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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 433 records · Page 24

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2016

Range and Endurance Tradeoffs on Personal Rotorcraft Design

Rotorcraft design has always been a challenging tradeoff among overall size, capabilities, complexity, and other factors based on available technology and customer requirements. Advancements in propulsion, energy systems and other technologies have enabled new vehicles and missions; complementary advances in analysis methods and tools enable exploration of these enhanced vehicles and the evolving mission design space. A system study was performed to better understand the interdependency between vehicle design and propulsion system capabilities versus hover loiter requirements and range capability. Three representative vertical lift vehicles were developed to explore the tradeoff in capability between hover efficiency versus range and endurance capability. The vehicles were a single-main rotor helicopter, a tilt rotor, and a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. Vehicle capability was limited to two or three people (including pilot or crew) and maximum range within one hour of flight (100-200 miles, depending on vehicle). Two types of propulsion and energy storage systems were used in this study. First was traditional hydrocarbon-fueled cycles (such as Otto, diesel or gas turbine cycles). Second was an all-electric system using electric motors, power management and distribution, assuming batteries for energy storage, with the possibility of hydrocarbon-fueled range extenders. The high power requirements for hover significantly reduced mission radius capability. Loiter was less power intensive, resulting in about 12 the equivalent mission radius penalty. With so many design variables, the VTOL aircraft has the potential to perform well for a variety of missions. This vehicle is a good candidate for additional study; component model development is also required to adequately assess performance over the design space of interest.

systems analysis↗

DOE OSTI2021

Analyzing the Effects of Cyberattacks on Distribution System State Estimation

Key components of power systems—such as energy management systems, automatic generation control, and state estimation—are under serious vulnerability from cyberattacks. Cyber threats in electric grids have increased significantly because of the increased interconnectivity of supervisory control and data acquisition systems and public network infrastructure. As the penetration level of distributed energy resources increases, it is imperative to employ system-monitoring techniques such as state estimation for the reliable operation of distribution systems. Recently, multiple methods have been developed that exploit the low rank property of distribution system state matrix and are robust to bad data, such as matrix completion. This paper analyzes the impact of various realistic cyberattack scenarios on matrix completion. Realistic cyberattack scenarios are converted into data corruption models that are used in an extensive simulation of a custom IEEE 123-bus system.

41 EE - Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)↗

NASA NTRS2006

Sensor Data Qualification for Autonomous Operation of Space Systems

NASA's new Exploration initiative for both robotic and manned missions will require higher levels of reliability, autonomy and reconfiguration capability to make the missions safe, successful and affordable. Future systems will require diagnostic reasoning to assess the health of the system in order to maintain the system s functionality. The diagnostic reasoning and assessment will involve data qualification, fault detection, fault isolation and remediation control. A team of researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center is currently working on a Sensor Data Qualification (SDQ) system that will support these critical evaluation processes, for both automated and human-in-the-loop applications. Data qualification is required as a first step so that critical safety and operational decisions are based on good data. The SDQ system would monitor a network of related sensors to determine the health of individual sensors within that network. Various diagnostic systems such as the Caution and Warning System would then use the sensor health information with confidence. The proposed SDQ technology will be demonstrated on a variety of subsystems that are relevant to NASA s Exploration systems, which currently include an electrical power system and a cryogenic fluid management system. The focus of this paper is the development and demonstration of a SDQ application for a prototype power distribution unit that is representative of a Crew Exploration Vehicle electrical power system; this provides a unique and relevant environment in which to demonstrate the feasibility of the SDQ technology.

Maul, William A.↗

DOE OSTI2020

Analyzing the Effects of Cyberattacks on Distribution System State Estimation: Preprint

Key components of power systems—such as energy management systems, automatic generation control, and state estimation—are under serious vulnerability from cyber attacks. Cyber threats in electric grids have increased significantly because of the increased interconnectivity of supervisory control and data acquisition systems and public network infrastructure. As the penetration level of distributed energy resources increases, it is imperative to employ system-monitoring techniques such as state estimation for the reliable operation of distribution systems. Recently, multiple methods have been developed that exploit the low rank property of distribution system state matrix and are robust to bad data, such as matrix completion. This paper analyzes the impact of various realistic cyber attack scenarios on matrix completion. Realistic cyber attack scenarios are converted into data corruption models that are used in an extensive simulation of a custom IEEE 123-bus system.

41 EE - Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)↗

NASA NTRS1990

An analysis of space power system masses

Various space electrical power system masses are analyzed with particular emphasis on the power management and distribution (PMAD) portion. The electrical power system (EPS) is divided into functional blocks: source, interconnection, storage, transmission, distribution, system control and load. The PMAD subsystem is defined as all the blocks between the source, storage and load, plus the power conditioning equipment required for the source, storage and load. The EPS mass of a wide range of spacecraft is then classified as source, storage or PMAD and tabulated in a database. The intent of the database is to serve as a reference source for PMAD masses of existing and in-design spacecraft. The PMAD masses in the database range from 40 kg/kW to 183 kg/kW across the spacecraft systems studied. Factors influencing the power system mass are identified. These include the total spacecraft power requirements, total amount of load capacity and physical size of the spacecraft. It is found that a new utility class of power systems, represented by Space Station Freedom, is evolving.

Kenny, Barbara H.↗

NASA NTRS1990

An analysis of space power system masses

Kenny, Barbara H.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Test Results of Selected Commercial DC/DC Converters under Cryogenic Temperatures - A Digest

DC/DC converters are widely used in space power systems in the areas of power management and distribution, signal conditioning, and motor control. Design of DC/DC converters to survive cryogenic temperatures will improve the power system performance, simplify design, and reduce development and launch costs. In this work, the performance of nine COTS modular, low-tomedium power DC/DC converters was investigated under cryogenic temperatures. The converters were evaluated in terms of their output regulation, efficiency, and input and output currents. At a given temperature, these properties were obtained at various input voltages and at different load levels. A summary on the performance of the tested converters was given. More comprehensive testing and in-depth analysis of performance under long-term exposure to extreme temperatures are deemed necessary to establish the suitability of these and other devices for use in the harsh environment of space exploration missions.

Patterson, Richard↗

DOE OSTI2025

Vulcan Test Platform: Demonstrating the Data Center as a Flexible Grid Asset

Explosive data center demand is outpacing grid infrastructure development. AI workloads and hyperscale cloud growth are creating unprecedented power requirements, while traditional grid expansion faces multi-year development timelines, regulatory hurdles, and decarbonization challenges. Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners recognized this impending crisis years ago and founded Verrus to develop an innovative solution: data centers that function as grid assets rather than passive loads. The Verrus approach integrates proprietary grid-aware controls with battery energy storage systems (BESS) in a medium-voltage architecture that delivers three critical capabilities: Fast-responding demand flexibility that can service requests from the utility within 10 seconds, Uninterrupted transition to islanded operation during grid disturbances, Continuous uptime assurance while maintaining all customer service level commitments Through Verrus' strategic partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), we validated these capabilities on Vulcan, a 70 MW utility-scale test platform powered by NREL's ARIES Virtual Emulation Environment. This deployment-ready technology has successfully demonstrated that Verrus data centers can deliver meaningful grid services while maintaining mission-critical reliability. This technical report outlines the design, methodology, and results of this emulated deployment, demonstrating that data centers can play a pivotal role in enhancing grid flexibility and reliability, without sacrificing service level guarantees.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2026

Mitigating Data Center Impact on Grid Stability: A Coordinated Control Strategy Using Verrus StabiliGrid Architecture

Large data centers, which now represent a significant and growing share of the total U.S. grid load, can inadvertently destabilize the electrical grid when they disconnect simultaneously during brief voltage disturbances. The July 10, 2024, Eastern Interconnection incident, in which a sub-100-millisecond transmission fault triggered the cascading loss of approximately 1,500 MW of data center load, illustrates this vulnerability. While commercial battery energy storage systems (BESS) deployed in data centers provide device-level fault ride-through per IEEE 1547, they lack coordination with facility protection logic and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), limiting their effectiveness as grid-stabilizing assets. This report presents the Verrus StabiliGrid architecture, a coordinated control framework that integrates BESS, UPS, and point-of-interconnection (POI) protection settings to enable data centers to ride through both undervoltage and overvoltage grid contingencies without disconnecting. The four-step strategy encompasses: (1) high-resolution power quality monitoring to detect the grid state during events such as undervoltage, overvoltage, underfrequency, and overfrequency; (2) POI protection settings that allow for extended ride-through and grid-connected operation during grid contingencies; (3) grid state-driven autonomous dispatch of assets to improve grid resilience by reducing power draw during undervoltage or absorbing more power during overvoltage events; and (4) coordinated post-recovery dispatch of data center assets to restore firm load to pre-contingency levels. Validated through controller-hardware-in-the-loop (C-HIL) simulations at the National Laboratory of the Rockies, results show grid import restoration to pre-fault levels within 100 milliseconds of voltage recovery. This work advances the ability of data centers to transition from passive, disturbance-sensitive loads to active participants in grid stability, a capability increasingly required by emerging NERC and ERCOT regulatory frameworks.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Technology Maturation Plan for the Development of Nuclear Electric Propulsion

Over the last two years NASA’s Space Nuclear Propulsion (SNP) Project formulated a Technology Maturation Plan (TMP) for development of the sub-systems needed for a MW-class Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) system which, combined with a high thrust chemical propulsion stage, would be suitable for human missions to Mars. Two recent assessments, independently conducted by the National Academies for Science, Engineering, and Medicine and the NASA Engineering & Safety Center, concluded that the technologies required for a high-power NEP system are immature and the attendant risks insufficiently quantified to justify initiating a flight project. For NEP to be available as a viable option to meet flight opportunities in the late 2030s / 2040s time frame, development of the key sub-systems must begin now. SNP has subdivided the NEP system into five Critical Technology Elements (CTE): the nuclear reactor, power conversion, power management and distribution, electric propulsion sub-system, and the primary heat rejection system. Development plans for each of these CTEs have been drafted which will serve as the template for a focused milestone-driven research and development campaign intended to advance each CTE to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5. This will be accomplished by building and testing hardware at relevant power levels (~ 1 MW) and for relevant durations (2,500 hours, ~10% of the required operational lifetime) and conducting numerical modeling of the CTEs anchored by the accumulated test data to predict system performance and reliability. Concurrent with this work, high-level coupled system/mission modeling will be carried out to refine the key performance parameters that the various CTEs must achieve. Non-advocate reviews will be held at milestone points to assess progress and inform down-select decisions. The strategy for formulating the TMP was described previously; this paper describes ongoing progress on the drafting and baselining of the plan, including key specific details.

Space Nuclear Propulsion↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Technology Maturation Plan for the Development of Nuclear Electric Propulsion

Over the last two years NASA’s Space Nuclear Propulsion (SNP) Project formulated a Technology Maturation Plan (TMP) for development of the sub-systems needed for a MW-class Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) system which, combined with a high thrust chemical propulsion stage, would be suitable for human missions to Mars. Two recent assessments, independently conducted by the National Academies for Science, Engineering, and Medicine and the NASA Engineering & Safety Center, concluded that the technologies required for a high-power NEP system are immature and the attendant risks insufficiently quantified to justify initiating a flight project. For NEP to be available as a viable option to meet flight opportunities in the late 2030s / 2040s time frame, development of the key sub-systems must begin now. SNP has subdivided the NEP system into five Critical Technology Elements (CTE): the nuclear reactor, power conversion, power management and distribution, electric propulsion sub-system, and the primary heat rejection system. Development plans for each of these CTEs have been drafted which will serve as the template for a focused milestone-driven research and development campaign intended to advance each CTE to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5. This will be accomplished by building and testing hardware at relevant power levels (~ 1 MW) and for relevant durations (2,500 hours, ~10% of the required operational lifetime) and conducting numerical modeling of the CTEs anchored by the accumulated test data to predict system performance and reliability. Concurrent with this work, high-level coupled system/mission modeling will be carried out to refine the key performance parameters that the various CTEs must achieve. Non-advocate reviews will be held at milestone points to assess progress and inform down-select decisions. The strategy for formulating the TMP was described previously*; this paper describes ongoing progress on the drafting and baselining of the plan, including key specific details. * “Strategy for Developing Technologies for Megawatt-class Nuclear Electric Propulsion Systems”, K.A. Polzin, et. al., International Electric Propulsion Conference IEPC 2022, IEPC-2022-155

Nuclear Electric Propulsion↗

DOE OSTI2024

A Deep Learning Approach for In-Network Synchrophasor Missing Data Recovery Using Programmable Network Switches

Phasor measurement unit (PMU) networks deliver accurate and timely measurements, which is essential for managing today’s electric power systems. To ensure data quality and enhance the cyber-resilience of PMU networks against malicious attacks and data errors, this study presents an online PMU missing data recovery scheme by leveraging P4 programmable switches. The data plane incorporates a customized PMU protocol parser that abstracts the necessary payload data for recovery. Recovery processes are executed in the control plane using a pre-trained machine learning model. Both traditional and advanced ML models, such as transformer and TimeGPT, are explicitly employed for data prediction. This approach ensures rapid and precise data recovery. Performance evaluations focus on recovery speed and accuracy, using a real dataset from a campus microgrid. With 20% missing PMU data, the mean absolute percentage error for voltage magnitude is 0.0384%, and the phase angle error discrepancy is approximately 0.4064%.

Phasor Measurement Unit, Machine Learning, Program↗

DOE OSTI2021

2019 Energy Storage Pricing Survey

Since grid energy storage is still evolving rapidly, it is often difficult to obtain project specific capital costs for various energy storage technologies. This information is necessary to evaluate the profitability of the facility, as well as comparing different energy storage technology options. The goal of this report is to summarize energy storage capital costs that were obtained from industry pricing surveys. The methodology breaks down the cost of an energy storage system into the following component categories: the storage module; the balance of system; the power conversion system; the energy management system; and the engineering, procurement, and construction costs. By evaluating each of the different component costs separately, a synthetic system cost can be developed that provides internal pricing consistency between different project sizes using the same technology, as well as between different technologies that utilize similar components.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

DOE OSTI2021

2020 Energy Storage Pricing Survey

The annual Energy Storage Pricing Survey (ESPS) series is designed to provide a standardized reference system price for various energy storage technologies across a range of different power and energy ratings. This is an essential first step in comparing systems of the different technologies’ usage costs and total cost of ownership. The final system prices are developed based on data from an extensive set of interviews with representatives across the manufacturing and project development value chain, plus available published data. This information is incorporated into a consistent methodology structure that will allow pricing information to be incorporated at whatever level it was obtained, ranging from component to fully installed system. The ESPS system pricing methodology breaks down the cost of an energy storage system into the following component categories: the storage module; the balance of system; the power conversion system; the energy management system; and the engineering, procurement, and construction costs. By evaluating each of the different component costs separately, a more accurate system cost can be developed that provides internal pricing consistency between different project sizes using the same technology, as well as between different technologies that utilize similar components.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

NASA NTRS1991

NASA's In-Space Technology Experiments Program - Status and plans

The Space Station Freedom constitutes a space facility uniquely suited to space technology-related R&D. Such test data as those involving fluids (power, thermal management, life support systems, and payload operations), space structures, and space materials, cannot be realistically obtained on the ground. The Space Station will also allow the validation of technologies that promise either higher performance or lower costs but which, if not validated in the necessary environment, could pose unacceptable program risks.

Harris, Leonard A.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Advanced Power Technology Development Activities for Small Satellite Applications

NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has a long history related to the development of advanced power technology for space applications. This expertise covers the breadth of energy generation (photovoltaics, thermal energy conversion, etc.), energy storage (batteries, fuel cell technology, etc.), power management and distribution, and power systems architecture and analysis. Such advanced technology is now being developed for small satellite and cubesat applications and could have a significant impact on the longevity and capabilities of these missions. A presentation during the Pre-Conference Workshop will focus on various advanced power technologies being developed and demonstrated by NASA, and their possible application within the small satellite community.

small satellite↗

NASA NTRS2020

Predicting Gate Conflicts using NASA ATD-2 Fused Data Sources

The modern day National Airspace System (NAS) is powered by System Wide Information Management (SWIM) which is a real-time digital data sharing infrastructure that provides a high fidelity view of the lifecycle of a flight. The newly available data within the SWIM feeds can be leveraged to help drive efficiencies in the NAS. In this talk, we investigate the gate conflict prediction problem as a concrete use case which could help drive efficiencies. We begin with a high level description of NASA's Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 which is built upon the real-time SWIM feeds and produces the data used in our investigation. We model gate conflicts as a regression problem and describe the iterative process of model building, model validation, and evaluation used to assess the efficacy of our approach.

Coupe, William J.↗

NASA NTRS2020

Enabled International Collaborations in EDL: Lessons Learned and Recommendations

William J. Coupe↗