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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 163 records · Page 9
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NASA NTRS1988

YAG aerosol lidar

The Global Atmospheric Backscatter Experiment (GLOBE) Mission, using the NASA DC-8 aircraft platform, is designed to provide the magnitude and statistical distribution of atmospheric backscatter cross section at lidar operating wavelengths. This is a fundamental parameter required for the Doppler lidar proposed to be used on a spacecraft platform for global wind field measurements. The prime measurements will be made by a CO2 lidar instrument in the 9 to 10 micron range. These measurements will be complemented with the Goddard YAG Aerosol Lidar (YAL) data in two wavelengths, 0.532 and 1.06 micron, in the visible and near-infrared. The YAL, is being designed to utilize as much existing hardware, as feasible, to minimize cost and reduce implementation time. The laser, energy monitor, telescope and detector package will be mounted on an optical breadboard. The optical breadboard is mounted through isolation mounts between two low boy racks. The detector package will utilize a photomultiplier tube for the 0.532 micron channel and a silicon avalanche photo detector (APD) for the 1.06 micron channel.

Sullivan, R.↗
NASA NTRS2005

AC/DC Power Systems with Applications for future Lunar/Mars base and Crew Exploration Vehicle

ABSTRACT The Power Systems branch at JSC faces a number of complex issues as it readies itself for the President's initiative on future space exploration beyond low earth orbit. Some of these preliminary issues - those dealing with electric power generation and distribution on board Mars-bound vehicle and that on Lunar and Martian surface may be summarized as follows: Type of prime mover - Because solar power may not be readily available on parts of the Lunar/Mars surface and also during the long duration flight to Mars, the primary source of power will most likely be nuclear power (Uranium fuel rods) with a secondary source of fuel cell (Hydrogen supply). The electric power generation source - With nuclear power being the main prime mover, the electric power generation source will most likely be an ac generator at a yet to be determined frequency. Thus, a critical issue is whether the generator should generate at constant or variable frequency. This will decide what type of generator to use - whether it is a synchronous machine, an asynchronous induction machine or a switched reluctance machine. The type of power distribution system - the distribution frequency, number of wires (3- wire, 4-wire or higher), and ac/dc hybridization. Building redundancy and fault tolerance in the generation and distribution sub-systems so that the system is safe; provides 100% availability to critical loads; continues to operate even with faulted sub-systems; and requires minimal maintenance. This report descril_es results of a summer faculty fellowship spent in the Power Systems Branch with the specific aim of investigating some of the lessons learned in electric power generation and usage from the terrestrial power systems industry, the aerospace industry as well as NASA's on-going missions so as to recommend novel surface and vehicle-based power systems architectures in support of future space exploration initiatives. A hybrid ac/dc architecture with source side and load side redundancies and including emergency generators on both ac and dc sides is proposed. The generation frequency is 400 Hz mostly because of the technology maturity at this frequency in the aerospace industry. Power will be distributed to several ac load distribution buses through solid state variable speed, constant frequency converters on the ac side. A segmented dc ring bus supplied from ac/dc converters and with the capability of connecting/disconnecting the segments will supply power to multiple de load distribution buses. The system will have the capability of reverse flow from dc to ac side in the case of an extreme emergency on the main ac generation side.

Chowdhury, Badrul H.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Single Stage Rocket Technology's real time data system

The Single Stage Rocket Technology (SSRT) Delta Clipper Experimental (DC-X) Program is a United States Air Force Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) rapid prototyping initiative that is currently demonstrating technology readiness for reusable suborbital rockets. The McDonnell Douglas DC-X rocket performed technology demonstrations at the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico from April-October in 1993. The DC-X Flight Operations Control Center (FOCC) contains the ground control system that is used to monitor and control the DC-X vehicle and its Ground Support Systems (GSS). The FOCC is operated by a flight crew of three operators. Two operators manage the DC-X Flight Systems and one operator is the Ground Systems Manager. A group from McDonnell Douglas Aerospace at KSC developed the DC-X ground control system for the FOCC. This system is known as the Real Time Data System (RTDS). The RTDS is a distributed real time control and monitoring system that utilizes the latest available commercial off-the-shelf computer technology. The RTDS contains front end interfaces for the DC-X RF uplink/downlink and fiber optic interfaces to the GSS equipment. This paper describes the RTDS architecture and FOCC layout. The DC-X applications and ground operations are covered.

Voglewede, Steven D.↗
NASA NTRS1977

The Response of a Quartz Crystal Microbalance to a Liquid Deposit

A theory was developed for predicting the loss of response of a QCM (Quartz Crystal Microbalance) to a liquid deposit due to viscous effects in the deposit. The loss of response is expressed by a response factor, equal to the response of the QCM to a liquid film divided by its response to a solid film of the same mass per unit area. The theory assumes a droplet-type deposit morphology, and considers the influence of droplet distribution parameters. Experiments were conducted to examine the validity of the theory, using DC 704 silicone oil as the subject deposit material. Experiments were made in two series: one with constant deposit mass and variable temperature, the other with variable deposit mass and constant temperature. Interpretation of the data using the theory has enabled information on droplet area coverage and number density to be deduced.

Glassford, A. P. M.↗
NASA NTRS2017

BioWires: Conductive DNA Nanowires in a Computationally-Optimized, Synthetic Biological Platform for Nanoelectronic Fabrication

DNA is an ideal template for a biological nanowire-it has a linear structure several atoms thick; it possesses addressable nucleobase geometry that can be precisely defined; and it is massively scalable into branched networks. Until now, the drawback of DNA as a conducting nanowire been, simply put, its low conductance. To address this deficiency, we extensively characterize a chemical variant of canonical DNA that exploits the affinity of natural cytosine bases for silver ions. We successfully construct chains of single silver ions inside double-stranded DNA, confirm the basic dC-Ag+-dC bond geometry and kinetics, and show length-tunability dependent on mismatch distribution, ion availability and enzyme activity. An analysis of the absorbance spectra of natural DNA and silver-binding, poly-cytosine DNA demonstrates the heightened thermostability of the ion chain and its resistance to aqueous stresses such as precipitation, dialysis and forced reduction. These chemically critical traits lend themselves to an increase in electrical conductivity of over an order of magnitude for 11-base silver-paired duplexes over natural strands when assayed by STM break junction. We further construct and implement a genetic pathway in the E. coli bacterium for the biosynthesis of highly ionizable DNA sequences. Toward future circuits, we construct a model of transcription network architectures to determine the most efficient and robust connectivity for cell-based fabrication, and we perform sequence optimization with a genetic algorithm to identify oligonucleotides robust to changes in the base-pairing energy landscape. We propose that this system will serve as a synthetic biological fabrication platform for more complex DNA nanotechnology and nanoelectronics with applications to deep space and low resource environments.

DNA↗
NASA NTRS1999

Vertical Distribution of Aerosol in the Troposphere

The paper addresses the issue of the vertical distribution of aerosol in the troposphere and the relation to causative mechanisms. The focus is on visible wavelength, aerosol extinction cross sections. A background on the state of knowledge will be presented, but the emphasis is on experimental results from several field programs, The GLOBE project (GLobal aerosol Backscatter Experiment) involved a series of flights by the NASA DC-8 throughout the Pacific basin region with comprehensive in situ and multi-spectral lidar aerosol distribution measurements. The data has been extensively analyzed. The results show the existence of a background mode for aerosol loading in the troposphere and a pattern of distribution for transport and boundary layer aerosol for the Pacific region. The ARM (Atmospheric Radiation Measurement) program, operates surface based monitoring sites. For several years at sites in the central great plains and northern coast of Alaska of North America and a site in the tropical western Pacific have been acquiring comprehensive radiation measurements including multispectral aerosol optical thickness and near continuous lidar profiling. Data have been analyzed for typical and special case aerosol events including smoke aerosol from biomass burning for the tropical West Pacific site. Measurements with continuous lidar and multispectral were similarly acquired from a site at Tenerife, Canary Islands during the Aerosol Characterization Experiment and include analysis of the Saharan dust layer. Various measurements will be compared and summarized.

Spinhirne, James↗
NASA NTRS2023

Breaking Wave Field Statistics With A Multi-Layer Model

The statistics of breaking wave fields are characterised within a novel multi-layer framework, which generalises the single-layer Saint-Venant system into a multi-layer and non-hydrostatic formulation of the Navier–Stokes equations. We simulate an ensemble of phase-resolved surface wave fields in physical space, where strong nonlinearities, including directional wave breaking and the subsequent highly rotational flow motion, are modelled, without surface overturning. We extract the kinematics of wave breaking by identifying breaking fronts and their speed, for freely evolving wave fields initialised with typical wind wave spectra. The Λ(c) distribution, defined as the length of breaking fronts (per unit area) moving with speed c to c + dc following Phillips (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 156, 1985, pp. 505–531), is reported for a broad range of conditions. We recover the Λ(c) ∝ c−6 scaling without wind forcing for sufficiently steep wave fields. A scaling of Λ(c) based solely on the root-mean-square slope and peak wave phase speed is shown to describe the modelled breaking distributions well. The modelled breaking distributions are in good agreement with field measurements and the proposed scaling can be applied successfully to the observational data sets. The present work paves the way for simulations of the turbulent upper ocean directly coupled to a realistic breaking wave dynamics, including Langmuir turbulence, and other sub-mesoscale processes.

Jiarong Wu↗
NASA NTRS2002

Microwave Power for Smart Membrane Actuators

The concept of microwave-driven smart membrane actuators is envisioned as the best option to alleviate the complexity associated with hard-wired control circuitry. A large, ultra-light space structure, such as solar sails and Gossamer spacecrafts, requires a distribution of power into individual membrane actuators to control them in an effective way. A patch rectenna array with a high voltage output was developed to drive smart membrane actuators. Networked patch rectenna array receives and converts microwave power into a DC power for an array of smart actuators. To use microwave power effectively, the concept of a power allocation and distribution (PAD) circuit is developed and tested for networking a rectenna/actuator patch array. For the future development, the PAD circuit could be imbedded into a single embodiment of rectenna and actuator array with the thin-film microcircuit embodiment. Preliminary design and fabrication of PAD circuitry that consists of a sixteen nodal elements were made for laboratory testing.

Choi, Sang H.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Evidence for parallel electric field particle acceleration in the dayside auroral oval

Electron and ion energy spectra and electron pitch angle distributions are presented for two sounding rocket flights in the dayside auroral zone. At times, effects of dc electric fields parallel to the magnetic field are evident in that: (1) within precipitation features, protons are decelerated by an amount of energy consistent with that which electrons gain and (2) electrons are sometimes aligned to within 3 deg (full width at half maximum) of the magnetic field. A maximum altitude for the accelerating region of several thousand kilometers is deduced from the narrow width of the pitch angle distribution and also from time-of-flight delays between the observation of accelerated electrons and decelerated protons.

Torbert, R. B.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Influence of field dependent critical current density on flux profiles in high Tc superconductors

The field distribution for superconducting cylinders and slabs with field dependent critical current densities in combined DC and AC magnetic fields and the corresponding magnetic fluxes are calculated. It is shown that all features of experimental magnetic-field profile measurements can be explained in the framework of field dependent critical current density. Even the quantitative agreement between the experimental and theoretical results using Kim's model is very good.

Takacs, S.↗
NASA NTRS1991

The evolution of power management architecture for missions to the outer planets

Outer planet spacecraft have unique requirements that differentiate them from inner planet and Earth orbiter spacecraft. To meet these requirements, the Voyager and Galileo Power Management And Distribution (PMAD) architectures employed shunt regulation and carried on the Mariner tradition of AC power distribution to many of the user loads. Also, autonomous fault recovery was achieved by automatic responses in hardware and software recovery routines. Finally, power distribution switching was expanded to allow for removal of the most trivial load element as the nuclear source depleted itself. The design cycle has begun for a third generation spacecraft set named Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby (CRAF) and Cassini (a saturn orbiter). In their power systems, AC power distribution, relay/fuse load switching, and fault protection will give way to the advantages of DC power and solid state load switches.

Detwiler, R. C.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Anode arc motion in high power arcjets

The long-term operational lifetime of most medium to high power arcjets is currently limited by the rapid deterioration of the arcjet electrodes. To a large extent, the rate of this deterioration is related to the motion of the arc discharge on the electrode surfaces. This paper details a series of experiments aimed at studying the temporal behavior of dc arcs on a water-cooled radially-segmented 30 kW class arcjet anode. The experimental anode used for these tests was made of copper, and was divided into four equivalent radial segments which were electrically isolated with aluminum oxide gaskets. The current carried by each segment was measured independently using four calibrated resistive shunts, and was analyzed by digital computer. The tests were limited to nitrogen propellant over a current range of 100-250 A dc. Results show that for the range of total currents considered here, the current distribution in the segmented arcjet anode is generally asymmetric, exhibiting random fluctuations over a wide range of frequencies.

Harris, W. J.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Analysis of Ice Nucleating Aerosol Measurements during SUCCESS: April, May 1996

This section describes our research activities during year three of this effort. In the second year, preliminary archive data sets were submitted to the SUCCESS archive. After additional analyses, final versions were prepared and submitted. These are included on the SUCCESS CD-ROM data editions that were recently released by NASA Ames. Over the range of temperature and supersaturation conditions of our measurements (15 to -40 C, and from ice saturation to approximately 15% water supersaturation), IN concentrations ranged from less than 0.1 to approximately 500 per liter, being generally greater at colder temperatures and higher supersaturations. To estimate the potential of aircraft exhaust as a source of IN, we examined data from six days of the field project when the DC-8 was following closely behind other humidity conditions of our measurements. In April 1997, a microphysical workshop was convened at NCAR to select cases for in depth analyses and to address questions about the consistency of cloud ice crystal measurements (size distributions and mass concentrations) and aerosol size distributions. We attended this meeting and contributed to the discussions. A particular concern was identified in the CN measurements. On the DC-8, CN measurements were obtained by four different investigator groups, using commercially available instrumentation. The DC-8 SUCCESS CN data showed long periods where the measurements were in substantial agreement, but there were also periods with large discrepancies. Several possible factors were identified that could help explain these discrepancies, including minimum detectable particle size, response at reduced pressures, and location of sample inlet on the aircraft.

Rogers, D. C.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Space station automation of common module power management and distribution, volume 2

The new Space Station Module Power Management and Distribution System (SSM/PMAD) testbed automation system is described. The subjects discussed include testbed 120 volt dc star bus configuration and operation, SSM/PMAD automation system architecture, fault recovery and management expert system (FRAMES) rules english representation, the SSM/PMAD user interface, and the SSM/PMAD future direction. Several appendices are presented and include the following: SSM/PMAD interface user manual version 1.0, SSM/PMAD lowest level processor (LLP) reference, SSM/PMAD technical reference version 1.0, SSM/PMAD LLP visual control logic representation's (VCLR's), SSM/PMAD LLP/FRAMES interface control document (ICD) , and SSM/PMAD LLP switchgear interface controller (SIC) ICD.

Ashworth, B.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Multikilowatt power electronics development for spacecraft

Attention is given to several multikilowatt power electronic components developed by TRW for the Space Station Power Management and Distribution test bed at NASA Lewis Research Center. These components include a 12.5-kW DC-DC converter, a 6.25-kW battery charge/discharge regulator, an 82-channel sequential shunt unit, a 10-A remote power controllers, and three different types of 1-kW load converters. TRW is also monitoring the development of 120-V fuses for space applications. The authors discuss these developments and provide steady-state and dynamic performance parameters.

Decker, D. K.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Physical and Optical/Radiative Characteristics of Small Particles in Tropical Cirrus

Whether cirrus clouds heat or cool the Earth-atmosphere system depends on the relative importance of the cloud shortwave albedo effect and the cloud thermal greenhouse effect. Both an determined by the distribution of ice condensate with cloud particle size. The microphysics instrument package flown aboard the DC-8 In TOGA/COARE included an ice crystal replicator, a 2D Greyscale Cloud Particle Probe and a Forward Scattering Spectrometer Aerosol Probe. In combination. these instruments permitted particle size measurements between 0.5 micrometers and 2.6 mm diameter. Ice crystal replicas were used to validate signals from the electro-optical instruments. Typical results show a prevalence in tropical cirrus clouds of micron-sized particles, in addition to cloud particles that exceed 100 micrometer radius. The mechanism of their formation is growth of (hygroscopic, possibly ocean-derived) aerosol particles along the Kohler curves. The concentration of small particles is higher and less variable in space and time, and their tropospheric residence time is longer, than those of large cloud particles because of lower sedimentation velocities. Small particles shift effective cloud particle radii to sizes much smaller than the mean diameter of the cloud particles. This causes an increase in shortwave reflectivity and IR emissivity. and a decrease in transmissivity. In the cirrus outflow of tropical cyclone Oliver on 8 February, 1993, the reflectivity increases with altitude (decreasing temperature) stronger than does cloud emissivity, yielding enhanced radiative cooling at higher altitudes.

Pueschel, R. F.↗
NASA NTRS2005

NSTAR Extended Life Test Discharge Chamber Flake Analysis

The Extended Life Test (ELT) of the NASA Solar Electric Propulsion Technology Readiness (NSTAR) ion thruster was concluded after 30,352 hours of operation. The ELT was conducted using the Deep Space 1 (DS1) back-up flight engine, a 30 cm diameter xenon ion thruster. Post-test inspection of the ELT engine revealed numerous contaminant flakes distributed over the bottom of the cylindrical section of the anode within the discharge chamber (DC). Extensive analyses were conducted to determine the source of the particles, which is critical to the understanding of degradation mechanisms of long life ion thruster operation. Analyses included: optical microscopy (OM) and particle length histograms, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) combined with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and atomic oxygen plasma exposure tests. Analyses of the particles indicate that the majority of the DC flakes consist of a layered structure, typically with either two or three layers. The flakes comprising two layers were typically found to have a molybdenum-rich (Mo-rich) layer on one side and a carbon-rich (C-rich) layer on the other side. The flakes comprising three layers were found to be sandwich-like structures with Mo-rich exterior layers and a C-rich interior layer. The presence of the C-rich layers indicates that these particles were produced by sputter deposition build-up on a surface external to the discharge chamber from ion sputter erosion of the graphite target in the test chamber. This contaminant layer became thick enough that particles spalled off, and then were electro-statically attracted into the ion thruster interior, where they were coated with Mo from internal sputter erosion of the screen grid and cathode components. Atomic oxygen tests provided evidence that the DC chamber flakes are composed of a significant fraction of carbon. Particle size histograms further indicated that the source of the particles was spalling of carbon flakes from downstream surfaces. Analyses of flakes taken from the downstream surface of the accelerator grid provided additional supportive information. The production of the downstream carbon flakes, and hence the potential problems associated with the flake particles in the ELT ion thruster engine is a facility induced effect and would not occur in the space environment.

deGroh, Kim K.↗