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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 NTRS1991

Planetary protection issues and future Mars missions

A primary scientific theme for the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) is the search for life, extant or extinct, on Mars. Because of this, concerns have arisen about Planetary Protection (PP), the prevention of biological cross-contamination between Earth and other planets during solar system exploration missions. A recent workshop assessed the necessity for, and impact of, PP requirements on the unmanned and human missions to Mars comprising the SEI. The following ground-rules were adopted: (1) Information needed for assessing PP issues must be obtained during the unmanned precursor mission phase prior to human landings. (2) Returned Mars samples will be considered biologically hazardous until proven otherwise. (3) Deposition of microbes on Mars and exposure of the crew to martian materials are inevitable when humans land. And (4) Human landings are unlikely until it is demonstrated that there is no harmful effect of martian materials on terrestrial life forms. These ground-rules dictated the development of a conservative PP strategy for precursor missions. Key features of the proposed strategy include: to prevent forward-contamination, all orbiters will follow Mars Observer PP procedures for assembly, trajectory, and lifetime. All landers will follow Viking PP procedures for assembly, microbial load reduction, and bio-shield. And, to prevent back-contamination, all sample return missions will have PP requirements which include fail-safe sample sealing, breaking contact chain with the martian surface, and containment and quarantine analysis in Earth-based laboratory. In addition to deliberating on scientific and technical issues, the workshop made several recommendations for dealing with forward and back-contamination concerns from non-scicntific perspectives.

Devincenzi, D. L.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Planetary Protection and Mars Exploration

Planetary spacecraft to explore Mars are subject to international and NASA policy regarding biological cleanliness. This policy is referred to as planetary protection and it establishes guidelines to prevent biological cross-contamination of planets during solar system exploration missions. Mars mission designs and exploration strategies are incomplete without consideration of planetary protection. In this paper, the foundation for planetary protection policy will be reviewed and key issues identified. Existing guidelines governing both forward and back contamination will be summarized. Various Mars exploration scenarios will be examined and the impact of planetary protection requirements will be assessed. Technical issues that need resolution will also be identified. Finally, there will be a discussion of anticipated public attitudes concerning the risk of back contamination from Mars sample return missions.

DeVincenzi, D. L.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Solar System Expansion and Strong Equivalence Principle as Seen by the NASA MESSENGER Mission

The NASA MESSENGER mission explored the innermost planet of the solar system and obtained a rich dataset of range measurements for the determination of Mercury's ephemeris. Here we use these precise data collected over seven years to estimate parameters related to General Relativity and the evolution of the Sun. These results confirm the validity of the Strong Equivalence Principle with a significantly refined uncertainty of the Nordtvedt parameter eta=(-6.6 plus or minus 7.2)x10(exp -5) By assuming a metric theory of gravitation, we retrieved the Post-Newtonian parameter beta = 1 + (-1.6 plus or minus 1.8)x10(exp -5) and the Sun's gravitational oblateness, J(sub 2 solar)=(2.246 plus or minus 0.022)x10(exp -7). Finally, we obtain an estimate of the time variation of the Sun gravitational parameter, G (raised dot)solar mass/G solar mass =(-6.13 plus or minus 1.47)x10(exp -14), which is consistent with the expected solar mass loss due to the solar wind and interior processes. This measurement allows us to constrain |G(raised dot)|/G to be less than 4 x 10(exp -14) yr(exp -1).

Antonio Genova↗
NASA NTRS2002

Astrobiology

Astrobiology is the study of the origins, evolution and distribution of life in the universe. It provides a biological perspective to many areas of NASA research, linking such endeavors as the search for habitable planets beyond our solar system, exploration missions to Mars and Europa, and efforts to understand the origin and early evolution of life. Astrobiology addresses three fundamental questions: How does life begin and develop? Does life exist elsewhere in the universe? What is the future of life on Earth and beyond? This talk will address our concepts about the definition of life, how life might have begun, and how our blaspheme and planet have co-evolved for billions of years. The talk will explore how the perspectives gained from interdisciplinary research in the biological, geological and space sciences will prepare us to search for habitable environments and biospheres elsewhere in the Universe.

DesMarais, David↗
NASA NTRS2002

Astrobiology

Astrobiology is the study of the origins, evolution and distribution of life in the universe. It provides a biological perspective to many areas of NASA research, linking such endeavors as the search for habitable planets beyond our solar system, exploration missions to Mars and Europa, and efforts to understand the origin and early evolution of life. Astrobiology addresses three fundamental questions: How does life begin and develop? Does life exist elsewhere in the universe What is the future of life on Earth and beyond? This talk will address our concepts about the definition of life, how life might have begun, and how our blaspheme and planet have co-evolved for billions of years. The talk will explore how the perspectives gained from interdisciplinary research in the biological, geological and space sciences will prepare us to search for habitable environments and blasphemes elsewhere in the Universe.

DesMarais, David↗
NASA NTRS1984

Interplanetary navigation through the year 2005 - The inner solar system

A diverse collection of unmanned missions to explore the inner planets, outer planets, and small bodies of the solar system is being considered by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for the remainder of this century and beyond. This paper describes the key navigational problems which are anticipated for some of these missions and the techniques which are likely to be used to solve these problems. Emphasis in this paper is placed on those missions which take place entirely within about 2 Astronomical Units of the sun. The missions studied include Orbiters of Venus, Mars, the moon, and an earth-approaching asteroid, probes of the atmosphere of Venus and the surface of Mars, fast flybys of comets, and sample return missions from Mars and a short-period comet.

Wood, L. J.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Voyager to Jupiter and Saturn

The NASA Voyager mission to explore planets of the outer solar system is summarized. The mission schedule and profiles for encounters with Jupiter and Saturn, and possibly with Uranus and Pluto are included along with a description of the spacecraft and its trajectories. Scientific investigations to be made and the instruments carried are also discussed.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2008

Extreme Environment Technologies for Space and Terrestrial Applications

Over the next decades, NASA's planned solar system exploration missions are targeting planets, moons and small bodies, where spacecraft would be expected to encounter diverse extreme environmental (EE) conditions throughout their mission phases. These EE conditions are often coupled. For instance, near the surface of Venus and in the deep atmospheres of giant planets, probes would experience high temperatures and pressures. In the Jovian system low temperatures are coupled with high radiation. Other environments include thermal cycling, and corrosion. Mission operations could also introduce extreme conditions, due to atmospheric entry heat flux and deceleration. Some of these EE conditions are not unique to space missions; they can be encountered by terrestrial assets from the fields of defense,oil and gas, aerospace, and automotive industries. In this paper we outline the findings of NASA's Extreme Environments Study Team, including discussions on state of the art and emerging capabilities related to environmental protection, tolerance and operations in EEs. We will also highlight cross cutting EE mitigation technologies, for example, between high g-load tolerant impactors for Europa and instrumented projectiles on Earth; high temperature electronics sensors on Jupiter deep probes and sensors inside jet engines; and pressure vessel technologies for Venus probes and sea bottom monitors. We will argue that synergistic development programs between these fields could be highly beneficial and cost effective for the various agencies and industries. Some of these environments, however, are specific to space and thus the related technology developments should be spear headed by NASA with collaboration from industry and academia.

extreme environments↗
NASA NTRS2002

Mission Advantages of NEXT: Nasa's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster

With the demonstration of the NSTAR propulsion system on the Deep Space One mission, the range of the Discovery class of NASA missions can now be expanded. NSTAR lacks, however, sufficient performance for many of the more challenging Office of Space Science (OSS) missions. Recent studies have shown that NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) ion propulsion system is the best choice for many exciting potential OSS missions including outer planet exploration and inner solar system sample returns. The NEXT system provides the higher power, higher specific impulse, and higher throughput required by these science missions.

Oleson, Steven↗
NASA NTRS2007

NASA's Discovery Program: Moving Toward the Edge (of the Solar System)

NASA's Planetary Science , Division sponsors a competitive program of small spacecraft missions with the goal of performing focused science investigations that complement NASA's larger planetary science explorations at relatively low cost. The goal of the Discovery program is to launch many smaller missions with fast development times to increase our understanding of the solar system by exploring the planets, dwarf planets, their moons, and small bodies such as comets and asteroids. Discovery missions are solicited from the broad planetary science community approximately every 2 years. Active missions within the Discovery program include several with direct scientific or engineering connections to potential future missions to the edge of the solar system and beyond. In addition to those in the Discovery program are the missions of the New Frontiers program. The first New Frontiers mission. is the New Horizons mission to Pluto, which will explore this 38-AU distant dwarf planet and potentially some Kuiper Belt objects beyond. The Discovery program's Dawn mission, when launched in mid-2007, will use ion drive as its primary propulsion system. Ion propulsion is one of only two technologies that appear feasible for early interstellar precursor missions with practical flight times. The Kepler mission will explore the structure and diversity of extrasolar planetary systems, with an emphasis on the detection of Earth-size planets around other stars. Kepler will survey nearby solar systems searching for planets that may fall within the habitable zone,' a region surrounding a star within which liquid water may exist on a planet's surface - an essential ingredient for life as we know it. With its open and competitive approach to mission selections, the Discovery program affords scientists the opportunity to propose missions to virtually any solar system destination. With its emphasis on science and proven openness to the use of new technologies such as ion propulsion, missions flown as part of the program will test out technologies needed for future very deep-space exploration and potentially take us to these difficult and distant destinations.

Johnson, Les↗
DOE OSTI2023

Combined Heat Shield and Solar Thermal Propulsion System for an Oberth Maneuver

As humanity continues its exploration of space, many space missions are enabled by increases in speed. Examples include outer planet and dwarf planet exploration missions and missions that travel through our solar system into interstellar space. For many of these applications speeds of >10 astronomical units per year (AU/yr) are desired. A powered gravity assist around the Sun may offer the best option for reaching this goal; however, current heat shields and kick stages are too heavy or generate too little thrust. Solar thermal propulsion overcomes this tradeoff by converting the heat of the Sun into thrust. By tripling the specific impulse relative to chemical propulsion and by enabling a smaller perihelion through active cooling, this approach nearly doubles the escape velocity. Our team has designed and built working solar thermal propulsion prototypes out of materials that can survive 2700 K at a 30 x 30 cm scale. These benchtop-scale demonstrations have thus far validated the simplifying assumptions that underlie our thermal and propulsion models. Despite growing confidence that a full-scale heat shield/heat exchanger can survive an Oberth maneuver, many questions remain regarding the feasibility of long-term cryogenic storage of hydrogen propellant.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
NASA NTRS1975

Strategy for outer planets exploration

NASA's Planetary Programs Office formed a number of scientific working groups to study in depth the potential scientific return from the various candidate missions to the outer solar system. The results of these working group studies were brought together in a series of symposia to evaluate the potential outer planet missions and to discuss strategies for exploration of the outer solar system that were consistent with fiscal constraints and with anticipated spacecraft and launch vehicle capabilities. A logical, scientifically sound, and cost effective approach to exploration of the outer solar system is presented.

Source record↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Retrospective Observations of the Solar System Planets with Interstellar Probe

Retrospective Observations of the Solar System Planets with Interstellar Probe The Interstellar Probe (ISP) mission concept could simultaneously explore a number of long-standing solar system and exoplanetary science objectives. ISP’s long mission lifetime, in combination with the large separations from the solar system objects it could observe (Fig. 1), affords a truly unique dataset. This data could be leveraged to validate models of solar system and extrasolar planets and would be directly analogous to observations we can expect to make for exoplanets. Taken together, these opportunities suggest that ISP’s mission is a critical and necessary component for future planetary science endeavors. This abstract aims to address some of the clear synergies between ISP’s mission profile and the gaps in solar system science that are necessarily gaps in our ability to wholly bound our expectations for exoplanet observations (partly discussed in several white papers, including Zemcov et al., 2019; Harman et al., 2020). Notably, no single platform has yet returned near-complete phase curves for the majority of solar system planets. This is partly due to observational constraints (e.g., ground-based observatories can observe a maximum phase angle of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune of 12º, 6º, 3º, and 2º, respectively; Mallama and Hilton, 2018), but also because of the sparse nature of observations captured by spacecraft over the last 40 years (e.g., Pollack et al., 1986). Additionally, these observations come from disparate instruments that have their own biases and limitations, whereas observations by ISP’s instrumentation would provide almost uniform measurements of nearly every solar system object, removing much of the uncertainty when it comes to data intercomparisons. The biggest hurdles for making these measurements from ISP are likely to be the tight mass and energy limitations, as well as the technical challenge of looking as close as possible to the Sun without peering directly at it. This is potentially complicated by the nature of the larger astrophysical mission requirements, including whether the spacecraft is spinning, but integrating observations on board before returning them to Earth serves to both partly mitigate both the possibility of a spinning spacecraft and the downlink volumes for lookback data (although it may make data disaggregation more technically challenging). Ultimately, ISP could return truly innovative observational data of our solar system, in furtherance of a number of planetary and solar system science goals.

Sonny Harman↗
NASA NTRS2001

Planetary exploration in the time of astrobiology: protecting against biological contamination

These are intriguing times in the exploration of other solar-system bodies. Continuing discoveries about life on Earth and the return of data suggesting the presence of liquid water environments on or under the surfaces of other planets and moons have combined to suggest the significant possibility that extraterrestrial life may exist in this solar system. Similarly, not since the Viking missions of the mid-1970s has there been as great an appreciation for the potential for Earth life to contaminate other worlds. Current plans for the exploration of the solar system include constraints intended to prevent biological contamination from being spread by solar-system exploration missions.

Exobiology↗
NASA NTRS1987

Leadership and America's future in space

In response to growing concern over the posture and long-term direction of the U.S. civilian space program, a task group was formed to define potential U.S. space initiatives, and to evaluate them in light of the current space program and the nation's desire to regain and retain space leadership. The objectives were to energize a discussion of the long-term goals of the civilian space program and to begin to investigate overall strategies to direct that program to a position of leadership. Four initiatives were identified: mission to planet Earth; exploration of the solar system; outpost on the Moon, and humans to Mars. All four initiatives were developed in detail, and the implications and requirements of each was assessed. The long-term goals, current posturing required to attain these goals, and the need for a continuing process to define, refine, and assess both the goals and the strategy to achieve them are discussed.

Sally K Ride↗
NASA NTRS2018

A Journey to the Coolest Job on the Planet!

NASA's missions to explore our world, solar system, galaxy and universe presents extraordinary complex challenges. These challenges can only be met with excellence in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, innovation, and a lot of rigorous team work. Where does excellence in STEM begin?

Science↗