SEARCH · Search NASA
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.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
This website provides information about tin whiskers and related research. The independent research performed during the past 50+ years is so vast that it is impractical to cover all aspects of tin whiskers in this one resource. Therefore, the absence of information in this website about a particular aspect of tin whiskers should NOT be construed as evidence of absence.
Full-waveform, scanning laser altimeters (i.e. lidar) provide a unique and precise view of the vertical and horizontal structure of vegetation across wide swaths. These unique laser altimeters systems are able to simultaneously image sub-canopy topography and the vertical structure of any overlying vegetation. These data reveal the true 3-D distribution of vegetation in leaf-on conditions enabling important biophysical parameters such as canopy height and aboveground biomass to be estimated with unprecedented accuracy. An airborne lidar mission was conducted in the summer of 2003 in support of preliminary studies for the North America Carbon Program. NASA's Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS) was used to image approximately 2,000 sq km in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maryland. Areas with available ground and other data were included (e.g., experimental forests, FLUXNET sites) in order to facilitate numerous bio- and geophysical investigations. Data collected included ground elevation and canopy height measurements for each laser footprint, as well as the vertical distribution of intercepted surfaces (i.e. the return waveform). Data are currently available at the LVIS website (http://lvis.gsfc.nasa.gov/). Further details of the mission, including the lidar system technology, the locations of the mapped areas, and examples of the numerous data products that can be derived from the return waveform data products are available on the website and will be presented. Future applications including potential fusion with other remote sensing data sets and a spaceborne implementation of wide-swath, full-waveform imaging lidar will also be discussed.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have several opportunities each day to observe and document high-latitude phenomena. Although lighting conditions, ground track and other viewing parameters change with orbital precessions and season, the 51.6 degree orbital inclination and 400 km altitude of the ISS provide the crew an excellent vantage point for collecting image-based data for IPY investigators. To date, the database of imagery acquired by the Crew Earth Observations (CEO) experiment aboard the ISS (http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov) contains more than 12,000 images of high latitude (above 50 degrees) events such as aurora, mesospheric clouds, sea-ice, high-latitude plankton blooms, volcanic eruptions, and snow cover. The ISS Program will formally participate in IPY through an activity coordinated through CEO entitled Synchronized Observations of Polar Mesospheric Clouds, Aurora and Other Large-scale Polar Phenomena from the ISS and Ground Sites. The activity will augment the existing collection of Earth images taken from the ISS by focusing astronaut observations on polar phenomena. NASA s CEO experiment will solicit requests by IPY investigators for ISS observations that are coordinated with or complement ground-based polar studies. The CEO imagery website (http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov) will provide an on-line form for IPY investigators to interact with CEO scientists and define their imagery requests. This information will be integrated into daily communications with the ISS crews about their Earth Observations targets. All data collected will be cataloged and posted on the website for downloading and assimilation into IPY projects.
Every day, ISS astronauts photograph designated sites and dynamic events on the Earth's surface using digital cameras equipped with a variety of lenses. Depending on observation parameters, astronauts can collect high resolution (4-6 m pixel size) or synoptic views (lower resolution but covering very large areas) digital data in 3 (red-green-blue) color bands. ISS crews have daily opportunities to document a variety of high-latitude phenomena. Although lighting conditions, ground track and other viewing parameters change with orbital precessions and season, the 51.6o orbital inclination and 400 km altitude of the ISS provide the crew an unique vantage point for collecting image-based data of polar phenomena, including surface observations to roughly 65o latitude, and upper atmospheric observations that reach nearly to the poles. During the 2007-2009 timeframe of the IPY, polar observations will become a scientific focus for the CEO experiment; the experiment is designated ISS-IPY. We solicit requests from scientists for observations from the ISS that are coordinated with or complement ground-based polar studies. The CEO imagery website for ISS-IPY provides an on-line form that allows IPY investigators to interact with CEO scientists and define their imagery requests. This information is integrated into daily communications with the ISS astronauts about their Earth Observations targets. All data collected are cataloged and posted on the website for downloading and assimilation into IPY projects. Examples of imagery and detailed information about scientific observations from the ISS can also be downloaded from the ISS-IPY web site.
This note on preliminary results of our evaluation of the so-called Qu Tube is prompted in part by recent concerns expressed to the authors by some researchers regarding the performance characteristics of the superconducting, solid-state heat pipe as described in the patents, or on the company's websites. Briefly, the company's claims include: a new type of heat transfer mechanism that is a form of solid state thermal superconductivity, which results in an effective thermal conductivity of the order of tens of thousands of times that of an equivalent solid silver bar, or, tens to hundreds of times that of liquid - vapor heat pipes. The company's website also refers to tests conducted by Stanford Research Institute that substantiate these claims, but the report is apparently not publicly available. We are conducting an investigation of the Qu Tube under a NASA Grant, and in general find that these claims have merit, but our study is not yet complete. We present some of our preliminary results in part to show that it would not be imprudent to conduct such studies, especially for possible future applications requiring exceptional thermal management performance capabilities. Working with HiTek Services, we originally acquired several Qu Tubes, including 17" long, 5/16" diameter copper tubes, one that is 7 7/8" long, 3/16" diameter, and one that is 4" long, 1" diameter. We subjected the smaller tubes to various exploratory tests, including a transient test with electrical band heaters, boiling water tests, and a series of steady state tests with electrical band heaters heating one end with free convective cooling along the remainder of the length. All results indicate a very high thermal conductivity, but the length of these tubes limited our ability to obtain accurate data on temperature gradients, necessary to determine the effective thermal conductivity. We then acquired nine Qu Tubes that are 10' long, 5/16" diameter, and we have recently conducted initial tests, which further support the claims of exceptional thermal conductivity.
Background: The transmission of vectorborne infectious diseases is often influenced by environmental, meteorological and climatic parameters, because the vector life cycle depends on these factors. For example, the geophysical parameters relevant to malaria transmission include precipitation, surface temperature, humidity, elevation, and vegetation type. Because these parameters are routinely measured by satellites, remote sensing is an important technological tool for predicting, preventing, and containing a number of vectorborne infectious diseases, such as malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, etc. Methods: A variety of NASA remote sensing data can be used for modeling vectorborne infectious disease transmission. We will discuss both the well known and less known remote sensing data, including Landsat, AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer), MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission), ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer), EO-1 (Earth Observing One) ALI (Advanced Land Imager), and SIESIP (Seasonal to Interannual Earth Science Information Partner) dataset. Giovanni is a Web-based application developed by the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center. It provides a simple and intuitive way to visualize, analyze, and access vast amounts of Earth science remote sensing data. After remote sensing data is obtained, a variety of techniques, including generalized linear models and artificial intelligence oriented methods, t 3 can be used to model the dependency of disease transmission on these parameters. Results: The processes of accessing, visualizing and utilizing precipitation data using Giovanni, and acquiring other data at additional websites are illustrated. Malaria incidence time series for some parts of Thailand and Indonesia are used to demonstrate that malaria incidences are reasonably well modeled with generalized linear models and artificial intelligence based techniques. Conclusions: Remote sensing data relevant to the transmission of vectorborne infectious diseases can be conveniently accessed at NASA and some other websites. These data are useful for vectorborne infectious disease surveillance and modeling.
Advances in flood monitoring/forecasting have been constrained by the difficulty in estimating rainfall continuously over space (catchment-, national-, continental-, or even global-scale areas) and flood-relevant time scale. With the recent availability of satellite rainfall estimates at fine time and space resolution, this paper describes a prototype research framework for global flood monitoring by combining real-time satellite observations with a database of global terrestrial characteristics through a hydrologically relevant modeling scheme. Four major components included in the framework are (1) real-time precipitation input from NASA TRMM-based Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA); (2) a central geospatial database to preprocess the land surface characteristics: water divides, slopes, soils, land use, flow directions, flow accumulation, drainage network etc.; (3) a modified distributed hydrological model to convert rainfall to runoff and route the flow through the stream network in order to predict the timing and severity of the flood wave, and (4) an open-access web interface to quickly disseminate flood alerts for potential decision-making. Retrospective simulations for 1998-2006 demonstrate that the Global Flood Monitor (GFM) system performs consistently at both station and catchment levels. The GFM website (experimental version) has been running at near real-time in an effort to offer a cost-effective solution to the ultimate challenge of building natural disaster early warning systems for the data-sparse regions of the world. The interactive GFM website shows close-up maps of the flood risks overlaid on topography/population or integrated with the Google-Earth visualization tool. One additional capability, which extends forecast lead-time by assimilating QPF into the GFM, also will be implemented in the future.
Recent advances in social media and internet communications have revolutionized the ways people interact and disseminate information. Astronauts are already taking advantage of these tools by blogging and tweeting from space, and almost all NASA missions now have presences on the major social networking sites. One priotity for future human explorers on Mars will be communicating their experiences to the people back on Earth. During July 2009, a 6-member crew of volunteers carried out a simulated Mars mission at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS). The Mars Society built the mock Mars habitat in 2000-01 to help develop key knowledge and inspire the public for human Mars exploration. It is located on Devon island about 1600 km from the North Pole within the Arctic Circle. The structure is situated on the rim of Haughton Crater in an environment geologically and biologically analogous to Mars. Living in a habitat, conducting EVAs wearing spacesuits, and observing communication delays with "Earth,"the crew endured restrictions similar to those that will be faced by future human Mars explorers. Throughout the expedition, crewmembers posted daily blog entries, reports, photos, videos, and updates to their website and social media outlets Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Picasa Web Albums. During the sixteen EVAs of thier field science research campaign, FMARS crewmembers collected GPS track information and took geotagged photos using GPS-enabled cameras. They combined their traverse GPS tracks with photo location information into KML/KMZ files that website visitors can view in Google Earth.
The On-Line Tool for the Assessment of Radiation In Space (OLTARIS) is a World Wide Web based tool that assesses the effects of space radiation on humans and electronics in items such as spacecraft, habitats, rovers, and spacesuits. This document explains the basis behind the interface and framework used to input the data, perform the assessment, and output the results to the user as well as the physics, engineering, and computer science used to develop OLTARIS. The transport and physics is based on the HZETRN and NUCFRG research codes. The OLTARIS website is the successor to the SIREST website from the early 2000's. Modifications have been made to the code to enable easy maintenance, additions, and configuration management along with a more modern web interface. Overall, the code has been verified, tested, and modified to enable faster and more accurate assessments.
This document reviews the work of the author in NASA's Motivating Undergraduates in Science and Technology (MUST) internship. The intern worked on the Space Shuttles hydraulic systems (i.e., Auxiliary Power Units (APU's) and Hydraulic Pump Units (HPU's)), and website preservation of the hydraulic technology captured in websites relating to the coming.the Space Shuttle Retirement. Several figures and pictures show an overview of the orbiter's hydraulic systems
As NASA transitions from the Space Shuttle era into the next phase of space exploration, the need to ensure the capture, analysis, and application of its research and medical data is of greater urgency than at any other previous time. In this era of limited resources and challenging schedules, the Human Research Program (HRP) based at NASA s Johnson Space Center (JSC) recognizes the need to extract the greatest possible amount of information from the data already captured, as well as focus current and future research funding on addressing the HRP goal to provide human health and performance countermeasures, knowledge, technologies, and tools to enable safe, reliable, and productive human space exploration. To this end, the Science Management Office and the Medical Informatics and Health Care Systems Branch within the HRP and the Space Medicine Division have been working to make both research data and clinical data more accessible to the user community. The Life Sciences Data Archive (LSDA), the research repository housing data and information regarding the physiologic effects of microgravity, and the Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health Repository (LSAH-R), the clinical repository housing astronaut data, have joined forces to achieve this goal. The task of both repositories is to acquire, preserve, and distribute data and information both within the NASA community and to the science community at large. This is accomplished via the LSDA s public website (http://lsda.jsc.nasa.gov), which allows access to experiment descriptions including hardware, datasets, key personnel, mission descriptions and a mechanism for researchers to request additional data, research and clinical, that is not accessible from the public website. This will result in making the work of NASA and its partners available to the wider sciences community, both domestic and international. The desired outcome is the use of these data for knowledge discovery, retrospective analysis, and planning of future research studies.
As part of the Stage Analysis Branch, human factors engineering plays an important role in relating humans to the systems of hardware and structure designs of the new launch vehicle. While many branches are involved in the technical aspects of creating a launch vehicle, human factors connects humans to the scientific systems with the goal of improving operational performance and safety while reducing operational error and damage to the hardware. Human factors engineers use physical and computerized models to visualize possible areas for improvements to ensure human accessibility to components requiring maintenance and that the necessary maintenance activities can be accomplished with minimal risks to human and hardware. Many methods of testing are used to fulfill this goal, such as physical mockups, computerized visualization, and usability testing. In this analysis, a usability test is conducted to test how usable a website is to users who are and are not familiar with it. The testing is performed using participants and Morae software to record and analyze the results. This analysis will be a preliminary test of the usability lab in preparation for use in new spacecraft programs, NASA Enterprise, or other NASA websites. The usability lab project is divided into two parts: integration of the usability lab and a preliminary test of the usability lab.
The International Space Station Payload Information Source CD is a joint effort of NASA and United Space Alliance. It is an introduction to the Space Station's capabilities, payload accommodations and the payload integration process. The CD is designed for use in conjunction with the station payloads website. The outline for the website includes fields of research, getting on board, international partners, about the ISS, basic accommodations, specialized facilities, payload integration, payload processing, payload operations, and reference documents.
As NASA transitions from the Space Shuttle era into the next phase of space exploration, the need to ensure the capture, analysis, and application of its research and medical data is of greater urgency than at any other previous time. In this era of limited resources and challenging schedules, the Human Research Program (HRP) based at NASA s Johnson Space Center (JSC) recognizes the need to extract the greatest possible amount of information from the data already captured, as well as focus current and future research funding on addressing the HRP goal to provide human health and performance countermeasures, knowledge, technologies, and tools to enable safe, reliable, and productive human space exploration. To this end, the Science Management Office and the Medical Informatics and Health Care Systems Branch within the HRP and the Space Medicine Division have been working to make both research data and clinical data more accessible to the user community. The Life Sciences Data Archive (LSDA), the research repository housing data and information regarding the physiologic effects of microgravity, and the Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health (LSAH-R), the clinical repository housing astronaut data, have joined forces to achieve this goal. The task of both repositories is to acquire, preserve, and distribute data and information both within the NASA community and to the science community at large. This is accomplished via the LSDA s public website (http://lsda.jsc.nasa.gov), which allows access to experiment descriptions including hardware, datasets, key personnel, mission descriptions and a mechanism for researchers to request additional data, research and clinical, that is not accessible from the public website. This will result in making the work of NASA and its partners available to the wider sciences community, both domestic and international. The desired outcome is the use of these data for knowledge discovery, retrospective analysis, and planning of future research studies.
The ISSLive! project is a JSC innovation award- winning, combined MOD/Education project to publish export control and PAO-approved ISS telemetry, and simplified and scrubbed crew timelines. The publication of this data will be real-time or near real time and will include links to the crew's social media feeds and existing streaming public video/audio feeds, via public-friendly website, mobile devices and tablet applications. Additionally, the project will offer interactive virtual 3D views of an ISS model based on real-time telemetry and a 3D virtual mission control center based on existing Front Room console positions in made for public displays. The ISSLive! project is MOD-managed and includes collaborations with subject-matter expertise from the ISS flight controllers regarding daily operations and planning, education program specialists from the JSC Office of Education, instructional designers, human computer interface experts, and software/hardware experts from MOD facility organization, and senior web designers. In support of the Agency s Strategic Goal #6 with respect to using the ISS National Laboratory for education activities, ISSLive! uses the Station itself as STEM education subject matter and provides data for STEM-based lessons plans using national standards. Specifically, ISSLive! supports and enables the National Laboratory Education (NLE) project to address the Agency s Strategic Goal #6. This goal mandates, sharing NASA with the public, educators, and students to provide opportunities to participate in our Mission, foster innovation .. ISSLive! satisfies the Agency s outcomes of Strategic Goal; that is, engages the public in NASA's missions by providing new pathways for participation (Outcome 6.3) and it informs, engages, and inspires the public by sharing NASA s missions, challenges, and results (Outcome 6.4). Additionally, ISSLive! enables MOD s support of JSC Outreach and NASA's Open Data and Open Government Initiatives. The audience for the ISSLive! website and its application(s) are: teachers, students, citizen scientists, and the general public who will be given new and interactive insights on how the ISS Operates.
In preparation for exploration-class missions, the Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) element of NASA's Human Research Program (HRP) has compiled a large evidence base, which previously was available only to persons within the NASA community. The evidence base is comprised of several types of data, for example: information on more than 80 medical conditions which could occur during space flight, derived from several sources (including data on incidence and potential outcomes of these medical conditions, as captured in the Integrated Medical Model's Clinical Finding Forms). In addition, approximately 35 gap reports are included in the evidence base, identifying current understanding of the medical challenges for exploration, as well as any gaps in knowledge and/or technology that would need to be addressed in order to provide adequate medical support for these novel missions. In an effort to make the ExMC information available to the general public and increase collaboration with subject matter experts within and outside of NASA, ExMC has developed an online collaboration tool, very similar to a wiki, titled the NASA Human Research Wiki. The platform chosen for this data sharing, and the potential collaboration it could generate, is a MediaWiki-based application that would house the evidence, allow "read only" access to all visitors to the website, and editorial access to credentialed subject matter experts who have been approved by the Wiki's editorial board. Although traditional wikis allow users to edit information in real time, the NASA Human Research Wiki includes a peer review process to ensure quality and validity of information. The wiki is also intended to be a pathfinder project for other HRP elements that may want to use this type of web-based tool. The wiki website will be released with a subset of the data described and will continue to be populated throughout the year.
Earth science research requires coordination and collaboration across multiple disparate science domains. Data systems that support this research are often as disparate as the disciplines that they support. These distinctions can create barriers limiting access to measurements, which could otherwise enable cross-discipline Earth science. NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) is continuing to bridge the gap between discipline-centric data systems with a coherent and transparent system of systems that offers up to date and engaging science related content, creates an active and immersive science user experience, and encourages the use of EOSDIS earth data and services. The new Earthdata Coherent Web (ECW) project encourages cohesiveness by combining existing websites, data and services into a unified website with a common look and feel, common tools and common processes. It includes cross-linking and cross-referencing across the Earthdata site and NASA's Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAAC), and by leveraging existing EOSDIS Cyber-infrastructure and Web Service technologies to foster re-use and to reduce barriers to discovering Earth science data (http://earthdata.nasa.gov).
Develop climatologies of gridded CG lightning densities and frequencies of occurrence for the Melbourne, FL National Weather Service (NWS MLB) county warning area. These grids are used to create a first-guess field for the lightning threat index map that is available on the NWS MLB NASA KSCIKT website. Forecasters previously created this map from scratch. Having the climatologies as a background field will increase consistency between forecasters and decrease their workload. Delivered all files containing the lightning climatologies, the data, and the code used to create the climatologies to NWS MLB. Completed and distributed a final memorandum describing how the climatologies were created. All the files were installed on the NWS MLB computer system, and then the code was compiled and tested to ensure that it worked properly on their operating system. The climatologies and their descriptions are posted on the NWS MLB website. Forecasting Low-Level Convergent Bands Under Southeast Flow Provide guidance to operational personnel that will help improve their forecasts of cloud bands under large-scale southeast flow. When these bands occur, they can lead to cloud, rain, and thunderstorm occurrences that adversely affect launch, landing, and ground operations at Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (KSC/CCAFS). Completed the first draft of the final report. The conclusions from this task indicated low-level wind speed and direction, low-level high pressure ridge position, east coast sea breeze front activity and upper-level jet streak position have the greatest influence on convergent band formation and movement during southeasterly flow.