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This report contains two sections, each of which describes a proposal for a program at the University of Nebraska. The sections are entitled: 1) Aerospace Workforce Development Augmentation Competition; 2) Native Connections: A Multi-Consortium Workforce Development Proposal.
Currently on the International Space Station s (ISS) U.S. Segment, carbon dioxide (CO2) scrubbed from the cabin by a 4-Bed Molecular Sieve (4BMS) Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) is vented overboard as a waste product. Likewise, the product hydrogen (H2) that will be generated by the Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA) planned for installation will also be vented. A flight experiment has been proposed that will take the waste CO2 removed from the cabin, and via the catalytic Sabatier process, reduce it with waste H2 to generate water and methane. The water produced may provide cost and logistics savings for ISS by reducing the amount of water periodically re-supplied to orbit. To make this concept viable, a mechanical piston compressor and accumulator were developed for collecting and storing the CO2 from the CDRA. The compressor, accumulator and Sabatier system would be packaged together as one unit and referred to as the Carbon Dioxide Reduction Assembly (CRA). Testing was required to evaluate the performance of a 4BMS CDRA, compressor, accumulator, and Sabatier performance along with their operating rules when integrated together. This had been numerically modeled and simulated; however, testing was necessary to verify the results from the engineering analyses. Testing also allowed a better understanding of the practical inefficiencies and control issues involved in a fully integrated system versus the theoretical ideals in the model. This paper presents and discusses the results of an integrated engineering development unit test.
The Vision for Space Exploration provides direction for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to embark on a robust space exploration program that will advance the Nation s scientific, security, and economic interests. This plan calls for a progressive expansion of human capabilities beyond low earth orbit seeking to answer profound scientific and philosophical questions while responding to discoveries along the way. In addition, the Vision articulates the strategy for developing the revolutionary new technologies and capabilities required for the future exploration of the solar system. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration faces new challenges in successfully implementing the Vision. In order to implement a sustained and affordable exploration endeavor it is vital for NASA to do business differently. This paper provides an overview of the strategy-to-task-to-technology process being used by NASA s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate to develop the requirements and system acquisition details necessary for implementing a sustainable exploration vision.
This report describes a significant advance in the capability of the CSIRO/NASA structural health monitoring Concept Demonstrator (CD). The main thrust of the work has been the development of a mobile robotic agent, and the hardware and software modifications and developments required to enable the demonstrator to operate as a single, self-organizing, multi-agent system. This single-robot system is seen as the forerunner of a system in which larger numbers of small robots perform inspection and repair tasks cooperatively, by self-organization. While the goal of demonstrating self-organized damage diagnosis was not fully achieved in the time available, much of the work required for the final element that enables the robot to point the video camera and transmit an image has been completed. A demonstration video of the CD and robotic systems operating will be made and forwarded to NASA.
The Chief Engineer of the Exploration Systems Development (ESD) Office requested that the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) perform an independent assessment of the ESD's integrated hazard development process. The focus of the assessment was to review the integrated hazard analysis (IHA) process and identify any gaps/improvements in the process (e.g., missed causes, cause tree completeness, missed hazards). This document contains the outcome of the NESC assessment.
The Chief Engineer of the Exploration Systems Development (ESD) Office requested that the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) perform an independent assessment of the ESD's integrated hazard development process. The focus of the assessment was to review the integrated hazard analysis (IHA) process and identify any gaps/improvements in the process (e.g. missed causes, cause tree completeness, missed hazards). This document contains the outcome of the NESC assessment.
NASA formed the Constellation Program in 2005 to achieve the objectives of maintaining American presence in low-Earth orbit, returning to the moon for purposes of establishing an outpost, and laying the foundation to explore Mars and beyond in the first half of the 21st century. The Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP) was formulated to address the technology needs to address Constellation architecture decisions. The Propellants and Cryogenic Advanced Development (PCAD) project was tasked with risk mitigation of specific propulsion related technologies to support ETDP. Propulsion systems were identified as critical technologies owing to the high gear-ratio of lunar Mars landers Cryogenic propellants offer performance advantage over storables (NTOMMH) Mass savings translate to greater payload capacity In-situ production of propellant an attractive feature; methane and oxygen identified as possible Martian in-situ propellants New technologies were required to meet more difficult missions High performance LOX/LH2 deep throttle descent engines High performance LOX/LCH4 ascent main and reaction control system (RCS) engines The PCAD project sought to provide those technologies through Reliable ignition pulse RCS Fast start High efficiency engines Stable deep throttling.
NASA's Sample Cartridge Assembly (SCA) project is responsible for designing and validating a payload that contains materials research samples in a sealed environment. The SCA will be heated in the European Space Agency's (ESA) Low Gradient Furnace (LGF) that is housed inside the Material Science Research Rack (MSRR) located on the International Space Station (ISS). The first Principle Investigator (PI) to utilize the SCA will focus on Gravitational Effects on Distortion in Sintering (GEDS) research. This paper will give a summary of the design and development test effort for the GEDS SCA and will discuss the role of thermal analysis in developing test profiles to meet the science and engineering requirements. Lessons learned will be reviewed and salient design features that may differ for each PI will be discussed.
As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first successful human landings on the surface of the Moon in 1969, it is insightful to review the many historic accomplishments that contributed to this astounding human achievement. While the Apollo Program officially began following the charge by United States President John F. Kennedy in 1961, much of the foundation for Apollo was already underway with early research and development that began as early as the close of the second World War. Innovations and key decisions prior to the formal initiation of the Apollo Program, and even prior to the formation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), enabled the relatively rapid development of the Saturn V rocket, the Apollo capsule, and the Lunar Lander systems needed to achieve the goal of landing humans on the Moon and returning them safely to Earth by the close of the 1960s.
The Customer Avionics Interface Development and Analysis (CAIDA) Development Activity (DA)Tracking System is a Microsoft Access Database that tracks, organizes, and analyzes data about DAs from the work management tool. The CAIDA DA Tracking System takes data imported from the work management system. Once in the system, the data is filtered to generate each DA’s Asset. From there, many different queries are run on the data and their results are imported into forms to create graphs to get and display a wide range of metrics. These graphs are automatically updated with each new data import and over time. They can be easily exported for use in presentations, documents, etc. Additionally, the system is highly customizable and can be added upon to include more data members, generate new graphs, and much more.
The joint NASA/ESA Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign could deliver to Earth the first pristine Mar-tian rock and regolith samples, collected by the Mars2020 science mission, Perseverance. In preparation for their arrival, the NASA/ESA Joint Curation Office (JCO) within the Sample Receiving Project (SRP) is developing curation technology needed to perform initial characterization of the samples while isolating samples from the Earth’s biosphere and protecting the samples from terrestrial contamination. (RSTA; Fig. 1). The Mars Sample Return Planning Group 2 (MSPG2) identified methods for achieving an array of potential science objectives for MSR outlined by the International MSR Objectives and Samples Team (iMOST) [1]. One category of methods, called Pre-Basic Characterization, recommends potential analyses that would happen before the Returnable Sample Tube Assemblies (RSTA; Figure 1) are opened: 1) Magnetometer & Magnetic Susceptibility; 2) X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT) Scanner [2]. To be in compliance with planetary protection requirements, and to limit the amount of time sample tubes are out-side of an isolated contamination-controlled environment, secondary containment is necessary. A Sample Tube Isolation Container (STIC) and Secondary Outer Containment Case (SOCC) is currently being developed at NASA JPL under the direction of the SRP JCO.
A new type of large area sensor for infrared imaging bolometers has been developed. It replaces the thin and fragile free-standing metal foils, which typically have been used, with a multi-layer coated sapphire (or diamond) substrate. Sapphire is transparent to mid-infrared wavelengths, is robust against transients, and can be thick enough to even be the vacuum window. The primary radiation absorber is still a thin deposited metal layer, but now it is partially insulated from the supporting sapphire substrate by a black (carbon-based) layer, which also acts as a blackbody remitter. Test results indicate 6× more noise equivalent power density (estimated NEPD = 23 W/m 2 at 5 ms camera exposure time, foil temperature decay time 60 ms) for a 2 μm gold-coated sapphire disk compared to estimated NEP = 4 W/m 2 at 1.8 ms exposure time, with foil decay time 420 ms, for a nominal 2.5 μm thick platinum-free-standing foil.
The report summarizes DOE INFUSE-supported work between HB11 Energy and the University of Rochester’s TriForce Institute to improve computational modeling of advanced fusion fuels, especially proton–boron-11 (p- 11 B). The project extended the TriForce particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collision code to include physics needed for dense, high-temperature p- 11 B burn studies, including p- 11 B fusion reactions, three-alpha-particle reaction products, relativistic Coulomb collisions, large-angle nuclear scattering, bremsstrahlung radiation, inverse bremsstrahlung absorption, and photon transport. The upgraded models were verified against focused physics tests and against known deuterium–tritium burn behavior. The study then used one-dimensional spherical simulations to estimate the conditions required for thermonuclear burn propagation in isochoric p- 11 B fuel. The calculations found that burn propagation is possible in the model, but only under very extreme hot-spot conditions, such as about 7000 g/cm 3 at 500 keV or 9000 g/cm 3 at 300 keV for a 20-micron hot spot. These conditions are much more demanding than current demonstrated inertial confinement fusion hot spots. The report concludes that the INFUSE collaboration successfully advanced kinetic and radiation modeling capabilities for p- 11 B fusion and provided useful estimates of ignition requirements. However, the simulated fuel gains remain below what would be needed for practical inertial fusion energy, and further work is needed to reconcile differences among kinetic, radiation-hydrodynamic, and analytic models and to identify more achievable target designs.
PowerRoll Ltd and NREL will work on development of perovskite ink formulations and corresponding coating techniques to best coat PowerRoll's micro-structure substrates with high quality, high-performance perovskite materials.
Integrated mission development plan for Manned Orbital Research Laboratory
Integrated mission development plan for manned orbital research laboratory
Brazing alloy development for high strength aluminum honeycomb sandwich composites for elevated and cryogenic temperature applications
Descriptive model of system development activities and man machine systems for determining optimal human performance in aerospace systems