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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

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NASA NTRS2004

The EOS-Aura Mission

The EOS-Aura atmospheric chemistry mission is scheduled for launch in June 2004. Aura is the third of the large EOS observatories. The spacecraft carries an international instrument payload that has a planned six year lifetime. The Aura mission will collect data to help answer stratospheric and tropospheric atmospheric chemistry questions. The mission has the following four major objectives: 1) Track the ozone layer to determine if it is recovering as predicted. The four Aura instruments, HIRDLS, OMI, MLS, and TES will measure ozone, key source, radical, reservoir, tracer gases, and aerosols. Aura's unique design allows for major ozone controlling gases to be measured within the same air mass within a few minutes. The OMI instrument will continue the trends fiom NASA's TOMS series. 2) Track tropospheric pollutant sources and measure tropospheric ozone precursors. Major pollution sources include urban, industrial and biomass burning regions. Tropospheric trace gases will be measured, using TES and OMI, at an average spatial resolution of about approximately 15 km with near global coverage. 3) Measure key upper tropospheric atmospheric constituents that influence climate. The Aura instruments will monitor O3, H2O, CO, cirrus ice, and aerosols. EOS-Aura will fly in a sun-synchronous polar orbit about 15 minutes behind Aqua and make near coincident and synergistic measurements with the EOS- Aqua, Cloudsat, OCO, PARASOL and Calipso missions. Aura launched July 15,2004.

Schoeberl, Mark R.↗

NASA NTRS2005

The EOS-Aura Mission

The EOS-Aura atmospheric chemistry mission is scheduled for launch in June 2004. Aura is the third of the large EOS observatories. The spacecraft carries an international instrument payload that has a planned six year lifetime. The Aura mission will collect data to help answer stratospheric and tropospheric atmospheric chemistry questions. The mission has the following four major objectives: 1) Track the ozone layer to determine if it is recovering as predicted. The four Aura instruments, HIRDLS, OMI, MLS, and TES will measure ozone, key source, radical, reservoir, tracer gases, and aerosols. Aura's unique design allows for major ozone controlling gases to be measured within the same air mass within a few minutes. The OMI instrument will continue the trends from NASA's TOMS series. 2) Track tropospheric pollutant sources and measure tropospheric ozone precursors. Major pollution sources include urban, industrial and biomass burning regions. Tropospheric trace gases will be measured, using TES and OMI, at an average spatial resolution of about approx. 15 km with near global coverage. 3) Measure key upper tropospheric atmospheric constituents that influence climate. The Aura instruments will monitor O3, H2O, CO, cirrus ice, and aerosols. EOS-Aura will fly in a sun-synchronous polar orbit about 15 minutes behind Aqua and make near coincident and synergistic measurements with the EOS-Aqua, Cloudsat, OCO, PARASOL and Calipso missions. Aura launched July 15,2004.

Schoeberl, Mark R.↗

DOE OSTI2020

West Valley Demonstration Project Annual Site Environmental Report (CY2019)

The report, prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy West Valley Demonstration Project office (DOE-WVDP), summarizes the environmental protection program at the WVDP for calendar year (CY) 2019. Monitoring and surveillance of the facilities used by the DOE are conducted to verify protection of public health and safety and the environment. The report is a key component of DOE’s effort to keep the public informed of environmental conditions at the WVDP. The quality assurance protocols applied to the environmental monitoring program ensure the validity and accuracy of the monitoring data. In addition to demonstrating compliance with environmental laws, regulations, and directives, evaluation of data collected in 2019 continued to indicate that WVDP activities pose no threat to public health or safety, or to the environment.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

NASA NTRS2011

Qualifications of Bonding Process of Temperature Sensors to Deep-Space Missions

A process has been examined for bonding a platinum resistance thermometer (PRT) onto potential aerospace materials such as flat aluminum surfaces and a flexible copper tube to simulate coaxial cables for flight applications. Primarily, PRTs were inserted into a silver-plated copper braid to avoid stresses on the sensor while the sensor was attached with the braid to the base material for long-duration, deep-space missions. A1-1145/graphite composite (planar substrate) and copper tube have been used in this study to assess the reliability of PRT bonding materials. A flexible copper tube was chosen to simulate the coaxial cable to attach PRTs. The substrate materials were cleaned with acetone wipes to remove oils and contaminants. Later, the surface was also cleaned with ethyl alcohol and was air-dried. The materials were gently abraded and then were cleaned again the same way as previously mentioned. Initially, shielded (silver plated copper braid) PRT (type X) test articles were fabricated and cleaned. The base antenna material was pretreated and shielded, and CV-2566 NuSil silicone was used to attach the shielded PRT to the base material. The test articles were cured at room temperature and humidity for seven days. The resistance of the PRTs was continuously monitored during the thermal cycling, and the test articles were inspected prior to, at various intermediate steps during, and at the end of the thermal cycling as well. All of the PRTs survived three times the expected mission life for the JUNO project. No adhesion problems were observed in the PRT sensor area, or under the shielded PRT. Furthermore, the PRT resistance accurately tracked the thermal cycling of the chamber.

Ramesham, Rajeshuni↗

NASA NTRS2018

Effects of Aircraft Health on Airspace Safety

This manuscript investigates the effects of aircraft health on the surrounding airspace, and proposes a methodology to understand how different aircraft-level faults (system faults, communication faults, etc.) can adversely affect the safety of the airspace, and qualitatively assess the impact of such faults on airspace safety metrics (such as congestion, controller/pilot workload, etc.). The topic of systems health management deals with continuously monitoring the performance of an engineering system, identifying and detecting the presence of faults, predicting the growth/progression of faults, computing the remaining useful life, and aiding online decision-making for the robust, continued operation of such engineering systems. The topic of real-time airspace modeling and safety analysis deals with defining and computing safety metrics for airspace operations in order to support risk-informed decision-making activities for various airspace entities including pilots, air traffic controllers, airlines, etc. This report presents recent research efforts that focus on combining multiple aspects of the aforementioned topics, and investigates the impact of aircraft-level faults on the airspace safety

Aircraft Health↗

DOE OSTI2022

Millions of Small Pressure Cycles Drive Damage in Cracked Solar Cells

Here, we applied time-varying air pressure to a PV module containing newly cracked cells. The test used a new dynamic mechanical acceleration (DMX) apparatus. We applied pressure cycles similar to natural, wind-driven cycles. Compared to standard dynamic mechanical load (DML) tests, we applied much lower pressure (10 Pa to 300 Pa RMS) and many more cycles (one million at each of four pressure levels). We present a case study on a single cell in a commercial module. We monitored electrical continuity loss across cracks using electroluminescence (EL) imaging. 10 Pa pressure cycles caused negligible change. 30 Pa pressure cycles caused permanent damage that continued worsening even after tens of thousands of cycles. After one million 30 Pa cycles, a series of 100 Pa cycles still caused new, permanent damage to existing cracks. 300 Pa cycles caused further worsening and introduced new cracks.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2022

A Wireless Underground Sensor Network Field Pilot for Agriculture and Ecology: Soil Moisture Mapping Using Signal Attenuation

Wireless Underground Sensor Networks (WUSNs) that collect geospatial in situ sensor data are a backbone of internet-of-things (IoT) applications for agriculture and terrestrial ecology. In this paper, we first show how WUSNs can operate reliably under field conditions year-round and at the same time be used for determining and mapping soil conditions from the buried sensor nodes. We demonstrate the design and deployment of a 23-node WUSN installed at an agricultural field site that covers an area with a 530 m radius. The WUSN has continuously operated since September 2019, enabling real-time monitoring of soil volumetric water content (VWC), soil temperature (ST), and soil electrical conductivity. Secondly, we present data collected over a nine-month period across three seasons. We evaluate the performance of a deep learning algorithm in predicting soil VWC using various combinations of the received signal strength (RSSI) from each buried wireless node, above-ground pathloss, the distance between wireless node and receive antenna (D), ST, air temperature (AT), relative humidity (RH), and precipitation as input parameters to the model. The AT, RH, and precipitation were obtained from a nearby weather station. We find that a model with RSSI, D, AT, ST, and RH as inputs was able to predict soil VWC with an R 2 of 0.82 for test datasets, with a Root Mean Square Error of ±0.012 (m 3 /m 3 ). Hence, a combination of deep learning and other easily available soil and climatic parameters can be a viable candidate for replacing expensive soil VWC sensors in WUSNs.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2020

GEMINI Case Study

Sandia's GEMINI-Scout Mine Rescue Robot is an unmanned ground vehicle designed to enter potentially hazardous environments to explore, assess, and evaluate dangerous situations first responders may face when conducting a rescue mission. GEMINI is approximately four feet long and two feet tall, which enables the robot to maneuver through small locations on rough terrains caused by earthquakes, fires, or radiological incidents. GEMINI uses track propulsion to climb stairs, travel through gravel and sand pits, pivot in place, and traverse 45-degree climbs with few problems. Furthermore, the vehicle's dual tracked-chassis design allows it to operate in hostile, dark, muddy, high-temperature, and explosive debris-strewn environments, while maintaining efficient ground mobility. The mobility and modularity of the vehicle allow for easy integration of sensors to conduct gas and temperature sensing and offers pan/tilt, zoom color, and thermal camera video streaming capabilities. The vehicle is also able to carry a payload of about 50 pounds of batteries and can handle an additional 200 pounds of payload, whether for additional diagnostics, supplies, or clothing for those trapped in an effected area. GEMINI is remotely operated through a wireless connection and an onboard computer running a customized embedded control application, which directly communicates to all onboard components except for the audio and video systems. When line of sight is not possible, operators use a shockresistant fiber optic cable to ensure continuous functionality of the vehicle. This allows for direct local control of the vehicle, which streams collected data back to the operator for enhanced situational awareness. In addition, the vehicle incorporates safety features such as explosion proof housing to ensure safe electronic operations in hazardous gas or flooded environments; a four-channel video link and two-way audio to ensure located survivors can communicate with operators; and an MSHA-approved multi-gas sensor to monitor air quality.

42 ENGINEERING↗

NASA NTRS2006

Toward a High-Frequency Pulsed-Detonation Actuator

This paper describes the continued development of an actuator, energized by pulsed detonations, that provides a pulsed jet suitable for flow control in high-speed applications. A high-speed valve, capable of delivering a pulsed stream of reactants a mixture of H2 and air at rates of up to 1500 pulses per second, has been constructed. The reactants burn in a resonant tube and the products exit the tube as a pulsed jet. High frequency pressure transducers have been used to monitor the pressure fluctuations in the device at various reactant injection frequencies, including both resonant and off-resonant conditions. Pulsed detonations have been demonstrated in the lambda/4 mode of an 8 inch long tube at approximately 600 Hz. The pulsed jet at the exit of the device has been observed using shadowgraph and an infrared camera.

Cutler, Andrew D.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Toward a High-Frequency Pulsed-Detonation Actuator

This paper describes the continued development of an actuator, energized by pulsed detonations, that provides a pulsed jet suitable for flow control in high-speed applications. A high-speed valve, capable of delivering a pulsed stream of reactants a mixture of H2 and air at rates of up to 1500 pulses per second, has been constructed. The reactants burn in a resonant tube and the products exit the tube as a pulsed jet. High frequency pressure transducers have been used to monitor the pressure fluctuations in the device at various reactant injection frequencies, including both resonant and off-resonant conditions. Pulsed detonations have been demonstrated in the lambda/4 mode of an 8 inch long tube at approx. 600 Hz. The pulsed jet at the exit of the device has been observed using shadowgraph and an infrared camera.

Cutler, Andrew D.↗

NASA NTRS2016

Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management (UTM) Safely Enabling UAS Operations in Low-Altitude Airspace

Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) Enabling Civilian Low-Altitude Airspace and Unmanned Aircraft System Operations What is the problem? Many beneficial civilian applications of UAS have been proposed, from goods delivery and infrastructure surveillance, to search and rescue, and agricultural monitoring. Currently, there is no established infrastructure to enable and safely manage the widespread use of low-altitude airspace and UAS operations, regardless of the type of UAS. A UAS traffic management (UTM) system for low-altitude airspace may be needed, perhaps leveraging concepts from the system of roads, lanes, stop signs, rules and lights that govern vehicles on the ground today, whether the vehicles are driven by humans or are automated. What system technologies is NASA exploring? Building on its legacy of work in air traffic management for crewed aircraft, NASA is researching prototype technologies for a UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system that could develop airspace integration requirements for enabling safe, efficient low-altitude operations. While incorporating lessons learned from the today's well-established air traffic management system, which was a response that grew out of a mid-air collision over the Grand Canyon in the early days of commercial aviation, the UTM system would enable safe and efficient low-altitude airspace operations by providing services such as airspace design, corridors, dynamic geofencing, severe weather and wind avoidance, congestion management, terrain avoidance, route planning and re-routing, separation management, sequencing and spacing, and contingency management. One of the attributes of the UTM system is that it would not require human operators to monitor every vehicle continuously. The system could provide to human managers the data to make strategic decisions related to initiation, continuation, and termination of airspace operations. This approach would ensure that only authenticated UAS could operate in the airspace. In its most mature form, the UTM system could be developed using autonomicity characteristics that include self-configuration, self-optimization and self-protection. The self-configuration aspect could determine whether the operations should continue given the current andor predicted windweather conditions. NASA envisions concepts for two types of possible UTM systems. The first type would be a Portable UTM system, which would move from between geographical areas and support operations such as precision agriculture and disaster relief. The second type of system would be a Persistent UTM system, which would support low-altitude operations and provide continuous coverage for a geographical area. Either system would require persistent communication, navigation, and surveillance (CNS) coverage to track, ensure, and monitor conformance. What is NASA doing to test the technologies? NASA's near-term goal is the development and demonstration of a possible future UTM system that could safely enable low-altitude airspace and UAS operations. Working alongside many committed government, industry and academic partners, NASA is leading the research, development and testing that is taking place in a series of activities called Technology Capability Levels (TCL), each increasing in complexity. UTM TCL1 concluded field testing in August 2015 and is undergoing additional testing at an FAA site.

UTM Low-altitude↗

DOE OSTI2022

West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) Annual Site Environmental Report (ASER) for Calendar Year 2021

The report, prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy West Valley Demonstration Project office (DOE-WVDP), summarizes the environmental protection program at the WVDP for calendar year (CY) 2021. Monitoring and surveillance of the facilities used by the DOE are conducted to verify protection of public health and safety and the environment. The report is a key component of DOE’s effort to keep the public informed of environmental conditions at the WVDP. The quality assurance protocols applied to the environmental monitoring program ensure the validity and accuracy of the monitoring data. In addition to demonstrating compliance with environmental laws, regulations, and directives, evaluation of data collected in 2021 continued to indicate that WVDP activities pose no threat to public health or safety, or to the environment.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

NASA NTRS1990

The Traffic Management Advisor

The traffic management advisor (TMA) is comprised of algorithms, a graphical interface, and interactive tools for controlling the flow of air traffic into the terminal area. The primary algorithm incorporated in it is a real-time scheduler which generates efficient landing sequences and landing times for arrivals within about 200 n.m. from touchdown. A unique feature of the TMA is its graphical interface that allows the traffic manager to modify the computer-generated schedules for specific aircraft while allowing the automatic scheduler to continue generating schedules for all other aircraft. The graphical interface also provides convenient methods for monitoring the traffic flow and changing scheduling parameters during real-time operation.

Nedell, William↗

DOE OSTI2022

Temperature Dependence of FDR Response for Thermally Aged Low-Voltage Cables

Frequency Domain Reflectometry (FDR) has attracted significant attention for use in nuclear power plants (NPPs) for non-destructive cable health monitoring. However, cable aging detection using FDR faces challenges due to its high sensitivity to environmental factors such as temperature, vibrations, proximity to other cables, and so on. This work aims to evaluate the influence of measurement temperature on the FDR reflected signal in a low voltage cable undergoing accelerated thermal aging. A 100 ft long multi-core low-voltage unshielded power cable insulated with flame retardant ethylene propylene rubber (FR-EPR) and covered by a chloro-polyethylene (CPE) jacket was selected for this study. The cable was energized during aging by a 480 VAC 3-phase motor, and a 30 ft mid-section of this cable was routed through an air circulating oven held at 140 °C for up to an effective aging time of 62 days. FDR measurements were taken periodically with the oven on (at 140 °C) and with the oven off (at 22 °C). A comparative analysis of data collected at both temperatures showed that the FDR response was strongly dependent on measurement temperature. FDR measurements at ambient temperature showed large peaks corresponding to impedance changes in the aged section of the cable after 3 days of aging. These peaks continued to rise steadily with increasing aging time. However, for measurements taken at 140 °C, slowly rising peaks in the oven region (aged section) were observed only after a lead time of 23 days of aging. This work highlights the importance of measurement temperature on the performance of FDR as a condition monitoring tool for aging cables.

Sriraman, Aishwarya↗

NASA NTRS2020

Development of a Display Tool to Quality Control Weather Balloon Data for Space Launch Vehicles Using Python

Continuous atmospheric data analysis is an important factor for space launch vehicle design and operations. The balloon quality control tool was developed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Natural Environments Branch (NEB) for monitoring quality control processes and verifying the automated flags created on the balloon data sets analyzed. The data sets currently analyzed are comprised of high-resolution and low-resolution balloon data from NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC), co-located on the United States Air Force’s Eastern range (ER) at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The NEB was tasked to perform a quality assessment of these data sets and needed a tool to confirm the quality control (QC) flags produced from an automated process and add additional QC flags if necessary. This Graphical User Interface (GUI) was developed to visualize all of the data from these balloon sets, display any flags from the automated QC process, and add additional flags to variables if necessary. The GUI was developed in Python 3.6 utilizing different packages available such as pandas for data analysis and manipulation, NumPy for high-performance multidimensional array and tools to compute with and manipulate arrays, Matplotlib for plotting data and Tkinter to build the GUI.

Jessica K Headley↗

NASA NTRS2020

Development of a Display Tool to Quality Control Weather Balloon Data for Space Launch Vehicles

Jessica K Headley↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Evolution of NASA’s Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for Earth Observing Systems (LANCE) to Support an Increasingly Diverse Range of User Needs

NASA’s Land, Atmosphere Near Real-Time Capability for Earth Observing Systems (LANCE) supports a host of near real-time (NRT) monitoring applications from air quality to wildfires to flooding to droughts to severe storms. LANCE distributes 40-75 TB of data per week from 13 instruments to a wide range of users in over 200 countries. Most of the data and imagery served through LANCE are available within three hours of satellite overpass. Leveraging the existing NASA infrastructure and science teams has made LANCE unique in its ability to provide data from instruments onboard Earth observing satellites rapidly, accurately, and consistently. LANCE continually ensures these data are findable, readily accessible, and freely available. The evolution of LANCE is ongoing, as it strives to enable researchers and applications users to quickly incorporate the latest satellite data into their work, leading to more timely and accurate understanding of the Earth’s land and atmosphere.

Jenny Hewson↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Evolution of NASA's Land, Atmosphere Near Real-Time Capability for EOS (LANCE) to Support an Increasingly Diverse Range of User Needs

Jenny Hewson↗