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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 577 records · Page 32
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NASA NTRS2022

2020 Innovation Fair Project: Is Midlatitude Ground Ice on Mars Habitable for Life?

The objective of this project was to perform a modeling study to evaluate whether midlatitude ground ice on Mars that could support life in geologically recent times. Recent studies from Mars orbital imaging, ground penetrating radar data, and infrared thermal data have revealed that large areas of Mars at latitudes higher than 40o N host near surface ground ice. Past climate cycles driven by orbital oscillations are expected to result in the distribution of ground ice changing over geologically recent history. The insolation at any location on Mars varies over time due to quasi-periodic changes in its orbital parameters (obliquity, eccentricity, perihelion longitude). The last 2 MY Mars obliquity varied between 15o and 35o but 5 MY ago varied between 24o and 48o with the average obliquity being 36o. The current low obliquity Mars atmosphere is dryer than average conditions. Recent work (Mellon and Sizemore Icarus (2022) 371;114667) has shown that repeatedly over the last 2 MY ground ice was present even at low Northern latitudes. The ice table depth is controlled by diffusive equilibrium with water vapor in the atmosphere, which also varies with orbital parameters. Determining the surface temperature and water vapor abundance requires a sophisticated climate model that was developed at NASA Ames, and results of high obliquity climate simulations will be used in the study. Work is underway to evaluate the subsurface thermal conditions in ice-rich areas of Mars during high obliquity periods to determine whether, where, and when the subsurface ice becomes warm enough to support metabolic processes or growth of terrestrial organisms.

Carol R Stoker↗
NASA NTRS2022

Plasma Activated Water for Crewed Transit and Planetary Habitation: A Study of Gas Type, Electrode Material, and Power Supply Selection and the Impact on the Final Frontier - FY21 CIF

An in-depth study of plasma activated water (PAW) generation was conducted to link changes in power supply, electrode material, input gas, and treatment time to the resulting reaction chemistry. These changes in chemistry can help tailor PAW for different space applications. An AC, DC, and nanosecond (ns) pulsed power supply were each used to generate PAW with stainless steel, copper, tungsten, or platinum (Pt) electrodes while utilizing air, nitrogen (N2), carbon dioxide (CO2), helium (He), or argon (Ar) as the feed gas. Tap or deionized (DI) water was treated for 1 to 15 minutes, and the generated PAW was tested for changes in pH, conductivity, oxidation reduction potential, nitrates (NO3-), ammonium (NH4+), and peroxide. Calculations showed that the production of reactive nitrogen species was the leading cause of pH and conductivity changes. The DC generated air plasma was able to reduce the pH of DI water and generate NO3‑. The pulsed supply, operating at 20% of the input power of the DC supply, lowered the pH generated NO3‑. When a simulated Martian gas mixture of 95% CO2 and 5% N2 was used as the feed gas, NO3‑ was generated with the DC and pulsed supplies, respectively. Mixing PAW with plasma generated ash from inedible biomass allowed pH control, thus enhancing PAW’s potential use for sanitation applications. The large shift in pH was used to study sanitation effects of Escherichia coli (E. coli) reduction and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), in which log reductions were found to be negligible. Additionally, the plasma generated ash in combination with PAW was also implemented in 10-day microgreen growth trials, in which PAW and ash resulted in quicker emergence of the microgreens compared to the standard growth conditions and comparable dry masses to Hoagland’s nutrient solution treated samples.

plasma activated water (PAW)↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Supervisory On-line Optimal Control of an Electric Power Microgrid Design for Lunar Habitation

The following article describes an optimal control algorithm for the operation and study of an electric microgrid designed to power a lunar habitat. A photovoltaic (PV) generator powers the habitat and the presence of predictable lunar eclipses necessitates a system to prioritize and control loads within the microgrid. The algorithm consists of a reduced order model (ROM) that describes the microgrid, a discretization of the equations that result from the ROM, and an optimization formulation that controls the microgrid’s behavior. In order to validate this approach, the paper presents results from simulation based on lunar eclipse information and a schedule of intended loads.

Joseph Young↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Multi-Star Wavefront Control: Update on Technology Development for Roman Space Telescope and Habitable Worlds Observatory

A majority of Sun-like stars have at least one stellar companion that can introduce additional noise into the field of view of any high-contrast imaging instrument, limiting the achievable contrast. These include high-quality target stars such as the A and B components of Alpha Centauri, our nearest stellar neighbor. Enabling direct imaging of binary stars has the potential to increase the scientific yield for coronagraphic instruments planned on NASA's future space missions and concepts, including the Roman Space Telescope and the Astro2020 IR/O/UV flagship. Multi-Star Wavefront Control (MSWC) is a wavefront-control technique that simultaneously removes the (mutually incoherent) stellar leakage from both stellar components, enabling direct imaging of planets in many binary star systems. MSWC is an algorithmic technique and can be used with existing wavefront control systems on coronagraphic instruments (as well as starshades if a deformable mirror is available in the optical path) including planned observations on the upcoming PICTURE-D balloon flight. We report on the latest experimental and numerical results obtained with MSWC as part of the technology development effort to demonstrate compatibility with existing high-contrast imaging platforms for this technique. We first report on functional tests carried out at Subaru's SCExAO instrument operating in-air and showing the sub-Nyquist mode at 4.1e-6 contrast in monochromatic light. The Super-Nyquist regime of MSWC was recently tested in vacuum at JPL's High Contrast Imaging Testbed (HCIT) on the Decadal Survey Testbed (DST) reaching 8.6e-9 contrast in a 10% band. We also report on results for the current stage of vacuum testing at HCIT's Occulting Mask Coronagraph (OMC) testbed using a mask similar to the contributed MSWC mask on the Roman Space Telescope's coronagraph instrument which has demonstrated suppression at the 9.8e-9 contrast at Super-Nyquist separations around the 3rd diffraction order and is planned to use a novel binary source simulator.

high-contrast imaging↗
NASA NTRS2013

Horizontal Habitability Layout Studies

As our efforts in the 2011-2012 X-Hab Academic Innovation Challenge we designed, developed, constructed and tested a deployable horizontally oriented habitat system for use as an Earth analog. The goals of the project included a short-term goal of an interdisciplinary senior design project to design, build and evaluate a horizontally oriented habitat and a long-term goal to develop capabilities in education, research, and outreach in field of space habitat design. This included both technical engineering and outreach efforts. In the 2011-2012 year, the program involved the following schools at OSU: The Schools of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) and Industrial and Engineering Management (IEM) within the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology and Design, Housing and Merchandising (DHM) in the College of Human Sciences. We also included the School of Aviation Education (AvED) in the College of Education through the ISNPIRE (Interdisciplinary National Science Project Incorporating Research and Education Experience) program of as part of our outreach efforts.

Jamey D. Jacob↗