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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 289 records · Page 16
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Co-Simulation Meets AI: MCP-Driven Power System Analysis

GridGPT, a fine-tuned Generative AI model is designed for on-premise use in grid control rooms. This presentation will demonstrate how eGridGPT can seamlessly integrate with control room solutions to offer operators, engineers, and corporate users enhanced guidance and decision support. It is to show how this innovative AI solution can improve state estimation, boost variable energy forecasting, and optimize grid operations. By leveraging eGridGPT's unique features, audience will learn to unlock new levels of automation, predictive analytics, and reliability within their power systems, ultimately leading to reduced downtime and improved operational efficiency.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2021

Ultralow Thermal Conductivity, Multiband Electronic Structure and High Thermoelectric Figure of Merit in TlCuSe

The entanglement of lattice thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, and Seebeck coefficient complicates the process of optimizing thermoelectric performance in most thermoelectric materials. Semiconductors with ultralow lattice thermal conductivities and high power factors at the same time are scarce but fundamentally interesting and practically important for energy conversion. In this work, an intrinsic p-type semiconductor TlCuSe that has an intrinsically ultralow thermal conductivity (0.25 W m -1 K -1 ), a high power factor (11.6 μ W cm -1 K -2 ), and a high figure of merit, ZT (1.9) at 643 K is described. The weak chemical bonds, originating from the filled antibonding orbitals p-d* within the edge-sharing CuSe 4 tetrahedra and long Tl-Se bonds in the PbClF-type structure, in conjunction with the large atomic mass of Tl lead to an ultralow sound velocity. Strong anharmonicity, coming from Tl + lone-pair electrons, boosts phonon-phonon scattering rates and further suppresses lattice thermal conductivity. The multiband character of the valence band structure contributing to power factor enhancement benefits from the lone-pair electrons of Tl + as well, which modify the orbital character of the valence bands, and pushes the valence band maximum off the Gamma-point, increasing the band degeneracy. The results provide new insight on the rational design of thermoelectric materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) for Chemical Characterization of Metal Halide Perovskites

Metal halide perovskite (MHP) solar cells have attracted much attention due to the rapidly growing power conversion efficiency that has reached 25.2% in a decade, comparable to established commercial photovoltaic modules. Compositional engineering is one of the most effective methods to boost the performance of MHP solar cells. Further improving the efficiency and the stability of MHP solar cells necessitates good understanding of the chemical–efficiency correlation and the chemical evolution during the degradation of MHP solar cells. In this regard, time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) is a powerful tool to investigate the chemical aspect of MHPs and has played an important role in advancing the development of MHP optoelectronics. However, up to date, a review that can guide future utilization of ToF-SIMS in the MHP development is missing. In this paper, the capabilities of ToF-SIMS in MHP investigations are summarized and analyzed from simple material synthesis and chemical distribution to more complicated device operation mechanism and stability. The strength of ToF-SIMS in resolving important issues in this field, such as interface composition, ion migration, and degradation in MHP is highlighted. Finally, an outlook with an emphasis on making the utmost of ToF-SIMS in developing MHP devices is provided.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Beyond Fair: Engagement, Data Usability, and Open Community Productivity through the NASA Open Science Data Repository

The FAIR principle (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) governs the storage and sharing of NASA space biology and health data[1]. These guiding principles maximize reuse of data and the reproducibility of scientific findings. The NASA Open Science Data Repository (OSDR; an expansion of NASA GeneLab) was built on the FAIR principles and houses over 500 studies and close to 1000 datasets from decades of space life sciences experiments. OSDR embodies the FAIR principles through data governance that includes mediated, embargoed, and fully open access data. The FAIR data governance principles were recently proposed to be expanded to encompass a FAIREST framework for assessing research data repositories (FAIR + Engagement, Social connections, and Trust)[2]. FAIREST emphasizes the importance of data repositories engaging with the scientific community and gaining the trust of researchers regarding data quality. Trust also refers to the TRUST principles developed for assessment of digital repositories: Transparency, Responsibility, User Focus, Sustainability, Technology[3]. We present the “Open Science for Life in Space” Analysis Working Groups (AWGs) as evidence regarding the power of engagement, social connections, and trust which has enhanced OSDR’s capabilities and productivity. AWG members engage in two main activities. One, members provide feedback on OSDR scientific standards for data ingestion, curation, and reuse (study, subject and assay metadata; processing pipelines; dataset formats and uniformed structures for machine-readability). Two, AWG members collaborate to mine-reuse OSDR data to conduct scientific analysis. With nearly 800 active members, the AWGs have resulted in 32 publications re-using OSDR data and contributed many papers in two major special issues in Cell (2020) and Nature (2024). AWGs also serve as networking groups, facilitate social connections between researchers at all levels of experience, and also have a social online ‘Forum’ used to keep members informed on projects and opportunities. This community-centric, productive, and trustworthy data culture has resulted in a broader effect with international space agencies, academics, and the commercial space sector wanting to submit their data to OSDR. Ten studies of Inspiration 4 data were recently publicly released by OSDR, as were some JAXA human data. Coming up soon in OSDR are data submissions from the European Space Agency, Virgin Galactic PIs, and SpaceX Polaris Dawn. A major benefit of OSDR is the array of standardized and uniformly formatted data (which was developed through AWG member consensus), from which visualization tools, analysis tools, and machine learning models can be built or trained. This talk will cover the Multi-Study Visualization Tool, the Environmental Data Application, RadLab, and a UCSF-NSF funded knowledge graph biomedical health discovery tool ‘SPOKE’ currently being integrated with OSDR. OSDR also provides training programs in bioinformatics and machine learning to improve the scientific community’s awareness of data availability and to boost their ability to perform data analysis. The increasing engagement of the scientific community and the public with technologies powered by artificial intelligence (AI) heightens the need for data analysis to be transparent. The AI for Life in Space initiative leverages the data products provided in OSDR to train AI models, with an emphasis on explainable and trustworthy AI, which would not be possible without FAIR data and metadata. Overall, here we will demonstrate the importance for NASA life sciences data repositories to adhere to the FAIREST framework, by providing examples and success stories from different aspects of OSDR.

data↗
DOE OSTI2023

Optical damage considerations in the design of the matter in extreme condition upgrade (MEC-U) laser systems

The Matter in Extreme Conditions Upgrade (MEC-U) project is a major upgrade to the MEC instrument of the LINAC Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) user facility at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Here, the envisioned MEC upgrade will significantly enhance the capabilities of the pump laser sources in current MEC experimental station, boosting the energy of the nanosecond shock driver from 100 J to the kJ level, and increasing the power and repetition rate of the short pulse laser from 25 TW at 5 Hz to 1 PW at 10 Hz rate. Building such high energy/power pump laser systems presents challenges to minimize and mitigate against laser-induced optical damage. Here, as part of the system design, we have identified the optics at high-risk to damage and we have designed the laser systems to mitigate against these damage risks to ensure sustained facility operation.

Coating↗
NASA NTRS1963

Apollo-Lunar Orbital Rendezvous Technique

The film shows artists rendition of the spacecrafts, boosters, and flight of the Apollo lunar missions. The Apollo spacecraft will consist of three modules: the manned Command Module; the Service Module, which contains propulsion systems; and the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) to carry astronauts to the moon and back to the Command and Service Modules. The spacecraft will be launched via a three-stage Saturn booster. The first stage will provide 7.5 million pounds of thrust from five F-1 engines for liftoff and initial powered flight. The second stage will develop 1 million pounds of thrust from five J-2 engines to boost the spacecraft almost into Earth orbit. Immediately after ignition of the second stage, the Launch Escape System will be jettisoned. A single J-2 engine in the S4B stage will provide 200,000 pounds of thrust to place the spacecraft in an earth parking orbit. It also will be used to propel the spacecraft into a translunar trajectory, then it will separate from the Apollo Modules. Onboard propulsion systems will be used to insert the spacecraft into lunar orbit. Two astronauts will enter the LEM, which will separate from the command and service modules. The LEM will go into elliptical orbit and prepare for landing. The LEM will lift off of the Moon's surface to return to the Command and Service Modules, and most likely be left in lunar orbit. After leaving the Moon's orbit, and shortly before entering Earth's orbit, the Service Module will be ejected. The Command Module will be oriented for reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. A drogue parachute will deploy at approximately 50,000 feet, followed by the main parachute system for touchdown.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2017

The Pulsed Fission-Fusion (PUFF) Concept for Deep Space Exploration and Terrestrial Power Generation

This team is exploring a modified Z-pinch geometry as a propulsion system, imploding a liner of liquid lithium onto a pellet containing both fission and fusion fuel. The plasma resulting from the fission and fusion burn expands against a magnetic nozzle, for propulsion, or a magnetic confinement system, for terrestrial power generation. There is considerable synergy in the concept; the lithium acts as a temporary virtual cathode, and adds reaction mass for propulsion. Further, the lithium acts as a radiation shield against generated neutrons and gamma rays. Finally, the density profile of the column can be tailored using the lithium sheath. Recent theoretical and experimental developments (e.g. tailored density profile in the fuel injection, shear stabilization, and magnetic shear stabilization) have had great success in mitigating instabilities that have plagued previous fusion efforts. This paper will review the work in evaluating the pellet sizes and z-pinch conditions for optimal PuFF propulsion. Trades of pellet size and composition with z-pinch power levels and conditions for the tamper and lithium implosion are evaluated. Current models, both theoretical and computational, show that a z-pinch can ignite a small (~1 cm radius) fission-fusion target with significant yield. Comparison is made between pure fission and boosted fission targets. Performance is shown for crewed spacecraft for high speed Mars round trip missions and near interstellar robotic missions. The PuFF concept also offers a solution for terrestrial power production. PuFF can, with recycling of the effluent, achieve near 100% burnup of fission fuel, providing a very attractive power source with minimal waste. The small size of PuFF relative to today's plants enables a more distributed power network and less exposure to natural or man-made disruptions.

Adams, Robert↗
DOE OSTI2022

Modular medium voltage fast chargers

Certain embodiments involve a modular medium voltage fast charger. The modular medium voltage fast charger can include: (1) a predictive power factor correction (“PFC”) controller (or predictive controller) for series-interleaved multi-cell three-level boost (“SIMCB”) converters, (2) an active neutral point clamped (“NPC”) dual active bridge (“DAB”) modulation scheme to achieve soft switching, (3) an auxiliary capacitor to reduce NPC DAB turn-off voltages, (4) a comprehensive and scalable protection circuit, and (5) a high-isolation pulse transformer with a bobbin for reducing coupling capacitance of the pulse transformer.

Lukic, Srdjan↗
DOE OSTI2025

High efficiency RF sources developments

Calabazas Creek Research, Inc. (CCR) and its collaborators are developing high efficiency RF sources operating from a few hundred MHz to C-Band and power levels from tens to hundreds of kilowatts with the goal of providing MW-relevant sources. The efficiencies approach or exceed 80% with projected costs as low as $0.50/ Watt. Sources under development include magnetrons with phase and amplitude control, single and multi-beam klystrons, multi-beam power grid tubes, and multiple beam IOTs. A magnetron system achieved more than 80% efficiency with fast amplitude control using modulation of the phase locking signal. This would be a low cost, high efficiency RF source for superconducting accelerators. An L-Band, single beam klystron was built with simulated efficiency of 80%. The klystron has yet to be tested to confirm the simulation results. CCR is currently developing a multi-beam klystron to produce more than 200 kW CW at 80% efficiency. Also in development is a multiple beam triode to produce 200 kW CW from 300 MHz to approximately 1 GHz. Not only does the simulated efficiency exceed 75%, but it would be the lowest cost RF source in this frequency range. Finally, CCR recently concluded research for a multiple beam IOT at 700 MHz using third harmonic drive to boost efficiency toward 85%. Successful development and transition to production of these sources will significantly alter the cost/performance landscape for RF power generation.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
NASA NTRS1989

Advanced solar-propelled cargo spacecraft for Mars missions

At the University of Washington, three concepts for an unmanned, solar powered, cargo spacecraft for Mars-support missions have been investigated. These spacecraft are designed to carry a 50,000 kg payload from a low Earth orbit to a low Mars orbit. Each design uses a distinctly different propulsion system: a solar radiation absorption (SRA) system, a solar-pumped laser (SPL) system, and a solar powered mangetoplasmadynamic (MPD) arc system. The SRA directly converts solar energy to thermal energy in the propellant through a novel process developed at the University of Washington. A solar concentrator focuses sunlight into an absorption chamber. A mixture of hydrogen and potassium vapor absorbs the incident radiation and is heated to approximately 3700 K. The hot propellant gas exhausts through a nozzle to produce thrust. The SRA has an I(sub sp) of approximately 1000 sec and produces a thrust of 2940 N using two thrust chambers. In the SPL system, a pair of solar-pumped, multi-megawatt, CO2 lasers in sun-synchronous Earth orbit converts solar energy to laser energy. The laser beams are transmitted to the spacecraft via laser relay satellites. The laser energy heats the hydrogen propellant through a plasma breakdown process in the center of an absorption chamber. Propellant flowing through the chamber, heated by the plasma core, expands through a nozzle to produce thrust. The SPL has an I(sub sp) of 1285 sec and produces a thrust of 1200 N using two thrust chambers. The MPD system uses indium phosphide solar cells to convert sunlight to electricity, which powers the propulsion system. In this system, the argon propellant is ionized and electromagnetically accelerated by a magnetoplasmadynamic arc to produce thrust. The MPD spacecraft has an I(sub sp) of 2490 sec and produces a thrust of 100 N. Various orbital transfer options are examined for these concepts. In the SRA system, the mother ship transfers the payload into a very high Earth orbit and a small auxiliary propulsion system boosts the payload into a Hohmann transfer to Mars. The SPL spacecraft releases the payload as the spacecraft passes by Mars. Both the SRA-powered spacecraft and the SPL-powered spacecraft return to Earth for subsequent missions. The MPD-propelled spacecraft, however, remains at Mars as an orbiting space station. A patched conic approximation was used to determine a heliocentric interplanetary transfer orbit for the MPD propelled spacecraft. All three solar-powered spacecraft use an aerobrake procedure to place the payload into a low Mars parking orbit. The payload delivery times range from 160 days to 873 days (2.39 years).

Auziasdeturenne, J.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Overcoming the fundamental limit of quantum transduction via intraband entanglement

A quantum transducer converts an input signal to an output probe at a distant frequency band while maintaining the quantum information with high fidelity, which is crucial for quantum networking and distributed quantum sensing and computing. In terms of microwave–optical quantum transduction, the state-of-the-art quantum transducers suffer low transduction efficiency from weak nonlinear coupling, wherein increasing pump power to enhance efficiency inevitably leads to thermal noise from heating. Moreover, we reveal that the efficiency-bandwidth product of a cavity electro-optical or electro-optomechanical transducer is fundamentally limited by pump power and nonlinear coupling coefficient, irrespective of cavity engineering efforts. To overcome this fundamental limit, we propose to noiselessly boost the transduction efficiency by consuming intraband entanglement (e.g., microwave–microwave or optical–optical entanglement in the case of microwave–optical transduction). Via a squeezer–coupler–antisqueezer sandwich structure, the protocol enhances the transduction efficiency to unity in the ideal lossless case, given an arbitrarily weak pump and nonlinear coupling. In practical cavity systems, our entanglement-assisted protocol surpasses the non-assisted fundamental limit of the efficiency-bandwidth product and reduces the threshold cooperativity for positive quantum capacity by a factor proportional to two-mode squeezing gain. Given a fixed cooperativity, our approach increases the broadband quantum capacity by orders of magnitude. The entanglement-assisted advantage is robust to ancilla loss and cavity detuning.

Shi, Haowei [Southern California U.] (ORCID:000000↗
DOE OSTI2024

Sustainable Aviation Fuel State-of-Industry Report: Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids Pathway

Climate change is a pressing issue that requires immediate and decisive action to ensure a sustainable future. To reduce CO 2 emissions and speed up the transition to net-zero aviation, the Biden administration has launched the "Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) Grand Challenge" to scale up production of SAF. The challenge aims to achieve 20% reduction in aviation emissions by producing 3 billion gallons per year (BGPY) of SAF by 2030 and to meet 100% of aviation fuel demand by producing 35 BGPY of SAF by 2050. In this report, we provide an overview of the current state of the hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) SAF industry, guided by the perspectives of the interviewed experts. Currently, the HEFA pathway is the only commercially deployed method to produce significant amounts of SAF. As a result, SAF produced via the HEFA pathway is expected to make the largest contribution to achieving the 2030 production target and play a key role in boosting and establishing the SAF market. Announced SAF's total capacity, including alcohol-to-jet, FT, and power-to-liquid facilities, is expected to reach 2 BGPY by 2030 (1), with the expected from HEFA. Total HEFA capacity, including construction and planned projects, is expected to reach about 9 BGPY by 2030; if completely executed, this would contribute to renewable diesel (RD) and SAF. The production ratio of SAF and RD will depend on market conditions, incentives, and the capabilities of facilities. While some stakeholders believe that the 2030 goal may be achieved solely via HEFA, others believe that overly relying on HEFA may be detrimental to the development of other necessary pathways to meet 2050 goals. Our conclusion is that the HEFA pathway alone will not be sufficient to reach the 2030 target. It is crucial to implement additional pathways to reach the goal. This report conducts a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the HEFA SAF value chain. Our aim is to provide current status of the industry and to identify potential challenges that could hinder the commercial production and use of SAF produced through the HEFA pathway. We have had extensive discussions, consultations, and collaborative sessions with stakeholders in the HEFA SAF value chain, including HEFA feedstocks, potential volume of HEFA SAF, economic and sustainability metrics when compared to petroleum, and assessment of the HEFA SAF industry's ability to grow and contribute to achieving the "SAF Grand Challenge." Since the HEFA pathway produces both SAF and RD, this report compares both pathways: HEFA to SAF and HEFA to RD.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
NASA NTRS2018

The Origins Survey Spectrometer (OSS): A Far-IR Discovery Machine for the Origins Space Telescope

The OSS on the Origins Space Telescope is designed to decode the cosmic history of nucleosynthesis, star formation, and supermassive black hole growth with wide-area spatial-spectral 3-D surveys across the full 25 to 590 micron band. Six wideband grating modules combine to cover the full band at R=300, each couples a long slit with 60–190 beams on the sky. OSS will have a total of 120,000 background-limited detector pixels in the six 2-D arrays which provide spatial and spectral coverage. The suite of grating modules can be used for pointed observations of targets of interest, and are particularly powerful for 3-D spectral spectral surveys. To chart the transition from interstellar material, particularly water, to planetary systems, two high-spectral-resolution modes are included. The first incorporates a Fourier-transform spectrometer (FTS) in front of the gratings providing resolving power of 25,000 (δv = 12 km/s) at 179µm to resolve water emission in protoplanetary disk spectra. The second boosts the FTS capability with an additional etalon (Fabry-Perot interferometer) to provide 2 km/s resolution in this line to enable detailed structural studies of disks in the various water and HD lines. Optical, thermal, and mechanical designs are presented, and the system approach to the detector readout enabling the large formats is described.

Pontoppidan, Klaus↗
DOE OSTI2021

Application of Quantum Machine Learning to High Energy Physics Analysis at LHC using IBM Quantum Computer Simulators and IBM Quantum Computer Hardware

One of the major objectives of the experimental programs at the LHC is the discovery of new physics. This requires the identification of rare signals in immense backgrounds. Using machine learning algorithms greatly enhances our ability to achieve this objective. With the progress of quantum technologies, quantum machine learning could become a powerful tool for data analysis in high energy physics. In this study, using IBM gate-model quantum computing systems, we employ the quantum variational classifier method and the quantum kernel estimator method in two recent LHC flagship physics analyses: $t\bar{t}H$ (Higgs boson production in association with a top quark pair) and $H\rightarrow\mu\mu$ (Higgs boson decays to two muons). We have obtained early results with 10 qubits on the IBM quantum simulator and the IBM quantum hardware. On the quantum simulator, the quantum machine learning methods perform similarly to classical algorithms such as SVM (support vector machine) and BDT (boosted decision tree), which are often employed in LHC physics analyses. On the quantum hardware, the quantum machine learning methods have shown promising discrimination power, comparable to that on the quantum simulator. This study demonstrates that quantum machine learning has the ability to differentiate between signal and background in realistic physics datasets.

Chan, Jay↗
DOE OSTI2021

Data-driven Event Identification in the U.S. Power Systems Based on 2D-OLPP and RUSBoosting Trees

Accurate event identification is an essential part of situation awareness ability for power system operators. Therefore, this work proposes an integrated event identification algorithm for power systems. First, to obtain and filter suitable inputs for event identification, an event detection trigger based on the rate of change of frequency (RoCoF) is presented. Then, the wave arrival time difference-based triangulation method considering the anisotropy of wave propagation speed is utilized to estimate the location of the detected event. Next, the two-dimensional orthogonal locality preserving projection (2D-OLPP)-based method, which is suitable for multiple types of measured data, is employed to achieve higher effectiveness in extracting the event features compared with traditional one-dimensional projection and principle component analysis (PCA). Finally, the random undersampling boosted (RUSBoosted) trees-based classifier, which can mitigate the data sample imbalance issue, is utilized to identify the type of the detected event. Furthermore, the proposed approach is demonstrated using the actual measurement data of U.S. power systems from FNET/GridEye. Comparison results show that the proposed event identification algorithm can achieve better performance than existing approaches.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS2003

MMIC HEMT Power Amplifier for 140 to 170 GHz

A three-stage monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) power amplifier that features high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) as gain elements is reviewed. This amplifier is designed to operate in the frequency range of 140 to 170 GHz, which contains spectral lines of several atmospheric molecular species plus subharmonics of other such spectral lines. Hence, this amplifier could serve as a prototype of amplifiers to be incorporated into heterodyne radiometers used in atmospheric science. The original intended purpose served by this amplifier is to boost the signal generated by a previously developed 164-GHz MMIC HEMT doubler and drive a 164-to-328-GHz doubler to provide a few milliwatts of power at 328 GHz.

Samoska, Lorene↗
DOE OSTI2020

Bipolar Electrodes for Next‐Generation Rechargeable Batteries

Abstract The development of advanced rechargeable batteries provides a great opportunity for basic and applied researchers to collectively overcome challenging scientific and technological barriers that directly address a critical need for energy storage. In addition to novel battery chemistries often scientifically reviewed, advanced battery structures via technological innovations that boost battery performance are also worthy of attention. In this context, bipolar electrodes (BEs) are capable of improving the specific power, simplifying cell components, and reducing manufacturing costs for rechargeable batteries. By focusing on the fundamentals and applications of BEs in rechargeable batteries, the rational utilization of BEs from an academic perspective is considered. The progress and challenges of BEs are discussed and summarized in detail. Key techniques and materials for enabling BEs are highlighted and an outlook for the future directions of BEs that involve emerging concepts, such as wearable devices, all‐solid‐state batteries, fast spraying fabrication, and recyclable secondary batteries, is also presented.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗