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At least 1,351 records · Page 75

Instrumented Lid - System Final Design

Work is ongoing to create an instrumented and sampling system for monitoring aluminum clad spent nuclear fuel (ASNF) in dry storage. The anticipated system will be composed of a custom canister assembly and a modular instrument manifold. The conceptual design was first laid out in the Task Technical and Quality Assurance Plan (SRNL-RP-2019-00225). In this document, we outline the project progress to date, and describe the final system design.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Multi-scale study of the deformation mechanisms of thermoelectric p-type half-Heusler Hf 0.44 Zr 0.44 Ti 0.12 CoSb 0.8 Sn 0.2

Increasing the figure of merit ZT of thermoelectric (TE) alloys is a challenge that is currently attempted through various metallurgy methods, including nanostructuring and dislocation engineering. Microstructures with such a level of complexity raise questions about the mechanical reliability of these new materials. Indeed, despite the values of hardness and elastic modulus known for the clear majority of TE materials, the data on deformation mechanisms are still rare. Focusing on the nanostructured p-type half-Heusler Hf 0.44 Zr 0.44 Ti 0.12 CoSb 0.8 Sn 0.2 , our multi-scale study aims to analyze the deformation mechanisms. Experiments conducted at macro-, meso-, and micro-scale are designed to trigger and assess plasticity mechanisms. Compression testing on bulk samples subject to a confining pressure environment and temperature leads to an exclusive brittle failure. The mixed-mode failure mechanisms involve switching between intra- and inter-granular crack propagation, depending on the grain size met by the crack tip. Cube-corner nanoindentation at meso-scale generates cracks and enables fracture toughness estimation, while TEM analysis of the crack tip area confirms no dislocation activity and 3D-Electron Back Scattered Diffraction technique confirms the mixed crack propagation behavior. At micro-scale, micro-pillar compression stress-strain curves and failure mechanisms are comparable with bulk samples testing analysis. These results can be used to provide design guidelines for more crack-resistant TE alloys.

Thermoelectricity↗

Residual resistance ratio measurement system for Nb 3 Sn wires extracted from Rutherford cables

Residual resistance ratio (RRR) of superconducting strands is an important parameter for magnet electrical stability. RRR serves as a measure of the low-temperature electrical conductivity of the copper within a conductor that has a copper stabilization matrix. For Nb 3 Sn, due to the need of a reaction heat treatment, the technical requirements for high quality measurements of strands extracted from Rutherford cables are particularly demanding. Quality of wire, cabling deformation, heat treatment temperature, heat treatment atmosphere, sample handling, and measurement methods can all affect the RRR. Therefore, as an integral part of the electrical quality control (QC) of Nb 3 Sn Rutherford cables manufactured at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, it was prudent that we established a RRR measurement system that can isolate the assessment of cable-fabrication-related impacts from sample preparation and measurement factors. Here we describe a bespoke cryocooler-based measurement system, capable of measuring RRR of over 80 samples in a single cooldown. The samples are mounted on custom-designed printed circuit boards that accommodate the shape of strands extracted from a Rutherford cable without added deformation, which we will show is critical in ensuring that the measurements accurately represent the RRR values of the conductor within the cable. Using this sample mounting solution, we routinely measure the overall RRR of the strand as well as individual intra-strand sections corresponding to both cable edges and cable broad faces with high reproducibility. Such measurements provide valuable information on the variation of RRR along the length of the strands as well as across strand productions and cable runs over time.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Image sampling, reconstruction, and the effect of sample-scene phasing

This paper is a 1-D analysis of the degradation caused by image sampling and interpolative reconstruction. The analysis includes the sample-scene phase as an explicit random parameter and provides a complete characterization of this image degradation as the sum of two terms: one term accounts for the mean effect of undersampling (aliasing) and nonideal reconstruction averaged over all sample-scene phases; the other term accounts for variations about this mean. The results of this paper have application to the design and performance analysis of image scanning, sampling, and reconstruction systems.

Park, S. K.↗

Automated biowaste sampling system feces monitoring system

The Feces Monitoring System (FMS) Program designed, fabricated, assembled and tested an engineering model waste collector system (WCS) to be used in support of life science and medical experiments related to Shuttle missions. The FMS design was patterned closely after the Shuttle WCS, including: interface provisions; mounting; configuration; and operating procedures. These similarities make it possible to eventually substitute an FMS for the Shuttle WCS of Orbiter. In addition, several advanced waste collection features, including the capability of real-time inertial fecal separation and fecal mass measurement and sampling were incorporated into the FMS design.

Hunt, S. R.↗

Micro-balance sensor integrated with atomic layer deposition chamber

The invention is directed to QCM measurements in monitoring ALD processes. Previously, significant barriers remain in the ALD processes and accurate execution. To turn this exclusively dedicated in situ technique into a routine characterization method, an integral QCM fixture was developed. This new design is easily implemented on a variety of ALD tools, allows rapid sample exchange, prevents backside deposition, and minimizes both the footprint and flow disturbance. Unlike previous QCM designs, the fast thermal equilibration enables tasks such as temperature-dependent studies and ex situ sample exchange, further highlighting the feasibility of this QCM design for day-to-day use. Finally, the in situ mapping of thin film growth rates across the ALD reactor was demonstrated in a popular commercial tool operating in both continuous and quasi-static ALD modes.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Unveiling the Milky Way: A new technique for determining the optical color and luminosity of our galaxy

We demonstrate a new statistical method of determining the global photometric properties of the Milky Way (MW) to an unprecedented degree of accuracy, allowing our Galaxy to be compared directly to objects measured in extragalactic surveys. Capitalizing on the high-quality imaging and spectroscopy data set from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), we exploit the inherent dependence of galaxies’ luminosities and colors on their total stellar mass, M{sub ⋆}, and star formation rate (SFR), M-dot {sub ⋆}, by selecting a sample of Milky Way analog galaxies designed to reproduce the best Galactic M{sub ⋆} and M-dot {sub ⋆} measurements, including all measurement uncertainties. Making the Copernican assumption that the MW is not extraordinary among galaxies of similar stellar mass and SFR, we then analyze the photometric properties of this matched sample, constraining the characteristics of our Galaxy without suffering interference from interstellar dust. We explore a variety of potential systematic errors that could affect this method, and find that they are subdominant to random uncertainties. We present both SDSS ugriz absolute magnitudes and colors in both rest-frame z = 0 and z = 0.1 passbands for the MW, which are in agreement with previous estimates but can have up to ∼3× lower errors. We find the MW to have absolute magnitude {sup 0}M{sub r}−5logh=−21.00{sub −0.37}{sup +0.38} and integrated color {sup 0}(g−r)=0.682{sub −0.056}{sup +0.066}, indicating that it may belong to the green-valley region in color–magnitude space and ranking it among the brightest and reddest of spiral galaxies. We also present new estimates of global stellar mass-to-light ratios for our Galaxy. This work will help relate our in-depth understanding of the Galaxy to studies of more distant objects.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Test evaluation of potential heat shield contamination of an Outer Planet Probe's atmospheric sampling system

An Outer Planets Probe which retains the charred heatshield during atmospheric descent must deploy a sampling tube through the heatshield to extract atmospheric samples for analysis. Once the sampling tube is deployed, the atmospheric samples ingested must be free of contaminant gases generated by the heatshield. Outgassing products such as methane and water vapor are present in planetary atmospheres and hence, ingestion of such species would result in gas analyzer measurement uncertainties. This paper evaluates the potential for, and design impact of, the extracted atmospheric samples being contaminated by heatshield outgassing products. Flight trajectory data for Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus entries are analyzed to define the conditions resulting in the greatest potential for outgassing products being ingested into the probe's sampling system. An experimental program is defined and described which simulates the key flow field features for a planetary flight in a ground-based test facility. The primary parameters varied in the test include: sampling tube length, injectant mass flow rate and angle of attack. Measured contaminant levels predict the critical sampling tube length for contamination avoidance. Thus, the study demonstrates the compatibility of a retained heatshield concept and high quality atmospheric trace species measurements.

Kessler, W. C.↗

Development of Machine Learning Algorithms to Segment and Study Images of Astromaterial Samples

Introduction: Micrometer-scale chemical analyses of chondritic meteorites and mission-returned asteroid samples can reveal details of the physical and chemical processes operating in the early solar system, including processes that gave rise to planets, moons, and minor bodies. These primitive astromaterials are comprised of chondrules, calcium- and aluminum-rich inclusions (CAI), and many other silicates, oxides, metals, sulfides, and fine-grained materials. The chemical and mineralogical complexity of these samples, vast populations of different components, and heterogeneity across mm to km scales, all limit our understanding of the origin and evolution of these materials. Here, we describe recent efforts to use machine learning techniques to automate the segmentation of chemical maps of chondritic meteorites, designed to aid studies of asteroid samples returned by spacecraft. By automating the task of segmentation it will become possible to rapidly analyze and interpret the sizes, shapes, mineralogy, chemistry, and other properties of every chondrule, calcium- and aluminum-rich inclusion (CAI) and other clast within and between asteroid samples. Sample return missions significantly accelerate and heighten the need to develop such new data analysis techniques, and associated data repositories. Techniques: Neural networks require abundant training data, i.e. images which have been segmented by a human user. We have manually segmented data available from previous petrologic and chemical work at NASA Johnson Space Center and the American Museum of Natural History [1-4]. These data were derived from energy- and wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS, WDS) mapping of samples from many chondrite groups. The Deeplabv3+ [5] neural network architecture was trained on human-labeled masks and used to create machine-labeled masks. Several different algorithms were investigated, with inputs ranging from common RGB image formats through to hyperspectral datasets, with raw data comprising greyscale maps of Mg, Ca, and Al, with or without Si, Fe, Ti for both EDS and WDS data, and extending to other elements in EDS only. Each greyscale image was paired with a binary mask for each labelled particle type. Results: The trained algorithms can segment (Fig 1), classify, and measure the dimensions of thousands of particles in chemical maps of a standard 1-inch round petrographic section in seconds to minutes, rather than many hours needed by a human. Accuracy of the algorithms varied from chondrite to chondrite and across particle types. Further results and details of the algorithms will be presented at the workshop. Future directions: Machine learning has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of complex particle populations contained within primitive astromaterial, with segmentation being a critical first step. Example applications include better understanding of particle transport, nebular reservoirs, parent body accretion, and a deeper understanding of the relationships between particle populations and bulk rock elemental and isotopic compositions. In addition to benefits that machine learning can bring to individual researchers, building a community data repository of thousands to millions of particles across hundreds of samples will open up many other possibilities. For example, with a large enough dataset it will be possible to search for exceptionally closely matching particles across disparate samples. Such a capability would enable a single CAI from OSIRISREx or Hayabusa/II samples to be matched to chondritic CAIs that exhibit near-identical size, texture, and mineralogy, down to the level of similar core phenocrysts, zonation, and rim sequences. Such comparative analyses will help to disentangle precursor chemistry, chronology, gas/dust reservoirs during heating, and accretion. Such an endeavor would be impossible without machine learning and a large community data repository of astromaterial chemical/mineralogic maps.

Machine Learning↗

Modular biowaste monitoring system

The objective of the Modular Biowaste Monitoring System Program was to generate and evaluate hardware for supporting shuttle life science experimental and diagnostic programs. An initial conceptual design effort established requirements and defined an overall modular system for the collection, measurement, sampling and storage of urine and feces biowastes. This conceptual design effort was followed by the design, fabrication and performance evaluation of a flight prototype model urine collection, volume measurement and sampling capability. No operational or performance deficiencies were uncovered as a result of the performance evaluation tests.

Fogal, G. L.↗

Direct Surface and Droplet Microsampling for Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry Analysis with an Integrated Dual-Probe Microfluidic Chip

Ambient mass spectrometry (MS) has revolutionized the way of MS analysis and broadened its application in various fields. This paper describes the use of microfluidic techniques to simplify the setup and improve the functions of ambient MS by integrating the sampling probe, electrospray emitter probe, and online mixer on a single glass microchip. Two types of sampling probes, including a parallel-channel probe and a U-shaped channel probe, were designed for dryspot and liquid-phase droplet samples, respectively. We demonstrated that the microfabrication techniques not only enhanced the capability of ambient MS methods in analysis of dry-spot samples on various surfaces, but also enabled new applications in the analysis of nanoliter-scale chemical reactions in an array of droplets. The versatility of the microchip-based ambient MS method was demonstrated in multiple different applications including evaluation of residual pesticide on fruit surfaces, sensitive analysis of low-ionizable analytes using postsampling derivatization, and high-throughput screening of Ugi-type multicomponent reactions.

Huang, Cong-Min↗

NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return Program

NASA's Perseverance mission arrived at Jezero Crater on Mars in February 2021 and began scientific studies and acquisition of Martian samples for return to Earth by future missions, consistent with the recommendations of the U.S. science community in the previous Planetary Science Decadal Survey. NASA and ESA have established a joint Mars Sample Return (MSR) program to safely deliver these samples back to Earth, allowing researchers to use advanced scientific instrumentation that cannot be transported on robotic spacecraft and enable future studies of carefully curated samples using capabilities that have not yet been developed. The MSR architecture consists of two flight elements to follow Perseverance, the NASA-led Sample Retrieval Lander (SRL) and the ESA-led Earth Return Orbiter (ERO). The ERO is designed to orbit Mars and provide relay services for the SRL, including its ESA Sample Fetch Rover (SFR) and the NASA Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV). The SRL deploys the SFR to retrieve Martian samples cached by the Perseverance rover and then returns the samples to the Orbiting Sample container (OS) on board the MAV using the ESA Sample Transfer Arm (STA). Independently, Perseverance could also deliver samples retained onboard to the OS. The MAV would launch and release the OS into low Mars orbit for rendezvous with the ERO. Upon successful capture of the OS in the ERO’s primary payload, the NASA Capture/Containment Return System (CCRS), the OS would be safely contained and loaded into the Earth Entry System (EES). The ERO will leave Mars orbit and release the EES on Earth approach on a ballistic reentry trajectory through the Earth's atmosphere for landing in the United States. Following return of the samples to Earth, the samples would be protected, preserved, assessed, curated, and made available to the international science community for scientific research and analysis. The NASA SRL and ESA ERO missions are expected to launch as early as 2026, with the return of Martian samples to Earth as early as 2031. MSR’s primary objective is the return of scientifically selected Mars samples for detailed investigation in terrestrial laboratories. The mission would also further inform the design of future human missions. The Mars Sample Return campaign is underway with the successful collection of several scientifically selected samples in Jezero Crater. The MSR Program is working towards a confirmation review in 2023 for the remaining flight elements.

Mars↗

A firmware-defined digital direct-sampling NMR spectrometer for condensed matter physics

We report on the design and implementation of a new digital, broad-band nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer suitable for probing condensed matter. The spectrometer uses direct sampling in both transmission and reception. It relies on a single, commercially-available signal processing device with a user-accessible field-programmable gate array (FPGA). Its functions are defined exclusively by the FPGA firmware and the application software. Besides allowing for fast replication, flexibility, and extensibility, our software-based solution preserves the option to reuse the components for other projects. The device operates up to 400 MHz without, and up to 800 MHz with undersampling, respectively. Digital down-conversion with ±10 MHz passband is provided on the receiver side. The system supports high repetition rates and has virtually no intrinsic dead time. We describe briefly how the spectrometer integrates into the experimental setup and present test data which demonstrates that its performance is competitive with that of conventional designs.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Integrated Communication and Control Systems. III - Nonidentical sensor and controller sampling

Networking in Integrated Communication and Control Systems (ICCS) introduces randomly varying delays which degrade the system dynamic performance and are a source of potential instability. In Part I of this sequence of papers, a discrete-time, finite-dimensional model of the delayed control system for analysis and design of ICCS was developed where the sensor and controller have identical sampling rates. In Part II, two alternate approaches for ICCS design, namely, identical and nonidentical sampling rates for sensor and controller were proposed. This Part III presents extended modeling of ICCS for nonidentical sensor and controller sampling rates. This model is also suitable for analyzing tracking problems, i.e., control systems with time-dependent reference inputs.

Liou, Luen-Woei↗

A fast sampling device for the mass spectrometric analysis of liquid rocket engine exhaust

The design of a device to obtain compositional data on rocket exhaust by direct sampling of reactive flow exhausts into a mass spectrometer is presented. Sampling at three stages differing in pressure and orifice angle and diameter is possible. Results of calibration with pure gases and gas mixtures are erratic and of unknown accuracy for H2, limiting the usefulness of the apparatus for determining oxidizer/fuel ratios from combustion product analysis. Deposition effects are discussed, and data obtained from rocket exhaust spectra are analyzed to give O/F ratios and mixture ratio distribution. The O/F ratio determined spectrometrically is insufficiently accurate for quantitative comparison with cold flow data. However, a criterion for operating conditions with improved mixing of fuel and oxidizer which is consistent with cold flow results may be obtained by inspection of contour plots. A chemical inefficiency in the combustion process when oxidizer is in excess is observed from reactive flow measurements. Present results were obtained with N2O4/N2H4 propellants.

Ryason, P. R.↗

OSIRIS-REx Touch-And-Go (TAG) Mission Design and Analysis

The Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission is a NASA New Frontiers mission launching in 2016 to rendezvous with the near-Earth asteroid (101955) 1999 RQ36 in late 2018. After several months in formation with and orbit about the asteroid, OSIRIS-REx will fly a Touch-And-Go (TAG) trajectory to the asteroid s surface to obtain a regolith sample. This paper describes the mission design of the TAG sequence and the propulsive maneuvers required to achieve the trajectory. This paper also shows preliminary results of orbit covariance analysis and Monte-Carlo analysis that demonstrate the ability to arrive at a targeted location on the surface of RQ36 within a 25 meter radius with 98.3% confidence.

Berry, Kevin↗

Improved Cloud Condensation Nucleus Spectrometer

An improved thermal-gradient cloud condensation nucleus spectrometer (CCNS) has been designed to provide several enhancements over prior thermal- gradient counters, including fast response and high-sensitivity detection covering a wide range of supersaturations. CCNSs are used in laboratory research on the relationships among aerosols, supersaturation of air, and the formation of clouds. The operational characteristics of prior counters are such that it takes long times to determine aerosol critical supersaturations. Hence, there is a need for a CCNS capable of rapid scanning through a wide range of supersaturations. The present improved CCNS satisfies this need. The improved thermal-gradient CCNS (see Figure 1) incorporates the following notable features: a) The main chamber is bounded on the top and bottom by parallel thick copper plates, which are joined by a thermally conductive vertical wall on one side and a thermally nonconductive wall on the opposite side. b) To establish a temperature gradient needed to establish a supersaturation gradient, water at two different regulated temperatures is pumped through tubes along the edges of the copper plates at the thermally-nonconductive-wall side. Figure 2 presents an example of temperature and supersaturation gradients for one combination of regulated temperatures at the thermally-nonconductive-wall edges of the copper plates. c) To enable measurement of the temperature gradient, ten thermocouples are cemented to the external surfaces of the copper plates (five on the top plate and five on the bottom plate), spaced at equal intervals along the width axis of the main chamber near the outlet end. d) Pieces of filter paper or cotton felt are cemented onto the interior surfaces of the copper plates and, prior to each experimental run, are saturated with water to establish a supersaturation field inside the main chamber. e) A flow of monodisperse aerosol and a dilution flow of humid air are introduced into the main chamber at the inlet end. The inlet assembly is designed to offer improved (relative to prior such assemblies) laminar-flow performance within the main chamber. Dry aerosols are subjected to activation and growth in the supersaturation field. f) After aerosol activation, at the outlet end of the main chamber, a polished stainless-steel probe is used to sample droplets into a laser particle counter. The probe features an improved design for efficient sampling. The counter has six channels with size bins in the range of 0.5- to 5.0-micron diameter. g) To enable efficient sampling, the probe is scanned along the width axis of the main chamber (thereby effecting scanning along the temperature gradient and thereby, further, effecting scanning along the supersaturation gradient) by means of a computer-controlled translation stage.

Leu, Ming-Taun↗

Preliminary assessment of rover power systems for the Mars Rover Sample Return Mission

Four isotope power system concepts were presented and compared on a common basis for application to on-board electrical prime power for an autonomous planetary rover vehicle. A representative design point corresponding to the Mars Rover Sample Return (MRSR) preliminary mission requirements (500 W) was selected for comparison purposes. All systems concepts utilize the General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) isotope heat source developed by DOE. Two of the concepts employ thermoelectric (TE) conversion: one using the GPHS Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) used as a reference case, the other using an advanced RTG with improved thermoelectric materials. The other two concepts employed are dynamic isotope power systems (DIPS): one using a closed Brayton cycle (CBC) turboalternator, and the other using a free piston Stirling cycle engine/linear alternator (FPSE) with integrated heat source/heater head. Near term technology levels have been assumed for concept characterization using component technology figure-of-merit values taken from the published literature. For example, the CBC characterization draws from the historical test database accumulated from space Brayton cycle subsystems and components from the NASA B engine through the mini-Brayton rotating unit. TE system performance is estimated from Voyager/multihundred Watt (MHW)-RTG flight experience through Mod-RTG performance estimates considering recent advances in TE materials under the DOD/DOE/NASA SP-100 and NASA Committee on Scientific and Technological Information programs. The Stirling DIPS system is characterized from scaled-down Space Power Demonstrator Engine (SPDE) data using the GPHS directly incorporated into the heater head. The characterization/comparison results presented here differ from previous comparison of isotope power (made for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) applications) because of the elevated background temperature on the Martian surface compared to LEO, and the higher sensitivity of dynamic systems to elevated sink temperature. The mass advantage of dynamic systems is significantly reduced for this application due to Mars' elevated background temperature.

Bents, David J.↗