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At least 415 records · Page 23
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2014

The ISRU Field Tests 2010 and 2012 at Mauna Kea, Hawaii: Results from the Miniaturised Mossbauer Spectrometers Mimos II and Mimos IIA

The 2010 and 2012 In-Situ Resource Utilization Analogue Test (ISRU) [1] on the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawai'i was coordinated by the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology (NORCAT) in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), through the PISCES program. Several instruments were tested as reference candidates for future analogue testing at the new field test site at the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawai'i. The fine-grained, volcanic nature of the material is a suitable lunar and martian analogue, and can be used to test excavation, site preparation, and resource utilization techniques. The 2010 location Pu'u Hiwahine, a cinder cone located below the summit of Mauna Kea (19deg45'39.29" N, 155deg28'14.56" W) at an elevation of ~2800 m, provides a large number of slopes, rock avalanches, etc. to perform mobility tests, site preparation or resource prospecting. Besides hardware testing of technologies and systems related to resource identification, also in situ science measurements played a significant role in integration of ISRU and science instruments. For the advanced Mössbauer instrument MIMOS IIA, the new detector technologies and electronic components increase sensitivity and performance significantly. In combination with the high energy resolution of the SDD it is possible to perform Xray fluorescence analysis simultaneously to Mössbauer spectroscopy. In addition to the Fe-mineralogy, information on the sample's elemental composition will be gathered. The 2010 and 2012 field campaigns demonstrated that in-situ Mössbauer spectroscopy is an effective tool for both science and feedstock exploration and process monitoring. Engineering tests showed that a compact nickel metal hydride battery provided sufficient power for over 12 hr of continuous operation for the MIMOS instruments.

Klingelhoefer, G.↗
NASA NTRS1984

International comparative study of systems for the government advancement of research and development

The reorganization, structure and instruments of government advancement of research in three countries was compared: France, Sweden and the USA. In France the powers are centralized; in Sweden and the USA, decentralized. Assistance to projects is provided with grants and contracts in all three countries. France and Sweden also give loans with conditional waiving of reimbursement in case of failure. In all three countries indirect assistance is provided only with small tax breaks.

Ripke, M.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Radiation-Hardened GaN HEMT and Cell Design, Modeling, and Fabrication for Nuclear Instrumentation Applications

Recent advances in nuclear power generation technologies show great promise for efficient, safe generation of carbon-free power in the near future. Consequently, many new generation reactor designs are being pursued by government and industry groups, including both fission- and fusion-based technologies. Radiation- and temperature-tolerant sensor technology continues to advance, yet development of the electronics/instrumentation technologies suitable for these environments have fallen behind. Industry has adequately addressed harsh environment electronics needs for low earth orbit satellites, but the much more extreme conditions associated with electronics placed near or in a reactor core remain unaddressed. This project investigates the use of gallium nitride (GaN) circuit technology to address the unique needs for sensor interface electronics and communications in reactor environments. This report provides a summary of the first year’s project activities related to developing and optimizing devices and circuits for this GaN high electronic mobility transistor (HEMT) process. Activities reported include multiple analog and digital circuit designs simulated using custom Verilog-A models generated from measured GaN devices fabricated in the target process. Digital circuit designs included fundamental logic circuits such as an inverter, NAND, NOR, AND and OR gates, as well as a 5-stage ring oscillator. Each design was simulated using an open-source SPICE simulator, and an integrated circuit layout was produced of each design for use in future fabrication. Analog circuit designs focused on the fundamental building blocks to be used to construct sensor interface and communications circuits. These included current mirrors, matched differential pairs, and a Gilbert cell mixer design, each with an associated integrated circuit layout. Layout tools used for these designs included two open-source packages—KLayout and Magic—which were customized for specific use with the OSU GaN process layers. Design rules and preliminary device extraction capabilities were built for the Magic tool to enable device extraction and subsequent netlist generation for SPICE simulation. Finally, future research directions for year two are summarized. When the year-two directions are implemented, the project will be in position to advance the state of the art in electronics for near- or in-reactor sensor interfacing and communications.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
NASA NTRS1982

AXAF, a permanent orbiting X-ray observatory - Telescope and instrumentation plans

The Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) now under study is to be a long-lived X-ray observatory in space. It is to be launched by the Space Shuttle, maintainable on-orbit, and retrievable for ground re-furbishment. The AXAF is conceived as an X-ray telescope with 6 nested grazing incidence X-ray mirrors (with a maximum aperture of 1.2 m) and interchangeable and replaceable focal plane instruments. The optics will provide 0.5 arcsecond imagery over a several arcminute field and somewhat reduced resolution over 1 degree in the X-ray band from 0.1 to 10 keV (1.2 to 120 A). The characteristics and expected performance of the observatory are described.

Zombeck, M. V.↗
NASA NTRS1982

AXAF, a permanent orbiting X-ray observatory - Telescope and instrumentation plans

The Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) now under study is to be a long-lived X-ray observatory in space. It is to be launched by the Space Shuttle, maintainable on-orbit, and retrievable for ground re-furbishment. The AXAF is conceived as an X-ray telescope with 6 nested grazing incidence X-ray mirrors (with a maximum aperture of 1.2 microns) and interchangeable and repleceable focal plane instruments. The optics will provide 0.5 arcsecond imagery over a several arcminute field and somewhat reduced resolution over 1 degree in the X-ray band from 0.1 to 10 keV (1.2 to 120 A). The characteristics and expected performance of the observatory are described.

Zombeck, M. V.↗
NASA NTRS2024

eVTOL Vehicle-Agnostic Instrument Flight Procedures Test Plan

NASA Advanced Air Mobility National Campaign is researching the utility of electric vertical takeoff and land (eVTOL) advanced air mobility (AAM) instrument flight procedures. The result will be dynamic and tailored procedures that align to the following modus operandi: maximize safety, optimize efficiency, support passenger comfort and minimize acoustics. This is achieved through dynamic airspace procedure design, which is a modular approach to create an airspace construct that customizes procedures to vehicle design and configuration, operation and environmental conditions. The test plan supports different eVTOL platforms and envisioned operations for flight test or simulation and may be leveraged by AAM aircraft manufacturers and operators for any given aircraft, location and operation.

eVTOL test plan↗
DOE OSTI2022

Assessment of ASI-developed Sensors for Inclusion in METL Testing

The Advanced Sensors and Instrumentation (ASI) program facilitates the development of new sensors for both conventional and advanced reactors. Advanced reactor concepts utilize coolants other than light water, such as molten salts, liquid sodium, and high-temperature helium. Qualification of sensors developed for these advanced reactors is complicated by the relatively small number of facilities available that can provide relevant testing conditions (e.g., temperature, flow, and coolant chemistry). This report identifies sensors that were developed under the ASI program and may be tested in one available testbed: the Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop (METL) at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), a non-nuclear liquid sodium flow facility.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
NASA NTRS2000

Critical Evaluation of 0-30 km Profile Information in Ground-Based Zenith-Sky and Satellite-Measured Backscattered UV Radiation

We now have several decades of experience in deriving vertical ozone profiles from the measurements of diffuse ultraviolet radiation by both ground and satellite-based instruments using Umkehr and BUV techniques. Continuing technological advances are pushing the state-of-the-art of these measurements to high spectral resolution and broader wavelength coverage. These modern instruments include the ground-based Brewer and satellite-based Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) instruments, as well as advanced instruments being developed by ESA(SCIAMACHY), Netherlands(OMI) and Japan(ODUS). However, one of the issues that remains unresolved is the 0-30 km ozone profile information retrievable from these measurements. Though it is commonly believed that both the Umkehr and the satellite-based BUV techniques have very limited profile information below 30 km, there are those who argue that the data from these instruments should continue to be reported in this altitude range for they compare well with ozonesondes and hence there is useful scientific information. Others claim that the limitations of the Umkehr and BUV techniques are largely due to their low spectral resolution, and that the profile information below 30 km can be greatly improved by going to high spectral resolution instruments, such as Brewer and GOME. The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical evaluation of the 0-30 km ozone profile information in the various UV remote sensing techniques. We use a database of individual ozone profiles created using ozonesondes and SAGE and 4D ozone fields generated by data assimilation techniques to simulate radiances measured by the various techniques. We then apply a common inversion approach to all the methods to systematically examine how much profile information is available simply from the knowledge of total ozone, how much additional profile information is added by the traditional Dobson Umkehr and satellite buv techniques, and how much better one can do by adding additional wavelengths and by going to higher spectral resolution. An open and honest discussion of these issues is critical to provide the ozone science community a realistic assessment of the quality of data in the lower stratosphere and troposphere expected from both past and future instruments.

Bhartia, Pawan↗
DOE OSTI2021

An Overview of Argonne’s Advanced Mobility Technology Laboratory Vehicle Systems Instrumentation and Evaluation Methodology

This report will provide a general overview of the testing facilities, research equipment, and general testing methodologies Argonne utilizes to conduct vehicle technology evaluations of advanced technology research vehicles. Data is captured from vehicle evaluations that provide powertrain operation and corresponding energy consumption based on a combination of in-depth instrumentation and focused testing. This resulting dataset of hundreds of time-resolved vehicle signals provide a basis for direct analysis and model validation of vehicle specific technologies. Argonne has attempted to standardize the approach to vehicle instrumentation and testing at Argonne, but it should be noted that each vehicle, and the corresponding assessment, remains unique. It is suggested that the reader reference vehicle specific testing reports for an overview of the unique aspects for each test vehicle. Additionally, the datasets for research vehicles are made publicly available through the Advanced Mobility Technology Laboratory’s Downloadable Driving Database (D3) at www.anl.gov/d3.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Cold Spray Cobalt Magnetostrictive Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducers for High Temperature Structure Monitoring

The Department of Energy’s Advanced Sensors and Instrumentation program seeks to develop and qualify advanced sensors for the nuclear industry. Reliable high temperature and high radiation sensors for detection and characterization of structural flaws in pipes, vessels, and structurally critical components is a weakness for both conventional light water reactors with coolant T-hot approaching 350oC, and for advanced reactors with T-hot temperatures in excess of 500 to 800oC. Magnetostrictive Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducers using a cold spray cobalt coating have been proposed as a sensor design that can withstand these kinds of temperatures and radiation levels to serve as online sensors to detect flaws before cracks, pits, or erosion/corrosion flaws progress to through-wall failures. This report tests cold spray cobalt as part of a magnetostrictive EMAT for high temperature service. Cobalt is known to have strong magnetostrictive properties however the effect of cold spray application is not well studied. This program was surprised to discover that cold sprayed cobalt exhibited little or no magnetostrictive behavior until it was thermally annealed. Following annealing to 650oC however, cold spray cobalt did exhibit a magnetostrictive response. Work to date prior to this milestone report publication showed that magnetostrictive EMAT was successfully tested to 400oC with an alnico permanent magnet. The program plans to extend testing with an electromagnet to higher temperatures. This follow-on work will be reported under subsequent publications or as a revision to this report.

Glass, Samuel W.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Instrumentation technology overview

The Instrumentation Technology program advances the state of the art of instrumentation associated with the SSME to improve service life and performance by providing increased measurement capability. Two broad categories of instrumentation technology are sought. The first category includes sensors and systems destined to be used in and on the operational engine either during operation or between operations. These measurements supply information necessary for engine control and/or diagnostics throughout the life of the engine. The second category includes measurement systems and techniques whose application will be to engine component test stands and possibly to the test bed engine. The measurements provide the detailed information necessary to verify computer models of the performance of the various engine subsystems.

Nieberding, W. C.↗
NASA NTRS2022

Full Spectrum Fitting Analysis of Bulk Elemental Composition Analyzer (BECA) Gamma Ray Data

The Bulk Elemental Composition Analyzer (BECA) is an instrument developed through NASA’s Development and Advancement of Lunar Instrumentation (DALI) program to measure the in situ bulk elemental composition of the lunar regolith from either a lander or rover platform. BECA uses active neutron and gamma ray spectroscopy to make these measurements and thus consists of a Pulsed Neutron Generator (PNG), a CeBr3 scintillator Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS), and two He-3 neutron detectors. As shown in Figure 1, the PNG emits 14.1 MeV neutrons that induce lunar materials to emit gamma rays with energies characteristic of the elements that produced them. The GRS measures the energy spectra of these gamma rays to identify the elements present and establish their absolute concentrations in the regolith. The analysis of BECA’s gamma ray spectral data yields quantitative elemental concentrations by mass (wt.%) in the material directly beneath the lunar lander or rover. A Compact Neutron Monitor (CNM) attached to the PNG precisely measures the output of 14.1 MeV neutrons to enable quantification of absolute elemental abundances.

Mauricio Ayllon Unzueta↗
NASA NTRS2018

Advances in Above- and In-Water Radiometry, Volume 3: Hybridspectral Next-Generation Optical Instruments

This publication documents the scientific advances associated with new instrument systems and accessories built to improve above- and in-water observations of the apparent optical properties (AOPs) for a diversity of water masses, including optically complex waters. The principal objective is to be prepared for the launch of next-generation ocean color satellites with the most capable commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) instrumentation in the shortest time possible. The technologies described herein are entirely new hybrid sampling capabilities, so as to satisfy the requirements established for next-generation missions. Both above- and in-water instruments are documented with software options for autonomous control of data collection activities as applicable. The instruments were developed for the Hybridspectral Alternative for Remote Profiling of Optical Observations for NASA Satellites (HARPOONS) vicarious calibration project. The state-of-the-art accuracy required for vicarious calibration also led to the development of laboratory instruments to ensure the field observations were within uncertainty requirements. Separate detailed presentations of the individual instruments provide the hardware designs, accompanying software for data acquisition and processing, and examples of the results achieved.

Hooker, Stanford B.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Radiation budget studies using collocated observations from advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer, High-Resolution Infrared Sounder/2, and Earth Radiation Budget Experiment instruments

Collocated observations from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), High-Resolution Infrared Sounder/2 (HIRS/2), and Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) instruments onboard the NOAA 9 satellite are combined to describe the broadband and spectral radiative properties of the earth-atmosphere system. Broadband radiative properties are determined from the ERBE observations, while spectral properties are determined from the HIRS/2 and AVHRR observations. The presence of clouds, their areal coverage, and cloud top pressure are determined from a combination of the HIRS/2 and the AVHRR observations. The CO2 slicing method is applied to the HIRS/2 to determine the presence of upper level clouds and their effective emissivity. The AVHRR data collocated within the HIRS/2 field of view are utilized to determine the uniformity of the scene and retrieve sea surface temperature. Changes in the top of the atmosphere longwave and shortwave radiative energy budgets, and the spectral distribution of longwave radiation are presented as a function of cloud amount and cloud top pressure. The radiative characteristics of clear sky conditions over oceans are presented as a function of sea surface temperature and atmospheric water vapor structure.

Ackerman, Steven A.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Advanced Mixing Condensation Particle Counter (aMCPC) Instrument Handbook

The U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s aerosol counting, composition, extinction, and sizing system (ACCESS) includes a base module (9400), a filter sampler (9401), an advanced mixing condensation particle counter (aMCPC, 9403), a miniaturized optical practical counter (MOPC, 9405), and a single-channel tricolor absorption photometer (STAP, 9406). This handbook focuses on the aMCPC, which measures the ultra-fast total aerosol particle number concentration at 180 ms response rate with a detection diameter (D 50 = 7 nm).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Initial Findings in Qualifying the Instrument Thimble 11 Position in the Advanced Test Reactor Critical

The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) is a versatile nuclear research reactor located at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in Eastern Idaho, United States of America. It is one of the most powerful and flexible research reactors in the world and is primarily used for materials testing, isotope production and basic nuclear science research. The ATR is a light-water-cooled, beryllium-moderated reactor with a nominal thermal power capacity of 250 MW utilizing specially designed fuel, arranged in a serpentine pattern to create 9 flux traps. The special design of ATR allows for the neutron flux within each of the flux traps providing flexibility for experiments, programs and allowing experiments with different dose requirements to be irradiated simultaneously. The Advance Test Reactor Critical (ATRC) is a full-scale replica of the ATR core but is housed in a pool instead of a pressure vessel. ATRC is usually operated at less than 600 watts [1]. There are 12 dry instrument thimbles located around the outside of the core tank where a variety of measurement equipment is housed to facilitate reactor operations. Currently Instrument Thimble 11 (IT-11) is not utilized in ATR or ATRC. A range of measurements is ongoing to qualify IT-11 as a test platform for nuclear instrumentation research, development and further experimentation.

46 - INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AN↗
DOE OSTI2021

Design Optimization for Printed Melt Wire Arrays Encapsulation

As part of the Nuclear Energy Enabling Technology (NEET) Advanced Sensor and Instrumentation (ASI) Program, Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has recently established in-house capabilities to fabricate and test new advanced-manufactured sensors for measuring peak irradiation temperature within a nuclear test reactor. Although methods of real-time temperature monitoring, such as thermocouples, may be used, the complexity of feedthroughs and attachments to collect real-time measurements greatly increases the cost of the experiment. Instead, passive monitoring techniques may be used for peak- temperature measurement that exploit the melting point of well-characterized materials (standard melt wires) to infer peak reactor temperatures. However, limited available space for instrumentation during experiments introduces an additional challenge. To accommodate this, INL has expanded its temperature- detection instrumentation capabilities to include advanced manufactured (AM) melt wires for peak irradiation temperature measurements. These melt wires can determine peak temperatures while also accommodate space limitations in irradiation experiments. In an effort to improve performance reliability of AM meltwire capabilities, a process was developed and tested to identify the significance of entrapping a high purity inert atmosphere within the packaging of printed melt wire arrays. The materials used in this study were aluminum, zinc, and tin encapsulated in high purity helium within a stainless steel (SS) 316 container. Tin, with a low melting point of approximately 230°C, Zn with a mid-melting point of approximately 420°C, and Al with a high melting point of approximately 660°C. This report describes the design, fabrication process, furnace testing and X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT) evaluation. Results show a successful outcome in creating an inert gas encapsulation and high-resolution evaluation methods.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
NASA NTRS1989

The cryogenic subsystem for the X-ray spectrometer on the Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF)

The X-ray Spectrometer (XRS) instrument on the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) will use X-ray detectors that operate at 0.1 K. The detectors will be maintained at 0.1 K by an Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator (ADR) that operates inside a liquid helium dewar. The ADR rejects approximately 2 mW of heat to the stored liquid helium. With this low instrument heat load, the liquid helium dewar will have a long lifetime if the parasitic heat load on the helium from the surrounding warm facility is minimized. Spaceborne helium dewars typically use up to 3 vapor cooled shields to intercept the parasitic heat load. The XRS will add mechanical coolers to provide additional cooling to the outer vapor cooled shield. The cryogenic system consists of an ADR, a liquid helium dewar, mechanical coolers, and a thermal strap to connect the coolers to the dewar. The lifetime of the stored cryogen is calculated to be up to 5 years. This cryogenic system is described, with particular attention given to the dewar, mechanical cooler, and ADR design, testing, and trade studies. A breadboard ADR is presently being fabricated and tested. The status of the construction and testing of this breadboard will be described.

Castles, Stephen H.↗