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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 NTRS2023

Sizing and Design Tool for Tall Lunar Tower

Tall lunar towers enable direct collection of solar energy using solar panels that can generate power exceeding 50kW. Tall lunar towers also support solar reflectors and concentrators for solar farms, which enable various mission architectures on the lunar surface. The Tall Lunar Tower project at NASA Langley Research Center is focused on the design, modeling, fabrication, and testing of an assembled tall lunar tower engineering development unit. This paper presents the development of a sizing and design tool for the tall lunar tower. The predicted frequency and buckling responses of the tall lunar tower from the tool are compared with the results obtained from finite element analysis.

Solar Tower↗
NASA NTRS2023

Sizing and Design Tool for Tall Lunar Tower

Tall lunar towers enable direct collection of solar energy using solar panels that can generate power exceeding 50kW. Tall lunar towers also support solar reflectors and concentrators for solar farms, which enable various mission architectures on the lunar surface. The Tall Lunar Tower project at NASA Langley Research Center is focused on the design, modeling, fabrication, and testing of an assembled tall lunar tower engineering development unit. This paper presents the development of a sizing and design tool for the tall lunar tower. The predicted frequency and buckling responses of the tall lunar tower from the tool are compared with the results obtained from finite element analysis.

Solar Tower↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Sizing, Buckling, and Thermal-Structural Analysis of Tall Lunar Tower

Tall lunar towers enable direct collection of solar energy using solar panels that can generate power exceeding 100-kW above shadowed regions on the surface. Tall lunar towers also support solar reflectors and concentrators for solar farms, which enable various mission architectures on the lunar surface. The Tall Lunar Tower (TLT) project at NASA Langley Research Center is focused on the design, modeling, fabrication, and testing of an assembled TLT Engineering Development Unit (EDU). In this paper, the design and analysis plan of a TLT is presented and predicted buckling and thermal-structural response of the TLT EDU on the lunar surface are investigated.

Kyongchan Song↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Sizing, Buckling, and Thermal-Structural Analysis of Tall Lunar Tower

Tall lunar towers enable direct collection of solar energy using solar panels that can generate power exceeding 100-kW above shadowed regions on the surface. Tall lunar towers also support solar reflectors and concentrators for solar farms, which enable various mission architectures on the lunar surface. The Tall Lunar Tower (TLT) project at NASA Langley Research Center is focused on the design, modeling, fabrication, and testing of an assembled TLT Engineering Development Unit (EDU). In this paper, the design and analysis plan of a TLT is presented and predicted buckling and thermal-structural response of the TLT EDU on the lunar surface are investigated.

Kyongchan Song↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Software Design for the Supervised Autonomous Assembly of a Tall Lunar Tower

Tall towers enable a wide-ranging set of capabilities on the lunar surface including communication, navigation, surveillance, power generation, and more. The Tall Lunar Tower project at NASA Langley Research Center is focused on the design, modeling, fabrication, and testing of an engineering development unit to assemble a tall tower through supervised autonomous operations. In this paper, the software design for the supervised autonomous assembly of a tall lunar tower is presented. The paper includes a high-level description of the concept of operations, the agents, and an overview of the software architecture.

Moon↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Hardware Systems and EDU Demonstration of the Tall Lunar Tower Project

The Tall Lunar Tower (TLT) project developed a robotic tower assembly system (RTAS) and TLT Truss engineering development units (EDUs) to perform a ground demonstration of supervised semi-autonomous robotic assembly of a truss-based tall tower. Truss structures provide exceptional strength-to-weight ratios for payload capabilities supporting large masses. On the lunar surface, tall towers are a critical structural system that will enable significant solar power generation by supporting vertical solar arrays and beyond-the-horizon communications at the lunar south pole, supporting the Artemis mission architecture, as well as a lunar economy. Tall towers, greater than 30-meters-tall, provide the elevation needed for more consistent solar power generation due to low inclination sunlight and deep shadowing from surface features on the lunar surface at the poles. The robotic structural assembly technologies developed for truss-based tall towers will also enable other large-scale functional lunar structures to be built, including launch plume deflectors, lunar safe havens for astronauts and assets, surface transportation for cargo, and other critical infrastructure. Robotic assembly of truss structures for lunar surface infrastructure is near-term enabling for future Artemis mission campaign and Moon to Mars Objectives needs for power and communication. The project team designed, fabricated, tested, and demonstrated the RTAS EDU by assembling a TLT Truss EDU in a laboratory environment. The hardware systems and the supervised semi-autonomous assembly process for a TLT assembled EDU design, along with descriptions of a hardware demonstration are presented.

In-space Assembly↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Hardware Systems and EDU Demonstration of the Tall Lunar Tower Project

The Tall Lunar Tower (TLT) project developed a robotic tower assembly system (RTAS) and TLT Truss engineering development units (EDUs) to perform a ground demonstration of supervised semi-autonomous robotic assembly of a truss-based tall tower. Truss structures provide exceptional strength-to-weight ratios for payload capabilities supporting large masses. On the lunar surface, tall towers are a critical structural system that will enable significant solar power generation by supporting vertical solar arrays and beyond-the-horizon communications at the lunar south pole, supporting the Artemis mission architecture, as well as a lunar economy. Tall towers, greater than 30-meters-tall, provide the elevation needed for more consistent solar power generation due to low inclination sunlight and deep shadowing from surface features on the lunar surface at the poles. The robotic structural assembly technologies developed for truss-based tall towers will also enable other large-scale functional lunar structures to be built, including launch plume deflectors, lunar safe havens for astronauts and assets, surface transportation for cargo, and other critical infrastructure. Robotic assembly of truss structures for lunar surface infrastructure is near-term enabling for future Artemis mission campaign and Moon to Mars Objectives needs for power and communication. The project team designed, fabricated, tested, and demonstrated the RTAS EDU by assembling a TLT Truss EDU in a laboratory environment. The hardware systems and the supervised semi-autonomous assembly process for a TLT assembled EDU design, along with descriptions of a hardware demonstration are presented.

Lunar Infrastructure↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Tall Lunar Tower

The Tall Lunar Tower (TLT) In-Space Assembly (ISA) team aims to design, model, fabricate, autonomously assemble, and characterize a TLT engineering development unit (EDU). Cross-cutting truss assembly technology will be developed enabling construction of infrastructure in the lunar environment.

Tall Lunar Tower↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Unreal Engine Testbed for Computer Vision of Tall Lunar Tower Assembly

The Tall Lunar Tower project at the NASA Langley Research Center is focused on the design, modeling, fabrication, and testing of a supervised autonomously assembly engineering development unit for tall lunar towers. The lunar south pole environment poses many challenges for robotic assembly of the tall tower, particularly to computer vision camera systems due to a high-contrast lighting environment. This paper will present an Unreal Engine 5 video game engine Lunar South Pole Lighting Testbed to simulate realistic lunar lighting conditions for synthetic image generation. The fidelity of the simulation environment is investigated by comparing the accuracy of computer vision models trained using synthetic image data and trained from real image data collected in a lunar analog environment.

Unreal Engine↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Unreal Engine Testbed for Computer Vision of Tall Lunar Tower Assembly

The Tall Lunar Tower project at the NASA Langley Research Center is focused on the design, modeling, fabrication, and testing of a supervised autonomously assembled engineering development unit for tall lunar towers. The lunar south pole environment poses many challenges for robotic assembly of the tall tower, particularly to computer vision camera systems due to a high-contrast lighting environment. This paper will present an Unreal Engine 5 video game engine Lunar South Pole Lighting Testbed to simulate realistic lunar lighting conditions for synthetic image generation. The fidelity of the simulation environment is investigated by comparing the accuracy of computer vision models trained using synthetic image data and trained from real image data collected in a lunar analog environment.

Unreal Engine↗
NASA NTRS2023

Unreal Engine Testbed for Computer Vision of Tall Lunar Tower Assembly

The Tall Lunar Tower project at the NASA Langley Research Center is focused on the design, modeling, fabrication, and testing of a supervised autonomously assembly engineering development unit for tall lunar towers. The lunar south pole environment poses many challenges for robotic assembly of the tall tower, particularly to computer vision camera systems due to a high-contrast lighting environment. This paper will present an Unreal Engine 5 video game engine Lunar South Pole Lighting Testbed to simulate realistic lunar lighting conditions for synthetic image generation. The fidelity of the simulation environment is investigated by comparing the accuracy of computer vision models trained using synthetic image data and trained from real image data collected in a lunar analog environment.

Unreal Engine↗
NASA NTRS2023

Software Design for the Supervised Autonomous Assembly of a Tall Lunar Tower Presentation

Tall towers enable a wide-ranging set of capabilities on the lunar surface including communication, navigation, surveillance, power generation, and more. The Tall Lunar Tower project at NASA Langley Research Center is focused on the design, modeling, fabrication, and testing of an engineering development unit to assemble a tall tower through supervised autonomous operations. In this paper, the software design for the supervised autonomous assembly of a tall lunar tower is presented. The paper includes a high-level description of the concept of operations, the agents, and an overview of the software architecture.

TLT↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Thermoplastic Space Point Design (TSPD) Tall Tower Lunar Thermal Analysis

The Thermoplastics Development for Exploration Applications (TDEA) project seeks to advance NASA’s thermoplastic composites capabilities by developing structurally efficient joining solutions for large-scale space structures to support NASA’s future exploration missions. A key objective is to develop and understand advanced thermoplastic joining techniques relevant to space environments and applicable to unitized and/or reconfigurable composite structures. The TDEA project uses NASA Langley’s Tall Lunar Tower (TLT) concept as a target application for the design and development of in-space assembled thermoplastic composites. TLT is a 50-meter-tall tower constructed on the lunar surface near the south pole. The tower’s height at this location on the moon allows for extended durations of incident solar flux which can be used to generate power via photovoltaic arrays. The thermal environment present on lunar south pole represents a challenging environment for any space-based asset. This study provides an overview of the analysis techniques used to determine the temperature extremes, gradients, and timelines of a tall composite tower over a one-year duration at the Shackleton Connecting Ridge. The developed thermal model includes tower and lunar surface elements with anisotropic and temperature-dependent material properties and incorporates a solar vector orbit with time-varying solar flux. Study topics include: a comparison between the effects of simplified lunar surface topologies on thermal results, prediction of surface temperature values versus Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) flight data, and tower structural-thermal deformation.

Lunar↗
NASA NTRS2024

Tall Lunar Tower Ground Demonstration

Time lapse of the Tall Lunar Tower (TLT) Ground EDU Demonstration performed at the Langley Research Center. The demonstration focused on using commercial off-the-shelf robotic manipulator arms with specialized end-effectors to place and join components in a jigging and lifting frame. The frame allows the assembly of a tower by the 6 degree-of-freedom manipulator arms in a work cell configuration by lifting the completed tower segments upward to allow new tower segments to be appended to the bottom of the structure. The demonstration took place from September 28th to 30th 2023.

Tall Lunar Tower↗
NASA NTRS2023

Tall Lunar Tower: An Autonomously Assembled Tower for Early Lunar Infrastructure

The Tall Lunar Tower (TLT) In-Space Assembly (ISA) team aims to design, model, fabricate, autonomously assemble, and characterize a TLT engineering development unit (EDU). The autonomous assembly of a tower also demonstrates a cross-cutting technology that can be applied to other lunar structures, such as blast shields, radiation shelters, and safe havens.

In-Space Assembly↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Scaling Climbing Collaborative Mobile Manipulators for Outfitting a Tall Lunar Tower and Truss Structures

In-space and planetary truss structures like the Tall Lunar Tower (TLT) can greatly benefit from truss climbing collaborative mobile manipulators (C2M2) for outfitting and other servicing tasks. Mobile robotic systems traversing truss structures will allow for improved access to the structure for placing equipment and routing cables after the structure has been assembled. The C2M2 is designed to provide access to the structure through collaborative mobile robotics. A series of gaits are developed allowing the robot to reach any point on the structure and validate the capabilities of the joint configuration. Scaling the system during the design phase is a necessary process given the wide range of trusses in development and payloads which are required for outfitting. The variable features of the system are the actuators and the length of the links connecting the two-degrees of freedom (DOF) modules. A scaling method was developed for determining the range of usable link lengths for a selected actuator in a design environment. The focus of the design is on a six-DOF robot arranged with two-DOF at each end and at the center. Two grippers are mounted at each end for grappling on the truss and holding cargo.

Collaborative Robotics↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Scaling Climbing Collaborative Mobile Manipulators (C2M2) for Outfitting a Tall Lunar Tower (TLT) and Truss Structures

In-space and planetary truss structures like the Tall Lunar Tower (TLT) can greatly benefit from truss climbing collaborative mobile manipulators (C-CMMs) for outfitting and other servicing tasks. Mobile robotic systems traversing these structures will allow for improved access to the structure for placing equipment and routing cables after the structure has been assembled. The robotic system described in the proposed paper is designed to provide access to the structure through collaborative mobile robotics. The paper will provide a method to constrain the design of such a robot via the geometry of the truss structure and the controlling joint torques across various gaits. The focus of the design is on a six-degree of freedom (DOF) robot arranged with two-DOF at each end and at the center. The variable features of this system are the actuators and the length of the links connecting the two-DOF modules. The result of the analysis is a link sizing range which the robot can be designed within to ensure functionality on the truss structure. A C-CMM will be designed using the scaling utility and several constructed to demonstrate operating both independently and collaboratively.

in-space assembly↗
NASA NTRS2023

Tall Lunar Tower (TLT) Powering Exploration at the Moon's South Pole

Animation of a conceptual Lunar mission for the Tall Lunar Tower (TLT) robotic in-space assembly system. The landing, deployment, and operation of the tower assembly system is shown. A successful tower assembly and solar power payload is depicted at the lunar south pole. The video is intended to convey how an engineering development unit (EDU) demonstrated at NASA Langley Research Center may look when operated on the Lunar surface. The EDU models are shown in place of flight hardware. The animation was produced by the Advanced Concepts Laboratory with models provided by the TLT team.

Tall Lunar Tower↗