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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Robotic and Crewed Mars Missions Increasing the Demand for Planetary Protection Technology Needs

Planetary protection (PP) policy seeks to avoid harmful contamination by limiting biological and relevant organic contamination from spacecraft as well as preventing adverse changes to Earth’s biosphere when extraterrestrial samples are brought back to Earth. The PP policy at NASA was updated in 2021 (NPR 8715.24) and 2022 (NASA-STD-8719.27) to enable missions by expanding the decades old prescriptive requirements to allow for an option of adopting performance-based requirements that are objectives-driven, risk-informed and case-assured. In parallel, the final PP knowledge gap workshop was completed representing the international consensus on the key areas to be considered in developing crew PP policy. These knowledge gaps focused on key technology development areas in 1) microbial and human health monitoring, 2) technical and operations needed for contamination control and 3) natural transport of contamination on Mars. As robotic missions start to implement performance-based approaches and research and technology efforts commence to inform crew policy the demand for data quality driven verification and validation in relevant space environments. Examples of the types of testing that is envisioned includes test as you fly validation and verification of decontamination systems in a relevant on-orbit and Mars environment, developing lethality curves of terrestrial organisms to further our understanding of the biocidal impacts of Mars and the space environment, and particle transport model validation and verification. Thus, the PP discipline has identified the need for ground-based space environments to perform preliminary testing as validation and verification of flight systems and to advance the technology readiness level prior to further testing on-orbit or lunar environments to prepare for Mars.

J Nick Benardini↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Dust Solution Testing Initiative (DuSTI): Infusing Commercial Off the Shelf Dust Mitigation Technologies with NASA Practices

Dust is one of the most significant hazards to human lunar exploration. However, since the Apollo program concluded, limited research has been performed on lunar dust mitigation technologies. The safety of the crew members and sustainability of habitats, science, and supporting hardware depend on effective dust mitigation techniques and technologies. As NASA pursues a new generation of lunar missions with the Artemis program, the project team will pursue dust mitigation solutions with the Dust Solution Testing Initiative (DuSTI). DuSTI is a lunar dust mitigation effort that involves performing tests on commercial off the shelf (COTS) technologies over FY21. DuSTI will preform component and subsystem tests in dusty environments for up to five technologies with high potential. The specific technologies identified for study were selected based on several factors, including a market analysis of current terrestrial dust mitigation applications, availability of the technology, accessibility of various testing facilities, and cost of procurement. These technologies support the active and passive dust mitigation requirements of filtration systems, electro-mechanical systems, electro-static systems, surface coatings, textiles, and silicone polymers. Technology Readiness Level (TRL) will be increased by validating components in relevant environments. For example, if the COTS technology is at a TRL 9 for terrestrial use but at a 4-5 TRL for use in the lunar environment, we will test that technology in a lunar dust environment to increase the TRL for use on the Moon.

lunar dust↗
NASA NTRS1994

Early differentiation of the Moon: Experimental and modeling studies and experimental and modeling studies of massif anorthosites

NASA grant NAG9-329 was in effect from 3/1/89 to 8/31/94, the last 18 months being a no-cost extension. While the grant was in effect, the P.I., coworkers, and students gave 22 talks and poster sessions at professional meetings, published 12 articles in referred journals (one more is in press, and another is in review), and edited 2 workshop reports relevant to this project. Copies of all the publications are appended to this report. The major accomplishments during the grant period have derived from three quarters: 1) the application of quantitative models of fractional crystallization and partial melting to various problems in planetary science, such as the petrogenesis of picritic glasses and mare basalts and the implications of the SNC meteorites for martian evolution; 2) an experimental study of silicate liquid immiscibility relevant to early lunar differentiation and the petrogenesis of evolved highlands rocks; and 3) experimental studies of massif anorthosites and related rocks that provide terrestrial analogs for the proposed origin of lunar anorthosites by multistage processes. The low-pressure aspects of the quantitative models were developed by the P.I. in the 1980s with NASA support and culminated with a paper comparing the crystallization of terrestrial and lunar lavas. The basis for the high-pressure modifications to the quantitative models is a data set gleaned from high pressure melting experiments done at Lamont and is supplemented by published data from other labs that constrain the baric and compositional dependences of various liquidus phase boundaries such as olivine/orthopyroxene, relevant to the melting of the mantles of the terrestrial planets. With these models it is possible to predict not only the thermal and compositional evolution of magmatic liquids ranging in composition from lumar mare basalt to terrestrial calc-alkaline basalts, but also the small increments of fractional melting that are produced when mantle rises adiabatically. Copies of the crystallization/melting programs have been given to several colleagues in planetary science. Additionally, a series of computer graphics programs, based on the algorithms in the crystallization programs have been developed that display liquidus diagrams appropriate to input compositions.

Longhi, John↗
NASA NTRS1998

Rover and Telerobotics Technology Program

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL's) Rover and Telerobotics Technology Program, sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), responds to opportunities presented by NASA space missions and systems, and seeds commerical applications of the emerging robotics technology. The scope of the JPL Rover and Telerobotics Technology Program comprises three major segments of activity: NASA robotic systems for planetary exploration, robotic technology and terrestrial spin-offs, and technology for non-NASA sponsors. Significant technical achievements have been reached in each of these areas, including complete telerobotic system prototypes that have built and tested in realistic scenarios relevant to prospective users. In addition, the program has conducted complementary basic research and created innovative technology and terrestrial applications, as well as enabled a variety of commercial spin-offs.

Weisbin, Charles R.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Interpreting the production of 26Al in Antarctic meteorites

Large numbers of meteorites have been concentrated at several locations in Antarctica. Glaciological mechanisms of grossly different time scales have been proposed to account for their transport by the ice, and the frequency distribution of the terrestrial ages of these objects has been suggested as a means of determining the relevant time scales. The upper limit to the ages of ice in Antarctica which would emerge from such a project is of interest to many other disciplines. After a meteorite reaches the Earth's surface, the specific radioactivity of Al-26 produced by cosmic rays while it was in space decreases because shielding by the Earth's atmosphere reduces further production to a neglible level. Thus, the known half life of this species can be used to determine the object's terrestrial age if the specific radioactivity at time of fall can be determined with reasonable accuracy and precision. The several models utilized for these predictions were based on the limited data available nearly two decades ago. The much larger data base now available was examined using multiple parameter regression analyses.

Heydegger, H. R.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Electromagnetic signals of inelastic dark matter scattering

Light dark sectors in thermal contact with the Standard Model can naturally produce the observed relic dark matter abundance and are the targets of a broad experimental search program. A key light dark sector model is the pseudo-Dirac fermion with a dark photon mediator. The dynamics of the fermionic excited states are often neglected. We consider scenarios in which a nontrivial abundance of excited states is produced and their subsequent de-excitation yields interesting electromagnetic signals in direct detection experiments. We study three mechanisms of populating the excited state: a primordial excited fraction, a component up-scattered in the Sun, and a component up-scattered in the Earth. We find that the fractional abundance of primordial excited states is generically depleted to exponentially small fractions in the early universe. Nonetheless, this abundance can produce observable signals in current dark matter searches. MeV-scale dark matter with thermal cross sections and higher can be probed by down-scattering following excitation in the Sun. Up-scatters of GeV-scale dark matter in the Earth can give rise to signals in current and upcoming terrestrial experiments and X-ray observations. We comment on the possible relevance of these scenarios to the recent excess in XENON1T.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRS1982

Glass processing in a microgravity environment

The basic techniques used in the processing of glasses and crystalline ceramics under terrestrial conditions are briefly reviewed, and the features of the space environment relevant to the processing of glasses are examined. These include reduced gravitational forces, a vacuum of essentially unlimited pumping capacity, unique radiation conditions, and the unlimited dimensions of space. Of these factors, particular attention is given to reduced gravitational forces, and the advantages of containerless processing are discussed. Finally, current programs concerned with glass processing in space are reviewed along with additional areas which merit investigation.

Uhlmann, D. R.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Understanding Sea Level Changes

Today more than 100 million people worldwide live on coastlines within one meter of mean sea level; any short-term or long-term sea level change relative to vertical ground motion is of great societal and economic concern. As palm-environment and historical data have clearly indicated the existence and prevalence of such changes in the past, new scientific information regarding to the nature and causes and a prediction capability are of utmost importance for the future. The 10-20 cm global sea-level rise recorded over the last century has been broadly attributed to two effects: (1) the steric effect (thermal expansion and salinity-density compensation of sea water) following global climate; (2) mass-budget changes due to a number of competing geophysical and hydrological processes in the Earth-atmosphere-hydrosphere-cryosphere system, including water exchange from polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers to the ocean, atmospheric water vapor and land hydrological variations, and anthropogenic effects such as water impoundment in artificial reservoirs and extraction of groundwater, all superimposed on the vertical motions of solid Earth due to tectonics, rebound of the mantle from past and present deglaciation, and other local ground motions. As remote-sensing tools, a number of space geodetic measurements of sea surface topography (e.g., TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason), ice mass (e.g., ICESat), time-variable gravity (e.g. GRACE), and ground motions (SLR, VLBI, GPS, InSAR, Laser altimetry, etc.) become directly relevant. Understanding sea level changes "anywhere, anytime" in a well-defined terrestrial reference frame in terms of climate change and interactions among ice masses, oceans, and the solid Earth, and being able to predict them, emerge as one of the scientific challenges in the Solid Earth Science Working Group (SESWG, 2003) conclusions.

Chao, Benjamin F.↗
NASA NTRS1988

The cratering record on Mercury and the origin of impacting objects

The cratering records of terrestrial planets are discussed with special consideration given to Mercury. The geologic units on Mercury most relevant to its cratering record are reviewed, and new observations are presented on the issues of equilibrium and saturation. The implications of the Mercurian cratering record for geologic processes are examined. Particular attention is given to the origin of objects responsible for the period of late heavy bombardment on terrestrial planets; it is suggested that the impactors were accretional remnants left over from the formation of the terrestrial planets and confined to the inner solar system. The cratering record in the outer solar system may have been produced largely by objects in planetocentric orbits.

Strom, Robert G.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Investigation of Tear Biomarkers as an Indicator of Human Health

Scientific literature suggests that tear biomarkers can be used as a guide towards clinical diagnosis of human health (Hagan et al., 2016). This study will investigate whether tear biomarkers represents a research and clinical opportunity to assess human health prior to, during, and after exposure to the spaceflight environment. The focus of this study is to compare biomarkers previously identified as potentially relevant to both ocular and brain health against unique physiological outcomes of exposure to the space flight environment. Study subjects suffering from terrestrial conditions thought to be similar to Spaceflight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS: formerly VIIP), e.g. patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) and optic neuritis may be relevant to conditions associated with spaceflight. This study will review methodologies, tear biomarkers related to state of ocular and brain health, the strengths and weakness of using tear fluid biomarkers versus other body fluid samples, and will survey current tear fluid biomarker knowledge in research and clinical practice. A strength of using tear biomarkers is that sampling is non-invasive and used as a guide in understanding pathologies, including ocular and systemic inflammatory conditions (Cocho et al., 2016)., Salvisberg et al., 2014). Moreover, tear biomarkers may reflect diseases affecting the central nervous system (CNS) (Salvisberg et al., 2014). For example, in multiple sclerosis (MS), the concordance rate between tear biomarkers versus cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is approximately 83%, indicating that, in the majority of cases, tears are at least as effective as CSF in potentially identifying novel MS biomarkers (Devos et al., 2001).

Morton, Stephen↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Seeing the Future of Spaceflight: Applications of Extended Reality (XR) Technologies

INTRODUCTION Advances in Earth Independent Medical Operations (EIMO) focused capabilities will be crucial for completing successful beyond low-earth-orbit (LEO) missions, where traditional Earth-based medical support and near real-time communication are limited, intermittent, or absent. In such restricted or limited communication environments, emerging extended reality (ER or XR) technologies may play a vital role in ensuring crew health and safety. Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR) are common terms used to describe technologies that "generate or modify" while “extended reality” (ER or XR) is often used as an umbrella term for these technologies. This review explores how such cutting-edge “extended reality” information delivery systems are currently applied across various disciplines within NASA. The review focuses on their capabilities, limitations, and prospective future applications as they pertain to Earth-Independent Medical Operations and its components of pre-mission planning, medical decision making, resource management, and task load management. METHODS/DESIGN The review began with a literature search to identify relevant disciplines (e.g., medical education, austere environments) where XR technologies have been studied to highlight areas where evidence is lacking. Previous and current NASA XR projects and applications, as well as commercial partnerships, such as those with Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), were identified. Discussions with technical experts involved in the design, development, and application of these technologies allowed for classification based on their respective spaceflight applications. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION This review highlights current and emerging XR technologies that have been developed, tested, and implemented both terrestrially and in spaceflight by NASA, its international partners, the U.S. Armed Forces, and various relevant commercial entities. While these novel information delivery systems vary in their respective technology readiness levels (TRL), they have the potential to be implemented on Earth, in LEO, and during deep space exploration. These systems have the potential for impacting and optimizing many aspects of EIMO.

Yevgeniy Zhivotovskiy↗
NASA NTRS2017

Towards the Development of a Global, Satellite-based, Terrestrial Snow Mission Planning Tool

A global, satellite-based, terrestrial snow mission planning tool is proposed to help inform experimental mission design with relevance to snow depth and snow water equivalent (SWE). The idea leverages the capabilities of NASAs Land Information System (LIS) and the Tradespace Analysis Tool for Constellations (TAT C) to harness the information content of Earth science mission data across a suite of hypothetical sensor designs, orbital configurations, data assimilation algorithms, and optimization and uncertainty techniques, including cost estimates and risk assessments of each hypothetical orbital configuration.One objective the proposed observing system simulation experiment (OSSE) is to assess the complementary or perhaps contradictory information content derived from the simultaneous collection of passive microwave (radiometer), active microwave (radar), and LIDAR observations from space-based platforms. The integrated system will enable a true end-to-end OSSE that can help quantify the value of observations based on their utility towards both scientific research and applications as well as to better guide future mission design. Science and mission planning questions addressed as part of this concept include:1. What observational records are needed (in space and time) to maximize terrestrial snow experimental utility?2. How might observations be coordinated (in space and time) to maximize utility? 3. What is the additional utility associated with an additional observation?4. How can future mission costs being minimized while ensuring Science requirements are fulfilled?

Mission Design↗
NASA NTRS2017

Towards the Development of a Global, Satellite-Based, Terrestrial Snow Mission Planning Tool

A global, satellite-based, terrestrial snow mission planning tool is proposed to help inform experimental mission design with relevance to snow depth and snow water equivalent (SWE). The idea leverages the capabilities of NASA's Land Information System (LIS) and the Tradespace Analysis Tool for Constellations (TAT-C) to harness the information content of Earth science mission data across a suite of hypothetical sensor designs, orbital configurations, data assimilation algorithms, and optimization and uncertainty techniques, including cost estimates and risk assessments of each hypothetical permutation. One objective of the proposed observing system simulation experiment (OSSE) is to assess the complementary or perhaps contradictory information content derived from the simultaneous collection of passive microwave (radiometer), active microwave (radar), and LIDAR observations from space-based platforms. The integrated system will enable a true end-to-end OSSE that can help quantify the value of observations based on their utility towards both scientific research and applications as well as to better guide future mission design. Science and mission planning questions addressed as part of this concept include: What observational records are needed (in space and time) to maximize terrestrial snow experimental utility? How might observations be coordinated (in space and time) to maximize this utility? What is the additional utility associated with an additional observation? How can future mission costs be minimized while ensuring Science requirements are fulfilled?

Mission Desig↗
DOE OSTI2023

Modeling strategies and data needs for representing coastal wetland vegetation in land surface models

Vegetated coastal ecosystems sequester carbon rapidly relative to terrestrial ecosystems. Coastal wetlands are poorly represented in land surface models, but work is underway to improve process-based, predictive modeling of these ecosystems. Here, in this work, we identify guiding questions, potential simulations, and data needs to make progress in improving representation of vegetation in terrestrial–aquatic interfaces, with a focus on coastal and estuarine ecosystems. We synthesize relevant plant traits and environmental controls on vegetation that influence carbon cycling in coastal ecosystems. We propose that models include separate plant functional types (PFTs) for mangroves, graminoid salt marshes, and succulent salt marshes to adequately represent the variation in aboveground and belowground productivity between common coastal wetland vegetation types. We also discuss the drivers and carbon storage consequences of shifts in dominant PFTs. We suggest several potential approaches to represent the diversity in vegetation tolerance and adaptations to fluctuations in salinity and water level, which drive key gradients in coastal wetland ecosystems. Finally, we discuss data needs for parameterizing and evaluating model implementations of coastal wetland vegetation types and function.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2022

Vegetation and vantage point influence visibility across diverse ecosystems: Implications for animal ecology

Visual information can influence animal behavior and habitat use in diverse ways. Visibility is the property that relates 3D habitat structure to accessibility of visual information. Despite the importance of visibility in animal ecology, this property remains largely unstudied. Our objective was to assess how habitat structure from diverse environments and animal position within that structure can influence visibility. We gathered terrestrial lidar data (1 cm at 10 m) in four ecosystems (forest, shrub-steppe, prairie, and desert) to characterize viewsheds (i.e., estimates of visibility based on spatially explicit sightlines) from multiple vantage points. Both ecosystem-specific structure and animal position influenced potential viewsheds. Generally, as height of the vantage point above the ground increased, viewshed extent also increased, but the relationships were not linear. In low-structure ecosystems (prairie, shrub-steppe, and desert), variability in viewsheds decreased as vantage points increased to heights above the vegetation canopy. In the forest, however, variation in viewsheds was highest at intermediate heights, and markedly lower at the lowest and highest vantage points. These patterns are likely linked to the amount, heterogeneity, and distribution of vegetation structure occluding sightlines. Our work is the first to apply a new method that can be used to estimate viewshed properties relevant to animals (i.e., viewshed extent and variability). We demonstrate that these properties differ across terrestrial landscapes in complex ways that likely influence many facets of animal ecology and behavior.

Rachel Stein↗
NASA NTRS2001

Human Mars Mission Contamination Issues

A potential challenge for a human Mars mission is that while humans are by most measures the obvious best way to search for life on Mars, we may also be the most problematic in that we could unduly compromise the search for life by contaminating relevant environments and/or possibly adversely and irreversibly affecting indigenous life. Perhaps more problematic is the fundamental epistemic challenge of the "one data point" limitation which could decrease confidence in applying terrestrially based research to extraterrestrial life issues in general. An informal decision tree is presented as one way to begin thinking about contamination issues. There are many sub-questions and distinctions not shown such as biological vs. nonbiological (but biologically relevant) contamination, viable vs. dead organisms, masking indigenous organisms vs. merely making the search more difficult, and independent origin vs. panspermia distinctions. While it may be unlikely that terrestrial microbes could survive on Mars, let alone reproduce and unduly compromise the search for life, the unpredictable potential for microbial life to survive, grow exponentially, evolve and modify (and sometimes destroy) environments, warrants focusing carefully on biologically relevant contamination as we prepare to send humans to the first planet that may have indigenous life-forms.

Lupisella, M. L.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Laboratory and theoretical models of planetary-scale instabilities and waves

Research work is proceeding in theoretical, numerical, and experimental geophysical fluid dynamics leading up to a reflight of the GFFC (Geophysical Fluid Flow Cell Experiment) on USML-2. The work is intended not only to generate ideas for future space experiments, but to provide fundamental results concerned with nonlinear and chaotic properties of thermal convection and baroclinic waves in terrestrial and planetary atmospheres. The major efforts are focussed on thermal convection in a rapidly rotating annulus relevant to Jovian atmospheric dynamics, and on the chaotic behavior of baroclinic waves relevant to the Earth's atmosphere. The approach, in preparation for USML-2, is primarily theoretical and numerical. Mechanistic process models are solved numerically in order to identify physical mechanisms that may be observed in the GFFC, and which are important in real geophysical applications. The results from numerical simulations of geophysical fluid flow (subject to rotation and stratification) are compared with previous GFFC experiments on Spacelab-3 and with existing and proposed terrestrial laboratory experiments of various types. Pattern recognition algorithms have been employed to generate low-dimensional descriptions of the highly nonlinear and turbulent numerical simulations. Such empirically truncated descriptions provide for simplified but robust physical interpretations of the dynamics, as well as yielding highly efficient computations of these chaotic flows.

Hart, John E.↗