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DOE OSTI2023

Towards an Energy Future with Ubiquitous Electric Vehicles: Barriers and Opportunities

The electrification of personal transportation holds great potential for lowering greenhouse gas emissions and reducing climate change. The promise of electric vehicles (EVs) to serve these goals has resulted in a broad range of supporting policies aimed at encouraging widespread EV adoption at both the state and federal levels in the United States and around the world. While the EV revolution and prospects of a world with ubiquitous EVs are impacting various industries and many aspects of daily life, strategic interactions between the power grid and EVs are crucial for a successful energy transition. However, managing the interplay between EVs and the power grid remains a challenge. Motivated by that tension, this paper surveys a variety of solutions, policies, and incentives that are focused on effectively managing EV charging behaviors. The paper’s objective is to explore these tools to ensure that EV owners have ultimate control over their personal vehicles while simultaneously allowing the power grid to mitigate adverse network impacts. Furthermore, this paper examines the role of charging infrastructure technology and its strategic placement in facilitating the seamless integration of EVs into the grid. Additionally, the paper highlights financial mechanisms associated with EV integration and discusses the consequences of these mechanisms.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

NASA NTRS1990

Automated Platform Management System Scheduling

The Platform Management System was established to coordinate the operation of platform systems and instruments. The management functions are split between ground and space components. Since platforms are to be out of contact with the ground more than the manned base, the on-board functions are required to be more autonomous than those of the manned base. Under this concept, automated replanning and rescheduling, including on-board real-time schedule maintenance and schedule repair, are required to effectively and efficiently meet Space Station Freedom mission goals. In a FY88 study, we developed several promising alternatives for automated platform planning and scheduling. We recommended both a specific alternative and a phased approach to automated platform resource scheduling. Our recommended alternative was based upon use of exactly the same scheduling engine in both ground and space components of the platform management system. Our phased approach recommendation was based upon evolutionary development of the platform. In the past year, we developed platform scheduler requirements and implemented a rapid prototype of a baseline platform scheduler. Presently we are rehosting this platform scheduler rapid prototype and integrating the scheduler prototype into two Goddard Space Flight Center testbeds, as the ground scheduler in the Scheduling Concepts, Architectures, and Networks Testbed and as the on-board scheduler in the Platform Management System Testbed. Using these testbeds, we will investigate rescheduling issues, evaluate operational performance and enhance the platform scheduler prototype to demonstrate our evolutionary approach to automated platform scheduling. The work described in this paper was performed prior to Space Station Freedom rephasing, transfer of platform responsibility to Code E, and other recently discussed changes. We neither speculate on these changes nor attempt to predict the impact of the final decisions. As a consequence some of our work and results may be outdated when this paper is published.

Hull, Larry G.↗

NASA NTRS2026

Timing the Flames: Geostationary Satellite Detection of Diurnally Shifting Stubble Burning in Northwestern India

Post-monsoon open-field stubble burning in northwestern (NW) India—a key agricultural region known as the “breadbasket”—is a longstanding practice used to clear fields. Satellite observations spanning over two decades have revealed significant upward trends in crop production, vegetative greenness, and the frequency of post-harvest fires, with this last contributing to hazardous air quality during the peak burning season (mid-October to mid-November). Since 2022, thermal anomaly data from Aqua-MODIS and SNPP-VIIRS sensors have shown a sharp decline in reported fire events—an observation that contrasts starkly with the concurrent rise in regional aerosol loading detected from space. This apparent discrepancy became particularly pronounced in 2024–2025, prompting a closer examination using high-temporal-resolution imagery from the Advanced Meteorological Imager (AMI) on the geostationary satellite GEO-KOMPSAT-2A. These observations revealed a clear spike in fire-related signals occurring around and after 4:00 p.m. local time, i.e., outside the typical noon to 2:00 p.m. detection window of the MODIS and VIIRS. A fire detection algorithm exploiting the fire-sensitive shortwave-infrared 3.8 μm signal and its contrast to 11.2 μm infrared observations is designed to adopt AMI observations and applied to its multi-year observations (2019–2025). The resulting fire dataset unambiguously shows a gradual shift in stubble burning activity toward the late afternoon hours beginning in 2022 which is underreported by polar-orbiting satellites. The orbital drift of NASA’s MODIS sensor on the Aqua platform allows detection of some of the gradually shifting fires during afternoon hours, but the MODIS still misses a large number of fires occurring around and after 4 p.m. The AMI’s relatively coarse spatial resolution (~4 km), a consequence of its slant viewing geometry over NW India, imposes inherent limitations on quantifying the full extent of fire occurrences. The operational air quality forecasting models currently assimilate satellite fire detections predominantly captured during early afternoon overpasses of the MODIS and VIIRS. The temporal shift in fire activity complicates such forecast, leading to a substantial underestimation of emissions. Intense stubble burning and the resulting air pollution highlight the need for effective crop residue management practices for mitigating the frequency of open biomass burning and thereby reducing episodic degradation of air quality and its associated public health and economic impacts.

post-monsoon stubble burning; northwestern India;↗

DOE OSTI2025

Polyphenol rewiring of the microbiome reduces methane emissions

Methane mitigation is regarded as a critical strategy to combat the scale of global warming. Currently, ~40% of methane emissions originate from microbial sources, which is causing strategies to suppress methanogens—either through direct toxic effects or by diverting their substrates and energy—to gain traction. Problematically, current microbial methane mitigation knowledge lacks detailed microbiome-centered insights, limiting translation across conditions and ecosystems. Here we utilize genome-resolved metatranscriptomes and metabolomes to assess the impact of a proposed methane inhibitor, catechin, on greenhouse gas emissions for high-methane-emitting peatlands. In microcosms, catechin drastically reduced methane emissions by 72%–84% compared to controls. Longitudinal sampling allowed for reconstruction of a catechin degradation pathway involving Actinomycetota and Clostridium, which break down catechin into smaller phenolic compounds within the first 21 days, followed by degradation of phenolic compounds by Pseudomonas_E from Days 21 to 35. These genomes co-expressed hydrogen-uptake genes, suggesting hydrogenases may act as a hydrogen sink during catechin degradation and consequently reduce hydrogen availability to methanogens. In support of this idea, there was decreased gene expression by hydrogenotrophic and hydrogen-dependent methylotrophic methanogens under catechin treatment. There was also reduced gene expression from genomes inferred to be functioning syntrophically with hydrogen-utilizing methanogens. We propose that catechin metabolic redirection effectively starves hydrogen-utilizing methanogens, offering a potent avenue for curbing methane emissions across diverse environments including ruminants, landfills, and constructed or managed wetlands.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2023

Logical Activation Functions v.1.1

SAND2024-01501O Logical Activation Functions software is a PyTorch implementation from the paper, "Logical Activation Functions for Training Arbitrary Probabilistic Boolean Logic." The activation functions approximate logit-space marginalization of probabilistic truth tables from probabilistic interpretations of inputs. They also provide a general methodology to approximate logical relationships between abstract antecedents and consequents for machine learning architectures. They do not target any specific application or use-case. By training probabilistic truth tables, these activation functions can capture more expressive relationships in a neural network than typical elementwise activation functions. This code is only designed for a single compute node with a GPU and is limited to machine learning architectures than can fit within the memory of a single GPU. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

Duersch, Jed↗

DOE OSTI2026

MACCS User Guide - Version 5.2

MACCS is used by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and various national and international organizations for probabilistic consequence analysis of nuclear power accidents. This user guide is intended to assist analysts in understanding the MACCS/MACCS-UI User Interface (UI) model and to provide information regarding the code. This user guide version describes MACCS Version 5.2, model history, explains how to set up and execute a problem, and informs the user of the definition of various input parameters and any constraints placed on those parameters. This report is part of a series of reports documenting MACCS. Other reports include the MACCS Theory Manual, MACCS Verification Report, Technical Bases for Consequence Analyses Using MACCS, as well as documentation for preprocessor codes including SecPop, MelMACCS, and COMIDA2.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS2011

Risk Balance: A Key Tool for Mission Operations Assurance

The Mission Operations Assurance (MOA) discipline actively participates as a project member to achieve their common objective of full mission success while also providing an independent risk assessment to the Project Manager and Office of Safety and Mission Success staff. The cornerstone element of MOA is the independent assessment of the risks the project faces in executing its mission. Especially as the project approaches critical mission events, it becomes imperative to clearly identify and assess the risks the project faces. Quite often there are competing options for the project to select from in deciding how to execute the event. An example includes choices between proven but aging hardware components and unused but unproven components. Timing of the event with respect to visual or telecommunications visibility can be a consideration in the case of Earth reentry or hazardous maneuver events. It is in such situations that MOA is called upon for a risk balance assessment or risk trade study to support their recommendation to the Project Manager for a specific option to select. In the following paragraphs we consider two such assessments, one for the Stardust capsule Earth return and the other for the choice of telecommunications system configuration for the EPOXI flyby of the comet Hartley 2. We discuss the development of the trade space for each project's scenario and characterize the risks of each possible option. The risk characterization we consider includes a determination of the severity or consequence of each risk if realized and the likelihood of its occurrence. We then examine the assessment process to arrive at a MOA recommendation. Finally we review each flight project's decision process and the outcome of their decisions.

operations↗

DOE OSTI2020

Challenges and Practical Solutions for Conducting Structural MARSSIM Surveys in Elevated Radon Environments - 20413

The Multi-Agency Radiation Survey and Site Investigation Manual (MARSSIM) [1] provides comprehensive guidance for the development and implementation of radiological surveys conducted to demonstrate compliance with a dose- or risk-based cleanup goal during final status survey. The MARSSIM methodology follows an integrated strategy combining direct measurements and sampling to assess uniform residual contamination, and scanning surveys to identify localized areas of elevated activity. Building surveys assessing residual surface contamination present unique challenges from reliance on field measurements that may be subject to less than ideal environmental conditions. Additionally, limited characterization and excessive conservatism incorporated into the conceptual site model may result in derived concentration guideline levels (DCGL) and, as a consequence of relatively inefficient field instrumentation, corresponding attributable count rates generally comparable to background. The presence of elevated ambient radon concentrations and associated progeny deposition both exacerbate these intrinsic survey challenges and introduce a series of technical, logistic, and administrative obstacles that can wreak havoc on the statistical legitimacy of each component of the MARSSIM process. Short-lived radon progeny including polonium-218, lead-214, bismuth-214, and polonium-214 produce excessive alpha and beta radiation that may decrease instrument sensitivity through an increase in background count rates, and, at worst, may result in incorrect survey unit failure through the simulation of residual surface activity. Aside from the obvious solution of exhaustive radon mitigation, the primary objectives are to distinguish between radon progeny deposition and actual surface activity, and collect sufficient defensible data. The following is a technical discussion of the consequences of performing building MARSSIM surveys in the presence of elevated ambient radon atmospheres, conceptual examples, and an overview of practical strategies to minimize the effects of radon interference while collecting sufficient defensible data to complete the survey. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

NASA NTRS2019

An Approach for Uncertainty Quantification and Management of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Health

The increasing interest in low-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations is bringing along safety concerns. Performance of small, low-cost UAVs drastically changes with type, size and controller of the vehicle. Their reliability is lower when compared to reliability of commercial aircrafts, and the availability of on-board sensors for health and state awareness is extremely limited due to their size and propulsion capabilities. Uncertainty plays a dominant role in such a scenario, where a variety of UAVs of different size, propulsion systems, dynamic performance and reliability enters the low-altitude airspace. Unexpected failures could have dangerous consequences for both equipment and humans within that same airspace. As a result, a number of research works and methodologies are being proposed in the area of UAV dynamic modeling, health and safety monitoring, but uncertainty quantification is rarely addressed. Thus, this paper pro- poses a perspective towards uncertainty quantification for autonomous systems, giving special emphasis to a UAV health monitoring application. A formal approach to classify uncertainty is presented; it is utilized to identify the uncertainty sources in UAVs health and operations, and then map uncertainty within a predictive process. To show the application of the methodology proposed here, the design of a model-based powertrain health monitoring algorithm for small-size UAVs is used as case study. The example illustrates how the uncertainty quantification approach can help the modeling strategy, as well as the assessment of diagnostic and prognostic performance.

Health Monitoring↗

DOE OSTI2025

National Energy Water Treatment & Speciation (NEWTS): A Water & Critical Mineral Database and Dashboard

The scarcity of water resources, the need for beneficial water reuse, and the challenges of wastewater treatment are becoming increasingly pressing in economic, social, and environmental domains. Addressing these concerns requires effective treatment strategies to manage wastewater streams and tackle environmental and economic issues. Furthermore, the recovery of critical minerals from the waste streams associated with energy production holds the promise of offsetting treatment costs and securing local sources of valuable minerals. However, relevant data on these waste streams are dispersed and challenging to locate. The process of ingesting such data into modeling software often involves multiple steps, requiring data restructuring to meet software-input requirements. The non-standardized reporting of water data makes data aggregation and reformatting a time-consuming process. Additionally, essential attributes necessary for modeling water treatment and mineral scale formation are frequently missing. Moreover, data gaps vary depending on the region of interest. Consequently, there is a pressing need for high-quality energy-water composition data that can be easily imported into water chemistry modeling software. To address this need, the National Energy Technology Laboratory has created the National Energy Water Treatment and Speciation (NEWTS) Database and Dashboard—a free online tool catering to community leaders and water researchers. NEWTS facilitates a comprehensive understanding of the composition of energy-related wastewater streams in the United States. The datasets provide detailed concentrations and speciation of major and minor aqueous compounds in energy-related wastewater streams, including power plant leachate, acid mine drainage, brackish water, and oil and gas produced water across the United States. Many of the aqueous species are critical minerals (Li, REEs) in high demand to modernize the world’s energy infrastructure. Many of the datasets also contain volumetric flow-rates needed to model the treatment and reuse scenarios in advanced aqueous chemistry software programs. The NEWTS Database and Dashboard offer public access to hitherto challenging-to-access datasets, presented in a standardized format that is tailored for easy input into aqueous chemistry modeling software. By performing the work needed to transform dispersed, disparate data sources into unified, model-ready datasets, NEWTS serves as an essential resource in advancing water treatment research and sustainable water resource management.

produced water management↗

DOE OSTI2023

Quantum Noise Mitigation: Introducing the Robust Quantum Circuit Scheduler for Enhanced Fidelity and Throughput

Undoubtedly, quantum computing offers valuable acceleration for solving intricate problems. One of the primary hurdles lies in executing large-scale quantum applications on backend machines. Qubit noise, among other factors, dramatically influences the execution process. Implementing effective scheduling techniques for quantum circuits is crucial for practical quantum computing and preventing excessive waiting times. The quantum realm is distinct from classical computing in terms of optimization, performance, utilization, and waiting periods. Consequently, the parameters and components of quantum circuit scheduling diverge from those of classical computing. This paper presents Quantum Noise Mitigation: Introducing the Robust Quantum Circuit Scheduler for Enhanced Fidelity and Throughput, a straightforward yet effective scheduling framework and policy that enhances noise resilience, throughput, and the fidelity of quantum circuits. Drawing inspiration from classical methods, our scheduling approach incorporates additional constraints tailored for quantum logic. The outcome demonstrates a substantial improvement in fidelity and resource management, which is vital for real-world quantum applications.

Baheri, Betis↗

DOE OSTI2025

ON THE LANGUAGE OF RELIABILITY: A SYSTEM ENGINEER PERSPECTIVE

In its classical definition, risk is defined by three elements: what can go wrong, what are its consequences and how likely is it to occur. While this definition makes sense in a regulatory based framework to estimate risk associated to power plants (in terms of core damage frequency and large early release frequency), this approach does not provide a useful snapshot of the health of the plant. A possible alternate path can start by redefining the word “risk” to a broader meaning that better reflects the needs of a system health and asset management decision making process. Rather than asking how likely an event can occur (in probabilistic terms), we can ask how far this event is from occurring. We will show how, given the data available from plant equipment reliability and monitoring/diagnostic/prognostic centers, a margin can be described and determined for all type of maintenance approaches (e.g., corrective or predictive maintenance). We will show how to link SSC margin-based reliability models to system reliability models (i.e., fault trees) in order to assess system/plant health and how to perform margin-based system calculations. These calculations are not solved using classical probabilistic calculations applied to sets (as performed by any PRA code) but, instead, through metric spaces operations (i.e., distance/margin based approach).

97 - MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

NASA NTRS2021

Simulation and Modeling Concepts for Secure Airspace Operations

This paper examines cyber security vulnerabilities of Urban Air Mobility operations. With the expected advent of new entrants including Unmanned Aerial Systems, Commercial Launch Vehicles and Urban Air Mobility aircraft, the future United States National Airspace System will have to evolve to include their operations along with the current commercial, general aviation and military operations. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration are working together to provide a vision for aviation operations in the future—2045 and beyond. Their National Airspace System Horizons initiative seeks to provide stakeholders a list of operational scenarios and technologies, concepts and strategies needed for supporting that vision. They have identified cybersecurity as one of the seven strategic interest areas for realizing this vision. Consequently, NASA is studying cyber resiliency for secure airspace operations. While there are many pathways to attack a cyber physical system such as Urban Air Mobility, their effect is expressed in modification or corruption of data/information used for controlling vehicles and making operational decisions. The paper describes cybersecurity technologies of Encryption, Blockchain, Virtual Information Fabric Infrastructure, Trusted Platform Module and Anomaly Detection for protecting the data, and the cyber resiliency of the current and future air traffic management system.

Urban Air Mobility↗

NASA NTRS2021

Simulation and Modeling Concepts for Secure Airspace Operations

Urban Air Mobility↗

NASA NTRS1991

Concepts, requirements, and design approaches for building successful planning and scheduling systems

Traditional practice of systems engineering management assumes requirements can be precisely determined and unambiguously defined prior to system design and implementation; practice further assumes requirements are held static during implementation. Human-computer decision support systems for service planning and scheduling applications do not conform well to these assumptions. Adaptation to the traditional practice of systems engineering management are required. Basic technology exists to support these adaptations. Additional innovations must be encouraged and nutured. Continued partnership between the programmatic and technical perspective assures proper balance of the impossible with the possible. Past problems have the following origins: not recognizing the unusual and perverse nature of the requirements for planning and scheduling; not recognizing the best starting point assumptions for the design; not understanding the type of system that being built; and not understanding the design consequences of the operations concept selected.

Hornstein, Rhoda Shaller↗

NASA NTRS2018

The Pathway to a Safe and Effective Spaceflight Medication Formulary: Expert Review Panel Recommendations

Exploration spaceflight poses several challenges to the provision of a comprehensive medication formulary. This formulary must accommodate the size and space limitations of the spacecraft, while addressing individual medication needs and preferences of the crew, consequences of a degrading inventory over time, the inability to resupply used or expired medications, and the need to forecast the best possible medication candidates to treat conditions that may occur. The Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) Element's Pharmacy Project Team has developed a research plan (RP) that is focused on evidence-based models and theories as well as new diagnostic tools, treatments, or preventive measures aimed to ensure an available, safe, and effective pharmacy sufficient to manage potential medical threats during exploration spaceflight. Here, we will discuss the ways in which the ExMC Pharmacy Project Team pursued expert evaluation and guidance, and incorporated acquired insight into an achievable research pathway, reflected in the revised RP.

Daniels, V. R.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Neural mechanisms of kinesthesia

Our primary interest is in where the signals for position and movement of the limbs originate and how the information is encoded. Humans can independently sense the positions and movements of their limbs in the absence of vision, and their senses are derived from mechanoreceptors located in the limbs. Receptors in muscles, skin and joints are potential sources of position and movement signals, but how (and whether) each of these groups contributes to kinesthesia remains uncertain. Recent evidence indicates that a sense of static-position derives from length receptors in muscle, whereas receptors in the skin, and possibly though not likely the joints, can signal movement of a limb but not its static position. At present, we are examining the consequences of not having a static-position sense at the fingers apart from an inability to detect very slow displacements. Using a more demanding test, we have found no substantial difference in the accuracy of reproducing target positions passively imposed on the MCP joint and the proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint of the index finger. Our working hypothesis is that subjects normally use movement sense mechanisms to detect displacements, probably because they are faster, but how (or whether) subjects manage to obtain an absolute position reference with only a movement sense available remains unknown and is an issue under investigation.

Clark, Francis J.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Application of MODIS Products to Infer Possible Relationships Between Basin Land Cover and Coastal Waters Turbidity Using the Magdalena River, Colombia, as a Case Study

Basin development and consequent change in basin land cover have been often associated with an increased turbidity in coastal waters because of sediment yield and nutrients loading. The later leads to phytoplankton abundance further exacerbating water turbidity. This subsequently affects biological and physical processes in coastal estuaries by interfering with sun light penetration to coral reefs and sea grass, and even affecting public health. Therefore, consistent estimation of land cover changes and turbidity trend lines is crucial to design environmental and restoration management plans, to predict fate of possible pollutants, and to estimate sedimentary fluxes into the ocean. Ground solely methods to estimate land cover change would be unpractical and traditional methods of monitoring in situ water turbidity can be very expensive and time consuming. Accurate monitoring on the status and trends of basin land cover as well as the water quality of the receiving water bodies are required for analysis of relationships between the two variables. Use of remote sensing (RS) technology provides a great benefit for both fields of study, facilitating monitoring of changes in a timely and cost effective manner and covering wide areas with long term measurements. In this study, the Magdalena River basin and fixed geographical locations in the estuarine waters of its delta are used as a case to study the temporal trend lines of both, land cover change and the reflectance of the water turbidity using satellite technology. Land cover data from a combined product between sensors Terra and Aqua (MCD12Q1) from MODIS will be adapted to the conditions in the Magdalena basin to estimate changes in land cover since year 2000 to 2009. Surface reflectance data from a MODIS, Terra (MOD09GQ), band 1, will be used in lieu of in situ water turbidity for the time period between 2000 and present. Results will be compared with available existing data.

Madrinan, Max Jacobo Moreno↗