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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 487 records · Page 27
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2024

Cost and Benefit Analysis of Mitigating, Tracking, and Remediating Orbital Debris

Presentation accompanying the technical report with the same name. The abstract for the report and the full study is repeated below. Orbital debris may collide with crewed and robotic spacecraft, placing them at risk. The wide range of debris, from 9,000-kilogram rocket bodies to millions of millimeter-size debris, has led to a similarly wide range of proposed actions for addressing the risks posed by debris. However, the costs and benefits of these actions have historically been unknown. This is a challenge for decision makers who are choosing which actions to support through technology development or policy changes. NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy is addressing these technical and economic uncertainties by building a capability to (1) complete rigorous calculations of the net present value of each action, (2) identify an optimal portfolio of actions to reduce risk, and (3) quantitatively analyze policies related to space sustainability. This report describes our progress toward that capability and to solicit feedback from the space and economic communities. Our previous work, referred to here as Phase 1, assessed the costs and benefits of performing debris remediation on operationally relevant timescales. The current analysis contains major updates to the risk model used in Phase 1 and expands the breadth of actions considered to include mitigating the creation of debris, improving the ability to track debris, and more methods for cleaning up existing debris. We demonstrate that our approach of measuring risks in dollars allows for the effectiveness of seemingly incommensurate actions to be compared and generates insights that other approaches to measuring risk have missed.

Jericho Locke↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Cost and Benefit Analysis of Orbital Debris Remediation, Mitigation,Tracking, and Characterization

Orbital debris may collide with crewed and robotic spacecraft, placing them at risk. The wide range of debris, from 9,000-kilogram rocket bodies to millions of millimeter-size debris, has led to a similarly wide range of proposed actions for addressing the risks posed by debris. However, the costs and benefits of these actions have historically been unknown. This is a challenge for decision makers who are choosing which actions to support through technology development or policy changes. NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy is addressing these technical and economic uncertainties by building a capability to (1) complete rigorous calculations of the net present value of each action, (2) identify an optimal portfolio of actions to reduce risk, and (3) quantitatively analyze policies related to space sustainability. This report describes our progress toward that capability and to solicit feedback from the space and economic communities. Our previous work(Colvin, Karcz, and Wusk. 2023), referred to here as Phase 1, assessed the costs and benefits of performing debris remediation on operationally relevant timescales. The current paper summarizes the work of Locke and Colvin (2024), which contains major updates to the risk model used in Phase 1 and expands the breadth of actions considered to include mitigating the creation of debris, improving the ability to track debris, and more methods for cleaning up existing debris. We demonstrate that our approach of measuring risks in dollars allows for the effectiveness of seemingly incommensurate actions to be compared and generates insights that other approaches to measuring risk have missed.

Orbital Debris↗
NASA NTRS2012

EVA Skills Training

Dr. Parazynski and a colleague from Extravehicular Activity (EVA), Robotics, & Crew Systems Operations (DX) worked closely to build the EVA Skills Training Program, and for the first time, defined the gold standards of EVA performance, allowing crewmembers to increase their performance significantly. As part of the program, individuals had the opportunity to learn at their own rate, taking additional water time as required, to achieve that level of performance. This focus on training to one's strengths and weaknesses to bolster them enabled the Crew Office and DX to field a much larger group of spacewalkers for the daunting "wall of EVA" required for the building and maintenance of the ISS. Parazynski also stressed the need for designers to understand the capabilities and the limitations of a human in a spacesuit, as well as opportunities to improve future generations of space. He shared lessons learned (how the Crew Office engaged in these endeavors) and illustrated the need to work as a team to develop these complex systems.

Parazynski, Scott↗
NASA NTRS2007

Launching to the Moon, Mars, and Beyond

America is returning to the Moon in preparation for the first human footprint on Mars, guided by the U.S. Vision for Space Exploration. This presentation will discuss NASA's mission today, the reasons for returning to the Moon and going to Mars, and how NASA will accomplish that mission. The primary goals of the Vision for Space Exploration are to finish the International Space Station, retire the Space Shuttle, and build the new spacecraft needed to return people to the Moon and go to Mars. Unlike the Apollo program of the 1960s, this phase of exploration will be a journey, not a race. In 1966, the NASA's budget was 4 percent of federal spending. Today, with 6/10 of 1 percent of the budget, NASA must incrementally develop the vehicles, infrastructure, technology, and organization to accomplish this goal. Fortunately, our knowledge and experience are greater than they were 40 years ago. NASA's goal is a return to the Moon by 2020. The Moon is the first step to America's exploration of Mars. Many questions about the Moon's history and how its history is linked to that of Earth remain even after the brief Apollo explorations of the 1960s and 1970s. This new venture will carry more explorers to more diverse landing sites with more capable tools and equipment. The Moon also will serve as a training ground in several respects before embarking on the longer, more perilous trip to Mars. The journeys to the Moon and Mars will require a variety of vehicles, including the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle, the Ares V Cargo Launch Vehicle, the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, and the Lunar Surface Access Module. The architecture for the lunar missions will use one launch to ferry the crew into orbit on the Ares I and a second launch to orbit the lunar lander and the Earth Departure Stage to send the lander and crew vehicle to the Moon. In order to reach the Moon and Mars within a lifetime and within budget, NASA is building on proven hardware and decades of experience derived from the Apollo Saturn, Space Shuttle, and contemporary commercial launch vehicle programs. Less than one year after the Exploration Launch Projects Office was formed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, engineers are testing engine components, firing test rocket motors, refining vehicle designs in wind tunnel tests, and building hardware for the first flight test of Ares I, scheduled for spring 2009. The Vision for Exploration will require this nation to develop tools, machines, materials, and processes never before invented, technologies and capabilities that can be turned over to the private sector to benefit nearly all aspects of life on Earth. This new pioneering venture, as did the Apollo Program before it, will contribute to America's economic leadership, national security, and technological global competitiveness and serve as an inspiration for all its citizens.

Sumrall, John P.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Lessons Learned From Designing and Building Low Organic Outgassing Cleanrooms for NASA OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2 Curation Facility

NASA Johnson Space Center Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office completed construction and commissioning of the OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2 cleanroom laboratory suites along with new precision cleaning and advanced curation laboratories consisting of ISO Class 5, 6, and 7 cleanrooms. The new curation facilities are designed for initial receiving, basic characterization, curation processing, and preliminary examination of carbonaceous asteroidal material. The facilities are also designed to enable long-term pristine sample storage to preserve the scientific integrity of each sample to enable future research by the international science community. The scientific study of organics is critical for both missions. The OSIRIS-REx mission instituted a stringent contamination control plan for low organics. Given these mission requirements and long-term storage preservation requirements, cleanroom construction materials were carefully selected to not hinder the scientific search for amino acids and the study of organics in the samples. Cleanroom candidate construction materials were researched for the HVAC system, floors, walls, ceiling, and plenum areas. The team chose several candidate materials that were further tested for their specific outgassing characteristics using ASTM E-595 per ASTM E-2312. The information gained provided the foundation for the final design selection of the cleanroom materials. While material selection is important before and during the facility design phase, the construction phase is where these choices are implemented by the prime construction contractor through final product and material submittals. These submittals are the last check point and changes are often submitted due to engineering/construction conflicts, especially when renovating an existing building. Any new material or equipment/product change must be identified and scrutinized for low particulate shedding and outgassing properties. In some cases, quick testing of new material is required, and compromises must be made in real-time. Careful selection and implementation of cleanroom materials significantly reduced organic and inorganic contamination beyond normal cleanroom baselines.

astromaterials curation↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Lessons Learned From Designing and Building Low Organic Outgassing Cleanrooms for NASA OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2 Curation Facility

NASA Johnson Space Center Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office completed construction and commissioning of the OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2 cleanroom laboratory suites along with new precision cleaning and advanced curation laboratories consisting of ISO Class 5, 6, and 7 cleanrooms. The new curation facilities are designed for initial receiving, basic characterization, curation processing, and preliminary examination of carbonaceous asteroidal material. The facilities are also designed to enable long-term pristine sample storage to preserve the scientific integrity of each sample to enable future research by the international science community. The scientific study of organics is critical for both missions. The OSIRIS-REx mission instituted a stringent contamination control plan for low organics. Given these mission requirements and long-term storage preservation requirements, cleanroom construction materials were carefully selected to not hinder the scientific search for amino acids and the study of organics in the samples. Cleanroom candidate construction materials were researched for the HVAC system, floors, walls, ceiling, and plenum areas. The team chose several candidate materials that were further tested for their specific outgassing characteristics using ASTM E-595 per ASTM E-2312. The information gained provided the foundation for the final design selection of the cleanroom materials. While material selection is important before and during the facility design phase, the construction phase is where these choices are implemented by the prime construction contractor through final product and material submittals. These submittals are the last check point and changes are often submitted due to engineering/construction conflicts, especially when renovating an existing building. Any new material or equipment/product change must be identified and scrutinized for low particulate shedding and outgassing properties. In some cases, quick testing of new material is required, and compromises must be made in real-time. Careful selection and implementation of cleanroom materials significantly reduced organic and inorganic contamination beyond normal cleanroom baselines.

astromaterials curation↗
NASA NTRS1996

New Interfaces to Web Documents and Services

This paper reports on investigations into how to extend capabilities of the Virtual Research Center (VRC) for NASA's Advanced Concepts Office. The work was performed as part of NASA's 1996 Summer Faculty Fellowship program, and involved research into and prototype development of software components that provide documents and services for the World Wide Web (WWW). The WWW has become a de-facto standard for sharing resources over the internet, primarily because web browsers are freely available for the most common hardware platforms and their operating systems. As a consequence of the popularity of the internet, tools, and techniques associated with web browsers are changing rapidly. New capabilities are offered by companies that support web browsers in order to achieve or remain a dominant participant in internet services. Because a goal of the VRC is to build an environment for NASA centers, universities, and industrial partners to share information associated with Advanced Concepts Office activities, the VRC tracks new techniques and services associated with the web in order to determine the their usefulness for distributed and collaborative engineering research activities. Most recently, Java has emerged as a new tool for providing internet services. Because the major web browser providers have decided to include Java in their software, investigations into Java were conducted this summer.

Carlisle, W. H.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Performance Assessment of High Efficiency Variable Speed Air-Source Heat Pump in Cold Climate Applications

This project was part of an effort by ComEd's emerging technology program to evaluate the energy saving potential of new energy efficiency technologies. The focus of this technology assessment was to determine energy and peak demand savings potentials of a high efficiency variable speed, air-source, split system heat pump designed for cold climate applications. The results of this technology assessment will be used by CLEAResult to develop a new energy efficiency measure for Commonwealth Edison Company's incentive programs. The project utilized the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) Thermal Test Facility to experimentally characterize cooling and heating performance of a high efficiency heat pump split system under varying outdoor climate conditions. The selected climate conditions represented summer and low temperature winter conditions in ComEd's service territory. The laboratory experimentation results were used to develop equipment performance curves required by EnergyPlus hourly simulation engine. Using typical meteorological year 3 weather data for the Chicago O'Hare airport, hourly building simulations (using the EnergyPlus engine) was utilized to estimate the annual energy savings of the high efficiency heat pump in comparison to a standard efficiency unit in the following U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) building codes program energy prototypes: Single-family residence; Strip mall; and Low-rise office.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
NASA NTRS1991

NASA information systems commonality and convergence

Efforts to identify high payback functions performed by the Office of Space Science Applications (OSSA) data systems package existing operationally proven implementations as system building blocks and foster their use in the OSSA environment. An overview is given of the current state of OSSA data systems and the major challenges facing system developers over the next five years. Current trends in system commonality are discussed, and development is examined in the context of system design. Central system engineering approaches to solving the commonality and interoperability challenges are described. Efforts to package three diverse building blocks and to foster their reuse are documented.

Handley, Thomas H., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Finding Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) Destinations for Human Exploration: Implications for Astrobiology

The current number of known potential NEA targets for HSF is limited to those objects whose orbital characteristics are similar to that of the Earth. This is due to the projected capabilities of the exploration systems currently under consideration and development at NASA. However, NEAs with such orbital characteristics often have viewing geometries that place them at low solar elongations and thus are difficult to detect from the vicinity of Earth. While ongoing ground-based surveys and data archives maintained by the NEO Program Observation Program Office and the Minor Planet Center (MPC) have provided a solid basis upon which to build, a more complete catalog of the NEO population is required to inform a robust and sustainable HSF exploration program. Since all the present NEO observing assets are currently confined to the vicinity of the Earth, additional effort must be made to provide capabilities for detection of additional HSF targets via assets beyond Earth orbit. A space-based NEO survey telescope located beyond the vicinity of the Earth, has considerable implications for planetary science and astrobiology. Such a telescope will provide foundational knowledge of our Solar System small body population and detect targets of interest for both the HSF and scientific communities. Data from this asset will yield basic characterization data on the NEOs observed (i.e., albedo, size determination, potential for volatiles and organics, etc.) and help down select targets for future HSF missions. Ideally, the most attractive targets from both HSF and astrobiology perspectives are those NEAs that may contain organic and volatile materials, and which could be effectively sampled at a variety of locations and depths. Presented here is an overview of four space-based survey concepts; any one of which after just a few years of operation will discover many highly accessible NEO targets suitable for robotic and human exploration. Such a space-based survey mission will reveal incredible returns for several disciplines including: exploration, in situ resource utilization, planetary defense, and science. Of particular, interest to the scientific

Landis, Rob↗
NASA NTRS2015

Space Technology Mission Directorate Game Changing Development Program FY2015 Annual Program Review: Advanced Manufacturing Technology

The Advance Manufacturing Technology (AMT) Project supports multiple activities within the Administration's National Manufacturing Initiative. A key component of the Initiative is the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office (AMNPO), which includes participation from all federal agencies involved in U.S. manufacturing. In support of the AMNPO the AMT Project supports building and Growing the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation through a public-private partnership designed to help the industrial community accelerate manufacturing innovation. Integration with other projects/programs and partnerships: STMD (Space Technology Mission Directorate), HEOMD, other Centers; Industry, Academia; OGA's (e.g., DOD, DOE, DOC, USDA, NASA, NSF); Office of Science and Technology Policy, NIST Advanced Manufacturing Program Office; Generate insight within NASA and cross-agency for technology development priorities and investments. Technology Infusion Plan: PC; Potential customer infusion (TDM, HEOMD, SMD, OGA, Industry); Leverage; Collaborate with other Agencies, Industry and Academia; NASA roadmap. Initiatives include: Advanced Near Net Shape Technology Integrally Stiffened Cylinder Process Development (launch vehicles, sounding rockets); Materials Genome; Low Cost Upper Stage-Class Propulsion; Additive Construction with Mobile Emplacement (ACME); National Center for Advanced Manufacturing.

Vickers, John↗
DOE OSTI2025

ComStock Measure Documentation: Lighting Control for Load Shedding

This report describes the modeling methodology for a single end-use savings shape measure - lighting control for load shedding - and briefly introduces key results. The lighting control for load shedding measure applies lighting dimming control to reduce the lighting load during the building's electricity peak window every weekday. The measure takes daily peak load schedule inputs generated by the method "Dispatch Schedule Generation" described in the "Supplemental Documentation: Dispatch Schedule Generation for Demand Flexibility Measures" to determine the start and end times of the predicted peak window, and then adjusts the lighting dimming level by a percentage reduction from the original schedules during the peak window to reduce the peak demand. The measure is applicable to (large, medium and small) offices, warehouses, and primary and secondary schools, which correspond to approximately 68% of the stock floor area of commercial buildings in ComStock analysis. The measure demonstrates 2%-7% daily peak demand reduction performance for applicable buildings, and 0.43% total site energy savings (0 trillion British thermal units [TBtu]) for the U.S. commercial building stock modeled in ComStock.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

ComStock Measure Documentation: Thermostat and Lighting Control for Load Shedding

This report describes the modeling methodology for an upgrade package of two end-use savings shape measures - Thermostat Control for Load Shedding and Lighting Control for Load Shedding - and briefly introduces key results. The package combines thermostat control for load shedding and lighting control for load shedding measures to reduce the HVAC and lighting load during the building's electricity peak window every weekday. The measure takes daily peak load schedule inputs generated by the method "Dispatch Schedule Generation" described in the "Supplemental Documentation: Dispatch Schedule Generation for Demand Flexibility Measures" to determine the start and end times of the predicted peak window, and then relaxes the thermostat setpoints and dims the lighting level from the original schedules during the peak window to reduce the peak demand. The measure is applicable to (large, medium and small) offices, warehouses, and primary and secondary schools, which correspond to approximately 68% of the stock floor area of commercial buildings in ComStock analysis. The measure demonstrates 3%-10% daily peak demand reduction performance for applicable buildings, and 0.97% total site energy savings (0 trillion British thermal units [TBtu]) for the U.S. commercial building stock modeled in ComStock.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

Generating synthetic occupants for use in building performance simulation

Occupant behaviour simulation frameworks can employ synthetic populations to characterize occupancy and behavioural patterns in buildings based on observed demographic data at a certain geographical location. For buildings, very few synthetic occupant populations have been generated. This paper uses a Bayesian Networks (BN) structural learning approach to synthesize populations of occupants in a multi-family housing case study. Two additional cases of office occupants and senior housing residents are considered as a cross-case comparison. Furthermore, we draw upon the extended version of drivers-needs-actions-systems (DNAS) framework to guide the selection of variables and data imputation. Our results show that the BN approach is powerful in learning the structure of data sets. The synthetic data sets successfully match the joint distributions of the underlying combined data sets. Experiments on the multi-family housing particularly show better performance than the office and senior housing cases.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

ComStock Measure Documentation: Thermostat and Lighting Control for Load Shedding + Photovoltaics With 40% Rooftop Coverage

This report describes the modeling methodology for an upgrade package of two end-use savings shape measures - Thermostat Control for Load Shedding and Lighting Control for Load Shedding - and briefly introduces key results. The package combines thermostat control for load shedding, lighting control for load shedding, and PV with 40% rooftop coverage measures to reduce the net building load during the building's electricity peak window every weekday. The measure takes daily peak load schedule inputs generated by the method "Dispatch Schedule Generation" described in the "Supplemental Documentation: Dispatch Schedule Generation for Demand Flexibility Measures" to determine the start and end times of the predicted peak window, and then relaxes the thermostat setpoints and dims the lighting level from the original schedules during the peak window to reduce the peak demand, while applying the fixed rooftop PV application for onsite electricity generation. The measure is applicable to (large, medium and small) offices, warehouses, and primary and secondary schools, which correspond to approximately 68% of the stock floor area of commercial buildings in ComStock analysis. The measure demonstrates 5%-15% daily peak demand reduction performance for applicable buildings, and around 1% total site energy savings (0 trillion British thermal units [TBtu]) for the U.S. commercial building stock modeled in ComStock.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Discovering the nature of neutrinos: How nuclear theory will advance this grand endeavor. Final report

Why is there more matter than antimatter in the visible universe? Are neutrinos their own antiparticles? These are some of the most profound questions in science. The detection of a (0vββ) neutrinoless doublebeta decay and the measurement of its half-life is one of the most important experimental endeavors in science because it will answer these questions. Paramount to these measurements are accurate predictions with quantified uncertainties of the 0vββ-decay nuclear transitions, especially for the germanium-76 and xeon-136 nuclei, two candidate materials for building the next generation of DOE funded 0vββ-decay experiments. These predictions will guide the Office of Science’s down selection of experiments as well as aid in determining how much material is needed by these experiments. We studied a specific difficult to assess source of uncertainty that will impact coming microscopic predictions, uncertainty which arises from an incomplete yet systematically improvable model of interactions between nucleons and of nucleons with the other particles involved in decay process, referred to as the theory uncertainty. We employed a surrogate model of the germanium-76 nucleus, and its decay products, just detailed enough to adequately mimic the decaying nucleons need for a reasonable measure of this uncertainty and nothing more, avoiding the immense computational expense required in quantifying uncertainties of the full calculation. We found that microscopic calculations of this process can be expected to achieve relative theory uncertainties around 30%, including an unconstrained contribution that had the potential to spoil microscopic calculations. This results in a nearly order of magnitude on previously estimated uncertainties for this rare decay process.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Advanced Guide to Understanding Power System Model Results for Long-Term Resource Plans

This guide is for public utility commission staff, state energy office staff, and other stakeholders who review model results for utility integrated resource plans (IRPs). It builds on the "Beginner's Guide to Understanding Power System Model Results for Long-Term Resource Plans," and delves into more advanced topics that were not included or not fully covered in the beginner's guide. The topics included here are evolving and may or may not be important to the resource plan you are evaluating. Due to limitations in resources, it's also not possible to give the highest level of detail or attention to every topic within a plan. An important part of planning for an uncertain future involves deciding which topics deserve the most focus and resources. It's all about prioritizing efforts where they will have the most impact or be most beneficial despite uncertainties ahead. As with the beginner's guide, we intend for this guide to help improve decision-making in the electricity planning process by strengthening understanding and dialogue between electricity system planners and relevant stakeholders. The following information is designed to allow you to better engage in the planning process by evaluating results, asking questions, and thinking through what is most important. We allocate significant discussion in the guide to electricity demand evolution, demand-side resources, and resource adequacy. These topics have garnered increasing attention, hence their prominence in this guide. Other topics are also presented, but their incorporation into the planning process might vary based on interest and relevance. The absence of certain topics doesn't diminish their importance; rather, it reflects the reality that in planning, trade-offs necessitate prioritizing certain aspects over others.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Conference Support, 32nd Western Photosynthesis Conference 2023

This DOE-BES award provided conference support for the 32nd Western Photosynthesis Conference (WPC2023), held January 5–8, 2023 at the Bodega Bay Marine Laboratory in Bodega Bay, California. The Western Photosynthesis Conference is one of three regional photosynthesis meetings held annually in the United States and serves as a primary venue for early-career scientists—graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and undergraduates—to present research and build professional networks alongside established investigators in the field. Photosynthesis research is central to the DOE Office of Science's Basic Energy Sciences mission, underpinning fundamental understanding of solar energy conversion, biofuels, and the biological transformation of light into chemical energy. DOE-BES funds were used, as proposed, to support registration and housing costs for 20 early-career participants (9 postdoctoral researchers, 9 graduate students, and 2 undergraduates) and to help defray travel costs for two junior invited speakers based outside California, for a total DOE-BES expenditure of $10,060. The meeting was executed as planned, with no significant deviations from the approved program, budget, or schedule. WPC2023 drew 76 registrants across six scientific topic areas, featured 8 of 9 invited/keynote speakers, and provided extensive opportunities for early-career scientists to present talks and posters, compete for recognition awards, and network with senior researchers in the field.

conference↗