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At least 73 records · Page 4

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2014

NASA Tech Briefs, June 2014

Topics include: Real-Time Minimization of Tracking Error for Aircraft Systems; Detecting an Extreme Minority Class in Hyperspectral Data Using Machine Learning; KSC Spaceport Weather Data Archive; Visualizing Acquisition, Processing, and Network Statistics Through Database Queries; Simulating Data Flow via Multiple Secure Connections; Systems and Services for Near-Real-Time Web Access to NPP Data; CCSDS Telemetry Decoder VHDL Core; Thermal Response of a High-Power Switch to Short Pulses; Solar Panel and System Design to Reduce Heating and Optimize Corridors for Lower-Risk Planetary Aerobraking; Low-Cost, Very Large Diamond-Turned Metal Mirror; Very-High-Load-Capacity Air Bearing Spindle for Large Diamond Turning Machines; Elevated-Temperature, Highly Emissive Coating for Energy Dissipation of Large Surfaces; Catalyst for Treatment and Control of Post-Combustion Emissions; Thermally Activated Crack Healing Mechanism for Metallic Materials; Subsurface Imaging of Nanocomposites; Self-Healing Glass Sealants for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells and Electrolyzer Cells; Micromachined Thermopile Arrays with Novel Thermo - electric Materials; Low-Cost, High-Performance MMOD Shielding; Head-Mounted Display Latency Measurement Rig; Workspace-Safe Operation of a Force- or Impedance-Controlled Robot; Cryogenic Mixing Pump with No Moving Parts; Seal Design Feature for Redundancy Verification; Dexterous Humanoid Robot; Tethered Vehicle Control and Tracking System; Lunar Organic Waste Reformer; Digital Laser Frequency Stabilization via Cavity Locking Employing Low-Frequency Direct Modulation; Deep UV Discharge Lamps in Capillary Quartz Tubes with Light Output Coupled to an Optical Fiber; Speech Acquisition and Automatic Speech Recognition for Integrated Spacesuit Audio Systems, Version II; Advanced Sensor Technology for Algal Biotechnology; High-Speed Spectral Mapper; "Ascent - Commemorating Shuttle" - A NASA Film and Multimedia Project DVD; High-Pressure, Reduced-Kinetics Mechanism for N-Hexadecane Oxidation; Method of Error Floor Mitigation in Low-Density Parity-Check Codes; X-Ray Flaw Size Parameter for POD Studies; Large Eddy Simulation Composition Equations for Two-Phase Fully Multicomponent Turbulent Flows; Scheduling Targeted and Mapping Observations with State, Resource, and Timing Constraints;

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NASA NTRS2013

System for Suppressing Vibration in Turbomachine Components

Disclosed is a system for suppressing vibration and noise mitigation in structures such as blades in turbomachinery. The system includes flexible piezoelectric patches which are secured on or imbedded in turbomachinery blades which, in one embodiment, comprises eight (8) fan blades. The system further includes a capacitor plate coupler and a power transfer apparatus, which may both be arranged into one assembly, that respectively transfer data and power. Each of the capacitive plate coupler and power transfer apparatus is configured so that one part is attached to a fixed member while another part is attached to a rotatable member with an air gap there between. The system still further includes a processor that has 16 channels, eight of which serve as sensor channels, and the remaining eight, serving as actuation channels. The processor collects and analyzes the sensor signals and, in turn, outputs corrective signals for vibration/noise suppression of the turbine blades.

Morrison, Carlos R.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Spacecraft Power Source Installation at Launch Complex

For certain space missions, an assembly must be integrated onto the spacecraft as late as possible in the launch vehicle processing flow. 12This late integration can be driven for a variety of reasons including thermal or hazardous materials constraints. This paper discusses the process of integrating an assembly onto a spacecraft as late as one week prior to the opening of the launch window. Consideration is given to achieving sufficient access for hardware integration, methods of remotely securing hardware to the spacecraft, maintaining spacecraft cleanliness throughout the integration process, and electrically integrating the component to the spacecraft. Specific examples are taken from the remote mechanical, electrical, and fluid cooling system integration of the power source onto the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Rover at the Atlas V Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

Lytal, Paul↗

NASA NTRS2011

Hybrid Power Management-Based Vehicle Architecture

Hybrid Power Management (HPM) is the integration of diverse, state-of-the-art power devices in an optimal configuration for space and terrestrial applications (s ee figure). The appropriate application and control of the various power devices significantly improves overall system performance and efficiency. The basic vehicle architecture consists of a primary power source, and possibly other power sources, that provides all power to a common energy storage system that is used to power the drive motors and vehicle accessory systems. This architecture also provides power as an emergency power system. Each component is independent, permitting it to be optimized for its intended purpose. The key element of HPM is the energy storage system. All generated power is sent to the energy storage system, and all loads derive their power from that system. This can significantly reduce the power requirement of the primary power source, while increasing the vehicle reliability. Ultracapacitors are ideal for an HPM-based energy storage system due to their exceptionally long cycle life, high reliability, high efficiency, high power density, and excellent low-temperature performance. Multiple power sources and multiple loads are easily incorporated into an HPM-based vehicle. A gas turbine is a good primary power source because of its high efficiency, high power density, long life, high reliability, and ability to operate on a wide range of fuels. An HPM controller maintains optimal control over each vehicle component. This flexible operating system can be applied to all vehicles to considerably improve vehicle efficiency, reliability, safety, security, and performance. The HPM-based vehicle architecture has many advantages over conventional vehicle architectures. Ultracapacitors have a much longer cycle life than batteries, which greatly improves system reliability, reduces life-of-system costs, and reduces environmental impact as ultracapacitors will probably never need to be replaced and disposed of. The environmentally safe ultracapacitor components reduce disposal concerns, and their recyclable nature reduces the environmental impact. High ultracapacitor power density provides high power during surges, and the ability to absorb high power during recharging. Ultracapacitors are extremely efficient in capturing recharging energy, are rugged, reliable, maintenance-free, have excellent lowtemperature characteristic, provide consistent performance over time, and promote safety as they can be left indefinitely in a safe, discharged state whereas batteries cannot.

Eichenberg, Dennis J.↗

NASA NTRS2011

A Hybrid Power Management (HPM) Based Vehicle Architecture

Society desires vehicles with reduced fuel consumption and reduced emissions. This presents a challenge and an opportunity for industry and the government. The NASA John H. Glenn Research Center (GRC) has developed a Hybrid Power Management (HPM) based vehicle architecture for space and terrestrial vehicles. GRC's Electrical and Electromagnetics Branch of the Avionics and Electrical Systems Division initiated the HPM Program for the GRC Technology Transfer and Partnership Office. HPM is the innovative integration of diverse, state-of-the-art power devices in an optimal configuration for space and terrestrial applications. The appropriate application and control of the various power devices significantly improves overall system performance and efficiency. The basic vehicle architecture consists of a primary power source, and possibly other power sources, providing all power to a common energy storage system, which is used to power the drive motors and vehicle accessory systems, as well as provide power as an emergency power system. Each component is independent, permitting it to be optimized for its intended purpose. This flexible vehicle architecture can be applied to all vehicles to considerably improve system efficiency, reliability, safety, security, and performance. This unique vehicle architecture has the potential to alleviate global energy concerns, improve the environment, stimulate the economy, and enable new missions.

Eichenberg, Dennis J.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Accessing Wind Tunnels From NASA's Information Power Grid

The NASA Ames wind tunnel customers are one of the first users of the Information Power Grid (IPG) storage system at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division. We wanted to be able to store their data on the IPG so that it could be accessed remotely in a secure but timely fashion. In addition, incorporation into the IPG allows future use of grid computational resources, e.g., for post-processing of data, or to do side-by-side CFD validation. In this paper, we describe the integration of grid data access mechanisms with the existing DARWIN web-based system that is used to access wind tunnel test data. We also show that the combined system has reasonable performance: wind tunnel data may be retrieved at 50Mbits/s over a 100 base T network connected to the IPG storage server.

Becker, Jeff↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Selection Factors for Space Crops

NASA is actively researching space crop production to determine its potential to contribute to food system security on long duration missions beyond Low Earth Orbit. Our near-term focus is on nutrient and variety supplementation of prepackaged food with fresh produce that requires little or no processing. The longer-term goal is caloric replacement to become less dependent on Earth, and this will require cultivation of staple crops, processing and cooking equipment, integration with spacecraft air, water, and power systems, and automation. There are numerous technology and knowledge gaps remaining for sustainable space crop production systems, but one high-impact area is in the development of crops specifically customized to meet the needs of controlled environment crop production, astronaut health and well-being, and space-unique environments. Modern crop breeding and genome engineering tools are allowing for rapid development of new genotypes with incredible specificity. Targeted aspects to optimize crops for space have been identified and characterized into five categories: plant growth and development, plant physiology, produce nutrition, produce organoleptic acceptability, and postharvest characteristics. Within each category there are several targets that further the development of crop production systems for spaceflight, such as crop size and harvest index, tolerance to specific environmental stresses, optimizing target nutrients that are low or degrade in the packaged diet, maintenance time requirements, and less indigestible structural material. NASA-funded PIs are already beginning to develop candidate crops, and spaceflight testing and validation of novel space crops is on the horizon. Crops developed for space also have the potential to benefit terrestrial controlled environment agriculture crop production systems. This research was supported by NASA’s Space Biology and Human Research Programs.

Space Crop Production↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Selection Factors for Space Crops

Space Crop Production↗

NASA NTRS2002

STS-110 Flight Day 6 Highlights

On the sixth day of the STS-110 mission, Mission Specialists Jerry Ross and Lee Morin are seen in the second extravehicular activity (EVA) of this mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The video opens with the two astronauts preparing for the EVA, which will be Ross' eighth, thereby making him the most experienced space-walker in history. This pair of astronauts has been dubbed the Silver Team, largely because they both have grandchildren. As Ross and Morin prepare for the EVA by breathing pure oxygen and experiencing reduced pressure, Mission Specialist Ellen Ochoa maneuvers the robotic arm towards the hatch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. There is video footage of the astronauts exiting the hatch and preparing their tools and work areas. During this EVA the astronauts will install two tripod-like struts, which will serve as structural attachments between the S-0 truss segment and the Destiny Laboratory Module. While the construction takes place, helmet mounted cameras on the spacesuits provide live video of the astronauts at work, most often using a pistol grip tool used as an electric ratcheting-type drill to loosen and tighten bolts. Following the installation of the struts, Ross and Morin remove the draglinks and keelpins that had functioned to hold the S0 truss structure securely in Atlantis' payload bay during the launch sequence of the mission. They move these to temporary storage positions, bolted on the outside of the ISS. They then install an umbilical system that will provide power to the Mobile Transporter (MT).

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NASA NTRS1994

System for the installation and replacement of components in hostile environments

Service equipment for use in hostile environments is presented. The equipment includes a detachable service unit secured to a stationary service unit. The detachable service unit includes a housing with an exterior plate, a power control interface for connection to an exterior power source, locating pins located in said exterior plate, an electrical connector in the exterior plate electrically coupled to said power control interface, and a pair of clamping receptacles formed in the exterior plate and located on adjacent opposite edges of the exterior plate. The stationary unit includes an electrical connector for connection to the electrical connector of the detachable service unit, a clamping apparatus for clamping and unclamping the detachable service unit from the stationary unit, a base clamp assembly for mounting the clamping apparatus onto the stationary unit, and locating pin holes for receiving the locating pins and aligning the detachable service unit onto the stationary unit. The detachable service unit have mating scalloped faces which aid in alignment and provide a mechanism for heat dissipation.

Gordan, Andrew L.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Rocket nozzle automatic release system

The function of the mechanism described is to automatically jettison a rocket nozzle element at the conclusion of boost in order to achieve a cruise mode nozzle configuration for the balance of powered flight. The boost nozzle is retained by latched pistons that are mechanically secured until released by chamber pressure, which simultaneously assumes retention of the nozzle by holding the primary piston in place. Upon attainment of cruise mode, the chamber pressure drops, allowing springs to overcome the primary piston force and pull the keeper ring forward to free the nozzle for jettison by motor exhaust.

Kimball, J. B.↗

NASA NTRS2017

NASA's Kilopower Reactor Development and the Path to Higher Power Missions

The development of NASAs Kilopower fission reactor is taking large strides toward flight development with several successful tests completed during its technology demonstration trials. The Kilopower reactors are designed to provide 1-10 kW of electrical power to a spacecraft which could be used for additional science instruments as well as the ability to power electric propulsion systems. Power rich nuclear missions have been excluded from NASA proposals because of the lack of radioisotope fuel and the absence of a flight qualified fission system. NASA has partnered with the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration to develop the Kilopower reactor using existing facilities and infrastructure to determine if the design is ready for flight development. The 3-year Kilopower project started in 2015 with a challenging goal of building and testing a full-scale flight prototypic nuclear reactor by the end of 2017. As the date approaches, the engineering team shares information on the progress of the technology as well as the enabling capabilities it provides for science and human exploration.

Kilopower↗

NASA NTRS2017

NASA's Kilopower Reactor Development and the Path to Higher Power Missions

The development of NASA's Kilopower fission reactor is taking large strides toward flight development with several successful tests completed during its technology demonstration trials. The Kilopower reactors are designed to provide 1-10 kW of electrical power to a spacecraft which could be used for additional science instruments as well as the ability to power electric propulsion systems. Power rich nuclear missions have been excluded from NASA proposals because of the lack of radioisotope fuel and the absence of a flight qualified fission system. NASA has partnered with the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration to develop the Kilopower reactor using existing facilities and infrastructure to determine if the design is ready for flight development. The 3-year Kilopower project started in 2015 with a challenging goal of building and testing a full-scale flight prototypic nuclear reactor by the end of 2017. As the date approaches, the engineering team shares information on the progress of the technology as well as the enabling capabilities it provides for science and human exploration.

Kilopower↗

NASA NTRS2018

Polar Volatiles Exploration in Peary Crater Enabled by NASA's Kilopower Project

For more than 50 years, scientists have discussed the possibility of the existence of water ice and other frozen volatiles at the lunar poles [1]. However, it was not until the 1990s when the polar orbiting spacecraft Clementine and Lunar Prospector collected data supporting these hypotheses [2]. Subsequent missions, including the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission [3], and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission [4], provided further evidence that supports the existence of water ice deposits at the lunar poles. During NASA's Constellation Program, several areas at both lunar poles polar were included in 50 Regions of Interest (ROI) for intensive study by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) [5]. These polar ROI focused on peaks and craters rims that received high amounts of solar illumination, assuming initial missions back to the lunar surface would utilize solar arrays to generate electricity. Recently, the successful demonstration of NASA's Kilopower Project at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Nevada National Security Site makes it possible to consider lunar polar missions at locations other than highly illuminated regions. The Kilopower Project was initiated in 2015 to demonstrate subsystem-level technology readiness of a small space fission power system [6]. This abstract describes the science objectives and operations for a mission concept developed at NASA Glenn Research Center's COMPASS Concurrent Engineering Team for a 1-year exploration of Peary Crater focused on prospecting for lunar polar volatiles.

Gruener, J. E.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Spaceflight Operations Services Grid (SOSG)

In an effort to adapt existing space flight operations services to new emerging Grid technologies we are developing a Grid-based prototype space flight operations Grid. This prototype is based on the operational services being provided to the International Space Station's Payload operations located at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama. The prototype services will be Grid or Web enabled and provided to four user communities through portal technology. Users will have the opportunity to assess the value and feasibility of Grid technologies to their specific areas or disciplines. In this presentation descriptions of the prototype development, User-based services, Grid-based services and status of the project will be presented. Expected benefits, findings and observations (if any) to date will also be discussed. The focus of the presentation will be on the project in general, status to date and future plans. The End-use services to be included in the prototype are voice, video, telemetry, commanding, collaboration tools and visualization among others. Security is addressed throughout the project and is being designed into the Grid technologies and standards development. The project is divided into three phases. Phase One establishes the baseline User-based services required for space flight operations listed above. Phase Two involves applying Gridlweb technologies to the User-based services and development of portals for access by users. Phase Three will allow NASA and end users to evaluate the services and determine the future of the technology as applied to space flight operational services. Although, Phase One, which includes the development of the quasi-operational User-based services of the prototype, development will be completed by March 2004, the application of Grid technologies to these services will have just begun. We will provide status of the Grid technologies to the individual User-based services. This effort will result in an extensible environment that incorporates existing and new spaceflight services into a standards-based framework providing current and future NASA programs with cost savings and new and evolvable methods to conduct science. This project will demonstrate how the use of new programming paradigms such as web and grid services can provide three significant benefits to the cost-effective delivery of spaceflight services. They will enable applications to operate more efficiently by being able to utilize pooled resources. They will also permit the reuse of common services to rapidly construct new and more powerful applications. Finally they will permit easy and secure access to services via a combination of grid and portal technology by a distributed user community consisting of NASA operations centers, scientists, the educational community and even the general population as outreach. The approach will be to deploy existing mission support applications such as the Telescience Resource Kit (TReK) and new applications under development, such as the Grid Video Distribution System (GViDS), together with existing grid applications and services such as high-performance computing and visualization services provided by NASA s Information Power Grid (IPG) in the MSFC s Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC) HOSC Annex. Once the initial applications have been moved to the grid, a process will begin to apply the new programming paradigms to integrate them where possible. For example, with GViDS, instead of viewing the Distribution service as an application that must run on a single node, the new approach is to build it such that it can be dispatched across a pool of resources in response to dynamic loads. To make this a reality, reusable services will be critical, such as a brokering service to locate appropriate resource within the pool. This brokering service can then be used by other applications such as the TReK. To expand further, if the GViDS application is constructed using a services-based mel, then other applications such as the Video Auditorium can then use GViDS as a service to easily incorporate these video streams into a collaborative conference. Finally, as these applications are re-factored into this new services-based paradigm, the construction of portals to integrate them will be a simple process. As a result, portals can be tailored to meet the requirements of specific user communities.

Bradford, Robert N.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Design, development, and field demonstration of a remotely deployable water quality monitoring system

A prototype water quality monitoring system is described which offers almost continuous in situ monitoring. The two-man portable system features: (1) a microprocessor controlled central processing unit which allows preprogrammed sampling schedules and reprogramming in situ; (2) a subsurface unit for multiple depth capability and security from vandalism; (3) an acoustic data link for communications between the subsurface unit and the surface control unit; (4) eight water quality parameter sensors; (5) a nonvolatile magnetic bubble memory which prevents data loss in the event of power interruption; (6) a rechargeable power supply sufficient for 2 weeks of unattended operation; (7) a water sampler which can collect samples for laboratory analysis; (8) data output in direct engineering units on printed tape or through a computer compatible link; (9) internal electronic calibration eliminating external sensor adjustment; and (10) acoustic location and recovery systems. Data obtained in Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron are tabulated.

Wallace, J. W.↗

NASA NTRS2021

Developing a Hydrological Monitoring and Sub-Seasonal to Seasonal Forecasting System for South and Southeast Asian River Basins

South and Southeast Asia is subject to significant hydrometeorological extremes, including drought. Under rising temperatures, growing populations, and an apparent weakening of the South Asian monsoon in recent decades, concerns regarding drought and its potential impacts on water and food security are on the rise. Reliable sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) hydrological forecasts could, in principle, help governments and international organizations to better assess risk and act in the face of an oncoming drought. Here, we leverage recent improvements in S2S meteorological forecasts and the growing power of Earth Observations to provide more accurate monitoring of hydrological states for forecast initialization. Information from both sources is merged in a South and Southeast Asia sub-seasonal to seasonal hydrological forecasting system (SAHFS-S2S), developed collaboratively with the NASA SERVIR program and end-users across the region. This system applies the Noah-MultiParameterization (NoahMP) Land Surface Model (LSM) in the NASA Land Information System (LIS), driven by downscaled meteorological fields from the Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) and Climate Hazards InfraRed Precipitation products (CHIRP and CHIRPS) to optimize initial conditions. The NASA Goddard Earth Observing System Model - sub-seasonal to seasonal (GEOS-S2S) forecasts, downscaled using the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) General Analog Regression Downscaling (GARD) tool and quantile mapping, are then applied to drive 5-km resolution hydrological forecasts to a 9-month forecast time horizon. Results show that the skillful predictions of root zone soil moisture can be made one to two months in advance for forecasts initialized in rainy seasons and up to 8 months when initialized in dry seasons. The memory of accurate initial conditions can positively contribute to forecast skills throughout the entire 9-month prediction period in areas with limited precipitation. This SAHFS-S2S has been operationalized at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) to support drought monitoring and warning needs in the region.

Yifan Zhou↗

NASA NTRS1987

Reliability modeling of fault-tolerant computer based systems

Digital fault-tolerant computer-based systems have become commonplace in military and commercial avionics. These systems hold the promise of increased availability, reliability, and maintainability over conventional analog-based systems through the application of replicated digital computers arranged in fault-tolerant configurations. Three tightly coupled factors of paramount importance, ultimately determining the viability of these systems, are reliability, safety, and profitability. Reliability, the major driver affects virtually every aspect of design, packaging, and field operations, and eventually produces profit for commercial applications or increased national security. However, the utilization of digital computer systems makes the task of producing credible reliability assessment a formidable one for the reliability engineer. The root of the problem lies in the digital computer's unique adaptability to changing requirements, computational power, and ability to test itself efficiently. Addressed here are the nuances of modeling the reliability of systems with large state sizes, in the Markov sense, which result from systems based on replicated redundant hardware and to discuss the modeling of factors which can reduce reliability without concomitant depletion of hardware. Advanced fault-handling models are described and methods of acquiring and measuring parameters for these models are delineated.

Bavuso, Salvatore J.↗