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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

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2011

Development and Deployment of Robonaut 2 to the International Space Station

The development of the Robonaut 2 (R2) system was a joint endeavor with NASA and General Motors, producing robots strong enough to do work, yet safe enough to be trusted to work near humans. To date two R2 units have been produced, designated as R2A and R2B. This follows more than a decade of work on the Robonaut 1 units that produced advances in dexterity, tele-presence, remote supervision across time delay, combining mobility with manipulation, human-robot interaction, force control and autonomous grasping. Design challenges for the R2 included higher speed, smaller packaging, more dexterous fingers, more sensitive perception, soft drivetrain design, and the overall implementation of a system software approach for human safety, At the time of this writing the R2B unit was poised for launch to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard STS-133. R2 will be the first humanoid robot in space, and is arguably the most sophisticated robot in the world, bringing NASA into the 21st century as the world's leader in this field. Joining the other robots already on ISS, the station is now an exciting lab for robot experiments and utilization. A particular challenge for this project has been the design and certification of the robot and its software for work near humans. The 3 layer software systems will be described, and the path to ISS certification will be reviewed. R2 will go through a series of ISS checkout tests during 2011. A taskboard was shipped with the robot that will be used to compare R2B's dexterous manipulation in zero gravity with the ground robot s ability to handle similar objects in Earth s gravity. R2's taskboard has panels with increasingly difficult tasks, starting with switches, progressing to connectors and eventually handling softgoods. The taskboard is modular, and new interfaces and experiments will be built up using equipment already on ISS. Since the objective is to test R2 performing tasks with human interfaces, hardware abounds on ISS and the crew will be involved to help select tasks that are dull, dirty or dangerous. Future plans for R2 include a series of upgrades, evolving from static IVA (Intravehicular Activity) operations, to mobile IVA, then EVA (Extravehicular Activity).

Ambrose, Robert O.↗

NASA NTRS2010

NASA Docking System (NDS) Interface Definitions Document (IDD)

The NASA Docking System (NDS) mating system supports low approach velocity docking and provides a modular and reconfigurable standard interface, supporting crewed and autonomous vehicles during mating and assembly operations. The NDS is NASA's implementation for the emerging International Docking System Standard (IDSS) using low impact docking technology. All NDS configurations can mate with the configuration specified in the IDSS Interface Definition Document (IDD) released September 21, 2010. The NDS evolved from the Low Impact Docking System (LIDS). The acronym international Low Impact Docking System (iLIDS) is also used to describe this system. NDS and iLIDS may be used interchangeability. Some of the heritage documentation and implementations (e.g., software command names) used on NDS will continue to use the LIDS acronym. The NDS IDD defines the interface characteristics and performance capability of the NDS, including uses ranging from crewed to autonomous space vehicles and from low earth orbit to deep space exploration. The responsibility for developing space vehicles and for making them technically and operationally compatible with the NDS rests with the vehicle providers. Host vehicle examples include crewed/uncrewed spacecraft, space station modules, elements, etc. Within this document, any docking space vehicle will be referred to as the host vehicle. This document defines the NDS-to-NDS interfaces, as well as the NDS-to-host vehicle interfaces and performance capability.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2011

NASA Docking System (NDS) Interface Definitions Document (IDD)

Lewis, James↗

DOE OSTI2022

A Blockchain Based Co-Simulation Framework for Integrating DERs to Wholesale Electricity Markets

As the number of distributed energy resources (DERs) continue to increase across energy-delivery systems, there remains a need for integrating their capabilities into traditional grid operations. In this paper, a blockchain-based solution is proposed to facilitate FERC's Order No. 2222 implementations. The presented use-case enables small-scale DERs to participate in wholesale market operations through DER aggregators, while also enabling local distribution system operators to enforce distribution system constraints in a secure and traceable manner. The presented use case is built around the Unified Testing Platform (UTP) being developed as a part of the Blockchain for Optimized Security and Energy Management (BLOSEM) project. This is a multi-lab effort intended to simplify the deployment of blockchain-powered grid solutions by enabling the integration of simulation tools, and blockchain technologies through the use of system-agnostic interfaces that provide a modular, interoperable, and reusable connectivity layer.

blockchain interoperability↗

DOE OSTI2021

Standard Modular Architecture for Consumer End Plug and Play Interfaces

The growth in load and generation sources at the edge of the grid is driving the innovation in power electronic (PE) grid interfaces at the consumer end to improve the grid resiliency, reliability, security, and cost of the future infrastructure. Novel PE technologies are key enablers for the future grid infrastructure to handle the issues that arise because of the projected growth. This paper introduces a novel fundamental building block (FBB) architecture with plug-and play features. An example framework that enables co-ordination of multiple FBBs hierarchically to provide various grid functions is also presented. The FBBs are designed to be equipped with advanced features like online health monitoring, embedded intelligence, and decision-making capability for enhancing the metrics of consumer end plug and play interfaces. The paper elaborates on the proposed architecture and the developed framework i.e., the controls, communication, protection, and the corresponding timing requirements for the building blocks. The architecture and the framework have been validated through simulations and the communication framework has been validated with a control hardware in the loop platform.

Chinthavali, Madhu Sudhan↗

NASA NTRS1990

Thermal grease replacement for the modular power subsystem

A comparative thermal conductance test was conducted to evaluate thermal interface materials for use on the Modular Power Subsystem. Materials tested included three thermal pads, four RTV adhesives, bare metal, and one thermal grease. The tests were conducted in a bell jar at vacuum conditions using a 1400 square centimeter footprint and two relatively low contact pressures, 207 kPa and 620 kPa. Power inputs ranged from 100 to 500 watts, and the thermal interface conductance values ranged from 100 to 1700 W/m2 C for the interstitial materials tested. In general, the thermal pads performed a little better than bare metal, while the RTV adhesives performed significantly better than the bare metal and comparable to the thermal grease.

Lapinski, John R., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Exploration Space Suit Architecture: Destination Environmental-Based Technology Development

This paper picks up where EVA Space Suit Architecture: Low Earth Orbit Vs. Moon Vs. Mars (Hill, Johnson, IEEEAC paper #1209) left off in the development of a space suit architecture that is modular in design and interfaces and could be reconfigured to meet the mission or during any given mission depending on the tasks or destination. This paper will walk though the continued development of a space suit system architecture, and how it should evolve to meeting the future exploration EVA needs of the United States space program. In looking forward to future US space exploration and determining how the work performed to date in the CxP and how this would map to a future space suit architecture with maximum re-use of technology and functionality, a series of thought exercises and analysis have provided a strong indication that the CxP space suit architecture is well postured to provide a viable solution for future exploration missions. Through the destination environmental analysis that is presented in this paper, the modular architecture approach provides the lowest mass, lowest mission cost for the protection of the crew given any human mission outside of low Earth orbit. Some of the studies presented here provide a look and validation of the non-environmental design drivers that will become every-increasingly important the further away from Earth humans venture and the longer they are away. Additionally, the analysis demonstrates a logical clustering of design environments that allows a very focused approach to technology prioritization, development and design that will maximize the return on investment independent of any particular program and provide architecture and design solutions for space suit systems in time or ahead of being required for any particular manned flight program in the future. The new approach to space suit design and interface definition the discussion will show how the architecture is very adaptable to programmatic and funding changes with minimal redesign effort required such that the modular architecture can be quickly and efficiently honed into a specific mission point solution if required.

Hill, Terry R.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Thermal Analysis of the Advanced Modular Power Systems (AMPS) Power Electronic Modules

In an effort to transform future space power system architectures and operations, the Advanced Modular Power Systems (AMPS) project is currently developing an interface standard for power electronic modules to enable modular architectures for space power systems. Each architecture would consist of one or more modular electronic units (MEU) that would comprise of a tailored combination of modules. The standard currently comprises modules enabling switchgear, power conversion, and data interfacing. The objective of the AMPS project is to enable the modularity and interchangeability of different architectures using these standardized modules in hopes of reducing complexity and cost, increasing inherent redundancy and reliability, and minimizing power system redesign for future programs. A key enabler to these future modular architectures will be the thermal management system, which has to contend with acquiring heat from the electronics modules at the card level and then transporting that heat to the radiator of the larger system. The focus of this paper, therefore, will be the thermal design and analysis of multiple AMPS power electronics modules and the development of their thermal-vacuum test.

Modular Power Electronics↗

DOE OSTI2026

A Unified Design Theory for Multi-Port Polyphase Transformers Enabling Scalable Power-Multiplexed EV Fleet Charging Systems

This paper presents a unified analytical design theory for multi-port polyphase transformers, targeting scalable and isolated high-power Electric Vehicle (EV) fleet charging systems with power multiplexing capability. As fleet electrification accelerates, conventional one-to-one charger architectures face significant challenges in infrastructure cost, peak power demand, and low utilization of installed power electronics. Power-multiplexed charging architectures, which dynamically distribute power from a shared pool of converter modules across multiple vehicles, have emerged as a promising solution. However, such architectures require scalable, isolated multi-port power interfaces capable of routing energy among multiple inputs and outputs, whose design remains complex and dependent on iterative modeling. To address this gap, the proposed theory provides closed-form expressions for self-inductance, leakage inductance, and mutual coupling terms for arbitrary multi-phase, multi-port transformer structures. The formulation enables direct synthesis of isolated multi-input and multi-output resonant converter systems without reliance on geometry-specific finite-element analysis or extensive parameter extraction. This capability is particularly critical for power-multiplexed systems, where modular converter structures must interface with multiple vehicles while maintaining galvanic isolation and flexible power allocation. The effectiveness of the proposed framework is demonstrated through the design of a 360 kW multi-phase system operating over a 700–900 VDC input and 400–1250 VDC output range. PLECS simulation results confirm accurate prediction of system behavior and validate the applicability of the approach to multi-port, power-multiplexed charging scenarios. The proposed method significantly reduces design complexity while enabling scalable, cost-effective, and fully utilized EV fleet charging infrastructure.

Asa, Erdem [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000190884812)↗

DOE OSTI2026

Design and performance of AI agents interfacing with an atomic layer deposition tool

In this work, we introduce the design of an atomic layer deposition (ALD) reactor augmented with an AI interface for autonomous materials synthesis. Our modular design encapsulates the particularities of the hardware behind a Python interface that communicates with the ALD control software via transmission control protocol. This interface is compatible with model context protocol interfaces used in agentic frameworks. We have integrated our tool with a simple AI agent that leverages a large language model to transform user-supplied queries into ALD processes that are then run in our reactor. Our approach uses a JavaScript object notation schema to encode ALD processes. Our experimental results show that the AI interface does not impose a significant overhead to our control software, at least within our fastest 10 ms scale. We also carried out a detailed evaluation of the agent performance using leading models in two classes of tasks: basic instruction and process discovery tasks, where the agent is presented with a target material and needs to identify the correct ALD process compatible with the reactor configuration. Despite the simplicity of our agent design, we observed that most of the advanced models excelled at the instruction tasks. However, only recent models, such as o1, o3, GPT-5, and Claude Opus 4, performed well in process discovery tasks. We also observed significant variability in the response for the hardest challenges. While the results obtained are promising, we identify areas where AI research could improve the performance of agents for ALD.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

NASA NTRS2017

Medical Data Architecture Capabilities and Design

Mission constraints will challenge the delivery of medical care on a long-term, deep space explorationmission. This type of mission will be restricted in the availability of medical knowledge, skills, procedures and resourcesto prevent, diagnose, and treat in-flight medical events. Challenges to providing medical care are anticipated, includingresource and resupply constraints, delayed communications and no ability for medical evacuation. The Medical DataArchitecture (MDA) project will enable medical care capability in this constrained environment.The first version of thesystem, called Test Bed 1, includes capabilities for automated data collection, data storage and data retrieval to provideinformation to the Crew Medical Officer (CMO). Test Bed 1 seeks to establish a data architecture foundation and developa scalable data management system through modular design and standardized interfaces. In addition, it will demonstrateto stakeholders the potential for an improved, automated, flow of data to and from the medical system over the currentmethods employed on the International Space Station (ISS). It integrates a set of external devices, software andprocesses, and a Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan (SOAP) note commonly used by clinicians. Medical datalike electrocardiogram plots, heart rate, skin temperature, respiration rate, medications taken, and more are collectedfrom devices and stored in the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system, and reported to crew and clinician. Devicesintegrated include the Astroskin biosensor vest and IMED CARDIAX electrocardiogram (ECG) device with INEED MDECG Glove, and the NASA-developed Medical Dose Tracker application.The system is designed to be operated as astandalone system, and can be deployed in a variety of environments, from a laptop to a data center. The system isprimarily composed of open-source software tools, and is designed to be modular, so new capabilities can be added. Thesoftware components and integration methods will be discussed.

Exploration medical system↗

NASA NTRS2017

Medical Data Architecture Project Capabilities and Design

Mission constraints will challenge the delivery of medical care on a long-term, deep space exploration mission. This type of mission will be restricted in the availability of medical knowledge, skills, procedures and resources to prevent, diagnose, and treat in-flight medical events. Challenges to providing medical care are anticipated, including resource and resupply constraints, delayed communications and no ability for medical evacuation. The Medical Data Architecture (MDA) project will enable medical care capability in this constrained environment. The first version of the system, called "Test Bed 1," includes capabilities for automated data collection, data storage and data retrieval to provide information to the Crew Medical Officer (CMO). Test Bed 1 seeks to establish a data architecture foundation and develop a scalable data management system through modular design and standardized interfaces. In addition, it will demonstrate to stakeholders the potential for an improved, automated, flow of data to and from the medical system over the current methods employed on the International Space Station (ISS). It integrates a set of external devices, software and processes, and a Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan (SOAP) note commonly used by clinicians. Medical data like electrocardiogram plots, heart rate, skin temperature, respiration rate, medications taken, and more are collected from devices and stored in the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system, and reported to crew and clinician. Devices integrated include the Astroskin biosensor vest and IMED CARDIAX electrocardiogram (ECG) device with INEED MD ECG Glove, and the NASA-developed Medical Dose Tracker application. The system is designed to be operated as a standalone system, and can be deployed in a variety of environments, from a laptop to a data center. The system is primarily composed of open-source software tools, and is designed to be modular, so new capabilities can be added. The software components and integration methods will be discussed.

Data architecture↗

DOE OSTI2024

Interface Nucleus Complementarity: An Iterative Process for the Discovery of Modular Intermetallics Guided by Chemical Pressure

Not provided.

Chemistry↗

DOE OSTI2021

Quantum Chemistry Common Driver and Databases (QCDB) and Quantum Chemistry Engine (QCEngine): Automation and interoperability among computational chemistry programs

We report that community efforts in the computational molecular sciences (CMS) are evolving toward modular, open, and interoperable interfaces that work with existing community codes to provide more functionality and composability than could be achieved with a single program. The Quantum Chemistry Common Driver and Databases (QCDB) project provides such capability through an application programming interface (API) that facilitates interoperability across multiple quantum chemistry software packages. In tandem with the Molecular Sciences Software Institute and their Quantum Chemistry Archive ecosystem, the unique functionalities of several CMS programs are integrated, including CFOUR, GAMESS, NWChem, OpenMM, Psi4, Qcore, TeraChem, and Turbomole, to provide common computational functions, i.e., energy, gradient, and Hessian computations as well as molecular properties such as atomic charges and vibrational frequency analysis. Both standard users and power users benefit from adopting these APIs as they lower the language barrier of input styles and enable a standard layout of variables and data. These designs allow end-to-end interoperable programming of complex computations and provide best practices options by default.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2025

Accessible, uniform protein property prediction with a scikit-learn based toolset AIDE

Summary Protein property prediction via machine learning with and without labeled data is becoming increasingly powerful, yet methods are disparate and capabilities vary widely over applications. The software presented here, “Artificial Intelligence Driven protein Estimation (AIDE)”, enables instantiating, optimizing, and testing many zero-shot and supervised property prediction methods for variants and variable length homologs in a single, reproducible notebook or script by defining a modular, standardized application programming interface (API), i.e. drop-in compatible with scikit-learn transformers and pipelines. Availability and implementation AIDE is an installable, importable python package inheriting from scikit-learn classes and API and is installable on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Many of the wrapped models internal to AIDE will be effectively inaccessible without a GPU, and some assume CUDA. The newest stable, tested version can be found at https://github.com/beckham-lab/aide_predict and a full user guide and API reference can be found at https://beckham-lab.github.io/aide_predict/. Static versions of both at the time of writing can be found on Zenodo.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2023

Pressure safety approach for PIP-II cryogenic distribution system and cryomodules

The Proton Improvement Plan-II (PIP-II) is a superconducting linear accelerator being built at Fermilab that will provide 800 MeV proton beam for neutrino production. The linac consists of a total of twenty-three (23) cryomodules of five (5) different types. Cooling is required at 2K, 5K and 40K. The Cryogenic Distribution System (CDS) consists of a Distribution Valve Box, ~285 m of cryogenic transfer line, modular Bayonet Cans to interface with cryomodules, and a Turnaround Can. The cryogenic system must provide protection from over-pressure by sizing pressure relief devices for all volumes and process line circuits. The cryomodule cavity circuits have dual pressure ratings, 4.1 bara when cold and 2.05 bara when warm (T>80K). Worst case relieving cases will be identified. The methods for determining heat flux will be presented. For the relieving occurring in the linac tunnel, flow must vent to outside to avoid an oxygen deficiency hazard. Also, we will present vacuum vesse l relief sizing to protect the cryogenic distribution system vacuum shells from over pressure during an internal line rupture. The project is funded by US DOE Offices of Science, High Energy Physics.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Precision measurement of the magnetic field in run 1 of the g-2 experiment

The Proton Improvement Plan-II (PIP-II) is a superconducting linear accelerator being built at Fermilab that will provide 800 MeV proton beam for neutrino production. The linac consists of a total of twenty-three (23) cryomodules of five (5) different types. Cooling is required at 2K, 5K and 40K. The Cryogenic Distribution System (CDS) consists of a Distribution Valve Box, ~285 m of cryogenic transfer line, modular Bayonet Cans to interface with cryomodules, and a Turnaround Can. The cryogenic system must provide protection from over-pressure by sizing pressure relief devices for all volumes and process line circuits. The cryomodule cavity circuits have dual pressure ratings, 4.1 bara when cold and 2.05 bara when warm (T>80K). Worst case relieving cases will be identified. The methods for determining heat flux will be presented. For the relieving occurring in the linac tunnel, flow must vent to outside to avoid an oxygen deficiency hazard. Also, we will present vacuum vessel relief sizing to protect the cryogenic distribution system vacuum shells from over pressure during an internal line rupture. The project is funded by US DOE Offices of Science, High Energy Physics.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

NASA NTRS1970

A miniature 1/4-inch diameter 24-pin plug and receptacle

Miniature plug and receptacle, which eliminates the need for permanent fixed leads, is used on wind-tunnel force balances, in the interface connections of microelectronic modular assemblies, and in electric and electronic systems where subsystems must be removed or interchanged.

Phelps, W. R.↗