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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 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1989

A combined Eulerian-Lagrangian two-phase analysis of the SSME HPOTP nozzle plug trajectories

As a result of high cycle fatigue, hydrogen embrittlement, and extended engine use, it was observed in testing that the trailing edge on the first stage nozzle plug in the High Pressure Oxygen Turbopump (HPOTP) could detach. The objective was to predict the trajectories followed by particles exiting the turbine. Experiments had shown that the heat exchanger soils, which lie downstream of the turbine, would be ruptured by particles traveling in the order of 360 ft/sec. An axisymmetric solution of the flow was obtained from the work of Lin et. al., who used INS3D to obtain the solution. The particle trajectories were obtained using the method of de Jong et. al., which employs Lagrangian tracking of the particle through the Eulerian flow field. The collision parameters were obtained from experiments conducted by Rocketdyne using problem specific alloys, speeds, and projectile geometries. A complete 3-D analysis using the most likely collision parameters shows maximum particle velocities of 200 ft/sec. in the heat exchanger region. Subsequent to this analysis, an engine level test was conducted in which seven particles passed through the turbine but no damage was observed on the heat exchanger coils.

Garcia, Robert↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Model of Ice Wedge Polygon Drainage in Changing Arctic Terrain

As ice wedge degradation and the inundation of polygonal troughs become increasingly common processes across the Arctic, lateral export of water from polygonal soils may represent an important mechanism for the mobilization of dissolved organic carbon and other solutes. However, drainage from ice wedge polygons is poorly understood. We constructed a model which uses cross-sectional flow nets to define flow paths of meltwater through the active layer of an inundated low-centered polygon towards the trough. The model includes the effects of evaporation and simulates the depletion of ponded water in the polygon center during the thaw season. In most simulations, we discovered a strong hydrodynamic edge effect: only a small fraction of the polygon volume near the rim area is flushed by the drainage at relatively high velocities, suggesting that nearly all advective transport of solutes, heat, and soil particles is confined to this zone. Estimates of characteristic drainage times from the polygon center are consistent with published field observations.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2008

Phoenix Lander's Thermal Evolved Gas Analyzer: Differential Scanning Calorimeter and Mass Spectrometer Database Development

The Mars Scout Phoenix lander will land in the north polar region of Mars in May, 2008. One objective of the Phoenix lander is to search for evidence of past life in the form of molecular organics that may be preserved in the subsurface soil. The Thermal Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) was developed to detect these organics by coupling a simultaneous differential thermal analyzer (SDTA) with a mass spectrometer. Martian soil will be heated to approx.1000 C and potential organic decomposition products such as CO2, CH4 etc. will be examined for with the MS. TEGA s SDTA will also assess the presence of endothermic and exothermic reactions that are characteristic of soil organics and minerals as the soil is heated. The MS in addition to detecting organic decompositon products, will also assess the levels of soil inorganic volatiles such as H2O, SO2, and CO2. Organic detection has a high priority for this mission; however, TEGA has the ability to provide valuable insight into the mineralogical composition of the soil. The overall goal of this work is to develop a TEGA database of minerals that will serve as a reference for the interpretation of Phoenix-TEGA. Previous databases for the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander (MPL)-TEGA instrument only went to 725 C. Furthermore, the MPL-TEGA could only detect CO2 and H2O while the Phoenix-TEGA MS can examine up to 144 atomic mass units. The higher temperature Phoenix-TEGA SDTA coupled with the more capable MS indicates that a higher temperature database is required for TEGA interpretation. The overall goal of this work is to develop a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) database of minerals along with corresponding MS data of evolved gases that can used to interpret TEGA data during and after mission operations. While SDTA and DSC measurement techniques are slightly different (SDTA does not use a reference pan), the results are fundamentally similar and thus DSC is a useful technique in providing comparative data for the TEGA database. The objectives of this work is to conduct DSC and MS analysis up to 1000 C of select minerals that may be found in the martian soil.

Sutter, B.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Constraining the behavior of gallium isotopes during evaporation at extreme temperatures

Renewed interest in gallium isotope systematics has stemmed from the fact that Ga is moderately volatile and is hypothesized to undergo kinetic fractionation during evaporation. In this work, we present the first Ga isotope data from terrestrial volatile depleted samples including a suite of experimentally heated rhyolitic soils, fallout melt glass, and splash-form tektites from the Australasian strewn field (hereafter termed australite tektites). The Ga in these samples is isotopically heavy compared to Ga in terrestrial basalts and estimates for the composition of the bulk silicate Earth (BSE). For each sample suite the isotopic fractionation of Ga scales with the degree of Ga depletion, consistent with isotopic fractionation caused by evaporation.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Continuous sensor suite measurements of weather, energy, soil and flux at four PumpHouse sites at the East River, Colorado

The purpose of this package is to monitor energy and water fluxes using a comprehensive set of sensors integrated on a tripod set up at 4 locations at the East River watershed in Colorado in the Upper Colorado River Basin as part of the Scientific Focus Area (SFA) research led by the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL). This is a continuous sensor suite measurements of weather, energy, soil and flux at four East River pumphouse sites (ER-PHS1, ER-PHS2, ER-PHS3 and ER-PHS4) include: (1) soil CO2 concentration, CO2 flux and heat flux from soil surface; (2) photosynthetic active radiation flux at 1 m; (3) incoming/outcoming short and long wave radiation at 1 m, and user calculated net short and long wave radiation; (4) oxygen concentration and surface infrared temperature; (5) soil volumetric water content, temperature, and electrical conductivity at 10, 30, 60, 115 cm depth 115 cm depth; (6) soil matric potential and temperature at 30 cm depth; (7) incoming short wave radiation at 3 m height; (8) rainfall precipitation; (9) lightning strikes and strike distances; (10) wind direction and speed, maximum wind gust at 3 m; (11) air temperature, vapor pressure and barometric pressure at 3 m; (12) X _axis_level and Y_axis_level_(degree), tilt of the ATMOS 41 sensor; (13) maximum rainfall rate; (14) relative humidity sensor temperature at 3 m; (15) internally calculated vapor pressure deficit at 3 m with vapor pressure, relative humidity and sensor temperature measurements; (16) user calculated vapor pressure.These datasets contain data from Oct 11 2019 to March 20, 2020, and new datasets will be updated on annual basis. Files uploaded in Excel and Word, with copies in csv and pdf format.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Data from: 'Abiotic influences on continuous conifer forest structure across a subalpine watershed'

This package archives the core data used for analysis and inference in 'Abiotic influences on continuous conifer forest structure across a subalpine watershed' (Worsham et al., 2025). All data were collected in the East River, Washington Gulch, Slate River, and Coal Creek watersheds of Colorado. In the paper, we quantified the relative influence of climate, topographic, edaphic, and geologic factors on conifer stand structure and composition, and their functional relationships, at the watershed scale. We used waveform LiDAR data to derive spatially continuous stand structure metrics. We fused these with a species-level classification map to estimate tree species abundance. We applied generalized additive and generalized boosted models to evaluate the covariability of structural and compositional metrics with abiotic variables. The package contains the essential products required for reproducing our analysis and the tables and figures reported in the publication. The products comprise four classes: (1) geospatial data, (2) tabular data used for inferential analysis, (3) tabular data describing analytical results and performance statistics, and (4) a data user guide. (1) includes discretized waveform LiDAR data, locations and attributes of individual tree crowns, sampling locations and domain boundaries, a canopy height model, and raster files of estimated forest structural and compositional metrics at 100 m grid scale. (2) includes all response and explanatory variable values applied in inferential models. Response variables include conifer forest stand density, basal area, 95th percentile height, quadratic mean diameter, and others. Explanatory variables include climatic water deficit, actual evapotranspiration, elevation, heat load, soil available water content, and others. (3) includes results of training and testing several individual tree detection (ITD) algorithms, as well as inferential modeling results. (4) is a PDF user guide for this data package, including detailed descriptions and data dictionaries for all files. The data package root contains 17 assets: 8 compressed tape archive (.tar.gz) files, 5 comma-separated values (.csv) files, 3 Geographic Tagged Image File Format (GeoTIFF) (.tif) files, and 1 Portable Document Format (.pdf) file. The compressed .tar.gz archives contain ESRI shapefiles (.shp) .tif, compressed LASer (.laz), and .csv files. The archives must first be decompressed using the widely distributed command-line software utility TAR. All other files, including constituent files within the .tar.gz archives, can be opened in the open-source R statistical computing environment. Alternatively, .csv files may also be read in any simple text editor software or Microsoft Excel. Geospatial files including .shp and .tif files can also be opened in GIS software, such as QGIS (open-source) or ESRI ArcGIS (proprietary). The .pdf Data User Guide can be read with Adobe Acrobat Reader or other compatible readers.

2018 NEON and 2025 CHESS Campaigns↗
NASA NTRS1977

C-14 in lunar soil - Temperature-release and grain-size dependence

C-14 is released from surface soils by heatings between 600 and 1000 C. The amounts of 600-1000-C C-14 obtained increase inversely with grain diameter for the 10-30 and 74-125-micron size fractions. The inverse relation shows that the 600-1000-C C-14 is located on the surface of grains and probably is of solar-wind origin. The amount released at these temperatures gives 0.002 C-14 ions per sq cm/sec for the implantation rate and corresponds to a C-14/H ratio of the order of 4 hundred-billionths for the solar wind. This result from the grain-size dependence is in accord with C-14 depth-variation studies. The C-14 released above melting temperatures can be attributed to spallation production.

Fireman, E. L.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Lunar hydrogen: A resource for future use at lunar bases and space activities

Hydrogen abundances were determined for grain size separates of five lunar soils and one soil breccia. The hydrogen abundance studies have provided important baseline information for engineering models undergoing study at the present time. From the studies is appears that there is sufficient hydrogen present in selected lunar materials which could be recovered to support future space activities. It is well known that hydrogen can be extracted from lunar soils by heating between 400 and 800 C. Recovery of hydrogen for regolith materials would involve heating with solar mirrors and collecting the released hydrogen. Current baseline models for the lunar base are requiring the production of 1000 metric tons of oxygen per year. From this requirement it follows that around 117 metric tons per year of hydrogen would be required for the production of water. The ability to obtain hydrogen from the lunar regolith would assist in lowering the operating costs of any lunar base.

Gibson, Everett K., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Energy balance components from six sites in a native prairie

The surface-flux stations investigated are of similar design and operation, but are located on different slopes and aspects and provided data with significant variations. The largest difference between sites is noticed in the data for soil heat-flux density, and the general variability is theorized to be related to treatment and locations. The number of surface-flux stations required for the prairie topography can be inferred from the results of the data analysis.

Fritschen, Leo J.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Lunar hydrogen and other volatiles

The occurrence of solar wind implanted volatiles in the lunar regolith may provide resources to support a lunar settlement and fusion energy on earth in the 21st century. These volatiles include H, He, N, and C which are enriched in the finest fraction of the moon's comminuted regolith. These volatiles may be extracted by heating the soil. At 700 C near quantitative release of hydrogen and helium will occur, and approximately 20-30 percent of the N and C will corelease. It is estimated that per tonne of He-3 extracted from the lunar regolith at this temperature that 6300 tonnes H, 700 tonnes N, and 1600 tonnes C (as CO and CO2) will be released.

Jordan, J. L.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Water and cheese from the lunar desert: Abundances and accessibility of H, C, and N on the Moon

The Moon has been underrated as a source of H, N, C, and other elements essential to support life and to provide fuel for rockets. There is enough of these elements in each cubic meter of typical lunar soil to provide a substantial lunch for two, if converted to edible forms. The average amount of C per square meter of the lunar surface to a depth of 2 m is some 35 percent of the average amount per square meter tied up in living organisms on Earth. The water equivalent of H in the upper 2 m of the regolith averages at least 1.3 million liters per square kilometer. Mining of H from a small fraction of the regolith would provide all the rocket fuel needed for thousands of years. These elements can be removed from the soil by heating it to high temperature. Some favor the unproven resources of Phobos, Deimos, or near-Earth asteroids instead of the Moon as a source of extraterrestrial material for use in space, or Mars over the Moon as a site for habitation, partly on the basis that the chemical elements needed for life support and propellant are readily abundant on those bodies, but not on the Moon. Well, the Moon is not as barren of H, C, and N as is commonly perceived. In fact, the elements needed for life support and for rocket fuel are plentiful there, although the ore grades are low. Furthermore, the proximity of the Moon and consequent lower cost of transportation and shorter trip and communication times favor that body as the logical site for early acquisition of resources and extraterrestrial living.

Haskin, L. A.↗
NASA NTRS1993

The MESUR Mission

The MESUR mission will place a network of small, robust landers on the Martian surface, making a coordinated set of observations for at least one Martian year. MESUR presents some major challenges for development of instruments, instrument deployment systems, and on board data processing techniques. The instrument payload has not yet been selected, but the straw man payload is (1) a three-axis seismometer; (2) a meteorology package that senses pressure, temperature, wind speed and direction, humidity, and sky brightness; (3) an alphaproton-X-ray spectrometer (APXS); (4) a thermal analysis/evolved gas analysis (TA/EGA) instrument; (5) a descent imager, (6) a panoramic surface imager; (7) an atmospheric structure instrument (ASI) that senses pressure, temperature, and acceleration during descent to the surface; and (8) radio science. Because of the large number of landers to be sent (about 16), all these instruments must be very lightweight. All but the descent imager and the ASI must survive landing loads that may approach 100 g. The meteorology package, seismometer, and surface imager must be able to survive on the surface for at least one Martian year. The seismometer requires deployment off the lander body. The panoramic imager and some components of the meteorology package require deployment above the lander body. The APXS must be placed directly against one or more rocks near the lander, prompting consideration of a micro rover for deployment of this instrument. The TA/EGA requires a system to acquire, contain, and heat a soil sample. Both the imagers and, especially, the seismometer will be capable of producing large volumes of data, and will require use of sophisticated data compression techniques.

Squyres, S. W.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Near-Infrared Spectrophotometry of Phobos and Deimos

We have observed the leading and trailing hemispheres of Phobos from 1.65 to 3.5 micrometers and Deimos from 1.65 to 3.12 micrometers near opposition. We find the trailing hemisphere of Phobos to be brighter than its leading hemisphere by 0.24 plus or minus 0.06 magnitude at 1.65 micrometers and brighter than Deimos by 0.98 plus or minus 0.07 magnitude at 1.65 micrometers. We see no difference larger than observational uncertainties in spectral slope between the leading and trailing hemispheres when the spectra are normalized to 1.65 micrometers. We find no 3-micrometer absorption feature due to hydrated minerals on either hemisphere to a level of approximately 5-10% on Phobos and approximately 20% on Deimos. When the infrared data are joined to visible and nearby data obtained by previous workers, our data suggest the leading (Stickney-dominated) side of Phobos is best matched by T-class asteroids. The spectral slope of the trailing side of Phobos and leading side of Deimos are bracketed by the D-class asteroids. The best laboratory spectral matches to these parts of Phobos are mature lunar soils and heated carbonaceous chondrites. The lack of 3-micrometer absorption features on either side of Phobos argues against the presence of a large interior reservoir of water ice according to current models of Phobos' interior.

Rivkin, A. S.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Near-Infrared Spectrophotometry of Phobos and Deimos

We have observed the leading and trailing hemispheres of Phobos from 1.65 to 3.5 microns and Deimos from 1.65 to 3.12 microns near opposition. We find the trailing hemisphere of Phobos to be brighter than its leading hemisphere by 0.24 +/- 0.06 magnitude at 1.65 microns and brighter than Deimos by 0.98 +/- 0.07 magnitude at 1.65 microns. We see no difference larger than observational uncertainties in spectral slope between the leading and trailing hemispheres when the spectra are normalized to 1.65 microns. We find no 3-micron absorption feature due to hydrated minerals on either hemisphere to a level of approx. 5-10% on Phobos and approx. 20% on Deimos. When the infrared data are joined to visible and near-IR data obtained by previous workers, our data suggest the leading (Stickney-dominated) side of Phobos is best matched by T-class asteroids. The spectral slope of the trailing side of Phobos and leading side of Deimos are bracketed by the D-class asteroids. The best laboratory spectral matches to these parts of Phobos are mature lunar soils and heated carbonaceous chondrites. The lack of 3-micron absorption features on either side of Phobos argues against the presence of a large interior reservoir of water ice according to current models of Phobos' interior.

Rivkin, A. S.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Prospects for Improved Forecasts of Weather and Short-Term Climate Variability on Subseasonal (2-Week to 2-Month) Times Scales

This workshop, held in April 2002, brought together various Earth Sciences experts to focus on the subseasonal prediction problem. While substantial advances have occurred over the last few decades in both weather and seasonal prediction, progress in improving predictions on these intermediate time scales (time scales ranging from about two weeks to two months) has been slow. The goals of the workshop were to get an assessment of the "state of the art" in predictive skill on these time scales, to determine the potential sources of "untapped" predictive skill, and to make recommendations for a course of action that will accelerate progress in this area. One of the key conclusions of the workshop was that there is compelling evidence for predictability at forecast lead times substantially longer than two weeks. Tropical diabatic heating and soil wetness were singled out as particularly important processes affecting predictability on these time scales. Predictability was also linked to various low-frequency atmospheric "phenomena" such as the annular modes in high latitudes (including their connections to the stratosphere), the Pacific/North American (PNA) pattern, and the Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO). The latter, in particular, was highlighted as a key source of untapped predictability in the tropics and subtropics, including the Asian and Australian monsoon regions.

Schubert, Siegfried↗
NASA NTRS2002

Near-Infrared Spectrophotometry of Phobos and Deimos

We have observed the leading and trailing hemispheres of Phobos from 1.65 to 3.5 microns and Deimos from 1.65 to 3.12 microns near opposition. We find the trailing hemisphere of Phobos to be brighter than its leading hemisphere by 0.24 +/- 0.06 magnitude at 1.65 microns and brighter than Deimos by 0.98 +/- 0.07 magnitude at 1.65 microns. We see no difference larger than observational uncertainties in spectral slope between the leading and trailing hemispheres when the spectra are normalized to 1.65 microns. We find no 3-microns absorption feature due to hydrated minerals on either hemisphere to a level of approx. 5 - 10% on Phobos and approx. 20% on Deimos. When the infrared data are joined to visible and near-IR data obtained by previous workers, our data suggest the leading (Stickney-dominated) side of Phobos is best matched by T-class asteroids. The spectral slope of the trailing side of Phobos and leading side of Deimos are bracketed by the D-class asteroids. The best laboratory spectral matches to these parts of Phobos are mature lunar soils and heated carbonaceous chondrites. The lack of 3-microns absorption features on either side of Phobos argues against the presence of a large interior reservoir of water ice according to current models of Phobos' interior.

Rivkin, A. S.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Progress and Challenges in Subseasonal Prediction

While substantial advances have occurred over the last few decades in both weather and seasonal prediction, progress in improving predictions on subseasonal time scales (approximately 2 weeks to 2 months) has been slow. In this talk I will highlight some of the recent progress that has been made to improve forecasts on subseasonal time scales and outline the challenges that we face both from an observational and modeling perspective. The talk will be based primarily on the results and conclusions of a recent NASA-sponsored workshop that focused on the subseasonal prediction problem. One of the key conclusions of that workshop was that there is compelling evidence for predictability at forecast lead times substantially longer than two weeks, and that much of that predictability is currently untapped. Tropical diabatic heating and soil wetness were singled out as particularly important processes affecting predictability on these time scales. Predictability was also linked to various low-frequency atmospheric phenomena such as the annular modes in high latitudes (including their connections to the stratosphere), the Pacific/North American pattern, and the Madden-Julian Oscillation. I will end the talk by summarizing the recommendations and plans that have been put forward for accelerating progress on the subseasonal prediction problem.

Schubert, Siegfried↗
NASA NTRS2009

A First Look at Carbon and Oxygen Stable Isotope Measurements of Martian Atmospheric C02 by the Phoenix Lander

Precise stable isotope measurements of the CO2 in the martian atmosphere have the potential to provide important constraints for our understanding of the history of volatiles, the carbon cycle, current atmospheric processes, and the degree of water/rock interaction on Mars. The isotopic composition of the martian atmosphere has been measured using a number of different methods (Table 1), however a precise value (<1%) has yet to be achieved. Given the elevated 13C values measured in carbonates in martian meteorites it has been supposed that the martian atmosphere was enriched in delta(sup 13)C. This was supported by measurements of trapped CO2 gas in EETA 79001[2] which showed elevated delta(sup 13)C values (Table 1). More recently, Earth-based spectroscopic measurements of the martian atmosphere have measured the martian CO2 to be depleted in delta(sup 13)C relative to CO2 in the terrestrial atmosphere. The spectroscopic measurements performed by Krasnopolsky et al. were reported with approx.2% uncertainties which are much smaller than the Viking measurements, but still remain very large in comparison to the magnitude of carbon and oxygen isotope fractionations under martian surface conditions. The Thermal Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) instrument on the Mars Phoenix Lander included a magnetic sector mass spectrometer (EGA) which had the goal of measuring the isotopic composition of martian atmospheric CO2 to within 0.5%. The mass spectrometer is a miniature magnetic sector instrument intended to measure both the martian atmosphere as well as gases evolved from heating martian soils. Ions produced in the ion source are drawn out by a high voltage and focused by a magnetic field onto a set of collector slits. Four specific trajectories are selected to cover the mass ranges, 0.7 - 4, 7 - 35, 14 - 70, and 28 - 140 Da. Using four channels reduces the magnitude of the mass scan and provides simultaneous coverage of the mass ranges. Channel electron multiplier (CEM) detectors that operate in the pulse counting mode detect the ion beams.

Niles, P.B.↗