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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 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2001

Technology Development for Human Exploration Beyond LEO in the New Millennium IAA-13-3 Strategies and Plans for Human Mars Missions

As we look forward into the new millennium, the extension of human presence beyond Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) looms large in the plans of NASA. The Agency's Strategic Plan specifically calls out the need to identify and develop technologies for 100 and 1000-day class missions beyond LEO. To meet the challenge of these extended duration missions, it is important that we learn how to utilize the indigenous resources available to us on extraterrestrial bodies. This concept, known as In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) can greatly reduce the launch mass & cost of human missions while reducing the risk. These technologies may also pave the way for the commercial development of space. While no specific target beyond LEO is identified in NASA's Strategic Plan, mission architecture studies have been on-going for the Moon, Mars, Near-Earth Asteroids and Earth/Moon & Earth/Sun Libration Points. As a result of these studies, the NASA Office of Space Flight (Code M) through the Johnson and Kennedy Space Centers, is leading the effort to develop ISRU technologies and systems to meet the current and future needs of human missions beyond LEO and on to Mars. This effort also receives support from the NASA Office of Biological and Physical Research (Code U), the Office of Space Science (Code S), and the Office of Aerospace Technology (Code R). This paper will present unique developments in the area of fuel and oxidizer production, breathing air production, water production, C02 collection, separation of atmospheric gases, and gas liquefaction and storage. A technology overview will be provided for each topic along with the results achieved to date, future development plans, and the mission architectures that these technologies support.

Larson, William E.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Chinese space and aviation industries score major breakthroughs

An overview of the current status of China's aviation and aerospace industries is presented, as well as planned future development and areas of importance for China's future space programs. The development of China's CZ-1, CZ-2 and CZ-3 rocket program is discussed, as well as China's satellite launch capabilities. China's first geostationary communications satellite STW-1 is also mentioned, and further development of the second and third communications satellites to be launched in 1987 are shown. Other developments include a seventh low Earth orbiting photographic reconnaissance satellite, plans for an image transmitting remote sensing satellite to be launched in 1988 to 1990, and other satellite developments. The Chinese-designed Y-10 transport aircraft is discussed, as well as the TU-16 bomber aircraft and the co-production agreement with McDonnell Douglas for the MD-82 passenger aircraft.

Hu, R.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Modeling Global Water Use for the 21st Century: Water Futures and Solutions (WFaS) Initiative and Its Approaches

To sustain growing food demand and increasing standard of living, global water use increased by nearly 6 times during the last 100 years, and continues to grow. As water demands get closer and closer to the water availability in many regions, each drop of water becomes increasingly valuable and water must be managed more efficiently and intensively. However, soaring water use worsens water scarcity conditions already prevalent in semi-arid and arid regions, increasing uncertainty for sustainable food production and economic development. Planning for future development and investments requires that we prepare water projections for the future. However, estimations are complicated because the future of the world's waters will be influenced by a combination of environmental, social, economic, and political factors, and there is only limited knowledge and data available about freshwater resources and how they are being used. The Water Futures and Solutions (WFaS) initiative coordinates its work with other ongoing scenario efforts for the sake of establishing a consistent set of new global water scenarios based on the shared socio-economic pathways (SSPs) and the representative concentration pathways (RCPs). The WFaS "fast track" assessment uses three global water models, namely H08, PCR-GLOBWB, and WaterGAP. This study assesses the state of the art for estimating and projecting water use regionally and globally in a consistent manner. It provides an overview of different approaches, the uncertainty, strengths and weaknesses of the various estimation methods, types of management and policy decisions for which the current estimation methods are useful. We also discuss additional information most needed to be able to improve water use estimates and be able to assess a greater range of management options across the water-energy-climate nexus.

soaring↗
DOE OSTI2016

Component Database for the APS Upgrade

The Advanced Photon Source Upgrade (APS-U) project will replace the existing APS storage ring with a multi-bend achromat (MBA) lattice to provide extreme transverse coherence and extreme brightness x-rays to its users. As the time to replace the existing storage ring accelerator is of critical concern, an aggressive one-year removal/installation/testing period is being planned. To aid in the management of the thousands of components to be installed in such a short time, the Component Database (CDB) application is being developed with the purpose to identify, document, track, locate, and organize components in a central database. Three major domains are being addressed: Component definitions (which together make up an exhaustive "Component Catalog"), Designs (groupings of components to create subsystems), and Component Instances (“Inventory”). Relationships between the major domains offer additional "system knowledge" to be captured that will be leveraged with future tools and applications. It is imperative to provide sub-system engineers with a functional application early in the machine design cycle. Topics discussed in this paper include the initial design and deployment of CDB, as well as future development plans.

Veseli, S.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

IMPACT-ing Exploration Spaceflight Risk Prediction and Medical System Design

Human exploration spaceflight missions to the Moon and Mars present unprecedented challenges for in-mission medical care. Compared with the ISS, the greater distance from Earth will mean increased mission durations, communication delays, limited to no resupply opportunities, and significant limitations on the evacuation of ill or injured crew. Spacecraft mass, volume, and power will be curtailed while higher demands will be placed on the crew’s knowledge, skills, and abilities. In this higher risk environment, it is important to: a) quantitatively estimate human system risk attributable to medical conditions, a process known as Probabilistic Risk Analysis, and b) use these estimates to inform medical system design. IMPACT (Informing Mission Planning via Analysis of Complex Tradespaces) is a PRA and medical trade space analysis tool developed by NASA to advance exploration mission medical system design. IMPACT improves upon and will soon replace NASA’s existing tool, the Integrated Medical Model, with: a novel evidence base baselined to exploration environments; an expanded list of 120 medical conditions; a significant increase in the number of medical resources that can be utilized and in the flexibility of their use; and the modelling of time lost performing mission-specific tasks due to medical conditions. IMPACT provides evidence-based, mission-specific PRA estimates of in-flight medical risk and an initial list of clinical capabilities and medical resources/hardware to be considered. In addition, sophisticated trade space capabilities estimate how human system risk varies with changes to the mission architecture or medical capability set (e.g., if the system mass constraint decreases by 10% or ultrasound is removed). This panel will provide an overview of IMPACT, its intended use cases, and future development plans. The panel will be the first public presentation of IMPACT results, including medical risk estimates for extended duration Artemis missions, the medical conditions most influencing medical risk metrics, and the clinical capabilities that have the largest effect on medical risk.

Ben Easter↗
NASA NTRS2020

PHALANX: Expendable Projectile Sensor Networks for Planetary Exploration

Technologies enabling long-term, wide-ranging measurement in hard-to-reach areas are a critical need for planetary science inquiry. Phenomena of interest include flows or variations in volatiles, gas composition or concentration, particulate density, or even simply temperature. Improved measurement of these processes enables understanding of exotic geologies and distributions or correlating indicators of trapped water or biological activity. However, such data is often needed in unsafe areas such as caves, lava tubes, or steep ravines not easily reached by current spacecraft and planetary robots. To address this capability gap, we have developed miniaturized, expendable sensors which can be ballistically lobbed from a robotic rover or static lander - or even dropped during a flyover. These projectiles can perform sensing during flight and after anchoring to terrain features. By augmenting exploration systems with these sensors, we can extend situational awareness, perform long-duration monitoring, and reduce utilization of primary mobility resources, all of which are crucial in surface missions. We call the integrated payload that includes a cold gas launcher, smart projectiles, planning software, network discovery, and science sensing: PHALANX. In this paper, we introduce the mission architecture for PHALANX and describe an exploration concept that pairs projectile sensors with a rover “mothership.” Science use cases explored include reconnaissance using ballistic cameras, volatiles detection, and building timelapse maps of temperature and illumination conditions. Strategies to autonomously coordinate constellations of deployed sensors to self-discover and localize with peer ranging (i.e. a “local GPS”) are summarized, thus providing communications infrastructure beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) of the rover. Capabilities were demonstrated through both simulation and physical testing with a terrestrial prototype. The approach to developing a terrestrial prototype is discussed, including design of the launching mechanism, projectile optimization, micro-electronics fabrication, and sensor selection. Results from early testing and characterization of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components are reported. Nodes were subjected to successful burn-in tests over 48 hours at full logging duty cycle. Integrated field tests were conducted in the Roverscape, a half-acre planetary analog environment at NASA Ames, where we tested up to 10 sensor nodes simultaneously coordinating with an exploration rover. Ranging accuracy has been demonstrated to be within +/-10cm over 20m using commodity radios when compared to high-resolution laser scanner ground truthing. Evolution of the design, including progressive miniaturization of the electronics and iterated modifications of the enclosure housing for streamlining and optimized radio performance are described. Finally, lessons learned to date, gaps toward eventual flight mission implementation, and continuing future development plans are discussed.

Dille, Michael↗
DOE OSTI2018

Pseudo-dynamic Aspen Plus{sup R} Model of the Defense Waste Processing Facility - 18475

The Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) at the Savannah River Site converts legacy high-level waste from the Cold War into borosilicate glass for permanent disposal in a geological repository. The waste sludge is chemically adjusted by the addition of acid, mixed with frit, and concentrated in the DWPF Chemical Process Cell (CPC) to ensure that the final glass has the desired properties. The resulting mixture is fed into the melter where the waste is melted and poured into stainless steel storage canisters. We present an Aspen Plus{sup R} model of the DWPF CPC, which is being developed to aid chemical processing decisions pertaining to the current flowsheet and to aid decisions regarding optimizing future processing. Given a waste feed composition with acid and frit additions, the model will predict the sludge and off-gas compositions throughout the processing, as well as the final melter feed composition. This allows different processing scenarios to be investigated easily, reducing the reliance on experimental testing, and hence saving time and money. The model has multiple potential applications, including calculating the acid and frit additions required to give acceptable glass properties, off-gas permitting, tracking mercury steam-stripped from the waste in the off-gas system, tracking flammable gases in the offgas system, investigating the effect of reducing air purges in the condensers, and general process optimization. The waste is processed in the CPC in batches, requiring dynamic simulation to track the time-dependent operations. Accurate modeling of the processing also requires calculations of phase and electrolyte chemical equilibria and parallel rate-dependent reactions. Due to existing technical limitations with dynamic simulation of the complex chemical system, we have adopted a pseudo-dynamic approach in which time intervals are treated as consecutive steady-state operations in Aspen Plus{sup R}. Thus, the model consists of ∼100 replicas of the processing vessel and its off-gas system, with the sludge output by one replica (representing one time interval) becoming the feed to the next (representing the next time interval). By examining the results from these replicas in sequence, one can see the time evolution of the model. This general approach can be used wherever simultaneous calculation of phase and electrolyte chemical equilibria in a dynamically evolving system is needed. In addition to describing the general structure and chemistry of the model, we present results from tests of the model against experimental data. These data are from laboratory-scale process simulations of the CPC with a nonradioactive waste sludge simulant. These tests include the model's predictions of the offgas composition, the sludge pH, and the final sludge composition. We will also discuss planned future developments of the model. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2017

Modeling of HVAC operational faults in building performance simulation

Operational faults are common in the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems of existing buildings, leading to a decrease in energy efficiency and occupant comfort. Various fault detection and diagnostic methods have been developed to identify and analyze HVAC operational faults at the component or subsystem level. However, current methods lack a holistic approach to predicting the overall impacts of faults at the building level—an approach that adequately addresses the coupling between various operational components, the synchronized effect between simultaneous faults, and the dynamic nature of fault severity. This study introduces the novel development of a fault-modeling feature in EnergyPlus which fills in the knowledge gap left by previous studies. This paper presents the design and implementation of the new feature in EnergyPlus and discusses in detail the fault-modeling challenges faced. The new fault-modeling feature enables EnergyPlus to quantify the impacts of faults on building energy use and occupant comfort, thus supporting the decision making of timely fault corrections. Including actual building operational faults in energy models also improves the accuracy of the baseline model, which is critical in the measurement and verification of retrofit or commissioning projects. As an example, EnergyPlus version 8.6 was used to investigate the impacts of a number of typical operational faults in an office building across several U.S. climate zones. Finally, the results demonstrate that the faults have significant impacts on building energy performance as well as on occupant thermal comfort. Finally, the paper introduces future development plans for EnergyPlus fault-modeling capability.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2020

MADHAT: Model-Agnostic Dark Halo Analysis Tool

We present the Model-Agnostic Dark Halo Analysis Tool (MADHAT), a numerical tool which implements a Fermi-LAT data-driven, model-independent analysis of gamma-ray emission from dwarf satellite galaxies and dwarf galaxy candidates due to dark matter annihilation, dark matter decay, or other nonstandard or unknown astrophysics. This tool efficiently provides statistical upper bounds on the number of observed photons in excess of the number expected, based on empirical determinations of foregrounds and backgrounds, using a stacked analysis of any selected set of dwarf targets. It also calculates the resulting bounds on the properties of dark matter under any assumptions the user makes regarding dark sector particle physics or astrophysics. As an application, we determine new bounds on Sommerfeld-enhanced dark matter annihilation in a set of eight dwarfs. MADHAT v1.0 includes 58 dwarfs and dwarf candidate targets, and we discuss future planned developments. MADHAT is available and will be maintained at https://github.com/MADHATdm.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Continuous Integration Service at Fermilab

This paper describes the current architecture of Continuous Integration (CI) service developed at Fermilab, encountered successes and difficulties, as well as future development plans. The current experiment code has hundreds of contributors that provide new features, bug fixes, and other improvements. Version control systems help developers to collaborate in contributing software for their experiments, while the CI system helps developers keep their code healthy. The Fermilab CI service allows experiments and projects to test and validate their offline production and analysis code on the supported platforms. It is built on top of Jenkins, designed to be set up from a configuration file that provides implementation for each phase of the CI workflow, and able to validate experiment code through grid jobs. This CI service provides a dashboard for easy access to logs and statistical graphs. Since the CI service has been adopted by Fermilab experiments/projects, it proved to be very useful to intercept issues in their code early on and get them fixed before running it in production. Currently the CI service is in use by the ArgoNeuT, DUNE, g-2, LArIAT, MINERvA, mu2e, NOvA, SBND and uBooNE experiments and by the following projects: ART and LArSoft software suites, GENIE, and Glidein-WMS. The CI service is under active development and planning to support code profiling.

Di benedetto, Vito↗
DOE OSTI2018

APS Data Management System

As the capabilities of modern X-ray detectors and acquisition technologies increase, so do the data rates and volumes produced at synchrotron beamlines. This brings into focus a number of challenges related to managing data at such facilities, including data transfer, near real-time data processing, automated processing pipelines, data storage, handling metadata and remote user access to data. The Advanced Photon Source Data Management System software is designed to help beamlines deal with these issues. Finally, this paper presents the system architecture and describes its components and functionality; the system's current usage is discussed, examples of its use have been provided and future development plans are outlined.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Collaborative Computing Support for Analysis Facilities Exploiting Software as Infrastructure Techniques

Prior to the public release of Kubernetes it was difficult to conduct joint development of elaborate analysis facilities due to the highly non-homogeneous nature of hardware and network topology across compute facilities. However, since the advent of systems like Kubernetes and OpenShift, which provide declarative interfaces for building fault-tolerant and self-healing deployments of networked software, it is possible for multiple institutes to collaborate more effectively since resource details are abstracted away through various forms of hardware and software virtualization. In this whitepaper we will outline the development of two analysis facilities: "Coffea-casa" at University of Nebraska Lincoln and the "Elastic Analysis Facility" at Fermilab, and how utilizing platform abstraction has improved the development of common software for each of these facilities, and future development plans made possible by this methodology.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Multi-Entity Simulation with CoSim Toolbox

Co-simulation is an analysis technique for linking multiple software models during runtime by facilitating data exchange and simulation time synchronization. There are numerous challenges when constructing an effective co-simulation including simulation tool installation, data management, and writing new models in a manner compatible with the co-simulation framework of choice. CoSim Toolbox is an integration of multiple pieces of software designed to make assembling such a co-simulation in HELICS easier. This report summarizes the existing capabilities of CoSim Toolbox and outlines future development plans.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS1972

Orbital surveys and state resource management

The resource management implications of satellite earth resource surveys for the state of Ohio are discussed. Discussions cover environmental problems, planning future developments, and short- and long-range benefits of such resource management.

Wukelic, G. E.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Ultraviolet stellar spectrophotometry from a balloon platform

A 40 centimeter diameter aperture, balloon-borne telescope and ultraviolet spectrometer is described and selected scientific results are briefly reviewed. The general configuration of the 0.4 angstrom resolution instrument is shown and the utilization of servo-controlled secondary mirror, image dissector detector, and special mirror coatings are discussed. An outlook for astronomical research in the mid-ultraviolet from balloon-borne telescopes is presented together with future development plans for JSC's balloon-borne payload.

Kondo, Y.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Design and verification of a turbofan swirl augmentor

The paper discusses the details of the design and verification testing of a full-scale turbofan 'swirl' augmentor at sea level and altitude. No flameholders are required in the swirl augmentor since the radial motion of the hot pilot gases and subsequent combustion products provides a continuous ignition front across the stream. Results of rig testing of this full-scale swirl augmentor on an F100 engine, which are very encouraging, and future development plans are presented. The results validate the application of the centrifugal-force swirling flow concept to a turbofan augmentor.

Egan, W. J., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Computer aided manipulator control

This paper describes the hardware and software system of a dedicated mini- and microcomputer network developed at the JPL teleoperator project to aid the operator in real-time control of remote manipulators. The operator can be in series or in parallel with the control computer during operation. The purpose of the project is to develop, demonstrate and evaluate advanced supervisory control concepts and techniques for space applications. The paper concludes with a brief outline of future development plans and issues.

Bejczy, A. K.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Computing architecture for telerobots in earth orbit

Based on generic operational and computational requirements associated with the control of telerobots in earth orbit, a multibus-based distributed but integrated computing architecture is proposed. An experimental system of that kind under development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is briefly described. It uses Intel Multibus I at both control station and remote robot (telerobot) computing nodes. An essential element within each multibus is a Unified (or Universal) Computer Control Subsystem (UCCS) for telerobot and control station motor components. The two multibus-based computing nodes can be linked by parallel or high speed serial links for real-time data transmission and for closing the real-time bilateral (force-reflecting) control loop between telerobot and control station. The experimental system is briefly commented, followed by a brief discussion of future development plans and possibilities.

Bejczy, A. K.↗