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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 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2005

Future Interagency Range and Spaceport Technologies (FIRST) Formulation Products: 1. Transformational Spaceport and Range Concept of Operations. 2. F.I.R.S.T. Business Case Analysis

The Baseline Report captures range and spaceport capabilities at five sites: KSC, CCAFS, VAFB, Wallops, and Kodiak. The Baseline depicts a future state that relies on existing technology, planned upgrades, and straight-line recapitalization at these sites projected through 2030. The report presents an inventory of current spaceport and range capabilities at these five sites. The baseline is the first part of analyzing a business case for a set of capabilities designed to transform U.S. ground and space launch operations toward a single, integrated national "system" of space transportation systems. The second part of the business case compares current capabilities with technologies needed to support the integrated national "system". The final part, a return on investment analysis, identifies the technologies that best lead to the integrated national system and reduce recurring costs..Numerous data sources were used to define and describe the baseline spaceport and range by identifying major systems and elements and describing capabilities, limitations, and capabilities

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2017

Business Case Analysis of the Towed Gilder Air Launched System (TGALS)

The Aerospace Corporation developed an integrated Business Case Analysis (BCA) model on behalf of the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC). This model evaluated the potential profitability of the Towed Glider Air Launched System (TGALS) concept, under development at AFRC, identifying potential technical, programmatic, and business decisions that could improve its business viability. The model addressed system performance metrics; development, production and operation cost estimates; market size and product service positioning; pricing alternatives; and market share.

TGALS↗
NASA NTRS2007

The Business Case for Automated Software Engineering

Adoption of advanced automated SE (ASE) tools would be more favored if a business case could be made that these tools are more valuable than alternate methods. In theory, software prediction models can be used to make that case. In practice, this is complicated by the 'local tuning' problem. Normally. predictors for software effort and defects and threat use local data to tune their predictions. Such local tuning data is often unavailable. This paper shows that assessing the relative merits of different SE methods need not require precise local tunings. STAR 1 is a simulated annealer plus a Bayesian post-processor that explores the space of possible local tunings within software prediction models. STAR 1 ranks project decisions by their effects on effort and defects and threats. In experiments with NASA systems. STARI found one project where ASE were essential for minimizing effort/ defect/ threats; and another project were ASE tools were merely optional.

model evaluation↗
NASA NTRS1991

The business case for connectivity

Information systems that provide competitive advantages to organizations can be broadly classified into those that improve the effectiveness of a business function and those that improve the reach of information in the organization. The latter, organizational connectivity systems, can be categorized as intraorganizational and interorganizational systems. Intraorganization systems provide connectivity to function areas within the business, while interorganizational systems support the exchange of business data between independent business units. These system are not confined to a single entity but span organizational boundaries which can be national or international in scope. A series of case studies was undertaken in an effort to better understand the issues and problems associated with providing an increased flow of information within and outside of an organization. Ten issues emerged from this study. In summary, it is necessary for firms to first consider how effective their internal communications systems are before launching projects that tie the organization to external systems.

Adams, Dennis↗
NASA NTRS2007

General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT): Mission, Vision, and Business Case

The Goal of the GMAT project is to develop new space trajectory optimization and mission design technology by working inclusively with ordinary people, universities businesses and other government organizations; and to share that technology in an open and unhindered way. GMAT's a free and open source software system; free for anyone to use in development of new mission concepts or to improve current missions, freely available in source code form for enhancement or future technology development.

Hughes, Steven P.↗
NASA NTRS2005

The Business Case for Spiral Development in Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle Systems

Performance capabilities of a specific combination of the Space Shuttle external tank and various liquid engines in an in-line configuration, two-stage core vehicle with multiple redesigned solid rocket motor strap-ons are reexamined. This concept proposes using existing assets, hardware, and capabilities that are already crew-rated, flight certified, being manufactured under existing contracts, have a long history of component and system ground testing, and have been flown for over 20 yr. This paper goes beyond describing potential performance capabilities of specific components to discuss the overall system feasibility-from end to end, start to finish-describing the inherent cost advantages of the Spiral Development concept, which builds on existing capabilities and assets, as opposed to starting up a "fresh sheet" heavy-lift launch vehicle program from scratch.

Farr, Rebecca A.↗
NASA NTRS2021

Commercial Hypersonic Transportation Market Study

At the request of NASA, Deloitte conducted an independent market study to provide an independent assessment on the economic viability of hypersonic and supersonic air transportation to inform ongoing strategic planning of research areas within the government and industry and to focus on the areas for technology development and vehicle design requirements. The Study was organized into three primary areas of investigation: Defining the Market appetite for high speed air transport, Defining the business cases; and Assessing Barriers in the environment. The market demand was assessed across a range of Mach numbers from Mach 2 to Mach 6 and ticket price elasticity was determined by surveying potential customers, literature reviews and stakeholder and expert interviews for passenger aircraft, private aircraft and cargo markets. The business case analyses assessed potential business cases across a three-dimensional trade space: flight speed (Mach 2-6), passenger capacity (20-200 passengers) and design range (2500-7500 nmi.). By using the SpaceWorks Rosetta model, we were able to assess each combination in the trade space and to determine the steady state Internal Rate of Return (IRR or profit) was our primary figure of merit and allowed us to rank order the business cases to understand the trends and draw conclusions from the complex trade space. Lastly, we assessed other potential barriers to high speed flight. These were determined through literature review and stakeholder/expert interviews. Once these were compiled, we developed an objective scoring system to allow us to determine overall significance and challenge to aspiring market entrants. The majority of the research was conducted between July and December of 2020 and the results compiled and communicated to NASA in the first quarter of calendar year 2021. This report, along with the companion briefing deck, document the summation of our research and serve as a data repository for use by future researchers in government and industry.

hypersonic aircraft↗
NASA NTRS2021

TO36 Hypersonic Study

Commercial Hypersonic Transportation Market Study. At the request of NASA, Deloitte conducted an independent market study to provide an independent assessment on the economic viability of hypersonic and supersonic air transportation to inform ongoing strategic planning of research areas within the government and industry and to focus on the areas for technology development and vehicle design requirements. The Study was organized into three primary areas of investigation: Defining the Market appetite for high speed air transport, Defining the business cases; and Assessing Barriers in the environment. The market demand was assessed across a range of Mach numbers from Mach 2 to Mach 6 and ticket price elasticity was determined by surveying potential customers, literature reviews and stakeholder and expert interviews for passenger aircraft, private aircraft and cargo markets. The business case analyses assessed potential business cases across a three-dimensional trade space: flight speed (Mach 2-6), passenger capacity (20-200 passengers) and design range (2500-7500 nmi.). By using the SpaceWorks Rosetta model, we were able to assess each combination in the trade space and to determine the steady state Internal Rate of Return (IRR or profit) was our primary figure of merit and allowed us to rank order the business cases to understand the trends and draw conclusions from the complex trade space. Lastly, we assessed other potential barriers to high speed flight. These were determined through literature review and stakeholder/expert interviews. Once these were compiled, we developed an objective scoring system to allow us to determine overall significance and challenge to aspiring market entrants. The majority of the research was conducted between July and December of 2020 and the results compiled and communicated to NASA in the first quarter of calendar year 2021. This report, along with the companion briefing deck, document the summation of our research and serve as a data repository for use by future researchers in government and industry.

hypersonic aircraft↗
NASA NTRS2015

Technology Candidates for Air-to-Air and Air-to-Ground Data Exchange

Technology Candidates for Air-to-Air and Air-to-Ground Data Exchange is a two-year research effort to visualize the U. S. aviation industry at a point 50 years in the future, and to define potential communication solutions to meet those future data exchange needs. The research team, led by XCELAR, was tasked with identifying future National Airspace System (NAS) scenarios, determining requirements and functions (including gaps), investigating technical and business issues for air, ground, & air-to-ground interactions, and reporting on the results. The project was conducted under technical direction from NASA and in collaboration with XCELAR's partner, National Institute of Aerospace, and NASA technical representatives. Parallel efforts were initiated to define the information exchange functional needs of the future NAS, and specific communication link technologies to potentially serve those needs. Those efforts converged with the mapping of each identified future NAS function to potential enabling communication solutions; those solutions were then compared with, and ranked relative to, each other on a technical basis in a structured analysis process. The technical solutions emerging from that process were then assessed from a business case perspective to determine their viability from a real-world adoption and deployment standpoint. The results of that analysis produced a proposed set of future solutions and most promising candidate technologies. Gap analyses were conducted at two points in the process, the first examining technical factors, and the second as part of the business case analysis. In each case, no gaps or unmet needs were identified in applying the solutions evaluated to the requirements identified. The future communication solutions identified in the research comprise both specific link technologies and two enabling technologies that apply to most or all specific links. As a result, the research resulted in a new analysis approach, viewing the underlying architecture of ground-air and air-air communications as a whole, rather than as simple "link to function" paired solutions. For the business case analysis, a number of "reference architectures" were developed for both the future technologies and the current systems, based on three typical configurations of current aircraft. Current and future costs were assigned, and various comparisons made between the current and future architectures. In general, it was assumed that if a future architecture offers lower cost than the current typical architecture, while delivering equivalent or better performance, it is likely that the future solution will gain industry acceptance. Conversely, future architectures presenting higher costs than their current counterparts must present a compelling benefit case in other areas or risk a lack of industry acceptance. The business case analysis consistently indicated lower costs for the proposed future architectures, and in most cases, significantly so. The proposed future solutions were found to offer significantly greater functionality, flexibility, and growth potential over time, at lower cost, than current systems. This was true for overall, fleet-wide equipage for domestic and oceanic air carriers, as well as for single, General Aviation (GA) aircraft. The overall research results indicate that all identified requirements can be met by the proposed solutions with significant capacity for future growth. Results also illustrate that the majority of the future communication needs can be met using currently allocated aviation RF spectrum, if used in more effective ways than it is today. A combination of such optimized aviation-specific links and commercial communication systems meets all identified needs for the 50-year future and beyond, with the caveat that a new, overall function will be needed to manage all information exchange, individual links, security, cost, and other factors. This function was labeled "Delivery Manager" (DM) within this research. DM employs a distributed client/server architecture, for both airborne and ground communications architectures. Final research results included identifying the most promising candidate technologies for the future system, conclusions and recommendations, and identifying areas where further research should be considered.

Communications↗
NASA NTRS2021

Commercial Hypersonic Transportation Market Study

In support of NASA’s evaluation of its future research thrusts for its hypersonics program, NASA commissioned independent studies of the market for commercial hypersonic transportation. SAIC and BryceTech (formerly Bryce Space and Technology) were awarded one of these independent studies to assist NASA in better understanding: (1) the passenger demand for high-speed aviation travel; (2) the pressures on the business case for developing and operating a hypersonic aircraft for the commercial aviation market; and (3) the non-technical (i.e., societal) barriers and challenges, including the steps NASA and the Government could take to overcome those barriers and challenges. Our approach to addressing these three tasks for NASA included modeling future demand and future business operations, considering global air transportation at speeds of Mach 2 to Mach 7. The team forecast premium air travel demand through 2060 and assessed the willingness of passengers of different income and wealth levels to pay to save time on flights between 800 city pairs. With the total addressable market defined, we examined industry-level business case viability for several aircraft speed and range cases. Considering operating and manufacturing costs for routes that could be serviced profitably, as well as typical profitability targets for the aviation industry, we quantified the level of RDT&E funding available to support each business case.

hypersonic aircraft↗
NASA NTRS2021

Independent Market Study: Commercial Hypersonic Transportation

In support of NASA’s evaluation of its future research thrusts for its hypersonics program, NASA commissioned independent studies of the market for commercial hypersonic transportation. SAIC and BryceTech (formerly Bryce Space and Technology) were awarded one of these independent studies to assist NASA in better understanding: (1) the passenger demand for high-speed aviation travel; (2) the pressures on the business case for developing and operating a hypersonic aircraft for the commercial aviation market; and (3) the non-technical (i.e., societal) barriers and challenges, including the steps NASA and the Government could take to overcome those barriers and challenges. Our approach to addressing these three tasks for NASA included modeling future demand and future business operations, considering global air transportation at speeds of Mach 2 to Mach 7. The team forecast premium air travel demand through 2060 and assessed the willingness of passengers of different income and wealth levels to pay to save time on flights between 800 city pairs. With the total addressable market defined, we examined industry-level business case viability for several aircraft speed and range cases. Considering operating and manufacturing costs for routes that could be serviced profitably, as well as typical profitability targets for the aviation industry, we quantified the level of RDT&E funding available to support each business case.

hypersonic aircraft↗
NASA NTRS2022

Gender Diversity in Heliophysics

Science is conducted by people. When those people do not feel safe in their workplace, they will struggle to produce quality science. The American scientific community has traditionally been dominated by cisgender white men–cisgender meaning that their gender aligns with the one assigned to them at birth. Individuals who are not part of this dominant demographic group have historically been excluded from scientific debate. However, the demographic landscape is changing rapidly [e.g., Jones (2022)], and organizations must ensure early career scientists of all identities feel accepted so they can achieve their goals in the field. Heliophysics describes the confluence and interaction of historically delineated scientific disciplines, including plasma, solar, and space physics. The scientific architecture of our field is founded on collaboration between people with diverse interests, backgrounds, skill sets, and ways of approaching problems. It should follow that the cohort of heliophysicists is at least as diverse as our research problems. A framing often referred to as “the business case” for diversity holds that perspectives different than our own enrich the ways in which we solve problems and communicates the positive outcomes for diverse working groups Starck et al. (2021). However, this rationale is insufficient in scope and uncompassionate in motivation; the safety of marginalized individuals is just as important as the achievements of a group. From the expectations that marginalized people outperform in order to prove themselves to the tokenization of their inclusion in an otherwise normative space, the “business case” for diversity is often harmful to historically marginalized individuals Haacker et al. (2022). The primary motivation for a diverse constituency of heliophysicists ought to be equity. Only by accepting the authentic selves of our fellow heliophysicists can we create an environment in which they have the mental and emotional safety necessary to do their best work. This white paper focuses on a particular axis of identity which the authors believe lacks visibility within heliophysics: gender expansion. It begins with definitions, explains the current landscape, and suggests actions toward a better future. The authors seek to shed light on these issues so that we can work together as a community to create a more inclusive, safe, and welcoming space for people of all identities.

M. Kenny↗
NASA NTRS2013

Feasibility of a Networked Air Traffic Infrastructure Validation Environment for Advanced NextGen Concepts

Abstract-Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) applications reliant upon aircraft data links such as Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) offer a sweeping modernization of the National Airspace System (NAS), but the aviation stakeholder community has not yet established a positive business case for equipage and message content standards remain in flux. It is necessary to transition promising Air Traffic Management (ATM) Concepts of Operations (ConOps) from simulation environments to full-scale flight tests in order to validate user benefits and solidify message standards. However, flight tests are prohibitively expensive and message standards for Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) systems cannot support many advanced ConOps. It is therefore proposed to simulate future aircraft surveillance and communications equipage and employ an existing commercial data link to exchange data during dedicated flight tests. This capability, referred to as the Networked Air Traffic Infrastructure Validation Environment (NATIVE), would emulate aircraft data links such as ADS-B using in-flight Internet and easily-installed test equipment. By utilizing low-cost equipment that is easy to install and certify for testing, advanced ATM ConOps can be validated, message content standards can be solidified, and new standards can be established through full-scale flight trials without necessary or expensive equipage or extensive flight test preparation. This paper presents results of a feasibility study of the NATIVE concept. To determine requirements, six NATIVE design configurations were developed for two NASA ConOps that rely on ADS-B. The performance characteristics of three existing in-flight Internet services were investigated to determine whether performance is adequate to support the concept. Next, a study of requisite hardware and software was conducted to examine whether and how the NATIVE concept might be realized. Finally, to determine a business case, economic factors were evaluated and a preliminary cost-benefit analysis was performed.

McCormack, Michael J.↗
NASA NTRS2021

Futures of Deep Space Exploration, Commercialization, and Colonization: The Frontiers of the Responsibly Imaginable

The reusable rocket, printing, automation engendered reductions in space access costs are rapidly opening up deep space, beyond GEO, to commercialization. Report addresses the related issues, technologies, approaches, opportunities for the key requirement, closed business cases, in the context of the longer than usual decade or less business outlook. Report also addresses the requirements and approaches, options for humans in deep space on the way to colonization. Martian colonization has moved from extremely difficult to increasingly feasible with regard to radiation, cost, and safety, in just a few years, due to space access cost reductions.

Dennis M Bushnell↗
NASA NTRS2018

Surprising Results from Large Crowds Using Micro-Purchase Challenges - Using Contests on Freelancing Communities to Source Innovative, Impactful and Cost-Effective Solutions

Our world is more connected than ever before. The new digital economy is empowering platforms and crowds to become a progressively strategic way for organizations to innovate ahead of their competition. Existing research shows the effectiveness and quality of solutions crowdsourcing yields, yet few organizations genuinely understand it nor are leveraging those solutions to unlock the full range of benefits. Moreover, early adopters often face structural and financial barriers towards evangelizing digital platforms at scale within their organizations. NASA is an exception - being an advocate of the field since 2010, it has paved the path for large organizations to follow. An empirical analysis is conducted on NASA's Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI) micro-purchase challenges on a crowd-based platform to assess the cost-savings, quality of work, time for work turnaround and brand effects of using this problem-solving mechanism. The results proved to provide a tangible impact on all four parameters. As such, micro-purchases could become a compelling entry-point for organizations who are willing to experiment and subsequently build a convincing business case to present to stakeholders. The paper concludes with NASA's learnings, supplemented by literature, on how to redesign business processes, change conventional thinking and create an organization that will transform its future with crowds.

Tang, Sarah↗