Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Extreme Access”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 163 records · Page 9
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Aerogel with Unparalleled Performance and Cost-Effectiveness for All Insulation Needs (CRADA Final Report)

Westwood Aerogel investigated the reproducible production of an ambiently or electromagnetic spectrum assisted drying of extremely porous aerogel materials. Traditional aerogel processing is limited by low throughput and scalability due to supercritical drying. Westwood Aerogel’s advanced manufacturing process enables commercialization and deployment at scale, making aerogel materials more accessible to a range of industries and applications. We focused on shifting from the lab scale environment to manufacturing prototypes. The initial manufacturing model is based on the float glass process, which is the industry standard for glass window production, and the paper drying process. By incorporating an ambient drying process a continuous line model can be used from start to finish. The project team worked to develop a continuous manufacturing system to scale-up and reduce costs while maintaining the lightweight and insulative properties of aerospace-grade aerogel. While aerogels are extremely insulative, lightweight, and thin materials (making them ideal insulators across application spaces), high costs and stagnant innovation have hampered their wider adoption. Traditional manufacturing of aerogel requires supercritical extraction of pore fluid to obtain highly insulating materials, which is an energy intensive batch process and limits aerogel production output. Westwood Aerogel’s proprietary ambient drying process enables the continuous production of highly insulative aerogel materials without the use of supercritical extraction.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Measurements of K-edge and L-edge extended x-ray absorption fine structure at the national ignition facility (invited)

High-energy-density laser facilities and advances in dynamic compression techniques have expanded access to material states in the Terapascal regime relevant to inertial confinement fusion, planetary science, and geophysics. However, experimentally determining the material temperature in these extreme conditions has remained a difficult challenge. Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS), referring to the modulations in x-ray absorption above an absorption edge from photoelectrons’ interactions with neighboring atoms, has proven to be a versatile and robust technique for probing material temperature and density for mid-to-high Z elements under dynamic compression. The current platform at the National Ignition Facility has developed six configurations for EXAFS measurements between 7 and 18 keV for different absorption edges (Fe K, Co K, Cu K, Ta L3, Pb L3, and Zr K) using a curved-crystal spectrometer and a bright, continuum foil x-ray source. Here, in this work, we describe the platform geometry, x-ray source performance, spectrometer resolution and throughput, design considerations, and data in ambient and dynamic-compression conditions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS2004

The QuakeSim Project: Numerical Simulations for Active Tectonic Processes

In order to develop a solid earth science framework for understanding and studying of active tectonic and earthquake processes, this task develops simulation and analysis tools to study the physics of earthquakes using state-of-the art modeling, data manipulation, and pattern recognition technologies. We develop clearly defined accessible data formats and code protocols as inputs to the simulations. these are adapted to high-performance computers because the solid earth system is extremely complex and nonlinear resulting in computationally intensive problems with millions of unknowns. With these tools it will be possible to construct the more complex models and simulations necessary to develop hazard assessment systems critical for reducing future losses from major earthquakes.

tectonic processes↗
NASA NTRS1988

Staging memory for massively parallel processor

The invention herein relates to a computer organization capable of rapidly processing extremely large volumes of data. A staging memory is provided having a main stager portion consisting of a large number of memory banks which are accessed in parallel to receive, store, and transfer data words simultaneous with each other. Substager portions interconnect with the main stager portion to match input and output data formats with the data format of the main stager portion. An address generator is coded for accessing the data banks for receiving or transferring the appropriate words. Input and output permutation networks arrange the lineal order of data into and out of the memory banks.

Batcher, Kenneth E.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Non-Intrusive Laser-Induced Imaging for Speciation and Patternation in High Pressure Gas Turbine Combustors

The next generation of was turbine combustors for aerospace applications will be required to meet increasingly stringent constraints on fuel efficiency, noise abatement, and emissions. The power plants being designed to meet these constraints will operate at extreme conditions of temperature and pressure, thereby generating unique challenges to the previously employed diagnostic methodologies. Current efforts at NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) utilize optically accessible, high pressure flametubes and sector combustor rigs to probe, via advanced nonintrusive laser techniques, the complex flowfields encountered in advanced combustor designs. The fuel-air mixing process is of particular concern for lowering NO(x) emissions generated in lean, premixed engine concepts. Using planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) we have obtained real-time, detailed imaging of the fuel spray distribution for a number of fuel injector over a wide range of operational conditions that closely match those expected in the proposed propulsion systems. Using a novel combination of planar imaging, of fuel fluorescence and computational analysis that allows an examination of the flowfield from any perspective, we have produced spatially and temporally resolved fuel-air distribution maps. These maps provide detailed insight into the fuel injection at actual conditions never before possible, thereby greatly enhancing the evaluation of fuel injector performance and combustion phenomena.

Locke, Randy J.↗
NASA NTRS1999

BIO-Plex Information System Concept

This paper describes a suggested design for an integrated information system for the proposed BIO-Plex (Bioregenerative Planetary Life Support Systems Test Complex) at Johnson Space Center (JSC), including distributed control systems, central control, networks, database servers, personal computers and workstations, applications software, and external communications. The system will have an open commercial computing and networking, architecture. The network will provide automatic real-time transfer of information to database server computers which perform data collection and validation. This information system will support integrated, data sharing applications for everything, from system alarms to management summaries. Most existing complex process control systems have information gaps between the different real time subsystems, between these subsystems and central controller, between the central controller and system level planning and analysis application software, and between the system level applications and management overview reporting. An integrated information system is vitally necessary as the basis for the integration of planning, scheduling, modeling, monitoring, and control, which will allow improved monitoring and control based on timely, accurate and complete data. Data describing the system configuration and the real time processes can be collected, checked and reconciled, analyzed and stored in database servers that can be accessed by all applications. The required technology is available. The only opportunity to design a distributed, nonredundant, integrated system is before it is built. Retrofit is extremely difficult and costly.

Jones, Harry↗
NASA NTRS2006

First Results from EUNIS-06

The Extreme Ultraviolet Normal-Incidence Spectrograph (EUNIS) sounding rocket experiment successfully completed its first flight on 12 April 2006 from White Sands Missile Range, obtaining 145 science images in each of two wavelength channels. EUNIS is designed to investigate the energetics of the solar corona and hotter transition region through high-resolution imaging spectroscopy with a rapid (2-3 second) cadence. The two independent optical systems of EUNIS simultaneously record spectra over two passbands (170-205 Angstroms and 300-370 Angstroms), each spatially resolved along slit lengths of about 660 arcsec. The longwave channel includes He II 304 Angstroms and strong lines from Fe XI-XVI. The shortwave passband has a sequence of very strong Fe IX-XIII lines. Together, the EUNIS telescopes furnish a wide range of temperature and density diagnostics and enables underflight calibration of instrumental passbands on the SOHO, TRACE, Solar-B and STEREO missions. We present an overview of the science images from the first flight with emphasis on transient phenomena. The target was active region NOAA 10871 and adjacent quiet areas. Spectra were recorded with exposure times as short as 0.1 s, demonstrating that EUNIS is the most sensitive solar EUV spectrograph in operation, with over 100 times the throughput of its predecessor, the Solar Extreme ultraviolet Research Telescope and Spectrograph (SERTS). EUNIS is supported by the NASA Heliophysics Division's Solar & Heliospheric Physics Supporting Research and Technology and Low Cost Access to Space Program.

Rabin, Douglas M.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Lightweight Innovative Solar Array (LISA): Providing Higher Power to Small Spacecraft

Affordable and convenient access to electrical power is essential for all spacecraft and is a critical design driver for the next generation of smallsats, including cubesats, which are currently extremely power limited. The Lightweight Innovative Solar Array (LISA), a concept designed, prototyped, and tested at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama provides an affordable, lightweight, scalable, and easily manufactured approach for power generation in space. This flexible technology has many wide‐ranging applications from serving small satellites to providing abundant power to large spacecraft in GEO and beyond. By using very thin, ultra‐flexible solar arrays adhered to an inflatable structure, a large area (and thus large amount of power) can be folded and packaged into a relatively small volume. The LISA array comprises a launch‐stowed, orbit‐deployed structure on which lightweight photovoltaic devices and, potentially, transceiver elements are embedded. The system will provide a 2.5 to 5 fold increase in specific power generation (Watts/kilogram) coupled with a >2x enhancement of stowed volume (Watts/cubic‐meter) and a decrease in cost (dollars/Watt) when compared to state‐of‐the‐art solar arrays.

Johnson, Les↗
NASA NTRS2015

Lightweight Integrated Solar Array (LISA): Providing Higher Power to Small Spacecraft

Affordable and convenient access to electrical power is essential for all spacecraft and is a critical design driver for the next generation of smallsats, including CubeSats, which are currently extremely power limited. The Lightweight Integrated Solar Array (LISA), a concept designed, prototyped, and tested at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama provides an affordable, lightweight, scalable, and easily manufactured approach for power generation in space. This flexible technology has many wide-ranging applications from serving small satellites to providing abundant power to large spacecraft in GEO and beyond. By using very thin, ultraflexible solar arrays adhered to an inflatable or deployable structure, a large area (and thus large amount of power) can be folded and packaged into a relatively small volume.

Johnson, Les↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Novel Observing Strategies (NOS) and Earth System Digital Twins (ESDT) for Disaster Resilience

"Earth systems have now been observed continuously for more than 50 years, not only from space but also from airplanes, balloons and in-situ sensors. With the addition of commercial remote sensing providers, many more Internet-of-Things sensors and new NASA and international observatories being planned, these incredible amounts of data will soon be augmented by even larger amounts of diverse data and therefore will become more and more difficult to access, integrate, understand and utilize. At the same time, because of climate change and its impacts, in order to predict, manage, and mitigate the effects of extreme science events and disasters, the information produced by all of this data needs to be optimized, organized and analyzed in such a way that it can be utilized by traditional as well as many new non-traditional users. This calls for the development of observing systems that are agile, coordinated and responsive to events of interest, and for information systems to be dynamic, interactive and fast. With these objectives in mind, the Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) Program has been developing technologies that will allow for the development of Novel Observing Strategies (NOS) in a distributed, coordinated fashion (i.e., similar to an “Internet-of-Earth-Things”), as well as for the development of novel information systems or Earth System Digital Twins (ESDT) that will build a digital replica of the past and current states of the Earth systems, will derive forecasts of future states under nominal assumptions and will also offer the capability to investigate many hypothetical evolution scenarios under varying impact assumptions. Both NOS and ESDT will be facilitated by the unprecedented advances of Artificial Intelligence technologies, especially Machine Learning (ML), for extracting relevant information from these large amounts of data, for fusing and assimilating diverse data together and for running complex models faster. Together NOS and ESDT will help build the capabilities needed to anticipate, predict and mitigate the effects of future disasters."

Earth Science Remote Sensing; Information Systems↗
DOE OSTI2025

Guidance for Grid Resilience Decisions in Rural Minnesota

This report assesses the hazard landscape of the state of Minnesota, identifies weather hazards that are most impactful to the distribution system, includes a statewide assessment of household access to services dependent on reliable power, reviews resilience planning activities of electric utilities in Minnesota, and presents analysis of distribution grid performance in the face of extreme weather events with data from seven electric cooperatives dispersed throughout outstate Minnesota. This information is synthesized to provide considerations for resilience investment prioritization.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
NASA NTRS1990

Making More Efficient Use Of Battery-Plate Mass

Improved active material for positive plate of lead/acid electric storage battery made with additional porosity to give electrolyte access to larger plate-surface area. 65 to 68 percent of active mass of plate used to generate electric current. Batteries with new plate material offer extremely long cycle life.

Rowlette, John J.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Laser anemometer measurements and computations for transonic flow conditions in an annular cascade of high turning core turbine vanes

An advanced laser anemometer (LA) was used to measure the axial and tangential velocity components in an annular cascade of turbine stator vanes operating at transonic flow conditions. The vanes tested were based on a previous redesign of the first-stage stator in a two-stage turbine for a high-bypass-ratio engine. The vanes produced 75 deg of flow turning. Tests were conducted on a 0.771-scale model of the engine-sized stator. The advanced LA fringe system employed an extremely small 50-micron diameter probe volume. Window correction optics were used to ensure that the laser beams did not uncross in passing through the curved optical access port. Experimental LA measurements of velocity and turbulence were obtained at the mean radius upstream of, within, and downstream of the stator vane row at an exit critical velocity ratio of 1.050 at the hub. Static pressures were also measured on the vane surface. The measurements are compared, where possible, with calculations from a three-dimensional inviscid flow analysis. Comparisons were also made with the results obtained previously when these same vanes were tested at the design exit critical velocity ratio of 0.896 at the hub. The data are presented in both graphical and tabulated form so that they can be readily compared against other turbomachinery computations.

Goldman, Louis J.↗
NASA NTRS2004

An Evolving Trio of Hybrid Stars: C 111

Our goal is to understand the behavior of the outer atmosphere in this intermediate stage to create a comprehensive picture of atmospheric evolution. In the hybrid phase, the large-scale magnetic dynamo activity decays and hydrodynamic processes assume importance. Some hot plasma is still confined close to the star by magnetic loops, yet the confining field is breaking open, the atmosphere can escape through these open field lines, and the diffuse corona may be warm. There may well be a more extended and variable transition process. It remains for FUSE to identify the controlling parameters of the hybrid stars. It shows the positions of our 3 targets in the color-magnitude diagram where it is seen that they are at the extreme end of the hybrid region. Originally we had been awarded the hybrid star Iota Aur, but due to newly imposed pointing constraints of FUSE, that target was not accessible. And so we substituted Iota Dra, a giant of mass similar to our other targets but less evolved. In addition, Iota Dra was recently found to harbor a sub-stellar objects, possibly a planet, and so it could reveal the stellar environment of the planet. This substitution was accepted.

Oliversen, Ronald↗
DOE OSTI2024

Correlating Power Outage Spread with Infrastructure Interdependencies During Hurricanes

Power outages caused by extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, can significantly disrupt essential services and delay recovery efforts, underscoring the importance of enhancing our infrastructure's resilience. This study investigates the spread of power outages during hurricanes by analyzing the correlation between the network of critical infrastructure and outage propagation. We leveraged datasets from Hurricanemapping.com, the North American Energy Resilience Model Interdependency Analysis (NAERM-IA), and historical power outage data from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)'s EAGLE-I system. Our analysis reveals a consistent positive correlation between the extent of critical infrastructure components accessible within a certain number of steps (k-hop distance) from initial impact areas and the occurrence of power outages in broader regions. This insight suggests that understanding the interconnectedness among critical infrastructure elements is key to identifying areas indirectly affected by extreme weather events.

Bose, Avishek↗
NASA NTRS2009

Characterizing Space Environments with Long-Term Space Plasma Archive Resources

A significant scientific benefit of establishing and maintaining long-term space plasma data archives is the ready access the archives afford to resources required for characterizing spacecraft design environments. Space systems must be capable of operating in the mean environments driven by climatology as well as the extremes that occur during individual space weather events. Long- term time series are necessary to obtain quantitative information on environment variability and extremes that characterize the mean and worst case environments that may be encountered during a mission. In addition, analysis of large data sets are important to scientific studies of flux limiting processes that provide a basis for establishing upper limits to environment specifications used in radiation or charging analyses. We present applications using data from existing archives and highlight their contributions to space environment models developed at Marshall Space Flight Center including the Chandra Radiation Model, ionospheric plasma variability models, and plasma models of the L2 space environment.

Minow, Joseph I.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Comparison of Stereo-PIV and Plenoptic-PIV Measurements on the Wake of a Cylinder in NASA Ground Test Facilities.

A series of comparison experiments have been performed using a single-camera plenoptic PIV measurement system to ascertain the systems performance capabilities in terms of suitability for use in NASA ground test facilities. A proof-of-concept demonstration was performed in the Langley Advanced Measurements and Data Systems Branch 13-inch (33- cm) Subsonic Tunnel to examine the wake of a series of cylinders at a Reynolds number of 2500. Accompanying the plenoptic-PIV measurements were an ensemble of complementary stereo-PIV measurements. The stereo-PIV measurements were used as a truth measurement to assess the ability of the plenoptic-PIV system to capture relevant 3D/3C flow field features in the cylinder wake. Six individual tests were conducted as part of the test campaign using three different cylinder diameters mounted in two orientations in the tunnel test section. This work presents a comparison of measurements with the cylinders mounted horizontally (generating a 2D flow field in the x-y plane). Results show that in general the plenoptic-PIV measurements match those produced by the stereo-PIV system. However, discrepancies were observed in extracted pro les of the fuctuating velocity components. It is speculated that spatial smoothing of the vector fields in the stereo-PIV system could account for the observed differences. Nevertheless, the plenoptic-PIV system performed extremely well at capturing the flow field features of interest and can be considered a viable alternative to traditional PIV systems in smaller NASA ground test facilities with limited optical access.

Fahringer, Timothy W.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Medicine in the Final Frontier Technologies to Enable Autonomous Prolonged (Field) Care in Space

N: The planning and execution of comprehensive “Prolonged Care” strategies are increasingly considered as fundamental operational concepts within the spheres of both military and non-military expeditionary medicine. Numerous advances in recent years have enabled the decentralization of health-related technology that has empowered medical - and even non-medical providers - to offer quality care farther afield and for increasingly extended periods of separation from traditional support structures. However, the operational concepts behind today’s Prolonged Care paradigms are still largely dependent upon external support, including high-bandwidth telemedicine communications technologies (that allow ready access to centralized expertise), robust resupply pathways, and ultimately, on the timely evacuation of the sick and injured. What would happen if none of these support systems were readily available? Extremely remote Prolonged Care is one of the most significant challenges that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) faces when preparing to expand human space exploration beyond the International Space Station (ISS) to deep space including the Moon and Mars. Continuous human presence on the International Space Station (ISS) in low Earth orbit for the past 20 years has demonstrated that indeed medical operations can be successfully executed with continuous real-time communications, frequent resupply missions, and the availability of rapid evacuation options. However, as time-distance factors from Earth increase with our pursuit and changing focus towards deep space missions, these resources and capabilities will no longer be available. As a result, space medicine operations will need to become more autonomous and less dependent upon mission support from Earth – requiring our attention and efforts to build robust capabilities that support the ultimate expression of the term “Prolonged Field Care.”

K R Lehnhardt↗