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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 NTRS1958

Survey of Supersonic Inlets for High Mach Number Applications

The various inlet design philosophies are assessed on the basis of recent experimental results obtained at Mach numbers up to 5. The basic compression systems (external, internal, and combined external-plus-internal) are compared for both Mach 4.0 turbojet and hypersonic-cruise ramjet engines. The inlet that appears best suited for the Mach 4.0 turbojet application is that with combined external-plus-internal compression. Because of the severe cooling and weight problems associated with variable geometry at hypersonic flight speeds, the fixed-geometry self-starting characteristics of external-compression systems may be the overriding factor in the selection of an inlet for the hypersonic-cruise ramjet.

James F Connors↗
DOE OSTI2024

Elastic Modulus Measurement at High Temperatures for Miniature Ceramic Samples Using Laser Micro-Machining and Thermal Mechanical Analyzer

In this paper, we demonstrate a method of measuring the flexural elastic modulus of ceramics at an intermediate (~millimeter) scale at high temperatures. We used a picosecond laser to precisely cut microbeams from the location of interest in a bulk ceramic. They had a cross-section of approximately 100 μm × 300 μm and a length of ~1 cm. They were then tested in a thermal mechanical analyzer at room temperature, 500 °C, 800 °C, and 1100 °C using the four-point flexural testing method. We compared the elastic moduli of high-purity Al2O3 and AlN measured by our method with the reported values in the literature and found that the difference was less than 5% for both materials. This paper provides a new and accurate method of characterizing the high-temperature elastic modulus of miniature samples extracted from representative/selected areas of bulk materials.

Chemistry↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Access to Space for NASA Small Sats: Current and Future Needs

Small spacecraft technology advancements have fundamentally shifted how NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) executes science investigations. To support this approach, the SMD Rideshare Office (SRO) was established in 2020 to lead the definition and implementation of a directorate-wide rideshare strategy. Serving as the central point of contact for coordinating compatible NASA payloads with launch opportunities, the SRO maximizes science, exploration, and technology return on investment by enabling rideshare or other access to space opportunities for small spacecraft on SMD primary mission launches, VADR commercial launch procurements, and other government agency launch opportunities. As NASA seeks to reduce costs and increase the rate of discovery, small satellites and multi manifest access to space have become integral to achieving the agency’s strategic vision. While NASA has created the above-mentioned mechanisms to expand access to space and achieve lower launch costs for its small satellites, many factors have limited full exploit of the opportunity these mechanisms can bring. NASA continues to evolve its mission cultures and technical requirements to adapt and take advantage of burgeoning commercial launch and rideshare advancements. To do so NASA requires collaboration with small satellite manufacturers, principal investigators, and commercial industry partners. Current needs include technical development and design of structurally robust spacecraft buses capable of withstanding varied launch loads, which will increase rideshare interchangeability and versatility. Further, instrument and spacecraft designs must also evolve to handle diverse launch environments and loads factors, while reducing reliance on complex purge and cleanliness constraints, sensitivities to silicones and hydrocarbons, and magnetic requirements. Continued maturation of small and medium launch providers in the near-term is also essential to drive down costs through competition. The current mission selection cadence often complicates the ability to synchronize multiple missions on a single launch. Future needs can include affordable space maneuverability options such as enhanced spacecraft propulsion systems and unique orbital maneuvering capabilities for our individual smallsats or constellations. These emerging capabilities offer a path to unique science orbits for NASA small satellites, but only under the condition that their cost remains affordable and competitive to accommodate inherently smaller mission budgets. Additionally, the projected surge of multiple SMD small satellites launching simultaneously and to unique deep space science orbits necessitates evaluation of expanding deep space communications capabilities. This presentation provides a comprehensive overview of NASA SMD’s access to space landscape and offers further unique insights and discussion, backed by NASA rideshare experiences and lessons learned, on the current and future developments required to unleash the full potential of rideshare opportunities.

Rideshare↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Using Open Innovation in Reducing Risk to Crews

In the exploration of destinations outside of Earth's neighborhood, specifically Mars, scientific and engineering inquiries have occurred by two means; observations from satellites and observations by landed spacecraft. Satellite observations (Mariner, MRO, Mars Odyssey, provide global-scale spatial and temporal data while landed spacecraft (Viking, Mars Pathfinder, Spirit, Opportunity, Phoenix Mars Lander) investigate highly localized areas of the surface of the planet. In preparation for human exploration, extensive knowledge of the surface and atmospheric environments should be known before the first human leaves Earth. The primary goal of performing reconnaissance on Mars on a sub-global scale is to know as much as possible about the environment to which crews will be subjected. At the current rate of launching and landing probes to Mars, it will take a very long time to understand the surface and atmospheric conditions associated with the regions where prospective crews may land. Meanwhile electronics and electrical systems are rapidly getting smaller. One can argue that to acquire the knowledge of the region, one must take hundreds, maybe thousands of measurements simultaneously. One means to perform such a task is to deploy a swarm of sensors. Such a swarm would perform an in-situ assessment of the region. Imagine a close flyby mission to Mars for example, where mini- to micro-sensors are deposited into the atmosphere over half an orbit or more. The sensors, captured by the atmospheric drag and Martian gravity slowly descend buffeted about by Martian winds and weather until they settle on the surface a great time later (think of how long dust takes to settle). As they descend they communicate a vast array of data; temperature, chemistry, pressure, radiation dose, electric or magnetic properties from a region of the planet and an individual sensor need not measure the same quantity as its neighbors. Initially, they could move at the whim of the environment but later versions could have locomotion or propulsion mechanisms. Humans wouldn't need to decide where the sensors go, the sensors do that for themselves. This is a key strength of a sensor swarm. The intelligence relies on the group not on a decision maker on earth. Real time sensor inputs direct what the swarm considers most interesting to investigate resulting in emergent behavior. We issued a $20,000 challenge to the global innovators to provide solutions as to how such a swarm could be initialized and by what protocols and methodologies by which they operate. Over 400 innovators from 49 countries took a look at the problem, with three receiving partial awards for solutions.

Mel Ferebee↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

High EneRgy Observatory for Imaging X-rays (HEROIX) Mission Concept

The High EneRgy Observatory for Imaging X-rays (HEROIX) is a next-generation broadband X-ray space telescope concept under development as a Medium-Class Explorer mission. Building on more than three decades of replicated NiCo shell technology at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, HEROIX will deliver 5 arcsecond half-power-diameter imaging resolution in the hard X-ray band. The observatory will incorporate four co-aligned telescopes with advanced multilayer coatings, extending the bandpass into the hard X-ray regime and providing an integrated effective area of 380 cm² at 30 keV. A suite of focal plane detectors will enable imaging capability throughout its 1–80 keV bandpass. This combination of angular resolution and high-energy coverage will open new windows into non-thermal processes in extreme astrophysical environments. HEROIXwill deliver transformative science, advancing the astrophysics community’s understanding of supernova physics, the X-ray binary population of the Galactic Center, accretion-driven galaxy evolution, and the origin of the Cosmic X-ray Background.

Nick Thomas↗
DOE OSTI2025

High-Fidelity Building Emulator for Integrated Comfort and Energy Analysis using EnergyPlus and Radiance

The growing need for smart, energy-efficient, and occupant-centric buildings has created a demand for advanced control systems that can optimize building operations to balance energy savings, demand flexibility, and comfort. However, current building energy simulation tools, such as EnergyPlus, have limitations that hinder the development and evaluation of these complex control systems. To address this challenge, we introduce a high-fidelity building emulator that dynamically couples EnergyPlus with Radiance for enhanced daylight modeling. The introduced workflow allows researchers and practitioners to rapidly develop and evaluate innovative control solutions. An example study looking at a south-facing office zone revealed up to 67% deviation in predicted light levels, which can significantly impact building assessment.

Yu, Tammie↗
NASA NTRS1993

Insertion Loss and Noise-Temperature Contribution of High-Temperature Superconducting Bandpass Filters Centered at 2.3 and 8.45 GHz

Two superconducting Tl-Ca-Cu-Ba-O bandpass filters were fabricated for JPL by Superconductor Technologies Incorporated, Santa Barbara, California. The filters were designed to operate at 2.3 GHz (S-band) with a 0.5-dB bandwidth of 60 MHz and at 8.45 GHz (X-band) with a 0.5-dB bandwidth of 150 MHz. The structure selected for both filters incorporates half-wavelength thin-film resonators in a stripline configuration. The S-band filter uses an edge-coupled interdigital design and the X-band filter uses an end-coupled design. The insertion loss and the noise-temperature contribution were measured at 12 K for both filters.

J L Prater↗
DOE OSTI2024

Factors Influencing Gas Evolution from High‐Nickel Layered Oxide Cathodes in Lithium‐Based Batteries

Abstract Gas evolution from high‐nickel layered oxide cathodes (>90% Ni) remains a major issue for their practical application. Gaseous species, such as CO 2 , O 2 , and CO, that are evolved at high states of charge (SOC) worsen the overall safety of batteries, as pressure build‐up within the cell may lead to cell rupture. Since these gasses are produced during cathode degradation, tracking the formation of gasses is also important in diagnosing cathode failure. Online electrochemical mass spectrometry (OEMS) is a powerful in situ technique to study gas evolution from the cathode during high‐voltage charge. However, the differences in the OEMS experimental setups between different groups make it challenging to compare results between groups. In this perspective, the various factors that influence gas evolution based on the OEMS results collected in this group are presented. The focus is on the conditions that lead to gas release, with a particular emphasis on reactive oxygen formation and subsequent chemical reactions with the electrolyte. Promising strategies, such as electrolytes, compositional tuning, and surface coatings that are effective at suppressing gas evolution from the cathode are highlighted. Critical insights into mitigating cathode degradation and gas evolution are provided to guide the development of safer, high‐energy batteries.

Chemistry↗
NASA NTRS2026

Electromagnetic Melt Processing: A Pathway to New Additive Manufacturing Technologies for Functional High-Performance Thermoplastics

In this study, we apply the electromagnetic (EM) melt processing of thermoplastics on an innovative EM field-driven powder bed fusion additive manufacturing (AM) concept for high-performance functional parts: Selective Microwave Melting/Sintering (SMM/SMS). This technique leverages the EM susceptibility of carbon nanotube-coated polymer micro-pellets to achieve rapid, localized heating and powder fusion. Thus, selective microwave melting (SMM) was used to fabricate multilayer specimens made of recycled polyphenylene sulfide (rPPS) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The resulting SMM specimens exhibited very good interlayer integrity, localized fusion at pellet boundaries, and tolerable residual porosity, indicating effective fusion and acceptable consolidation. CNT-rich interphases were retained after irradiation, generating anisotropic electrically active network pathways and enabling conductivity enhancement at low filler content. At only 1.0 wt% CNT, the specimens exhibited electrical conductivity approximately three orders of magnitude higher than neat rPPS. Dynamic mechanical analysis showed improved viscoelastic response relative to neat rPPS, while tensile testing confirmed that the SMM-processed specimens retained practical mechanical integrity despite localized voids. These results demonstrate that SMM can effectively consolidate EM susceptible thermoplastic powder beds while preserving their segregated conductive networks. This may become a scalable route for producing multifunctional thermoplastic parts with low filler loadings, tunable anisotropy, and structured materials and parts. Overall, the findings suggest that EM field-based AM can help overcome key limitations of conventional thermoplastic processing by enabling scalable, energy-efficient fabrication of nanostructured composites and expanding AM to a broader range of resins, including high-performance thermoplastics with customized functional properties.

Powder bed fusion↗
NASA NTRS2015

Study of Stable Cathodes and Electrolytes for High Specific Density Lithium-Air Battery

Future NASA missions require high specific energy battery technologies, greater than 400 Wh/kg. Current NASA missions are using "state-of-the-art" (SOA) Li-ion batteries (LIB), which consist of a metal oxide cathode, a graphite anode and an organic electrolyte. NASA Glenn Research Center is currently studying the physical and electrochemical properties of the anode-electrolyte interface for ionic liquid based Li-air batteries. The voltage-time profiles for Pyr13FSI and Pyr14TFSI ionic liquids electrolytes studies on symmetric cells show low over-potentials and no dendritic lithium morphology. Cyclic voltammetry measurements indicate that these ionic liquids have a wide electrochemical window. As a continuation of this work, sp2 carbon cathode and these low flammability electrolytes were paired and the physical and electrochemical properties were studied in a Li-air battery system under an oxygen environment.

cathodes↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Use of Immersion Rigs for High Temperature Hydrogen Exposure Testing Within the Nuclear Thermal Rocket Element Environmental Simulator (NTREES): NTREES-5 Hydrogen Heat Exchanger (N5HHX-01)

The Nuclear Thermal Rocket Element Environmental Simulator (NTREES) facility at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) subjects materials and components typically found on nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) systems to non-nuclear simulations of prototypic NTP reactor thermohydraulic environments. With 1.2 MW of inductive power available, the currently employed methods to simulate nuclear heating in NTREES consist of 1) inductively heating a test specimen, which typically cannot be performed on ceramic materials, or 2) heating gas that envelops the test specimen. The latter of these has provided a basis for developing so-called “immersion rigs” to be used in NTREES. Furthermore, immersion rigs are especially useful in the case of smaller, technically challenging test specimens. One such device, the “NTREES-5 Hydrogen Heat Exchanger” (N5HHX-01), designed and deployed to test small material coupons to ~0.5 g/s of 2800 K, 500 psi Hydrogen, is discussed herein. To achieve this desired delivery temperature level, the most suitable material for the N5HHX’s construction was pure tungsten, which imposed budgetary and manufacturing challenges. Also discussed in this paper is the design of the N5HHX rig’s sample container, which became the first iteration of improving NTREES small material coupon test operations by permitting rapid changeout of different material samples.

Reactor Testing↗
DOE OSTI2024

A butterfly-shaped acceptor with rigid skeleton and unique assembly enables both efficient organic photovoltaics and high-speed organic photodetectors

ABSTRACT It remains challenging to design efficient bifunctional semiconductor materials in organic photovoltaic and photodetector devices. Here, we report a butterfly-shaped molecule, named WD-6, which exhibits low energy disorder and small reorganization energy due to its enhanced molecular rigidity and unique assembly with strong intermolecular interaction. The binary photovoltaic device based on PM6:WD-6 achieved an efficiency of 18.41%. Notably, an efficiency of 19.42% was achieved for the ternary device based on PM6:BTP-eC9:WD-6. Moreover, the photodetection device based on WD-6 demonstrated an ultrafast response speed (205 ns response time at λ of 820 nm) and a high cutoff frequency of −3 dB (2.45 MHz), surpassing the values of most commercial Si photodiodes. Based on these findings, we showcased an application of the WD-6-based photodetection device in high-speed optical communication. These results offer valuable insights into the design of organic semiconductor materials capable of simultaneously exhibiting high photovoltaic and photodetective performance.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗
DOE OSTI2026

A novel compact end-loaded piston cylinder cell for high pressure neutron scattering up to 5 GPa

Here, a miniature sized end-loaded piston cylinder cell with radial side windows for neutron scattering experiments is described. The principle of the bicone-shaped cylinders used was first presented by McWhan in 1974. The present cell is of compact portable design yet significantly enlarges the scattering angles. Its small size allows neutron scattering experiments at low temperatures. The bicone-shaped cylinders are made from various ceramics or a highly neutron-transmissive Ni-free Cr–Mo–V steel. Successful neutron scattering experiments up to 5 GPa have been demonstrated on the CORELLI single-crystal diffractometer and the VISION vibrational spectrometer of the Spallation Neutron Source at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Neutrons↗
DOE OSTI2026

High-Q superconducting lumped-element resonators for low-mass axion searches

Low-frequency superconducting lumped-element resonators have recently attracted significant attention in the context of axion dark matter searches. Here, we present the design and implementation of a fixed-frequency superconducting resonator operating near 250 kHz, possessing an inductor volume of ∼1 liter and achieving an unloaded quality factor Q ≈ 2.1 × 10 6 . This resonator represents a significant improvement over the state of the art and informs the design of searches for low-mass axions.

Bosons↗
DOE OSTI2025

Development of a high fidelity CFD model for solvent evaporation and transport in porous structure during battery electrode drying

An efficient battery manufacturing process is the key to the mass production of Electric Vehicles (EV), in which drying is one of the most energy-intensive steps significantly influencing the battery cell performance. An accurate 3D CFD model for drying is essential for predicting the drying mechanism and optimizing its parameters. By optimizing the drying process, it is possible to reduce energy consumption and cost during battery manufacturing, minimize binder loading and maximize active material loading to achieve superior electrochemical performances and facilitate wider and faster public adoption of EV. This project aims to optimize the drying process during electrode manufacturing by leveraging high-fidelity, porous electrode simulations for solvent evaporation. By optimizing this process, we seek to reduce energy consumption during battery manufacturing, while minimizing binder loading and maximizing active material loading, with the overall goal of enhancing electrical vehicle performance.

Horner, Jeffrey Scott [Sandia National Laboratorie↗