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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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Blockchain Research and Development Activities Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and Utility Sector

This article provides an in-depth analysis of blockchain research in the energy sector, focusing on projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and comparing them with industry-funded initiatives. A total of 110 funded activities within the U.S. power industry were successfully tracked and mapped into a newly developed categorization framework. This framework is designed to help research agencies to systematically understand their funded portfolio. Such characterization is expected to help them make effective investments, identify research gaps, measure impact, and advance technological progress to meet national goals. In line with this need, the proposed framework proposes a 2-D categorization matrix to systematically classify blockchain efforts within the energy sector.Under the proposed framework, the Energy System Domain serves as the primary classification dimension, categorizing use cases into 30 distinct applications. The second dimension, Blockchain Properties, captures the specific needs and functionalities provided by Blockchain technology. The aim was to capture blockchain’s applicability and functionality: where and why blockchain? Principles behind the selection of the viewpoint dimensions were carefully defined based on consensus obtained through the Blockchain for Optimized Security and Energy Management (BLOSEM) project. The mapped results show that activities within the Grid Automation, Coordination, and Control (31.8%), Marketplaces and Trading (25.5%), Foundational Blockchain Research (19.1%), and Supply Chain Management (17.3%) domains have been actively pursued to date. The three leading specific use case applications were identified as Transactive Energy Management for Marketplaces and Trading, Asset Management for Supply Chain Management, and Fundamental Blockchain for Foundational Blockchain Research. The Marketplaces and Trading and Retail Services Enablement domains stood out as being favored by industry by a factor greater than 2 (2.3 and 2.6, respectively), yet there seemed to be little to zero investment from DOE. Approximately 76% of the total projects prioritized Immutability, Identity Management, and Decentralization and/or Disintermediation compared to Asset Digitization and/or Tokenization, Automation, and Privacy and/or Anonymity. The greatest discrepancies between DOE and industry were in Asset Digitization and/or Tokenization and Automation. The industry efforts (36% in Asset Digitization/Tokenization and 22% in Automation) was 14 times and 2.4 times, respectively, more intensive than the DOE-sponsored efforts, indicating a significant discrepancy in industry versus government priorities. Overall, quantifying DOE-sponsored projects and industry activities through mapping provides clarity on portfolio investments and opportunities for future research.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

A review of NASA-sponsored technology assessment projects

Recent technology assessment studies sponsored by NASA are reviewed, and a summary of the technical results as well as a critique of the methodologies are presented. The reviews include Assessment of Lighter-Than-Air Technology, Technology Assessment of Portable Energy RDT&P, Technology Assessment of Future Intercity Passenger Transportation Systems, and Technology Assessment of Space Disposal of Radioactive Nuclear Waste. The use of workshops has been introduced as a unique element of some of these assessments. Also included in this report is a brief synopsis of a method of quantifying opinions obtained through such group interactions. Representative of the current technology assessments, these studies cover a broad range of socio-political factors and issues in greater depth than previously considered in NASA sponsored studies. In addition to the lessons learned through the conduct of these studies, a few suggestions for improving the effectiveness of future technology assessments are provided.

Mascy, A. C.↗

Non-doe-sponsored Domestic Dish Activities

The parabolic dish development activities being undertaken within the private sector of the United States were addressed. The primary emphasis of these non-DOE-sponsored activities is the development of commercial products that can penetrate the market in the near term. The exchange of information between these activities and the complementary DOE-sponsored work directed toward developing advancements in technology is considered to be of major importance. The experiences and problems encountered in the private sector serve as inputs that will help guide in the planning of the DOE program. In turn, a principal objective of the DOE program is the transfer findings of its technological development activities to the private sector. Activities in the private are characterized by their diversity in terms of both product design and marketing approach. The differences in the design concepts and the sizes of the dish concentrators under development are particularly noteworthy.

Fujita, T.↗

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 3: The impact of a sponsor letter on mail survey response rates

We describe the impact of two interventions in the design of mail surveys. The interventions were devised to increase response rates and to clarify sample eligibility. To test their effectiveness, the interventions occurred at different points in each of three surveys. One intervention was a letter from the research sponsor (NASA) supporting the research. The other intervention was the inclusion of a postcard that could be used by the respondent to indicate that the questionnaire was not appropriate for him/her. The sample was drawn from the membership of a professional aerospace research society, the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Scientists and engineers are difficult to survey for two reasons. First, there are significant problems with the definition of scientists and engineers. Second, typically there are low response rates in surveys of this group. These two problems were found in the NASA surveys. The results indicate that the sponsor letter improved response rates under certain conditions described here. The postcards assisted in identifying non-eligible persons, particularly when the postcards accompanied a pre-survey letter. The implications for survey costs are discussed.

Kennedy, John M.↗

NASA/DoD Aerospace knowledge diffusion research project. III - The impact of a sponsor letter on mail survey response rates

The paper describes the impact of two interventions in the design of mail surveys. The interventions were devised to increase response rates and to clarify sample eligibility. To test their effectiveness, interventions occurred at different points in each of three surveys. One intervention was a letter from the research sponsor (NASA) supporting the research. The other intervention was the inclusion of a postcard that could be used by the respondent to indicate that the questionnaire was not appropriate for him/her. The sample was drawn from the membership of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics research society. The results indicate that the sponsor letter improved response rates under certain conditions described in the paper. The postcards assisted in identifying noneligible persons particularly when they accompanied a pre-survey letter. The implications for survey costs are discussed.

Kennedy, John M.↗

Government-Sponsored Programs on Structures Technology

This document contains the presentations from the joint UVA/AIAA workshops on Government-Sponsored Programs on Structures Technology, held on April 6, 1997 in Kissimmee, Florida and on September 4, 1997 in Hampton, Virginia. Workshop attendees were the Members and Friends of the AIAA Structures Technical Committee. The objectives of the workshops were to: (a) provide a forum for discussion of current government-sponsored programs in the structures area; (b) identify high-potential research areas for future aerospace systems; and (c) initiate suitable interaction mechanisms with the managers of structures programs.

Ahmed K Noor↗

Coordinated Analysis 101: A Joint Training Session Sponsored by LPI and ARES/JSC

The Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) and the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Division, part of the Exploration Integration and Science Directorate at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC), co-sponsored a training session in November 2016 for four early-career scientists in the techniques of coordinated analysis. Coordinated analysis refers to the approach of systematically performing high-resolution and -precision analytical studies on astromaterials, particularly the very small particles typical of recent and near-future sample return missions such as Stardust, Hayabusa, Hayabusa2, and OSIRIS-REx. A series of successive analytical steps is chosen to be performed on the same particle, as opposed to separate subsections of a sample, in such a way that the initial steps do not compromise the results from later steps in the sequence. The data from the entire series can then be integrated for these individual specimens, revealing important in-sights obtainable no other way. ARES/JSC scientists have played a leading role in the development and application of this approach for many years. Because the coming years will bring new sample collections from these and other planned NASA and international exploration missions, it is timely to begin disseminating specialized techniques for the study of small and precious astromaterial samples. As part of the Cooperative Agreement between NASA and the LPI, this training workshop was intended as the first in a series of similar training exercises that the two organizations will jointly sponsor in the coming years. These workshops will span the range of analytical capabilities and sample types available at ARES/JSC in the Astromaterials Research and Astro-materials Acquisition and Curation Offices. Here we summarize the activities and participants in this initial training.

Draper, D. S.↗

Natural Language Processing for Text Based Event Extraction: Identifying Events of Interest Related to Worldwide State-Sponsored Civil Nuclear Power

Beginning in FY20, SRNL was funded by the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Defense Nuclear Non-Proliferation Research and Development to develop a prototype natural language processing/natural language understating machine learning-based modeling and analysis pipeline to extract and forecast events of interest from massive open data sources. The working hypothesis within the approach is that contextual shifts in key words and phrases act as indicators of events of interest over time. Therefore, by identifying points in time where contextual shifts occur, events of interest can be extracted along with explicit and implicit connections of entities and activities. The development of the preliminary prototype pipeline proved successful, meriting further testing of the pipeline on more broad topical domains and in a worldwide data environment. Therefore, SRNL, in collaboration with the Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics at Virginia Tech, have continued development with a test case of identifying events of interest related to worldwide state-sponsored civil nuclear power in open data sources. In the first year of this follow-on effort, the team has curated domain-specific data corpuses using an automated scheme and applied the modeling and analysis pipeline. This robust, focused, and efficient approach consists of an ensemble of analyses applied to time dependent word embedding models that are trained on the data corpuses. In this report, the team has demonstrated the capability of the existing pipeline (as development has continued in parallel) by exploring several specific case-studies centered around Rosatom’s international activities regarding the planning, construction, operation, and/or shutdown of nuclear reactors. A basic timeline events has been generated by manually cataloging known “milestone” events that have occurred at reactors in Turkey, Finland, Hungary, and Egypt and compared with the output of the modeling pipeline. In this approach, the team has characterized the lead time using the prototype pipeline, as well as the ability to capture relevant information, which proved 100% successful. A deep dive example of the Akkuyu reactor (Turkey) is presented that shows the breadth of information that can be captured using the approach. In this case study, events were extracted pertaining to the planning/construction of Akkuyu including protests from the population, information campaigns in response to the protests, forged regulatory documents and lawsuits, budgetary/shareholder information, geopolitical tensions, and the various construction milestones. This has demonstrated the pipeline’s utility as a research aid or real-time event extraction tool, where summary-level information and detailed text extractions from millions of articles or Tweets across long time periods can be generated with significantly less effort than current techniques.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Controlling the potential hazards of government-sponsored technology

The ability was examined of governmental agencies to adequately assess technological programs or projects to which they are committed. The hazards of government-sponsored activities are discussed; these include weather modification, supersonic transport noise, and the value conflicts involved in the fluoridation controversy. These three case studies indicate that the Federal vested interests in the continuation of its technological programs limit its ability to provide adequate technology assessment.

Wollan, M. J.↗

NASA-sponsored containerless processing experiments

An outline is presented of containerless processing and facilities at Intersonics which is sponsored by NASA. There are electromagnetic, acoustic, and aerodynamic levitation facilities. There are also laser beam and arc lamp heating systems along with state of the art noncontact temperature and optical property measurement facilities. Nonintrusive diagnostic techniques with Laser Induced Fluorescence and mass spectrometer are also available. Controlled atmosphere processing, gas quenching, and proven microgravity processing technology is part of the Intersonics capabilities.

Hofmeister, William H.↗

Overview of the NASA-sponsored HSCT propulsion system studies

A brief overview of the NASA-sponsored HSCT propulsion system studies is presented that includes objectives, approach, schedules, and a summary of interim results highlighting the NASA in-house studies. Seven propulsion system concepts have been considered to date and comparatively evaluated on a first-order basis using takeoff gross weight (TOGW) as the main discriminator. Only two concepts have been screened out thus far and it is apparent that TOGW is not a strong discriminator. However, the first-order screening process did not account for differences in propulsion installation effects or climb-noise suppression penalties-both of which may strongly influence the screening process.

Strack, William C.↗

The NASA sponsored HSCT propulsion studies

One objective of the NASA-sponsored High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) propulsion studies is to determine the potential benefits of alternative advanced technologies. These benefits should be explicitly expressed in terms of meeting either environmental acceptability or economic viability. The potential benefit information is used to screen alternative technology candidates to the most promising technologies that, if successfully developed, will enable the propulsion system to achieve high performance and low weight without unduly sacrificing favorable emissions and noise characteristics. A second objective is the provision of key information to high-level decision makers--enabling them to make rational decisions concerning the technology program content. It will be necessary to pursue more than one concept/technology until experimental validity is convincingly demonstrated. Some technologies will likely fail to achieve their stated goals, and timely program redirection depends upon far-sighted system studies to provide such information.

Strack, William C.↗

Research on the Implementation of the NASA Joint Sponsored Research Program and other Innovative Mechanism for Commercializing NASA Funded Technologies

A goal of the ERAST Program is the commercial application of technology resulting from the work if the ERAST Alliance. This goal is sufficiently primary to be called out in the recitals section of the ERAST Joint Sponsored Research Agreement. In support of this goal, two activities described below were commenced in 1996 to assess and explore commercial applications of UAV technologies relevant to the ERAST Alliance.

Robbins, Karen Risa↗

Cooperative Research Projects in the Microgravity Combustion Science Programs Sponsored by NASA and NEDO

This document contains the results of a collection of selected cooperative research projects between principal investigators in the microgravity combustion science programs, sponsored by NASA and NEDO. Cooperation involved the use of drop towers in Japan and the United States, and the sharing of subsequent research data and findings. The topical areas include: (1) Interacting droplet arrays, (2) high pressure binary fuel sprays, (3) sooting droplet combustion, (4) flammability limits and dynamics of spherical, premixed gaseous flames and, (5) ignition and transition of flame spread across thin solid fuel samples. All of the investigators view this collaboration as a success. Novel flame behaviors were found and later published in archival journals. In some cases the experiments provided verification of the design and behavior in subsequent experiments performed on the Space Shuttle. In other cases, the experiments provided guidance to experiments that are expected to be performed on the International Space Station.

Ross, Howard↗

A Summary of DOD-Sponsored Research Performed at NASA Langley's Impact Dynamics Research Facility

The Impact Dynamics Research Facility (IDRF) is a 240-ft.-high gantry structure located at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The IDRF was originally built in the early 1960's for use as a Lunar Landing Research Facility. As such, the facility was configured to simulate the reduced gravitational environment of the Moon, allowing the Apollo astronauts to practice lunar landings under realistic conditions. In 1985, the IDRF was designated a National Historic Landmark based on its significant contributions to the Apollo Moon Landing Program. In the early 1970's the facility was converted into its current configuration as a full-scale crash test facility for light aircraft and rotorcraft. Since that time, the IDRF has been used to perform a wide variety of impact tests on full-scale aircraft, airframe components, and space vehicles in support of the General Aviation (GA) aircraft industry, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), the rotorcraft industry, and the NASA Space program. The objectives of this paper are twofold: to describe the IDRF facility and its unique capabilities for conducting structural impact testing, and to summarize the impact tests performed at the IDRF in support of the DOD. These tests cover a time period of roughly 2 1/2 decades, beginning in 1975 with the full-scale crash test of a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, and ending in 1999 with the external fuel system qualification test of a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. NASA officially closed the IDRF in September 2003; consequently, it is important to document the past contributions made in improved human survivability and impact tolerance through DOD-sponsored research performed at the IDRF.

Jackson, Karen E.↗