SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “building design”

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.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 325 records · Page 18

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2015

Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor (TSIS) Project Overview

The main objective of the Total and Spectral solar Irradiance Sensor (TSIS) is to acquire measurements to determine the direct and indirect effects of solar radiation on climate. TSIS total solar irradiance measurements will extend a 37-year long uninterrupted measurement record of incoming solar radiation, the dominant energy source driving the Earths climate and the most precise indicator of changes in the Suns energy output. TSIS solar spectral irradiance measurements will determine the regions of the Earths multi-layered atmosphere that are affected by solar variability, from which the solar forcing mechanisms causing changes in climate can be quantified. TSIS includes two instruments: the Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM) and the Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SIM), integrated into a single payload. The TSIS TIM and SIM instruments are upgraded versions of the two instruments that are flying on the Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) mission launched in January 2003. TSIS was originally planned for the nadir-pointing National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) spacecraft. The TSIS instrument passed a Critical Design Review (CDR) for NPOESS in December 2009. In 2010, TSIS was re-planned for the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Polar Free Flyer (PFF). The TSIS TIM, SIM, and associated electronics were built, tested, and successfully completed pre-ship review as of December 2013.In early 2014, NOAA and NASA agreed to fly TSIS on the International Space Station (ISS). In the FY16 Presidents Budget, NASA assumes responsibility for the TSIS mission on ISS. The TSIS project includes requirements, interface, design, build and test of the TSIS payload, including an updated pointing system, for accommodation on the ISS. It takes advantage of the prior development of the TSIS sensors and electronics. The International Space Station (ISS) program contributions include launch services and robotic installation of the TSIS payload onto an ISS Express Logistics Carrier, mission operations, and communications. Total and Spectral solar irradiance data products will be produced, calibrated, and made publically available through the Goddard Earth Science Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC).The NASA GSFC TSIS project at GSFC is responsible for project management, system engineering, safety and mission assurance, and engineering oversight for the TSIS payload. The TSIS project has contracted with the University of Colorado Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) for the design, development and testing of TSIS, support for ISS integration, science operations of the TSIS instrument, data processing, data evaluation and delivery to the GES DISC. TSIS will be delivered to Kennedy Space Center for integration in 2017, with launch and installation onto ISS planned for late 2017-early 2018. After a 90-day check-out period, NASA plans five years of TSIS operations.

spectral emission↗

NASA NTRS2014

Additive Manufacturing Design Considerations for Liquid Engine Components

The Marshall Space Flight Center's Propulsion Systems Department has gained significant experience in the last year designing, building, and testing liquid engine components using additive manufacturing. The department has developed valve, duct, turbo-machinery, and combustion device components using this technology. Many valuable lessons were learned during this process. These lessons will be the focus of this presentation. We will present criteria for selecting part candidates for additive manufacturing. Some part characteristics are 'tailor made' for this process. Selecting the right parts for the process is the first step to maximizing productivity gains. We will also present specific lessons we learned about feature geometry that can and cannot be produced using additive manufacturing machines. Most liquid engine components were made using a two-step process. The base part was made using additive manufacturing and then traditional machining processes were used to produce the final part. The presentation will describe design accommodations needed to make the base part and lessons we learned about which features could be built directly and which require the final machine process. Tolerance capabilities, surface finish, and material thickness allowances will also be covered. Additive Manufacturing can produce internal passages that cannot be made using traditional approaches. It can also eliminate a significant amount of manpower by reducing part count and leveraging model-based design and analysis techniques. Information will be shared about performance enhancements and design efficiencies we experienced for certain categories of engine parts.

Whitten, Dave↗

NASA NTRS2002

Internet Data Delivery for Future Space Missions

Ongoing work at National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA/GSFC), seeks to apply standard Internet applications and protocols to meet the technology challenge of future satellite missions. Internet protocols and technologies are under study as a future means to provide seamless dynamic communication among heterogeneous instruments, spacecraft, ground stations, constellations of spacecraft, and science investigators. The primary objective is to design and demonstrate in the laboratory the automated end-to-end transport of files in a simulated dynamic space environment using off-the-shelf, low-cost, commodity-level standard applications and protocols. The demonstrated functions and capabilities will become increasingly significant in the years to come as both earth and space science missions fly more sensors and as the need increases for more network-oriented mission operations. Another element of increasing significance will be the increased cost effectiveness of designing, building, integrating, and operating instruments and spacecraft that will come to the fore as more missions take up the approach of using commodity-level standard communications technologies. This paper describes how an IP (Internet Protocol)-based communication architecture can support all existing operations concepts and how it will enable some new and complex communication and science concepts. The authors identify specific end-to-end data flows from the instruments to the control centers and scientists, and then describe how each data flow can be supported using standard Internet protocols and applications. The scenarios include normal data downlink and command uplink as well as recovery scenarios for both onboard and ground failures. The scenarios are based on an Earth orbiting spacecraft with downlink data rates from 300 Kbps to 4 Mbps. Included examples are based on designs currently being investigated for potential use by the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission.

Rash, James↗

DOE OSTI2025

The Interplay Between Climate and Urban Expansion on Building Energy Demand in Morocco

Understanding building energy demand is critical for addressing climate uncertainty challenges and ensuring sustainable urban growth. This study develops a building energy demand (BED) model to explore how climate variation and urban expansion affect residential and commercial space heating and cooling demands in Morocco for three scenarios, namely, 2005, 2018, and 2018 + 1.5 °C. The results show that coastal cities have lower heating and cooling needs due to the oceanic influence, while interior cities require significantly higher heating demand per-unit-floorspace. Between 2005 and 2018, urban growth increased total heating and cooling demand by 218.8 GWh, particularly in northern and coastal regions, despite per-unit-floorspace reductions in milder climates and improved building efficiency in 2018. Residential heating remains the dominant energy use, though commercial demand is significant in urban centers. Under the 2018 + 1.5 °C hypothetical scenario, heating demand across Morocco declines by 335.8 GWh compared to 2018, with urban areas amplifying this trend. Meanwhile, cooling demand increases slightly by 44.4 GWh, with major cities experiencing relative increases of up to 50%. These findings highlight a trade-off where reduced winter heating needs are partly offset by increased summer cooling demands in densely urbanized areas. In conclusion, the study identifies key urban hotspots for targeted interventions, emphasizing the need for energy-efficient building designs, climate-adaptive urban planning, and resilient energy management strategies to sustainably address shifting seasonal energy patterns.

Morocco↗

DOE OSTI2025

UNIFI's Grid-Forming (GFM) Inverter Reference Design: A Tutorial on Modeling, Control, and Experimental Implementation of GFM Inverters

The UNIFI Consortium's tutorial on grid-forming (GFM) inverters provides a comprehensive guide to the modeling, control, and experimental implementation of GFM inverters. As the integration of renewable energy accelerates, the transition from traditional grid following (GFL) to GFM inverters is crucial to ensure stable and sustainable power systems. This document outlines a reference design for three-phase and single-phase GFM inverters developed at the University of Texas at Austin. The tutorial also provides step-by-step guidance for accessing and using UNIFI’s GitHub repository, enabling users to design, build, and test GFM inverters efficiently. By fostering collaboration and equipping users with accessible resources, this initiative aims to drive widespread adoption of GFM technology across academia, utilities, and industries.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

NASA NTRS2016

Kennedy Space Center Five Year Sustainability Plan

The Federal Government is committed to following sustainable principles. At its heart, sustainability integrates environmental, societal and economic solutions for present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Building upon its pledge towards environmental stewardship, the Administration generated a vision of sustainability spanning ten goals mandated within Executive Order (EO) 13693, Planning for Federal Sustainability in the Next Decade. In November 2015, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) responded to this EO by incorporating it into a new release of the NASA Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan (SSPP). The SSPP recognizes the importance of aligning environmental practices in a manner that preserves, enhances and strengthens NASA's ability to perform its mission indefinitely. The Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is following suit with KSC's Sustainability Plan (SP) by promoting, maintaining and pioneering green practices in all aspects of our mission. KSC's SP recognizes that the best sustainable solutions use an interdisciplinary, collaborative approach spanning civil servant and contractor personnel from across the Center. This approach relies on the participation of all employees to develop and implement sustainability endeavors connected with the following ten goals: Reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Design, build and maintain sustainable buildings, facilities and infrastructure. Leverage clean and renewable energy. Increase water conservation. Improve fleet and vehicle efficiency and management. Purchase sustainable products and services. Minimize waste and prevent pollution. Implement performance contracts for Federal buildings. Manage electronic equipment and data centers responsibly. Pursue climate change resilience. The KSC SP details the strategies and actions that address the following objectives: Reduce Center costs. center dot Increase energy and water efficiencies. Promote smart buying practices. Increase reuse and recycling while decreasing waste. Benefit the community. Meet or exceed the EO and NASA SSPP sustainability goals.

Sustainability↗

DOE OSTI2022

CO 2 supplementation eliminates sugar-rich media requirement for plant propagation using a simple inexpensive temporary immersion photobioreactor

In vitro plant propagation systems such as temporary immersion bioreactors (TIBs) are valuable tools that enable production of disease-free plants with improved traits. However, TIB systems can be expensive, difficult to implement, and prone to contamination due to sugar rich propagation media. Using rapidly growing chicory root cultures to expedite design-build-test cycles, we report here an improved, low-cost version of a previously reported Hydrostatically-driven TIB (Hy-TIB) that facilitates economical use of gas mixtures. Bioreactor improvements include decreased material costs, expanded modes of operation, and a horizontal orientation of a plastic film plant growth chambers that increase propagule light exposure. To take advantage of these improvements, we describe here experiments that evaluate the impacts of elevated CO 2 on propagation of cacao (Theobroma cacao) secondary embryos and nodal cultures of yam (Dioscorea spp.) during both phototrophic and photomixotrophic growth. Our experiments show that elevated CO 2 during plant propagation significantly improved both cacao and yam propagule development and eliminated the need for supplemental sugars in tissue culture growth media. Thus, our improved Hy-TIB shows potential as a simple, low-cost, and scalable propagation platform with cost-effective gas composition control and reduced risk of contamination overgrowth. We provide detailed instructions for assembly of this Hy-TIB design and discuss the implications of its adoption in food-insecure regions of the world.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS2015

Technology Demonstration Missions

Technology Demonstration Missions (TDM) is in its third year of execution, being initiated in 2010 and baselined in January of 2012. There are 11 projects that NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has contributed to or led: (1) Evolvable Cryogenics (eCryo): Cyrogenic Propellant Storage and Transfer Engineering Development Unit (EDU), a proof of manufacturability effort, used to enhance knowledge and technology related to handling cryogenic propellants, specifically liquid hydrogen. (2) Composites for Exploration Upper Stage (CEUS): Design, build, test, and address flight certification of a large composite shell suitable for the second stage of the Space Launch System (SLS). (3) Deep Space Atomic Clock (DSAC): Spaceflight to demo small, low-mass atomic clock that can provide unprecedented stability for deep space navigation. (4) Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM): Demo of high-performance, green propellant propulsion system suitable for Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA)-class spacecraft. (5) Human Exploration Telerobotics (HET): Demonstrating how telerobotics, remote control of a variety of robotic systems, can take routine, highly repetitive, dangerous or long-duration tasks out of human hands. (6) Laser Communication Relay Demo (LCRD): Demo to advance optical communications technology toward infusion into deep space and near Earth operational systems, while growing the capabilities of industry sources. (7) Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD): Demo new supersonic inflatable decelerator and parachute technologies to enable Mars landings of larger payloads with greater precision at a wider range of altitudes. (8) Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Entry Descent & Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI): Demo of embedded sensors embedded in the MSL heat shield, designed to record the heat and atmospheric pressure experienced during the spacecraft's high-speed, hot entry in the Martian atmosphere. (9) Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP): 50-kW class spacecraft that uses flexible blanket solar arrays for power generation and an electric propulsion system that delivers payload from low-Earth orbit to higher orbits. (10) Solar Sail Demonstration (SSD): Demo to validate sail deployment techniques for solar sails that are propelled by the pressure of sunlight. (11) Terrestrial HIAD Orbit Reentry (THOR): Demo of a 3.7-m Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) entry vehicle to test second generation aerothermal performance and modeling.

McDougal, John↗

NASA NTRS1993

Magnetic shielding of interplanetary spacecraft against solar flare radiation

The ultimate objective of this work is to design, build, and fly a dual-purpose, piggyback payload whose function is to produce a large volume, low intensity magnetic field and to test the concept of using such a magnetic field (1) to protect spacecraft against solar flare protons, (2) to produce a thrust of sufficient magnitude to stabilize low satellite orbits against orbital decay from atmospheric drag, and (3) to test the magsail concept. These all appear to be capable of being tested using the same deployed high temperature superconducting coil. In certain orbits, high temperature superconducting wire, which has now been developed to the point where silver-sheathed high T sub c wires one mm in diameter are commercially available, can be used to produce the magnetic moments required for shielding without requiring any mechanical cooling system. The potential benefits of this concept apply directly to both earth-orbital and interplanetary missions. The usefulness of a protective shield for manned missions needs scarcely to be emphasized. Similarly, the usefulness of increasing orbit perigee without expenditure of propellant is obvious. This payload would be a first step in assessing the true potential of large volume magnetic fields in the US space program. The objective of this design research is to develop an innovative, prototype deployed high temperature superconducting coil (DHTSC) system.

Cocks, Franklin H.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Discovering Digital Engineering Needs Through Human-Centered Approaches

Digital engineering has the power to transform organizations in profound ways, but digitizing legacy workflows and infusing new technologies into existing practices may not yield the intended results or address the underlying problems or bottlenecks. This paper describes the human-centered approaches used to understand stakeholder challenges and identify digital engineering needs during the design-build-test portion of the systems development lifecycle. Through a series of interactive stakeholder workshops and need-finding activities, key stakeholder needs were identified to help guide the integration of digital engineering technologies. The overarching need was for downstream system development steps to be considered further upstream in the project lifecycle in a manner that allows for proactive and interactive co-constructive idea exploration, problem resolution, and requirements considerations in a collective engagement with engineers and technicians from multiple disciplines to increase efficiency and reduce risks while offering opportunities to improve the final engineered system. Supporting this need was a wide-ranging desire from stakeholders for digital and non-digital support structures for efficient rapid iteration during system development. This work yielded several improvements for system development processes and for digital engineering infusion.

Design Science↗

DOE OSTI2022

Sorbent-based oxygen separation with YBC114 for energy storage systems

In our report we aimed to design, build, and evaluate an oxygen separation system to provide an inert sweep gas with low oxygen partial pressure (pO2) to redox-active thermochemical energy conversion reactors for a range of applications, including two-step redox cycles for thermochemical energy storage, water splitting, and carbon-dioxide splitting. The separation is based on an oxygen-selective sorbent, YBaCo4O7+δ (YBC114), which has excellent oxygen sorption and desorption properties demonstrated in our previous work. The oxygen separation performance of YBC114 was comprehensively studied by thermogravimetric analysis, sorption breakthrough experiments, and temperature swing sorption - desorption cycles. The results reveal that YBC114 can produce inert sweep gas with an oxygen concentration of less than 100 ppmv for at least 20 min during the thermal swing adsorption (TSA) cycle with the current sorption bed configuration, and the performance is consistent from cycle to cycle. The optimal sorption and desorption temperatures for the TSA process with YBC114 are determined to be 300 °C and 500 °C, respectively. Although challenges remain for the current separation system (e.g., high sorption temperature and slow kinetics), this study demonstrates the potential to use the oxygen-selective sorbent to produce an inert sweep gas, the feasibility of the oxygen separation concept, and guides new sorbent material development to make this application economically practical. A simple procedure is described for designing the YBC114 oxygen separation process.

42 ENGINEERING↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Discovering Digital Engineering Needs Through Human-Centered Approaches

Human-centered Design↗

DOE OSTI2026

Structural and compositional complexities of hierarchical self-assembly: A hypergraph approach

Programmable self-assembly enables the construction of complex molecular, supramolecular, and crystalline architectures from well-designed building blocks. In this work, we introduce a hypergraph-based formalism, Blocks & Bonds (B&B), which generalizes classical chemical graph theory by incorporating directed and multicolored interactions, internal symmetries, and hierarchical organization. Within this framework, we develop the Structure Code (SC), a compact and versatile language for describing self-assembled architectures. We define a Kolmogorov-style structural complexity as the total information content of SC, obtained through its tokenization and Shannon information assignment. Complementing this encoding-based measure, we introduce a much simpler quantity, the compositional complexity, which depends only on the number and cumulative usage of block and bond types in the construction set. A central result of this work is a strong empirical correlation between the token-based structural complexity and the compositional complexity across all examined systems. Owing to this agreement, the compositional complexity emerges as the most practical and broadly applicable measure: it is easy to compute, requires no explicit encoding, and yet closely tracks the actual information content of structurally diverse architectures. Applications to molecular systems (ethylene glycol and glucose), DNA-origami lattices, and crystalline assemblies show that B&B hypergraphs provide a unified, scalable, and information-efficient representation of structural organization, naturally capturing symmetry, modularity, and stereochemistry. This framework establishes a quantitative foundation for complexity-aware classification and inverse design of programmable matter.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2020

5G Enabled Energy Innovation: Advanced Wireless Networks for Science (Workshop Report)

Rapidly expanding, new telecommunications infrastructure based on 5G technologies will disrupt and transform how we design, build, operate, and optimize scientific infrastructure and the experiments and services enabled by that infrastructure, from continental-scale sensor networks to centralized scientific user facilities, from intelligent Internet of Things devices to supercomputers. Concurrently, 5G will introduce, or exacerbate, challenges related to protecting infrastructure and associated scientific data as well as to fully leveraging opportunities related to expanded infrastructure scale and complexity. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science operates scientific infrastructure, supporting some of the nation’s most advanced intellectual discoveries, spanning the country and including 30 world-class user facilities from supercomputers to accelerators. Along with field experiments and remote observatories, every aspect of DOE’s scientific enterprise will be affected by 5G, which amounts to a complete renovation of the underpinnings of the nation’s information infrastructure. In this report we explore the scientific opportunities and new research challenges associated with 5G, ranging from scalability to heterogeneity to cybersecurity. The rapid commercial deployment of 5G opens the opportunity to rethink and reinvent DOE’s scientific infrastructure and experimentation, from intelligent sensor networks at unprecedented scales to a digital continuum of cyberinfrastructure spanning low-power sensors, high-performance computing embedded within and at the edge of the network, and DOE’s large-scale user instrument and computing facilities. New programming paradigms, workflow and data frameworks, and AI-based system design, operation, and autonomous adaptation and optimization will be necessary in order to exploit these new opportunities. Field deployments and centralized scientific instruments can also be revolutionized, moving (without traditional performance penalties) from wired to wireless connectivity for data and control systems, improving flexibility, and opening new sensing modalities, including the use of the 5G electromagnetic spectrum itself as an environmental probe. For DOE science, in contrast to commercial 5G applications and settings, devices will be deployed in extreme environments such as cryogenically cooled instrument control systems and in remote settings with harsh conditions, requiring the design of new materials for RF communication and edge processing to operate in these regimes. Concurrently, 5G infrastructure comprises both hardware and sophisticated software systems - currently closed and proprietary. The cybersecurity challenges to 5G-empowered reinvention mirror the complexity and variety of new 5G features, from virtualization to private network slices to ubiquitous access. Research is also needed in order to accelerate the development of secure and open 5G software infrastructure, reducing reliance on hardware and software produced outside the United States and providing the transparency and rigorous evaluation and testing afforded through open software. Twelve broad research thrusts are laid out in four chapters, with a companion fifth chapter (and three additional research thrusts) underscoring the needs and opportunities for an aggressive testbed program co-designed by networking experts and scientists involved in the 15 research thrusts. The urgency of undertaking this research is fueled by a global, accelerating deployment of new telecommunications infrastructure that is designed for entertainment and commercial applications - barely scratching the surface of what 5G can do to extend U.S. leadership in scientific discovery.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2020

A Path to Zero Energy Ready Home Construction

This paper will be presented at the 5th Residential Building Design & Construction Conference in State College, Pennsylvania. While the number of zero energy homes constructed in the U.S. has grown dramatically, increasing nearly 400% since 2015, zero energy homes still accounted for less than 1% of all U.S. homes constructed as of December 2018. Concerns about high costs or implementation challenges have kept many builders from attempting zero energy home construction. However, builders participating in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Zero Energy Ready Home Program are showing that zero energy ready home construction can be achieved simply and cost effectively with off-the-shelf equipment and materials and common construction techniques. Construction methods used by builders in the DOE program are compared with those used in just-to-code new homes and existing homes for several key components, including wall assemblies and HVAC systems. Examples of cost-effective assemblies used in the Mid Atlantic states are provided.

U.S. Department of Energy Building Technologies Pr↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Development and Airborne Demonstration of the Concurrent Artificially-Intelligent Spectrometry and Adaptive Lidar System: Advancing Lidar Capabilities for the STV Observing System

We report on the design, build and planned airborne demonstration of a spaceflight-prototype Concurrent Artificially-intelligent Spectrometry and Adaptive Lidar System (CASALS). The CASALS lidar is an Adaptive Wavelength Scanning Lidar (AWSL) operating in push broom mode. The demonstration has three major goals: advance the Technical Readiness Level of the AWSL hardware, validate its measurement performance and mature algorithms and methods needed for the Surface Topography and Vegetation (STV) observing system. AWSL acquires parallel tracks of surface heights by rapidly steering a laser beam across a swath. A 1040nm-centered laser is tuned across 30nm and carved into 2-ns pulses, the pulse energy is fiber amplified and the pulses are dispersed cross-track using a non-mechanical wavelength-to-angle grating. For the spaceflight system the beam will be pointable to 1200 10m footprints across a 7km swath. For the airborne demonstration there will be 256 0.7m footprints across a 110m swath. In both cases the footprints overlap across- and along-track for uniform target illumination. For the airborne demonstration a steering mirror will increase the accessible swath width to 4km. At the receiver, solar radiation is filtered with a narrow-slit grating-spectrometer and the footprints are imaged onto a linear-mode, photon-sensitive HgCdTe APD-array. The received pulses are time-division-multiplexed to a few high-speed analog-to-digital converters to record waveforms. Spaceflight and airborne CASALS are designed to nominally detect 20 photons per pulse and, by averaging 27 overlapping footprints, achieve 2cm flat target range precision and high-quality vegetation structure waveforms The AWSL will be flown in the summer of 2024, along with a Headwall VNIR-SWIR hyperspectral sensor imaging a 4km wide swath, at NEON eddy covariance flux towers in the U.S. mid-Atlantic where high resolution hyperspectral and lidar data, acquired annually, are available for validation.

Guangning Yang↗

NASA NTRS1973

A Full-Scale Fire Program to Evaluate New Furnishings and Textile Materials Developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The plans for the present series of full-scale experimental fires were initiated at the suggestion of NASA following the presentation of a film and discussion illustrating Battelle-Columbus' recent work in fire research. That film showed bedroom-type fires carried out as a part of a program to determine the influence of the cyclic characteristics of real fires under limited ventilation on the burning and pyrolysis properties of the room furnishings. A new series of fires was suggested by NASA designed to show the performance of new fire resistant and fire retardant materials by providing comparative fire and smoldering environmental conditions. More recently, the goal for the new series of fires was written in a meeting with NASA personnel and others at Battelle on May 3 and 4, 1972. The goal was as follows: To establish the need for special materials of improved fire safety in domiciliary settings of public concern, and to assess, in a professionally acceptable manner, the potential of materials arising from the new space-age technology for this purpose. It was anticipated that some new materials arising from the space-age technology and not yet available through conventional commercial channels might provide significant improvements in fire safety if the best of the commercially available materials showed important shortcomings in this area. It was the intent of this program to assess the benefits that could accrue from the use of these new materials. Fire safety is a matter requiring the evaluation of a number of factors. For example, fire resistance and fire spread, visibility during the fire, toxicity of evolved gases, and the fire-fighting problem that is created must be evaluated before the relative hazard can be assessed. The plan of the program provided for sampling and instrumentation to evaluate these factors, consistent with the goal of technological utilization that has been specified. Arrangements were made with the Columbus Fire Department to use an existing six-story concrete building', designed and used as a fire training tower, as the site for the experimental fires. The visual evidence provided by TV and photographic coverage of the four experimental room fires showed clearly that the rooms responded very differently to a common ignition condition. In particular: (1) The Typical room, furnished from conventional retail sources, ignited easily and burned rapidly so that after 8 minutes the contents of the room were nearly destroyed. (2) The Improved room, furnished with materials selected as being among the best commercially available, showed substantial improvement over the Typical room in that there was slower fire spread. However, the relatively complete destruction of the room contents that resulted, and the large amounts of smoke, made it clear that substantial further improvements were needed. This fire was stopped after 29 minutes. (3) The Space-age room, furnished completely with new materials that were not yet commercially available, did not ignite under the common ignition condition and soon demonstrated the substantial improvement in fire resistance available for those components close to the ignition source. A second and larger ignition arrangement showed that this room can burn, but the difficulty with which this was brought about confirmed the improved fire resistance available with use of these materials. (4) The Mixed room ensemble, furnished with 'materials identical to the Typical room except for the substitution of the bed from the Space-age room, illustrated the improvement in control of fire spread available by careful placement of fire materials in the important paths of fire development of an otherwise ordinary room. The most significant hazards at early times in each fire were due to the rapid rise in heat flux and the abrupt obscuration of vision by smoke. The most consistent toxicity hazard was due to CO and its importance would depend on the ability of the occupant to survive the initial heat and smoke menace which characterized each fire room. Other gases and vapors were shown to reach hazardous levels in certain fire rooms and, again, their significance to an occupant, would relate to the times in which such hazards occurred, and probably to the synergistic nature of the hazard arising from mixtures of such gases. Fire retardant items in the room are caused to pyrolyze by the heat of burning from other items in the room and so contribute to combustible and toxic vapor accumulations, even though they may not have entered into the burning process. This effect of a mixture of combustible materials to produce burning and pyrolysis not characteristic of any one item individually we have chosen to call the "ensemble effect". Further full-scale fire trials may be expected to show the significant changes that control the burning and pyrolytic processes and in that event a programmed fire chamber should be developed to yield realistic laboratory results.

Hillenbrand, L. J.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Modular, Adaptive, Reconfigurable Systems: Technology for Sustainable, Reliable, Effective, and Affordable Space Exploration

In order to execute the Vision for Space Exploration, we must find ways to reduce cost, system complexity, design, build, and test times, and at the same time increase flexibility to satisfy multiple functions. Modular, Adaptive, Reconfigurable System (MARS) technologies promise to set the stage for the delivery of system elements that form the building blocks of increasingly ambitious missions involving humans and robots. Today, space systems are largely specialized and built on a case-by-case basis. The notion of modularity however, is nothing new to NASA. The 1970's saw the development of the Multi-Mission Modular spacecraft (MMS). From 1980 to 1992 at least six satellites were built under this paradigm, and included such Goddard Space Flight Center missions as SSM, EUVE, UARS, and Landsat 4 and 5. Earlier versions consisted of standard subsystem "module" or "box" components that could be replaced within a structure based on predefined form factors. Although the primary motivation for MMS was faster/cheaper integration and test, standardization of interfaces, and ease of incorporating new subsystem technology, it lacked the technology maturity and programmatic "upgrade infrastructure" needed to satisfy varied mission requirements, and ultimately it lacked user buy-in. Consequently, it never evolved and was phased out. Such concepts as the Rapid Spacecraft Development Office (RSDO) with its regularly updated catalogue of prequalified busses became the preferred method for acquiring satellites. Notwithstanding, over the past 30 years since MMS inception, technology has advanced considerably and now modularity can be extended beyond the traditional MMS module or box to cover levels of integration, from the chip, card, box, subsystem, to the space system and to the system-of-systems. This paper will present the MARS architecture, cast within the historical context of MMS. Its application will be highlighted by comparing a state-of-the-art point design vs. a MARS-enabled lunar mission, as a representative robotic case design.

Esper, Jaime↗