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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 739 records · Page 41

Advanced Containerless Processing Technology

Breadboards for high temperature containerless processing systems are to be developed, the principles of operation are to be studied, the performance is to be characterized, the limitations identified, and the influence of the acoustic field on the samples established. The subjects to be addressed are experimental and theoretical studies of: (1) acoustic positioning and manipulation capabilities in a high temperature gradient environment (from 26 C to 990 C); (2) acoustic waveforms, harmonic contents, power transfer, sample transport and stability associated with high temperature gradient system; (3) high temperature ground based levitation systems which will allow melting, processing, and solidifying samples without crucibles in the laboratory, (4) KC-135 and laboratory tests of various acoustic geometries which may have spherical applications in the Materials Processing in Space Program; and (5) provide technical information to Acoustics Containerless Experimental System (ACES) engineering team and establish the operation conditions for ACES.

Wang, T. G.↗

Automated chromosome analysis

Minicomputer-controlled system automatically prepares and analyses blood samples and displays karyotype in pictorial form as primary output. System accuracy is assured by operator interaction at key points during process. System can process up to 576 specimens per day.

Castleman, K. R.↗

Mineralogy and Elemental Composition of Wind Drift Soil at Rocknest, Gale Crater

The Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity has been exploring Mars since August 5, 2012, conducting engineering and first-time activities with its mobility system, arm, sample acquisition and processing system (SA/SPaH-CHIMRA) and science instruments. Curiosity spent 54 sols at a location named "Rocknest," collecting and processing five scoops of loose, unconsolidated materials ("soil") acquired from an aeolian bedform (Fig. 1). The Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument analyzed portions of scoops 3, 4, and 5, to obtain the first quantitative mineralogical analysis of Mars soil, and to provide context for Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) measurements of volatiles, isotopes and possible organic materials.

Blake, D. F.↗

Annual Symposium on Machine Processing of Remotely Sensed Data, 4th, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., June 21-23, 1977, Proceedings

Papers are presented on a variety of techniques for the machine processing of remotely sensed data. Consideration is given to preprocessing methods such as the correction of Landsat data for the effects of haze, sun angle, and reflectance and to the maximum likelihood estimation of signature transformation algorithm. Several applications of machine processing to agriculture are identified. Various types of processing systems are discussed such as ground-data processing/support systems for sensor systems and the transfer of remotely sensed data to operational systems. The application of machine processing to hydrology, geology, and land-use mapping is outlined. Data analysis is considered with reference to several types of classification methods and systems.

Morrison, D. B.↗

Systems Engineering Tutorial with Case Studies

Due to the ever-growing number of complex technical problems facing our world, a Systems Engineering approach is needed to assist in successful design, build and implementation of solutions. The interdisciplinary technical structure of current systems, technical processes representing System Design, Technical Management and Product Realization are instrumental in the development and integration of new technologies into mainstream applications. This tutorial will demonstrate the application of Systems Engineering tools to these types of problems. Learning objectives include, understanding how to develop and engineer a conceptual system; understand the importance of teams, communication, requirements definition, interface control, and focus on deliverables; useful tools and techniques for each aspect of the System Engineering process including Model Based Systems Engineering which will be touched upon lightly. Some hands-on problems will be pursued especially in requirements development which is always key to a successful project. Case studies will be presented to assist in the learning process.

Systems Engineering↗

Generating Safety-Critical PLC Code From a High-Level Application Software Specification

The benefits of automatic-application code generation are widely accepted within the software engineering community. These benefits include raised abstraction level of application programming, shorter product development time, lower maintenance costs, and increased code quality and consistency. Surprisingly, code generation concepts have not yet found wide acceptance and use in the field of programmable logic controller (PLC) software development. Software engineers at Kennedy Space Center recognized the need for PLC code generation while developing the new ground checkout and launch processing system, called the Launch Control System (LCS). Engineers developed a process and a prototype software tool that automatically translates a high-level representation or specification of application software into ladder logic that executes on a PLC. All the computer hardware in the LCS is planned to be commercial off the shelf (COTS), including industrial controllers or PLCs that are connected to the sensors and end items out in the field. Most of the software in LCS is also planned to be COTS, with only small adapter software modules that must be developed in order to interface between the various COTS software products. A domain-specific language (DSL) is a programming language designed to perform tasks and to solve problems in a particular domain, such as ground processing of launch vehicles. The LCS engineers created a DSL for developing test sequences of ground checkout and launch operations of future launch vehicle and spacecraft elements, and they are developing a tabular specification format that uses the DSL keywords and functions familiar to the ground and flight system users. The tabular specification format, or tabular spec, allows most ground and flight system users to document how the application software is intended to function and requires little or no software programming knowledge or experience. A small sample from a prototype tabular spec application is shown.

Source record↗

The Relationship Between Cosmic-Ray Exposure Ages And Mixing Of CM Chondrite Lithologies

Carbonaceous (C) chondrites are primitive materials probably deriving from C, P and D asteroids, and as such potentially include samples and analogues of the target asteroids of the Dawn, Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-Rex missions. Foremost among the C chondrites are the CM chondrites, the most common type, and which have experienced the widest range of early solar system processes including oxidation, hydration, metamorphism, and impact shock deformation, often repeatedly or cyclically [1]. To track the activity of these processes in the early solar system, it is critical to learn how many separate bodies are represented by the CMs. Nishiizumi and Caffee [2] have reported that the CMs are unique in displaying several distinct peaks for cosmic-ray exposure (CRE) age groups, and that excavation from significant depth and exposure as small entities in space is the best explanation for the observed radionuclide data. There are either 3 or 4 CRE groups for CMs (Fig.1). We decided to systematically characterize the petrography in each of the CRE age groups to determine whether the groups have significant petrographic differences with these reflecting different parent asteroid geological processing or multiple original bodies. We previously re-ported preliminary results of our work [3], however we have now reexamined these meteorites from the perspective of brecciation, with interesting new results.

Zolensky, M. E.↗

On-line removal of volatile fatty acids from CELSS anaerobic bioreactor via nanofiltration

The CELSS (controlled ecological life support system) resource recovery system, which is a waste processing system, uses aerobic and anaerobic bioreactors to recover plants nutrients and secondary foods from the inedible biomass. The anaerobic degradation of the inedible biomass by means of culture of rumen bacteria,generates organic compounds such as volatile fatty acids (acetic, propionic, butyric, VFA) and ammonia. The presence of VFA in the bioreactor medium at fairly low concentrations decreases the microbial population's metabolic reactions due to end-product inhibition. Technologies to remove VFA continuously from the bioreactor are of high interest. Several candidate technologies were analyzed, such as organic solvent liquid-liquid extraction, adsorption and/or ion exchange, dialysis, electrodialysis, and pressure driven membrane separation processes. The proposed technique for the on-line removal of VFA from the anaerobic bioreactor was a nanofiltration membrane recycle bioreactor. In order to establish the nanofiltration process performance variables before coupling it to the bioreactor, a series of experiments were carried out using a 10,000 MWCO tubular ceramic membrane module. The variables studied were the bioreactor slurry permeation characteristics, such as, the permeate flux, VFA and the nutrient removal rates as a function of applied transmembrane pressure, fluid recirculation velocity, suspended matter concentration, and process operating time. Results indicate that the permeate flux, VFA and nutrients removal rates are directly proportional to the fluid recirculation velocity in the range between 0.6 to 1.0 m/s, applied pressure when these are low than 1.5 bar, and inversely proportional to the total suspended solids concentration in the range between 23,466 to 34,880. At applied pressure higher than 1.5 bar the flux is not more linearly dependent due to concentration polarization and fouling effects over the membrange surface. It was also found that the permeate flux declines rapidly during the first 5 to 8 hours, and then levels off with a diminishing rate of flux decay.

Colon, Guillermo↗

The Role of Remotely Sensed and Relayed Data in the Delaware River Basin

The planned integration of the existing water quality monitoring and data processing systems in the Delaware River Basin with a data relay experiment proposed for the ERTS-1 is discussed. The experiment is designed to use ERTS-1 as a data relay link for a maximum of 20 hydrologic stations in the basin, including stream gaging, reservoir level, ground water level, and water quality monitoring stations. This experiment has the potential for reducing the time lag between data collection and dissemination to less than 12 hours. The experiment will also provide impetus to develop an operational system of real time data processing and dissemination to handle the large quantity of data that will be obtained from the stations in the basin. The results of this experiment will demonstrate the relative merits of satellite relay of data versus conventional means of data telemetry and will provide a basis for the development of operational satellite relay of hydrologic data.

Paulson, R. W.↗

Proceedings of Technical Sessions, Volumes 1 and 2: the LACIE Symposium

The technical design of the Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment is examined and data acquired over 3 global crop years is analyzed with respect to (1) sampling and aggregation; (2) growth size estimation; (3) classification and mensuration; (4) yield estimation; and (5) accuracy assessment. Seventy-nine papers delivered at conference sessions cover system implementation and operation; data processing systems; experiment results and accuracy; supporting research and technology; and the USDA application test system.

Source record↗

Containerless processing technology analysis

Research on acoustic levitation, air-jet levitation, and heat transfer from molten samples is reported. The goal was to obtain a better understanding and improving the quality of containerless processing systems. These systems are applied to the processing of materials in situations in which contact with a container must be avoided, and have potential application in both ground based and orbiting laboratories. Containerless processing is reviewed. The development of glasses from materials which normally crystallize upon cooling, are studied.

Rush, J. E.↗

Utility of Emulation and Simulation Computer Modeling of Space Station Environmental Control and Life Support Systems

Over the years, computer modeling has been used extensively in many disciplines to solve engineering problems. A set of computer program tools is proposed to assist the engineer in the various phases of the Space Station program from technology selection through flight operations. The development and application of emulation and simulation transient performance modeling tools for life support systems are examined. The results of the development and the demonstration of the utility of three computer models are presented. The first model is a detailed computer model (emulation) of a solid amine water desorbed (SAWD) CO2 removal subsystem combined with much less detailed models (simulations) of a cabin, crew, and heat exchangers. This model was used in parallel with the hardware design and test of this CO2 removal subsystem. The second model is a simulation of an air revitalization system combined with a wastewater processing system to demonstrate the capabilities to study subsystem integration. The third model is that of a Space Station total air revitalization system. The station configuration consists of a habitat module, a lab module, two crews, and four connecting nodes.

Yanosy, James L.↗

Knowledge representation and user interface concepts to support mixed-initiative diagnosis

The Remote Maintenance Monitoring System (RMMS) provides automated support for the maintenance and repair of ModComp computer systems used in the Launch Processing System (LPS) at Kennedy Space Center. RMMS supports manual and automated diagnosis of intermittent hardware failures, providing an efficient means for accessing and analyzing the data generated by catastrophic failure recovery procedures. This paper describes the design and functionality of the user interface for interactive analysis of memory dump data, relating it to the underlying declarative representation of memory dumps.

Sobelman, Beverly H.↗

Liquid-Crystal Light Valve Enhances Edges In Images

Experiments show liquid-crystal light valve (LCLV) exhibits operating mode in which it enhances edges in images projected on it. Operates in edge-enhancing mode (or in combination of edge-enhancing and normal modes) by suitably adjusting bias voltage and frequency. Enhancement of edges one of most important preprocessing steps in optical pattern-recognition systems. Incorporated into image-processing system to enhance edges without introducing excessive optical noise.

Chao, Tien-Hsin↗

Beta measurements

The second year's results of the BETA project research are presented. The program is divided into two areas, aerosol modification and climatology in the trade wind region and the climatology of BETA (CO2) on remote mountain top locations. Limited data is available on the aerosol climatology of the marine free troposphere (MFT) in the trade wind region. In order to study the effects of cumulus convection on the MFT values of BETA, a cloud model was developed to simulate the evolution of a typical Pacific trade wind cumulus cloud. The stages involved in this development are outlined. The assembly of the major optical components of the lidar was made. Tests were run of the spectral bandwidth of the Synrad laser when a portion of the beam is mixed with a component which has traveled 450 meters corresponding to a delay of 1.5 microsecs. The bandwidth of the beat signal was measured to be 3 KHz. The data processing system based on a parallel processing filter bank analyzer using true time squaring detectors at each filter was completed.

Schotland, R. M.↗

Approaches to lunar base life support

Various approaches to reliable, low maintenance, low resupply regenerative long-term life support for lunar base application are discussed. The first approach utilizes Space Station Freedom physiochemical systems technology which has closed air and water loops with approximately 99 and 90 percent closure respectively, with minor subsystem changes to the SSF baseline improving the level of water resupply for the water loop. A second approach would be a physiochemical system, including a solid waste processing system and improved air and water loop closure, which would require only food and nitrogen for resupply. A hybrid biological/physiochemical life support system constitutes the third alternative, incorporating some level of food production via plant growth into the life support system. The approaches are described in terms of mass, power, and resupply requirements; and the potential evolution of a small, initial outpost to a large, self-sustaining base is discussed.

Brown, M. F.↗

Seals research at the University of Akron

The flow visualization aims at determining the flow regimes and the sealing mechanisms that are at work in the brush seal, regardless of whether the seal is linear or circular. A vision system coupled with an image processing system is used to analyze the nature of the flow. Pressure measurements were made to study the effect of the number of brushes as well as the brush structure on the seal effectiveness. Details of a numerical approach to flow simulation in one hydrostatic pocket is presented. The effects of the jet, shaft velocity, and clearance on the flow patterns and pressure generation are described.

Braun, M. Jack↗