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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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NASA NTRS1997

The Effect of Gravity on the Combustion of Bulk Metals

In recent years, metal combustion studies at the University of Colorado have focused on the effects of gravity (g) on the ignition and burning behavior of bulk metals. The impetus behind this effort is the understanding of the ignition conditions and flammability properties of structural metals found in oxygen (O,sub>2 ) systems for space applications. Since spacecraft are subjected to higher-than-1g loads during launch and reentry and to a zero-gravity environment while in orbit, the study of ignition and combustion of bulk metals at different gravitational accelerations is of great practical concern. From the scientific standpoint, studies conducted under low gravity conditions provide simplified boundary conditions, since buoyancy is removed, and make possible the identification of fundamental ignition and combustion mechanisms. This investigation is intended to provide experimental verification of the influence of natural convection on the burning behavior of metals. In addition, the study offers the first findings of the influence of gravity on ignition of bulk metals and on the combustion mechanism and structure of metal-oxygen, vapor-phase diffusion flames in a buoyancy-free environment. Titanium (Ti) and magnesium (Mg) metals were chosen because of their importance as elements of structural materials and their simple chemical composition-pure metals instead of multicomponent alloys to simplify chemical and spectroscopic analyses. In addition, these elements present the two different combustion modes observed in metals: heterogeneous or surface burning (for Ti) and homogeneous or gas-phase reaction (for Mg). Finally, Mg, Ti, and their oxides exhibit a wide range of thermophysical and chemical properties. Metal surface temperature profiles, critical and ignition temperatures, propagation rates, burning times, and spectroscopic measurements are obtained under normal and reduced gravity. Visual evidence of all phenomena is provided by high-speed photography.

Melvyn C Branch↗

NASA NTRS1994

Primary battery design and safety guidelines handbook

This handbook provides engineers and safety personnel with guidelines for the safe design or selection and use of primary batteries in spaceflight programs. Types of primary batteries described are silver oxide zinc alkaline, carbon-zinc, zinc-air alkaline, manganese dioxide-zionc alkaline, mercuric oxide-zinc alkaline, and lithium anode cells. Along with typical applications, the discussions of the individual battery types include electrochemistry, construction, capacities and configurations, and appropriate safety measures. A chapter on general battery safety covers hazard sources and controls applicable to all battery types. Guidelines are given for qualification and acceptance testing that should precede space applications. Permissible failure levels for NASA applications are discussed.

Bragg, Bobby J.↗

NASA NTRS2026

Highly Porous Polyimide Gel for Use as Battery Separator with Room Temperature Ionic Liquid Electrolytes

Advanced aerospace vehicular concepts require advances in many existing technologies, including space power and energy storage systems. Batteries represent one of the major areas in need of improvement, both in terms of energy density and safety, with growing concerns over the fire safety of commercial lithium-ion batteries. This has prompted efforts to develop nonflammable battery components, namely the electrolyte and separator. Existing commercial lithium-ion batteries utilize polyolefin microporous membranes as separators with an electrolyte consisting of a lithium salt dissolved in a mixture of cyclic carbonate solvents. This separator/electrolyte combination has ionic conductivities in the range of 10 −2 to 10 −3 S/cm. However, the cyclic carbonate solvents are inherently flammable. Room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) appear to be a safer alternative. They offer good ionic conductivities and are inherently nonvolatile and nonflammable, giving them a safety advantage. However, many promising RTILs for battery electrolytes are not compatible with commercial polyolefin separator materials. Alternative separator materials, such as polyimides, are non-flammable and are capable of accepting RTILs into their structure. Polyimide gels, with a composition of 4,4′-oxydianiline, 3,3′,4,4′-tetracarboxylic dianhydride and cross-linked with Desmodur N3300A, possess an open-porous, fibrillar network architecture which offers a high degree of porosity (typically greater than 85% porosity) for lithium-ion transport and conduction, as well as good mechanical properties. Furthermore, these polyimide gels are compatible with selected imidazolium-based RTILs. Nonflammable separator/electrolyte systems with room-temperature conductivities in the range of 10 −3 S/cm have been evaluated. It has been demonstrated that 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide was the most promising among six RTILs screened, in terms of both ionic conductivity and constant current cycling.

Polyimide↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Dry Pressed, High Areal Loading Electrode Architectures Enabled by Holey Graphene

For future electric aviation, advanced battery cell chemistry beyond lithium ion batteries are required to meet mission requirements. High energy density battery concepts such as lithium-sulfur (Li-S) and lithiumoxygen (Li-O2) chemistries are being intensively investigated to realize their extraordinary theoretical promise in terms of energy density. Most fabrication methods of cathodes for these novel battery chemistries followed a conventional approach. In this approach, the active material is mixed with a polymer binder and a conductive carbon in a high-boiling organic solvent to form a slurry, followed by casting onto a current collector and solvent evaporation. The process is usually lengthy and poses environmental hazards due to the use of organic solvents.

Lin Yi↗

NASA NTRS2026

Performance Evaluation of Intravehicular Activity Spacesuit Without the Use of a Liquid Cooling Garment

The Orion Crew Survival Systems (OCSS) suit is equipped with safety technology that protects the crew during launch and re-entry and Intravehicular Activities (IVA). It was designed to be used with a Liquid Cooling Garment (LCG), an undergarment with tubes that circulate water to remove excess heat from a crew member. The objective of this study is to determine if the Modified Advanced Crew Escape Suit (MACES), which has very similar material, assembly, and pressure characteristics as the OCSS suit, can be used without the LCG to maintain the crew within their heat storage requirements where exceedances can lead to cognitive and physiological impairment. Testing was completed for both hot and cold environments where test subjects wore varying configurations of the MACES suit ensemble without the LCG. The tests were conducted in a temperature and humidity-controlled chamber with four test subjects ranging from extra small to large. Target metabolic rates were reached using an arm ergometer. To represent the different suit configurations seen in the concept of operations, the suit was tested with visor-down, visor-up, and without helmet and gloves. The test data was analyzed to determine how the environment, test subject size, metabolic rate, and suit configuration affected heat storage. Furthermore, the test data was used to correlate the METMAN model, a transient metabolic man program that simulates the heat transfer within a crew member’s body and from a crew member to the surrounding environment. The METMAN correlation showed good agreement between predicted heat storage and test data at the end of the test duration, with a coefficient of determination (R 2 ) value of 0.8999 for visor-down cases and R 2 of 0.8902 for visor-up and helmet off cases. A correlated METMAN model allows for the analysis and prediction of IVA suit performance without an LCG in additional scenarios.

Spacesuit↗

NASA NTRS2026

Performance Evaluation of Intravehicular Activity Spacesuit Without the Use of a Liquid Cooling Garment

Human Thermal Modeling↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Aeolus-Earth DWTS Heliophysics Mission

The Aeolus-Earth Mission (DWTS-Helio) is a recently selected NASA Heliophysics investigation that will apply the innovative Doppler Wind Temperature Sounder (DWTS) technique to the Space Atmosphere Interaction Region (SAIR) at ~105-180 km. The technique, invented by Gordley & Marshall (2011), applies the Doppler Scanning with Gas Filter (DSGF) technique using a cryo-cooled MWIR radiometer to view the limb of the atmosphere from LEO (orbital velocity creates the Doppler shifts required by the technique). For this implementation of DWTS, a Nitric Oxide (NO) low pressure gas cell is used. The limb of the atmosphere is observed from a spacecraft at orbital velocity, and as an observed air volume passes through the field of view, this velocity creates a set of Doppler-shifted images. These images are used to create Doppler Integrated Pass (DIP) signals, from which atmospheric temperature and wind profiles are extracted (it may be considered a converse of the successful in-flight calibration of gas cells used for the HALOE instrument). The technique is relative, removing the need for absolute radiances, and the signal-to-noise ratio for this technique is high, resulting in good measurement precision. Different gas cells can be used to create different altitude coverage and may be combined to measure a more continuous altitude range. For example, using a NO cell captures the lower atmosphere from 30-50km as well as the SAIR, while using the 13 isotopologue of CO2 would capture 50-120km. Due to the desired data volume as well as power and thermal considerations, this initial Aeolus-Earth flight will be more suited for a ‘hosted’ payload on an Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle platform instead of the ‘free-flyer’ option originally investigated. Lastly, the technique is sufficiently powerful that a two-channel system could produce full Mars atmosphere data not currently possible.

DWTS↗

NASA NTRS1998

Raman and Infrared Spectroscopy of Yttrium Aluminum Borate Glasses and Glass-ceramics

Raman spectra of glasses and glass-ceramics in the Y2O3-Al2O3-B2O3 system are reported. Glasses with B2O3 contents ranging from 40 to 60 mole percent were prepared by melting 20 g of the appropriate oxide or carbonate powders in alumina crucibles at 1400 C for 45 minutes. Subsequent heat treatments of the glasses at temperatures ranging from 600 to 800 C were performed in order to induce nucleation and crystallization. It was found that Na2CO3 added to the melt served as a nucleating agent and resulted in uniform bulk crystallization. The Raman spectra of the glasses are interpreted primarily in terms of vibrations of boron - oxygen structural groups. Comparison of the Raman spectra of the glass-ceramic samples with spectra of aluminate and borate crystalline materials reveal that these glasses crystallize primarily as yttrium aluminum borate, YAl3(BO3)4.

J Bradley↗

NASA NTRS2015

Study of Stable Cathodes and Electrolytes for High Specific Density Lithium-Air Battery

Future NASA missions require high specific energy battery technologies, greater than 400 Wh/kg. Current NASA missions are using "state-of-the-art" (SOA) Li-ion batteries (LIB), which consist of a metal oxide cathode, a graphite anode and an organic electrolyte. NASA Glenn Research Center is currently studying the physical and electrochemical properties of the anode-electrolyte interface for ionic liquid based Li-air batteries. The voltage-time profiles for Pyr13FSI and Pyr14TFSI ionic liquids electrolytes studies on symmetric cells show low over-potentials and no dendritic lithium morphology. Cyclic voltammetry measurements indicate that these ionic liquids have a wide electrochemical window. As a continuation of this work, sp2 carbon cathode and these low flammability electrolytes were paired and the physical and electrochemical properties were studied in a Li-air battery system under an oxygen environment.

cathodes↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Nasa’S Development of Merino - A New Family of Advanced, Low-Cost, Non-Woven Ablative Tps Materials

The Mars Exploration Program (MEP) and NASAs Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) are investing in approaches to reduce the cost and increase the frequency of future Mars missions while also seeking to help emerging commercial space companies which have an immediate need to demonstrate their capability to return samples from space - at a fraction of the cost of a conventional NASA mission. Of particular interest and relevance to commercial space and low-cost Mars, is the work developing and advancing MERINO-LD, an ablative carbon/phenolic blanket that is ~75% faster to produce with an estimated ~75% reduction in cost when compared to rigid PICA or Conformal-PICA TPS.

Matthew Gasch↗

NASA NTRS2026

Polymer Composite Material Testing for a Cryotank Application

Composite cryotanks will play a key role in enabling the next generation of efficient aircraft. Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites have the benefits of reduced weight and potentially higher structural strength compared to traditional metallic fuel tanks. A material screening study was conducted to inform material selection for liquid hydrogen (LH2) fuel storage. Three composite materials were considered because of their aerospace grade toughness, strength, and existing data to compare against. These materials were a thermoplastic low-melt polyaryletherketone (LM-PAEK)/carbon fiber (CF), thermoset/CF, and hybrid thermoset/thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) veil/CF composite. Mechanical screening tests included tension, compression, in-plane shear (IPS), and tensile-tensile fatigue (TTF). Each material was tested at both a baseline (no liquid nitrogen/LN2 cycling) and 100 LN2-cycled conditions to determine the knockdown factor, if any, of each material when exposed to environmental loading effects in a cryotank. Results show minimal effects of the LN2-cycling compared against baseline values. The three materials behaved similarly in tension; however, the thermoplastic/CF had the highest IPS toughness. The hybrid thermoset/TPU/CF composite had the lowest IPS strength, compressive strength, and toughness. LN2-cycling had minimal effects on tensile-tensile fatigue performance of the thermoplastic/CF material. Mechanical data was captured to guide material down selection for future commercially viable hydrogen aircraft design. In its current state, there does not exist a consolidated, publicly available database for CFRP composite material performance data at cryogenic temperatures. The next step in this work is to test the thermoplastic and thermoset CFRP composites, as well as the neat resins, at LH2 relevant temperature (20 K) to capture this crucial material property data. These results are essential to inform cryotank design and modeling efforts. The process to start this next round of testing has begun. Planned mechanical tests include toughness (single-edge notched beam), tension (unidirectional and quasi-isotropic), thermal expansion, and thermal conductivity. Some tests will also be conducted at an intermediate temperature of 111 K relevant to liquid natural gas (LNG), another attractive fuel choice. The ultimate goal is to manufacture a sub-scale cryotank part that can pass relevant burst, fatigue, permeation, and thermal cycling tests. This work is a part of NASA’s Commercially viable Hydrogen Aircraft for Robust Growth in Efficiency (CHARGE) Project under the larger NASA Subsonic Vehicle Technologies and Tools (SVTT) Project.

composites↗

NASA NTRS2026

Adaptation and Response in Drylands (ARID): A Dryland Research Agenda and Campaign Strategy

Dryland ecosystems cover 41% of Earth’s land surfaces, account for 44% of cultivated lands and 60% of food sources, and make large contributions to the global water and carbon cycles. However, these ecosystems are experiencing unprecedented extremes including heatwaves, floods, and droughts as well as hotter temperatures and often declining water resource availability. These ecosystems are some of the most challenging to monitor given their high temporal variability with rapid response to their environment as well as vast spatial variability with intermixing of different plant species and life forms amongst bare soil coverage. The Adaptation and Response in Drylands (ARID) campaign was selected by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a scoping study to develop a research agenda for a dryland field campaign. Here, we detail our ARID science research agenda and implementation plan that were developed based on an extensive community engagement effort in over 160 events with over a thousand scientists, land managers, and Tribal communities between 2023 and 2024. The selected science themes cover drought and climate variability, ecosystem structure, function, and biodiversity, carbon cycle interannual variability and trends, and social ecological systems (land management and adaptation). We then detail our remote sensing, modeling, and field-based strategies to capture high temporal and high spatial resolution processes. Finally, our implementation strategy is presented which includes focus area selections in a core intensive western U.S. domain and distributed international domains. This strategy includes our overarching guiding principles of using multi-temporal airborne acquisitions and super sites as well as enhancing land management in co-development with end-user partners. While originally developed for NASA, our ARID report creates a blueprint for any future dryland field campaign, at any scale, that can be implemented widely for foundational and applied science objectives.

drylands↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Hellas, Ken and Me: Adventures in Exhumation and Inundation

Hellas is the largest and deepest basin on Mars. A 1993 study by Moore and Edgett (GRL, 20, 1599-1602) noted that Hellas undergoes net dust erosion. Thus, the exposed surface must represent whatever lag or rock surface and could not be removed by the strong winds blowing at these low elevations. The particle size distributions and particularly the rock or boulder population in this lag was thought to be potentially useful for distinguishing between processes that formed the lithologic units that comprise Hellas Planitia. Earlier studies had suggested the Hellas floor might be paved with basalt or glacial deposits. Ken, who at the time was working with Viking Orbiter IRTM data knew that there were late mission observations of the Hellas floor acquired though clear skies. His derived thermal inertia from these observations strongly suggested that the abundance of particles larger than coarse sand was very low. Hence, our study concluded that the floor deposits were, among other possibilities, ancient loess or lacustrine deposits. In 2001 a subsequent study on the Hellas basin by Moore and Wilhelms (Icarus, 54, 258-276) proposed that the basin was once a site of an ice covered sea, based on a series of circum-basin scarps that follow constant elevations as well as other landforms seen my Mars Global Surveyor’s MOC (an instrument that Ken played a major role in daily operations and data analysis) and topography derived from MOLA. Subsequently the best contiguous observations of the Hellas basin have been acquired from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Context Camera, which again Ken has been a central player in its operations. Much of what we know about the grain-scale sedimentology of martian lacustrine deposits comes from the Curiosity Rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (which Ken was the PI through development and original operations within Gale crater). Under Ken’s watch several members of the Murray Formation were determined to be deposited in a lacustrine environment. A conclusion strongly demonstrated by MHLI imaging. My personal relationship with Hellas isn’t over. The Europa Clipper flew directly over the Hellas basin including its deepest regions. Ther REASON Ice Penetrating Radar system collected data during this flyby ostensibly for calibration, yet the quality of the observations may yet provide new discoveries from Hellas.

Jeffrey M Moore↗

NASA NTRS2026

The NASA OSIRIS-REx Sample Catalog: Samples Returned from Investigators

OSIRIS-REx is a sample return mission that collected carbon-rich material from B-type asteroid Bennu. After landing on September 24th, 2023, the science canister was transported to NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas where it was opened and samples were processed by the curation team in pristine sample nitrogen gloveboxes. As the sample analysis phase of the OSIRIS-REx mission concludes, the Sample Analysis Team (SAT) has returned the majority of mission samples to NASA JSC curation and will return the remaining samples on a defined timetable. The curation team processed and documented as many of these samples as possible to include in the spring 2026 catalog update and are steadily working to process hundreds of more samples to include in the fall 2026 catalog update.

OSIRIS-REx↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Solvent-Free Preparation of High Energy, Binder-Free Electrodes Enabled by Dry Compressible Holey Graphene

Graphene is an atomically thick sheet consisting of a graphitic carbon network with excellent mechanical strength, electrical and thermal conductivity, and chemical stability. Holey graphene, a structural derivative of graphene, has an array of through-the-thickness holes across the lateral surface of the nanosheet. The presence of these holes has minimal detrimental effect on the graphene properties and leads to enhanced performance in applications such as electronics, sensors, and energy storage. For example, these holes allow more facile cross-plane ion and gas transport than intact graphene, making holey graphene an ideal electrode material for electrochemical energy storage. This presentation will focus on the ability of holey graphene to be compression molded into robust articles or architectures under solvent-free conditions without the need for potentially parasitic binders. The unique dry compressibility of holey graphene has enabled facile fabrication of high mass loading electrodes with both high density and high porosity, which have found use in supercapacitors and various high-energy battery systems such as lithium-oxygen, lithium-sulfur, and lithium-selenium batteries.

Yi Lin↗

NASA NTRS2023

Long Life Molten Salt Battery for NASA Venus Application

A development program is being conducted at Advanced Thermal Batteries (ATB) to create a low discharge rate, long life, molten salt battery for a NASA Venus surface probe. Battery goals are 60 days continuous operation at +25V +0/-6 volts and -25V +6/-0 Volts under severe environments of 465°C, 92 atm pressure, and corrosive sulfur dioxide in a super critical carbon dioxide atmosphere. Conveniently, molten salt thermal battery electrochemistry starts to operate efficiently at 330°C. However, a major barrier to direct application of existing thermal battery technology is the high self-discharge rate, resulting in lifetimes in only minutes, not days. The best performance to date, which meets the required voltage regulation, has been a lithium silicon (LiSi) alloy anode discharging through all three voltage plateau versus an iron monosulfide (FeS) cathode. In order to perform reproducibly, additional engineering controls within the battery design are required to limit cell–to–cell parasitic discharge mechanisms. Results of these trials have improved the efficiency and manufacturability of the design.

Thermal Battery↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Evaluating Crystallinity in Thermoplastic composites

Polymer matrix composites (PMCs) offer many benefits for the aerospace industry due to their potential for weight reduction when compared to metal or ceramic based materials. Most PMCs currently in flight use thermoset matrices, however, thermoplastic resins are being explored as alternatives due to their ability to be remelted, which is of particular interest due to the potential for in-situ repair and manufacturing required in space. Most thermoplastic resins are semicrystalline polymers. The properties of semicrystalline thermoplastics are largely influenced by their crystallinity, which can vary due to many factors including thermal treatments, environmental conditions, and mechanical deformation. Monitoring the crystallinity of thermoplastic composites is key to ensuring these materials reliably meet the high demands required by space exploration. This talk discusses the use of multiple techniques such as Polarized Light Optical Microscopy and Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy to characterize the crystallinity in various thermoplastic composites, including carbon fiber reinforced PMCs and novel bio-based Martian and Lunar regolith composites designed for in-situ manufacturing. This work aims to provide the fundamental data necessary to understand the effects of crystallinity on thermoplastic PMCs, which is key to advancing their use in space applications.

Thermoplastics↗

NASA NTRS2026

Thermodynamic Properties of Uranium-Zirconium Carbide Solid Solutions with Oxygen

Uranium-zirconium carbide solid solutions are potential candidates for fuel in space nuclear reactors. To support development of advanced robust fuels for space applications, (U y Zr 1-y )C x O z solid solutions were synthesized via carbothermic reduction with uranium, carbon, and oxygen contents raging from y=0.05 – 0.3, x=0.95 – 0.98, and z = 0.02 – 0.07. These solid solutions were subsequently characterized by X-ray diffraction and elemental combustion analysis. High-temperature oxidative drop solution calorimetry in molten sodium molybdate solvent at 1073 K was employed to determine the formation, oxidation, and mixing enthalpies of (U y Zr 1-y )C x O z solid solutions, and thereby for evaluating their thermodynamic stability. The solid solutions are enthalpically less stable than the UC and ZrC end members. They also become less stable and more reactive towards oxidation with increasing uranium content. Incorporation of oxygen into solid solutions increases their solid solution-stability and improves their oxidation resistance.

Calorimetry↗