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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 NTRS2012

Web-Based Customizable Viewer for Mars Network Overflight Opportunities

This software displays a full summary of information regarding the overflight opportunities between any set of lander and orbiter pairs that the user has access to view. The information display can be customized, allowing the user to choose which fields to view/hide and filter. The software works from a Web browser on any modern operating system. A full summary of information pertaining to an overflight is available, including the proposed, tentative, requested, planned, and implemented. This gives the user a chance to quickly check for inconsistencies and fix any problems. Overflights from multiple lander/ orbiter pairs can be compared instantly, and information can be filtered through the query and shown/hidden, giving the user a customizable view of the data. The information can be exported to a CSV (comma separated value) or XML (extensible markup language) file. The software only grants access to users who are authorized to view the information. This application is an addition to the MaROS Web suite. Prior to this addition, information pertaining to overflight opportunities would have a limited amount of data (displayed graphically) and could only be shown in strict temporal ordering. This new display shows more information, allows direct comparisons between overflights, and allows the data to be manipulated in ways that it was unable to be done in the past. The current software solution is to use CSV files to view the overflight opportunities.

Gladden, Roy E.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Venture Class Launch Services

Provide an introduction to the Launch Services Program, and specifically the strategic initiative that drove the Venture Class Launch Services contracts. Provide information from the VCLS request for proposals, as well as the Agency's CubeSat Launch Initiative.

cubesats↗
NASA NTRS2017

JANNAF "Test and Evaluation Guidelines for Liquid Rocket Engines": Status and Application

For many decades, the U.S. rocket propulsion industrial base has performed remarkably in developing complex liquid rocket engines that can propel critical payloads into service for the nation, as well as transport people and hardware for missions that open the frontiers of space exploration for humanity. This has been possible only at considerable expense given the lack of detailed guidance that captures the essence of successful practices and knowledge accumulated over five decades of liquid rocket engine development. In an effort to provide benchmarks and guidance for the next generation of rocket engineers, the Joint Army Navy NASA Air Force (JANNAF) Interagency Propulsion Committee published a liquid rocket engine (LRE) test and evaluation (T&E) guideline document in 2012 focusing on the development challenges and test verification considerations for liquid rocket engine systems. This document has been well received and applied by many current LRE developers as a benchmark and guidance tool, both for government-driven applications as well as for fully commercial ventures. The USAF Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) has taken an additional near-term step and is directing activity to adapt and augment the content from the JANNAF LRE T&E guideline into a standard for potential application to future USAF requests for proposals for LRE development initiatives and launch vehicles for national security missions. A draft of this standard was already sent out for review and comment, and is intended to be formally approved and released towards the end of 2017. The acceptance and use of the LRE T&E guideline is possible through broad government and industry participation in the JANNAF liquid propulsion committee and associated panels. The sponsoring JANNAF community is expanding upon this initial baseline version and delving into further critical development aspects of liquid rocket propulsion testing at the integrated stage level as well as engine component level, in order to advance the state of the practice. The full participation of the entire U.S. rocket propulsion industrial base is invited and expected at this opportune moment in the continuing advancement of spaceflight technology.

Parkinson, Douglas↗
NASA NTRS2017

Hardware Assessment in Support of the Dynamic Power Convertor Development Effort

Stirling Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) are being developed by NASA's RPS Program in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Efforts ranging from 2001 to 2015 enabled development of the Technology Demonstration Convertor (TDC) for use in the 110-watt Stirling Radioisotope Generator (SRG-110) and the Advanced Stirling Convertor (ASC) for use in the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG). The DOE selected Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (LMSSC) as the system integration contractor for both flight development efforts. The SRG-110 housed two TDCs fabricated by Infinia and resulted in the production of 16x demonstration units and 2x engineering units. The project was redirected in 2006 to make use of a more efficient and lower mass ASCs under development by Sunpower Inc. The DOE managed the flight contract with LMSSC and subcontractor Sunpower Inc. from 2007 to 2013 to build the ASRG, with support from NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC). Sunpower Inc. held two parallel contracts to produce ASCs, one with Lockheed Martin to produce ASC-F flight units and one with GRC for the production of ASC-E3 engineering unit pathfinders that were used to refine the flight design and production processes. The DOE initiated termination of the ASRG contract in late 2013. After ASRG had ended, GRC completed characterization testing of the ASRG Engineering Unit #2 (EU2) and the GRC contract with Sunpower was also completed. The NASA RPS Program Office has recently initiated a new Dynamic Power Conversion development effort which includes the potential maturation of Stirling, Brayton, and Rankine power convertors for the next generation of RPS. The effort started with the request for proposal and review of submits. Contracts are anticipated for release in 2017 and will initially focus on a design phase prior to fabrication and testing. This new effort will focus on robustness in addition to high efficiency, specific power, and reliability. Also, some requirements introduced during the ASRG contract have also been included in the new effort, such as constant lateral loading. Due to the focus on robustness and new requirements relative to the older TDC design, the Stirling Cycle Development Project has initiated an assessment of government owned hardware to help inform requirements evolution and evaluation of future designs. While lessons learned from the ASRG flight development project have been taken into consideration, the evaluation of the TDC design had not been completed for some existing environments or relatively new requirements. To further assess the TDC design, a series of tasks were initiated to evaluate degradation for units that have operated unattended for over 105,000 hours, demonstrate robustness to a random vibration environment, characterize and evaluate performance for varying lateral load profiles. The status for each task are described.

Wilson, Scott D.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Hardware Assessment in Support of the Dynamic Power Convertor Development Effort

Stirling Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) are being developed by NASAs RPS Program in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Efforts ranging from 2001 to 2015 enabled development of the Technology Demonstration Convertor (TDC) for use in the 110-watt Stirling Radioisotope Generator (SRG-110) and the Advanced Stirling Convertor (ASC) for use in the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG). The DOE selected Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (LMSSC) as the system integration contractor for both flight development efforts. The SRG-110 housed two TDCs fabricated by Infinia and resulted in the production of 16x demonstration units and 2x engineering units. The project was redirected in 2006 to make use of a more efficient and lower mass ASCs under development by Sunpower Inc. The DOE managed the flight contract with LMSSC and subcontractor Sunpower Inc. from 2007 to 2013 to build the ASRG, with support from NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC). Sunpower Inc. held two parallel contracts to produce ASCs, one with Lockheed Martin to produce ASC-F flight units and one with GRC for the production of ASC-E3 engineering unit pathfinders that were used to refine the flight design and production processes. The DOE initiated termination of the ASRG contract in late 2013. After ASRG had ended, GRC completed characterization testing of the ASRG Engineering Unit 2 (EU2) and the GRC contract with Sunpower was also completed. The NASA RPS Program Office has recently initiated a new Dynamic Power Conversion development effort which includes the potential maturation of Stirling, Brayton, and Rankine power convertors for the next generation of RPS. The effort started with the request for proposal and review of submits. Contracts are anticipated for release in 2017 and will initially focus on a design phase prior to fabrication and testing. This new effort will focus on robustness in addition to high efficiency, specific power, and reliability. Also, some requirements introduced during the ASRG contract have also been included in the new effort, such as constant lateral loading. Due to the focus on robustness and new requirements relative to the older TDC design, the Stirling Cycle Development Project has initiated an assessment of government owned hardware to help inform requirements evolution and evaluation of future designs. While lessons learned from the ASRG flight development project have been taken into consideration, the evaluation of the TDC design had not been completed for some existing environments or relatively new requirements. To further assess the TDC design, a series of tasks were initiated to evaluate degradation for units that have operated unattended for over 105,000 hours, demonstrate robustness to a random vibration environment, characterize and evaluate performance for varying lateral load profiles. The status for each task are described.

Wilson, Scott D.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Contracting Quality Early in the Lifecycle Using AS9145 Data Deliverables

Development schedules and a highly dynamic supply chain are a challenge to developers of complex systems produced at low volume. Flaws in designs, parts and materials availability problems, poor manufacturability, and a lack of knowledge about critical items and key process attributes can be realized well before traditional second-party quality assurance activities begin. Supplier audits and product inspections may have little mitigating effect once these foundational problems have been realized. Their impacts can be significant lifecycle disruption, cost overruns, inability to deliver to plan, and even project cancellation. AS9145, Requirements for Advanced Product Quality Planning and Production Part Approval Process, can be used to drive quality engineering practices into early development lifecycles to significantly reduce this late-cycle risk and to reduce the cost of quality overall. Since its initial publication in 2016, it has had very limited adoption by the DoD, no adoption by NASA, and sparse adoption in the aerospace and defense supply chain. A task group within the Aerospace Industries Association's (AIA) Joint Strategic Quality Council (JSQC) identified that both acquirers and suppliers see as AS9145 as a cost-adder and are hesitant to use it as an alternative to late-stage-heavy quality assurance approaches. A lack of prior use creates large capability gaps in request-for-proposal (RFP) teams, proposal teams, suppliers’ quality management systems (QMS), and in experienced personnel executing the early lifecycle approach. To create a more realizable on-ramp for using AS9145 in the space and defense sectors, the AIA JSQC task team created five deliverable requirements descriptions (DRDs) that can be used in a contract to begin to engage both parties in early lifecycle quality engineering and quality assurance activities, that reduce exposure to late-stage cost and schedule collapse due to unidentified risks in design, supply chain, and manufacturability. These DRDs drive the parties to engage in planning and analysis discussions early on to understand what production risks can be known and how they will focus resources based on safety criticality and the key elements of design and construction. The suppliers and acquirers who will produce the data and information required by the DRD will be able to incrementally evolve their QMS and the acquirer will incrementally be able to track and understand the benefits of cost shifting from late to early development phases. A white paper describing this approach and the five recommended DRDs will be published by the AIA in late 2024 or early 2025.

Jeannette Plante↗
DOE OSTI2020

Energy Management and Information Systems (EMIS) Specification and Procurement Support Materials

This annotated Request for Proposal (RFP) template includes an Energy Management and Information System (EMIS) technology specification, an ongoing services specification, RFP evaluation criteria, and more. It is designed to guide building professionals through the specification, procurement, and selection of an EMIS or related building performance monitoring and diagnostic technology.

building performance↗
DOE OSTI2021

ESPC ESA Training Series: Site-Specific/Stand-Alone Contract Vehicle

This webinar provides instructions and resources for financing distributed energy projects (e.g., on–site renewable energy, storage, and combined heat and power) using an energy savings performance contract (ESPC) energy sales agreement (ESA) through the site–specific/stand–alone contract vehicle. The site–specific/stand–alone contract vehicle is a procurement process using a request for proposal (RFP). Topics covered during the webinar include forming a strong project team, validating the feasibility of the distributed energy project at a site, acquisition planning, RFP development, procurement, proposal evaluation and contract award, and the construction and performance period. This webinar also provides an overview of the resources available in the ESPC ESA Toolkit, such as checklists and templates.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

01-06 DOME Construction Project

Construction Subcontract award to ESTECH - Aug 23 Partial Notice to Proceed for ESTECH mobilization - Sept 23 Final NTP for full construction activities - Oct 23. Quality Inspection Support awarded to ATLAS - Feb 24 Request for Proposal to award a Commissioning Agent subcontract issued - Apr 24 Construction activities projected completion - Jun 25

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Proposed New STELLA-2 Tests

In 2025, KAERI and Argonne initiated a collaboration based on software validation using data from tests performed at KAERI’s STELLA-2 facility. STELLA-2 is a large-scale sodium thermal-hydraulic test facility that was originally developed to support KAERI’s development of the PGSFR design concept. KAERI has performed a large number of tests at STELLA-2, providing valuable data to support sodium fast reactor code validation. KAERI will be conducting new tests in 2026, targeting system conditions that were not achieved during previous test campaigns. KAERI has requested from Argonne proposed tests that could be performed during the upcoming test campaign. This report documents Argonne’s proposed tests in fulfillment of KAERI’s request.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
NASA NTRS1973

Skylab Student Project: Summary Description

In 1971 the NASA conceived the Skylab student project in an effort to involve the general public in the Skylab program. The primary aim of this project was to stimulate national interest in science and technology. NASA decided to direct the Skylab student project to those young people who have indicated an interest in science and technology and to foster this interest through direct participation in an ongoing program emphasizing as wide a spectrum of science and technology as possible. Skylab, with the opportunity it gives to provide experiments in areas of science and technology provided the ideal opportunity for such participation. In implementing this project, the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), having an existing, closely associated contact with students, grades 9 through 12, in United States schools, was asked to sponsor, organize, and administer a national competition for high school students. This competition called for individual students (or groups of students) to develop meaningful experiments to be flown on Skylab. To facilitate the organization and administration of this program, the NSTA divided the participating students into their 12 geographical regions with a regional chairmen appointed to receive all proposals for his region. The regional chairmen then appointed a committee of eminent scientists, engineers, and science educators to evaluate each proposal. Some 80,000 applications were requested by teachers and 3409 proposals were submitted. Moreover, because of team proposals, over 4000 students participated and approximately 300 regional winners selected. Each participant received a certification of merit. The 300 winning regional proposals were transmitted to the NSTA headquarters where they were further screened. In March of 1972 twenty-five national winners and 22 special mentions were announced. The 25 winning students were then assigned science advisers at the George C. Marshall Space Flight center (MSFC), the center selected by NASA to be responsible for development of the student project. The Johnson Space Center (JSC) also provided science advisors and valuable support.

Floyd, Henry B.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Planetary Science Technology Infusion Study: Findings and Recommendations Status

The Planetary Science Division (PSD) within the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations (NASA) Science Mission Directorate (SMD) at NASA Headquarters sought to understand how to better realize a scientific return on spacecraft system technology investments currently being funded. In order to achieve this objective, a team at NASA Glenn Research Center was tasked with surveying the science and mission communities to collect their insight on technology infusion and additionally sought inputs from industry, universities, and other organizations involved with proposing for future PSD missions. This survey was undertaken by issuing a Request for Information (RFI) activity that requested input from the proposing community on present technology infusion efforts. The Technology Infusion Study was initiated in March 2013 with the release of the RFI request. The evaluation team compiled and assessed this input in order to provide PSD with recommendations on how to effectively infuse new spacecraft systems technologies that it develops into future competed missions enabling increased scientific discoveries, lower mission cost, or both. This team is comprised of personnel from the Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) Program and the In-Space Propulsion Technology (ISPT) Program staff.The RFI survey covered two aspects of technology infusion: 1) General Insight, including: their assessment of barriers to technology infusion as related to infusion approach; technology readiness; information and documentation products; communication; integration considerations; interaction with technology development areas; cost-capped mission areas; risk considerations; system level impacts and implementation; and mission pull. 2) Specific technologies from the most recent PSD Announcements of Opportunities (AOs): The Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG), aerocapture and aeroshell hardware technologies, the NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) ion propulsion system, and the Advanced Materials Bi-propellant Rocket (AMBR) engine.This report will present the teams Findings from the RFI inputs and the recommendations that arose from these findings. Methodologies on the findings and recommendations development are discussed.

technology infusion↗
DOE OSTI2020

Data call questions related to potential NEPA/Data gaps

Based on review of the related NEPA documents, and consideration of the potential gaps in NEPA coverage, a number of questions have been generated. These questions are generally higher level (less detailed) questions that should help to establish the applicability of analyses in existing NEPA documents and the ability of these documents to provide NEPA coverage for the Proposed Action. These questions do not request detailed information about SRS facilities/activities and the Proposed Action like typically would be requested when performing impacts analyses for an EIS. We do not believe detail information is needed; if it is needed, it may be an indication that an SA is not the appropriate level of NEPA documentation for the Proposed Action.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1986

An alternative multi-mode SAR for RADARSAT

The RADARSAT project was asked by the Canadian government in the spring of 1986 to design for reduced costs and increased radar performance as compared to the well-known baseline design. Both the Project Office and Canadian industry (lead by SPAR Aerospace of Montreal) have undertaken to meet this request, with a proposal to cabinet to be submitted in the fall of 1986. One alternative SAR concept is outlined which is under consideration for a revised RADARSAT configuration. The radar system described uses two frequencies (C&L band) over four possible modes: near range swath; far range swath; wide swath; and high resolution. Good sensitivity, resolution, and coverage are obtained with modest power and data rates. The antenna systems are relatively simple. Indeed, no break-through technological developments are needed. The design allows several mode combinations for simultaneous data collection or performance enhancement. The principal parameters are described. A nominal mean altitude of 700 km is assumed.

Raney, R. K.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Improving Operational Acceptability of Dynamic Weather Routes Through Analysis of Commonly Use Routings

The Dynamic Weather Routes (DWR) tool is a ground-based trajectory automation system that continuously and automatically analyzes active in-flight aircraft in en route airspace to find simple modifications to flight plan routes that can save significant flying time, while avoiding weather and considering traffic conflicts, airspace sector congestion, special use airspace, and FAA routing restrictions. Trials of the DWR system have shown that significant delay savings are possible. However, some DWR advised routes are also rejected by dispatchers or modified before being accepted. Similarly, of those sent by dispatchers to flight crews as proposed route change requests, many are not accepted by air traffic control, or are modified before implementation as Center route amendments. Such actions suggest that the operational acceptability of DWR advised route corrections could be improved, which may reduce workload and increase delay savings. This paper analyzes the historical usage of different flight routings, varying from simple waypoint pairs to lengthy strings of waypoints incorporating jet routes, in order to improve DWR route acceptability. An approach is developed that can be incorporated into DWR, advising routings with high historical usage and savings potential similar to that of the nominal DWR advisory. It is hypothesized that modifying a nominal DWR routing to one that is commonly used, and nearby, will result in more actual savings since common routings are generally familiar and operationally acceptable to air traffic control. The approach allows routing segments with high historical usage to be concatenated to form routes that meet all DWR constraints. The relevance of a route's historical usage to its acceptance by dispatchers and air traffic control is quantified by analyzing historical DWR data. Results indicate that while historical usage may be less of a concern to flight dispatchers accepting or rejecting DWR advised route corrections, it may be important to air traffic control acceptance of DWR routes.

dynamic weather routes↗
NASA NTRS2016

Improving Operational Acceptability of Dynamic Weather Routes (DWR) Through Analysis of Commonly Used Routings

The Dynamic Weather Routes (DWR) tool is a ground-based trajectory automation system that continuously and automatically analyzes active in-flight aircraft in en route airspace to find simple modifications to flight plan routes that can save significant flying time, while avoiding weather and considering traffic conflicts, airspace sector congestion, special use airspace, and FAA routing restrictions. Trials of the DWR system have shown that significant delay savings are possible. However, some DWR advised routes are also rejected by dispatchers or modified before being accepted. Similarly, of those sent by dispatchers to flight crews as proposed route change requests, many are not accepted by air traffic control, or are modified before implementation as Center route amendments. Such actions suggest that the operational acceptability of DWR advised route corrections could be improved, which may reduce workload and increase delay savings. This paper analyzes the historical usage of different flight routings, varying from simple waypoint pairs to lengthy strings of waypoints incorporating jet routes, in order to improve DWR route acceptability. An approach is developed that can be incorporated into DWR, advising routings with high historical usage and savings potential similar to that of the nominal DWR advisory. It is hypothesized that modifying a nominal DWR routing to one that is commonly used, and nearby, will result in more actual savings since common routings are generally familiar and operationally acceptable to air traffic control. The approach allows routing segments with high historical usage to be concatenated to form routes that meet all DWR constraints. The relevance of a routes historical usage to its acceptance by dispatchers and air traffic control is quantified by analyzing historical DWR data. Results indicate that while historical usage may be less of a concern to flight dispatchers accepting or rejecting DWR advised route corrections, it may be important to air traffic control acceptance of DWR routes.

Operational Acceptability↗
NASA NTRS2002

Science Planning for Multi-Spacecraft Coordinated Observations

Fulfilling the promise of an era of great observatories, NASA now has more than three space-based astronomical telescopes operating in different wavebands. This situation provides astronomers with a unique opportunity to simultaneously observe with multiple observatories. Yet scheduling multiple observatories simultaneously is highly inefficient when compared to single observatory observations. Thus, programs using multiple observatories are limited not due to scientific restrictions, but due to operational inefficiencies. Each year, a number of proposals are accepted by a space-based observatory for conduction of astronomical observations and gathering of science data for the study of galactic events. Since each space-based observatory uses a set of instruments designed to operate in specific energy regions, most such studies are conducted by submitting observation proposals to multiple observatories, with requests to coordinate among themselves. To assure that the proposed observations can be scheduled, each observatory's staff has to check that the observations are valid and meet all the constraints for their own observatory; in addition, they have to verify that the observations satisfy the constraints of the other observatories. Thus, coordinated observations require painstaking manual collaboration among the observatory staff at each observatory. In order to exploit new paradigms for observatory operation, the Goddard Space Flight Center's Advanced Architectures and Automation Branch has developed a prototype tool called the Visual Observation Layout Tool (VOLT). The main objective of VOLT is to provide a visual tool to automate the science planning of coordinated observations for multiple spacecraft, as well as to increase the scheduling probability of observations. However, VOLT is also useful for single observatory planning to optimize observatory control. Three space-based missions are interested in using VOLT (the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer). The VOLT team members have collaborated with these missions to gather requirements and obtain feedback on their mission planning processes. VOLT has been developed as a cross-platform Java client application for use by scientists and observatory science planning staff to visualize scheduling options and constraints. It also supports a lightweight graphical user interface for remote viewing via a Web front end. Additionally, it uniquely supports the ability to interact with multiple, diverse scheduling packages in order to determine windows of opportunity for observations and visually portray the constraints of each observation request. VOLT enables science data capture scenarios which are currently either impossible, or which require extensive time and manpower to coordinate amongst multiple observatories. it supports early detection of planning conflicts by generating coordinated solutions based on observatory schedulability and constraints. The project development approach has included frequent prototype demonstrations to our interested missions to obtain feedback after each release of the software. We will present an overview of our lessons learned in infusing the VOLT tool into the operations of the missions we have collaborated with and a brief demonstration of the software.

Maks, Lori↗
NASA NTRS1982

Thematic mapper flight model preshipment review data package. Volume 3, part A: System data

Results of vibration, acoustical noise, and thermal vacuum are described as well as tests studies of EMI/EMC and mass properties conducted for thematic mapper systems integration. Liens are summarized and the engineering change proposal status is presented. Requests for deviation/waiver are included along with failure and nonforming material reports.

Source record↗