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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 721 records · Page 40
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2017

Discovery Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) transceiver

NASA’s 22 cm diameter Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) Transceiver is designed to provide a bi-directional optical link between a spacecraft in the inner solar system and an Earth-based optical ground station. This design, optimized for operation across a wide range of illumination conditions, is focused on minimizing blinding from stray light, and providing reliable, accurate attitude information to point its narrow communication beam accurately to the future location of the ground terminal. Though our transceiver will transmit in the 1550 nm waveband and receive in the 1064 nm waveband, the system design relies heavily on reflective optical elements, extending flexibility to be modified for use at different wavebands. The design makes use of common path propagation among transmit, receive and pointing verification optical channels to maintain precise alignment among its components, and to naturally correct for element misalignment resulting from launch or thermal element perturbations. This paper presents the results of trade studies showing the evolution of the design, unique operational characteristics of the design, elements that help to maintain minimal stray light contamination, and preliminary results from development and initial testing of a functional aluminum test model.

Roberts, W. Thomas↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Biological Data for Deep Space Mission Support

Increased biomedical risks and challenges associated with deep space missions (cis-Lunar, Mars transit, Mars surface) require new knowledge discovery and development of novel ecosystem and biomedical support capabilities. This paradigm shift supporting distant and long-duration missions requires biological data to be findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable (FAIR), and maximally open-access (i.e., there is a data governance continuum from closed to mediated to embargoed to open). The NASA “Open Science Data Repositories” (OSDR) aims to meet scientific, technical, and operational spaceflight needs, and offers the ability to upload, download, search, share, analyze, and visualize data across physiological, behavioral, ‘omics, and environmental monitoring telemetry datasets. OSDR includes NASA GeneLab, NASA Ames Life Sciences Data Archive (ALSDA), and NASA Biological Institutional Scientific Collection (NBISC). In the past year, ALSDA has undergone a transformation in its data collection, curation, and architecture methods. Standardizing non-genomic (phenotypic) datasets was, and will continue to be, a challenge because of their diverse nature (e.g., molecular, cellular, tissue, whole organism behavior; micro-computed tomography, intraocular pressure, fluorescence microscopy, western blot, ultrasonography; tabular, images, video). This year ALSDA, alongside GeneLab, introduced the Biological Data Management Environment (BDME) with the purpose to accept submission of data from space relevant experiments including spaceflight, radiation, simulated gravity, gravitropism, isolation and confinement, hostile closed environments and/or distance from Earth. In addition to bringing together omics, phenotypic, physiological, bioimaging, and behavioral data into one repository. By integrating with GeneLab a multi-project submission portal aims to reduce the burden on PIs submitting data and enabling the discovery of both omics and phenotypic data. The purpose of ALSDA is to collect, curate, and make all non-human space-relevant biological data maximally findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). These scope of ALSDA data collected and submitted by PIs include study design metadata, subject metadata, assay metadata (parameters), raw and processed assay data, assay imagery/video, and subject-experienced mission data telemetry (radiation, temperature, humidity, acoustics, vibrations, etc.). In 2021, a community of researchers rallied to form the ALSDA Analysis Working Group (AWG) and provided scientific consensus on dataset sample and assay metadata. The community and excitement around the ALSDA/OSDR system has already led to several data reuse studies, demonstrating value using machine learning (ML), knowledge graphs, and meta-analysis approaches.

space biology↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Biological Data for Deep Space Mission Support

Increased biomedical risks and challenges associated with deep space missions (cis-Lunar, Mars transit, Mars surface) require new knowledge discovery and development of novel ecosystem and biomedical support capabilities. This paradigm shift supporting distant and long-duration missions requires biological data to be findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable (FAIR), and maximally open-access (i.e., there is a data governance continuum from closed to mediated to embargoed to open). The NASA “Open Science Data Repositories” (OSDR) aims to meet scientific, technical, and operational spaceflight needs, and offers the ability to upload, download, search, share, analyze, and visualize data across physiological, behavioral, ‘omics, and environmental monitoring telemetry datasets. OSDR includes NASA GeneLab, NASA Ames Life Sciences Data Archive (ALSDA), and NASA Biological Institutional Scientific Collection (NBISC). In the past year, ALSDA has undergone a transformation in its data collection, curation, and architecture methods. Standardizing non-genomic (phenotypic) datasets was, and will continue to be, a challenge because of their diverse nature (e.g., molecular, cellular, tissue, whole organism, behavior; micro-computed tomography, intraocular pressure, fluorescence microscopy, western blot, ultrasonography; tabular, images, video). This year ALSDA, alongside GeneLab, introduced the Biological Data Management Environment (BDME) with the purpose to accept submission of data from space relevant experiments including spaceflight, radiation, simulated gravity, gravitropism, isolation and confinement, hostile closed environments and/or distance from Earth. In addition to bringing together omics, phenotypic, physiological, bioimaging, and behavioral data into one repository. By integrating with GeneLab a multi-project submission portal aims to reduce the burden on PIs submitting data and enabling the discovery of both omics and phenotypic data. The purpose of ALSDA is to collect, curate, and make all non-human space-relevant biological data maximally findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). These scope of ALSDA data collected and submitted by PIs include study design metadata, subject metadata, assay metadata (parameters), raw and processed assay data, assay imagery/video, and subject-experienced mission data telemetry (radiation, temperature, humidity, acoustics, vibrations, etc.). In 2021, a community of researchers rallied to form the ALSDA Analysis Working Group (AWG) and provided scientific consensus on dataset sample and assay metadata. The community and excitement around the ALSDA/OSDR system has already led to several data reuse studies, demonstrating value using machine learning (ML), knowledge graphs, and meta-analysis approaches.

space biology↗
NASA NTRS1999

Deep Space Systems Technology Program Future Deliveries

NASA is in a period of frequent launches of low cost deep space missions with challenging performance needs. The modest budgets of these missions make it impossible for each to develop its own technology, therefore, efficient and effective development and insertion of technology for these missions must be approached at a higher level that has been done in the past.

deep↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA Centennial Challenges Deep Space Food Challenge Competition to Incentivize Innovation in Food Systems for Long-Duration Space Exploration Missions

The Centennial Challenges (CC) program, currently part of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), is one of the vehicles NASA uses to develop and execute public prize competitions. Since opening its first challenge in 2005, the CC program has initiated more than 20 challenges in a variety of technology areas. This paper provides the background, development and execution of the Deep Space Food Challenge as one approach to fulfilling NASA’s Space Policy Directive 1 (“To the Moon, then Mars”). Specifics about the CC program’s accomplishments will also be discussed. The Deep Space Food Challenge (DSF) was developed in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to create novel food production technologies with minimal inputs, and maximum safe, nutritious, palatable food outputs for long-duration space missions, which have potential to benefit people on Earth. When humans return to the lunar surface in the mid-2020s, the early missions will use prepackaged foods similar to those in use on the International Space Station (ISS) today. However, extending the duration of lunar missions requires reducing resupply dependency on Earth. Testing a sustainable system on the Moon that meets lunar crews’ needs is a fundamental step for lunar sustainability and future Mars exploration. NASA and CSA are focused on how to furnish crew members with a viable food system for long duration space missions that provides all daily nutritional needs through a variety of palatable, safe food with limited resource requirements and no dependency on resupply from Earth; and enables acceptable, safe and quick preparation methods. On Earth, technology solutions for food systems could also be used to produce nutritional sources for urban and rural environments; potentially leading to a reduced impact on our Earth’s resources. Challenges, such as the DSF, are an embodiment of NASA’s continuing commitment to technological advancement and innovation through non-traditional programs.

Centennial Challenges↗
NASA NTRS1998

Deep Space 1 (fact sheet)

Exerting less force than does a single sheet of paper resting in your hand, Deep Space 1's ion propulsion system will slowly, yet continuously accelerate the spacecraft well beyond speeds attainable by conventional chemical propulsion.

system xenon gas↗
NASA NTRS2015

Utilization of the Deep Space Atomic Clock for Europa Gravitational Tide Recovery

Estimation of Europa's gravitational tide can provide strong evidence of the existence of a subsurface liquid ocean. Due to limited close approach tracking data, a Europa flyby mission suffers strong coupling between the gravity solution quality and tracking data quantity and quality. This work explores utilizing Low Gain Antennas with the Deep Space Atomic Clock (DSAC) to provide abundant high accuracy uplink-only radiometric tracking data. DSAC's performance, expected to exhibit an Allan Deviation of less than 3e-15 at one day, provides long-term stability and accuracy on par with the Deep Space Network ground clocks, enabling one-way radiometric tracking data with accuracy equivalent to that of its two-way counterpart. The feasibility of uplink-only Doppler tracking via the coupling of LGAs and DSAC and the expected Doppler data quality are presented. Violations of the Kalman filter's linearization assumptions when state perturbations are included in the flyby analysis results in poor determination of the Europa gravitational tide parameters. B-plane targeting constraints are statistically determined, and a solution to the linearization issues via pre-flyby approach orbit determination is proposed and demonstrated.

Seubert, Jill↗
NASA NTRS2019

Predicted Performance of an X-Ray Navigation System for Future Deep Space and Lunar Missions

In November 2017, the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology (SEXTANT) experiment successfully demonstrated the feasibility of X-ray Pulsar Navigation (XNAV) as part of the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) mission, which is an X-ray Astrophysics Mission of Opportunity currently operating onboard the International Space Station (ISS). XNAV provides a GPS-like absolute autonomous navigation and timing capability available anywhere in the Solar System and beyond. While the most significant benefits of XNAV are expected to come in support of very deep-space missions, the absolute autonomous navigation and timing capability also has utility for inner Solar System missions where increased autonomy or backup navigation and timing services are required, e.g., address loss of communication scenarios.The NASA commitment to develop a Gateway to support exploration of the Moon and eventually Mars, as well as current and future robotic missions such as James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), New Horizons, and much more, certainly will tax the existing ground based infrastructure in terms of availability. There- fore, an extended look at the feasibility and potential performance of XNAV for comparable missions is warranted. In this paper, we briefly review the XNAV concept and present case studies of its utility and performance for a Gateway orbit, Sun-Earth libration orbit, and a deep space transit trajectory.

Getchius, Joel↗
NASA NTRS2020

A GaN-based Four-Switch Buck-Boost Converter using Ripple Correlation Control for Maximum Power Point Tracking in Dynamic Deep Space Environments

As the demand for high-performance power conversion in spacecraft continues to grow and spacecraft mass and volume budgets become increasingly tight, it is essential to design DC-DC converters with higher efficiency and power density. Although photovoltaic (PV) efficiency has increased over time, solar irradiance and temperatures can fluctuate dramatically in deep space. This causes significant variations in the maximum power point (MPP) of the PV array, which can decrease the overall system efficiency unless accounted for. Thus, it is imperative to track the MPP of the PV panels to maintain optimal efficiency. This paper presents the experimental development of a four-switch, GaN-based buck-boost converter with an implementation of the Ripple Correlation Control (RCC) MPPT algorithm for dynamic deep space environments. Due to the use of GaN HEMTs, the experimental system achieves better efficiency and power density compared to the previous state of the art implementations. A simulation of the prototype buck-boost converter was implemented in SaberRD (Synopsis), and a digital design of the RCC-based MPPT controller utilizing the StateAMS tool is presented. The simulation results show that this controller swiftly and precisely converged to the MPP of the source PV panels in a dynamic solar irradiance condition.

Mahmud, Sadab↗
NASA NTRS1995

Analysis of automatic repeat request methods for deep-space downlinks

Automatic repeat request (ARQ) methods cannot increase the capacity of a memoryless channel. However, they can be used to decrease the complexity of the channel-coding system to achieve essentially error-free transmission and to reduce link margins when the channel characteristics are poorly predictable. This article considers ARQ methods on a power-limited channel (e.g., the deep-space channel), where it is important to minimize the total power needed to transmit the data, as opposed to a bandwidth-limited channel (e.g., terrestrial data links), where the spectral efficiency or the total required transmission time is the most relevant performance measure. In the analysis, we compare the performance of three reference concatenated coded systems used in actual deep-space missions to that obtainable by ARQ methods using the same codes, in terms of required power, time to transmit with a given number of retransmissions, and achievable probability of word error. The ultimate limits of ARQ with an arbitrary number of retransmissions are also derived.

Pollara, F.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Automating Mid- and Long-Range Scheduling for NASA's Deep Space Network

NASA has recently deployed a new mid-range scheduling system for the antennas of the Deep Space Network (DSN), called Service Scheduling Software, or S(sup 3). This system is architected as a modern web application containing a central scheduling database integrated with a collaborative environment, exploiting the same technologies as social web applications but applied to a space operations context. This is highly relevant to the DSN domain since the network schedule of operations is developed in a peer-to-peer negotiation process among all users who utilize the DSN (representing 37 projects including international partners and ground-based science and calibration users). The initial implementation of S(sup 3) is complete and the system has been operational since July 2011. S(sup 3) has been used for negotiating schedules since April 2011, including the baseline schedules for three launching missions in late 2011. S(sup 3) supports a distributed scheduling model, in which changes can potentially be made by multiple users based on multiple schedule "workspaces" or versions of the schedule. This has led to several challenges in the design of the scheduling database, and of a change proposal workflow that allows users to concur with or to reject proposed schedule changes, and then counter-propose with alternative or additional suggested changes. This paper describes some key aspects of the S(sup 3) system and lessons learned from its operational deployment to date, focusing on the challenges of multi-user collaborative scheduling in a practical and mission-critical setting. We will also describe the ongoing project to extend S(sup 3) to encompass long-range planning, downtime analysis, and forecasting, as the next step in developing a single integrated DSN scheduling tool suite to cover all time ranges.

scheduling↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Derivation of Capabilities and Resources for Treating Medical Conditions in Deep Space

BACKGROUND: Medical care in spaceflight requires the adaptation of terrestrial standards to the constraints of the space environment. However, there is often conflict between the ideal resources required for treatment and diagnosis of a medical condition, and the constraints on their mass, volume, data needs, etc. This optimization of trades between medical risk and resources will be a significant challenge for deep space medical system design. METHODS: A team of physicians with a broad range of expertise reviewed the 120 medical conditions on the condition list for NASA’s Informing Mission Planning via analysis of Complex Tradespaces Medical Database (IMPACT-MD). Each team member was assigned a subset of conditions based on their experience and training. The assigned physician generated a proposed list of capabilities, definitions, and resources required to treat each condition based on terrestrial practice guidelines, medical literature, and subject matter expertise. Additional specialists were consulted for conditions where expertise was not present within the main group. The proposed list was then reviewed by the broader team and modified as needed to achieve consensus. Each capability and resource was then assigned parameters to define quantity required per medical event, necessity, training level required, and primacy order of any alternative resources. These capabilities and resources were placed into condition specific tables and delivered to a team of engineers who added mass and volume data for each specific resource and converted the table into a database for use as input to a computational model to simulate spaceflight (IMPACT) DISCUSSION: This process ensures that a minimum of three subject matter experts review and agree upon the scope of practice, medical diagnostic tools, and treatment modalities that would be necessary to address emergent and non-emergent conditions that may arise during spaceflight to inform requirements during the vehicle design phase. The method is scalable to any design reference mission and permits modification of the existing database as information, conditions or experience are added. By including specialists, generalists, and those with subject matter expertise in the spaceflight environment on the team, we ensure that the included capabilities represent a realistic and actionable foundation for planning deep space missions.

D R Levin↗
NASA NTRS2012

Nano-Satellite Secondary Spacecraft on Deep Space Missions

NanoSat technology has opened Earth orbit to extremely low-cost science missions through a common interface that provides greater launch accessibility. They have also been used on interplanetary missions, but these missions have used one-off components and architectures so that the return on investment has been limited. A natural question is the role that CubeSat-derived NanoSats could play to increase the science return of deep space missions. We do not consider single instrument nano-satellites as likely to complete entire Discovery-class missions alone,but believe that nano-satellites could augment larger missions to significantly increase science return. The key advantages offered by these mini-spacecrafts over previous planetary probes is the common availability of advanced subsystems that open the door to a large variety of science experiments, including new guidance, navigation and control capabilities. In this paper, multiple NanoSat science applications are investigated, primarily for high risk/high return science areas. We also address the significant challenges and questions that remain as obstacles to the use of nano-satellites in deep space missions. Finally, we provide some thoughts on a development roadmap toward interplanetary usage of NanoSpacecraft.

Klesh, Andrew T.↗