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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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These abstracts from the symposium represent the data analysis of the 57 experiments flown on the LDEF. The experiments include materials, coatings, thermal systems, power and propulsion, science, (cosmic ray, interstellar gas, heavy ions, micrometeoroids, etc.), electronics, optics, and life science.
Hybrid or all-electric aircraft are being developed as the next generation of aircraft to both allow new forms of aviation and decrease environmental impact. Since these types of aircraft are based on high-capacity battery technology, safe operation of these batteries becomes increasingly important. In particular, the potential for battery failure due to uncontrolled chemical reactions resulting in thermal runaway, catastrophic failure, and battery fires must be addressed in order for such battery technology to have the level of safety needed for standard aviation implementation. Efforts to ensure battery safety often involve engineering solutions that seek to contain rather than prevent such events by early detection. Such approaches increase the system weight and decrease the power per unit mass provided by the battery system. Existing methods for measuring battery parameters to determine the battery state-of-health are limited. These methods include electrical measurements of the cell current and/or voltage output as well as temperature measurements taken externally on the cell surface. Such external temperature measurements are limited in their ability to provide early warning of impending battery failure. In response, an effort to develop sensors operating internal to battery for health monitoring has been ongoing in the NASA Sensor-based Prognostics to Avoid Runaway Reactions & Catastrophic Ignition (SPARRCI) project. The basic approach associated with this sensor work is the deposition of thin film sensors on the battery separator located between the anode and cathode of the battery. These thin film sensors are then monitored to determine changes in battery parameters and health. Microfabrication techniques are employed to minimize the overall impact of the sensors on battery operation through the implementation of sensors with minimal size, weight, and power consumption. The thickness of the films, which are fabricated through physical vapor deposition (sputtering), are on the order of thousands of angstroms and can have minimal surface area. Thin film sensors for system health management have been implemented for a many decades on complex components for aerospace applications. However, the application of thin films of this type on a battery separator for internal battery monitoring applications has not previously been demonstrated to our knowledge. This paper describes the development of sensors for the internal battery monitoring through the use of thin film sensor technology. Thin metal films were successfully deposited on a battery separator polymer material with good adherence and electrical continuity. Multiple types of sensors have been deposited, as well as lead connections from the sensor to the edge of the separator material. The ability of these thin film sensors immersed in electrolyte to perform multiple types of battery parameter measurements has been demonstrated. For example, a multiparameter sensor system measured multiple properties simultaneously inside of a pouch cell over a wide temperature range. Further, real time measurement of interior temperature changes in a battery pouch cell with an integrated interior temperature sensor was demonstrated. These changes include detecting a fault in the battery (shorting) in situ with rapid response time (less than a minute) corresponding to a more limited response by a temperature sensor mounted externally. Other aspects of monitoring battery health were also explored, such as real-time measurement of simulated dendrite growth/metal deposition by sensor on separator material demonstrated. Future efforts will include improvements in the durability of the sensor structure to allow introduction of the approach into standard battery fabrication techniques. Overall, this work is a step forward in providing a method to prevent catastrophic battery failures and provide a foundation for safer, lighter, and higher energy batteries for the electric aircraft industry.
Surface Acoustic Wave sensors (SAWs) offer a battery less, wireless, passive, noninvasive, durable means of sensing which might be appealing to many fields in space technology. Developments in many aspects of SAWs including the miniaturization of associated hardware, improvements in interrogation and device fabrication / characterization allow for the use of SAWs in many aerospace settings where traditional sensors may have sufficed but SAWs might enhance. In order to place this technology in relevant environments, an inherent understanding of operation and capabilities must be understood. With the many possibilities of SAWs in their implementation, breaking down their tradeoffs and primary systems allows for their application.
Cryogenic propellant tank pressurization systems maintain tank pressure within specified limits to comply with propellant thermodynamic and tank structural design requirements. Many pump-fed cryogenic liquid propulsion systems control tank pressure using an autogenous pressurization system. Autogenous pressurization systems vaporize and heat propellant to produce the pressurant gas delivered to the tank. While autogenous pressurization systems eliminate the need for a separate pressurant gas storage and delivery system, they couple pressurant mass requirements to propellant mass requirements. Accurate prediction of autogenous pressurant mass during propellant drain is essential in optimizing cryogenic propellant tank designs.
Zinc-silver oxide battery design for improved and activated charge retention, voltage control, and temperature stability
Charge-discharge controller contains punched-tape programmer capable of programming 305 discrete steps in the battery load. The indicating instrumentation includes meters for ampere-hours, watt-hours, voltage, current, and internal temperature and pressure. It also generates analog signals for recording the displayed data.
OSIRIS-REx is a sample return mission that collected carbon-rich material from B-type asteroid Bennu. After landing on September 24th, 2023, the science canister was transported to NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas where it was opened and samples were processed by the curation team in pristine sample nitrogen gloveboxes. As the sample analysis phase of the OSIRIS-REx mission concludes, the Sample Analysis Team (SAT) has returned the majority of mission samples to NASA JSC curation and will return the remaining samples on a defined timetable. The curation team processed and documented as many of these samples as possible to include in the spring 2026 catalog update and are steadily working to process hundreds of more samples to include in the fall 2026 catalog update.
A battery monitoring system utilizes a plurality of transformers interconnected with a battery having a plurality of battery cells. Windings of the transformers are driven with an excitation waveform whereupon signals are responsively detected, which indicate a health of the battery. In one embodiment, excitation windings and sense windings are separately provided for the plurality of transformers such that the excitation waveform is applied to the excitation windings and the signals are detected on the sense windings. In one embodiment, the number of sense windings and/or excitation windings is varied to permit location of underperforming battery cells utilizing a peak voltage detector.
Before cryogenic fuel depots can be fully realized, efficient methods with which to chill down the spacecraft transfer line and receiver tank are required. This paper presents numerical modeling of the chilldown of a liquid hydrogen tank-to-tank propellant transfer line using the Generalized Fluid System Simulation Program (GFSSP). To compare with data from recently concluded turbulent LH2 chill down experiments, seven different cases were run across a range of inlet liquid temperatures and mass flow rates. Both trickle and pulse chill down methods were simulated. The GFSSP model qualitatively matches external skin mounted temperature readings, but large differences are shown between measured and predicted internal stream temperatures. Discrepancies are attributed to the simplified model correlation used to compute two-phase flow boiling heat transfer. Flow visualization from testing shows that the initial bottoming out of skin mounted sensors corresponds to annular flow, but that considerable time is required for the stream sensor to achieve steady state as the system moves through annular, churn, and bubbly flow. The GFSSP model does adequately well in tracking trends in the data but further work is needed to refine the two-phase flow modeling to better match observed test data.
A series of tests were performed to characterize battery performance relating to certain operating parameters which include charge current, discharge current, temperature, and pressure. The parameters were varied to confirm battery design concepts and to determine optimal operating conditions.
Presentation of test process at the National Transonic Facility, Nasa Langley Research Center. The test showcased was part of a cooperative test effort between ARC, LaRC, GRC, and AEDC collecting aerodynamic and process data on the modified F-111 FAVOR model.
This paper describes the preliminary development of a high force thermal latch (HFTL). The HFTL has one moving part which is restrained in the latched position by a low melting temperature or fusible metal alloy. When heated the fusible alloy flows to a receiving chamber and in so doing at first releases the tension load in the latch bolt and later releases the bolt itself. The HFTL can be used in place of pyrotechnically activated spacecraft release devices in those instances where the elimination of both pyrotechnic shock-loading and rapid strain-energy release take precedence over the near instantaneous release offered by ordnance initiated devices.
Successfully executing proximity operations in space, such as docking or in-orbit servicing, requires sophisticated spacecraft design that accounts for induced environments. As a chaser vehicle’s attitude control thrusters fire, they create rarefied plumes that can impact the target vehicle, with the potential to overload components, exceed thermal limits, and spin the target vehicle out of control. High-fidelity simulations of the thruster plume impingement environment require the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method, but DSMC is too computationally expensive to simulate proximity operations that involve thousands of thruster firings. For this analysis to be tractable, engineering models of the plume flowfield and impingement events are used to simulate these trajectories [1]. Currently, on-orbit plume impingement environments are modeled through an inefficient open-loop analysis cycle where the vehicle’s flight controller and plume impingement teams iterate on the trajectories until they pass the target vehicle’s plume requirements. As complex on-orbit missions evolve and become more frequent, lengthy design cycles will become operational bottlenecks. To address this gap, this work develops an advanced plume impingement module capable of operating at real-time scale that can be integrated with existing mission planning tools and onboard flight systems. The plume module leverages state-of-the-art plume simulation techniques [2] to deliver fast, physics-based impingement predictions in a software architecture that can be tailored to diverse proximity operations scenarios. A prototype of this plume impingement module is built to demonstrate the feasibility of real-time performance. This prototype completes plume impingement calculations in microseconds per target geometry mesh point. The software serves as a foundational capability for plume-aware trajectory design, operational risk assessment, and future autonomous decision-making systems.
Optimal re-entry trajectories are generated for reusable launch vehicles which minimize: (1) the heat absorbed at the vehicle surface, (2) the lower surface temperature, and (3) the heat absorbed by the internal structure. The approach uses the energy state approximation technique and a finite control volume heat transfer code coupled to a flight path integration code. These trajectories are compared to the optimal re-entry trajectory minimizing the integrated convective heat rate to determine which trajectory produces the minimum internal structural temperatures for a given thermal protection system. Three different thermal protection systems are considered: tile, blanket, and metallic.
High energy anode and cathode development, electrolyte encapsulation, tape activation, and parasitic operation techniques for dry tape battery concept
High energy anode and cathode for dry tape battery - incapsulation of electrolyte - manufacturing and testing of device
The thermal performance of 50-ampere-hour, nickel cadmium batteries for use in a modular spacecraft is examined in near-Earth orbit simulation. Battery voltage and temperature profiles for temperature extreme cycles are given and discussed.
During autogenous pressurization, tank sloshing causes a significant increase in pressurant consumption to maintain constant ullage pressure during draining of the tank. This increase in pressurant consumption is caused by a significant increase in condensation at the liquid-vapor interface. Sloshing strongly affects the liquid side heat transfer coefficient and thereby the condensation rate. Traditionally, sloshing is modeled by CFD code using the VOF (Volume of Fluid) method to track the liquid vapor interface during sloshing. CFD calculations require a very fine grid to accurately compute the heat and mass transfer at the interface. Therefore, computations are time consuming and prohibit performing many parametric studies often needed during the design of a new system. This paper describes an alternative approach by developing a CFD-assisted nodal model to predict system parameters more economically with reasonable accuracy. In this approach, a multi-node model of tank pressurization was developed using GFSSP. A multi-node model was needed to account for stratification. The model computes heat and mass transfer at the interface to calculate the condensation rate. The liquid side heat transfer is computed using the parameters of sloshing dynamics such as frequency, wave amplitude, and interface area. The parameters of sloshing dynamics are computed by the CFD code LOCI-Stream. The model predictions were compared with test data for several cases.