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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 NTRS2015

Initial Sensorimotor and Cardiovascular Data Acquired from Soyuz Landings: Establishing a Functional Performance Recovery Time Constant

INTRODUCTION Testing of crew responses following long-duration flights has not been previously possible until a minimum of more than 24 hours after landing. As a result, it has not been possible to determine the trend of the early recovery process, nor has it been possible to accurately assess the full impact of the decrements associated with long-duration flight. To overcome these limitations, both the Russian and U.S. programs have implemented joint testing at the Soyuz landing site. This International Space Station research effort has been identified as the functional Field Test, and represents data collect on NASA, Russian, European Space Agency, and Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency crews. RESEARCH The primary goal of this research is to determine functional abilities associated with long-duration space flight crews beginning as soon after landing as possible on the day of landing (typically within 1 to 1.5 hours). This goal has both sensorimotor and cardiovascular elements. To date, a total of 15 subjects have participated in a 'pilot' version of the full 'field test'. The full version of the 'field test' will assess functional sensorimotor measurements included hand/eye coordination, standing from a seated position (sit-to-stand), walking normally without falling, measurement of dynamic visual acuity, discriminating different forces generated with the hands (both strength and ability to judge just noticeable differences of force), standing from a prone position, coordinated walking involving tandem heel-to-toe placement (tested with eyes both closed and open), walking normally while avoiding obstacles of differing heights, and determining postural ataxia while standing (measurement of quiet stance). Sensorimotor performance has been obtained using video records, and data from body worn inertial sensors. The cardiovascular portion of the investigation has measured blood pressure and heart rate during a timed stand test in conjunction with postural ataxia testing (quiet stance sway) as well as cardiovascular responses during sensorimotor testing on all of the above measures. We have also collected motion sickness data associated with each of the postflight tests. When possible rudimentary cerebellar assessment was undertaken. In addition to the immediate post-landing collection of data, postflight data has been acquired twice more within 24 hours after landing and measurements continue until sensorimotor and cardiovascular responses have returned to preflight normative values (approximately 60 days postflight). SUMMARY The level of functional deficit observed in the crew tested to date is more severe than expected, clearly triggered by the acquisition of gravity loads immediately after landing when the demands for crew intervention in response to emergency operations will be greatest. Measureable performance parameters such as ability to perform a seat egress, recover from a fall or the ability to see clearly when walking, and related physiologic data (orthostatic responses) are required to provide an evidence base for characterizing programmatic risks and the degree of variability among crewmembers for exploration missions where the crew will be unassisted after landing. Overall, these early functional and related physiologic measurements will allow the estimation of nonlinear sensorimotor and cardiovascular recovery trends that have not been previously captured.

Reschke, M. F.↗
DOE OSTI2024

GCAM–GLORY v1.0: representing global reservoir water storage in a multi-sector human–Earth system model

Abstract. Reservoirs play a significant role in modifying the spatiotemporal availability of surface water to meet multi-sector human demands, despite representing a relatively small fraction of the global water budget. Yet the integrated modeling frameworks that explore the interactions among climate, land, energy, water, and socioeconomic systems at a global scale often contain limited representations of water storage dynamics that incorporate feedbacks from other systems. In this study, we implement a representation of water storage in the Global Change Analysis Model (GCAM) to enable the exploration of the future role (e.g., expansion) of reservoir water storage globally in meeting demands for, and evolving in response to interactions with, the climate, land, and energy systems. GCAM represents 235 global water basins, operates at 5-year time steps, and uses supply curves to capture economic competition among renewable water (now including reservoirs), non-renewable groundwater, and desalination. Our approach consists of developing the GLObal Reservoir Yield (GLORY) model, which uses a linear programming (LP)-based optimization algorithm and dynamically linking GLORY with GCAM. The new coupled GCAM–GLORY approach improves the representation of reservoir water storage in GCAM in several ways. First, the GLORY model identifies the cost of supplying increasing levels of water supply from reservoir storage by considering regional physical and economic factors, such as evolving monthly reservoir inflows and demands, and the leveled cost of constructing additional reservoir storage capacity. Second, by passing those costs to GCAM, GLORY enables the exploration of future regional reservoir expansion pathways and their response to climate and socioeconomic drivers. To guide the model toward reasonable reservoir expansion pathways, GLORY applies a diverse array of feasibility constraints related to protected land, population, water sources, and cropland. Finally, the GLORY–GCAM feedback loop allows evolving water demands from GCAM to inform GLORY, resulting in an updated supply curve at each time step, thus enabling GCAM to establish a more meaningful economic value of water. This study improves our understanding of the sensitivity of reservoir water supply to multiple physical and economic dimensions, such as sub-annual variations in climate conditions and human water demands, especially for basins experiencing socioeconomic droughts.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Global and regional perspectives on optimizing thermo-responsive dynamic windows for energy-efficient buildings

Architectural thermo-responsive dynamic windows offer an autonomous solution for solar heat regulation, thereby reducing building energy consumption. Previous work has emphasized the significance of thermo-responsive windows in hot climates due to their role in solar heat control and subsequent energy conservation; conversely, our study provides a different perspective. Through a global-scale analysis, we explore over 100 material samples and execute more than 2.8 million simulations across over two thousand global locations. World heatmap results, derived from well-trained artificial neural network models, reveal that thermo-responsive windows are especially useful in climates where buildings demand both heating and cooling energy, whereas thermo-responsive windows with optimal transition temperatures show no dynamic features in most of low-latitude tropical regions. Additionally, this study provides a practical guideline and an open-source mapping tool to optimize the intrinsic properties of thermo-responsive materials and evaluate their energy performance for sustainable buildings at various geographical scales.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2026

Modeling Framework for Data Center

This chapter highlights the critical need for advanced modeling of data centers due to their rapidly increasing energy consumption and impact on grid reliability. Driven by the demand for AI applications, data centers are projected to consume a significant portion of US energy by 2028, putting stress on an already challenged power grid. The chapter emphasizes the importance of "fast" time-scale models to understand the dynamic interactions between data centers and the grid, especially given the rapid power fluctuations of AI workloads. It outlines a modeling framework that includes both offline and real-time EMT domain simulations, detailing the necessary representations for various components like utility interfaces, transformers, IT loads, UPS, cooling loads, Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), generators, protection systems, and higher-level control systems. While standard simulation tools like PSCAD offer basic models, custom development is often required to accurately capture the unique and fast-changing behaviors of modern data centers. The chapter also discusses key metrics and test cases for validating these models, focusing on transient load responses, protection relay coordination, and demand flexibility. Finally, it addresses the challenges of modeling large-scale data centers, such as computational complexity and the trade-off between model fidelity and practicality, suggesting hybrid modeling approaches as a solution. The overarching goal is to create a robust framework that helps assess data center impacts on grid stability, identify vulnerabilities, and inform the development of standards for reliable integration of these large loads into the bulk power system.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Demonstration Trials of AI/ML Edge+Cloud Suite (CRADA Final Report)

PACE AI and LBNL partnered under this CRADA to test and evaluate the PACE5 edge node prototype, an AI/ML edge and cloud-based suite, at FLEXLAB.The objective of the test was to evaluate the PACE5 edge node prototype's ability to perform demand shed and take to dynamic price signals, and to demonstrate advanced fault detection and microgrid monitoring capabilities.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Show Me the Money! Evaluating A Graduated Incentive Structure to Keep Respondents Engaged Through 101 Surveys in 28 Days

We report the results of a survey test conducted in advance of a series of community response tests (CRTs) to evaluate response to noise from NASA’s X-59 aircraft. The CRTs will require a substantial number of observations to generate a dose response curve for noise exposure and related annoyance levels and the timeframe is limited due to resource and scheduling constraints with an experimental aircraft. Within each CRT area, we will recruit a sample of residents in advance and ask them to fill out a brief survey each time the aircraft passes over. Respondents will be asked to fill out the survey either on the web or as part of an application they are able to download onto their mobile phones. Respondents will be notified each time the plane flies over, asking for their reactions. On many days, respondents will be asked to fill out the survey for multiple flights. Typical incentives are used during the recruitment phase (pre-incentive for a household screener and post-paid for a background survey completed by the selected respondent) and post-paid for an end of study survey. To improve response rates over such a demanding survey schedule (101 surveys in 28 days) we will implement a weekly incentive based upon participation rates, with higher incentives for greater participation and increasing rates each week. The survey test will follow the proposed methodology of the CRTs. We will report on the participation rates by incentive amount and the effectiveness of the incentive structure in obtaining and maintaining response rates over the 4 weeks. We will examine how quickly participation fades over the 4-week period and consider whether the incentive schedule could be improved by altering the distribution of payments. Finally, we will compare how these rates varied across web and app respondents. We will use the results of this work to confirm or improve the design of the CRTs, ensuring the collection of data needed by NASA to evaluate the impact of this innovative technology.

incentives↗
NASA NTRS1989

Techniques for extreme attitude suspension of a wind tunnel model in a magnetic suspension and balance system

Although small scale magnetic suspension and balance systems (MSBSs) for wind tunnel use have been in existence for many years, they have not found general application in the production testing of flight vehicles. One reason for this is thought to lie in the relatively limited range of attitudes over which a wind tunnel model may be suspended. Modifications to a small MSBS to permit the suspension and control of axisymmetric models over angles of attack from less than zero to over ninety degrees are reported. Previous work has shown that existing arrangement of ten electromagnets was unable to generate one of the force components needed for control at extreme attitudes. Examination of possible solutions resulted in a simple alteration to rectify this deficiency. To generate the feedback signals to control the suspended model, an optical position sensing system using collimated laser beams and photodiode arrays was installed and tested. An analytical basis was developed for distributing the demands for force and moment needed for model stabilization amonge the electromagnets over the full attitude range. This was implemented by an MSBS control program able to continually adjust the distribution for the instantaneous incidence in accordance with prescheduled data. Results presented demonstrate rotations of models from zero to ninety degrees at rates up to ninety degrees per second, with pitching rates rising to several hundred degrees per second in response to step-change demands. A study of a design for a large MSBS suggests that such a system could be given the capability to control a model in six degrees of freedom over an unlimited angle of attack range.

Parker, David Huw↗
DOE OSTI2023

Natural variation in Brachypodium distachyon responses to combined abiotic stresses

SUMMARY The demand for agricultural production is becoming more challenging as climate change increases global temperature and the frequency of extreme weather events. This study examines the phenotypic variation of 149 accessions of Brachypodium distachyon under drought, heat, and the combination of stresses. Heat alone causes the largest amounts of tissue damage while the combination of stresses causes the largest decrease in biomass compared to other treatments. Notably, Bd21‐0, the reference line for B. distachyon , did not have robust growth under stress conditions, especially the heat and combined drought and heat treatments. The climate of origin was significantly associated with B. distachyon responses to the assessed stress conditions. Additionally, a GWAS found loci associated with changes in plant height and the amount of damaged tissue under stress. Some of these SNPs were closely located to genes known to be involved in responses to abiotic stresses and point to potential causative loci in plant stress response. However, SNPs found to be significantly associated with a response to heat or drought individually are not also significantly associated with the combination of stresses. This, with the phenotypic data, suggests that the effects of these abiotic stresses are not simply additive, and the responses to the combined stresses differ from drought and heat alone.

Plant Sciences↗
DOE OSTI2025

Potential Impacts of Dynamic Electricity Pricing in California: Load Shape and Customer Bill Impacts Under Elastic Customer Response

The increasing penetration of renewable energy in California has intensified grid management challenges, exemplified by the “duck curve” and the resulting need for steep ramping and curtailment of renewables. To address these issues, dynamic electricity tariffs that vary in near-real time are being considered to incentivize customers to shift demand and support the grid. This study extends previous work on the bill impacts of such tariffs in the absence of load response by quantifying the system-level and customer impacts of load response based on customer price elasticity. Customer-level load response modeling was conducted using meter data from 411,000 customers across residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. Customer demand elasticity was estimated using literature-based values, with scenarios ranging from low to high elasticity, including an automation-enhanced scenario. Results indicate that universal adoption of, and response to, dynamic tariffs can significantly reduce peak net load (by 15%) and maximum ramping requirements (by 20%) with moderate elasticity, delivering demand response resources comparable to or exceeding current programs at all elasticity levels. Bill analysis shows that, when responding elastically to dynamic prices, most non-PV customers experience modest savings, while PV customers may see higher effective rates due to lower compensation for exports during low-price periods. Emissions analysis reveals a reduction in per-kWh emissions system-wide, with a total absolute load increase of 2% accompanied by a negligible absolute emissions increase. The study concludes that while dynamic tariffs offer substantial grid benefits, customer bill savings under modeled response behaviors may be too modest to drive widespread adoption without additional incentives or enabling technologies. Future research should model flexible loads and advanced control technologies with greater fidelity to better represent the potential opportunities of dynamic tariffs.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Material assembly from collective action of shape-changing polymers

Some animals form transient, responsive and solid-like ensembles through dynamic structural interactions. These ensembles demonstrate emergent responses such as spontaneous self-assembly, which are difficult to achieve in synthetic soft matter. In this work, we use shape-morphing units comprising responsive polymers to create solids that self-assemble, modulate their volume and disassemble on demand. The ensemble is composed of a responsive hydrogel, liquid crystal elastomer or semicrystalline polymer ribbons that reversibly bend or twist. The dispersions of these ribbons mechanically interlock, inducing reversible aggregation. The aggregated liquid crystal elastomer ribbons have a 12-fold increase in the yield stress compared with cooled dispersion and contract by 34% on heating. Ribbon type, concentration and shape dictate the aggregation and govern the global mechanical properties of the solid that forms. Coating liquid crystal elastomer ribbons with a liquid metal begets photoresponsive and electrically conductive aggregates, whereas seeding cells on hydrogel ribbons enables self-assembling three-dimensional scaffolds, providing a versatile platform for the design of dynamic materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Sparse Control Synthesis for Uncertain Responsive Loads With Stochastic Stability Guarantees

In this report, recent studies have demonstrated the potential of flexible loads in providing frequency response services, predominantly due to their availability and cost-effectiveness. However, uncertainty and variability in various weather-related and end-use behavioral factors often impact the reliability of demand-side control performance. This work addresses this problem with the design of a demand-side control to achieve frequency response under load uncertainties. Our approach involves modeling the load uncertainties via stochastic processes that appear as both multiplicative and additive in the power system dynamics. Recently developed mean square exponential stability (MSES) results for continuous-time linear stochastic systems are applied to pose the control synthesis problem which results in an LMI-based optimization problem. Additional costs and constraints are added to the LMI-based controller synthesis to ensure MSES, improve closed-loop transient performance, maximize tolerable uncertainties, and promote sparsity in the controller. Additionally, the fundamental limitations between the tolerable uncertainties and control efforts while ensuring MSES are discussed. Further, the control synthesis problem for the case of the full-state measurement is generalized to the case of partial-state measurements. The proposed control synthesis is illustrated on an IEEE 39 bus system with rigorous studies to demonstrate the role of sparsity, closed-loop transient performance, tolerable uncertainties, and control efforts while ensuring MSES and achieving frequency response.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Pumped Storage Hydropower (PSH) FAST Commissioning Prize Technical Analysis

The US energy landscape has undergone major changes over the past 10 years and will continue to see significant changes in future decades as the power grid increases its reliance on variable renewable energy resources. Because of the inherent variability of these resources, renewable energy growth may require additional energy storage capacity to provide flexible load-following capabilities and other grid services that can quickly adjust to changes in energy demand and generation. Pumped storage hydropower (PSH)—one such energy storage technology—uses pumps to convey water from a lower reservoir to an upper reservoir for energy storage and releases water back to the lower reservoir via a powerhouse for hydropower generation. PSH facility pump and generation cycling often follows economic and energy demand conditions. Across the United States, 43 PSH facilities are in operation and 55 projects are in various permitting or licensing stages. Altogether, the 43 operational projects provide the wide majority (95%) of utility-scale electricity storage in the United States. These facilities also provide significant power and nonpower grid benefits, including large-scale electrical system reserve capacity, grid reliability support, and electricity supply-demand balancing through quick-response capabilities and operational flexibility. PSH systems can accomplish these at a scale (e.g., size) and cost that makes these systems highly attractive from a technical standpoint. Although these research concepts are still in their infancy, they demonstrate promising potential as future PSH energy storage technologies. Although PSH has many advantages, development in the United States has effectively stalled since the 1990s, partially because of the magnitude of project costs and financing interest during development and construction, the length of time from project investment until project revenue begins, permitting challenges, construction risks, competition from other storage technologies (e.g., batteries, hydrogen storage), and electricity market evolution and uncertainty. In short, the time, cost, and risk associated with modern PSH development have resulted in limited growth in the United States recently, despite the growing energy storage demand stemming from increased wind and solar power deployment. Technology innovation is needed to help reduce PSH commissioning time, cost, and risk, particularly during the post-licensing phase of project development. To address challenges facing the PSH industry and to improve PSH commissioning timelines, the US Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) initiated the PSH Furthering Advancements to Shorten Time to (FAST) Commissioning Prize project.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Design trade-offs for residential retail tariffs and virtual power plants

Retail rate design and virtual power plants (VPPs) have the potential to shift customer electricity demand and provide economic benefits to utility customers. As the adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs) and flexible loads increases, retail tariff and program design can impact Bonbright's rate design principles including affordability, fairness, and economic efficiency. We model the effects of residential retail rates and VPP programs on power system costs in Massachusetts under a potential future system with high renewable energy and DER adoption. We model interactions among retail rate design, demand flexibility, and utility costs and identify trade-offs across different rate designs and VPP programs. We estimate that time-of-use (TOU) rates and VPP programs designed to avoid critical peak rates can lower overall system costs by 3.5 %-4.8 %. These lower costs translate to lower electricity bills for 62 %-91 % of customers, depending on the scenario. Although TOU rates with a critical peak VPP program can benefit all customer segments and are economically efficient, a VPP program with flat rates leads to the lowest overall bills for customers. We find that customers with loads that align with peak demand and who participate in critical peak VPP programs can underpay for their contribution to utility costs and shift costs to other customers. While our assumptions about mandatory TOU and/or critical peak pricing likely impact the magnitude of the results, the results highlight the trade-offs of these tariffs and programs and the importance of tariff and program design as demand becomes more flexible and responsive.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2026

How Improved Forecasting Can Increase the Bulk Power System Value of Price-Responsive Electric Vehicle Managed Charging

Personal light-duty vehicle (LDV) electric vehicle managed charging (EVMC) can reduce power system costs by better aligning electric vehicle (EV) charging with locations and times of low energy cost or infrastructure use. The need to coordinate charging demand across thousands to millions of vehicles while preserving mobility service is a barrier to realizing the value of EVMC. Price-responsive dispatch mechanisms like time-of-use rates (TOU) and hourly real-time prices (RTP) are attractive compared to direct load control (DLC) because they only require one-way communications and local controls. However, increasing participation in price responsive mechanisms can induce costly-to-serve spikes in load and otherwise increase, rather than decrease, production costs. We quantify the ability of improved EVMC forecasting to sustain savings from price responsive mechanisms beyond the limit of 14% of LDVs actively participating observed in previous work. Perfect forecasting of price-responsive EV load makes TOU and RTP value-competitive with a low-error DLC formulation with up to 27% (within-week flexibility) to 45% or more (within-session flexibility) of LDVs participating in EVMC in an envisioned New England power system with 84% clean energy. Additional costs of implementing DLC should be no more than tens of dollars per vehicle-year if DLC is to be value-competitive with accurately forecast price-responsive EVMC for double-digit percentage shares of LDVs participating.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
NASA NTRS2014

Preliminary Sensorimotor and Cardiovascular Results from the Joint Russian/U.S. Pilot Field Test in Preparation for the Full Field Test

Ongoing collaborative research efforts between NASA's Neuroscience and Cardiovascular Laboratories, and the Institute of Biomedical Problems' (IBMP) Sensory-Motor and Countermeasures Laboratories have been measuring functional sensorimotor, cardiovascular and strength responses following bed rest, dry immersion, short-duration (Space Shuttle) and long-duration (Mir and International Space Station [ISS]) space flights. While the unloading paradigms associated with dry immersion and bed rest does serve as acceptable flight analogs, testing of crew responses following the long-duration flights previously has not been possible until a minimum of 24 hours after landing. As a result, it is not possible to estimate the nonlinear trend of the early (<24 hours) recovery process nor is it possible to accurately assess the full impact of the decrements associated with long-duration flight. To overcome these limitations, both the Russian and U.S. programs have implemented testing at the landing site. By joint agreement, this research effort has been identified as the functional Field Test (FT). For practical reasons the FT has been divided into two phases: the full FT and a preliminary pilot version (PFT) of the FT that is reduced in both length and scope. The primary goal of this research is to determine functional abilities in long-duration space-flight crews beginning as soon after landing as possible (< 2 hours) with one to three immediate follow-up measurements on the day of landing. This goal has both sensorimotor and cardiovascular elements, including evaluations of NASA's new anti-orthostatic compression garment and the Russian Kentavr garment. Functional sensorimotor measurements will include, but are not limited to, assessing hand/eye coordination, egressing from a seated position, walking normally without falling, measuring of dynamic visual acuity, discriminating different forces generated with both the hands and legs, recovering from a fall, coordinated walking involving tandem heel-to-toe placement, and determining postural ataxia while standing. The cardiovascular portion of the investigation includes measuring blood pressure and heart rate during a timed stand test in conjunction with postural ataxia testing (quiet stance sway) as well as cardiovascular responses during the other functional tasks. In addition to the immediate post-landing collection of data for the full FT, postflight data will be acquired between one and three more other times within the 24 hours after landing and will continue over the subsequent weeks until functional sensorimotor and cardiovascular responses have returned to preflight normative values. The PFT represents a single trial run comprised of a jointly agreed upon subset of tests from the full FT and relies heavily on IBMP's Sensory-Motor and Countermeasures Laboratories for content and implementation. The PFT has been collected on several ISS missions. Testing included: (1) a sit-to-stand test, (2) recovery from a fall where the crewmember began in the prone position on the ground and then stood for 3 minutes while cardiovascular stability was determined and postural ataxia data were acquired, and (3) a tandem heel-totoe walk test to determine changes in the central locomotor program. Video, cardiovascular parameters (heart rate and blood pressure), data from body-worn inertial sensors, and severity of postflight motion sickness were collected for each test session. In summary, the level of functional deficit is expected to be most profound during the acquisition of gravity loads immediately after landing when the demands for crew intervention in response to emergency operations will be greatest. Clearly measureable performance parameters such as ability to perform a seat egress, recover from a fall or the ability to see clearly when walking, and related physiologic data (orthostatic responses) are required to provide an evidence base for characterizing programmatic risks and the degree of variability among crewmembers for exploration missions where the crew will be unassisted after landing. Overall, these early functional and related physiologic measurements will allow estimation of nonlinear sensorimotor and cardiovascular recovery trends that has not been previously captured in over 50 years of space flight.

Reschke, M. F.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Preliminary Sensorimotor and Cardiovascular Results from the Joint Russian and U.S. Pilot Field Test with Planning for the Full Field Test Beginning with the Year Long Intenational Space Station

Ongoing collaborative research efforts between NASA's Neuroscience and Cardiovascular Laboratories, and the Institute of Biomedical Problems' (IBMP) Sensory-Motor and Countermeasures Laboratories have been measuring functional sensorimotor, cardiovascular and strength responses following bed rest, dry immersion, short duration (Space Shuttle) and long duration (Mir and International Space Station) space flights. While the unloading paradigms associated with dry immersion and bed rest does serve as acceptable flight analogs, testing of crew responses following the long duration flights previously has not been possible until a minimum of 24 hours after landing. As a result, it is not possible to estimate the nonlinear trend of the early (<24 hr) recovery process, nor is it possible to accurately assess the full impact of the decrements associated with long duration flight. To overcome these limitations, both the Russian and U.S. sides have implemented testing at landing site. By joint agreement, this research effort has been identified as the functional Field Test (FT). For practical reasons the FT has been divided into two phases: the full FT and a preliminary pilot version (PFT) of the FT that is reduced in both length and scope. The primary goal of this research is to determine functional abilities in long duration space flight crews beginning as soon after landing as possible (< 2 hr) with one to three immediate follow-up measurements on the day of landing. This goal has both sensorimotor and cardiovascular elements, including evaluations of NASA's new anti-orthostatic compression garment and the Russian Kentavr garment. Functional sensorimotor measurements will include, but are not limited to, assessment of hand/eye coordination, ability to egress from a seated position, walk normally without falling, measurement of dynamic visual acuity, ability to discriminate different forces generated with both the hands and legs, recovery from a fall, a coordinated walk involving tandem heel-to-toe placement, and determination of postural ataxia while standing. The cardiovascular portion of the investigation includes blood pressure and heart rate measurements during a timed stand test in conjunction with postural ataxia testing (quiet stance sway) as well as cardiovascular responses during other functional tasks. In addition to the immediate post-landing collection of data for the full FT, postflight data will be acquired at a minimum of one to three more other times within the 24 hr following landing and continue until functional sensorimotor and cardiovascular responses have returned to preflight normative values. The PFT represents a single trial run comprised of jointly agreed upon subset of tests from the full FT and relies heavily on IBMP's Sensory-Motor and Countermeasures Laboratories for content and implementation. The PFT was first conducted following the September 2013 landing of the Soyuz spacecraft (34S) and again following the landing of Soyuz 35S in November. Testing included: (1) a sit-tostand test, (2) recovery from a fall where the crewmember began in the prone position on the ground and then stood for 3 min while cardiovascular stability was determined and postural ataxia data were acquired, and (3) a tandem heel-to-toe walk test to determine changes in the central locomotor program. Video, cardiovascular parameters (heart rate and blood pressure), data from body-worn inertial sensors and severity of postflight motion sickness were collected for analysis. In summary, the level of functional deficit is expected to be most profound during the acquisition of gravity loads immediately after landing when the demands for crew intervention in response to emergency operations will be greatest. Clearly measureable performance parameters such as ability to perform a seat egress, recover from a fall or the ability to see clearly when walking, and related physiological data (orthostatic responses) are required to provide an evidence base for characterizing programmatic risks and the degree of variability among crewmembers for exploration missions where the crew will be unassisted after landing. Overall, these early functional and related physiological measurements will allow estimation of nonlinear sensorimotor and cardiovascular recovery trends to an accuracy that has not been previously captured in over 50 years of space flight.

Reschke, M. F.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Preliminary Results from the Joint Russian and US Field Test: Measurement of Sensorimotor and Cardiovascular Responses Immediately Following Landing of the Soyuz Spacecraft

Ongoing collaborative research efforts between NASA's Neuroscience and Cardiovascular Laboratories, and the Institute of Biomedical Problems' (IBMP) Sensory-Motor and Countermeasures Laboratories have been measuring functional sensorimotor, cardiovascular and strength responses following bed rest, dry immersion, short duration (Space Shuttle) and long duration (Mir and International Space Station) space flights. While the unloading paradigms associated with dry immersion and bed rest have do serve as acceptable flight analogs, testing of crew responses following the long duration flights does not begin until a minimum of 24 hours after landing. As a result it is not possible to estimate the nonlinear trend of the early (<24 hr) recovery process nor is it possible to accurately assess the full impact of the decrements associated with long duration flight. To overcome these limitations both the Russian and U.S. sides have implemented testing at the time of landing and before the flight crews have left the landing site. By joint agreement this research effort has been identified as the functional Field Test (FT). For practical reasons the FT has been divided into two phases: the full FT and a preliminary pilot version (PFT) of the FT that is reduced in both length and scope. The primary goal of this research is to determine functional abilities in long duration space flight crews beginning as soon after landing as possible (< 2 hr) with one to three immediate follow-up measurements on the day of landing. This goal has both sensorimotor and cardiovascular elements including an evaluation of NASA's new anti-orthostatic compression garment as compared with the Russian Kentavr garment. Functional sensorimotor measurements will include, but are not limited to, assessment of hand/eye coordination, ability to egress from a seated position, walk normally without falling, measurement of dynamic visual acuity, ability to discriminate different forces generated with both the hands and legs, recovery from a fall, a coordinated walk involving tandem heel-to-toe placement and determination of postural ataxia while standing. The cardiovascular portion of the investigation includes blood pressure and heart rate measurements during a timed stand test in conjunction with postural ataxia testing. In addition to the immediate post-landing collection of data for the full FT, postflight data will be acquired at a minimum of one to three more other times within the 24 hr following landing and continue until functional sensorimotor and cardiovascular responses have returned to preflight normative values. The PFT represents a single trial run comprised of jointly agreed tests from the full FT and relies heavily on IBMP's Sensory-Motor and Countermeasures Laboratories for content, and implementation. The PFT is currently scheduled for the September 2013 landing of the Soyuz spacecraft (34S). Testing will include: (1) a sit-to-stand test, (2) recovery from a fall where the crewmember begins in the prone position on the ground and then stands for 3 min while cardiovascular stability is determined and postural ataxia data are acquired, and (3) a tandem heel-to-toe walk to determine changes in the central locomotor program. Video, cardiovascular parameters (heart rate and blood pressure), data from body-worn inertial sensors and severity of postflight motion sickness will be available for analysis. It is our intent to present, at this celebratory symposium, a summary of these data obtained from two crewmembers. In summary, the level of functional deficit is expected to be most profound during the acquisition of gravity loads immediately after landing when the demands for crew intervention in response to emergency operations will be greatest. Clearly measureable performance parameters such as ability to perform a seat egress, recover from a fall or the ability to see clearly when walking, and related physiological data (orthostatic responses) are required to provide an evidence base for characterizing programmatic risks and the degree of variability among crewmembers. Overall, these early functional and related physiological measurements will allow estimation of nonlinear sensorimotor and cardiovascular recovery trends to an accuracy that has not been previously captured in over 50 years of space flight.

Reschke, M. F.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Performance evaluation of underground thermal storage integrated dual-source heat pump systems

The increasing demand for electricity stresses the existing electric grids. Buildings consume 73% of all U.S. electricity and are responsible for 30% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Integrating thermal energy storage (TES) in building heating/cooling systems, which consume considerable electricity, can mitigate the challenges to electric grids. Here, this study reports on a novel thermal energy storage device integrated heat pump system to reshape the building electricity demand profile while maintaining thermal comfort. The annual performance of the proposed system has been evaluated through a dynamic system simulation with high fidelity in the Modelica platform. The dynamic model of the novel hybrid component named ‘dual purpose underground thermal battery’ was developed and validated. It was then incorporated into the system model. Given a time-of-use tariff, a rule-based control strategy was designed to shift the electric demand and switch the heat pump source for a typical single-family house in different climate zones of the United States. The system performance of the new TES-integrated dual-source heat pump was compared with that of a conventional air-source heat pump system. The results indicate that the proposed system can reduce the annual HVAC electricity cost by up to 52% while saving 45.2% on electricity consumption. In the Northern areas, the annual peak load of the HVAC system can be reduced by 64.9%. However, this reduction is less in the Southern areas as the system’s higher efficiency in winter dominates the overall energy-saving potential.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗