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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
NASA NTRS2016

Pre-Mission Input Requirements to Enable Successful Sample Collection by A Remote Field/EVA Team

The FINESSE (Field Investigations to Enable Solar System Science and Exploration) team, part of the Solar System Exploration Virtual Institute (SSERVI), is a field-based research program aimed at generating strategic knowledge in preparation for human and robotic exploration of the Moon, near-Earth asteroids, Phobos and Deimos, and beyond. In contract to other technology-driven NASA analog studies, The FINESSE WCIS activity is science-focused and, moreover, is sampling-focused with the explicit intent to return the best samples for geochronology studies in the laboratory. We used the FINESSE field excursion to the West Clearwater Lake Impact structure (WCIS) as an opportunity to test factors related to sampling decisions. We examined the in situ sample characterization and real-time decision-making process of the astronauts, with a guiding hypothesis that pre-mission training that included detailed background information on the analytical fate of a sample would better enable future astronauts to select samples that would best meet science requirements. We conducted three tests of this hypothesis over several days in the field. Our investigation was designed to document processes, tools and procedures for crew sampling of planetary targets. This was not meant to be a blind, controlled test of crew efficacy, but rather an effort to explicitly recognize the relevant variables that enter into sampling protocol and to be able to develop recommendations for crew and backroom training in future endeavors.

FINESSE↗
NASA NTRS1993

Microbiological test results of the environmental control and life support systems vapors compression distillation subsystem recycle tank components following various pretreatment protocols

Microbiological samples were collected from the recycle tank of the vapor compression distillation (VCD) subsystem of the water recovery test at NASA MSFC following a 68-day run. The recycle tank collects rejected urine brine that was pretreated with a commercially available oxidant (Oxone) and sulfuric acid and pumps it back to the processing component of the VCD. Samples collected included a water sample and two swab samples, one from the particulate filter surface and a second from material floating on the surface of the water. No bacteria were recovered from the water sample. Both swab samples contained a spore-forming bacterium, Bacillus insolitus. A filamentous fungus was isolated from the floating material. Approximately 1 month after the pretreatment chemicals were changed to sodium hypochlorite and sulfuric acid, a swab of the particulate filter was again analyzed for microbial content. One fungus was isolated, and spore-forming bacteria were observed. These results indicate the inability of these pretreatments to inhibit surface attachment. The implications of the presence of these organisms are discussed.

Huff, Tim↗
NASA NTRS2006

Development of Analytical Protocols For Organics and Isotopes Analysis on the 2009 MARS Science Laboratory.

The Mars Science Laboratory, under development for launch in 2009, is designed explore and quantitatively asses a local region on Mars as a potential habitat for present or past life. Its ambitious goals are to (1) assess the past or present biological potential of the target environment, (2) to characterize the geology and geochemistry at the MSL landing site, and (3) to investigate planetary processes that influence habitability. The planned capabilities of the rover payload will enable a comprehensive search for organic molecules, a determination of definitive mineralogy of sampled rocks and fines, chemical and isotopic analysis of both atmospheric and solid samples, and precision isotope measurements of several volatile elements. A range of contact and remote surface and subsurface survey tools will establish context for these measurements and will facilitate sample identification and selection. The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite of MSL addresses several of the mission's core measurement goals. It includes a gas chromatograph, a mass spectrometer, and a tunable laser spectrometer. These instruments will be designed to analyze either atmospheric samples or gases extracted from solid phase samples such as rocks and fines. We will describe the range of measurement protocols under development and study by the SAM engineering and science teams for use on the surface of Mars.

Mahaffy, P. R.↗
DOE OSTI2025

The role of fast and slow dynamics in nonlinear resonant ultrasound spectroscopy of consolidated granular materials

Abstract Elastic nonlinearity observed in consolidated granular media can be attributed to the combination of slow and fast effects, which give rise to hysteresis and relaxation of both modulus and damping after the sample is perturbed. A consequence is a high level of complexity in the measurements of the sample linear and nonlinear elastic parameters. The results of experiments are dependent on the experimental protocol that is adopted to measure the relevant quantities and it is hard to quantify parameters with accuracy and repeatability. Here we focus on examining Nonlinear Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy, showing experimentally the role of slow dynamics in the process and quantifying/discussing its influence on the quantification of nonlinearity. We also propose a model to describe the process, which shows that different contributions to nonlinearity (e.g., classical and hysteretic) could be due to physical features (defects) relaxing with different relaxation times.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗
DOE OSTI2024

Control And Optimization Modular Modeling Application For Nuclear Deployment

The purpose of the COMMAND code is to provide a flexible, scalable tool for use in developing, integrating, and testing the technologies necessary for achieving autonomous operations of advanced nuclear reactors. The code enables users to efficiently implement custom simulations and experiments by combining key methods from different software modules. These modules are focused on: modeling and simulation tools, such as nuclear simulation tools used for high-fidelity modeling (e.g., Reactor Excursion and Leak Analysis Program [RELAP5-3D] and Monte Carlo N-Particle [MCNP]); machine learning and optimization tools (e.g., anomaly detection and data-driven modeling techniques); advanced control in its digital, high-performance, and supervisory control forms (e.g., proportional integral derivative (PID) control and model predictive control (MPC); and integration with hardware through industrial communication protocols. To ensure flexibility and scalability, COMMAND was designed to be both modular—the software “pieces” all inherit from generic building blocks and can be combined and connected to create complicated simulations—and high performing—designed for parallel processing, enabling simulations and experiments to take advantage of multi-core computers, servers, and nodes. The code is written in the Python programming language due to the language's popularity, active community, and open-source and cross-platform nature. Maintaining consistency with other simulation tools used within the nuclear energy community, users implement simulations and experiments through text input files, which define components, parameters, connections, etc., through lines of text. Given that COMMAND is written in Python, these input files are native Python scripts, and so use the standard Python structure and formatting. This also enables users to take advantage of Python's extensive package library to develop custom capabilities for their specific use cases.

Faber, Jacob [Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Ida↗
DOE OSTI2025

New Mobility Technology Assessment - Benefits, Risks, and Safety

The age of vehicle automation is upon us. The fundamental perception and control technology is maturing as we speak (and write) with robo-taxis proliferating in select US cities. The news cycle is no longer filled with technological skepticism, but rather societal commentary on our collective response and use of the technology. This maturing of the technology is also accompanied by a renaissance in new types of urban movement technology to more effectively link people with goods, services, and employment, particularly in dense development areas where vehicle congestion (even automated vehicles) prevents high quality mobility. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, through the DOE Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) program has worked with two jurisdictions to assess the benefits, risks, and safety concerns for a new product offering based on suspended cable technology which is fully automated and proposes an aerial network of self-propelled gondolas. The recognized need, independent of the technology, is to fairly assess the benefits of the proposed transportation system, assess its technical maturity, as well as risks and safety concerns. Using this new technology as an example, a technology represented by Swyft Cities, NREL developed a succession of mini-studies that characterized the technical maturity level, assessed the proposed benefits for Greenville, SC, examined the risks involved in moving forward with an emerging mobility technology, and determined the governing safety protocols and standards that are applicable to the space. These mini-case studies, though centered on Swyft Cities aerial automated gondola technology, are highly transferable to any type of new mobility technology and lays out a repeatable process for assessing new technology within an city or community context.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
NASA NTRS2002

MDP: Reliable File Transfer for Space Missions

This paper presents work being done at NASA/GSFC (Goddard Space Flight Center) by the Operating Missions as Nodes on the Internet (OMNI) project to demonstrate the application of the Multicast Dissemination Protocol (MDP) to space missions to reliably transfer files. This work builds on previous work by the OMNI project to apply Internet communication technologies to space communication. The goal of this effort is to provide an inexpensive, reliable, standard, and interoperable mechanism for transferring files in the space communication environment. Limited bandwidth, noise, delay, intermittent connectivity, link asymmetry, and one-way links are all possible issues for space missions. Although these are link-layer issues, they can have a profound effect on the performance of transport and application level protocols. MDP, a UDP (User Datagram Protocol)-based reliable file transfer protocol, was designed for multicast environments which have to address these same issues, and it has done so successfully. Developed by the Naval Research Lab in the mid 1990s, MDP is now in daily use by both the US Post Office and the DoD (Department of Defense). This paper describes the use of MDP to provide automated end-to-end data flow for space missions. It examines the results of a parametric study of MDP in a simulated space link environment and discusses the results in terms of their implications for space missions. Lessons learned are addressed, which suggest minor enhancements to the MDP user interface to add specific features for space mission requirements, such as dynamic control of data rate, and a checkpoint/resume capability. These are features that are provided for in the protocol, but are not implemented in the sample MDP application that was provided. A brief look is also taken at the status of standardization. A version of MDP known as NORM (Nack Oriented Reliable Multicast) is in the process of becoming an IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standard.

Rash, James↗
NASA NTRS2002

MDP: Reliable File Transfer for Space Missions

This paper presents work being done at NASA/GSFC by the Operating Missions as Nodes on the Internet (OMNI) project to demonstrate the application of the Multicast Dissemination Protocol (MDP) to space missions to reliably transfer files. This work builds on previous work by the OMNI project to apply Internet communication technologies to space communication. The goal of this effort is to provide an inexpensive, reliable, standard, and interoperable mechanism for transferring files in the space communication environment. Limited bandwidth, noise, delay, intermittent connectivity, link asymmetry, and one-way links are all possible issues for space missions. Although these are link-layer issues, they can have a profound effect on the performance of transport and application level protocols. MDP, a UDP-based reliable file transfer protocol, was designed for multicast environments which have to address these same issues, and it has done so successfully. Developed by the Naval Research Lab in the mid 1990's, MDP is now in daily use by both the US Post Office and the DoD. This paper describes the use of MDP to provide automated end-to-end data flow for space missions. It examines the results of a parametric study of MDP in a simulated space link environment and discusses the results in terms of their implications for space missions. Lessons learned are addressed, which suggest minor enhancements to the MDP user interface to add specific features for space mission requirements, such as dynamic control of data rate, and a checkpoint/resume capability. These are features that are provided for in the protocol, but are not implemented in the sample MDP application that was provided. A brief look is also taken at the status of standardization. A version of MDP known as NORM (Neck Oriented Reliable Multicast) is in the process of becoming an IETF standard.

Rash, James↗
NASA NTRS2002

Novel High Efficient Organic Photovoltaic Materials: Final Summary of Research

The objectives and goals of this project were to investigate and develop high efficient, lightweight, and cost effective materials for potential photovoltaic applications, such as solar energy conversion or photo detector devices. Specifically, as described in the original project proposal, the target material to be developed was a block copolymer system containing an electron donating (or p-type) conjugated polymer block coupled to an electron withdrawing (or n-type) conjugated polymer block through a non-conjugated bridge unit. Due to several special requirements of the targeted block copolymer systems, such as electron donating and withdrawing substituents, conjugated block structures, processing requirement, stability requirement, size controllability, phase separation and self ordering requirement, etc., many traditional or commonly used block copolymer synthetic schemes are not suitable for this system. Therefore, the investigation and development of applicable and effective synthetic protocols became the most critical and challenging part of this project. During the entire project period, and despite the lack of a proposed synthetic polymer postdoctoral research associate due to severe shortage of qualified personnel in the field, several important accomplishments were achieved in this project and are briefly listed and elaborated. A more detailed research and experimental data is listed in the Appendix.

Sun, Sam↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Transforming any Facility for Meeting Strict Cleanliness Requirements

Over the life of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Integration & Test (I&T) has taken place in areas that needed considerable work to make the facility itself and/or the protocols used while working in the rooms suitable to meet JWST percent area coverage (PAC) and molecular accumulation requirements. In addition to normal particulate matter, JWST had a uniquely significant challenge: fibers! Fibers not only cause much higher PAC levels, but they also risk damaging the angstrom sized Near Infrared Spectrometer (NIRSpec) microshutter array (MSA), which is critical to NIRSpec instrument performance. The primary emphasis of this paper is to address particulate and fiber contamination. The success of the JWST mission required effective cleanrooms, protocols, and mitigations in non-cleanroom areas that were pressed into service to house contamination-sensitive optics and scientific instruments. Some presented profound challenges. These included: NASA’s 60-year-old Johnson Space Center (JSC) Chamber A, which had never been used for anything contamination-sensitive, and the European tropical launch facilities, which were designed to meet International Standard Organization (ISO) Class 8 processing for communication satellites. The final challenge for JWST, as if to stare us in the face and say, “I dare you to try and make me clean enough,” was preparing the 4 areas in the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) Final Assembly Building (BAF) located in French Guiana, a building in which one entire side opens for Ariane 5 rocket ingress and egress. This paper will describe our initial evaluation processes and the actual work undertaken to transform even the most challenging areas into first class cleanrooms that met JWST particulate and fiber requirements.

James Webb Space Telescope↗
DOE OSTI2025

Preserving the Josephson Coupling of Twisted Cuprate Junctions via Tailored Silicon Nitride Circuits Boards

Controlled fabrication of twisted van der Waals heterostructures is essential to unlock the full potential of moiré materials. However, achieving reproducibility remains a major challenge, particularly for air-sensitive materials such as Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8 + δ (BSCCO), where it is crucial to preserve the intrinsic and delicate superconducting properties of the interface throughout the entire fabrication process. Here, a dry, inert and cryogenic assembly method is presented that combines silicon nitride nanomembranes (NMBs) with pre-patterned electrodes and the cryogenic stacking technique (CST) to fabricate high-quality twisted BSCCO Josephson junctions (JJs). This protocol prevents thermal and chemical degradation during both interface formation and electrical contact integration. It is also found that asymmetric membrane designs, such as a double cantilever, effectively suppress vibration-induced disorder due to wire bonding, resulting in sharp and hysteretic current–voltage characteristics. The junctions exhibit a twist-angle-dependent Josephson coupling with magnitudes comparable to the highest-performing devices reported to date, but achieved through a straightforward and versatile contact method, offering a scalable and adaptable platform for future applications. These findings highlight the importance of both interface and contact engineering in addressing reproducibility in superconducting van der Waals heterostructures.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2026

Protocol for applying a network-enabled gene discovery pipeline to non-model plant species

Identifying upstream regulators of key genes is essential for understanding gene regulatory mechanisms and translating these insights into functional targets. Here, we present a protocol for applying the network-enabled gene discovery pipeline (NEEDLE) to non-model plant species. We describe steps for environment setup, data preparation, computational analysis, expected outputs, and parameter considerations. NEEDLE integrates RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) processing, weighted gene co-expression analysis (WGCNA), Gene Network Inference with Ensemble of trees (GENIE3), and promoter conservation analysis to prioritize candidate transcriptional regulators.

Plant Sciences↗
DOE OSTI2026

Post-fire time series photos from five sites across the Oak Creek watershed, Washington

This dataset supports a broader study examining wildfire impacts on hydrologic connectivity across 5 sites within the Oak Creek watershed and the resulting biogeochemical impacts. Sites were selected using the Advanced Terrestrial Simulator (ATS) hydrologic model to identify locations with varying groundwater contributions and hydrologic responses across different burn severity scenarios. The Retreat Fire burned from July 23 to August 2, 2024, affecting all five sites. This dataset provides time series game camera photos, while the broader study includes continuous water quality monitoring, biogeochemical sampling of water and soils, precipitation data, and organic matter analysis. The other data types and additional metadata (include site environmental information) can be found at https://data.ess-dive.lbl.gov/datasets/doi:10.15485/3018020. Because this study is ongoing, this data package will be updated regularly to include newly collected photos. For details on how to navigate data packages generated by this project, see https://data.ess-dive.lbl.gov/portals/PNNLRiverCorridorSFA/About. In addition to a readme, this data package also includes a file-level metadata (FLMD) file that describes each file and a data dictionary (DD) that describes all column/row headers and variable definitions. This dataset is comprised of (1) file-level metadata; (2) data dictionary; (3) field metadata; (4) readme; (5) field protocol; and (6) folders of game camera photos. The game camera photos are organized by site with subfolders by month of collection. The field metadata contains a subset of the information collected that is most relevant to photo-processing. The full set of field metadata can be found at https://data.ess-dive.lbl.gov/datasets/doi:10.15485/3018020. All files are .csv, .pdf, or .jpg.

Burn severity↗
NASA NTRS1999

Cardiovascular Deconditioning in Humans: Human Studies Core

Major cardiovascular problems, secondary to cardiovascular deconditioning, may occur on extended space missions. While it is generally assumed that the microgravity state is the primary cause of cardiovascular deconditioning, sleep deprivation and disruption of diurnal rhythms may also play an important role. Factors that could be modified by either or both of these perturbations include: autonomic function and short-term cardiovascular reflexes, vasoreactivity, circadian rhythm of cardiovascular hormones (specifically the renin-angiotensin system) and renal sodium handling and hormonal influences on that process, venous compliance, cardiac mass, and cardiac conduction processes. The purpose of the Human Studies Core is to provide the infrastructure to conduct human experiments which will allow for the assessment of the likely role of such factors in the space travel associated cardiovascular deconditioning process and to develop appropriate countermeasures. The Core takes advantage of a newly-created Intensive Physiologic Monitoring (IPM) Unit at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, to perform these studies. The Core includes two general experimental protocols. The first protocol involves a head down tilt bed-rest study to simulate microgravity. The second protocol includes the addition of a disruption of circadian rhythms to the simulated microgravity environment. Before and after each of these environmental manipulations, the subjects will undergo acute stressors simulating changes in volume and/or stress, which could occur in space and on return to Earth. The subjects are maintained in a rigidly controlled environment with fixed light/dark cycles, activity pattern, and dietary intake of nutrients, fluids, ions and calories.

Williams, Gordon↗
NASA NTRS1999

Reconfigurable Data Communications Packet-Switch Emulation Test Bed Demonstrated

The Communications Technology Division at the NASA Lewis Research Center has an ongoing program to develop advanced switching and routing technology concepts for future satellite onboard processing systems. Through a university grant as a part of this research, the Cleveland State University is using a flexible reconfigurable data communications packet switch emulation test bed to investigate packet switching techniques. Because of the switching speed and protocol complexity, implementing a data communications network is a tremendous task. Various alternatives should be carefully studied and evaluated in the development stage so that the optimal system configuration can be obtained and implemented later. Therefore, it is desirable to predict the performance of the network before it is actually constructed. This is especially true in the case of satellite systems. In the past, theoretical analysis, software simulation, and prototyping were used to evaluate performance. However, each method has its drawback. There are basic tradeoffs among accuracy, cost, and required evaluation time. No method is completely satisfactory.

Chu, Pong P.↗
NASA NTRS2005

The NASA Bed Rest Project

NASA s National Vision for Space Exploration includes human travel beyond low earth orbit and the ultimate safe return of the crews. Crucial to fulfilling the vision is the successful and timely development of countermeasures for the adverse physiological effects on human systems caused by long term exposure to the microgravity environment. Limited access to in-flight resources for the foreseeable future increases NASA s reliance on ground-based analogs to simulate these effects of microgravity. The primary analog for human based research will be head-down bed rest. By this approach NASA will be able to evaluate countermeasures in large sample sizes, perform preliminary evaluations of proposed in-flight protocols and assess the utility of individual or combined strategies before flight resources are requested. In response to this critical need, NASA has created the Bed Rest Project at the Johnson Space Center. The Project establishes the infrastructure and processes to provide a long term capability for standardized domestic bed rest studies and countermeasure development. The Bed Rest Project design takes a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, integrated approach that reduces the resource overhead of one investigator for one campaign. In addition to integrating studies operationally relevant for exploration, the Project addresses other new Vision objectives, namely: 1) interagency cooperation with the NIH allows for Clinical Research Center (CRC) facility sharing to the benefit of both agencies, 2) collaboration with our International Partners expands countermeasure development opportunities for foreign and domestic investigators as well as promotes consistency in approach and results, 3) to the greatest degree possible, the Project also advances research by clinicians and academia alike to encourage return to earth benefits. This paper will describe the Project s top level goals, organization and relationship to other Exploration Vision Projects, implementation strategy, address Project deliverables, schedules and provide a status of bed rest campaigns presently underway.

Rhodes, Bradley↗
NASA NTRS2016

Transmission Scheduling and Routing Algorithms for Delay Tolerant Networks

The challenges of data processing, transmission scheduling and routing within a space network present a multi-criteria optimization problem. Long delays, intermittent connectivity, asymmetric data rates and potentially high error rates make traditional networking approaches unsuitable. The delay tolerant networking architecture and protocols attempt to mitigate many of these issues, yet transmission scheduling is largely manually configured and routes are determined by a static contact routing graph. A high level of variability exists among the requirements and environmental characteristics of different missions, some of which may allow for the use of more opportunistic routing methods. In all cases, resource allocation and constraints must be balanced with the optimization of data throughput and quality of service. Much work has been done researching routing techniques for terrestrial-based challenged networks in an attempt to optimize contact opportunities and resource usage. This paper examines several popular methods to determine their potential applicability to space networks.

Space Networking↗
DOE OSTI2026

Automation of Laser Plasma Focused Ion Beam Microscopy for Next-Gen Energy Materials

Automation can revolutionize the use of ultrafast laser ablation and plasma-focused ion beam (PFIB) techniques for high-throughput, reproducible cross-sectioning and various sample preparation in materials characterization. As these methods become essential for analyzing complex energy materials and next-generation devices, efficient, standardized workflows are needed to minimize variability and enhance precision. This work highlights our advancements in developing automated processes for sample preparation that integrates machine learning, workflow optimization, and large-scale data acquisition to improve efficiency and scalability in applications such as electrolyzers, photovoltaic cells, and microelectronics. To streamline cross-sectioning and lamella fabrication, we have implemented fully automated workflows that standardize laser ablation and PFIB milling sequences. These workflows incorporate pre-programmed protocols for material removal, alignment, and thinning, reducing user intervention and ensuring consistency across different sample types. Machine learning algorithms further enhance automation by predicting optimal milling strategies and adapting parameters based on material properties and sectioning requirements. This approach significantly improves throughput while maintaining the structural integrity of prepared samples for high-resolution imaging and analysis, including transmission electron microscopy. Beyond sample preparation, our automation platform enables the acquisition of large, high-resolution datasets through serial sectioning, image alignment, and 3D reconstruction. These automated routines facilitate multi-scale characterization, capturing structural and compositional details from the nanoscale to the device level. By reducing variability and increasing efficiency, our automated approach enhances defect analysis, failure diagnostics, and process optimization, accelerating advancements in materials research and device engineering.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗