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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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NASA NTRS2021

Gaps List KSC Space Crop Production Project Scientist: Interview Evaluation

The Space Crop Production (SCP) at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is aimed at achieving nutrient supplementation and moving towards caloric independence from Earth by growing crops for astronauts. However, growing crops outside of Earth’s orbit creates many new challenges. The KCS SCP Project Scientists have developed a method of organizing these challenges, called the Gaps List. This Gaps List is a dynamic, taxonomically arranged list of missing knowledge and technologies needed to reach production goals. The purpose of this evaluation was to assess the effectiveness and current research coverage of the Gaps List by using it to document the KSC SCP Program research. In evaluating the research, it was determined that several needs within the SCP Program that are not being met, and many deficiencies within the Gaps List were encountered. Gaps involving hardware were largely unrecognized by the KSC researchers and the funding sources that would typically support them. The KSC SCP Project will require more engineering and physical sciences support to close those gaps. The Gaps List was found to be out of date and in need of rearrangement. A recommendation from this review was that the Gaps List be reassessed at regular intervals to ensure all gaps and relevant research topics are included. In order to better understand the gaps within the list, any assessment needs to include a measure of priority, dependency and breadth. These measures may be included within or along side the current taxonomical arrangement of the Gaps List.

Space Crop Production↗
NASA NTRS2012

NASA KSC Intern Final Paper

I am finishing up my internship with the Application & Simulation group at NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC). During this internship I was working with the Plant Habitat development team. The Plant Habitat provides a large enclosed, environmentally controlled chamber designed to support commercial and fundamental plant research onboard the International Space Station (ISS). The work that I did was for the prototype of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) display. This display is used by the scientists to monitor the system health, start new experiment configurations, and get real-time information about the experiment as its being run. This display is developed using the Qt Framework Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and the programming language C++.

Colton, Andrew↗
NASA NTRS2021

Gaps List KSC Space Crop Production Project Scientist: Interview Evaluation

The Space Crop Production (SCP) Program at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is aimed at achieving nutrient supplementation and moving towards caloric independence from Earth by growing crops for astronauts. However, growing crops outside of Earth’s orbit creates many new challenges. The KCS SCP Project Scientists have developed a method of organizing these challenges, called the Gaps List. This Gaps List is a dynamic, taxonomically arranged list of missing knowledge and technologies needed to reach production goals. The purpose of this evaluation was to assess the effectiveness and current research coverage of the Gaps List by using it to document KSC SCP Program research. It was determined that there are several needs within the SCP Program that are not being met, as well as, many deficiencies within the Gaps List. Gaps involving hardware were largely unrecognized by both the KSC researchers and the funding sources that would typically support them. The KSC SCP Project will require more engineering and physical sciences support to fill those gaps. The Gaps List was found to be out of date and in need of rearrangement. A recommendation from this review was that the Gaps List be reassessed at regular intervals to ensure all gaps, and relevant research topics are included. To better understand the gaps within the list, any assessment needs to include a measure of priority, dependency, and breadth. These measures may be included within or alongside the current taxonomical arrangement of the Gaps List.

Chloe Sophia Alexander↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Gaps List KSC Space Crop Production Project Scientist: Interview Evaluation

The Space Crop Production (SCP) Program at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is aimed at achieving nutrient supplementation and moving towards caloric independence from Earth by growing crops for astronauts. However, growing crops outside of Earth’s orbit creates many new challenges. The KCS SCP Project Scientists have developed a method of organizing these challenges, called the Gaps List. This Gaps List is a dynamic, taxonomically arranged list of missing knowledge and technologies needed to reach production goals. The purpose of this evaluation was to assess the effectiveness and current research coverage of the Gaps List by using it to document KSC SCP Program research. It was determined that there are several needs within the SCP Program that are not being met, as well as, many deficiencies within the Gaps List. Gaps involving hardware were largely unrecognized by both the KSC researchers and the funding sources that would typically support them. The KSC SCP Project will require more engineering and physical sciences support to fill those gaps. The Gaps List was found to be out of date and in need of rearrangement. A recommendation from this review was that the Gaps List be reassessed at regular intervals to ensure all gaps, and relevant research topics are included. To better understand the gaps within the list, any assessment needs to include a measure of priority, dependency, and breadth. These measures may be included within or alongside the current taxonomical arrangement of the Gaps List.

Chloe S. Alexander↗
NASA NTRS2008

Comparison of the KSC-ER Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Surveillance System (CGLSS) and the U.S. National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN)

The NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Air Force Eastern Range (ER) are located in a region of Florida that experiences the highest area density of lightning strikes to ground in the United States, with values approaching 16 fl/km 2/yr when accumulated in 10x10 km (100 sq km) grids (see Figure 1). Consequently, the KSC-ER use data derived from two cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning detection networks to detect hazardous weather, the "Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Surveillance System" (CGLSS) that is owned and operated by the Air Force and the U.S. National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) that is owned and operated by Vaisala, Inc. These systems are used to provide lightning warnings for ground operations and to insure mission safety during space launches at the KSC-ER. In order to protect the rocket and shuttle fleets, NASA and the Air Force follow a set of lightning safety guidelines that are called the Lightning Launch Commit Criteria (LLCC). These rules are designed to insure that vehicles are not exposed to the hazards of natural or triggered lightning that would in any way jeopardize a mission or cause harm to the shuttle astronauts. Also, if any CG lightning strikes too close to a vehicle on a launch pad, it can cause time-consuming mission delays due to the extensive retests that are often required for vehicles and/or payloads when this occurs. If any CG lightning strike is missed or mis-located by even a small amount, the result could have significant safety implications, require expensive retests, or create unnecessary delays or scrubs in launches. Therefore, it is important to understand the performance of each lightning detection system in considerable detail.

Ward, Jennifer G.↗
NASA NTRS2002

The Virtual Test Bed Project

This is a report of my activities as a NASA Fellow during the summer of 2002 at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The core of these activities is the assigned project: the Virtual Test Bed (VTB) from the Spaceport Engineering and Technology Directorate. The VTB Project has its foundations in the NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) Intelligent Launch & Range Operations program. The objective of the VTB project is to develop a new and unique collaborative computing environment where simulation models can be hosted and integrated in a seamless fashion. This collaborative computing environment will be used to build a Virtual Range as well as a Virtual Spaceport. This project will work as a technology pipeline to research, develop, test and validate R&D efforts against real time operations without interfering with the actual operations or consuming the operational personnel s time. This report will also focus on the systems issues required to conceptualize and provide form to a systems architecture capable of handling the different demands.

Rabelo, Luis C.↗
NASA NTRS2003

The Virtual Test Bed Project

This is a report of my activities as a NASA Fellow during the summer of 2003 at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The core of these activities is the assigned project: the Virtual Test Bed (VTB) from the Spaceport Engineering and Technology Directorate. The VTB Project has its foundations in the NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) Intelligent Launch & Range Operations program (ILRO). The objective of the VTB project is to develop a unique collaborative computing environment where simulation models can be hosted and integrated in a seamless fashion. This collaborative computing environment will have as emphasis operational models. This report will focus on the decisions about the different simulation modeling environments considered, simulation platform development, technology and operational models assessment, and computing infrastructure implementation.

Rabelo, Luis↗
NASA NTRS2018

Building a QC Database of Meteorological Data from NASA KSC and the United States Air Force's Eastern Range

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Natural Environments Branch (EV44) provides atmospheric databases and analysis in support of space vehicle design and day-of-launch operations for NASA and commercial launch vehicle programs launching from the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC), co-located on the United States Air Force's Eastern Range (ER) at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The ER complex is one of the most heavily instrumented sites in the United States with over 31 towers measuring various atmospheric parameters on a continuous basis. An inherent challenge with large datasets consists of ensuring erroneous data are removed from databases, and thus excluded from launch vehicle design analyses. EV44 has put forth great effort in developing quality control (QC) procedures for individual meteorological instruments, however no standard QC procedures for all databases currently exists resulting in QC databases that have inconsistencies in variables, development methodologies, and periods of record. The goal of this activity is to use the previous efforts to develop a standardized set of QC procedures from which to build meteorological databases from KSC and the ER, while maintaining open communication with end users from the launch community to develop ways to improve, adapt and grow the QC database. Details of the QC procedures will be described. As the rate of launches increases with additional launch vehicle programs, It is becoming more important that weather databases are continually updated and checked for data quality before use in launch vehicle design and certification analyses.

Brenton, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Building a QC Database of Meteorological Data From NASA KSC and the United States Air Force's Eastern Range

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Natural Environments Branch (EV44) has provided atmospheric databases and analysis in support of space vehicle design and day-of-launch operations for NASA and commercial launch vehicle programs launching from the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC), co-located on the United States Air Force's Eastern Range (ER) at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The ER is one of the most heavily instrumented sites in the United States measuring various atmospheric parameters on a continuous basis. An inherent challenge with the large databases that EV44 receives from the ER consists of ensuring erroneous data are removed from the databases, and thus excluded from launch vehicle design analyses. EV44 has put forth great effort in developing quality control (QC) procedures for individual meteorological instruments; however, no standard QC procedures for all databases currently exist resulting in QC databases that have inconsistencies in variables, methodologies, and periods of record. The goal of this activity is to use the previous efforts by EV44 to develop a standardized set of QC procedures from which to build flags within the meteorological databases from KSC and the ER, while maintaining open communication with end users from the launch community to develop ways to improve, adapt and grow the QC database. Details of the QC checks are described. The flagged data points will be plotted in a graphical user interface (GUI) as part of a manual confirmation that the flagged data do indeed need to be removed from the archive. As the rate of launches increases with additional launch vehicle programs, more emphasis is being placed to continually update and check weather databases for data quality before use in launch vehicle design and certification analyses.

Brenton, James C.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Pre-Flight Dark Forward Electrical Testing of the Mir Cooperative Solar Array

The Mir Cooperative Solar Array (MCSA) was developed jointly by the United States (US) and Russia to provide approximately 6 kW of photovoltaic power to the Russian space station Mir. After final assembly in Russia, the MCSA was shipped to the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in the summer of 1995 and launched to Mir in November 1995. Program managers were concerned of the potential for MCSA damage during the transatlantic shipment and the associated handling operations. To address this concern, NASA Lewis Research Center (LERC) developed an innovative dark-forward electrical test program to assess the gross electrical condition of each generator following shipment from Russia. The use of dark test techniques, which allow the array to remain in the stowed configuration, greatly simplifies the checkout of large area solar arrays. MCSA dark electrical testing was successfully performed at KSC in July 1995 following transatlantic shipment. Data from this testing enabled engineers to quantify the effects of potential MCSA physical damage that would degrade on-orbit electrical performance. In this paper, an overview of the principles and heritage of photovoltaic array dark testing is given. The specific MCSA dark test program is also described including the hardware, software, testing procedures and test results. The current-voltage (4) response of both solar cell circuitry and by-pass diode circuitry was obtained. To guide the development of dark test hardware, software and procedures, a dedicated FORTRAN computer code was developed to predict the dark 4 responses of generators with a variety of feasible damage modes. By comparing the actual test data with the predictions, the physical condition of the generator could be inferred. Based on this data analysis, no electrical short-circuits or open-circuits were detected. This suggested the MCSA did not sustain physical damage that affected electrical performance during handling and shipment from Russia to the US. Good agreement between the test data and computational predictions indicated MCSA electrical performance was amenable to accurate analysis and was well understood.

Kerslake, Thomas W.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Comparison of the KSC-ER Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Surveillance System (CGLSS) and the U.S. National Lightning Detection Network(TradeMark)(NLDN)

The NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Air Force Eastern Range (ER) use data from two cloud-to-ground lightning detection networks, CGLSS and NLDN, during ground and launch operations at the KSC-ER. For these applications, it is very important to understand the location accuracy and detection efficiency of each network near the KSC-ER. If a cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning strike is missed or mis-located by even a small amount, the result could have significant safety implications, require expensive retests, or create unnecessary delays or scrubs in launches. Therefore, it is important to understand the performance of each lightning detection system in considerable detail. To evaluate recent upgrades in the CGLSS sensors in 2000 and the entire NLDN in 2002- 2003, we have compared. measurements provided by these independent networks in the summers of 2005 and 2006. Our analyses have focused on the fraction of first strokes reported individually and in-common by each network (flash detection efficiency), the spatial separation between the strike points reported by both networks (relative location accuracy), and the values of the estimated peak current, Ip, reported by each network. The results within 100 km of the KSC-ER show that the networks produce very similar values of Ip (except for a small scaling difference) and that the relative location accuracy is consistent with model estimates that give median values of 200-300m for the CGLSS and 600-700m for the NLDN in the region of the KSC-ER. Because of differences in the network geometries and sensor gains, the NLDN does not report 10-20% of the flashes that have a low Ip (2 kA < |Ip| < 16 kA), both networks report 99 % of the flashes that have intermediate values of Ip (16< |Ip| < 50 kA), and the CGLSS fails to report 20-30% of the high-current events (|Ip| >=0 kA).

Ward, Jennifer G.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Delta Near Launch Activities, Launch Complex 17B, Cape Canaveral Air Station

This NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) video release presents footage of pre-launch activities as well as the actual spacecraft launching of NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft aboard a McDonnell Douglas Delta II rocket. The spacecraft was launched from Launch Complex 17B, Cape Canaveral Air Station, 17 February 1996.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2014

3D Additive Construction with Regolith for Surface Systems

Planetary surface exploration on Asteroids, the Moon, Mars and Martian Moons will require the stabilization of loose, fine, dusty regolith to avoid the effects of vertical lander rocket plume impingement, to keep abrasive and harmful dust from getting lofted and for dust free operations. In addition, the same regolith stabilization process can be used for 3 Dimensional ( 3D) printing, additive construction techniques by repeating the 2D stabilization in many vertical layers. This will allow in-situ construction with regolith so that materials will not have to be transported from Earth. Recent work in the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Surface Systems Office (NE-S) Swamp Works and at the University of Southern California (USC) under two NASA Innovative Advanced Concept (NIAC) awards have shown promising results with regolith (crushed basalt rock) materials for in-situ heat shields, bricks, landing/launch pads, berms, roads, and other structures that could be fabricated using regolith that is sintered or mixed with a polymer binder. The technical goals and objectives of this project are to prove the feasibility of 3D printing additive construction using planetary regolith simulants and to show that they have structural integrity and practical applications in space exploration.

Technology Portfolio System↗
NASA NTRS2019

Assembling and Testing NASA’s Space Launch System for First Flight

NASA is planning its next step toward human expansion into the solar system. The Space Launch System (SLS) (Figure 1) is a critical enabling component of that expansion. SLS payloads for its early missions include the Orion crew vehicle and components for Gateway, a lunar outpost orbiting the Moon that will facilitate research, technology and partnerships for eventual Mars missions. All major core stage hardware for test and flight completed structural manufacturing in 2018. The major components for the first flight vehicle are complete or approaching completion of internal equipment installation. The core stage forward join operation is also complete. The 10 booster segments needed for first flight have been cast and are ready to ship to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for mating and stacking. The four RS-25 core stage engines completed processing at NASA’s Stennis Space Center (SSC) and are ready for core stage integration. The Orion Stage Adapter (OSA) joined the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) at KSC to await the rest of SLS flight hardware. Production and preparation of hardware for the second mission is also underway. Looking ahead to a busy 2019, liquid oxygen (LOX) tank, liquid hydrogen (LH2) tank and intertank structural testing will take place. This paper will discuss the current and planned status of SLS development in context of NASA’s overall exploration plans.

Askin, Bruce R.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Environmentally-Preferable Launch Coatings

The Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) Program at NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, has the primary objective of modernizing and transforming the launch and range complex at KSC to benefit current and future NASA programs along with other emerging users. Described as the launch support and infrastructure modernization program in the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, the GSDO Program will develop and implement shared infrastructure and process improvements to provide more flexible, affordable, and responsive capabilities to a multi-user community. In support of NASA and the GSDO Program, the objective of this project is to determine the feasibility of environmentally friendly corrosion protecting coatings for launch facilities and ground support equipment (GSE). The focus of the project is corrosion resistance and survivability with the goal to reduce the amount of maintenance required to preserve the performance of launch facilities while reducing mission risk. The project compares coating performance of the selected alternatives to existing coating systems or standards.

ground support equipment↗
NASA NTRS2024

KSC Child Development Center (Potential Release Location 149) Confirmatory Sampling Report and Interim Measures Work Plan

This Confirmatory Sampling (CS) Report and Interim Measures (IM) Work Plan was prepared for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, by HydroGeoLogic, Inc. (HGL) under Contract Number 80KSC019D0012, Task Order 80KSC019F0118. This document presents the results of the CS activities performed in March 2022, and May 202, at the KSC Child Development Center (KCDC), Potential Release Location (PRL) 149, KSC, Florida. This report additionally presents the results of an assessment conducted in July 2023 to determine whether construction activities in 2023 to replace certain playground equipment and the rubberized play surface allowed soil contaminated by arsenic (As) to migrate from beneath the play surface.

arsenic↗
NASA NTRS2000

LIS Validation at The KSC-ER

Each year, thousands of lightning electric field disturbances are recorded and archived by the ground-based field mill (FM) network at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and USAF Eastern Range (ER). The FM network has a range of several tens of kilometers, and a digital accuracy of 4 V/m. It has provided years of continuous lightning warning surveillance to KSC-ER space vehicle launch operations, and has undergone one major hardware upgrade since its inception in the early 1970s. Additional KSC lightning warning data is derived from a multistation radio time-of-arrival system called Lightning Detection and Ranging (LDAR). This system provides the location and space-time mapping of individual lightning channels (for both cloud and ground flashes). Additional lightning information for the KSC region is available from the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) and a 5-station local magnetic direction finder network. In this study, all of the above mentioned data are used to ground-validate data derived from the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) onboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). The FM network can be used to retrieve the charges deposited in a lightning flash, provided the flash is within a few kilometers of the FM Network. Although it is rare to obtain a TRMM overpass of thunderstorms hat occur this close to the FM network, seven such storms have been found and examined in this study. We compare the times and locations of LIS optical pulses with the spatial-temporal character of the FM, LDAR, and magnetic direction finder data. We also inter-compare LIS optical pulse amplitude data with FM-derived charge magnitudes, number of LDAR radio sources, and peak current values from magnetic direction finder data. Generally speaking, LIS lightning locations and times agree favorably with the KSC ground-based systems for most cases, but little correlation appears to exist between optical pulse amplitude and any of charge, # LDAR sources, peak current), owing possibly to the effects of source complexity and/or cloud multiple scattering.

Koshak, William J.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Electrostatic Regolith Interaction Experiment (ERIE) Electrometer Initial Flight Results

The Electrostatic Regolith Interaction Experiment (ERIE) is a suborbital flight payload studying electrostatically charged dust particle dynamics under microgravity, jointly developed by University of Central Florida (UCF) and NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC). ERIE combines components from two systems, the COLLisions Into Dust Experiment (COLLIDE) from UCF and the Wheel Electrostatic Spectrometer (WES) from NASA KSC, to advance understanding of charged grain behavior on low gravity bodies such as the Moon and asteroids. ERIE slides a door containing an electrometer system monitoring various insulating disks across the surface of a regolith simulant bed. The experiment is activated when the payload enters the microgravity potion of the flight. The grains in the simulant bed tribocharge via agitation during launch as well as through frictional interactions with the door and its protruding insulators. As the retention door retracts, particles are allowed to loft into an open volume, achieving motion due to electrostatic repulsion. The electrometer system measures the charge transfer between the granular material and the insulators. As the charged grains exit the bed, they travel through an applied electric field and a camera observes the kinematics of the individual grains whose trajectories are determined by their net charges. The design of the ERIE electrometer instrument and initial results from the first flight was presented at the 2021 AGU Fall Meeting under P55E-2002. Shortly after microgravity was achieved and the retaining door began to open, the rate of charge acquisition measured by the electrometer increased, indicating the insulators were accumulating triboelectric charge. Charged grains were observed in the video data to traverse across the external electric field and become deflected from a linear path due to their charges. Pairs of grains were also observed to orbit one another as expected from two oppositely charged bodies in proximity to one another. Improvements to the design of the instrument and preliminary results obtained from the second flight scheduled for Q3 2022 will be presented at this meeting.

Electrostatics↗