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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 235 records · Page 13
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1972

A 10,000-gpm liquid hydrogen transfer system for the Saturn/Apollo program.

Brief description of the design and operation of the liquid hydrogen transfer system used to service the Saturn V launch vehicle. The cryogenic loading of the huge booster begins eight hours before the scheduled liftoff. The first three hours of fueling are spent in cold hydrogen gas conditioning of the fuel tank. The cold hydrogen gas is provided by vaporizing liquid hydrogen from the storage tank and routing the resultant gas through the fill system. Boil-off losses after loading are continuously replaced through control valves which are driven by a computer system. The liquid hydrogen transfer system is made up of a number of subsystems including the 850,000 gal storage tank whose boil-off losses amount to only 200 gal/day, the pressurization system, the burn pond for controlled disposal of hydrogen waste gas, the storage tank fill manifold, and the hazardous gas monitoring system. Some of the subsystems and components are redundant to provide a high degree of reliability.

Wybranowski, E., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Application of ERTS-A data to the protection and management of New Jersey's coastal environment

The author has identified the following significant results. Apparent sewage sludge disposal by barge has been detected approximately 12 miles offshore in an area with an approximate radius of 2.5 nautical miles. Verification is underway to determine whether this dumping is within one of the approved dump sites in the Bight. Analysis of all available historical and routine meteorological data in correlation with the observed phenomenon is necessary before final conclusions can be reached with respect to the effects of currents on the disposal of dumped wastes. Four effluent plumes emanating from the shoreline just south of Sandy Hook were observed and are moving in a southerly direction. Another plume is evident north of Barnegat Inlet and is moving almost directly offshore. This suggests that the more northerly plumes are under the influence of the tidal regime around New York Harbor much more than are the plumes further south along the New Jersey coast. Of further interest are what appear to be an internal wave phenomena approximately 75 miles east of the New Jersey coast. This same sort of phenomena has been observed repetitively off the coast of Oregon.

Yunghans, R. S.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Study for identification of beneficial uses of Space, phase 1. Volume 2, book 2: Technical report: results, conclusions and recommendations

A variety of technologies were investigated to determine the benefits to be derived from space activities. The subjects accepted for product development are: (1) eutectics for cold cathodes, (2) higher putiry fiber optics, (3) fluidic wafers, (4) large germanium wafers for gamma ray camera, (5) improved batteries and capacitors, (6) optical filters, (7) corrosion resistant electrodes, (8) high strength carbon-based filaments for plastic reinforcement, and (9) new antibiotics. In addition, three ideas for services, involving disposal of radioactive wastes, blood analysis, and enhanced solar insolation were proposed.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1975

Destruction of the recreational, asthetic, agricultural, wildlife conservation and preservation, and residential uses of the land as a result of the abuses of the manufacturing, commercial, extractive, construction, and transportation industries

Explicit concern over land use and abuse stems from the recognition of the negative impacts of unrestrained and unregulated economic, industrial, and population growth upon finite land resources. Only one quarter of the total surface area of the earth is land, and of that a large portion is uninhabitable. The present stresses upon the land include urbanization, urban sprawl and urban congestion; electrical, nuclear industrial park siting requirements; land degradation through stripping surface minerals; land degradation through disposal of radioactive wastes, sewage sludge, solid waste and other industrial wastes; rising demand for agricultural land; and the erosion and destruction of land through elimination of protective coverings such as forests, grasslands, and wetlands.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1976

LANDSAT observations of ocean dump plume movement and dispersion

The author has identified the following significant results. Eighteen LANDSAT images were analyzed to study the dispersion and movement of ocean dump plumes thirty-eight miles southeast of Cape Henlopen, Delaware, at the disposal site for waste discharged from a plant producing titanium dioxide. Long visual persistence was explained by the formation of a suspended ferric floc. Spectrometric measurements indicate that upon combining with sea water the acid waste develops a strong reflectance peak in the band 0.55 to 0.60 micron region, resulting in a stronger contrast in the MSS band 4 than the other bands. Predominant direction of movement of the waste plumes was to the southeast. Average drift velocity for surface drogues and the waste plumes was about 0.5 knots. The water at the test site was highly stratified and stable in the summer and nearly homogenous in the winter.

Klemas, V.↗
NASA NTRS1975

CARETS: A prototype regional environmental information system. Volume 11: Potential usefulness of CARETS data for environmental impact assessment

The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 requires that Federal agencies prepare environmental impact statements (EIS) for all proposed actions that significantly affect the quality of the environment. The EIS builds a predictive model of beneficial or adverse changes resulting from an action. Environmental impact statement preparation requires identification of environmental, social, and economic conditions likely to change and also requires prediction of intensity and spatial dimensions of changes. The Central Atlantic Regional Ecological Test Site (CARETS) project has produced land use data that can be of value for such assessment. To ascertain the types of proposed actions requiring EIS's, all EIS's prepared for proposed actions in the test site between January 1970 and June 1974 were reviewed. The actions were divided into seven categories: (1) construction of transportation and communication facilities; (2) construction of power plant, powerline, and fuel line facilities; (3) urban renewal, new town development projects, and multistory building construction; (4) construction of facilities for watershed protection and development;, (5) construction of waste treatment and disposal facilities (6) maintenance dredging, navigation improvements, and beach erosion control and replenishment projects; and (7) establishing or enhancing land and water conservation areas. Examples of actions from each category were selected for more detailed study. In view of the types of projects being proposed, an approach to environmental impact assessment using land use and water data as central inputs was recommended. The viability of such an approach as well as other approaches depends upon the availability of quantitative data such as those produced by the CARETS project.

Environmental impact assessment↗
NASA NTRS1981

STS operations planning - Current status and outlook for the future

Consideration is given to the status of Space Shuttle operations planning and outlook for the period 1982-94, with some speculations on Shuttle-related space operations early in the next century. Attention is given to the evolution of Shuttle payload capabilities over the next five years. The following list of near-earth environment factors to be exploited by the Space Shuttle is given: (1) easy control of gravity; (2) absence of atmosphere; (3) a comprehensive view of the earth's surface and atmosphere; (4) isolation of hazardous processes from earth biosphere; (5) freely available light, heat and photovoltaic power; (6) an infinite natural reservoir for the disposal of radioactive waste products; and (7) a super-cold heat sink.

Lee, C. M.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Cleaning With Supercritical CO2

Supercritical carbon dioxide effective industrial cleaning agent. Replaces conventional halocarbon solvents for degreasing parts becoming coated with oil during such manufacturing procedures as forming and machining. Presents none of environmental threats and occupational hazards associated with halocarbon solvents. Spontaneously evaporates after use and leaves no waste to be disposed of. Evaporated gas readily collected and recycled.

Herzstock, James J.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Environmental Projects. Volume 8: Modifications of wastewater evaporation ponds

The Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex (GDSCC), located in the Mojave Desert about 45 miles north of Barstow, California, and about 160 miles northeast of Pasadena, is part of NASA's Deep Space Network, one of the world's largest and most sensitive scientific telecommunications and radio navigation networks. The Goldstone Complex is managed, technically directed, and operated for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. Activities at the GDSCC are carried out in support of seven parabolic dish antennas. These activities may give rise to environmental hazards: use of hazardous chemicals, asbestos, and underground storage tanks as well as the generation of hazardous wastes and the disposal of wastewater. Federal, state, and local laws governing the management of hazardous substances, asbestos, underground storage tanks and wastewater disposal have become so complex there is a need to devise specific programs to comply with the many regulations that implement these laws. In support of the national goal of the preservation of the environment and the protection of human health and safety, NASA, JPL, and the GDSCC have adopted a position that their operating installations shall maintain a high level of compliance with these laws. One of the environmental problems at the GDSCC involved four active, operational, wastewater evaporation ponds designed to receive and evaporate sewage effluent from upstream septic tank systems. One pair of active wastewater evaporation ponds is located at Echo Site, while another operational pair is at Mars Site.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1993

Space Life Support Technology Applications to Terrestrial Environmental Problems

Many of the problems now facing the human race on Earth are, in fact, life support issues. Decline of air Quality as a result of industrial and automotive emissions, pollution of ground water by organic pesticides or solvents, and the disposal of solid wastes are all examples of environmental problems that we must solve to sustain human life. The technologies currently under development to solve the problems of supporting human life for advanced space missions are extraordinarily synergistic with these environmental problems. The development of these technologies (including both physicochemical and bioregenerative types) is increasingly focused on closing the life support loop by removing and recycling contaminants and wastes to produce the materials necessary to sustain human life. By so doing, this technology development effort also focuses automatically on reducing resupply logistics requirements and increasing crew safety through increased self-sufficiency. This paper describes several technologies that have been developed to support human life in space and illustrates the applicability of the technologies to environmental problems including environmental remediation and pollution prevention.

Schwartzkopf, Steven H.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Land Use Patterns and Fecal Contamination of Coastal Waters in Western Puerto Rico

The Department of Environmental Health of the Graduate School of Public Health of the Medical Sciences Campus, University of Puerto Rico (UPR-RCM) conducted this research project on how different patterns of land use affect the microbiological quality of rivers flowing into Mayaguez Bay in Western Puerto Rico. Coastal shellfish growing areas, stream and ocean bathing beaches, and pristine marine sites in the Bay are affected by the discharge of the three study rivers. Satellite imagery was used to study watershed land uses which serve as point and nonpoint sources of pathogens affecting stream and coastal water users. The study rivers drain watersheds of different size and type of human activity (including different human waste treatment and disposal facilities). Land use and land cover in the study watersheds were interpreted, classified and mapped using remotely sensed images from NASA's Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM). This study found there is a significant relationship between watershed land cover and microbiological water quality of rivers flowing into Mayaguez Bay in Western Puerto Rico. Land covers in the Guanajibo, Anasco, and Yaguez watersheds were classified into forested areas, pastures, agricultural zones and urban areas so as to determine relative contributions to fecal water contamination. The land cover classification was made processing TM images with IDRISI and ERDAS software.

Norat, Jose↗
NASA NTRS2004

Improved Method of Purifying Carbon Nanotubes

An improved method of removing the residues of fabrication from carbon nanotubes has been invented. These residues comprise amorphous carbon and metal particles that are produced during the growth process. Prior methods of removing the residues include a variety of processes that involved the use of halogens, oxygen, or air in both thermal and plasma processes. Each of the prior methods entails one or more disadvantages, including non-selectivity (removal or damage of nanotubes in addition to removal of the residues), the need to dispose of toxic wastes, and/or processing times as long as 24 hours or more. In contrast, the process described here does not include the use of toxic chemicals, the generation of toxic wastes, causes little or no damage to the carbon nanotubes, and involves processing times of less than 1 hour. In the improved method, purification is accomplished by flowing water vapor through the reaction chamber at elevated temperatures and ambient pressures. The impurities are converted to gaseous waste products by the selective hydrogenation and hydroxylation by the water in a reaction chamber. This process could be performed either immediately after growth or in a post-growth purification process. The water used needs to be substantially free of oxygen and can be obtained by a repeated freeze-pump-thaw process. The presence of oxygen will non-selectively attach the carbon nanotubes in addition to the amorphous carbon.

Delzeit, Lance D.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Should Astronauts throw out their Trash? And if so, How?

We don’t think much about taking out the trash on Earth, but in space, it requires some thought. Should it even be thrown overboard? Besides the implications of littering in space, there are also practical considerations of whether waste materials can be reused for other purposes onboard or do they reduce mission efficiency. In a previous study, gasifying and venting trash along the way to Mars was found to noticeably reduce propellant needs and launch mass of the spacecraft, whereas keeping processed trash on board in the form of radiation shielding tiles would significantly lower the crew’s radiation dose during a solar particle event. The latest human exploration mission proposals will be considered with an eye toward answering the questions, “Should Astronauts throw out their Trash?” and “If so, what is the best way?” Besides reviewing the propulsion and radiation shielding aspects of the question, equivalent system mass factors of mass, power, volume, and crew time, as well as human factors, like smell, will be studied. Disposal options include jettison of an entire module containing waste, regular disposal of trash via an airlock, or gasifying waste products for easier disposal or reuse. Jettison via an airlock could take many forms, from “taking out the trash” on a spacewalk to launching trash tiles or pods with different mechanisms. Likewise, the “trash-to-gas” concept, which would allow for overboard venting via a pipe, has many thermochemical processes to choose from, each with their own pros and cons. Unraveling these various tradeoff studies is the goal of this paper.

trash↗
NASA NTRS2004

Monitoring and Testing the Parts Cleaning Stations, Abrasive Blasting Cabinets, and Paint Booths

I have the opportunity to work in the Environmental Management Office (EMO) this summer. One of the EMO's tasks is to make sure the Environmental Management System is implemented to the entire Glenn Research Center (GRC). The Environmental Management System (EMS) is a policy or plan that is oriented toward minimizing an organization's impact to the environment. Our EMS includes the reduction of solid waste regeneration and the reduction of hazardous material use, waste, and pollution. With the Waste Management Team's (WMT) help, the EMS can be implemented throughout the NASA Glenn Research Center. The WMT is responsible for the disposal and managing of waste throughout the GRC. They are also responsible for the management of all chemical waste in the facility. My responsibility is to support the waste management team by performing an inventory on parts cleaning stations, abrasive cabinets, and paint booths through out the entire facility. These booths/stations are used throughout the center and they need to be monitored and tested for hazardous waste and material. My job is to visit each of these booths/stations, take samples of the waste, and analyze the samples.

Jordan, Tracee M.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Benefits of Trash-to-Gas Versus Jettison of Waste Via Trash-Lock for Mars Transit

Human exploration missions to Mars pose difficulties due to the significant waste that will be generated during transit, which will need to be carried along or disposed of in some fashion. Waste removal from the spacecraft decreases the spacecraft’s mass as well as the associated logistic items necessary for storing the waste. A mission propellant analysis was performed to highlight the mass benefits that may be accessed via waste removal. The propellant mass savings were determined for different waste removal rates (2.9 – 11.6 kg/day) with the highest removal rate leading to the greatest propellant savings of 7,785 kg for an 850-day round-trip mission. Due to these benefits, two methods for waste reduction were studied for the 850-day Mars mission: Trash-to-Gas (TtG) and physical jettison via a trash-lock. The trash-to-gas methods considered were combustion, steam reforming, and pyrolysis, which convert waste into ventable gases (e.g., CO2, CO, CH4, etc.). Combustion and steam reforming require a co-reactant (O2 and/or H2O). Therefore, additional processing units or integration with the spacecraft’s environmental control and life support system (ECLSS) are required to facilitate recycle of the pertinent species. In contrast, pyrolysis is a purely thermal degradation process, which can operate as a standalone system; however, a lower percentage of waste is gasified with pyrolysis. The study herein compares standalone TtG (e.g., Advanced Organic Waste Gasifier, Plasma Pyrolysis, etc.), integrated TtG-ECLSS (e.g., Orbital Syngas Commodity Augmentation Reactor, Incineration/Gasification, etc.), and physical jettison. Each system’s mass, volume, power, and cooling requirements were compared via an equivalent system mass (ESM) analysis to ascertain potentially promising technologies that can achieve efficient waste removal while minimizing their own spacecraft load. This study highlights the advantages and disadvantages of the different waste management technologies and provides recommendations on the promising technologies based on the ESM metric and propellant mass savings.

Jettison↗
NASA NTRS1973

G-189A analytical simulation of the integrated waste management-water system using radioisotopes for thermal energy

An analytical simulation of the RITE-Integrated Waste Management and Water Recovery System using radioisotopes for thermal energy was prepared for the NASA-Manned Space Flight Center (MSFC). The RITE system is the most advanced concept water-waste management system currently under development and has undergone extended duration testing. It has the capability of disposing of nearly all spacecraft wastes including feces and trash and of recovering water from usual waste water sources: urine, condensate, wash water, etc. All of the process heat normally used in the system is produced from low penalty radioisotope heat sources. The analytical simulation was developed with the G189A computer program. The objective of the simulation was to obtain an analytical simulation which can be used to (1) evaluate the current RITE system steady state and transient performance during normal operating conditions, and also during off normal operating conditions including failure modes; and (2) evaluate the effects of variations in component design parameters and vehicle interface parameters on system performance.

Coggi, J. V.↗
NASA NTRS1978

A review of NASA-sponsored technology assessment projects

Recent technology assessment studies sponsored by NASA are reviewed, and a summary of the technical results as well as a critique of the methodologies are presented. The reviews include Assessment of Lighter-Than-Air Technology, Technology Assessment of Portable Energy RDT&P, Technology Assessment of Future Intercity Passenger Transportation Systems, and Technology Assessment of Space Disposal of Radioactive Nuclear Waste. The use of workshops has been introduced as a unique element of some of these assessments. Also included in this report is a brief synopsis of a method of quantifying opinions obtained through such group interactions. Representative of the current technology assessments, these studies cover a broad range of socio-political factors and issues in greater depth than previously considered in NASA sponsored studies. In addition to the lessons learned through the conduct of these studies, a few suggestions for improving the effectiveness of future technology assessments are provided.

Mascy, A. C.↗