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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2005

Contingency Operations Support to NASA Johnson Space Center Medical Operations Division

The Wyle Laboratories Contingency Operations Group provides support to the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) Medical Operations Division in the event of a space flight vehicle accident or JSC mishap. Support includes development of Emergency Medical System (EMS) requirements, procedures, training briefings and real-time support of mishap investigations. The Contingency Operations Group is compliant with NASA documentation that provides guidance in these areas and maintains contact with the United States Department of Defense (DOD) to remain current on military plans to support NASA. The contingency group also participates in Space Operations Medical Support Training Courses (SOMSTC) and represents the NASA JSC Medical Operations Division at contingency exercises conducted worldwide by the DOD or NASA. The events of September 11, 2001 have changed how this country prepares and protects itself from possible terrorist attacks on high-profile targets. As a result, JSC is now considered a high-profile target and thus, must prepare for and develop a response to a Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) incident. The Wyle Laboratories Contingency Operations Group supports this plan, specifically the medical response, by providing expertise and manpower.

Stepaniak, Philip↗
NASA NTRS2005

An Economic Model of U.S. Airline Operating Expenses

This report presents a new economic model of operating expenses for 67 airlines. The model is based on data that the airlines reported to the United States Department of Transportation in 1999. The model incorporates expense-estimating equations that capture direct and indirect expenses of both passenger and cargo airlines. The variables and business factors included in the equations are detailed enough to calculate expenses at the flight equipment reporting level. Total operating expenses for a given airline are then obtained by summation over all aircraft operated by the airline. The model's accuracy is demonstrated by correlation with the DOT Form 41 data from which it was derived. Passenger airlines are more accurately modeled than cargo airlines. An appendix presents a concise summary of the expense estimating equations with explanatory notes. The equations include many operational and aircraft variables, which accommodate any changes that airline and aircraft manufacturers might make to lower expenses in the future. In 1999, total operating expenses of the 67 airlines included in this study amounted to slightly over $100.5 billion. The economic model reported herein estimates $109.3 billion.

Harris, Franklin D.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Designing a process for executing projects under an international agreement

Projects executed under an international agreement require special arrangements in order to operate within confines of regulations issued by the State Department and the Commerce Department. In order to communicate enterprise-level guidance and procedural information uniformly to projects based on interpretations that carry the weight of institutional authority, a process was developed. This paper provides a script for designing processes in general, using this particular process for context. While the context is incidental, the method described is applicable to any process in general. The paper will expound on novel features utilized for dissemination of the procedural details over the Internet following such process design.

process design↗
NASA NTRS1992

Microspacecraft: A Concept

There is need for smaller, faster, more frequent space science missions. Smaller spacecraft may enable such missions. Technology has been developed by the United States' Department of Defense and other government agencies that can enable smaller spacecraft. This author has developed a generic concept for utilizing advanced technology to create a microspacecraft. A microspacecraft would have a mass on the order of 10 kg. This paper will present this microspacecraft concept.

Jones, R. M.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Statistical Issues for Uncontrolled Reentry Hazards

A number of statistical tools have been developed over the years for assessing the risk of reentering objects to human populations. These tools make use of the characteristics (e.g., mass, shape, size) of debris that are predicted by aerothermal models to survive reentry. The statistical tools use this information to compute the probability that one or more of the surviving debris might hit a person on the ground and cause one or more casualties. The statistical portion of the analysis relies on a number of assumptions about how the debris footprint and the human population are distributed in latitude and longitude, and how to use that information to arrive at realistic risk numbers. This inevitably involves assumptions that simplify the problem and make it tractable, but it is often difficult to test the accuracy and applicability of these assumptions. This paper looks at a number of these theoretical assumptions, examining the mathematical basis for the hazard calculations, and outlining the conditions under which the simplifying assumptions hold. In addition, this paper will also outline some new tools for assessing ground hazard risk in useful ways. Also, this study is able to make use of a database of known uncontrolled reentry locations measured by the United States Department of Defense. By using data from objects that were in orbit more than 30 days before reentry, sufficient time is allowed for the orbital parameters to be randomized in the way the models are designed to compute. The predicted ground footprint distributions of these objects are based on the theory that their orbits behave basically like simple Kepler orbits. However, there are a number of factors - including the effects of gravitational harmonics, the effects of the Earth's equatorial bulge on the atmosphere, and the rotation of the Earth and atmosphere - that could cause them to diverge from simple Kepler orbit behavior and change the ground footprints. The measured latitude and longitude distributions of these objects provide data that can be directly compared with the predicted distributions, providing a fundamental empirical test of the model assumptions.

Matney, Mark↗
NASA NTRS2009

The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope - Overview and Early Science Results

The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (formerly named GLAST) was designed and built by NASA, many cooperating foreign space agencies, and the United States Department of Energy. It launched in June of 2008 and has been observing gamma-ray bursts for over 8 months. This paper describes the mission systems and the mission overview; how the instruments work; summarizes the on-orbit activation, and discusses the most recent science highlights.

Leibee, Jack↗
NASA NTRS2007

Advanced High-Definition Video Cameras

A product line of high-definition color video cameras, now under development, offers a superior combination of desirable characteristics, including high frame rates, high resolutions, low power consumption, and compactness. Several of the cameras feature a 3,840 2,160-pixel format with progressive scanning at 30 frames per second. The power consumption of one of these cameras is about 25 W. The size of the camera, excluding the lens assembly, is 2 by 5 by 7 in. (about 5.1 by 12.7 by 17.8 cm). The aforementioned desirable characteristics are attained at relatively low cost, largely by utilizing digital processing in advanced field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) to perform all of the many functions (for example, color balance and contrast adjustments) of a professional color video camera. The processing is programmed in VHDL so that application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) can be fabricated directly from the program. ["VHDL" signifies VHSIC Hardware Description Language C, a computing language used by the United States Department of Defense for describing, designing, and simulating very-high-speed integrated circuits (VHSICs).] The image-sensor and FPGA clock frequencies in these cameras have generally been much higher than those used in video cameras designed and manufactured elsewhere. Frequently, the outputs of these cameras are converted to other video-camera formats by use of pre- and post-filters.

Glenn, William↗
NASA NTRS2010

Evaluating the Utility of Remotely-Sensed Soil Moisture Retrievals for Operational Agricultural Drought Monitoring

Soil moisture is a fundamental data source used by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) International Production Assessment Division (IPAD) to monitor crop growth stage and condition and subsequently, globally forecast agricultural yields. Currently, the USDA IPAD estimates surface and root-zone soil moisture using a two-layer modified Palmer soil moisture model forced by global precipitation and temperature measurements. However, this approach suffers from well-known errors arising from uncertainty in model forcing data and highly simplified model physics. Here we attempt to correct for these errors by designing and applying an Ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) data assimilation system to integrate surface soil moisture retrievals from the NASA Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) into the USDA modified Palmer soil moisture model. An assessment of soil moisture analysis products produced from this assimilation has been completed for a five-year (2002 to 2007) period over the North American continent between 23degN - 50degN and 128degW - 65degW. In particular, a data denial experimental approach is utilized to isolate the added utility of integrating remotely-sensed soil moisture by comparing EnKF soil moisture results obtained using (relatively) low-quality precipitation products obtained from real-time satellite imagery to baseline Palmer model runs forced with higher quality rainfall. An analysis of root-zone anomalies for each model simulation suggests that the assimilation of AMSR-E surface soil moisture retrievals can add significant value to USDA root-zone predictions derived from real-time satellite precipitation products.

Bolten, John D.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Empirical Tests of the Predicted Footprint for Uncontrolled Satellite Reentry Hazards

A number of statistical tools have been developed over the years for assessing the risk of reentering object to human populations. These tools make use of the characteristics (e.g., mass, material, shape, size) of debris that are predicted by aerothermal models to survive reentry. The statistical tools use this information to compute the probability that one or more of the surviving debris might hit a person on the ground and cause one or more casualties. The statistical portion of the analysis relies on a number of assumptions about how the debris footprint and the human population are distributed in latitude and longitude, and how to use that information to arrive at realistic risk numbers. Because this information is used in making policy and engineering decisions, it is important that these assumptions be tested using empirical data. This study uses the latest database of known uncontrolled reentry locations measured by the United States Department of Defense. The predicted ground footprint distributions of these objects are based on the theory that their orbits behave basically like simple Kepler orbits. However, there are a number of factors in the final stages of reentry - including the effects of gravitational harmonics, the effects of the Earth s equatorial bulge on the atmosphere, and the rotation of the Earth and atmosphere - that could cause them to diverge from simple Kepler orbit behavior and possibly change the probability of reentering over a given location. In this paper, the measured latitude and longitude distributions of these objects are directly compared with the predicted distributions, providing a fundamental empirical test of the model assumptions.

Matney, Mark↗
NASA NTRS2011

Statistical Issues for Uncontrolled Reentry Hazards Empirical Tests of the Predicted Footprint for Uncontrolled Satellite Reentry Hazards

A number of statistical tools have been developed over the years for assessing the risk of reentering objects to human populations. These tools make use of the characteristics (e.g., mass, material, shape, size) of debris that are predicted by aerothermal models to survive reentry. The statistical tools use this information to compute the probability that one or more of the surviving debris might hit a person on the ground and cause one or more casualties. The statistical portion of the analysis relies on a number of assumptions about how the debris footprint and the human population are distributed in latitude and longitude, and how to use that information to arrive at realistic risk numbers. Because this information is used in making policy and engineering decisions, it is important that these assumptions be tested using empirical data. This study uses the latest database of known uncontrolled reentry locations measured by the United States Department of Defense. The predicted ground footprint distributions of these objects are based on the theory that their orbits behave basically like simple Kepler orbits. However, there are a number of factors in the final stages of reentry - including the effects of gravitational harmonics, the effects of the Earth s equatorial bulge on the atmosphere, and the rotation of the Earth and atmosphere - that could cause them to diverge from simple Kepler orbit behavior and possibly change the probability of reentering over a given location. In this paper, the measured latitude and longitude distributions of these objects are directly compared with the predicted distributions, providing a fundamental empirical test of the model assumptions.

Matney, Mark↗
NASA NTRS2011

DoD-GEIS Rift Valley Fever Monitoring and Prediction System as a Tool for Defense and US Diplomacy

Over the last 10 years the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center's Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System (GEIS) partnering with NASA'S Goddard Space Flight Center and USDA's USDA-Center for Medical, Agricultural & Veterinary Entomology established and have operated the Rift Valley fever Monitoring and Prediction System to monitor, predict and assess the risk of Rift Valley fever outbreaks and other vector-borne diseases over Africa and the Middle East. This system is built on legacy DoD basic research conducted by Walter Reed Army Institute of Research overseas laboratory (US Army Medical Research Unit-Kenya) and the operational satellite environmental monitoring by NASA GSFC. Over the last 10 years of operation the system has predicted outbreaks of Rift Valley fever in the Horn of Africa, Sudan, South Africa and Mauritania. The ability to predict an outbreak several months before it occurs provides early warning to protect deployed forces, enhance public health in concerned countries and is a valuable tool use.d by the State Department in US Diplomacy. At the international level the system has been used by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAD) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to support their monitoring, surveillance and response programs in the livestock sector and human health. This project is a successful testament of leveraging resources of different federal agencies to achieve objectives of force health protection, health and diplomacy.

Anyamba, Assaf↗
NASA NTRS2013

Geospatial Modeling of Asthma Population in Relation to Air Pollution

Current observations indicate that asthma is growing every year in the United States, specific reasons for this are not well understood. This study stems from an ongoing research effort to investigate the spatio-temporal behavior of asthma and its relatedness to air pollution. The association between environmental variables such as air quality and asthma related health issues over Mississippi State are investigated using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools and applications. Health data concerning asthma obtained from Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) for 9-year period of 2003-2011, and data of air pollutant concentrations (PM2.5) collected from USEPA web resources, and are analyzed geospatially to establish the impacts of air quality on human health specifically related to asthma. Disease mapping using geospatial techniques provides valuable insights into the spatial nature, variability, and association of asthma to air pollution. Asthma patient hospitalization data of Mississippi has been analyzed and mapped using quantitative Choropleth techniques in ArcGIS. Patients have been geocoded to their respective zip codes. Potential air pollutant sources of Interstate highways, Industries, and other land use data have been integrated in common geospatial platform to understand their adverse contribution on human health. Existing hospitals and emergency clinics are being injected into analysis to further understand their proximity and easy access to patient locations. At the current level of analysis and understanding, spatial distribution of Asthma is observed in the populations of Zip code regions in gulf coast, along the interstates of south, and in counties of Northeast Mississippi. It is also found that asthma is prevalent in most of the urban population. This GIS based project would be useful to make health risk assessment and provide information support to the administrators and decision makers for establishing satellite clinics in future.

Kethireddy, Swatantra R.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Reconsidering Tree Fruit as Candidate Crops Through the Use of Rapid Cycle Crop Breeding Technologies

Tree fruit, although desirable from a crew nutrition and menu diversity perspective, have long been dismissed as candidate crops based on their long juvenile phase, large architecture, low short-term harvest index, and dormancy requirements. Recent developments in Rapid Cycle Crop Breeding (RCCB) have overcome these historical limitations, opening the door to a new era in candidate crop research. Researchers at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have developed FT-construct (Flowering Locus T) dwarf plum lines that have a very short juvenile phase, vine-like architecture, and no obligate dormancy period. In a collaborative research effort, NASA and the USDA are evaluating the performance of these FT-lines under controlled environment conditions relevant to spaceflight.

PtFT1↗
NASA NTRS2015

Design, Qualification and Integration Testing of the High-Temperature Resistance Temperature Device for Stirling Power System

The Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG), developed from 2006 to 2013 under the joint sponsorship of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to provide a high-efficiency power system for future deep space missions, employed Sunpower Incorporated's Advanced Stirling Convertors (ASCs) with operating temperature up to 840 C. High-temperature operation was made possible by advanced heater head materials developed to increase reliability and thermal-to-mechanical conversion efficiency. During a mission, it is desirable to monitor the Stirling hot-end temperature as a measure of convertor health status and assist in making appropriate operating parameter adjustments to maintain the desired hot-end temperature as the radioisotope fuel decays. To facilitate these operations, a Resistance Temperature Device (RTD) that is capable of high-temperature, continuous long-life service was designed, developed and qualified for use in the ASRG. A thermal bridge was also implemented to reduce the RTD temperature exposure while still allowing an accurate projection of the ASC hot-end temperature. NASA integrated two flight-design RTDs on the ASCs and assembled into the high-fidelity Engineering Unit, the ASRG EU2, at Glenn Research Center (GRC) for extended operation and system characterization. This paper presents the design implementation and qualification of the RTD, and its performance characteristics and calibration in the ASRG EU2 testing.

Deep Space↗
NASA NTRS2016

Evaluation of Assimilated SMOS Soil Moisture Data for US Cropland Soil Moisture Monitoring

Remotely sensed soil moisture data can provide timely, objective and quantitative crop soil moisture information with broad geospatial coverage and sufficiently high resolution observations collected throughout the growing season. This paper evaluates the feasibility of using the assimilated ESA Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS)Mission L-band passive microwave data for operational US cropland soil surface moisture monitoring. The assimilated SMOS soil moisture data are first categorized to match with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) survey based weekly soil moisture observation data, which are ordinal. The categorized assimilated SMOS soil moisture data are compared with NASSs survey-based weekly soil moisture data for consistency and robustness using visual assessment and rank correlation. Preliminary results indicate that the assimilated SMOS soil moisture data highly co-vary with NASS field observations across a large geographic area. Therefore, SMOS data have great potential for US operational cropland soil moisture monitoring.

SMOS↗
NASA NTRS2017

Estimating the Relative Water Content of Leaves in a Cotton Canopy

Remotely sensing plant canopy water status remains a long-term goal of remote sensing research. Established approaches to estimating canopy water status the Crop Water Stress Index, the Water Deficit Index and the Equivalent Water Thickness involve measurements in the thermal or reflective infrared. Here we report plant water status estimates based upon analysis of polarized visible imagery of a cotton canopy measured by ground Multi-Spectral Polarization Imager (MSPI). Such estimators potentially provide access to the plant hydrological photochemistry that manifests scattering and absorption effects in the visible spectral region.Twice during one day, +- 3 hours from solar noon, we collected polarized imagery and relative water content data on a cotton test plot located at the Arid Land Agricultural Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture, Maricopa, AZ. The test plot, a small portion of a large cotton field, contained stressed plants ready for irrigation. The evening prior to data collection we irrigated several rows of plants within the test plot. Thus, ground MSPI imagery from both morning and afternoon included cotton plants with a range of water statuses. Data analysis includes classifying the polarized imagery into sunlit reflecting, sunlit transmitting, shaded foliage and bare soil. We estimate the leaf surface reflection and interior reflection based upon the per pixel polarization and sunview directions. We compare our cotton results with our prior polarization results for corn and soybean leaves measured in the lab and corn leaves measured in the field.

Cotton Canopy↗
NASA NTRS2016

Benefit of Modeling the Observation Error in a Data Assimilation Framework Using Vegetation Information Obtained From Passive Based Microwave Data

A primary operational goal of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is to improve foreign market access for U.S. agricultural products. A large fraction of this crop condition assessment is based on satellite imagery and ground data analysis. The baseline soil moisture estimates that are currently used for this analysis are based on output from the modified Palmer two-layer soil moisture model, updated to assimilate near-real time observations derived from the Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite. The current data assimilation system is based on a 1-D Ensemble Kalman Filter approach, where the observation error is modeled as a function of vegetation density. This allows for offsetting errors in the soil moisture retrievals. The observation error is currently adjusted using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) climatology. In this paper we explore the possibility of utilizing microwave-based vegetation optical depth instead.

Vegetation↗
NASA NTRS2017

Technology Evaluation for Environmental Risk Mitigation Compendium

The Technology Evaluation for Environmental Risk Mitigation (TEERM) Principal Center and its predecessor organization the Acquisition Pollution Prevention Program (AP2) supported the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in identifying technology solutions to risks and costs to NASA programs driven by environmental regulations and requirements. TEERM researched the commercial and government marketplace to locate viable and available technologies that met NASAs needs. TEERM focused on addressing environmentally-driven risks of direct concern to NASA programs and facilities, including hazardous materials in NASA operations and materials that became obsolescent because of environmental regulations. TEERM projects aimed to reduce cost; ensure the health and safety of people, assets, and the environment; promote efficiency; and minimize duplication. Major TEERM and AP2 projects focused on waste minimization and hazardous waste treatment, recycling, corrosion prevention and control, solvent and ozone depleting substances substitution, and aqueous based cleaners. In 2017, NASA made the decision to terminate the TEERM Principal Center. This Compendium Report documents TEERM and AP2 project successes. The Compendium Report traces the evolution of TEERM based on evolving risks and requirements for NASA and its relationship to the Space Shuttle Program, the United States Department of Defense, the European Space Agency, and other public and private stakeholders. This Compendium Report also documents project details from Project Summaries and Joint Test Plans and describes project stakeholders and collaborative effort results.

material obsolescent↗