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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

Intelligent Propulsion System Foundation Technology: Summary of Research

The purpose of this cooperative agreement was to develop a foundation of intelligent propulsion technologies for NASA and industry that will have an impact on safety, noise, emissions, and cost. These intelligent engine technologies included sensors, electronics, communications, control logic, actuators, smart materials and structures, and system studies. Furthermore, this cooperative agreement helped prepare future graduates to develop the revolutionary intelligent propulsion technologies that will be needed to ensure pre-eminence of the U.S. aerospace industry. This Propulsion 21 - Phase 11 program consisted of four primary research areas and associated work elements at Ohio universities: 1.0 Turbine Engine Prognostics, 2.0 Active Controls for Emissions and Noise Reduction, 3.0 Active Structural Controls and Performance, and 4.0 System Studies and Integration. Phase l, which was conducted during the period August 1, 2003, through September 30, 2004, has been reported separately.

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Overview of NASA aerial applications research

Aerial applications research conducted by NASA seeks improvements in environmental safety, fuel efficiency, and aircraft productivity and safety. From 1976 to 1978, NASA studied the technology needs of the aerial applications industry and developed in-house research capabilities for meeting those needs. This paper presents the research plans developed by NASA. High potential appears to exist for near term contributions to the industry from existing NASA research capabilities in drift reduction, stall departure safety, and dry materials dispersal system technology. A brief, annotated bibliography is included listing documents recently produced as a result of NASA aerial applications research efforts.

Holmes, B. J.↗

The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC)

NASA is building the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) to provide a 'national resource' for the research, development, demonstration, testing, and qualification of Spaceport and Range Technologies. The ATDC will be located at Space Launch Complex 20 (SLC-20) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida. SLC-20 currently provides a processing and launch capability for small-scale rockets; this capability will be augmented with additional ATDC facilities to provide a comprehensive and integrated in situ environment. Examples of Spaceport Technologies that will be supported by ATDC infrastructure include densified cryogenic systems, intelligent automated umbilicals, integrated vehicle health management systems, next-generation safety systems, and advanced range systems. The ATDC can be thought of as a prototype spaceport where industry, government, and academia, in partnership, can work together to improve safety of future space initiatives. The ATDC is being deployed in five separate phases. Major ATDC facilities will include a Liquid Oxygen Area; a Liquid Hydrogen Area, a Liquid Nitrogen Area, and a multipurpose Launch Mount; 'Iron Rocket' Test Demonstrator; a Processing Facility with a Checkout and Control System; and Future Infrastructure Developments. Initial ATDC development will be completed in 2006.

Clements, G. R.↗

Run Time Assurance as an Alternate Concept to Contemporary Development Assurance Processes

NASA and the FAA sought industry research to identify and evaluate alternate concepts for assuring safety of airborne systems. This report documents a research effort focused on the evaluation of Run Time Assurance (RTA) as applied to a novel, airborne system architecture. The RTA pattern is applied to a case study focused on a notional integrated flight and propulsion control system for a DEP VTOL aircraft. During flight, while the high-automation algorithms are operating, the RTA system will monitor the aircraft state for any impending violation of safety requirements. When necessary, it will switch to the low-automation software to prevent such violations. Assurance practices for both baseline industry activities and the RTA approach were captured and compared to illustrate the required engineering design considerations, and possible advantages and disadvantages of each approach as part of this case study.

Eric M. Peterson↗

Integrated modeling and analysis of a space-truss article

MSC/NASTRAN is being used in the Controls-Structures Interaction (CSI) program at NASA Langley Research Center as a key analytical tool for structural analysis as well as the basis for control law development, closed-loop performance evaluation, and system safety checks. Guest investigators from academia and industry are performing dynamics and control experiments on a flight-like deployable space truss called Mini-Mast to determine the effectiveness of various active-vibration control laws. MSC/NASTRAN was used to calculate natural frequencies and mode shapes below 100 Hz to describe the dynamics of the 20-meter-long lightweight Mini-Mast structure. Gravitational effects contribute significantly to structural stiffness and are accounted for through a two-phase solution in which the differential stiffness matrix is calculated and then used in the eigensolution. Reduced modal models are extracted for control law design and evaluation of closed-loop system performance. Predicted actuator forces from controls simulations are then applied to the extended model to predict member loads and stresses. These pre-test analyses reduce risks associated with the structural integrity of the test article, which is a major concern in closed-loop control experiments due to potential instabilities.

Alan E Stockwell↗

Overhauling, updating and augmenting NASA spacelink electronic information system

NASA/Spacelink is a collection of NASA information and educational materials stored on a computer at the MSFC. It is provided by the NASA Educational Affairs Division and is operated by the Education Branch of the Marshall Center Public Affairs Office. It is designed to communicate with a wide variety of computers and modems, especially those most commonly found in classrooms and homes. It was made available to the public in February, 1988. The system may be accessed by educators and the public over regular telephone lines. NASA/Spacelink is free except for the cost of long distance calls. Overhauling and updating Spacelink was done to refurbish NASA/Spacelink, a very valuable resource medium. Several new classroom activities and miscellaneous topics were edited and entered into Spacelink. One of the areas that received a major overhaul (under the guidance of Amos Crisp) was the SPINOFFS BENEFITS, the great benefits resulting from America's space explorations. The Spinoff Benefits include information on a variety of topics including agriculture, communication, the computer, consumer, energy, equipment and materials, food, health, home, industry, medicine, natural resources, public services, recreation, safety, sports, and transportation. In addition to the Space Program Spinoff Benefits, the following is a partial list of some of the material updated and introduced: Astronaut Biographies, Miscellaneous Aeronautics Classroom Activities, Miscellaneous Astronomy Classroom Activities, Miscellaneous Rocketry Classroom Activities, Miscellaneous Classroom Activities, NASA and Its Center, NASA Areas of Research, NASA Patents, Licensing, NASA Technology Transfer, Pictures from Space Classroom Activities, Status of Current NASA Projects, Using Art to Teach Science, and Word Puzzles for Use in the Classroom.

Blake, Jean A.↗

NASA Occupational Health Program FY98 Self-Assessment

The NASA Functional Management Review process requires that each NASA Center conduct self-assessments of each functional area. Self-Assessments were completed in June 1998 and results were presented during this conference session. During FY 97 NASA Occupational Health Assessment Team activities, a decision was made to refine the NASA Self-Assessment Process. NASA Centers were involved in the ISO registration process at that time and wanted to use the management systems approach to evaluate their occupational health programs. This approach appeared to be more consistent with NASA's management philosophy and would likely confer status needed by Senior Agency Management for the program. During FY 98 the Agency Occupational Health Program Office developed a revised self-assessment methodology based on the Occupational Health and Safety Management System developed by the American Industrial Hygiene Association. This process was distributed to NASA Centers in March 1998 and completed in June 1998. The Center Self Assessment data will provide an essential baseline on the status of OHP management processes at NASA Centers. That baseline will be presented to Enterprise Associate Administrators and DASHO on September 22, 1998 and used as a basis for discussion during FY 99 visits to NASA Centers. The process surfaced several key management system elements warranting further support from the Lead Center. Input and feedback from NASA Centers will be essential to defining and refining future self assessment efforts.

Brisbin, Steven G.↗

Crew Factors in Flight Operations X: Alertness Management in Flight Operations

In response to a 1980 congressional request, NASA Ames Research Center initiated a Fatigue/Jet Lag Program to examine fatigue, sleep loss, and circadian disruption in aviation. Research has examined fatigue in a variety of flight environments using a range of measures (from self-report to performance to physiological). In 1991, the program evolved into the Fatigue Countermeasures Program, emphasizing the development and evaluation of strategies to maintain alertness and performance in operational settings. Over the years, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has become a collaborative partner in support of fatigue research and other Program activities. From the inception of the Program, a principal goal was to return the information learned from research and other Program activities to the operational community. The objectives of this Education and Training Module are to explain what has been learned about the physiological mechanisms that underlie fatigue, demonstrate the application of this information in flight operations, and offer some specific fatigue counter-measure recommendations. It is intended for all segments of the aeronautics industry, including pilots, flight attendants, managers, schedulers, safety and policy personnel, maintenance crews, and others involved in an operational environment that challenges human physiological capabilities because of fatigue, sleep loss, and circadian disruption.

Rosekind, Mark R.↗

Crew Factors in Flight Operations X: Alertness Management in Flight Operations

In response to a 1980 congressional request, NASA Ames Research Center initiated a Fatigue/Jet Lag Program to examine fatigue, sleep loss, and circadian disruption in aviation. Research has examined fatigue in a variety of flight environments using a range of measures (from self-report to performance to physiological). In 1991, the program evolved into the Fatigue Countermeasures Program, emphasizing the development and evaluation of strategies to maintain alertness and performance in operational settings. Over the years, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has become a collaborative partner in support of fatigue research and other Program activities. From the inception of the Program, a principal goal was to return the information learned from research and other Program activities to the operational community. The objectives of this Education and Training Module are to explain what has been learned about the physiological mechanisms that underlie fatigue, demonstrate the application of this information in flight operations, and offer some specific fatigue countermeasure recommendations. It is intended for all segments of the aeronautics industry, including pilots, flight attendants, managers, schedulers, safety and policy personnel, maintenance crews, and others involved in an operational environment that challenges human physiological capabilities because of fatigue, sleep loss, and circadian disruption.

Rosekind, Mark R.↗

Flight Testing an Integrated Synthetic Vision System

NASA's Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS) project is developing technologies with practical applications to eliminate low visibility conditions as a causal factor to civil aircraft accidents while replicating the operational benefits of clear day flight operations, regardless of the actual outside visibility condition. A major thrust of the SVS project involves the development/demonstration of affordable, certifiable display configurations that provide intuitive out-the-window terrain and obstacle information with advanced pathway guidance for transport aircraft. The SVS concept being developed at NASA encompasses the integration of tactical and strategic Synthetic Vision Display Concepts (SVDC) with Runway Incursion Prevention System (RIPS) alerting and display concepts, real-time terrain database integrity monitoring equipment (DIME), and Enhanced Vision Systems (EVS) and/or improved Weather Radar for real-time object detection and database integrity monitoring. A flight test evaluation was jointly conducted (in July and August 2004) by NASA Langley Research Center and an industry partner team under NASA's Aviation Safety and Security, Synthetic Vision System project. A Gulfstream GV aircraft was flown over a 3-week period in the Reno/Tahoe International Airport (NV) local area and an additional 3-week period in the Wallops Flight Facility (VA) local area to evaluate integrated Synthetic Vision System concepts. The enabling technologies (RIPS, EVS and DIME) were integrated into the larger SVS concept design. This paper presents experimental methods and the high level results of this flight test.

Kramer, Lynda J.↗

Three Methods of Detection of Hydrazines

Three proposed methods for measuring trace quantities of hydrazines involve ionization and detection of hydrazine derivatives. These methods are intended to overcome the limitations of prior hydrazine- detection methods. Hydrazine (Hz), monomethylhydrazine (MMH), and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) are hypergolic fuels and are highly reactive, toxic, and corrosive. A capability to measure concentrations of hydrazines is desirable for detecting leaks and ensuring safety in aerospace settings and in some industrial settings in which these compounds are used. One of the properties (high reactivity) that make it desirable to detect trace amounts of hydrazines also makes it difficult to detect hydrazines and measure their concentrations accurately using prior methods: significant amounts are lost to thermal and catalytic decomposition prior to detection. Further complications arise from the sticky nature of hydrazines: Sample hydrazine molecules tend to become irreversibly adsorbed onto solid surfaces with which they come into contact during transport to detectors, giving rise to drift in detector responses. In each proposed method, the reactive, sticky nature of hydrazines would be turned to advantage by providing a suitably doped substrate surface with which the hydrazines would react. The resulting hydrazine derivatives would be sufficiently less sticky and sufficiently more stable so that fewer molecules would be lost to decomposition or adsorption during transport. Consequently, it would be possible to measure concentration with more sensitivity and less error than in prior techniques. The first proposed method calls for the use of a recently developed technique known as desorption electrospray ionization (DESI), in which a pneumatically assisted micro -electrospray at ambient pressure is directed at a surface of interest. In this case, the surface of interest would be that of a substrate described above.

Griffin, Timothy↗

A Possible Approach for Addressing Neglected Human Factors Issues of Systems Engineering

The increasing complexity of safety-critical applications has led to the introduction of decision support tools in the transportation and process industries. Automation has also been introduced to support operator intervention in safety-critical applications. These innovations help reduce overall operator workload, and filter application data to maximize the finite cognitive and perceptual resources of system operators. However, these benefits do not come without a cost. Increased computational support for the end-users of safety-critical applications leads to increased reliance on engineers to monitor and maintain automated systems and decision support tools. This paper argues that by focussing on the end-users of complex applications, previous research has tended to neglect the demands that are being placed on systems engineers. The argument is illustrated through discussing three recent accidents. The paper concludes by presenting a possible strategy for building and using highly automated systems based on increased attention by management and regulators, improvements in competency and training for technical staff, sustained support for engineering team resource management, and the development of incident reporting systems for infrastructure failures. This paper represents preliminary work, about which we seek comments and suggestions.

Johnson, Christopher W.↗

Spinoff 2007

In accordance with congressional mandates cited in the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 and the Technology Utilization Act of 1962, NASA was directed to encourage greater use of the Agency's knowledge by providing a link between the NASA research community and those who might use the research for commercial or industrial products. For more than 40 years, NASA has nurtured partnerships with the private sector to facilitate the transfer of NASA-developed technologies. The benefits of these partnerships have reached throughout the economy and around the globe, as the resulting commercial products contributed to the development of services and technologies in the fields of health and medicine, transportation, public safety, consumer goods, environmental resources, computer technology, and industry. Since 1976, NASA Spinoff has profiled more than 1,500 of the most compelling of these technologies, annually highlighting the best and brightest of partnerships and innovations. Building on this dynamic history, NASA partnerships with the private sector continue to seek avenues by which technological achievements and innovations gleaned among the stars can be brought down to benefit our lives on Earth. NASA Spinoff highlights the Agency's most significant research and development activities and the successful transfer of NASA technology, showcasing the cutting-edge research being done by the Nation's top technologies and the practical benefits that come back down to Earth in the form of tangible products that make our lives better.

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Cyber Safety and Security for Reduced Crew Operations (RCO)

NASA and the Aviation Industry is looking into reduced crew operations (RCO) that would cut today's required two-person flight crews down to a single pilot with support from ground-based crews. Shared responsibility across air and ground personnel will require highly reliable and secure data communication and supporting automation, which will be safety-critical for passenger and cargo aircraft. This paper looks at the different types and degrees of authority delegation given from the air to the ground and the ramifications of each, including the safety and security hazards introduced, the mitigation mechanisms for these hazards, and other demands on an RCO system architecture which would be highly invasive into (almost) all safety-critical avionics. The adjacent fields of unmanned aerial systems and autonomous ground vehicles are viewed to find problems that RCO may face and related aviation accident scenarios are described. The paper explores possible data communication architectures to meet stringent performance and information security (INFOSEC) requirements of RCO. Subsequently, potential challenges for RCO data communication authentication, encryption and non-repudiation are identified.

Communications↗

Cyber Safety and Security for Reduced Crew Operations (RCO)

NASA and the Aviation Industry is looking into reduced crew operations (RCO) that would cut today's required two-person flight crews down to a single pilot with support from ground-based crews. Shared responsibility across air and ground personnel will require highly reliable and secure data communication and supporting automation, which will be safety-critical for passenger and cargo aircraft. This paper looks at the different types and degrees of authority delegation given from the air to the ground and the ramifications of each, including the safety and security hazards introduced, the mitigation mechanisms for these hazards, and other demands on an RCO system architecture which would be highly invasive into (almost) all safety-critical avionics. The adjacent fields of unmanned aerial systems and autonomous ground vehicles are viewed to find problems that RCO may face and related aviation accident scenarios are described. The paper explores possible data communication architectures to meet stringent performance and information security (INFOSEC) requirements of RCO. Subsequently, potential challenges for RCO data communication authentication, encryption and non-repudiation are identified. The approach includes a comprehensive safety-hazard analysis of the RCO system to determine top level INFOSEC requirements for RCO and proposes an option for effective RCO implementation. This paper concludes with questioning the economic viability of RCO in light of the expense of overcoming the operational safety and security hazards it would introduce.

Aircraft Communication↗

Mars Sample Return: Risk Management & Sample Safety Assessment

Returning samples from Mars has long been a major planetary science objective due to the high scientific value and transformative potential of the resulting data. An exciting dimension of this objective is the potential for the detection of ancient microbiological life, and the possibility of improving our understanding of the evolution of habitable environments on Mars and the development of life on Earth. To ensure that returned samples meet stringent planetary protection requirements and do not expose Earth to potential biohazards, the joint NASA/ESA Sample Receiving Project (SRP) assembled the Sample Safety Assessment Protocol Tiger Team (SSAP-TT). Members were recruited with the specific goal of creating a multi-disciplinary and internationally distributed team of experts in their respective fields across the federal government, academia, and private industry. This team was chartered with reassessing previous sample safety assessment strategies, defining what constitutes a biological hazard, developing a protocol to test for potential biohazards, and establishing a statistical framework to determine if samples are “safe” for release. The team developed a three-step protocol, supported by a Bayesian statistical framework, to assess whether returned samples contain potential biohazards that could present a risk to Earth’s biosphere. Initial conclusions indicated that an effective and comprehensive safety assessment protocol is feasible using modern techniques and does not require an excessive amount of sample consumption or traditional microbiological detection methodology. Herein, we will present an overview of the MSR SRP, the proposed safety assessment protocol, and how aspects of this novel approach can be applied to biological assessment in healthcare product manufacturing practices.

Alvin L Smith↗

Collegiate Aviation Research and Education Solutions to Critical Safety Issues

This Conference Proceedings is a collection of 6 abstracts and 3 papers presented April 19-20, 2001 in Denver, CO. The conference focus was "Best Practices and Benchmarking in Collegiate and Industry Programs". Topics covered include: satellite-based aviation navigation; weather safety training; human-behavior and aircraft maintenance issues; disaster preparedness; the collegiate aviation emergency response checklist; aviation safety research; and regulatory status of maintenance resource management.

Bowen, Brent↗

A New Tool for Industry

Ultrasonic P2L2 bolt monitor is a new industrial tool, developed at Langley Research Laboratory, which is lightweight, portable, extremely accurate because it is not subject to friction error, and it is cost-competitive with the least expensive of other types of accurate strain monitors. P2L2 is an acronym for Pulse Phase Locked Loop. The ultrasound system which measures the stress that occurs when a bolt becomes elongated in the process of tightening, transmits sound waves to the bolt being fastened and receives a return signal indicating changes in bolt stress. Results are translated into a digital reading of the actual stress on the bolt. Device monitors the bolt tensioning process on mine roof bolts that provide increased safety within the mine. Also has utility in industrial applications.

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