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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 NTRS1982

Centerline latch tool for contingency orbiter door closure

The centerline latch tool was designed and developed as an EVA manual backup device for latching the Space Shuttle Orbiter's payload bay doors for reentry in case of a failure of the existing centerline latches to operate properly. The tool was designed to satisfy a wide variety of structural, mechanical, and EVA requirements. It provides a load path for forces on the payload bay doors during reentry. Since the tool would be used by an EVA crewmember, control, handgrips, operating forces, and procedures must be within the capabilities of a partially restrained, suited crewmember in a zero-gravity environment. The centerline latch tool described was designed, developed, and tested to meet these requirements.

Trevino, R. C.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Advanced Air Transportation Technologies Project, Final Document Collection

This CD ROM contains a compilation of the final documents of the Advanced Air Transportation Technologies (AAIT) project, which was an eight-year (1996 to 2004), $400M project managed by the Airspace Systems Program office, which was part of the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. AAIT focused on developing advanced automation tools and air traffic management concepts that would help improve the efficiency of the National Airspace System, while maintaining or enhancing safety. The documents contained in the CD are final reports on AAIT tasks that serve to document the project's accomplishments over its eight-year term. Documents include information on: Advanced Air Transportation Technologies, Autonomous Operations Planner, Collaborative Arrival Planner, Distributed Air/Ground Traffic Management Concept Elements 5, 6, & 11, Direct-To, Direct-To Technology Transfer, Expedite Departure Path, En Route Data Exchange, Final Approach Spacing Tool - (Active and Passive), Multi-Center Traffic Management Advisor, Multi Center Traffic Management Advisor Technology Transfer, Surface Movement Advisor, Surface Management System, Surface Management System Technology Transfer and Traffic Flow Management Research & Development.

Mogford, Richard H.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Aseptic Operations for Post DHMR Processing of MOMA Mass Spectrometer

Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer - Mass Spectrometer (MOMA-MS) is an instrument in the MOMA instrument suite for the European Space Agency (ESA) ExoMars 2020 Rover. The rover is Planetary Protection Mission Category IVb, the first IVb mission since the Viking missions in the 1970s. Within the sample path of the MOMA instrument suite, the hardware surfaces of the must be sanitized to a level of less than 0.03 spore/m sq. To meet this requirement, the MS sample path was subjected to Dry Heat Microbial Reduction (DHMR) to decrease the number of viable spores by 4 orders of magnitude from a measured 88 spores/m sq to 0.009 spores/m sq. Before DHMR, the hardware is handled using standard cleanroom practices. After DHMR, planetary protection filters protect the sample path for most of integration, but when sample path exposure is required, aseptic operations are instituted and exposure times are kept to an absolute minimum. The surface area of exposure is also taken into account to determine safe exposure times. Before work begins, the ISO class 5 aseptic workspace is cleaned and tested for surface and airborne bioburden, and all tools that will contact or be used near sample path surfaces are sterilized. During the exposure activity, sterile garments are worn, sterile gloves are changed as often as necessary, and the environment is monitored with active and passive fallout for bioburden and real time airborne particle counts. Sterile tools are handled by a two person team so that the operator touches only the tool and not the exterior surfaces of the sterilization pouch, and a sterile operating field is established as a safe place to organize tools or parts during the aseptic operations. In cases where aseptic operations are not feasible, localized DHMR is used after exposure. Any breach in the planetary protection cleanliness can necessitate repeating instrument level DHMR, which not only has significant cost and schedule implications, it also become a risk to hardware that is not rated for repeated long exposures to high temperatures.

Spacecraft Design↗
NASA NTRS2008

Tool for Inspecting Alignment of Twinaxial Connectors

A proposed tool would be used to inspect alignments of mating twinaxial-connector assemblies on interconnecting wiring harnesses. More specifically, the tool would be used to inspect the alignment of each contact pin of each connector on one assembly with the corresponding socket in the corresponding connector on the other assembly. It is necessary to inspect the alignment because if mating of the assemblies is attempted when any pin/socket pair is misaligned beyond tolerance, the connection will not be completed and the dielectric material in the socket will be damaged (see Figure 1). Although the basic principle of the tool is applicable to almost any type of mating connector assemblies, the specific geometry of the tool must match the pin-and-socket geometry of the specific mating assemblies to be inspected. In the original application for which the tool was conceived, each of the mating assemblies contains eight twinaxial connectors; the pin diameter is 0.014 in. (.0.35 mm), and the maximum allowable pin/socket misalignment is 0.007 in. (.0.18 mm). Incomplete connections can result in loss of flight data within the functional path to the space shuttle crew cockpit displays. The tool (see Figure 2) would consist mainly of a transparent disk with alignment clocking tabs that can be fitted onto either connector assembly. Sets of circles or equivalent reference markings are affixed to the face of the tool, located at the desired positions of the mating contact pairs. An inspector would simply fit the tool onto a connector assembly, engaging the clocking tabs until the tool fits tightly. The inspector would then align one set of circles positioning a line of sight perpendicular to one contact within the connector assembly. Mis alignments would be evidenced by the tip of a pin contact straying past the inner edge of the circle. Socket contact misalignments would be evidenced by a crescent-shaped portion of the white dielectric appearing within the circle. The tool could include a variable magnifier plus an illuminator that could be configured so as not to cast shadows.

Smith, Christopher R.↗
NASA NTRS2012

NASA InterCenter Collaboration Increases ROI

Funding for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) space mission operations is tighter than ever in the current environment of federal government deficit reductions. Conventional wisdom would expect this environment to drive increasing competition between NASA centers for the limited available funds. However, recent inter-center activities at the Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC) at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center emphasize collaboration rather than competition and demonstrate the value of partnerships to increase the return on shrinking investments. These efforts cover a variety of activities and potential returns. To facilitate sharing data from test and verification through operations without levying requirements on data format or software tools, the HOSC is working with multiple centers on an evolutionary path toward a distributed data architecture and archive. The approach reduces the required investment by allowing the partners to reuse their existing formats and tools, while facilitating gone ]stop h user visibility into and controlled access to the full complement of data regardless of user or data location. The HOSC is also working on two activities to promote sharing operations implementations and leveraging the experts and expertise across multiple NASA sites. In one, the use of Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) standards for the message abstraction layer provides an interoperability layer on top of existing ground data system communication architectures. This allows missions to select the most appropriate solutions for their requirements with a minimal investment in rehosting the components in a coherent operational environment. The other emphasizes shared tools and increased remote access to minimize travel for tests and critical activities and reduce the floor space required for a dedicated operations center. This paper summarizes these and other inter-center collaboration activities at the HOSC and the benefits that each can bring, not just to the participants, but to the broader operations community.

Lankford, Kimberly↗
NASA NTRS2019

Integrated Design and Manufacturing Analysis for Automated Fiber Placement Structures

Automated fiber placement provides many advancements beyond traditional hand layups in terms of efficiency and reliability. However, there are also a variety of unique challenges that arise with automated fiber placement technology. In particular, steering of tows over doubly-curved tool surfaces can result in material overlaps and gaps due to path convergence/divergence, fiber angle deviation, as well defects in the tows themselves such as puckers and wrinkles. Minimization of these defects is traditionally considered a task for the manufacturing discipline. Manufacturing specifications are often created for these defects based on laminate testing and can be inflexible to avoid more tests. Recent efforts have been made under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Advanced Composites Project (ACP) to develop software tools and processes that provide automated coupling between design and manufacturing disciplines. The objective of this coupling is to provide information to the design discipline on the manufacturability of a laminate while the laminate is being designed. A variety of software tools, both existing commercial tools and research tools under development, will be used to achieve this objective: HyperSizer for laminate optimization, the Computer Aided Process Planning module for selection of manufacturing process parameters, Vericut Composite Programming for tow path simulation, and COMPRO for deposition and cure defects. The newly developed “Central Optimizer” tool will be used to tie the modules together and drive the design for manufacturing process.

Noevere, August↗
NASA NTRS1992

Graphical interface between the CIRSSE testbed and CimStation software with MCS/CTOS

This research is concerned with developing a graphical simulation of the testbed at the Center for Intelligent Robotic Systems for Space Exploration (CIRSSE) and the interface which allows for communication between the two. Such an interface is useful in telerobotic operations, and as a functional interaction tool for testbed users. Creating a simulated model of a real world system, generates inevitable calibration discrepancies between them. This thesis gives a brief overview of the work done to date in the area of workcell representation and communication, describes the development of the CIRSSE interface, and gives a direction for future work in the area of system calibration. The CimStation software used for development of this interface, is a highly versatile robotic workcell simulation package which has been programmed for this application with a scale graphical model of the testbed, and supporting interface menu code. A need for this tool has been identified for the reasons of path previewing, as a window on teleoperation and for calibration of simulated vs. real world models. The interface allows information (i.e., joint angles) generated by CimStation to be sent as motion goal positions to the testbed robots. An option of the interface has been established such that joint angle information generated by supporting testbed algorithms (i.e., TG, collision avoidance) can be piped through CimStation as a visual preview of the path.

Hron, Anna B.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Bioastronautics Roadmap: A Risk Reduction Strategy for Human Space Exploration

The Bioastronautics Critical Path Roadmap is the framework used to identify and assess the risks to crews exposed to the hazardous environments of space. It guides the implementation of research strategies to prevent or reduce those risks. Although the BCPR identifies steps that must be taken to reduce the risks to health and performance that are associated with human space flight, the BCPR is not a "critical path" analysis in the strict engineering sense. The BCPR will evolve to accommodate new information and technology development and will enable NASA to conduct a formal critical path analysis in the future. As a management tool, the BCPR provides information for making informed decisions about research priorities and resource allocation. The outcome-driven nature of the BCPR makes it amenable for assessing the focus, progress and success of the Bioastronautics research and technology program. The BCPR is also a tool for communicating program priorities and progress to the research community and NASA management.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2005

Life-Cycle Cost/Benefit Assessment of Expedite Departure Path (EDP)

This report presents a life-cycle cost/benefit assessment (LCCBA) of Expedite Departure Path (EDP), an air traffic control Decision Support Tool (DST) currently under development at NASA. This assessment is an update of a previous study performed by bd Systems, Inc. (bd) during FY01, with the following revisions: The life-cycle cost assessment methodology developed by bd for the previous study was refined and calibrated using Free Flight Phase 1 (FFP1) cost information for Traffic Management Advisor (TMA, or TMA-SC in the FAA's terminology). Adjustments were also made to the site selection and deployment scheduling methodology to include airspace complexity as a factor. This technique was also applied to the benefit extrapolation methodology to better estimate potential benefits for other years, and at other sites. This study employed a new benefit estimating methodology because bd s previous single year potential benefit assessment of EDP used unrealistic assumptions that resulted in optimistic estimates. This methodology uses an air traffic simulation approach to reasonably predict the impacts from the implementation of EDP. The results of the costs and benefits analyses were then integrated into a life-cycle cost/benefit assessment.

Wang, Jianzhong Jay↗
NASA NTRS2012

Advisory Systems Save Time, Fuel for Airlines

Heinz Erzberger never thought the sky was falling, but he knew it could benefit from enhanced traffic control. Throughout the 1990s, Erzberger led a team at Ames Research Center to develop a suite of automated tools to reduce restrictions and improve the efficiency of air traffic control operations. Called CTAS, or Center-TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control) Automation System, the software won NASA s Software of the Year award in 1998, and one of the tools in the suite - the traffic management advisor - was adopted by the Federal Aviation Administration and implemented at traffic control centers across the United States. Another one of the tools, Direct-To, has followed a different path. The idea behind Direct-To, explains Erzberger, a senior scientist at Ames, was that airlines could save fuel and money by shortening the routes they flew between take-off and landing. Aircraft are often limited to following established airways comprised of inefficient route segments. The routes are not easily adjusted because neither the pilot nor the aircraft controller can anticipate the constantly changing air traffic situation. To make the routes more direct while in flight, Erzberger came up with an idea for a software algorithm that could automatically examine air traffic in real-time, check to see if a shortcut was available, and then check for conflicts. If there were no conflicts and the shortcut saved more than 1 minute of flight time, the controller could be notified. "I was trying to figure out what goes on in the pilot and controller s minds when they decide to guide the aircraft in a certain way. That resulted in a different kind analysis," Erzberger says. As the engineer s idea went from theory to practice, in 2001, NASA demonstrated Direct-To in the airspace of Dallas-Ft. Worth. Estimations based on the demonstration found the technology was capable of saving 900 flying minutes per day for the aircraft in the test area.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2009

Reliability Centered Maintenance - Methodologies

Journal article about Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) methodologies used by United Space Alliance, LLC (USA) in support of the Space Shuttle Program at Kennedy Space Center. The USA Reliability Centered Maintenance program differs from traditional RCM programs because various methodologies are utilized to take advantage of their respective strengths for each application. Based on operational experience, USA has customized the traditional RCM methodology into a streamlined lean logic path and has implemented the use of statistical tools to drive the process. USA RCM has integrated many of the L6S tools into both RCM methodologies. The tools utilized in the Measure, Analyze, and Improve phases of a Lean Six Sigma project lend themselves to application in the RCM process. All USA RCM methodologies meet the requirements defined in SAE JA 1011, Evaluation Criteria for Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) Processes. The proposed article explores these methodologies.

Kammerer, Catherine C.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Poincare: A Multi-Body, Multi-System Trajectory Design Tool

Poincare is a modular trajectory design tool based on a catalog of three-body science orbits and a differential corrector to compute connecting transfer arcs between orbits in multibody systems. Poincare attempts to offer a unified approach, i.e.,an“all-in-one”integrated search within one interface and setup in MONTE (JPL’s signature astrodynamic computing platform.) The Science Orbit Design Tool facilitates rapid and well-informed decisions regarding the selection of periodic orbits for a particular mission and enables the simultaneous study of various orbit alternatives. The Reference Trajectory Design Tool allows the user to calculate optimal transfer paths from a departure orbit to a science orbit via dynamical systems structures (invariant manifolds and Poincare maps), resulting in an end-to-end reference trajectory.

Senent, Juan↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Hot Structure Concepts and Materials for Space Exploration Project

Hot structures are multifunctional material systems that integrate the functions of thermal protection systems (TPS) and primary structure to increase mass efficiency in aerospace vehicles. The goal of this project was to improve our capabilities for developing lightweight, reusable, and reliable hot structures concepts to enable advanced space exploration missions. Specifically, current hot structure carbon/carbon (C/C) composite material systems have low interlaminar strength, which can lead to material failures at low load levels, and large material property variability in as-fabricated parts. Two parallel paths were followed to address these shortcomings. First, analysis models were developed to identify the conditions under which excessive interlaminar stresses occur and to evaluate the potential of stitching the C/C laminae to improve the interlaminar thermal-structural response. This effort included the development of high-fidelity, fracture-based thermal-structural finite element analysis models to evaluate critical features needed to produce efficient hot structure concepts. The second path focused on developing atomistic and mesoscale simulation tools to model the fabrication process in an effort to reduce the time and cost of production while improving the quality of the resulting parts. Aspects of the process currently being investigated include the infusion of the matrix precursor into the fiber preform, the cure of the precursor molecules into their polymeric form, and the carbonization and graphitization of the polymer to form the carbon matrix material. Results of the 6-month study are presented herein.

thermal↗
NASA NTRS2023

Investigating Abrasion Effects of Lunar Simulant Grain Sizes on Candidate Spacesuit Fabric

Lunar dust is identified as one of the most significant challenges during the Apollo exploration missions due to its extremely abrasive and electrostatic characteristics. As NASA and the space industry prepare for the upcoming Artemis missions, researching and testing with lunar simulant is quintessential to understanding the effects of lunar dust on the systems and equipment that will be deployed on the lunar surface. Testing will also provide paths that lead to developing technologies and cleaning tools that could be used for dust mitigation. Additionally, it is expected that any hardware that will be exposed to the dusty environment should undergo rigorous testing to ensure it will maintain long-term performance and operate on the lunar surface. For this study, exterior spacesuit fabric was observed. Abrasion is one of the main concerns of lunar dust exposure for spacesuit fabric. Three different abrasion methods were chosen: a rotary tumbler, the Martindale method, and Accelerotor. These abrasion methods were tested on coated and uncoated spacesuit material, Orthofabric, to understand the abrasion rates of sieved lunar simulant and investigate if the addition of ceramic coating mitigated dust abrasion. To summarize, the testing results provided that larger grains are more abrasive than smaller grains, and the selected ceramic coatings did not minimize abrasion during the controlled abrasion tests. It is important to note that the selected ceramic coatings were not designed or intended to provide protection from the abrasive lunar environment. It is recommended to select additional ceramic coatings with an elevated TRL of 5 or greater for testing with Orthofabric and lunar simulant. As an additional note, contact angle measurements were not accounted for in coating selection and should be a factor when selecting adhesion resistant coatings for lunar dust.

grain size↗
NASA NTRS2010

Application of a Near Infrared Imaging System for Thermographic Imaging of the Space Shuttle during Hypersonic Re-Entry

High resolution calibrated near infrared (NIR) imagery was obtained of the Space Shuttle s reentry during STS-119, STS-125, and STS-128 missions. The infrared imagery was collected using a US Navy NP-3D Orion aircraft using a long-range infrared optical package referred to as Cast Glance. The slant ranges between the Space Shuttle and Cast Glance were approximately 26-41 nautical miles at point of closest approach. The Hypersonic Thermodynamic Infrared Measurements (HYTHIRM) project was a NASA Langley led endeavor sponsored by the NASA Engineering Safety Center, the Space Shuttle Program Office and the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate to demonstrate a quantitative thermal imaging capability. HYTHIRM required several mission tools to acquire the imagery. These tools include pre-mission acquisition simulations of the Shuttle trajectory in relationship to the Cast Glance aircraft flight path, radiance modeling to predict the infrared response of the Shuttle, and post mission analysis tools to process the infrared imagery to quantitative temperature maps. The spatially resolved global thermal measurements made during the Shuttle s hypersonic reentry provides valuable flight data for reducing the uncertainty associated with present day ground-to-flight extrapolation techniques and current state-of-the-art empirical boundary-layer transition or turbulent heating prediction methods. Laminar and turbulent flight data is considered critical for the development of turbulence models supporting NASA s next-generation spacecraft. This paper will provide the motivation and details behind the use of an upgraded NIR imaging system used onboard a Navy Cast Glance aircraft and describe the characterizations and procedures performed to obtain quantitative temperature maps. A brief description and assessment will be provided of the previously used analog NIR camera along with image examples from Shuttle missions STS-121, STS-115, and solar tower test. These thermal observations confirmed the challenge of a long-range acquisition during re-entry. These challenges are due to unknown atmospheric conditions, image saturation, vibration etc. This provides the motivation for the use of a digital NIR sensor. The characterizations performed on the digital NIR sensor included radiometric, spatial, and spectral measurements using blackbody radiation sources and known targets. An assessment of the collected data for three Space Shuttle atmospheric re-entries, STS-119, STS-125, and STS-128, are provided along with a description of various events of interest captured using the digital NIR imaging system such as RCS firings and boundary layer transitions. Lastly the process used to convert the raw image counts to quantitative temperatures is presented along with comparisons to the Space Shuttle's onboard thermocouples.

Zalameda, Joseph N.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Influence of Processing Parameters on the Flow Path in Friction Stir Welding

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid phase welding process that unites thermal and mechanical aspects to produce a high quality joint. The process variables are rpm, translational weld speed, and downward plunge force. The strain-temperature history of a metal element at each point on the cross-section of the weld is determined by the individual flow path taken by the particular filament of metal flowing around the tool as influenced by the process variables. The resulting properties of the weld are determined by the strain-temperature history. Thus to control FSW properties, improved understanding of the processing parameters on the metal flow path is necessary.

Schneider, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Risk-Aware Planetary Rover Operation: Autonomous Terrain Classification and Path Planning

Identifying and avoiding terrain hazards (e.g., soft soil and pointy embedded rocks) are crucial for the safety of planetary rovers. This paper presents a newly developed groundbased Mars rover operation tool that mitigates risks from terrain by automatically identifying hazards on the terrain, evaluating their risks, and suggesting operators safe paths options that avoids potential risks while achieving specified goals. The tool will bring benefits to rover operations by reducing operation cost, by reducing cognitive load of rover operators, by preventing human errors, and most importantly, by significantly reducing the risk of the loss of rovers.

Ono, Masahiro↗
NASA NTRS2005

Tracing Material Flow Paths in Friction Stir Welds

Heat and mechanical work are coupled in the friction stir welding process. The process variables are RPM, translational weld speed, and downward plunge force. The strain-temperature history of a metal element at each point on the cross-section of the weld is determined by the process variables plus the individual flow path taken by the particular filament of metal flowing around the tool and ending on flat point. The strain-temperature history determines the properties of a metal element on the weld cross-section. The strain-temperature history is carefully controlled in metal processes where direct control is feasible. Indirect estimates of the flow paths and the strain-temperature histories of filaments comprising friction stir welds can be made from a model, if the model is good enough. This paper describes marker studies of flow path geometries for various process parameters. Observed geometries are compared with geometries estimated from models.

Sanders, Johnny↗