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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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NASA NTRS2010

Suborbital Science Program

Program Objectives: 1) Satellite Calibration and Validation: Provide methods to perform the cal/val requirements for Earth Observing System satellites. 2) New Sensor Development: Provide methods to reduce risk for new sensor concepts and algorithm development prior to committing sensors to operations. 3) Process Studies: Facilitate the acquisition of high spatial/temporal resolution focused measurements that are required to understand small atmospheric and surface structures which generate powerful Earth system effects. 4) Airborne Networking: Develop disruption-tolerant networking to enable integrated multiple scale measurements of critical environmental features. Dryden Capabilities include: a) Aeronautics history of aircraft developments and milestones. b) Extensive history and experience in instrument integration. c) Extensive history and experience in aircraft modifications. d) Strong background in international deployments. e) Long history of reliable and dependable execution of projects. f) Varied aircraft types providing different capabilities, performance and duration.

Vachon, Jacques↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Aerosol Wind Profiler (AWP) Doppler Wind Lidar Airborne Observations During the NOAA Joint Venture 3-D Wind Measurement Demonstration and NASA Active-Passive Profiling Experiment (APEX)

The NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) has recently completed development of the Aerosol Wind Profiler (AWP) airborne Doppler wind lidar (DWL) instrument. AWP was supported by the NASA Earth Science Technology Office and the Earth Science Division, a project that adapted the Wind-Space Pathfinder (Wind-SP) DWL transceiver onto a structure for flight aboard a variety of NASA research aircraft. AWP demonstrates many technologies required for a space DWL mission, including a coherent-detection, optical heterodyne laser transmitter with high pulse energy (up to ~55 mJ) and repetition rate (200 Hz), electronic control of the beam path allowing for multiple viewing angles (allowing vector wind measurements) with no moving parts, compact highly-stable and tunable reference lasers allowing for high-precision measurement of velocity at long ranges while mitigating the impact of satellite platform velocity, and many others. AWP represents NASA’s only currently operational airborne 3-D wind profiling sensor. NASA LaRC was selected by the NOAA Joint Venture (JV) program to conduct a suborbital 3-D Wind measurement campaign demonstrate how data from a coherent-detection DWL like AWP could serve NOAA’s weather analysis and forecasting needs. The NOAA JV program is designed to work with the private sector, academia and other federal agencies to explore the feasibility and capability of emerging technologies spacecraft and other mission-specific tools to meet NOAA’s mission requirements. AWP was initially demonstrated on the NASA DC-8 within this JV program in October 2023, piggybacking on the NASA EcoDemonstrator mission focused on in-situ sampling of jet aircraft emissions and contrail formation from Everett, Washington. The in-situ sampling resulted in very frequent and rapid aircraft attitude changes which unfortunately degraded AWP data quality. But, during times with level flight and AVAPS dropsonde operations, AWP demonstrated excellent precision (< 2 m/s RMS) with high vertical (< 100 meter) resolution and 2 km spacing between profiles. AWP will be flown again on the NASA LaRC Gulfstream-3 from mid-September to mid-October 2024 out of Hampton, VA to complete the NOAA JV 3-D wind demonstration. Additional AWP flights will occur in early November from southern California during the NASA Active-Passive Profiling Experiment (APEX), focused on underflights of the NASA ER-2 equipped with many atmospheric profiling sensors. This presentation will summarize AWP measurements collected during these two fall 2024 flight campaigns, and how the AWP data compares with AVAPS dropsonde, NOAA weather prediction model, and GOES atmospheric motion vector data.

Kristopher Bedka↗

NASA NTRS1991

Consort and Joust sounding rocket missions

The two suborbital rocket programs are described in terms of their common objective of examining commercial applications of materials processing under microgravitational conditions. The sounding rocket programs have unique launch-service capabilities but provide essentially interchangeable payload accommodations. Major differences include longer low gravity times and larger payload volume for the Joust rocket, spin stabilization and land recovery for the Consort rocket, and faster ascent and reentry accelerations for the Joust rocket. A summary of previous and planned experiments for the rocket programs is given which includes studies of the morphology and strength of elastomer-modified epoxy resins, electrodeposition studies, the demixing of immiscible polymers, foam formation, and polymer experiments. These and other experiments can be facilitated by the microgravity time available on flights of the two sounding rockets.

Wessling, Francis C.↗

NASA NTRS2014

PhoneSat In-flight Experience Results

Over the last decade, consumer technology has vastly improved its performances, become more affordable and reduced its size. Modern day smartphones offer capabilities that enable us to figure out where we are, which way we are pointing, observe the world around us, and store and transmit this information to wherever we want. These capabilities are remarkably similar to those required for multi-million dollar satellites. The PhoneSat project at NASA Ames Research Center is building a series of CubeSat-size spacecrafts using an off-the-shelf smartphone as its on-board computer with the goal of showing just how simple and cheap space can be. Since the PhoneSat project started, different suborbital and orbital flight activities have proven the viability of this revolutionary approach. In early 2013, the PhoneSat project launched the first triage of PhoneSats into LEO. In the five day orbital life time, the nano-satellites flew the first functioning smartphone-based satellites (using the Nexus One and Nexus S phones), the cheapest satellite (a total parts cost below $3,500) and one of the fastest on-board processors (CPU speed of 1GHz). In this paper, an overview of the PhoneSat project as well as a summary of the in-flight experimental results is presented.

PhoneSat↗

NASA NTRS1992

The NASA Sounding Rocket Program and space sciences

High altitude suborbital rockets (sounding rockets) have been extensively used for space science research in the post-World War II period; the NASA Sounding Rocket Program has been on-going since the inception of the Agency and supports all space science disciplines. In recent years, sounding rockets have been utilized to provide a low gravity environment for materials processing research, particularly in the commercial sector. Sounding rockets offer unique features as a low gravity flight platform. Quick response and low cost combine to provide more frequent spaceflight opportunities. Suborbital spacecraft design practice has achieved a high level of sophistication which optimizes the limited available flight times. High data-rate telemetry, real-time ground up-link command and down-link video data are routinely used in sounding rocket payloads. Standard, off-the-shelf, active control systems are available which limit payload body rates such that the gravitational environment remains less than 10(-4) g during the control period. Operational launch vehicles are available which can provide up to 7 minutes of experiment time for experiment weights up to 270 kg. Standard payload recovery systems allow soft impact retrieval of payloads. When launched from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, payloads can be retrieved and returned to the launch site within hours.

Flight Experiment↗

NASA NTRS1999

GPS Sounding Rocket Developments

Sounding rockets are suborbital launch vehicles capable of carrying scientific payloads several hundred miles in altitude. These missions return a variety of scientific data including; chemical makeup and physical processes taking place in the atmosphere, natural radiation surrounding the Earth, data on the Sun, stars, galaxies and many other phenomena. In addition, sounding rockets provide a reasonably economical means of conducting engineering tests for instruments and devices used on satellites and other spacecraft prior to their use in more expensive activities. This paper addresses the NASA Wallops Island history of GPS Sounding Rocket experience since 1994 and the development of highly accurate and useful system.

Bull, Barton↗

NASA NTRS2007

Science Archives in the 21st Century: A NASA LAMBDA Report

Lambda is a thematic data center that focuses on serving the cosmic microwave background (CMB) research community. LAMBDA is an active archive for NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) and Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) mission data sets. In addition, LAMBDA provides analysis software, on-line tools, relevant ancillary data and important web links. LAMBDA also tries to preserve the most important ground-based and suborbital CMB data sets. CMB data is unlike other astrophysical data, consisting of intrinsically diffuse surface brightness photometry with a signal contrast of the order 1 part in 100,000 relative to the uniform background. Because of the extremely faint signal levels, the signal-to-noise ratio is relatively low and detailed instrument-specific knowledge of the data is essential. While the number of data sets being produced is not especially large, those data sets are becoming large and complex. That tendency will increase when the many polarization experiments currently being deployed begin producing data. The LAMBDA experience supports many aspects of the NASA data archive model developed informally over the last ten years-that small focused data centers are often more effective than larger more ambitious collections, for example; that data centers are usually best run by active scientists; that it can be particularly advantageous if those scientists are leaders in the use of the archived data sets; etc. LAMBDA has done some things so well that they might provide lessons for other archives. A lot of effort has been devoted to developing a simple and consistent interface to data sets, for example; and serving all the documentation required via simple 'more' pages and longer explanatory supplements. Many of the problems faced by LAMBDA will also not surprise anyone trying to manage other space science data. These range from persuading mission scientists to provide their data as quickly as possible, to dealing with a high volume of nuisance (spam) messages. Because so many data center problems and solutions are common across individual data centers and disciplines it would be very valuable to establish some new systems of communication - such as informal email lists for administrators and developers. But resources are very limited, so new timeconsuming and inefficient mechanisms - like too-frequent and too-structured meetingsshould be avoided. Although there are great advantages to being small, agile and independent, there are also some areas where science data centers within and without NASA could be better coordinated - for the assignment of persistent identifiers; to encourage the early adoption of useful standards and technologies; etc. Some super-structure to facilitate such coordination might be beneficial as long as it doesn't begin to control the other work of the archives, and become a "methodology police". In this respect the CCSDS "Reference Model for an Open Archive Information System" is a little worrying. It may be that the closer a data center gets to following such a detailed prescription, the less effective it will become. It is much better to have an informal coordination process than a bureaucratic straight-jacket.

Butterworth, P.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Coronagraphic Imaging of Debris Disks from a High Altitude Balloon Platform

Debris disks around nearby stars are tracers of the planet formation process, and they are a key element of our understanding of the formation and evolution of extrasolar planetary systems. With multi-color images of a significant number of disks, we can probe important questions: can we learn about planetary system evolution; what materials are the disks made of; and can they reveal the presence of planets? Most disks are known to exist only through their infrared flux excesses as measured by the Spitzer Space Telescope, and through images measured by Herschel. The brightest, most extended disks have been imaged with HST, and a few, such as Fomalhaut, can be observed using ground-based telescopes. But the number of good images is still very small, and there are none of disks with densities as low as the disk associated with the asteroid belt and Edgeworth-Kuiper belt in our own Solar System. Direct imaging of disks is a major observational challenge, demanding high angular resolution and extremely high dynamic range close to the parent star. The ultimate experiment requires a space-based platform, but demonstrating much of the needed technology, mitigating the technical risks of a space-based coronagrap, and performing valuable measurements of circumstellar debris disks, can be done from a high-altitude balloon platform. In this paper we present a balloon-borne telescope experiment based on the Zodiac II design that would undertake compelling studies of a sample of debris disks.

debris disk↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Variations in radiative heating of humid biomass burning aerosols in the southeast Atlantic from airborne observations and reanalysis

The atmosphere over the southeast Atlantic Ocean (SEA) experiences consistent springtime biomass burning (BB) smoke from widespread agricultural fires on the African continent. This smoke layer is initially lofted high in a continental mixed layer (~5-6km) and is then transported westward into the free troposphere where it overlies and ultimately mixes into a stratocumulus-topped oceanic boundary layer. Coincident with this smoke is an elevated humidity signal which is present from the time a given airmass is over the continental source region. ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) was a NASA Earth Venture Suborbital mission with the goal of measuring aerosol, cloud, and atmospheric properties over this region over three deployments in September 2016, August 2017, and October 2018. Measurements included in situ profile measurements of aerosol physical and optical properties, trace gas concentrations, and cloud properties, as well as column measurements of aerosol optical depth and trace gas concentrations from an airborne sun photometer. Here we present results from each of the ORACLES deployments over the southeast Atlantic Ocean. Despite the differing locations and season of each deployment, we show that there is good agreement between the airborne ORACLES dataset and large-scale reanalyses, specifically the ECMWF ERA5 reanalyses (and, to a degree, the CAMS product) as compared to other available products. This agreement allows us to examine multi-year seasonal patterns and trends beyond the three months with available aircraft data. In both the data and reanalysis, we find distinct variations between each deployment in terms of vertical smoke distribution and correlation to atmospheric specific humidity, due to changing conditions over the BB season. We trace the origin and the history of these smoky airmasses and finally, we briefly discuss the broader radiative and dynamical implications of these results for conditions of aerosols overlying stratocumulus clouds.

K. Pistone↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Variation and evolution of atmospheric structure over the SEA BB season as seen from aircraft and reanalysis

The presence of absorbing aerosols and atmospheric water vapor will impact clouds both radiatively and dynamically. The atmosphere over the southeast Atlantic Ocean (SEA) experiences consistent springtime biomass burning (BB) smoke from widespread agricultural fires on the African continent. This smoke layer is initially lofted high in a continental mixed layer (~5-6km) and is then transported westward into the free troposphere where it overlies and ultimately mixes into the underlying stratocumulus-topped oceanic boundary layer. Coincident with this smoke is an elevated humidity signal which is present from the time a given airmass is over the continental source region. ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) was a NASA Earth Venture Suborbital mission with the goal of measuring aerosol, cloud, and atmospheric properties over this region over three deployments in September 2016, August 2017, and October 2018. Measurements included in situ profile measurements of aerosol physical and optical properties, trace gas concentrations, and cloud properties, as well as column measurements of aerosol optical depth and trace gas concentrations from an airborne sun photometer, allowing for calculation of radiative heating at different altitudes. Here we present results from the three ORACLES deployments over the southeast Atlantic Ocean. The airborne observations capture both seasonal patterns (August through October) and spatial patterns (north/south and east/west) in the vertical smoke distribution and its correlation to atmospheric specific humidity over the SEA basin. We describe the observed variations and show that the variability in both meteorological and emissions is largely captured in the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasting Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (ECMWF CAMS) reanalysis, which allows for a more systematic examination of the relative frequency of observed conditions and their radiative impact over the region. Finally, we discuss the broader radiative and dynamical implications of these results for conditions of biomass burning aerosols overlying stratocumulus clouds.

Kristina Marie Myers Pistone↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

An Overview of NASA’s Airborne and Field Data Resource Center

A key recommendation from NASA’s 2022 Airborne and Field Data Workshop called for the development of a virtual Resource Center for all stakeholders across the data lifecycle of airborne and field Earth observations. The agency’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project and Airborne Data Management Group (ADMG) have worked in concert to establish the newly launched NASA Airborne and Field Data Resource Center (AFDRC) to provide a single entry point for a wide assortment of information on and the effective, responsible stewardship of non-satellite observational data. The AFDRC compiles access to many existing resources, but does so in a newly organized way that integrates availability to increase efficiency and holistic understanding while simplifying users’ experience. Initially launched in fall of 2023, the AFDRC is a NASA Earthdata domain website that clarifies several previously disparate resources and provides newly updated information, including: Learning Resources: Educational resources to broaden understanding of the role airborne and field observations play in advancing understanding of our planet and NASA’s role in collecting and archiving these data. Support for data users to Find and Access Data: Advanced contextual browse/search capabilities that efficiently link researchers to data products suitable for their science objectives - this includes linking to NASA’s Catalog of Archived Suborbital Earth Science Investigations (CASEI). Working with Data: Tools specific to individual types of suborbital Earth Science data and their (inter-)disciplinary communities to provide access as well as guidance for their application. Stewardship Responsibilities: Resources for data producers with to lessen requirement burdens at the time of data transfer, and information for data stewards with consistent, authoritative guidance on best practices and agency- and/or community- specific archival procedures. This presentation will give an overview of the motivation for NASA’s AFDRC, approach for the design and content, iterative community-driven improvements, promote the use of the AFDRC, and solicit additional feedback from airborne and field data user communities.

Sara Lubkin↗

NASA NTRS2023

CESO 22-4: Parabolic and Suborbital Glovebox in Support of Space Crop Production

Space crop production research approaches and technologies can be validated for microgravity using parabolic or suborbital flight opportunities, and this will save considerable risk, time, and money for implementing new strategies in spaceflight. While the durations of microgravity in these tests are insufficient to grow crops, there are numerous examples of the value of microgravity testing for subsystems such as plant water and nutrient delivery, where multiphase fluid flow can be elucidated in short durations, and horticultural operations, such as harvesting and produce sanitation where containment and contamination can be assessed. Containment in any operational test is essential, as crop operations involve fluids and biological samples, which are potential hazards. This project consists of designing, developing, and constructing a parabolic/suborbital glovebox for experiment containment. The design involves modifications and upgrades to an existing glovebox developed at the University of Louisville. The University of Louisville glovebox was used by KSC researchers for space crop parabolic flight tests in 2021, and lessons learned from that testing have driven design modifications and improvements in the KSC-generated glovebox. Requirements were identified, parts were ordered, an operational science glovebox was fabricated, and a detailed materials specification list was generated. Analyses that are required for flight, remain to be performed to meet airworthiness requirements, and that work will have to be conducted in the future before use in flight.

Food Production↗

NASA NTRS1975

Flood hazard studies in Central Texas using orbital and suborbital remote sensing machinery

Central Texas is subject to infrequent, unusually intense rainstorms which cause extremely rapid runoff from drainage basins developed on the deeply dissected limestone and marl bedrock of the Edwards Plateau. One approach to flood hazard evaluation in this area is a parametric model relating flood hydrograph characteristics to quantitative geomorphic properties of the drainage basins. The preliminary model uses multiple regression techniques to predict potential peak flood discharge from basin magnitude, drainage density, and ruggedness number. After mapping small catchment networks from remote sensing imagery, input data for the model are generated by network digitization and analysis by a computer assisted routine of watershed analysis. The study evaluated the network resolution capabilities of the following data formats: (1) large-scale (1:24,000) topographic maps, employing Strahler's "method of v's," (2) standard low altitude black and white aerial photography (1:13,000 and 1:20,000 scales), (3) NASA - generated aerial infrared photography at scales ranging from 1:48,000 to 1:123,000, and (4) Skylab Earth Resources Experiment Package S-190A and S-190B sensors (1:750,000 and 1:500,000 respectively).

Baker, V. R.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

New Ways of Facilitating Improved Data Discovery and Access for NASA's Suborbital Earth Science Observations

NASA conducts field research in various Earth Science disciplines utilizing airborne and other non-satellite platforms to acquire in situ and remotely sensed observations indicative of physical processes across a range of scales. Field efforts are key in the development and validation of instruments and satellite algorithm refinements. The heterogeneous data, with a range of file formats, scales, and acquisition methods, support research in several science areas. NASA’s archive process assigns data products to discipline-oriented Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) for stewardship. Over time, individual DAACs have developed tools for data browsing and serving disparate user bases. As science becomes more interdisciplinary, researchers need to incorporate observations from multiple campaigns, and multiple DAACs, into their work. Motivated in part by this shifting paradigm of needs, the Catalog of Archived Suborbital Earth Science Investigations (CASEI) was created. CASEI provides a single starting point to browse, search, and discover airborne and field data. Contextual metadata are organized and inter-linked allowing intuitive, integrated exploration across all NASA DAACs. Campaign science objectives, platform and instrument configurations, geographical details, geophysical concepts, and more are tracked in CASEI’s database, facilitating multi-parameter search, browse, and discovery of relevant data products. Researchers are able to directly access associated data products, via DOI links, regardless of the DAAC where they reside. Significant events, key time periods of high science interest within the longer-duration campaign effort, are also indicated and allow for a more efficient identification of critical data subsets. This presentation describes CASEI’s development, intensive metadata curation process, and demonstrates the web interface experience. Initial content metrics and plans for continued maintenance will also be discussed.

metadata↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Establishing an in-Space Joining Ecosystem at NASA Marshall via Laser Beam Welding

NASA Marshall is establishing an ISAM technology development ecosystem leveraging investments in laser beam processing to enable in-space joining via laser beam welding. A number of ground and flight experiments are being performed to develop laser beam welding as a mature process for use in space. These experiments access varied combinations of reduced gravity, reduced atmospheric pressure, and extreme temperatures to simulate relevant space environments. The associated instrumentation needed to exquisitely understand fundamental mechanisms during laser beam welding and to provide adequate validation datasets for computational models is also being developed and/or integrated.

thermal vacuum↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Establishing an In-Space Joining Ecosystem at NASA Marshall via Laser Beam Welding

thermal vacuum↗

NASA NTRS2011

Initial Results from the Miniature Imager for Neutral Ionospheric Atoms and Magnetospheric Electrons (MINI-ME) on the FASTSAT Spacecraft

The MINI-ME instrument is a collaborative effort between NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and the U.S. Naval Academy, funded solely through GSFC Internal Research and Development (IRAD) awards. It detects neutral atoms from about 10 eV to about 700 eV (in 30 energy steps) in its current operating configuration with an approximately 10 degree by 360 degree field-of-view, divided into six sectors. The instrument was delivered on August 3, 2009 to Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) for integration with the FASTSAT-HSV01 small spacecraft bus developed by MSFC and a commercial partner, one of six Space Experiment Review Board (SERB) experiments on FASTSAT and one of three GSFC instruments (PISA and TTI being the other two). The FASTSAT spacecraft was launched on November 21, 2010 from Kodiak, Alaska on a Minotaur IV as a secondary payload and inserted into a 650 km, 72 degree inclination orbit, very nearly circular. MINI-ME has been collecting science data, as spacecraft resources would permit, in "optimal science mode" since January 20, 2011. In this presentation, we report initial science results including the potential first observations of neutral molecular ionospheric outflow. At the time of this abstract, we have identified 15 possible molecular outflow events. All these events occur between about 65 and 82 degrees geomagnetic latitude and most map to the auroral oval. The MINI-ME results provide an excellent framework for interpretation of the MILENA data, two instruments almost identical to MINI-ME that will launch on the VISIONS suborbital mission

Collier, Michael R.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Phonesat In-flight Experience Results

Consumer technology, over the last decade, has begun to encompass devices that enable us to figure out where we are, which way we are pointing, observe the world around us, and store and transmit this information to wherever we want. Once separate consumer products such as GPS units, digital cameras and mobile phones are now combined into the modern day Smartphone. Since these capabilities are remarkably similar to those required for the multi-million dollar satellites - so why not use a multihundred dollar Smartphone instead? The PhoneSat project of NASA Ames Research Center is developing technology demonstrations utilizing these extraordinary advances to show just how simple and cheap Space can be. The style of development revolves around the "release early, release often" Silicon Valley mentality. PhoneSat is a series of 1U CubeSat size spacecrafts that use an off-the-shelf Smartphone as their onboard computer. By doing so, PhoneSat takes advantage of the high computational capability, large memory as well as ultra-tiny sensors like high-resolution cameras and navigation devices that Smartphones offer. Along with a Smartphone, PhoneSat is equipped with other commercially available technology products, such as medical brushless motors that are used as reaction wheels. Over the four years that NASA Ames Research Center has been developing the PhoneSat project, different suborbital and orbital flight activities have proven the validity of this revolutionary approach. In early 2013, the PhoneSat project launched the first triage of PhoneSats into LEO. In the five day orbital life time, the nano-satellites flew the first functioning Smartphone based satellites (using the Nexus One and Nexus S phones), the cheapest satellite (a total parts cost below $3,500) and one of the fastest on-board processors (CPU speed of 1GHz). In late 2013, the PhoneSat project launched an improved version of its bus to a higher altitude orbit which provided data about the overall system's tolerance to the space environment. In this paper, an overview of the PhoneSat project as well as a summary of the in-flight experimental results is presented. NASA Ames Research Center is carrying on its effort to bring a paradigm shift in the way we conceive Space exploration, this new approach is certainly incarnated by PhoneSat. A set of eight PhoneSat-based CubeSats is manifested to launch in 2014 with the purpose of demonstrating new technical capabilities and being a pathfinder for future Spacecraft technology missions.

CubeSat↗