Computational Fluid Dynamics Validation and Post-Test Analysis of Supersonic Retropropulsion in the Ames 9x7 Unitary Tunnel
Conference paper on supersonic retropropulsion CFD post-test analysis.
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Conference paper on supersonic retropropulsion CFD post-test analysis.
Two projects at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center have collaborated to develop a high resolution weather forecast model for Mesoamerica: The NASA Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center, which integrates unique NASA satellite and weather forecast modeling capabilities into the operational weather forecasting community. NASA's SERVIR Program, which integrates satellite observations, ground-based data, and forecast models to improve disaster response in Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, and the Himalayas.
Presentation to Water Environment Federation Meeting.
The Space Science and Astrobiology Division's researchers are pursuing investigations in a variety of fields, including exoplanets, planetary science, astrobiology, and astrophysics. In addition division personnel support a wide variety of NASA missions. With a wide variety of interesting research going on, distributed among the three branches in at least 5 buildings, it can be difficult to stay abreast of what one's fellow researchers are doing. Our goal in organizing this symposium is to facilitate communication and collaboration among the scientist within the division and to give center management and other ARC researchers and Engineers an opportunity to see what scientific missions work is being done in the division.
These are short (2-page) high-level summaries of technologies that have been infused - i.e., taken the next level. For example, 3DMAT started off as a Center Innovation Fund (CIF) project and graduated to the Game-changing Program (GCD), where it is being prepared for use in Orion. The Nano Entry System similarly started as CIF and graduated to GCD. The High Tortuosity Carbon Dioxide Conversion Device also started off as CIF and then received an award for further development from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program (NIAC).
The Nano Entry System for CubeSat-Class Payloads led to the development of the Nano-Adaptable Deployable Entry and Placement Technology ("Nano-ADEPT"). Nano-ADEPT is a mechanically deployed entry, descent, and landing (EDL) system that stows during launch and cruise (like an umbrella) and serves as both heat shield and primary structure during EDL. It is especially designed for small spacecraft where volume is a limiting constraint.
Vehicles re-entering Earth's atmosphere require protection from the heat of atmospheric friction. The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) has more demanding thermal protection system (TPS) requirements than the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) missions, especially in regions where the structural load passes through. The use of 2-dimensional laminate materials along with a metal insert, used in EFT1 flight test for the compression pad region, are deemed adequate but cannot be extended for Lunar return missions.
The subsonic regime of Crew Capsule reentry has a very turbulent waker through which the Drogue Chutes must deploy. This presentation describes the particle image velocimetry measurement campaign used to help retire the risk.
This is an informal presentation presented to the University of Colorado, Boulder Bioastronautics group seminar. It highlights the key focal areas of the Air Revitalization Group research over the past year, including progress on the CO2 Removal and Compression System, testing of CDRA drying bed configurations, and adsorption research.
Understanding the genetic, physiological, and behavioral effects of spaceflight on living organisms and elucidating the molecular mechanisms that underlie these effects are high priorities for NASA. Certain organisms, known as model organisms, are widely studied to help researchers better understand how all biological systems function. Small model organisms such as nem-atodes, slime mold, bacteria, green algae, yeast, and moss can be used to study the effects of micro- and reduced gravity at both the cellular and systems level over multiple generations. Many model organisms have sequenced genomes and published data sets on their transcriptomes and proteomes that enable scientific investigations of the molecular mechanisms underlying the adaptations of these organisms to space flight.
Future human missions to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations offer many new opportunities for exploration. But, astronaut time will always be limited and some work will not be feasible for humans to do manually. Robots, however, can complement human explorers, performing work autonomously or under remote supervision from Earth. Since 2004, the Intelligent Robotics Group has been working to make human-robot interaction efficient and effective for space exploration. A central focus of our research has been to develop and field test robots that benefit human exploration. Our approach is inspired by lessons learned from the Mars Exploration Rovers, as well as human spaceflight programs, including Apollo, the Space Shuttle, and the International Space Station. We conduct applied research in computer vision, geospatial data systems, human-robot interaction, planetary mapping and robot software. In planning for future exploration missions, architecture and study teams have made numerous assumptions about how crew can be telepresent on a planetary surface by remotely operating surface robots from space (i.e. from a flight vehicle or deep space habitat). These assumptions include estimates of technology maturity, existing technology gaps, and likely operational and functional risks. These assumptions, however, are not grounded by actual experimental data. Moreover, no crew-controlled surface telerobotic system has yet been fully tested, or rigorously validated, through flight testing. During Summer 2013, we conducted a series of tests to examine how astronauts in the International Space Station (ISS) can remotely operate a planetary rover across short time delays. The tests simulated portions of a proposed human-robotic Lunar Waypoint mission, in which astronauts in lunar orbit remotely operate a planetary rover on the lunar Farside to deploy a radio telescope array. We used these tests to obtain baseline-engineering data.
The Alpha Jet Atmospheric eXperiment (AJAX) is a research project based at Moffett Field, CA, which collects airborne measurements of ozone, carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and formaldehyde, as well as 3-D winds, temperature, pressure, and location. Since its first science flight in 2011, AJAX has developed a wide a variety of mission types, combining vertical profiles (from approx. 8 km to near surface),boundary layer legs, and plume sampling as needed. With an ongoing five-year data set, the team has sampled over 160 vertical profiles, a dozen wildfires, and numerous stratospheric ozone intrusions. This talk will present an overview of our flights flown to date, with particular focus on methane observations in the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, and the delta region.
Human factors is a critical consideration in system performance and system safety. This presentation provides examples of how human factors can be utilized in a variety of applied research projects to create system wide benefits
NASA's new Laser-Enhanced Arcjet Facility (LEAF) employs 200 kilowatts of continuous-wave fiber lasers, combined with a 60-megawatt arc plasma jet, to simulate the combined radiative and convective heating is now operational and Orion heat-shield material is undergoing testing. This upgrade to the existing Interaction Heating Facility (IHF) involves the addition of high-power fiber lasers that project 1070nm radiative energy into the existing vacuum chamber. The optically expanded laser beam enters a side window of the test chamber to form either a uniform 150 x 150 mm or a 425 x 425 mm square spot on a wedge-shaped model holder. Combined heating levels of up to 180 W/cm2 convective with either 300 W/cm2 or 100 W/cm2 are achievable. This allows the arc jet and lasers to simulate dynamic entry-heating profiles encountered during entry by the Orion crew capsule for the lunar return conditions. New computational investigations are underway to explore testing with the objective of defining ablative material failure limit. Typical arc-jet testing is performed with test article that are stagnation or wedge geometries. The existing convective heating test facility combined with test article design limits how high a combined shear, heat-flux and pressure conditions can be achieved. With the addition of laser power of 200 kW, much higher combined conditions of high heat-flux, pressure and shear is achievable on a wedge or a swept-cylinder article. Such testing possibilities will allow us to progressively increase the combined conditions and explore when an ablative TPS material may fail. The presentation provides an overview of the LEAF and present results from the on-going Orion Testing.
In order to measure afterbody heat fluxes over a model in the ballistic range, the required modifications to a proven technique for measuring forebody heat fluxes are described. This involves the use of an extended helium gas plume to remove the glowing wake and the use of special high conductivity, high temperature capable graphite-filled plastic for the afterbody. The models and test conditions are described. Data in the form of plots of the surface temperature of the models are presented. Finally, experimental and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) heat flux data for forebody and afterbody heat fluxes are presented and compared. Data are presented for a 45 degree sphere-cone (with a projecting rear stud) at 2.70 km/s and for a sphere at 4.76 km/s. Both models were launched into 76 Torr of CO2 gas. The experimental forebody heat fluxes were within 1.5% of the CFD values. The experimental afterbody heat fluxes were within 1% of the CFD values for the sphere, but only 51% of the CFD values for the sphere-cone.
The overview is intended to give the target audience (participants in the Ilan Ramon International Space Conference) a general understanding of mission, core competencies, and research accomplishments related to high end computing and quantum computing.