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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 73 records · Page 4
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NASA NTRS1987

Lunar base surface mission operations. Lunar Base Systems Study (LBSS) task 4.1

The purpose was to perform an analysis of the surface operations associated with a human-tended lunar base. Specifically, the study defined surface elements and developed mission manifests for a selected base scenario, determined the nature of surface operations associated with this scenario, generated a preliminary crew extravehicular and intravehicular activity (EVA/IVA) time resource schedule for conducting the missions, and proposed concepts for utilizing remotely operated equipment to perform repetitious or hazardous surface tasks. The operations analysis was performed on a 6 year period of human-tended lunar base operation prior to permanent occupancy. The baseline scenario was derived from a modified version of the civil needs database (CNDB) scenario. This scenario emphasizes achievement of a limited set of science and exploration objectives while emplacing the minimum habitability elements required for a permanent base.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2020

Ultra-Compact Imaging Spectrometer Moon (UCIS-Moon) For Lunar Surface Missions: Optical, Optomechanical, and Thermal Design

The Ultra-Compact Imaging Spectrometer Moon (UCIS-Moon) instrument is an imaging spectrometer designed for integration with a lander or rover for lunar surface science missions. Operating over a 600-3600 nm spectral range with 10 nm sampling and 1.15 mrad IFOV, UCIS-Moon is capable of detecting spectral absorptions from common lunar minerals, OH species, molecular H2O, water ice, organics, and placing mineral identifications within an established geologic context at the cm to m scale. We present an instrument design capable of surviving the harsh lunar environment in the daytime with temperatures as high as 370 K, while providing high-quality spectral data.

Mouroulis, Pantazis↗
NASA NTRS2006

Mars Exploration Rover Surface Mission: Thermal Performance for More Than an Entire Martian Year

This viewgraph presentation reviews the thermal performance of the Mars Exploration Rovers. The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project landed two identical roving science vehicles on Mars in January 2004; they have continued to perform geological science data collection well beyond their surface design lifetime of 90 sols. The design of the thermal system is described. Pictures from the rovers are also included,

flight performance↗
NASA NTRS1999

Solar Electric Power System Analyses for Mars Surface Missions

The electric power system is a crucial element of any architecture supporting human surface exploration of Mars. In this paper, we describe the conceptual design and detailed analysis of solar electric power system using photovoltaics and regenerative fuel cells to provide surface power on Mars. System performance, mass and deployed area predictions are discussed along with the myriad environmental factors and trade study results that helped to guide system design choices. Based on this work, we have developed a credible solar electric power option that satisfies the surface power requirements of a human Mars mission. The power system option described in this paper has a mass of approximately 10 metric tons, a approximately 5000-sq m deployable photovoltaic array using thin film solar cell technology.

Kerslake, Thomas W.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Thermal Modeling of Mars Ground for Surface Missions

Thermal analysis packages are capable of including ground temperature effects for orbital and surface thermal analyses. In particular, Thermal Desktop® offers the option of specifying ground temperatures as a function of time for planetary surface modeling. While suitable for many cases, this approach is not sufficient if an object has local interactions with the ground that could significantly affect the ground temperature. Ground modeling is necessary for the Mars 2020 rover thermal design and analysis since shadowing and heat dissipation from the rover’s Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) can result in significant temperature deviations of the local ground. The Mars 2020 thermal team is explicitly modeling the Martian ground so that these local temperature effects can be captured. The upper portion of the ground is modeled, and material and optical properties of the ground are varied in order to match data collected from orbiting science instruments. Atmospheric surface temperature, sky temperatures, and solar loads from a Mars General Circulation Model (GCM) are used as boundary conditions, resulting in a ground surface temperature profile consistent with the GCM predictions. The rover model is then placed on this modeled ground so that the effects of shadowing and MMRTG dissipation on the ground temperature can be captured.

Farias, Edgardo↗
NASA NTRS2005

Electric Power System Technology Options for Lunar Surface Missions

In 2004, the President announced a 'Vision for Space Exploration' that is bold and forward-thinking, yet practical and responsible. The vision explores answers to longstanding questions of importance to science and society and will develop revolutionary technologies and capabilities for the future, while maintaining good stewardship of taxpayer dollars. One crucial technology area enabling all space exploration is electric power systems. In this paper, the author evaluates surface power technology options in order to identify leading candidate technologies that will accomplish lunar design reference mission three (LDRM-3). LDRM-3 mission consists of multiple, 90-day missions to the lunar South Pole with 4-person crews starting in the year 2020. Top-level power requirements included a nominal 50 kW continuous habitat power over a 5-year lifetime with back-up or redundant emergency power provisions and a nominal 2-kW, 2-person unpressurized rover. To help direct NASA's technology investment strategy, this lunar surface power technology evaluation assessed many figures of merit including: current technology readiness levels (TRLs), potential to advance to TRL 6 by 2014, effectiveness of the technology to meet the mission requirements in the specified time, mass, stowed volume, deployed area, complexity, required special ground facilities, safety, reliability/redundancy, strength of industrial base, applicability to other LDRM-3 elements, extensibility to Mars missions, costs, and risks. For the 50-kW habitat module, dozens of nuclear, radioisotope and solar power technologies were down-selected to a nuclear fission heat source with Brayton, Stirling or thermoelectric power conversion options. Preferred energy storage technologies included lithium-ion battery and Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) Regenerative Fuel Cells (RFC). Several AC and DC power management and distribution architectures and component technologies were defined consistent with the preferred habitat power generation technology option and the overall lunar surface mission. For rover power, more than 20 technology options were down-selected to radioisotope Stirling, liquid lithium-ion battery, PEM RFC, or primary fuel cell options. The author discusses various conclusions that can be drawn from the findings of this surface power technologies evaluation.

Kerslake, Thomas W.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Desert Research and Technology Studies (DRATS) 2010 Science Operations: Operational Approaches and Lessons Learned for Managing Science during Human Planetary Surface Missions

Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert RATS) is a multi-year series of hardware and operations tests carried out annually in the high desert of Arizona on the San Francisco Volcanic Field. These activities are designed to exercise planetary surface hardware and operations in conditions where long-distance, multi-day roving is achievable, and they allow NASA to evaluate different mission concepts and approaches in an environment less costly and more forgiving than space.The results from the RATS tests allows election of potential operational approaches to planetary surface exploration prior to making commitments to specific flight and mission hardware development. In previous RATS operations, the Science Support Room has operated largely in an advisory role, an approach that was driven by the need to provide a loose science mission framework that would underpin the engineering tests. However, the extensive nature of the traverse operations for 2010 expanded the role of the science operations and tested specific operational approaches. Science mission operations approaches from the Apollo and Mars-Phoenix missions were merged to become the baseline for this test. Six days of traverse operations were conducted during each week of the 2-week test, with three traverse days each week conducted with voice and data communications continuously available, and three traverse days conducted with only two 1-hour communications periods per day. Within this framework, the team evaluated integrated science operations management using real-time, tactical science operations to oversee daily crew activities, and strategic level evaluations of science data and daily traverse results during a post-traverse planning shift. During continuous communications, both tactical and strategic teams were employed. On days when communications were reduced to only two communications periods per day, only a strategic team was employed. The Science Operations Team found that, if communications are good and down-linking of science data is ensured, high quality science returns is possible regardless of communications. What is absent from reduced communications is the scientific interaction between the crew on the planet and the scientists on the ground. These scientific interactions were a critical part of the science process and significantly improved mission science return over reduced communications conditions. The test also showed that the quality of science return is not measurable by simple numerical quantities but is, in fact, based on strongly non-quantifiable factors, such as the interactions between the crew and the Science Operations Teams. Although the metric evaluation data suggested some trends, there was not sufficient granularity in the data or specificity in the metrics to allow those trends to be understood on numerical data alone.

Eppler, Dean↗
NASA NTRS2017

A Water Rich Mars Surface Mission Scenario

In an on-going effort to make human Mars missions more affordable and sustainable, NASA continues to investigate the innovative leveraging of technological advances in conjunction with the use of accessible Martian resources directly applicable to these missions. One of the resources with the broadest utility for human missions is water. Many past studies of human Mars missions assumed a complete lack of water derivable from local sources. However, recent advances in our understanding of the Martian environment provides growing evidence that Mars may be more "water rich" than previously suspected. This is based on data indicating that substantial quantities of water are mixed with surface regolith, bound in minerals located at or near the surface, and buried in large glacier-like forms. This paper describes an assessment of what could be done in a "water rich" human Mars mission scenario. A description of what is meant by "water rich" in this context is provided, including a quantification of the water that would be used by crews in this scenario. The different types of potential feedstock that could be used to generate these quantities of water are described, drawing on the most recently available assessments of data being returned from Mars. This paper specifically focuses on sources that appear to be buried quantities of water ice. (An assessment of other potential feedstock materials is documented in another paper.) Technologies and processes currently used in terrestrial polar regions is reviewed. One process with a long history of use on Earth and with potential application on Mars - the Rodriguez Well - is described and results of an analysis simulating the performance of such a well on Mars are presented. These results indicate that a Rodriguez Well capable of producing the quantities of water identified for a "water rich" human mission are within the capabilities assumed to be available on the Martian surface, as envisioned in other comparable Evolvable Mars Campaign assessments. The paper concludes by capturing additional findings and describing additional simulations and tests that should be conducted to better characterize the performance of the identified terrestrial technologies for accessing subsurface ice, as well as the Rodriguez Well, under Mars environmental conditions.

Hoffman, Stephen J.↗
NASA NTRS2017

A Water Rich Mars Surface Mission Scenario

In an on-going effort to make human Mars missions more affordable and sustainable, NASA continues to investigate the innovative leveraging of technological advances in conjunction with the use of accessible Martian resources directly applicable to these missions. One of the resources with the broadest utility for human missions is water. Many past studies of human Mars missions assumed a complete lack of water derivable from local sources. However, recent advances in our understanding of the Martian environment provides growing evidence that Mars may be more "water rich" than previously suspected. This is based on data indicating that substantial quantities of water are mixed with surface regolith, bound in minerals located at or near the surface, and buried in large glacier-like forms. This paper describes an assessment of what could be done in a "water rich" human Mars mission scenario. A description of what is meant by "water rich" in this context is provided, including a quantification of the water that would be used by crews in this scenario. The different types of potential feedstock that could be used to generate these quantities of water are described, drawing on the most recently available assessments of data being returned from Mars. This paper specifically focuses on sources that appear to be buried quantities of water ice. (An assessment of other potential feedstock materials is documented in another paper.) Technologies and processes currently used in terrestrial Polar Regions are reviewed. One process with a long history of use on Earth and with potential application on Mars - the Rodriguez Well - is described and results of an analysis simulating the performance of such a well on Mars are presented. These results indicate that a Rodriguez Well capable of producing the quantities of water identified for a "water rich" human mission are within the capabilities assumed to be available on the Martian surface, as envisioned in other comparable Evolvable Mars Campaign assessments. The paper concludes by capturing additional findings and describing additional simulations and tests that should be conducted to better characterize the performance of the identified terrestrial technologies for accessing subsurface ice, as well as the Rodriguez Well, under Mars environmental conditions.

Hoffman, Stephen J.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Radiation exposure for manned Mars surface missions

The Langley cosmic ray transport code and the Langley nucleon transport code (BRYNTRN) are used to quantify the transport and attenuation of galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and solar proton flares through the Martian atmosphere. Surface doses are estimated using both a low density and a high density carbon dioxide model of the atmosphere which, in the vertical direction, provides a total of 16 g/sq cm and 22 g/sq cm of protection, respectively. At the Mars surface during the solar minimum cycle, a blood-forming organ (BFO) dose equivalent of 10.5 to 12 rem/yr due to galactic cosmic ray transport and attenuation is calculated. Estimates of the BFO dose equivalents which would have been incurred from the three large solar flare events of August 1972, November 1960, and February 1956 are also calculated at the surface. Results indicate surface BFO dose equivalents of approximately 2 to 5, 5 to 7, and 8 to 10 rem per event, respectively. Doses are also estimated at altitudes up to 12 km above the Martian surface where the atmosphere will provide less total protection.

Simonsen, Lisa C.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Development of Genetic Countermeasures for Enhancing Cellular Stress Tolerance on a Lunar Surface Mission

The Lunar Explorer Instrument for space biology Applications (LEIA) LEIA investigates the response to partial gravity and ionizing radiation of: Different DNA damage and stress response pathways and Bioproduction of antioxidants LEIA utilizes: Various strains of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which will be desiccated in fluidic cards and rehydrated on the lunar surface LEIA develops: Genetic countermeasures to improve tolerance to the desiccation process and the constraints associated with long duration missions beyond low Earth orbit (LEO)

Neha Lingam↗
NASA NTRS2024

Towards Autonomous Surface Missions on Ocean Worlds

Through advanced autonomy testbed programs, NASA is setting the groundwork for one of its top priorities—the search for signs of life and potentially habitable bodies in our solar system and beyond. The prime destinations for such exploration are bodies containing liquid water, such as Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Initial missions to these “ocean worlds” will be robotic and require a high degree of onboard autonomy due to long Earth-communication lags and blackouts, harsh surface environments, and limited battery life.

Khalil Michael Dalal↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Lunar Surface Missions for Resource Reconnaissance: NASA's PRIME-1 and VIPER

In 2019 NASA announced it would return to the Moon where it would seek to establish a sustainable lunar presence. In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is a critical part of the infrastructure needed to sustain and grow human surface exploration. NASA further codified its ISRU intentions with the release of the Moon to Mars objectives in 2022, which calls out specific infrastructure goals, and in the release of the Architecture Definition Document in 2023. While there are a variety of resources that are of interest, including oxygen from regolith minerals, water is a game changing resource for in-situ consumable and propellant production. NASA’s intention of targeting of the lunar polar region for Artemis is, in part due to the potential of water resources there.

Lunar↗
NASA NTRS2012

Precision Subsampling System for Mars Surface Missions

The ability to analyze heterogeneous rock samples at fine spatial scales would represent a powerful addition to our planetary in situ analytical toolbox. This is particularly true for Mars, where the signatures of past environments and, potentially, habitability are preserved in chemical and morphological variations across sedimentary layers and among mineral pr.ases in a given rock specimen. On Earth, microbial life often associates with surfaces at the interface of chemical nutrients, and ultimately retains sub-millimeter to millimeter-scale layer confinement in fossilization. On Mars, and possibly other bodies, trace chemical markers (elemental, organic/molecular, isotopic, chiral, etc.) and fine-scale morphological markers (e.g., micro-fossils) may he too subtle, degraded, or ambiguous to be detected, using miniaturized instrumentation, without some concentration or isolation. This is because (i) instrument sensitivity may not be high enough to detect trace markers in bulk averages; and (ii) instrument s~lectiviry may not be sufficient to distinguish such markers from interfering/counteracting signals from the bulk. Moreover from a fundamental chemostratigraphic perspective there would be a great benefit to assessing specific chemical and stable isotopic gradients, over millimeter-to-centimeter scales and beyond, with higher precision than currently possible in situ. We have developed a precision subsampling system (PSS) that addresses this need while remaining relatively flexible to a variety of instruments that may take advantage of the capability on future missions. The PSS is relevant to a number of possible lander/rover missions, especially Mars Sample Return. Our specific PSS prototype is undergoing testing under Mars ambient conditions, on a variety of natural analog rocks and rock drill cores, using a set of complementary flight-compatible measurement techniques. The system is available for testing with other contact instruments that may benefit from precision sampling.

Mahaffy, P. R.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Analysis of Solar Cell Efficiency for Venus Atmosphere and Surface Missions

A simplified model of solar power in the Venus environment is developed, in which the solar intensity, solar spectrum, and temperature as a function of altitude is applied to a model of photovoltaic performance, incorporating the temperature and intensity dependence of the open-circuit voltage and the temperature dependence of the bandgap and spectral response of the cell. We use this model to estimate the performance of solar cells for both the surface of Venus and for atmospheric probes at altitudes from the surface up to 60 km. The model shows that photovoltaic cells will produce power even at the surface of Venus.

Landis, Geoffrey A.↗