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NASA NTRS2003

X-Ray Testing Constellation-X Optics at MSFC's 100-m Facility

In addition to the 530-m-long X-Ray Calibration Facility (XRCF), NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) operates a 104-m-long (source-to-detector) X-ray-test facility. Originally developed and still occasionally used for stray-light testing of visible-fight optical systems, the so-called "Stray-Light Facility" now serves primarily as a convenient and inexpensive facility for performance evaluation and calibration of X-ray optics and detectors. The facility can accommodate X-ray optics up to about 1-m diameter and 12-m focal length. Currently available electron-impact sources at the facility span the approximate energy range 0.2 to 100 keV, thus supporting testing of soft- and hard-X-ray optics and detectors. Available MSFC detectors are a front-illuminated CCD (charge-coupled device) and a scanning CZT (cadmium--zinc--telluride) detector, with low-energy cut-offs of about 0.8 and 3 keV, respectively. In order to test developmental optics for the Constellation-X Project, led by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), MSFC undertook several enhancements to the facility. Foremost among these was development and fabrication of a five-degree-of-freedom (5-DoF) optics mount and control system, which translates and tilts the user-provided mirror assembly suspended from its interface plate. Initial Constellation-X tests characterize the performance of the Optical Alignment Pathfinder Two (OAP2) for the large Spectroscopy X-ray Telescope (SXT) and of demonstration mirror assemblies for the Hard X-ray Telescope (HXT). With the Centroid Detector Assembly (CDA), used for precision alignment of the Chandra (nee AXAF) mirrors, the Constellation-X SXT Team optically aligned the individual mirrors of the OAPZ at GSFC. The team then developed set-up and alignment procedures, including transfer of the alignment from the optical alignment facility at GSFC to the X-ray test facility at MSFC, using a reference flat and fiducials. The OAPZ incorporates additional ancillary features --- fixed aperture mask and movable sub-aperture mask --- to facilitate X-ray characterization of the optics. Although the OAPZ was designed to- have low sensitivity to temperature offsets and gradients, analyses showed the necessity of active temperature control for the X-ray performance testing. Thus, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) implemented a thermal control and monitoring system, designed to hold the OAP2 close to its assembly.

O'Dell, Stephen↗

NASA NTRS2012

Robotics

Earth's upper atmosphere is an extreme environment: dry, cold, and irradiated. It is unknown whether our aerobiosphere is limited to the transport of life, or there exist organisms that grow and reproduce while airborne (aerophiles); the microenvironments of suspended particles may harbor life at otherwise uninhabited altitudes[2]. The existence of aerophiles would significantly expand the range of planets considered candidates for life by, for example, including the cooler clouds of a hot Venus-like planet. The X project is an effort to engineer a robotic exploration and biosampling payload for a comprehensive survey of Earth's aerobiology. While many one-shot samples have been retrieved from above 15 km, their results are primarily qualitative; variations in method confound comparisons, leaving such major gaps in our knowledge of aerobiology as quantification of populations at different strata and relative species counts[1]. These challenges and X's preliminary solutions are explicated below. X's primary balloon payload is undergoing a series of calibrations before beginning flights in Spring 2012. A suborbital launch is currently planned for Summer 2012. A series of ground samples taken in Winter 2011 is being used to establish baseline counts and identify likely background contaminants.

Rothschild, Lynn J.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Constellation X-Ray Mission and Support

This report is a supplement to the Third Annual Report summarizing work performed by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) under Cooperative Agreement NCC5-3681. The Agreement is entitled 'Constellation X-ray Mission Study and Support.' This supplementary report covers the period from October 1, 2001 through January 10, 2002. The report has been prepared and submitted to ensure that the Constellation-X Project Office at GSFC has current performance information needed to evaluate a proposed modified budget for FY02. That proposed budget is being submitted separately. SAO continues to perform work under the overall direction of Dr. Harvey Tananbaum, the SAO Principal Investigator for the program. Mr. Robert Rasche is the SAO Program Manager and is responsible for day-to-day program management at SAO and coordination with GSFC. The report summarizes the main areas of SAO activity. Most of the work has been done jointly with personnel from GSFC and Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). We describe SAO participation in these efforts. Under the Agreement, SAO performed work in seven major areas of activity. These areas related to: (1) Constellation X-ray Mission Facility Definition Team and Study Management; (2) Science Support; (3) Spectroscopy X-ray Telescope (SXT); (4) Systems Engineering; (5) Travel in Support of the Work Effort; and (6) In-house Management and Coordination.

Tananbaum, H.↗

NASA NTRS2024

Operational Integration Assessment (OIA) of Midterm UAM Operations: Class C Airspace Tabletop Exercise and Integration Checkpoint

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), is conducting research into evolving today’s air traffic management system towards a more automated and operationally flexible airspace to accommodate Urban Air Mobility (UAM) operations at scale. UAM operations, enabled by electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft, may change the role of aviation in the movement of people and goods and provide practical, cost-effective air transport in metropolitan areas. FAA UAM Concept of Operations v2.0 describes three evolutionary stages of UAM operations: Initial, Midterm, and Mature State operations. Midterm operations are comprised of many complex changes to the national airspace system (NAS). The Operational Integration Assessment (OIA) was created as a capability to address the need to study the progression and identify interdependencies of those changes that may occur during the midterm UAM operations timeframe. The OIA includes a series of tabletop exercises and integration checkpoints planned to explore various use cases from end-to-end, evaluated by NASA’s Air Traffic Management eXploration (ATM-X) project in partnership with the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center (WJHTC) and industry partners. The use cases were exercised in an immersive, integrated live-virtual-constructive (LVC) airspace simulation environment, called the NASA/FAA Laboratory Integrated Test Environment (NFLITE), as part of an effort to learn how UAM operations can scale beyond the as-is NAS and through the transition to higher-tempo and highly automated operations of the future. This document describes the events of the tabletop exercise held from January 24-26, 2023, at the National Airspace Research & Technology Park (NARTP) in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, adjacent to the WJHTC and the subsequent integration checkpoint performed on March 28, 2023,at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) in Hampton, Virginia.

UAM↗

DOE OSTI2023

Adaptive autoencoder latent space tuning for more robust machine learning beyond the training set for six-dimensional phase space diagnostics of a time-varying ultrafast electron-diffraction compact accelerator

In this work, we present a general adaptive latent space tuning approach for improving the robustness of machine learning tools with respect to time variation and distribution shift. We demonstrate our approach by developing an encoder-decoder convolutional neural network-based virtual 6D phase space diagnostic of charged particle beams in the HiRES ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) compact particle accelerator with uncertainty quantification. Our method utilizes model-independent adaptive feedback to tune a low dimensional 2D latent space representation of ~1 million dimensional objects which are the 15 unique 2D projections (x, y),...,(z, p z ) of the 6D phase space (x, y, z, p x , p y , p z ) of the charged particle beams. We demonstrate our method with numerical studies of short electron bunches utilizing experimentally measured UED input beam distributions.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2017

Analysis of HOM Problems in the C-ADS Main Linac

Excitation of higher-order modes (HOMs) in superconducting cavities may severely affect the operation of the main linac in the Chinese Accelerator Driven System (CADS). Preliminary analysis is made on the effects of beam dynamic, which includes possible longitudinal and transverse emittance enlargements, as well as the possibility of beam breakup. Suggestions are given for further investigation. Comparison is made between the C-ADS and the Fermilab Project X.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2015

Chemical Free Surface Processing for High Gradient Superconducting RF Cavities

Chemical treatment such as buffered chemical polishing (BCP) or electro polishing (EP) followed by high pressure rinsing (HPR) of niobium (Nb) superconducting RF (SRF) cavities is expensive and complex multistep process. Furthermore, the cavity RF surfaces after the treatment still have numerous bubbles and pits that result from welding. These quench-producing weld defects together with the particulate contamination, result in significant scatter of the multi-cell Nb SRF cavities performance characteristics. This scatter is the major problem in the current manufacturing of the Nb SRF cavities. When developed the chemical free surafce processing using IEB will benefit first J-lab's CEBAF and Fermilab's Project X. Also, light sources, require 1.3 - 1.5 GHz SRF structures. Furthermore, IEB will produce much broader impact because it can be implemented into manufacturing of many other types of RF devices including both superconducting as well as normal conducting RF cavities. This program will develop a new process that will enhance quality of the superconducing radio-frequency cavities and allow acceleration of charged particles to much higher energies. The process also will improve the cavity manufacturing and result in substantial cost reduction of superconducting radio-frequency high-energy particle accelerators. Niobium samples were successfully processed by a DC electron beam to a degree that is suitable for the interior surface of an SRF cavity. To accomplish this, a complete system was developed from the ground up. A vacuum chamber system was acquired and adapted to act as the vessel for performing the Nb processing experiments. An extremely robust high voltage power supply was developed and manufactured to provide the power necessary to drive the multi-kW DC electron gun. A high voltage isolation filament transformer was also designed and manufactured to provide the necessary current to drive the filament within the electron gun. Finally, a beam melt characterization DC electron gun was created. This gun was used to explore the parameter space of interest for processing Nb SRF cavities. The beam melt characterization tests concluded that multiple quick passes at moderate beam power provided the most ideal melt zone characteristics Nb surfaces. It was also found that excellent melt and polish results could be achieved at lower voltages than originally conceived, getting the great results at a beam voltage of 20kV versus the 50kV used in the initial Phase I testing at Jefferson Laboratory. Operating at 20kV will also greatly reduce the challenges of designing a compact DC electron gun for processing of complete Nb SRF cavities, which will be done in Phase III. This final report is divided in eight parts which cover the major investigation work and results which have been performed and achieved. The first part addresses the design, fabrication and testing of the vacuum chamber. In the second part, the DC power supply output circuit design is presented for providing an operating space of 50-60kV with currents from 20-160mA and short and open circuit fault modes are considered and resolved. The third section covers testing and commissioning of the high voltage step up transformer and 150kV isolation transformer. Section four covers the design, construction and performance for a 100kV high voltage bushing. Section number five treats the filament design and load testing. Section number six covers electron gun design and simulation of electron beam melting. Section seven presents the beam target design, assembly and testing and test gun with solenoid magnet, design, fabrication and testing. Finally, section eight demonstrates electron beam melting and polishing of Nb, Cu and SS samples.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

DOE OSTI2021

An 8 GeV Linac as the Booster Replacement in the Fermilab Power Upgrade

Increasing the Main Injector (MI) beam power above ~1.2 MW requires replacement of the 8 GeV Booster by a higher intensity alternative. In the Project X era, rapid-cycling synchrotron (RCS) and Linac solutions were considered for this purpose. In this paper, we consider the Linac version that produces 8 GeV H- beam for injection into the Recycler Ring(RR) or Main Injector (MI). The Linac takes ~1 GeV beam from the PIP-II Linac and accelerates it to ~2 GeV in a 650MHz SRF Linac, followed by a ~2-8 GeV pulsed Linac using 1300 MHz cryomodules. The Linac components incorporate recent improvements in SRF technology. The Linac configuration and beam dynamics requirements are presented. Injection options are discussed. Foil-based injection is the present standard but R&D toward implementing laser-assisted injection could enable a significant improvement. Research needed to implement the Booster replacement is described.

42 ENGINEERING↗

NASA NTRS1988

The JPL MSAT mobile laboratory and the pilot field experiments

A Mobile Laboratory/Propagation Measurement Van (PMV) was developed to support the field experiments of the Mobile Satellite Experiment (MSAT-X) Project. This van was designed to provide flexibility, self-sufficiency and data acquisition to allow for both measurement of equipment performance and the mobile environment. The design philosophy and implementation of the PMV are described. The Pilot Field Experiments and an overall description of the three experiments in which the PMV was used are described.

Berner, Jeff B.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Ka-band mobile and personal systems development at JPL

Expanding the commercial applications of space is one of the primary goals of NASA. Throughout the eighties NASA has pursued this objective by sponsoring and undertaking the development of system concepts, enabling high risk technologies, and actual proof of concept demonstration hardware. In the mobile and personal arena, or the so-called low data rate applications area, JPL is NASA's lead center. JPL's focus of activities has been the Mobile Satellite-Experiment (MSAT-X) project, which developed mobile communication technologies at L-band, and its present successors, which aim to expand the mobile arena by exploiting Ka-band.

Dessouky, K.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Thermal Protection System Design and Development for the X-38

The purpose of the X-38 program is to greatly reduce the costs and schedule for the development of Crew Return Vehicles (CRV's) and Crew Transfer Vehicles (CTV's) through the use of the rapid development methodology associated with an X-project (Ground Testing, Atmospheric Testing and Space Flight Testing).

T John Kowal↗

NASA NTRS2000

X-38 TPS Seal Status

This presentation discuss the x-38 crew return vehicle. As an element of the International Space Station (ISS), there are potential problems that are discussed. These include ISS catastrophe, emergency medical evacuation, and period of Space Shuttle unavailability. The x-38 program purpose was also discussed. The Reduction of the costs and schedule for the development of Crew Return Vehicles (CRV's) and Crew Transfer Vehicles (CTV's) through the use of the rapid development methodology associated with an X-project were also presented. With specific attention to ground testing, atmospheric testing, and space flight testing.

Curry, Donald M.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Propulsion IVHM Extreme Environment Instrumentation Power IVHM

This paper presents propulsion and instrumentation power for integrated vehicle health management technologies. The topics include: 1) Propulsion IVHM Capabilities Research; 2) Projects: X-33 Post-Test Diagnostic System; 3) X-34 NITEX; 4) Advanced Health Monitoring Systems; 5) Active Vibration Monitoring System; 6) Smart Self Healing Propulsion Systems; 7) Extreme Environment Sensors; and 8) Systems Engineering and Integration.

Zakrajsek, June↗

NASA NTRS2004

Changes in Seasonal Cloud Cover over the Arctic Seas from Satellite and Surface Observations

Winter and spring changes in cloudiness are compared over the arctic seas (ocean areas north of 60 degrees N) from the TOVS (TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder) Polar Pathfinder retrievals and two separate datasets derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). All satellite products exhibit significant decreases in cloud fraction over the arctic seas during winter (December, January, February) on the order of 5 %/ decade. An equally striking increase in spring (March, April, May) cloudiness is evident from the TOVS Pathfinder (TPP) and the extended AVHRR Polar Pathfinder (APP-x) projects. In the Central Arctic these positive trends can be as large as 15 %/decade. Surface observations from the Russian drifting meteorological stations are consistent with satellite-observed changes during the 1980s. Negative trends in spring cloudiness reported by Comiso [2003] are in conflict with these findings. Spring changes in cloudiness are associated with changes in the atmospheric circulation. These dramatic, large-scale changes may have substantial impacts on the surface energy balance.

Schweiger, Axel J.↗

NASA NTRS2018

TCAS Alerts from Simulated Urban Air Mobility Flights Along FAA Helicopter Routes in Dallas-Fort Worth

This is a presentation of the current state of a TCAS study being conducted by the ATM-X project. This study examines the rate at which an urban air mobility vehicle flying along existing helicopter routes near DFW will trigger alerts on the TCAS II systems equipped on commercial airliners flying in the D10 TRACON of DFW airspace. The presentation will cover initial results, as well as next steps on the path towards producing a full paper. These initial results show that some aircraft could fly along published helicopter routes, while obeying published restrictions, and fly into and out of DFW airport without triggering any TCAS RAs, so long as the airport is operating in South Flow and the UAM vehicles approach and depart; the airport in the same direction as commercial traffic. Attempting to take off opposite the direction of commercial traffic produces a large number of TCAS RAs. Future work will examine North Flow, check sensitivity to aircraft performance, and examine alternative routes.

helicopter routes↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The AIRNOISE-UAM Tool and its Application to ATM-X

The noise disruption caused by Urban Air Mobility (UAM) vehicles will be a major factor in public acceptance of UAM. The noise exposure caused by fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters is predicted using Aviation Environment and Design Tool (AEDT) software at the airport. The base noise is calculated by interpolation or extrapolation of Noise-Power-Distance (NPD) database in the AEDT. In this presentation, a new noise prediction tool "AIRNOISE-UAM" is developed with a new NPD database for eVTOL vehciles in collaboration with a RVLT team. The noise exposure results have been verified with those from AEDT. Lastly, we demonstrate two use cases of AIRNOISE-UAM to the ATM-X project. The first use case is to develop noise exposure maps for FAA UAM compliance planning. The sceond use case is to develop noise-aware flight route planning algorithm.

Urban Air Mobility↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Airspace Research and Development Portfolio Assessment of Urban Air Mobility using Knowledge Graph Data Science

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is spearheading an innovative digital engineering approach to integrate, communicate, and facilitate the research of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) operations. The UAM vision is one in which advanced technologies and new operational procedures enable practical and cost-effective air transport as an integrated mode of movement of people and goods throughout metropolitan areas. To safely support UAM operations at scale in the National Airspace System (NAS), NASA’s Air Traffic Management-Exploration (ATM-X) project has been conducting research that evolves the UAM air traffic management system towards a highly automated and operationally flexible system of the future. The complexity of UAM airspace evolution to accommodate the increasing tempo of UAM operations over time is managed through the UAM airspace research roadmap, which is a system engineering approach to the R&D of complex system-of-systems, where system’s interdependencies make it nearly impossible to define requirements for individual elements of the system in isolation. These interdependencies form a knowledge graph (node-link network) with a highly complex structure far beyond the human user’s ability to extract insights for project management’s research portfolio assessment. This study applies advanced data analytics in knowledge graph to the UAM knowledge graph to facilitate the portfolio assessment.

ATM↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Airspace Research and Development Portfolio Assessment of Urban Air Mobility using Knowledge Graph Data Science

ATM↗