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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 NTRS2009

Design and Performance of a Spectrometer for Deployment on MISSE 7

A spectrometer for reflectance and transmission measurements of samples exposed to the space environment has been developed for deployment on the Materials on the International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) 7. The instrument incorporates a miniature commercial fiber optic coupled spectrometer with a computer control system for detector operation, sample motion and illumination. A set of three spectrometers were recently integrated on the MISSE7 platform with launch and deployment on the International Space Station scheduled for summer of this year. The instrument is one of many active experiments on the platform. The performance of the instrument prior to launch will be discussed. Data from samples measured in the laboratory will be compared to those from the instrument prior to launch. These comparisons will illustrate the capabilities of the current design. The space environment challenges many materials. When in operation on the MISSE 7 platform, the new spectrometer will provide real time data on the how the space environment affects the optical properties of thermal control paints and optical coatings. Data obtained from comparison of pre and post flight measurements on hundreds of samples exposed on previous MISSE platforms have been reported at these meetings. With the new spectrometer and the ability to correlate measured changes with time on orbit and the occurrence of both natural events and human activities, a better understanding of the processes responsible for degradation of materials in space will be possible.

Pippin, Gary↗

NASA NTRS2012

Post Flight Analysis of Optical Specimens from MISSE7

More than 100 optical specimens were flown on the MISSE7 platform. These included bare substrates in addition to coatings designed to exhibit clearly defined or enhanced sensitivity to the accumulation of contamination. Measurements were performed using spectrophotometers operating from the UV through the IR as well as ellipsometry. Results will be presented in addition to discussion of the best options for design of samples for future exposure experiments.

Stewart, Alan F.↗

NASA NTRS2014

ISAAC - A Testbed for Advanced Composites Research

The NASA Langley Research Center is acquiring a state-of-art composites fabrication environment to support the Center's research and technology development mission. This overall system described in this paper is named ISAAC, or Integrated Structural Assembly of Advanced Composites. ISAAC's initial operational capability is a commercial robotic automated fiber placement system from Electroimpact, Inc. that consists of a multi-degree of freedom commercial robot platform, a tool changer mechanism, and a specialized automated fiber placement end effector. Examples are presented of how development of advanced composite materials, structures, fabrication processes and technology are enabled by utilizing the fiber placement end effector directly or with appropriate modifications. Alternatively, end effectors with different capabilities may either be bought or developed with NASA's partners in industry and academia.

Wu, K. Chauncey↗

NASA NTRS2019

Radiation Tolerance of Nanopore Sequencing Technology for Life Detection on Mars and Europa

The search for life beyond Earth is a key motivator in space exploration. Informational polymers, like DNA and RNA, are key biosignatures for life as we know it. The MinION is a miniature DNA sequencer based on versatile nanopore technology that could be implemented on future planetary missions. A critical unanswered question is whether the MinION and its protein-based nanopores can withstand increased radiation exposure outside Earth’s shielding magnetic field. We evaluated the effects of ionizing radiation on the MinION platform – including flow cells, reagents, and hardware – and discovered limited performance loss when exposed to ionizing doses comparable to a mission to Mars. Targets with harsher radiation environments, like Europa, would require improved radiation resistance via additional shielding or design refinements.

Mark A. Sutton↗

DOE OSTI2026

Dynamical moment fragmentation in the all-in all-out pyrochlore Nd 2 ⁢Sn 2⁢ O 7

We report single crystal neutron spectroscopy and bulk characterization on hydrothermally grown Nd 2 Sn 2 O 7 , revealing magnetic moment fragmentation embedded within the all-in–all-out ordered state. The spectra reveal a nearly flat band with pinch-point momentum dependence accompanied by dispersive branches that produce half-moon features across multiple Brillouin zones. These defining signatures are captured quantitatively by a minimal dipolar-octupolar spin Hamiltonian, demonstrating excellent agreement between experiment and theory. The higher flat-mode energy helps account for the absence of dynamical interference in prior μSR studies, while the lack of any photon-like excitation imposes strict constraints on the proposed Coulombic antiferromagnet scenario. Furthermore, our results extend moment fragmentation to Nd 2 Sn 2 O 7 and identify it as a clean, tractable platform for quantitative exploration of emergent gauge field physics in frustrated magnets.

DC susceptibility measurements↗

DOE OSTI2024

Enhancing Cloud Cybersecurity: Prescriptive Controls for Operational Technology

This whitepaper provides strategic insights and recommendations into security cloud-based solutions for electric utilities, encompassing operational technology (OT), virtual power plants (VPP), distributed energy resources (DERs), applications, networks, and data storage as they transition to and leverage cloud infrastructure through managed service providers (MSPs) and cloud service providers (CSPs). Principles derived from established frameworks serve as a foundation for best practices across cybersecurity projects and remove the constraints of settling on a single framework. For organizations that prefer not to integrate a specific framework altogether, elements of the proposed approach could be adopted or tailored to best fit defined requirements and expected functionalities. The Cirrus assessment, a utility cloud feasibility tool, and the roadmap it provides serve as a precursor to this paper, which seeks to be a valuable resource for defining next steps following cloud technology integration feasibility appraisal. With its comprehensive approach to adoption, the Cirrus framework offers strategic guidance on responsibly preparing for or deploying a utility cloud solution. The previously published whitepaper, “Use Case-Informed Framework for Utility Cloud Migration,” details the guiding strategy, research, and deployment of cloud solutions within electric and interconnected grid systems. Before implementing the controls suggested in this document, it is recommended that stakeholders complete Cirrus's cloud integration assessment and pair the results with their unique cybersecurity controls to form a comprehensive cloud-based utility cybersecurity plan. The Cirrus outcome will consider a series of future architectures for the grid before and after the energy transition and evaluate the arguments for and against cloud applications for each electric and interconnected grid layer. This document is a companion to the original whitepaper, "Use Case-Informed Framework for Utility Cloud Migration" to further identify and recommend security controls based on Cirrus’s cloud integration assessment output. The following whitepaper outlines the cybersecurity controls that secure cloud-service models pertinent to the electric sector using the predefined categories identify, protect, detect, and respond and recover. The objective is to outline prescriptive security controls based on the type of architecture and data stored in the cloud. The focus includes dissecting the shared responsibility model and elucidating what on-premises Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) entail. A pivotal consideration in this context is allocating responsibility for foundational cybersecurity aspects—having used Cirrus for the cloud integration assessment. The ensuing controls detailed herein also represent a checklist of controls necessary for a secure cloud transition, equipping utilities with the knowledge to navigate this digital transformation with confidence and strategic foresight in a safe and responsible manner.

42 ENGINEERING↗

NASA NTRS2012

The Moon as a Science Platform

The Moon offers a valuable platform for space sciences studies: (1) No atmosphere, (2) Farside is radio quiet. There is a compelling science program: (1) Cosmic dawn and the dark ages, (2) Particle acceleration and space weather. The technology and engineering development are making good progress. A staged roadmap with science and technology development at every step is presented.

space science studies↗

NASA NTRS1992

The Chimera II Real-Time Operating System for advanced sensor-based control applications

Attention is given to the Chimera II Real-Time Operating System, which has been developed for advanced sensor-based control applications. The Chimera II provides a high-performance real-time kernel and a variety of IPC features. The hardware platform required to run Chimera II consists of commercially available hardware, and allows custom hardware to be easily integrated. The design allows it to be used with almost any type of VMEbus-based processors and devices. It allows radially differing hardware to be programmed using a common system, thus providing a first and necessary step towards the standardization of reconfigurable systems that results in a reduction of development time and cost.

Stewart, David B.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

TPSAS-NF1676L-26669-DND

The NASA Langley Research Center has acquired a state-of-art composites fabrication environment to support the Center's research and technology development mission. This overall system described in this paper is named ISAAC, or Integrated Structural Assembly of Advanced Composites. ISAAC's initial operational capability is a commercial robotic automated fiber placement system from Electroimpact, Inc. that consists of a multi-degree of freedom commercial robot platform, a tool changer mechanism, and a specialized automated fiber placement end effector. Examples are presented of how development of advanced composite materials, structures, fabrication processes and technology are enabled by utilizing the fiber placement end effector directly or with appropriate modifications. Several advanced capability end effectors have been procured, and alternate processes with different capabilities can be developed with NASA's partners in industry and academia.

K C Wu↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A New Laser Transmitter for Methane and Water Vapor Measurements at 1.65 μm

Atmospheric methane trends over the last few years have been increasing at a rate of 7-12 parts per billion (ppb) per year after brief a pause in the first decade of this century. The reasons for the pause and subsequent increase remains unclear. Thus, there is a critical need for additional, precise and accurate methane observations to understand the natural and anthropogenic processes that drive the trends in atmospheric methane and to constrain its sources, and sinks. At NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), in collaboration with Freedom Photonics Inc., we have been developing a lidar to measure atmospheric methane using Integrated Path Differential Absorption (IPDA) from an airborne platform as a precursor to a future space mission. In this paper we present the design of a laser transmitter operating at ~1651 nmbased on a newly developed Distributed Bragg Grating (DBR) seed laser and an Optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The DBR is rapidly step-tuned over the methane absorption at several discrete wavelengths. This multi-wavelength approach enables us to sample the entire methane lineshape and reduce systematic errors.

Atmospheric methane trends↗

NASA NTRS2014

ISAAC Advanced Composites Research Testbed

The NASA Langley Research Center is acquiring a state-of-art composites fabrication capability to support the Center's advanced research and technology mission. The system introduced in this paper is named ISAAC (Integrated Structural Assembly of Advanced Composites). The initial operational capability of ISAAC is automated fiber placement, built around a commercial system from Electroimpact, Inc. that consists of a multi-degree of freedom robot platform, a tool changer mechanism, and a purpose-built fiber placement end effector. Examples are presented of the advanced materials, structures, structural concepts, fabrication processes and technology development that may be enabled using the ISAAC system. The fiber placement end effector may be used directly or with appropriate modifications for these studies, or other end effectors with different capabilities may either be bought or developed with NASA's partners in industry and academia.

Wu, K. Chauncey↗

NASA NTRS1991

Experimental and theoretical determination of sea-state bias in radar altimetry

The major unknown error in radar altimetry is due to waves on the sea surface which cause the mean radar-reflecting surface to be displaced from mean sea level. This is the electromagnetic bias. The primary motivation for the project was to understand the causes of the bias so that the error it produces in radar altimetry could be calculated and removed from altimeter measurements made from space by the Topex/Poseidon altimetric satellite. The goals of the project were: (1) observe radar scatter at vertical incidence using a simple radar on a platform for a wide variety of environmental conditions at the same time wind and wave conditions were measured; (2) calculate electromagnetic bias from the radar observations; (3) investigate the limitations of the present theory describing radar scatter at vertical incidence; (4) compare measured electromagnetic bias with bias calculated from theory using measurements of wind and waves made at the time of the radar measurements; and (5) if possible, extend the theory so bias can be calculated for a wider range of environmental conditions.

Stewart, Robert H.↗

NASA NTRS1979

The characteristics of a lift cruise fan V/STOL configuration in near proximity to a small deck with finite edge positions

Two V/STOL model configurations utilizing lift-cruise-fans for the propulsion system have been tested in the presence of a small landing platform with finite deck edge positions. Results and analysis of these tests are presented. The model was tested at both static (zero velocity) and forward speed conditions with several heights and deck edge positions. Configurations utilizing three fans and four fans were investigated. Incremental forces and moments induced by the various deck edge positions are analyzed as relating to the model height above the ground and the thrust velocity relationships. The test and analysis show the induced forces to be relatively unaffected by deck edge.

Stewart, V. R.↗

DOE OSTI2024

Neuromorphic intermediate representation: A unified instruction set for interoperable brain-inspired computing

Abstract Spiking neural networks and neuromorphic hardware platforms that simulate neuronal dynamics are getting wide attention and are being applied to many relevant problems using Machine Learning. Despite a well-established mathematical foundation for neural dynamics, there exists numerous software and hardware solutions and stacks whose variability makes it difficult to reproduce findings. Here, we establish a common reference frame for computations in digital neuromorphic systems, titled Neuromorphic Intermediate Representation (NIR). NIR defines a set of computational and composable model primitives as hybrid systems combining continuous-time dynamics and discrete events. By abstracting away assumptions around discretization and hardware constraints, NIR faithfully captures the computational model, while bridging differences between the evaluated implementation and the underlying mathematical formalism. NIR supports an unprecedented number of neuromorphic systems, which we demonstrate by reproducing three spiking neural network models of different complexity across 7 neuromorphic simulators and 4 digital hardware platforms. NIR decouples the development of neuromorphic hardware and software, enabling interoperability between platforms and improving accessibility to multiple neuromorphic technologies. We believe that NIR is a key next step in brain-inspired hardware-software co-evolution, enabling research towards the implementation of energy efficient computational principles of nervous systems. NIR is available atneuroir.org

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗

NASA NTRS1999

The Lightning Imaging Sensor

The Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) is a NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) instrument on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) platform designed to acquire and investigate the distribution and variability of total lightning (i.e., cloud-to-ground and intracloud) between q35' in latitude. Since lightning is one of the responses of the atmosphere to thermodynamic and dynamic forcing, the LIS data is being used to detect deep convection without land-ocean bias, estimate the precipitation mass in the mixed phased region of thunderclouds, and differentiate storms with strong updrafts from those with weak vertical motion.

Christian, Hugh J.↗

NASA NTRS2015

NASA Automated Fiber Placement Capabilities: Similar Systems, Complementary Purposes

New automated fiber placement systems at the NASA Langley Research Center and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center provide state-of-art composites capabilities to these organizations. These systems support basic and applied research at Langley, complementing large-scale manufacturing and technology development at Marshall. These systems each consist of a multi-degree of freedom mobility platform including a commercial robot, a commercial tool changer mechanism, a bespoke automated fiber placement end effector, a linear track, and a rotational tool support structure. In addition, new end effectors with advanced capabilities may be either bought or developed with partners in industry and academia to extend the functionality of these systems. These systems will be used to build large and small composite parts in support of the ongoing NASA Composites for Exploration Upper Stage Project later this year.

Wu, K. Chauncey↗

DOE OSTI2020

An Intelligent Adaptable Monitoring Package. Final Report

The “Intelligent Adaptable Monitoring Package” project was a four-year effort that demonstrated the feasibility of integrated sensing packages at tidal and wave energy sites. Such integration is generally required by the breadth of sensors required to understand environmental effects at marine energy sites and the operational difficulty of deploying, maintaining, and recovering such sensors. Over the course of the project, the Adaptable Monitoring Package (AMP) was deployed in multiple settings, each corresponding to a project budget period: - Budget Period 1: Demonstration of cabled deployment at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Marine Science Laboratory. The deployment highlighted AMP hardware endurance over a 4-month deployment in a tidally-dominated environment and laid the groundwork for machine learning algorithms to detect and classify targets present in active sonar data. - Budget Period 2: Demonstration of an autonomous deployment at PacWave South off the coast of Newport, Oregon. The deployment highlighted the stability of AMP hardware and software, with the autonomous package collecting data on a duty cycle over a 1.5-month deployment. - Budget Period 3: Demonstration of an autonomous deployment powered by a wave energy converter at the U.S. Navy’s Wave Energy Test Site. The deployment highlighted the potential of wave energy to power ocean observatories and led to the development of machine learning algorithms to detect and classify targets in optical camera data. In aggregate, this project’s greatest success was demonstrating the AMP’s flexibility in a range of deployment scenarios. Each budget period represented a “first of a kind” demonstration of integrated instrumentation – cabled AMP, autonomous AMP, wave-energy powered AMP – and each deployment helped to identify and set goals for the next. Further, despite the exploratory nature of these deployments, each one achieved high system up-time and proved that flexible integration of multiple sensors in a single package represents a viable strategy for marine energy environmental monitoring. The key lessons learned from the project are: - Without continuous power, either from a shore cable or in situ source, many of the benefits of integration are lost (If continuous power is not available, the ability to detect rare events is lost, as is the ability to minimize the risk of behavioral changes through adaptive sensing. However, even on a duty cycle, there is still value in being able to acquire synchronous data from multiple sensors.); and - Observations from a moving platform present substantially greater data processing challenges than those from stationary platforms. Finally, these deployments also demonstrate an important truth: successful integration alone does not guarantee that relevant data are collected. To grow the knowledge base about environmental interactions with marine energy converters, integrated systems, like the AMP, need to include the right sensor mix and connect the data pipelines to effective processing algorithms. These deployments establish a strong foundation for future collaborations with the environmental research community: not only to understand the environmental effects of marine energy, but also to improve our general ability to study life in the sea.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

NASA NTRS1995

Overview of the preparation and use of an OV-10 aircraft for wake vortex hazards flight experiments

An overview is presented of the development, use, and current flight-test status of a highly instrumented North American Rockwell OV-10A Bronco as a wake-vortex-hazards research aircraft. A description of the operational requirements and measurements criteria, the resulting instrumentation systems and aircraft modifications, system-calibration and research flights completed to date, and current flight status are included. These experiments are being conducted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as part of an effort to provide the technology to safely improve the capacity of the nation's air transportation system and specifically to provide key data in understanding and predicting wake vortex decay, transport characteristics, and the dynamics of encountering wake turbulence. The OV-10A performs several roles including meteorological measurements platform, wake-decay quantifier, and trajectory-quantifier for wake encounters. Extensive research instrumentation systems include multiple airdata sensors, video cameras with cockpit displays, aircraft state and control-position measurements, inertial aircraft-position measurements, meteorological measurements, and an on-board personal computer for real-time processing and cockpit display of research data. To date, several of the preliminary system check flights and two meteorological-measurements deployments have been completed. Several wake encounter and wake-decay-measurements flights are planned for the fall of 1995.

Stuever, Robert A.↗