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At least 163 records · Page 9

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NASA NTRS2017

Solar System Exploration Augmented by In-Situ Resource Utilization: Human Planetary Base Issues for Mercury and Saturn

Establishing a lunar presence and creating an industrial capability on the Moon may lead to important new discoveries for all of human kind. Historical studies of lunar exploration, in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) and industrialization all point to the vast resources on the Moon and its links to future human and robotic exploration. In references 1 through 9, a broad range of technological innovations are described and analyzed. Figures 1 depicts program planning for future human missions throughout the solar system which included lunar launched nuclear rockets, and future human settlements on the Moon. Figures 2 and 3 present the results for human Mercury missions, including LEO departure masses and round trip Mercury lander masses. Using in-situ resources, the missions become less burdensome to the LEO launch infrastructure. In one example using Mercury derived hydrogen, the LEO mass of the human Mercury missions can be reduced from 2,800 MT to 1,140 MT (Ref. 15). Additional analyses of staging options for human Mercury missions will be presented. Figures 4 shows an option for thermal control for long term in-space cryogenic storage and Figure 5 depicts the potentially deleterious elements emanating from Mercury that must be addressed, respectively. Updated analyses based on the visions presented will be presented. While advanced propulsion systems were proposed in these historical studies, further investigation of nuclear options using high power nuclear thermal and nuclear electric propulsion as well as advanced chemical propulsion can significantly enhance these scenarios. Human bases at Mercury may have to be resupplied from resources from regolith and water resources in permanently shadowed craters at its northern pole.

Mercury↗

NASA NTRS2017

Leveraging Terrestrial Industry for Utilization of Space Resources

NASA's Journey to Mars: Pioneering Next Steps in Space Exploration released in October of 2015 states that NASA is working toward the capability to work, operate, and sustainably live safely beyond Earth. To progress from our current "Earth-Reliant" approach to exploration and eventually become "Earth Independent", we need to first identify resources in space and then learn to use and harvest them to minimize logistics from Earth, reduce costs, and enable sustainable and affordable space transportation and surface operations. Known as In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), the collection and conversion of space resources into products such as propellants, fuel cell reactants, and life support consumables can greatly reduce the mass, cost, and risk of space exploration. Also, the ability to perform civil engineering, construction, and manufacturing at sites of exploration can also allow for increased crew safety and sustainable growth in critical infrastructure. Much of what NASA wants to do on the Moon and Mars with respect to harnessing and utilizing space resources has been performed and perfected on Earth over the centuries. While minimizing mass and operating in the vacuum of space may be unique challenges to NASA, both terrestrial industry and NASA face many of the same challenges associated with operating in severe environments, minimizing maintenance and logistics, maximizing performance per unit mass and volume, performing remote and autonomous operations, and integrating hardware from many vendors and countries. In the end, both NASA and terrestrial industry need to obtain a return on the investment for the development and deployment of these capabilities. This paper will first examine what is ISRU and what are the space resources of interest. The paper will than discuss what are NASA's approach, life cycle, and economic considerations for implementing ISRU. The paper will outline the site and infrastructure needs associated with a phased implementation of ISRU into human missions to the Moon and Mars. The paper will than assess what technologies and operations from terrestrial industries are relevant and synergistic with ISRU (from prospecting to product storage), and what challenges and similarities between the two can be exploited. Lastly, the paper will end with a discussion on where do we go from here for industry and NASA to collaborate.

Sanders, Gerald B.↗

NASA NTRS2015

Normalizing Resource Identifiers using Lexicons in the Global Change Information System: Linking Earth Science Identifiers, Concepts, and Communities

Earth Science informatics involves collaboration between multiple groups of people with diverse specializations and goals,often using variations in terminology to refer to common resources. The uniformity of the resource identifiers often does not cross organizational boundaries. Because of this, permanent, widely used, unambiguous identifiers for resources are elusive. We examine real world cases of changing and inconsistent identifiers which inherently work against persistence and uniformity. We also present a solution which mediates factors in these situations; namely the creation of lexicons:mappings of sets of terms to URIs which are curated within the Global Change Information System (GCIS). We discuss aspects of the GCIS which facilitate the use of lexicons: an information model which disambiguates resources, a RESTful API which provides metadata through content-negotiation, and a strategy for long term curation of URIs, including mechanisms for handling changes to URIs and variations in terms used by different communities while providing persistent URIs and preserving relationships between resources We provide working definitions of terms,contexts, and lexicons, and relate them to the practical challenges of disambiguation and curation. We also discuss the mechanisms employed and architecture of the GCIS, and how these choices facilitate representation of persistent identifiers and mappings of them to identifiers used colloquially within various earth science communities of practice.

Linkded Data↗

NASA NTRS2018

Remote Sensing Applications for Water Resources Management, Including Droughts, Floods, and Associated Water Cycle Extremes II

Water resources management can benefit from applications of remote sensing and hydrologic models. These tools can be especially valuable during extreme events and in data-sparse regions. Observational platforms include the GPM, SMAP, Terra, Aqua, Landsat, GRACE, and Sentinel satellites, and other satellite and airborne platforms. They can support the operational water resources management community in responding to climate change, increases in climate variability and the frequency of extreme events. This session will highlight advances in the use of satellite, airborne and ground-based sensor networks to: measure the quantity/quality of hydrologic resources in the U.S. and internationally; provide information to water managers to improve water resources management; and support risk-based decision making. Topics of interest include (1) extreme events such as floods and droughts; (2) water supply and snow water resource monitoring and forecasting; (3) evapotranspiration, soil moisture, groundwater, and agricultural water management; (4) water quality and (5) global water sustainability.

Bolten, John D.↗

NASA NTRS2018

H53E: Remote Sensing Applications for Water Resources Management, Including Droughts, Floods, and Associated Water Cycle Extremes I

Remote Sensing↗

NASA NTRS2023

Commercial Low-Earth Orbit Destination (CLD) Capabilities of Interest and Resource Needs

The Commercial Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Development Program team has been working with NASA and the International Space Station (ISS) National Lab (NL) stakeholders to identify capabilities of interest to both conduct research/technology demonstrations and estimate the resources that will be needed from Commercial LEO Destinations (CLDs). Through a series of one-on-one and working group meetings with users/stakeholders, hardware items of interest to the user community were identified and converted into capabilities (e.g., centrifugation, microscope, pressure chamber, etc.). In parallel, resources needed to operate the research equipment (e.g., crew time, number of experiments, volume, etc.) were estimated in order for the CLD providers to better understand NASA’s potential future service requirements. The capabilities and the resources included in this White Paper do not represent NASA requirements. Instead, they constitute a preliminary set of potential capability and resource needs collated to guide CLD providers in appropriately sizing and outfitting their CLD designs. NASA is requesting feedback from industry on how these capabilities and resources align with their own needs as well as those of their non-NASA customers. Information on how the capabilities/resources impact the CLD designs is also requested. After assessing industry’s feedback to this white paper, NASA plans to issue a preliminary set of requirements for review.

International Space Station↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) NASA’s First Polar Drilling and Volatiles Detection Mission

The US Administration announced in 2019 that NASA would return to the Moon where it would seek to establish a sustainable lunar presence. In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is needed to sustain and grow hu-man surface exploration and it is therefore a vital part of ensuring this bold endeavor. ISRU requires ground-truth on physical, mineral, and volatile characteristics of the resources. Water, a key and game-changing resource, exists in the polar regions of the Moon. Learning to harvest and use this resource first requires understanding where the resource is abundantly located and on what scales. Harvested water, which is usable for life support and fuel, must be identified, quantified, and assessed for its mining feasibility. The project goal for PRIME-1 is to develop a flight-ready instrumentation package that can assess the volatiles at a polar lunar landing location. PRIME-1 is the combination of two instruments; Mass Spectrometer observing lunar operations (MSolo) and The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain (TRIDENT). TRIDENT is an 1-meter augering drill capable of bringing incremental lunar regolith samples to the surface for volatile analysis. MSolo is a modified, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) mass spectrometer capable of qualifying and quantifying atomic species in the 1-100 amu range, including isotopic differentiation. These two lunar flight instruments operating together make up the PRIME-1 instrument suite. PRIME-1 intends to fly on and operate from a static lunar lander acquired by the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) acquisition process. The PRIME-1 payload suite was selected to fly on Intuitive Machines Nova-C lander, and is currently targeting a late Fall 2023 landing attempt.

MSolo↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) NASA’s First Polar Drilling and Volatiles Detection Mission

MSolo↗

NASA NTRS2023

Ch. 12. A Theoretical Approach to Management of Limited Attentional Resources to Support the m:N Operation in Advanced Air Mobility Ecosystem

Advanced air mobility (AAM) technologies incorporate increasingly autonomous systems that allow fully remote, independent, and intelligent operation of air vehicles to support the transportation of goods and passengers within and across urban and rural areas. With a myriad of automated technologies enabling the AAM ecosystem, the human operator’s role will likely be a passive supervisory monitor of the air vehicles, involving increasingly fewer humans (m) that manage many more autonomous systems (N), or m:N operations. Unfortunately, the human performance literature suggests that human operators will exhibit poor supervision of numerous autonomous agents due to the limits of attentional resources in the operators. In the general human information-processing model, a human operator exercises a limited pool of attentional resources to engage various information-processing stages including detecting, perceiving, comprehending, and predicting objects around them. Yamani and Horrey (2018) expanded the human information-processing model to characterize a tradeoff between information-processing demand and resource relief that automation brings in the context of automated driving. In their model, a driver interacting with an automated driving system is assumed to reallocate resources “freed” by automation to support other information-processing stages required for successful task performance. A future AAM ecosystem enabled by an orchestration of advanced automated systems, however, requires a single operator to interact with more than one air vehicle with varying levels and degrees of automated systems, making the traditional framework of human-automation interaction insufficient. To address this gap, we provide a review of the literature on situation assessment and trust, two constructs identified as critical for a fuller understanding of intimate and intricate interactions between a human operator and multiple air vehicles equipped with increasingly autonomous systems. Then, we propose an expansion of Yamani and Horrey’s (2018) model to motivate systematic research on the human operator’s role, identify factors that influence resource allocation and guide human-centered design of an interface supporting the m:N operation in the AAM environment.

Advanced Air Mobility↗

NASA NTRS2016

Solar System Exploration Augmented by In-Situ Resource Utilization: Mercury and Saturn Propulsion Investigations

Human and robotic missions to Mercury and Saturn are presented and analyzed with a range of propulsion options. Historical studies of space exploration, in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), and industrialization all point to the vastness of natural resources in the solar system. Advanced propulsion benefitted from these resources in many ways. While advanced propulsion systems were proposed in these historical studies, further investigation of nuclear options using high power nuclear thermal and nuclear pulse propulsion as well as advanced chemical propulsion can significantly enhance these scenarios. Updated analyses based on these historical visions will be presented. Nuclear thermal propulsion and ISRU enhanced chemical propulsion landers are assessed for Mercury missions. At Saturn, nuclear pulse propulsion with alternate propellant feed systems and Titan exploration with chemical propulsion options are discussed. In-situ resource utilization was found to be critical in making Mercury missions more amenable for human visits. At Saturn, refueling using local atmospheric mining was found to be difficult to impractical, while refueling the Saturn missions from Uranus was more practical and less complex.

space propulsion↗

NASA NTRS2017

Overview of NASA Technology Development for In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU)

In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) encompasses a broad range of systems that enable the production and use of extraterrestrial resources in support of future exploration missions. It has the potential to greatly reduce the dependency on resources transported from Earth (e.g., propellants, life support consumables), thereby significantly improving the ability to conduct future missions. Recognizing the critical importance of ISRU for the future, NASA is currently conducting technology development projects in two of its four mission directorates. The Advanced Exploration Systems Division in the Agency's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate has initiated a new project for ISRU Technology focused on component, subsystem, and system maturation in the areas of water volatiles resource acquisition, and water volatiles and atmospheric processing into propellants and other consumable products. The Space Technology Mission Directorate is supporting development of ISRU component technologies in the areas of Mars atmosphere acquisition, including dust management, and oxygen production from Mars atmosphere for propellant and life support consumables. Together, these two coordinated projects are working towards a common goal of demonstrating ISRU technology and systems in preparation for future flight applications.

In-situ Resource Utilization↗

NASA NTRS2019

In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Living off the Land on the Moon and Mars

In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is the concept of using local resources at various destinations to provide products and services for robotic and human explorers. This idea of 'living off the land' has the potential of reducing reliance on earth to supply mission consumables such as propellants and life support consumables. Local resources include: water, oxygen, and metals within the surface soil material (regolith), atmospheric gases (eg CO2 on Mars), and the regolith material itself. ISRU systems involve physically and chemically extracting these resources and converting them into desired products.

In-situ resource utilization↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Moon to Mars In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Status Update

In 2017, NASA initiated the Artemis program to send astronauts back to the lunar surface, create a sustainable human lunar exploration program, and lead the first human exploration mission to the Mars surface. While much of NASA’s plans for the Artemis program currently focus on the Human Lunar Return and the ability for astronauts to explore the lunar surface for limited durations each year, the longer-term vision for the Artemis program is to enable sustained human exploration and commercial operations in cis-lunar space and the lunar surface. An important aspect of achieving this long-term vision, is to better understand and characterize the resources on the Moon and Mars and learn how to extract and use these resources. Known as In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), the identification, mapping, extraction, and processing of space resources has the potential to greatly reduce the cost and risk of human exploration. These are achieved by reducing what needs to be delivered from Earth and the dependency on these supplies, lowering costs through commercial operations, and expanding infrastructure for safer and more capable exploration and surface operations. To guide development of ISRU technologies and systems on the ground and demonstrate these capabilities on the Moon and Mars, the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) created and released the ISRU Envisioned Future Priorities (EFP) strategic plan in 2022 and updated it in 2023. While lunar ISRU technology development had already started, these publicly released strategic plans have been used to guide and prioritize technology development, and assess the progress in achieving the vision. Since the release of the ISRU EFP, there have been several significant activities/events that have occurred with respect to human lunar exploration, surface infrastructure, and ISRU. This presentation will provide an overview and status of on-going technology and system development activities, an update of ISRU into the Artemis campaign, an update on ISRU-related activities.

NASA↗

NASA NTRS1975

Remote Sensing of Earth Resources (1970-1973 Supplement): A Literature Survey with Indexes

This literature survey cites 4930 reports, articles and other documents that were announced between March 1970 and December 1973 in Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports (STAR) or in International Aerospace Abstracts (IAA). This publication supplements Remote Sensing of Earth Resources (NASA-SP-7036) that cited documents announced between January 1962 and February 1970. Beginning in 1974, a quarterly publication, Earth Resources, A Continuing Bibliography (NASA-SP-7041) was initiated. The first issue, NASA-SP-7041(01), was published in June covering the document announced between January 1974 and March 1974. The coverage includes documents related to the identification and evaluation by means of sensors in spacecraft and aircraft of vegetation, minerals, and other natural resources, and the techniques and potentialities of surveying and keeping up-to-date inventories of such riches. It encompasses studies of such natural phenomena as earthquakes, volcanoes, ocean currents and magnetic fields; and such cultural phenomena as cities, transportation networks, and irrigation systems. Descriptions of the components and use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation, their subsystems, observational procedures, signature and analyses and interpretive techniques for gathering data are also included. Reports generated under NASA's Earth Resources Survey Program and announced during the period covered by this bibliography are included.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1972

Development of earth resources survey techniques at GSFC: Overview

Earth resources survey and remote sensing techniques under development at GSFC are reviewed. Emphasis is focussed primarily on: (1) definition and demonstration of remote sensing techniques which lead to the measurements of physical quantities from which earth resources related parameters can be determined; (2) development of sensors, spacecraft, and on-board as well as ground based data management systems; (3) determination of earth resources related parameters from the remote sensing observations and measurements; and (4) applications of earth observations to resource management.

Nordberg, W.↗

NASA NTRS1973

Near real time water resources data for river basin management

The author has identified the following significant results. Twenty Data Collection Platforms (DCP) are being field installed on USGS water resources stations in the Delaware River Basin. DCP's have been successfully installed and are operating well on five stream gaging stations, three observation wells, and one water quality monitor in the basin. DCP's have been installed at nine additional water quality monitors, and work is progressing on interfacing the platforms to the monitors. ERTS-related water resources data from the platforms are being provided in near real time, by the Goddard Space Flight Center to the Pennsylvania district, Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey. On a daily basis, the data are computer processed by the Survey and provided to the Delaware River Basin Commission. Each daily summary contains data that were relayed during 4 or 5 of the 15 orbits made by ERTS-1 during the previous day. Water resources parameters relays by the platforms include dissolved oxygen concentrations, temperature, pH, specific conductance, well level, and stream gage height, which is used to compute stream flow for the daily summary.

Paulson, R. W.↗

NASA NTRS1973

Testing the usefulness of ERTS-1 imagery for inventorying wildland resources in northern California

The usefulness of ERTS-1 imagery for inventorying wildland resources in northern California is discussed. Studies are being conducted in two large wildland areas, namely, the Feather River Watershed and the Northern Coastal Zone. The 2.5 million-acre Feather River headwaters area in northern California is the keystone watershed for the California Water Project, one of the most extensive and ambitious water resource developments ever attempted. Consequently, accurate and timely information on the quantity, quality and distribution of timber, forage, water and recreational resources is of immediate importance to each public agency and private group managing this vast, but inaccessible, wildland area. The Northern Coastal Zone (consisting of the counties of Marin, Sonoma, Mendicino, Humbolt and Del Norte) is relatively rural, with an economy based on agriculture, timber, commercial fishing and tourism. However, it is expected that intensive resource use resulting from increasing population will soon become a serious problem unless wise land use planning is undertaken. Thus, this coastal region is particularly well suited to investigations of the ways in which ERTS-1 imagery and other supporting data may be used in conducting land use evaluations.

Lauer, D. T.↗

NASA NTRS1973

The use of ERTS-1 data for the inventory of critical land resources for regional land use planning

Computer-generated spatial and statistical comparisons of critical land resource data derived from conventional sources, RB-57 photographs, and ERTS images, for an eastern Wisconsin test site, suggest that certain critical land resource data can be mapped from ERTS images on a statewide basis. This paper presents one of the biotic resources, wetlands, as an example of the use of ERTS imagery to inventory land resources.

Clapp, J. L.↗