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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 613 records · Page 34
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2005

Autonomous Assembly of Modular Structures in Space and on Extraterrestrial Locations

The new U.S. National Vision for Space Exploration requires many new enabling technologies to accomplish the goals of space commercialization and returning humans to the moon and extraterrestrial environments. Traditionally, flight elements are complete subsystems requiring humans to complete the integration and assembly. These bulky structures also require the use of heavy launch vehicles to send the units to a desired location. This philosophy necessitates a high degree of safety, numerous space walks at a significant cost. Future space mission costs must be reduced and safety increased to reasonably achieve exploration goals. One proposed concept is the autonomous assembly of space structures. This concept is an affordable, reliable solution to in-space and extraterrestrial assembly. Assembly is autonomously performed when two components join after determining that specifications are correct. Local sensors continue monitor joint integrity post assembly, which is critical for safety and structural reliability. Achieving this concept requires a change in space structure design philosophy and the development of innovative technologies to perform autonomous assembly. Assembly of large space structures will require significant numbers of integrity sensors. Thus simple, low-cost sensors are integral to the success of this concept. This paper addresses these issues and proposes a novel concept for assembling space structures autonomously. Core technologies required to achieve in space assembly are presented. These core technologies are critical to the goal of utilizing space in a cost efficient and safe manner. Additionally, these novel technologies can be applied to other systems both on earth and extraterrestrial environments.

Alhorn, Dean C.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Simultaneous Retrieval of Temperature, Water Vapor and Ozone Atmospheric Profiles from IASI: Compression, De-noising, First Guess Retrieval and Inversion Algorithms

A fast temperature water vapor and ozone atmospheric profile retrieval algorithm is developed for the high spectral resolution Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) space-borne instrument. Compression and de-noising of IASI observations are performed using Principal Component Analysis. This preprocessing methodology also allows, for a fast pattern recognition in a climatological data set to obtain a first guess. Then, a neural network using first guess information is developed to retrieve simultaneously temperature, water vapor and ozone atmospheric profiles. The performance of the resulting fast and accurate inverse model is evaluated with a large diversified data set of radiosondes atmospheres including rare events.

Aires, F.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Re-Tooling the Agency's Engineering Predictive Practices for Durability and Damage Tolerance

Over the past decade, the Agency has placed less emphasis on testing and has increasingly relied on computational methods to assess durability and damage tolerance (D&DT) behavior when evaluating design margins for fracture-critical components. With increased emphasis on computational D&DT methods as the standard practice, it is paramount that capabilities of these methods are understood, the methods are used within their technical limits, and validation by well-designed tests confirms understanding. The D&DT performance of a component is highly dependent on parameters in the neighborhood of the damage. This report discusses D&DT method vulnerabilities.

Piascik, Robert S.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Guide for Oxygen Compatibility Assessments on Oxygen Components and Systems

Understanding and preventing fire hazards is necessary when designing, maintaining, and operating oxygen systems. Ignition risks can be minimized by controlling heat sources and using materials that will not ignite or will not support burning in the end-use environment. Because certain materials are more susceptible to ignition in oxygen-enriched environments, a compatibility assessment should be performed before the component is introduced into an oxygen system. This document provides an overview of oxygen fire hazards and procedures that are consistent with the latest versions of American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Standards G63 (1999) and G94 (2005) to address fire hazards associated with oxygen systems. This document supersedes the previous edition, NASA Technical Memorandum 104823, Guide for Oxygen Hazards Analyses on Components and Systems (1996). The step-by-step oxygen compatibility assessment method described herein (see Section 4) enables oxygen-system designers, system engineers, and facility managers to determine areas of concern with respect to oxygen compatibility and, ultimately, prevent damage to a system or injury to personnel.

Rosales, Keisa R.↗
NASA NTRS1972

An automated system for the alignment of large area modular solar simulators

A real-time optical alignment and diagnostic system is being assembled for installation at the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory. This system will be used to measure and analyze the performance of optical components, assemblies, and full modules. This information, in turn, is used to align assemblies and modules. The system capability includes such functions as the generation and updating of a catalog, which serves as permanent record, in addition to providing the capability to predict in-chamber performance of optics combinations before they are mounted in the chamber.

Vincent, J. P.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Jovian Chromophore Characteristics from Multispectral HST Images

The chromophores responsible for coloring the jovian atmosphere are embedded within Jupiter's vertical aerosol structure. Sunlight propagates through this vertical distribution of aerosol particles, whose colors are defined by omega-bar (sub 0)(lambda), and we remotely observe the culmination of the radiative transfer as I/F(lambda). In this study, we employed a radiative transfer code to retrieve omega-bar (sub 0)(lambda) for particles in Jupiter's tropospheric haze at seven wavelengths in the near-UV and visible regimes. The data consisted of images of the 2008 passage of Oval BA to the south of the Great Red Spot obtained by the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on-board the Hubble Space Telescope. We present derived particle colors for locations that were selected from 14 weather regions, which spanned a large range of observed colors. All omega-bar (sub 0)(lambda) curves were absorbing in the blue, and omega-bar (sub 0)(lambda) increased monotonically to approximately unity as wavelength increased. We found accurate fits to all omega-bar (sub 0)(lambda) curves using an empirically derived functional form: omega-bar (sub 0)(lambda) = 1 A exp(-B lambda). The best-fit parameters for the mean omega-bar (sub 0)(lambda) curve were A = 25.4 and B = 0.0149 for lambda in units of nm. We performed a principal component analysis (PCA) on our omega-bar (sub 0)(lambda) results and found that one or two independent chromophores were sufficient to produce the variations in omega-bar (sub 0)(lambda). A PCA of I/F(lambda) for the same jovian locations resulted in principal components (PCs) with roughly the same variances as the omega-bar (sub 0)(lambda) PCA, but they did not result in a one-to-one mapping of PC amplitudes between the omega-bar (sub 0)(lambda) PCA and I/F(lambda) PCA. We suggest that statistical analyses performed on I/ F(lambda) image cubes have limited applicability to the characterization of chromophores in the jovian atmosphere due to the sensitivity of 1/ F(lambda) to horizontal variations in the vertical aerosol distribution.

Strycker, Paul D.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Multivariate analyses of crater parameters and the classification of craters

Multivariate analyses were performed on certain linear dimensions of six genetic types of craters. A total of 320 craters, consisting of laboratory fluidization craters, craters formed by chemical and nuclear explosives, terrestrial maars and other volcanic craters, and terrestrial meteorite impact craters, authenticated and probable, were analyzed in the first data set in terms of their mean rim crest diameter, mean interior relief, rim height, and mean exterior rim width. The second data set contained an additional 91 terrestrial craters of which 19 were of experimental percussive impact and 28 of volcanic collapse origin, and which was analyzed in terms of mean rim crest diameter, mean interior relief, and rim height. Principal component analyses were performed on the six genetic types of craters. Ninety per cent of the variation in the variables can be accounted for by two components. Ninety-nine per cent of the variation in the craters formed by chemical and nuclear explosives is explained by the first component alone.

Siegal, B. S.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Metal Matrix Composite LOX Turbopump Housing via Novel Tool-less Net-Shape Pressure Infiltration Casting Technology

Metal matrix composites for propulsion components offer high performance and affordability, resulting in low weight and cost. The following sections in this viewgraph presentation describe the pressure infiltration casting of a metal matrix composite LOX turbopump housing: 1) Baseline Pump Design and Stress Analysis; 2) Tool-less Advanced Pressure Infiltration Casting Process; 3) Preform Splicing and Joining for Large Components such as Pump Housing; 4) Fullscale Pump Housing Redesign.

Shah, Sandeep↗
NASA NTRS2024

Evaluation of CMIP6 Model Simulations of PM 2.5 and its Components Over China

Earth system models (ESMs) participating in the latest Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) simulate various components of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) as major climate forcers. Yet the model performance for PM 2.5 components remains little evaluated due in part to a lack of observational data. Here, we evaluate near-surface concentrations of PM 2.5 and its five main components over China as simulated by 14 CMIP6 models, including organic carbon (OC; available in 14 models), black carbon (BC; 14 models), sulfate (14 models), nitrate (4 models), and ammonium (5 models). For this purpose, we collect observational data between 2000 and 2014 from a satellite-based dataset for total PM2.5 and from 2469 measurement records in the literature for PM 2.5 components. Seven models output total PM 2.5 concentrations, and they all underestimate the observed total PM 2.5 over eastern China, with GFDL-ESM4 (−1.5 %) and MPI-ESM-1-2-HAM (−1.1 %) exhibiting the smallest biases averaged over the whole country. The other seven models, for which we recalculate total PM 2.5 from the available component output, underestimate the total PM 2.5 concentrations partly because of the missing model representations of nitrate and ammonium. Concentrations of the five individual components are underestimated in almost all models, except that sulfate is overestimated in MPI-ESM-1-2-HAM by 12.6 % and in MRI-ESM2-0 by 24.5 %. The underestimation is the largest for OC (by −71.2 % to −37.8 % across the 14 models) and the smallest for BC (−47.9 % to −12.1 %). The multi-model mean (MMM) reproduces the observed spatial pattern for OC (R = 0.51), sulfate (R = 0.57), nitrate (R = 0.70) and ammonium (R = 0.74) fairly well, yet the agreement is poorer for BC (R = 0.39). The varying performances of ESMs on total PM 2.5 and its components have important implications for the modeled magnitude and spatial pattern of aerosol radiative forcing.

CMIP6↗
NASA NTRS1995

Where am I: Determining the attitude of spacecraft parts

In the preliminary design of spacecraft, spreadsheets are often used to scale and size components. While offering some benefits, using spreadsheets does have some drawbacks. In particular, since time is typically not one of the input values, overly conservative designs can result because scheduling issues are not considered. To overcome this problem, the Space Systems Concepts Division is developing a time dependent, virtual spacecraft simulation system. Since the performance of many components on the spacecraft are sensitive to the attitude of the spacecraft, a method or function is needed to determine the attitude of a part. Thus, the primary goal of this research was to develop a software module that calculates the attitude of an arbitrary part on the spacecraft. This module is then used by subsystem engineers, e.g. the power subsystem, to compute the attitude relative to the spacecraft, the sun, the Earth, or a user specified target.

Hanson, Mark L.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Propellant Densification for Shuttle: The SSME Perspective

The subject of cryogenic propellant densification as a potential upgrade to the Space Shuttle is a subject that has been raised on several occasions over the last decade. Due to advancements in densification technology made as a part of and in parallel to the X-33 project, the subject was raised and studied once again in May 2001. Across the Space Shuttle program people from many disciplines converged to discuss issues and perform trade studies to determine whether densified propellants was worth pursuing. This paper discusses one of these areas, specifically the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME). The effects of propellant densification on steady state performance are presented along with discussions of potential transient performance issues. Engine component redesign and retrofit issues are discussed as well the high level requirements to modify the ground test stands to accommodate propellant densification hardware and tanks. And finally, the matter of programmatic concerns enters the subject at hand as part of a discussion of SSME recertification requirements. In the end, potential benefits to SSME performance can be demonstrated and, subject to the densification scheme chosen, there does not appear to insurmountable technical obstacles.

Greene, William D.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Program for the development of high temperature electrical materials and components

Evaluation of high temperature, space-vacuum performance of selected electrical materials and components, high temperature capacitor development, and evaluation, construction, and endurance testing of compression sealed pyrolytic boron nitride slot insulation are described. The first subject above covered the aging evaluation of electrical devices constructed from selected electrical materials. Individual materials performances were also evaluated and reported. The second subject included study of methods of improving electrical performance of pyrolytic boron nitride capacitors. The third portion was conducted to evaluate the thermal and electrical performance of pyrolytic boron nitride as stator slot liner material under varied temperature and compressive loading. Conclusions and recommendations are presented.

Neff, W. S.↗
NASA NTRS1991

The Navy/NASA Engine Program (NNEP89): A user's manual

An engine simulation computer code called NNEP89 was written to perform 1-D steady state thermodynamic analysis of turbine engine cycles. By using a very flexible method of input, a set of standard components are connected at execution time to simulate almost any turbine engine configuration that the user could imagine. The code was used to simulate a wide range of engine cycles from turboshafts and turboprops to air turborockets and supersonic cruise variable cycle engines. Off design performance is calculated through the use of component performance maps. A chemical equilibrium model is incorporated to adequately predict chemical dissociation as well as model virtually any fuel. NNEP89 is written in standard FORTRAN77 with clear structured programming and extensive internal documentation. The standard FORTRAN77 programming allows it to be installed onto most mainframe computers and workstations without modification. The NNEP89 code was derived from the Navy/NASA Engine program (NNEP). NNEP89 provides many improvements and enhancements to the original NNEP code and incorporates features which make it easier to use for the novice user. This is a comprehensive user's guide for the NNEP89 code.

Plencner, Robert M.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Overview of Intelligent Systems and Operations Development

To achieve NASA's ambitious mission objectives for the future, aircraft and spacecraft will need intelligence to take the correct action in a variety of circumstances. Vehicle intelligence can be defined as the ability to "do the right thing" when faced with a complex decision-making situation. It will be necessary to implement integrated autonomous operations and low-level adaptive flight control technologies to direct actions that enhance the safety and success of complex missions despite component failures, degraded performance, operator errors, and environment uncertainty. This paper will describe the array of technologies required to meet these complex objectives. This includes the integration of high-level reasoning and autonomous capabilities with multiple subsystem controllers for robust performance. Future intelligent systems will use models of the system, its environment, and other intelligent agents with which it interacts. They will also require planners, reasoning engines, and adaptive controllers that can recommend or execute commands enabling the system to respond intelligently. The presentation will also address the development of highly dependable software, which is a key component to ensure the reliability of intelligent systems.

Pallix, Joan↗
NASA NTRS2009

Parts and Components Reliability Assessment: A Cost Effective Approach

System reliability assessment is a methodology which incorporates reliability analyses performed at parts and components level such as Reliability Prediction, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) to assess risks, perform design tradeoffs, and therefore, to ensure effective productivity and/or mission success. The system reliability is used to optimize the product design to accommodate today?s mandated budget, manpower, and schedule constraints. Stand ard based reliability assessment is an effective approach consisting of reliability predictions together with other reliability analyses for electronic, electrical, and electro-mechanical (EEE) complex parts and components of large systems based on failure rate estimates published by the United States (U.S.) military or commercial standards and handbooks. Many of these standards are globally accepted and recognized. The reliability assessment is especially useful during the initial stages when the system design is still in the development and hard failure data is not yet available or manufacturers are not contractually obliged by their customers to publish the reliability estimates/predictions for their parts and components. This paper presents a methodology to assess system reliability using parts and components reliability estimates to ensure effective productivity and/or mission success in an efficient manner, low cost, and tight schedule.

Lee, Lydia↗
NASA NTRS2019

CPAS Airdrop Test Joint Recertification by Analysis

Airdrop testing of parachutes is a complicated endeavor that requires the custom design and certification of many critical components. The most direct path to certifying a component is to perform full scale testing with margin over the maximum loads expected to be seen in operation. However, other constraints often preclude the opportunity to perform full scale testing. In this paper, we present a case study where a problem arises in a joint that had been certified with a full scale test. There was no time or budget available to repeat the full scale testing after a redesign of the joint. Instead, we present a method of testing each failure mode at the component level to support a certification by analysis approach. The analysis itself was not complicated, but tradeoffs had to be made between different failure modes to arrive at the optimal design. The same approach was also applied back to the original joint to confirm that the failure mode that was not seen in full scale testing would have been caught by the proposed analysis. In the end, the new design was certified by analysis and worked without issue for the final six airdrop tests that used this joint.

McCann, Charles J.↗
NASA NTRS1984

A laboratory investigation of a physical mechanism for the extended infrared absorption ('red shift') in wheat

Laboratory spectral measurements, on the components of both greenhouse and field grown winter wheat, were performed to identify the component and its appropriate response which gave rise to the extended infrared absorption or 'red shift' reported by Collins. Results of this study indicated that inherent intraplant adaxial (upper) leaf reflectances were of sufficient variability to suggest that an admixture of mechanisms may have utility on identifying the booting and head emergence stages in the life cycle of wheat. The physical mechanism for the shift was found to be relatively independent of the inherent variability in leaf spectra, and to be dependent upon the difference in the mode of deposition of cuticle upon the abaxial (lower) surface relative to that of the adaxial (upper) surface, the position of the flag leaf, and thus the surface exposed to the incident light during heading and after emergence of the head.

Schutt, J. B.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Advanced life support control/monitor instrumentation concepts for flight application

Development of regenerative Environmental Control/Life Support Systems requires instrumentation characteristics which evolve with successive development phases. As the development phase moves toward flight hardware, the system availability becomes an important design aspect which requires high reliability and maintainability. This program was directed toward instrumentation designs which incorporate features compatible with anticipated flight requirements. The first task consisted of the design, fabrication and test of a Performance Diagnostic Unit. In interfacing with a subsystem's instrumentation, the Performance Diagnostic Unit is capable of determining faulty operation and components within a subsystem, perform on-line diagnostics of what maintenance is needed and accept historical status on subsystem performance as such information is retained in the memory of a subsystem's computerized controller. The second focus was development and demonstration of analog signal conditioning concepts which reduce the weight, power, volume, cost and maintenance and improve the reliability of this key assembly of advanced life support instrumentation. The approach was to develop a generic set of signal conditioning elements or cards which can be configured to fit various subsystems. Four generic sensor signal conditioning cards were identified as being required to handle more than 90 percent of the sensors encountered in life support systems. Under company funding, these were detail designed, built and successfully tested.

Heppner, D. B.↗