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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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59 records · Page 4

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2008

Re-active Passive (RAP) Devices for Control of Noise Transmission through a Panel

Re-Active Passive (RAP) devices have been developed to control low frequency (<1000 Hz) noise transmission through a panel. These devices use a combination of active, re-active, and passive technologies packaged into a single unit to control a broad frequency range utilizing the strength of each technology over its best suited frequency range. The RAP device uses passive constrained layer damping to cover the relatively high frequency range (>200 Hz), reactive distributed vibration absorber) to cover the medium frequency range (75 to 250 Hz), and active control for controlling low frequencies (<200 Hz). The device was applied to control noise transmission through a panel mounted in a transmission loss test facility. Experimental results are presented for the bare panel, and combinations of passive treatment, reactive treatment, and active control. Results indicate that three RAP devices were able to increase the overall broadband (15-1000 Hz) transmission loss by 9.4 dB. These three devices added a total of 285 grams to the panel mass of 6.0 kg, or approximately 5%, not including control electronics.

Carneal, James P.↗

DOE OSTI2025

Geophysical measurements of a demolition at NRF

On May 31 st , 2025, at approximately 14:40:00 UTC, the former Submarine First Westinghouse (SW1) structure housing a large crane was demolished at the Naval Reactors Facility (NRF) located within the perimeter of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Several targeted explosives were used to facilitate this demolition. The INL Seismic Monitoring Program (SMP) installed four temporary seismic instrument suites around the site of the demolition in order to monitor ground motion including measuring peak ground acceleration (PGA), peak ground velocity (PGV), and to calculate peak ground displacement (PGD). The demolition produced three types of waves: body waves, surface waves, and acoustic waves. The acoustic wave represents the largest signal received. The PGA, measured on the eastern component of the instrument located approximately 95m away from the demolition site, was 0.187g. The PGV measured was 0.0004 m/s, and the PGD was approximately 0.000006m. Rayleigh waves incident on an instrument located at the Advanced Test Reactor, about 7.6km away, were used to estimate a magnitude of 0.3 at the ATR, representing a yield of energy equivalent to approximately 3 grams of TNT.

58 - GEOSCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS2011

MEPAG Recommendations for a 2018 Mars Sample Return Caching Lander - Sample Types, Number, and Sizes

The return to Earth of geological and atmospheric samples from the surface of Mars is among the highest priority objectives of planetary science. The MEPAG Mars Sample Return (MSR) End-to-End International Science Analysis Group (MEPAG E2E-iSAG) was chartered to propose scientific objectives and priorities for returned sample science, and to map out the implications of these priorities, including for the proposed joint ESA-NASA 2018 mission that would be tasked with the crucial job of collecting and caching the samples. The E2E-iSAG identified four overarching scientific aims that relate to understanding: (A) the potential for life and its pre-biotic context, (B) the geologic processes that have affected the martian surface, (C) planetary evolution of Mars and its atmosphere, (D) potential for future human exploration. The types of samples deemed most likely to achieve the science objectives are, in priority order: (1A). Subaqueous or hydrothermal sediments (1B). Hydrothermally altered rocks or low temperature fluid-altered rocks (equal priority) (2). Unaltered igneous rocks (3). Regolith, including airfall dust (4). Present-day atmosphere and samples of sedimentary-igneous rocks containing ancient trapped atmosphere Collection of geologically well-characterized sample suites would add considerable value to interpretations of all collected rocks. To achieve this, the total number of rock samples should be about 30-40. In order to evaluate the size of individual samples required to meet the science objectives, the E2E-iSAG reviewed the analytical methods that would likely be applied to the returned samples by preliminary examination teams, for planetary protection (i.e., life detection, biohazard assessment) and, after distribution, by individual investigators. It was concluded that sample size should be sufficient to perform all high-priority analyses in triplicate. In keeping with long-established curatorial practice of extraterrestrial material, at least 40% by mass of each sample should be preserved to support future scientific investigations. Samples of 15-16 grams are considered optimal. The total mass of returned rocks, soils, blanks and standards should be approximately 500 grams. Atmospheric gas samples should be the equivalent of 50 cubic cm at 20 times Mars ambient atmospheric pressure.

Allen, Carlton C.↗

NASA NTRS2022

Assessing the Sampleability of Bennu’s Surface for the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

NASA’s first asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx, collected a sample from the surface of near-Earth asteroid Bennu in October 2020 and will deliver it to Earth in September 2023. Selecting a sample collection site on Bennu’s surface was challenging due to the surprising lack of large ponded deposits of regolith particles exclusively fine enough (≤ 2 cm diameter) to be ingested by the spacecraft’s Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM). Here we describe the Sampleability Map of Bennu, which was constructed to aid in the selection of candidate sampling sites and to estimate the probability of collecting sufficient sample. “Sampleability” is a numeric score that expresses the compatibility of a given area’s surface properties with the sampling mechanism. The algorithm that determines sampleability is a best fit functional form to an extensive suite of laboratory testing outcomes tracking the TAGSAM performance as a function of four observable properties of the target asteroid. The algorithm and testing were designed to measure and subsequently predict TAGSAM collection amounts as a function of the minimum particle size, maximum particle size, particle size frequency distribution, and the tilt of the TAGSAM head off the surface. The sampleability algorithm operated at two general scales, consistent with the resolution and coverage of data collected during the mission. The first scale was global and evaluated nearly the full surface. Due to Bennu’s unexpected boulder coverage and lack of ponded regolith deposits, the global sampleability efforts relied heavily on additional strategies to find and characterize regions of interest based on quantifying and avoiding areas heavily covered by material too large to be collected. The second scale was site-specific and used higher-resolution data to predict collected mass at a given contact location. The rigorous sampleability assessments gave the mission confidence to select the best possible sample collection site and directly enabled successful collection of hundreds of grams of material.

Asteroid exploration↗

NASA NTRS2020

Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy (DSA): Development of Swarm Autonomy Capability and Scalability for Spacecraft

The Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy project is developing a suite of software tools that enable an operator to command and receive data from a swarm as a single entity, enable a swarm to autonomously coordinate its actions via distributed decision making and reactive closed-loop control, and model swarm behavior in the presence of anomalies or failures. Our use case is the mapping of the electron density of the ionosphere using radio tomography by coordinating the selection of appropriate GPS channels, and by recording Total Electron Count (TEC)measurements. DSA will be demonstrated on board the NASA Ames Starling mission a swarm of four small, LEO spacecraft, scheduled to launch in 2021. We will also perform a ground demonstration with simulated and hardware-in-the-loop elements, to validate the tools for controlling swarms of up to 100 assets.The capability to communicate autonomously between the swarm satellites is demonstrated via a sophisticated simulation architecture. Historical Plasma sphere TEC data obtained via dual-band Novatel GPS Receivers are utilized as a representative input data set for the swarm. The representative TEC data and GPS satellite observability information is fed to the autonomous software package in place of a true real-time ground data collection process. The swarm satellites actively share status updates amongst one another and utilize multi-agent decision making to optimally identify regions of interest in the TEC distribution. The software,aware of the bandwidth limitations of the swarm satellites, prioritizes explorative measurements,which define the range of observability for the satellites, as well as exploitative measurements,which focus on maximizing the observance potential of regions with prolonged, elevated TEC density. The science of this study can ultimately be used to determine the dynamics and coupling of Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere, and atmosphere and their response to solar and terrestrial inputs. The findings can be applied to the imaging of critical, transient phenomena in the magnetosphere in later missions. Meanwhile, the swarm autonomy capabilities have far reaching potential in future satellite missions.As an experimental demonstration of the autonomous capabilities of the network, a message is first printed within a core Flight Executive (cFE) application. Two cFE applications that communicate with one another within the same core Flight System (cFS) are shown.Communication between mission applications on the internal cFE bus is extended to utilize Data Distribution Service (DDS) for vehicle-to-vehicle networking. The DDS middle ware provides reliable delivery, routing, and topic subscription features over User Data gram Protocol (UDP).Leveraging Linux containerization, a networked set of satellite instances are generated by script to simulate swarm behavior. Swarm commanding and synchronization through the network is demonstrated under various topologies and data-loss conditions. Finally, autonomous swarms calability from 2 satellites to 100 satellites is shown.

Fugate, Jason↗