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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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NASA NTRS1973

Phase 111A Crew Interface Specifications Development for Inflight Maintenance and Stowage Functions

This report presents the findings and data products developed during the Phase IIIA Crew Interface Specification Study for Inflight Maintenance and Stowage Functions, performed by General Electric for the NASA, Johnson Space Center with a set of documentation that can be used as definitive guidelines to improve the present process of defining, controlling and managing flight crew interface requirements that are related to inflight maintenance (including assembly and servicing) and stowage functions. During the Phase IIIA contract period, the following data products were developed: 1) Projected NASA Crew Procedures/Flight Data File Development Process. 2) Inflight Maintenance Management Process Description. 3) Preliminary Draft, General Specification, Inflight Maintenance Management Requirements. 4) Inflight Maintenance Operational Process Description. 5) Preliminary Draft, General Specification, Inflight Maintenance Task and Support Requirements Analysis. 6) Suggested IFM Data Processing Reports for Logistics Management The above Inflight Maintenance data products have been developed during the Phase IIIA study after review of Space Shuttle Program Documentation, including the Level II Integrated Logistics Requirements and other DOD and NASA data relative to Payloads Accommodations and Satellite On-Orbit Servicing. These Inflight Maintenance data products were developed to be in consonance with Space Shuttle Program technical and management requirements.

Carl, John G.↗

NASA NTRS2019

Channel Wall Nozzle Manufacturing Technology Advancements for Liquid Rocket Engines

A regeneratively-cooled nozzle is a critical component for expansion of the hot gases to enable high temperature and performance liquid rocket engines systems. Channel wall nozzles are a design solution used across the propulsion industry as a simplified method to fabricate the nozzle structure with internal coolant passages. The scale and complexity of the channel wall nozzle (CWN) design is challenging to fabricate leading to extended lead times and higher costs. Some of these challenges include: 1) unique and high temperature materials, 2) Tight tolerances during manufacturing and assembly to contain high pressure propellants, 3) thin-walled features to maintain adequate wall temperatures, and 4) Unique manufacturing process operations and tooling. The United States (U.S.) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) along with U.S. specialty manufacturing vendors are maturing modern fabrication techniques to reduce complexity and decrease costs associated with channel wall nozzle manufacturing technology. Additive Manufacturing (AM) is one of the key technology advancements being evaluated for channel wall nozzles. Much of additive manufacturing for propulsion components has focused on powder bed fusion, but the scale is not yet feasible for application to large scale nozzles. NASA is evolving directed energy deposition (DED) techniques for nozzles including arc-based deposition, blown powder deposition, and Laser Wire Direct Closeout (LWDC). There are different approaches being considered for fabrication of the nozzle and each of these DED processes offer unique process steps for rapid fabrication. The arc-based and blown powder deposition techniques are being used for the forming of the CWN liner. A variety of materials are being demonstrated including Inconel 625, Haynes 230, JBK-75, and NASA HR-1. The blown powder DED process is also being demonstrated for forming an integral channel nozzle in a single operation in similar materials. The LWDC process is a method for closing out the channels within the liner and forming the structural jacket using a localized laser wire deposition technique. Identical materials mentioned above have been used for this process in addition to bimetallic closeout (C-18150–SS347, and C-18150–Inconel 625). NASA has completed process development, material characterization, and hot-fire testing on a variety of these channel wall nozzle fabrication techniques. This paper will present an overview of the various processes and materials being evaluated and the results from the hot-fire testing. Future development and technology focus areas will also be discussed relative to channel wall nozzle manufacturing.

Gradl, Paul R.↗

NASA NTRS2020

Technology Advancements for Channel Wall Nozzle Manufacturing In Liquid Rocket Engines

A regeneratively-cooled or dump-cooled nozzle is a critical component for expansion of hot gases to enable high temperature and performance in liquid rocket engines systems. Regeneratively-cooled channel wall nozzles are a design solution used across the propulsion industry as a simplified method to fabricate the nozzle structure with internal coolant passages. The scale and complexity of the channel wall nozzle (CWN) design can be challenging to fabricate which results in extended lead times and higher costs. Some of these challenges include: 1) Unique and high temperature materials, 2) Tight tolerances on large parts during manufacturing and assembly to contain high pressure propellants, 3) Thin-walled features to maintain adequate wall temperatures, and 4) Unique manufacturing process operations and complex tooling. The United States (U.S.) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and U.S. specialty manufacturing vendors are maturing modern fabrication techniques to reduce complexity and decrease costs associated with channel wall nozzle manufacturing technology. Additive Manufacturing (AM) is one of the key technology advancements under evaluation for channel wall nozzles. Much of additive manufacturing for propulsion components has focused on laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF), but the scale is not yet feasible for application to large scale nozzles. NASA is evolving directed energy deposition (DED) techniques for nozzles including arc-based deposition, blown powder deposition, and Laser Wire Direct Closeout (LWDC). There are different approaches being considered for fabrication of the nozzle, and each of these DED processes offer unique process steps for rapid fabrication. The arc-based and blown powder deposition techniques are used for the forming of the CWN liner. A variety of materials are being demonstrated including Inconel 625, Haynes 230, JBK-75, and NASA HR-1. The blown powder DED process is also being demonstrated for forming an integral channel nozzle in a single operation in similar materials. The LWDC process is a method for closing out the channels within the liner and forming the structural jacket using a localized laser wire deposition technique. Identical materials mentioned above have been used for this process in addition to bimetallic closeout (C-18150–SS347, and C-18150–Inconel 625). NASA has completed process development, material characterization, and hot-fire testing on a variety of these channel wall nozzle fabrication technique. This publication presents an overview of the various channel wall nozzle manufacturing processes and materials under evaluation including results from the hot-fire testing. Future development and technology focus areas is also discussed relative to channel wall nozzle manufacturing.

Additive manufacturing↗

NASA NTRS2001

The Origin of Organic Matter in the Solar System: Evidence from Interplanetary Dust Particles

The origin of the organic matter in interplanetary materials has not been established. A variety of mechanisms have been proposed, with two extreme cases being a Fisher-Tropsch type process operating in the gas phase of the solar nebula or a Miller-Urey type process, which requires interaction with an aqueous fluid, presumably occurring on an asteroid. In the Fisher-Tropsch case, we might expect similar organic matter in hydrated and anhydrous interplanetary materials. However, aqueous alteration is required in the case of the Miller-Urey process, and we would expect to see organic matter preferentially in interplanetary materials that exhibit evidence of aqueous activity, such as the presence of hydrated silicates. The types and abundance of organic matter in meteorites have been used as an indicator of the origin of organic matter in the Solar System. Indigenous complex organic matter, including amino acids, has been found in hydrated carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, such as Murchison. Much lower amounts of complex organic matter, possibly only terrestrial contamination, have been found in anhydrous carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, such as Allende, that contain most of their carbon in elemental form. These results seem to favor production of the bulk of the organic matter in the Solar System by aqueous processing on parent bodies such as asteroids, a Miller-Urey process. However, the hydrated carbonaceous chondrite meteorites have approximately solar abundances of the moderately volatile elements, while all anhydrous carbonaceous chondrite meteorites have significantly lower contents of these moderately volatile elements. Two mechanisms, incomplete condensation or evaporation, both of which involve processing at approx. 1200 C, have been suggested to explain the lower content of the moderately volatile elements in all anhydrous meteorites. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Flynn, G. J.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Crew Transportation Operations Standards

The Crew Transportation Operations Standards contains descriptions of ground and flight operations processes and specifications and the criteria which will be used to evaluate the acceptability of Commercial Providers' proposed processes and specifications.

specifications↗

DOE OSTI2021

PD21A680: Additive Manufacturing Process Optimization and Qualification FY21 Year-end Report

This project builds upon knowledge gained from previous projects on Additive Manufacturing (AM) operation, process control and monitoring, repeatability, and process improvement. This project will exclusively focus on metal powder bed additive manufacturing (PBAM). Objective 1: Advance metal powder bed AM R&D capabilities. Perform enhanced R&D on increased build volumes and throughput, safety and handling controls, process monitoring, and diagnostics with a focus on production end-states. Objective 2: Build upon knowledge gained from previous PDRD projects to develop deeper understanding of process controls, essential for transitioning metal AM processes for future applications. Objective 3: Maintain business development and research advantages through collaborations with external industry and university partners.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

NASA NTRS2008

Cassini's Maneuver Automation Software (MAS) Process: How to Successfully Command 200 Navigation Maneuvers

To keep Cassini on its complex trajectory, more than 200 orbit trim maneuvers (OTMs) have been planned from July 2004 to July 2010. With only a few days between many of these OTMs, the operations process of planning and executing the necessary commands had to be automated. The resulting Maneuver Automation Software (MAS) process minimizes the workforce required for, and maximizes the efficiency of, the maneuver design and uplink activities. The MAS process is a well-organized and logically constructed interface between Cassini's Navigation (NAV), Spacecraft Operations (SCO), and Ground Software teams. Upon delivery of an orbit determination (OD) from NAV, the MAS process can generate a maneuver design and all related uplink and verification products within 30 minutes. To date, all 112 OTMs executed by the Cassini spacecraft have been successful. MAS was even used to successfully design and execute a maneuver while the spacecraft was in safe mode.

Yang, Genevie Velarde↗

NASA NTRS1984

Advances in white-light optical signal processing

A technique that permits signal processing operations which can be carried out by white light source is described. The method performs signal processing that obeys the concept of coherent light rather than incoherent optics. Since the white light source contains all the color wavelengths of the visible light, the technique is very suitable for color signal processing.

Yu, F. T. S.↗

NASA NTRS2007

Probing the Depths of Space Weathering: A Cross-sectional View of Lunar Rock 76015

The term "space weathering" refers to the cumulative effects of several processes operating at the surface of any solar system body not protected by a thick atmosphere. These processes include cosmic and solar ray irradiation, solar wind implantation and sputtering, as well as melting and vaporization due to micrometeorite bombardment. Space weathering discussions have generally centered around soils but exposed rocks will also incur the effects of weathering. Rocks have much longer surface lifetimes than an individual soil grain and thus record a longer history of exposure. By studying the weathering products which have built up on a rock surface, we can gain a deeper perspective on the weathering process and better assess the relative importance of various weathering components. The weathered coating, or patina, of the lunar rock 76015 has been previously studied using SEM and TEM. It is a noritic breccia with both "glazed" (smooth glassy) and "classic" (microcratered and pancake-bearing) patina coatings. Previous TEM work on 76015 relied on ultramicrotomy to prepare cross sections of the patina coating, but these sections were limited by the "chatter" and loss of material in these brittle samples. Here we have used a focused ion beam (FIB) instrument to prepare cross sections in which the delicate stratigraphy of the patina coating is beautifully preserved.

Noble, Sarah K.↗

NASA NTRS2014

A Flight Research Overview of WSPR, a Pilot Project for Sonic Boom Community Response

In support of NASAs ongoing effort to bring supersonic commercial travel to the public, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center and NASA Langley Research Center, in cooperation with other industry organizations, conducted a flight research experiment to identify the methods, tools, and best practices for a large-scale quiet (or low) sonic boom community human response test. The name of the effort was Waveforms and Sonic boom Perception and Response. Such tests will go towards building a dataset that governing agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration and International Civil Aviation Organization will use to establish regulations for acceptable sound levels of overland sonic booms. Until WSPR, there had never been an effort that studied the response of people in their own homes and performing daily activities to non-traditional, low sonic booms.WSPR was a NASA collaborative effort with several industry partners, in response to a NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Research Opportunities in Aeronautics. The primary contractor was Wyle. Other partners included Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, Pennsylvania State University, Tetra Tech, and Fidell Associates, Inc.A major objective of the effort included exposing a community with the sonic boom magnitudes and occurrences expected in high-air traffic regions with a network of supersonic commercial aircraft in place. Low-level sonic booms designed to simulate those produced by the next generation of commercial supersonic aircraft were generated over a small residential community. The sonic boom footprint was recorded with an autonomous wireless microphone array that spanned the entire community. Human response data was collected using multiple survey methods. The research focused on essential elements of community response testing including subject recruitment, survey methods, instrumentation systems, flight planning and operations, and data analysis methods.This paper focuses on NASAs role in the efforts logistics and operations including human response subject recruitment, the operational processes involved in implementing the surveys throughout the community, instrumentation systems, logistics, flight planning, and flight operations. Findings discussed in this paper include critical lessons learned in all of those areas. The paper also discusses flight operations results. Analysis of the accuracy and repeatability of planning and executing the unique aircraft maneuver used to generate low sonic booms concluded that the sonic booms had overpressures within 0.15 pounds-per-square-feet of the planned values for 76 of t he attempts. Similarly, 90 of the attempts to generate low sonic booms within the community were successful.

sonic booms↗

NASA NTRS2014

A Flight Research Overview of WSPR, a Pilot Project for Sonic Boom Community Response

In support of the ongoing effort by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to bring supersonic commercial travel to the public, the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center and the NASA Langley Research Center, in cooperation with other industry organizations, conducted a flight research experiment to identify the methods, tools, and best practices for a large-scale quiet (or low) sonic boom community human response test. The name of the effort was Waveforms and Sonic boom Perception and Response (WSPR). Such tests will be applied to building a dataset that governing agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration and the International Civil Aviation Organization will use to establish regulations for acceptable sound levels of overland sonic booms. The WSPR test was the first such effort that studied responses to non-traditional low sonic booms while the subject persons were in their own homes and performing daily activities.The WSPR test was a NASA collaborative effort with several industry partners, in response to a NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Research Opportunities in Aeronautics. The primary contractor was Wyle (El Segundo, California). Other partners included Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation (Savannah, Georgia); Pennsylvania State University (University Park, Pennsylvania); Tetra Tech, Inc. (Pasadena, California); and Fidell Associates, Inc. (Woodland Hills, California).A major objective of the effort included exposing a community to the sonic boom magnitudes and occurrences that would be expected to occur in high-air traffic regions having a network of supersonic commercial aircraft in place. Low-level sonic booms designed to simulate those produced by the next generation of commercial supersonic aircraft were generated over a small residential community. The sonic boom footprint was recorded with an autonomous wireless microphone array that spanned the entire community. Human response data were collected using multiple survey methods. The research focused on essential elements of community response testing including subject recruitment, survey methods, instrumentation systems, flight planning and operations, and data analysis methods.This paper focuses on the NASA role in the logistics and operations of the effort, including human response subject recruitment, the operational processes involved in implementing the surveys throughout the community, instrumentation systems, logistics, flight planning, and flight operations. Findings discussed in this paper include critical lessons learned in all of the above-mentioned areas, as well as flight operations results. Analysis of the accuracy and repeatability of planning and executing the unique aircraft maneuver used to generate low sonic booms concluded that the sonic booms had overpressures within 0.15 lbft2 of the planned values for 76 percent of the attempts. Similarly, 90 percent of the attempts to generate low sonic booms within the community were successful.

community response↗

NASA NTRS2019

Surface Biology & Geology Pathfinder Data Analysis Pipeline

NASA's future global orbital mission, currently in development as the Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) Designated Observable study, will acquire relatively high resolution solar-reflected spectroscopy and thermal infrared observations. Innovative processes must be utilized for handling the high volume of data anticipated to be collected, which is anticipated to exceed 100 terabytes/day, greater than NASA's total extant airborne hyperspectral data collection. Collecting, processing/re-processing, disseminating, and exploiting this volume of data presents new challenges. To begin addressing them, NASA is drawing upon the expertise developed from its astrophysics programs to address Earth science and applications. Specifically, NASA is adapting the science processing operations technology developed for the Kepler and TESS planet-hunting missions for imaging spectroscopy data processing. This technology development has been the foundation for the remarkable scientific successes of Kepler and TESS. The Kepler/TESS data processing technology provides a scalable architecture for robust, repeatable, and replicable science and application products while enabling the Earth science community to develop, test, and implement new algorithms. Our effort to leverage this existing capability has begun by ingesting data and applying workflows from the EO-1/Hyperion 17-year mission archive that provides globally sampled visible through shortwave infrared spectra that are representative of SBG data types and volumes. This pathfinding data processing system will help define the solutions to processing SBG data volumes and will enable the scientific community to interact with the data and processing pipeline to create new science products.

Jenkins, Jon↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

OCI Geolocation Evaluation and Refinement Using Landsat Control Points

The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, and ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission is NASA’s next investment in ocean biology, clouds, and aerosol data records. A key feature of PACE is the inclusion of an advanced satellite radiometer, Ocean Color Instrument (OCI), a global mapping radiometer that combines multispectral and hyperspectral remote sensing. The geolocation processing is performed for OCI using spacecraft navigation data and an instrument geometry model. To evaluate the geolocation accuracy for OCI and develop refinements to the processing methods, control point matching using Landsat data has been implemented as a step in the operational processing of OCI data at the Science Data Segment. This processing provides between 200 and 300 high-quality matchups per day with good global and geometric distribution, allowing rapid evaluation of the OCI geolocation accuracy. The results provided an early indication of the overall quality of the geolocation processing and of specific aspects needing improvement. A standard set of granules was identified to support rapid implementation and testing of geolocation refinements, and this approach has been highly successful in improving the geolocation processing accuracy to meet the science requirements. The evaluation will continue throughout the mission to ensure the ongoing accuracy of geolocation. This paper describes the control point matching methodology, the approach to development of the geolocation processing refinements, and the recent results.

PACE↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

OCI Geolocation Evaluation and Refinement Using Landsat Control Points

PACE↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Artemis Innovative Assembly and Integration Operations of the Launch Abort Systemat KSC

This paper describes the Artemis program assembly and integration approach that enables affordable and low risk processing operations for the Launch Abort System at KSC. NASA is currently developing the Artemis 1 spacecraft to meet the test objectives of an uncrewed orbital mission to the moon and return to earth in 2021. The Artemis Orion spacecraft consists of a Crew Module (CM), a Service Module (SM), and a Launch Abort System (LAS) to safely transport a crew of 4 to the moon and return to earth. The LAS enables the CM to have an abort capability for the crew during the launch phase of the mission from the launch pad throughout the ascent phase. The LAS includes motor elements for abort, attitude control, and stage separation is assembled at the Launch Abort System Facility (LASF) adjacent to the CM/SM (CSM) assembly operations in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building (O&C) at KSC. The LAS integration to the CSM is completed in the LASF and the completed Artemis spacecraft is integrated to the Space Launch System (SLS) in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at KSC. A significant LAS development flight test milestone was recently completed in 2019 for the Ascent Abort (AA-2) flight test at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station where a high-altitude abort test was successfully achieved using a Peacekeeper booster stage exercising all of the LAS systems including propulsion, avionics, and pyrotechnics demonstrating he LAS readiness for crewed flight. The first operational flight of the LAS will be for the Artemis 2 mission which is the first crewed mission for the Orion program planned in 2023.

William J Koenig↗

DOE OSTI2024

Multi-operation tool for photovoltaic cell processing

Multi-operation tools for photovoltaic cell processing are described. In an example, a multi-operation tool includes a conveyor system to move a photovoltaic (PV) cell continuously along a conveyor path through a laser scribing station and an adhesive printing station. Furthermore, the PV cell may be aligned to a laser head of the laser scribing station and a printer head of the adhesive printing station in a single alignment operation prior to being laser scribed and printed with an adhesive in a continuous process.

Beckett, Nathan Phillips↗

DOE OSTI2024

Organ-delimited gene regulatory networks provide high accuracy in candidate transcription factor selection across diverse processes

Organ-specific gene expression datasets that include hundreds to thousands of experiments allow the reconstruction of organ-level gene regulatory networks (GRNs). However, creating such datasets is greatly hampered by the requirements of extensive and tedious manual curation. Here, we trained a supervised classification model that can accurately classify the organ-of-origin for a plant transcriptome. This K-Nearest Neighbor-based multiclass classifier was used to create organ-specific gene expression datasets for the leaf, root, shoot, flower, and seed in Arabidopsis thaliana . A GRN inference approach was used to determine the: i. influential transcription factors (TFs) in each organ and, ii. most influential TFs for specific biological processes in that organ. These genome-wide, organ-delimited GRNs (OD-GRNs), recalled many known regulators of organ development and processes operating in those organs. Importantly, many previously unknown TF regulators were uncovered as potential regulators of these processes. As a proof-of-concept, we focused on experimentally validating the predicted TF regulators of lipid biosynthesis in seeds, an important food and biofuel trait. Of the top 20 predicted TFs, eight are known regulators of seed oil content, e.g., WRI1, LEC1, FUS3. Importantly, we validated our prediction of MybS2, TGA4, SPL12, AGL18, and DiV2 as regulators of seed lipid biosynthesis. We elucidated the molecular mechanism of MybS2 and show that it induces purple acid phosphatase family genes and lipid synthesis genes to enhance seed lipid content. This general approach has the potential to be extended to any species with sufficiently large gene expression datasets to find unique regulators of any trait-of-interest.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

NASA NTRS2019

The Unrealized Potential of Superhydrophobic Substrates in Advanced Life Support Systems

Nearly all water processing equipment aboard spacecraft is to a large extent controlled by capillary forces arising from substrate wetting conditions. Superhydrophobic wetting conditions provide an essentially passive means to keep water away from certain substrates providing a level of no-moving-parts phase separation and control. This work presents a host of non-wetting aqueous microgravity capillary fluidics phenomena arising from interactions with easily fabricated superhydrophobic substrates. The value of such phenomena for potential life support applications aboard spacecraft is clear, especially for substrate properties that are thermally robust, corrosion resistant, and self-cleaning for both long- and short term applications. Large length scale low-g demonstrations of the phenomena are provided in HD video format for the extensive drop tower tests conducted. The broader crosscutting impacts to numerous fluids processing operations for life support are discussed. Current practical applications addressed in light of superhydrophobicity include urine-processing, water recovery, fire safety, and others.

Superhydrophoic↗