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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 685 records · Page 38
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1989

Gas-Grain Simulation Facility: Fundamental studies of particle formation and interactions. Volume 1: Executive summary and overview

An overview of the Gas-Grain Simulation Facility (GGSF) project and its current status is provided. The proceedings of the Gas-Grain Simulation Facility Experiments Workshop are recorded. The goal of the workshop was to define experiments for the GGSF--a small particle microgravity research facility. The workshop addressed the opportunity for performing, in Earth orbit, a wide variety of experiments that involve single small particles (grains) or clouds of particles. The first volume includes the executive summary, overview, scientific justification, history, and planned development of the Facility.

Fogleman, Guy↗
NASA NTRS1992

ARCLITE: the Arctic Lidar Technology Facility at Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland

SRI International is presently developing an Arctic lidar (ARCLITE) facility at the incoherent-scatter radar site in Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland (67.0 degrees N, 209.2 degrees W). The project, funded by NSF through the CEDAR (Coupling Energetics and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions) initiative, is to perform high-altitude molecular/aerosol backscatter measurements in the Arctic covering the stratosphere/mesosphere region during nighttime and daytime conditions. The lidar system employs an injection seeded, high-energy GCR-5 Spectra Physics Nd:YAG laser for primary operation at 532 nm (550 mJ per pulse at 30 Hz). The receiver system is designed around a 36-inch Cassegrainian telescope of astronomical quality with receiver components and photon-counting electronics for day and night operations. The Rayleigh backscatter measurements will conduct investigations concerning long-term studies of the basic density and temperature structure of the Arctic stratosphere/mesosphere region; effects of stratospheric warming on the structure of the stratosphere/mesosphere region; occurrence and properties of polar stratospheric clouds; occurrence of noctilucent clouds and their properties at high latitudes; and dynamic and thermodynamic coupling between the stratosphere/mesosphere region and the lower thermosphere.

Thayer, J. P.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Development of a NASA 6-U Satellite

NASA/Wallops Flight Facility has focused on the development of new technologies for the advancement of 6 Unit (6U) small satellites. From the design of the structure and instrument support hardware to improvements in the deployer, NASA is concentrating on maximizing the potential of small satellites for the benefit of science. The telemetry system provides much higher data rates than typical I U UHF system. 6U provides up to several hundred kilobits per second and utilizes the existing NASA Ground Network for data reception. The guidance, navigation and control system keeps the satellite pointed within plus or minus 10 degrees of the sun and has knowledge of the sun vector within 1 degree. The 6U power design increased the options for different voltages and power switching capabilities and is capable of supporting instruments with higher power requirements. The Command & Data Handling (C&DH) system includes a low-power 520 MHz flight processor which provides more processing capability than existing I U processor technologies. These optimized technologies will offer the science community a greater opportunity for flying more sophisticated and complex instruments.

Thompson, Linda D.↗
NASA NTRS1998

An Overview of the Electrostatic Levitation Facility at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

Containerless processing represents an important area of research in microgravity materials science. This method provides access to the metastable state of an undercooled melt. Containerless processing provides a high-purity environment for the study of reactive, high-temperature materials. Reduced gravity affords several benefits for containerless processing, for example greatly reduced positioning forces are required and therefore samples of greater mass can be studied. Additionally in reduced gravity, larger specimens will maintain spherical shape which will facilitate modeling efforts. Space Systems/LORAL developed an Electrostatic Containerless Processing System (ESCAPES) as a materials science research tool for investigations of refractory solids and melts. ESCAPES is designed for the investigation of thermophysical properties, phase equilibria, metastable phase formation, undercooling and nucleation, time-temperature- transformation diagrams and other aspects of materials processing. These capabilities are critical to the research programs of several Principal Investigators supported by the Microgravity Materials Science Program of NASA. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) recently acquired the ESCAPES system from LORAL. MSFC is now developing a levitation facility to provide a critical resource to the microgravity materials science research community to continue and enhance ground-based research in the support of the development of flight experiments during the transition to Space Station.

Rogers, Jan R.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Commercialization is Required for Sustainable Space Exploration and Development

The U.S. Space Exploration policy outlines an exciting new direction in space for human and robotic exploration and development beyond low Earth orbit. Pressed by this new visionary guidance, human civilization will be able to methodically build capabilities to move off Earth and into the solar system in a step-by-step manner, gradually increasing the capability for humans to stay longer in space and move further away from Earth. The new plans call for an implementation that would create an affordable and sustainable program in order to span over generations of explorers, each new generation pushing back the boundaries and building on the foundations laid by the earlier. To create a sustainable program it is important to enable and encourage the development of a selfsupporting commercial space industry leveraging both traditional and non-traditional segments of the industrial base. Governments will not be able to open the space frontier on their own because their goals change over relatively short timescales and because the large costs associated with human spaceflight cannot be sustained. A strong space development industrial sector is needed that can one day support the needs of commercial space enterprises as well as provide capabilities that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and other national space agencies can buy to achieve their exploration goals. This new industrial space sector will someday provide fundamental capabilities like communications, power, logistics, and even cargo and human space transportation, just as commercial companies are able to provide these services on Earth today. To help develop and bolster this new space industrial sector, NASA and other national space agencies can enable and facilitate it in many ways, including reducing risk by developing important technologies necessary for commercialization of space, and as a paying customer, partner, or anchor tenant. This transition from all or mostly government developed and operated facilities and services to commercial supplied facilities and services should be considered from the very earliest stages of planning. This paper will first discuss the importance of space commercialization to fulfilling national goals and the associated policy and strategic objectives that will enable space exploration and development. Then the paper will offer insights into how government can provide leadership to promote the nascent commercial space industry. In addition, the paper describes programs and policies already in place at NASA and offers five important principles government can use to strengthen space industry.

Martin, Gary L.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Dual-Pump CARS Development and Application to Supersonic Combustion

A dual-pump Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy (CARS) instrument has been developed to obtain simultaneous measurements of temperature and absolute mole fractions of N2, O2 and H2 in supersonic combustion and generate databases for validation and development of CFD codes. Issues that compromised previous attempts, such as beam steering and high irradiance perturbation effects, have been alleviated or avoided. Improvements in instrument precision and accuracy have been achieved. An axis-symmetric supersonic combusting coaxial jet facility has been developed to provide a simple, yet suitable flow to CFD modelers. Approximately one million dual-pump CARS single shots have been collected in the supersonic jet for varying values of flight and exit Mach numbers at several locations. Data have been acquired with a H2 co-flow (combustion case) or a N2 co-flow (mixing case). Results are presented and the effects of the compressibility and of the heat release are discussed.

Magnotti, Gaetano↗
NASA NTRS1994

Development of an In-Flight Refill Unit for Replenishing Research Animal Drinking Water

The Spacelab Life Sciences 2 (SLS-2) mission became NASA's longest duration Shuttle mission, lasting fourteen days, when Columbia landed on 1 Nov. 1993. Located within the Spacelab were a total of 48 laboratory rats which were housed in two Research Animal Holding Facilities (RAHF's) developed by the Space Life Sciences Payloads Office (SLSPO) at Ames Research Center. In order to properly maintain the health and well-being of these important research animals, sufficient quantities of food and water had to be available for the duration of the mission. An inflight Refill Unit was developed by the SLSPO to replenish the animals' drinking water inflight using the Shuttle potable water system in the middeck galley as the source of additional water. The Inflight Refill Unit consists of two major subsystems, a Fluid Pumping Unit (FPU) and a Collapsible Water Reservoir (CWR). The FPU provides the system measurement and controls, pump, water lines, and plumbing necessary to collect water coming into the unit from the potable water system and pump it out and into the RAHF drinking water tanks. The CWR is a Kevlar(trademark) reinforced storage bladder, connected to the FPU, which has a capacity of 6 liters in its expanded volume and functions to store the water collected from the potable water system and allows for the transport of the water back to the Spacelab where it is pumped into each of two RAHFs. Additional components of the FPU system include the inlet and outlet fluid hoses, a power cable for providing 28 volt direct current spacecraft electrical power to the pump within the FPU, a tether system for the unit when in use in Spacelab, and an adapter for mating the unit to the orbiter waste collection system in order to dump excess water after use in Spacelab. This paper will present the design process and development approach for the lnflight Refill Unit, define some of the key design issues which had to be addressed, and summarize the inflight operational performance of the unit during the SLS-2 mission.

Savage, P. D.↗
NASA NTRS1982

A high-Reynolds-number seal test facility: Facility description and preliminary test data

A facility has been developed for testing the leakage and rotordynamic characteristics of interstage-seal configurations for the HPFTP (High Pressure Fuel Turbopump) of the SSME (Space Shuttle Main Engine). Axial Reynolds numbers on the order of 400,000 are realized in the test facility by using a Dupont freon fluid called Halon (CBrF3). The kinematic viscosity of Halon is of the same order as the liquid hydrogen used in the HPFTP. Initial testing has focused on the current flight configurations (a three-segment, stepped unit) and a convergent-taper candidate.

Childs, D. W.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Characterization of a 50kW Inductively Coupled Plasma Torch for Testing of Ablative Thermal Protection Materials

With the development of new manned spaceflight capabilities including NASA's Orion capsule and the Space-X Dragon capsule, there is a renewed importance of understanding the dynamics of ablative thermal protection systems. To this end, a new inductively coupled plasma torch facility is being developed at UT-Austin. The torch operates on argon and/or air at plasma powers up to 50 kW. In the present configuration the flow issues from a low-speed subsonic nozzle and the hot plume is characterized using slug calorimetry and emission spectroscopy. Preliminary measurements using emission spectroscopy have indicated that the torch is capable of producing an air plasma with a temperature between 6,000 K and 8,000 K depending on the power and flow settings and an argon plasma with a temperature of approximately 12,000 K. The operation envelope was measured, and heat flux measured for every point within the envelope using both a slug calorimeter and a Gardon gauge heat flux sensor. The torch was found to induce a stagnation point heat flux of between 90 and 225 W/sq cm.

Greene, Benton R.↗
NASA NTRS1999

An Overview of the Electrostatic Levitation Facility at Nasa's Marshall Space Flight Center

Containerless processing represents an important area of research in microgravity materials science. This method provides access to the metastable state of an undercooled melt. Containerless processing provides a high-purity environment for the study of reactive, high-temperature materials. Reduced gravity affords several benefits for containerless processing; for example, greatly reduced positioning forces are required and therefore samples of greater mass can be studied. Additionally, in reduced gravity larger specimens will maintain spherical shape which will facilitate modeling efforts. Space Systems/LORAL developed an Electrostatic Containerless Processing System (ESCAPES) as a materials science research tool for investigations of refractory solids and melts. ESCAPES is designed for the investigation of thermophysical properties, phase equilibria, metastable phase formation, undercooling and nucleation, time-temperature-transformation diagrams, and other aspects of materials processing. These capabilities are critical to the research programs of several Principal Investigators supported by the Microgravity Materials Science Program of NASA. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) recently acquired the ESCAPES system from LORAL. MSFC is now developing a levitation facility in order to provide a critical resource to the microgravity materials science research community and to continue and enhance ground-based research in the support of the development of flight experiments during the transition to Space Station.

Rogers, Jan R.↗
NASA NTRS1987

High intensity 5 eV atomic oxygen source and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) simulation facility

An atomic oxygen exposure facility has been developed for studies of material degradation. The goal of these studies is to provide design criteria and information for the manufacture of long life (20 to 30 years) construction materials for use in LEO. The studies that are being undertaken using the facility will provide: absolute reaction cross sections for use in engineering design problems; formulations of reaction mechanisms; and calibration of flight hardware (mass spectrometers, etc.) in order to directly relate experiments performed in LEO to ground based investigations. The facility consists of: (1) a CW laser sustained discharge source of O atoms having a variable energy up to 5 eV and an intensity between 10(15) and 10(17) O atoms s(-1) cm(-2); (2) an atomic beam formation and diagnostics system consisting of various stages of differential pumping, a mass spectrometer detector, and a time of flight analyzer; (3) a spinning rotor viscometer for absolute O atom flux measurements; and (4) provision for using the system for calibration of actual flight instruments. Surface analysis equipment is available for the characterization of material surfaces before and after exposure to O atoms.

Cross, J. B.↗
NASA NTRS1989

CSI technology validation on an LSS ground experiment facility

The test bed developed at JPL for experimental evaluation of new technologies for the control of large flexible space structures is described. The experiment consists of a flexible spacecraft dynamic simulator, sensors, actuators, a microcomputer, and an advanced programming environment. The test bed has been operational for over a year, and thus far nine experiments were completed or are currently in progress. Several of these experiments were reported at the 1987 CSI conference, and several recent ones are documented in this paper, including high order adaptive control, non-parametric system identification, and mu-synthesis robust control. An aggressive program of experiments is planned for the forseeable future.

Wang, S. J.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Systems Engineering and Integration (SE and I)

The issue of technology advancement and future space transportation vehicles is addressed. The challenge is to develop systems which can be evolved and improved in small incremental steps where each increment reduces present cost, improves, reliability, or does neither but sets the stage for a second incremental upgrade that does. Future requirements are interface standards for commercial off the shelf products to aid in the development of integrated facilities; enhanced automated code generation system slightly coupled to specification and design documentation; modeling tools that support data flow analysis; and shared project data bases consisting of technical characteristics cast information, measurement parameters, and reusable software programs. Topics addressed include: advanced avionics development strategy; risk analysis and management; tool quality management; low cost avionics; cost estimation and benefits; computer aided software engineering; computer systems and software safety; system testability; and advanced avionics laboratories - and rapid prototyping. This presentation is represented by viewgraphs only.

Chevers, ED↗
NASA NTRS1990

Technology development program for the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) science instruments

A coordinated technology program for the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) is described. The program encompasses detector technology, cryogenic mechanisms technology, and an adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator. Discrete detectors, detector arrays, detector readouts, and testing of engineering models under simulated flight environment conditions are considered. Several focal planes will be optimized at a particular wavelength range to make up over 247,000 detector pixels from about 1.8 to 1000 microns.

Ramos, Ruben↗
NASA NTRS1984

Pinhole Occulter Facility

The Pinhole Occulter Facility (POF) is designed for X-ray observations of solar activity, coronal structure and solar wind generation, and coronal transients. The four telescopes or positioning counters, the self-deployable 32-m boom, and the pointing-control actuator of the POF are described. The development of the facility is discussed. The configuration of the POF and means of maintaining its attitude control are examined.

Dabbs, J. R.↗
NASA NTRS1992

High temperature aircraft research furnace facilities

Focus is on the design, fabrication, and development of the High Temperature Aircraft Research Furnace Facilities (HTARFF). The HTARFF was developed to process electrically conductive materials with high melting points in a low gravity environment. The basic principle of operation is to accurately translate a high temperature arc-plasma gas front as it orbits around a cylindrical sample, thereby making it possible to precisely traverse the entire surface of a sample. The furnace utilizes the gas-tungsten-arc-welding (GTAW) process, also commonly referred to as Tungsten-Inert-Gas (TIG). The HTARFF was developed to further research efforts in the areas of directional solidification, float-zone processing, welding in a low-gravity environment, and segregation effects in metals. The furnace is intended for use aboard the NASA-JSC Reduced Gravity Program KC-135A Aircraft.

Smith, James E., Jr.↗