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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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NASA NTRS2020

NASA SpaceCube Intelligent Multi-Purpose System for Enabling Remote Sensing, Communication, and Navigation in Mission Architectures

New, innovative CubeSat mission concepts demand modern capabilities such as artificial intelligence and autonomy, constellation coordination, fault mitigation, and robotic servicing –all of which require vastly more processing resources than legacy systems are capable of providing. Enabling these domains within a scalable, configurable processing architecture is advantageous because it also allows for the flexibility to address varying mission roles, such as a command and data-handling system, a high-performance application processor extension, a guidance and navigation solution, or an instrument/sensor interface. This paper describes the NASA SpaceCube Intelligent Multi-Purpose System (IMPS), which allows mission developers to mix-and-match 1U (10 cm × 10 cm) CubeSat payloads configured for mission-specific needs. The central enabling component of the system architecture to address these concerns is the SpaceCube v3.0 Mini Processor. This single-board computer features the 20nm Xilinx Kintex UltraScale FPGA combined with a radiation-hardened FPGA monitor, and extensive IO to integrate and interconnect varying cards within the system. To unify the re-usable designs within this architecture, the CubeSat Card Standard was developed to guide design of 1U cards. This standard define spinout configurations, mechanical, and electrical specifications for 1U CubeSat cards, allowing the backplane and mechanical enclosure to be easily extended. NASA has developed several cards adhering to the standard (System-on-Chip, power card, etc.), which allows the flexibility to configure a payload from a common catalog of cards.

Advanced Avionics, Hybrid Processing, Data Process↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

LunaNet: A Flexible and Extensible Lunar Exploration Communications and Navigation Infrastructure and the Inclusion of SmallSat Platforms

As NASA establishes a sustained presence on the Moon and ventures further into the solar system, the need for a robust interplanetary communications and navigation architecture increases. LunaNet, an extensible and scalable lunar communications and navigation architecture, is being developed to answer this growing need. The LunaNet architecture will provide users with three services: networking services, positioning, navigation and timing services, and science utilization services. With LunaNet in place, users will experience an operational environment similar to that experienced by users on Earth. The agency’s plan for solar system exploration necessitates both government and commercial participation, and the LunaNet architecture supports this goal as well, encouraging global participation from commercial and international partners, other government agencies, academia, and federally funded research development centers. This paper provides a high-level description of the LunaNet architecture, discusses how SmallSat platforms and technologies may provide critical capabilities, and defines the role that SmallSats can play within the architecture.

Communications↗
NASA NTRS2010

Automation Hooks Architecture Trade Study for Flexible Test Orchestration

We describe the conclusions of a technology and communities survey supported by concurrent and follow-on proof-of-concept prototyping to evaluate feasibility of defining a durable, versatile, reliable, visible software interface to support strategic modularization of test software development. The objective is that test sets and support software with diverse origins, ages, and abilities can be reliably integrated into test configurations that assemble and tear down and reassemble with scalable complexity in order to conduct both parametric tests and monitored trial runs. The resulting approach is based on integration of three recognized technologies that are currently gaining acceptance within the test industry and when combined provide a simple, open and scalable test orchestration architecture that addresses the objectives of the Automation Hooks task. The technologies are automated discovery using multicast DNS Zero Configuration Networking (zeroconf), commanding and data retrieval using resource-oriented Restful Web Services, and XML data transfer formats based on Automatic Test Markup Language (ATML). This open-source standards-based approach provides direct integration with existing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) analysis software tools.

Lansdowne, Chatwin A.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Development and Testing of a Variable Conductance Thermal Acquisition, Transport, and Switching System

This paper describes the development and testing of a scalable thermal management architecture for instruments, subsystems, or systems that must operate in severe space environments with wide variations in sink temperature. The architecture involves a serial linkage of one or more hot-side variable conductance heat pipes (VCHPs) to one or more cold-side loop heat pipes (LHPs). The VCHPs provide wide area heat acquisition, limited distance thermal transport, modest against gravity pumping, concentrated LHP startup heating, and high switching ratio variable conductance operation. The LHPs provide localized heat acquisition, long distance thermal transport, significant against gravity pumping, and high switching ratio variable conductance operation. The single-VCHP, single-LHP system described herein was developed to maintain thermal control of a small robotic lunar lander throughout the lunar day-night thermal cycle. It is also applicable to other variable heat rejection space missions in severe environments. Operationally, despite a 60-70% gas blocked VCHP condenser during ON testing, the system was still able to provide 2-4 W/K ON conductance, 0.01 W/K OFF conductance, and an end-to-end switching ratio of 200-400. The paper provides a detailed analysis of VCHP condenser performance, which quantified the gas blockage situation. Future multi-VCHP/multi-LHP thermal management system concepts that provide power/transport length scalability are also discussed.

Bugby, David C.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Development and Testing of a Variable Conductance Thermal Acquisition, Transport, and Switching System

This paper describes the development and testing of a scalable thermal control architecture for instruments, subsystems, or systems that must operate in severe space environments with wide variations in sink temperature. The architecture is comprised by linking one or more hot-side variable conductance heat pipes (VCHPs) in series with one or more cold-side loop heat pipes (LHPs). The VCHPs provide wide area heat acquisition, limited distance thermal transport, modest against gravity pumping, concentrated LHP startup heating, and high switching ratio variable conductance operation. The LHPs provide localized heat acquisition, long distance thermal transport, significant against gravity pumping, and high switching ratio variable conductance operation. Combining two variable conductance devices in series ensures very high switching ratio isolation from severe environments like the Earth's moon, where each lunar day spans 15 Earth days (270 K sink, with a surface-shielded/space viewing radiator) and each lunar night spans 15 Earth days (80-100 K radiative sink, depending on location). The single VCHP-single LHP system described herein was developed to maintain thermal control of International Lunar Network (ILN) anchor node lander electronics, but it is also applicable to other variable heat rejection space missions in severe environments. The LHPVCHP system utilizes a stainless steel wire mesh wick ammonia VCHP, a Teflon wick propylene LHP, a pair of one-third square meter high  radiators (one capillary-pumped horizontal radiator and a second gravity-fed vertical radiator), a half-meter of transport distance, and a wick-bearing co-located flow regulator (CLFR) to allow operation with a hot (deactivated) radiator. The VCHP was designed with a small reservoir formed by extending the length of its stainless steel heat pipe tubing. The system was able to provide end-to-end switching ratios of 300-500 during thermal vacuum testing at ATK, including 3-5 W/K ON conductance and 0.01 W/K OFF conductance. The test results described herein also include an in-depth analysis of VCHP condenser performance to explain VCHP switching operation in detail. Future multi-VCHP/multi-LHP thermal management system concepts that provide scalability to higher powers/longer transport lengths are also discussed in the paper.

Bugby, D. C.↗
NASA NTRS2004

The DART System for Far-IR/Submillimeter Space Missions

The DART is a system of two cylindrical-parabolic reflectors. One reflector will produce a line focus; two reflectors properly oriented will produce a point focus. For far-infrared/submillimeter missions, the DART presents a compelling new telescope architecture that is scalable to alrge apertures, and with it's large membrane area is well suited to passive cooling.

Dragovan, Mark↗
NASA NTRS2017

Ground System Architectures Workshop GMSEC SERVICES SUITE (GSS): an Agile Development Story

The GMSEC (Goddard Mission Services Evolution Center) Services Suite (GSS) is a collection of tools and software services along with a robust customizable web-based portal that enables the user to capture, monitor, report, and analyze system-wide GMSEC data. Given our plug-and-play architecture and the needs for rapid system development, we opted to follow the Scrum Agile Methodology for software development. Being one of the first few projects to implement the Agile methodology at NASA GSFC, in this presentation we will present our approaches, tools, successes, and challenges in implementing this methodology. The GMSEC architecture provides a scalable, extensible ground and flight system for existing and future missions. GMSEC comes with a robust Application Programming Interface (GMSEC API) and a core set of Java-based GMSEC components that facilitate the development of a GMSEC-based ground system. Over the past few years, we have seen an upbeat in the number of customers who are moving from a native desktop application environment to a web based environment particularly for data monitoring and analysis. We also see a need to provide separation of the business logic from the GUI display for our Java-based components and also to consolidate all the GUI displays into one interface. This combination of separation and consolidation brings immediate value to a GMSEC-based ground system through increased ease of data access via a uniform interface, built-in security measures, centralized configuration management, and ease of feature extensibility.

Software Development/Agile↗
NASA NTRS2005

Effect of electron-nuclear spin interactions for electron-spin qubits localized in InGaAs self-assembled quantum dots

The effect of electron-nuclear spin interactions on qubit operations is investigated for a qubit represented by the spin of an electron localized in an InGaAs self-assembled quantum dot. The localized electron wave function is evaluated within the atomistic tight-binding model. The electron Zeeman splitting induced by the electron-nuclear spin interaction is estimated in the presence of an inhomogeneous environment characterized by a random nuclear spin configuration, by the dot-size distribution, alloy disorder, and interface disorder. Due to these inhomogeneities, the electron Zeeman splitting varies from one qubit to another by the order of 10(-6), 10(-6), 10(-7), and 10(-9) eV, respectively. Such fluctuations cause errors in exchange operations due to the inequality of the Zeeman splitting between two qubits. However, the error can be made lower than the quantum error threshold if an exchange energy larger than 10(-4) eV is used for the operation. This result shows that the electron-nuclear spin interaction does not hinder quantum-dot based quantum computer architectures from being scalable even in the presence of inhomogeneous environments.

Whaley, K. Birgitta↗
NASA NTRS1995

The relation of scalability and execution time

Scalability has been used extensively as a de facto performance criterion for evaluating parallel algorithms and architectures. However, for many, scalability has theoretical interests only since it does not reveal execution time. In this paper, the relation between scalability and execution time is carefully studied. Results show that the isospeed scalability well characterizes the variation of execution time: smaller scalability leads to larger execution time, the same scalability leads to the same execution time, etc. Three algorithms from scientific computing are implemented on an Intel Paragon and an IBM SP2 parallel computer. Experimental and theoretical results show that scalability is an important, distinct metric for parallel and distributed systems, and may be as important as execution time in a scalable parallel and distributed environment.

Sun, Xian-He↗
NASA NTRS2004

A New On-Line Diagnosis Protocol for the SPIDER Family of Byzantine Fault Tolerant Architectures

This paper presents the formal verification of a new protocol for online distributed diagnosis for the SPIDER family of architectures. An instance of the Scalable Processor-Independent Design for Electromagnetic Resilience (SPIDER) architecture consists of a collection of processing elements communicating over a Reliable Optical Bus (ROBUS). The ROBUS is a specialized fault-tolerant device that guarantees Interactive Consistency, Distributed Diagnosis (Group Membership), and Synchronization in the presence of a bounded number of physical faults. Formal verification of the original SPIDER diagnosis protocol provided a detailed understanding that led to the discovery of a significantly more efficient protocol. The original protocol was adapted from the formally verified protocol used in the MAFT architecture. It required O(N) message exchanges per defendant to correctly diagnose failures in a system with N nodes. The new protocol achieves the same diagnostic fidelity, but only requires O(1) exchanges per defendant. This paper presents this new diagnosis protocol and a formal proof of its correctness using PVS.

Geser, Alfons↗
NASA NTRS1998

High-Performance Monitoring Architecture for Large-Scale Distributed Systems Using Event Filtering

Monitoring is an essential process to observe and improve the reliability and the performance of large-scale distributed (LSD) systems. In an LSD environment, a large number of events is generated by the system components during its execution or interaction with external objects (e.g. users or processes). Monitoring such events is necessary for observing the run-time behavior of LSD systems and providing status information required for debugging, tuning and managing such applications. However, correlated events are generated concurrently and could be distributed in various locations in the applications environment which complicates the management decisions process and thereby makes monitoring LSD systems an intricate task. We propose a scalable high-performance monitoring architecture for LSD systems to detect and classify interesting local and global events and disseminate the monitoring information to the corresponding end- points management applications such as debugging and reactive control tools to improve the application performance and reliability. A large volume of events may be generated due to the extensive demands of the monitoring applications and the high interaction of LSD systems. The monitoring architecture employs a high-performance event filtering mechanism to efficiently process the large volume of event traffic generated by LSD systems and minimize the intrusiveness of the monitoring process by reducing the event traffic flow in the system and distributing the monitoring computation. Our architecture also supports dynamic and flexible reconfiguration of the monitoring mechanism via its Instrumentation and subscription components. As a case study, we show how our monitoring architecture can be utilized to improve the reliability and the performance of the Interactive Remote Instruction (IRI) system which is a large-scale distributed system for collaborative distance learning. The filtering mechanism represents an Intrinsic component integrated with the monitoring architecture to reduce the volume of event traffic flow in the system, and thereby reduce the intrusiveness of the monitoring process. We are developing an event filtering architecture to efficiently process the large volume of event traffic generated by LSD systems (such as distributed interactive applications). This filtering architecture is used to monitor collaborative distance learning application for obtaining debugging and feedback information. Our architecture supports the dynamic (re)configuration and optimization of event filters in large-scale distributed systems. Our work represents a major contribution by (1) survey and evaluating existing event filtering mechanisms In supporting monitoring LSD systems and (2) devising an integrated scalable high- performance architecture of event filtering that spans several kev application domains, presenting techniques to improve the functionality, performance and scalability. This paper describes the primary characteristics and challenges of developing high-performance event filtering for monitoring LSD systems. We survey existing event filtering mechanisms and explain key characteristics for each technique. In addition, we discuss limitations with existing event filtering mechanisms and outline how our architecture will improve key aspects of event filtering.

Maly, K.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Airport Surface Network Architecture Definition

Currently, airport surface communications are fragmented across multiple types of systems. These communication systems for airport operations at most airports today are based dedicated and separate architectures that cannot support system-wide interoperability and information sharing. The requirements placed upon the Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance (CNS) systems in airports are rapidly growing and integration is urgently needed if the future vision of the National Airspace System (NAS) and the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NGATS) 2025 concept are to be realized. To address this and other problems such as airport surface congestion, the Space Based Technologies Project s Surface ICNS Network Architecture team at NASA Glenn Research Center has assessed airport surface communications requirements, analyzed existing and future surface applications, and defined a set of architecture functions that will help design a scalable, reliable and flexible surface network architecture to meet the current and future needs of airport operations. This paper describes the systems approach or methodology to networking that was employed to assess airport surface communications requirements, analyze applications, and to define the surface network architecture functions as the building blocks or components of the network. The systems approach used for defining these functions is relatively new to networking. It is viewing the surface network, along with its environment (everything that the surface network interacts with or impacts), as a system. Associated with this system are sets of services that are offered by the network to the rest of the system. Therefore, the surface network is considered as part of the larger system (such as the NAS), with interactions and dependencies between the surface network and its users, applications, and devices. The surface network architecture includes components such as addressing/routing, network management, network performance and security.

Nguyen, Thanh C.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Coupled Reactor Multiphysics and Mass Scalability Assessment for Crewed Megawatt-Class NEP System Architectures

Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) is an in-space propulsion technology capable of enabling opposition and conjunction class crewed Mars missions. NEP subsystems include the reactor for heat generation, a power conversion system (PCS), power management and distribution, electric propulsion system, and heat rejection system. Specific mass, or α (kg/kWe), is a key performance parameter (KPP) of the propulsion system which is directly scalable with the performance and mass predictions for each individual component. To inform technology maturation planning activities, full system and component level parametric modeling is ongoing to explore the design trade space and illustrate the effect of subsystem design choices on the system KPPs. In this study, scaling of high-assay, low-enriched uranium reactor designs is assessed through coupled reactor physics and thermal hydraulics analyses. Scaling analyses evaluate the impact of system performance parameters (power level, interface temperatures) on mass for direct gas cooled, pumped liquid metal, and passively-cooled heat pipe reactor concepts. Each concept requires specific geometries, fluids, and power conversion interface conditions (temperature, pressure, flow rate) to meet desired performance and mass. The reactor assembly includes the active core (fuel, moderator, cladding, working fluid), axial and radial neutron reflectors, control drums, structural support / pressure vessel, and external radiation shielding. Each of these components are parametrically sized based on performance parameters for a megawatt-class power cycle. Results of this scaling analysis increase NEP propulsion system modeling fidelity and ultimately aim to support concept down-selection along with related technology development planning. The reactor and shield α are a function of several PCS and heat rejection system design choices, and reactor scaling with these parameters must be considered to enable an informed decision on an optimal reactor geometry and working fluid combination.

Nuclear Electric Propulsion↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Coupled Reactor Multiphysics and Mass Scalability Assessment for Crewed Megawatt-Class NEP System Architectures

Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) is an in-space propulsion technology capable of enabling opposition and conjunction class crewed Mars missions. NEP subsystems include the reactor for heat generation, a power conversion system (PCS), power management and distribution (PMAD), electric propulsion subsystem (EPS), and a primary heat rejection system. Specific mass, or αe (kg / kWe), is a key performance parameter (KPP) of the propulsion system which is directly scalable with the performance and mass estimates for individual components. To inform technology maturation planning, full system and component level parametric modeling is ongoing to explore the design trade space and illustrate the effect of subsystem design choices on the system KPPs. In this study, scaling of high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) reactor designs is assessed through coupled reactor physics and thermal hydraulics analyses. Scaling analyses evaluate the impact of system performance parameters (power level, interface temperatures) on mass for direct gas cooled, pumped liquid metal, and passively cooled heat pipe reactor concepts. Each concept requires specific geometries and working fluids to reach the performance goals of PCS interface conditions (temperature, pressure, flow rate) and system mass. The reactor assembly includes the active core (fuel, moderator, cladding, working fluid), axial and radial neutron reflectors, control drums, structural support / pressure vessel, and external radiation shielding. Each of these components are parametrically sized based on performance parameters for a megawatt-class power cycle. Results of this scaling analysis increase NEP propulsion system modeling fidelity and ultimately aim to support technology down-selection along with related technology development planning. The reactor and shield αe are a function of several PCS design choices, and reactor scaling with these parameters must be considered to enable an informed decision on reactor geometry and working fluid combination.

Nuclear Electric Propulsion↗
NASA NTRS2006

The NASA Space Communications Data Networking Architecture

The NASA Space Communications Architecture Working Group (SCAWG) has recently been developing an integrated agency-wide space communications architecture in order to provide the necessary communication and navigation capabilities to support NASA's new Exploration and Science Programs. A critical element of the space communications architecture is the end-to-end Data Networking Architecture, which must provide a wide range of services required for missions ranging from planetary rovers to human spaceflight, and from sub-orbital space to deep space. Requirements for a higher degree of user autonomy and interoperability between a variety of elements must be accommodated within an architecture that necessarily features minimum operational complexity. The architecture must also be scalable and evolvable to meet mission needs for the next 25 years. This paper will describe the recommended NASA Data Networking Architecture, present some of the rationale for the recommendations, and will illustrate an application of the architecture to example NASA missions.

Israel, David J.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Space Communications in Support of the Artemis Program

NASA has been challenged to send the first woman and first person of color to the South Pole of the moon by 2024. Named the Artemis Program, this effort serves as a proving ground for the greater Moon-to-Mars campaign and establishes a lunar outpost by 2028. The Artemis Program relies on simultaneous operation of multiple flight assets separated by large angular distances that require a unique communication strategy and is a departure from the previous Apollo-era architecture. NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program is designing a scalable, extensible, and reusable network architecture to provide communication and navigation services in support of lunar exploration. This architecture serves at the foundational infrastructure, paving the way for future exploration of Mars. In pursuance of this new architecture, the SCaN Program is augmenting NASA’s space communications networks by upgrading the current 34-meter beam waveguide antenna systems and incorporating an 18-meter class subnet. This paper presents an overview of NASA’s plans to provide high data rate communication and navigation services for lunar exploration efforts including: operations concepts to support the lunar communications architecture, major network enhancements and new capabilities, and a Mars-forward approach that maximizes the reuse of these capabilities. Capabilities include:(1) Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN), (2) Multiple Spacecraft Per Aperture (MSPA, also known as Multiple Spacecraft Per Antenna), and (3) Simultaneous Ka-band uplink and downlink. The mid-2020s era is a historic opportunity to advance NASA’s space communications infrastructure as humans return to the moon and continue to interplanetary exploration, starting with Mars. The space communication infrastructure is a lifeline that supports these endeavors, furthering humankinds’ exploration and understanding of the universe.

Philip A Baldwin↗
NASA NTRS1989

Finding idle machines in a workstation-based distributed system

The authors describe the design and performance of scheduling facilities for finding idle hosts in a workstation-based distributed system. They focus on the tradeoffs between centralized and decentralized architectures with respect to scalability, fault tolerance, and simplicity of design, as well as several implementation issues of interest when multicast communication is used. They conclude that the principal tradeoff between the two approaches is that a centralized architecture can be scaled to a significantly greater degree and can more easily monitor global system statistics, whereas a decentralized architecture is simpler to implement.

Theimer, Marvin M.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Volume server: A scalable high speed and high capacity magnetic tape archive architecture with concurrent multi-host access

A major challenge facing data processing centers today is data management. This includes the storage of large volumes of data and access to it. Current media storage for large data volumes is typically off line and frequently off site in warehouses. Access to data archived in this fashion can be subject to long delays, errors in media selection and retrieval, and even loss of data through misplacement or damage to the media. Similarly, designers responsible for architecting systems capable of continuous high-speed recording of large volumes of digital data are faced with the challenge of identifying technologies and configurations that meet their requirements. Past approaches have tended to evaluate the combination of the fastest tape recorders with the highest capacity tape media and then to compromise technology selection as a consequence of cost. This paper discusses an architecture that addresses both of these challenges and proposes a cost effective solution based on robots, high speed helical scan tape drives, and large-capacity media.

Rybczynski, Fred↗