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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2008

Does NASA's Constellation Architecture Offer Opportunities to Achieve Multiple Additional Goals in Space?

Every major NASA human spaceflight program in the last four decades has been modified to achieve goals in space not incorporated within the original design goals: the Apollo Applications Program, Skylab, Space Shuttle, and International Space Station. Several groups in the US have been identifying major future science goals, the science facilities necessary to investigate them, as well as possible roles for augmented versions of elements of NASA's Constellation program. Specifically, teams in the astronomy community have been developing concepts for very capable missions to follow the James Webb Space Telescope that could take advantage of - or require - free-space operations by astronauts and/or robots. Taking as one example, the Single-Aperture Far-InfraRed (SAFIR) telescope with a approx. 10+ m aperture proposed for operation in the 2020 timeframe. According to current NASA plans, the Ares V launch vehicle (or a variant) will be available about the same time, as will the capability to transport astronauts to the vicinity of the Moon via the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle and associated systems. [As the lunar surface offers no advantages - and major disadvantages - for most major optical systems, the expensive system for landing and operating on the lunar surface is not required.] Although as currently conceived, SAFIR and other astronomical missions will operate at the Sun-Earth L2 location, it appears trivial to travel for servicing to the more accessible Earth-Moon L1,2 locations. Moreover. as the recent Orbital Express and Automated Transfer Vehicle missions have demonstrated, future robotic capabilities should offer capabilities that would (remotely) extend human presence far beyond the vicinity of the Earth. In addition to multiplying the value of NASA's architecture for future human spaceflight to achieve the goals multiple major stakeholders. if humans one day travel beyond the Earth-Moon system - say, to Mars - technologies and capabilities for operating for long periods in free space must be developed. The engineering, management. and operational successes of the Space Station have demonstrated that international collaboratio~i is possible. However, there is a danger that the hard-won lessons of cLul+sent programs will be lost without continuing development of in-space operations. A program to achieve. for example. major astronomical goals in space using astronauts and robots will sustain international capabilities. produce highly visible achievements. and appeal to a11 additional broad community of stakeholders not currently involved with missions to the lunar surface.

Thronson, Harley↗
NASA NTRS2008

Does NASA's Constellation Architecture Offer Opportunities to Achieve Multiple Additional Goals in Space?

Every major NASA human spaceflight program in the last four decades has been modified to achieve goals in space not incorporated within the original design goals: the Apollo Applications Program, Skylab, Space Shuttle, and International Space Station. Several groups in the US have been identifying major future science goals, the science facilities necessary to investigate them, as well as possible roles for augmented versions of elements of NASA's Constellation program. Specifically, teams in the astronomy community have been developing concepts for very capable missions to follow the James Webb Space Telescope that could take advantage of - or require - free-space operations by astronauts and/or robots. Taking as one example, the Single-Aperture Far-InfraRed (SAFIR) telescope with a approx.10+ m aperture proposed for operation in the 2020 timeframe. According to current NASA plans, the Ares V launch vehicle (or a variant) will be available about the same time, as will the capability to transport astronauts to the vicinity of the Moon via the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle and associated systems. [As the lunar surface offers no advantages - and major disadvantages - for most major optical systems, the expensive system for landing and operating on the lunar surface is not required.] Although as currently conceived, SAFIR and other astronomical missions will operate at the Sun-Earth L2 location, it appears trivial to travel for servicing to the more accessible Earth-Moon L1,2 locations. Moreover, as the recent Orbital Express and Automated Transfer Vehicle missions have demonstrated, future robotic capabilities should offer capabilities that would (remotely) extend human presence far beyond the vicinity of the Earth. In addition to multiplying the value of NASA's architecture for future human spaceflight to achieve the goals multiple major stakeholders, if humans one day travel beyond the Earth-Moon system - say, to Mars - technologies and capabilities for operating for long periods in free space must be developed. The engineering. management, and operational successes of the Space Station have demonstrated that international collaboration is possible. However, there is a danger that the hard-won lessons of current programs will be lost without continuing development of in-space operations. A program to achieve. for example, major astronomical goals in space using astronauts and robots will sustain international capabilities, produce highly visible achievements, and appeal to an additional broad community of stakeholders not currently involved with missions to the lunar surface.

Thronson, Harley A.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Anisotropic Goal-Based Mesh Adaptation Metric Clarification and Development

Adaptive unstructured mesh techniques have a limited, but growing impact on production analysis workflows to control discretization error for reliable simulation results. Multiple independent implementations of flow solvers, anisotropic metric construction methods, and anisotropic mesh adaptation mechanics have matured. Goal-based metrics target estimated error in output functions, such as lift and drag, through the guidance of an adjoint solution. A unification of goal-based anisotropic metrics is presented for steady viscous flows, which is an active area of research. These goal-based metrics drive robust and efficient anisotropic mesh adaptation for the calculation of output functions. The super-convergent functional output error behavior of stabilized finite-element methods is exploited without a formal proof, and evidence of super-convergence is shown in numerical experiments. Mesh adapted drag and lift outputs for two simple bodies in compressible viscous flow show convergence of error to less than a single drag count. Asymptotic behavior established for relatively coarse meshes shows the efficiency of this goal-based metric when compared to solution interpolation error control and expert-guided meshing. Anisotropic mesh adaptation techniques are applied to a transport aircraft in a high-lift configuration where variation between approaches decreases with mesh refinement, but asymptotic behavior is not observed with available resources.

goal-based↗
DOE OSTI2025

Satellite remote sensing for environmental sustainable development goals: A review of applications for terrestrial and marine protected areas

With few years left to achieve the vital United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), member nations must urgently leverage technological advancements in environmental monitoring to succeed. Remote sensing now provides decades of global observations at a variety of spatio-temporal scales and a litany of data products to guide comprehensive measures for climate action, and aquatic and terrestrial biota preservation. Protected areas, such as national parks and wildlife preserves, represent largely untapped resources for both applying robust conservation measures and testing ambitious new approaches to sustainable development that could jumpstart the much-needed adoption of strategies to efficiently pursue global sustainability. This review summarizes recent demonstrated utilities of remotely sensed data applied to protected areas for research related to SDG goals 13, 14, and 15: “Climate Action”, “Life below Water”, and “Life on Land”. We identify successful uses of such data for each SDG, identify areas for improvement, and provide recommendations from the literature on how to expand what others have done to achieve lofty goals with global impact. We demonstrate that remote sensing provides a valuable tool for achieving SDGs as it facilitates monitoring vegetation health, water quality and condition, and climate variables at large spatial and fine temporal scales, while also evaluating the effectiveness of management and conservation practices. Issues remain, however, in that there is currently no reference from which to relate goal progress to human livelihoods. Further, the current relationship between remotely sensed indices and ecological services that determine sustainable development omit steps that would establish this connection.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1973

Shuttle avionics and the goal language including the impact of error detection and redundancy management

The relationship is examined between the space shuttle onboard avionics and the ground test computer language GOAL when used in the onboard computers. The study is aimed at providing system analysis support to the feasibility analysis of a GOAL to HAL translator, where HAL is the language used to program the onboard computers for flight. The subject is dealt with in three aspects. First, the system configuration at checkout, the general checkout and launch sequences, and the inventory of subsystems are described. Secondly, the hierarchic organization of onboard software and different ways of introducing GOAL-derived software onboard are described. Also the flow of commands and test data during checkout is diagrammed. Finally, possible impact of error detection and redundancy management on the GOAL language is discussed.

Flanders, J. H.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Ground Operations Aerospace Language (GOAL). Volume 2: Compiler

The principal elements and functions of the Ground Operations Aerospace Language (GOAL) compiler are presented. The technique used to transcribe the syntax diagrams into machine processable format for use by the parsing routines is described. An explanation of the parsing technique used to process GOAL source statements is included. The compiler diagnostics and the output reports generated during a GOAL compilation are explained. A description of the GOAL program package is provided.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1973

Ground Operations Aerospace Language (GOAL). Volume 5: Application Studies

The Ground Operations Aerospace Language (GOAL) was designed to be used by test oriented personnel to write procedures which would be executed in a test environment. A series of discussions between NASA LV-CAP personnel and IBM resulted in some peripheral tasks which would aid in evaluating the applicability of the language in this environment, and provide enhancement for future applications. The results of these tasks are contained within this volume. The GOAL vocabulary provides a high degree of readability and retainability. To achieve these benefits, however, the procedure writer utilizes words and phrases of considerable length. Brief form study was undertaken to determine a means of relieving this burden. The study resulted in a version of GOAL which enables the writer to develop a dialect suitable to his needs and satisfy the syntax equations. The output of the compiler would continue to provide readability by printing out the standard GOAL language. This task is described.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1994

Engine Seal Technology Requirements to Meet NASA's Advanced Subsonic Technology Program Goals

Cycle studies have shown the benefits of increasing engine pressure ratios and cycle temperatures to decrease engine weight and improve performance of commercial turbine engines. NASA is working with industry to define technology requirements of advanced engines and engine technology to meet the goals of NASA's Advanced Subsonic Technology Initiative. As engine operating conditions become more severe and customers demand lower operating costs, NASA and engine manufacturers are investigating methods of improving engine efficiency and reducing operating costs. A number of new technologies are being examined that will allow next generation engines to operate at higher pressures and temperatures. Improving seal performance - reducing leakage and increasing service life while operating under more demanding conditions - will play an important role in meeting overall program goals of reducing specific fuel consumption and ultimately reducing direct operating costs. This paper provides an overview of the Advanced Subsonic Technology program goals, discusses the motivation for advanced seal development, and highlights seal technology requirements to meet future engine performance goals.

Steinetz, Bruce M.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Structural Optimization for Reliability Using Nonlinear Goal Programming

This report details the development of a reliability based multi-objective design tool for solving structural optimization problems. Based on two different optimization techniques, namely sequential unconstrained minimization and nonlinear goal programming, the developed design method has the capability to take into account the effects of variability on the proposed design through a user specified reliability design criterion. In its sequential unconstrained minimization mode, the developed design tool uses a composite objective function, in conjunction with weight ordered design objectives, in order to take into account conflicting and multiple design criteria. Multiple design criteria of interest including structural weight, load induced stress and deflection, and mechanical reliability. The nonlinear goal programming mode, on the other hand, provides for a design method that eliminates the difficulty of having to define an objective function and constraints, while at the same time has the capability of handling rank ordered design objectives or goals. For simulation purposes the design of a pressure vessel cover plate was undertaken as a test bed for the newly developed design tool. The formulation of this structural optimization problem into sequential unconstrained minimization and goal programming form is presented. The resulting optimization problem was solved using: (i) the linear extended interior penalty function method algorithm; and (ii) Powell's conjugate directions method. Both single and multi-objective numerical test cases are included demonstrating the design tool's capabilities as it applies to this design problem.

El-Sayed, Mohamed E.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Advances in Space Transportation Technology Toward the NASA Goals

NASA has set goals to increase safety by one hundred times while reducing cost tenfold over the next decade. This dramatic increase in safety will come by departing from a past emphasis on cost and performance to a new paradigm of safety and reliability, which, in turn, will drive down cost. To accomplish this, vehicle systems must be inherently reliable, functionally redundant wherever practical and designed to minimize or eliminate catastrophic failure modes. Over the next twenty-five years, NASA has set goals to increase safety ten thousand times while reducing cost one hundred fold. Safety will increase towards today's airline safety and the low price per flight has the potential to enable a 15-fold increase in the size of the current projected space launch market. This level of improvement is comparable to the developments in the 1970s in the computer microprocessor when microchips went from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands of dollars - hailing the era of the personal computer. In order to achieve such ambitious cost goals, today's partial and fully expendable rockets must be replaced by fully reusable systems. A RLV can eliminate assembly and checkout of the large number of complex interfaces on today's Space Shuttle. Full reusability will eliminate the necessity to throw away expensive hardware and the need for on-going production. Systems in ten years will have to accommodate 50 to 100 missions per year and could be commercially certified for hundreds of flights. In twenty-five years, the number of flights per year could jump to over 1,000, which will require certification for thousands of flights. The large increase in flights per year will demand that current operations and maintenance procedures be revolutionized. Unlike the current shuttle, which requires several thousand personnel over five months to process, the next generation system must be turned around in one week with less than one hundred personnel. In contrast to the rigorous disassembly and inspections required for the Space Shuttle's subsystems, the next generation vehicle's on-board health monitoring systems will could tell the ground crews which systems need replacement before landing. In twenty-five years, vehicles will be re-flown within one with crews numbering less than one hundred. Fully automated ground processing systems must require only a handful of personnel to launch the vehicle. Due to the increased intelligence of on-board systems, only cursory walk-around inspections would be required between flights An assessment of the progress in breakthrough technologies toward these goals by the NASA Advanced Space Transportation Program is presented. These breakthrough technologies include combined rocket and air breathing propulsion, high strength lightweight structures, high temperature materials, vehicle health management, and flight operations.

Lyles, Garry M.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Goal Directed Model Inversion: A Study of Dynamic Behavior

Goal Directed Model Inversion (GDMI) is an algorithm designed to generalize supervised learning to the case where target outputs are not available to the learning system. The output of the learning system becomes the input to some external device or transformation, and only the output of this device or transformation can be compared to a desired target. The fundamental driving mechanism of GDMI is to learn from success. Given that a wrong outcome is achieved, one notes that the action that produced that outcome 0 "would have been right if the outcome had been the desired one." The algorithm then proceeds as follows: (1) store the action that produced the wrong outcome as a "target" (2) redefine the wrong outcome as a desired goal (3) submit the new desired goal to the system (4) compare the new action with the target action and modify the system by using a suitable algorithm for credit assignment (Back propagation in our example) (5) resubmit the original goal. Prior publications by our group in this area focused on demonstrating empirical results based on the inverse kinematic problem for a simulated robotic arm. In this paper we apply the inversion process to much simpler analytic functions in order to elucidate the dynamic behavior of the system and to determine the sensitivity of the learning process to various parameters. This understanding will be necessary for the acceptance of GDMI as a practical tool.

Colombano, Silvano P.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Science Goal Driven Observing: A Step Towards Maximizing Science Returns and Spacecraft Autonomy

While recent missions have made great strides in the ability to autonomously monitor and react to changing health and physical status of spacecraft, little progress has been made in responding quickly to science driven events. Also, the new generation of space-based telescopes will generate data at an unprecedented rate. Yet, while on-board data processing and storage capability will increase rapidly, bandwidth for downloading data will not increase as fast and can become a significant cost of a science program. For observations of inherently variable targets and targets of opportunity, the ability to recognize early if an observation will not meet the science goals, and react accordingly, can have a major positive impact on the overall scientific returns of an observatory and on its operational costs. If the observatory can reprioritize the schedule to focus on alternate targets, discard uninteresting observations prior to downloading, or download them at a reduced resolution its overall efficiency will be dramatically increased. We are investigating and developing tools for a science goal monitoring (SGM) system. The SGM will have an interface to help capture higher-level science goals from the scientists and translate them into a flexible observing strategy that SGM can execute and monitor. SGM will then monitor the incoming data stream and interface with data processing systems to recognize significant events. When an event occurs, the system will use the science goals given it to reprioritize observations, and react appropriately and/or communicate with ground systems - both human and machine - for confirmation and/or further high priority analyses.

Jones, Jeremy↗
NASA NTRS2002

Science Goal Driven Observing: A Step Towards Maximizing Science Returns and Spacecraft Autonomy

In the coming decade, the drive to increase the scientific returns on capital investment and to reduce costs will force automation to be implemented in many of the scientific tasks that have traditionally been manually overseen. Thus, spacecraft autonomy will become an even greater part of mission operations. While recent missions have made great strides in the ability to autonomously monitor and react to changing health and physical status of spacecraft, little progress has been made in responding quickly to science driven events. The new generation of space-based telescopes/observatories will see deeper, with greater clarity, and they will generate data at an unprecedented rate. Yet, while onboard data processing and storage capability will increase rapidly, bandwidth for downloading data will not increase as fast and can become a significant bottleneck and cost of a science program. For observations of inherently variable targets and targets of opportunity, the ability to recognize early if an observation will not meet the science goals of variability or minimum brightness, and react accordingly, can have a major positive impact on the overall scientific returns of an observatory and on its operational costs. If the observatory can reprioritize the schedule to focus on alternate targets, discard uninteresting observations prior to downloading, or download them at a reduced resolution its overall efficiency will be dramatically increased. We are investigating and developing tools for a science goal monitoring (SGM) system. The SGM will have an interface to help capture higher-level science goals from scientists and translate them into a flexible observing strategy that SGM can execute and monitor. SGM will then monitor the incoming data stream and interface with data processing systems to recognize significant events. When an event occurs, the system will use the science goals given it to reprioritize observations, and react appropriately and/or communicate with ground systems - both human and machine - for confirmation and/or further high priority analyses.

Koratkar, Anuradha↗
NASA NTRS2008

Scientific Goals and Objectives for the Human Exploration of Mars: 1. Biology and Atmosphere/Climate

To prepare for the exploration of Mars by humans, as outlined in the new national vision for Space Exploration (VSE), the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG), chartered by NASA's Mars Exploration Program (MEP), formed a Human Exploration of Mars Science Analysis Group (HEM-SAG), in March 2007. HEM-SAG was chartered to develop the scientific goals and objectives for the human exploration of Mars based on the Mars Scientific Goals, Objectives, Investigations, and Priorities.1 The HEM-SAG is one of several humans to Mars scientific, engineering and mission architecture studies chartered in 2007 to support NASA s plans for the human exploration of Mars. The HEM-SAG is composed of about 30 Mars scientists representing the disciplines of Mars biology, climate/atmosphere, geology and geophysics from the U.S., Canada, England, France, Italy and Spain. MEPAG selected Drs. James B. Garvin (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) and Joel S. Levine (NASA Langley Research Center) to serve as HEMSAG co-chairs. The HEM-SAG team conducted 20 telecons and convened three face-to-face meetings from March through October 2007. The management of MEP and MEPAG were briefed on the HEM-SAG interim findings in May. The HEM-SAG final report was presented on-line to the full MEPAG membership and was presented at the MEPAG meeting on February 20-21, 2008. This presentation will outline the HEM-SAG biology and climate/atmosphere goals and objectives. A companion paper will outline the HEM-SAG geology and geophysics goals and objectives.

Levine, Joel S.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Battery and Fuel Cell Development Goals for the Lunar Surface and Lander

NASA is planning a return to the moon and requires advances in energy storage technology for its planned lunar lander and lunar outpost. This presentation describes NASA s overall mission goals and technical goals for batteries and fuel cells to support the mission. Goals are given for secondary batteries for the lander s ascent stage and suits for extravehicular activity on the lunar surface, and for fuel cells for the lander s descent stage and regenerative fuel cells for outpost power. An overall approach to meeting these goals is also presented.

Mercer, Carolyn R.↗
NASA NTRS2009

From Goal-Oriented Requirements to Event-B Specifications

In goal-oriented requirements engineering methodologies, goals are structured into refinement trees from high-level system-wide goals down to fine-grained requirements assigned to specific software/ hardware/human agents that can realise them. Functional goals assigned to software agents need to be operationalised into specification of services that the agent should provide to realise those requirements. In this paper, we propose an approach for operationalising requirements into specifications expressed in the Event-B formalism. Our approach has the benefit of aiding software designers by bridging the gap between declarative requirements and operational system specifications in a rigorous manner, enabling powerful correctness proofs and allowing further refinements down to the implementation level. Our solution is based on verifying that a consistent Event-B machine exhibits properties corresponding to requirements.

Aziz, Benjamin↗
NASA NTRS2008

Progress Toward N+1 Noise Goal

A review of the progress made towards achieving the Subsonic Fixed Wing project's noise goal for the next generation single aisle aircraft is presented. The review includes the technology path selected for achieving the goal as well as highlights from several in-house and partnership test programs that have contributed to this effort. In addition, a detailed, self-consistent, analysis of the aircraft system noise for a conceptual next generation single aisle aircraft is also presented. The results indicate that with the current suite of noise reduction technologies incorporated into the conceptual aircraft a cumulative noise reduction margin of 26 EPNdB could be expected. This falls 6 dB short of the N+1 goal, which is 32 EPNdB below Stage 4 noise standard. Potential additional noise reduction technologies to help achieve the goal are briefly discussed.

Envia, Edmane↗
NASA NTRS2013

Implementation of a Goal-Based Systems Engineering Process Using the Systems Modeling Language (SysML)

Building upon the purpose, theoretical approach, and use of a Goal-Function Tree (GFT) being presented by Dr. Stephen B. Johnson, described in a related Infotech 2013 ISHM abstract titled "Goal-Function Tree Modeling for Systems Engineering and Fault Management", this paper will describe the core framework used to implement the GFTbased systems engineering process using the Systems Modeling Language (SysML). These two papers are ideally accepted and presented together in the same Infotech session. Statement of problem: SysML, as a tool, is currently not capable of implementing the theoretical approach described within the "Goal-Function Tree Modeling for Systems Engineering and Fault Management" paper cited above. More generally, SysML's current capabilities to model functional decompositions in the rigorous manner required in the GFT approach are limited. The GFT is a new Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approach to the development of goals and requirements, functions, and its linkage to design. As a growing standard for systems engineering, it is important to develop methods to implement GFT in SysML. Proposed Method of Solution: Many of the central concepts of the SysML language are needed to implement a GFT for large complex systems. In the implementation of those central concepts, the following will be described in detail: changes to the nominal SysML process, model view definitions and examples, diagram definitions and examples, and detailed SysML construct and stereotype definitions.

Patterson, Jonathan D.↗