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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 973 records · Page 54
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment Spreadsheet tool for Deep Direct-Use Geothermal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Campus

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) spreadsheet tool was developed to analyze potential environmental benefits of a deep direct-use (DDU) geothermal energy system (GES) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (U of IL) campus. The LCA spreadsheet tool is a unique contribution to the feasibility study that provides further insight into the cradle-to-grave environmental impacts associated with the GES over the operating life time, as well as other DDU GES with similar objectives. The tool allows for a more in-depth analysis of the feasibility of DDU GES with respect to the overall environmental impacts. For the U of IL assessment, a doublet (two-well) system is evaluated, which is connected to aboveground mechanical system to supply heating to six agricultural research facilities. The additional of new equipment are assessed for the technical and economic feasibility. The results from this study will also allow geothermal resources from the entirety of the Illinois Basin (ILB) to be assessed and allow the DDU technology to be extended to additional areas of the ILB and other low-temperature sedimentary basins with similar characteristics.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS1975

A study for active control research and validation using the Total In-Flight Simulator (TIFS) aircraft

The results of a feasibility study and preliminary design for active control research and validation using the Total In-Flight Simulator (TIFS) aircraft are documented. Active control functions which can be demonstrated on the TIFS aircraft and the cost of preparing, equipping, and operating the TIFS aircraft for active control technology development are determined. It is shown that the TIFS aircraft is as a suitable test bed for inflight research and validation of many ACT concepts.

Chen, R. T. N.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Study of extraterrestrial disposal of radioactive wastes. Part 1: Space transportation and destination considerations for extraterrestrial disposal of radioactive wastes

A feasibility study of extraterrestrial disposal of radioactive waste is reported. This report covers the initial work done on only one part of the NASA study, that evaluates and compares possible space destinations and space transportation systems. The currently planned space shuttle was found to be more cost effective than current expendable launch vehicles by about a factor of 2. The space shuttle requires a third stage to perform the waste disposal missions. Depending on the particular mission, this third stage could be either a reusable space tug or an expendable stage such as a Centaur.

Thompson, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Sea truth and environmental characterization studies of Mobile Bay, Alabama, utilizing ERTS-1, data collection platforms

The paper reports on the scientific results obtained during a feasibility study that evaluated the potential of using ERTS data collection platforms (DCPs) in the coastal environment of Mobile Bay, Alabama. The utility of instrumented buoys operated in a coastal marine environment as ERTS DCPs is demonstrated. It is shown that these platforms are capable of providing both sea-truth data for ERTS imagery studies and time-series data for event monitoring and/or environmental characterization studies.

Schroeder, W. W.↗
NASA NTRS1998

LISA Mission Concept Study, Laser Interferometer Space Antenna for the Detection and Observation of Gravitational Waves

This document presents the results of a design feasibility study for LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna). The goal of LISA is to detect and study low-frequency astrophysical gravitational radiation from strongly relativistic regions. Astrophysical sources potentially visible to LISA include extra-galactic massive black hole binaries at cosmological distances, binary systems composed of a compact star and a massive black hole, galactic neutron star-black hole binaries, and background radiation from the Big Bang. The LISA mission will comprise three spacecraft located five million kilometers apart forming an equilateral triangle in an Earth-trailing orbit. Fluctuations in separation between shielded test masses located within each spacecraft will be determined by optical interferometry which determines the phase shift of laser light transmitted between the test masses.

Folkner, W. M.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Assessment of Benefits of Solid-State Advanced Manufacturing Processes for Nuclear Energy Products

The Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technology (AMMT) program develops cross cutting technologies in support of a broad range of nuclear reactor technologies and maintains U.S. leadership in materials and manufacturing technologies for nuclear energy applications. This overall project provides the U.S. Department of Energy a critical feasibility study comparison of three solid-state processes to other AM processes, thereby providing the feasibility of the solid-state processes examined to manufacture 316H SS and ODS steel components: • Fused-filament fabrication (FFF): This work provides an initial evaluation of the impact of powder morphology and sizes on the FFF process, and the feasibility and adaptability for different material systems, to use FFF for ODS steels and 316 SS. • Shear-assisted processing and extrusion (ShAPE): Specifically for this portion of the project on ShAPE tube forming, the objectives will be to determine the feasibility to direct tube forming of high tensile strength steel tubing, specifically for ODS steel to determine the effect of the patented extrusion process on the dispersoids of the ODS material. Additionally, as often ODS powders are mechanically alloyed and therefore more platelike or angular, this feasibility was to explore the impact on the optimization process and initial feasibility of direct tube forming. • Cold spray and friction stir additive manufacturing as a stretch goal: Bulk and near net shape manufacturing processes for high-temperature, high-strength alloys are needed. Additionally, cold spray techniques can be applied in-situ at the operational level for repair and can provide multiple benefits to the nuclear industry. These tasks aim to provide information to show benefits of cold spray during the full life cycle, namely research and development, product manufacturing, and repair to mention a few key points.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Modeling study of deep direct use geothermal on the West Virginia university campus-morgantown, WV

To reduce the geothermal exploration risk, a feasibility study is performed for a deep direct-use (DDU) system proposed at the West Virginia University (WVU) Morgantown campus. This study applies numerical simulations to investigate reservoir impedance and thermal production. Because of the great depth of the geothermal reservoir, few data are available to characterize reservoir features and properties. Consequently, the study focuses on the following three aspects: 1. model choice for predicting reservoir impedance and thermal breakthrough: after investigating three potential models (one single permeability model and two dual permeability models) for flow through fractured rock, it is decided only the single permeability model is needed; 2. well placement (horizontal vs. vertical) options: horizontal well placement seems to be more robust to heterogeneity and the impedance is more acceptable; 3. Prediction uncertainty: the most influential parameters are identified using a First-Order-Second-Moment uncertainty propagation analysis, and the uncertain range of the model predictions is estimated by performing a Monte Carlo simulation. Heterogeneity has a large impact on the prediction, therefore, heterogeneity is included in the predictive model and uncertainty analysis. The numerical model results and uncertainty analysis will be used for further economic studies.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS1971

ESRO study program for a space experiment on gravitation theories

ESRO is considering a space experiment which is the definition phase. A more complete utilization of space techniques, leading to highly accurate acceleration measurements in a heliocentric spacecraft, together with an improved laser signal propagation method (using a space-borne atomic clock), could substantially increase the validity of the gravitational time delay test during solar conjunction. Preliminary investigations of the primary required techniques were carried out. These studies included an orbit analysis, investigation of drag-free techniques, and studies of the time measuring instrument. These studies were used to define the framework of a space experiment on gravitation theories. A preliminary feasibility study of the mission is being undertaken.

Israel, G. M.↗
NASA NTRS1971

Adaptive multisatellite systems for aeronautical services.

The use of satellite systems to provide operational communications and ATC services to aircraft flying the oceanic routes has been the subject of considerable interest recently. Since most of the link factors are functions of geometry and the aircraft traffic density varies with time, the satellite power needed to meet the communication demand varies considerably in an oceanic area as a function of both location and time. An adaptive system that tailors the use of system resources to the needs of the user can result in an additional system capacity improvement by a factor of between two and three. Results of studies conducted to date indicate that simple implementation of adaptive techniques in aeronautical satellite systems is feasible. Study is continuing in this area and on the application of satellite multibeam techniques to gain even further increase in capacity.

Bisaga, J. J.↗
NASA NTRS1989

The Nuclear Astrophysics Explorer

The Nuclear Astrophysics Explorer was proposed in 1986 for NASA's Explorer Concept Study Program by an international collaboration of 25 scientists from nine institutions. The one-year feasibility study began in June 1988. The Nuclear Astrophysics Explorer would obtain high resolution observations of gamma-ray lines, E/Delta E about 1000, at a sensitivity of about 0.000003 ph/sq cm s, in order to study fundamental problems in astrophysics such as nucleosynthesis, supernovae, neutron star and black-hole physics, and particle acceleration and interactions. The instrument would operate from 15 keV to 10 Mev and use a heavily shielded array of nine cooled Ge spectrometers in a very low background configuration. Its 10 deg FWHM field of view would contain a versatile coded mask system which would provide two-dimensional imaging with 4 deg resolution, one-dimensional imaging with 2 deg resolution, and efficiendt measurements of diffuse emission. An unshielded Ge spectrometer would obtain wide-field measurements of transient gamma-ray sources. The earliest possible mission would begin in 1995.

Matteson, J. L.↗
NASA NTRS1996

High-Speed Soft-Decision Decoding of Two Reed-Muller Codes

In this research, we have proposed the (64, 40, 8) subcode of the third-order Reed-Muller (RM) code to NASA for high-speed satellite communications. This RM subcode can be used either alone or as an inner code of a concatenated coding system with the NASA standard (255, 233, 33) Reed-Solomon (RS) code as the outer code to achieve high performance (or low bit-error rate) with reduced decoding complexity. It can also be used as a component code in a multilevel bandwidth efficient coded modulation system to achieve reliable bandwidth efficient data transmission. This report will summarize the key progress we have made toward achieving our eventual goal of implementing, a decoder system based upon this code. In the first phase of study, we investigated the complexities of various sectionalized trellis diagrams for the proposed (64, 40, 8) RM subcode. We found a specific 8-trellis diagram for this code which requires the least decoding complexity with a high possibility of achieving a decoding speed of 600 M bits per second (Mbps). The combination of a large number of states and a high data rate will be made possible due to the utilization of a high degree of parallelism throughout the architecture. This trellis diagram will be presented and briefly described. In the second phase of study, which was carried out through the past year, we investigated circuit architectures to determine the feasibility of VLSI implementation of a high-speed Viterbi decoder based on this 8-section trellis diagram. We began to examine specific design and implementation approaches to implement a fully custom integrated circuit (IC) which will be a key building block for a decoder system implementation. The key results will be presented in this report. This report will be divided into three primary sections. First, we will briefly describe the system block diagram in which the proposed decoder is assumed to be operating, and present some of the key architectural approaches being used to implement the system at high speed. Second, we will describe details of the 8-trellis diagram we found to best meet the trade-offs between chip and overall system complexity. The chosen approach implements the trellis for the (64, 40, 8) RM subcode with 32 independent sub-trellises. And third, we will describe results of our feasibility study on the implementation of such an IC chip in CMOS technology to implement one of these sub-trellises.

Lin, Shu↗
NASA NTRS1996

Circuit Design Approaches for Implementation of a Subtrellis IC for a Reed-Muller Subcode

In this research, we have proposed the (64, 40, 8) subcode of the third-order Reed-Muller (RM) code to NASA for high-speed satellite communications. This RM subcode can be used either alone or as an inner code of a concatenated coding system with the NASA standard (255, 233, 33) Reed-Solomon (RS) code as the outer code to achieve high performance (or low bit-error rate) with reduced decoding complexity. It can also be used as a component code in a multilevel bandwidth efficient coded modulation system to achieve reliable bandwidth efficient data transmission. This report will summarize the key progress we have made toward achieving our eventual goal of implementing a decoder system based upon this code. In the first phase of study, we investigated the complexities of various sectionalized trellis diagrams for the proposed (64, 40, 8) RM subcode. We found a specific 8-trellis diagram for this code which requires the least decoding complexity with a high possibility of achieving a decoding speed of 600 M bits per second (Mbps). The combination of a large number of states and a high data rate will be made possible due to the utilization of a high degree of parallelism throughout the architecture. This trellis diagram will be presented and briefly described. In the second phase of study which was carried out through the past year, we investigated circuit architectures to determine the feasibility of VLSI implementation of a high-speed Viterbi decoder based on this 8-section trellis diagram. We began to examine specific design and implementation approaches to implement a fully custom integrated circuit (IC) which will be a key building block for a decoder system implementation. The key results will be presented in this report. This report will be divided into three primary sections. First, we will briefly describe the system block diagram in which the proposed decoder is assumed to be operating and present some of the key architectural approaches being used to implement the system at high speed. Second, we will describe details of the 8-trellis diagram we found to best meet the trade-offs between chip and overall system complexity. The chosen approach implements the trellis for the (64, 40, 8) RM subcode with 32 independent sub-trellises. And third, we will describe results of our feasibility study on the implementation of such an IC chip in CMOS technology to implement one of these subtrellises.

Lin, Shu↗
NASA NTRS1996

High-Speed Soft-Decision Decoding of Two Reed-Muller Codes

In his research, we have proposed the (64, 40, 8) subcode of the third-order Reed-Muller (RM) code to NASA for high-speed satellite communications. This RM subcode can be used either alone or as an inner code of a concatenated coding system with the NASA standard (255, 233, 33) Reed-Solomon (RS) code as the outer code to achieve high performance (or low bit-error rate) with reduced decoding complexity. It can also be used as a component code in a multilevel bandwidth efficient coded modulation system to achieve reliable bandwidth efficient data transmission. This report will summarize the key progress we have made toward achieving our eventual goal of implementing a decoder system based upon this code. In the first phase of study, we investigated the complexities of various sectionalized trellis diagrams for the proposed (64, 40, 8) RNI subcode. We found a specific 8-trellis diagram for this code which requires the least decoding complexity with a high possibility of achieving a decoding speed of 600 M bits per second (Mbps). The combination of a large number of states and a hi ch data rate will be made possible due to the utilization of a high degree of parallelism throughout the architecture. This trellis diagram will be presented and briefly described. In the second phase of study which was carried out through the past year, we investigated circuit architectures to determine the feasibility of VLSI implementation of a high-speed Viterbi decoder based on this 8-section trellis diagram. We began to examine specific design and implementation approaches to implement a fully custom integrated circuit (IC) which will be a key building block for a decoder system implementation. The key results will be presented in this report. This report will be divided into three primary sections. First, we will briefly describe the system block diagram in which the proposed decoder is assumed to be operating and present some of the key architectural approaches being used to implement the system at high speed. Second, we will describe details of the 8-trellis diagram we found to best meet the trade-offs between chip and overall system complexity. The chosen approach implements the trellis for the (64, 40, 8) RM subcode with 32 independent sub-trellises. And third, we will describe results of our feasibility study on the implementation of such an IC chip in CMOS technology to implement one of these sub-trellises.

Lin, Shu↗
NASA NTRS1996

Circuit Design Approaches for Implementation of a Subtrellis IC for a Reed-Muller Subcode

In his research, we have proposed the (64, 40, 8) subcode of the third-order Reed-Muller (RM) code to NASA for high-speed satellite communications. This RM subcode can be used either alone or as an inner code of a concatenated coding system with the NASA standard (255, 233, 33) Reed-Solomon (RS) code as the outer code to achieve high performance (or low bit-error rate) with reduced decoding complexity. It can also be used as a component code in a multilevel bandwidth efficient coded modulation system to achieve reliable bandwidth efficient data transmission. This report will summarize the key progress we have made toward achieving our eventual goal of implementing a decoder system based upon this code. In the first phase of study, we investigated the complexities of various sectionalized trellis diagrams for the proposed (64, 40, 8) RM subcode. We found a specific 8-trellis diagram for this code which requires the least decoding complexity with a high possibility of achieving a decoding speed of 600 M bits per second(Mbps). The combination of a large number of states and a high data rate will be made possible due to the utilization of a high degree of parallelism throughout the architecture. This trellis diagram will be presented and briefly described. In the second phase of study which was carried out through the past year, we investigated circuit architectures to determine the feasibility of VLSI implementation of a high- speed Viterbi decoder based on this 8-section trellis diagram. We began to examine specific design and implementation approaches to implement a fully custom integrated circuit (IC) which will be a key building block for a decoder system implementation. The key results will be presented in this report. This report will be divided into three primary sections. First, we will briefly describe the system block diagram in which the proposed decoder is assumed to be operating and present some of the key architectural approaches being used to implement the system at high speed. Second, we will describe details of the 8-trellis diagram we found to best meet the trade-offs between chip and overall system complexity. The chosen approach implements the trellis for the (64, 40, 8) RM subcode with 32 independent sub-trellises. And third, we will describe results of our feasibility study on the implementation of such an IC chip in CMOS technology to implement one of these subtrellises.

Lin, Shu↗
NASA NTRS1999

Rapid Chill and Fill of a Liquid Hydrogen Tank Demonstrated

The NASA Lewis Research Center, in conjunction with Boeing North American, has been supporting the High Energy Upper Stage (HEUS) program by performing feasibility studies at Lewis Supplemental Multilayer Insulation Research Facility (SMIRF). These tests were performed to demonstrate the feasibility of chilling and filling a tank with liquid hydrogen in under 5 minutes. The goal of the HEUS program is to release a satellite from the shuttle cargo bay and then use a cryogenic (high-energy) upper stage to allow the satellite to achieve final orbit. Because of safety considerations, the propellant tanks for the upper stage will be launched warm and dry. They will be filled from the shuttle's external tank during the mission phase after the solid rocket boosters have jettisoned and prior to jettison of the external tank. Data from previous shuttle missions have been analyzed to ensure that sufficient propellant would be available in the external tank to fill the propellant tank of the proposed vehicle upper stage. Because of mission time-line considerations, the propellant tanks for the upper stage will have to be chilled down and filled in approximately 5 minutes. An existing uninsulated flight weight test tank was installed inside the vacuum chamber at SMIRF, and the chamber was evacuated to the 10(exp -5) torr range to simulate space vacuum conditions in the cargo bay with the doors open. During prerun operations, the facility liquid hydrogen (LH2) supply piping was prechilled with the vent gas bypassing the test article. The liquid hydrogen supply dewar was saturated at local ambient pressure and then pressurized with ambient temperature gaseous helium to the test pressure. A control system was used to ensure that the liquid hydrogen supply pressure was maintained at the test pressure.

Kudlac, Maureen T.↗