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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 NTRS2001

Report by the International Space Station (ISS) Management and Cost Evaluation (IMCE) Task Force

The International Space Station (ISS) Management and Cost Evaluation Task Force (IMCE) was chartered to conduct an independent external review and assessment of the ISS cost, budget, and management. In addition, the Task Force was asked to provide recommendations that could provide maximum benefit to the U.S. taxpayers and the International Partners within the President's budget request. The Task Force has made the following principal findings: (1) The ISS Program's technical achievements to date, as represented by on-orbit capability, are extraordinary; (2) The Existing ISS Program Plan for executing the FY 02-06 budget is not credible; (3) The existing deficiencies in management structure, institutional culture, cost estimating, and program control must be acknowledged and corrected for the Program to move forward in a credible fashion; (4) Additional budget flexibility, from within the Office of Space Flight (OSF) must be provided for a credible core complete program; (5) The research support program is proceeding assuming the budget that was in place before the FY02 budget runout reduction of $1B; (6) There are opportunities to maximize research on the core station program with modest cost impact; (7) The U.S. Core Complete configuration (three person crew) as an end-state will not achieve the unique research potential of the ISS; (8) The cost estimates for the U.S.-funded enhancement options (e.g., permanent seven person crew) are not sufficiently developed to assess credibility. After these findings, the Task Force has formulated several primary recommendations which are published here and include: (1) Major changes must be made in how the ISS program is managed; (2) Additional cost reductions are required within the baseline program; (3) Additional funds must be identified and applied from the Human Space Flight budget; (4) A clearly defined program with a credible end-state, agreed to by all stakeholders, must be developed and implemented.

Young, A. Thomas↗
DOE OSTI2024

Cost Evaluation of Alternative Radioisotope Disposal Methods at the Livermore Site

The purpose of this cost evaluation was to investigate a hypothetical in which radioisotopes were no longer permitted in the City of Livermore sanitary sewer. Three alternative methods were proposed to determine estimated costs and compare current practice costs to the latter. An assumption from the initial steps of the analysis was significant cost savings would be found with the alternative methods.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2021

Towards improved guidelines for cost evaluation of carbon capture and storage

The white paper is an effort to draw up a set of CCS costing guidelines in three complementary areas where further guidelines and better practices are needed, and where efforts are underway to address those topics. The first area of study tackles the establishment of improved guidelines for cost evaluation of advanced low-carbon technology (such as a new CO 2 capture process or a novel power plant design). The second area of study focuses on CCS from non-power industries while the final area addresses quality assurance and uncertainty evaluations of data and models used in CCS cost analysis.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Design, scaling and cost evaluations of circulating fluidized-bed systems for biomass pyrolysis

To generate updated and transparent capital cost estimates for biomass fast pyrolysis equipment, refinery fluidized catalytic cracking design and sizing principles are examined and extended to pyrolysis of woody biomass. Capital costs for the sized equipment are estimated with process-industry software. A one-dimensional flow simulation with pyrolysis kinetics is leveraged to validate the fluidization conditions and thermal energy balance. After successful sizing and a system cost estimate of $\$$2.8 M (in 2016 US$\$$) at the biorefinery scale of 1000 metric tons per day (MTD), these methods were exercised for even smaller equipment at the distributed pyrolysis scale with modifications to the process design constraints, and not directly comparable with the 1000 MTD case, arriving at capital cost estimates of $\$$1.2 M for a 500 ton/day system and $\$$0.9 M for a 200 ton/day system. Here in this work, It is noted that this work only estimates purchased equipment costs at the ±50% accuracy level; there are significant other custom factors applicable to each installation based on location, maturity, scale, complexities during installation, engineering and licensing costs, etc. that need to be added on to these estimates to derive investment costs.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
NASA NTRS1978

Executive summary: Benefit-cost evaluation of an intra-regional air service in the Bay Area and a technology assessment of transportation system investments

The benefits and costs that would result from an intra-regional air service operation in the San Francisco Bay area were determined by utilizing an iterative statistical decision model to evaluate combinations of commuter airport sites and surface transportation facilities in conjunction with service by a given commuter aircraft type in light of area regional growth alternatives and peak and off-peak regional travel patterns. The model evaluates such transportation option with respect to criteria of airline profitability, public acceptance, and public and private non-user costs. In so doing, it incorporates information on modal split, peak and off-peak use of the air commuter fleet, terminal and airport costs, development costs and uses of land in proximity to the airport sites, regional population shifts, and induced zonal shifts in travel demand. The model is multimodal in its analytic capability, and performs exhaustive sensitivity analysis.

Haefner, L. E.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Benefit-cost evaluation of an intra-regional air service in the Bay area

Utilization of an iterative statistical model is presented to evaluate combinations of commuter airport sites and surface transportation facilities in confunction with service by a given commuter aircraft type in light of Bay Area regional growth alternatives and peak and off-peak regional travel patterns. The model evaluates such transportation options with respect to criteria of airline profitability, public acceptance, and public and private nonuser costs. It incorporates information modal split, peak and off-peak use of the air commuter fleet, terminal and airport cost, development costs and uses of land in proximity to the airport sites, regional population shifts, and induced zonal shifts in travel demand. The model is multimodal in its analytical capability, and performs exhaustive sensitivity analysis.

Haefner, L. E.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Cost evaluation of a DSN high level real-time language

The hypothesis that the implementation of a DSN High Level Real Time Language will reduce real time software expenditures is explored. The High Level Real Time Language is found to be both affordable and cost-effective.

Mckenzie, M.↗
NASA NTRS1986

ANL/RBC: A computer code for the analysis of Rankine bottoming cycles, including system cost evaluation and off-design performance

This report describes, and is a User's Manual for, a computer code (ANL/RBC) which calculates cycle performance for Rankine bottoming cycles extracting heat from a specified source gas stream. The code calculates cycle power and efficiency and the sizes for the heat exchangers, using tabular input of the properties of the cycle working fluid. An option is provided to calculate the costs of system components from user defined input cost functions. These cost functions may be defined in equation form or by numerical tabular data. A variety of functional forms have been included for these functions and they may be combined to create very general cost functions. An optional calculation mode can be used to determine the off-design performance of a system when operated away from the design-point, using the heat exchanger areas calculated for the design-point.

Mclennan, G. A.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Hypergolic Propellant Destruction Evaluation Cost Benefit Analysis

At space vehicle launch sites such as Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) and Kennedy Space Center (KSC), toxic vapors and hazardous liquid wastes result from the handling of commodities (hypergolic fuels and oxidizers), most notably from transfer operations where fuel and oxidizer are transferred from bulk storage tanks or transfer tankers to space launch vehicles. During commodity transfer at CCAFS and KSC, wet chemical scrubbers (typically containing four scrubbing towers) are used to neutralize fuel saturated vapors from vent systems on tanks and tanker trailers. For fuel vapors, a citric acid solution is used to scrub out most of the hydrazine. Operation of both the hypergolic fuel and oxidizer vapor scrubbers generates waste scrubber liquor. Currently, scrubber liquor from the fuel vapor scrubber is considered non-hazardous. The scrubber liquor is defined as spent citric acid scrubber solution; the solution contains complexed hydrazine I methylhydrazine and is used to neutralize nonspecification hypergolic fuel generated by CCAFS and KSC. This project is a collaborative effort between Air Force Space Command (AFSPC), Space and Missile Center (SMC), the CCAFS, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to evaluate microwave destruction technology for the treatment of non-specification hypergolic fuel generated at CCAFS and KSC. The project will capitalize on knowledge gained from microwave treatment work being accomplished by AFSPC and SMC at V AFB. This report focuses on the costs associated with the current non-specification hypergolic fuel neutralization process (Section 2.0) as well as the estimated costs of operating a mobile microwave unit to treat non-specification hypergolic fuel (Section 3.0), and compares the costs for each (Section 4.0).The purpose of this document is to assess the costs associated with waste hypergolic fuel. This document will report the costs associated with the current fuel neutralization process and also examine the costs of an alternative technology, microwave destruction of waste hypergolic fuel. The microwave destruction system is being designed as a mobile unit to treat non-specification hypergolic fuel at CCAFS and KSC.

Kessel, Kurt↗
NASA NTRS2002

Low-Cost Evaluation of EO-1 Hyperion and ALI for Detection and Biophysical Characterization of Forest Logging in Amazonia (NCC5-481)

Major uncertainties exist regarding the rate and intensity of logging in tropical forests worldwide: these uncertainties severely limit economic, ecological, and biogeochemical analyses of these regions. Recent sawmill surveys in the Amazon region of Brazil show that the area logged is nearly equal to total area deforested annually, but conversion of survey data to forest area, forest structural damage, and biomass estimates requires multiple assumptions about logging practices. Remote sensing could provide an independent means to monitor logging activity and to estimate the biophysical consequences of this land use. Previous studies have demonstrated that the detection of logging in Amazon forests is difficult and no studies have developed either the quantitative physical basis or remote sensing approaches needed to estimate the effects of various logging regimes on forest structure. A major reason for these limitations has been a lack of sufficient, well-calibrated optical satellite data, which in turn, has impeded the development and use of physically-based, quantitative approaches for detection and structural characterization of forest logging regimes. We propose to use data from the EO-1 Hyperion imaging spectrometer to greatly increase our ability to estimate the presence and structural attributes of selective logging in the Amazon Basin. Our approach is based on four "biogeophysical indicators" not yet derived simultaneously from any satellite sensor: 1) green canopy leaf area index; 2) degree of shadowing; 3) presence of exposed soil and; 4) non-photosynthetic vegetation material. Airborne, field and modeling studies have shown that the optical reflectance continuum (400-2500 nm) contains sufficient information to derive estimates of each of these indicators. Our ongoing studies in the eastern Amazon basin also suggest that these four indicators are sensitive to logging intensity. Satellite-based estimates of these indicators should provide a means to quantify both the presence and degree of structural disturbance caused by various logging regimes. Our quantitative assessment of Hyperion hyperspectral and ALI multi-spectral data for the detection and structural characterization of selective logging in Amazonia will benefit from data collected through an ongoing project run by the Tropical Forest Foundation, within which we have developed a study of the canopy and landscape biophysics of conventional and reduced-impact logging. We will add to our base of forest structural information in concert with an EO-1 overpass. Using a photon transport model inversion technique that accounts for non-linear mixing of the four biogeophysical indicators, we will estimate these parameters across a gradient of selective logging intensity provided by conventional and reduced impact logging sites. We will also compare our physical ly-based approach to both conventional (e.g., NDVI) and novel (e.g., SWIR-channel) vegetation indices as well as to linear mixture modeling methods. We will cross-compare these approaches using Hyperion and ALI imagers to determine the strengths and limitations of these two sensors for applications of forest biophysics. This effort will yield the first physical ly-based, quantitative analysis of the detection and intensity of selective logging in Amazonia, comparing hyperspectral and improved multi-spectral approaches as well as inverse modeling, linear mixture modeling, and vegetation index techniques.

Asner, Gregory P.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Preliminary Design, Feasibility and Cost Evaluation of 1- to 15-Kilometer Height Steel Towers

Design and construction of tall towers is an on-going research program of NASA. The agency has already done preliminary review in this area and has determined that multi-kilometer height towers are technically and economically feasible. The proposed towers will provide high altitude launch platforms reaching above eighty percent of Earth's atmosphere and provide tremendous gains in the potential energy as well as substantial reduction in aerodynamic drag. NASA has also determined that a 15-KM tower will have many useful applications in: (i)Meteorology,(ii)Oceanography, (iii)Astronomy, (iv)High Altitude Launch, (v)Physics Drop Tower, (vi) Biosphere Research, (vii) Nanotechnology, (viii) Energy/Power, (ix)Broadband Wireless Technology, (x)Space Transportation and (xi)Space Tourism.

Shanker, Ajay↗
DOE OSTI2024

A Framework for Evaluating the Implementation Cost of Attacks on Large Language Models

Large Language Models (LLMs) have been increasingly proposed as a method to enhance productivity in tasks that involve language and code. However, these models are large, complex, and their capabilities are not easily understood and controlled, meaning that their adoption opens many possibilities for new cyberattacks and misuse. Numerous attacks on LLMs have been reported and summarized in literature reviews, but we found existing reviews lacking in understanding the implementation cost of the attacks - i.e., how much effort would an attacker need in terms of coding, expertise, and resources to adopt attacks presented in the literature. Therefore, we divide existing attacks on LLMs into a taxonomy, and define a cost evaluation framework to determine the cost of the attack. An attack’s cost can be 1) estimated from reading the publication about the attack or 2) determined by implementing the attack from that publication. We provide an example evaluation of a couple jailbreaking frameworks based on experiments, and then apply the more lightweight cost estimate to a representative selection of attacks across the taxonomy we define. We discuss the relative difficulty of the attacks and also highlight defenses that have attempted to mitigate these attacks and assess their effectiveness.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS2004

Launch Vehicle Propulsion Parameter Design Multiple Selection Criteria

The optimization tool described herein addresses and emphasizes the use of computer tools to model a system and focuses on a concept development approach for a liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen single-stage-to-orbit system, but more particularly the development of the optimized system using new techniques. This methodology uses new and innovative tools to run Monte Carlo simulations, genetic algorithm solvers, and statistical models in order to optimize a design concept. The concept launch vehicle and propulsion system were modeled and optimized to determine the best design for weight and cost by varying design and technology parameters. Uncertainty levels were applied using Monte Carlo Simulations and the model output was compared to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Space Shuttle Main Engine. Several key conclusions are summarized here for the model results. First, the Gross Liftoff Weight and Dry Weight were 67% higher for the design case for minimization of Design, Development, Test and Evaluation cost when compared to the weights determined by the minimization of Gross Liftoff Weight case. In turn, the Design, Development, Test and Evaluation cost was 53% higher for optimized Gross Liftoff Weight case when compared to the cost determined by case for minimization of Design, Development, Test and Evaluation cost. Therefore, a 53% increase in Design, Development, Test and Evaluation cost results in a 67% reduction in Gross Liftoff Weight. Secondly, the tool outputs define the sensitivity of propulsion parameters, technology and cost factors and how these parameters differ when cost and weight are optimized separately. A key finding was that for a Space Shuttle Main Engine thrust level the oxidizer/fuel ratio of 6.6 resulted in the lowest Gross Liftoff Weight rather than at 5.2 for the maximum specific impulse, demonstrating the relationships between specific impulse, engine weight, tank volume and tank weight. Lastly, the optimum chamber pressure for Gross Liftoff Weight minimization was 2713 pounds per square inch as compared to 3162 for the Design, Development, Test and Evaluation cost optimization case. This chamber pressure range is close to 3000 pounds per square inch for the Space Shuttle Main Engine.

Shelton, Joey Dewayne↗
DOE OSTI2020

An Evaluation of Energy Storage Cost and Performance Characteristics

The energy storage industry continues to expand globally as costs continue to fall and opportunities in consumer, transportation and grid applications are defined. As the rapid evolution of the industry continues, it has become increasingly important to understand how varying technologies compare in terms of cost and performance. This paper defines and evaluates cost and performance parameters of six battery energy storage technologies (BESS) - lithium-ion batteries, lead-acid batteries, redox flow batteries, sodium-sulfur batteries, sodium metal halide batteries, and zinc-hybrid cathode batteries - four non-BESS storage technologies - pumped storage hydropower, flywheels, compressed air energy storage, and ultracapacitors - and combustion turbines. Cost and performance information was compiled based on an extensive literature review, conversations with vendors and stakeholders, and costs of systems procured at sites across the United States. Detailed cost and performance estimates are presented for 2018 and projected out to 2025. Annualized costs were also calculated for each technology.

Mongird, Kendall↗
DOE OSTI2024

Evaluating Utility Costs Savings and Resilience: A Case Study in Port Arthur, Texas

This study evaluates the techno-economic feasibility of integrating solar photovoltaics (PV), battery energy storage systems (BESS), and generators to enhance both cost savings and resilience in critical community facilities in Port Arthur, Texas. Using NREL's REopt model, we analyze four facilities: the Golden Triangle Empowerment Center (GTEC), Lamar State College (LSC), Port Arthur Independent School District (PAISD), and Port Arthur Transit (PAT). A key aspect of the analysis is the incorporation of the Value of Lost Load (VoLL) and microgrid upgrade costs to assess the hidden value of resilience during grid outages. While standalone PV scenarios show moderate cost reductions and a 10-15% decrease in CO2 emissions, the inclusion of resilience measures with BESS and generators significantly increases system costs. However, the hidden value of resilience - quantified through avoided outage costs - leads to a substantial improvement in financial outcomes, resulting in positive Net Present Value (NPV) at many sites. The study demonstrates that resilient solar and storage systems offer both economic and resilience benefits, particularly for underserved communities, by balancing energy savings and enhanced operational continuity during outages.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗