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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 91 records · Page 5

Space station definitions, design, and development. Task 5: Multiple arm telerobot coordination and control: Manipulator design methodology

A proposed methodology applicable to the design of manipulator systems is described. The current design process is especially weak in the preliminary design phase, since there is no accepted measure to be used in trading off different options available for the various subsystems. The design process described uses Cartesian End-Effector Impedance as a measure of performance for the system. Having this measure of performance, it is shown how it may be used to determine the trade-offs necessary to the preliminary design phase. The design process involves three main parts: (1) determination of desired system performance in terms of End-Effector Impedance; (2) trade-off design options to achieve this desired performance; and (3) verification of system performance through laboratory testing. The design process is developed using numerous examples and experiments to demonstrate the feasability of this approach to manipulator design.

Stoughton, R. M.↗

Space Station Freedom electrical power system hardware commonality with the United States Polar Platform

Information is presented on how the concept of commonality is being implemented with respect to electric power system hardware for the Space Station Freedom and the U.S. Polar Platform. Included is a historical account of the candidate common items which have the potential to serve the same power system functions on both Freedom and the Polar Platform. The Space Station program and objectives are described, focusing on the test and development responsibilities. The program definition and preliminary design phase and the design and development phase are discussed. The goal of this work is to reduce the program cost.

Rieker, Lorra L.↗

Titan Turtle: NIAC Phase II Design for a Submersible Vehicle for Titan Exploration

Conceptual designs for a submersible vehicle for exploration of the hydrocarbon seas of Saturn’s moon Titan were done by the NASA Glenn COMPASS systems engineering team, as part of the NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. The efforts investigated what approaches and technologies would allow exploration below the surface of the low temperature (–180 °C) hydrocarbon seas of Titan. The Phase-II design refined the design concepts, looking at a smaller design supported by an orbital relay, the “Titan Turtle”. The phase-II project resulted in a smaller vehicle using an orbiter supported relay/navigation link to eliminate the requirement for a large phased-array antenna. Eliminating the DTE communications requirement also reduced the associated high power required by the communications system.

Steven R Oleson↗

Titan Turtle: NIAC Phase II Design for a Submersible Vehicle for Titan Exploration

Conceptual designs for a submersible vehicle for exploration of the hydrocarbon seas of Saturn’s moon Titan were done by the NASA Glenn COMPASS systems engineering team, as part of the NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. The efforts investigated what approaches and technologies would allow exploration below the surface of the low temperature (–180 °C) hydrocarbon seas of Titan. The Phase-II design refined the design concepts, looking at a smaller design supported by an orbital relay, the “Titan Turtle”. The phase-II project resulted in a smaller vehicle using an orbiter supported relay/navigation link to eliminate the requirement for a large phased-array antenna. Eliminating the DTE communications requirement also reduced the associated high power required by the communications system.

Lunar and Planetary Scientific Exploration↗

LST phase A design update study

An update is presented of the Phase A study of the Large Space Telescope (LST), based on changes in guidelines and new data developed subsequent to the Phase A study. The study defines an LST concept based on the broad mission guidelines provided by the Office of Space Science (OSS), the scientific requirements developed by OSS with the scientific community, and an understanding of long range NASA planning current at the time the study was performed. A low cost design approach was followed. This resulted in the use of standard spacecraft hardware, the provision for maintenance at the black box level, growth potential in systems designs, and sharing of shuttle maintenance flights with other payloads (See N73-18449 through N73-18453)

Source record↗

An Overview of the Jupiter Europa Orbiter Concept's Europa Science Phase Orbit Design

Jupiter Europa Orbiter (JEO), the proposed NASA element of the proposed joint NASA-ESA Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM), could launch in February 2020 and conceivably arrive at Jupiter in December of 2025. The concept is to perform a multi-year study of Europa and the Jupiter system, including 30 months of Jupiter system science and a comprehensive Europa orbit phase of 9 months. This paper provides an overview of the JEO concept and describes the Europa Science phase orbit design and the related science priorities, model pay-load and operations scenarios needed to conduct the Europa Science phase. This overview is for planning and discussion purposes only.

Lock, Robert E.↗

Rapid Cycle Amine 4.0 System Development

Carbon dioxide (CO2) and humidity control is a key function of the spacesuit Portable Life Support Subsystem (PLSS). The latest spacesuit design utilizes a pressure swing bed containing a solid amine sorbent to scrub CO2 and humidity produced by the crewmember from the ventilation loop. The solid amine sorbent removes CO2 and humidity from the ventilation loop through a chemisorption mechanism. Simultaneously, CO2 and humidity are desorbed to vacuum via the two-bed pressure swing system during operation. This continuous regeneration allows for longer Extravehicular Activity (EVA) times while minimizing maintenance, consumables, and power usage. This concept has been in development for over 20 years, during which many prototypes and design iterations have been fabricated and evaluated. This paper discusses the recent Rapid Cycle Amine (RCA) design, development, and testing that has been done to advance the technology. The most recent fabrication is the RCA 3.0. It was delivered to NASA Johnson Space Center in 2015 and has since been tested at the component level and at the integrated PLSS level. The purpose of the component level testing was to understand CO2 removal capacity, end-of-life performance, and establish a baseline performance prior to integrated testing. The RCA 3.0 was integrated into the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) PLSS for a comprehensive Design Verification Test (DVT) series. The integrated testing provided the benefit of characterizing the impact performance degradation has on the system. Many of the RCA requirements were developed through analysis, based on the limitations of the PLSS and, in some cases, assumptions about the system and flow behavior. Integrated testing was an opportunity to validate those requirements and assumptions. While the RCA 3.0 was being tested, the next design iteration, RCA 4.0, was under development. The RCA 4.0 preliminary design phase began in late-2019 and shortly after the Preliminary Design Review, the critical design phase began in 2021. The design work has concluded with the completion of a Pre-Manufacturing Review in 2022. This paper provides an overview of the RCA 4.0 system design, summarizes the results of integrated RCA 3.0 testing, and discusses the pertinence of driving requirements such as mass, volume, and power consumption.

Kelsey Bloom↗

Dynamic Power Convertor Development for Radioisotope Power Systems at NASA Glenn Research Center

The Thermal Energy Conversion Branch at NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) is supporting the development of high-efficiency power convertors for use in Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS). Significant progress was made towards such a system that utilized Stirling conversion during the 2001 to 2015 timeframe. Flight development of the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) was cancelled in 2013 by the Department of Energy (DOE) and NASA Headquarters primarily due to budget constraints, and the Advanced Stirling Convertor (ASC) technology contract was subsequently concluded in 2015. A new chapter of technology development has recently been initiated by the NASA RPS Program. This effort is considering all dynamic power convertor options, such as Stirling and Brayton cycles. Four convertor development contracts supporting this effort were awarded in 2017. The awarded contracts include two free-piston Stirling, one thermoacoustic Stirling, and one turbo-Brayton designs. The technology development contracts each consist of up to three phases: Design, Fabricate, and Test. As of May 2018, all contracts have completed the Design Phase, and each underwent a design review with an independent review board. Three of the contracts are planned to execute the Phase 2 option for fabrication. Convertors manifesting from these development efforts will then undergo independent validation and verification at NASA facilities, which will consist of convertor performance and RPS viability demonstrations. Example tests include launch vibration simulation, performance mapping over the environmental temperature range, and static acceleration exposure. In parallel with this renewed development effort, NASA GRC is still demonstrating free-piston Stirling convertor technology using assets from previous projects. The Stirling Research Laboratory (SRL) is still operating several convertors from previous development projects which have similarities and relevance to current contract designs. Four of which are flexure-bearing based, and another six are gas-bearing based. One of the flexure-bearing convertors has accumulated over 110,000 hours of operation, and holds the current record for maintenance-free heat-engine run-time. Another flexure-bearing convertor was recently manually shutdown after 105,620 hours of operation, then disassembled and inspected. This inspection produced a wealth of information about the effects of this amount of runtime on the technology's components. One of the engineering unit flexure-bearing convertors recently underwent launch simulation vibration test, a static acceleration exposure up to 20 g, and was then placed on extended operation. Amongst the gas-bearing convertors, the longest running unit has accumulated over 70,000 hours of operation. Four high-fidelity gas-bearing convertors from the ASRG project are still operating continuously, for which the longest runtime has reached 28,000 hours.

Oriti, Salvatore M.↗

Dynamic Power Convertor Development for Radioisotope Power Systems at NASA Glenn Research Center

The Thermal Energy Conversion Branch at NASA Glenn Research Center is supporting the development of high-efficiency power convertors for use in radioisotope power systems (RPS). Significant progress was made toward such a system that utilized Stirling conversion during the 2001 to 2015 timeframe. Flight development of the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) was canceled in 2013 by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and NASA Headquarters primarily due to budget constraints, and the Advanced Stirling Convertor (ASC) technology contract was subsequently concluded in 2015. A new chapter of technology development has recently been initiated by the NASA RPS Program. This effort is considering all dynamic power convertor options, such as Stirling and Brayton cycles. Four convertor development contracts supporting this effort were awarded in 2017. The awarded contracts include two free-piston Stirling, one thermoacoustic Stirling, and one turbo-Brayton design. The technology development contracts each consist of up to three phases: design, fabrication, and test. As of May 2018, all contracts have completed the design phase, and each underwent a design review with an independent review board. Three of the contracts are planned to execute the phase 2 option for fabrication. Convertors manifesting from these development efforts will then undergo independent validation and verification (IV and V) at NASA facilities, which will consist of convertor performance and RPS viability demonstrations. Example tests include launch vibration simulation, performance mapping over the environmental temperature range, and static acceleration exposure. In parallel with this renewed development effort, Glenn is still demonstrating free-piston Stirling convertor technology using assets from previous projects. The Stirling Research Laboratory (SRL) is still operating several convertors from previous development projects, which have similarities and relevance to current contract designs. Four of these are flexure-bearing based and another six are gas bearing based. One of the flexure-bearing convertors has accumulated over 110,000 h of operation and holds the current record for maintenance-free heat-engine run time. Another flexure-bearing convertor was recently manually shut down after 105,620 h of operation, then disassembled and inspected. This inspection produced a wealth of information about the effects of this amount of run time on the technology's components. One of the engineering unit flexure-bearing convertors recently underwent a launch simulation vibration test, a static acceleration exposure up to 20 g, and was then placed on extended operation. Among the gas-bearing convertors, the longest running unit has accumulated over 70,000 h of operation. Four high-fidelity gas-bearing convertors from the ASRG project are still operating continuously for which the longest run time has reached 28,000 h.

Oriti, Salvatore M.↗

Dynamic Power Convertor Development for Radioisotope Power Systems at NASA GRC

The Thermal Energy Conversion Branch at NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) is supporting the development of high-efficiency power convertors in support of Radioisotope Power System (RPS) development. Significant progress was made towards such a system that utilized Stirling conversion machines during the 2001 to 2015 timeframe. Flight development of the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) was cancelled in 2013 by the Department of Energy (DOE) and NASA Headquarters primarily due to budget constraints, and the Advanced Stirling Convertor (ASC) technology contract was subsequently concluded in 2015. A new chapter of technology development has recently been initiated by the NASA RPS Program. This new effort is considering all dynamic power convertor options, such as Stirling and Brayton cycles. Four convertor development contracts supporting this effort were awarded in 2017. The awarded contracts include two free-piston Stirling, one thermoacoustic Stirling, and one turbo-Brayton designs. The technology development contracts each consist of up to three phases: Design, Fabricate, and Test. As of May 2018, all contracts have completed the Design Phase, and each underwent a design review with an independent review board. Two of the contracts have been awarded the Phase 2 option for fabrication. Convertors manifesting from these development efforts will then undergo independent validation and verification at NASA facilities, which will consist of convertor performance and RPS viability demonstrations. Example tests include launch vibration simulation, performance mapping over the environmental temperature range, and static acceleration exposure. In parallel with this renewed development effort, NASA GRC is still demonstrating free-piston Stirling convertor technology using assets from previous projects. The Stirling Research Laboratory (SRL) is still operating 10 convertors from previous development projects. Four of which are flexure-bearing based, and the other six are gas-bearing based. One of the flexure-bearing convertors has accumulated over 110,000 hours of operation, and holds the current maintenance-free heat-engine run-time record. Another flexure-bearing convertor was recently manually shutdown after 105,620 hours of operation, then disassembled and inspected. This inspection produced a wealth of information about the effects of this amount of runtime on the technology's components. One of the engineering unit flexure-bearing convertors recently underwent launch simulation vibration test, a static acceleration exposure up to 20 g, and was then placed on extended operation. Amongst the gas-bearing convertors, the longest running unit has accumulated over 70,000 hours of operation. Four high-fidelity gas-bearing convertors from the ASRG project are still operating continuously, for which the longest runtime has reached 26,000 hours.

Oriti, Salvatore↗

A phase one AR/C system design

The Phase One AR&C System Design integrates an evolutionary design based on the legacy of previous mission successes, flight tested components from manned Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) space programs, and additional AR&C components validated using proven methods. The Phase One system has a modular, open architecture with the standardized interfaces proposed for Space Station Freedom system architecture.

Kachmar, Peter M.↗

ART/Ada design project, phase 1: Project plan

The plan and schedule for Phase 1 of the Ada based ESBT Design Research Project is described. The main platform for the project is a DEC Ada compiler on VAX mini-computers and VAXstations running the Virtual Memory System (VMS) operating system. The Ada effort and lines of code are given in tabular form. A chart is given of the entire project life cycle.

Allen, Bradley P.↗

ART/Ada design project, phase 1

An Ada-Based Expert System Building Tool Design Research Project was conducted. The goal was to investigate various issues in the context of the design of an Ada-based expert system building tool. An attempt was made to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the potential for embedding expert systems in Ada systems for eventual application in future projects. The current status of the project is described by introducing an operational prototype, ART/Ada. How the project was conducted is explained. The performance of the prototype is analyzed and compared with other related works. Future research directions are suggested.

Source record↗

The EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS)

The Earth Observing System (EOS) is the centerpiece of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth initiative. It is a pivotal part of the U.S. Global Change Research Program and hence of the international effort to understand global change and the increasing demands of human activity. EOS consists of a space-based observing system, a Data and Information System (EOSDIS) and a scientific research program. The space component consists of two series of polar-orbiting spacecraft, the first scheduled for launch in 1998, that will collect data for 15 years. EOS is completing its conceptual design phase and is preparing to enter the design phase with the selection and construction of the instruments for the first platform. EOSDIS will allow researchers to quickly and easily access data about the Earth system. Development of EOSDIS has already begun; it will support research and analysis with existing data. Geophysical and biological products will be created from the satellite data to be used to a broad range of the scientific community. NASA has also committed to providing smaller missions - called Earth Probes - dedicated to near-term observations of specific Earth processes. The scientific research program was initiated in 1990, with funding for 28 interdisciplinary teams, to begin development of models that will use EOS data and define the data requirements from the instruments, nine facility instruments and their science teams, 23 instrument investigations and definition studies for a synthetic-aperture radar.

Dozier, J.↗