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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 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1994

Power generation technology options for a Mars mission

The power requirements and resultant power system performances of an aggressive Mars mission are characterized. The power system technologies discussed will support both cargo and piloted space transport vehicles as well as a six-person crew on the Martian surface for 600 days. The mission uses materials transported by cargo vehicles and materials produced using in-situ planetary feed stock to establish a life-support cache and infrastructure for the follow-on piloted lander. Numerous power system technical options are sized to meet the mission power requirements using conventional and solar, nuclear, and wireless power transmission technologies for stationary, mobile surface, and space applications. Technology selections will depend on key criteria such as mass, volume, area, maturity, and application flexibility.

Bozek, John M.↗
NASA NTRS1992

NASP - A status report

The current status of the NASP program, a joint DoD-NASA effort in advancing the technologies needed for the X-30 research flight vehicle is described. The X-30 single stage to orbit (SSTO) vehicle utilizes an air-breathing primary propulsion system and takes off and lands horizontally on a conventional runaway. The technologies under development include high specific strength, high temperature capable materials and structures, ramjet/scramjet propulsion systems, hypersonic aerodynamics and computational fluid dynamics, and cryogenics. A concept for a follow-on NASP-derived operational vehicle and its potential use as a space transportation vehicle are also discussed.

Thomas, John P., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1975

A semibuoyant vehicle for general transportation missions

The concept of a small, semibuoyant, lifting-body airship with either a disposable or nondisposable buoyant fluid is discussed. Estimations of fuel consumption, payload capability, power requirements and productivity are made and compared to other flight systems. Comparisons are made on the basis of equal cost vehicles. The assumption is made that, to a first-order approximation, the costs of developing, procuring, and operating a commercial air transport vehicle are proportional to vehicle empty weight. It must be noted that no historical cost data exist for the lifting-body airship and therefore these comparisons must be considered preliminary.

Havill, C. D.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Cargo transfer vehicle - An element of the National Launch System

The paper describes the cargo transport vehicle (CTV), a rendezvous- and capture-capable on-orbit maneuvering stage of the NASA/DOD National Launch System (NLS) developed for off-loading the Space Shuttle for cargo delivery to the Space Station Freedom. Special attention is given to the background of the NLS CTV technology, a typical Space Station delivery mission profile, the design features of the payload accommodation system, and the forward propulsion module. The feasibility of the CTV functioning as an upper stage, in addition to acting as an on-orbit maneuvering system, is being presently considered.

Buchanan, Harry↗
NASA NTRS1993

Advanced transportation system study: Manned launch vehicle concepts for two way transportation system payloads to LEO. Program cost estimates document

This report describes Rockwell International's cost analysis results of manned launch vehicle concepts for two way transportation system payloads to low earth orbit during the basic and option 1 period of performance for contract NAS8-39207, advanced transportation system studies. Vehicles analyzed include the space shuttle, personnel launch system (PLS) with advanced launch system (ALS) and national launch system (NLS) boosters, foreign launch vehicles, NLS-2 derived launch vehicles, liquid rocket booster (LRB) derived launch vehicle, and cargo transfer and return vehicle (CTRV).

Duffy, James B.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Rover technology for manned Mars missions

A set of roving vehicle design requirements were postulated, corresponding to an idealized Mars transport vehicle operational scenario which could serve as a reference for a manned Mars mission. The ability of conventional vehicles to satisfy these requirements were examined. The study indicated that no conventional vehicle could satisfy all of the requirements, as the vehicles are presently configured. Consequently, the requirements have to either be relaxed and/or an alternative, less conventional vehicle design will have to be developed. A possible unconventional vehicle design which has received considerable attention for DARPA and the Army is the walker vehicle. The design issues associated with this vehicle are presented, along with a comparison of the performance capabilities of this technology vs. conventional vehicle technology.

Gail Klein↗
NASA NTRS1989

Transport systems research vehicle color display system operations manual

A recent upgrade of the Transport Systems Research Vehicle operated by the Advanced Transport Operating Systems Program Office at the NASA Langley Research Center has resulted in an all-glass panel in the research flight deck. Eight ARINC-D size CRT color displays make up the panel. A major goal of the display upgrade effort was ease of operation and maintenance of the hardware while maintaining versatility needed for flight research. Software is the key to this required versatility and will be the area demanding the most detailed technical design expertise. This document is is intended to serve as a single source of quick reference information needed for routine operation and system level maintenance. Detailed maintenance and modification of the display system will require specific design documentation and must be accomplished by individuals with specialized knowledge and experience.

Easley, Wesley C.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Lunar articulated remote transportation system

The students of the Florida A&M/Florida State University College of Engineering continued their design from 1988 to 1989 on a first generation lunar transportation vehicle for use on the surface of the Moon between the years 2010 and 2020. Attention is focused on specific design details on all components of the Lunar Articulated Remote Transportation System (Lunar ARTS). The Lunar ARTS will be a three-cart, six-wheeled articulated vehicle. Its purpose will be the transportation of astronauts and/or materials for excavation purposes at a short distance from the base (37.5 km). The power system includes fuel cells for both the primary system and the back-up system. The vehicle has the option of being operated in a manned or unmanned mode. The unmanned mode includes stereo imaging with signal processing for navigation. For manned missions the display console is a digital readout displayed on the inside of the astronaut's helmet. A microprocessor is also on board the vehicle. Other components of the vehicle include a double wishbone/flexible hemispherical wheel suspension; chassis; a steering system; motors; seat retraints; heat rejection systems; solar flare protection; dust protection; and meteoroid protection. A one-quarter scale dynamic model has been built to study the dynamic behavior of the vehicle. The dynamic model closely captures the mechanical and electrical details of the total design.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1987

Preliminary aerothermodynamic design method for hypersonic vehicles

Preliminary design methods are presented for vehicle aerothermodynamics. Predictions are made for Shuttle orbiter, a Mach 6 transport vehicle and a high-speed missile configuration. Rapid and accurate methods are discussed for obtaining aerodynamic coefficients and heat transfer rates for laminar and turbulent flows for vehicles at high angles of attack and hypersonic Mach numbers.

Harloff, G. J.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Power considerations for an early manned Mars mission utilizing the space station

Power requirements and candidate electrical power sources were examined for the supporting space infrastructure for an early (2004) manned Mars mission. This two-year mission (60-day stay time) assumed a single six crew piloted vehicle with a Mars lander for four of the crew. The transportation vehicle was assumed to be a hydrogen/oxygen propulsion design with or without large aerobrakes and assembled and checked out on the LEO Space Station. The long transit time necessitated artificial gravity of the crew by rotating the crew compartments. This rotation complicates power source selection. Candidate power sources were examined for the Lander, Mars Orbiter, supporting Space Station, co-orbiting Propellant Storage Depot, and alternatively, a co-orbiting Propellant Generation (water electrolysis) Depot. Candidates considered were photovoltaics with regenerative fuel cells or batteries, solar dynamics, isotope dynamics, and nuclear power.

Valgora, Martin E.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Assured Crew Return Capability Architecture

The fundamental elements of the spacecraft Assured Crew Return Capability (ACRC) are discussed. These elements are access, response time, crew transfer, and the availability of landing sites. The use of an embedded operations concept identified as an essential element of the ACRC architecture. Several rescue assets are identified and evaluated as primary elements of an overall ACRC architecture. The investigation results lead to the following conclusions: optimum on-orbit rescue capability is provided by a rescue system integral to the operational vehicle; ground based rescue provides the most practical coverage for stranded transportation vehicles; and due to infrequent and unexpected use of ACRC, crew operations must be kept simple.

J W Craig↗
NASA NTRS1989

Power considerations for an early manned Mars mission utilizing the Space Station

Power requirements and candidate electrical power sources were examined for the supporting space infrastructure for an early (2004) manned Mars mission. This two-year mission (60-day stay time) assumed a single six crew piloted vehicle with a Mars lander for four of the crew. The transportation vehicle was assumed to be a hydrogen/oxygen propulsion design with or without large aerobrakes and assembled and checked out on the LEO Space Station. The long transit time necessitated artificial gravity of the crew by rotating the crew compartments. This rotation complicates power source selection. Candidate power sources were examined for the Lander, Mars Orbiter, supporting Space Station, co-orbiting Propellant Storage Depot, and, alternatively, a co-orbiting Propellant Generation (water electrolysis) Depot. Candidates considered were photovoltaics with regenerative fuel cells or batteries, solar dynamics, isotope dynamics, and nuclear power.

Valgora, Martin E.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Changing the Cultural Paradigm to Meet Emerging Requirements

This viewgraph presentation reviews changes that are required in Space Transportation. This new transportation paradigm from the reliance on the Space Shuttle to a mixture of space transportation vehicles, i.e., the Russian Progress, vehicle, the Japanese HTV, the European ATV and other commercial orbital transportation systems, requires a new cultural paradigm. This new paradigm is outlined, and reviewed.

Robbins, William W.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Real-Time Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station High-Resolution Model Implementation and Verification

NASA's Launch Services Program, Ground Systems Development and Operations, Space Launch System and other programs at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) use the daily and weekly weather forecasts issued by the 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) as decision tools for their day-to-day and launch operations on the Eastern Range (ER). Examples include determining if they need to limit activities such as vehicle transport to the launch pad, protect people, structures or exposed launch vehicles given a threat of severe weather, or reschedule other critical operations. The 45 WS uses numerical weather prediction models as a guide for these weather forecasts, particularly the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) 1.67 km Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Considering the 45 WS forecasters' and Launch Weather Officers' (LWO) extensive use of the AFWA model, the 45 WS proposed a task at the September 2013 Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) Tasking Meeting requesting the AMU verify this model. Due to the lack of archived model data available from AFWA, verification is not yet possible. Instead, the AMU proposed to implement and verify the performance of an ER version of the high-resolution WRF Environmental Modeling System (EMS) model configured by the AMU (Watson 2013) in real time. Implementing a real-time version of the ER WRF-EMS would generate a larger database of model output than in the previous AMU task for determining model performance, and allows the AMU more control over and access to the model output archive. The tasking group agreed to this proposal; therefore the AMU implemented the WRF-EMS model on the second of two NASA AMU modeling clusters. The AMU also calculated verification statistics to determine model performance compared to observational data. Finally, the AMU made the model output available on the AMU Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System II (AWIPS II) servers, which allows the 45 WS and AMU staff to customize the model output display on the AMU and Range Weather Operations (RWO) AWIPS II client computers and conduct real-time subjective analyses.

Meteorology↗
NASA NTRS2015

Real-Time Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station High-Resolution Model Implementation and Verification

Customer: NASA's Launch Services Program (LSP), Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO), and Space Launch System (SLS) programs. NASA's LSP, GSDO, SLS and other programs at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) use the daily and weekly weather forecasts issued by the 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) as decision tools for their day-to-day and launch operations on the Eastern Range (ER). For example, to determine if they need to limit activities such as vehicle transport to the launch pad, protect people, structures or exposed launch vehicles given a threat of severe weather, or reschedule other critical operations. The 45 WS uses numerical weather prediction models as a guide for these weather forecasts, particularly the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) 1.67 kilometer Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Considering the 45 WS forecasters' and Launch Weather Officers' (LWO) extensive use of the AFWA model, the 45 WS proposed a task at the September 2013 Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) Tasking Meeting requesting the AMU verify this model. Due to the lack of archived model data available from AFWA, verification is not yet possible. Instead, the AMU proposed to implement and verify the performance of an ER version of the AMU high-resolution WRF Environmental Modeling System (EMS) model (Watson 2013) in real-time. The tasking group agreed to this proposal; therefore the AMU implemented the WRF-EMS model on the second of two NASA AMU modeling clusters. The model was set up with a triple-nested grid configuration over KSC/CCAFS based on previous AMU work (Watson 2013). The outer domain (D01) has 12-kilometer grid spacing, the middle domain (D02) has 4-kilometer grid spacing, and the inner domain (D03) has 1.33-kilometer grid spacing. The model runs a 12-hour forecast every hour, D01 and D02 domain outputs are available once an hour and D03 is every 15 minutes during the forecast period. The AMU assessed the WRF-EMS 1.33-kilometer domain model performance for the 2014 warm season (May-September). Verification statistics were computed using the Model Evaluation Tools, which compared the model forecasts to observations. The mean error values were close to 0 and the root mean square error values were less than 1.8 for mean sea-level pressure (millibars), temperature (degrees Kelvin), dewpoint temperature (degrees Kelvin), and wind speed (per millisecond), all very small differences between the forecast and observations considering the normal magnitudes of the parameters. The precipitation forecast verification results showed consistent under-forecasting of the precipitation object size. This could be an artifact of calculating the statistics for each hour rather than for the entire 12-hour period. The AMU will continue to generate verification statistics for the 1.33-kilometer WRF-EMS domain as data become available in future cool and warm seasons. More data will produce more robust statistics and reveal a more accurate assessment of model performance. Once the formal task was complete, the AMU conducted additional work to better understand the wind direction results. The results were stratified diurnally and by wind speed to determine what effects the stratifications would have on the model wind direction verification statistics. The results are summarized in the addendum at the end of this report. In addition to verifying the model's performance, the AMU also made the output available in the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System II (AWIPS II). This allows the 45 WS and AMU staff to customize the model output display on the AMU and Range Weather Operations AWIPS II client computers and conduct real-time subjective analyses. In the future, the AMU will implement an updated version of the WRF-EMS model that incorporates local data assimilation. This model will also run in real-time and be made available in AWIPS II.

Numerical Weather Prediction↗
NASA NTRS1990

Space transportation systems supporting a lunar base

Results are presented on preliminary design studies conducted by NASA and its contractors to define the transportation vehicle for the support of a human return to the moon mission. Attention is given to the transportation needs and requirements, the design solutions to meet these requirements, the rationale for the selection of the designs, and the ground/orbital support facilities for placing these systems into routine earth-moon transportation service. The reference system includes a partially reusable lunar transfer vehicle that operates between the earth and lunar orbits and a fully reusable lunar excursion vehicle that operates between the lunar orbit and the lunar surface. The system can deliver 27 metric tons of cargo to the lunar surface in an automated flight mode, and can transport a crew of four and deliver 15 tons of cargo in a piloted mode.

Priest, C. C.↗
NASA NTRS2006

AirSTAR: A UAV Platform for Flight Dynamics and Control System Testing

As part of the NASA Aviation Safety Program at Langley Research Center, a dynamically scaled unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and associated ground based control system are being developed to investigate dynamics modeling and control of large transport vehicles in upset conditions. The UAV is a 5.5% (seven foot wingspan), twin turbine, generic transport aircraft with a sophisticated instrumentation and telemetry package. A ground based, real-time control system is located inside an operations vehicle for the research pilot and associated support personnel. The telemetry system supports over 70 channels of data plus video for the downlink and 30 channels for the control uplink. Data rates are in excess of 200 Hz. Dynamic scaling of the UAV, which includes dimensional, weight, inertial, actuation, and control system scaling, is required so that the sub-scale vehicle will realistically simulate the flight characteristics of the full-scale aircraft. This testbed will be utilized to validate modeling methods, flight dynamics characteristics, and control system designs for large transport aircraft, with the end goal being the development of technologies to reduce the fatal accident rate due to loss-of-control.

Jordan, Thomas L.↗