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Miller, M. A.

Publications and source records attributed to Miller, M. A..

6 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1999

Trade Study of Five In-Situ Propellant Production Systems for a Mars Sample Return Mission

One of the goals of NASA's HEDS enterprise is to establish a long-term human presence on Mars at a fraction of the cost of employing today's technology. The most direct method of reducing mission cost is to reduce the launch mass of the spacecraft. If the propellants for the return phase of the mission are produced on Mars, the total spacecraft mass could be reduced significantly. An interim goal is a Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, which is proposed to demonstrate the feasibility of in-situ propellant production (ISPP). Five candidate ISPP systems for producing two fuels and oxygen from the Martian atmosphere are considered in this design trade-off study: 1) Zirconia cell with methanol synthesis, 2) Reverse water gas shift with water electrolysis and methanol synthesis, 3) Sabatier process for methane product ion with water electrolysis, 4) Sabatier process with water electrolysis and partial methane pyrolysis, and 5) Sabatier/RWGS combination with water electrolysis.

Green, S. T.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Trade Study of Five In-Situ Propellant Production System for a Mars Sample Return Mission

One of the goals of NASA''s HEDS enterprise is to establish a long-term human presence on Mars at a fraction of the cost of employing today''s technology. The most direct method of reducing mission cost is to reduce the launch mass of the spacecraft. If the propellants for the return phase of the mission are produced on Mars, the total spacecraft mass could be reduced significantly. An interim goal is a Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, which is proposed to demonstrate the feasibility of in-situ propellant production (ISPP). Five candidate ISPP systems for producing two fuels and oxygen from the Martian atmosphere are considered in this design trade-off study:(1) Zirconia cell with methanol synthesis, (2) Reverse water gas shift (RWGS) with water electrolysis and methanol synthesis, (3) Sabatier process for methane production with water electrolysis, (4) Sabatier process with water electrolysis and partial methane pyrolysis, and (5) Sabatier/RWGS combination with water electrolysis. These systems have been the subject of numerous previous analytical studies and laboratory demonstrations. In this investigation, the systems are objectively compared on the basis of thermochemical performance models using a commonly used chemical plant analysis software package. The realistic effects of incomplete chemical conversion and gas phase separator performance are included in these models. This study focuses on the chemical processing and product separation subsystems. The CO2 compression upstream of the chemical plane and the liquefaction/storage components are not included here.

Green, S. T.↗
NASA NTRS1991

A surface-based cloud observing system

The paper describes a surface-based system, called the Cloud Observing System (COS), that was developed for measurements of the dynamical and thermodynamical properties of clouds and of their interaction with the large-scale environment, by combining several remote sensors and in situ systems. The atmospheric parameters that will be measured by COS include precipitation, the velocity and direction of wind, the cloud liquid water, the low-level winds and turbulence structure, integrated liquid and vapor quantities, the temperature and water profiles, the cloud radiance and the cloud base temperature, irradiances at the surface, the low-level temperature profile, the cloud-base height, and the cloud fraction; video cameras will provide visual records of clouds.

Albrecht, B. A.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Price Estimation Guidelines

Improved Price Estimation Guidelines, IPEG4, program provides comparatively simple, yet relatively accurate estimate of price of manufactured product. IPEG4 processes user supplied input data to determine estimate of price per unit of production. Input data include equipment cost, space required, labor cost, materials and supplies cost, utility expenses, and production volume on industry wide or process wide basis.

Chamberlain, R. G.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Ohio River main stem study - The role of geographic information systems and remote sensing in flood damage assessments

The Pittsburgh District, Corps of Engineers, has conducted feasibility analyses of various procedures for performing flood damage assessments along the main stem of the Ohio River. Procedures using traditional, although highly automated, techniques and those based on geographic information systems have been evaluated at a test site, the City of New Martinsville, Wetzel County, WV. The flood damage assessments of the test site developed from an automated, conventional structure-by-structure appraisal served as the ground truth data set. A geographic information system was developed for the test site which includes data on hydraulic reach, ground and reference flood elevations, and land use/cover. Damage assessments were made using land use mapping developed from an exhaustive field inspection of each tax parcel. This ground truth condition was considered to provide the best comparison of flood damages to the conventional approach. Also, four land use/cover data sets were developed from Thematic Mapper Simulator (TMS) and Landsat-4 Thematic Mapper (TM) data. One of these was also used to develop a damage assessment of the test site. This paper presents the comparative absolute and relative accuracies of land use/cover mapping and flood damage assessments, and the recommended role of geographic information systems aided by remote sensing for conducting flood damage assessments and updates along the main stem of the Ohio River.

Edwardo, H. A.↗