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At least 325 records · Page 18

Microgravity science and applications: Program tasks and bibliography for FY 1992

This report is a compilation of the FY 1992 Principal Investigator program task descriptions funded by the Microgravity Science and Applications Division (MSAD), NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC. The document also provides a bibliography of FY 1992 publications and presentations cited by MSAD Principal Investigators, and an index of the Principal Investigators and their affiliations. The purpose of the document is to provide an overview and progress report for the funded tasks for scientists and researchers in industry, university, and government communities. The tasks are grouped into three categories appropriate to the type of research being done-space flight, ground based, and advanced technology development-and by science discipline. The science disciplines are: biotechnology, combustion science,, electronic materials, fluid physics, fundamental physics, glass and ceramics, metals and alloys, and protein crystal growth.

Source record↗

Silicon carbide, a semiconductor for space power electronics

After many years of promise as a high temperature semiconductor, silicon carbide (SiC) is finally emerging as a useful electronic material. Recent significant progress that has led to this emergence has been in the area of crystal growth and device fabrication technology. High quality of single-crystal SiC wafers, up to 25 mm in diameter, can now be produced routinely from boules grown by a high temperature (2700 K) sublimation process. Device fabrication processes, including chemical vapor deposition (CVD), in situ doping during CVD, reactive ion etching, oxidation, metallization, etc. have been used to fabricate p-n junction diodes and MOSFETs. The diode was operated to 870 K and the MOSFET to 770 K.

Powell, J. A.↗

NASA Operational Environment Team (NOET) - NASA's key to environmental technology

NOET is a NASA-wide team which supports the research and development community by sharing information both in person and via a computerized network, assisting in specification and standard revisions, developing cleaner propulsion systems, and exploring environmentally compliant alternatives to current processes. NOET's structure, dissemination of materials, electronic information, EPA compliance, specifications and standards, and environmental research and development are discussed.

Cook, Beth↗

Electronic access to ONREUR/ONRAISIA S and T reports

The Office of Naval Research maintains two foreign field offices in London, England and in Tokyo, Japan. These offices survey world-wide findings, trends and achievements in science and technology. These offices maintain liaison between U.S. Navy and foreign scientific research and development organizations conducting programs of naval interest. Expert personnel survey foreign scientific and technical activities, identify new directions and progress of potential interest, and report their findings. Report topics cover a broad range of basic scientific thrusts in mathematics, physics, chemistry, computer science, and oceanography, as well as advances in technologies such as electronics, materials, optics, and robotics. These unclassified reports will be made available via the Internet in 1995, replacing hard-copy publication.

Mccluskey, William↗

STS-47 Post Flight Press Conference

The flight crew of the STS-47 Space Shuttle Orbiter Endeavour Cmdr. Robert L. Gibson, Pilot Curtis L. Brown, Payload Cmdr. Mark C. Lee, Mission Specialists, N. Jan Davis, Jay Apt, Mae C. Jemison, and Payload Specialist, Mamoru Mohri, present an overview of their mission. This the 50th Shuttle flight marks the first NASA mission devoted primarily to Japan. Endeavour carries into Earth orbit Spacelab-J (SL-J), a 23-foot long pressurized laboratory built by the European Space Agency specifically for conducting experiments in a shirt-sleeve environment. SL-J contains 43 experiments, 34 provided by Japan, 7 from the United States and 2 joint experiments. Jemison becomes the first African American woman to fly in space and Mohri first Japanese to fly in space. Video footage includes the following: prelaunch and launch activities; various experiments including protein crystal growth, electronic materials, fluids, glasses and ceramics, metals and alloys, and the effects of microgravity on plants and animals; earth views of Japan, Tokyo Harbor, and Hurricane Bonnie; and the re-entry and landing of the orbiter.

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A High-Average-Power Free Electron Laser for Microfabrication and Surface Applications

CEBAF has developed a comprehensive conceptual design of an industrial user facility based on a kilowatt ultraviolet (UV) (160-1000 mm) and infrared (IR) (2-25 micron) free electron laser (FEL) driven by a recirculating, energy recovering 200 MeV superconducting radio frequency (SRF) accelerator. FEL users, CEBAF's partners in the Lase Processing Consortium, including AT&T, DuPont, IBM, Northrop Grumman, 3M, and Xerox, are developing applications such as metal, ceramic, and electronic material micro-fabrication and polymer and metal surface processing, with the overall effort leading to later scale-up to industrial systems at 50-100 kW. Representative applications are described. The proposed high-average-power FEL overcomes limitations of conventional laser sources in available power, cost-effectiveness, tunability, and pulse structure.

Dylla, H. F.↗

The Development of Silicon Carbide Based Hydrogen and Hydrocarbon Sensors

Silicon carbide is a high temperature electronic material. Its potential for development of chemical sensors in a high temperature environment has not been explored. The objective of this study is to use silicon carbide as the substrate material for the construction of chemical sensors for high temperature applications. Sensors for the detection of hydrogen and hydrocarbon are developed in this program under the auspices of Lewis Research Center, NASA. Metal-semiconductor or metal-insulator-semiconductor structures are used in this development. Specifically, using palladium-silicon carbide Schottky diodes as gas sensors in the temperature range of 100 to 400 C are designed, fabricated and assessed. The effect of heat treatment on the Pd-SiC Schottky diode is examined. Operation of the sensors at 400 C demonstrate sensitivity of the sensor to hydrogen and hydrocarbons. Substantial progress has been made in this study and we believe that the Pd-SiC Schottky diode has potential as a hydrogen and hydrocarbon sensor over a wide range of temperatures. However, the long term stability and operational life of the sensor need to be assessed. This aspect is an important part of our future continuing investigation.

Liu, Chung-Chiun↗

Development of Advanced Multizone Facilities for Microgravity Processing

NASA has been interested in experimental ground based study to investigate the fundamental processes involved in phase transformation processes during growth of metallic, nonmetallic and electronic materials. Solidification, vapor growth and solution growth techniques of growing crystals are of special interest because of the inherent importance of convection in the nutrient solution. Convection enhances the mass transport through the nutrient and results in faster growth rates. Availability of low gravity environment of space has provided scientists a new variable to control the extent of convection and thus isolate the diffusive phenomena for their better understanding. The thermal gradient at the liquid-solid interface is determined by the alloy characteristics, the hot zone temperature, cold zone temperature and the width of the insulating zone. The thermal profiles get established by the existing material and geometrical constraints of the experimental set up. The major effort under this research was devoted to designing a programmable furnace which can be used to obtain thermal profiles along the length of the sample as per the demands of the scientists. The furnace did not have active cooling of the zones. Only active heating and passive cooling were utilized.

Source record↗

Identification and Control of Gravity Related Defect Formation During Melt Growth of Bismuth-Silicate (Bi12SiO20)

In the light of strong indications that a majority of critical defects formed in bismuth silicon oxide (BSO) during growth from the melt is related directly or indirectly to gravitational interference, it is suggested to use the reduced gravity environment of outer space for experimentation directed at the identification and control of these defects. The results of these experiments are expected to lead to advances in our understanding of crystal growth related defect formation in general and will establish a basis for effective defect engineering, the approach to efficient achievement of defect related, application specific properties in opto-electronic materials

Zheng, Y.↗

Space Product Development: Bringing the Benefits of Space Down to Earth

The newly developed microgravity Research Program Office was created to consolidate and integrate NASA's microgravity research efforts, comprised of the microgravity Science and Applications Program and Space Product Development Program. This resulted in an integrated agency program serving the science and industrial research communities, providing leadership, management, direction and overview of all agency microgravity research activities. This paper provides an overview of NASA's microgravity Research Program, with particular emphasis on the Space Product Development Program activities, the potential economic impact and quality of life improvements resulting from this research, and future plans for commercial microgravity research in space. The goal of the Space Product Development Program is to facilitate the use of space for commercial products and services. The unique attributes of space are exploited to conduct industry driven research in the areas of crystallography, bio-systems, agriculture, electronic and non-electronic materials. Industry uses the knowledge gained from focused space research to create new products and processes, to gain economic competitive advantages, to create new jobs and improve the quality of life on earth. The objectives of the program are implemented through NASA's Commercial Space Centers, non-profit consortia of industry, academia and government, that provide the mechanism for communication and technical expert exchange between NASA and industry. Over 200 commercial research activities have been conducted by the Commercial Space Centers and their industrial affiliates over the last four and one-half years during Space Shuttle mission, as well as sounding rocket flights. The results of this research will have a significant impact on competitive products, jobs and quality of life improvements.

Allen, Rosalie W.↗

Inexpensive Method for Growing Unidirectional Oriented Materials Using Friction-Transferred Poly(tetrafluoroethylene) Substrates

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in properties of unidirectional materials grown on highly oriented polymer surfaces such as the poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) films coated onto smooth glass surfaces. In this technique, a thin PTFE film is deposited by sliding or rubbing a Teflon bar over a heated glass surface at a specific temperature. Depending on the pressure, temperature and sliding rate the thickness of deposited layers can be varied from 30 A to 150 A. The PTFE-coated substrate is simple yet surprising versatile for oriented growth of many organic, inorganic and polymer. The significant aspect of PTFE films is their unusual ability to molecularly align a wide variety of materials grown onto them from solution, melt or vapor phase deposition, at temperature below the melting point of PTFE (approx. 340 C). The PTFE structure may be derived, in part, from the multitude of ridges forming in the film and these ridges can presumably provide effective nucleation sites to induce the unidirectional growth of variety of materials. Electron diffraction studies of these films revealed that the PTFE macromolecules are oriented parallel to each other along the sliding direction. Direct observation of the film thickness, molecular structure and individual fluorine atoms from these highly oriented films were achieved using atomic force microscopy (AFM). In this paper, we also report the first direct observation of individual fluorine atoms, and the measurement of the fluorine-helix and carbon-helix radii to be 1.70 A and 0.54 A, respectively.

Lee, Jonathan A.↗

Polyesters by Photochemical Cyclopolymerization

The polyesters of this invention are derived from a Diels-Alder cyclopolymerization of a photochemically generated bisdiene with dienophiles, such as di(acrylates), tri (acrylates), di(methacrylates), tri(methacrylates) and mixtures thereof with mono(methacrylates) or mono(acrylate) end-caps. Irradiation of one or more diketones produces two distinct hydroxy o-quinodimethane (photoenol) intermediates. These intermediates are trapped via a Diels-Alder cycloaddition with appropriate dienophiles, e.g., di(acrylates) to give the corresponding in polyesters quantitative yields. When di(acrylates), tri(acrylates) and di and tri(methacrylates) or mixtures thereof with monoacrylate end-caps are used as the dienophile, the resulting polyesters have glass transition temperatures (Tg) as high as 200 C. Polyesters films can be prepared by ultraviolet irradiation of high solids content varnishes of the monomers in a small amount of solvent, e.g., cyclohexanone, dimethyl formamide, N-methylpyrollidone and the like. These polyesters, i.e. polyesters are characterized as having high glass transition temperatures, good mechanical properties and improved processing in the manufacture of composites, adhesives, electronic materials and films.

Michael A Meador↗

Polyimides by Photochemical Cyclopolymerization

The polyimides of this invention are derived from a Diels-Alder cyclopolymerization of a photochemically generated bisdiene with dienophiles, such as bismaleimides, trismaleimides and mixtures thereof with maleimide end-caps. Irradiation of one or more diketones produces two distinct hydroxy o-quinodimethane (photoenol) intermediates. These intermediates are trapped via a Diels-Alder cycloaddition with appropriate dienophiles, e.g., bismaleimide and/or trismaleimides to give the corresponding polyimides in quantitative yields. When bismaleimides, trismaleimides or mixtures thereof with maleimide end-caps are used as the dienophile, the resulting polyimides have glass transition temperatures (Tg) as high as 300 C. Polyimide films can be prepared by ultraviolet irradiation of high solids content varnishes of the monomers in a small amount of solvent, e.g., cyclohexanone, dimethyl formamide, N-methylpyrollidone and the like. These polyimides are characterized as having high glass transition temperatures, good mechanical properties and improved processing in the manufacture of adhesives, electronic materials and films.

Michael A Meador↗

Optical Measurements for Intelligent Aerospace Propulsion

There is growing interest in applying intelligent technologies to aerospace propulsion systems to reap expected benefits in cost, performance, and environmental compliance. Cost benefits span the engine life cycle from development, operations, and maintenance. Performance gains are anticipated in reduced fuel consumption, increased thrust-toweight ratios, and operability. Environmental benefits include generating fewer pollutants and less noise. Critical enabling technologies to realize these potential benefits include sensors, actuators, logic, electronics, materials, and structures. For propulsion applications, the challenge is to increase the robustness of these technologies so that they can withstand harsh temperatures, vibrations, and grime while providing extremely reliable performance. This paper addresses the role that optical metrology is playing in providing solutions to these challenges. Optics for ground-based testing (development cycle), flight sensing (operations), and inspection (maintenance) are described. Opportunities for future work are presented.

Mercer, Carolyn R.↗

Advanced Power Electronics Components

This paper will give a description and status of the Advanced Power Electronics Materials and Components Technology program being conducted by the NASA Glenn Research Center for future aerospace power applications. The focus of this research program is on the following: 1) New and/or significantly improved dielectric materials for the development of power capacitors with increased volumetric efficiency, energy density, and operating temperature. Materials being investigated include nanocrystalline and composite ceramic dielectrics and diamond-like carbon films; 2) New and/or significantly improved high frequency, high temperature, low loss soft magnetic materials for the development of transformers/inductors with increased power/energy density, electrical efficiency, and operating temperature. Materials being investigated include nanocrystalline and nanocomposite soft magnetic materials; 3) Packaged high temperature, high power density, high voltage, and low loss SiC diodes and switches. Development of high quality 4H- and 6H- SiC atomically smooth substrates to significantly improve device performance is a major emphasis of the SiC materials program; 4) Demonstration of high temperature (> 200 C) circuits using the components developed above.

Schwarze, Gene E.↗

Ceramic Interconnects with Low Sintering Temperature

Ceramic interconnects for use in solid oxide he1 cells are expected to operate between 900 to approximately 1000 C, sinter below 1400 C to allow co-firing and meet a number thermal mechanical requirements. The pervoskite type (ABO3) lanthanum chromite based materials have emerged as a leading candidate that will meet these criteria by varying the composition on the A and B sites. A need therefore exists to determine this material's temperature dependent electrical and mechanical properties with respect to these site substitutions. In this investigation oxide powders were prepared by the glycine-nitrate process. Ionic substitutions were carried out on A sites with Ca or Sr, and B sites with Co and Al, respectively. Only stoichiometric compositions were considered for the sake of stability. The powders and their ability to sinter were investigated by XRD, SEM, dilatometry and density measurements. The sintered materials were further examined by SEM, thermal expansion and electric conductivity measurements in order to elucidate the resulting microstructure, electrical and mechanical properties. In addition quantum mechanical calculations were performed to obtain insight into the effects of these dopants on the materials electronic band structure and lattice parameter.

Zhong, Zhi-Min↗

Recurrent isolation of hydrogen peroxide-resistant spores of Bacillus pumilus from a spacecraft assembly facility

While the microbial diversity of a spacecraft assembly facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, CA) was being monitored, H2O2-resistant bacterial strains were repeatedly isolated from various surface locations. H2O2 is a possible sterilant for spacecraft hardware because it is a low-temperature process and compatible with various modern-day spacecraft materials, electronics, and components. Both conventional biochemical testing and molecular analyses identified these strains as Bacillus pumilus. This Bacillus species was found in both unclassified (entrance floors, anteroom, and air-lock) and classified (floors, cabinet tops, and air) locations. Both vegetative cells and spores of several B. pumilus isolates were exposed to 5% liquid H2O2 for 60 min. Spores of each strain exhibited higher resistance than their respective vegetative cells to liquid H2O2. Results indicate that the H2O2 resistance observed in both vegetative cells and spores is strain-specific, as certain B. pumilus strains were two to three times more resistant than a standard Bacillus subtilis dosimetry strain. An example of this trend was observed when the type strain of B. pumilus, ATCC 7061, proved sensitive, whereas several environmental strains exhibited varying degrees of resistance, to H2O2. Repeated isolation of H2O2-resistant strains of B. pumilus in a clean-room is a concern because their persistence might potentially compromise life-detection missions, which have very strict cleanliness and sterility requirements for spacecraft hardware.

Spacecraft↗

Polyimides by Photochemical Cyclopolymerization

The novel polyimides of this invention are derived from Diels-Alder cyclopolymerization of photochemically generated bisdienes with dienophiles, such as bismaleimides, trismaleimides and mixtures thereof with maleimide endcaps. Irradiation of one or more diketones produces two distinct hydroxy o-quinodimethane (photoenol) intermediates. These intermediates are trapped via Diels-Alder cycloaddition with appropriate dienophiles, e.g., bismaleimide and/or trismaleimides to give the corresponding polyimides in quantitative yields. When bismaleimides, trismaleimides or mixtures thereof with maleimide end-caps are used as the dienophile, the resulting polyimides have glass transition temperatures (Tg) as high as 300 C. Polyimide films can be prepared by ultraviolet irradiation of high solids content varnishes of the monomers in a small amount of solvent, e.g., cyclohexanone, dimethyl formamide, N-methylpyrollidone and the like. These novel polyimides are characterized as having high glass transition temperatures, good mechanical properties and improved processing in the manufacture of adhesives, electronic materials and films.

Meador, Michael A.↗