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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

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS1979

Solar array technology developments and design for electric propulsion application

The design, fabrication, and test of foldout and rollout multikilowatt solar array models are discussed. Consideration is given to the development of (1) thin 50-micron solar cells; (2) laminated Kapton plus substrates; (3) thin 50 to 100-micron coverglass; (4) low-mass structure designs; (5) low-mass blanket designs; and (6) solar insolation concentrators to enhance solar array performance. It is noted that the recent achievements in solar cell technology have shown that blanket specific power of 120 W/kg and higher is realizable for solar arrays, thus meeting propulsion stage requirements.

Costogue, E. N.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Fabrication of injection molded sintered alpha SiC turbine components

Fabrication of a sintered alpha silicon carbide turbine blade by injection molding is described. An extensive process variation matrix was carried out to define the optimum fabrication conditions. Variation of molding parameters had a significant impact on yield. Turbine blades were produced in a reasonable yield which met a rigid quality and dimensional specification. Application of injection molding technology to more complex components such as integral rotors is also described.

Storm, R. S.↗

NASA NTRS1983

Study of Systems and Technology for Liquid Hydrogen Production Independent of Fossil Fuels

Based on Kennedy Space Center siting and logistics requirements and the nonfossil energy resources at the Center, a number of applicable technologies and system candidates for hydrogen production were identified and characterized. A two stage screening of these technologies in the light of specific criteria identified two leading candidates as nonfossil system approaches. Conceptual design and costing of two solar-operated, stand alone systems, one photovoltaic based on and the other involving the power tower approach reveals their technical feasibility as sited as KSC, and the potential for product cost competitiveness with conventional supply approaches in the 1990 to 1210 time period. Conventional water hydrolysis and hydrogen liquefaction subsystems are integrated with the solar subsystems.

Sprafka, R. J.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Activities of the Remote Sensing Information Sciences Research Group

Topics on the analysis and processing of remotely sensed data in the areas of vegetation analysis and modelling, georeferenced information systems, machine assisted information extraction from image data, and artificial intelligence are investigated. Discussions on support field data and specific applications of the proposed technologies are also included.

John E Estes↗

NASA NTRS1983

Energetic closed-cycle gas core reactors for orbit raising

Closed-cycle gas core reactor power plants can be of two types. In the 'mixed flow' type, the gaseous nuclear fuel is intimately mixed with the working gas in the cavity. In the 'light bulb' type the fissioning plasma is enclosed in a transparent tube, and energy transfer to the separate working gas occurs by thermal radiation. The potentials of high temperature gas core reactors in terrestrial electric power generator applications have been considered, and a number of civilian power-beaming applications for gaseous fuel nuclear-MHD power plants in space have been suggested. Major conclusions of investigations related to the design of space power systems are discussed. Attention is given to options for conversion cycles, the power system specific mass, and research and technology issues.

Rosa, R. J.↗

NASA NTRS1984

The real world: The user

Satellite communication is by far the most advanced of all commercial applications of space technology. The past, present, and some future possibilities for the field of public communications are considered. Some serious concerns that are becoming apparent to the user of this technology are examined. Among the specific topics mentioned are digital television, electronic mail, cable television, and systems security.

Kitchell, J.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Applications of Tethers in Space

The proceedings of the first workshop on applications of tethers in space are summarized. The workshop gathered personalities from industry, academic institutions and government to discuss the relatively new area of applied technology of very long tethers in space to a broad spectrum of future space missions. A large number of tethered concepts and configurations was presented covering electrodynamic interaction tethers, tethered transportation through angular momentum exchange, tethered constellations, low gravity utilization, applicable technology, and tethered test facilities. Specific recommendations were made to NASA in each area.

Cron, A. C.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Nuclear electric power for multimegawatt orbit transfer vehicles

Multimegawatt nuclear propulsion is an attractive option for orbit transfer vehicles. The masses of these platforms are expected to exceed the capability of a single launch from Earth necessitating assembly in space in a parking orbit. The OTV would transfer the platform from the parking orbit to the operational orbit and then return for the next mission. Electric propulsion is advantageous because of the high specific impulse achieved by the technology, 1000 to 5000 s and beyond, to reduce the propellant required. Nuclear power is attractive as the power system because of the weight savings over solar systems in the multimegawatt regime, and multimegawatts of power are required. A conceptual diagram is shown of an OTV with a command control module using electric thrusters powered from an SP-100 class nuclear reactor power system.

Casagrande, R. D.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Proceedings of the Mars Global Network Mission Workshop

A workshop on the Mars Global Network Mission held at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on February 6 and 7, 1990, was attended by 68 people from JPL, National Aeronautics and Space Administration centers, universities, national laboratories, and industry. Three working sessions on science and exploration objectives, mission and system design concepts, and subsystem technology readiness each addressed three specific questions on implementation concepts for the mission. The workshop generated conclusions for each of the nine questions and also recommended several important science and engineering issues to be studied subsequent to the workshop.

Sturms, Francis M., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Verifying an interactive consistency circuit: A case study in the reuse of a verification technology

The work done at ORA for NASA-LRC in the design and formal verification of a hardware implementation of a scheme for attaining interactive consistency (byzantine agreement) among four microprocessors is presented in view graph form. The microprocessors used in the design are an updated version of a formally verified 32-bit, instruction-pipelined, RISC processor, MiniCayuga. The 4-processor system, which is designed under the assumption that the clocks of all the processors are synchronized, provides software control over the interactive consistency operation. Interactive consistency computation is supported as an explicit instruction on each of the microprocessors. An identical user program executing on each of the processors decides when and on what data interactive consistency must be performed. This exercise also served as a case study to investigate the effectiveness of reusing the technology which was developed during the MiniCayuga effort for verifying synchronous hardware designs. MiniCayuga was verified using the verification system Clio which was also developed at ORA. To assist in reusing this technology, a computer-aided specification and verification tool was developed. This tool specializes Clio to synchronous hardware designs and significantly reduces the tedium involved in verifying such designs. The tool is presented and how it was used to specify and verify the interactive consistency circuit is described.

Bickford, Mark↗

NASA NTRS1991

Techniques and implementation of the embedded rule-based expert system using Ada

Ada is becoming an increasingly popular programming language for large Government-funded software projects. Ada with its portability, transportability, and maintainability lends itself well to today's complex programming environment. In addition, expert systems have also assured a growing role in providing human-like reasoning capability and expertise for computer systems. The integration of expert system technology with Ada programming language, specifically a rule-based expert system using an ART-Ada (Automated Reasoning Tool for Ada) system shell is discussed. The NASA Lewis Research Center was chosen as a beta test site for ART-Ada. The test was conducted by implementing the existing Autonomous Power EXpert System (APEX), a Lisp-base power expert system, in ART-Ada. Three components, the rule-based expert system, a graphics user interface, and communications software make up SMART-Ada (Systems fault Management with ART-Ada). The main objective, to conduct a beta test on the ART-Ada rule-based expert system shell, was achieved. The system is operational. New Ada tools will assist in future successful projects. ART-Ada is one such tool and is a viable alternative to the straight Ada code when an application requires a rule-based or knowledge-based approach.

Liberman, Eugene M.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Attacking the information access problem with expert systems

The results of applications research directed at finding an improved method of storing and accessing information are presented. Twelve microcomputer-based expert systems shells and five laser-optical formats have been studied, and the general and specific methods of interfacing these technologies are being tested in prototype systems. Shell features and interfacing capabilities are discussed, and results from the study of five laser-optical formats are recounted including the video laser, compact, and WORM disks, and laser cards and film. Interfacing, including laser disk device driver interfacing, is discussed and it is pointed out that in order to control the laser device from within the expert systems application, the expert systems shell must be able to access the device driver software. Potential integrated applications are investigated and an initial list is provided including consumer services, travel, law enforcement, human resources, marketing, and education and training.

Ragusa, James M.↗

NASA NTRS1990

The CELSS Test Facility - A foundation for crop research in space

Under the NASA Space Biology Initiative, a CELSS Test Facility (CTF) is being planned for installation on Space Station Freedom. The CTF will be used to study the productivity of typical CELSS higher plant crops under the microgravity conditions of the Space Station Freedom (SSF). Such science studies will be supported under the CELSS Space Research Project. The CTF will be used to evaluate fundamental issues of crop productivity, such as the production rates of O2, food and transpired water, and CO2 uptake. A series of precursor tests that are essential to the development of the CTF will be flown on Space Shuttle flights. The tests will be used to validate and qualify technology concepts and to answer specific questions regarding seed germination, root/shoot orientation, water condensation and recycling, nutrient delivery, and liquid/gas phase interactions.

Straight, C. L.↗

NASA NTRS1992

NASP - A status report

The current status of the NASP program, a joint DoD-NASA effort in advancing the technologies needed for the X-30 research flight vehicle is described. The X-30 single stage to orbit (SSTO) vehicle utilizes an air-breathing primary propulsion system and takes off and lands horizontally on a conventional runaway. The technologies under development include high specific strength, high temperature capable materials and structures, ramjet/scramjet propulsion systems, hypersonic aerodynamics and computational fluid dynamics, and cryogenics. A concept for a follow-on NASP-derived operational vehicle and its potential use as a space transportation vehicle are also discussed.

Thomas, John P., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1992

The environmental control and life-support system for a lunar base: What drives its design

The purpose of this paper is to identify and briefly discuss some of the ground rules and mission scenario details that become drivers of the environmental control and life support (ECLS) system design and of the logistics related to the design. This paper is written for mission planners and non-ECLS system engineers to inform them of the details that will be important to the ECLS engineer when the design phase is reached. In addition, examples illustrate the impact of some selected mission characteristics on the logistics associated with ECLS systems. The last section of this paper focuses on the ECLS system technology development sequence and highlights specific portions that need emphasis.

Hypes, Warren D.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Remote surface inspection system

This paper reports on an on-going research and development effort in remote surface inspection of space platforms such as the Space Station Freedom (SSF). It describes the space environment and identifies the types of damage for which to search. This paper provides an overview of the Remote Surface Inspection System that was developed to conduct proof-of-concept demonstrations and to perform experiments in a laboratory environment. Specifically, the paper describes three technology areas: (1) manipulator control for sensor placement; (2) automated non-contact inspection to detect and classify flaws; and (3) an operator interface to command the system interactively and receive raw or processed sensor data. Initial findings for the automated and human visual inspection tests are reported.

Hayati, S.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Remote surface inspection system

Hayati, Samad↗

NASA NTRS1995

Flight dynamics software in a distributed network environment

As with all NASA facilities, the announcement of reduced budgets, reduced staffing, and the desire to implement smaller/quicker/cheaper missions has required the Agency's organizations to become more efficient in what they do. To accomplish these objectives, the FDD has initiated the development of the Flight Dynamics Distributed System (FDDS). The underlying philosophy of FDDS is to build an integrated system that breaks down the traditional barriers of attitude, mission planning, and navigation support software to provide a uniform approach to flight dynamics applications. Through the application of open systems concepts and state-of-the-art technologies, including object-oriented specification concepts, object-oriented software, and common user interface, communications, data management, and executive services, the FDD will reengineer most of its six million lines of code.

Jeletic, J.↗