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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 181 records · Page 10
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Evaluating software defined networking solutions to reduce the digital attack surface of nuclear security systems

Most nuclear security systems used today were not designed for today’s threat environment. Systems that were intended to be stand alone are now interconnected. Devices that have a single purpose are built on multi-purpose platforms and communication protocols that, while effective, have no ability to authenticate authorized versus unauthorized commands. These attributes provide an attacker significant ability to affect the system, pivot throughout the interconnected networks, and remain undetected if he/she is able to compromise a single node. Software defined networking (SDN) has been used for years by information technology (IT) cloud service providers to quickly provision or remove servers or other systems to meet changing demand. The same concept has recently been applied to operational technology (OT) systems to enable very fast failover on critical systems that have stringent and deterministic (<5ms) transmit/receive times. By carefully engineering the communication flows through a network using preplanned routes and specific pathways it is possible to achieve deterministic and extremely reliable message delivery even when components fail. This engineering approach to network design has added security benefits including securing the networking control plane, eliminating network scanning and mapping, inhibiting ARP spoofing and host masquerading, eliminating unauthorized network pivoting and enabling greater situational awareness on the network. SDN in OT environments is new but early testing in electrical power and other critical infrastructure has shown it to be a very powerful tool for building reliable networks and reducing the digital attack surface of the network. The authors tested a software defined network switch on a simple physical protection system with components commonly found in nuclear security systems and found improved mitigations to denial of service attacks, lateral movement and network reconnaissance. The paper details the tests and their results.

Cyber security, Nuclear security, software defined↗
NASA NTRS1994

A General Mission Independent Simulator (GMIS) and Simulator Control Program (SCP)

GMIS is a general-purpose simulator for testing ground system software. GMIS can be adapted to any mission to simulate changes in the data state maintained by the mission's computers. GMIS was developed in Code 522 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The acronym GMIS stands for GOTT Mission Independent Simulator, where GOTT is the Ground Operations Technology Testbed. Within GOTT, GMIS is used to provide simulated data to an installation of TPOCC - the Transportable Payload Operations Control Center. TPOCC was developed by Code 510 as a reusable control center. GOTT uses GMIS and TPOCC to test new technology and new operator procedures.

Baker, Paul L.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Commercialization in NASA Space Operations

Various issues associated with commercialization in NASA space operations are presented in viewgraph form. Specific topics include: 1) NASA's financial outlook; 2) Space operations; 3) Space operations technology; and 4) Strategies associated with these operations.

Gilbert, Charlene E.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Facility Cybersecurity Framework Best Practices

Federal facilities are increasingly adopting automation and connecting to the Internet creating an energy-internet-of-things environment that converges operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT). Today's buildings increasingly weave together networked sensors and cyber and physical systems that enable data to be collected, aggregated, exchanged, stored and monetized in new ways. Building technological advances have created new energy technology, services, markets and value creation opportunities (e.g. transactive energy, two-way grid communications, machine learning, and increased use of renewable and distributed energy resources). But as larger data sets are being exchanged at faster speeds between an increasing number of OT systems, it becomes more difficult to protect the security of the data lifecycle and the physical equipment it interacts with. These challenges are especially difficult to overcome because the economic and environmental gain (interoperability, big data, social networks and ubiquitous information sharing) are driving these prominent trends in the digital age. Often cybersecurity is an afterthought. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) funded the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to develop various cybersecurity tools, trainings, and reports to aid federal facility managers – and other building owners and operators – in better applying frameworks and lessons learned from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), risk management framework (RMF), DOE’s cybersecurity capability maturity model (C2M2), and a wide variety of industry best practices and guidance documents (i.e., NIST 800 series, Department of Defense United Facilities Criteria). This set of tools, collectively known as the FEMP Facility-Related Control System Cyber Toolkit (FRCS Cyber Toolkit)2, is focused on cybersecurity concerns from facility-related control systems and other operational technology (OT), such as industrial control systems (ICS). The FRCS Cyber Toolkit can be applied across six of the sixteen critical infrastructure sectors designated by the Department of Homeland Security, including government facilities, healthcare and public health, commercial facilities (e.g., public assembly, offices, lodging), financial services (e.g., banking and insurance), emergency services (e.g., fire and police stations), and information technology. With increasingly converged IT and OT systems, it is crucial to address OT cybersecurity considerations and assess how the seam of these two systems could impact the overall cybersecurity posture of a facility. The objective of this report is to provide an overview of the best possible method to use FRCS Cyber Toolkit (section 2.0) and distilled cybersecurity best practices for the federal facilities to address growing non-linear cyber threats (section 3.0). Recommendations in this document are aggregated from several NIST and other documents (see Appendix A for additional details).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

5G integrated edge computing platform for efficient component monitoring in coal-fired power plants

This project developed a cutting-edge 5G-integrated edge computing framework to enhance operational efficiency and reliability in coal-fired power plants through real-time component monitoring and anomaly detection. The initiative focused on leveraging distributed machine learning, federated learning, and 5G-based dynamic network slicing to support scalable, fault-tolerant monitoring environments to meet the operational requirements in industrial control systems. With a Distributed Edge Computing Service (DECS) orchestration, this project enabled federated learning at edge for condition monitoring and introduced adaptive client selection strategies to minimize communication overhead. Scalable distributed training was achieved using the Horovod framework, thus enhancing performance across edge nodes. In the realm of 5G networking, the project designed and deployed reconfigurable, QoS-aware network slicing tailored for operational technology (OT) environments, integrating software-defined networks to bolster cyber-resilience and enabling dynamic slicing for federated learning workloads. A significant milestone was the development of a virtualized ICS environment with 5G core integration—which allowed elastic and fault tolerant distributed training on real-world datasets such as NASA Bearings, Hydraulic Systems, and TEP. To broaden the impact of the project, a TRL-3 virtualized ICS testbed for research and education was designed. This project engaged several graduate and undergraduate students to conduct research on the cutting-edge technology, and it resulted in one PhD dissertation, one MS thesis, and over 14 peer-reviewed publications. With the support of this project students also participated in national cybersecurity competitions to improve their professional development skills.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Test & Measurement System Security in an IT World

Automated test and measurement systems are coming under increased cybersecurity scrutiny. Most of these systems fall under the “Operational Technology” designation, as defined by NIST, and often have unique requirements that conflict with enterprise security policy. These systems are typically not well understood by traditional enterprise IT personnel, which leaves them ill-supported or invalidated.▪This presentation attempts to help Test System owners recognize the security landscape, determine their unique system requirements and concerns, and negotiate a peer-level working arrangement with an existing IT department while maintaining a NIST-recommended level of autonomy and sovereignty.

automated test↗
DOE OSTI2023

Idaho National Laboratory Energy Cybersecurity Programs Update

This brief presentation provides a status update on three Idaho National Laboratory energy cybersecurity programs of particular interest to NERC Reliability and Security Technical Committee annual in-person Security Groups summit. Public information on the following three programs is included: Cybersecurity for Operational Technology Environments (CyOTE™) program Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE) Cyber Testing for Resilient Industrial Control Systems (CyTRICS) program, and associated high-level information on the Energy Software Bill of Materials POC, Executive Order 14017, and the Energy Cyber Sense Act

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Deny-by-Default Network Port Security: SPaRC Technical Bulletin #002

Operational Technology (OT) networks [e.g., industrial control systems (ICS) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems] have unique cyber security challenges due to their decades long service life, high availability requirements, and limited visibility. OT networks often take credit for being “air gapped” (i.e. disconnected from the Internet) and all devices within the OT network can “talk” to each other—even if they should not. This SPaRC Technical Bulletin describes how the unique limitations of OT networks can become strengths when it comes to cybersecurity.

Cybersecurity↗
DOE OSTI2025

I Can't Patch My OT Systems! A Look at CISA's KEVC Workarounds & Mitigations for OT

We examine the state of publicly available information about known exploitable vulnerabilities applicable to operational technology (OT) environments. Specifically, we analyze the Known Exploitable Vulnerabilities Catalog (KEVC) maintained by the US Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to assess whether currently available data is sufficient for effective and reliable remediation in OT settings. Our team analyzed all KEVC entries through July 2025 to determine the extent to which OT environments can rely on existing remediation recommendations. We found that although most entries in the KEVC could affect OT environments, only 13% include vendor workarounds or mitigations as alternatives to patching. This paper also examines the feasibility of developing such alternatives based on vulnerability and exploit characteristics, and we present early evidence of success with this approach.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Exponential Backoff and Its Security Implications for Safety-Critical OT Protocols over TCP/IP Networks

The convergence of Operational Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT) networks has become increasingly prevalent with the growth of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications. This shift, while enabling enhanced automation, remote monitoring, and data sharing, also introduces new challenges related to communication latency and cybersecurity. Oftentimes, legacy OT protocols were adapted to the TCP/IP stack without an extensive review of the ramifications to their robustness, performance, or safety objectives. To further accommodate the IT/OT convergence, protocol gateways were introduced to facilitate the migration from serial protocols to TCP/IP protocol stacks within modern IT/OT infrastructure. However, they often introduce additional vulnerabilities by exposing traditionally isolated protocols to external threats. This study investigates the security and reliability implications of migrating serial protocols to TCP/IP stacks and the impact of protocol gateways, utilizing two widely used OT protocols: Modbus TCP and DNP3. Our protocol analysis finds a significant safety-critical vulnerability resulting from this migration, and our subsequent tests clearly demonstrate its presence and impact. A multi-tiered testbed, consisting of both physical and emulated components, is used to evaluate protocol performance and the effects of device-specific implementation flaws. Through this analysis of specifications and behaviors during communication interruptions, we identify critical differences in fault handling and the impact on time-sensitive data delivery. The findings highlight how reliance on lower-level IT protocols can undermine OT system resilience, and they inform the development of mitigation strategies to enhance the robustness of industrial communication networks.

DNP3↗
NASA NTRS1979

The Deep Space Network

Deep Space Network progress in flight project support, tracking and data acquisition, research and technology, network engineering, hardware and software implementation, and operations is cited. Topics covered include: tracking and ground based navigation; spacecraft/ground communication; station control and operations technology; ground communications; and deep space stations.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1987

Space station operations task force. Panel 2 report: Ground operations and support systems

The Ground Operations Concept embodied in this report provides for safe multi-user utilization of the Space Station, eases user integration, and gives users autonomy and flexibility. It provides for meaningful multi-national participation while protecting U.S. interests. The concept also supports continued space operations technology development by maintaining NASA expertise and enabling technology evolution. Given attention here are pre/post flight operations, logistics, sustaining engineering/configuration management, transportation services/rescue, and information systems and communication.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1995

Integrated planning and scheduling for Earth science data processing

Several current NASA programs such as the EOSDIS Core System (ECS) have data processing and data management requirements that call for an integrated planning and scheduling capability. In this paper, we describe the experience of applying advanced scheduling technology operationally, in terms of what was accomplished, lessons learned, and what remains to be done in order to achieve similar successes in ECS and other programs. We discuss the importance and benefits of advanced scheduling tools, and our progress toward realizing them, through examples and illustrations based on ECS requirements. The first part of the paper focuses on the Data Archive and Distribution (DADS) V0 Scheduler. We then discuss system integration issues ranging from communication with the scheduler to the monitoring of system events and re-scheduling in response to them. The challenge of adapting the scheduler to domain-specific features and scheduling policies is also considered. Extrapolation to the ECS domain raises issues of integrating scheduling with a product-generation planner (such as PlaSTiC), and implementing conditional planning in an operational system. We conclude by briefly noting ongoing technology development and deployment projects being undertaken by HTC and the ISTB.

Boddy, Mark↗
NASA NTRS1988

Adaption of Space Station technology for lunar operations

The possible use of Space Station technology in a lunar base program is discussed, focusing on the lunar lander/ascent vehicles and surface modules. The application of the Space Station data management system, software, and communications, tracking, guidance, navigation, control, and power technologies is examined. The benefits of utilizing this technology for lunar operations are considered.

Garvey, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Application of World Wide Web (W3) Technologies in Payload Operations

World Wide Web (W3) technologies are considered in relation to their application to space missions. It is considered that such technologies, including the hypertext transfer protocol and the Java object-oriented language, offer a powerful and relatively inexpensive framework for distributed application software development. The suitability of these technologies for payload monitoring systems development is discussed, and the experience gained from the development of an insect habitat monitoring system based on W3 technologies is reported.

Sun, Charles↗
NASA NTRS2019

Impact of the CIF Program on NASA’s Autonomy Capability: the NASA Platform for Autonomous Systems (NPAS)

The CIF (Center Innovation Fund) Program provided support to advance the autonomous operation technology that was at a low TRL (Technological Readiness Level) scale to push the technology to a higher TRL where then other programs could sponsor further advances and infusion of the capability into other projects. This is the case with NPAS (NASA Platform for Autonomous Systems). Autonomy capability encompasses technologies that enable a system to function independent from operators, except for times of low frequency high level interactions. With this degree of autonomy, the system has to be able to determine its condition (Integrated System Health Management - ISHM), and apply autonomy strategies that permit progression towards achieving a mission, in spite of anomalies or external unforeseen disturbances.

Armstrong, Curtis D.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Cybersecurity for System Operators

SERC's System Operator Conference is an annual education and sustainment training for electric power system operators across the southeastern United States. In recognition of the growing importance of cybersecurity for energy systems, a block of instruction on cybersecurity concepts was included for this year's conferences. This presentation provides an overview of the need for and general approach used in the DOE CESER-sponsored Cybersecurity for the Operational Technology Environment (CyOTE) program, tailored for electric power system operators. NERC's updated Cyber Intrusion Guide for System Operators is reviewed, explaining how it is an operationalization of some of CyOTE's principles and approach.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Vedizar Fingerprinter

SAND2025-03289O Vedizar Fingerprinter simplifies the process of identifying devices on a network by analyzing traffic data. It uses a unique library to recognize different devices, making it easier for users to understand what is happening on their networks. This software is ideal for IT and operational technology environments, helping organizations monitor their networks effectively. By saving results in a database, it allows for easy access and review of device information. Users can enhance their network security and optimize performance without needing specialized hardware or technical expertise. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

Jacobellis, John [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), L↗