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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 NTRS2014

Strategy for Ranking the Science Value of the Surface of Asteroid 101955 Bennu for Sample Site Selection for Osiris-REx

OSRIS-REx is NASA's New Frontiers 3 sample return mission that will return at least 60 g of pristine surface material from near-Earth asteroid 101955 Bennu in September 2023. The scientific value of the sample increases enormously with the amount of knowledge captured about the geological context from which the sample is collected. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is highly maneuverable and capable of investigating the surface of Bennu at scales down to the sub-cm. The OSIRIS-REx instruments will characterize the overall surface geology including spectral properties, microtexture, and geochemistry of the regolith at the sampling site in exquisite detail for up to 505 days after encountering Bennu in August 2018. The mission requires at the very minimum one acceptable location on the asteroid where a touch-and-go (TAG) sample collection maneuver can be successfully per-formed. Sample site selection requires that the follow-ing maps be produced: Safety, Deliverability, Sampleability, and finally Science Value. If areas on the surface are designated as safe, navigation can fly to them, and they have ingestible regolith, then the scientific value of one site over another will guide site selection.

Nakamura-Messenger, K.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Magellan Project: Evolving enhanced operations efficiency to maximize science value

Magellan has been one of NASA's most successful spacecraft, returning more science data than all planetary spacecraft combined. The Magellan Spacecraft Team (SCT) has maximized the science return with innovative operational techniques to overcome anomalies and to perform activities for which the spacecraft was not designed. Commanding the spacecraft was originally time consuming because the standard development process was envisioned as manual tasks. The Program understood that reducing mission operations costs were essential for an extended mission. Management created an environment which encouraged automation of routine tasks, allowing staff reduction while maximizing the science data returned. Data analysis and trending, command preparation, and command reviews are some of the tasks that were automated. The SCT has accommodated personnel reductions by improving operations efficiency while returning the maximum science data possible.

Cheuvront, Allan R.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Sensitivity of the ACCP Value Framework Science Benefit Score

NASA’s priorities for Earth Science are informed by the 2017-2027 Decadal Survey for Earth Science and Applications from Space of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. In that document, five Designated Observables are identified as priorities for implementation: Aerosols, Cloud-Convection-Precipitation, Surface Biology, Mass Change, and Surface Deformation Change. In 2019, NASA initiated four multi-year studies to formulate, assess, and recommend potential Observing System concepts that are responsive to the recommendations of the Earth Science Decadal Survey. The Aerosols, Clouds, Convection, and Precipitation (ACCP) study investigates opportunities for synergistic science resulting from implementations that combine both Aerosols science objectives and Clouds, Convection, and Precipitation science objectives. For the ACCP study, a Value Framework was designed to introduce structure, transparency, and traceability in the mission down-select decision process. This paper presents a sensitivity analysis that was conducted to characterize the behavior of the science benefit score of the ACCP Value Framework. it includes derivations of the sensitivity analysis equations, numerical analyses of the behavior of the combined benefit score, and the conclusions drawn from the results of the work that was conducted. The results of this analysis were key to ensuring that the aggregated science benefit scores would enable the team to differentiate and contrast across concepts.

John McLaughlan↗
NASA NTRS2017

Osiris-REx Spacecraft Current Status and Forward Plans

The NASA New Frontiers OSIRIS-REx spacecraft executed a flawless launch on September 8, 2016 to begin its 23-month journey to near-Earth asteroid (101955). The primary objective of the OSIRIS-REx mission is to collect and return to Earth a pristine sample of regolith from the asteroid surface. The sampling event will occur after a two-year period of remote sensing that will ensure a high probability of successful sampling of a region on the asteroid surface having high science value and within well-defined geological context. The OSIRIS-REx instrument payload includes three high-resolution cameras (OCAMS), a visible and near-infrared spectrometer (OVIRS), a thermal imaging spectrometer (OTES), an X-ray imaging spectrometer (REXIS), and a laser altimeter (OLA). As the spacecraft follows its nominal outbound-cruise trajectory, the propulsion, power, communications, and science instruments have undergone basic functional tests, with no major issues. Outbound cruise science investigations include a search for Earth Trojan asteroids as the spacecraft approaches the Sun-Earth L4 Lagrangian point in February 2017. Additional instrument checkouts and calibrations will be carried out during the Earth gravity assist maneuver in September 2017. During the Earth-moon flyby, visual and spectral images will be acquired to validate instrument command sequences planned for Bennu remote sensing. The asteroid Bennu remote sensing campaign will yield high resolution maps of the temperature and thermal inertia, distributions of major minerals and concentrations of organic matter across the asteroid surface. A high resolution 3d shape model including local surface slopes and a high-resolution gravity field will also be determined. Together, these data will be used to generate four separate maps that will be used to select the sampling site(s). The Safety map will identify hazardous and safe operational regions on the asteroid surface. The Deliverability map will quantify the accuracy with which the navigation team can deliver the spacecraft to and from specific sites on the asteroid surface. The Sampleability map quantifies the regolith properties, providing an estimation of how much material would be sampled at different points on the surface. The final Science Value map synthesizes the chemical, mineralogical, and geological, observations to identify the areas of the asteroid surface with the highest science value. Here, priority is given to organic, water-rich regions that have been minimally altered by surface processes. Asteroid surface samples will be acquired with a touch-and-go sample acquisition system (TAGSAM) that uses high purity pressurized N2 gas to mobilize regolith into a stainless steel canister. Although the mission requirement is to collect at least 60 g of material, tests of the TAGSAM routinely exceeded 300 g of simulant in micro-gravity tests. After acquiring the sample, the spacecraft will depart Bennu in 2021 to begin its return journey, with the sample return capsule landing at the Utah Test and Training Range on September 23, 2023. The OSIRIS-REx science team will carry out a series of detailed chemical, mineralogical, isotopic, and spectral studies that will be used to determine the origin and history of Bennu and to relate high spatial resolution sample studies to the global geological context from remote sensing. The outline of the sample analysis plan is described in a companion abstract.

Messenger, Scott↗
NASA NTRS2019

Earth in Five Reactions: Grappling With Meaning and Value in Science

The Earth in Five Reactions Workshop posed two significant challenges: (1) the formulation of a conceptual definition of “reaction” and (2) the identification and ranking of the “most important reactions” in the context of planetary evolution. Attempted answers to those challenges, collated in this collection of articles, reflect both the opportunities and hurdles when scientists deal with questions of meaning and value.

Epistemology↗
NASA NTRS2004

Evolution of a Mars Airplane Concept for the ARES Mars Scout Mission

ARES (Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey of Mars) is a proposed Mars Scout mission using an airplane to provide high-value science measurements in the areas of atmospheric chemistry, surface geology and mineralogy, and crustal magnetism. The use of an airplane for robotic exploration of Mars has been studied for over 25 years. There are, however, significant challenges associated with getting an airplane to Mars and flying through the thin, carbon dioxide Martian atmosphere. The traditional wisdom for aircraft design does not always apply for this type of vehicle and geometric, aerodynamic, and mission constraints result in a limited feasible design space. The ARES airplane design is the result of a concept exploration and evolution involving a number of trade studies, downselects, and design refinements. Industry, university, and NASA partners initially proposed a number of different concepts, drawing heavily on past Mars airplane design experience. Concept downselects were conducted with qualitative evaluation and high level analyses, focused on the most important parameters for the ARES mission. Following a successful high altitude test flight of the basic configuration, additional design refinement led to the current design. The resulting Mars airplane concept enables the high-value science objectives of the ARES mission to be accomplished while also fulfilling the desire for a simple, low-risk design.

Smith, Stephen C.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Mission science value-cost savings from the Advanced Imaging Communication System (AICS)

An Advanced Imaging Communication System (AICS) was proposed in the mid-1970s as an alternative to the Voyager data/communication system architecture. The AICS achieved virtually error free communication with little loss in the downlink data rate by concatenating a powerful Reed-Solomon block code with the Voyager convolutionally coded, Viterbi decoded downlink channel. The clean channel allowed AICS sophisticated adaptive data compression techniques. Both Voyager and the Galileo mission have implemented AICS components, and the concatenated channel itself is heading for international standardization. An analysis that assigns a dollar value/cost savings to AICS mission performance gains is presented. A conservative value or savings of $3 million for Voyager, $4.5 million for Galileo, and as much as $7 to 9.5 million per mission for future projects such as the proposed Mariner Mar 2 series is shown.

Rice, R. F.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Protecting Our Home Planet With SmallSats

This presentation provides an overview the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Science Mission Directorate’s (SMD’s) Small Satellite missions that protect and improve life on earth and in space. In recent years, Small Satellites offer a path to new types of observations for Earth and space science. NASA recognizes the value and impact of Small Satellites, from CubeSats to ESPA-class satellites, for high-value science missions to support exploration through innovative technologies. With smaller size, lower cost, more rapid solicitation, and with constellation missions, our Small Satellite missions can perform targeted science, prove out new technologies, increase our science capabilities to add to our understanding of how we can improve life on earth and in space. Our Small Satellites missions have produced synchronic, high spatial, and temporal science measurements to our changing earth, demonstrating that such missions must be part of our platforms for unique science measurements. We are also able to educate and train the next generation of scientists and engineers by means of these high-risk lower-cost missions.

SmallSats↗
NASA NTRS2007

NEWS Integration: Observations

This viewgraph presentation reviews The NASA Energy and Water Cycle Study (NEWS) methodology and integration of data products from remote sensing observations. The contents include: 1) Theme Objective; 2) Scope of Current Theme-related NEWS investigation; 3) Progress; 4) Anticipated Accomplishments (near-term and long-range); 5) Assessment of Overall Science Value (to NEWS and Earth Science in general); and 6) Outstanding Issues.

remote sensing↗
NASA NTRS2021

Developing Compelling and Science-Focused Mission Concepts for NASA Competed Mission Proposals

Since the mid 1990s, NASA has used a competitive selection process to initiate new mission concepts. These competed missions are motivated by high-value science with low implementation and cost risks. Selectable mission concepts require highly focused science approaches—delivering high quality science “on a budget.” Prospective Principal Investigators (PIs) need to convince NASA that the science they are proposing is both compelling and has high programmatic value. Unfortunately, many of these PIs are not trained in the communication skills needed for “selling” a mission concept to stakeholders. This requires a proposal that presents an investigation in an accessible, relatable, authentic, and believable way. It is the onus of the proposing PI to convince NASA of the value of their particular science concept in a competitive environment, addressing any pre-conceived notions reviewers might have about the concept’s value, complexities, urgency, and other impediments to understanding.The importance of this can be seen in the NASA-sponsored PI Launchpad (Nov 2019 & Jun 2021)1 which was designed to help early career scientists understand the skills, methods, processes, and resources needed to develop compelling science mission concepts; as well as in JPL’s update to their concept maturity model (Jan 2020) which included the addition of Story and Strategy dimensions. This paper provides guidance to assist prospective PIs in developing compelling, science-focused mission concepts. It will provide direction for communicating concepts more clearly to make science objectives more relatable to both reviewers and a broader audience, improving the probability of selection.

Ziemer, John↗
NASA NTRS1975

Mariner 10 mission analysis - Application of a black art

A major accomplishment of the mission analysis performed for Mariner 10 was the selection of a trajectory which optimized science return from the mission. The analysis utilized simple, unweighted 'science value functions' which allowed the relative values of each candidate trajectory, for each of the seven science experiments, to be calculated. A total relative value for each trajectory was determined by a simple averaging process and sensitivities were revealed by multiplying individual values. This showed a clear scientific preference for launching in early November and was used to support deferral of the launch from early October to November 3, 1973.

Shirley, D. L.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Autonomous Science on the EO-1 Mission

In mid-2003, we will fly software to detect science events that will drive autonomous scene selectionon board the New Millennium Earth Observing 1 (EO-1) spacecraft. This software will demonstrate the potential for future space missions to use onboard decision-making to detect science events and respond autonomously to capture short-lived science events and to downlink only the highest value science data.

autonomous systems robust execution↗
NASA NTRS2005

Intelligent systems in space : the EO-1 Autonomous Sciencecraft

The Autonomous Sciencecraft Software (ASE) is currently flying onboard the Earth Observing One (EO-1) Spacecraft. This software enables the spacecraft to autonomously detect and respond to science events occurring on the Earth. The package includes software systems that perform science data analysis, deliberative planning, and runtime robust execution. Because of the deployment to the EO-1 spacecraft, the ASE software has stringent constraints of autonomy and limited computing resources. We describe these constraints and how they are reflected in our operations approach. A summary of the final results of the experiment is also included. This software has demonstrated the potential for space missions to use onboard decision-making to detect, analyze, and respond to science events, and to downlink only the highest value science data. As a result, ground-based mission planning and analysis functions have been greatly simplified, thus reducing operations cost.

Earth Observing One (EO-1) Spacecraft↗
NASA NTRS2003

Validating the Autonomous Science Agent

This paper describes the validation process for the Autonomous Science Agent, a software agent that will fly onboard the EO-1 spacecraft from 2003-2004. This agent will recognize science events, retarget the spacecraft to respond to the science events, and reduce data downlink to only the highest value science data. The autonomous science agent has been designed using a layered architectural approach with specific redundant safeguards to reduce the risk of an agent malfunction to the EO-1 spacecraft. This 'safe' design is also in the process of being thoroughly validated by informal validation methods and extensive testing. This paper describes the analysis used to define agent safety, elements of the design that increase the safety of the agent, and the process being used to validate agent safety prior to the agent software controlling the spacecraft.

agent safety↗
NASA NTRS2005

Safe Agents in Space: Preventing and Responding to Anomalies in the Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment

This paper describes the design of the Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment, a software agent that has been running on-board the EO-I spacecraft since 2003. The agent recognizes science events, retargets the spacecraft to respond to the science events, and reduces data downlink to only the highest value science data. The autonomous science agent was designed using a layered architectural approach with specific redundant safeguards to reduce the risk of an agent malfUnction to the EO-I spacecraft. The agent was designed to be "safe" by first preventing anomalies, then by automatically detecting and responding to them when possible. This paper describes elements of the design that increase the safety of the agent, the anomalies that occurred during the experiment, and how the agent responded to these anomalies.

autonomous science agent↗
NASA NTRS2009

Analysis of architectures for the scientific exploration of Enceladus

In 2007, a JPL Rapid Mission Architecture (RMA) analysis team identified and evaluated a broad set of mission architecture options for a suite of scientific exploration objectives targeting the Saturnian moon Enceladus. Primary science objectives were largely focused on examination of the driving mechanisms and extent of interactions by the plumes of Enceladus recently discovered by Cassini. Investigation of the architectural trade space spanned a wide range of options, from high-energy flybys of Enceladus as a re-instrumented expansion on the Cassini mission, to more complex, multi-element combinations of Enceladus orbiters carrying multiple variants of in-situ deployable systems. Trajectory design emerged as a critical element of the mission concepts, enabling challenging missions on Atlas V and Delta IV-Heavy class launch vehicles. Various Enceladus Flagship-class mission concepts identified were analyzed and compared against several first-order figures of merit, including mass, cost, risk, mission timeline, and associated science value with respect to accomplishment of the full set of science objectives. Results are presented for these comparative analyses and the characterization of the explored trade space.

Strange, N.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Design Study of a Nuclear-Electric Transport Vehicle for Ice Giant Missions

Nuclear-electric propulsion, in which a nuclear reactor is used to power high specific-impulse ion thrusters for propulsion, is a promising method for such applications as missions to the ice giants Uranus and Neptune, identified as targets of high science value in the most recent NASA Decadal Survey of Planetary Science. Until recently, however, this has required a lightweight space nuclear power system that has yet to be designed. NASA has recently been developing the “Kilopower” nuclear reactor as a power source for future exploration missions, with a 1-kW prototype recently tested under the KRUSTY program. We utilized a next-generation Kilopower reactor to design a transportation system for missions to the ice giant planets. The mission objectives were to carry a payload of 1164 kg, comprising a lander/hopper vehicle to be delivered to explore the moon or moons of the target ice giant, along with atmospheric probes to drop into the atmosphere, plus 188 kg of science instrumentation on the spacecraft itself.

nuclear electric propulsion↗