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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

Multiwavelength Study of Equatorial Coronal-Hole Jets

Jets (transient/collimated plasma ejections) occur frequently throughout the solar corona and contribute mass/energy to the corona and solar wind. By combining numerical simulations and high-resolution observations, we have made substantial progress recently on determining the energy buildup and release processes in these jets. Here we describe a study of 27 equatorial coronal-hole jets using Solar Dynamics Observatory/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly and Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager observations on 2013 June 27–28 and 2014 January 8–10. Out of 27 jets, 18 (67%) are associated with mini-filament ejections; the other nine (33%) do not show mini-filament eruptions but do exhibit mini-flare arcades and other eruptive signatures. This indicates that every jet in our sample involved a filament-channel eruption. From the complete set of events, six jets (22%) are apparently associated with tiny flux-cancellation events at the polarity inversion line, and two jets (7%) are associated with sympathetic eruptions of filaments from neighboring bright points. Potential-field extrapolations of the source-region photospheric magnetic fields reveal that all jets originated in the fan-spine topology of an embedded bipole associated with an extreme ultraviolet coronal bright point. Hence, all our jets are in agreement with the breakout model of solar eruptions. We present selected examples and discuss the implications for the jet energy buildup and initiation mechanisms.

Sun Activity↗

Analysis of defect structure in silicon. Silicon sheet growth development for the large area silicon sheet task of the Low-Cost Solar array Project

One hundred ninety-three silicon sheet samples, approximately 880 square centimeters, were analyzed for twin boundary density, dislocation pit density, and grain boundary length. One hundred fifteen of these samples were manufactured by a heat exchanger method, thirty-eight by edge defined film fed growth, twenty-three by the silicon on ceramics process, and ten by the dendritic web process. Seven solar cells were also step-etched to determine the internal defect distribution on these samples. Procedures were developed or the quantitative characterization of structural defects such as dislocation pits, precipitates, twin & grain boundaries using a QTM 720 quantitative image analyzing system interfaced with a PDP 11/03 mini computer. Characterization of the grain boundary length per unit area for polycrystalline samples was done by using the intercept method on an Olympus HBM Microscope.

Natesh, R.↗

Molecular Additive Engineering for Process-Humidity Robustness and Reproducible Fabrication of Perovskite Solar Cells and Modules

The commercialization of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) faces significant challenges due to their sensitivity to environmental humidity, which compromises film crystallization and device stability. Here, we introduce diphenylvinylphosphine (DPVP) as a Lewis base additive that enhances the performance and reproducibility of PSCs fabricated under ambient-air conditions. DPVP suppresses moisture-induced defect formation and stabilizes crystallization within realistic process-humidity ranges (20–40% relative humidity) commonly encountered in laboratory and pilot-scale manufacturing environments. It improves film uniformity, reduces trap densities, and yields highly reproducible device performance, enabling champion PCEs of 24.2% in small-area devices and 20.5% in blade-coated 12 cm 2 mini-modules. Furthermore, DPVP-assisted modules exhibit enhanced stability, retaining over 85% of their initial efficiency after 900 h of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) at 65 °C. This study demonstrates a humidity-resilient and scalable additive strategy for ambient-air perovskite photovoltaic manufacturing.

defect passivation↗

Commercial opportunities in bioseparations and physiological testing aboard Space Station Freedom

The Center for Cell Research (CCR) is a NASA Center for the Commercial Development of Space which has as its main goal encouraging industry-driven biomedical/biotechnology space projects. Space Station Freedom (SSF) will provide long duration, crew-tended microgravity environments which will enhance the opportunities for commercial biomedical/biotechnology projects in bioseparations and physiological testing. The CCR bioseparations program, known as USCEPS (for United States Commercial Electrophoresis Program in Space), is developing access for American industry to continuous-flow electrophoresis aboard SSF. In space, considerable scale-up of continuous free-flow electrophoresis is possible for cells, sub cellular particles, proteins, growth factors, and other biological products. The lack of sedemination and buoyancy-driven convection flow enhances purity of separations and the amount of material processed/time. Through the CCR's physiological testing program, commercial organizations will have access aboard SSF to physiological systems experiments (PSE's); the Penn State Biomodule; and telemicroscopy. Physiological systems experiments involve the use of live animals for pharmaceutical product testing and discovery research. The Penn State Biomodule is a computer-controlled mini lab useful for projects involving live cells or tissues and macro molecular assembly studies, including protein crystallization. Telemicroscopy will enable staff on Earth to manipulate and monitor microscopic specimens on SSF for product development and discovery research or for medical diagnosis of astronaut health problems. Space-based product processing, testing, development, and discovery research using USCEPS and CCR's physiological testing program offer new routes to improved health on Earth. Direct crew involvement-in biomedical/biotechnology projects aboard SSF will enable better experimental outcomes. The current data base shows that there is reason for considerable optimism regarding what the CCDS program and the biomedical/biotechnology industry can expect to gain from a permanent manned presence in space.

Hymer, W. C.↗

Lunar Crater Ejecta: Physical Properties Revealed by Radar and Thermal Infrared Observations

We investigate the physical properties, and changes through time, of lunar impact ejecta using radar and thermal infrared data. We use data from two instruments on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) - the Diviner thermal radiometer and the Miniature Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) radar instrument - together with Earth-based radar observations. We use this multiwavelength intercomparison to constrain block sizes and to distinguish surface from buried rocks in proximal ejecta deposits. We find that radar-detectable rocks buried within the upper meter of regolith can remain undisturbed by surface processes such as micrometeorite bombardment for greater than 3 Gyr. We also investigate the thermophysical properties of radar-dark haloes, comprised of fine-grained, rock-poor ejecta distal to the blocky proximal ejecta. Using Diviner data, we confirm that the halo material is depleted in surface rocks, but show that it is otherwise thermophysically indistinct from background regolith. We also find that radar-dark haloes, like the blocky ejecta, remain visible in radar observations for craters with ages greater than 3 Ga, indicating that regolith overturn processes cannot replenish their block populations on that timescale.

Ghent, R. R.↗

High-Resolution Gravity and Time-Varying Gravity Field Recovery using GRACE and CHAMP

This progress report summarizes the research work conducted under NASA's Solid Earth and Natural Hazards Program 1998 (SENH98) entitled High Resolution Gravity and Time Varying Gravity Field Recovery Using GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) and CHAMP (Challenging Mini-satellite Package for Geophysical Research and Applications), which included a no-cost extension time period. The investigation has conducted pilot studies to use the simulated GRACE and CHAMP data and other in situ and space geodetic observable, satellite altimeter data, and ocean mass variation data to study the dynamic processes of the Earth which affect climate change. Results from this investigation include: (1) a new method to use the energy approach for expressing gravity mission data as in situ measurements with the possibility to enhance the spatial resolution of the gravity signal; (2) the method was tested using CHAMP and validated with the development of a mean gravity field model using CHAMP data, (3) elaborate simulation to quantify errors of tides and atmosphere and to recover hydrological and oceanic signals using GRACE, results show that there are significant aliasing effect and errors being amplified in the GRACE resonant geopotential and it is not trivial to remove these errors, and (4) quantification of oceanic and ice sheet mass changes in a geophysical constraint study to assess their contributions to global sea level change, while the results improved significant over the use of previous studies using only the SLR (Satellite Laser Ranging)-determined zonal gravity change data, the constraint could be further improved with additional information on mantle rheology, PGR (Post-Glacial Rebound) and ice loading history. A list of relevant presentations and publications is attached, along with a summary of the SENH investigation generated in 2000.

Shum, C. K.↗

Search for light sterile neutrinos with two neutrino beams at MicroBooNE

The existence of three distinct neutrino flavours, ν e , ν μ and ν τ , is a central tenet of the Standard Model of particle physics. Quantum-mechanical interference can allow a neutrino of one initial flavour to be detected sometime later as a different flavour, a process called neutrino oscillation. Several anomalous observations inconsistent with this three-flavour picture have motivated the hypothesis that an additional neutrino state exists, which does not interact directly with matter, termed as ‘sterile’ neutrino, ν s . This includes anomalous observations from the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector (LSND)3 experiment and Mini-Booster Neutrino Experiment (MiniBooNE), consistent with ν μ → ν e transitions at a distance inconsistent with the three-neutrino picture. Here we use data obtained from the MicroBooNE liquid-argon time projection chamber in two accelerator neutrino beams to exclude the single light sterile neutrino interpretation of the LSND and MiniBooNE anomalies at the 95% confidence level (CL). Moreover, we rule out a notable portion of the parameter space that could explain the gallium anomaly. This is one of the first measurements to use two accelerator neutrino beams to break a degeneracy between ν e appearance and disappearance, which would otherwise weaken the sensitivity to the sterile neutrino hypothesis. We find no evidence for either ν μ → ν e flavour transitions or ν e disappearance that would indicate non-standard flavour oscillations. Our results indicate that previous anomalous observations consistent with ν μ → ν e transitions cannot be explained by introducing a single sterile neutrino state.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Analyses of IR-Stealthy and Coated Surface Materials: A Comparison of LIBS and Reflectance Spectra and Their Application to Mars Surface Exploration

Identification of non-silicate samples on Mars, such as carbonates, sulfates, nitrates, or evaporites in general, is important because of their association with aqueous processes and their potential as exobiology sites. Infrared (IR) and thermal emission (TE) spectroscopy have been considered the primary tools for remote identification of these minerals. This includes current and future orbital assets such as TES on MGS, THEMIS on Mars Odyssey, OMEGA on Mars Express, CRISM on MRO, and now the Mini-TES on the MER rovers. While reflectance and emission spectroscopy have clearly been the method of choice for these missions, the technique is not always successful in mineral identifications due to dust, surface weathering chemistry, coatings, or surface texture. Here we describe and show IR spectra of several such samples, and then report on the relative success of LIBS analyses in determining the rock type.

Wiens, R. C.↗

Enhanced internal condensation of R1233zd(E) on micro- and nanostructured copper and aluminum surfaces

In-tube condensation of refrigerants is an important process which affects thermal efficiency in many applications, ranging from refrigeration and air conditioning to electronics thermal management. In-tube heat transfer and pressure drop are important to heat exchanger sizing and design. Here, in this work, micro- and nanostructured surfaces are applied to the internal wetted areas of copper and aluminum mini-channels to enhance the condensation heat transfer coefficient of hydrofluorocarbon R1233zd(E) refrigerant. To achieve scalable nanomanufacturing, surfaces were uniformly structured by relying on hydrochloric acid etching of aluminum and chemical oxidation of copper. The etched aluminum surfaces exhibited a 150% increase in heat transfer coefficient compared to smooth aluminum channels at specific qualities, with a 66% heat transfer coefficient improvement for complete phase change from saturated vapor to saturated liquid. Copper oxide structures showed no discernable difference in thermal-hydraulic performance when compared to smooth copper channels. Critical dimensionless parameters governing the heat transfer enhancement were identified by varying the tube internal diameter (2.3 mm to 4.7 mm), refrigerant mass flux (50 to 300 kg/(m 2 ·s)), and refrigerant quality (0 to 1). The dimensionless parameters include the Bond number normalized to the condensate film thickness, and the Weber number modified by the vapor friction factor. The relatively small increase in pressure drop (< 10%) associated with these surface enhancements further supports the promise of this method. The scalable and cost-effective techniques used to create these aluminum microstructures may reduce manufacturing cost when compared with current enhancement approaches such as extrusion, drawing, and welding.

42 ENGINEERING↗

A dictionary learning algorithm for compression and reconstruction of streaming data in preset order

There has been an emerging interest in developing and applying dictionary learning (DL) to process massive datasets in the last decade. Many of these efforts, however, focus on employing DL to compress and extract a set of important features from data, while considering restoring the original data from this set a secondary goal. On the other hand, although several methods are able to process streaming data by updating the dictionary incrementally as new snapshots pass by, most of those algorithms are designed for the setting where the snapshots are randomly drawn from a probability distribution. In this paper, we present a new DL approach to compress and denoise massive dataset in real time, in which the data are streamed through in a preset order (instances are videos and temporal experimental data), so at any time, we can only observe a biased sample set of the whole data. Here, our approach incrementally builds up the dictionary in a relatively simple manner: if the new snapshot is adequately explained by the current dictionary, we perform a sparse coding to find its sparse representation; otherwise, we add the new snapshot to the dictionary, with a Gram-Schmidt process to maintain the orthogonality. To compress and denoise noisy datasets, we apply the denoising to the snapshot directly before sparse coding, which deviates from traditional dictionary learning approach that achieves denoising via sparse coding. Compared to full-batch matrix decomposition methods, where the whole data is kept in memory, and other mini-batch approaches, where unbiased sampling is often assumed, our approach has minimal requirement in data sampling and storage: i) each snapshot is only seen once then discarded, and ii) the snapshots are drawn in a preset order, so can be highly biased. Through experiments on climate simulations and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) data, we demonstrate that the proposed approach performs competitively to those methods in data reconstruction and denoising.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A Comparison of Multivariate and Pre-Processing Methods for Quantitative Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy of Geologic Samples

The ChemCam instrument selected for the Curiosity rover is capable of remote laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).[1] We used a remote LIBS instrument similar to ChemCam to analyze 197 geologic slab samples and 32 pressed-powder geostandards. The slab samples are well-characterized and have been used to validate the calibration of previous instruments on Mars missions, including CRISM [2], OMEGA [3], the MER Pancam [4], Mini-TES [5], and Moessbauer [6] instruments and the Phoenix SSI [7]. The resulting dataset was used to compare multivariate methods for quantitative LIBS and to determine the effect of grain size on calculations. Three multivariate methods - partial least squares (PLS), multilayer perceptron artificial neural networks (MLP ANNs) and cascade correlation (CC) ANNs - were used to generate models and extract the quantitative composition of unknown samples. PLS can be used to predict one element (PLS1) or multiple elements (PLS2) at a time, as can the neural network methods. Although MLP and CC ANNs were successful in some cases, PLS generally produced the most accurate and precise results.

Anderson, R. B.↗

Laboratory Investigation of the Effect of Venusian Weathering on Mineral Spectra

Introduction: The recent selection of two missions to Venus has renewed the importance of deter-mining weathering reactions between minerals and the Venusian atmosphere, and the spectral signatures of minerals before, during, and after these reactions. The rate at which weathering reactions progress also constrain show long unstable minerals will be present on the surface (e.g., [1]), and enables the use of mineralogy as a constraint on surface age(e.g., [2-3]).In order to gain an understanding of how mineral compositions and spectra change with weathering, we have begun conducting experiments in a 1 atm experimental setup at Wesleyan University. This setup exposes minerals to the temperature and most abundant gases of the Venus atmosphere (CO2, SO2, N2).We conducted initial experiments using biotite, calcite, and montmorillonite in order to test our methodology with minerals that may be relevant to recording the history of water on Venus. Methods: Experiments were conducted in Thermo Fisher Scientific Lindberg/Blue M Mini-Mite horizontal tube furnaces at Wesleyan University. Experiments used natural mineral chips and powders, and were conducted at 1 atmosphere and 460 °C under pre-mixed gases provided by Air Gas(Table 1). The furnaces are set up in a flow through configuration so that solid samples are exposed to a fixed gas composition, and quartz glass process tubes were used in all experiments (1/4” diameter for experiment V4, ½” diameter for all others). These conditions were maintained for the du-rations listed in Table 1, at which point the furnace was turned off with gas flowing until the sample was cool enough to extract under N2and be placed in a desiccator for storage. Run products were carbon coated and examined using a Hitachi SU5000 Field Emission Gun Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) equipped with an EDAX Octane Pro EDS detector located at Wesley-an University. Visible-Near Infrared Spectroscopy (VNIR) analysis was performed on powdered samples under a nitrogen atmosphere using an ASD Fieldspec Proover the 350-2500 nm range. Powdered mineral samples were milled to a particle size of < 45μm and were spiked with an internal standard (Al2O3, corundum) to obtain quantitative mineralogy. Samples were analyzed using a Panalytical X’Pert pro X-ray Diffractometer (XRD), with an X’Celerator high speed detector and Co Kα radiation, with data collected at a step size of 0.02 ̊/minute step counting rate from 2 to 80 degrees 2θ at 45 mA/40kV in the X-ray Diffraction Laboratory located at NASA Johnson Space Center. Materials Data Inc (MDI) software suite, JadeTMv9 was used for Rietveld refinement to determine phase abundances and mineral identification by comparing XRD patterns to International Center for Diffraction Data (ICDD) database patterns. Table 1: Experimental matrix. Experiment Name Duration (Days)Gas Com-position (trace gas)MineralsV487SO2/N2(1.4%)Montmorillonite, biotiteV519SO2/N2(1.4%)CalciteV619CO2/SO2/N2(1.4% SO2, 2.1% N2)Montmorillonite, biotiteV828SO2/N2(1.4%)Biotite, calcite Results: Calcite. In both experiments, calcite was exposed to the SO2/N2gas mixture, and in both experimental run products, XRD analysis detected anhydrite, which is consistent with EDS measurements conducted in the SEM. The XRD analyses show greater amounts of anhydrite present after 28 days than 19, suggesting the calcite reaction progressed further given longer duration. Grain surface morphology as seen in the SEM also shows secondary mineral growth (Fig. 1). VNIR spectra show no change, as expected since anhydrite lacks spectral features in this wavelength range. Montmorillonite. Montmorillonite was exposed to two different gas mixtures, the SO2/N2mix and CO2/SO2/N2mix over different durations (87 and 19 days, respectively). VNIR analyses of both run products show a reduction in the 1441and1910 nm water features as well as a shift of the 1411 and 2011 nm features to shorter wavelengths that may indicate re-structuring in the crystal lattice and the production of amorphous phases [4]. XRD results are consistent with this, showing a shift of the 001 peak from 15Åto 10Åin both run products. The amount of X-ray amorphous material in the montmorillonite run products was greater than that present in the unreacted clay, being the greatest in the 87 day V4 experiment. No other secondary phases were detected in the run products, however sulfur was present in EDS analyses of powder samples.

A R Santos↗

Vapor Compression and Thermoelectric Heat Pump Heat Exchangers for a Condensate Distillation System: Design and Experiment

Maximizing the reuse of wastewater while minimizing the use of consumables is critical in long duration space exploration. One of the more promising methods of reclaiming urine is the distillation/condensation process used in the cascade distillation system (CDS). This system accepts a mixture of urine and toxic stabilizing agents, heats it to vaporize the water and condenses and cools the resulting water vapor. The CDS wastewater flow requires heating and its condensate flow requires cooling. Performing the heating and cooling processes separately requires two separate units, each of which would require large amounts of electrical power. By heating the wastewater and cooling the condensate in a single heat pump unit, mass, volume, and power efficiencies can be obtained. The present work describes and compares two competing heat pump methodologies that meet the needs of the CDS: 1) a series of mini compressor vapor compression cycles and 2) a thermoelectric heat exchanger. In the paper, the system level requirements are outlined, the designs of the two heat pumps are described in detail, and the results of heat pump performance tests are provided. A summary is provided of the heat pump mass, volume and power trades and a selection recommendation is made.

Erickson, Lisa R.↗

Development of processing techniques for advanced thermal protection materials

The effort, which was focused on the research and development of advanced materials for use in Thermal Protection Systems (TPS), has involved chemical and physical testing of refractory ceramic tiles, fabrics, threads and fibers. This testing has included determination of the optical properties, thermal shock resistance, high temperature dimensional stability, and tolerance to environmental stresses. Materials have also been tested in the Arc Jet 2 x 9 Turbulent Duct Facility (TDF), the 1 atmosphere Radiant Heat Cycler, and the Mini-Wind Tunnel Facility (MWTF). A significant part of the effort hitherto has gone towards modifying and upgrading the test facilities so that meaningful tests can be carried out. Another important effort during this period has been the creation of a materials database. Computer systems administration and support have also been provided. These are described in greater detail below.

Selvaduray, Guna S.↗

Interpreting the Lipidome: Bioinformatic Approaches to Embrace the Complexity

Background Improvements in mass spectrometry (MS) technologies coupled with bioinformatics developments have allowed considerable advancement in the measurement and interpretation of lipidomics data in recent years. Since research areas employing lipidomics are rapidly increasing, there is a great need for bioinformatic tools that capture and utilize the complexity of the data. Currently, the diversity and complexity within the lipidome is often concealed by summing over or averaging individual lipids up to (sub)class-based descriptors, losing valuable information about biological function and interactions with other distinct lipids molecules, proteins and/or metabolites. Aim of review To address this gap in knowledge, novel bioinformatics methods are needed to improve identification, quantification, integration and interpretation of lipidomics data. The purpose of this mini-review is to summarize exemplary methods to explore the complexity of the lipidome. Key scientific concepts of review Here we describe six approaches that capture three core focus areas for lipidomics: (1) lipidome annotation including a resolvable database identifier, (2) interpretation via pathway- and enrichment-based methods, and (3) understanding complex interactions to emphasize specific steps in the analytical process and highlight challenges in analyses associated with the complexity of lipidome data.

Kyle, Jennifer E.↗

Vapor Compression and Thermoelectric Heat Pumps for a Cascade Distillation Subsystem: Design and Experiment

Humans on a spacecraft require significant amounts of water for drinking, food, hydration, and hygiene. Maximizing the reuse of wastewater while minimizing the use of consumables is critical for long duration space exploration. One of the more promising consumable-free methods of reclaiming wastewater is the distillation/condensation process used in the Cascade Distillation Subsystem (CDS). The CDS heats wastewater to the point of vaporization then condenses and cools the resulting water vapor. The CDS wastewater flow requires heating for evaporation and the product water flow requires cooling for condensation. Performing the heating and cooling processes separately would require two separate units, each of which would demand large amounts of electrical power. Mass, volume, and power efficiencies can be obtained by heating the wastewater and cooling the condensate in a single heat pump unit. The present work describes and compares two competing heat pump methodologies that meet the needs of the CDS: 1) a series of mini compressor vapor compression cycles and 2) a thermoelectric heat exchanger. In the paper, the CDS system level requirements are outlined, the designs of the two heat pumps are described in detail, and the results of heat pump analysis and performance tests are provided. The mass, volume, and power requirement for each heat pump option is compared and the advantages and disadvantages of each system are listed.

Erickson, Lisa R.↗

Fluid structural interaction simulation of the MP-1 plate performance irradiated in the advanced test reactor

Due to the high neutron fluxes they generate and increased heat transfer performance, plate type fuels are used in the U.S. high-performance research reactors. During irradiation, a significant amount of fission energy (i.e., ~200 MeV per atom) is released by the U-235 chain reaction that is carried away by the coolant. Through thermal hydraulic analysis, the coolant’s heat transfer capability is investigated to ensure that the desired fuel temperature can be maintained. At high temperatures, the plate undergoes elastic/plastic deformation, creep, and swelling as a result of both the temperature gradients and the fission gas production within the fuel. These effects are studied via fuel performance analysis. When the plate deformation is small enough that the coolant flow remains relatively unchanged, conducting these two types of analyses independently will suffice. But at high fuel burnups, the swollen plates may encroach into the coolant channels that separate the fuel plates from each other and cause these channels to narrow. Large reductions in channel gap size imperil cooling performance, causing fuel temperatures to rise. Further, if the plate deformation is asymmetric, the fuel centerline will shift toward one side of the channel, causing an uneven reduction in coolability. In addition, a boehmite (oxide) layer will, over time, grow on the plate surface, further obstructing the heat transfer process. To precisely predict fuel temperatures/deformation, a complete coupled analysis that considers coolant flow, heat transfer, oxide growth, elastic/plastic deformation, creep, and swelling is needed; however, this type of analysis method is not available in the literature. To fill the gap, this research developed a fluid structure interaction (FSI) approach to the fuel plate analysis, then successfully applied it to the Mini-Plate (MP)-1 experiment, which was irradiated in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) for both one and two cycles. The complete analysis coupled STAR-CCM+, a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) software for calculating flow, with Abaqus, a finite element analysis code for calculating plate deformation. Improvements in the results were found when comparing the fully coupled analysis to the independently conducted analyses but they were not significant due to the miniature size of the plates and the relatively short irradiation time. In the future, the fully coupled approach presented herein will be applied to full-size fuel plates with longer irradiation cycles once additional experiments become available.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

NASA SpaceCube Intelligent Multi-Purpose System for Enabling Remote Sensing, Communication, and Navigation in Mission Architectures

New, innovative CubeSat mission concepts demand modern capabilities such as artificial intelligence and autonomy, constellation coordination, fault mitigation, and robotic servicing –all of which require vastly more processing resources than legacy systems are capable of providing. Enabling these domains within a scalable, configurable processing architecture is advantageous because it also allows for the flexibility to address varying mission roles, such as a command and data-handling system, a high-performance application processor extension, a guidance and navigation solution, or an instrument/sensor interface. This paper describes the NASA SpaceCube Intelligent Multi-Purpose System (IMPS), which allows mission developers to mix-and-match 1U (10 cm × 10 cm) CubeSat payloads configured for mission-specific needs. The central enabling component of the system architecture to address these concerns is the SpaceCube v3.0 Mini Processor. This single-board computer features the 20nm Xilinx Kintex UltraScale FPGA combined with a radiation-hardened FPGA monitor, and extensive IO to integrate and interconnect varying cards within the system. To unify the re-usable designs within this architecture, the CubeSat Card Standard was developed to guide design of 1U cards. This standard define spinout configurations, mechanical, and electrical specifications for 1U CubeSat cards, allowing the backplane and mechanical enclosure to be easily extended. NASA has developed several cards adhering to the standard (System-on-Chip, power card, etc.), which allows the flexibility to configure a payload from a common catalog of cards.

Advanced Avionics, Hybrid Processing, Data Process↗