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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 667 records · Page 37

Perserving Samples and Their Scientific Integrity - Insights into MSR from the Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office at NASA Johnson Space Center

The Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC), in Houston, TX (henceforth Curation Office) manages the curation of all past, present, and future extraterrestrial samples returned by NASA missions and shared collections from international partners, preserving their integrity for future scientific study while providing the samples to the international community in a fair and unbiased way. The Curation Office also curates flight and non-flight reference materials and other materials from spacecraft assembly of sample return missions that would have the potential to cross-contaminate a present or future NASA astromaterials collection. These materials are primarily collected during the assembly, test, and launch operations (ATLO) phase and after flight during the recovery and curation phase. In addition, the Curation Office curates non-flight, flight-like, and flown witness plates for sample return missions. These reference materials and witness plates provide the scientific community with the fundamental ability to reconstruct the contamination/alteration history of the sample collection through the course of the mission, with the overall goal of strengthening the scientific conclusions drawn from the study of returned materials.

Harrington, A. D.↗

NASA's Myriad Uses of Digital Video

Since it's inception, NASA has created many of the most memorable images seen this Century. From the fuzzy video of Neil Armstrong taking that first step on the moon, to images of the Mars surface available to all on the internet, NASA has provided images to inspire a generation, all because a scientist or researcher had a requirement to see something unusual. Digital Television technology will give NASA unprecedented new tools for acquiring, analyzing, and distributing video. This paper will explore NASA's DTV future. The agency has a requirement to move video from one NASA Center to another, in real time. Specifics will be provided relating to the NASA video infrastructure, including video from the Space Shuttle and from the various Centers. A comparison of the pros and cons of interlace and progressive scanned images will be presented. Film is a major component of NASA's image acquisition for analysis usage. The future of film within the context of DTV will be explored.

Grubbs, Rodney↗

Projected Applications of a "Climate in a Box" Computing System at the NASA Short-Term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center

The NASA Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center focuses on the transition of unique observations and research capabilities to the operational weather community, with a goal of improving short-term forecasts on a regional scale. Advances in research computing have lead to "Climate in a Box" systems, with hardware configurations capable of producing high resolution, near real-time weather forecasts, but with footprints, power, and cooling requirements that are comparable to desktop systems. The SPoRT Center has developed several capabilities for incorporating unique NASA research capabilities and observations with real-time weather forecasts. Planned utilization includes the development of a fully-cycled data assimilation system used to drive 36-48 hour forecasts produced by the NASA Unified version of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model (NU-WRF). The horsepower provided by the "Climate in a Box" system is expected to facilitate the assimilation of vertical profiles of temperature and moisture provided by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) aboard the NASA Aqua satellite. In addition, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments aboard NASA s Aqua and Terra satellites provide high-resolution sea surface temperatures and vegetation characteristics. The development of MODIS normalized difference vegetation index (NVDI) composites for use within the NASA Land Information System (LIS) will assist in the characterization of vegetation, and subsequently the surface albedo and processes related to soil moisture. Through application of satellite simulators, NASA satellite instruments can be used to examine forecast model errors in cloud cover and other characteristics. Through the aforementioned application of the "Climate in a Box" system and NU-WRF capabilities, an end goal is the establishment of a real-time forecast system that fully integrates modeling and analysis capabilities developed within the NASA SPoRT Center, with benefits provided to the operational forecasting community.

Jedlovec, Gary J.↗

Successes of Small Business Innovation Research at NASA Glenn Research Center

This booklet of success stories highlights the NASA Glenn Research Center's accomplishments and successes by the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs. These success stories are the results of selecting projects that support NASA missions and also have high commercialization potential. Each success story describes the innovation accomplished, commercialization of the technology, and further applications and usages. This booklet emphasizes the integration and incorporation of technologies into NASA missions and other government projects. The company name and the NASA contact person are identified to encourage further usage and application of the SBIR developed technologies and also to promote further commercialization of these products.

Kim, Walter S.↗

SBIR Success Stories at NASA Glenn Research Center

This booklet of success stories summarizes the NASA Glenn Research Center's accomplishments and successes by the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. These success stories are the results of selecting projects that best support NASA missions and also have commercialization potential. Each success story describes the innovation accomplished, commercialization of the technology, and further applications and usages. The company name and the NASA contact person are identified to encourage further interest and communication to occur.

Kim, Walter S.↗

Acquisition forecast: Fiscal year 1995

This volume includes projections of all anticipated FY95, and beyond, NASA contract actions above $25,000 that small and small disadvantaged businesses may be able to perform under direct contract with the government or as subcontractors. The forecast consolidates anticipated procurements at each NASA center into an agencywide report, with the aim of increasing industries' advance knowledge of NASA requirements and enhancing competition in contracting. Each center forecast report is divided into three principal categories of procurement: research and development, services, and supplies and equipment.

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NASA Langley Highlights, 1997

Langley's mission is accomplished by performing innovative research relevant to national needs and Agency goals, transferring technology to users in a timely manner, and providing development support to other United States Government Agencies, industry, other NASA Centers, the educational community, and the local community. This report contains highlights of some of the major accomplishments and applications that have been made by Langley researchers and by our university and industry colleagues during the past year. The highlights illustrate the broad range of research and technology activities carried out by NASA Langley Research Center and the contributions of this work toward maintaining United States' leadership in aeronautics and space research.

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NASA Langley Highlights, 1998

Langley's mission is accomplished by performing innovative research relevant to national needs and Agency goals, transferring technology to users in a timely manner, and providing development support to other United States Government Agencies, industry, other NASA Centers, the educational community, and the local community. This report contains highlights of some of the major accomplishments and applications that have been made by Langley researchers and by our university and industry colleagues during the past year. The highlights illustrate the broad range of research and technology activities carried out by NASA Langley Research Center and the contributions of this work toward maintaining United States' leadership in aeronautics and space research. A color electronic version of this report is available at URL http://larcpubs.larc.nasa.gov/randt/1998/.

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Carbon Nanotube Activities at NASA-Johnson Space Center

Research activities on carbon nanotubes at NASA-Johnson Space Center include production, purification, characterization and their applications for human space flight. In-situ diagnostics during nanotube production by laser oven process include collection of spatial and temporal data of passive emission and laser induced fluorescence from C2, C3 and Nickel atoms in the plume. Details of the results from the "parametric study" of the pulsed laser ablation process indicate the effect of production parameters including temperature, buffer gas, flow rate, pressure, and laser fluence. Improvement of the purity by a variety of steps in the purification process is monitored by characterization techniques including SEM, TEM, Raman, UV-VIS-NIR and TGA. A recently established NASA-JSC protocol for SWCNT characterization is undergoing revision with feedback from nanotube community. Efforts at JSC over the past five years in composites have centered on structural polymednanotube systems. Recent activities broadened this focus to multifunctional materials, supercapacitors, fuel cells, regenerable CO2 absorbers, electromagnetic shielding, radiation dosimetry and thermal management systems of interest for human space flight. Preliminary tests indicate improvement of performance in most of these applications because of the large surface area as well as high electrical and thermal conductivity exhibited by SWCNTs.

Arepalli, Sivaram↗

Helicopter transmission research at NASA Lewis Research Center

A joint helicopter transmission research program between NASA Lewis Research Center and the U.S. Army Aviation Systems Command has existed since 1970. Program goals are to reduce weight and noise and to increase life and reliability. Reviewed are significant advances in technology for gears and transmissions and the experimental facilities at NASA Lewis for helicopter transmission testing are described. A description of each of the rigs is presented along with some significant results from the experiments.

Coy, John J.↗

Engineering education and a lifetime of learning

The result of an eleven-week study by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the American Society of Engineering Education is presented. The study was the ninth of a series of programs. The purposes of the programs were: (1) to introduce engineering school faculty members to system design and to a particular approach to teaching system design, (2) to introduce engineering faculty to NASA and to a specific NASA center, and (3) to produce a study of use to NASA and to the participants. The story was concerned with engineering education in the U.S., and concentrated upon undergraduate education and teaching, although this bias was not meant to imply that research and graduate study are less important to engineering education.

Eisley, J.↗

Project MEDSAT

During the winter term of 1991, two design courses at the University of Michigan worked on a joint project, MEDSAT. The two design teams consisted of the Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Spacite System Design and Aerospace Engineering 483 (Aero 483) Aerospace System Design. In collaboration, they worked to produce MEDSAT, a satellite and scientific payload whose purpose was to monitor environmental conditions over Chiapas, Mexico. Information gained from the sensing, combined with regional data, would be used to determine the potential for malaria occurrence in that area. The responsibilities of AOSS 605 consisted of determining the remote sensing techniques, the data processing, and the method to translate the information into a usable output. Aero 483 developed the satellite configuration and the subsystems required for the satellite to accomplish its task. The MEDSAT project is an outgrowth of work already being accomplished by NASA's Biospheric and Disease Monitoring Program and Ames Research Center. NASA's work has been to develop remote sensing techniques to determine the abundance of disease carriers and now this project will place the techniques aboard a satellite. MEDSAT will be unique in its use of both a Synthetic Aperture Radar and visual/IR sensor to obtain comprehensive monitoring of the site. In order to create a highly feasible system, low cost was a high priority. To obtain this goal, a light satellite configuration launched by the Pegasus launch vehicle was used.

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Defining the performance gap: Conducting a self-assessment

This paper presents two different approaches to performing self-assessments of continuous improvement activities. Case Study 1 describes the activities performed by JSC to assess the implementation of continuous improvement efforts at the NASA Center. The JSC approach included surveys administered to randomly selected NASA personnel and personal interviews with NASA and contractor management personnel. Case Study 2 describes the continuous improvement survey performed by the JSC Safety, Reliability, and Quality Assurance (SR&QA) organization. This survey consisted of a short questionnaire (50 questions) administered to all NASA and contractor SR&QA personnel. The questionnaire is based on the eight categories of the President's Award for Quality and Productivity Improvement. It is designed to objectively determine placement on the TQ benchmark and identify a roadmap for improvement.

Braymer, Susan A.↗

Countermeasure development to space adaptation

At the Johnson Space Center we are actively involved, with the collaboration of other NASA Centers and the scientific community at large, in the search for ways to counter the negative affects of spaceflight beginning with the improvement in our understanding of the adaptation. Heretofore this search will be broadly referred to as countermeasures development and includes not only the preservation of physiological well-being but also pyschological well-being. The psychological integrity of crews will, undoubtedly, become progressively more important as lengths, remoteness, and risks of missions increase. The character and priorities of our contermeasure development is very much dependent upon the character of the mission and requires a very close liaison between Medical Operations and the investigators. Because of the demands which countermeasure implementation imposes upon crew schedules and because of the potential weight, power, and budget impacts of the hardware and its development, a countermeasure can only become operational when it is either adequately validated or the human risk of not applying the existing technology exceeds the other negative impacts not directly related to crew health and safety.

Larochelle, F. T.↗

NASA Vision

Contents include the following: Administrator O'Keefe addresses NASA's return to flight. New independent engineering and safety center. Around the centers. NASA and your library: local libraries making room for space. Robonaut: the next generation. Inspiring the next generation ... of Hispanics. NASA and teachers focus on parks. GSFC director gives keynote address. Agency honor awards. Summer interns join the NASA team. Catching a comet's tail in Earth's atmosphere.

Fenton, Mary↗

Development of advanced entry, descent, and landing technologies for future Mars Missions

Future Mars missions may need the capability to land much closer to a desired target and/or advanced methods of detecting, avoiding, or tolerating landing hazards. Therefore, technologies that enable 'pinpoint landing' (within tens of meters to 1 km of a target site) will be crucial to meet future mission requirements. As part of NASA Research Announcement, NRA 03-OSS-01, NASA solicited proposals for technology development needs of missions to be launched to Mars during or after the 2009 launch opportunity. Six technology areas were identified as of high priority including advanced entry, descent, and landing (EDL) technologies. In May 2004, 11 proposals with PIs from universities, industries, and NASA centers, were awarded in the area of advanced EDL by NASA for further study and development. This paper presents an overview of these developing technologies.

NASA Research Announcement (NRA)↗

NASA's PEM Fuel Cell Power Plant Development Program for Space Applications

NASA embarked on a PEM fuel cell power plant development program beginning in 2001. This five-year program was conducted by a three-center NASA team of Glenn Research Center (lead), Johnson Space Center, and Kennedy Space Center. The program initially was aimed at developing hardware for a Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) application, but more recently had shifted to applications supporting the NASA Exploration Program. The first phase of the development effort, to develop breadboard hardware in the 1-5 kW power range, was conducted by two competing vendors. The second phase of the effort, to develop Engineering Model hardware at the 10 kW power level, was conducted by the winning vendor from the first phase of the effort. Both breadboard units and the single engineering model power plant were delivered to NASA for independent testing. This poster presentation will present a summary of both phases of the development effort, along with a discussion of test results of the PEM fuel cell engineering model under simulated mission conditions.

Hoberecht, Mark↗