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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 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1984

Nuclear electric propulsion missions

This paper reviews nuclear electric propulsion technology and missions. The science objectives and mission performance of the following five missions are presented: (1) Neptune orbiter, (2) Saturn ring rendezvous, (3) an asteroid sample return, (4) a comet sample return, and (5) an interstellar precursor mission. A short status of the reactor and thermal to electric conversion technologies is given as well as a brief discussion of ion thruster technology. A specific nuclear reactor power system concept is presented that produces 100 kWe and has a mass of about 2600 kg. Mission performance in terms of payload and flight time is presented for all five missions. Heliocentric trajectories are presented for the Neptune orbiter, Saturn ring rendezvous, and Comet Tempel 2 nucleus sample return missions.

Jones, R. M.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Atom Probe Tomography and Three-Dimensional Atomic Scale Characterisation of Interplanetary Dust Particles: Inorganic and Organic, Hydrous and Anhydrous Assemblages

Interplanetary dust particles (IDPs)preserve primordial fragments from our Solar System and external stellar systems, sampled from a vast range of dust forming bodies that often display smaller degrees of parent body processing than is seen in meteorites. IDPs preserve some of the smallest astromaterials from our Solar System, many of which are believed to be among the most important materials for studying physical and chemical processing, and formation mechanisms occurring within the interstellar medium (ISM), Solar Nebula and external planetary systems[1]. However, their formation processes and provenance are poorly constrained, owing in part to spatial resolution limitations of traditional analytical techniques. Atom probe tomography (APT) uses a pulsed laser to field-evaporate material at the atomic scale from needle-shaped samples, and time-of-flight spectrometry for 3D reconstruction of element and isotope distribution in samples after data acquisition. This technique has the highest spatial resolution available of any technique used within the geoscience field[2]. However, measuring multi-phase specimens and porous media in APT can be challenging, two primary characteristics of IDPs. Here we present a custom method for APT needle design and the first results of a 3Datomic scale study of interplanetary dust particles, salt crystals and extraterrestrial insoluble and soluble organic matter designed to overcome the challenges of studying IDP-like materials.

N D Nevill↗
NASA NTRS1991

Human factors issues for interstellar spacecraft

Developments in research on space human factors are reviewed in the context of a self-sustaining interstellar spacecraft based on the notion of traveling space settlements. Assumptions about interstellar travel are set forth addressing costs, mission durations, and the need for multigenerational space colonies. The model of human motivation by Maslow (1970) is examined and directly related to the design of space habitat architecture. Human-factors technology issues encompass the human-machine interface, crew selection and training, and the development of spaceship infrastructure during transtellar flight. A scenario for feasible instellar travel is based on a speed of 0.5c, a timeframe of about 100 yr, and an expandable multigenerational crew of about 100 members. Crew training is identified as a critical human-factors issue requiring the development of perceptual and cognitive aids such as expert systems and virtual reality.

Cohen, Marc M.↗
NASA NTRS2019

NASA’s Space Launch System: Enabling a New Generation of Lunar Exploration

Following two decades of operational experience in low-Earth orbit (LEO), NASA has turned its focus once again to deep space exploration. The Agency is building the Space Launch System (SLS) to take astronauts and cargo to the Moon and send robotic spacecraft deep into the solar system. Offering unmatched performance, departure energy and payload capacity, SLS is designed to evolve into progressively more powerful configurations, enabling a new generation of human exploration of the Moon in preparation for future missions to Mars. The first build of the Block 1 vehicle is nearly complete for Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), the first integrated flight of SLS and the Orion crew vehicle. EM-1 will send an uncrewed Orion to a distant retrograde lunar orbit in order to test and verify new systems, and along the way will deploy 13 6U-class CubeSats in deep space along the upper stage disposal trajectory after separation from Orion. The Agency’s current plans call for the first three missions on the SLS manifest to utilize the Block 1 vehicle in crew and cargo configurations. A more powerful evolved vehicle, Block 1B, will provide additional mass and volume performance using a new Exploration Upper Stage (EUS). Block 1B will lift 34 to 40 metric tons (t) to trans-lunar injection (TLI), depending on crew or cargo configuration. The Block 1B crew configuration will offer as much payload volume as industry-standard 5 m-diameter fairings to co-manifested payloads in a Universal Stage Adapter (USA). The Block 1B cargo variant will accommodate 8.4 meter-diameter fairings in 62.7-foot (19.1 meter) or 90-foot (27.4 meter) lengths. Adding smallsat secondary payloads to ride along with primary and co-manifested payloads on future flights may be possible, depending on mass margins. Leveraging a flight-proven, well-understood propulsion system, SLS’s flexible architecture, unmatched performance and expansive payload accommodations will open exciting new mission possibilities in deep space. Launches of habitat modules for NASA’s new Gateway lunar outpost, the next generation of robotic spacecraft to the far reaches of the solar system, large-aperture deep space telescopes, probes to interstellar space and the return of astronauts to the Moon are all possible with SLS.

Creech, Stephen D.↗
NASA NTRS2007

OTIS Modeling of IBEX Flight

When a launch vehicle carries a payload into space, it must follow a very particular trajectory to achieve its desired orbit. Modern rockets have very tight delta-v budgets and many forces work to rob the rocket of energy, placing limits on the performance of the launch vehicle. Trajectory optimization evolved out of this need to economize on every bit of energy of a launch vehicle. Today NASA uses Optimal Trajectory by Implicit Simulation (OTIS) to optimize trajectories based on given parameters. The Interstellar Boundary EXplorer (IBEX) mission profile is unique and required special alterations to the standard OTIS data output.

deZarraga, Gaston↗
NASA NTRS2003

Fun Times with Cosmic Rays

Who would have thought cosmic rays could be so hip? Although discovered 90 years ago on death-defying manned balloon flights hip even by twenty-first-century extremesport standards cosmic rays quickly lost popularity as way-cool telescopes were finding way-too-cool phenomena across the electromagnetic spectrum. Yet cosmic rays are back in vogue, boasting their own set of superlatives. Scientists are tracking them down with new resolve from the Arctic to Antarctica and even on the high western plains of Argentina. Theorists, too, now see cosmic rays as harbingers of funky physics. Cosmic rays are atomic and subatomic particles - the fastest moving bits of matter in the universe and the only sample of matter we have from outside the solar system (with the exception of interstellar dust grains). Lower-energy cosmic rays come from the Sun. Mid-energy particles come from stellar explosions - either spewed directly from the star like shrapnel, or perhaps accelerated to nearly the speed of light by shock waves. The highest-energy cosmic rays, whose unequivocal existence remains one of astronomy's greatest mysteries, clock in at a staggering 10(exp 19) to 10(exp 22) electron volts. This is the energy carried in a baseball pitch; seeing as how there are as many atomic particles in a baseball as there are baseballs in the Moon, that s one powerful toss. No simple stellar explosion could produce them. At a recent conference in Albuquerque, scientists presented the first observational evidence of a possible origin for the highest-energy variety. A team led by Elihu Boldt at NASA s Goddard Space Flight Center found that five of these very rare cosmic rays (there are only a few dozen confirmed events) come from the direction of four 'retired' quasar host galaxies just above the arm of the Big Dipper, all visible with backyard telescopes: NGC 3610, NGC 3613, NGC 4589, and NGC 5322. These galaxies are billions of years past their glory days as the brightest beacons in the universe. Yet they still harbor central, supermassive black holes, which could generate energetic particles if they are spinning.

Wanjek, Christopher↗
NASA NTRS2004

Surveying Galaxy Evolution in the Far-Infrared: A Far-Infrared All-Sky Survey Concept

Half of the total luminosity in the Universe is emitted at rest wavelengths approximately 80-100 microns. At the highest known galaxy redshifts (z greater than or equal to 6) this energy is redshifted to approximately 600 microns. Quantifying the evolution of galaxies at these wavelengths is crucial to our understanding of the formation of structure in the Universe following the big bang. Surveying the whole sky will find the rare and unique objects, enabling follow-up observations. SIRCE, the Survey of Infrared Cosmic Evolution, is such a mission concept under study at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. A helium-cooled telescope with ultrasensitive detectors can image the whole sky to the confusion limit in 6 months. Multiple wavelength bands permit the extraction of photometric redshifts, while a large telescope yields a low confusion limit. We discuss the implications of such a survey for galaxy formation and evolution, large-scale structure, star formation, and the structure of interstellar dust.

Benford, D. J.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Observation of pick-up ions in the solar wind: Evidence for the source of the anomalous cosmic ray component?

Singly ionized energetic helium has been observed in the solar wind by using the time of flight spectrometer SULEICA on the AMPTE/IRM satellite between September and December, 1984. The energy density spectrum shows a sharp cut off which is strongly correlated with the four fold solar wind bulk energy. The absolute flux of the He(+)ions of about 10000 ion/sq cm.s is present independent of the IPL magnetic field orientation. The most likely source is the neutral helium of the interstellar wind which is ionized by solar UV radiation. It is suggested that these particles represent the source of the anomalous cosmic ray component.

Hovestadt, D.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

An Integrated Software Architecture for Solar Cruiser Mission Design and Navigation

Solar Cruiser is a solar sailing mission, riding as a secondary payload to the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission, slated to launch in February of 2025. The Solar Cruiser vehicle will generate thrust via a complex, low-thrust solar sail. The extreme low-thrust nature of the solar sail will leave Solar Cruiser highly sensitive to external environmental effects (such as solar radiation pressure and high-order gravitational perturbations) throughout the entirety of flight. Because of this, preliminary operational optimization routines must be intricately tied to high-order predictive propagation models to ensure the greatest possible confidence in mission success. The Solar Cruiser Mission Design and Navigation (MDNav) team has designed a software tool suite, employing the latest in software containerization technology, to accomplish this task; allowing for seamless development across several users and operating systems. Combining JPL’s Monte toolkit with high-performance optimizers written by the University of Alabama, the proposed architecture allows for instant verification of optimized trajectories within the same development environment that the optimization takes place, removing the need for mission designers and navigators to switch between tools. The MDNav suite image deployment process is separated from the development and operational scripts to be used in flight, which allows for maintaining a low-footprint version control profile without unnecessary file bloating. This paper discusses the historical differences between previous iterations of the Solar Cruiser MDNav tool suite and the current iteration, planned operational interfaces of the tool with other software and subsystems, and the planned path forward in maintaining containerization services for the software throughout the lifetime of Solar Cruiser.

optimization↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

An Integrated Software Architecture for Solar Cruiser Mission Design and Navigation

Solar Cruiser is a solar sailing mission, riding as a secondary payload to the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission, expected to launch in February of 2025. The Solar Cruiser vehicle will generate thrust via a complex, low-thrust solar sail. The extreme low-thrust nature of the solar sail will leave Solar Cruiser highly sensitive to external environmental effects (such as solar radiation pressure and high-order gravitational perturbations) throughout the entirety of flight. Because of this, preliminary & operational optimization routines must be intricately tied to high-order predictive propagation models to ensure the greatest possible confidence in mission success. The Solar Cruiser Mission Design and Navigation (MDNav) team has designed a software tool suite, employing the latest in software containerization technology, to accomplish this task, allowing for seamless development across several users and operating systems. Combining JPL’s Monte toolkit with high-performance optimizers written by researchers at the University of Alabama, the proposed architecture allows for instant verification of optimized trajectories within the same development environment that the optimization takes place, removing the need for mission designers and navigators to switch between tools. The MDNav software suite itself is separated from the development and operational scripts to be used in flight, which allows for maintaining a low-footprint version control profile – thus avoiding unnecessary file bloating. This paper discusses the historical differences between previous iterations of the Solar Cruiser MDNav tool suite and the current iteration, planned operational interfaces of the tool with other software and subsystems, and the planned path forward in maintaining containerization services for the software throughout the lifetime of Solar Cruiser.

Containerization↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

An Integrated Software Architecture for Solar Cruiser Mission Design and Navigation

Solar Cruiser is a solar sailing mission, riding as a secondary payload to the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission, expected to launch in February of 2025. The Solar Cruiser vehicle will generate thrust via a complex, low-thrust solar sail. The extreme low-thrust nature of the solar sail will leave Solar Cruiser highly sensitive to external environmental effects (such as solar radiation pressure and high-order gravitational perturbations) throughout the entirety of flight. Because of this, preliminary & operational optimization routines must be intricately tied to high-order predictive propagation models to ensure the greatest possible confidence in mission success. The Solar Cruiser Mission Design and Navigation (MDNav) team has designed a software tool suite, employing the latest in software containerization technology, to accomplish this task, allowing for seamless development across several users and operating systems. Combining JPL’s Monte toolkit with University of Alabama’s high-performance optimizer, ASSET, the proposed architecture allows for instant verification of optimized trajectories within the same development environment that the optimization takes place, removing the need for mission designers and navigators to switch between tools. The MDNav software suite itself is separated from the development and operational scripts to be used in flight, which allows for maintaining a low-footprint version control profile – thus avoiding unnecessary file bloating. This paper discusses the historical differences between previous iterations of the Solar Cruiser MDNav tool suite and the current iteration, planned operational interfaces of the tool with other software and subsystems, and the planned path forward in maintaining containerization services for the software throughout the lifetime of Solar Cruiser.

solar cruiser↗
NASA NTRS1998

A Status of the Advanced Space Transportation Program from Planning to Action

A Technology Plan for Enabling Commercial Space Business was presented at the 48th International Astronautical Congress in Turin, Italy. This paper presents a status of the program's accomplishments. Technology demonstrations have progressed in each of the four elements of the program; (1) Low Cost Technology, (2) Advanced Reusable Technology, (3) Space Transfer Technology and (4) Space Transportation Research. The Low Cost Technology program element is primarily focused at reducing development and acquisition costs of aerospace hardware using a "design to cost" philosophy with robust margins, adapting commercial manufacturing processes and commercial off-the-shelf hardware. The attributes of this philosophy for small payload launch are being demonstrated at the component, sub-system, and system level. The X-34 "Fastrac" engine has progressed through major component and subsystem demonstrations. A propulsion system test bed has been implemented for system-level demonstration of component and subsystem technologies; including propellant tankage and feedlines, controls, pressurization, and engine systems. Low cost turbopump designs, commercial valves and a controller are demonstrating the potential for a ten-fold reduction in engine and propulsion system costs. The Advanced Reusable Technology program element is focused on increasing life through high strength-to-weight structures and propulsion components, highly integrated propellant tanks, automated checkout and health management and increased propulsion system performance. The validation of rocket based combined cycle (RBCC) propulsion is pro,-,ressing through component and subsystem testing. RBCC propulsion has the potential to provide performance margin over an all rocket system that could result in lower gross liftoff weight, a lower propellant mass fraction or a higher payload mass fraction. The Space Transfer Technology element of the program is pursuing technology that can improve performance and dramatically reduce the propellant and structural mass of orbit transfer and deep space systems. Flight demonstration of ion propulsion is progressing towards launch. Ion propulsion is the primary propulsion for Deep Space 1; a flyby of comet West-kohoutek-lkemura and asteroid 3352 McAuliffe. Testing of critical solar-thermal propulsion subsystems have been accomplished and planning is continuing for the flight demonstration of an electrodynamic tether orbit transfer system. The forth and final element of the program, Space Transportation Research, has progressed in several areas of propulsion research. This element of the program is focused at long-term (25 years) breakthrough concepts that could bring launch costs to a factor of one hundred below today's cost or dramatically expand planetary travel and enable interstellar travel.

Lyles, Garry↗
NASA NTRS1983

The ISPM solar-wind ion composition spectrometer

The International Solar Polar Mission (ISPM) Solar-Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer which determines elemental and ionic-charge composition, and the temperatures and mean speeds of all major solar-wind ions, from H through Fe, at solar wind speeds ranging from 145 km/sec (protons) to 1352 km/sec (Fe+8) is described. The instrument, which covers an energy per charge range from 110 eV/q to 66.7 keV/q in 13 min, combines an electrostatic analyzer with postacceleration, followed by a time-of-flight and energy measurement. Conditions and processes in the region of the corona where the solar wind is accelerated; location of the source regions of the solar wind in the corona; coronal heating processes; the extent and causes of variations in the composition of the solar atmosphere; plasma processes in the solar wind; acceleration of energetic particles in the solar wind; the thermalization and acceleration of interstellar ions in the solar wind, and their composition; and the composition and behavior of the plasma in the Jovian magnetosphere are studied.

Gloeckler, G.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Substantial reservoirs of molecular hydrogen in the debris disks around young stars

Circumstellar accretion disks transfer matter from molecular clouds to young stars and to the sites of planet formation. The disks observed around pre-main-sequence stars have properties consistent with those expected for the pre-solar nebula from which our own Solar System formed 4.5 Gyr ago. But the 'debris' disks that encircle more than 15% of nearby main-sequence stars appear to have very small amounts of gas, based on observations of the tracer molecule carbon monoxide: these observations have yielded gas/dust ratios much less than 0.1, whereas the interstellar value is about 100 (ref. 9). Here we report observations of the lowest rotational transitions of molecular hydrogen (H2) that reveal large quantities of gas in the debris disks around the stars beta Pictoris, 49 Ceti and HD135344. The gas masses calculated from the data are several hundreds to a thousand times greater than those estimated from the CO observations, and yield gas/dust ratios of the same order as the interstellar value.

unmanned↗
NASA NTRS1996

SOFIA: The Next Airborne Observatory

SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) will be a telescope with 2.5 m effective aperture operating at altitudes of 12.5 to 13.7 km in a Boeing 747 aircraft. It will enable astronomers on board to make observations which are impossible from the ground at wavelengths between 0.3 microns and 1.5 mm. Diffraction-limited imaging will be possible at wavelengths beyond about 10 microns. SOFIA's mobility will assure all-sky coverage and access to transient events from anywhere in the world. Some of the science topics to be studied will be star and planet formation, origin and evolution of biogenic materials, comets and planetary atmospheres in the solar system, the interstellar media of other galaxies, and phenomena at our galactic center. The SOFIA concept is based on 21 years of experience with NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO), which has been retired to help fund the project. As with the KAO, state-of-the-art focal plane instruments and a vigorous educational outreach program will be features of this new airborne astronomy facility. A more intensive flight program, approximately 150 flights per year, will accommodate many more guest investigators however. Planned as a collaboration between the United States and Germany, SOFIA is scheduled to begin a 20 year operating lifetime in 2001.

Erickson, E. F.↗
NASA NTRS2003

SOFIA First Generation Science Instruments

SOFIA will provide 0.3- 1600 pm wavelength coverage, excellent FIR/submm angular resolution, a variety of focal plane instruments, and access to them throughout a 20-year lifetime. These attributes assure SOFIA a vital role in future observations of the interstellar medium, and in numerous other studies. SOFIA is a joint program of NASA in the U.S. and DLR in Germany. Observing time will be arranged by annual peer review of proposals, with roughly 80 percent of the time granted by the U.S. and 20 percent of the time granted by Germany. International proposals may be submitted to either time allocation committee. SOFIA is expected to begin science flights in 2005.

Erickson, Edwin F.↗
NASA NTRS2018

In-Flight Calibration of Hitomi Soft X-Ray Spectrometer (3) Effective Area

We present the result of the in-flight calibration of the effective area of the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) on board the Hitomi X-ray satellite using an observation of the Crab nebula. We corrected for artifacts when observing high count rate sources with the X-ray microcalorimeter. We then constructed a spectrum in the 0.5–20 keV band, which we modeled with a single power-law continuum attenuated by interstellar extinction. We evaluated the systematic uncertainty of the spectral parameters by various calibration items. In the 2–12 keV band, the SXS result is consistent with the literature values in flux (2.20 ± 0.08 × 10(exp −8) erg s(exp-1) cm(exp −2) with a 1 σ statistical uncertainty) but is softer in the power-law index (2.19 ± 0.11). The discrepancy is attributable to the systematic uncertainty of about +6%/−7% and +2%/−5% respectively for the flux and the power-law index. The softer spectrum is affected primarily by the systematic uncertainty of the Dewar gate valve transmission and the event screening.

Tsujimoto, Masahiro↗
NASA NTRS1975

A measurement of cosmic-ray positron and negatron spectra between 50 and 800 MV

A balloon-borne spark chamber magnetic spectrometer has been used to measure the spectra of cosmic-ray positrons and negatrons at energies between 50 and 800 MV. The data reported here were obtained during two flights from Fort Churchill, Manitoba, in July 1972. The present results indicate that the dominance of negatrons from primary sources, found in earlier experiments above 200 MV, extends down to at least 50 MV. Solar modulation of the positron component is found to be consistent with that of the total electron spectrum, assuming that the positron component is entirely attributable to collisions between cosmic-ray nuclei and the interstellar gas.

Daugherty, J. K.↗