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At least 271 records · Page 15

Effects of Heating on Teflon(Registered Trademark) FEP Thermal Control Material from the Hubble Space Telescope

Metallized Teflon(Registered Trademark) FEP (fluorinated ethylene propylene) thermal control material on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is degrading in the space environment. Teflon(Registered Trademark) FEP thermal control blankets (space-facing FEP) retrieved during the first servicing mission (SM1) were found to be embrittled on solar facing surfaces and contained microscopic cracks. During the second servicing mission (SM2) astronauts noticed that the FEP outer layer of the multi-layer insulation (MLI) covering the telescope was cracked in many locations around the telescope. Large cracks were observed on the light shield, forward shell and equipment bays. A tightly curled piece of cracked FEP from the light shield was retrieved during SM2 and was severely embrittled, as witnessed by ground testing. A Failure Review Board (FRB) was organized to determine the mechanism causing the MLI degradation. Density, x-ray crystallinity and solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analyses of FEP retrieved during SM1 were inconsistent with results of FEP retrieved during SM2. Because the retrieved SM2 material curled while in space, it experienced a higher temperature extreme during thermal cycling, estimated at 200 C, than the SM1 material, estimated at 50 C. An investigation on the effects of heating pristine and FEP exposed on HST was therefore conducted. Samples of pristine. SM1, and SM2 FEP were heated to 200 C and evaluated for changes in density and morphology. Elevated temperature exposure was found to have a major impact on the density of the retrieved materials. Characterization of polymer morphology of as-received and heated FEP samples by NMR provided results that were consistent with the density results. These findings have provided insight to the damage mechanisms of FEP in the space environment.

deGroh, Kim↗

Cloud Masking and Surface Temperature Distribution in the Polar Regions Using AVHRR and other Satellite Data

Surface temperature is one of the key variables associated with weather and climate. Accurate measurements of surface air temperatures are routinely made in meteorological stations around the world. Also, satellite data have been used to produce synoptic global temperature distributions. However, not much attention has been paid on temperature distributions in the polar regions. In the polar regions, the number of stations is very sparse. Because of adverse weather conditions and general inaccessibility, surface field measurements are also limited. Furthermore, accurate retrievals from satellite data in the region have been difficult to make because of persistent cloudiness and ambiguities in the discrimination of clouds from snow or ice. Surface temperature observations are required in the polar regions for air-sea-ice interaction studies, especially in the calculation of heat, salinity, and humidity fluxes. They are also useful in identifying areas of melt or meltponding within the sea ice pack and the ice sheets and in the calculation of emissivities of these surfaces. Moreover, the polar regions are unique in that they are the sites of temperature extremes, the location of which is difficult to identify without a global monitoring system. Furthermore, the regions may provide an early signal to a potential climate change because such signal is expected to be amplified in the region due to feedback effects. In cloud free areas, the thermal channels from infrared systems provide surface temperatures at relatively good accuracies. Previous capabilities include the use of the Temperature Humidity Infrared Radiometer (THIR) onboard the Nimbus-7 satellite which was launched in 1978. Current capabilities include the use of the Advance Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) aboard NOAA satellites. Together, these two systems cover a span of 16 years of thermal infrared data. Techniques for retrieving surface temperatures with these sensors in the polar regions have been developed. Errors have been estimated to range from 1K to 5K mainly due to cloud masking problems. With many additional channels available, it is expected that the EOS-Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) will provide an improved characterization of clouds and a good discrimination of clouds from snow or ice surfaces.

Comiso, Joey C.↗

Lunar Environment Simulation for a High Performance Motor

NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) through a CSA contractor, Argo Space/Robotics Division, partnered to perform environmental performance tests on a high torque producing motor. CSA provided the motor and NASA provided a thermal vacuum chamber capable of achieving high vacuum (P < 1 E-5 torr) and temperatures between 25 and 400 K. NASA also provided a dynamometer system capable of measuring and or applying break torque between 0 and 28 Nm. The two primary goals of the test were to simulate sun exposed and shadow condition expected on the lunar surface in order to determine survivability of the motor at extreme temperature conditions and to operate the motor under a constant break load of 6.8 Nm in the temperature range of 30K to 415K. A secondary objective of the test was to operate the motor for 15 km under 6.8 Nm of load. The primary goals of the test were fully achieved. The secondary goal was partially achieved.

O'Connell, Joe↗

Demonstration, Testing and Qualification of a High Temperature, High Speed Magnetic Thrust Bearing

The gas turbine industry has a continued interest in improving engine performance and reducing net operating and maintenance costs. These goals are being realized because of advancements in aeroelasticity, materials, and computational tools such as CFD and engine simulations. These advancements aid in increasing engine thrust-to-weight ratios, specific fuel consumption, pressure ratios, and overall reliability through higher speed, higher temperature, and more efficient engine operation. Currently, rolling element bearing and squeeze film dampers are used to support rotors in gas turbine engines. Present ball bearing configurations are limited in speed (<2 million DN) and temperature (<5OO F) and require both cooling air and an elaborate lubrication system. Also, ball bearings require extensive preventative maintenance in order to assure their safe operation. Since these bearings are at their operational limits, new technologies must be found in order to take advantage of other advances. Magnetic bearings are well suited to operate at extreme temperatures and higher rotational speeds and are a promising solution to the problems that conventional rolling element bearings present. Magnetic bearing technology is being developed worldwide and is considered an enabling technology for new engine designs. Using magnetic bearings, turbine and compressor spools can be radically redesigned to be significantly larger and stiffer with better damping and higher rotational speeds. These advances, a direct result of magnetic bearing technology, will allow significant increases in engine power and efficiency. Also, magnetic bearings allow for real-time, in-situ health monitoring of the system, lower maintenance costs and down time.

DeWitt, Kenneth↗

Charactarization of Thermal Protection Systems

In 2012, NASA's mission of landing the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) on Mars was successful. MSL was protected by an ablative heatshield of tiled low density material known as PICA (phenolic impregnated carbon ablator). The heatshield was instrumented with MEDLI (MSL Entry Descent Landing Instrument) a suite of sensors & thermocouples at discrete locations in order to monitor the in-depth ablator temperature response and surface pressure. MEDLI was designed and developed by NASA Langley, in partnership with NASA Ames Research Center for the purposes of probing Mars and evaluating the performance of the spacecraft upon entry into the Martian atmosphere. The flight data reduces the uncertainty in engineer models for predicting the response of a spacecraft towards the extreme heating environment of an entry into the Martian atmosphere. MEDLI2 is a part of the Mars 2020 mission and is the next-generation sensor suite for entry, descent, and landing. This data will again help engineers validate their flight models. Additionally, the atmospheric data, can help us understand atmospheric density and winds. This is a critical study for reducing risks to both robotic and future human missions to Mars. Engineered models for Mars 2020 are dependent upon parameters related to the materials response to heating and radiation. In this work, the thermal properties and other measurements of various ablative materials are analyzed to achieve greater utility of the 2012 MEDLI flight data and more accurately determine the parameters being used in Mars 2020. The purpose of this study was to measure specific heat, thermal conductivity, char yield, reflectance as a function of wavelength, and other thermal parameters and optical properties of various ablative materials. CO2(g) at extreme temperatures emits radiation impacting MEDLI2 flight predictions. Emissivity & absorptivity as a function of temperature were calculated from FTIR and UV-Vis data as a means of investigating whether these materials might absorb CO2 radiation upon entry into the Mars atmosphere.

HEEET↗

A color graphics presentation of the Space Shuttle Orbiter windward surface entry temperature distribution

The windward surface temperature response measured during the fifth entry of the Space Shuttle Columbia is presented as solid filled color contour plots. These plots show the data from 92 instruments, at selected points in time, in a manner which makes the temperature extremes and gradients immediately obvious. Several physical phenomena, such as separated flow caused by the deflected body flap, local heating at the elevon-elevon gap, an overview of the propagation of boundary-layer transition over the Orbiter windward surface, and the thermal response of eight catalytically coated tiles, can be observed or inferred from the displayed temperatures. In addition, the maximums from each instrument have been contoured and are presented with a companion plot showing the percentage of surface area covered by each contour level. Also, the flight data are presented using the colors which correspond to the surface emittance as a function of temperature. To show the temperature transients, a computer-generated movie has been produced showing the temperature contours from 100 s to 1500 s after entry interface.

Martin, F. W., Jr.↗

Characterizing Porous and Nonporous Phenolic Resins from Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Phenolic resins are an important component of many ablative heat shield materials, which protect spacecrafts from the extreme temperatures reached during atmospheric entry. Examples include the high-density Heritage Carbon Phenolic (HCP) used in the Pioneer-Venus and Galileo missions, as well as the low-density Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA) used in the Mars Science Laboratory and Mars 2020 missions. Additionally, recent developments within NASA have produced the mid-density Heatshield for Extreme Entry Environment Technology (HEEET) and its derivative 3D Woven Mid-Density Carbon Phenolic (3MDCP). Unlike the nonporous phenolic in HCP, PICA and HEEET/3MDCP are fabricated by infusing preforms with diluted phenolic formulations to obtain a lower density porous matrix. Despite the importance of the phenolic phase to the material response during entry, the variation in properties of porous and nonporous phenolic is not well understood. Here, we present an investigation of porous and nonporous phenolic resins using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Resin cure is mimicked in the simulations through the inclusion of representative reaction templates to generate accurate models of the complex crosslinked structures. To create porous models, explicit solvent molecules are included during the cure simulations. We observe nanoscale separation of the phenolic and solvent phases, which results in significant differences in the final structures of porous and nonporous models. In addition to a quantitative assessment of the network structure and porosity, we elucidate the effects of the phenolic formulation on the final material properties. These results are compared with experimental data as appropriate.

phenolic↗

Thermal control on the lunar surface

For a mission to the Moon which lasts more than a few days, thermal control is a challenging problem because of the Moon's wide temperature swings and long day and night periods. During the lunar day it is difficult to reject heat temperatures low enough to be comfortable for either humans or electronic components, while excessive heat loss can damage unprotected equipment at night. Fluid systems can readily be designed to operate at either the hot or cold temperature extreme but it is more difficult to accomodate both extermes within the same system. Special consideration should be given to sensitive systems, such as optics and humans, and systems that generate large amounts of waste heat, such as lunar bases or manufacturing facilities. Passive thermal control systems such as covers, shades and optical coatings can be used to mitigate the temperature swings experienced by components. For more precise thermal control active systems such as heaters or heat pumps are required although they require more power than passive systems.

Walker, Sherry T.↗

Electrolytes for Use in High Energy Lithium-Ion Batteries with Wide Operating Temperature Range

Objectives of this work are: (1) Develop advanced Li -ion electrolytes that enable cell operation over a wide temperature range (i.e., -30 to +60C). (2) Improve the high temperature stability and lifetime characteristics of wide operating temperature electrolytes. (3) Improve the high voltage stability of these candidate electrolytes systems to enable operation up to 5V with high specific energy cathode materials. (4) Define the performance limitations at low and high temperature extremes, as well as, life limiting processes. (5) Demonstrate the performance of advanced electrolytes in large capacity prototype cells.

voltage stability↗

Heat capacities of liquid metals above 1500 K

Heat capacity data are presented for liquid transition metals for temperatures close to the melting point and for 3000, 4000, and 5000 K. The data have been obtained by summarizing the results of levitation, exploding-wire, and drop-calorimetry measurements reported in the literature and by providing analytical estimates where experimental data are not available. The data given here are useful in assigning heat loads and predicting structure survival during extreme temperature excursions caused by nuclear, laser, or particle irradiations.

Margrave, J. L.↗

Habitable planets with high obliquities

Earth's obliquity would vary chaotically from 0 degrees to 85 degrees were it not for the presence of the Moon (J. Laskar, F. Joutel, and P. Robutel, 1993, Nature 361, 615-617). The Moon itself is thought to be an accident of accretion, formed by a glancing blow from a Mars-sized planetesimal. Hence, planets with similar moons and stable obliquities may be extremely rare. This has lead Laskar and colleagues to suggest that the number of Earth-like planets with high obliquities and temperate, life-supporting climates may be small. To test this proposition, we have used an energy-balance climate model to simulate Earth's climate at obliquities up to 90 degrees. We show that Earth's climate would become regionally severe in such circumstances, with large seasonal cycles and accompanying temperature extremes on middle- and high-latitude continents which might be damaging to many forms of life. The response of other, hypothetical, Earth-like planets to large obliquity fluctuations depends on their land-sea distribution and on their position within the habitable zone (HZ) around their star. Planets with several modest-sized continents or equatorial supercontinents are more climatically stable than those with polar supercontinents. Planets farther out in the HZ are less affected by high obliquities because their atmospheres should accumulate CO2 in response to the carbonate-silicate cycle. Dense, CO2-rich atmospheres transport heat very effectively and therefore limit the magnitude of both seasonal cycles and latitudinal temperature gradients. We conclude that a significant fraction of extrasolar Earth-like planets may still be habitable, even if they are subject to large obliquity fluctuations.

NASA Discipline Exobiology↗

Improved Hermetic Feedthrough Seals For Optical Fibers

Improved inorganic sealing materials withstand widely ranging temperatures. Hermetic feedthrough seals for optical fibers withstand temperatures from as low as minus 325 degrees F (about minus 198 degrees C) to as high as 392 degrees F (about 200 degrees C) while maintaining helium leak rate of below 10 to the negative 11th power cm(3)/s. Demonstrated to perform exceptionally through salt spray, sinusoidal and random vibrations (20 to 2000 Hz), mechanical shock (40 g's) thermal shock at extreme temperatures, humidity, and radiation (neutron fluence, gamma, and ion) testing.

Fan, Robert Jui-Lin↗

Overview of Nasa's Watts on the Moon Challenge Phase 1

As NASA works to extend human exploration of the solar system, unprecedented capacity for electrical and thermal energy will be needed to support sustained human presence and the beginning of industrial activity on the Moon. Solar energy is abundant on the lunar surface but extended night hours (up to 350 consecutive hours) and extreme temperature change from daylight to nighttime operation creates complexity for solar power use. Analogous issues arise on Earth, where demand for additional renewable energy generation, including solar, is rising, but better power management, distribution, and energy storage solutions are needed to address intermittency and resiliency, among other issues. To accelerate the development of technologies for power distribution and energy storage that can operate in extreme lunar conditions, NASA’s Centennial Challenges Program launched the Watts on the Moon Challenge in September 2020. Submissions for Phase 1 of the challenge were due in March 2021 and winners were announced in May 2021. This paper provides an overview of the challenge, key technical requirements, outcomes from Phase 1, and an update on Phase 2 of the challenge, which is currently ongoing.

Denise P. Morris↗

Oxygen Production from Lunar Regolith using Ionic Liquids

The objective of this work and future follow-on work is to develop a safe, efficient, and recyclable method for oxygen and/or metals extraction from lunar regolith, in support of establishing a manned lunar outpost. The approach is to solubilize the oxides that comprise lunar regolith in media consisting of ionic liquids (ILs) and/or their mixtures at temperatures at or below 300 C. Once in solution, electrolysis can either be performed in-situ to generate oxygen at the anode and hydrogen and/or metals (silicon, iron, aluminum, titanium, etc.) at the cathode. Alternatively, the water that is generated during the solubilization process can be distilled out and condensed into a separate IL and then electrolysized to produce hydrogen and oxygen. In the case of lunar regolith, this method could theoretically produce 44g oxygen per 100g of regolith. The oxygen can be used for human life support and/or as an oxidizer for rocket fuels, and the metals can be used as raw materials for construction and/or device fabrication. Moreover, the hydrogen produced can be used to re-generate the acidic medium, which can then be used to process additional regolith, thereby making the materials recyclable and limiting upmass requirements. An important advantage of IL acid systems is that they are much "greener" and safer than conventional materials used for regolith processing such as sulfuric or hydrochloric acids. They have very low vapor pressures, which means that they contain virtually no toxic and/or flammable volatile content, they are relatively non-corrosive, and they can exhibit good stability in harsh environments (extreme temperatures, hard vacuum, etc.). Furthermore, regolith processing can be achieved at lower temperatures than other processes such as molten oxide electrolysis or hydrogen reduction, thereby reducing initial power requirements. Six ILs have been synthesized and tested for their capability to dissolve lunar simulant, and for electrochemical and thermal stability. The results showed that ILs can be very efficient electrolytes; in particular IL/phosphoric-acid mixtures appear extremely promising for solubilizing lunar simulant. Results from preliminary experiments for distillation of water produced from the oxygen within the metal oxides of the simulant and the hydrogen from the acid indicates that over 75% of the oxygen from the simulant can be harvested as water at a temperature of 150 C. A method for collection of oxygen from electrolysis of the water derived from solubilizing simulant was developed by using a liquid nitrogen trap to liquefy and collect the oxygen. Although precise quantification of the liquid oxygen trapped is difficult to obtain, the amount of hydrogen and oxygen collected from electrolysis of water in this system was greater than 98%. This set-up also included a portable mass spectrometer for the identification of gases released from electrolysis cells. Regeneration of ILs through re-protonation was also demonstrated. Four sequential re-generations of an IL following solubilization of simulant showed no significant differences in amounts of simulant dissolved. Follow-on work for this project should include more studies of IL/phosphoric acid systems. Also, much more work is necessary for defining methods for electrolysis and purification of metals from regolith solubilized in ILs, and for developing a system to use the produced hydrogen to regenerate the spent IL. Finally, design and development of flight breadboard and prototype hardware is required.

Paley, Mark Steven↗

High Temperature Emissivity Measurement System (HiTEMS)

The High Temperature Emissivity Measurement System (HiTEMS) is a ground test capability at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center enabling near normal and varied incident angle spectral and total emittance measurements. This data is gathered at vacuum levels as low as approximately 10-7 Torr within a temperature range of 600°C to approximately 2,600°C, providing essential material property data to assist with improved thermal control estimates for spacecraft hardware. Recent work focusing on the measurement of smooth and bead blasted tungsten samples in support of the Propulsion Research and Tech Branch at NASA MSFC provides a thorough examination into HiTEMS capabilities and insight into the variabilities related to sample roughness at extreme temperatures.

Meghan Carrico↗

A comparison of global estimates of marine primary production from ocean color

The third primary production algorithm round robin (PPARR3) compares output from 24 models that estimate depth-integrated primary production from satellite measurements of ocean color, as well as seven general circulation models (GCMs) coupled with ecosystem or biogeochemical models. Here we compare the global primary production fields corresponding to eight months of 1998 and 1999 as estimated from common input fields of photosynthetically-available radiation (PAR), sea-surface temperature (SST), mixed-layer depth, and chlorophyll concentration. We also quantify the sensitivity of the ocean-color-based models to perturbations in their input variables. The pair-wise correlation between ocean-color models was used to cluster them into groups or related output, which reflect the regions and environmental conditions under which they respond differently. The groups do not follow model complexity with regards to wavelength or depth dependence, though they are related to the manner in which temperature is used to parameterize photosynthesis. Global average PP varies by a factor of two between models. The models diverged the most for the Southern Ocean, SST under 10 C, and chlorophyll concentration exceeding 1mg Chlm-3. Based on the conditions under which the model results diverge most, we conclude that current ocean-color-based models are challenged by high-nutrient low-chlorophyll conditions, and extreme temperatures or chlorophyll concentrations. The GCM-based models predict comparable primary production to those based on ocean color: they estimate higher values in the Southern Ocean, at low SST, and in the equatorial band, while they estimate lower values in eutrophic regions (probably because the area of high chlorophyll concentrations is smaller in the GCMs). Further progress in primary production modeling requires improved understanding of the effect of temperature on photosynthesis and better parameterization of the maximum photosynthetic rate.

Yamanaka, Yasuhiro↗

Response of Surface Shortwave Cloud Radiative Effect to Greenhouse Gases and Aerosols and Its Impact on Summer Maximum Temperature

Shortwave cloud radiative effects (SWCREs), defined as the difference of the shortwave radiative flux between all-sky and clear-sky conditions at the surface, have been reported to play an important role in influencing the Earth's energy budget and temperature extremes. In this study, we employed a set of global climate models to examine the SWCRE responses to CO2, black carbon (BC) aerosols, and sulfate aerosols in boreal summer over the Northern Hemisphere. We found that CO2 causes positive SWCRE changes over most of the NH, and BC causes similar positive responses over North America, Europe, and eastern China but negative SWCRE over India and tropical Africa. When normalized by effective radiative forcing, the SWCRE from BC is roughly 3–5 times larger than that from CO2. SWCRE change is mainly due to cloud cover changes resulting from changes in relative humidity (RH) and, to a lesser extent, changes in cloud liquid water, circulation, dynamics, and stability. The SWCRE response to sulfate aerosols, however, is negligible compared to that for CO2 and BC because part of the radiation scattered by clouds under all-sky conditions will also be scattered by aerosols under clear-sky conditions. Using a multilinear regression model, it is found that mean daily maximum temperature (Tmax) increases by 0.15 and 0.13 K per watt per square meter (W m−2) increase in local SWCRE under the CO2 and BC experiment, respectively. When domain-averaged, the contribution of SWCRE change to summer mean Tmax changes was 10 %–30 % under CO2 forcing and 30 %–50 % under BC forcing, varying by region, which can have important implications for extreme climatic events and socioeconomic activities.

surface shortwave cloud radiative effect↗

NASA Tech Briefs, November 2011

The topics include: 1) Flight Test Results from the Rake Airflow Gage Experiment on the F-15B; 2) Telemetry and Science Data Software System; 3) CropEx Web-Based Agricultural Monitoring and Decision Support; 4) High-Performance Data Analysis Tools for Sun-Earth Connection Missions; 5) Experiment in Onboard Synthetic Aperture Radar Data Processing; 6) Microfabrication of a High-Throughput Nanochannel Delivery/Filtration System; 7) Improved Design and Fabrication of Hydrated-Salt Pills; 8) Monolithic Flexure Pre-Stressed Ultrasonic Horns; 9) Cryogenic Quenching Process for Electronic Part Screening; 10) Broadband Via-Less Microwave Crossover Using Microstrip-CPW Transitions; 11) Wheel-Based Ice Sensors for Road Vehicles; 12) G-DYN Multibody Dynamics Engine; 13) Multibody Simulation Software Testbed for Small-Body Exploration and Sampling; 14) Propulsive Reaction Control System Model; 15) Licklider Transmission Protocol Implementation; 16) Core Recursive Hierarchical Image Segmentation; 17) Two-Stage Centrifugal Fan; 18) Combined Structural and Trajectory Control of Variable-Geometry Planetary Entry Systems; 19) Pressure Regulator With Internal Ejector Circulation Pump, Flow and Pressure Measurement Porting, and Fuel Cell System Integration Options; 20) Temperature-Sensitive Coating Sensor Based on Hematite; 21) Standardization of a Volumetric Displacement Measurement for Two-Body Abrasion Scratch Test Data Analysis; 22) Detection of Carbon Monoxide Using Polymer-Carbon Composite Films; 23) Substituted Quaternary Ammonium Salts Improve Low-Temperature Performance of Double-Layer Capacitors; 24) Sustainably Sourced, Thermally Resistant, Radiation Hard Biopolymer; 25) Integrated Lens Antennas for Multi-Pixel Receivers; 26) 180-GHz Interferometric Imager; 27) Maturation of Structural Health Management Systems for Solid Rocket Motors; 28) Validating Phasing and Geometry of Large Focal Plane Arrays; 29) Transverse Pupil Shifts for Adaptive Optics Non-Common Path Calibration; 30) Qualification of Fiber Optic Cables for Martian Extreme Temperature Environments; 31) Solid-State Spectral Light Source System; 32) Multiple-Event, Single-Photon Counting Imaging Sensor; 33) Surface Modeling to Support Small-Body Spacecraft Exploration and Proximity Operations; and 34) Achieving Exact and Constant Turnaround Ratio in a DDS-Based Coherent Transponder.

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