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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 1,045 records · Page 58
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2023

Human Factors Support for On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing Mission 1 (OSAM-1)

The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) Human Factors Technical Discipline Team was requested by the Satellite Servicing Projects Division at Goddard Space Flight Center to provide support in assessing the design of the On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing Mission 1 (OSAM-1) Mission Operations Center in light of concerns about overcrowding and potential for distractions, as well as assistance in creating a Human-Machine Interface style guide for OSAM-1 user interface design. This report contains the outcome of the NESC assessment.

On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing Mis↗
NASA NTRS2005

Preliminary Results Obtained in Integrated Safety Analysis of NASA Aviation Safety Program Technologies

This is a listing of recent unclassified RTO technical publications for January 1, 2005 through March 31, 2005 processed by the NASA Center for AeroSpace Center available on the NASA Aeronautics and Space Database. Contents include 1) Electronic Information Management; 2) Decision Support to Combined Joint Task Force and Component Commanders; 3) RTO Technical Publications : A Quarterly Listing (December 2004); 4) The Role of Humans in Intelligent and Automated Systems.

Source record↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Adopting an Objectives-Driven Assurance Case Approach for Achieving Space Flight Mission Planetary Protection Objectives

Traditionally, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has utilized prescriptive technical and process requirements to ensure safety and mission assurance performance objectives for planetary protection are achieved during space flight missions. While prescriptive requirements may be easier to communicate and manage throughout the systems engineering process, the highly constrained nature of prescriptive requirements can limit the ability to take advantage of cost-saving opportunities and offer limited ability to explore other options or alternative designs, processes, and methods. It can also be difficult to develop prescriptive requirements for objectives that are probabilistic in nature or that cannot be satisfied by direct verification. In contrast, the development of an assurance case allows for a compelling, comprehensible, and valid argument to be developed with supporting evidence that shows safety and mission assurance objectives have been satisfied. Analogous to how patent applications are constructed for inventions, an assurance case has a high-level claim of meeting a safety and mission assurance objective, followed by a more specific set of sub-claims and technical evidence which supports the claims. The objectives-driven assurance case approach allows for a better understanding and exploration of the trade space, more flexibility to balance trades, and the ability to realize and implement technical and process innovations for resource, time, and cost savings. The assurance case is a living case that evolves over the entire program life cycle. Recently, NASA’s Office of Planetary Protection (OPP) has adopted the assurance case approach as an acceptable methodology for demonstrating avoidance of contamination of target solar system bodies explored by NASA space flight missions. This methodology has been incorporated into NASA’s new technical standard for planetary protection and is currently being utilized by the Mars Sample Return campaign for safe sample containment during sample return.

Assurance Case↗
DOE OSTI2023

Resource Adequacy for State Utility Regulators: Current Practices and Emerging Reforms

This report was developed by staff in the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Center for Partnerships and Innovation (CPI). Additional support was provided from commissioners, commission staff, and other technical experts to provide foundational information for state utility regulators on the evolving nature of resource adequacy for the electric system. With the changing nature of the system, state commissioners will continue to play a vital role in their respective jurisdictions. Their roles in overseeing resource decisions are growing in complexity, with consideration for customer costs, state and federal environmental requirements, extreme weather events, fuel supply limitations, generation retirements, shifting requirements for system operators, and growing levels of intermittent and energy-limited resources (e.g., wind, solar, and battery storage). Reliability concerns continue to be an urgent and immediate priority for utility regulators in most parts of the United States. The information in this report is designed to support state commissioners and their respective staff members as they navigate an evolving resource adequacy landscape to maintain reliability amidst a rapidly changing system.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Evaluation Toolkit for Technical Assistance Programs

Across the United States, every home, business, industry, and government depends on abundant, reliable, and affordable electricity. Energy stakeholders have many options to improve how energy is generated, distributed, and used, but choosing the right path can be complex and challenging. To support more informed decision-making about local electricity systems, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its national laboratories provide customized technical assistance (TA) through several different programs. These TA programs are designed to support a wide range of stakeholders with a variety of needs. Technical assistance may include brief consultations with subject-matter experts, in-depth technical modeling and analysis, stakeholder engagement, and peer-to-peer exchange. Delivering effective TA is an iterative process that requires evaluation and adaptation. A comprehensive and robust evaluation framework provides the structure needed to ensure that TA programs and practitioners remain effective, responsive to industry trends, and aligned with local needs. This toolkit provides a framework—including a clear, structured process—that TA program staff can adapt to their program's goals to evaluate success.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

ZrO 2 /MWCNT as a Support Platform for Acid and Metal Catalysis in Water: The Investigation of Pd-WO x -ZrO 2 /MWCNT Catalysts (Final Technical Report)

This final technical report covers the final renewal period, 08/01/2019 to 07/31/2020, and the no cost extension 08/01/2020 to 07/31/2021, that was required because of the pandemic interruption. The proposed research was in the area of sustainable recovery of fuels and/or chemicals from biomass; it was by design intended to address fundamental science of the catalysts and that required using a model reaction. The model reaction molecule was phenol because it is a reasonably simply molecule that can be derived from lignin, and requires both hydrogenation and dehydration catalytic reactions that can be performed in water. The needed bifunctional catalyst can be provided by a metal for hydrogenation and by an acid (preferably Brønsted acid) for the dehydration function. Therefore, phenol conversion to an alkane in liquid water at a practical temperature, e.g., 200°C, that will not require extreme pressures, captures many of the complications of biomass derived fuels so it may reveal fundamental science that is relevant to development and implementation of biomass refining.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Parallel-Processed Multi-junction Perovskite Solar Cells (Final Technical Report)

This report consolidates the findings from this Department of Energy supported project, which aimed to advance the manufacturing of high-efficiency perovskite photovoltaics. To facilitate the processing of tandem devices, and perovskite single-junction and multi-junction devices more generally, the project team developed a lamination process to integrate the subcells and cells, decoupling the processing from the restrictive requirements of serial manufacturing. The lamination approach enables independent and precise tailoring of interface properties for stability and performance.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Advanced Test Reactor Safety Basis Update for Gas-Cooled Experiments

The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) supports neutron irradiation of several types of experiments. One such experiment type is referred to as a gas leadout. Gas leadout experiments actively flow gas through the experiment which allows for active temperature control. It also allows for in-situ data of the experiment. For example, fission gas migration through a fuel sample can be monitored via activity of the sweep gas. Historically, ex-pile equipment and fission product monitors were housed in shielded ATR cubicles. Due to other facility updates, cubicle space is no longer available for gas leadout experiment equipment. To support continued operation of gas leadout experiments, ATR completed a safety basis update that supports a new housing for leadout equipment that may process potentially contaminated gas. In addition to the structure and associated equipment, technical safety requirements regarding handling and storage of experiments needed to be revised to support fueled gas leadout experiments and associated outage configurations. The safety basis update addressed the full lifecycle of these experiments, including experiment movement and interim storage, and credible abnormal events such as failures or leaks in contaminated gas tubing in occupied areas. This paper discusses the completed analyses performed to support the safety basis update associated with gas leadout experiments, including thermal-hydraulic evaluation, probabilistic analysis, and dose consequence analyses.

11 - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
NASA NTRS2004

Exploration EVA System

In January 2004, the President announced a new Vision for Space Exploration. NASA's Office of Exploration Systems has identified Extravehicular Activity (EVA) as a critical capability for supporting the Vision for Space Exploration. EVA is required for all phases of the Vision, both in-space and planetary. Supporting the human outside the protective environment of the vehicle or habitat and allow ing him/her to perform efficient and effective work requires an integrated EVA "System of systems." The EVA System includes EVA suits, airlocks, tools and mobility aids, and human rovers. At the core of the EVA System is the highly technical EVA suit, which is comprised mainly of a life support system and a pressure/environmental protection garment. The EVA suit, in essence, is a miniature spacecraft, which combines together many different sub-systems such as life support, power, communications, avionics, robotics, pressure systems and thermal systems, into a single autonomous unit. Development of a new EVA suit requires technology advancements similar to those required in the development of a new space vehicle. A majority of the technologies necessary to develop advanced EVA systems are currently at a low Technology Readiness Level of 1-3. This is particularly true for the long-pole technologies of the life support system.

Kearney, Lara↗
NASA NTRS2020

Urban Air Mobility Generation 1 Acoustic Database

An acoustic database has been generated in support of the NASA Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology (RVLT) project, Technical Challenge (TC) TC.UAM.Noise.1, entitled “Urban Air Mobility Operational Fleet Noise Assessment.” As part of that TC, a periodic (approximately annual) development of an acoustic database will be performed based on the latest available information. The release of the first such database, namely, the “Gen 1 database for fleet noise assessments,” developed in support of RVLT milestone RVLT.23.02.L350, is the subject of this document.

urban air mobility↗
DOE OSTI2026

Strategic Energy Plan, Town of Cranberry Isles

This report details the strategic energy plan for the Town of Cranberry Isles, Maine. This project was spearheaded by the Cranberry Isles Community Solar Association (CICSA), and supported by Island Institute and Sandia National Laboratories, in partnership with the National Laboratory of the Rockies and Versant Power. The plan details the energy vision, goals, and focus areas for the community, provides technical analysis of the current energy system, and outlines potential projects to support community energy. Throughout the energy planning process, the project team engaged with members of the community to gather input and ideas to shape the plan. The project team and Versant also completed an extensive data collection to better inform the project. Sandia National Laboratories completed baseline technical assessments and feasibility studies to better understand potential feasible options for future projects. These potential projects, high-level costs, and next steps are a key output of this report.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
NASA NTRS2007

Earth Observations to Assess Impact of Hurricane Katrina on John C. Stennis Space Center

The peril from hurricanes to Space Operations Centers is real and is forecast to continue; Katrina, Rita, and Wilma of 2005 and Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne of 2004 are sufficient motivation for NASA to develop a multi-Center plan for preparedness and response. As was demonstrated at SSC (Stennis Space Center) in response to Hurricane Katrina, NASA Centers are efficiently activated as local command centers, playing host to Federal and State agencies and first responders to coordinate and provide evacuation, relocation, response, and recovery activities. Remote sensing decision support provides critical insight for managing NASA infrastructure and for assisting Center decision makers. Managers require geospatial information to manage the federal city. Immediately following Katrina, SSC s power and network connections were disabled, hardware was inoperative, technical staff was displaced and/or out of contact, and graphical decision support tools were non-existent or less than fully effective. Despite this circumstance, SSC EOC (Emergency Operations Center) implemented response operations to assess damage and to activate recovery plans. To assist Center Managers, the NASA ASP (Applied Sciences Program) made its archive of high-resolution data over the site available. In the weeks and months after the immediate crisis, NASA supplemented this data with high-resolution, post-Katrina imagery over SSC and much of the affected coastal areas. Much of the high-resolution imagery was made available through the Department of Defense Clear View contract and was distributed through U.S. Geological Survey Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science "Hurricane Katrina Disaster Response" Web site. By integrating multiple image data types with other information sources, ASP applied an all-source solutions approach to develop decision support tools that enabled managers to respond to critical issues, such as expedient access to infrastructure and deployment of resources, provision of temporary shelter, logistical control of critical supplies, and the mobilization and coordination of assets from ground crews to aircraft/airspace management. Furthermore, ASP developed information products that illustrate risks to SSC's infrastructure from surge, inundation, and flood. Current plans include developing wind-risk prototype products for refinement and adoption into EOC plans.

Graham, William D.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Reactor Simulator Integration and Testing

As part of the Nuclear Systems Office Fission Surface Power Technology Demonstration Unit (TDU) project, a reactor simulator (RxSim) test loop was designed and built to perform integrated testing of the TDU components. In particular, the objectives of RxSim testing were to verify the operation of the core simulator, the instrumentation and control system, and the ground support gas and vacuum test equipment. In addition, it was decided to include a thermal test of a cold trap purification design and a pump performance test at pump voltages up to 150 V because the targeted mass flow rate of 1.75 kg/s was not obtained in the RxSim at the originally constrained voltage of 120 V. This Technical Memorandum summarizes RxSim testing. The gas and vacuum ground support test equipment performed effectively in NaK fill, loop pressurization, and NaK drain operations. The instrumentation and control system effectively controlled loop temperature and flow rates or pump voltage to targeted settings. The cold trap design was able to obtain the targeted cold temperature of 480 K. An outlet temperature of 636 K was obtained, which was lower than the predicted 750 K but 156 K higher than the cold temperature, indicating the design provided some heat regeneration. The annular linear induction pump tested was able to produce a maximum flow rate of 1.53 kg/s at 800 K when operated at 150 V and 53 Hz.

Schoenfield, M. P.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Lunar Sample Return Entry Systems Analysis

The Lunar Prospector and Clementine missions have revealed deposits of water-ice located at the South Pole-Aitken Basin of the lunar surface. Due to the scarce amount of previous successful sample return missions and the recent discovery of water-ice, the National Research Council (NRC) Decadal Survey recommended prioritizing the development of a Lunar Sample Return Mission Architecture. The NRC Decadal survey ranked the return of cryogenic samples that could potentially aid in current scientific investigations and identify sites for in-situ resource utilization to support future exploration missions. This study aims to identify the key technical challenges and operational constraints involved in returning cryogenic samples in pristine condition. A detailed classification of defined ground rules and assumptions, justification of mission events and high level functional requirements reinforces the proposed concept of operations. In support of the drafted architecture, a comprehensive analysis on design and environmental constraints are documented for the Earth return vehicle, sample container and thermal protection entry system. The design and thermal analysis is comprised of quantitative dimensions for mass and volume, flight performance parameters and thermal system performance limitations. Further refinement of the high level functional requirements is imperative for determining the optimal approach for returning cryopreserved lunar samples.

Lunar Sample Return↗
DOE OSTI2022

Design Guidelines for Deployable Wind Turbines for Defense and Disaster Response Missions

Access to on-site electrical energy is critical to ensuring a successful military or humanitarian response to conflicts and disasters. These missions typically rely on access to liquid fuel that could be vulnerable to disruption or attack during transport. Generating power on location with wind technology—whether at a contingency base or disaster response coordination point—can reduce this risk and enhance mission reach by diversifying energy sources. Common characteristics of these missions are short planning and execution time horizons and a global scope of potential locations. Compared to conventional wind turbine applications, defense and disaster response applications place a premium on rapid shipping and installation, short-duration operation (days to months), and quick teardown upon mission completion. These design drivers depart from features found in conventional distributed wind turbines, thus necessitating unique design guidance. The supporting information for this guidance comes from available relevant references, technical analyses, and input from industry and military stakeholders. This paper serves as a summary of the full report, Design Guidelines for Deployable Wind Turbines for Military Operational Energy Applications (Sandia report SAND2021-14581 R [1]), which presents the best currently available design guidance for deployable wind turbines to facilitate the effective development and acquisition of technology solutions to support mission success.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS1975

The pioneer projects: Economical exploration of the solar system

The interplanetary Pioneer missions are reviewed in terms of management implications and cost control. The responsibilities, organizational structure, and management practices of the Pioneer Projects are presented. The lines of authority and areas of responsibility of the principal organizational elements supporting the Pioneer missions are identified, and the methods employed for maintaining effective and timely interactions among these elements are indicated. The technical and administrative functions of the various organizational elements of the Pioneer Project Office at Ames Research Center are described in terms of their management responsibilities and interactions with other elements of the Project Office and with external organizations having Pioneer Project responsibilities. The management and control of activities prior to and during the hardware procurement phase are described to indicate the basis for obtaining visibility of the technical progress, utilization of resources, and cost performance of the contractors and other institutions supporting the Pioneer projects.

Spahr, J. R.↗