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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 847 records · Page 47
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2017

Introduction to the Navigation Team: Johnson Space Center EG6 Internship

The EG6 navigation team at NASA Johnson Space Center, like any team of engineers, interacts with the engineering process from beginning to end; from exploring solutions to a problem, to prototyping and studying the implementations, all the way to polishing and verifying a final flight-ready design. This summer, I was privileged enough to gain exposure to each of these processes, while also getting to truly experience working within a team of engineers. My summer can be broken up into three projects: i) Initial study and prototyping: investigating a manual navigation method that can be utilized onboard Orion in the event of catastrophic failure of navigation systems; ii) Finalizing and verifying code: altering a software routine to improve its robustness and reliability, as well as designing unit tests to verify its performance; and iii) Development of testing equipment: assisting in developing and integrating of a high-fidelity testbed to verify the performance of software and hardware.

Gualdoni, Matthew↗
NASA NTRS2017

Segmented Aperture Interferometric Nulling Testbed (SAINT) II: Component Systems Update

"This work presents updates to the coronagraph and telescope components of the Segmented Aperture Interfer-ometric Nulling Testbed (SAINT). The project pairs an actively-controlled macro-scale segmented mirror withthe Visible Nulling Coronagraph (VNC) towards demonstrating capabilities for the future space observatoriesneeded to directly detect and characterize a significant sample of Earth-sized worlds around nearby stars inthe quest for identifying those which may be habitable and possibly harbor life. Efforts to improve the VNCwavefront control optics and mechanisms towards repeating narrowband results are described. A narrative isprovided for the design of new optical components aimed at enabling broadband performance. Initial work withthe hardware and software interface for controlling the segmented telescope mirror is also presented."

high-contrast imaging↗
NASA NTRS2019

The Kilopower Space Nuclear Fission Power Reactor

Nuclear fission power offers an attractive alternative to solar electric or radioisotope power systems for certain applications on the Moon, Mars, and deep space science missions. The advantages of independence from solar irradiance, high energy density, and abundance of fuel allow fission power systems to enable novel, high power mission architectures. While NASA has had numerous fission power programs throughout its history, few have gone far beyond the design phase. The recent test campaign called the Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology project (KRUSTY) focused on a low power, kilowatt-scale design for simplicity and reduced cost, with the driving motivation to perform a full nuclear hardware prototype test. Following the successful completion of the KRUSTY nuclear hardware test in March of 2018, NASA has begun the formulation process for a Technology Demonstration Mission (TDM) using the Kilopower reactor technology. In support of NASA's lunar surface initiatives, the Kilopower TDM will target a 1-3 kW fission electric power system that can survive the lunar night and operate for one year. The system will be heavily influenced by the KRUSTY reactor design, using a solid Uranium metal core with high temperature heat pipes and Stirling engine power conversion. During this formulation phase, continued engineering efforts are ongoing to improve heat transfer efficiency in the system, examine fission radiation damage effects, and begin to address the thermal and structural requirements of a Kilopower flight system.

Chaiken, Max↗
NASA NTRS2019

Tuning the Performance of a Computational Persistent Homology Package

In recent years, persistent homology has become an attractive method for data analysis. It captures topological features, such as connected components, holes, and voids from point cloud data and summarizes the way in which these features appear and disappear in a filtration sequence. In this project, we focus on improving the performanceof Eirene, a computational package for persistent homology. Eirene is a 5000-line open-source software library implemented in the dynamic programming language Julia. We use the Julia profiling tools to identify performance bottlenecks and develop novel methods to manage them, including the parallelization of some time-consuming functions on multicore/manycore hardware. Empirical results show that performance can be greatly improved.

Persistent Homology↗
NASA NTRS2017

Narrowband Rejection of Reaction Wheel and Environmental Disturbances for the WFIRST OMC Testbed

The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) is a NASA observatory with two scientific instruments. The first is the Wide Field Instrument (WFI) designed to perform wide field imaging and surveys of the near infrared (NIR) sky. The second is a coronagraph (CGI) that will enable astronomers to detect and measure properties of planets in other solar systems. The coronagraph requires 0.5 milli-arcsecond (mas) RMS pointing per axis of the line of sight (LOS) to achieve a contrast of 1x10-9. This paper discusses the approach used for achieving this level of pointing performance on the occulting mask coronagraph (OMC) testbed at JPL. This testbed uses a low-order wavefront sensing (LOWFS) camera and fast steering mirror (FSM) to suppress injected LOS jitter and environmental LOS jitter. The injected jitter includes representative broadband spacecraft attitude control system (ACS) LOS motion and tonal LOS jitter caused by the reaction wheel assemblies (RWA). The environmental jitter includes thermal LOS variations and harmonics of the line noise. The LOWFS camera uses high flux from the obscured science target to achieve high rate measurements of the LOS. These measurements are augmented with fictitious RWA tachometer information and an estimate of the line noise frequency. A LOS servo using a combination of feedback and feedforward control is used in the testbed to compensate for all of the disturbance sources and to mitigate jitter caused by in-band camera noise. The feedforward uses a novel robust least mean squares (RLMS) filter algorithm to reject the RWA and line frequency tones. High fidelity models of the sensors, disturbances and actuator are presented in this paper. These models were developed as part of a simulation of the LOS control system. Performance results from the hardware testbed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are discussed in this paper.

Shields, Joel↗
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↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Human-in-the-Loop Evaluations: Process and Mockup Fidelity

Human-in-the-loop (HITL) evaluations are iterative events used during design and development to identify issues with the implementation of human systems integration. HITL evaluations involve human test subjects who are user-representative participants performing activities with representative hardware, software, and procedures. The paper will describe the process by which HITL evaluations can be implemented in a program or project. This will include definitions for developmental and verification HITL evaluations, levels of mockup fidelity, and certification of HITL articles. The proposed process can be tailored depending on the type of HITL evaluation being conducted. It is highly recommended that findings are timely reported and incorporated in the hardware and/or software design.

Jackelynne Silva-Martinez↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

COLDArm Pressure-Sinkage Testing: Implications for Assessing Lunar Trafficability

The ability for regolith to support the movement of vehicles, known as trafficability, is commonly assessed using pressure-sinkage relationships. Trafficability on the lunar surface is controlled by the site-specific physical properties of the regolith and the geometry and mass of the roving vehicle. Lunar regolith pressure-sinkage testing can be performed with standard exploration hardware (e.g., robotic arms with scoops) and will help define exploration routes and hazard zones for rovers and astronauts, as knowledge of the sinkage of a wheel in regolith helps constrain viable operating conditions for rovers. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the necessity of in situ testing and characterization of lunar regolith physical properties for exploration and infrastructure development activities.

Regolith↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

COLDArm Pressure-Sinkage Testing: Implications for Assessing Lunar Trafficability

The ability for regolith to support the movement of vehicles, known as trafficability, is commonly assessed using pressure-sinkage relationships [1]. Trafficability on the lunar surface is controlled by the site-specific physical properties of the regolith and the geometry and mass of the roving vehicle. Lunar regolith pressure-sinkage testing can be performed with standard exploration hardware (e.g., robotic arms with scoops) and will help define exploration routes and hazard zones for rovers and astronauts, as knowledge of the sinkage of a wheel in regolith helps constrain viable operating conditions for rovers. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the necessity of in situ testing and characterization of lunar regolith physical properties for exploration and infrastructure development activities.

Regolith↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Development and Airborne Demonstration of the Concurrent Artificially-Intelligent Spectrometry and Adaptive Lidar System: Advancing Lidar Capabilities for the STV Observing System

We report on the design, build and planned airborne demonstration of a spaceflight-prototype Concurrent Artificially-intelligent Spectrometry and Adaptive Lidar System (CASALS). The CASALS lidar is an Adaptive Wavelength Scanning Lidar (AWSL) operating in push broom mode. The demonstration has three major goals: advance the Technical Readiness Level of the AWSL hardware, validate its measurement performance and mature algorithms and methods needed for the Surface Topography and Vegetation (STV) observing system. AWSL acquires parallel tracks of surface heights by rapidly steering a laser beam across a swath. A 1040nm-centered laser is tuned across 30nm and carved into 2-ns pulses, the pulse energy is fiber amplified and the pulses are dispersed cross-track using a non-mechanical wavelength-to-angle grating. For the spaceflight system the beam will be pointable to 1200 10m footprints across a 7km swath. For the airborne demonstration there will be 256 0.7m footprints across a 110m swath. In both cases the footprints overlap across- and along-track for uniform target illumination. For the airborne demonstration a steering mirror will increase the accessible swath width to 4km. At the receiver, solar radiation is filtered with a narrow-slit grating-spectrometer and the footprints are imaged onto a linear-mode, photon-sensitive HgCdTe APD-array. The received pulses are time-division-multiplexed to a few high-speed analog-to-digital converters to record waveforms. Spaceflight and airborne CASALS are designed to nominally detect 20 photons per pulse and, by averaging 27 overlapping footprints, achieve 2cm flat target range precision and high-quality vegetation structure waveforms The AWSL will be flown in the summer of 2024, along with a Headwall VNIR-SWIR hyperspectral sensor imaging a 4km wide swath, at NEON eddy covariance flux towers in the U.S. mid-Atlantic where high resolution hyperspectral and lidar data, acquired annually, are available for validation.

Guangning Yang↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Developmental and Cryogenic Thermal Vacuum (TVAC) Testing Lessons Learned

Developmental thermal vacuum (TVAC) testing is a critical step in maturing hardware designs and validating performance prior to flight qualification. Unlike qualification or acceptance testing, developmental testing provides flexibility to explore design margins, uncover integration challenges, and refine test approaches before formal verification activities begin. This presentation highlights the value of developmental testing while sharing common pitfalls encountered during developmental TVAC campaigns. Lessons learned from hands-on testing experience, including extensive developmental testing at cryogenic temperatures, will be shared in this presentation. Topics include test planning and preparation, instrumentation strategies, contamination control considerations, troubleshooting unexpected anomalies, and approaches for staying on schedule while meeting test objectives. The audience will gain practical insights and best practices that can improve test efficiency, reduce risk, and enhance the overall success of future developmental TVAC efforts.

Mackenzie Byrnes↗
DOE OSTI2016

COMMON – Communications System Monitor v. 1.0

COMMON is a tool for collecting, storing, displaying, and providing analysis on critical information about radiation detection system communications systems and software. The COMMON tool runs directly on a communication system to provide valuable insight into the performance of the monitored hardware and software and to provide data and reports for later SME use.

Johnson, Alfred↗
DOE OSTI2015

Scaling Retro-Commissioning to Small Commercial Buildings: A Turnkey Automated Hardware-Software Solution

In the United States, small commercial buildings represent 51% of total floor space of all commercial buildings and consume nearly 3 quadrillion Btu (3.2 quintillion joule) of site energy annually, presenting an enormous opportunity for energy savings. Retro-commissioning (RCx), the process through which professional energy service providers identify and correct operational problems, has proven to be a cost-effective means to achieve median energy savings of 16%. However, retro-commissioning is not typically conducted at scale throughout the commercial stock. Very few small commercial buildings are retro-commissioned because utility expenses are relatively modest, margins are tighter, and capital for improvements is limited. In addition, small buildings do not have in-house staff with the expertise to identify improvement opportunities. In response, a turnkey hardware-software solution was developed to enable cost-effective, monitoring-based RCx of small commercial buildings. This highly tailored solution enables non-commissioning providers to identify energy and comfort problems, as well as associated cost impacts and remedies. It also facilitates scale by offering energy service providers the means to streamline their existing processes and reduce costs by more than half. The turnkey RCx sensor suitcase consists of two primary components: a suitcase of sensors for short-term building data collection that guides users through the process of deploying and retrieving their data and a software application that automates analysis of sensor data, identifies problems and generates recommendations. This paper presents the design and testing of prototype models, including descriptions of the hardware design, analysis algorithms, performance testing, and plans for dissemination.

Lin, Guanjing↗
DOE OSTI2019

Constant depth, near constant depth, and subcubic size threshold circuits for linear algebraic calculations

A method of increasing an efficiency at which a plurality of threshold gates arranged as neuromorphic hardware is able to perform a linear algebraic calculation having a dominant size of N. The computer-implemented method includes using the plurality of threshold gates to perform the linear algebraic calculation in a manner that is simultaneously efficient and at a near constant depth. “Efficient” is defined as a calculation algorithm that uses fewer of the plurality of threshold gates than a naïve algorithm. The naïve algorithm is a straightforward algorithm for solving the linear algebraic calculation. “Constant depth” is defined as an algorithm that has an execution time that is independent of a size of an input to the linear algebraic calculation. The near constant depth comprises a computing depth equal to or between O(log(log(N)) and the constant depth.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Quantum computation of mass gap in an asymptotically free theory

In relativistic field theories, the mass spectrum is given by the difference between the energy of the vacuum and the excited states. Near the continuum limit, the cancellation between these two values leads to loss of precision. We propose a method to extract the mass gap directly using quantum computers and apply it to a particular version of the nonlinear $σ$-model with the correct continuum limit and perform calculations in quantum hardware (at strong coupling) and simulation in classical computers (at weak coupling).

Bedaque, Paulo F. [Maryland U.] (ORCID:00000001521↗
DOE OSTI2026

EXCLUSIVE NEUTRAL PION ELECTROPRODUCTION CROSS SECTION MEASUREMENTSWITHANEUTRALPARTICLE SPECTROMETER

Deep Virtual Compton Scattering (DVCS), the exclusive electron-proton scattering process ep ¿e'p'¿, provides access to generalized parton distributions (GPDs), which correlate information about the longitudinal momentum and transverse spatial structure of quarks inside the nucleon. Experiment E12-13-010 in Hall C at Jefferson Lab was designed to take high-precision measurements of the DVCS cross section over an extended kinematic range using the newly commissioned Neutral Particle Spectrometer (NPS). The NPS features a high-resolution electromagnetic calorimeter and a streaming data acquisition system optimized for operation at high luminosities. This thesis presents the detector and analysis work carried out to support the NPS DVCS program. In particular, it focuses on the hardware design, calibration, and performance of the calorimeter. A development of a waveform reconstruction analysis of the calorimeter signals enabled improved extraction of pulse amplitudes and times. The waveform analysis was also extended to operate in a multithreaded environment, substantially reducing processing time for large datasets. Analysis of exclusive neutral pion electroproduction events in the calorimeter gives a strong validation of the calorimeter’s performance and resolution. Together these developments establish a foundation for future analyses and extraction of the DVCS cross section and its use in constraining the GPDs.

Kerver, Mitchell [Old Dominion Univ., Norfolk, VA ↗