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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 1,243 records · Page 69

Programming with process groups: Group and multicast semantics

Process groups are a natural tool for distributed programming and are increasingly important in distributed computing environments. Discussed here is a new architecture that arose from an effort to simplify Isis process group semantics. The findings include a refined notion of how the clients of a group should be treated, what the properties of a multicast primitive should be when systems contain large numbers of overlapping groups, and a new construct called the causality domain. A system based on this architecture is now being implemented in collaboration with the Chorus and Mach projects.

Birman, Kenneth P.↗

ROSAT-IUE observations of symbiotic stars. The x ray morphology of high latitude associations

The purposes of this grant included: to provide for continuing investigations of the x-ray properties of a class of interacting binaries known as symbiotic stars through analysis of their detection statistics in the ROSAT All-Sky Survey and simultaneous IUE observations; and to obtain and analyze ROSAT images of selected high latitude OB star associations, in order to permit multi-wavelength dissection of their contents and energetics. The first study is expected to result in enhanced information on mass transfer and accretion in such systems, and provide a more quantitative basis for interpretation of the spectra of these and similar stellar and extragalactic systems. This particular effort represents NASA support for an approved collaboration between the PI and the ROSAT Team at MPE Garching. In the second study, we seek to correlate the strength with which the diffuse clouds have been shocked and the recent star formation triggered, namely, the O and B stars of the Association, as well as nearby T Tauri stars. The large scale X-ray emission in deep ROSAT PSPC images will be compared with the optical, infrared, and radio topology of nearby supernova remnants, molecular clouds, and the distribution of massive stars in the regions. This should enable us to test whether the star formation triggering shocks originate from in the galactic plane (nearby supernovae) or from the collision of infalling matter with the disk material (galactic fountain dynamics).

Stencel, Robert E.↗

Coordinating complex decision support activities across distributed applications

Knowledge-based technologies have been applied successfully to automate planning and scheduling in many problem domains. Automation of decision support can be increased further by integrating task-specific applications with supporting database systems, and by coordinating interactions between such tools to facilitate collaborative activities. Unfortunately, the technical obstacles that must be overcome to achieve this vision of transparent, cooperative problem-solving are daunting. Intelligent decision support tools are typically developed for standalone use, rely on incompatible, task-specific representational models and application programming interfaces (API's), and run on heterogeneous computing platforms. Getting such applications to interact freely calls for platform independent capabilities for distributed communication, as well as tools for mapping information across disparate representations. Symbiotics is developing a layered set of software tools (called NetWorks! for integrating and coordinating heterogeneous distributed applications. he top layer of tools consists of an extensible set of generic, programmable coordination services. Developers access these services via high-level API's to implement the desired interactions between distributed applications.

Adler, Richard M.↗

Simulation and Flight Control of an Aeroelastic Fixed Wing Micro Aerial Vehicle

Micro aerial vehicles have been the subject of continued interest and development over the last several years. The majority of current vehicle concepts rely on rigid fixed wings or rotors. An alternate design based on an aeroelastic membrane wing has also been developed that exhibits desired characteristics in flight test demonstrations, competition, and in prior aerodynamics studies. This paper presents a simulation model and an assessment of flight control characteristics of the vehicle. Linear state space models of the vehicle associated with typical trimmed level flight conditions and which are suitable for control system design are presented as well. The simulation is used as the basis for the design of a measurement based nonlinear dynamic inversion control system and outer loop guidance system. The vehicle/controller system is the subject of ongoing investigations of autonomous and collaborative control schemes. The results indicate that the design represents a good basis for further development of the micro aerial vehicle for autonomous and collaborative controls research.

Waszak, Martin↗

ISS Radiation Shielding and Acoustic Simulation Using an Immersive Environment

The International Space Station Environment Simulator (ISSES) is a virtual reality application that uses high-performance computing, graphics, and audio rendering to simulate the radiation and acoustic environments of the International Space Station (ISS). This CAVE application allows the user to maneuver to different locations inside or outside of the ISS and interactively compute and display the radiation dose at a point. The directional dose data is displayed as a color-mapped sphere that indicates the relative levels of radiation from all directions about the center of the sphere. The noise environment is rendered in real time over headphones or speakers and includes non-spatial background noise, such as air-handling equipment, and spatial sounds associated with specific equipment racks, such as compressors or fans. Changes can be made to equipment rack locations that produce changes in both the radiation shielding and system noise. The ISSES application allows for interactive investigation and collaborative trade studies between radiation shielding and noise for crew safety and comfort.

Verhage, Joshua E.↗

Space analogue studies in Antarctica

Medical research has been carried out on the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE) for 50 years. As an extension of this program collaborative Australian/United States research on immunology, microbiology, psychology and remote medicine has produced important data and insight on how humans adapt to the stress of extreme isolation, confinement and the harsh environment of Antarctica. An outstanding analogue for the isolation and confinement of space missions (especially planetary outposts), ANARE has been used as an international research platform by Australia and the United States since 1993. Collaborative research has demonstrated a lowered responsiveness of the immune system under the isolation and confinement of Antarctic winter-over; a reduction of almost 50% in T cell proliferation to mitogen phytohaemogglutinin, as well as changes in latent herpesvirus states and the expansion of the polyclonal latent Epstein-Barr virus infected B cell populations. Although no clinically significant disease has been found to result from these immune changes, research is currently assessing the effects of psychological factors on the immune system. This and associated research performed to date and its relevance to both organisations is discussed, and comment made on possible extensions to the program in both medical and other fields.

NASA Center HQS↗

Making Sense of Rocket Science - Building NASA's Knowledge Management Program

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has launched a range of KM activities-from deploying intelligent "know-bots" across millions of electronic sources to ensuring tacit knowledge is transferred across generations. The strategy and implementation focuses on managing NASA's wealth of explicit knowledge, enabling remote collaboration for international teams, and enhancing capture of the key knowledge of the workforce. An in-depth view of the work being done at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) shows the integration of academic studies and practical applications to architect, develop, and deploy KM systems in the areas of document management, electronic archives, information lifecycles, authoring environments, enterprise information portals, search engines, experts directories, collaborative tools, and in-process decision capture. These systems, together, comprise JPL's architecture to capture, organize, store, and distribute key learnings for the U.S. exploration of space.

knowledge management organizational learning NASA ↗

Requirements of an Integrated Formal Method for Intelligent Swarms

NASA is investigating new paradigms for future space exploration, heavily focused on the (still) emerging technologies of autonomous and autonomic systems [47, 48, 49]. Missions that rely on multiple, smaller, collaborating spacecraft, analogous to swarms in nature, are being investigated to supplement and complement traditional missions that rely on one large spacecraft [16]. The small spacecraft in such missions would each be able to operate on their own to accomplish a part of a mission, but would need to interact and exchange information with the other spacecraft to successfully execute the mission.

Hinchey, M. G.↗

L-8: Non-Venting Thermal Control Systems for Space Vehicles: Boilerplate

We are sharpening our focus on Human Space Flight (HSF) Exploration Beyond Low Earth Orbit. We want to ensure that HSF technologies are ready to take Humans to Mars in the 2030's. Various Roadmaps define the needed technologies. We are attempting to define our activities and dependencies. Our Goal: Get within 8 years of launching humans to Mars (L-8) by 2025. Develop and Mature the technologies and systems needed. Develop and Mature the personnel needed. We need collaborators to make it happen, and we think they can benefit by working with us.

Smith, Fred↗

L-8: In-Situ Resource Utilization Capabilities

We are sharpening our focus on Human Space Flight (HSF) Exploration Beyond Low Earth Orbit. We want to ensure that HSF technologies are ready to take Humans to Mars in the 2030's. Various Roadmaps define the needed technologies. We are attempting to define our activities and dependencies. Our Goal: Get within 8 years of launching humans to Mars (L-8) by 2025. Develop and Mature the technologies and systems needed. Develop and Mature the personnel needed. We need collaborators to make it happen, and we think they can benefit by working with us.

Sanders, Jerry↗

L-8: Docking Systems and Other Attachment/Release Mechanisms and Related Technologies

We are sharpening our focus on Human Space Flight (HSF) Exploration Beyond Low Earth Orbit. We want to ensure that HSF technologies are ready to take Humans to Mars in the 2030s. Various Roadmaps define the needed technologies. We are attempting to define our activities and dependencies. Our Goal: Get within 8 years of launching humans to Mars (L-8) by 2025. Develop and Mature the technologies and systems needed. Develop and Mature the personnel needed. We need collaborators to make it happen, and we think they can benefit by working with us.

Lewis, James↗

Benefit Assessment of the Integrated Demand Management Concept for Multiple New York Metroplex Airports

Benefits of the Integrated Demand Management (IDM) concept were assessed utilizing a newly developed automated simulation capability called ‘Traffic Management Initiative Automated Simulation (TMIAutoSim).’ The IDM concept focuses on improving traffic flow management (TFM) by coordinating the FAA’s strategic Traffic Flow Management System (TFMS) with its more tactical Time-Based Flow Management (TBFM) system. The IDM concept leverages a new TFMS capability called Collaborative Trajectory Options Program (CTOP) to strategically pre-condition traffic demand flowing into a TBFM-managed arrival environment, where TBFM is responsible for tactically managing traffic by generating precise arrival schedules. The IDM concept was developed over a multi-year effort, focusing on solving New York metroplex airport arrival problems. TMIAutoSim closely mimics NASA’s high-fidelity simulation capabilities while enabling more data to be collected at higher speed. Using this new capability, the IDM concept was evaluated using realistic traffic across various weather scenarios. Six representative weather days were selected after clustering three months of historical data. For those selected six days, Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and LaGuardia Airport (LGA) arrival traffic scenarios were developed. For each selected day, the historical data were analyzed to accurately simulate actual operations and the weather impact of the day. The current day operations and the IDM concept operations were simulated for the same weather scenarios and the results were compared. The selected six days were categorized into two groups: ‘clear weather’ for days without Ground Delay Programs (GDP) and ‘convective weather’ for days with GDP and significant weather around New York metroplex airports. For the clear weather scenarios, IDM operations reduced last minute, unanticipated departure delays for short-haul flights within TBFM control boundaries with minimal to no impact on throughput and total delay. For the convective weather scenarios, IDM significantly reduced delays and increased throughput to the destination airports.

Traffic Management Initiative Automated Simulation↗

ELEET- Formulating a Multi-Element, Inter-agency Error Budget for Robust Earth Entry of Returned Mars Samples

The operational segment of a potential Mars Sample Return campaign could end with final delivery of the Earth Entry System to the surface of Earth, punctuating an impressive international collaboration on multiple flight elements over many years. A comprehensive error budget approach is presented to characterize the high-dimensional technical challenge of this concept, including inputs from interdisciplinary stakeholders. Effects considered include interplanetary navigation, spacecraft attitude and maneuver control, and entry environment, culminating in figures of merit such as landing range accuracy. Broad tradespace exploration confirms some intuitions while challenging others, and a set of solutions are identified that are mutually agreeable to NASA and ESA.

Lobbia, Marcus↗

Dare Mighty Things

Winston Churchill once said, “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” JPL’s Property Accountability objective is to provide superior services related to property accountability, reutilization, and disposition. JPL must report property reutilized and disposed through either sales, donation, or scrap. Implementing the JPL designed and built Property Information Reporting System (PIRS), opened a new perspective with our data and what are we reporting to NASA. With this new depth of visibility, we self-implemented as assessment to validate the fiduciary and stewardship responsibilities of what is being reporting to NASA. JPL strives to perform at a level beyond the basic primary expectations of our NASA requirements. JPL developed the PIRS - which rolled out in 2018 - to simplify the delivery of JPL’s Personal Property and Equipment (PP&E) reporting: PIRS takes the raw data from Oracle to generate the NASA Form (NF) 1018 and Contractor Held Asset Reporting System (CHATS) Reports, and to meet the requirements established for AS9100 compliance. The data presented from PIRS is exportable and used to analyze our property records. JPL is also embarking on an effort to define the JPL of the future with “Enterprise 2.0”. Enterprise 2.0 is the driving force of JPL’s strategy to digitally transform the Laboratory from the current legacy processes and systems to a modern, integrated, information-driven highway of business transactions. This should include automation of routine processes and data-related tasks, integration of data and systems, advanced search and analytics, and improved information sharing and collaboration. As JPL’s evolving landscape of digital technologies advance to meet the future, JPL Property Accountability is making strides to surpass these expectations. For every cause there is an effect: a revealing of something that aids in the further development and transformation of JPL best business practices.

Sucher, Jay M↗

Digital Lunar Exploration Sites (DLES) Terrain Crafting

Humans will soon be returning to the surface of the Moon with NASA’s Artemis program. The Artemis program is an international collaboration that will consist of a complex series of space systems and missions to explore the lunar surface and pave the way for the future exploration of Mars. NASA and its partners rely heavily on simulation for lighting and navigation studies as well as training astronauts, flight controllers, and mission support staff. The NASA Exploration Systems Simulations (NExSyS) team in the Simulation and Graphics Branch (ER7) in the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Johnson Space Center has built up many simulation products to support this effort, one of which is the Digital Lunar Exploration Sites (DLES). DLES is a collection of products used to simulate and render the lunar surface in a digital environment. We discussed and presented an overview of the DLES products at the 2022 IEEE Aerospace Conference in Big Sky, MT with a paper titled "Digital Lunar Exploration Sites". This “DLES Terrain Crafting” paper will expand on the information previously provided in “DLES” paper and dive deeper into the details of the terrain crafting process and the toolsets used to support this task. The best digital data currently available of the lunar surface is provided by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Its Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) achieves an impressive resolution of 5m per pixel at the Lunar South Pole (LSP) and can generate datasets covering a large continuous region near the LSP. There are a few additional methods, such as Shape from Shading which can infer higher resolution data (up to 1m per pixel) from the LRO Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) images. However, surface-based simulations require higher-resolution data, and this paper will discuss the process of enhancing the terrain to meet that need. The process begins with capturing statistical data of craters in the regions of interest using images provided by the LRO NAC. This data is then used to scatter artificial features which are not captured in the truth data, resulting in an enhanced DEM with a much higher resolution of 20cm per pixel. Many tools were built up to assist in the creation of these artificial Digital Elevation Models (DEM), which this paper will discuss in detail. DEMs themselves are a very powerful representation of a planetary surface, and many operations and tools can utilize the data they contain. This paper includes a description of the rendering of the lunar surface in a graphics engine, generation of contact patches to simulate tire to ground interaction, and ray tracing utilities to model Line of Sight (LOS) interactions with the terrain. This paper will also explore some new tool sets currently under development which aim to utilize Machine Learning (ML) to assist in the identification of craters from LRO NAC imagery. While this is not a novel idea, the NExSyS team is developing a unique approach which may result in more robust identification of crater characteristics.

Artemis↗

Situated Visualization of Photovoltaic Module Performance for Workforce Development: Preprint

The rapid growth of the solar energy industry requires advanced educational tools to train the next generation of engineers and technicians. We present a novel system for situated visualization of photovoltaic (PV) module performance, leveraging a combination of PV simulation, sun-sky position, and head-mounted augmented reality (AR). Our system is guided by four principles of development: simplicity, adaptability, collaboration, and maintainability, realized in six components. Users interactively manipulate a physical module's orientation and shading referents with immediate feedback on the module's performance.

augmented reality↗

Situated Visualization of Photovoltaic Module Performance for Workforce Development

The rapid growth of the solar energy industry requires advanced educational tools to train the next generation of engineers and technicians. We present a novel system for situated visualization of photovoltaic (PV) module performance, leveraging a combination of PV simulation, sun-sky position, and head-mounted augmented reality (AR). Our system is guided by four principles of development: simplicity, adaptability, collaboration, and maintainability, realized in six components. Users interactively manipulate a physical module's orientation and shading referents with immediate feedback on the module's performance.

augmented reality↗

Expanding the Field of Climate Finance

Over the past twenty-one years, the Financial Innovations Roundtable (FIR), located at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire, has worked to address problems related to access to capital for low- and moderate-income consumers and communities. Since 2014, the event has been co-hosted by the Federal Reserve Board. The FIR works with a range of financial institutions, government agencies, foundations, and trade associations to access their expertise for problem-solving discussions. The 2020 FIR focused on the expanding field of climate finance and was co-hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and The Climate Safe Lending Network. The event was originally slated to be in-person in San Francisco in May 2020 but was postponed due to the pandemic and shifted to an online event hosted November 16‒17, 2020. A significant amount has happened in 2020 on climate finance, racial justice, the economy, and COVID-19. The shocks and stresses of climate change are creating risks in low- and moderate-income communities as well as in the financial sector broadly. The 2020 FIR offered an opportunity to discuss the challenges and opportunities banks and Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) face as they address these risks and how these institutions can help increase individual, institutional, and community-wide resilience. The program explored new and modified products that address climate risk in communities and how those products can be scaled. Conversations focused around: • The progress that has been made in the climate finance field and the challenges that lie ahead for financial institutions’ climate impact and climate-related risk. • Promising opportunities to decarbonize investments and finance low-carbon technology and infrastructure. • How lenders, insurers, housing organizations, and the public sector can work together to reduce housing instability due to climate-related factors and increase the climate-resilience of homes and neighborhoods. • Solutions to help communities address a wide range of related issues, including home weatherization and disaster preparation, home insurance loss, and climate gentrification and displacement. • Discussing lessons learned from other sectors such as renewable energy in order to design both people-based and place-based finance solutions that promote racial and economic inclusion. 1 • The need for all financial institutions to acknowledge that climate risks and racial inequity are systemic risks affecting their bottom line. • The role that bank regulators can play in promoting collaboration across the financial sector and in leading by example with regard to climate finance. • Mapping out concrete action-item initiatives including policy and industry pathways to climate safe lending as well as building a financing platform to provide clean energy to low-income communities. • More broadly, in order to systemically address climate risks, we will need to work together as a range of stakeholders across sectors and collaborate on shared goals and projects.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗