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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
DOE OSTI2022

Microbial Tracking-2, a metagenomics analysis of bacteria and fungi onboard the International Space Station

The International Space Station (ISS) is a unique and complex built environment with the ISS surface microbiome originating from crew and cargo or from life support recirculation in an almost entirely closed system. The Microbial Tracking 1 (MT-1) project was the first ISS environmental surface study to report on the metagenome profiles without using whole-genome amplification. The study surveyed the microbial communities from eight surfaces over a 14-month period. The Microbial Tracking 2 (MT-2) project aimed to continue the work of MT-1, sampling an additional four flights from the same locations, over another 14 months. Eight surfaces across the ISS were sampled with sterile wipes and processed upon return to Earth. DNA extracted from the processed samples (and controls) were treated with propidium monoazide (PMA) to detect intact/viable cells or left untreated and to detect the total DNA population (free DNA/compromised cells/intact cells/viable cells). DNA extracted from PMA-treated and untreated samples were analyzed using shotgun metagenomics. Samples were cultured for bacteria and fungi to supplement the above results. Staphylococcus sp. and Malassezia sp. were the most represented bacterial and fungal species, respectively, on the ISS. Overall, the ISS surface microbiome was dominated by organisms associated with the human skin. Multi-dimensional scaling and differential abundance analysis showed significant temporal changes in the microbial population but no spatial differences. The ISS antimicrobial resistance gene profiles were however more stable over time, with no differences over the 5-year span of the MT-1 and MT-2 studies. Twenty-nine antimicrobial resistance genes were detected across all samples, with macrolide/lincosamide/streptogramin resistance being the most widespread. Metagenomic assembled genomes were reconstructed from the dataset, resulting in 82 MAGs. Functional assessment of the collective MAGs showed a propensity for amino acid utilization over carbohydrate metabolism. Co-occurrence analyses showed strong associations between bacterial and fungal genera. Culture analysis showed the microbial load to be on average 3.0 × 10 5 cfu/m 2 . Utilizing various metagenomics analyses and culture methods, we provided a comprehensive analysis of the ISS surface microbiome, showing microbial burden, bacterial and fungal species prevalence, changes in the microbiome, and resistome over time and space, as well as the functional capabilities and microbial interactions of this unique built microbiome. Data from this study may help to inform policies for future space missions to ensure an ISS surface microbiome that promotes astronaut health and spacecraft integrity.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1989

Computer aided system engineering for space construction

This viewgraph presentation covers the following topics. Construction activities envisioned for the assembly of large platforms in space (as well as interplanetary spacecraft and bases on extraterrestrial surfaces) require computational tools that exceed the capability of conventional construction management programs. The Center for Space Construction is investigating the requirements for new computational tools and, at the same time, suggesting the expansion of graduate and undergraduate curricula to include proficiency in Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) though design courses and individual or team projects in advanced space systems design. In the center's research, special emphasis is placed on problems of constructability and of the interruptability of planned activity sequences to be carried out by crews operating under hostile environmental conditions. The departure point for the planned work is the acquisition of the MCAE I-DEAS software, developed by the Structural Dynamics Research Corporation (SDRC), and its expansion to the level of capability denoted by the acronym IDEAS**2 currently used for configuration maintenance on Space Station Freedom. In addition to improving proficiency in the use of I-DEAS and IDEAS**2, it is contemplated that new software modules will be developed to expand the architecture of IDEAS**2. Such modules will deal with those analyses that require the integration of a space platform's configuration with a breakdown of planned construction activities and with a failure modes analysis to support computer aided system engineering (CASE) applied to space construction.

Racheli, Ugo↗
NASA NTRS2005

Brazing in Space: The Next Frontier

This viewgraph presentation provides information on the challenges facing mechanically joining objects in space, as well as past, present, and future techniques for brazing. The sections of the presentation include: 1) Why do we need to join components in space; 2) Why brazing? 3) History of brazing in space; 4) Electron beam vacuum brazing; 5) Current effort at GSFC; 6) Future work.

Flom, Yury↗
NASA NTRS2017

NASA's Space Launch System: A Transformative Capability for Deep Space Missions

Already making substantial progress toward its first launches, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) exploration-class launch vehicle presents game-changing new opportunities in spaceflight, enabling human exploration of deep space, as well as a variety of missions and mission profiles that are currently impossible. Today, the initial configuration of SLS, able to deliver more than 70 metric tons of payload to low Earth orbit (LEO), is well into final production and testing ahead of its planned first flight, which will send NASA’s new Orion crew vehicle around the moon and will deploy 13 CubeSats, representing multiple disciplines, into deep space. At the same time, production work is already underway toward the more-capable Block 1B configuration, planned to debut on the second flight of SLS, and capable of lofting 105 tons to LEO or of co-manifesting large exploration systems with Orion on launches to the lunar vicinity. Progress being made on the vehicle for that second flight includes initial welding of its core stage and testing of one of its engines, as well as development of new elements such as the powerful Exploration Upper Stage and the Universal Stage Adapter “payload bay.” Ultimately, SLS will evolve to a configuration capable of delivering more than 130 tons to LEO to support humans missions to Mars. In order to enable human deep-space exploration, SLS provides unrivaled mass, volume, and departure energy for payloads, offering numerous benefits for a variety of other missions. For robotic science probes to the outer solar system, for example, SLS can cut transit times to less than half that of currently available vehicles or substantially increased spacecraft mass. In the field of astrophysics, SLS’ high payload volume, in the form of payload fairings with a diameter of up to 10 meters, creates the opportunity for launch of large-aperture telescopes providing an unprecedented look at our universe. This presentation will give an overview of SLS’ capabilities and its current status, and discuss the vehicle’s potential for human exploration of deep space and other game-changing utilization opportunities.

Creech, Stephen D.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Propulsion and Power Technologies for the NASA Exploration Vision: A Research Perspective

Future propulsion and power technologies for deep space missions are profiled in this viewgraph presentation. The presentation includes diagrams illustrating possible future travel times to other planets in the solar system. The propulsion technologies researched at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) include: 1) Chemical Propulsion; 2) Nuclear Propulsion; 3) Electric and Plasma Propulsion; 4) Energetics. The presentation contains additional information about these technologies, as well as space reactors, reactor simulation, and the Propulsion Research Laboratory (PRL) at MSFC.

Litchford, Ron J.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Effects of the space flight environment on the immune system

Space flight conditions have a dramatic effect on a variety of physiologic functions of mammals, including muscle, bone, and neurovestibular function. Among the physiological functions that are affected when humans or animals are exposed to space flight conditions is the immune response. The focus of this review is on the function of the immune system in space flight conditions during actual space flights, as well as in models of space flight conditions on the earth. The experiments were carried out in tissue culture systems, in animal models, and in human subjects. The results indicate that space flight conditions alter cell-mediated immune responses, including lymphocyte proliferation and subset distribution, and cytokine production. The mechanism(s) of space flight-induced alterations in immune system function remain(s) to be established. It is likely, however, that multiple factors, including microgravity, stress, neuroendocrine factors, sleep disruption, and nutritional factors, are involved in altering certain functions of the immune system. Such alterations could lead to compromised defenses against infections and tumors.

NASA Discipline Regulatory Physiology↗
NASA NTRS2015

Tetrahedral-Mesh Simulation of Turbulent Flows with the Space-Time Conservative Schemes

Direct numerical simulations of turbulent flows are predominantly carried out using structured, hexahedral meshes despite decades of development in unstructured mesh methods. Tetrahedral meshes offer ease of mesh generation around complex geometries and the potential of an orientation free grid that would provide un-biased small-scale dissipation and more accurate intermediate scale solutions. However, due to the lack of consistent multi-dimensional numerical formulations in conventional schemes for triangular and tetrahedral meshes at the cell interfaces, numerical issues exist when flow discontinuities or stagnation regions are present. The space-time conservative conservation element solution element (CESE) method - due to its Riemann-solver-free shock capturing capabilities, non-dissipative baseline schemes, and flux conservation in time as well as space - has the potential to more accurately simulate turbulent flows using unstructured tetrahedral meshes. To pave the way towards accurate simulation of shock/turbulent boundary-layer interaction, a series of wave and shock interaction benchmark problems that increase in complexity, are computed in this paper with triangular/tetrahedral meshes. Preliminary computations for the normal shock/turbulence interactions are carried out with a relatively coarse mesh, by direct numerical simulations standards, in order to assess other effects such as boundary conditions and the necessity of a buffer domain. The results indicate that qualitative agreement with previous studies can be obtained for flows where, strong shocks co-exist along with unsteady waves that display a broad range of scales, with a relatively compact computational domain and less stringent requirements for grid clustering near the shock. With the space-time conservation properties, stable solutions without any spurious wave reflections can be obtained without a need for buffer domains near the outflow/farfield boundaries. Computational results for the isotropic turbulent flow decay, at a relatively high turbulent Mach number, show a nicely behaved spectral decay rate for medium to high wave numbers. The high-order CESE schemes offer very robust solutions even with the presence of strong shocks or widespread shocklets. The explicit formulation in conjunction with a close to unity theoretical upper Courant number bound has the potential to offer an efficient numerical framework for general compressible turbulent flow simulations with unstructured meshes.

Chang, Chau-Lyan↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Open Science for Life in Space: Data Sharing and Tools for Knowledge Discovery

Molecular-omics, physiological-phenotypic-behavioral, and environmental-radiation telemetry data from spaceflight biological and health studies are increasingly being made findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable for the scientific public. These data, as well as space science-relevant biospecimens, are available through NASA’s Open Science Data Repository (OSDR), which is the new umbrella grouping of NASA GeneLab, the Ames Life Sciences Data Archive (ALSDA), and the NASA Biological Institutional Scientific Collection (NBISC). The quality of data is underpinned by datasets having rich metadata (determined through Analysis Working Group members), processing pipelines to enable data reuse standards, and ontologies specifying terminology semantics (e.g., the Radiation Biology Ontology).

space biology↗
DOE OSTI2023

Deep neural operators can predict the real-time response of floating offshore structures under irregular waves

The use of neural operators in a digital twin model of an offshore floating structure holds the potential for a significant shift in the prediction of structural responses and health monitoring, offering valuable real-time control insights. In this work, we investigate the effectiveness of three neural operators, namely the deep operator network (DeepONet), the Fourier neural operator (FNO), and the Wavelet neural operator (WNO), to accurately capture the responses of a floating structure under six different sea state codes (3 − 8) based on the wave characteristics described by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). To further enhance the accuracy of the vanilla architecture of the neural operators, novel extensions, such as wavelet-DeepONet and self-adaptive WNO, are proposed in this paper. The results demonstrate that these high-precision neural operators can deliver structural responses more efficiently, up to two orders of magnitude faster than a dynamic analysis using conventional numerical solvers. Additionally, compared to gated recurrent units (GRUs), a commonly used recurrent neural network for time-series estimation, neural operators are both more accurate and efficient, especially in situations with limited data availability. Taken together, our study shows that FNO outperforms all other operators for approximating the mapping of one input functional space to the output space as well as for responses that have small bandwidth of the frequency spectrum. Conversely, DeepONet, with historical states, proves most accurate in learning the mapping of multiple input functions to the output space and capturing responses within a broad frequency spectrum.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS2006

Look Sharp While Seeing Sharp

The two scientists James B. Stephens and Dr. Charles G. Miller were tasked with studying the harmful properties of light in space, as well as the artificial radiation produced during laser and welding work, for the purpose of creating an enhanced means of eye protection in industrial welding applications. While working to apply their space research to these terrestrial applications, Stephens and Miller became engrossed with previously discovered research showing evidence that the eyes of hawks, eagles, and other birds of prey contain unique oil droplets that actually protect them from intensely radiated light rays (blue, violet, ultraviolet) while allowing vision-enhancing light rays (red, orange, green) to pass through. These oil droplets absorb short wavelength light rays which, in turn, reduce glare and provide heightened color contrast and definition for optimal visual acuity. Accordingly, birds of prey possess the ability to distinguish their targeted prey in natural surroundings and from great distances. Pairing the findings from their initial studies with what they learned from the bird studies, the scientists devised a methodology to incorporate the light-filtering/vision-enhancing dual-action benefits into a filtering system, using light-filtering dyes and tiny particles of zinc oxide. (Zinc oxide, which absorbs ultraviolet light, is also found in sunscreen lotions that protect the skin from sunburn.)

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1973

Space station capability for research in rotational hypogravity

Certain capabilities provided in preliminary designs of orbital space stations for research in rotational hypogravity are outlined. Also indicated are alternative configurations that are being considered. Principal addresses are members of an international community of physiologists whose work in earth oriented, as well as space oriented, physiology can be supported through observation under the background environment of null gravity. Their participation in originating and devising advanced experiments and in developing requirements is expected to enhance final design of the selected space station and to make the research program more meaningful.

Keller, G.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Understanding How Astronauts Adapt to Space and to Earth: Anatomical Studies of Central Vestibular Adaptation

Significant changes take place in the nervous systems of astronauts during and following exposure to microgravity. These changes, particularly in the part of the brain that controls balance, the vestibular system, can cause sensations of rotation, dizziness, and vertigo, as well as space adaptation syndrome. Adaptation to the microgravity environment usually occurs within one week, and a subsequent re-adaptation period of several days is often required upon return to Earth. In order to realize long-term spaceflight, effective countermeasures for these symptoms must be developed. The structural changes that take place in one of the vestibular regions of the brain (the cerebellar cortex) during the process of adaptation to Earth's gravity remain unclear and are the subject of an experiment being conducted on STS-107 by Dr. Gay Holstein of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Using the rat as a model, Dr. Holstein and her team will seek to identify the cellular changes underlying the vestibular changes experienced by astronauts.

Holstein, Gay↗
NASA NTRS1984

Free-flyer biostack experiment

The free-flyer biostack experiment is part of a radiobiological space research program that includes experiments in space as well as in accelerators on Earth. The program has been specially designed to increase knowledge concerning the importance, effectiveness, and hazards of the structured components of cosmic radiation to man and to any biological specimen in space. Up to now, our understanding of the ways in which HZE particles might affect biological matter is based on a few spaceflight experiments from the last Apollo missions and on the limited data available from heavy-ion irradiation from accelerators. In the near future, accelerators capable of accelerating particles up to higher atomic numbers and higher energies will promote increased activity in ground-based studies on biological effects of HZE particles. Comparison of data from such irradiation experiments on Earth with those from an actual spaceflight experiment will show any potential influence of the inevitably attendant spaceflight factors (e.g., weightlessness) on the radiobiological events.

Buecker, H.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Galaxy clustering in harmonic space from the dark energy survey year 1 data: compatibility with real-space results

ABSTRACT We perform an analysis in harmonic space of the Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Data (DES-Y1) galaxy clustering photometric data using products obtained for the real-space analysis. We test our pipeline with a suite of lognormal simulations, which are used to validate scale cuts in harmonic space as well as to provide a covariance matrix that takes into account the DES-Y1 mask. We then apply this pipeline to DES-Y1 data taking into account survey property maps derived for the real-space analysis. We compare with real-space DES-Y1 results obtained from a similar pipeline. We show that the harmonic space analysis we develop yields results that are compatible with the real-space analysis for the bias parameters. This verification paves the way to performing a harmonic space analysis for the upcoming DES-Y3 data.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1991

Thermal control surfaces experiment flight system performance

The Thermal Control Surfaces Experiment (TCSE) is the most complex system, other than the LDEF, retrieved after long term space exposure. The TCSE is a microcosm of complex electro-optical payloads being developed and flow by NASA and the DoD including SDI. The objective of TCSE was to determine the effects of the near-Earth orbital environment and the LDEF induced environment on spacecraft thermal control surfaces. The TCSE was a comprehensive experiment that combined in-space measurements with extensive post flight analyses of thermal control surfaces to determine the effects of exposure to the low earth orbit space environment. The TCSE was the first space experiment to measure the optical properties of thermal control surfaces the way they are routinely measured in a lab. The performance of the TCSE confirms that low cost, complex experiment packages can be developed that perform well in space.

Wilkes, Donald R.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Microgravity Environment on the International Space Station

A primary feature of the International Space Station will be its microgravity environment--an environment in which the effects of gravity are drastically reduced. The International Space Station design has been driven by a long-standing, high-level requirement for a microgravity mode of operation. Various types of data are gathered when science experiments are conducted. The acceleration levels experienced during experiment operation should be factored into the analysis of the results of most microgravity experiments. To this end, the Space Acceleration Measurement System records the acceleration levels to support microgravity researchers for nearly three years of International Space Station operations. The Principal Investigator Microgravity Services project assists the experiments principal investigators with their analysis of the acceleration (microgravity) environment. The Principal Investigator Microgravity Services project provides cataloged data, periodic analysis summary reports, specialized reports for experiment teams, and real-time data in a variety of user-defined formats. Characterization of the various microgravity carriers (e.g., Shuttle and International Space Station) is also accomplished for the experiment teams. Presented in this paper will be a short description of how microgravity disturbances may affect some experiment classes, a snapshot of the microgravity environment, and a view into how well the space station is expected to meet the user requirements.

DeLombard, Richard↗
DOE OSTI2020

CheKiPEUQ

Parameter estimation for complex physical problems often suffers from finding 'solutions' that are not physically realistic. The CheKiPEUQ software provides tools for finding physically realistic parameter estimates.and CheKiPEUQ provide tools for making graphs of the parameter positions within parameter space as well as plots of the final simulation results. The primary purpose of the CheKiPEUQ software is to enable more physically realistic parameter estimation from comparing simulations to experiments. Specifically, when prior knowledge is available about the region of parameter space which is physically realistic and when the level of uncertainty from experiment can be estimated. The software is intentionally general and can be used for almost any type of simulation. The software is made in a user friendly manner so that users can simply enter the required data and then run the program, following guidelines provided by the authors along with some trial and error. Examples are provided. Users do not need to understand the methodology that will be namedi in the following sentences. While CheKiPEUQ can be used for conventional parameter estimation and other uses, the primary uses for CheKiPEUQ are: 1) Bayesian Parameter Estimation, 2) Bayesian Model Discrimination, 3) Bayesian Design of Experiments. For more information see the project website, documentation, examples, and related publications.

Savara, Aditya [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oa↗