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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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NASA NTRS1978

Space qualification of optical instruments using the NASA Long-Duration Exposure Facility

The NASA Long-Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), designed for the in situ testing of optical instrumentation in the space environment is described. The LDEF is basically a reusable structure which is three-axis gravity-gradient stabilized when flying free in space. The structure weighs about 8,000 lbs. and accommodates experiment trays weighing about 10,000 lbs. A vacuum exposure control canister is being designed for controlled exposure experiments. The LDEF will have an experiment power and data system and a shuttle bay environmental measurements system is being designed for measuring parameters such as acoustics, vibration, acceleration. The induced environment contamination monitor will evaluate the contamination levels of shuttle payloads. Experiments currently under development include the evaluation of active optical components and the study of fiber optic data transmission.

Clark, L. G.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Solid state SPS microwave generation and transmission study. Volume 1: Phase 2

The solid state sandwich concept for Solar Power Station (SPS) was investigated. The design effort concentrated on the spacetenna, but did include some system analysis for parametric comparison reasons. The study specifically included definition and math modeling of basic solid state microwave devices, an initial conceptual subsystems and system design, sidelobe control and system selection, an assessment of selected system concept and parametric solid state microwave power transmission system data relevant to the SPS concept. Although device efficiency was not a goal, the sensitivities to design of this efficiency were parametrically treated. Sidelobe control consisted of various single step tapers, multistep tapers, and Gaussian tapers. A preliminary assessment of a hybrid concept using tubes and solid state is also included. There is a considerable amount of thermal analysis provided with emphasis on sensitivities to waste heat radiator form factor, emissivity, absorptivity, amplifier efficiency, material and junction temperature.

Maynard, O. E.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Solid state SPS microwave generation and transmission study. Volume 2, phase 2: Appendices

The solid state sandwich concept for SPS was further defined. The design effort concentrated on the spacetenna, but did include some system analysis for parametric comparison reasons. Basic solid state microwave devices were defined and modeled. An initial conceptual subsystems and system design was performed as well as sidelobe control and system selection. The selected system concept and parametric solid state microwave power transmission system data were assessed relevant to the SPS concept. Although device efficiency was not a goal, the sensitivities to design of this efficiency were parametrically treated. Sidelobe control consisted of various single step tapers, multistep tapers and Gaussian tapers. A hybrid concept using tubes and solid state was evaluated. Thermal analyses are included with emphasis on sensitivities to waste heat radiator form factor, emissivity, absorptivity, amplifier efficiency, material and junction temperature.

Maynard, O. E.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Advanced oxygen-hydrocarbon rocket engine study

The advantages and disadvantages, system performance and operating limits, engine parametric data, and technology requirements for candidate high pressure LO2/Hydrocarbon engine systems are summarized. These summaries of parametric analysis and design provide a consistent engine system data base. Power balance data were generated for the eleven engine cycles. Engine cycle rating parameters were established and the desired condition and the effect of the parameter on the engine and/or vehicle are described.

Obrien, C. J.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Technology for space station

Some of the most significant advances made in the space station discipline technology program are examined. Technological tasks and advances in the areas of systems/operations, environmental control and life support systems, data management, power, thermal considerations, attitude control and stabilization, auxiliary propulsion, human capabilities, communications, and structures, materials, and mechanisms are discussed. An overview of NASA technology planning to support the initial space station and the evolutionary growth of the space station is given.

Colladay, R. S.↗

NASA NTRS1985

System analysis study of space platform and station accommodations for life sciences research facilities. Volume 2: Study results. Appendix D: Life sciences research facility requirements

The purpose of this requirements document is to develop the foundation for concept development for the Life Sciences Research Facility (LSRF) on the Space Station. These requirements are developed from the perspective of a Space Station laboratory module outfitter. Science and mission requirements including those related to specimens are set forth. System requirements, including those for support, are detailed. Functional and design requirements are covered in the areas of structures, mechanisms, electrical power, thermal systems, data management system, life support, and habitability. Finally, interface requirements for the Command Module and Logistics Module are described.

Wiley, Lowell F.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Status of Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) activities

The current status of the JEM activities are presented in graphic form. The JEM spacecraft configuration is presented. The JEM configuration consist of the Pressurized Module, the Exposed Facility, the Experiment Logistics Module which consist of a pressurized section and an exposed section; and the Remote Manipulator System. The master schedule of the space station is given. Also the development tests of the structure and mechanism, the electrical power system, the data management system, the thermal control system, the environment control system, the experiment support system, and the remote manipulator system are listed.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1992

LDEF experiment M0003 meteoroid and debris survey

A survey of the meteoroid and space debris impacts on LDEF experiment M0003 was performed. The purpose was to document impact phenomenology and to obtain impact crater data for comparison to current debris and micrometeoroid models. The survey consists of photomicrographs of significant impacts in a variety of material types, accurate measurements of impact crater coordinates and dimensions for selected experiment surfaces and data basing of the crater data for reduction, manipulation, and comparison models. Large area surfaces which were studied include the experiment power and data system sunshields, environment exposure control canister sunshields, and the M0003 signal conditioning unit covers. Crater diameters down to 25 microns were measured and catalogued. Both leading and trailing edge surfaces were studied and compared. The results shows the different response of materials to hypervelocity impacts. Comparison of the data to curves derived from the Kessler debris model and the Cour-Palais micrometeoroid model indicates a marked tendency for overprediction of small impacts and underprediction of large impacts with there being better agreement for the medium sized impacts. Representative impact data is presented.

Meshishnek, M. J.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Gas-Grain Simulation Facility (GGSF). Volume 1: Stage 1 facility definition studies

The Gas-Grain Simulation Facility (GGSF) is a facility-type payload to be included in the Space Station Freedom (SSF). The GGSF is a multidisciplinary facility that will accommodate several classes of experiments, including exobiology, planetary science, atmospheric science, and astrophysics. The physical mechanisms envisioned to be investigated include crystal growth, aggregation, nucleation, coagulation, condensation, collisions, fractal growth, cycles of freezing and evaporation, scavenging, longevity of bacteria, and more. TRW performed a Phase A study that included analyses of the science and technical (S&T) requirements, the development of facility functional requirements, and a conceptual design of the facility. The work that was performed under Stage 1 of the Phase A study and the results to date are summarized. In this stage, facility definition studies were conducted in sufficient detail to establish the technical feasibility of the candidate strawman experiments. The studies identified technical difficulties, identified required facility subsystems, surveyed existing technology studies and established preliminary facility weight, volume, power consumption, data systems, interface definition, and crew time requirements. The results of this study served as the basis for Stage 2 of the Phase A study in which a conceptual design and a reference design were performed. The results also served as a basis for a related study for a Gas-Grain Simulation Experiment Module (GGSEM), which is an apparatus intended to perform a subset of the GGSF experiments on board a low-Earth-orbiting platform.

Gat, Nahum↗

NASA NTRS1993

Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) experiment M0003 meteoroid and debris survey

A survey of the meteoroid and space debris impacts on LDEF experiment M0003 was performed. The purpose of this survey was to document significant impact phenomenology and to obtain impact crater data for comparison to current space debris and micrometeoroid models. The survey consists of the following: photomicrographs of significant impacts in a variety of material types; accurate measurements of impact crater coordinates and dimensions for selected experiment surfaces; and databasing of the crater data for reduction, manipulation, and comparison to models. Large area surfaces that were studied include the experiment power and data system (EPDS) sunshields, environment exposure control canister (EECC) sunshields, and the M0003 signal conditioning unit (SCU) covers. Crater diameters down to 25 microns were measured and cataloged. Both leading (D8) and trailing (D4) edge surfaces were studied and compared. The EPDS sunshields are aluminum panels painted with Chemglaze A-276 white thermal control paint, the EECC sunshields are chromic acid-anodized aluminum, and the SCU covers are aluminum painted with S13GLO white thermal control paint. Typical materials that have documented impacts are metals, glasses and ceramics, composites, polymers, electronic materials, and paints. The results of this survey demonstrate the different response of materials to hypervelocity impacts. Comparison of the survey data to curves derived from the Kessler debris model and the Cour-Palais micrometeoroid model indicates that these models overpredict small impacts (less than 100 micron) and may underpredict large impacts (greater than 1000 micron) while having fair to good agreement for the intermediate impacts. Comparison of the impact distributions among the various surfaces indicates significant variations, which may be a function of material response effects, or in some cases surface roughness. Representative photographs and summary graphs of the impact data are presented.

Meshishnek, M. J.↗

NASA NTRS2003

The Ames Power Monitoring System

The Ames Power Monitoring System (APMS) is a centralized system of power meters, computer hardware, and specialpurpose software that collects and stores electrical power data by various facilities at Ames Research Center (ARC). This system is needed because of the large and varying nature of the overall ARC power demand, which has been observed to range from 20 to 200 MW. Large portions of peak demand can be attributed to only three wind tunnels (60, 180, and 100 MW, respectively). The APMS helps ARC avoid or minimize costly demand charges by enabling wind-tunnel operators, test engineers, and the power manager to monitor total demand for center in real time. These persons receive the information they need to manage and schedule energy-intensive research in advance and to adjust loads in real time to ensure that the overall maximum allowable demand is not exceeded. The APMS (see figure) includes a server computer running the Windows NT operating system and can, in principle, include an unlimited number of power meters and client computers. As configured at the time of reporting the information for this article, the APMS includes more than 40 power meters monitoring all the major research facilities, plus 15 Windows-based client personal computers that display real-time and historical data to users via graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The power meters and client computers communicate with the server using Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) on Ethernet networks, variously, through dedicated fiber-optic cables or through the pre-existing ARC local-area network (ARCLAN). The APMS has enabled ARC to achieve significant savings ($1.2 million in 2001) in the cost of power and electric energy by helping personnel to maintain total demand below monthly allowable levels, to manage the overall power factor to avoid low power factor penalties, and to use historical system data to identify opportunities for additional energy savings. The APMS also provides power engineers and electricians with the information they need to plan modifications in advance and perform day-to-day maintenance of the ARC electric-power distribution system.

Osetinsky, Leonid↗

NASA NTRS1990

Development Status: Automation Advanced Development Space Station Freedom Electric Power System

Electric power system automation for Space Station Freedom is intended to operate in a loop. Data from the power system is used for diagnosis and security analysis to generate Operations Management System (OMS) requests, which are sent to an arbiter, which sends a plan to a commander generator connected to the electric power system. This viewgraph presentation profiles automation software for diagnosis, scheduling, and constraint interfaces, and simulation to support automation development. The automation development process is diagrammed, and the process of creating Ada and ART versions of the automation software is described.

Dolce, James L.↗

NASA NTRS2019

Modern Modal Testing: A Cautionary Tale

Over the past 50 years, great advances have been achieved in both analytical modal analysis (i.e. finite element models and analysis) and experimental modal analysis (i.e. modal testing) in aerospace and other fields. With the advent of more powerful computers, higher performance instrumentation and data acquisition systems, and powerful linear modal extraction tools, analysts and test engineers have a breadth and depth of technical resources only dreamed of by our predecessors. However, some observed recent trends indicate that hard lessons learned are being forgotten or ignored, and possibly fundamental concepts are not being understood. These trends have the potential of leading to the degradation of the quality of and confidence in both analytical and test results. These trends are a making of our own doing, and directly related to having ever more powerful computers, programmatic budgetary pressures to limit analysis and testing, and technical capital loss due to the retirement of the senior component of a bimodal workforce. This paper endeavors to highlight some of the most important lessons learned, common pitfalls to hopefully avoid, and potential steps that may be taken to help reverse this trend.

bimodal workforce↗

NASA NTRS2019

Modern Modal Testing: A Cautionary Tale IMAC XXVII

bimodal workforce↗

NASA NTRS1975

Benefit-cost methodology study with example application of the use of wind generators

An example application for cost-benefit methodology is presented for the use of wind generators. The approach adopted for the example application consisted of the following activities: (1) surveying of the available wind data and wind power system information, (2) developing models which quantitatively described wind distributions, wind power systems, and cost-benefit differences between conventional systems and wind power systems, and (3) applying the cost-benefit methodology to compare a conventional electrical energy generation system with systems which included wind power generators. Wind speed distribution data were obtained from sites throughout the contiguous United States and were used to compute plant factor contours shown on an annual and seasonal basis. Plant factor values (ratio of average output power to rated power) are found to be as high as 0.6 (on an annual average basis) in portions of the central U. S. and in sections of the New England coastal area. Two types of wind power systems were selected for the application of the cost-benefit methodology. A cost-benefit model was designed and implemented on a computer to establish a practical tool for studying the relative costs and benefits of wind power systems under a variety of conditions and to efficiently and effectively perform associated sensitivity analyses.

Zimmer, R. P.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Balloon Flight Engineering Model: Overview

The Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Large Area Telescope (LAT) is a pair-production high-energy (greater than 20 MeV) gamma-ray telescope being built by an international partnership of astrophysicists and particle physicists for a satellite launch in 2006, designed to study a wide variety of high-energy astrophysical phenomena. As part of the development effort, the collaboration has built a Balloon Flight Engineering Model (BFEM) for flight on a high-altitude scientific balloon. The BFEM is approximately the size of one of the 16 GLAST-LAT towers and contains all the components of the full instrument: plastic scintillator anticoincidence system (ACD), high-Z foil/Si strip pair-conversion tracker (TKR), CsI hodoscopic calorimeter (CAL), triggering and data acquisition electronics (DAQ), commanding system, power distribution, telemetry, real-time data display, and ground data processing system. The principal goal of the balloon flight was to demonstrate the performance of this instrument configuration under conditions similar to those expected in orbit. Results from a balloon flight from Palestine, Texas, on August 4, 2001, show that the BFEM successfully obtained gamma-ray data in this high-background environment.

Thompson, D. J.↗

NASA NTRS2003

International Space Station Power System Telemetry Compared With Analytically Derived Data for Shadowed Cases

This article highlights fiscal year 2002 work performed by NASA Glenn Research Center personnel to validate algorithms and data developed in-house to predict shadowing effects on the International Space Station (ISS) solar arrays power generation. The validation effort utilized video footage and on-orbit telemetry for cases spanning a 1-yr period. Validation was required because of the uncertainty of various aspects involved in shadowing analysis. Results show that a good comparison exists between actual and predicted shadowed power system performance for solar array front and backside shadowing.

Fincannon, H. James↗

NASA NTRS2010

Closed Brayton Cycle Power Conversion Unit for Fission Surface Power Phase I Final Report

A Closed Brayton cycle power conversion system has been developed to support the NASA fission surface power program. The goal is to provide electricity from a small nuclear reactor heat source for surface power production for lunar and Mars environments. The selected media for a heat source is NaK 78 with water as a cooling source. The closed Brayton cycle power was selected to be 12 kWe output from the generator terminals. A heat source NaK temperature of 850 K plus or minus 25 K was selected. The cold source water was selected at 375 K plus or minus 25 K. A vacuum radiation environment of 200 K is specified for environmental operation. The major components of the system are the power converter, the power controller, and the top level data acquisition and control unit. The power converter with associated sensors resides in the vacuum radiation environment. The power controller and data acquisition system reside in an ambient laboratory environment. Signals and power are supplied across the pressure boundary electrically with hermetic connectors installed on the vacuum vessel. System level analyses were performed on working fluids, cycle design parameters, heater and cooling temperatures, and heat exchanger options that best meet the needs of the power converter specification. The goal is to provide a cost effective system that has high thermal-to-electric efficiency in a compact, lightweight package.

Fuller, Robert L.↗