effects the ground test facility has back on the engine operation. The breakdown of Phoebus 1A at test cell C showed how the site was cleaned up and back to operation for five more engines before the program was cancelled.

Gerrish, Harold P.↗
NASA NTRS2010

NASA International Environmental Partnerships

For nearly five decades, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been preeminent in space exploration. NASA has landed Americans on the moon, robotic rovers on Mars, and led cooperative scientific endeavors among nations aboard the International Space Station. But as Earth's population increases, the environment is subject to increasing challenges and requires more efficient use of resources. International partnerships give NASA the opportunity to share its scientific and engineering expertise. They also enable NASA to stay aware of continually changing international environmental regulations and global markets for materials that NASA uses to accomplish its mission. Through international partnerships, NASA and this nation have taken the opportunity to look globally for solutions to challenges we face here on Earth. Working with other nations provides NASA with collaborative opportunities with the global science/engineering community to explore ways in which to protect our natural resources, conserve energy, reduce the use of hazardous materials in space and earthly applications, and reduce greenhouse gases that potentially affect all of Earth's inhabitants. NASA is working with an ever-expanding list of international partners including the European Union, the European Space Agency and, especially, the nation of Portugal. Our common goal is to foster a sustainable future in which partners continue to explore the universe while protecting our home planet's resources for future generations. This brochure highlights past, current, and future initiatives in several important areas of international collaboration that can bring environmental, economic, and other benefits to NASA and the wider international space community.

Lewis, Pattie↗
DOE OSTI2022

Ames National Laboratory Annual Site Environmental Report for CY2021

The primary purpose of this report is to summarize the performance of Ames National Laboratory’s environmental programs, present highlights of significant environmental activities, and confirm compliance with environmental regulations and requirements for calendar year 2021. This report is a working requirement of Department of Energy Order 231.1B, Environment, Safety and Health Reporting. It includes descriptions of the Laboratory’s site, mission, the status of its compliance with applicable environmental regulations, its planning and activities to maintain compliance, and a comprehensive review of its environmental protection, surveillance and monitoring activities. Ames National Laboratory is located on the campus of Iowa State University (ISU) and occupies 13 buildings owned by the Department of Energy (DOE). See the Laboratory’s Web page for location and Laboratory overview. The Laboratory also leases space in ISU owned buildings. In 2021, the Laboratory accumulated and disposed of hazardous waste under a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued generator number. All waste was handled according to applicable EPA, State, and local regulations and DOE Orders. The Laboratory operates as a Small Quantity Generator (SQG) of hazardous waste. There were no radiological air emissions or exposures to the general public due to Laboratory activities in 2021 (See U.S. Department of Energy Air Emissions Annual Report in Appendix A.) The Laboratory has an established Environmental Radiological Protection Program (Plan 10200.041) per DOE Order 458.1 requirements. Plans, policies, and procedures are in place to protect the public and the environment against undue risk from radiation associated with DOE radiological activities. As indicated in prior Site Environmental Reports, formal pollution prevention awareness, waste minimization and recycling programs have been in practice since 1990, with improvements implemented most recently in 2017 with Iowa State University’s shift toward single-stream recycling. Included in recycling efforts are items such as batteries, monitors, corrugated cardboard, lamps, miscellaneous electronic office equipment, mixed paper, newsprint, food/beverage containers, and laboratory glassware. Ames National Laboratory also recycles/reuses salvageable metal, used oil, and foamed polystyrene peanuts, and encourages chemical redistribution and sharing among research groups. Ames National Laboratory reported its contractual performance to DOE-Ames Site Office (AMSO) through the Laboratory’s Performance Evaluation Measurement Plan (PEMP), and a performance level of “B+” was achieved in 2021 for Sustain Excellence and Enhance Effectiveness of Integrated Safety, Health, and Environmental Protection As reported in Site Environmental Reports for prior years, the Laboratory’s Environmental Management System (EMS) has been integrated into the Laboratory’s Integrated Safety Management System (ISMS) since 2005. The integration of EMS into Laboratory business practices allows the Laboratory to systematically review, address and respond to environmental impacts. In addition to DOE-identified objectives and targets, the EMS Steering Committee recommends annual environmental goals for the Laboratory. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and limited onsite work staff, goals of reducing water usage and travel/commuting to promote the reduction of scope 3 greenhouse gases were achieved. All contract deliverables and environmental compliance activities were still met during this time.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
NASA NTRS2020

A Review of Distributed Electric Propulsion Concepts for Air Vehicle Technology

The continuous, yet incremental performance gains in high-efficiency gas turbine engines over the last eight decades has enabled passengers to travel long distances at high speeds. Modern commercial jet transports are so common that most passengers traveling by air today take the innovative developments of jet engine technologies for granted. However, the ever-increasing demands for travel in the 21st century has also brought an increased awareness of the energy and environmental concerns associated with aviation. Due to the forecasted limited supply of petroleum-based fuel sources and the global warming potential associated with emissions of traditional aircraft propulsion systems, the need for environmentally-responsible solutions in aircraft technology has been recognized as a priority in the development of future aircraft configurations.

Hyun Dae Kim↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA Environmental Justice Data Search Interface Overview

NASA’s Earth Science Division (ESD) is committed to empower Environmental Justice (EJ) communities by expanding awareness, accessibility, and use of Earth science data to enable contributions to Earth science research and applications. To that end, the NASA Earth Science Data Systems (ESDS) Program developed an EJ Data Catalog, a simple guide to NASA datasets and socioeconomic datasets that may be useful in EJ research. The EJ Data Catalog is divided by topics—such as disasters, urban flooding, extreme heat, food availability, water availability, climate, and health and air quality—and possible use cases for each dataset. The new version of the EJ Data Catalog is now integrated into NASA’s Science Discovery Engine (SDE), an open-source science infrastructure to enable collaborative and interdisciplinary science. In this workshop you will learn about NASA’s Equity and Environmental Justice (EEJ) activities and opportunities as well as participate on an interactive live demo of the new Science Discovery Engine for Environmental Justice.

environmental justice↗
DOE OSTI2022

Enhancing Convection Parameterization for Next Generation E3SM (Final Technical Report)

This technical report summarizes the achievements during the project period. The general goal of the project is to enhance the representation of atmospheric deep convection in the DOE global climate model E3SM. By implementing a stochastic convection scheme into E3SM, we improved the simulation of precipitation intensity and frequency. As a result, it has a profound impact on the simulation of other fields in the model, including aerosol scavenging by precipitation and aerosol radiative effects. We also implemented a convective cloud microphysics scheme into E3SMv2 to represent more accurately the interaction between convection and grid-scale clouds. An extensive analysis of model simulations as part of the Next Generation Development (NGD) convection scheme assessment project found that including the convective microphysics scheme improved the simulation of Madden-Julian oscillations (MJO) in the model. To make convective parameterization schemes more scale-aware as the GCM resolution increases, we analyzed the output from cloud-resolving model (CRM) simulations of both organized and unorganized convection by coarse-graining the CRM data to different GCM resolutions. Using a novel approach to modify the convective closure, we demonstrated that the convection scheme used in E3SM (ZM scheme) can be made scale-aware.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2001

Narragansett Bay From Space: A Perspective for the 21st Century

In 1996, the NASA Administrator Dan Goldin and Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy challenged researchers in the Department of Geological Sciences at Brown University to developed a series of projects to apply remotely sensed data to problems of immediate concern to the State of Rhode Island. The result of that challenge was the project Narragansett Bay from Space: A Perspective for the 21st Century. The goals of the effort were to a) identify problems in coordination with state and local agencies, b) apply NASA technology to the problems and c) to involve small business that would benefit from incorporating remotely sensed data into their business operations. The overall effort was to serve two functions: help provide high quality science results based on remotely sensed data and increase the capacity of environmental managers and companies to use remotely sensed data. The effort has succeeded on both these fronts by providing new, quantitative information on the extent of environmental problems and developing a greater awareness and acceptance of remotely sensed data as a tool for monitoring and research.

Mustard, John F.↗
DOE OSTI2022

INL and Environmental Justice

INL and Environmental Justice PPT presentation. INL’s objectives are to create a lab wide culture that supports environmental justice efforts. INL will create programs and projects that exemplify the lab’s commitment to environmental and energy justice, in the following focus areas: • Integrate environmental justice into INL’s program planning to create opportunities to positively impact underserved and under resourced communities • Create internal awareness programs • Create external awareness programs • Highlight flagship projects that demonstrate INL’s environmental justice efforts

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Neural correspondence to spectrum of environmental uncertainty in multiple-cue probability judgment system with time delay

Despite state-of-the-art technologies like artificial intelligence, human judgment is critically essential in cooperative systems, such as the multi-agent system (MAS), which collect information among agents based on multiple-cue judgment. Human agents can prevent impaired situational awareness of automated agents by confirming situations under environmental uncertainty. System error caused by uncertainty can result in an unreliable system environment, and this environment affects the human agent, resulting in non-optimal decision-making in MAS. Thus, it is necessary to know how human behavior is changed to capture system reliability under uncertainty. Another issue affecting MAS is time delay, which can delay agent information transfer, resulting in low performance and instability. However, it is difficult to find studies on the influence of time delay on human agents. This study is about understanding the human decision-making process under a specific system reliability environment by uncertainty with time delay. We used concepts of expected and unexpected uncertainty to implement reliability of the system usage environment with three types of time delay conditions: no time delay, regular time delay, and irregular time delay conditions. We used electroencephalogram (EEG) for human cognitive neural mechanisms in multiple-cue judgment systems to understand human decision-making. In the reliability of system usage environment, the unreliable system environment significantly creates less memory load by less utilization of system rules for decision-making. In terms of time delay, delayed information delivery does not significantly affect memory load for decision-making.

cognitive process↗
DOE OSTI2026

High-resolution modeling of indoor radon exposure with uncertainty quantification in Utah

Indoor radon accounts for 37% of population-level exposure to ionizing radiation in the United States. However, radon metrics are typically reported at coarse spatial scales, potentially obscuring meaningful local variation. We developed a high-resolution modeling framework to estimate indoor radon concentrations across Utah while explicitly quantifying predictive uncertainty. A total of 19,497 residential radon measurements collected between 2006 and 2017 were combined with environmental and housing characteristics and analyzed using a geospatial neural network that accommodates spatial dependence and nonlinear associations. Predictions were generated on a uniform hexagonal grid at 0.73 km2 resolution (H3 level 8). Out-of-sample predictions aggregated to the H3 level 8 grid showed good agreement with observed concentrations (Pearson r=0.64), while household-level predictions exhibited more moderate agreement (r=0.45). The model produced well-calibrated uncertainty estimates, with 24.1% of held-out observations exceeding the predicted 75th-percentile threshold. Maps of predicted radon concentrations and the probability of exceeding the U.S. EPA action level of 148 Bq/m3 (4 pCi/L) revealed substantial fine-scale spatial heterogeneity that was not apparent in conventional coarse-resolution summaries, with greater local variability observed in densely monitored urban counties than in sparsely sampled regions. High-resolution radon models that explicitly quantify uncertainty provide a useful framework for characterizing the spatial distribution of indoor radon and identifying areas of elevated exceedance risk. These findings highlight the value of fine-scale monitoring data and uncertainty-aware modeling approaches for radon exposure assessment, environmental risk characterization, and radon-related health research.

Wu, Yunhan [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000178842994)↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Smart Sensor Systems for Human Health and Environmental Applications

Sensors and sensor systems are central to providing improved awareness of an individual's health state and surroundings. This presentation describes efforts to develop Smart Sensor Systems for a range of health and safety applications moving towards distributed intelligence. This includes efforts to develop a human health breath monitoring system using this microsensor Smart Sensor System approach. The same core technology can be used for a range of applications related to improved human health and environmental monitoring. Other examples of human health relevant technology development will also be given.

Smart Sensors Health↗
DOE OSTI2023

Stream Temperature Prediction in a Shifting Environment: Explaining the Influence of Deep Learning Architecture

Stream temperature is a fundamental control on ecosystem health. Recent efforts incorporating process guidance into deep learning models for predicting stream temperature have been shown to outperform existing statistical and physical models. This performance is in part because deep learning architectures can actively learn spatiotemporal relationships that govern how water and energy propagate through a river network. However, exploration of how spatiotemporal awareness and process guidance influence a model's generalizability under shifting environmental conditions such as climate change is limited. Here, we use Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) to interrogate how differing deep learning architectures affect a model's learned spatial and temporal dependencies, and how those learned dependencies affect a model's ability to maintain high accuracy when applied to unseen environmental conditions. Using the Delaware River Basin in the northeastern United States as a test case, we compare two spatiotemporally aware process–guided deep learning models for predicting stream temperature (a recurrent graph convolution network—RGCN, and a temporal convolution graph model—Graph WaveNet). Both models achieve equally high predictive performance when testing data are well represented in the training data (test root mean squared errors of 1.64°C and 1.65°C); however, Graph WaveNet significantly outperforms RGCN in 4 out of 5 experiments where test partitions represent different types of unseen environmental conditions. XAI results show that the architecture of Graph WaveNet leads to learned spatial relationships with greater fidelity to physical processes, and that this fidelity improves the generalizability of the model when applied to shifting and/or unseen environmental conditions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗