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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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1,623 records · Page 67
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1983

High voltage battery cell scanner development

Battery cell voltage scanners have been previously used in low voltage spacecraft applications. In connection with future missions involving an employment of high-power high voltage power subsystems and/or autonomous power subsystem management for unattended operation, it will be necessary to utilize battery cell voltage scanners to provide battery cell voltage information for early detection of impending battery cell degradation/failures. In preparation for such missions, a novel battery cell voltage scanner design has been developed. The novel design makes use of low voltage circuit modules which can be applied to high voltage batteries in a building block fashion. A description is presented of the design concept and test results of the high voltage battery cell scanner, and its operation with an autonomously managed power subsystem is discussed.

Lepisto, J. W.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Battery charge control with temperature compensated voltage limit

Battery charge control for orbiting spacecraft with mission durations from three to ten years, is a critical design feature that is discussed. Starting in 1974, the General Electric Space Systems Division designed, manufactured and tested battery systems for six different space programs. Three of these are geosynchronous missions, two are medium altitude missions and one is a near-earth mission. All six power subsystems contain nickel cadmium batteries which are charged using a temperature compensated voltage limit. This charging method was found to be successful in extending the life of nickel cadmium batteries in all three types of earth orbits. Test data and flight data are presented for each type of orbit.

Thierfelder, H. E.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Nongassing NiCd battery cell

Method of constructing nickel cadmium batteries prevents excessive gas buildup and allows hermetic sealing of battery for increased service life and reduced maintenance cost.

Juvinall, G. L.↗
NASA NTRS1987

A new lead-acid battery for high pulse power applications

The development of new electronically conductive materials which can withstand the environment of the positive plates has made possible the construction of a high pulse power sealed bipolar lead-acid battery. The new battery is described and its advantages over other electrochemical systems are outlined. Performance projections show that the peak specific power of the battery can be as high as 90 kW/kg, and that a specific power of 5 kW/kg can be sustained over several thousand pulses.

Rowlette, J. J.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Use of Immersion Rigs for High Temperature Hydrogen Exposure Testing Within the Nuclear Thermal Rocket Element Environmental Simulator (NTREES): NTREES-5 Hydrogen Heat Exchanger (N5HHX-01)

The Nuclear Thermal Rocket Element Environmental Simulator (NTREES) facility at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) subjects materials and components typically found on nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) systems to non-nuclear simulations of prototypic NTP reactor thermohydraulic environments. With 1.2 MW of inductive power available, the currently employed methods to simulate nuclear heating in NTREES consist of 1) inductively heating a test specimen, which typically cannot be performed on ceramic materials, or 2) heating gas that envelops the test specimen. The latter of these has provided a basis for developing so-called “immersion rigs” to be used in NTREES. Furthermore, immersion rigs are especially useful in the case of smaller, technically challenging test specimens. One such device, the “NTREES-5 Hydrogen Heat Exchanger” (N5HHX-01), designed and deployed to test small material coupons to ~0.5 g/s of 2800 K, 500 psi Hydrogen, is discussed herein. To achieve this desired delivery temperature level, the most suitable material for the N5HHX’s construction was pure tungsten, which imposed budgetary and manufacturing challenges. Also discussed in this paper is the design of the N5HHX rig’s sample container, which became the first iteration of improving NTREES small material coupon test operations by permitting rapid changeout of different material samples.

Reactor Testing↗
NASA NTRS1991

COBE battery overview: History, handling, and performance

The following topics are presented in viewgraph format: Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) mission background; battery background and specifications; cell history; battery mechanical/structural design; battery test data; and flowcharts of the various battery approval procedures.

Yi, Thomas↗
NASA NTRS1988

Bipolar-Battery Construction

Bipolar batteries fabricated in continuous quasi-automated process. Components of battery configured so processing steps run sequentially. Key components of battery, bipolar plate and bipolar separator, fabricated separately and later joined together.

Rippel, Wally E.↗
NASA NTRS2026

Organic Inventory - Planetary Protection on the Moon

All spacecraft generate and carry contaminants, i.e., unwanted and potentially harmful material. When a spacecraft lands and operates in vacuum, as onto Earth’s Moon, it introduces contaminants into its environment that may compromise mission science objectives and engineering performance. Contamination may degrade sites of unique value to planetary science or in situ resource utilization. This presentation will identify and compare source terms and transport vectors for contaminants – in particular, organic material – generated by landed spacecraft. An integrated modeling framework for the organic contamination footprint of spacecraft missions will be described and presented.

Planetary Protection↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Under Pressure: The Artemis I Heatshield Char Loss Investigation and Artemis II’s Successful Entry

Following the successful Artemis I skip reentry on December 11, 2022, unexpected char liberation from the Orion heat- shield prompted formation of an Anomaly Response Team to determine root cause and establish flight rationale and corrective actions for subsequent missions. Through a comprehensive investigation including detailed hardware analysis, modeling & simulation, and ground testing, the team determined that the low permeability Avcoat experienced extreme internal gas pressure buildup during the skip entry that could not adequately outgas, leading to crack formation and char liberation. Key discoveries included significant performance differences between permeable and impermeable heatshield regions and successful replication of the anomaly through ground testing. Based on extensive ground testing and analysis, Artemis II flew a modified trajectory without the skip entry to minimize crack-inducing conditions, and successfully splashed down on April 10, 2026 with significantly reduced char loss. For Artemis III and beyond, a corrective action was implemented to produce a more permeable version of Avcoat that will substantially reduce internal pressure accumulation during entry.

Artemis II↗
NASA NTRS2019

Safe, High Power/Voltage Battery Module Design Challenges

NASA seeks to demonstrate a path for achieving safe, high power, and high performing Li-ion battery designs for the purpose of establishing design guidelines for our aeronautic and spacecraft applications. Safe means passively resistant to thermal runaway propagation of any single cell catastrophic thermal runaway. High power means capable of 3C continuous discharge without overheating. High performing means achieving > 160 Wh/kg, 200 Wh/L. The biggest challenge has been balancing a high flux light weight path for cell heat dissipation during the high rate discharge that minimizes thermal gradients between cells and also protects adjacent cells from the heat load of thermal runaway cell. Our solution includes an oscillating heat pipe spine that contacts every 18650 cell in the pack and careful cell design selection to maximize the range of initial temperatures conditions where the battery can safely complete the 3C discharge.

Thermal runaway↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Integrated Process-Structure-Property Simulations for Additive Manufacturing Using the Open-Source Materialite Package

The microstructure and properties of additively manufactured (AM) metals are strongly dependent on process conditions. Therefore, process-structure-property (PSP) simulations are a useful tool for exploring process parameter space, studying process variations, and quantifying uncertainty in material properties. However, integrating process-structure and structure-property simulations often involves connecting multiple software packages. Each package may use unique data structures and require substantial domain knowledge. This presentation demonstrates PSP simulation capabilities of Materialite, an open-source package developed at NASA Langley Research Center. Materialite simplifies model linkages by using a common data structure and model interface, enabling straightforward simulation across a PSP model chain. Physics-based models, including kinetic Monte Carlo and crystal plasticity, are implemented within the package. The model interface is also intended to simplify implementation of new models and enable integration with external simulation tools. Example use cases include uncertainty quantification with PSP models and GPU-accelerated powder bed fusion AM process models.

additive manufacturing↗
NASA NTRS1998

Behavior of 2-Cell CPV Ni-H2 Battery During Pulse Discharge

A study was carried out to determine the transient voltage behavior of the 2-cell CPV nickel-hydrogen battery with the objective of using the results as a basis for mathematical modeling. The 2-cell CPV battery which is manufactured by Eagle Picher, Inc. for the GOES program yields 18.5 Ah at C/2 rate of discharge at 10 C with a mid-discharge voltage of 2.514 V. The capacity increased with decrease of temperature and a maximum capacity of 22 Ah was obtained at -5 C. The pulse tests consisted of obtaining the voltage profile in the first 20 milliseconds of the one minute pulse discharge at 37 A and pulse discharge was repeated as a function of state-of-charge. The pulse test at 10 C and 20 C provided voltage profiles with the expected decrease in voltage as the pulse was applied. The end of pulse voltage decreased with the state-of-charge. The battery voltage was above 2V at the end of the one-minute pulse at 8 % state-of-charge at 10 C. The voltage profile during the 37 A pulse discharge consists of an initial drop in voltage which was independent of the state of charge. The invariability in the value for the initial drop in voltage with state of charge is a very important observation. The results show that towards the end of discharge the dominant resistance is not ohmic in nature. It could be hypothesized from the nature of the voltage transients that the dominant mechanism towards the end of discharge is proton diffusion. The study also shows that the dominant resistance in the voltage plateau during discharge is activation polarization.

Vaidyanathan, Hari↗
NASA NTRS1966

Spacecraft Antenna Pointing

In examining the characteristic inaccuracies of a pre-programmed high-gain antenna pointing system, the effects of spacecraft attitude errors, as embodied in pitch, yaw and roll limit cycle activity, are of major concern. If the pointing accuracy requirements for a particular mission allow the use of a single degree of freedom pointing system, it is doubtful whether a method of correcting antenna position for spacecraft attitude errors would be worthwhile. This is because the pointing error due to fitting a plane curve to a three-dimensional trajectory would probably be at least as large as the additional pointing errors due to attitude drift within the deadbands. Further, trying to correct pointing for pitch, yaw, and roll drifts by adjusting a single hinge angle is relatively ineffective.

ERROR SIGNAL↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Simulated Lunar Gravity Testing of VIPER Loop Heat Pipe

NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission consists of a rover designed to explore the lunar south pole. One of the main challenges faced by the rover during the lunar polar exploration is the adverse thermal environment. Temperatures can fluctuate more than a 100°C between day and night; potentially dropping to −246°C in permanent shadow regions. To maintain the rover components within temperature limits, VIPER’s Thermal Management System (TMS) relies heavily on Loop Heat Pipes (LHPs). To assist the design of the thermal management system, an Engineering Design Unit (EDU) LHP has been tested in several opportunities under thermal vacuum (TVAC) environment. Of particular interest was the LHP performance in lunar gravity. To that end, the EDU LHP was tested at the nominal orientation within the rover assembly, vertical, and inclined such that the gravitational component acting on the LHP evaporator and condenser was 1/6g (lunar gravity is 1/6 of Earth gravity) when compared to the vertical configuration. This paper will examine the LHP conductance as one the key parameters to assess the effect of the gravity on the LHP performance.

Loop Heat Pipe↗
NASA NTRS1962

From Peenemuende to Outer Space

Commemorating the Fiftieth Birthday of Wernher von Braun. Launch vehicles and spacecraft for exploration of space and planets

SPACECRAFT↗
NASA NTRS2009

HST Replacement Battery Initial Performance

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) original Nickel-Hydrogen (NiH2) batteries were replaced during the Servicing Mission 4 (SM4) after 19 years and one month on orbit.The purpose of this presentation is to highlight the findings from the assessment of the initial sm4 replacement battery performance. The batteries are described, the 0 C capacity is reviewed, descriptions, charts and tables reviewing the State Of Charge (SOC) Performance, the Battery Voltage Performance, the battery impedance, the minimum voltage performance, the thermal performance, the battery current, and the battery system recharge ratio,

Krol, Stan↗
NASA NTRS1986

Modeling Ni-Cd performance. Planned alterations to the Goddard battery model

The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) currently has a preliminary computer model to simulate a Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cd) performance. The basic methodology of the model was described in the paper entitled Fundamental Algorithms of the Goddard Battery Model. At present, the model is undergoing alterations to increase its efficiency, accuracy, and generality. A review of the present battery model is given, and the planned charges of the model are described.

Jagielski, J. M.↗