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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 NTRS1962

Mechanical Design of Spacecraft

In the spring of 1962, engineers from the Engineering Mechanics Division of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory gave a series of lectures on spacecraft design at the Engineering Design seminars conducted at the California Institute of Technology. Several of these lectures were subsequently given at Stanford University as part of the Space Technology seminar series sponsored by the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Presented here are notes taken from these lectures. The lectures were conceived with the intent of providing the audience with a glimpse of the activities of a few mechanical engineers who are involved in designing, building, and testing spacecraft. Engineering courses generally consist of heavily idealized problems in order to allow the more efficient teaching of mathematical technique. Students, therefore, receive a somewhat limited exposure to actual engineering problems, which are typified by more unknowns than equations. For this reason it was considered valuable to demonstrate some of the problems faced by spacecraft designers, the processes used to arrive at solutions, and the interactions between the engineer and the remainder of the organization in which he is constrained to operate. These lecture notes are not so much a compilation of sophisticated techniques of analysis as they are a collection of examples of spacecraft hardware and associated problems. They will be of interest not so much to the experienced spacecraft designer as to those who wonder what part the mechanical engineer plays in an effort such as the exploration of space.

MARINER SPACE PROBE↗
NASA NTRS2026

Evaluating Energy Absorption Methods for Integrated Composite Seat Designs

Composite materials have become ubiquitous in the aerospace industry due to their exceptionally light weight and high strength characteristics, as well as their unique ability to be engineered and tailored to meet specific loading conditions and performance requirements. These advanced materials offer superior strength-to-weight ratios compared to traditional metallic materials, making them particularly valuable in weight-critical aerospace applications where every pound saved translates to improved efficiency and performance. In currently operating fleets of commercial and military aircraft, composite materials have been successfully applied to critical structural components, including primary load-bearing elements such as the fuselage sections and flooring structures, which must withstand significant in-flight loads and provide passenger safety. Additionally, these materials have been specifically tailored and optimized for aerodynamic components such as wings and tail assemblies, where their ability to be molded into complex shapes while maintaining structural integrity is particularly advantageous. The application of composite materials extends beyond primary structural elements into the realm of internal cabin components, most notably in innovative seat designs where weight reduction and structural integration are paramount concerns. Modern composite seat structures can be designed to integrate multiple functions, including structural support, comfort features, and safety systems, all while maintaining the lightweight characteristics essential for aircraft performance.

Digital image correlation↗
NASA NTRS2026

Mechanical Design and Operation of a Novel Lunar Environment Structural Test Rig (LESTR)

The Lunar Environment Structural Test Rig (LESTR) was developed to address a critical gap in mechanical property data for metal alloy wire materials under lunar-relevant conditions down to 40 K. Conventional aerospace material databases provide thermophysical properties for bulk metals over a wide temperature range, but validated mechanical and physical property data below 77 K, particularly for small-diameter wires, remain limited and are generally the exception rather than the rule. These conditions are essential for Artemis mission hardware such as shape memory alloy (SMA) rover tires. LESTR’s design requirements were to combine a high-stiffness electrodynamic load frame with closed- cycle cryogenic cooling, high-vacuum capability (10–6 torr), and noncontact optical strain measurement to enable tensile, four-point bend, and fatigue testing of wires or other materials and geometries at temperatures from 40 to 125 K. These considerable requirements were merged with the need to lower the barrier of testing for the end user as measured in terms of cost-per-test cycle, safety improvement, and reduction in upkeep costs associated with state-of-the-art solutions associated with cryomechanical material characterization. The system incorporates modular gripping and alignment fixtures; precision thermal management using cryocoolers and embedded heaters; and integrated instrumentation for displacement, load, temperature, and vacuum control. Calibration procedures establish correlations between tooling and specimen temperature, ensuring accurate thermal conditions across the design envelope unbound by cryofluid conditions in heritage immersion-based test systems. Initial validation tests using Inconel (Special Metals Corp.) wire demonstrated accurate ultimate strength and post-yield behavior. The load frame operation was also verified under representative service conditions, including thermal cycling and prolonged fatigue loading. By generating mechanical property data at ultralow temperatures, LESTR fills a critical gap in existing materials databases and provides a scalable platform for iterative alloy development and durability assessment for planetary hardware. This capability supports NASA’s long-term objectives for surface exploration by enabling design confidence for components operating in extreme cryogenic environments.

LESTR↗
NASA NTRS1970

Prevention of Coupled Structure-Propulsion Instability (POGO) On The Space Shuttle

Many liquid-propellant rocket vehicles have experienced longitudinal vibration, nicknamed pogo after the jumping stick, due to an instability arising from interaction of the vehicle structure with the propulsion system. These vibrations can produce an intolerable environment for astronauts and equipment, can overload vehicle structure, and can lead to loss of propulsion performance. A NASA monograph concerned with the prevention of pogo is well on its way toward publication and should serve as a useful guide to design for the Space Shuttle. The paper will briefly describe the nature of the pogo phenomenon, present a summary of past instabilities, relate the possible deleterious effects of pogo, and discuss the contents of the design criteria monograph. Finally, research tasks are recommended for support of pogo development activities on the Space Shuttle.

S. Rubin↗
NASA NTRS2026

Evaluation of Superalloy 718 Additively Manufactured Lattice Blocks

Lattice block structures made up of high temperature superalloys could offer advantages in density, efficiency, and tailored properties. Three candidate lattice designs were screened through additive manufacturing of superalloy 718. Laser powder bed fusion was applied with 718 powder to produce lattice blocks for three-dimensional octahedral unit cell designs of three heights. As-designed versus additively manufactured 718 lattices were compared, including structural dimensions, densities, defects, grain structures, crystallographic texture, and surface residual stresses. Manufactured lattice I diverged the most from its design, with both corner and center nodes merged into continuous columns. Manufactured lattice III came closest to its design, though the actual nodes and struts were still larger in cross section than in the design. Only modest grain coarsening and negligible chemical segregation were observed for all three designs, suggesting uniform thermo-physical and mechanical properties are possible. Significant tensile residual stresses were present at the surface of the manufactured blocks, with highest stresses in the building direction. Current findings indicate this concept could produce useful superalloy structures for high-temperature-capable static components requiring tailored density, and thermo-physical/mechanical properties.

super alloys↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Multidisciplinary Design Optimization and Analysis of an Open Rotor Stage: Part 1

Successful design of open rotor propulsors requires effective analysis across multiple disciplines, including aerodynamics, acoustics, and structures. A viable design must not only be efficient but must also produce an acceptable level of noise and meet all static and dynamic structural requirements. For design and optimization, this is especially challenging because running high fidelity analyses is resource-intensive, and optimizing a design may require many thousands of cases to be analyzed. For this reason, the NASA team has applied design methodology that utilizes low-cost aerodynamic methods, machine learning models, and high-fidelity analyses when necessary. This includes standard two-dimensional methods such as throughflow analysis and quasi-3D blade-to-blade CFD, as well as some newly developed methods. Optimization using 3D CFD is necessary to maximize performance, and this is considered as well. All optimizations are carried out subject to structural constraints evaluated using finite element analysis. Doing this accurately requires a robust trunnion design, capable of pitching the blade between cruise and takeoff conditions while maintaining acceptable factor of safety. Hot to cold analysis must also be applied in order to correctly determine the as-manufactured shape. For acoustics, the unsteady pressures on the blade surfaces must be predicted, and this can be done either through full-annulus unsteady CFD or through a nonlinear harmonic method (NLH). NLH can run much faster, allowing some acoustic considerations to be made earlier in the design process. The design process is ongoing, and this presentation will review the current status and planned next steps. This part of the talk will focus on aerodynamic performance and be followed by a talk on structures and acoustics.

Design↗
DOE OSTI2023

Design and Synthesis of Cubic K 3−2 x Ba x SbSe 4 Solid Electrolytes for K–O 2 Batteries

Developing K-ion conducting solid-state electrolytes (SSEs) plays a critical role in the safe implementation of potassium batteries. In this work, a chalcogenide-based potassium ion SSE is reported, K 3 SbSe 4 , which adopts a trigonal structure at room temperature. Single-crystal structural analysis reveals a trigonal-to-cubic phase transition at the low temperature of 50 °C, which is the lowest among similar compounds and thus provides easy access to the cubic phase. The substitution of barium for potassium in K 3 SbSe 4 leads to the creation of potassium vacancies, expansion of lattice parameters, and a transformation from a trigonal phase to a cubic phase. As a result, the maximum conductivity of K 3−2x Ba x SbSe 4 reaches around 0.1 mS cm −1 at 40 °C for K 2.2 Ba 0.4 SbSe 4 , which is over two orders of magnitude higher than that of undoped K 3 SbSe 4 . This novel SSE is successfully employed in a K–O 2 battery operating at room temperature where a polymer-laminated K 2.2 Ba 0.4 SbSe 4 pellet serves as a separator between the oxygen cathode and the potassium metal anode. Effective protection of the K metal anode against corrosion caused by O 2 is demonstrated.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Semiconducting Electrides Derived from Sodalite: A First-Principles Study

Electrides are ionic crystals, with electrons acting as anions occupying well-defined lattice sites. These exotic materials have attracted considerable attention in recent years for potential applications in catalysis, rechargeable batteries, and display technology. Among this class of materials, electride semiconductors can further expand the horizon of potential applications due to the presence of a band gap. However, there are only limited reports on semiconducting electrides, hindering the understanding of their physical and chemical properties. In recent work, we initiated an approach to derive potential electrides via selective removal of symmetric Wyckoff sites of anions from existing complex minerals. Herein, we present a follow-up effort to design semiconducting electrides from parental complex sodalites. Among four candidate compounds, we found that a cubic Ca 4 Al 6 O 12 structure with the I-43m space group symmetry exhibits perfect electron localization at the sodalite cages, with a narrow electronic band gap of 1.8 eV, making it suitable for use in photocatalysis. Analysis of the electronic structures reveals that a lower electronegativity of the surrounding cations drives greater electron localization and promotes the formation of an electride band near the Fermi level. Our work proposes an alternative approach for designing new semiconducting electrides under ambient conditions and offers guidelines for further experimental exploration.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

A First-Principles Study of the Structural and Thermo-Mechanical Properties of Tungsten-Based Plasma-Facing Materials

Tungsten (W) and tungsten alloys are being considered as leading candidates for structural and functional materials in future fusion energy devices. The most attractive properties of tungsten for the design of magnetic and inertial fusion energy reactors are its high melting point, high thermal conductivity, low sputtering yield, and low long-term disposal radioactive footprint. Despite these relevant features, there is a lack of understanding of how the structural and mechanical properties of W-based alloys are affected by the temperature in fusion power plants. In this work, we present a study on the thermo-mechanical properties of five W-based plasma-facing materials. First-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations are combined with the quasi-harmonic approximation (QHA) theory to investigate the electronic, structural, mechanical, and thermal properties of these W-based alloys as a function of temperature. The coefficient of thermal expansion, temperature-dependent elastic constants, and several elastic parameters, including bulk and Young’s modulus, are calculated. Our work advances the understanding of the structural and thermo-mechanical behavior of W-based materials, thus providing insights into the design and selection of candidate plasma-facing materials in fusion energy devices.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS2026

Expanding Space with Inflatable Softgoods: Roadmap for In-Space Manufacturing of Resilient Space Structures

Overview of inflatable softgoods and their emerging role in enabling large, resilient space habitats and infrastructure. It highlights the advantages of inflatable systems, such as exceptional packing efficiency and scalable habitable volume, while also addressing challenges related to outfitting, complex material behavior, structural design, manufacturing precision, and testing limitations. Core architectural elements of crewed inflatable habitats are described, along with shell layer composition, structural interfaces, and examples of conceptual habitat configurations for transit, lunar, and surface applications. The presentation concludes by outlining key technology shortfalls, including structural health monitoring, ultra‑high‑strength materials, lifetime performance, and integration strategies, emphasizing the need for continued development to support future in‑space manufacturing and exploration missions.

Habitat↗
DOE OSTI2026

Sequence-Structure–Property Relationships in Short-Chain Polyesters: How Primary Structure Governs Macroscopic Performance

While polymer properties are fundamentally linked to their nanostructure, the influence of monomer sequence remains less understood than stereochemical factors like tacticity. This study examines how sequence distribution affects the thermal behavior and morphology of homo- and copolyesters, specifically comparing polymers derived from constitutionally identical monomers but with varying degrees of sequence regularity depending on monomer structure or polymerization selectivity. Our findings show that increasing sequence defects progressively diminish thermal stability, crystallinity, melting temperatures, and morphological order. As new materials become more compositionally complex, this work underscores the importance of sequence control in the design of advanced polymers for emerging applications.

Bocharova, Vera [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (OR↗
DOE OSTI2026

Structured illumination for surface-resolved grazing-incidence X-ray scattering

Grazing-incidence (GI) scattering techniques are widely used to characterize thin films, offering high surface sensitivity and insight into morphology and structure. However, these approaches typically provide statistical averaged information due to elongated footprint or limited spatial resolution due to beam size. Here we introduce a method that combines structured illumination with GI X-ray scattering and leverages our computational imaging approach to resolve local structural details. We demonstrate that our method captures local features of an organic semiconductor thin film without the need for sample rotation as in tomography. The method expands GI techniques from statistical averaging to high-resolution imaging, thereby providing the capability for detailed analysis of local material properties, such as domain shape, orientation and polymorphism, which are critical for advancing material design towards more efficient and tailored materials.

Gursoy, Doga↗