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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 865 records · Page 48
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NASA NTRS2004

Optical Detection of Organic Chemical Biosignatures at Hydrothermal Vents

We have developed a non-contact, optical life detection instrument that can detect organic chemical biosignatures in a number of different environments, including dry land, shallow aqueous, deep marine or in ice. Hence, the instrument is appropriate as a biosignature survey tool both for Mars exploration or in situ experiments in an ice-covered ocean such as one might wish to explore on Europa. Here, we report the results we obtained on an expedition aboard the Russian oceanographic vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh to hydrothermal vent sites in the Pacific Ocean using our life detection instrument MCDUVE, a multichannel, deep ultraviolet excitation fluorescence detector. MCDUVE detected organic material distribution on rocks near the vent, as well as direct detection of organisms, both microbial and microscopic. We also were able to detect organic material issuing directly from vent chimneys, measure the organic signature of the water column as we ascended, and passively observe the emission of light directly from some vents.

Conrad, P. G.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Neuroprotection for the new millennium. Matchmaking pharmacology and technology

A major theme of the 1990s in the pathophysiology of nervous system injury has been the multifactorial etiology of irreversible injury. Multiple causes imply multiple opportunities for therapeutic intervention--hence the abandonment of the "magic bullet" single pharmacologic agent for neuroprotection in favor of pharmacologic "cocktails". A second theme of the 1990s has been the progress in technology for neuroprotection, minimally- or non-invasive monitoring as well as treatment. Cardiac stenting has eliminated the need, in many cases, for open heart surgery; deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease has offered significant improvement in quality of life for many who had exhausted cocktail drug treatment for their disease. Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus offers a novel treatment for Parkinson's disease where a technological advance may actually be an intervention with effects that are normally expected from pharmacologic agents. Rather than merely "jamming" the nervous system circuits involved in Parkinson's disease, deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus appears to improve the neurotransmitter imbalance that lies at the heart of Parkinson's disease. It may also slow the progression of the disease. Given the example of deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus for Parkinson's disease, in future one may expect other technological or "hardware" interventions to influence the programming or "software" of the nervous system's physiologic response in certain disease states.

Review Literature↗
NASA NTRS2004

On the Use of Deep Convective Clouds to Calibrate AVHRR Data

Remote sensing of cloud and radiation properties from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellites requires constant monitoring of the visible sensors. NOAA satellites do not have onboard visible calibration and need to be calibrated vicariously in order to determine the calibration and the degradation rate. Deep convective clouds are extremely bright and cold, are at the tropopause, have nearly a Lambertian reflectance, and provide predictable albedos. The use of deep convective clouds as calibration targets is developed into a calibration technique and applied to NOAA-16 and NOAA-17. The technique computes the relative gain drift over the life-span of the satellite. This technique is validated by comparing the gain drifts derived from inter-calibration of coincident AVHRR and Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) radiances. A ray-matched technique, which uses collocated, coincident, and co-angled pixel satellite radiance pairs is used to intercalibrate MODIS and AVHRR. The deep convective cloud calibration technique was found to be independent of solar zenith angle, by using well calibrated Visible Infrared Scanner (VIRS) radiances onboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, which precesses through all solar zenith angles in 23 days.

Doelling, David R.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Design and Evaluation of a Cross-Cultural Training System

Cross-cultural competency, and the underlying communication and affective skills required to develop such expertise, is becoming increasingly important for a wide variety of domains. To address this need, we developed a blended learning platform which combines virtual role-play with tutorials, assessment and feedback. A Middle-Eastern Curriculum (MEC) exemplar for cross-cultural training U.S. military personnel was developed to guide the refinement of an existing game-based training platform. To complement this curriculum, we developed scenario authoring tools to enable end-users to define training objectives, link performance measures and feedback/remediation to these objectives, and deploy experiential scenarios within a game-based virtual environment (VE). Lessons learned from the design and development of this exemplar cross-cultural competency curriculum, as well as formative evaluation results, are discussed. Initial findings suggest that the underlying training technology promotes deep levels of semantic processing of the key information of relevant cultural and communication skills.

Santarelli, Thomas↗
NASA NTRS2011

High Temperature Capacitive Pressure Sensor Employing a SiC Based Ring Oscillator

In an effort to develop harsh environment electronic and sensor technologies for aircraft engine safety and monitoring, we have used capacitive-based pressure sensors to shift the frequency of a SiC-electronics-based oscillator to produce a pressure-indicating signal that can be readily transmitted, e.g. wirelessly, to a receiver located in a more benign environment. Our efforts target 500 C, a temperature well above normal operating conditions of commercial circuits but within areas of interest in aerospace engines, deep mining applications and for future missions to the Venus atmosphere. This paper reports for the first time a ring oscillator circuit integrated with a capacitive pressure sensor, both operating at 500 C. This demonstration represents a significant step towards a wireless pressure sensor that can operate at 500 C and confirms the viability of 500 C electronic sensor systems.

Meredith, Roger D.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Recent Progress on Deep Blue Aerosol Algorithm as Applied TO MODIS, SEA WIFS, and VIIRS, and Their Intercomparisons with Ground Based and Other Satellite Measurements

The impact of natural and anthropogenic sources of aerosols has gained increasing attention from scientific communities in recent years. Indeed, tropospheric aerosols not only perturb radiative energy balance by interacting with solar and terrestrial radiation, but also by changing cloud properties and lifetime. Furthermore, these anthropogenic and natural air particles, once generated over the source regions, can be transported out of the boundary layer into the free troposphere and can travel thousands of kilometers across oceans and continents resulting in important biogeochemical impacts on the ecosystem. With the launch of SeaWiFS in 1997, Terra/MODIS in 1999, and Aqua/MODIS in 2002, high quality comprehensive aerosol climatology is becoming feasible for the first time. As a result of these unprecedented data records, studies of the radiative and biogeochemical effects due to tropospheric aerosols are now possible. In this talk, we will demonstrate how this newly available SeaWiFS/MODIS aerosol climatology can provide an important piece of puzzles in reducing the uncertainty of estimated climatic forcing due to aerosols. We will start with the global distribution of aerosol loading and their variabilities over both land and ocean on short- and long-term temporal scales observed over the last decade. The recent progress made in Deep Blue aerosol algorithm on improving accuracy of these Sea WiFS / MODIS aerosol products in particular over land will be discussed. The impacts on quantifying physical and optical processes of aerosols over source regions of adding the Deep Blue products of aerosol properties over bright-reflecting surfaces into Sea WiFS / MODIS as well as VIIRS data suite will also be addressed. We will also show the intercomparison results of SeaWiFS/MODIS retrieved aerosol optical thickness with data from ground based AERONET sunphotometers over land and ocean as well as with other satellite measurements. The trends observed in global aerosol loadings of both natural and anthropogenic sources based upon more than a decade of combined MODIS/SeaWiFS data (1997-2011) will be discussed. We will also address the importance of various key issues such as differences in spatial-temporal sampling rates and observation time between different satellite measurements could potentially impact these intercomparisons results, especially for using the monthly mean data, and thus on estimates of long-term aerosol trends.

Hsu, N. Christina↗
NASA NTRS2011

Global Distributions of Mineral Dust Properties from SeaWiFS and MODIS: From Sources to Sinks

The impact of natural and anthropogenic sources of mineral dust has gained increasing attention from scientific communities in recent years. Indeed, these airborne dust particles, once lifted over the source regions, can be transported out of the boundary layer into the free troposphere and can travel thousands of kilometers across the oceans resulting in important biogeochemical impacts on the ecosystem. Due to the relatively short lifetime (a few hours to about a week), the distributions of these mineral dust particles vary extensively in both space and time. Consequently, satellite observations are needed over both source and sink regions for continuous temporal and spatial sampling of aerosol properties. With the launch of SeaWiFS in 1997, Terra/MODIS in 1999, and Aqua/MODIS in 2002, high quality comprehensive aerosol climatology is becoming feasible for the first time. As a result of these unprecedented satellite data records, studies of the radiative and biogeochemical effects due to dust aerosols are now possible. In this study, we will show the comparisons of satellite retrieved aerosol optical thickness using Deep Blue algorithm with data from AERONET sunphotometers over desert and semi-desert regions as well as vegetated areas. Our results indicate reasonable agreements between these two. These new satellite products will allow scientists to determine quantitatively the aerosol properties near sources using high spatial resolution measurements from Sea WiFS and MODIS-like instruments. The multiyear satellite measurements since 1997 from Sea WiFS will be compared with those retrieved from MODIS and MISR, and will be utilized to investigate the interannual variability of source, pathway, and dust loading associated with the dust outbreaks over the entire globe. Finally, the trends observed over the last decade based upon the SeaWiFS time series in the amounts of tropospheric aerosols due to natural and anthropogenic sources (such as changes in the frequency of dust storms) will be discussed.

Hsu, N. Christina↗
NASA NTRS2016

Characterization of Operational Performance of Ka-Band Links in Deep Space Network

This paper presents a characterization of performance of 32-GHz Ka-band link in an operational environment. The data come from tracking of Kepler spacecraft by the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) in the past few years. Ka-band link offers a significant signal-to-noise advantage compared to the more common X- or S-band; however, it is subject to more signal fluctuation caused by the weather. Kepler is the first mission supported by the DSN that solely rely on the higher deep space Ka-band communications link to return its high-rate science data. A well characterization of the operational performance of Kepler would benefit future Ka-band missions, especially for those operating with smaller link margin. The study examines how weather conditions at the DSN facilities (e.g., winds, clouds, rains) affect the received signal, particularly on telemetry data. It addresses questions such as how often the weather affects the link and how much degradation the link could suffer. Among the 22 Ka-band passes in 2012, heavy clouds affected one pass and two passes were impacted by high winds. The adverse weather caused at time as much as 3-dB instantaneous change in the signal to noise ratio (SNR). Estimates of degradation to the SNR as a function of wind speeds are captured based on observations. This study also quantifies the probability distribution of the variation of received signal power. With such information, future missions can better plan their link design. An optimal link design aims for just having enough margin to realize the data return with a targeted probability, with neither having too much margin that it reduces the downlink data rate nor insufficient reserve that causes frequent data outages. The study tries to provide some answers to the questions such as how much does SNR vary from one tracking pass to the next, and what is the cumulative distribution of signal fluctuation. Regarding the signal variation over many tracking passes, we found that the averaged symbol SNR (SSNR) for each pass changed by as much as 4 dB. Some variations were due to geometry such as the changing distance between spacecraft and Earth and different antenna pointing elevations. Other variations seem to be random in nature, reflecting the randomness of operational environments. Some passes were found to be quite stable, with a standard deviation of symbol SNR around 0.25 dB while others had greater variation, up to 1.4 dB. Overall, the cumulative distribution of the symbol SNR reflects that 50% of the fluctuations was less than 0.6 dB, 90% of fluctuation was within 1.6 dB and 95% within 2.2 dB. Some of the challenges in data processing, validation and modeling were captured in this paper. We observed some inconsistent measurements where operational data significantly deviate from a normal expectation. These inconsistent measurements made it hard to develop an accurate and consistent performance model, such as the degradation of signal SNR as a function of high wind. The difficulty was compounded by the fact that there were only a few Ka-band passes observed in high winds.

Pham, Timothy↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Clinical Decision Support - Concepts of Operation

We are entering a new era in space exploration to return to the moon and explore Mars. These ambitious goals will require significant changes to in-flight and habitat medical care due to constraints on mass, volume, power, crew time and medical evacuation capabilities. These constraints make it absolutely necessary to develop transformative solutions using new technologies. The Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) Element of the Human Research Program (HRP) pushes the boundary of space medical systems to advance the care of astronauts on future exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit by identifying and testing next-generation medical care and crew health maintenance technologies. The Clinical Decision Support (CDS) project addresses the gap Medical-701 within the Inflight Medical Conditions risk: Enhance medical capabilities within an exploration medical system. For long-duration, deep space missions, computational and data resources will play an important role in maintaining crew health, wellness and performance where the crew will need to be more self-reliant. The aim of the CDS project is to develop and provide recommended requirements for an in-vehicle CDSS that acts as an assistant for delivering optimal health and performance and medical care during exploration missions. The CDSS is envisioned as a software-based tool that will augment a crewmembers’ knowledge, skills and abilities to assist in decision-making and crew health and performance (CHP) management thus increasing CHP systems capabilities. The human interface will be context aware and lessen the cognitive load to assimilate and use information as well as combine large disparate data sets in such a manner that provides the crew with actionable insight to decisions related to crew medical, health and performance management. Crew autonomy will be provided through a CDS that presents knowledge and data in a context aware manner to augment a crew members’ knowledge, skills and abilities during the process of observation, orientation, decisions and action. The CDS project addresses the need for crew members to operate independently during long duration space exploration missions that require medical Levels of Care (LoC) V, the highest level specified by NASA-STD-3001 and described in more detail by the ExMC interpretation of LoC document (NASA/TM-2017-219290), where significant changes to in-flight and habitat medical care necessitate increasing crew autonomy in decision making and task performance. The CDS project will develop and test a series of iterative and increasingly more complex system prototypes. These annual demonstrations of the data system integration with the crew health and performance domain will inform exploration medical system requirements for an on-board Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) through a series of use cases that guide CDS prototype functionality. CDS concepts are based on ExMC Concept of Operations documents (presented separately) and will highlight architecture extensibility to other more complex analyses and tests using core crew health and performance integrated data management, processing and visualization capabilities. This approach also establishes how externally developed analyses and approaches could be added to expand a clinical decision support system and thus highlight how a comprehensive system can be commercially and/or globally developed. The CDS project will build upon the concept of an integrated data management approach based on the Medical Data Architecture (MDA) project to more fully address challenges associated with in-flight and habitat medical, health and performance care due to constraints on mass, volume, power, crew time and medical evacuation capabilities required for medical LoC V. These requirements will be derived through systems engineering approaches and software prototype developments over the course of the multi-year CDS project to address crew health and performance decision-making and task performance, often autonomously executed by the crew, in a manner that is consistent with the appropriate medical level of care for the mission. This presentation will provide an overview of the vision for the CDS project and highlight the initial accomplishments in project planning, implementation and requirements identification in fiscal year 2020.

clinical decision support↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Clinical Decision Support - Overview and Update

We are entering a new era in space exploration to return to the moon and explore Mars. These ambitious goals will require significant changes to in-flight and habitat medical care due to constraints on mass, volume, power, crew time and medical evacuation capabilities. These constraints make it absolutely necessary to develop transformative solutions using new technologies. The Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) Element of the Human Research Program (HRP) pushes the boundary of space medical systems to advance the care of astronauts on future exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit by identifying and testing next-generation medical care and crew health maintenance technologies. The Clinical Decision Support (CDS) project addresses the gap Medical-701 within the Inflight Medical Conditions risk: Enhance medical capabilities within an exploration medical system. For long-duration, deep space missions, computational and data resources will play an important role in maintaining crew health, wellness and performance where the crew will need to be more self-reliant. The aim of the CDS project is to develop and provide recommended requirements for an in-vehicle CDSS that acts as an assistant for delivering optimal health and performance and medical care during exploration missions. The CDSS is envisioned as a software-based tool that will augment a crewmembers’ knowledge, skills and abilities to assist in decision-making and crew health and performance (CHP) management thus increasing CHP systems capabilities. The human interface will be context aware and lessen the cognitive load to assimilate and use information as well as combine large disparate data sets in such a manner that provides the crew with actionable insight to decisions related to crew medical, health and performance management. Crew autonomy will be provided through a CDS that presents knowledge and data in a context aware manner to augment a crew members’ knowledge, skills and abilities during the process of observation, orientation, decisions and action. The CDS project addresses the need for crew members to operate independently during long duration space exploration missions that require medical Levels of Care (LoC) V, the highest level specified by NASA-STD-3001 and described in more detail by the ExMC interpretation of LoC document (NASA/TM-2017-219290), where significant changes to in-flight and habitat medical care necessitate increasing crew autonomy in decision making and task performance. The CDS project will develop and test a series of iterative and increasingly more complex system prototypes. These annual demonstrations of the data system integration with the crew health and performance domain will inform exploration medical system requirements for an on-board Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) through a series of use cases that guide CDS prototype functionality. CDS concepts are based on ExMC Concept of Operations documents (presented separately) and will highlight architecture extensibility to other more complex analyses and tests using core crew health and performance integrated data management, processing and visualization capabilities. This approach also establishes how externally developed analyses and approaches could be added to expand a clinical decision support system and thus highlight how a comprehensive system can be commercially and/or globally developed. The CDS project will build upon the concept of an integrated data management approach based on the Medical Data Architecture (MDA) project to more fully address challenges associated with in-flight and habitat medical, health and performance care due to constraints on mass, volume, power, crew time and medical evacuation capabilities required for medical LoC V. These requirements will be derived through systems engineering approaches and software prototype developments over the course of the multi-year CDS project to address crew health and performance decision-making and task performance, often autonomously executed by the crew, in a manner that is consistent with the appropriate medical level of care for the mission. This presentation will provide an overview of the vision for the CDS project and highlight the initial accomplishments in project planning, implementation and requirements identification in fiscal year 2020.

clinical decision support system↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

SWIPE: Spectral Water Inversion Processor and Emulator

Degradation of Earth’s inland water resources due to anthropogenic perturbations and climate anomalies at both local and global scales continues to place human health at substantial risk. There is now a growing necessity to develop pragmatic approaches that allow timely and effective extrapolation of local processes, to spatially resolved global products, and to promote operational and sustainable resource policy management. This presentation will be discussing the progress made developing SWIPE: Spectral Water Inversion Processor and Emulator. SWIPE is a platform for advanced modeling of coastal and inland aquatic habitats. The goal is create a comprehensive and cohesive system to leverage recent advancements in computation and machine learning to develop a synthetic training ground for sensitivity studies and algorithm development. The four principal facets of SWIPE include: 1. Advanced two-layer coated sphere bio-optical modeling and GPU radiative transfer modeling, 2. Big Data involving massive synthetic spectral libraries of optical properties of various global aquatic particles, surface reflectance, and top-of-atmosphere reflectance, all at hyperspectral resolution leveraging high-end computing systems at NASA Ames Research Center, 3. Deep Learning for algorithm development for water quality inversion of concentrations of common biogeophysical variables as well as optics, full uncertainty characterization by water type, and forward emulation, and lastly, 4. Image Processing for application of developed retrieval algorithms for both hyperspectral and multispectral sensors with experimental corrections for global adjacency, noise, sunglint, and benthic reflectance. This presentation will demonstrate the Equivalent Algal Populations (EAP) two-layer coated sphere scattering model which has been used develop spectral libraries of hyperspectral inherent optical properties of roughly 80 species of phytoplankton, covering 15 different classes and nine taxonomic functional types. The EAP model was also used to derive spectral properties of 10 different non-algal particle functional types. Examples of how the SMART-G (Speed-up Monte-carlo Advanced Radiative Transfer using GPU) radiative transfer code is used to model optically complex aquatic signals will be presented and discussed in the context of creating a massive synthetic database which can leverage the full power of next generation machine learning techniques and high end computing for water quality inversion. We will discuss our active investigation in things like appropriate model architectures, dimensionality reduction techniques such as PCA and autoencoders, uncertainty quantification and abstaining, and which variables actually benefit most from hyperspectral information versus multispectral resolution. We are also curious about questions relating to cost/benefit analysis in terms of computation resources, neural network complexity, and data volumes. Answers to these questions will hopefully elaborate on cost efficiency for potential future sensor design considerations.

SWIPE↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Search for Extant Life on Mars as a Focusing Scientific Goal for Future Human Exploration Missions

A search for evidence of extant life on Mars provides a focusing goal for human exploration missions that are planned for the 2030s. Finding an example of extant life beyond Earth would be one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time. Human exploration brings extraordinary improvements over robotic missions in both payload and analytical capability. Environments that may be habitable for modern life on Mars include salts and brines, ground ice, caves, and deep subsurface aquifers [Carrier et al. 2020]. The habitability case for each environment is reviewed as well as how human missions may enable the search. It is important to determine if life exists on Mars prior to human exploration activities to prevent both the risk to Earth of inadvertently bringing potentially harmful organisms from Mars, risks to astronaut health, and the complication of recognizing Mars life once terrestrial contamination has occurred.

C.R. Stoker↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Flight Dynamics and Navigation Performance of the BioSentinel Mission

BioSentinel was one of the ten 6U CubeSats launched by the Space Launch System (SLS) as part of the Artemis-I mission on November 16th, 2022. The spacecraft was deployed after the trans-lunar injection imparted by the upper stage of SLS, and performed a lunar flyby that provided the necessary energy to escape the Earth-Moon system into heliocentric space. The BioSentinel mission required flight dynamics support prior to flight to assess the deployment conditions and the trajectory design, as well as navigation support during flight, to provide orbit determination solutions for the mission and the Deep Space Network (DSN). This paper discusses the BioSentinel mission flight dynamics campaign, from mission design to the challenges and lessons learned encountered during flight.

Astrodynamics↗
DOE OSTI2024

Understanding the High Energy Higgs Sector with the CMS Experiment and Artificial Intelligence

This dissertation describes efforts towards understanding the Higgs boson at the highest energies humanly accessible, using the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider and advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). We present searches for resonant and nonresonant Higgs-boson (H) pair production in the all-hadronic two beauty-quark and two vector boson (V) final state, using a novel strategy to measure the quartic HHVV coupling and search for new Higgs-like bosons. By targeting highly Lorentz-boosted Higgs pairs, we probe effects of potential new physics in the high energy Higgs sector, which could hold answers to fundamental mysteries of nature such as baryon asymmetry. To enable these and future searches, we introduce as well significant developments in AI/ML, including in the identification of boosted H$\rightarrow$VV decays with deep transformer networks and advances in AI-accelerated fast simulations of the CMS detector. The latter notably includes the development of the first, highly performant generative models for point-cloud data in high energy physics, which have the potential to improve CMS' computational efficiency by up to three orders of magnitude. We also highlight novel solutions to the important and challenging problems of calibrating and validating these ML techniques. Finally, we present new approaches to search for new physics in a model-agnostic manner, using physics-informed ML methods equivariant to Lorentz transformations. The quartic HHVV coupling is observed (expected) to be constrained to $[-0.04, 2.05]$ ($[0.05, 1.98]$) at the 95% confidence level relative to the standard model prediction, representing the second-most sensitive measurement of this coupling by CMS to date. Exclusion limits on the production cross section of new heavy resonances decaying to two Higgs-like bosons are expected to be as low as 0.3 fb for high resonance masses.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Salinity and hydraulic retention time induce membrane phospholipid acyl chain remodeling in Halanaerobium congolense WG10 and mixed cultures from hydraulically fractured shale wells

Bacteria remodel their plasma membrane lipidome to maintain key biophysical attributes in response to ecological disturbances. For Halanaerobium and other anaerobic halotolerant taxa that persist in hydraulically fractured deep subsurface shale reservoirs, salinity, and hydraulic retention time (HRT) are important perturbants of cell membrane structure, yet their effects remain poorly understood. Membrane-linked activities underlie in situ microbial growth kinetics and physiologies which drive biogeochemical reactions in engineered subsurface systems. Hence, we used gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) to investigate the effects of salinity and HRT on the phospholipid fatty acid composition of H. congolense WG10 and mixed enrichment cultures from hydraulically fractured shale wells. We also coupled acyl chain remodeling to membrane mechanics by measuring bilayer elasticity using atomic force microscopy (AFM). For these experiments, cultures were grown in a chemostat vessel operated in continuous flow mode under strict anoxia and constant stirring. Our findings show that salinity and HRT induce significant changes in membrane fatty acid chemistry of H. congolense WG10 in distinct and complementary ways. Notably, under nonoptimal salt concentrations (7% and 20% NaCl), H. congolense WG10 elevates the portion of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in its membrane, and this results in an apparent increase in fluidity (homeoviscous adaptation principle) and thickness. Double bond index (DBI) and mean chain length (MCL) were used as proxies for membrane fluidity and thickness, respectively. These results provide new insight into our understanding of how environmental and engineered factors might disrupt the physical and biogeochemical equilibria of fractured shale by inducing physiologically relevant changes in the membrane fatty acid chemistry of persistent microbial taxa. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT Salinity significantly alters membrane bilayer fluidity and thickness in Halanaerobium congolense WG10.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Deep Direct-Use Feasibility Study Estimation of Reservoir Properties for the Tuscarora Sandstone

This dataset contains black-and-white photographic images of individual core segments from well Preston 119 and photomicrographs taken of petrographic thin sections from well Clay 513. Minipermeameter measurement results of 2,260 samples for fracture and matrix permeability on core segments for well Preston 119. These results are summarized in figures, spreadsheets, and PowerPoints. Microsoft Excel will be necessary to examine the permeability data and software capable of reading a .PDF file will be needed to view the file of annotated core CT scans. Microsoft Powerpoint will be necessary to view the photomicrograph presentation.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA’s Space Launch System: New Launch Capability for Artemis Lunar and Deep Space Science Missions

With stacking and integration of the initial Block 1 Space Launch System (SLS) expected to begin in 2020, NASA’s powerful new launch vehicle is ready to take center stage in the agency’s Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon. Combining the highest launch thrust and largest payload capacity ever developed, SLS also enables a new generation of high-C3 science missions to destinations such as the gas and ice giants, the Kuiper Belt, and even beyond the solar system. Block 1 is only the beginning, as the vehicle has a planned evolution path to progressively more powerful variants. In addition to these block upgrades providing increased lift capability, the vehicle can be configured to fly in crew configuration with the Orion spacecraft or in cargo configuration with payload fairings for launching science mission or large infrastructure, providing a flexible launch option. For Artemis I, the first SLS flight, the Block 1 vehicle in the crew configuration will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft to lunar orbit for a thorough systems checkout before the crewed Artemis II flight. The Block 1 vehicle uses a proven propulsion system consisting of solid rocket boosters and RS-25 engines to lift more than 27 metric tons [t] to trans-lunar injection (TLI). In its cargo configuration, Block 1 can be fitted with a 5 m payload fairing. The second variant, Block 1B, uses a more powerful upper stage to increase payload mass to TLI to 38-42 t, depending on crew or cargo configuration. In the crew configuration, a co-manifested payload of up to 10 t can ride along in the Universal Stage Adapter (USA), which has as much volume for payloads as a 5 m-class payload fairing. The Block 2 evolved variant will lift 43-46 t to TLI, depending on crew or cargo configuration. The Block 1B and Block 2 vehicles can be outfitted with an 8.4 m-diameter payload fairing, available in 19.1 m and 27.4 m lengths, providing unprecedented volume for payloads. Larger-diameter 10 m fairings may also be an option in the future on the Block 2 vehicle. The unrivalled mass, volume and high-energy launches of SLS can provide significant mission flexibility for payloads and/or additional upper stages to open trade space for a new generation of exploration missions. SLS was designed to meet requirements for launching large-volume infrastructure as outlined in numerous studies of missions to cislunar space or Mars. Mission concept studies from the science community also point toward new possibilities enabled by SLS. Probes with more robust science packages can be sent to the gas giants. Dual spacecraft can be manifested for missions to Uranus and Neptune. Additional third or fourth payload stages can be encapsulated in the payload fairings to achieve missions to the Kuiper Belt or beyond. In addition, the large volume can be used to design and deploy wide-aperture mirrors on future space telescopes and to enable nuclear-thermal propulsion missions. At AIAA Ascend, the SLS Program will provide technical information on vehicle capabilities as well as descriptions of ongoing discussions with mission planners for utilizing the vehicle for an array of deep space missions.

Stephen Creech↗