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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2017

Evaluating the Subjective Straight Ahead Before and After Spaceflight

Introduction. This joint European Space Agency/NASA pre- and post-flight study investigates the influence of exposure to microgravity on the subjective straight ahead (SSA) in crewmembers returning from long-duration expeditions to the International Space Station (ISS). The SSA is a measure of the internal representation of body orientation and to be influenced by stimulation of sensory systems involved in postural control. The use of a vibrotactile sensory aid to correct the representation of body tilted relative to gravity is also tested as a countermeasure. This study addresses the sensorimotor research gap to "determine the changes in sensorimotor function over the course of a mission and during recovery after landing." Research Plans. The ISS study will involve eight crewmembers who will participate in three pre-flight sessions (between 120 and 60 days before launch) and then three post-flight sessions on R plus 0/1 day, R plus 4 days, and R plus 8 days. Sixteen control subjects were also tested during three sessions to evaluate the effects of repeated testing and to establish normative values. The experimental protocol includes measurements of gaze and arm movements during the following tasks: (1) Near & Far Fixation: The subject is asked to look at actual targets in the true straight-ahead direction or to imagine these targets in the dark. Targets are located at near distance (arm's length) and far distance (beyond 2 meters). This task is successively performed with the subject's body aligned with the gravitational vertical, and with the subject's body tilted in pitch relative to the gravitational vertical using a tilt chair. Measures are then compared with and without a vibrotactile sensory aid that indicates how far one has tilted relative to the vertical; (2) Eye and Arm Movements: The subject is asked to look and point in the SSA direction in darkness and then make horizontal and vertical eye or arm movements, relative to Earth coordinates (allocentric) and to the subject's head/body reference (egocentric). This task is successively performed with the subject's body aligned with the gravitational vertical, and with subject's body tilted in roll using a tilt chair; (3) Linear Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex: The subject is asked to fixate actual visual targets at near and far distances in the true straight-ahead direction, and to evaluate the distance of these targets. The subject is asked to continue fixating the same imagined targets in darkness while he/she is passively accelerated up and down on a spring-loaded vertical linear accelerator. Results. In the control subject population, the perceived tilt angles, translations, and distances were remarkably close to the actual values. The pointing tasks indicated that the orientation of arm saccades was influenced by both the gravitational vertical and the body idiotropic vector. Repeating the testing did not reveal any significant changes. Preliminary results obtained in three crewmembers before and after flight will also be presented. Applications. A change in an individual's egocentric reference might have negative consequences on evaluating the direction of an approaching object or on the accuracy of reaching movements or locomotion. Consequently, investigating how microgravity affects the target location will have theoretical, operational, and even clinical implications for future space exploration missions. The use of vibrotactile feedback as a sensorimotor countermeasure is applicable to balance therapy applications for patients with vestibular loss and the elderly to mitigate risks due to loss of spatial orientation.

Campbell, D. J.↗
NASA NTRS1993

MERCATOR: Methods and Realization for Control of the Attitude and the Orbit of spacecraft

Since 1974, CNES has been involved in geostationary positioning. Among different entities participating in operations and their preparation, the Flight Dynamics Center (FDC) is in charge of performing the following tasks: orbit determination; attitude determination; computation, monitoring, and calibration of orbit maneuvers; computation, monitoring, and calibration of attitude maneuvers; and operational predictions. In order to fulfill this mission, the FDC receives telemetry from the satellite and localization measurements from ground stations (e.g., CNES, NASA, INTELSAT). These data are processed by space dynamics programs integrated in the MERCATOR system which is run on SUN workstations (UNIX O.S.). The main features of MERCATOR are redundancy, modularity, and flexibility: efficient, flexible, and user friendly man-machine interface; and four identical SUN stations redundantly linked in an Ethernet network. Each workstation can perform all the tasks from data acquisition to computation results dissemination through a video network. A team of four engineers can handle the space mechanics aspects of a complete geostationary positioning from the injection into a transfer orbit to the final maneuvers in the station-keeping window. MERCATOR has been or is to be used for operations related to more than ten geostationary positionings. Initially developed for geostationary satellites, MERCATOR's methodology was also used for satellite control centers and can be applied to a wide range of satellites and to future manned missions.

Tavernier, Gilles↗
DOE OSTI2015

Simplified Predictive Models for CO 2 Sequestration Performance Assessment: Research Topical Report on Task #4 - Reduced-Order Method (ROM) Based Models

Reduced-order models provide a means for greatly accelerating the detailed simulations that will be required to manage CO 2 storage operations. In this work, we investigate the use of one such method, POD-TPWL, which has previously been shown to be effective in oil reservoir simulation problems. This method combines trajectory piecewise linearization (TPWL), in which the solution to a new (test) problem is represented through a linearization around the solution to a previously-simulated (training) problem, with proper orthogonal decomposition (POD), which enables solution states to be expressed in terms of a relatively small number of parameters. We describe the application of POD-TPWL for CO 2 -water systems simulated using a compositional procedure. Stanford’s Automatic Differentiation-based General Purpose Research Simulator (AD-GPRS) performs the full-order training simulations and provides the output (derivative matrices and system states) required by the POD-TPWL method. A new POD-TPWL capability introduced in this work is the use of horizontal injection wells that operate under rate (rather than bottom-hole pressure) control. Simulation results are presented for CO 2 injection into a synthetic aquifer and into a simplified model of the Mount Simon formation. Test cases involve the use of time-varying well controls that differ from those used in training runs. Results of reasonable accuracy are consistently achieved for relevant well quantities. Runtime speedups of around a factor of 370 relative to full- order AD-GPRS simulations are achieved, though the preprocessing needed for POD-TPWL model construction corresponds to the computational requirements for about 2.3 full-order simulation runs. A preliminary treatment for POD-TPWL modeling in which test cases differ from training runs in terms of geological parameters (rather than well controls) is also presented. Results in this case involve only small differences between training and test runs, though they do demonstrate that the approach is able to capture basic solution trends. The impact of some of the detailed numerical treatments within the POD-TPWL formulation is considered in an Appendix.

Mishra, Srikanta↗
DOE OSTI2014

SIMPLIFIED PREDICTIVE MODELS FOR CO₂ SEQUESTRATION PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT RESEARCH TOPICAL REPORT ON TASK #3 STATISTICAL LEARNING BASED MODELS

We compare two approaches for building a statistical proxy model (metamodel) for CO₂ geologic sequestration from the results of full-physics compositional simulations. The first approach involves a classical Box-Behnken or Augmented Pairs experimental design with a quadratic polynomial response surface. The second approach used a space-filling maxmin Latin Hypercube sampling or maximum entropy design with the choice of five different meta-modeling techniques: quadratic polynomial, kriging with constant and quadratic trend terms, multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS) and additivity and variance stabilization (AVAS). Simulations results for CO₂ injection into a reservoir-caprock system with 9 design variables (and 97 samples) were used to generate the data for developing the proxy models. The fitted models were validated with using an independent data set and a cross-validation approach for three different performance metrics: total storage efficiency, CO₂ plume radius and average reservoir pressure. The Box-Behnken–quadratic polynomial metamodel performed the best, followed closely by the maximin LHS–kriging metamodel.

Mishra, Srikanta↗
NASA NTRS1994

An analysis of the loads applied to a heavy Space Station rack during translation and rotation tasks

To prepare for Space Station Alpha's on-orbit assembly, maintenance, and resupply, NASA requires information about the crew members' ability to move heavy masses on orbit. Ease of movement in microgravity and orbiter stay time constraints may change the Space Station equipment and outfitting design requirements. Therefore, the time and effort required to perform a particular task and how and where the forces and torque should be applied become critical in evaluating the design effort. Thus, the three main objectives of this investigation were to: (1) quantify variables such as force and torque as they relate to heavy mass handling techniques; (2) predict the time required to perform heavy mass handling tasks; and (3) note any differences between males and females in their ability to manipulate a heavy mass.

Stoycos, Lara E.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Including Physics-Informed Atomization Constraints in Neural Networks for Reactive Chemistry

Machine learning interatomic potentials (MLIPs) have emerged as powerful tools for investigating atomistic systems with high accuracy and a relatively low computational cost. However, a common and unaddressed challenge with many current neural network (NN) MLIP models is their limited ability to accurately predict the relative energies of systems containing isolated or nearly isolated atoms, which appear in various reactive processes. To address this limitation, we present a mathematical technique for modifying any existing atom-centered NN architecture to account for the energies of isolated atoms. The result produces a consistent prediction of the atomization energy (AE) of a system using minimal constraints on the model. Using this technique, we build a model architecture that we call hierarchically interacting particle neural network (HIP-NN)-AE, an AE-constrained version of the HIP-NN, as well as ANI-AE, the AE-constrained version of the accurate NN engine for molecular energies (ANI). Our results demonstrate AE consistency of AE-constrained models, which drastically improves the AE predictions for the models. We compare the AE-constrained approach to unconstrained models as well as models from the literature in other scenarios, such as bond dissociation energies, bond dissociation pathways, and extensibility tests. These results show that the constraints improve the model performance in some of these tasks and do not negatively affect the performance on any tasks. The AE constraint approach thus offers a robust solution to the challenges posed by isolated atoms in energy prediction tasks.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Low-Cost Recyclable Oxygen Carrier and Novel Process for Chemical Looping Combustion

The University of North Dakota, through its Institute for Energy Studies and Energy & Environmental Research Center, partnered with Envergex LLC, Barr Engineering and Microbeam Technologies to develop a transformational enabling technology for advancement of Chemical Looping Combustion technology. Industrial support was provided by Carbontec Energy Corporation. The project targeted the two biggest challenges to chemical looping combustion: (1) High costs of oxygen carrier replacement/loss due to expensive manufacturing and high replacement rates from physical attrition and/or decrease in reactivity, and (2) Inherently slow fuel char conversion which represents the rate-limiting step for chemical looping combustion and results in very large equipment sizes, and overall lower carbon dioxide capture efficiency. The project activities were addressed in a series of seven tasks. Task 1 extended throughout the entire project and oversaw project management and execution. Task 2 and 3 focused on development and evaluation of the novel oxygen carrier. Task 4 to 7 focused on design of the novel reactor, testing with the novel oxygen carrier and a techno-economic assessment of the process. The list of tasks are: Task 1 – Project management and planning, Task 2 – Laboratory scale oxygen carrier manufacturing and assessment, Task 3 – Modeling and laboratory-scale evaluation of oxygen carrier performance with coal, Task 4 – 10-kilowatt thermal integrated system installation, Task 5 – Scaled-up oxygen carrier manufacturing, Task 6 – 10-kilowatt testing, and Task 7 – Process design and techno-economic analysis.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
NASA NTRS1990

Real-time measurement of mental workload: A feasibility study

The primary goal of the study was to explore the utility of event-related brain potentials (ERP) as real-time measures of workload. To this end, subjects performed two different tasks both separately and together. One task required that subjects monitor a bank of constantly changing gauges and detect critical deviations. Difficulty was varied by changing the predictability of the gauges. The second task was mental arithmetic. Difficulty was varied by requiring subjects to perform operations on either two or three columns of numbers. Two conditions that could easily be distinguished on the basis of performance measures were selected for the real-time evaluation of ERPs. A bootstrapping approach was adopted in which one thousand samples of n trials (n = 1, 3, 5 ...65) were classified using several measures of P300 and Slow Wave amplitude. Classification accuracies of 85 percent were achieved with 25 trials. Results are discussed in terms of potential enhancements for real-time recording.

Kramer, Arthur↗
NASA NTRS2014

Using Modern Methodologies with Maintenance Software

Jet Propulsion Laboratory uses multi-mission software produced by the Mission Planning and Sequencing (MPS) team to process, simulate, translate, and package the commands that are sent to a spacecraft. MPS works under the auspices of the Multi-Mission Ground Systems and Services (MGSS). This software consists of nineteen applications that are in maintenance. The MPS software is classified as either class B (mission critical) or class C (mission important). The scheduling of tasks is difficult because mission needs must be addressed prior to performing any other tasks and those needs often spring up unexpectedly. Keeping track of the tasks that everyone is working on is also difficult because each person is working on a different software component. Recently the group adopted the Scrum methodology for planning and scheduling tasks. Scrum is one of the newer methodologies typically used in agile development. In the Scrum development environment, teams pick their tasks that are to be completed within a sprint based on priority. The team specifies the sprint length usually a month or less. Scrum is typically used for new development of one application. In the Scrum methodology there is a scrum master who is a facilitator who tries to make sure that everything moves smoothly, a product owner who represents the user(s) of the software and the team. MPS is not the traditional environment for the Scrum methodology. MPS has many software applications in maintenance, team members who are working on disparate applications, many users, and is interruptible based on mission needs, issues and requirements. In order to use scrum, the methodology needed adaptation to MPS. Scrum was chosen because it is adaptable. This paper is about the development of the process for using scrum, a new development methodology, with a team that works on disparate interruptible tasks on multiple software applications.

Scrum↗
DOE OSTI2016

Learning Weight Uncertainty with Stochastic Gradient MCMC for Shape Classification

Learning the representation of shape cues in 2D & 3D objects for recognition is a fundamental task in computer vision. Deep neural networks (DNNs) have shown promising performance on this task. Due to the large variability of shapes, accurate recognition relies on good estimates of model uncertainty, ignored in traditional training of DNNs, typically learned via stochastic optimization. This paper leverages recent advances in stochastic gradient Markov Chain Monte Carlo (SG-MCMC) to learn weight uncertainty in DNNs. It yields principled Bayesian interpretations for the commonly used Dropout/DropConnect techniques and incorporates them into the SG-MCMC framework. Extensive experiments on 2D & 3D shape datasets and various DNN models demonstrate the superiority of the proposed approach over stochastic optimization. Our approach yields higher recognition accuracy when used in conjunction with Dropout and Batch-Normalization.

convolutional neural network↗
NASA NTRS1980

The event-related brain potential as an index of attention allocation in complex displays

The advantages of employing the event-related brain potential (ERP) in the assessment of allocation of attention in dynamic environments are discussed. Three experiments are presented in which the P300 component of the ERP is demonstrated to be a useful index of subjects' locus of attention. The first two experiments were concerned with the allocation of attention during discrete and continuous visual monitoring tasks. The results indicated that a P300 was elicited only by stimuli to which the subject had to attend in order to perform successfully the task. The third experiment was conducted to assess the sensitivity of P300 to the manner in which attention is allocated to different aspects of a display during the performance of a 3-dimensional target acquisition task. The amplitude of the P300 was found to reflect differences between two levels of workload, as well as the task relevance of the stimuli. The results of the experiments are discussed in terms of their utility in the evaluation of the design of man-machine systems as well as in the study of the allocation of attention in operational environments.

Wickens, C. D.↗
NASA NTRS2004

A Comparison of a Brain-Based Adaptive System and a Manual Adaptable System for Invoking Automation

Two experiments are presented that examine alternative methods for invoking automation. In each experiment, participants were asked to perform simultaneously a monitoring task and a resource management task as well as a tracking task that changed between automatic and manual modes. The monitoring task required participants to detect failures of an automated system to correct aberrant conditions under either high or low system reliability. Performance on each task was assessed as well as situation awareness and subjective workload. In the first experiment, half of the participants worked with a brain-based system that used their EEG signals to switch the tracking task between automatic and manual modes. The remaining participants were yoked to participants from the adaptive condition and received the same schedule of mode switches, but their EEG had no effect on the automation. Within each group, half of the participants were assigned to either the low or high reliability monitoring task. In addition, within each combination of automation invocation and system reliability, participants were separated into high and low complacency potential groups. The results revealed no significant effects of automation invocation on the performance measures; however, the high complacency individuals demonstrated better situation awareness when working with the adaptive automation system. The second experiment was the same as the first with one important exception. Automation was invoked manually. Thus, half of the participants pressed a button to invoke automation for 10 s. The remaining participants were yoked to participants from the adaptable condition and received the same schedule of mode switches, but they had no control over the automation. The results showed that participants who could invoke automation performed more poorly on the resource management task and reported higher levels of subjective workload. Further, those who invoked automation more frequently performed more poorly on the tracking task and reported higher levels of subjective workload. and the adaptable condition in the second experiment revealed only one significant difference: the subjective workload was higher in the adaptable condition. Overall, the results show that a brain-based, adaptive automation system may facilitate situation awareness for those individuals who are more complacent toward automation. By contrast, requiring operators to invoke automation manually may have some detrimental impact on performance but does appear to increases subjective workload relative to an adaptive system.

Bailey, Nathan R.↗
NASA NTRS1960

Physiological Effects of Acceleration Observed During a Centrifuge Study of Pilot Performance

An investigation was conducted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Ames Research Center, and the Naval Air Development Center, Aviation Medical Acceleration Laboratory, to study the effects of acceleration on pilot performance and to obtain some meaningful data for use in establishing tolerance to acceleration levels. The flight simulator used in the study was the Johnsville centrifuge operated as a closed loop system. The pilot was required to perform a control task in various sustained acceleration fields typical of those that Might be encountered by a pilot flying an entry vehicle in which he is seated in a forward-facing position. A special restraint system was developed and designed to increase the pilot's tolerance to these accelerations. The results of this study demonstrated that a well-trained subject, such as a test pilot, can adequately carry out a control task during moderately high accelerations for prolonged periods of time. The maximum levels of acceleration tolerated were approximately 6 times that of gravity for approximately 6 minutes, and varied slightly with the acceleration direction. The tolerance runs were in each case terminated by the subject. In all but two instances, the cause was extreme fatigue. On two occasions the subject terminated the run when he "grayed out." Although there were subjective and objective findings involving the visual and cardiovascular systems, the respiratory system yielded the more critical limiting factors. It would appear that these limiting factors were less severe during the "eyeballs-out" accelerations when compared with the "eyeballs-in" accelerations. These findings are explained on the basis of the influence that the inertial forces of acceleration have on the mechanics of respiration. A condensed version of this report was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Aerospace Medical Association, Miami Beach, May 5-11, 1960, in a paper entitled "Ability of Pilots to Perform a Control Task in Various Sustained Acceleration Fields."

Smedal, Harald A.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Effect of display size on utilization of traffic situation display for self-spacing task

The weather radar cathode ray tube (CRT) is the prime candidate for presenting cockpit display of traffic information (CDTI) in current, conventionally equipped transport aircraft. Problems may result from this, since the CRT size is not optimized for CDTI applications and the CRT is not in the pilot's primary visual scan area. The impact of display size on the ability of pilots to utilize the traffic information to maintain a specified spacing interval behind a lead aircraft during an approach task was studied. The five display sizes considered are representative of the display hardware configurations of airborne weather radar systems. From a pilot's subjective workload viewpoint, even the smallest display size was usable for performing the self spacing task. From a performane viewpoint, the mean spacing values, which are indicative of how well the pilots were able to perform the task, exhibit the same trends, irrespective of display size; however, the standard deviation of the spacing intervals decreased (performance improves) as the display size increased. Display size, therefore, does have a significant effect on pilot performance.

Abbott, T. S.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Independent Technical Review of INL Aluminum-Clad Spent Nuclear Fuel (ASNF) Oxide Layer Radiolytic Gas Generation Resolution: Task 2

PNNL staff performed an independent technical review (ITR) of the aluminum-clad spent nuclear fuel (ASNF) program Task 2. The objective of Task 2 is to determine G-values for the radiolytic production of gaseous molecular hydrogen (H 2 ) from the aluminum oxyhydroxide layers present on ASNF cladding. The G-values need to be defensible, bounding, but not overly conservative. As part of the ITR, the team reviewed program documents, Task 2 work plans, and results to date. In addition, the team held three separate video conferences with the program research staff to ask clarifying questions and obtain additional detail. The PNNL ITR team concludes that if the program follows the methodology and rigor outlined in the test matrices, the program will develop G-values for a defensible technical basis of extended storage of ASNF. Recommendations for improvement are given.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗