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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 NTRS1982

Rail transit fare collection: Policy and technology assessment

The impact of fare policies and fare structure on the selection of equipment was investigated, fare collection systems are described, hardware and technology related problems are documented, and the requirements of a fare collection simulation model are outlined. Major findings include: (1) a wide variation in the fare collection systems and equipment, caused primarily by historical precedence; (2) the reliability of AFC equipment used at BART and WMATA discouraged other properties from considering use of similar equipment; (3) existing equipment may not meet the fare collection needs of properties in the near future; (4) the cost of fare collection operation and maintenance is high; and (5) the relatively small market in fare collection equipment discourages new product development by suppliers. Recommendations for fare collection R&D programs include development of new hardware to meet rail transit needs, study of impacts of alternate fare policies increased communication among policymakers, and consensus on fare policy issues.

Deshpande, G. K.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Conformal PICA TPS– Enabling Future Nasa Planetary Science Missions

Initial development of Conformal Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (C-PICA) ablative TPS occurred under NASA’s Hypersonics Project in the 2000’s and demonstrated very low through-the-thickness thermal conductivity compared to state-of-the-art Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA). PICA, which was first demonstrated on Stardust, has some inherent limitations that C-PICA improves on, primarily strain to failure. More recently C-PICA has been further matured and a family of C-PICA materials are now ready for consideration as an enabling technology for New Frontiers and other NASA missions. C-PICA has several improvements compared to PICA including: - Higher strain to failure and lower thermal conductivity (up to 55% less than PICA depending on C-PICA variant) - CTE comparable to typical composite carrier structures and also suitable for metallic substructures given high strain to failure - Temperature independent mechanical properties - Suited for single piece (up to ~ 1.5m) or tiled configurations - Larger tiles leading to reduced integration complexity compared to tiled PICA - Reduced mass compared to PICA due to reduced thermal conductivity C-PICA has been tested at heat fluxes ranging from 250-1850 W/cm^2, and shear pressures of 200Pa at 400W/cm^2 with excellent performance. Expertise on manufacturing and integration of C-PICA reside at NASA, and NASA can transition the technology to interested parties via technology transfer.

thermal protection↗
NASA NTRS2014

Transition Marshall Space Flight Center Wind Profiler Splicing Algorithm to Launch Services Program Upper Winds Tool

NASAs LSP customers and the future SLS program rely on observations of upper-level winds for steering, loads, and trajectory calculations for the launch vehicles flight. On the day of launch, the 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) Launch Weather Officers (LWOs) monitor the upper-level winds and provide forecasts to the launch team via the AMU-developed LSP Upper Winds tool for launches at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This tool displays wind speed and direction profiles from rawinsondes released during launch operations, the 45th Space Wing 915-MHz Doppler Radar Wind Profilers (DRWPs) and KSC 50-MHz DRWP, and output from numerical weather prediction models.The goal of this task was to splice the wind speed and direction profiles from the 45th Space Wing (45 SW) 915-MHz Doppler radar Wind Profilers (DRWPs) and KSC 50-MHz DRWP at altitudes where the wind profiles overlap to create a smooth profile. In the first version of the LSP Upper Winds tool, the top of the 915-MHz DRWP wind profile and the bottom of the 50-MHz DRWP were not spliced, sometimes creating a discontinuity in the profile. The Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Natural Environments Branch (NE) created algorithms to splice the wind profiles from the two sensors to generate an archive of vertically complete wind profiles for the SLS program. The AMU worked with MSFC NE personnel to implement these algorithms in the LSP Upper Winds tool to provide a continuous spliced wind profile.The AMU transitioned the MSFC NE algorithms to interpolate and fill data gaps in the data, implement a Gaussian weighting function to produce 50-m altitude intervals in each sensor, and splice the data together from both DRWPs. They did so by porting the MSFC NE code written with MATLAB software into Microsoft Excel Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). After testing the new algorithms in stand-alone VBA modules, the AMU replaced the existing VBA code in the LSP Upper Winds tool with the new algorithms. They then tested the code in the LSP Upper Winds tool with archived data. The tool will be delivered to the 45 WS after the 50-MHz DRWP upgrade is complete and the tool is tested with real-time data. The 50-MHz DRWP upgrade is expected to be finished in October 2014.

Space launch↗
NASA NTRS2011

Space: The Final Frontier of Bone Density

It is a medical requirement at NASA to evaluate the skeletal integrity of "long-duration" astronauts by measuring bone mineral density [BMD] with DXA technology. A long-duration mission is a spaceflight that is greater than 30 days but is typically the continuous 120-180 day missions aboard the International Space Station [ISS]. Not only does NASA use the BMD index to monitor fracture risk in this astronaut population, but these measures are also used to describe the effects of spaceflight, to certify skeletal health readiness for flight, to monitor the recovery of lost bone mass after return to earth, and to evaluate the efficacy of countermeasures to bone loss. However, despite the fact that DXA-based BMD is a widely-applied surrogate for bone strength that is grounded in an abundance of population-based fracture data, its applicability to the long-duration astronaut is limited. The cohort of long-duration astronauts is not the typical group for evaluating osteoporosis or determining age-related fracture risk. The cohort is young (< 55 years), predominantly male and exposed to novel risk factors for bone loss besides the weightlessness of space. NASA is concerned about early onset osteoporosis in the astronaut exposed to long-duration spaceflight, especially since any detectable symptoms are likely to manifest after return to earth and perhaps years after space travel. This risk raises the question: is NASA doing enough now to mitigate a fracture event that may manifest later? This presentation will discuss the limitations and constraints to understanding skeletal changes due to prolonged spaceflight and the recommendations, by clinical experts in osteoporosis and BMD, to transition research technologies for clinical decision-making by NASA.

Sibonga, Jean D.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Detection of Other Planetary Systems Using Photometry

Detection of extrasolar short-period planets, particularly if they are in the liquid-water zone, would be one of the most exciting discoveries of our lifetime. A well-planned space mission has the capability of making this discovery using the photometric method. An Earth-sized planet transiting a Sun-like star will cause a decrease in the apparent luminosity of the star by one part in 10,000 with a duration of about 12 hours and a period of about one year. Given a random orientation of orbital plane alignments with the line-of-sight to a star, and assuming our solar system to be typical, one would expect 1 percent of the stars monitored to exhibit planetary transits. A null result would also be significant and indicate that Earth-sized planets are rare. For the mission to be successful one needs a sensor system that can simultaneously monitor many thousands of stars with a photometric precision of one part in 30,000 per hour of integration. Confirmation of a detection will involve detection of a second transit that will yield a period and predict the time for a third and subsequent transits. The technology issues that need to be addressed are twofold: one is for an appropriate optical design; the other is for a detector system with the necessary photometric precision. Two candidates for the detector system are silicon diodes and CCD's.

Koch, D.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Beyond the Baseline: Proceedings of the Space Station Evolution Symposium: Space Station Freedom - Volume 1, Part 2

This report contains the individual presentations delivered at the Space Station Evolution Symposium in League City, Texas on February 6, 7, 8, 1990. Personnel responsible for Advanced Systems Studies and Advanced Development within the Space Station Freedom Program reported on the results of their work to date. Systems Studies presentations focused on identifying the baseline design provisions (hooks and scars) necessary to enable evolution of the facility to support changing space policy and anticipated user needs. Also emphasized were evolution configuration and operations concepts including on-orbit processing of space transfer vehicles. Advanced Development task managers discussed transitioning advanced technologies to the baseline program, including those near-term technologies which will enhance the safety and productivity of the crew and the reliability of station systems. Special emphasis was placed on applying advanced automation technology to ground and flight systems.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2004

Reducing the Time and Cost of Testing Engines

Producing a new aircraft engine currently costs approximately $1 billion, with 3 years of development time for a commercial engine and 10 years for a military engine. The high development time and cost make it extremely difficult to transition advanced technologies for cleaner, quieter, and more efficient new engines. To reduce this time and cost, NASA created a vision for the future where designers would use high-fidelity computer simulations early in the design process in order to resolve critical design issues before building the expensive engine hardware. To accomplish this vision, NASA's Glenn Research Center initiated a collaborative effort with the aerospace industry and academia to develop its Numerical Propulsion System Simulation (NPSS), an advanced engineering environment for the analysis and design of aerospace propulsion systems and components. Partners estimate that using NPSS has the potential to dramatically reduce the time, effort, and expense necessary to design and test jet engines by generating sophisticated computer simulations of an aerospace object or system. These simulations will permit an engineer to test various design options without having to conduct costly and time-consuming real-life tests. By accelerating and streamlining the engine system design analysis and test phases, NPSS facilitates bringing the final product to market faster. NASA's NPSS Version (V)1.X effort was a task within the Agency s Computational Aerospace Sciences project of the High Performance Computing and Communication program, which had a mission to accelerate the availability of high-performance computing hardware and software to the U.S. aerospace community for its use in design processes. The technology brings value back to NASA by improving methods of analyzing and testing space transportation components.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2007

Theoretical Noise Analysis on a Position-sensitive Metallic Magnetic Calorimeter

We report on the theoretical noise analysis for a position-sensitive Metallic Magnetic Calorimeter (MMC), consisting of MMC read-out at both ends of a large X-ray absorber. Such devices are under consideration as alternatives to other cryogenic technologies for future X-ray astronomy missions. We use a finite-element model (FEM) to numerically calculate the signal and noise response at the detector outputs and investigate the correlations between the noise measured at each MMC coupled by the absorber. We then calculate, using the optimal filter concept, the theoretical energy and position resolution across the detector and discuss the trade-offs involved in optimizing the detector design for energy resolution, position resolution and count rate. The results show, theoretically, the position-sensitive MMC concept offers impressive spectral and spatial resolving capabilities compared to pixel arrays and similar position-sensitive cryogenic technologies using Transition Edge Sensor (TES) read-out.

Smith, Stephen J.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Fighting Testing ACAT/FRRP: Automatic Collision Avoidance Technology/Fighter Risk Reduction Project

This slide presentation reviews the work of the Flight testing Automatic Collision Avoidance Technology/Fighter Risk Reduction Project (ACAT/FRRP). The goal of this project is to develop common modular architecture for all aircraft, and to enable the transition of technology from research to production as soon as possible to begin to reduce the rate of mishaps. The automated Ground Collision Avoidance System (GCAS) system is designed to prevent collision with the ground, by avionics that project the future trajectory over digital terrain, and request an evasion maneuver at the last instance. The flight controls are capable of automatically performing a recovery. The collision avoidance is described in the presentation. Also included in the presentation is a description of the flight test.

Skoog, Mark A.↗
NASA NTRS2009

SMART Rotor Development and Wind-Tunnel Test

Boeing and a team from Air Force, NASA, Army, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California at Los Angeles, and University of Maryland have successfully completed a wind-tunnel test of the smart material actuated rotor technology (SMART) rotor in the 40- by 80-foot wind-tunnel of the National Full-Scale Aerodynamic Complex at NASA Ames Research Center, figure 1. The SMART rotor is a full-scale, five-bladed bearingless MD 900 helicopter rotor modified with a piezoelectric-actuated trailing-edge flap on each blade. The development effort included design, fabrication, and component testing of the rotor blades, the trailing-edge flaps, the piezoelectric actuators, the switching power amplifiers, the actuator control system, and the data/power system. Development of the smart rotor culminated in a whirl-tower hover test which demonstrated the functionality, robustness, and required authority of the active flap system. The eleven-week wind tunnel test program evaluated the forward flight characteristics of the active-flap rotor, gathered data to validate state-of-the-art codes for rotor noise analysis, and quantified the effects of open- and closed-loop active-flap control on rotor loads, noise, and performance. The test demonstrated on-blade smart material control of flaps on a full-scale rotor for the first time in a wind tunnel. The effectiveness and the reliability of the flap actuation system were successfully demonstrated in more than 60 hours of wind-tunnel testing. The data acquired and lessons learned will be instrumental in maturing this technology and transitioning it into production. The development effort, test hardware, wind-tunnel test program, and test results will be presented in the full paper.

Lau, Benton H.↗
NASA NTRS2014

NASA Unmanned Aircraft (UA) Control and Non-Payload Communication (CNPC) System Waveform Trade Studies

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) represent a new capability that will provide a variety of services in the government (public) and commercial (civil) aviation sectors. The growth of this potential industry has not yet been realized due to the lack of a common understanding of what is required to safely operate UAS in the National Airspace System (NAS). To address this deficiency, NASA has established a project called UAS Integration in the NAS (UAS in the NAS), under the Integrated Systems Research Program (ISRP) of the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD). This project provides an opportunity to transition concepts, technology, algorithms, and knowledge to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other stakeholders to help them define the requirements, regulations, and issues for routine UAS access to the NAS. The safe, routine, and efficient integration of UAS into the NAS requires new radio frequency (RF) spectrum allocations and a new data communications system which is both secure and scalable with increasing UAS traffic without adversely impacting the Air Traffic Control (ATC) communication system. These data communications, referred to as Control and Non-Payload Communications (CNPC), whose purpose is to exchange information between the unmanned aircraft and the ground control station to ensure safe, reliable, and effective unmanned aircraft flight operation. A Communications Subproject within the UAS in the NAS Project has been established to address issues related to CNPC development, certification and fielding. The focus of the Communications Subproject is on validating and allocating new RF spectrum and data link communications to enable civil UAS integration into the NAS. The goal is to validate secure, robust data links within the allocated frequency spectrum for UAS. A vision, architectural concepts, and seed requirements for the future commercial UAS CNPC system have been developed by RTCA Special Committee 203 (SC-203) in the process of determining formal recommendations to the FAA in its role provided for under the Federal Advisory Committee Act. NASA intends to conduct its research and development in keeping with this vision and associated architectural concepts. The prototype communication systems developed and tested by NASA will be used to validate and update the initial SC-203 requirements in order to provide a foundation for SC-203's Minimum Aviation System Performance Standards (MASPS).

Aircraft Communications↗
NASA NTRS2016

Hybrid Electric Propulsion Technologies for Commercial Transports

NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate has set strategic research thrusts to address the major drivers of aviation such as growth in demand for high-speed mobility, addressing global climate and capitalizing in the convergence of technological advances. Transitioning aviation to low carbon propulsion is one of the key strategic research thrust and drives the search for alternative and greener propulsion system for advanced aircraft configurations. This work requires multidisciplinary skills coming from multiple entities. The Hybrid Gas-Electric Subproject in the Advanced Air Transportation Project is energizing the transport class landscape by accepting the technical challenge of identifying and validating a transport class aircraft with net benefit from hybrid propulsion. This highly integrated aircraft of the future will only happen if airframe expertise from NASA Langley, modeling and simulation expertise from NASA Ames, propulsion expertise from NASA Glenn, and the flight research capabilities from NASA Armstrong are brought together to leverage the rich capabilities of U.S. Industry and Academia.

electric motor vehicles↗
NASA NTRS2020

Quantum Speedup for Aeroscience and Engineering

Algorithms and hardware for quantum computing (QC) are reaching a critical stage in their development and have the potential to generate a paradigm shift in computing capability across a range of fields. Opportunities are growing for genuine impact of these systems over a timescale of 10-15 years, and there has been significant investment both from government agencies and private industry in its development. However, utilization of quantum phenomena is extraordinarily challenging due to its delicate nature and difficulties in measurement and control. A clear path exists toward demonstrating the advantages of QC over existing high-performance computing for some physics and materials science problems but addressing practical computational challenges in other fields, though promising, is at an early stage of development. Reaching the next level of development will require strategic coordination between physicists, computer & information scientists, mathematicians, and engineers, in order to transition this technology from the laboratory to robust and scalable computations for practical problems, especially those of interest to the aeroscience and engineering community. This community has been relying on high-performance computing heavily and will surely want to be informed of the developments in QC. This survey introduces the background and current state of the art in QC, as well as its perceived opportunities and challenges.

Peyman Givi↗
NASA NTRS1991

From biological neural networks to thinking machines: Transitioning biological organizational principles to computer technology

The three-dimensional organization of the vestibular macula is under study by computer assisted reconstruction and simulation methods as a model for more complex neural systems. One goal of this research is to transition knowledge of biological neural network architecture and functioning to computer technology, to contribute to the development of thinking computers. Maculas are organized as weighted neural networks for parallel distributed processing of information. The network is characterized by non-linearity of its terminal/receptive fields. Wiring appears to develop through constrained randomness. A further property is the presence of two main circuits, highly channeled and distributed modifying, that are connected through feedforward-feedback collaterals and biasing subcircuit. Computer simulations demonstrate that differences in geometry of the feedback (afferent) collaterals affects the timing and the magnitude of voltage changes delivered to the spike initiation zone. Feedforward (efferent) collaterals act as voltage followers and likely inhibit neurons of the distributed modifying circuit. These results illustrate the importance of feedforward-feedback loops, of timing, and of inhibition in refining neural network output. They also suggest that it is the distributed modifying network that is most involved in adaptation, memory, and learning. Tests of macular adaptation, through hyper- and microgravitational studies, support this hypothesis since synapses in the distributed modifying circuit, but not the channeled circuit, are altered. Transitioning knowledge of biological systems to computer technology, however, remains problematical.

Ross, Muriel D.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Circular Economy for Photovoltaics in Service of Energy Transition

The challenge of energy transition is immediate and immense; current projections target 75 TW of photovoltaics (PV) capacity by 2050. While any transition to renewable energy technology is preferable to the current fossil-based system, it is ideal to improve the sustainability of PV to minimize negative environmental and social impacts. Circular economy (CE) has been proposed as a method to improve the sustainability of PV, especially for emerging materials like perovskites. CE is a set of actions, principles, and systems which aim to design out waste and keep products and materials in use, to reduce environmental impacts and enable sustainable development. At the most basic level, CE is "reduce, reuse, recycle", the R-actions, in ranked order. CE of a PV technology can be metricized in a variety of ways, such as the Material Circularity Indicator (Smith and Jones, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2019) or recycling rates. Unfortunately, standard CE metrics have several shortcomings for measuring renewable energy technologies in the context of deployment for energy transition (Figge 2018, Saidani 2019): 1) Only measure mass flows; 2) De-prioritization of the use phase in favor of mass circularity when scoring; and 3) Tight focus on a single product scale The use phase and energy flows of PV are key to energy transition, and therefore need to be quantified. Additionally, correlating product-scale to system-scale is necessary for quantifying the environmental impacts of energy transition. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can address some of these concerns, but also focuses on a single product scale and has trouble capturing the dynamics of system-scale energy transition, such as the interaction of module lifetime with manufacturing demands for energy transition deployment schedules. Therefore, we developed an open-source Python-based system dynamics model to quantify the mass, energy and carbon impacts of CE R-actions for PV technologies in the energy transition; PV in the CE (PV ICE) (Ovaitt & Mirletz 2021). The tool captures supply chains from material extraction through end of life, incorporating 5 circular end of life pathways. PV ICE takes in any evolving bill of materials, module properties and deployment schedule to support researchers and decision makers with data-backed insights. In this work, we quantify and compare proposed CE sustainable PV module designs and lifecycle management strategies, spanning currently commercialized technologies, government and industry technology targets, and several low Technology Readiness Level (TRL) emerging PV technologies, including perovskites. Our analyses capture the projected evolutions of lifetime, efficiency and material circularity of these PV technologies, as well as their material supply chains. Our analyses emphasize the importance of examining a suite of metrics to identify priorities and tradeoffs, and inform design or lifecycle management decisions holistically. Previous analyses have demonstrated the central importance of PV module lifetime to support energy transition while minimizing impacts. High levels of material circularity (>90%) enable minimizing lifecycle wastes, can reduce virgin material demands if paired with improving efficiency, but demonstrate tradeoffs in energy return on investment. In the fervor of new material and technology development, it is important to remember that CE is not the end goal; decarbonization and energy transition are the end goal. CE should be used in service to improve the sustainability of PV, and R-actions evaluated for their usefulness and efficacy to this end.

carbon↗
NASA NTRS1994

Theoretical and Experimental Study of Microstrip-to-Slot Line Uniplanar Transition

Recent advances in MMCI technology make it possible to construct transitions from CPW-to-microstrip with via hole, microstrip-to-slot line and microshield line-to-CPW all of which have potential applications in the feed network of antennas. In this study we investigate the characteristics of the microstrip-to-slot line uniplanar transition using the finite element methods (FEM) and finite difference time domain (FDTD) techniques, and compared the theoretical results with the measurements. In both cases, the results agree with the measurements within a few percent.

Yook, Jong-Gwan↗
NASA NTRS2014

Recent Development Activities and Future Mission Applications of NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT)

NASAs Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) project is developing next generation ion propulsion technologies to enhance the performance and lower the costs of future NASA space science missions. This is being accomplished by producing Engineering Model (EM) and Prototype Model (PM) components, validating these via qualification-level and integrated system testing, and preparing the transition of NEXT technologies to flight system development. This presentation is a follow-up to the NEXT project overviews presented in 2009-2010. It reviews the status of the NEXT project, presents the current system performance characteristics, and describes planned activities in continuing the transition of NEXT technology to a first flight. In 2013 a voluntary decision was made to terminate the long duration test of the NEXT thruster, given the thruster design has exceeded all expectations by accumulating over 50,000 hours of operation to demonstrate around 900 kg of xenon throughput. Besides its promise for upcoming NASA science missions, NEXT has excellent potential for future commercial and international spacecraft applications.

Electric propulsion↗
NASA NTRS2015

Identifying Key Issues and Potential Solutions for Integrated Arrival, Departure, Surface Operations by Surveying Stakeholder Preferences

NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) collaborates with the FAA and industry to provide concepts and technologies that enhance the transition to the next-generation air-traffic management system (NextGen). To facilitate this collaboration, ARMD has a series of Airspace Technology Demonstration (ATD) sub-projects that develop, demonstrate, and transitions NASA technologies and concepts for implementation in the National Airspace System (NAS). The second of these sub-projects, ATD-2, is focused on the potential benefits to NAS stakeholders of integrated arrival, departure, surface (IADS) operations. To determine the project objectives and assess the benefits of a potential solution, NASA surveyed NAS stakeholders to understand the existing issues in arrival, departure, and surface operations, and the perceived benefits of better integrating these operations. NASA surveyed a broad cross-section of stakeholders representing the airlines, airports, air-navigation service providers, and industry providers of NAS tools. The survey indicated that improving the predictability of flight times (schedules) could improve efficiency in arrival, departure, and surface operations. Stakeholders also mentioned the need for better strategic and tactical information on traffic constraints as well as better information sharing and a coupled collaborative planning process that allows stakeholders to coordinate IADS operations. To assess the impact of a potential solution, NASA sketched an initial departure scheduling concept and assessed its viability by surveying a select group of stakeholders for a second time. The objective of the departure scheduler was to enable flights to move continuously from gate to cruise with minimal interruption in a busy metroplex airspace environment using strategic and tactical scheduling enhanced by collaborative planning between airlines and service providers. The stakeholders agreed that this departure concept could improve schedule predictability and suggested several key attributes that were necessary to make the concept successful. The goals and objectives of the planned ATD-2 sub-project will incorporate the results of this stakeholder feedback.

integrated arrival/departure/surface operations↗