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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1990

Project Dawdler: a Proposal in Response to a Low Reynolds Number Station Keeping Mission

In direct response to Request for Proposals: Flight at very low Reynolds numbers - a station keeping mission, the members of Design Squad E present Project Dawdler: a remotely-piloted airplane supported by an independently controlled take-off cart. A brief introduction to Project Dawdler's overall mission and design, is given. The Dawdler is a remotely-piloted airplane designed to fly in an environmentally-controlled closed course at a Reynolds number of 10(exp 5) and at a cruise velocity of 25 ft/s. The two primary goals were to minimize the flight Reynolds number and to maximize the loiter time. With this in mind, the general design of the airplane was guided by the belief that a relatively light aircraft producing a fairly large amount of lift would be the best approach. For this reason the Dawdler utilizes a canard rather than a conventional tail for longitudinal control, primarily because the canard contributes a positive lift component. The Dawdler also has a single vertical tail mounted behind the wing for lateral stability, half of which is used as a rudder for yaw control. Due to the fact that the power required to take-off and climb to altitude is much greater than that required for cruise flight and simple turning maneuvers, it was decided that a take-off cart be used. Based on the current design, there are two unknowns which could possibly threaten the success of Project Dawdler. First, the effect of the fully-movable canard with its large appropriation of total lift on the performance of the plane, and secondly, the ability of the take-off procedure to go as planned are examined. These are questions which can only be answered by a prototype.

Bartilotti, Rich↗
NASA NTRS1994

LCX: Proposal for a low-cost commercial transport

The LCX has been developed in response to a request for proposal for an aircraft with 153 passenger capacity and a range of 3000 nautical miles. The goals of the LCX are to provide an aircraft which will achieve the stated mission requirements at the lowest cost possible, both for the manufacturer and the operator. Low cost in this request is defined as short and long term profitability. To achieve this objective, modern technologies attributing to low-cost operation without greatly increasing the cost of manufacturing were employed. These technologies include hybrid laminar flow control and the use of developing new manufacturing processes and philosophies. The LCX will provide a competitive alternative to the use of the Airbus A319/320/321 and the Boeing 737 series of aircraft. The LCX has a maximum weight of 150,000 lb. carried by a wing of 1140 ft(exp 2) and an aspect ratio of 10. The selling price of the LCX is 31 million in 1994 US dollars.

Hartman, Troy↗
NASA NTRS1990

Intrepid: A Mission to Pluto

A proposal for an exploratory spacecraft mission to Pluto/Charon system was written in response to the request for proposal for an unmannned probe to pluto (RFP). The design requirements of the RFP are presented and under the guidance of these requirements, the spacecraft Intrepid was designed. The RPF requirement that was of primary importance is the minimization of cost. Also, the reduction of flight time was of extreme importance because the atmosphere of Pluto is expected to collapse close to the Year 2020. If intrepid should arrive after the collapse, the mission would be a failure; for Pluto would be only a solid rock of ice. The topics presented include: (1) scientific instrumentation; (2) mission management, planning, and costing; (3) power and propulsion subsystem; (4) structural subsystem; (5) command, control, and communications; and (6) attitude and articulation control.

Behling, Michael↗
NASA NTRS1999

Progress in Design and Construction of the Optical Communications Laser Laboratory

The deployment of advanced hyperspectral imaging and other Earth sensing instruments on board Earth observing satellites is driving the demand for high-data-rate communications. Optical communications meet the required data rates with small, low mass, and low-power communications packages. JPL, as NASA's lead center in optical communications, plans to construct a 1-m Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory (OCTL) at its Table Mountain Facility (TMF) complex in the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California. The design of the building has been completed, and the construction contractor has been selected. Ground breaking is expected to start at the beginning of the 1999 TMF construction season. A request for proposal (RFP) has been issued for the procurement of the telescope system. Prior to letting the RFP we conducted a request for information with industry for the telescope system. Several vendors responded favorably and provided information on key elements of the proposed design. These inputs were considered in developing the final requirements in the RFP. Keywords: Free space optical communications, lasercom, telescopes, ground stations, adaptive optics, astrometry, Table Mountain Facility

Wilson, K. E.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Developing Flexible Discrete Event Simulation Models in an Uncertain Policy Environment

On February 1st, 2010 U.S. President Barack Obama submitted to Congress his proposed budget request for Fiscal Year 2011. This budget included significant changes to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), including the proposed cancellation of the Constellation Program. This change proved to be controversial and Congressional approval of the program's official cancellation would take many months to complete. During this same period an end-to-end discrete event simulation (DES) model of Constellation operations was being built through the joint efforts of Productivity Apex Inc. (PAl) and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) teams under the guidance of NASA. The uncertainty in regards to the Constellation program presented a major challenge to the DES team, as to: continue the development of this program-of-record simulation, while at the same time remain prepared for possible changes to the program. This required the team to rethink how it would develop it's model and make it flexible enough to support possible future vehicles while at the same time be specific enough to support the program-of-record. This challenge was compounded by the fact that this model was being developed through the traditional DES process-orientation which lacked the flexibility of object-oriented approaches. The team met this challenge through significant pre-planning that led to the "modularization" of the model's structure by identifying what was generic, finding natural logic break points, and the standardization of interlogic numbering system. The outcome of this work resulted in a model that not only was ready to be easily modified to support any future rocket programs, but also a model that was extremely structured and organized in a way that facilitated rapid verification. This paper discusses in detail the process the team followed to build this model and the many advantages this method provides builders of traditional process-oriented discrete event simulations.

Miranda, David J.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Athena: Providing Insight into the History of the Universe

The American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics has provided a Request for Proposal which calls for a manned mission to a Near-Earth Object. It is the goal of Team COLBERT to respond to their request by providing a reusable system that can be implemented as a solid stepping stone for future manned trips to Mars and beyond. Despite Team COLBERT consisting of only students in Aerospace Engineering, in order to achieve this feat, the team must employ the use of Systems Engineering. Tools and processes from Systems Engineering will provide quantitative and semi-quantitative tools for making design decisions and evaluating items such as budgets and schedules. This paper will provide an in-depth look at some of the Systems Engineering processes employed and will step through the design process of a Human Asteroid Exploration System.

Murphy, Gloria A.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Antarctic Meteorite Newsletter, Volume 8, Number 2

Requests for samples are welcomed from research scientists of all countries, regardless of their current state of funding for meteorite studies. All sample requests will be reviewed by the Meteorite Working Group (MWG), a peer-review committee that guides the collection, curation, allocation, and distribution of the U.S. Antarctic meteorites. Issurance of samples does not imply a commitment by any agency to fund the proposed research. Requests for financial support must be submitted separately to the appropriate funding agencies. As a matter of policy, U.S. Antarctic meteorites are the property of the National Science Foundation and all allocations are subject to recall.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1990

OPTIC: Orbiting Plutonian Topographic Image Craft Proposal for an Unmanned Mission to Pluto

The proposal for an unmanned probe to Pluto is presented and described. The Orbiting Plutonian Topographic Image Craft's (OPTIC's) trip will take twenty years and after its arrival, will begin its data collection which includes image and radar mapping, surface spectral analysis, and magnetospheric studies. This probe's design was developed based on the request for proposal of an unmanned probe to Pluto requirements. The distinct problems which an orbiter causes for each subsystem of the craft are discussed. The final design revolved around two important factors: (1) the ability to collect and return the maximum quantity of information on the Plutonian system; and (2) the weight limitations which the choice of an orbiting craft implied. The velocity requirements of this type of mission severely limited the weight available for mission execution-owing to the large portion of overall weight required as fuel to fly the craft with present technology. The topics covered include: (1) scientific instrumentation; (2) mission management; (3) power and propulsion; (4) attitude and articulation control; (5) structural subsystems; and (6) command, control, and communication.

Kelly, Jonathan E.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Conceptual design proposal: HUGO global range/mobility transport aircraft

With the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the emergence of the United Nations actively pursuing a peace keeping role in world affairs, the United States has been forced into a position as the world's leading peace enforcer. It is still a very dangerous world with seemingly never ending ideological, territorial, and economic disputes requiring the U.S. to maintain a credible deterrent posture in this uncertain environment. This has created an urgent need to rapidly transport large numbers of troops and equipment from the continental United States (CONUS) to any potential world trouble spot by means of a global range/mobility transport aircraft. The most recent examples being Operation Desert Shield/Storm and Operation Restore Hope. To meet this challenge head-on, a request for proposal (RFP) was developed and incorporated into the 1992/1993 AIAA/McDonnell Douglas Corporation Graduate Team Aircraft Design Competition. The RFP calls for the conceptual design and justification of a large aircraft capable of power projecting a significant military force without surface transportation reliance.

Johnston, Tom↗
NASA NTRS2023

Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition Program On-ramp #2 Airbus U.S. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Evaluation Report

In 2017, NASA’s Earth Science Division (ESD) launched the Private-Sector Small Constellation Satellite Data Product Pilot, now referred to as the Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition (CSDA) program. The objective of CSDA is to identify, evaluate, and acquire commercial remote sensing data that support NASA’s Earth science research and application activities. The Pilot successfully concluded in early 2020, when CSDA transitioned into a sustained program with on-ramping opportunities for new vendors as the industry emerges with new candidates and capabilities. In October 2019, a Request for Information (RFI) seeking capability statements from parties interested in providing data from spaceborne platforms was released for the CSDA on-ramp #2 evaluations. To be responsive to the RFI, the commercial satellite constellations had to consist of three or more operating spacecraft actively collecting data in a non-geostationary orbit with full latitudinal coverage and be U.S. companies. Two vendors responded to the RFI and were evaluated by a committee composed of NASA ESD leadership, program managers, and scientists. Both vendors satisfied the RFI requirements and were asked to respond to a Request for Proposal (RFP). After review of the proposals, NASA entered into a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) with Airbus Defense and Space GEO, Inc. (Airbus) U.S. in September 2021 and with BlackSky Geospatial Solutions, Inc. (BlackSky) in November 2021. In this report, CSDA provides an evaluation of the usefulness of data provided by the Airbus U.S. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite constellation, consisting of TerraSAR-X (launched in 2007), TanDEM-X (launched in 2010), and PAZ (launched in 2018), for advancing NASA’s Earth system science research and applications. The evaluation of the BlackSky commercial data will be provided in a separate report. To conduct the Airbus evaluation, NASA’s ESD augmented 13 existing research projects that could potentially benefit from, and had the expertise to evaluate, the commercial data being considered for longer-term purchase. Investigators from NASA’s Research and Analysis Program science focus areas and from NASA’s Applied Sciences Program elements participated in the evaluation. A summary of the research areas evaluated by the Principal Investigator (PI) teams is presented in Figure 3. CSDA also funded a dedicated activity to evaluate the satellite data quality (calibration and geolocation) independently by assessing the accuracy of data from Airbus. Evaluation activities were carried out by the selected PIs from December 7, 2022, to December 7, 2023. Delivery of datasets requested by the researchers began in January 2023. The vendors were evaluated on the accessibility of data, accuracy and completeness of metadata, and promptness and quality of user support services. Datasets purchased during the evaluation have been archived by NASA and will be made available to current and future government-funded researchers in accordance with the End User License Agreement (EULA). This synthesis report distills and integrates the findings of research reports commissioned by NASA for the Airbus evaluation. This report also includes recommendations that inform the way ahead for the program. The scientific results from the evaluations demonstrated that the commercial data from Airbus were able to advance NASA research and applications. However, the PIs encountered limitations that diminished the usefulness of the data due to the amount of effort that was required to access, preprocess, and analyze these data. One significant issue encountered was the limited spatial and temporal coverage of the data in the Airbus archive that could be used to conduct time series analyses or assessments over large spatial scales. Overall, however, the utility and the quality of the evaluated data outweighed the difficulties encountered, and NASA has concluded that the Airbus SAR data would complement NASA’s existing Earth observation capabilities and Airbus U.S. would qualify to participate in the sustained phase of the program.

Batuhan Osmanoglu↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Lunar Mega Project: Processes, Work Flow and Terminology of the Terrestrial Construction Industry versus the Space Industry

Recent developments around the world show an increased interest and international activity toward developing a lunar surface human and robotic presence with a long term, sustainable vision. In Europe, the construction of a "Moon Village" has been proposed, and China has stated its intention to build a research station with a crew at the lunar South Pole. Russia stated it will land cosmonauts on the Moon in the 2030's. India has sent an orbiter, a robotic lander, and rover to the Moon. The USA intends to land the first woman and a man on the Moon by 2024 to initiate a sustained human lunar presence.A lunar research station with associated commercial activities will require infrastructure to become a permanent capability. Landing and launch pads, propellant storage and distribution farms, spacecraft access and handling structures, cranes, blast protection berms or walls, roads, graded areas, dust stabilized areas, foundations, parking lots, radiation shelters, micro-meteorite protection hangars, habitats and other human shelters, greenhouse farms, utility trenches, power plants, industrial water and oxygen extraction plants, communications antenna towers, thermal protection, mining zones, crater access and sub-surface access will be required to create a safe and sustainable lunar operations capability. This infrastructure will require significant construction activities in an extreme environment, with risky and expensive operations. On Earth, there are similar large and expensive projects (>$1 Billion) in difficult locations that attract a lot of public attention. These are known as "Mega Projects" and examples include bridges, tunnels, highways, railways, airports, seaports, power plants, dams, wastewater projects, Special Economic Zones (SEZ), oil and natural gas extraction projects, public buildings, information technology systems, aerospace projects, and weapons systems. Large consortiums consisting of public and private entities typically implement these infrastructure Mega-Projects.This paper will compare the typical design process, project management process, and work flow in the terrestrial construction industry to the space industry in order to create a better understanding between the terrestrial construction industry and the space industry, to further enable collaboration on a lunar Mega Project to build infrastructure on the Moon. In addition, a glossary of respective industry terminology with annotated linkages and definitions has been compiled. This information will enable contracts and business practices to be formulated for generating requests for proposals (RFP) by governments to consortiums consisting of construction and space industry companies that will bid on Lunar Infrastructure Projects that could lead to contracts to build the permanent capabilities.

Robert P Mueller↗
NASA NTRS1973

Surface electrical properties experiment study phase, volume 1

The evolution of a conceptual design of the flight hardware for the surface electrical properties experiment (SEP), the definition of requests for proposals, the analysis of proposals submitted by prospective flight hardware subcontractors, and recommendations for the flight configuration to be implemented are discussed. Initial efforts were made to assess the electromagnetic environment of the SEP experiment. An EMI receiver and tri-loop antenna were constructed and tests of opportunity were performed with a lunar roving vehicle (LRV). Initial analyses were made of data from these tests with support from this contract, analyses which were continued in depth under the hardware contract.

Meyer, J. W.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Status report on shuttle program.

Following a brief summary of previous work, major attention is given to Phase-B extension, the Request for Proposal (RFP), the selected configuration and associated activities, and the future. NASA extended Phase-B contracts to examine other options that might lower peak annual funding and decrease program risk. Most of the discussion deals with the shuttle and orbiter systems. The efforts of the shuttle program in the past year have seen the completion of numerous trade studies and the selection of a prime shuttle contractor.

Swigert, J. L., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Managemant of NASA's major projects

Approaches used to manage major projects are studied and the existing documents on NASA management are reviewed. The work consists of: (1) the project manager's role, (2) request for proposal, (3) project plan, (4) management information system, (5) project organizational thinking, (6) management disciplines, (7) important decisions, and (8) low cost approach.

James, L. B.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Space shuttle SRM interim contract, part 1

Essential studies and analyses required to integrate the SRM into the booster and overall space shuttle system. Emphasis was placed on the case, nozzle, insulation, and propellant components with resulting performance, weight, and structural load characteristics being generated. Effort conducted during the time period of this contract included studies, analyses, planning, and preliminary design activities. Technical requirements identified in the SRM Project Request for Proposal No. 8-1-4-94-98401 and Thiokol's proposed SRM design (designated Configuration 0) established the basis for this effort. The requirements were evaluated jointly with MSFC and altered where necessary to incorporate new information that evolved after issuance of the RFP and during the course of this interim contract. Revised water impact loads and load distributions were provided based on additional model test data and analytical effort conducted by NASA subsequent to the RFP release. Launch pad peaking loads into the SRM aft skirt were provided which also represented a change from RFP requirements. A modified SRM/External Tank (ET) attachment configuration with new structural load data was supplied by NASA, and direction was received to include a 2 percent inert weight contingency.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1974

Space shuttle food system study. Volume 1: System design report

Data were assembled which define the optimum food system to support the space shuttle program, and which provide sufficient engineering data to support necessary requests for proposals towards final development and installment of the system. The study approach used is outlined, along with technical data and sketches for each functional area. Logistic support analysis, system assurance, and recommendations and conclusions based on the study results are also presented.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1976

Introduction to NASA contracts

The NASA Lewis Research Center issued requests for proposal to Avco Lycoming and Teledyne Continental Motors for a contractual effort to establish and demonstrate engine modifications to reduce exhaust emissions safely with minimum adverse effects on cost, weight, and fuel economy. The secondary objective was reducing fuel consumption.

Kempke, E. E., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Simulation of the XV-15 tilt rotor research aircraft

The effective use of simulation from issuance of the request for proposal through conduct of a flight test program for the XV-15 Tilt Rotor Research Aircraft is discussed. From program inception, simulation complemented all phases of XV-15 development. The initial simulation evaluations during the source evaluation board proceedings contributed significantly to performance and stability and control evaluations. Eight subsequent simulation periods provided major contributions in the areas of control concepts; cockpit configuration; handling qualities; pilot workload; failure effects and recovery procedures; and flight boundary problems and recovery procedures. The fidelity of the simulation also made it a valuable pilot training aid, as well as a suitable tool for military and civil mission evaluations. Simulation also provided valuable design data for refinement of automatic flight control systems. Throughout the program, fidelity was a prime issue and resulted in unique data and methods for fidelity evaluation which are presented and discussed.

Churchill, G. B.↗