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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 811 records · Page 45

Proof of Concept Study of Trade Space Configuration Tool for Spacecraft Design

Spacecraft design is a very difficult and time consuming process because requirements and criteria are often changed or modified as the design is refined. Accounting for these adjustments in the design constraints plays a significant role in furthering the overall progress. There are numerous aspects and variables that hold significant influence on various characteristics of the design. This can be especially frustrating when attempting to conduct rapid trade space analysis on system configurations. Currently, the data and designs considered for trade space evaluations can only be displayed by using the traditional interfaces of Excel spreadsheets or CAD (Computer Aided Design) models. While helpful, these methods of analyzing the data from a systems engineering approach can be rather complicated and overwhelming. As a result, a proof of concept was conducted on a dynamic data visualization software called Thinkmap SDK (Software Developer Kit) to allow for better organization and understanding of the relationships between the various aspects that make up an entire design. The Orion Crew Module Aft Bay Subsystem was used as the test case for this study because the design and layout of many of the subsystem components will be significant in ensuring the overall center of gravity of the capsule is correct. A simplified model of this subsystem was created and programmed using Thinkmap SDK to create a preliminary prototype application of a Trade Space Configuration Tool. The completed application ensures that the core requirements for the Tool can be met. Further development is strongly suggested to produce a full prototype application to allow final evaluations and recommendations of the software capabilities.

Glidden, Geoffrey L.↗

Overview of Experimental Investigations for Ares I Launch Vehicle Development

Another concern for the vehicle during its design trajectory was the separation of the first stage solid rocket booster from the upper stage component after it had depleted its solid fuel propellant. There has been some concern about the interstage of the first stage from clearing the nozzle of the J2-X engine. A detailed separation aerodynamic wind tunnel investigation was conducted in the AEDC VKF Tunnel A to help to investigate the interaction aerodynamic effects5. A comparison of the separation plane details between the Ares I architecture and the Ares I-X demonstration flight architecture is shown in figure 12. The Ares I design requires a more complex separation sequence and requires better control in order to avoid contact with the nozzle of the upper stage engine. The interstage, which houses the J2-X engine for the Ares I vehicle, must be able to separate cleanly to avoid contact of the J2-X engine. There is only about approximately 18 inches of buffer inside the interstage on each size of the nozzle so this is a challenging controlled separation event. This complex experimental investigation required two separate Ares I models (upper stage and first stage with interstage attached) with independent strain gauge balances installed in each model. It also required the Captive Trajectory System (CTS) that was needed to precisely locate the components in space relative to each other to fill out the planned test matrix. The model setup in the AEDC VKF Tunnel A is shown in figure 13. The CTS remotely positioned the first stage at the required x, y, and z positions and was able to provide interactions within 0.2" of the upper stage. A sample of the axial force on the first stage booster is shown in figure 14. These results, as a function of separation distance between the two stages, are compared to pre-test CFD results. Since this is a very challenging, highly unsteady flow field for CFD to correctly model, the experimental results have been utilized by GN&C discipline to more accurately represent the interaction aerodynamics. In addition to the integrated forces and moments obtained from the test, flow visualization data was obtained from this test in the form of Schlieren photographs, as shown in figure 15, which show the shock structure and interaction effects after the two stages separate during flight. This separation test was crucial in the successful flight test of the Ares I-X vehicle and provided the GN&C discipline with the unpowered proximity aerodynamic effect for a separation of the Ares I vehicle.

Tomek, William G.↗

The Development and Hover Test Application of a Projection Moire Interferometry Blade Displacement Measurement System

Projection moir interferometry (PMI) was employed to measure blade deflections during a hover test of a generic model-scale rotor in the NASA Langley 14x22 subsonic wind tunnel s hover facility. PMI was one of several optical measurement techniques tasked to acquire deflection and flow visualization data for a rotor at several distinct heights above a ground plane. Two of the main objectives of this test were to demonstrate that multiple optical measurement techniques can be used simultaneously to acquire data and to identify and address deficiencies in the techniques. Several PMI-specific technical challenges needed to be addressed during the test and in post-processing of the data. These challenges included developing an efficient and accurate calibration method for an extremely large (65 inch) height range; automating the analysis of the large amount of data acquired during the test; and developing a method to determinate the absolute displacement of rotor blades without a required anchor point measurement. The results indicate that the use of a single-camera/single-projector approach for the large height range reduced the accuracy of the PMI system compared to PMI systems designed for smaller height ranges. The lack of the anchor point measurement (due to a technical issue with one of the other measurement techniques) limited the ability of the PMI system to correctly measure blade displacements to only one of the three rotor heights tested. The new calibration technique reduced the data required by 80 percent while new post-processing algorithms successfully automated the process of locating rotor blades in images, determining the blade quarter chord location, and calculating the blade root and blade tip heights above the ground plane.

Sekula, Martin K.↗

Experimental Investigation of the Low-Speed Aerodynamic Characteristics of a 5.8-Percent Scale Hybrid Wing Body Configuration

A low-speed experimental investigation has been conducted on a 5.8-percent scale Hybrid Wing Body configuration in the NASA Langley 14- by 22-Foot Subsonic Tunnel. This Hybrid Wing Body (HWB) configuration was designed with specific intention to support the NASA Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) Project goals of reduced noise, emissions, and fuel burn. This HWB configuration incorporates twin, podded nacelles mounted on the vehicle upper surface between twin vertical tails. Low-speed aerodynamic characteristics were assessed through the acquisition of force and moment, surface pressure, and flow visualization data. Longitudinal and lateral-directional characteristics were investigated on this multi-component model. The effects of a drooped leading edge, longitudinal flow-through nacelle location, vertical tail shape and position, elevon deflection, and rudder deflection have been studied. The basic configuration aerodynamics, as well as the effects of these configuration variations, are presented in this paper.

Gatlin, Gregory M.↗

Deep Space Network-Wide Portal Development: Planning Service Pilot Project

The Deep Space Network (DSN) is an international network of antennas that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions and radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe. DSN provides the vital two-way communications link that guides and controls planetary explorers, and brings back the images and new scientific information they collect. In an attempt to streamline operations and improve overall services provided by the Deep Space Network a DSN-wide portal is under development. The project is one step in a larger effort to centralize the data collected from current missions including user input parameters for spacecraft to be tracked. This information will be placed into a principal repository where all operations related to the DSN are stored. Furthermore, providing statistical characterization of data volumes will help identify technically feasible tracking opportunities and more precise mission planning by providing upfront scheduling proposals. Business intelligence tools are to be incorporated in the output to deliver data visualization.

project development↗

Revamping Spacecraft Operational Intelligence

The EPOXI flight mission has been testing a new commercial system, Splunk, which employs data mining techniques to organize and present spacecraft telemetry data in a high-level manner. By abstracting away data-source specific details, Splunk unifies arbitrary data formats into one uniform system. This not only reduces the time and effort for retrieving relevant data, but it also increases operational visibility by allowing a spacecraft team to correlate data across many different sources. Splunk's scalable architecture coupled with its graphing modules also provide a solid toolset for generating data visualizations and building real-time applications such as browser-based telemetry displays.

Hwang, Victor↗

Process Improvement Through Tool Integration in Aero-Mechanical Design

Emerging capabilities in commercial design tools promise to significantly improve the multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary design and analysis coverage for aerospace mechanical engineers. This paper explores the analysis process for two example problems of a wing and flap mechanical drive system and an aircraft landing gear door panel. The examples begin with the design solid models and include various analysis disciplines such as structural stress and aerodynamic loads. Analytical methods include CFD, multi-body dynamics with flexible bodies and structural analysis. Elements of analysis data management, data visualization and collaboration are also included.

Integrated design and analysis↗

STEM Engagement with NASA's Solar System Treks Portals for Lunar and Planetary Mapping and Modeling

This presentation will provide an overview of the uses and capabilities of NASA's Solar System Treks family of online mapping and modeling portals. While also designed to support mission planning and scientific research, this presentation will focus on the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) engagement and public outreach capabilities of these web based suites of data visualization and analysis tools.

Law, E. S.↗

HYPERS Software Development

Providing software support for HYPERS and creating internal tools. NASA has a long and decorated history of spaceflight innovation and achievements. The next great endeavor is NASA’s Journey to Mars, which will be achieved with the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion capsule. Developing and testing these systems is no easy feat. Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) tools do not always provide enough functionality for engineers to do their job efficiently, making internal custom-made tools is necessary to meet the expected launch date. The purpose of this internship was to provide software support to the Storable Propellants and Hydraulic Systems Branch, specifically the Hypergolics Software (HYPERS) team. This included developing tools to parse unique measurements from the vehicle into the format specified by the HYPERS team. Displays were also created per requirements. Another major component of this internship was to create an intuitive interactive offline graphing application. The current tool for plotting vehicle data does not have all the functionality and features that HYPERS would like. By inputting a vehicle data file, the application plots the data based on the time range and components the user would like to view. After the graph is generated, the user is able to zoom in, pan horizontally, add comments, hover over data points, and take a snapshot of the current state of the graph. These additional features will help engineers quickly investigate the relationship between vehicle components through data visualization.

Internal Tools↗

Biocene 2018 - Welcome to the Period of New Life

Biocene is the period of new life. When our descendants look back at this period in time, they will see evidence, in the geologic and electronic record, of anthropic climate change, growing population, and scarcity of resources. But they will also see the rebirth of human ingenuity as we overcame the challenges that faced us through nature-inspired exploration. The Periodic Table of Life (PeTaL) is a proposed tool and open source framework that uses artificial intelligence to aid in the systematic inquiry of biology for its application to human systems. This presentation defines the PeTaL concept and workflow. Biomimicry, biophysics, biomimetics, bionics and numerous other terms refer to the use of biology and biological principles to inform practices in other disciplines. For the most part, the domain of inquiry in these fields have been confined to extant biological models with the proponents of biomimicry often citing the evolutionary success of extant organisms relative to extinct ones. The primary objective of this paper is to expand the domain of inquiry for human processes that seek to model those that are, were or could be found in nature with examples that relate to the field of aerospace and to spur development of tools that can work together to accelerate the use of artificial intelligence in problem solving. Specifically specialized fields such as paleomimesis, anthropomimesis and physioteleology are proposed in conjunction with artificial evolution. Blockchain technology may be vital in allowing open source design tools such as PeTaL to democratize design and yet protect intellectual property. The overarching philosophy outlined here can be thought of as physiomimetics, a holistic and systematic way of learning from natural history. The backbone of PeTaL integrates an unstructured database with an ontological model consisting of function, morphology, environment, state of matter and ecosystem. Tools include text classification, thesaurus, data visualization, and analysis. Applications of PeTaL include guiding human space exploration, understanding human and geological history, and discovering new or extinct life.

Biocene↗

IMERG Reaching for 20 Years

The new V06 IMERG is briefly reviewed, then key data visualizations are shown, including the zonal profile of calibration by GPCP, the long-term time series of ocean estimates for the Final Run (with comparison to TMPA and GPCP SG), the time series of tropical ocean rainrate histogram, diurnal cycle, and atoll validation at the monthly time scale.

Huffman, George J.↗

Flow and Noise from Supersonic Plug Nozzles

Nozzles with external plugs are candidates for propulsion of future supersonic aircraft. A model-scale experimental study is conducted exploring the flow and noise characteristics of various plug nozzles. For a given outer nozzle, the plug geometry is varied from conic with various half-angles (lengths) to plugs designed by the method of characteristics (MoC) as well as truncated and porous plugs. So far, noise characteristics and schlieren flow visualization data have been acquired. Limited numerical simulations have also been done addressing thrust performance. The simulations show that the MoC plugs out-perform the conic cases, especially around high Mach number cruise conditions. The experimental data, however, show that the MoC plugs are noisy relative to the conic cases at low Mach number landing and takeoff (LTO) conditions. The increased noise (with MoC at LTO) is accompanied by unsteady turbulent structures and increased jet spreading, as seen in schlieren pictures. At LTO, the longest conic plug is found to be the least noisy. Furthermore, a porous surface on the long conic plug effectively suppresses broadband shock associated noise (BBSN) at higher Mach numbers. Thus, a dilemma remains. MoC design gives best thrust performance at cruise but it is noisy at LTO. A long conic plug, on the other hand, is quieter at LTO but may have unacceptable thrust at cruise.

jets↗

Distributed Lunar Data Platform with Advanced Machine Learning Capabilities in Support of Lunar Science and Exploration

The United States 2020 Space Policy directive declares that NASA, in cooperation with private industry, will “extend human economic activity into deep space by establishing a permanent human presence on the Moon”. This goal will require advanced data management, as well as analysis, modeling and representation of lunar information in order to prepare for Artemis human missions, lunar science investigations and exploration. To meet this requirement, we conceptualize and present an implementation strategy for a distributed platform for lunar data retrieval, inferencing and analysis, which will be based on federated learning and the NASA Celestial Mapping System (CMS). In addition to demonstrating the imperative of enabling lunar-borne data to remain in-situ but still accessible, this presentation will also include examples of how third parties could contribute both datasets and new functionality into this platform using an AI-based data import pipeline and a plug-in architecture respectively.

Artificial Intelligence↗

Flow and noise from supersonic plug nozzles

Nozzles with external plugs are candidates for propulsion of future supersonic aircraft. A model-scale experimental study is conducted exploring the flow and noise characteristics of various plug nozzles. For a given outer nozzle, the plug geometry is varied from conic with various half-angles (lengths) to plugs designed by the method of characteristics (MoC) as well as truncated and porous plugs. So far, noise characteristics and schlieren flow visualization data have been acquired. Limited numerical simulations have also been done addressing thrust performance. The simulations show that the MoC plugs out-perform the conic cases, especially around high Mach number cruise conditions. The experimental data, however, show that the MoC plugs are noisy relative to the conic cases at low Mach number landing and takeoff (LTO) conditions. The increased noise (with MoC at LTO) is accompanied by unsteady turbulent structures and increased jet spreading, as seen in schlieren pictures. At LTO, the longest conic plug is found to be the least noisy. Furthermore, a porous surface on the long conic plug effectively suppresses broadband shock associated noise (BBSN) at higher Mach numbers. Thus, a dilemma remains. MoC design gives best thrust performance at cruise but it is noisy at LTO. A long conic plug, on the other hand, is quieter at LTO but may have unacceptable thrust at cruise.

jets↗

Mining the Gravity Mutants of Arabidopsis

Gravity mutants are a valuable resource for understanding gravity perception, signaling, and response in plants. A review of 190 publications resulted in a list of 97 loci with mutations that caused a gravitropic phenotype. While all these mutants show some form of gravity phenotype, several are also generally defective in growth. After removing these nonspecific mutants, 76 loci were deemed to have true gravity mutants. The gene list was then used to create a sortable database containing key factors of gravity signaling as well as data on methodologies and the development of mutant lines. Indexing this database has allowed us to pull out trends that were not visible in individual publications. For example, mutants that are unable to rearrange starch statoliths make up a larger proportion of the described inflorescence stems mutants than any other organ. Comparing these statolith mutants across organs shows that root and inflorescence stems consistently display different phenotypes for the same class of defect. The more severe gravity defects are most commonly described in root tissue while other tissues are more likely to show only a delayed or reduced response to gravity. The experience of members of the GeneLab plant Analytics Working Group (AWG) in data visualization and gene mapping have sparked new ideas for utilizing this database. Knowledge of shared traits, mutant development, and growth can provide a new resource for the production of seed lines specialized for their response to gravity.

gravitropism↗

Flow Physics Study of Sweeping Jet Actuation on a NACA 0015 Swept Wing Configuration

Preliminary results from a recently completed active flow control (AFC) experiment on a 30 deg swept, semispan wing are presented. The constant chord NACA 0015 wing is configured with sweeping jet actuators at the flap shoulder to study the effects of excitation introduced into a separated, three-dimensional flowfield. The research is aimed at developing efficient active flow control approaches for swept wing configurations. Oil and tuft flow visualization data, steady and unsteady pressure data, particle image velocimetry (PIV), oil flow interferometry (OFI), and force and moment data are used to compare the flowfields with and without AFC. The parameters that were varied include freestream velocity, actuator momentum coefficient, and flap deflection angle.

active flow control↗

Flow Physics Study of Sweeping Jet Actuation on an NACA 0015 Swept Wing Configuration

Results from a recently completed active flow control (AFC) experiment on a low aspect ratio, AR = 4.35, 30 degree swept, semispan wing with a 30% chord trailing edge flap are presented. The constant chord NACA 0015 wing is configured with sweeping jet actuators at the flap shoulder to facilitate our study of three-dimensional, swept wing separated and AFC controlled flowfields on the flap. Two flap deflection angles (delta_f = 0 degrees and 20 degrees) are examined. Oil and tuft flow visualization data, steady and unsteady pressure data, and particle image velocimetry (PIV) complement the balance lift and drag data. These results are used to examine smooth body separation, fixed separation, and the AFC-controlled flap flowfield downstream of a sweeping jet actuator. A momentum coefficient of 1.1% reattaches the flow to the flap surface when flap delta_f = 20 degrees increasing lift by approximately 0.26. This fundamental study is a first step in a research effort focused on improving the efficiency of AFC systems for swept wing applications.

active flow control↗