Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Micro-Gravity”

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.

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

At least 217 records · Page 12
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

SERFE Water Quality Results

NASA has been developing a new spacesuit, called the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) for over a decade. This spacesuit is underdevelopment to support missions to the International Space Station (ISS) and also to the Moon. Improvements in the life and robustness of the Portable Life Support System (PLSS) has been a major objective of these efforts. Water quality, and how that impacts the performance of the life support system hardware, are areas where improvements could greatly help to achieve these goals. The Suit Water Membrane Evaporator (SWME) was chosen as the technology to provide cooling to the xEMU and has undergone several iterations of development over this period. An ISS flight experiment centered around the SWME and other thermal loop technologies was developed and has been under test in an ISS EXpedite PRocessing of Experiments to the Space Station (EXPRESS) rack since November of 2020. In addition to the SWME, The SWME EXPRESS Rack Flight Experiment (SERFE) contains several technology demonstrations from the xEMU project and has been demonstrating their performance in micro-gravity and over an extended duration. This paper will summarize the results of the water quality analysis performed to date throughout the SERFE testing program. Special care was taken to select materials, process hardware, and control the quality of the feedwater used in SERFE testing so that it would be representative of a thermal control system that could be used on a spacesuit for a lunar mission. In addition, the testing schedule, including periods of quiescence in between tests, was also selected to simulate a real mission profile in ways that would be critical to water quality. Results include data and analysis on microbial activity, biocidal iodine, metals, organic carbon, and several other customary indicators of water quality in an operational system. Testing spans over a year and a half of wetted life of the SERFE Flight Unit and the SERFE Ground Unit.

Colin Campbell↗
NASA NTRS2021

Low-Maintenance Bioreactor Cultivates Fungi for Sustainable Food Source in Space

Nature’s Fynd, a food company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, partnered with Montana State University on NASA STTR contracts to further develop a micro-gravity biofilm-biomat reactor, which cultivates a unique fungus to form a dense protein material. The resulting “biomat” could serve as a nutritious food source for life away from Earth. Nature’s Fynd has received external investments totaling more than $500 million for developing its technologies, and the company recently launched its meatless and dairy-free foods in specific retailers.

STTR↗
NASA NTRS2023

SERFE PLSS Component Lessons Learned from ISS

NASA has been developing a new spacesuit, called the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) for over a decade. This spacesuit is under development to support missions to the International Space Station (ISS) and also to the Moon. Improvements in the life and robustness of the Portable Life Support System (PLSS) has been a major objective of these efforts. The Suit Water Membrane Evaporator (SWME) was chosen as the technology to provide cooling to the xEMU and has undergone several iterations of development over this period. An ISS flight experiment centered around the SWME and other thermal control loop (TCL) technologies was developed and tested in an ISS EXpedite PRocessing of Experiments to the Space Station (EXPRESS) rack from November of 2020 to August of 2022. In addition to the SWME, the SWME EXPRESS Rack Flight Experiment (SERFE) contains several technologies from the xEMU project and demonstrated their performance in micro-gravity and over an extended duration. These included two dissimilar water pumps, custom check valves, custom bypass relieve valves, a custom thermal control valve, development pressure and temperature sensors, and the thermal loop controller. This paper presents PLSS component lessons learned after return of the SERFE flight unit in August of 2022. The SERFE team took the flight unit apart and handed hardware components over to hardware owners to see how parts of the TCL managed after almost 2 years on the ISS and 25 simulated EVAs (Exploration Extravehicular Activity) on orbit. The team performed inspection, testing, and analysis and provided lessons learned on PLSS components for NASA’s prototype spacesuit. This analysis included how well SWME maintained its heat rejection capability, as well as looked at the robustness of the other TCL hardware.

SERFE↗
NASA NTRS2014

Controllable Multi-Functional Heat Exchanger for Space Applications

Team Spacering will design SpaceRing, a cooling and waste heat recycling system that addresses NASA’s interest for a cooling and power-generating unit in its prototype deep space habitat[1]. The merits of this system are as follows: - Controllable cooling is critical in maintaining a habitable environment and in the functionality of life support systems, powering electronics and other devices in a spacecraft. - Power is expensive to produce in a space environment. Converting wasted thermal energy into electricity will save energy and money for the space station. Space habitation is a highly complex endeavor. Consequently, the SpaceRing must adhere to additional constraints, which include: - Lack of natural fluid or gas convection due to micro-gravity environment - Limited range for heat source and cold sink temperature - Subject to high fluctuations of incoming thermal energy - Minimal weight due to the high cost of transporting items into space After consulting with NASA and experts in thermal studies, several design objectives were identified and are listed below in order of importance: - High cooling capacity - Reliable safety control and alert system - Maximization of energy generation from wasted heat - Optimization of cooling capability and power generation - Long operational life and minimization of maintenance In space, conventional cooling systems utilize passive heat pipe systems for small-scale heat rejection and pumped pipes with heat exchangers for large-scale heat rejection. Thermal power generation in space is mainly achieved by using thermoelectric material that produces electric energy from temperature differentials. We propose a design that combines cooling and thermoelectric power generation. Using a hot pipe connected to a heat source, a cold pipe connected to a radiator, a heat exchanger in contact with both pipes, and a pump in each pipe to move the fluid, we make an active cooling system. The thermoelectric material is inserted in the heat exchanger between the hot and cold pipes to extract energy from the maximum temperature difference coming from the two pipes. It also provides controllable cooling capacity through the use of the thermoelectric material as cooling modules. We have tested our system under target heat source and sink conditions and measured the temperatures and flow rates. Our preliminary results are promising, demonstrating the output of 25 Watts of power on average. We are in the process of running control tests to compare the heat transfer performance without the thermoelectric generators, which is vital in determining whether or not the generators introduce an unacceptable amount of thermal resistance. While some control tests have been run already, the results have been noisy. We have modified our testing environment and data acquisition methods to allow for simple comparison between the control test results and thermoelectric performance results. Lastly, we have modified the heat exchanger design slightly to include acrylic baffles. This will allow the heat to flow through the heat exchanger more efficiently. We have presented our preliminary results to NASA and will deliver the final product by the end of May 2014.

Lee Xiong↗
NASA NTRS2023

SERFE PLSS Component Lessons Learned from ISS

NASA has been developing a new spacesuit, called the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) for over a decade. This spacesuit is under development to support missions to the International Space Station (ISS) and also to the Moon. Improvements in the life and robustness of the Portable Life Support System (PLSS) has been a major objective of these efforts. The Suit Water Membrane Evaporator (SWME) was chosen as the technology to provide cooling to the xEMU and has undergone several iterations of development over this period. An ISS flight experiment centered around the SWME and other thermal control loop (TCL) technologies was developed and tested in an ISS EXpedite PRocessing of Experiments to the Space Station (EXPRESS) rack from November of 2020 to August of 2022. In addition to the SWME, the SWME EXPRESS Rack Flight Experiment (SERFE) contains several technologies from the xEMU project and demonstrated their performance in micro-gravity and over an extended duration. These included two dissimilar water pumps, custom check valves, custom bypass relieve valves, a custom thermal control valve, development pressure and temperature sensors, and the thermal loop controller. This paper presents PLSS component lessons learned after return of the SERFE flight unit in August of 2022. The SERFE team took the flight unit apart and handed hardware components over to hardware owners to see how parts of the TCL managed after almost 2 years on the ISS and 25 simulated EVAs (Exploration Extravehicular Activity) on orbit. The team performed inspection, testing, and analysis and provided lessons learned on PLSS components for NASA’s prototype spacesuit. This analysis included how well SWME maintained its heat rejection capability, as well as looked at the robustness of the other TCL hardware.

SERFE↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Excavation of Exploration Toilet Fecal Canister from ISS Operations and Future Mission Impacts

Space exploration requires accommodations for crew members similar to survival on Earth including food and water, clothing, and protection from the environment. In addition, allowances for biological processes such as breathing, defecation and urination must be provided. In a micro-gravity environment, these are particularly challenging. Optimizing the consumables needed for these activities is a vital part of the spacecraft design as well as providing mass/volume for science cargo and the crew needs such as food and clothing. NASA has collected use rates for the consumables needed for defecation and urination over the decades of human-rated space travel. Most recently, the exploration toilet demonstration on International Space Station (ISS) provided data on defecation in the form of a returned canister which collected 13 days of fecal deposits, wipes, gloves and compaction plates. The canister was excavated by a dedicated team of engineers at Johnson Space Center (JSC) to provide the latest information on deposit size and weight, number of wipes and gloves used, and compaction efficiency which directly relates to the number of canisters needed. Although this is only one canister, the data found has been directly applied to manifest decisions for the Orion Artemis-2 mission. Future canisters will add to this data set. Details on what was found and how it compares to historical numbers as well as how it will be used for exploration missions will be covered in this paper.

Toilet↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Extending ISS Life Beyond 2030

The United States On-orbit Segment (USOS) of the International Space Station (ISS) was designed to meet a 15-year on-orbit life. Since the first hardware was launched in late 1998, the ISS would have reached its end of life in 2013. With the realization that the ISS would be needed well into the next decade, and beyond, a multi-disciplinary effort was undertaken to extend the ISS’ life through 2028 and to show that further extension to 2040 and beyond is not only feasible but achievable. Currently, NASA and the ISS international partners have agreed to extend its operations through 2030. This collaborative effort ensures that the ISS will continue to serve as a hub for scientific research, international cooperation, and educational endeavors for the next decade. Maintaining a continuous human presence in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is desirable for testing new LEO, lunar, and deep-space technologies; conducting scientific research in micro-gravity for the benefit of life on Earth; and enabling a seamless transition of capabilities to one or more commercially owned and operated destinations. This paper provides an overview of the ISS life extension project with a particular focus on the analytical approach used to assess the primary structure. This analytical approach includes future operations planning, critical location screening, on-orbit dynamic load simulation, on-orbit optical property degradation studies, on-orbit thermal analyses, spectra generation, crack model idealization, fracture analyses, and post processing. Structural life results and identification of the most critical on-orbit events are presented. Also addressed are life extension approaches for other affected sub-systems, including: 1. Secondary Structure. 2. Materials. Evaluations consider environmental exposure to atomic oxygen, ionizing and gamma radiation, fluids, etc. Life limited materials, wear, and usage effects are also considered. 3. Environmental Control and Life Support Systems, including oxygen supply and generation, water recovery and management, and regenerative hardware. Evaluations are performed to determine which hardware can be run to failure and which are assessed for life extension. 4. Electrical power system. ISS is powered by eight channels of solar arrays and an electrical energy storage system providing 357 kWh power. Power generation and balance analyses are performed considering hardware degradation and increasing power demand. 5. Logistics and maintenance. Analyses are performed to determine critical spares required to maintain functionality. Consideration is given to supply chain health, obsolescence issues, onboard stowage availability, and up-mass capability. The successful life extension results have built confidence to safely operate, maintain and enhance the ISS well beyond the current decade. Extending the operational life of the ISS maintains an international presence in LEO and serves to avoid a gap in capability necessary to fulfill the exploration and research needs of NASA, international partners, and industry without interruption until a commercial space station is operational.

design life↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Initial Testing of a Full-Scale Ultrasonic Clothes Washer/Dryer for Moon, Mars, ISS and Beyond

This study investigates the effectiveness of an ultrasonic-based combo garment washing and drying system for space applications. The system leverages our technological innovations in direct-contact ultrasonic fabric drying in combination with ultrasonic fabric washing. The main objective of this investigation is to gauge the effectiveness of washing and drying medium-size T-shirts ultrasonically. This paper will report the results of experiments conducted to assess the effectiveness of washing clothes ultrasonically, including ultrasonic intensity testing, stain removal testing, and fabric degradation testing. The outcome of this study could lead to the design and development of the first ultrasonic clothes washer and dryer for space applications that would reduce clothing resupply costs for crewed missions to the moon, Mars, and micro-gravity space stations.

Crew systems↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Excavation of Exploration Toilet Fecal Canister From ISS Operations and Future Mission Impacts

Space exploration requires accommodations for crew members similar to survival on Earth including food and water, clothing, and protection from the environment. In addition, allowances for biological processes such as breathing, defecation and urination must be provided. In a micro-gravity environment, these are particularly challenging. Optimizing the consumables needed for these activities is a vital part of the spacecraft design as well as providing mass/volume for science cargo and the crew needs such as food and clothing. NASA has collected use rates for the consumables needed for defecation and urination over the decades of human-rated space travel. Most recently, the exploration toilet demonstration on International Space Station (ISS) provided data on defecation in the form of a returned canister which collected 13 days of fecal deposits, wipes, gloves and compaction plates. The canister was excavated by a dedicated team of engineers at Johnson Space Center (JSC) to provide the latest information on deposit size and weight, number of wipes and gloves used, and compaction efficiency which directly relates to the number of canisters needed. Although this is only one canister, the data found has been directly applied to manifest decisions for the Orion Artemis-2 mission. Future canisters will add to this data set. Details on what was found and how it compares to historical numbers as well as how it will be used for exploration missions will be covered in this paper.

Toilet↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Excavation of Exploration Toilet Fecal Canister from ISS Operations and Future Mission Impacts

Space exploration requires accommodations for crew members similar to survival on Earth including food and water, clothing, and protection from the environment. In addition, allowances for biological processes such as breathing, defecation and urination must be provided. In a micro-gravity environment, these are particularly challenging. Optimizing the consumables needed for these activities is a vital part of the spacecraft design as well as providing mass/volume for science cargo and the crew needs such as food and clothing. NASA has collected use rates for the consumables needed for defecation and urination over the decades of human-rated space travel. Most recently, the exploration toilet demonstration on International Space Station (ISS) provided data on defecation in the form of a returned canister which collected 13 days of fecal deposits, wipes, gloves and compaction plates. The canister was excavated by a dedicated team of engineers at Johnson Space Center (JSC) to provide the latest information on deposit size and weight, number of wipes and gloves used, and compaction efficiency which directly relates to the number of canisters needed. Although this is only one canister, the data found has been directly applied to manifest decisions for the Orion Artemis-2 mission. Future canisters will add to this data set. Details on what was found and how it compares to historical numbers as well as how it will be used for exploration missions will be covered in this paper.

Toilet↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Initial Testing of a Full-Scale Ultrasonic Clothes Washer/Dryer for Moon, Mars, ISS and Beyond

This study investigates the effectiveness of an ultrasonic-based combo garment washing and drying system for space applications. The system leverages our technological innovations in direct-contact ultrasonic fabric drying in combination with ultrasonic fabric washing. The main objective of this investigation is to gauge the effectiveness of washing and drying medium-size T-shirts ultrasonically. This paper will report the results of experiments conducted to assess the effectiveness of washing clothes ultrasonically, including ultrasonic intensity testing, stain removal testing, and fabric degradation testing. The outcome of this study could lead to the design and development of the first ultrasonic clothes washer and dryer for space applications that would reduce clothing resupply costs for crewed missions to the moon, Mars, and micro-gravity space stations.

Crew systems↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Validation of Cryogenic Propellant Tank Filling using Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation

The Fluid Dynamics Branch at MSFC has positioned itself to support a wide range of customers in need of Cryogenic Fluid Management (CFM) analysis. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool used for all manner of internal and external propulsion applications has been extended and refined to better model cryogenic propellant storage and tanking operations. Through the CFM Portfolio project, several validation activities were initiated. Validation of propellant tank self-pressurization, autogenous pressurization, slosh-induced ullage collapse, and jet-induced mixing all aid in defining model accuracy. The on-going validation effort has enabled confident application of the tool to in-line design and evaluation of CFM hardware and operations. Recent project support included defining the impact of in-space slosh dynamics on reaction control system mass for Space Launch System (SLS) upper stages. Propellant mixing strategies were defined to improve performance of a thermal vent system for a Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) partner. Design support of in-space maneuvers, tank hardware, and autogenous pressurization operations was also provided through Human Landing System (HLS) collaboration work. The branch has engaged the CFM community to share recent findings and capabilities through several forums including conferences, technical interchange meetings, and workshops. Development and demonstration of CFM modeling capabilities continues in this work on the no-vent fill of propellant tank in micro-gravity to meet the needs of NASA and its industry partners in the endeavor to sustainably reach the Moon and beyond.

CFD↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Development of a Mechanical Trash Compactor (Mpactor) for Exploration Missions

NASA is developing a mechanical trash compactor (Mpactor), a pneumatically driven trash compaction system, for human space exploration missions to manage trash items such as food packaging, sanitary wipes, clothing, tape, and other types of waste. The compaction system that is under development does not involve heating, water removal, or water recovery which eliminates the need for complex ancillary hardware required to manage gaseous effluents, as well as condense the water vapor. A system called the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) Compactor, intended for use in the micro-gravity environment, was developed at NASA Ames Research Center for the Constellation Program 2007. This CEV Compactor is being further developed and renamed the Mpactor (short for mechanical trash compactor). The Mpactor is being used to gather engineering data that will allow engineers and planners to scale a future design for different mission scenarios and to evaluate different bag materials and designs that help retain compaction.

transit vehicle↗
DOE OSTI2023

Two-phase separator device for removing condensate or particulate from a gas stream

This disclosure provides a two-phase separator device for separating condensate or particulate from a gas stream. In some implementations, the separator device removes water from air and may operate under micro-gravity conditions. The gas stream flows through the two-phase separator device and passes through a rotatable vane assembly along a flow path without being redirected in another flow path. Condensate or particulate in the gas stream is impacted by a plurality of vanes of the rotatable vane assembly, and the condensate is captured by features formed within the plurality of vanes. The captured condensate is accelerated radially outwardly along the each of the plurality of vanes towards a sloped inner wall, and further moved along the sloped inner wall in a direction against the flow path of the gas stream during rotation.

Cognata, Thomas↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Thermal Review of the Sample Cartridge Assembly (SCA) Gravitational Effect of Distortion in Sintering (GEDS) Experiment Flight Processing

NASA’s Sample Cartridge Assembly (SCA) first flight experiment, Gravitational Effect of Distortion in Sintering (GEDS), was processed on the International Space Station (ISS) between 2019 and 2020. The SCA was heated in the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Low Gradient Furnace (LGF) that is housed inside the Material Science Research Rack (MSRR) located in the U.S. Laboratory Module. This summary will give a review of the design and flight experiment development for the GEDS SCA. It describes flight processing and the role of thermal engineering support. Lessons learned and future Principle Investigators (PI) will be discussed.

Micro-gravity Science↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Thermal Review of the Sample Cartridge Assembly (SCA) Gravitational Effect of Distortion in Sintering (GEDS) Experiment Flight Processing

NASA’s Sample Cartridge Assembly (SCA) first flight experiment, Gravitational Effect of Distortion in Sintering (GEDS), was processed on the International Space Station (ISS) between 2019 and 2020. The SCA was heated in the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Low Gradient Furnace (LGF) that is housed inside the Material Science Research Rack (MSRR) located in the U.S. Laboratory Module. This summary will give a review of the design and flight experiment development for the GEDS SCA. It describes flight processing and the role of thermal engineering support. Lessons learned and future Principle Investigators (PI) will be discussed.

MIcro-gravity Science↗
NASA NTRS2025

Rheology of Lunar Regolith Simulant Under Varying Gravitational Conditions

Understanding structure-property-process relationship aka rheology of regolith in varying gravity conditions is critical for exploration and future missions. In this work, a framework for studying rheology of lunar regolith simulant in varying gravity conditions (Terrestrial, Lunar and Martian) is described theoretically/numerically, where the driving force of flow of simulants was gravitational acceleration. In the analysis particle-particle interaction forces were included. It was found that the dynamic behavior of granular material is extremely sensitive to external conditions by virtue of the myriad of forces present between particle grains. The results obtained were validated against results obtained in earth and Lunar gravity conditions. The theoretical/numerical and experimental results showed that the complex interaction of these forces can drastically change the dynamics of the material, which is not captured by standard design rules, generally used in industry, for variable gravity applications.

Simulation↗