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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 253 records · Page 14
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2018

Creating Innovative Frameworks to Spur Cultural Change at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center

Changing the culture of an organization is a monumental task that often takes years and has no set formula. Steps can be taken, however, to spur cultural change by creating spaces and infrastructure to serve as the initial driving force. An innovation space and a bicycle sharing (bike share) program were implemented at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) (Edwards, California) with a vision toward connecting Center personnel, fostering collaboration and innovation, retaining newer employees, promoting flexibility, and improving the culture and workplace atmosphere. This paper discusses the steps taken, challenges faced, novel culture-change-focused design elements, lessons learned, acquired metrics, and how these initiated cultural change at AFRC. For both the innovation space and the bike share program, funding was negotiated and provided through the NASA Convergent Aeronautics Solutions (CAS) project, which was seeking to improve the innovation and collaboration capabilities at each of the four NASA aeronautics Centers. Key stakeholders across AFRC from upper management, facilities, safety, engineering, and procurement were identified early in the process and were consulted and included throughout execution to ensure that any encountered roadblocks could be easily navigated. Research was then conducted by attending conferences and visiting culture-changing organizations both inside and outside United States Government agencies. Distilling the research, identifying available space, and deciding on specific design elements for the space was conducted by a subset of individuals of diverse backgrounds to enable quick, effective decision-making. Decisions were made with the intent to increase usage and diversity of users of the space; care was taken to ensure a well-crafted atmosphere that would foster the desired culture change. The allocated physical space required major structural modifications, new furniture, and new capabilities that would bring people in. Decisions and desires underwent a rapid reiterative process in order to stay within budget and short deadlines, while holding firm to what was seen as fundamental elements of an innovation space. The framework for cultural change being established, the more difficult task began: incubating the desired culture. Intentional workday use of the innovation space was encouraged, and organized events coordinated in order to truly foster culture change. Such incubation supports the organic spread of culture change to all areas of AFRC. This framework was complemented and expanded by the implementation of the bike share program. Steps for implementation included bike selection based on lessons learned, creating bike stations and signage, implementing bike share rules, and building a volunteer maintenance infrastructure. A novel user-reporting feedback system at each bike station is a low-impact method of capturing usage metrics. Due to the nature of the work conducted at AFRC, the bike share program and feedback system were negotiated and vetted through various organizations including legal, safety, and operations. The innovation space and the bike share program together are an effective initial framework for innovation and collaboration. Culture change takes time, but the innovation space and the bike share program are already showing signs of making a positive impact on the AFRC workforce.

rooms↗
DOE OSTI2021

Informing nuclear physics via machine learning methods with differential and integral experiments

Information from differential nuclear-physics experiments and theory is often too uncertain to accurately define nuclear-physics observables such as cross sections or energy spectra. Integral experimental data, representing the applications of these observables, are often more precise but depend simultaneously on too many of them to unambiguously identify issues in the observable with human expert analysis alone. Here, we explore how we can leverage physics knowledge gained from differential experimental data, nuclear theory, integral experiments, and neutron-transport calculations to better understand nuclear-physics observables in the context of the application area represented by integral experiments. We support this task with machine-learning methods to discern trends in a large amount of convoluted data. Differential and integral information was used in an analysis augmented by the random forest and the Shapley additive explanations metric. We chose as an application area one that is represented by criticality measurements and pulsed-sphere neutron-leakage spectra. We show one representative example ( 241 Pu fission observables) where the combination of differential and integral information allowed to resolve issues in data representing these observables. As a starting point, the machine learning (ML) algorithms highlighted several observables as leading potentially to bias in simulating integral experiments. Differential information, paired with sensitivity to integral quantities, allowed us then to pinpoint one specific observable ( 241 Pu fission cross section) as the main driver of bias. The comparison to integral experiments, on the other hand, allowed us to indicate a likely reliable experiment among several discrepant ones for this observables. In other cases (e.g., 239 Pu observables), we were not able to resolve the confounding introduced by integral experiments but instead highlighted the need for targeted new experiments and theory developments to better constrain the nuclear-physics space for the application area represented by integral experiments. We were able to combine information from differential experimental data, nuclear-physics theory, integral experiments, and neutron-transport simulations of the latter experiments with the help of the random forest algorithm and expert judgment. This combination of knowledge allows to improve our description of nuclear-physics observables as applied to a particular application area.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Chapter 18: Learning and Tracking Ad Hoc Fiducial Markers in Spatial Augmented Reality

We describe a spatial augmented reality system with a tangible user interface used to control computer simulations of complex systems. In spatial augmented reality, the user’s physical space is augmented with projected imagery, blending real objects with projected information, and a tangible user interface enables users to manipulate physical objects as controllers for interactive visualizations. Our system learns ad hoc objects in the user’s environment as fiducial markers (i.e., objects that are visually recognized and tracked). When combined with simulation and visualization tools, these interfaces allow the user to control simulations or ensembles of simulations via physical objects using apt metaphors. While other research has leveraged the use of depth cameras, our system enables the use of standard cameras in readily available smartphones and webcams and has an implementation that runs completely in JavaScript in the web browser. We discuss the prerequisite object-recognition requirements for such tangible user interfaces and describe computer-vision and machine-learning algorithms meeting those requirements. We conclude by presenting example applications, which are also available online.

energy distribution↗
DOE OSTI2021

Physics of high energy plasmas. Final report

Various papers and articles are highlighted. The main conclusions of the work in this area, which are of broad interest to fusion research, space physics and astrophysics, are presented in our forthcoming Physics Letters A publication.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Digital Twin Empowered PV Power Prediction

The accurate prediction of photovoltaic (PV) power generation is significant to ensure the economic and safe operation of power systems. To this end, the paper proposes a new digital twin (DT) empowered PV power prediction framework that is capable of ensuring reliable data transmission and employing the DT to achieve high accuracy of power prediction. With this framework, considering potential data contamination in the collected PV data, a generative adversarial network is employed to restore the historical data set, which offers a prerequisite to ensure accurate mapping from the physical space to the digital space. Further, a new DT empowered PV power prediction method is proposed. Therein, we model a DT that encompasses a digital physical model for reflecting the physical operation mechanism and a neural network model (i.e., a parallel network of convolution and bidirectional long-short-term memory model) for capturing the hidden spatial-temporal features. The proposed method enables the use of the DT to take advantages of the digital physical model and the neural network model, resulting in enhanced prediction accuracy. Finally, a real data set is conducted to access the effectiveness of the proposed method.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS2002

Theoretical Technology Research for the International Solar Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) Program

During the last four years the UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) IGPP (Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics) Space Plasma Simulation Group has continued its theoretical effort to develop a Mission Oriented Theory (MOT) for the International Solar Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) program. This effort has been based on a combination of approaches: analytical theory, large-scale kinetic (LSK) calculations, global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations and self-consistent plasma kinetic (SCK) simulations. These models have been used to formulate a global interpretation of local measurements made by the ISTP spacecraft. The regions of applications of the MOT cover most of the magnetosphere: solar wind, low- and high- latitude magnetospheric boundary, near-Earth and distant magnetotail, and auroral region. Most recent investigations include: plasma processes in the electron foreshock, response of the magnetospheric cusp, particle entry in the magnetosphere, sources of observed distribution functions in the magnetotail, transport of oxygen ions, self-consistent evolution of the magnetotail, substorm studies, effects of explosive reconnection, and auroral acceleration simulations. A complete list of the activities completed under the grant follow.

Ashour-Abdalla, Maha↗
NASA NTRS2007

Transport in the Subtropical Lowermost Stratosphere during CRYSTAL-FACE

We use in situ measurements of water vapor (H2O), ozone (O3), carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), nitric oxide (NO), and total reactive nitrogen (NO(y)) obtained during the CRYSTAL-FACE campaign in July 2002 to study summertime transport in the subtropical lowermost stratosphere. We use an objective methodology to distinguish the latitudinal origin of the sampled air masses despite the influence of convection, and we calculate backward trajectories to elucidate their recent geographical history. The methodology consists of exploring the statistical behavior of the data by performing multivariate clustering and agglomerative hierarchical clustering calculations, and projecting cluster groups onto principal component space to identify air masses of like composition and hence presumed origin. The statistically derived cluster groups are then examined in physical space using tracer-tracer correlation plots. Interpretation of the principal component analysis suggests that the variability in the data is accounted for primarily by the mean age of air in the stratosphere, followed by the age of the convective influence, and lastly by the extent of convective influence, potentially related to the latitude of convective injection [Dessler and Sherwuud, 2004]. We find that high-latitude stratospheric air is the dominant source region during the beginning of the campaign while tropical air is the dominant source region during the rest of the campaign. Influence of convection from both local and non-local events is frequently observed. The identification of air mass origin is confirmed with backward trajectories, and the behavior of the trajectories is associated with the North American monsoon circulation.

Pittman, Jasna V.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Transport in the Subtropical Lowermost Stratosphere during the Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers-Florida Area Cirrus Experiment

We use in situ measurements of water vapor (H2O), ozone (O3), carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), nitric oxide (NO), and total reactive nitrogen (NOy) obtained during the CRYSTAL-FACE campaign in July 2002 to study summertime transport in the subtropical lowermost stratosphere. We use an objective methodology to distinguish the latitudinal origin of the sampled air masses despite the influence of convection, and we calculate backward trajectories to elucidate their recent geographical history. The methodology consists of exploring the statistical behavior of the data by performing multivariate clustering and agglomerative hierarchical clustering calculations and projecting cluster groups onto principal component space to identify air masses of like composition and hence presumed origin. The statistically derived cluster groups are then examined in physical space using tracer-tracer correlation plots. Interpretation of the principal component analysis suggests that the variability in the data is accounted for primarily by the mean age of air in the stratosphere, followed by the age of the convective influence, and last by the extent of convective influence, potentially related to the latitude of convective injection (Dessler and Sherwood, 2004). We find that high-latitude stratospheric air is the dominant source region during the beginning of the campaign while tropical air is the dominant source region during the rest of the campaign. Influence of convection from both local and nonlocal events is frequently observed. The identification of air mass origin is confirmed with backward trajectories, and the behavior of the trajectories is associated with the North American monsoon circulation.

Pittman, Jasna V.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Polar Gateways Arctic Circle Sunrise 2008 Conference at the Top of the World

The Polar Gateways conference was hosted during January 23-29, 2008, the first week of polar sunrise at Barrow, Alaska, at the new Barrow Arctic Research Center of the Barrow Arctic Science consortium (BASC). The dawn week of polar day, the highly variable low temperatures, and the ice-covered shore tundra and adjacent sea ice conditions provided an appropriate locale for a conference dedicated in the spirit of the International Polar and Heliophysical Years 2007-2009 to the educational exploration of polar and icy world science of Earth and the solar system. The many scientific, educational, and cultural interactions with the local community of four thousand residents, sixty percent native Inupiat Eskimo, further provided an unforgettable experience of what life might be someday be like on other remote polar and icy worlds to be explored and eventually inhabited. Over one hundred active participants, more than half participating remotely, contributed science presentations and educational activities during this unique circumpolar and very "green" conference. Most remote contributions came via videoconference from the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) at Kisuna, Sweden, the EISCAT Svalbard Radar Facility at Spitzbergen, Norway, the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Arizona. A few contributors participated via teleconference, including one from the Polar Geophysical Institute at Apatity in Russia. These active contributions spanned up to thirteen time zones (Alaska to Russia) at various tirnes during the conference. Primary videoconferencing support between Barrow and other sites was ably provided by the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, and local operators at each remote site collectively made this conference possible. Science presentations spanned the solar system from the polar Sun and heliospheric environment to Earth, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Kuiper Belt, and the solar wind termination shock now crossed by both Voyager spacecraft. Barrow participants experienced look and feel of icy worlds like Europa by going "on the ice" during snowmobile expeditions to the near-shore sea ice and Point Barrow. Extensive educational outreach activities were conducted with the local Barrow township and North Slope Borough communities, partly through several interviews with local host Earl Finkler on Barrow's KBRW Radio, and through the NASA Digital Learning Network (DLN) "live from the top of the world" at Barrow. The Goddard robotic rover "Nunuq of the North" became a local celebrity. The complete science program and photo library, eventually also including video recordings of all main presentations, will be available at the new polargateways2008.gsfc.nasa.gov web site (old version: polargateways2008.org) with links to educational materials from the conference already accessible at sunearthday.nasa.gov/polarsunrise.

Cooper, John F.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Building Sustainable Capacity within Under-Represented Communities Through A Deep Partnership Model

Despite varied programmatic inducements and the documented benefits of Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), participation rates of underrepresented communities within NASA’s planetary sciences activities have remained low and nearly unchanged over the last decade. The lack of success of various efforts may be attributable to factors identified in social science research. First, the proportionality of under-represented groups has been shown to be critical to achieving the positive impacts of DE&I. When under-represented groups make up less than ~30%, group dynamics such as assimilation or tokenism routinely appear, with destructive and counter-productive results. Additionally, if participation only occurs within limited segments of an organization, benefits may be limited. Proportionality must extend across all levels or layers of the organization for the benefits of DE&I to accrue. Second, the inclusion of “Third Spaces” in the planning and support of DE&I efforts is critical to the long-term success or “stickiness” of DE&I activities. Third Spaces are those beyond home (First Space) and work (Second Space) where informal, community-building activities occur. Examples include conferences, after-work activities, and weekend social engagements. Without explicitly acknowledging and including “Third Space” interactions, DE&I efforts can fall short of their long-term goals. In 2014, the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder began a partnership with the United Arab Emirates to develop and fly a space mission to Mars. The scientific mission had an explicit goal of training scientists and engineers, and creating a sustainable ecosystem that would spark and accelerate the UAE’s space economy. To accomplish this, LASP and the UAE set up a program that matched scientists and engineers in one-on-one mentorship relationships, at all levels of the organization. Over the course of the roughly 4-year project, those partnering relationships fostered not only strong professional relationships and knowledge transfer, but also personal friendships that extended into “Third Spaces.” The UAE/LASP partnership now continues through the co-development of an asteroid mission currently in definition phase. In collaboration with NASA Ames Research Center, LASP is developing the conceptual frame work to extend this deep partnership model to domestic opportunities. By implementing a planetary science mission that employs an analogous one-on-one partnership model across all elements of the organization, this project will demonstrate how proportionality and Third Space relationships can enable the development of localized, sustainable communities that are explicitly and deeply engaged with the NASA ecosystem.

Capacity Building↗
NASA NTRS2020

2019 NASA Division of Space Life and Physical Sciences Research and Applications Fluid Physics Workshop Report

On October 16 and 17, 2019, NASA’s Space Life and Physical Sciences Research and Applications (SLPSRA) Division held the 2019 NASA SLPSRA Fluid Physics Workshop at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Researchers from academia, industry, and Government agencies gathered to provide recommendations to NASA on exploration-related microgravity challenges in multiphase systems and thermal transport processes. The goal of the workshop was to identify overarching future research themes relevant to NASA’s exploration goals in three key areas: (1) boiling and condensation; (2) water recovery; and (3) heat pipes.

microgravity↗
NASA NTRS1989

Solar physics in the space age

A concise and brief review is given of the solar physics' domain, and how its study has been affected by NASA Space programs which have enabled space based observations. The observations have greatly increased the knowledge of solar physics by proving some theories and challenging others. Many questions remain unanswered. To exploit coming opportunities like the Space Station, solar physics must continue its advances in instrument development, observational techniques, and basic theory. Even with the Advance Solar Observatory, other space based observation will still be required for the sure to be ensuing questions.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1997

Space Environment Stability and Physical Properties of New Materials for Space Power and Commercial Applications

Useful and informative results were obtained on virtually all materials investigated. For example, the stability of ITO-based arc-proof transparent coatings was greatly improved by substitution of silicon oxide for magnesium fluoride as a dopant. Research on 'air-doped' ITO films has yielded new insight into their conduction mechanism which will help in further development of these coatings. Some air-doped films were found to be extremely pressure sensitive. This work may lead to improved, low-cost gas sensors and vacuum gauges. Work on another promising transparent arc-proof coating (titanium oxide) was initiated in collaboration with industry. Graphite oxide-like materials were synthesized and tested for possible use in high energy-density batteries and other applications. We also started a high-priority project to find the cause of unexpected environmental damage to the exterior of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) discovered on a recent Shuttle mission. Materials were characterized before and after exposure to soft x-rays and other threats in ground-based simulators.

Hambourger, Paul D.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Space Environment Stability and Physical Properties of New Materials for Space Power and Commercial Applications

To test and evaluate suitability of materials for use in space power systems and related space and commercial applications, and to achieve sufficient understanding of the mechanisms by which, the materials perform in their intended applications. Materials and proposed applications included but were not limited to: Improved anodes for lithium ion batteries, highly-transparent arc-proof solar array coatings, and improved surface materials for solar dynamic concentrators and receivers. Cooperation and interchange of data with industrial companies as appropriate.

Hambourger, Paul D.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Scientific uses of the space shuttle

A survey was conducted to determine the possible missions which could be accomplished by the space shuttle. The areas of scientific endeavor which were considered are as follows: (1) atmospheric and space physics, (2) high energy astrophysics, (3) infrared astronomy, (4) optical and ultraviolet astronomy, (5) solar physics, (6) life sciences, and (7) planetary exploration. Specific projects to be conducted in these broader areas are defined. The modes of operation of the space shuttle are analyzed. Instruments and equipment required for conducting the experiments are identified.

Source record↗
DOE OSTI2023

Final Scientific Report on: Magnetized Shock Physics and Convergent Flows

The objective of this project was to study magnetized shocks in plasmas using the Omega Laser Facility to drive a solid foil into a magnetized gas, which would be preionized by the x-rays from the laser-solid interaction. The MIFEDS (magneto-inertial fusion electrical discharge system) provided the magnetic field. Magnetized shocks are of interest in magneto-inertial fusion, such as MagLIF and magnetized spherical implosions with both direct and indirect drive, space physics, heliophysics, and astrophysics. In magneto-inertial fusion the shocks of interest are collisional and perpendicular to the magnetic field lines, since the magnetic field needs to be compressed. In space, the shocks of interest are typically collisionless, due to the low plasma density, and both perpendicular and parallel to the magnetic field. The marginally collisionless regime between these is also of interest in both laboratory, fusion, and space plasmas, but has barely been investigated.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1989

Gravitational experiments on a solar probe mission: Scientific objectives and technology considerations

The concept of a solar impact probe (either solar plunger or sun grazer) led to the initiation of a NASA study at JPL in 1978 on the engineering and scientific feasibility of a Solar Probe Mission, named Starprobe, in which a spacecraft is placed in a high eccentricity orbit with a perihelion near 4 solar radii. The Starprobe study showed that the concept was feasible and in fact preliminary mission and spacecraft designs were developed. In the early stages of the Solar Probe studies the emphasis was placed on gravitational science, but by the time of a workshop at Caltech in May 1978 (Neugebauer and Davies, 1978) there was about an equal division of interest between heliospheric physics and gravitation. The last of the gravitational studies for Solar Probe was conducted at JPL in 1983. Since that time, the Committee on Solar and Space Physics (CSSP) of the National Academy of Sciences has recommended the pursuit of a focused mission, featuring fields and particles instrumentation and emphasizing studies of the solar wind source region. Such a solar probe mission is currently listed as the 1994 Major New Star candidate. In the remainder of this review, the unique gravitational science that can be accomplished with a solar probe mission is reviewed. In addition the technology issues that were identified in 1980 by the ad hoc working group for Gravity and Relativity Science are addressed.

Anderson, John D.↗