SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Commercial Partner”

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.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 199 records · Page 11

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2020

X-HAB 2020 Academic Innovation Challenge: Next Generation User Interfaces for Gateway Autonomous Operations

NASA’s Gateway seeks to establish an autonomous platform in support of Artemis mission (boots on ground 2024). It is used to refine and mature short and long-duration deep space exploration capabilities through the 2020s. It is expected to be assembled in a lunar orbit where it can be used as a staging point for missions to the Moon and other destinations in deep space. Gateway can evolve for different mission needs involving exploration, science, commercial and international partners. User interfaces for autonomous systems is an emerging area where knowledge and implementation concepts are still in their infancy.

J. Cecil↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Concepts for Phased Development of a Lunar Surface Base

Several design concepts were studied in 2019 and 2020 to explore a range of possibilities for development of a base on the surface of the Moon in preparation for ongoing missions to Mars. The studies included phasing approaches for life support systems to accommodate initial short-term missions under 60 days with eventual ongoing missions with crew rotations every 180 days. The approach presented is not currently in the NASA plans but is one of many approaches that could be considered as a reference for future development by government, commercial, and international partners. Included in the paper are conceptual layouts, life support phasing approaches, and mass properties for a variety of modules leading toward a permanent base on the surface of the Moon that is also applicable to a base development on the surface of Mars.

David Smitherman↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Cryogenic Fluid Management Technologies Enabling for the Artemis Program and Beyond

NASA is endeavoring on an ambitious return to the Moon and eventually on to Mars through the Artemis Program leveraging innovative technologies to establish sustainable exploration architectures collaborating with US commercial and international partners[1]. Future NASA architectures have baselined cryogenic propulsion systems to support lunar missions and ultimately future missions to Mars. NASA has been investing in maturing CFM active and passive storage, transfer, and gauging technologies over the last decade plus primarily focused on ground development with a few small-scale microgravity fluid experiments. Recently, NASA created a Cryogenic Fluid Management (CFM)Technology Roadmap identifying the critical gaps requiring further development to reach a technology readiness level (TRL) of 6 prior to infusion to flight applications. To address the technology gaps the Space Technology Mission Directorate(STMD)strategically plans to invest in a diversified CFM portfolio approach through ground and flight demonstrations ,collaborating with international partners, and leveraging Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) opportunities with US industry through the Tipping Point and Announcement of Collaborative Opportunities (ACO) solicitations. Once proven, these system capabilities will enable the high performing cryogenic propellant systems needed for the Artemis Program and beyond.

Cryogenic Fluid Management↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Cryogenic Fluid Management for the Artemis Program and Beyond

NASA is endeavoring on an ambitious return to the Moon and eventually on to Mars through the Artemis Program leveraging innovative technologies to establish sustainable exploration architectures collaborating with US commercial and international partners [1]. Future NASA architectures have baselined cryogenic propulsion systems to support lunar missions and ultimately future missions to Mars. NASA has been investing in maturing CFM active and passive storage, transfer, and gauging technologies over the last decade plus primarily focused on ground development with a few small-scale microgravity fluid experiments. Recently, NASA created a Cryogenic Fluid Management (CFM) Technology Roadmap identifying the critical gaps requiring further development to reach a technology readiness level (TRL) of 6 prior to infusion to flight applications. To address the technology gaps the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) strategically plans to invest in a diversified CFM portfolio approach through ground and flight demonstrations, collaborating with international partners, and leveraging Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) opportunities with US industry through the Tipping Point and Announcement of Collaborative Opportunities (ACO) solicitations. Once proven, these system capabilities will enable the high performing cryogenic propellant systems needed for the Artemis Program and beyond.

Cryogenic Fluid Management↗

NASA NTRS0202

Rest architecture for link analysis tools portal

A web portal is under development to improve overall services provided by NASA networks that support near-‐Earth missions. These networks are managed by Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) Program of NASA and include the following: Deep Space Network (DSN), Space Network (SN), and Near-‐Earth Network (NEN). DSN is a network of antennas located in three longitudinally separated sites and supports interplanetary spacecraft missions, radio science, and radar astronomy observations. SN consists of a number of geostationary Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS) and associated ground stations. NEN consists of both NASA-‐owned ground stations and those owned by international, commercial, and academic partners. This study investigates different web access techniques for mission users to use link analysis tools that aid in operating NASA networks. We developed a web portal prototype following principles of Representational state transfer (REST) architecture to leverage scalability, independent deployment of tools, and generic interfaces. In REST architectures, requests and responses between clients and servers are built around transferring representations of resources that can be addressed in memory. We demonstrate the feasibility of using REST architecture to facilitate web-‐service transactions via web-‐portal.

Lee, Carlyn-‐Ann↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA Space Launch System Completes Green Run Testing, Begins Assembly

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Program is poised in 2021 to shift its focus to the launch site with the completion of its last major integrated hardware and software test. SLS is NASA’s evolvable super heavy-lift launch vehicle for deep space exploration. Using proven propulsion technologies, SLS will be the most powerful launch vehicle in the world. That capability translates not only into more mass and volume to destinations but also simplified payload design and mission operations and greater opportunity for mission success. These capabilities will be important for the Artemis program, NASA’s plan to return humans to the Moon to stay in a sustainable way in order to develop and test technologies and operations needed for human missions to Mars and other destinations. SLS will anchor the transportation leg of an innovative, sustainable program of lunar exploration with commercial and international partners as the first step of human exploration of deep space. While all major hardware and software efforts made significant progress in 2020 and 2021, the most visible was the Green Run test series of the Artemis I core stage conducted at NASA’s Stennis Space Center (SSC) on the B-2 test stand. The series validated core stage design, performance, workmanship, and readiness for shipment to NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for final processing, integration and launch. The core stage provides the backbone for SLS’ main propulsion system, consisting of two five-segment solid rocket boosters and four RS-25 liquid hydrogen (LH2)/liquid oxygen (LOX) engines. SLS also includes an Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) that will insert the Orion crew spacecraft into a lunar trajectory.

John Honeycutt↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA Space Launch System Completes Key Hot Fire Test and Begins Vehicle Integration

The Moon is again in reach. NASA and its commercial and international partners are on the way back. The team is working to land the first woman and the first person of color on the planetary body. NASA and its partners made significant progress towards that goal in the latter half of 2020 and the first half of 2021, including on the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket – a key part of the Artemis program. The SLS core stage for the Artemis I mission – the first launch of SLS and an uncrewed Orion capsule – completed the Green Run test series and was successfully mated with the SLS twin solid rocket boosters on the mobile launcher at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). All of the major systems for Artemis I are at KSC for assembly, integration, and launch, targeted for late 2021. Work also continued on SLS hardware for Artemis II, which will be the first flight of crew on Orion and SLS. Work progressed on core stage components, booster segments, and other hardware for Artemis III and future missions. This paper will detail the progress made.

John Honeycutt↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA Space Launch System Completes Key Hot Fire Test and Begins Vehicle Integration

NASA and its commercial and international partners are on the way back to the Moon. Significant progress towards that goal was made in 2021, including on the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket – a key part of the Artemis initiative. The SLS core stage for the Artemis I mission – the first launch of SLS and an uncrewed Orion capsule – completed its Green Run test series in early 2021 and was successfully mated with the SLS twin solid rocket boosters on the mobile launcher at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The launch vehicle stage adapter, interim cryogenic propulsion stage, and the Orion stage adapter structural test article and Orion spacecraft mass simulator were also stacked. The flight Orion spacecraft and Orion stage adapter are being prepared for stacking and launch, targeted for late 2021 following a wet dress rehearsal at Launch Complex 39B. SLS hardware for Artemis II, which will be the first flight of crew on Orion and SLS, is also in work. Work progressed on core stage components, booster segments, and other hardware for Artemis III and future missions. This paper will detail the progress made.

John Honeycutt↗

NASA NTRS2022

Moon to Mars (M2M) Habitation Considerations: A Snap Shot As of January 2022

The following NASA Technical Memorandum (TM) is intended to provide a snapshot in time of NASA’s current considerations (ground rules and assumptions, functional allocations, logistics) for habitation systems for the lunar surface (non-roving) and Mars transits. As NASA continues to refine the reference designs to meet the needs of an evolving architecture, it is expected that this information will also be updated as a result. Where appropriate, relevant publicly released documents will be referenced to provide further detail. NASA’s human lunar exploration plan under the Artemis program calls for achieving the goal of sending the first woman and first person of color to the surface of the Moon in the mid- 2020s and working toward sustainable exploration by the end of the decade. Working with both commercial and international partners, NASA will establish a permanent human presence on the Moon to uncover new scientific discoveries and lay the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy. Longer duration missions on the lunar surface and in lunar orbit will also serve as a test bed for technologies to support future Mars exploration campaigns. The agency will use what we learn on the Moon to prepare for humanity's next giant leap – sending astronauts to Mars. NASA intends to establish a sustained lunar presence with the development of the Artemis Base Camp to prove technologies and capabilities that will one day enable humans to live and work on Mars, beginning with core elements including the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV), the Pressurized Rover (PR), the lunar Surface Habitat (SH), power systems, and in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) systems. For in space operations and eventual transport of humans to Mars, NASA will utilize a Mars Transit Habitat (TH). Following deployment, the TH will complete a series of longer duration missions and shakedown testing while docked at Gateway, leveraging Gateway’s habitation redundancy for safety measures. Proposed Gateway-TH missions will far exceed the longest duration cislunar human missions to date. They will be the first operational readiness tests of our long-duration deep space systems, and of the split crew (two crew on the surface, two crew in space) operations that are vital to the approach for the first human Mars mission. Both the SH and TH are major architectural elements of NASA’s Moon to Mars (M2M) approach, each with very different concepts of operation. The SH is intended for use on the lunar surface as a home for astronauts, surface operations base, science facility, hub for communications, extravehicular activity (EVA) equipment repair site, waste processing facility, and supply hub. It serves as an enabler for a sustained surface presence and preparation for partial gravity operations during Mars missions. The SH will be designed to be self-sufficient for operations on the lunar surface. The SH will independently provide several functions, including its own power generation, energy storage capability, sleep quarters, hygiene areas, work areas, and dining areas. It will be capable of communicating with surface assets, orbital assets, and directly with Earth ground stations. It is planned to operate with two crew in the habitat for ~28- day stays with crew swap-outs in which the PR crew of two trades places with the habitat crew. During the swap-out, the habitat will nominally support four crew for a short period of time. For contingency scenarios, the habitat must also be capable of supporting four crew for up to 7 days. The TH will be designed to be capable of up to ~1,200-day Mars missions with the ability to carry all food and supplies needed to support a crew of four for this duration. An assumed Mars mission profile for the TH is to carry crew and supplies for ~850-day roundtrips between Earth and Mars orbit that allows 30-day stays on the Martian surface. To test the systems for this long journey, the TH will be used to extend the duration of missions at Gateway, enabling the orbiting outpost to be used as a Mars analog. These analog missions will be accomplished by attaching the TH to Gateway and conducting lunar surface operations from the TH. The TH may also need to perform free-flying shakedown missions to test out all systems prior to leaving for Mars. The habitat provides many critical functions including: a contingency airlock, crew quarters, galley, hygiene areas, safe haven capability, and science equipment. It can receive docked items from either axial end or on a radial port.

Habitat↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Updated and Risk-Informed Process for Launching Space Nuclear Systems in the United States

The “Presidential Memorandum on Reinvigorating America’s Human Space Exploration Program,” (Space Policy Directive-1) charges NASA to: “Lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities. Beginning with missions beyond low-Earth orbit, the United States will lead the return of humans to the Moon for long-term exploration and utilization, followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations."

Space Policy↗

NASA NTRS2022

NASA Space Flight Program and Project Management Handbook

This handbook is the companion document to NPR 7120.5F, NASA Space Flight Program and Project Management Requirements. It represents the accumulation of knowledge on managing program and projects derived from NASA’s human, robotic, and scientific missions. It incorporates the “corporate knowledge” for existing and future NASA space flight programs and projects, including NASA’s Artemis missions to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon through collaboration with commercial and international partners, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) mission, and NASA’s robotic missions on Mars. The practices discussed have evolved as a function of NASA’s core values of safety, integrity, teamwork, excellence, and inclusion, and may also prove a resource for other agencies, the private sector, and academia. The knowledge gained from the Agency’s victories and defeats, including the checks and balances and initiatives to better control cost and risk, provides a foundation for continuing an exciting and healthy space program. This handbook provides implementation guidance for NPR 7120.5F and includes the changes and updates to key procedural requirements in NPR 7120.5F since NPR 7120.5E. The goal of the NPR requirements is to ensure programs and projects are developed and successfully executed in the most cost-effective and efficient manner possible. This handbook provides context, rationale, and explanation to facilitate the application of requirements and to pass on some of the hard-won best practices and lessons learned.

Tracy L Osborne↗

NASA NTRS2022

Gateway Utilization Capabilities and Status

Gateway will be a space station orbiting the Moon that will enable long-term presence in deep space. As part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Artemis mission, Gateway will serve as a cornerstone of human deep space exploration and scientific discovery and a steppingstone to Mars. NASA leads the Gateway Program and serves as the integrator of spaceflight capabilities and contributions of U.S. commercial and international partners, European Space Agency (ESA), Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), to develop and utilize Gateway. This paper provides an overview of the following utilization capabilities of Gateway: spacecraft overview, internal and external accommodations, resources for utilization, and vantage point for Earth, Sun, and Moon observations. Three utilization payloads have already been selected to fly on Gateway as part of the initial modules, Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) and Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) modules: European Radiation Sensors Array (ERSA), Heliophysics Environmental and Radiation Measurement Experiment Suite (HERMES), and Internal Dosimeter Array (IDA). This paper will provide a short summary of each payload, the value behind conducting each payload, and share an overview of future utilization goals of Gateway.

Gateway↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Processes and Methods used for NASA Communications Services Project Conceptualization and Formulation

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is partnering with the commercial SATCOM industry to demonstrate the industry’s capabilities to provide services to NASA’s near-Earth missions. Leveraging commercial capabilities will become increasingly necessary for NASA, as its incumbent Government-owned-and-operated near-Earth satellite network, the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS), will approach retirement towards the end of the current decade. NASA is actively taking the first steps to making the vision of using commercial SATCOM a reality. For more than two years, NASA’s Communication Services Project (CSP) has been evaluating the feasibility of employing commercial satellite communication (SATCOM) networks for near-Earth operations. This past April, CSP awarded US$278.5 million in Funded Space Act Agreements to select commercial SATCOM providers, so they may begin developing and demonstrating their specific near-Earth space communication services that may support future agency missions. Each company will match or exceed agency contributions during the five-year development and demonstration period, totaling more than $1.5 billion of cost-share investment. The companies will complete technology development and in-space demonstrations by 2025, after which NASA intends to seek multiple long-term contracts to acquire these kinds of services. The six companies (Inmarsat Government Inc., Kuiper Government Solutions (KGS), SES Government Solutions, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), Telesat U.S. Services and Viasat Inc.) will shortly begin developing and demonstrating their capabilities to provide services, ranging from launch to standard on-orbit operations. The demonstrations will be across multiple spectrum regimes from L-Band to optical, and will utilize Geostationary Orbit (GEO), Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) and Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations. This paper discusses methodologies and processes used over the past two years to reach the point of entering into these partnerships. It also includes CSP’s goals and objectives going forward, following the award of six Funded Space Act Agreements to commercial SATCOM providers to develop and demonstrate these capabilities.

Communications Services Project↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Processes and Methods used for Nasa Communications Services Project Conceptualization and Formulation

Communications Services Project↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

3GPP Telecommunications Technology on the Moon

Under NASA’s Artemis program, NASA is planning to send astronauts back to the Moon in the next couple of years. Near term missions will be analogous but much more sophisticated versions of the last couple of Apollo missions. However, unlike Apollo, this time NASA intends to put the infrastructure in place to support long term human presence and eventual industrialization of the Moon. To make this vision a reality, NASA plans to collaborate with commercial and international partners as much as possible as opposed to developing, building, and operating equipment on its own. Lunar infrastructure will eventually be built over time by many organizations, public and private, to support sustained human exploration, science, and industrial activities. Obviously, this vision for the future will be impossible without a robust lunar communications and navigation system that can support many users with varying degrees of services. On Earth, most people are very familiar with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) 5G mobile telecommunications technology. NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation office would like to see a lunar communications and navigation network with similar capabilities to the cellular communication networks most of us enjoy today. Building such a network will require participation by many organizations. This paper will provide an overview of NASA’s interest in using 5G and beyond on the lunar surface; it will also describe current work based on 3GPP standards within NASA or funded by NASA, such as Nokia’s upcoming Tipping Point demonstration of 4G / LTE on the lunar surface.

Bernard Edwards↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Science Off the Earth: an Integrated Approach to Science Operations in the Artemis Era and Beyond

Humanity is standing on the cusp of its next giant leap – an international, sustainable, and commercial return to the moon. Unlike the Apollo missions, the expectation that a permanent human presence will be established is well founded. Initially, crewed missions to the lunar surface are expected to last between 6 and 30 days and occur approximately once per year, however the robust suite of landers and orbiting assets proposed by both commercial and government entities provide an opportunity to conduct science research on the moon and in cis-lunar space, 24x7 for many years. In the 50 years since the conclusion of Apollo, NASA’s crewed space science missions have been evolving. This can be seen clearly from Skylab and the Space Shuttle’s Spacelab to the International Space Station (ISS). Presently aboard the ISS, international crews spend nearly half their time working on experiments while many payloads collect science non-stop with either very limited, or no crew interaction. Additionally, a fleet of orbiting experiments complement and validate those investigations performed on the ISS. As the number, variety, and complexity of these investigation increase, it becomes ever more necessary to integrate across the many entities involved to prevent duplication of effort, ensure complementary results, reduce cost, and create a sustainable environment to conduct groundbreaking scientific research in space. In this paper, we examine how the various elements of the Artemis program including NASA’s Lunar Gateway, Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) endeavor, the Human Landing Systems (HLS), surface habitats, rovers and many more will be operated to ensure interoperability, maximize science return, and enable success for government, commercial and private partners.

Science Operations↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Establishing Trust in NASA’s Artemis Program Computer-Human Interface (CHI) Implementation

The NASA Artemis program will return humans to the moon. This time, with the help of commercial and international partners, the program’s objective is a permanent moon base. The moon base infrastructure, including an orbiting moon station and moon surface assets, will be developed for astronauts to stay for the long haul to learn to live and work on another planet in preparation for an eventual Humans-to-Mars mission. As the roundtrip communication delays increase in deep space exploration, more onboard systems autonomy and functionality will be needed to maintain and control the vehicle or habitat. These mission constraints will change the current Earth-based spacecraft ground control support approach that will demand more safe, efficient, and effective Computer-Human Interface (CHI) control. For Artemis, CHI is defined as the elements that the crew interfaces with-audio, video, lighting, and crew controls. Understanding how CHI will need to evolve to support deep space missions will be critical for the Artemis program-especially crew controls which is the focus of this paper. How does NASA ensure crew controls are reliable to control complex systems and prevent a catastrophic event due to human error-especially when the astronauts could be physiologically and/or psychologically impaired? NASA’s approach to mitigating catastrophic hazards in human spaceflight system development such as crew controls is through a holistic system engineering and Human System Integration methodology that embraces NASA’s Human-Rating Requirements-ensuring human performance characteristics to control/safely recover the crew from hazardous situations within the human interface design are considered. This paper discusses, at a high level, CHI for the Artemis program. Next, a discussion of what it means to human-rate a space system crew controls and how trust in the human-computer interface begins with the NASA human rating requirements. Finally, a discussion on how systems engineering, and the human system integration process ensures that crew control implementation incorporates the NASA human-rating requirements.

Human-Rating↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Establishing Trust in NASA’s Artemis Campaign Computer-Human Interface (CHI) Implementation

The NASA Artemis program will return humans to the Moon. This time, with the help of commercial and international partners, the program's objective is a permanent moon base. The moon base infrastructure, including an orbiting moon station and moon surface assets, will be developed for astronauts to stay for the long haul to learn to live and work on another planet in preparation for an eventual Humans-to-Mars mission. As the roundtrip communication delays increase in deep space exploration, the crew will need more onboard systems autonomy and functionality to maintain and control the vehicle or habitat. These mission constraints will change the current Earth-based spacecraft to ground control support approach that will demand more safe, efficient, and effective Computer-Human Interface (CHI) control. For Artemis, CHI is defined as the elements that the crew interfaces with: audio, video, lighting, and crew controls subsystems. Understanding how CHI will need to evolve to support deep space missions will be critical for the Artemis program--especially crew controls, which is the focus of this paper. How does NASA ensure crew controls are reliable enough to control complex systems and prevent a catastrophic event due to human error--especially when the astronauts could be physiologically and/or psychologically impaired? NASA's approach to mitigating catastrophic hazards in human spaceflight system development such as crew controls, is through a holistic system engineering and Human System Integration methodology that focuses on incorporating NASA's Human-Rating Requirements-that ensures human performance characteristics to control/safely recover the crew from hazardous situations within the human interface design are considered. This paper discusses, at a high level, CHI for the Artemis program. Next, a discussion of what it means to human-rate a space system crew controls and how trust in the human-computer interface begins with the NASA human rating requirements. Finally, a discussion on how systems engineering and the human system integration process ensures that crew control implementation incorporates the NASA human-rating requirements.

artemis↗