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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 307 records · Page 17
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1993

Planetary Instrument Definition and Development Program (PIDDP). Instrument for future planetary flight missions: A visible-infrared imaging spectrometer for planetary missions

The objective of this project is to develop and prove a small, light-weight, efficient imaging spectrometer design to cover the VIS/NIR spectral range for applications particularly but not exclusively to NASA inner solar system space missions. A design and a brassboard prototype will be developed and tested. Progress over the first year of this project includes design specification, optical design layout, grating specifications, infrared detector selection, and mechanical design. Mechanical and grating manufacturing drawings were begun. We developed an agreement in principle to cooperate with the German space group, DLR, to apply some of their electronics microminiaturization technology to this imaging spectrometer project, mostly or entirely at their expense. Funds from NASA for the second year of this effort have been received and the effort is on track. Release of funds for the third year of this award will be requested later this year in order to accelerate this work and bring it to a conclusion in time for new NASA missions considerations as well as to make effective use of the DLR contributions.

Mccord, Thomas B.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Construction of a parallel processor for simulating manipulators and other mechanical systems

This report summarizes the results of NASA Contract NAS5-30905, awarded under phase 2 of the SBIR Program, for a demonstration of the feasibility of a new high-speed parallel simulation processor, called the Real-Time Accelerator (RTA). The principal goals were met, and EAI is now proceeding with phase 3: development of a commercial product. This product is scheduled for commercial introduction in the second quarter of 1992.

Hannauer, George↗
NASA NTRS1991

Airborne astronomy with a 150 micrometer - 500 micrometer heterodyne spectrometer

This report summarizes work done under NASA Grant NAG2-254 awarded to the University of California. The project goal was to build a far-infrared heterodyne spectrometer for NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO), and to use this instrument to observe atomic and molecular spectral lines from the interstellar medium. This goal was successfully achieved; the spectrometer is now in routine use aboard the KAO. Detections of particular note have been the 370 micrometers line of neutral atomic carbon, the 158 micrometers transition of ionized carbon, many of the high-J rotational lines of 12CO and 13CO between J=9-8 and J=22-21, the 119 micron ground-state rotational line of OH, and the 219 micron ground-state rotational line of H2D(+). All of these lines were observed at spectral resolutions exceeding 1 part in 10(exp 6), thereby allowing accurate line shapes and Doppler velocities to be measured.

Betz, A. L.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Autonomous hazard detection and avoidance

During GFY 91, Draper Laboratory was awarded a task by NASA-JSC under contract number NAS9-18426 to study and evaluate the potential for achieving safe autonomous landings on Mars using an on-board autonomous hazard detection and avoidance (AHDA) system. This report describes the results of that study. The AHDA task had four objectives: to demonstrate, via a closed-loop simulation, the ability to autonomously select safe landing sites and the ability to maneuver to the selected site; to identify key issues in the development of AHDA systems; to produce strawman designs for AHDA sensors and algorithms; and to perform initial trade studies leading to better understanding of the effect of sensor/terrain/viewing parameters on AHDA algorithm performance. This report summarizes the progress made during the first year, with primary emphasis on describing the tools developed for simulating a closed-loop AHDA landing. Some cursory performance evaluation results are also presented.

Pien, Homer↗
NASA NTRS1994

Design and development of experimental facilities for short duration, low-gravity combustion and fire experiments

This report contains the results of three projects conducted by undergraduate students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute at the NASA's Lewis Research Center under a NASA Award NCC3-312. The students involved in these projects spent part of the summer of 1993 at the Lewis Research Center (LeRC) under the direction of Dr. Howard Ross, head of the Combustion group and other NASA engineers and scientists. The Principal Investigator at Worcester Polytechnic Institute was Professor Vahid Motevalli. Professor Motevalli served as the principal project advisor for two of the three projects which were in Mechanical Engineering. The third project was advised by Professor Duckworth of Electrical and Computer Engineering, while Professor Motevalli acted as the co-advisor. These projects provided an excellent opportunity for the students to participate in the cutting edge research and engineering design, interact with NASA engineers and gain valuable exposure to a real working environment. Furthermore, the combustion group at LeRC was able to forward their goals by employing students to work on topics of immediate use and interest such as experimental research projects planned for the space shuttle, the future space station, or to develop demonstration tools to educate the public about LeRC activities.

Motevalli, Vahid↗
NASA NTRS1994

Prospective communications research to support fly by light/power by wire

A NASA Research Grant NAG-1-1309, Distributed Fiber Optic Systems for Commercial Aircraft, was awarded during July 1991. This report primarily constitutes a summary of findings of the original background research done at that time. NASA is embarking on a research project to design the next generation of commercial aircraft, fly by light/power by wire. The objectives of this effort are to improve commercial aircraft design by (1) reducing the weight of the aircraft to improve efficiency and (2) improving the fault tolerance and safety of the aircraft by enhancing current systems with new technologies or introducing new systems into the aircraft.

Game, David↗
NASA NTRS1994

Various Roentgen satellite (ROSAT) related studies

The first six months was spent obtaining ROSAT Survey data for as many Slew Survey sources as possible. ROSAT Survey (RASS) counterparts for 605 of the 819 Slew sources (or 75 percent). were found at MPE, providing RASS positions, fluxes, and hardness ratios. The positions were used immediately to confirm or reject proposed catalog identifications from SIMBAD and NED, and to begin a program of identifying new BL Lac objects with high efficiency. In the final six months of the award, extensive analysis were preformed on the RASS counterpart data at Cambridge screening Slew sources with multiple RASS counterparts (up to 23); extended sources and sources with large discrepancies between the RASS and Slew positions. The possibly highly absorbed sources were also studied. Finally, the RASS data has helped to identify optical counterparts to Slew Survey sources - BL Lacs stars, and 'blank fields'.

Stauffer, John R.↗
NASA NTRS1992

The Desert Tortoise: A Delicate Balance

This award winning program looks at the efforts to preserve the desert tortoise in and around the Edwards Air Force Base, CA area. It also explains what people should do if they come in contact with a tortoise. This video was produced in cooperation with Edwards Air Force Base.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1994

Integrated design and manufacturing for the high speed civil transport

In June 1992, the School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech was awarded a three year NASA University Space Research Association (USRA) Advanced Design Program (ADP) grant to address issues associated with the Integrated Design and Manufacturing of High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) configurations in its graduate Aerospace Systems Design courses. This report provides an overview of the on-going Georgia Tech initiative to address these design/manufacturing issues during the preliminary design phases of an HSCT concept. The new design methodology presented here has been incorporated in the graduate aerospace design curriculum and is based on the concept of Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD). The selection of the HSCT as a pilot project was motivated by its potential global transportation payoffs; its technological, environmental, and economic challenges; and its impact on U.S. global competitiveness. This pilot project was the focus of each of the five design courses that form the graduate level aerospace systems design curriculum. This year's main objective was the development of a systematic approach to preliminary design and optimization and its implementation to an HSCT wing/propulsion configuration. The new methodology, based on the Taguchi Parameter Design Optimization Method (PDOM), was established and was used to carry out a parametric study where various feasible alternative configurations were evaluated. The comparison criterion selected for this evaluation was the economic impact of this aircraft, measured in terms of average yield per revenue passenger mile ($/RPM).

Lee, Jae Moon↗
NASA NTRS1994

Refurbishment of a 39 foot thermal vacuum chamber

The 39' thermal vacuum chamber at Space Systems/Loral has been used to test numerous spacecraft including those of the GOES, Intelsat, Insat, Superbird, N-Star, NATO and other programs. Ten years ago, the aluminum LN2 shroud experienced serious fatigue failures in the field welded jumper tubing, effectively shutting down the chamber for vacuum testing. The problem was repaired at the time, but new failures began to reappear a few months ago and are now occurring at a rate that suggests that the shroud may again become inoperable. Consequently, Space Systems/Loral is spending in excess of $6 million to replace the shroud and the existing LN2 equipment with a new, state of the art cryogenic system. In May, 1994, a contract was awarded to remove the existing shroud and LN2 pumping system and replace it with a gravity fed shroud and distribution system. Included in the contract are eight skid mounted gaseous nitrogen pumping systems capable of controlling shroud zone temperatures between +150 C and -180 C. The project is scheduled to be completed in April 1995.

Edwards, Arthur A.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Readings in program control

Under the heading of Program Control, a number of related topics are discussed: cost estimating methods; planning and scheduling; cost overruns in the defense industry; the history of estimating; the advantages of cost plus award fee contracts; and how program control techniques led to the success of a NASA development project.

Hoban, Francis T.↗
NASA NTRS1994

A terabyte linear tape recorder

A plan has been formulated and selected for a NASA Phase 2 SBIR award for using the VLBA tape recorder for recording general data. The VLBA tape recorder is a high-speed, high-density linear tape recorder developed for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) which is presently capable of recording at rates up to 2 Gbit/sec and holding up to 1 Terabyte of data on one tape, using a special interface and not employing error correction. A general-purpose interface and error correction will be added so that the recorder can be used in other high-speed, high-capacity applications.

Webber, John C.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Large-format high resolution microchannel plate detectors for ultraviolet astronomy

This report includes work on two types of two-dimensional position-sensitive detectors that were developed in this lab under this award. We worked to develop and optimize the wire-wound helical delay line detector (HDL) in the first and second years. Some early work on the HDL is contained in a paper included as Appendix A. In the second and third years we developed the concept for, then successfully designed and tested, both a lab prototype, and a flight prototype of the first, crossed delay line detector based on two orthogonal serpentine delay lines (SDL). Some of the work on the SDL is contained in a paper included as Appendix B. Appendix C contains copies of the invention report and record.

Martin, Christopher↗
NASA NTRS1994

Design and development of experimental facilities for short duration, low-gravity combustion and fire experiments

This report contains the results of three projects conducted by undergraduate students from Worcester Polytechnical Institute at the NASA's Lewis Research Center under a NASA Award NCC3-312. The students involved in these projects spent part of the summer of 1993 at the Lewis Research Center (LeRC). The Principal Investigator at Worcester Polytechnic Institute was Professor Vahid Motevalli. Professor Motevalli served as the principal project advisor for two of the three projects which were in Mechanical Engineering. The third project was advised by Professor Duckworth of Electrical and Computer Engineering, while Professor Motevalli acted as the co-advisor. These projects provided an excellent opportunity for the students to participate in the cutting edge research and engineering design, interact with NASA engineers and gain valuable exposure to a real working environment. This report has been divided to three sections, representing the outcome of each of the separate projects. The three reports which have been written by the students under the supervision of their advisors have been compiled into a combined report by Dr. Motevalli. Each project report is presented here as a section which is essentially self-contained. Each section contains chapters introducing the problem, solution approach, description of the experiments, results and analysis, conclusions and appendixes as appropriate.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1992

Quest for excellence 5

The highlights of the 1992 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award winners - AT and T Network Systems Group, Transmission Systems Business Unit; Texas Instrument Defense Systems and Electronics Group; AT and T Universal Card Services; The Ritz Hotel CO; and The Granite Rock Company are presented, along with brief information about the company and their beliefs and business and production strategies for quality manufacturing and products.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1992

Utilization of composite materials by the US Army: A look ahead

An overview of the use of composite materials in the Army is given. Important efforts to document design information, supporting research, and some national applications for composite materials are given. The use of Kevlar fiber in both vests and helmets for the soldier is outlined. The advantages of using fiberglass in the hull of the Bradley fighting ground vehicle is given. The full potential of composite materials is realized in the recently awarded LH Comanche RAH-66 program. The use of composites for application to rocket motor uses, wings, fins, and casings is under development. Because of the uncertain funding profile, it is more important than ever that technology planning provide the basis for effective prioritization and leveraging of the tech base efforts involving advanced materials.

Chait, Richard↗
NASA NTRS1992

Overview of the ACT program

NASA's Advanced Composites Program (ACT) was initiated in 1988. A National Research Announcement was issued to solicit innovative ideas that could significantly contribute to development and demonstration of an integrated technology data base and confidence level that permits cost-effective use of composite primary structures in transport aircraft. Fifteen contracts were awarded by the Spring of 1989 and the participants include commercial and military airframe manufacturers, materials developers and suppliers, universities, and government laboratories. The program approach is to develop materials, structural mechanics methodology, design concepts, and fabrication procedures that offer the potential to make composite structures cost-effective compared to aluminum structure. Goals for the ACT program included 30-50 percent weight reduction, 20-25 percent acquisition cost reduction, and provided the scientific basis for predicting materials and structures performance. This paper provides an overview of the ACT program status, plans, and selected technical accomplishments. Sixteen additional papers, which provide more detailed information on the research and development accomplishments, are contained in this publication.

Davis, John G., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Closing the loop on improvement: Packaging experience in the Software Engineering Laboratory

As part of its award-winning software process improvement program, the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) has developed an effective method for packaging organizational best practices based on real project experience into useful handbooks and training courses. This paper shares the SEL's experience over the past 12 years creating and updating software process handbooks and training courses. It provides cost models and guidelines for successful experience packaging derived from SEL experience.

Waligora, Sharon R.↗