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At least 487 records · Page 27

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS1990

Distributed decision-making for space operations

A programmatic and technical perspective in the context of future space applications is presented, that includes some of the management challenges that arise as the decision-making process becomes increasingly more decentralized. Three challenges are discussed: (1) the degree to which the planners must communicate with each other and with those who are seeking space operations resources, (2) the collection, management, employment and dissemination of the information needed to make decisions, and (3) the challenges connected with schedule integration. The technical perspective presented leads to recommended adaptations to the normal scheduling algorithms that retain the 'degrees of freedom' in the planning result. It is shown that these adaptations are specific technical responses to the programmatic challenges discussed.

Hornstein, Rhoda Shaller↗

NASA NTRS2021

A sampling-based optimization approach to handling environmental uncertainty for a planetary lander

Planning for unknown environments presents a number of technical challenges. The planner must ensure robustness to unknown phenomena and manage unpredictable variation in execution, all while operating in a capacity that maximizes its objective. Productivity in the face of these challenges re-quires an integrated approach to planning and execution that is capable of accomplishing goals, reacting to variation, and maximizing overall utility. We examine this problem in the context of a Europa Lander concept mission. We model the problem as a hierarchical task network, framing it as a utility maximization problem constrained on a depletable energy resource. We propose an uncertainty–sensitive deterministic planning framework that utilizes periodic replanning to better handle model uncertainty and variable execution. We demonstrate the efficacy of our framework through simulations of a Europa Lander concept mission in which our algorithm out-performs several baseline approaches in both utility maximization and robustness

Zilberstein, Shlomo↗

NASA NTRS2021

A Sampling-Based Optimization Approach to Handling Environmental Uncertainty for a Planetary Lander

Chien, Steve↗

DOE OSTI2020

Energy Master Planning for Resilient Public Communities—Best Practices from U.S. Military Installations

Until recently, most planners at military installations addressed energy systems for new facilities on an individual facility basis without consideration of community-wide goals relevant to energy sources, renewables, storage, or future energy generation needs. Building retrofits of public buildings typically do not address energy needs beyond the minimum code requirements making it difficult, if not impossible, to achieve community-level targets on a building-by-building basis. Planning on the basis of cost and general reliability may also fail to deliver community-level resilience. For example, many building code requirements focus on hardening to specific threats, but in a multi-building community, only a few of these buildings may be mission-critical. Over the past two decades, the frequency and duration of regional power outages and water utility disruptions from weather, man-made events, and aging infrastructure have increased. Major disruptions of electric and thermal energy have degraded critical mission capabilities and caused significant economic impacts. In 2016, the U.S. Department of Defense issued guidance that each Service (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines) complete comprehensive energy plans for the installations that consumed 75% of total building energy. Guidance was updated in 2017 to include metrics for energy resilience, and in some cases, water. This paper describes how community level quantitative and qualitative resilience analysis and metrics have been incorporated into community energy and water planning best practices for military installations in three geographically diverse locations. It is based on research performed under the International Energy Agency’s “Energy in Buildings and Communities Program Annex 73,” focusing on development of guidelines and tools that support the planning of Net Zero Energy Resilient Public Communities as well as research performed under the Department of Defense Environmental Security Technology Certification Program project EW18-D1- 5281, “Technologies Integration to Achieve Resilient, Low- Energy Military Installations.” The first case study reviews progress made on an energy and water planning study conducted at Fort Bliss, Texas. The second and third describes planning conducted at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and the Joint Region Marianas, Guam, respectively, under the updated guidance from 2017 regarding energy and water resilience. Analysis methods, key metrics, and key infrastructure and operational constraints are described, as well as technical, economic and business concepts used during the planning process.

Urban, Angela B.↗

NASA NTRS2010

NASA Docking System (NDS) Users Guide: International Space Station Program. Type 4

The NASA Docking System (NDS) Users Guide provides an overview of the basic information needed to integrate the NDS onto a Host Vehicle (HV). This Users Guide is intended to provide a vehicle developer with a fundamental understanding of the NDS technical and operations information to support their program and engineering integration planning. The Users Guide identifies the NDS Specification, Interface Definition or Requirement Documents that contain the complete technical details and requirements that a vehicle developer must use to design, develop and verify their systems will interface with NDS. This Guide is an initial reference and must not be used as a design document. In the event of conflict between this Users Guide and other applicable interface definition or requirements documents; the applicable document will take precedence. This Users Guide is organized in three main sections. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the NDS and CDA hardware and the operations concepts for the NDS. Chapter 2 provides information for Host Vehicle Program integration with the NDS Project Office. Chapter 2 describes the NDS Project organization, integration and verification processes, user responsibilities, and specification and interface requirement documents. Chapter 3 provides a summary of basic technical information for the NDS design. Chapter 3 includes NDS hardware component descriptions, physical size and weight characteristics, and summary of the capabilities and constraints for the various NDS sub-systems.

Tabakman, Alexander↗

NASA NTRS2003

Research priorities and plans for the International Space Station-results of the 'REMAP' Task Force

Recent events in the International Space Station (ISS) Program have resulted in the necessity to re-examine the research priorities and research plans for future years. Due to both technical and fiscal resource constraints expected on the International Space Station, it is imperative that research priorities be carefully reviewed and clearly articulated. In consultation with OSTP and the Office of Management and budget (OMB), NASA's Office of Biological and Physical Research (OBPR) assembled an ad-hoc external advisory committee, the Biological and Physical Research Maximization and Prioritization (REMAP) Task Force. This paper describes the outcome of the Task Force and how it is being used to define a roadmap for near and long-term Biological and Physical Research objectives that supports NASA's Vision and Mission. Additionally, the paper discusses further prioritizations that were necessitated by budget and ISS resource constraints in order to maximize utilization of the International Space Station. Finally, a process has been developed to integrate the requirements for this prioritized research with other agency requirements to develop an integrated ISS assembly and utilization plan that maximizes scientific output. c2003 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

NASA Center HQS↗

NASA NTRS2002

COLLIDE-2: Collisions Into Dust Experiment-2

The Collisions Into Dust Experimental (COLLIDE-2) was the second flight of the COLLIDE payload. The payload performs six low-velocity impact experiments to study the collisions that are prevalent in planetary ring systems and in the early stages of planet formation. Each impact experiment is into a target of granular material, and the impacts occur at speeds between 1 and 100 cm/s in microgravity and in a vacuum. The experiments are recorded on digital videotape which is later analyzed. During the period of performance a plan was developed to address some of the technical issues that prevented the first flight of COLLIDE from being a complete success, and also to maximize the scientific return based on the science results from the first flight. The experiment was modified following a series of reviews of the design plan, and underwent extensive testing. The data from the experiment show that the primary goal of identifying transition regimes for low-velocity impacts based on cratering versus accretion was achieved. Following a brief period of storage, the experiment flew regimes for low-velocity impacts based on cratering versus accretion was achieved. as a Hitchhiker payload on the MACH-1 Hitchhiker bridge on STS-108 in December 2001. These data have been analyzed and submitted for publication. That manuscript is attached to this report. The experiment was retrieved in January 2002, and all six impact experiments functioned nominally. Preliminary results were reported at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

Colwell, Joshua E.↗

DOE OSTI2023

Risk Analysis of Various Design Architectures for High Safety-significant Safety-related Digital Instrumentation and Control Systems of Nuclear Power Plants during Accident Scenarios

This report documents the plus-up activities performed by Idaho National Laboratory (INL) during Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program, Risk Informed Systems Analysis (RISA) Pathway, digital instrumentation and control (DI&C) risk assessment project. In FY 2019, the RISA Pathway initiated a project to develop a risk assessment strategy for delivering a strong technical basis to support effective, licensable, and secure DI&C technologies for digital upgrades/designs. An integrated risk assessment technology for the DI&C systems was proposed for this strategy, which aims to (1) provide a best-estimate, risk-informed capability to quantitatively and accurately estimate the safety margin obtained from plant modernization, especially for the high safety-significant safety-related (HSSSR) DI&C systems, (2) support and supplement existing advanced risk-informed DI&C design guides by providing quantitative risk information and evidence, (3) offer a capability of design architecture evaluation of various DI&C systems to support system design decisions and diversity and redundancy applications, (4) assure the long-term safety and reliability of HSSSR DI&C systems, and (5) reduce uncertainty in costs and support integration of DI&C systems in the plant. To achieve these technical goals and deal with the expensive licensing justifications from regulatory insights, the LWRS-developed framework instructs nuclear vendors and utilities on how to effectively lower the costs associated with digital compliance and speed industry advances by: (1) defining an integrated risk-informed analysis process for DI&C upgrade, including hazard analysis, reliability analysis, and consequence analysis, (2) applying systematic and risk-informed tools to address common cause failures (CCFs) and quantify corresponding failure probabilities for DI&C technologies, particularly software CCFs, (3) evaluating the impact of digital failures at the component level, system level, and plant level, and (4) providing insights and suggestions on designs to manage the risks, thus to support the development, licensing, and deployment of advanced DI&C technologies on nuclear power plant (NPPs). Adding diversity within system or components is the main means to eliminate and mitigate CCFs, but diversity also increases plant complexity and errors and may not address all sources of systematic failures. How to optimize the diversity and redundancy applications for the safety-critical DI&C systems remains a challenge. To deal with the technical issues in addressing potential software CCFs in HSSSR DI&C systems of NPPs and supporting relevant design optimization, the framework provides: ? An integrated best-estimate, risk-informed capability to address new technical digital issues quantitatively, accurately, and efficiently in plan modernization progress, such as software CCFs in HSSSR DI&C systems of NPPs ? A common and a modularized platform for DI&C designers, software developers, cybersecurity analysts, and plant engineers to efficiently predict and prevent risk in the early design stage of DI&C systems ? Technical bases and risk-informed insights to assist U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and industry to address and fulfill the risk-informed alternatives for evaluation of CCFs in HSSSR DI&C systems of NPPs ? An integrated risk-informed tool that offers a capability of design architecture evaluation of various DI&C systems to support system design decisions in diversity and redundancy applications. The plus-up research and development efforts of this project in FY 2022 are focused on methodology improvement of software CCF modeling and estimation, prevention analysis, importance analysis and risk analysis of various design architectures of HSSSR DI&C systems. This work greatly enhances the capability of the LWRS-developed framework for the risk assessment and design optimization of safety-critical DI&C systems. It should be noted that all the analyses are performed for the demonstration of the LWRS-developed framework, not for the evaluation of relevant systems. Results are obtained based on very limited design information and testing data.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2026

Strategic Energy Plan, Town of Cranberry Isles

This report details the strategic energy plan for the Town of Cranberry Isles, Maine. This project was spearheaded by the Cranberry Isles Community Solar Association (CICSA), and supported by Island Institute and Sandia National Laboratories, in partnership with the National Laboratory of the Rockies and Versant Power. The plan details the energy vision, goals, and focus areas for the community, provides technical analysis of the current energy system, and outlines potential projects to support community energy. Throughout the energy planning process, the project team engaged with members of the community to gather input and ideas to shape the plan. The project team and Versant also completed an extensive data collection to better inform the project. Sandia National Laboratories completed baseline technical assessments and feasibility studies to better understand potential feasible options for future projects. These potential projects, high-level costs, and next steps are a key output of this report.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

NASA NTRS1987

An allotment planning concept and related computer software for planning the fixed satellite service at the 1988 space WARC

The authors describe a two-phase approach to allotment planning suitable for use in planning the fixed satellite service at the 1988 Space World Administrative radio Conference (ORB-88). The two phases are (1) the identification of predetermined geostationary arc segments common to groups of administrations and (2) the use of a synthesis program to identify example scenarios of space station placements. The planning approach is described in detail and is related to the objectives of the conference. Computer software has been developed to implement the concepts, and the logic and rationale for identifying predetermined arc segments is discussed. Example scenarios are evaluated to give guidance in the selection of the technical characteristics of space communications systems to be planned. The allotment planning concept described guarantees equitable access to the geostationary orbit, provides flexibility in implementation, and reduces the need for coordination among administrations.

Miller, Edward F.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Panel to review EOSDIS plans

Formed in Jan. 1992, the Panel to Review EOSDIS Plans was charged with advising NASA on its plans for developing the Earth Observing System (EOS) Data and Information System (EOSDIS). Specifically, the panel was asked to do the following: assess the validity of the engineering and technical underpinnings of the EOSDIS; assess its potential value to scientific users; suggest how technical risk can be minimized; and assess whether current plans are sufficiently resilient to be adaptable to changing technology and requirements such as budget environments, data volumes, new users, and new databases. The panel completed an interim report (Addendum A) and transmitted it to NASA and other interested parties in the government on 9 Apr. 1992. Because of a delay in NASA's plans to select the contractor for EOSDIS, the panel was not able to complete its review of the program according to the original government request. With the issuance of a letter report (Addendum B) on 28 Sep. 1992, the panel became inactive until such time as NASA could release the details of the contractor's proposed architecture, schedule, and costs for developing EOSDIS. In early 1993, NASA awarded the contract for the EOSDIS Core System (ECS). On 20 Apr. 1993, NASA asked the panel to reconvene to do the following: ( 1) complete its review of NASA's approach to the EOSDIS architecture and implementation; (2) appraise NASA's responses to the panel's previous recommendations; and (3) review the planning for EOSDIS in the context of NASA's role in the Global Change Data and Information System (GCDIS) implementation plan. To respond to the NASA charge, the panel met three times in 1993 including sessions with NASA officials and the EOSDIS contractor. In addition, several of the panel members visited individual Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAAC's) to obtain additional views of EOSDIS. The panel has now obtained substantial information on the EOSDIS budget, contractor work program, and current baseline architecture that was not previously available, due to procurement restrictions. This report presents the panel's findings and recommendations based on this additional information.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1987

An allotment planning concept and related computer software for planning the fixed satellite service at the 1988 space WARC

Described is a two-phase approach to allotment planning suitable for use in establishing the fixed satellite service at the 1988 Space World Administrative Radio Conference (ORB-88). The two phases are (1) the identification of predetermined geostationary arc segments common togroups of administrations, and (2) the use of a synthesis program to identify example scenarios of space station placements. The planning approach is described in detail and is related to the objectives of the confernece. Computer software has been developed to implement the concepts, and a complete discussion on the logic and rationale for identifying predetermined arc segments is given. Example scenarios are evaluated to give guidance in the selection of the technical characteristics of space communications systems to be planned. The allotment planning concept described guarantees in practice equitable access to the geostationary orbit, provides flexibility in implementation, and reduces the need for coordination among administrations.

Miller, Edward F.↗

DOE OSTI2023

Impact of gel concentration on filter fluxes in microfiltration of Hanford tank wastes and simulants

Abstract Treatment processes have been proposed that will utilize crossflow filtration to concentrate sludge waste streams at the Department of Energy's Hanford Site. Challenges associated with solid–liquid separation of the waste streams drive a necessary evaluation of available Hanford high level waste (HLW) filtration data. Limiting flux conditions during crossflow filtration are elucidated with the formation of a cake layer on the membrane surface. A mass transfer coefficient between the gel and bulk concentrations plays a critical role in determining filter flux. A correlation between the gel concentration and mass transfer coefficient is made to assist in determining filter performance of select HLW streams. As a process alternative to crossflow filtration, gravity settling of waste streams may be deployed as a solid–liquid separation technique. However, this results in a contrasting performance with the centrifuged solids concentration. A method was developed to estimate expected filtration and settling performance based on physical characterization data for Hanford tank waste samples. By assessing the estimated processing performance of HLW, technical support can be provided during flowsheet planning.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2021

Planned Relocation: A Pluralistic and Integrated Approach to Science and Governance

Planned relocation is an ambitious objective that occurs in complex governance settings rife with inequalities of power, discrimination, distrust, deep uncertainty, misalignment of incentives and authorities, and other challenges. Taking planned relocation from ambition to an equitable and effective portfolio of measures will require changes in science, governance and how they work together. Research will need to understand perverse incentives, conflicts, limits to risk perception, and other factors across individuals, communities, governance levels, and sectors. Knowledge to enable planned relocation will emerge not just from technical studies but from entwined processes of action, learning and capacity building. Science and governance must advance their collaboration to better support and learn from these tangled processes to identify adaptive pathways, build agency and implement strategies under deep uncertainty.

global environmental change, adapatation, decision↗

DOE OSTI2021

Thirty Minutes Before the Dawn

The Trinity test of July 16, 1945, marked the scientific apex of the Manhattan Project. Often recognized as the symbolic birth of the nuclear age, Trinity’s multifaceted legacy remains just as captivating and complex today as it did 75 years ago. This paper examines why the test was necessary from a technical standpoint, shows how Los Alamos scientists planned the event, and explores the physical and emotional aftermaths of Trinity. The author also uses rarely accessed original records to reconstruct the story of Trinity’s health hazards, as seen through the eyes of radiation technicians and medical doctors as events unfolded. Trinity was conducted as the Potsdam Conference began, weeks after the collapse of Nazi Germany. It was considered necessary to let President Harry S. Truman know whether the United States possessed a nuclear capability ahead of his negotiations with Joseph Stalin, the Soviet premier. The author examines the competing priorities that drove the timetable for the test: international politics, security, and safety. Three weeks after Trinity, a gun-assembled enriched-uranium bomb called Little Boy was used against the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, Fat Man, a weaponized version of the imploding Trinity device, was dropped on Nagasaki. The author briefly examines these strikes and what impact they may have had on the Japanese surrender. The paper concludes by examining the legacy of the Trinity test 75 years into the age it helped usher in.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗

DOE OSTI2021

An Overview of Non-LWR Vessel Cooling Systems for Passive Decay Heat Removal (Technical Letter Final Report)

The following report provides a technical review of various reactor vessel cooling system (VCS) concepts under consideration for decay heat removal (DHR) in non-light water advanced reactor designs. This review focuses on ex-vessel designs, including the Reactor Cavity Cooling System (RCCS), the Reactor Vessel Auxiliary Cooling System (RVACS), and hybrid iterations, using both air and water cooling to achieve their heat removal function. Based on a literature review of publicly available sources published between 1979 and 2021, a technical summary is presented detailing existing and planned VCS design options, their applicability to specific reactor type, and review of authored research and development studies. Following an assessment of the availability of data and modeling tools, an evaluation was performed analyzing their likely performance during normal, degraded, and accident conditions, including reliability, stability, and longevity. With renewed consideration of air-based DHR systems by some US vendors, there is a need to fully understand the complexities inherent to natural circulation systems, and more importantly, how they may influence safety-related heat removal functions and system performance. For DHR systems that rely on air-based mode of cooling, this entails quantification of the impacts of low flow conditions during start-up, relative elevations of inlet and outlet ducts for below-grade installations, effects of the use of multiple parallel chimneys for redundancy, and impact of weather conditions at the plant site. For systems relying on water-based mode cooling, reliance on limited coolant inventory in an event of pipe break or extended duration accident scenarios, sensitivities related to stability of boiling flow and heat transfer conditions, and quantification of full-scale structural vibrations on balance of plant structures are among the complicating factors.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Extend an innovative HPC-Compatible Multiple Temporal-spatial Resolution Concurrent Finite Element Modeling Approach to Guide Laser Powder Bed Fusion Additive

Laser power bed fusing (PBF) additive manufacturing is a key enabling technology to manufacture highly complex and integrated automotive structures. However, the geometric complexity of PBF-AM technique also leads to highly non-uniform heating and cooling rate in the manufactured part, which may cause flaw formation and produce excessive and nonuniform residual stresses, which increase quality uncertainties and manufacture issues, leading to increases in cost and energy consumption in the form of rejected parts. In this research project, we developed an innovative Multi-Spatial-Temporal-Resolution Finite Element (MUST-FE) method and completed the corresponding high performance computation (HPC) platform-based in-house code, which enables high accuracy prediction of temperature and residual stress fields for component-scale PBF-AM manufacture in efficient computation time. The MUST-FE model is calibrated and validated with a “2D pad” AlSi10Mg experiments by matching the melt pool shape and dimension, and with a “XY-cross” AlSi10Mg experiment by matching the thermal distortion and residual stress. The innovative multi-resolution and concurrent modeling approach adopted in this code ensures accuracy and computational efficiency, which will enable energy-efficient and high-yield, low-cost manufacturing of optimized, qualifiable automotive structures and contribute towards reaching technical targets outlined in AMO’s Program Plan to develop additive manufacturing systems that deliver consistently reliable parts with predictable properties.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2024

Summary Report of the 2nd RCM of the CRP on Updating Fission Yield Data for Applications

The Second Research Coordination Meeting of the IAEA Coordinated Research Project (CRP) on Updating Fission Yield Data for Applications was held in Vienna at the IAEA headquarters from 19 to 23 December 2022, with 23 international experts attending the meeting. The CRP is devoted to evaluation efforts of cumulative and independent fission yields for incident energies from the thermal point up to 14 MeV on actinide targets. Produced fission yield evaluations should include full uncertainty quantification and are expected to combine available experimental data and state-of-the-art model information. The activities undertaken within this CRP were reviewed including the assessment of newly measured data and ongoing evaluation efforts. Technical discussions and the resulting further work plan of this CRP are summarized in this report. The meeting presentations are available at: https://www-nds.iaea.org/index-meeting-crp/2RCM_FY/index.htm.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗