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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

How technoscientific knowledge advances: A Bell-Labs-inspired architecture

Understanding how science and technology advance has long been of interest to diverse scholarly communities. Thus far, however, such understanding has not been easy to map to, and thus to improve, the operational practice of research and development. Indeed, one might argue that the operational practice of research and development, particularly its exploratory research half, has become less effective in recent decades. In this paper, we describe a rethinking of how science and technology advance, one that is consistent with many (though not all) of the perspectives of the scholarly communities just mentioned, and one that helps bridge the divide between theory and practice. In conclusion, the result is an architecture we call “Bell's Dodecants,” to reflect its six mechanisms and two flavors, and their balanced nurturing at Bell Labs, the iconic 20th century industrial research and development laboratory.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Wildland Fire Mitigation: The Role of Airspace Management

Wildland fire is a significant problem on six continents. As wildland fires become increasingly widespread, dangerous, and costly, advances in aerial technology will make a significant difference. Leveraging Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management (UTM) success, NASA is conducting aerial suppression research and development (R&D) and is collaborating across government, industry, and the academic community to co-develop cutting-edge technology, procedures, and best practices. Join Dr. Parimal "PK" Kopardekar, Director of the NASA Aeronautics Research Institute (NARI), and learn more about how to maximize the utilization of airspace for wildfire management and mitigation.

Wildland fire↗
NASA NTRS1999

NASA Educational Product Development and Post-Secondary Program Assessment Planning

Producing "value-added students" involves proactively addressing how successfully students develop their skills, knowledge, and personal, social, and ethical growth due to their association with a program. NASA programs for higher education can certainly be responsive in aiding the academic community strive for quality in terms of "valueadded" students. By identifying essential characteristics of exemplary assessment practices, the standards developed by accrediting agencies serve as guides for developing quality practices and policies. Such a process is an effective tool for communicating the expectations of the educational components of a program to all concerned with the program and its expected results. When standards are connected to student performance, they provide a very compelling argument for refocusing the definition of quality in higher education. By linking standards and performance, student learning and development becomes the starting point for examining program quality. If the multiple stakeholders - faculty, peers, the professional community, addressed assessment issues, then accreditation can be a link among various constituencies, the parties can better understand the needs of each other and develop the necessary trust needed for understanding and support.

Salmons, Phyllis A.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Risk Management: A Practical Design Tool For Space Systems and Technology Development

Over the past two decades, risk management and risk analysis have emerged throughout the business community in the United States (US) as prominent planning and development strategies used to mitigate risk of failure and ensure a high return on investment (ROI) for business endeavors (financial and otherwise). They are generic tools that can be applied to any business regardless of the sector (i.e., government, university, private) and have been used by the Federal government in the form of institutional practices aimed at maximizing the probability of success in business activities. One US Federal agency that incorporates risk management and analysis techniques into business and/or engineering activities is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The present work is a discussion on mission, spacecraft and instrument design (as well as technology development) and the role of risk management, analysis and mitigation as a fundamental tool in the design process.

Silk, Eric A.↗
DOE OSTI2025

DOE Repository Metadata Profile (DRMP): A Metadata Framework for Advancing Interoperability and AI Readiness Across Scientific Repositories

The Department of Energy (DOE) funds a diverse and distributed ecosystem of repositories that steward scientific data, publications, and software across its research programs, user facilities, and national laboratories. While significant progress has been made in standardizing dataset-level metadata, the metadata describing repositories themselves (their identity, governance, access interfaces, policies, and technical capabilities) remains inconsistent and fragmented across DOE-funded systems. This variability limits discoverability, interoperability, automated validation, and AI-driven analysis, all of which are increasingly essential for modern scientific workflows. To address this gap, the DOE Data Curation Working Group (DCWG) developed the DOE Repository Metadata Profile (DRMP). The DRMP is a practical, community-driven framework that defines how repositories can describe themselves in a consistent, machine-actionable, and scalable manner. The DRMP is not a new metadata schema. Instead, it is a mapping profile and structured element set capturing the essential characteristics of DOE repositories. It harmonizes repository-level metadata across six widely adopted community schemas: RE3Data; DCAT-US v3; Schema.org; Dublin Core; DataCite 4.6; and PREMIS 3.0. This harmonization eliminates reinvention and enables interoperability within DOE and across the broader scientific ecosystem. A core objective of the DRMP is to reduce burden on repositories by allowing them to reuse their existing metadata through a Rosetta-style crosswalk rather than redesigning local implementations. The profile introduces a three-level conformance model that supports incremental adoption: • Level 1 – Minimum Viable Record (MVR): foundational identification elements required for workflows, project registration, and basic repository presence. • Level 2 – Interoperable: structured metadata enabling alignment with national and international discovery systems. • Level 3 – AI-Ready: enhanced provenance, policy transparency, fixity, semantic context, and capabilities that support automated reasoning, model training governance, and machine-assisted curation. To support implementation, the DRMP includes JSON Schema definitions, OpenAPI patterns, and MCP templates that allow repositories to publish machine-readable metadata directly within existing platforms. These resources are modular and lightweight, enabling adoption without major architectural change. Adopting the DRMP enables repositories to: • Enhance discoverability and interoperability by aligning identifiers, classifications, and descriptive elements across widely used schema standards. • Support federated discovery and cross-registration across DOE systems, Data.gov, and international catalogs. • Enable AI agents and workflow orchestration systems to interpret repository-level metadata within the American Science Cloud (AmSC) through Model Context Protocol (MCP)-based context publication. • Demonstrate alignment with DOE’s open science, stewardship, and FAIR data priorities. This guidance represents a community-driven step forward. Through voluntary adoption and continued feedback, the DRMP advances a cohesive, machine-actionable description of DOE repositories that supports FAIR data practices, preparing the infrastructure for AI-enabled research, and strengthening the discoverability and reuse of DOE’s scientific outputs.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗
NASA NTRS2016

High-Efficiency Food Production in a Renewable Energy Based Micro-Grid Power System

Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) systems can be used to produce high-quality, desirable food year round, and the fresh produce can positively contribute to the health and well being of residents in communities with difficult supply logistics. While CEA has many positive outcomes for a remote community, the associated high electric demands have prohibited widespread implementation in what is typically already a fully subscribed power generation and distribution system. Recent advances in CEA technologies as well as renewable power generation, storage, and micro-grid management are increasing system efficiency and expanding the possibilities for enhancing community supporting infrastructure without increasing demands for outside supplied fuels. We will present examples of how new lighting, nutrient delivery, and energy management and control systems can enable significant increases in food production efficiency while maintaining high yields in CEA. Examples from Alaskan communities where initial incorporation of renewable power generation, energy storage and grid management techniques have already reduced diesel fuel consumption for electric generation by more than 40% and expanded grid capacity will be presented. We will discuss how renewable power generation, efficient grid management to extract maximum community service per kW, and novel energy storage approaches can expand the food production, water supply, waste treatment, sanitation and other community support services without traditional increases of consumable fuels supplied from outside the community. These capabilities offer communities with a range of choices to enhance their communities. The examples represent a synergy of technology advancement efforts to develop sustainable community support systems for future space-based human habitats and practical implementation of infrastructure components to increase efficiency and enhance health and well being in remote communities today and tomorrow.

Fuel↗
NASA NTRS2017

High-Efficiency Food Production in a Renewable Energy Based Micro-Grid

Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) systems can be used to produce high-quality, desirable food year round, and the fresh produce can positively contribute to the health and well being of residents in communities with difficult supply logistics. While CEA has many positive outcomes for a remote community, the associated high electric demands have prohibited widespread implementation in what is typically already a fully subscribed power generation and distribution system. Recent advances in CEA technologies as well as renewable power generation, storage, and micro-grid management are increasing system efficiency and expanding the possibilities for enhancing community supporting infrastructure without increasing demands for outside supplied fuels. We will present examples of how new lighting, nutrient delivery, and energy management and control systems can enable significant increases in food production efficiency while maintaining high yields in CEA.Examples from Alaskan communities where initial incorporation of renewable power generation, energy storage and grid management techniques have already reduced diesel fuel consumption for electric generation by more than 40 and expanded grid capacity will be presented. We will discuss how renewable power generation, efficient grid management to extract maximum community service per kW, and novel energy storage approaches can expand the food production, water supply, waste treatment, sanitation and other community support services without traditional increases of consumable fuels supplied from outside the community. These capabilities offer communities with a range of choices to enhance their communities. The examples represent a synergy of technology advancement efforts to develop sustainable community support systems for future space-based human habitats and practical implementation of infrastructure components to increase efficiency and enhance health and well-being in remote communities today and tomorrow.

Renewable Energy↗
DOE OSTI2021

Why Plan for Utility-Scale Solar?

The Solar@Scale project is a DOE Solar Energy Technologies Office-funded collaboration between the American Planning Association and International City/County Management Association (ICMA) to provide best practices and guidance for local communities in planning for large-scale PV development. As a member of the Solar@Scale advisory committee, I have been asked to present on trends and land use projections for large-scale solar to demonstrate why local governments will likely see growing demand for solar energy development. These slides represent an introduction to projections from NREL's Standard Scenarios, Cambium, LBNL's Utility-Scale Solar report, and other data sources on the level of solar energy development that can be expected across the country.

48 EE - Weatherization and Intergovernmental Progr↗
DOE OSTI2023

Community Solar Program and Subscription Design

This slide deck provides an overview of community solar program design and subscription models. It introduces and explains the different elements of community solar program and subscription design, and proves proven practices and considerations when designing a community solar program. This slide deck was developed for a continuing education course hosted by the American Public Power Association (APPA).

community solar↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Roadmap to Cooperative Operating Practices for Strategic Conflict Detection and Resolution in the Upper Class-E Traffic Management Concept

As the governing body of flight operations in the highly anticipated emergent area of Upper Class E airspace (60,000 ft and above), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has recognized the potential for a possible extensible traffic management system for new entrants into this domain. Following the successes with Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) and Advanced / Urban Air Mobility (AAM / UAM) Traffic Management programs, FAA put forth an initial concept of operations for supporting the start of the Upper Class E Traffic Management (ETM) concept. Like UTM and AAM / UAM, ETM is envisioned to also be a community-based, industry driven cooperative management concept. However, tailoring it to be adaptable to the atmospheric communication, navigation, and surveillance deficits, as well as the diverse vehicle and mission profiles operating in the ETM environment will be the challenge. As such, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center has been investigating several technologies that will help enable industry in the development of this new type of cooperative operating environment. These technologies are being prototyped and will be tested in a collaborative evaluation of an initial ETM system in late 2023. The evaluation will concentrate on building out ETM system technologies that will inform the participants regarding operational intent sharing, strategic conflict detection, and the resultant deconfliction process. In addition to the technical aspects, key roles and responsibilities will need to be defined. This will be done through exploring community-agreed upon Cooperative Operating Practices (COPs) that include procedures and capabilities to aid in timely, strategic conflict identification and resolution to be developed during the evaluation. As an initial step to the evaluation, the ETM research team at NASA Ames solicited industry feedback on various aspects of ETM operations from subject matter experts. A virtual tabletop walkthrough session was held over a two-day period to follow a roadmap through the functional steps needed to build COPs, focusing on strategic conflict detection and resolution. Overall, the ETM tabletop provided insights into how the community wanted to instantiate the generation and sharing of operational intent, detect strategic conflicts and resolve those conflicts using a preliminary set of procedural community-agreed upon COPs.

Upper Class-E Traffic Management (ETM)↗
DOE OSTI2023

MOOSE: A Modular Platform for Fission and Fusion Multiphysics

The Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) Framework, as well as MOOSE-based simulation tools, have accelerated the development of fission energy and advanced reactor technologies through the United States Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Science, Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling & Simulation (NEAMS) Program. MOOSE contains a complete platform of multiphysics simulation capabilities, capable of running on massively parallel systems, and is developed in an open-source manner with great attention paid to high-quality software quality assurance practices. This overall approach could greatly benefit the fusion energy community, which requires rapid design iteration and improvement in order to facilitate the successful development of fusion as an alternative energy source to fossil fuels. In the first half of this talk, applications of MOOSE and MOOSE-based tools for advanced reactor designs will be showcased, as well as MOOSE ecosystem infrastructure (such as the NEAMS Virtual Test Bed) that enables and accelerates fission reactor design. In the second half, a discussion of how the MOOSE approach to modeling and simulation is currently being applied internationally in fusion energy research and development at the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority will be discussed, and ongoing/future domestic research efforts will be highlighted.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Community Benefit Plans - Guidelines and Tips [Slides]

This document provides community benefits plans guidance for state energy programs. It includes best practices, step-by-step guidance, and tips for writing a project overview as well as developing the four required components of a CBP: Engaging Communities and Labor, Investing in America's Workforce, DEIA, and Justice40. It also explains various types of agreements that fall under the CBP umbrella, including community workforce agreements and project labor agreements. The intended audience is both applicants and reviewers.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
NASA NTRS2017

The NASA Ames Research Center Institutional Scientific Collection: History, Best Practices and Scientific Opportunities

The NASA Ames Life Sciences Institutional Scientific Collection (ISC), which is composed of the Ames Life Sciences Data Archive (ALSDA) and the Biospecimen Storage Facility (BSF), is managed by the Space Biosciences Division and has been operational since 1993. The ALSDA is responsible for archiving information and animal biospecimens collected from life science spaceflight experiments and matching ground control experiments. Both fixed and frozen spaceflight and ground tissues are stored in the BSF within the ISC. The ALSDA also manages a Biospecimen Sharing Program, performs curation and long-term storage operations, and makes biospecimens available to the scientific community for research purposes via the Life Science Data Archive public website (https:lsda.jsc.nasa.gov). As part of our best practices, a viability testing plan has been developed for the ISC, which will assess the quality of archived samples. We expect that results from the viability testing will catalyze sample use, enable broader science community interest, and improve operational efficiency of the ISC. The current viability test plan focuses on generating disposition recommendations and is based on using ribonucleic acid (RNA) integrity number (RIN) scores as a criteria for measurement of biospecimen viablity for downstream functional analysis. The plan includes (1) sorting and identification of candidate samples, (2) conducting a statiscally-based power analysis to generate representaive cohorts from the population of stored biospecimens, (3) completion of RIN analysis on select samples, and (4) development of disposition recommendations based on the RIN scores. Results of this work will also support NASA open science initiatives and guides development of the NASA Scientific Collections Directive (a policy on best practices for curation of biological collections). Our RIN-based methodology for characterizing the quality of tissues stored in the ISC since the 1980s also creates unique scientific opportunities for temporal assessment across historical missions. Support from the NASA Space Biology Program and the NASA Human Research Program is gratefully acknowledged.

ALSDA↗
DOE OSTI2022

Renewable Energy Landscapes: Designing Place-Based Infrastructure for Scale

This paper offers a pathway for developing community-centered renewable energy at scale, outlining how renewable energy landscapes can be envisioned alongside the high environmental and social equity standard that is at the heart of the future clean energy system. We call this “place-based at scale” and “renewable energy landscapes” because the ultimate aim is to adapt technology and infrastructure coherently and collectively toward community objectives, and to organize it to allow replicability and scaled approaches across the country. Realizing this type of development in practice will require reconciling the challenges and tensions that currently existing between top-down and bottom-up approaches. It will also require reckoning with greenhouse gas emission goals, large investments in infrastructure, and community self-determination as the driving priority in those investments. We believe a window of opportunity is presenting itself to shape and envision the future of renewable energy installations and move into action to create them. Six pathways that draw upon new cooperation between disciplines for designing renewable energy landscapes at scale are presented and historical perspectives are explored.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
NASA NTRS2006

Space Life Sciences at NASA: Spaceflight Health Policy and Standards

In January 2005, the President proposed a new initiative, the Vision for Space Exploration. To accomplish the goals within the vision for space exploration, physicians and researchers at Johnson Space Center are establishing spaceflight health standards. These standards include fitness for duty criteria (FFD), permissible exposure limits (PELs), and permissible outcome limits (POLs). POLs delineate an acceptable maximum decrement or change in a physiological or behavioral parameter, as the result of exposure to the space environment. For example cardiovascular fitness for duty standards might be a measurable clinical parameter minimum that allows successful performance of all required duties. An example of a permissible exposure limit for radiation might be the quantifiable limit of exposure over a given length of time (e.g. life time radiation exposure). An example of a permissible outcome limit might be the length of microgravity exposure that would minimize bone loss. The purpose of spaceflight health standards is to promote operational and vehicle design requirements, aid in medical decision making during space missions, and guide the development of countermeasures. Standards will be based on scientific and clinical evidence including research findings, lessons learned from previous space missions, studies conducted in space analog environments, current standards of medical practices, risk management data, and expert recommendations. To focus the research community on the needs for exploration missions, NASA has developed the Bioastronautics Roadmap. The Bioastronautics Roadmap, NASA's approach to identification of risks to human space flight, revised baseline was released in February 2005. This document was reviewed by the Institute of Medicine in November 2004 and the final report was received in October 2005. The roadmap defines the most important research and operational needs that will be used to set policy, standards (define acceptable risk), and implement an overall Risk Management and Analysis process. Currently NASA is drafting spaceflight health standards for neurosensory alterations, space radiation exposure, behavioral health, muscle atrophy, cardiovascular fitness, immunological compromise, bone demineralization, and nutrition.

Davis, Jeffrey R.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Community Solar Program Design and Subscription Models

This slide deck provides an overview of community solar program design and subscription models. It introduces and explains the different elements of community solar program and subscription design, and proves proven practices and considerations when designing a community solar program. This slide deck was originally developed as part of a working group under the National Community Solar Partnership's Municipal Utility Collaborative.

community solar↗
DOE OSTI2024

Guidance for Integrating Energy Justice and Equity in Building Technology Deployment Programs: Tracking, Reporting, and Maximizing the Flow of Benefits from Building System Technology Deployment Activities to Disadvantaged Communities and Target Sectors

The Federal Justice40 Initiative directs at least 40% of the overall benefits of certain clean energy investments to flow to disadvantaged communities and requires that all federal programs covered by Justice40 consult stakeholders to determine the program benefits, and that the flow of benefits to disadvantaged communities is tracked and reported. Unequal distribution of benefits, in terms of access to clean energy research, design, development, and deployment, can disproportionately benefit or burden certain communities. This can result in higher rates of pollution, negative health effects, and increased energy burdens and insecurities in disadvantaged communities. Programs focused on decarbonizing the built environment can enhance health, quality of life, and economic opportunities for impacted communities. This guidance document, developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office, provides best practices and approaches for incorporating energy justice and equity principles into building technology deployment activities. It provides best practices and recommendations for communicating with and involving disadvantaged communities and target building sectors in program activities, along with methods to monitor and report the distribution of benefits to these sectors. This document lays out a set of strategies, metrics, and best practices that can be implemented over time to apply energy justice and equity approaches, whether the program is just starting out or ongoing. Although this guidance was designed for Building Technologies Office technology deployment programs, the best practices, recommendations, and methods can be valuable to any program concerned with the equitable deployment of clean energy technologies. The goal of this project is to enable the equitable development, deployment, and adoption of clean energy technologies and practices.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

The LIFT Community of Practice: Lessons Learned in 2024

This report is part of a series of annual papers from the LIFT Community of Practice which convenes cross-sector stakeholders and organizations to expand public participation in renewable energy development.

17 WIND ENERGY↗