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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 NTRS2017

Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) Concept - Launch System Development

A Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) would be one component of potential Mars Sample Return (MSR) and would have to launch from the surface of Mars into orbit about Mars with a soil sample. A MAV is a small lightweight rocket that must survive various environmental conditions, including powered ascent through the Martian atmosphere. A concept for the MAV system design includes a launch tube mounted on top of a mobile rover or a stationary lander. The launch tube must thermally insulate the MAV on the surface of Mars, and then guide the MAV during the initial portion of the launch. A mechanical erector system is also necessary for moving the MAV and launch tube from a stowed configuration to a launch configuration. The launch system would have to perform these tasks while also meeting many design constraints. This paper is a systems engineering perspective that will examine the current development of the launch system including design concepts, design trades, driving issues, and analyses performed. Design trades include different launch configurations that would prevent rover or lander tip-over, as well as re-contact between the MAV and the launch tube. Additional trades include options for guiding the MAV out of the launch tube, whether using launch rails or sabots, and finding a reliable but simple mechanical erector system. Analyses include investigating the impact of ignition overpressure based on launch configuration, launch loads and sensitivities to the launch system design, and Entry, Descent and Landing loads. The key considerations for these design trades are overall system mass, size, and reliability.

Sonneveldt, Bryan↗
NASA NTRS2019

Development Concepts for Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) Solid and Hybrid Vehicle Systems

The Advanced Concepts Office (ACO) at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has conducted ongoing studies and trades into options for both hybrid and solid vehicle systems for potential Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) concepts for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Two MAV propulsion options are being studied for use in a potential Mars Sample Retrieval (MSR) campaign. The following paper describes the current concepts for hybrid and solid propulsion vehicles for MAV as part of a potential MSR campaign, and provides an overview of the ongoing studies and trades for both hybrid and solid vehicle system concepts. Concepts and options under consideration for vehicle subsystems include reaction control system (RCS), separation, and structures will be described in terms of technology readiness level (TRL), benefit to the vehicle design, and associated risk. A hybrid propulsion system, which uses a solid fuel core and liquid oxidizer, is currently being developed by JPL with support from MSFC. This type of hybrid propulsion vehicle would allow the MAV to be more flexible at the cost of higher complexity, in contrast to the solid propulsion vehicle that is simpler, but allows less flexibility. The solid propulsion vehicle study performed by MSFC in 2018 further refined the solid propulsion system sizing as well as added definition to vehicle subsystem concepts, including the RCS, structures and configuration, interstage and separation, aerodynamics, and power/avionics. The studies were performed using an iterative concept design methodology, engaging subject matter experts from across MSFC’s propulsion and vehicle systems disciplines as well as seeking trajectory feedback from analysts at JPL.

McCollum, Lisa Tunstill↗
NASA NTRS2019

Mars Ascent Vehicle - Payload?, Spacecraft?, Launch Vehicle? - A Systems Approach to MAV

Significant effort has been expended over the past few years in order to examine propulsion technologies for an eventual robotic Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV). The recent emphasis on studies for an overall sample return campaign, and specifically the Sample Return Lander (SRL) includes the full slate of systems required to implement a MAV. Depending on your point of view, the MAV is a major SRL flight system payload, a Mars Surface Spacecraft, or a Launch Vehicle. We will examine the MAV from these three perspectives in order to tease out the key architectural trades required to be completed prior to the start of a project Phase A activity.

Jackman, Angie↗
NASA NTRS2002

Flexible Wing Base Micro Aerial Vehicles: Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) for Surveillance and Remote Sensor Delivery

Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) will be developed for tracking individuals, locating terrorist threats, and delivering remote sensors, for surveillance and chemical/biological agent detection. The tasks are: (1) Develop robust MAV platform capable of carrying sensor payload. (2) Develop fully autonomous capabilities for delivery of sensors to remote and distant locations. The current capabilities and accomplishments are: (1) Operational electric (inaudible) 6-inch MAVs with novel flexible wing, providing superior aerodynamic efficiency and control. (2) Vision-based flight stability and control (from on-board cameras).

Ifju, Peter↗
NASA NTRS2017

Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories II (POST2) Surrogate Models for Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) Performance Assessment

The primary purpose of the multiPOST tool is to enable the execution of much larger sets of vehicle cases to allow for broader trade space exploration. However, this exploration is not achieved solely with the increased case throughput. The multiPOST tool is applied to carry out a Design of Experiments (DOE), which is a set of cases that have been structured to capture a maximum amount of information about the design space with minimal computational effort. The results of the DOE are then used to fit a surrogate model, ultimately enabling parametric design space exploration. The approach used for the MAV study includes both DOE and surrogate modeling. First, the primary design considerations for the vehicle were used to develop the variables and ranges for the multiPOST DOE. The final set of DOE variables were carefully selected in order to capture the desired vehicle trades and take into account any special considerations for surrogate modeling. Next, the DOE sets were executed through multiPOST. Following successful completion of the DOE cases, a manual verification trial was performed. The trial involved randomly selecting cases from the DOE set and running them by hand. The results from the human analyst's run and multiPOST were then compared to ensure that the automated runs were being executed properly. Completion of the verification trials was then followed by surrogate model fitting. After fits to the multiPOST data were successfully created, the surrogate models were used as a stand-in for POST2 to carry out the desired MAV trades. Using the surrogate models in lieu of POST2 allowed for visualization of vehicle sensitivities to the input variables as well as rapid evaluation of vehicle performance. Although the models introduce some error into the output of the trade study, they were very effective at identifying areas of interest within the trade space for further refinement by human analysts. The next section will cover all of the ground rules and assumptions associated with DOE setup and multiPOST execution. Section 3.1 gives the final DOE variables and ranges, while section 3.2 addresses the POST2 specific assumptions. The results of the verification trials are given in section 4. Section 5 gives the surrogate model fitting results, including the goodness-of-fit metrics for each fit. Finally, the MAV specific results are discussed in section 6.

Zwack, M. R.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) Solid Motor Technology Plans

Recent trades have taken place on solid propulsion options to support a potential Mars Sample Retrieval Campaign. Mass and dimensional requirements for a Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) are being assessed. One MAV vehicle concept would utilize a solid propulsion system. Key challenges to designing a solid propulsion system for MAV include low temperatures beyond common tactical and space requirements, performance, planetary protection, mass limits, and thrust vector control system. Two solutions are addressed, a modified commercial commercially available system, and an optimum new concept.

Prince, Andrew↗
NASA NTRS2017

Technology Development and Design of an Electrically Driven Pump Fed (EDPF) Bi-Propellant Propulsion System for a Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV)

A Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), as part of a potential Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign, is a very unique challenge and has been the focus of technology development and design efforts at JPL (Jet Propulsion Lab.) for several decades. Recent trajectory studies, for the current range of notional MAV payloads (6-25 kilograms), evaluated performance using propulsion systems in the 2.5 kiloNewton to 4.5 kiloNewton (600-1000 pounds-force) thrust range. The study examined several propulsion system approaches - solid rocket, bi-propellant and hybrid propulsion systems - and developed a ranking based on several key figures of merit. This paper focuses on the evaluations conducted for the two bi-propellant propulsion system options considered for a potential MAV. Historically, bi-propellant propulsion systems have been considered for this application; this study took a fresh look at both a conventional State of the Art (SOA) pressure fed bi-propellant propulsion system and recent developments using small EDPF (Electrically-Driven Pump-Fed) bi-propellant propulsion systems.

Vaughan, David↗
NASA NTRS2013

Habitable Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) Concept

NASA's ultimate goal is the human exploration of Mars. Among the many difficult aspects of a trip to Mars is the return mission that would transport the astronauts from the Martian surface back into Mars orbit. One possible conceptual design to accomplish this task is a two-stage Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV). In order to assess this design, a general layout and configuration for the spacecraft must be developed. The objective of my internship was to model a conceptual MAV design to support NASA's latest human Mars mission architecture trade studies, technology prioritization decisions, and mass, cost, and schedule estimates.

Dang, Victor↗
NASA NTRS2019

Development Concepts for Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) Solid and Hybrid Vehicle Systems

Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) Study Introduction: Previous Studies -Solid, liquid and hybrid rocket propulsion feasibility studies since 2011 -Focus on hybrid rocket propulsion since 2016; Reassessing Propulsion Systems for Risk Reduction - Liquid propulsion vehicle found to not be feasible; Challenges -An autonomous return mission has never been done -Mars surface environments -Platform packaging limitations -Performance and trajectory requirements; Study Team -MSFC’s Advanced Concepts Office (ACO) -MSFC propulsion and vehicle design engineering expertise -JPL MAV team.

McCollum, Lisa Tunstill↗
NASA NTRS2018

Towards Vision-based Safe Autonomous Landing of MAVs at Night

This paper is about vision-based navigation of Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) at night. Despite it being dark almost half of the time, most of the work to date has addressed only daytime operations. Enabling autonomous night-time operation of MAVs with low SWaP on-board sensing capabilities is still an open problem in current robotics research. In this work, we take a step in this direction and study the problem in the context of vision-based autonomous landing at night using thermal-infrared cameras.

Delaune, Jeff↗
NASA NTRS2018

Online Self-Supervised Long-Range Scene Segmentation for MAVs

Recently, there have been numerous advances in the development of payload and power constrained lightweight Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs). As these robots aspire for high-speed autonomous flights in complex dynamic environments, robust scene understanding at long-range becomes critical. The problem is heavily characterized by either the limitations imposed by sensor capabilities for geometry-based methods, or the need for large-amounts of manually annotated training data required by data-driven methods. This motivates the need to build systems that have the capability to alleviate these problems by exploiting the complimentary strengths of both geometry and data-driven methods. In this paper, we take a step in this direction and propose a generic framework for adaptive scene segmentation using self-supervised online learning. We present this in the context of vision-based autonomous MAV flight, and demonstrate the efficacy of our proposed system through extensive experiments on benchmark datasets and real world field tests.

Matthies, Larry↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

MAV Software Development: Streamlined Collaboration for MSR

This poster presents the coordinated efforts of the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) software development teams, encompassing Flight Software, Ground Software, and Hardware-in-the-Loop Labs. This collaborative approach, which stems from the Artemis program, ensures efficiency in preparing for the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, focusing on the critical role of software integration for mission success.

MAV↗
NASA NTRS2004

Model Update of a Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) Flexible Wing Frame with Uncertainty Quantification

This paper describes a procedure to update parameters in the finite element model of a Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) to improve displacement predictions under aerodynamics loads. Because of fabrication, materials, and geometric uncertainties, a statistical approach combined with Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) is used to modify key model parameters. Static test data collected using photogrammetry are used to correlate with model predictions. Results show significant improvements in model predictions after parameters are updated; however, computed probabilities values indicate low confidence in updated values and/or model structure errors. Lessons learned in the areas of wing design, test procedures, modeling approaches with geometric nonlinearities, and uncertainties quantification are all documented.

Reaves, Mercedes C.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Outgas and Vacuum Storage Testing for MAV Hybrid Fuel Grain

As a part of the Mars Ascent Vehicle mission, NASA MSFC has formulated a new hybrid fuel grain from a paraffin blend, named SP-7. As a part of the necessary preparation for the mission, this material must be tested for any outgassing behavior or other property changes due to vacuum exposure. This type of testing had not yet been conducted for this material. The goal of this project was to set up and begin automated analysis of this material, which would then run over the course of a year. To accomplish this goal, a few primary objectives were necessary-construction of a vacuum chamber to house the test, implementation of an automated gas analyzer system, preparation of SP-7 samples, and test initialization.

Mars Ascent Vehicle↗