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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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NASA NTRS1992

Support activities to maintain SUMS flight readiness, volume 3. Attachment B: Flight STS-35 report, section A

The Shuttle Upper Atmosphere Mass Spectrometer (SUMS), a component experiment of the NASA Orbital Experiments Program (OEX), was flown aboard the shuttle Columbia (OV102) mounted at the forward end of the nose landing gear well with an atmospheric gas inlet system fitted to the lower fuselage (chin panel) surface. The SUMS was designed to provide atmospheric data in flow regimes inaccessible prior to the development of the Space Transportation System (STS). The experiment mission operation begins about 1 hour prior to shuttle de-orbit entry maneuver and continues until reaching 1.6 torr (about 86 km altitude). The SUMS flew a total of three missions, 61C, STS-35, and STS-40. Between flights, the SUMS was maintained in flight ready status. The flight data has been analyzed by the NASA LaRC Aerothermodynamics Branch. Flight data spectrum plots and reports are presented in the Appendices to the Final Technical Report for NAS1-17399. This volume presents flight data for flight STS-35 in graphical format.

Wright, Willie↗

NASA NTRS1992

Support activities to maintain SUMS flight readiness, volume 4. Attachment B: Flight STS-35 report, section B

The Shuttle Upper Atmosphere Mass Spectrometer (SUMS), a component experiment of the NASA Orbital Experiments Program (OEX), was flown aboard the shuttle Columbia (OV102) mounted at the forward end of the nose landing gear well with an atmospheric gas inlet system fitted to the lower fuselage (chin panel) surface. The SUMS was designed to provide atmospheric data in flow regimes inaccessible prior to the development of the Space Transportation System (STS). The experiment mission operation begins about 1 hour prior to shuttle de-orbit entry maneuver and continues until reaching 1.6 torr (about 86 km altitude). The SUMS flew a total of three missions, 61C, STS-35, STS-40. Between flights, the SUMS was maintained in flight ready status. The flight data has been analyzed by the NASA LaRC Aerothermodynamics Branch. Flight data spectrum plots and reports are presented in the Appendices to the Final Technical Report for NAS1-17399. This volume present spectra graphs of the reentry of flight STS-35.

Wright, Willie↗

NASA NTRS1992

Support activities to maintain SUMS flight readiness, volume 5. Attachment B: Flight STS-35 report, section C

Wright, Willie↗

NASA NTRS1992

Support activities to maintain SUMS flight readiness, volume 6. Attachment B: Flight STS-35 report, section D

The Shuttle Upper Atmosphere Mass Spectrometer (SUMS), a component experiment of the NASA Orbital Experiments Program (OEX), was flown aboard the shuttle Columbia (OV102) mounted at the forward end of the nose landing gear well with an atmospheric gas inlet system fitted to the lower fuselage (chin panel) surface. The SUMS was designed to provide atmospheric data in flow regimes inaccessible prior to the development of the Space Transportation System (STS). The experiment mission operation begins about 1 hour prior to shuttle de-orbit entry maneuver and continues until reaching 1.6 torr (about 86 km altitude). The SUMS flew a total of three missions, 61C, STS-35, STS-40. Between flights, the SUMS was maintained in flight ready status. The flight data has been analyzed by the NASA LaRC Aerothermodynamics Branch. Flight data spectrum plots and reports are presented in the Appendices to the Final Technical Report for NAS1-17399. This volume presents spectral graphs of the reentry of flight STS-35.

Wright, Willie↗

NASA NTRS1992

Support activities to maintain SUMS flight readiness, volume 7. Attachment B: Flight STS-35 report, section E

The Shuttle Upper Atmosphere Mass Spectrometer (SUMS), a component experiment of the NASA Orbital Experiments Program (OEX), was flown aboard the shuttle Columbia (OV102) mounted at the forward end of the nose landing gear well with an atmospheric gas inlet system fitted to the lower fuselage (chin panel) surface. The SUMS was designed to provide atmospheric data in flow regimes inaccessible prior to the development of the Space Transportation System (STS). The experiment mission operation begins about 1 hour prior to shuttle de-orbit entry maneuver and continues until reaching 1.6 torr (about 86 km altitude). The SUMS flew a total of three missions, 61C, STS-35, STS-40. Between flights, the SUMS was maintained in flight ready status. The flight data has been analyzed by the NASA LaRC Aerothermodynamics Branch. Flight data spectrum plots and reports are presented in the Appendices to the Final Technical Report for NAS1-17399. This volume presents data from the reentry of flight STS-35 in tabular and graphical format.

Wright, Willie↗

NASA NTRS1992

Support activities to maintain SUMS flight readiness, volume 8. Attachment B: Flight STS-35 report, section F

The Shuttle Upper Atmosphere Mass Spectrometer (SUMS), a component experiment of the NASA Orbital Experiments Program (OEX), was flown aboard the shuttle Columbia (OV102) mounted at the forward end of the nose landing gear well with an atmospheric gas inlet system fitted to the lower fuselage (chin panel) surface. The SUMS was designed to provide atmospheric data in flow regimes inaccessible prior to the development of the Space Transportation System (STS). The experiment mission operation begins about 1 hour prior to shuttle de-orbit entry maneuver and continues until reaching 1.6 torr (about 86 km altitude). The SUMS flew a total of three missions, 61C, STS-35, STS-40. Between flights, the SUMS was maintained in flight ready status. The flight data has been analyzed by the NASA LaRC Aerothermodynamics Branch. Flight data spectrum plots and reports are presented in the Appendices to the Final Technical Report for NAS1-17399. This volume presents tabular and graphical spectral data of the reentry of flight STS-35.

Wright, Willie↗

NASA NTRS1992

Support activities to maintain SUMS flight readiness, volume 9. Attachment C: Flight STS-40 report. Attachment D: SUMS software listing

The Shuttle Upper Atmosphere Mass Spectrometer (SUMS), a component experiment of the NASA Orbital Experiments Program (OEX), was flown aboard the shuttle Columbia (OV102) mounted at the forward end of the nose landing gear well with an atmospheric gas inlet system fitted to the lower fuselage (chin panel) surface. The SUMS was designed to provide atmospheric data in flow regimes inaccessible prior to the development of the Space Transportation System (STS). The experiment mission operation begins about 1 hour prior to shuttle de-orbit entry maneuver and continues until reaching 1.6 torr (about 86 km altitude). The SUMS flew a total of three missions, 61C, STS-35, STS-40. Between flights, the SUMS was maintained in flight ready status. The flight data has been analyzed by the NASA LaRC Aerothermodynamics Branch. Flight data spectrum plots and reports are presented in the Appendices to the Final Technical Report for NAS1-17399. This volume provides a software listing and graphical data gathered from flight STS-40.

Wright, Willie↗

NASA NTRS1993

Small rocket research and technology

Small chemical rockets are used on nearly all space missions. The small rocket program provides propulsion technology for civil and government space systems. Small rocket concepts are developed for systems which encompass reaction control for launch and orbit transfer systems, as well as on-board propulsion for large space systems and earth orbit and planetary spacecraft. Major roles for on-board propulsion include apogee kick, delta-V, de-orbit, drag makeup, final insertions, north-south stationkeeping, orbit change/trim, perigee kick, and reboost. The program encompasses efforts on earth-storable, space storable, and cryogenic propellants. The earth-storable propellants include nitrogen tetroxide (NTO) as an oxidizer with monomethylhydrazine (MMH) or anhydrous hydrazine (AH) as fuels. The space storable propellants include liquid oxygen (LOX) as an oxidizer with hydrazine or hydrocarbons such as liquid methane, ethane, and ethanol as fuels. Cryogenic propellants are LOX or gaseous oxygen (GOX) as oxidizers and liquid or gaseous hydrogen as fuels. Improved performance and lifetime for small chemical rockets are sought through the development of new predictive tools to understand the combustion and flow physics, the introduction of high temperature materials to eliminate fuel film cooling and its associated combustion inefficiency, and improved component designs to optimize performance. Improved predictive technology is sought through the comparison of both local and global predictions with experimental data. Results indicate that modeling of the injector and combustion process in small rockets needs improvement. High temperature materials require the development of fabrication processes, a durability data base in both laboratory and rocket environments, and basic engineering property data such as strength, creep, fatigue, and work hardening properties at both room and elevated temperature. Promising materials under development include iridium-coated rhenium and a ceramic composite of mixed hafnium carbide and tantalum carbide reinforced with graphite fibers.

Schneider, Steven↗

NASA NTRS1994

Conceptual design of an Orbital Debris Defense System

Man made orbital debris has become a serious problem. Currently NORAD tracks over 7000 objects in orbit and less than 10 percent of these are active payloads. Common estimates are that the amount of debris will increase at a rate of 10 percent per year. Impacts of space debris with operational payloads or vehicles is a serious risk to human safety and mission success. For example, the impact of a 0.2 mm diameter paint fleck with the Space Shuttle Challenger window created a 2 mm wide by 0.6 mm deep pit. The cost to replace the window was over $50,000. A conceptual design for a Orbital Debris Defense System (ODDS) is presented which considers a wide range of debris sizes, orbits and velocities. Two vehicles were designed to collect and remove space debris. The first would attach a re-entry package to de-orbit very large debris, e.g. inactive satellites and spent upper stages that tend to break up and form small debris. This vehicle was designed to contain several re-entry packages, and be refueled and resupplied with more re-entry packages as needed. The second vehicle was designed to rendezvous with and capture debris ranging from 10 cm to 2 m. Due to tracking limitations, no technically feasible method for collecting debris below 10 cm in size could be devised; it must be accomplished through international regulations which reduce the accumulation of space debris.

Bedillion, Erik↗

NASA NTRS1993

Development of a climatological data base to help forecast cloud cover conditions for shuttle landings at the Kennedy Space Center

The Space Shuttle is an extremely weather sensitive vehicle with very restrictive constraints for both launches and landings. The most important difference between Shuttle and normal aircraft landings is that the Shuttle has no go-around capability once it begins its decent into the earth's atmosphere. The de-orbit burn decision is generally made approximately 90 minutes before landing requiring a forecast with little room for error. Because of the Shuttle's rapid re-entry to earth, the pilot must be able to see all runway and visual navigation aids from high altitude to land the Shuttle. In addition, the heat resistant tiles which are used to protect the Shuttle during its re-entry into the earth's atmosphere are extremely sensitive to any type of precipitation. Extensive damage to these tiles could occur if the Shuttle passes through any cloud that contains precipitation size particles. To help guard against changing weather conditions or any type of weather problems that might occur prior to landing, flight rules have been developed as guidelines for all landings. Although the rules vary depending on the location of the landing (Kennedy Space Center or Edwards AFB), length of mission, and weight of vehicle, most of the rules can be condensed into 4 major groupings. These are: (1) Cloud ceilings should not be less than 3048 m (10,000 feet), (2) Visibility should not be less than 13 km (7 nm), (3) Cross-wind no greater than 5-8 m/s (10-15 knots); and (4) No showers or thunderstorms at or within 56 km (30 nm) of the Shuttle Landing Facility. This study consisted of developing a climatological database of the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) surface observations and performing an analysis of observed conditions one and two hours subsequent to given conditions at the SLF to help analyze the 0.2 cloud cover rule. Particular emphasis was placed on Shuttle landing weather violations and the amounts of cloud cover below 3048 m (10,000 ft.). This analysis has helped to determine the best and worst times to land the Shuttle at KSC. In addition, nomograms have been developed to help forecasters make cloud cover forecasts for End of Mission (EOM) and Return to Launch Site (RTLS) at KSC. Results of categorizing this data by month, season, time of day, and surface and upper-air wind direction are presented.

Atchison, M. Kevin↗

NASA NTRS1997

International Space Station (ISS) Accommodation of a Single US Assured Crew Return Vehicle (ACRV)

The following report was generated to give the International Space Station (ISS) Program some additional insight into the operations and issues associated with accommodating a single U.S. developed Assured Crew Return Vehicle (ACRV). During the generation of this report, changes in both the ISS and ACRV programs were factored into the analysis with the realization that most of the work performed will eventually need to be repeated once the two programs become more integrated. No significant issues associated with the ISS accommodating the ACRV were uncovered. Kinematic analysis of ACRV installation showed that there are viable methods of using Shuttle and Station robotic manipulators. Separation analysis demonstrated that the ACRV departure path clears the Station structure for all likely contingency scenarios. The payload bay packaging analysis identified trades that can be made between payload bay location, Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (SRMS) reach and eventual designs of de-orbit stages and docking adapters.

Mazanek, Daniel D.↗

NASA NTRS1998

Electric Propulsion for Low Earth Orbit Constellations

Hall Effect electric propulsion was evaluated for orbit insertion, satellite repositioning, orbit maintenance and de-orbit applications for a sample low earth orbit satellite constellation. Since the low masses of these satellites enable multiple spacecraft per launch, the ability to add spacecraft to a given launch was used as a figure of merit. When compared to chemical propulsion, the Hall thruster system can add additional spacecraft per launch using planned payload power levels. One satellite can be added to the assumed four satellite baseline chemical launch without additional mission times. Two or three satellites may be added by providing part of the orbit insertion with the Hall system. In these cases orbit insertion times were found to be 35 and 62 days. Depending on the electric propulsion scenario, the resulting launch vehicle savings is nearly two, three or four Delta 7920 launch vehicles out of the chemical baseline scenarios eight Delta 7920 launch vehicles.

Oleson, Steven R.↗

NASA NTRS1998

Electric Propulsion for Low Earth Orbit Constellations

Hall effect electric propulsion was evaluated for orbit insertion, satellite repositioning, orbit maintenance and de-orbit applications for a sample low earth orbit satellite constellation. Since the low masses of these satellites enable multiple spacecraft per launch, the ability to add spacecraft to a given launch was used as a figure of merit. When compared to chemical propulsion, the Hall thruster system can add additional spacecraft per launch using planned payload power levels. One satellite can be added to the assumed four satellite baseline chemical launch without additional mission times. Two or three satellites may be added by providing part of the orbit insertion with the Hall system. In these cases orbit insertion times were found to be 35 and 62 days. Depending, on the electric propulsion scenario, the resulting launch vehicle savings is nearly two, three or four Delta 7920 launch vehicles out of the chemical baseline scenario's eight Delta 7920 launch vehicles.

Oleson, Steven R.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Development of Polymer Coatings for the ProSEDS Tether

The ProSEDS mission is designed to provide an on-orbit demonstration of the electrodynamic propulsion capabilities of tethers in space. The ProSEDS experiment will be a secondary payload on a Delta 11 unmanned, expendable booster. A 5 km conductive tether is attached to the deployer baseplate on the Delta 11 second stage and collects current from the low Earth orbit (LEO) plasma to facilitate de-orbit of the Delta II second stage. The conductive tether is attached to a 10-15 km non-conductive tether, which in turn is attached to an endmass. A bare metal tether would have the best conductivity but thermal concerns preclude this design. A conductive polymer developed by Triton Systems has been optimized for optimum conductivity and thermo-optical properties. The current design for the ProSEDS conductive tether is seven individually coated strands of 28 AWG aluminum wire, coated with 12.7 micrometers (0.5 mil) atomic oxygen-resistant conductive polymer composed of a mixture of COR and PANi, wrapped around a braided Kevlar 29 core. Extensive testing has been performed at the Marshall Space Flight Center to qualify this material for flight on ProSEDS. Atomic oxygen exposure has been performed, with solar absorptance and infrared emittance measured before and after exposure. Plasma chamber tests have been completed, as well as tether deployment tests. Also developed for the ProSEDS mission was the insulating polymer TOR-BP. Approximately 200 meters of the conductive tether closest to the Delta II second stage is insulated to prevent any electron reconnection to the tether from the plasma contactor. The insulating material is TOR-BP with a dielectric strength of TBD.

Vaughn, Jason A.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Polymeric Coatings for Electrodynamic Tethers

Two polymeric coatings have been developed for the Propulsive Small Expendable Deployer System (ProSEDS) mission. ProSEDS is designed to provide an on-orbit demonstration of the electrodynamic propulsion capabilities of tethers in space. The ProSEDS experiment will be a secondary payload on a Delta II unmanned expendable booster scheduled for launch in August 2000. A 5-km conductive tether is attached to the Delta 11 second stage and collects current from the low Earth orbit (LEO) plasma to facilitate de-orbit of the spent stage. The conductive tether is attached to a 10-km non-conductive tether, the other end of which is attached to an endmass containing several scientific instruments. A bare metal tether would have the best conductivity but thermal concerns preclude this design. A conductive polymer developed by Triton Systems has been optimized for conductivity and thermo-optical properties. The current design for the ProSEDS conductive tether is seven strands of 28 AWG aluminum wire individually coated with 8.7 micrometers (0.35 mil) of an atomic oxygen-resistant conductive polymer composed of a mixture of 87% Clear Oxygen-Resistant polymer (COR) and 13% polyanaline (PANi), wrapped around a braided Kevlar (TM) 49 core. Extensive testing has been performed at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) to qualify this material for flight on ProSEDS. Atomic oxygen exposure was performed, with solar absorptance and infrared emittance measured before and after exposure. Conductivity was measured before and after atomic oxygen exposure. High voltage tests, up to 1500 V, of the current collecting ability of the COR/PANi have been completed. Approximately 160 meters of the conductive tether closest to the Delta 11 second stage is insulated to prevent any electron reconnection to the tether from the plasma contactor. The insulation is composed of polyimide overcoated with TOR-BP, another polymeric coating developed by Triton for this mission. TOR-BP acts as both insulator and a protective coating against atomic oxygen erosion. The insulation has been tested to withstand 5000 V.

Vaughn, Jason A.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Manufacturing and NDE of Large Composite Structures for Space Transportation at MSFC

This paper presents the Marshall Space Flight Center's (MSFC's) vision to manufacture, increase safety and reduce the cost of launch vehicles. Nondestructive evaluations of large composite structures are tested for space transportation at MSFC. The topics include: 1) 6 1/2 Generations of Airplanes in a Century; 2) Shuttle Safety Upgrades; 3) Generations of Reusable Launch Vehicles; 4) RLV Technology Demonstration Path; 5) Second Generation; 6) Key NASA Requirements; 7) X-33 Elements; 8) Future-X Pathfinder Projects and Experiments; 9) Focus Area Technical Goals; 10) X-34 Expanded View; 11) X-38 Spacecraft with De-Orbit Propulsion Stage (DPS); 12) Deorbit Module (DM) Critical Design Review (CDR) Design; 13) Forward Structural Adapter (FSA) CDR Design; 14) X-38 DPS CDR Design; 15) RLV Focused Propulsion Technologies; and 16) Challenges in Technology. This paper is presented in viewgraph form.

McGill, Preston↗

NASA NTRS1999

X-38 V201 Avionics Architecture

The X-38 is an experimental NASA project developing a core human capable spacecraft at a fraction of the cost of any previous human rated vehicle. The first operational derivative developed from the X-38 program will be the International Space Station (ISS) Crew Return Vehicle (CRV). Although the current X-38 vehicles are designed as re-entry vehicles only, the option exists to modify the vehicle for uses as an upward vehicle launched from an expendable launch vehicle or from the X-33 operational derivative. The Operational CRV, that will be derived from the X-38 spaceflight vehicle, will provide an emergency return capability from the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft can hold a crew of up to seven inside a pressurized cabin. The CRV is passively delivered to ISS, stays up to three year on-orbit attached to ISS in a passive mode with periodic functional checkout, before separation from ISS, de-orbit, entry and landing. The X-38 Vehicle 201 (V201) is being developed at NASA/JSC to demonstrate key technologies associated with the development of the CRV design. The X-38 flight test will validate the low cost development concept by demonstrating the entire station departure, re-entry, guidance and landing portions of the CRV mission. All new technologies and subsystems proposed for CRV will be validated during either the on orbit checkout or flight phases of the X-38 space flight test. The X-38 subsystems are required to be similar to those subsystems required for the CRV to the greatest extent possible. In many cases, the subsystems are identical to those that will be utilized on the Operational CRV.

Bedos, Thierry↗

NASA NTRS2000

STS-97 Crew Training

The crew of STS-97, Commander Brent W. Jett, Pilot Michael J. Bloomfield, and Mission Specialists Joseph R. Tanner, Carlos I. Noriega, and Marc Garneau are shown during various stages of their training. Footage shows them during a food tasting, during emergency bailout training, spacewalk training, and de-orbit preparation.

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