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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 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2017

In-Situ Navigation and Timing Services for the Human Mars Landing Site Part 1: System Concept

In [1] and [2], we introduce a new geometric trilateration method that simultaneously performs absolute positioning and relative positioning. The relative position is derived from a “differencing” function of two raw-range measurements between a known reference point and of the target from a navigation satellite, thereby eliminating most of the common errors like atmospheric delays, ephemeris errors, and instrument delays in real-time. In the Mars environment this “error-cancellation” function greatly reduces the need to perform extensive orbit determination (OD) of the navigation satellites like the Earth’s GPS, and only requires occasional tracks from the Earth’s large-aperture deep space antennas to perform OD’s. Leveraging on this scheme, we propose a low-cost, low-maintenance regional navigation satellite system architecture that provides in-situ navigation and timing services for robotic and human missions in the vicinity of a Mars landing site. This architecture is built upon the proposed Mars relay network infrastructure, and a number of notional Mars orbiting and surface missions in the human exploration era of Mars. We assume two areostationary Mars relay orbiters that have continuous line-of-sight visibility with the Mars landing site, a Deep Space Habitat (DSH) in an inclined 48-hour circular orbit, and a surface communication lander that could serve as the reference point. These orbiting and surface infrastructure elements broadcast GPS-like ranging signals and other ephemeris information to the mission users. With one or more additional orbiters in areosynchronous orbits that trace around a figure-8 path, a regional navigation satellite system can be realized that provides in-situ course absolute localization and precision relative localization and timing services to the users in the vicinity of a Mars landing site. This paper describes the system concept of the proposed Mars regional navigation satellite system.

Lee, Charles↗
NASA NTRS2019

Human Mars Entry, Descent and Landing Architecture Study: Deployable Decelerators

NASA’s Entry, Descent and Landing Architecture Study uses a trajectory simulation framework to evaluate various technologies and concepts of operations for human scale EDL at Mars. The study results inform agency technology investments. This paper summarizes the design assumptions and analysis of two deployable entry concepts performed in Phase 2 of the study. The entry concepts include a rigid deployable called the Adaptable Deployable Entry Placement Technology and an inflatable concept called the Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator. This paper describes the concept operations of these vehicles to deliver a 20-metric ton payload to the surface of Mars. Details of vehicle design and flight performance are summarized along with results of analysis on the aft body heating and its effect on the payload. Finally, recommended technology investments based on the results are presented.

Dwyer Cianciolo, Alicia↗
NASA NTRS2018

Human Mars Entry, Descent and Landing Architecture Study (EDLAS): Rigid Decelerators

Develop two evolutionary rigid vehicle concepts to deliver human-scale payloads (20 metric tons) to the surface of Mars: Capsule; Lifting body, mid-range lift-to-drag ratio (Mid L/D). Determine vehicle configurations for various mission flight phases. Determine vehicle performance: Integrated system mass; Ability to meet landing constraints; Payload packaging and surface access. Provide technology investment recommendations to NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.

Polsgrove, Tara↗
NASA NTRS2015

Pioneering Objectives and Activities on the Surface of Mars

Human Mars missions have been a topic of sustained interest within NASA, which continues to use its resources to examine many different mission objectives, trajectories, vehicles, and technologies, the combinations of which are often referred to as reference missions or architectures. The current investigative effort, known as the Evolvable Mars Campaign (EMC), is examining alternatives that can pioneer an extended human presence on Mars that is Earth independent. These alternatives involve combinations of all the factors just mentioned. This paper is focused on the subset of these factors involved with objectives and activities that take place on the surface of Mars. "Pioneering" is a useful phrase to encapsulate the current approach being used to address this situation - one of its primary definitions is "a person or group that originates or helps open up a new line of thought or activity or a new method or technical development". Thus, in this scenario, NASA would be embarking on a path to "pioneer" a suite of technologies and operations that will result in an Earth independent, extended stay capability for humans on Mars. This paper will describe (a) the concept of operation determined to be best suited for the initial emplacement, (b) the functional capabilities determined to be necessary for this emplacement, with representative examples of systems that could carry out these functional capabilities and one implementation example (i.e., delivery sequence) at a representative landing site, and will (c) discuss possible capabilities and operations during subsequent surface missions.

Toups, Larry↗
NASA NTRS2017

Human Mars EDL Pathfinder Study: Assessment of Technology Development Gaps and Mitigations

This paper presents the results of a NASA initiated Agency-wide assessment to better characterize the risks and potential mitigation approaches associated with landing human class Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) systems on Mars. Due to the criticality and long-lead nature of advancing EDL techniques, it is necessary to determine an appropriate strategy to improve the capability to land large payloads. A key focus of this study was to understand the key EDL risks and with a focus on determining what "must" be tested at Mars. This process identified the various risks and potential risk mitigation strategies along with the key near term technology development efforts required and in what environment those technology demonstrations were best suited. The study identified key risks along with advantages to each entry technology. In addition, it was identified that provided the EDL concept of operations (con ops) minimized large scale transition events, there was no technology requirement for a Mars pre-cursor demonstration. Instead, NASA should take a direct path to a human-scale lander.

Lillard, Randolph↗
NASA NTRS2015

Microbial Ecology of a Crewed Rover Traverse in the Arctic: Low Microbial Dispersal and Implications for Planetary Protection on Human Mars Missions

Between April 2009 and July 2011, the NASA Haughton-Mars Project (HMP) led the Northwest Passage Drive Expedition (NWPDX), a multi-staged long-distance crewed rover traverse along the Northwest Passage in the Arctic. In April 2009, the HMP Okarian rover was driven 496 km over sea ice along the Northwest Passage, from Kugluktuk to Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada. During the traverse, crew members collected samples from within the rover and from undisturbed snow-covered surfaces around the rover at three locations. The rover samples and snow samples were stored at subzero conditions (-20C to -1C) until processed for microbial diversity in labs at the NASA Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The objective was to determine the extent of microbial dispersal away from the rover and onto undisturbed snow. Interior surfaces of the rover were found to be associated with a wide range of bacteria (69 unique taxa) and fungi (16 unique taxa). In contrast, snow samples from the upwind, downwind, uptrack, and downtrack sample sites exterior to the rover were negative for both bacteria and fungi except for two colony-forming units (cfus) recovered from one downwind (1 cfu; site A4) and one uptrack (1 cfu; site B6) sample location. The fungus, Aspergillus fumigatus (GenBank JX517279), and closely related bacteria in the genus Brevibacillus were recovered from both snow (B. agri, GenBank JX517278) and interior rover surfaces. However, it is unknown whether the microorganisms were deposited onto snow surfaces at the time of sample collection (i.e., from the clothing or skin of the human operator) or via airborne dispersal from the rover during the 12-18 h layovers at the sites prior to collection. Results support the conclusion that a crewed rover traveling over previously undisturbed terrain may not significantly contaminate the local terrain via airborne dispersal of propagules from the vehicle. Key Words: Planetary protection-Contamination-Habitability-Haughton Crater-Mars. Astrobiology 15, 478-491.

Human Mars Missions↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Updated Human Mars Ascent Vehicle Concept in Support of NASA’s Strategic Analysis Cycle 2021

Significant progress has been made to NASA’s Moon to Mars campaign over the last several years, which drives changes to the agency’s current human exploration strategy. With Strategic Analysis Cycle 2021 (SAC21) the team was asked to consider new areas of the trades space not fully understood in the past. Specific to the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), the team was asked to consider a concept based on a nitrogen tetroxide (NTO) and mono-methyl hydrazine (MMH) two stage propulsion system which would utilize surface propellant transfer, as opposed to In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). The vehicle supports two crew members from the surface up to 84 hours nominally. This paper presents further details of the current MAV reference design used in NASA’s SAC21, including descriptions of the operations, configuration, subsystem design, and vehicle mass summary. Additional detail is also provided on rational that drove specific design changes since the last MAV concept, published in 2019.

Douglas J. Trent↗
NASA NTRS2016

Traffic Modeling for Deep Space Network in the Human Mars Exploration Era

In this article we describe the analysis and simulation effort of the end-to-end traffic flow for the Deep Space Network (DSN) in the Human Exploration Era, when DSN will provide communication and navigation services for human missions to distant celestial objects like the Moon, asteroids, and Mars. Using the network traffic derived for the 30-day period within July/August 2039 from the Space Communications Mission Model (SCMM), we simulate the bandwidths of the ground links and the buffer profiles of the network nodes. We also use a 2-state Markov scheme that models the store-and-forward mechanism that regulates the ground network traffic. The network traffic modeling and simulation generates ground bandwidth and buffer statistics, which in turn are used to formulate the future DSN ground network bandwidth and storage requirements.

Cheung, Kar-ming↗
NASA NTRS2016

The Threat of Uncertainty: Why Using Traditional Approaches for Evaluating Spacecraft Reliability are Insufficient for Future Human Mars Missions

Through the Evolvable Mars Campaign (EMC) study, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) continues to evaluate potential approaches for sending humans beyond low Earth orbit (LEO). A key aspect of these missions is the strategy that is employed to maintain and repair the spacecraft systems, ensuring that they continue to function and support the crew. Long duration missions beyond LEO present unique and severe maintainability challenges due to a variety of factors, including: limited to no opportunities for resupply, the distance from Earth, mass and volume constraints of spacecraft, high sensitivity of transportation element designs to variation in mass, the lack of abort opportunities to Earth, limited hardware heritage information, and the operation of human-rated systems in a radiation environment with little to no experience. The current approach to maintainability, as implemented on ISS, which includes a large number of spares pre-positioned on ISS, a larger supply sitting on Earth waiting to be flown to ISS, and an on demand delivery of logistics from Earth, is not feasible for future deep space human missions. For missions beyond LEO, significant modifications to the maintainability approach will be required.Through the EMC evaluations, several key findings related to the reliability and safety of the Mars spacecraft have been made. The nature of random and induced failures presents significant issues for deep space missions. Because spare parts cannot be flown as needed for Mars missions, all required spares must be flown with the mission or pre-positioned. These spares must cover all anticipated failure modes and provide a level of overall reliability and safety that is satisfactory for human missions. This will require a large amount of mass and volume be dedicated to storage and transport of spares for the mission. Further, there is, and will continue to be, a significant amount of uncertainty regarding failure rates for spacecraft components. This uncertainty makes it much more difficult to anticipate failures and will potentially require an even larger amount of spares to provide an acceptable level of safety. Ultimately, the approach to maintenance and repair applied to ISS, focusing on the supply of spare parts, may not be tenable for deep space missions. Other approaches, such as commonality of components, simplification of systems, and in-situ manufacturing will be required.

Stromgren, Chel↗
NASA NTRS2020

Human Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing Architecture Study: Phase 3 Summary

Over the past four years, NASA has directed the Entry, Descent and Landing Architecture Study (EDLAS) to evaluate candidate technologies to deliver human-scale vehicles (carrying 20t payloads) to the surface of Mars. The study focused on two vehicles in Phase 3 (during 2018 and 2019), one low and one mid lift-to-drag (L/D) vehicle. This paper summarizes updates to the structural and aeroshell outer mold line design for the mid-L/D Mars entry lander vehicle that occurred during EDLAS Phase 3. The design efforts used parametric optimization to arrive at a solution for total vehicle primary and secondary structure mass, and vehicle center-of-gravity location. Additionally, the end of Phase 2 provided an updated surface payload manifest that required three 22 t landers. This paper also summarizes the results of the packaging feasibility study of the updated payload configurations for those three reference missions. The study verified an arrangement of the payload elements within the mid-L/D vehicle that satisfied the center of gravity location limitations for flight.

Calderon, Damien↗
NASA NTRS1999

Human Mars Mission: Launch Window from Earth Orbit

The determination of orbital window characteristics is of major importance in the analysis of human interplanetary missions and systems. The orbital launch window characteristics are directly involved in the selection of mission trajectories, the development of orbit operational concepts, and the design of orbital launch systems. The orbital launch window problem arises because of the dynamic nature of the relative geometry between outgoing (departure) asymptote of the hyperbolic escape trajectory and the earth parking orbit. The orientation of the escape hyperbola asymptotic relative to the earth is a function of time. The required hyperbola energy level also varies with time. In addition, the inertial orientation of the parking orbit is a function of time because of the perturbations caused by the Earth's oblateness. Thus, a coplanar injection onto the escape hyperbola can be made only at a point in time when the outgoing escape asymptote is contained by the plane of parking orbit. Even though this condition may be planned as a nominal situation, it will not generally represent the more probable injection geometry. The general case of an escape injection maneuver performed at a time other than the coplanar time will involve both a path angle and plane change and, therefore, a delta V penalty. Usually, because of the delta V penalty the actual departure injection window is smaller in duration than that determined by energy requirement alone. This report contains the formulation, characteristics, and test cases for five different launch window modes for Earth orbit. These modes are: 1) One impulsive maneuver from a Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO); 2) Two impulsive maneuvers from a Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO); 3) One impulsive maneuver from a Low Earth Orbit (LEO); 4) Two impulsive maneuvers form LEO; and 5) Three impulsive maneuvers form LEO. The formulation of these five different launch window modes provides a rapid means of generating realistic parametric data for space exploration studies. Also the formulation provides vector and geometrical data sufficient for use as a good starting point in detail trajectory analysis based on calculus of variations, steepest descent, or parameter optimization program techniques.

Young, Archie↗
NASA NTRS1999

Human Mars Mission: Launch Window from Earth Orbit

The determination of orbital window characteristics is of major importance in the analysis of human interplanetary missions and systems. The orbital launch window characteristics are directly involved in the selection of mission trajectories, the development of orbit operational concepts, and the design of orbital launch systems. The orbital launch window problem arises because of the dynamic nature of the relative geometry between outgoing (departure) asymptote of the hyperbolic escape trajectory and the earth parking orbit. The orientation of the escape hyperbola asymptotic relative to earth is a function of time. The required hyperbola energy level also varies with time. In addition, the inertial orientation of the parking orbit is a function of time because of the perturbations caused by the Earth's oblateness. Thus, a coplanar injection onto the escape hyperbola can be made only at a point in time when the outgoing escape asymptote is contained by the plane of parking orbit. Even though this condition may be planned as a nominal situation, it will not generally represent the more probable injection geometry. The general case of an escape injection maneuver performed at a time other than the coplanar time will involve both a path angle and plane change and, therefore, a DELTA V penalty. Usually, because of the DELTA V penalty the actual departure injection window is smaller in duration than that determined by energy requirement alone. This report contains the formulation, characteristics, and test cases for five different launch window modes for Earth orbit. These modes are: (1) One impulsive maneuver from a Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) (2) Two impulsive maneuvers from a Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) (3) One impulsive maneuver from a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) (4) Two impulsive maneuvers from LEO (5) Three impulsive maneuvers from LEO.

Young, Archie↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Human Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing Architecture Study: Phase 3 Summary

Over the past four years, NASA has directed the Entry, Descent and Landing Architecture Study (EDLAS) team to evaluate candidate technologies to deliver human-scale vehicles (carrying 20t payloads) to a precise location on the surface of Mars. The study, which initially considered four candidate vehicles, narrowed the design space to focus on two vehicles in Phase 3, one low and one mid lift-to-drag vehicle. Key design challenges exist for both, and the purpose of the Phase 3 analysis was to identify specific technology investment areas and opportunities to mature the vehicle designs beyond simulations to include ground and flight tests. This paper summarizes the detailed analyses performed on the two vehicle configurations, including aerodynamic and propulsive interference effects during the powered flight phase, vehicle packaging, as well as outer mold line and parametric mass model upgrades. The analyses were used to update models in the vehicle performance simulations. The simulation results showing the impact of the Phase 3 analyses on vehicle performance are also presented. Finally, a summary of the technology investment recommendations, including opportunities to validate models using wind tunnel tests and evaluate technologies at the moon, are presented. This paper offers a systems level overview of the more detailed analysis that will be presented in this special session.

Alicia Dwyer Cianciolo↗
NASA NTRS1999

Departure Energies, Trip Times and Entry Speeds for Human Mars Missions

The study examines how the mission design variables departure energy, entry speed, and trip time vary for round-trip conjunction-class Mars missions. These three parameters must be balanced in order to produce a mission that is acceptable in terms of mass, cost, and risk. For the analysis, a simple, massless- planet trajectory program was employed. The premise of this work is that if the trans-Mars and trans-Earth injection stages are designed for the most stringent opportunity in the energy cycle, then there is extra energy capability in the "easier" opportunities which can be used to decrease the planetary entry speed, or shorten the trip time. Both of these effects are desirable for a human exploration program.

Munk, Michelle M.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Departure Energies, Trip Times and Entry Speeds for Human Mars Missions

The study examines how the mission design variables departure energy, entry speed, and trip time vary for round-trip conjunction-class Mars missions. These three parameters must be balanced in order to produce a mission that is acceptable in terms of mass, cost, and risk. For the analysis, a simple, massless-planet trajectory program was employed. The premise of this work is that if the trans-Mars and trans-Earth injection stages are designed for the most stringent opportunity in the energy cycle, then there is extra energy capability in the "easier" opportunities which can be used to decrease the planetary entry speed, or shorten the trip time. Both of these effects are desirable for a human exploration program.

Munk, Michelle M.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Mission profiles for human Mars missions

Strategies for round-trip missions to Mars with stopover are reviewed. The significant characteristics of the two main classes of stopover mission, whose midpiont corresponds either to the date of earth-Mars conjuction or opposition, are described. Strategies for round-trip flybys, fast round trips, and split missions are also considered. The latter involves a separate, prior mission in which cargo is sent to Mars.

Lineberry, Edgar C.↗