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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 1,081 records · Page 60
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2018

Evaluation of the Danish Aerospace Corporation Portable Pulmonary Function System

A research project designed to investigate changes in maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) during and following long duration flight on the International Space Station (ISS) has recently been completed. The device used to measure VO2 on board ISS, the Portable Pulmonary Function System (PPFS) manufactured by the Danish Aerospace Corporation (DAC), is based on previous-generation devices manufactured by DAC, but the PPFS has not been validated for analyzing metabolic gases or measuring cardiac output (Qc). The purpose of the present evaluation is to compare PPFS metabolic gas analysis measurements to measurements obtained using a clinically-validated system (ParvoMedics TrueOne(c) 2400 system; Parvo). In addition, Qc data collected with the PPFS were compared to Qc measurements from echocardiography. METHODS: Ten subjects completed three cycle exercise tests to maximal exertion. The first test was conducted to determine each subject's VO2max and set the work rates for the second and third (comparison) tests. The protocol for the two comparison tests consisted of three 5-minute stages designed to elicit 25%, 50%, and 75% VO2max (based upon results from the initial test), followed by 1-minute stages of increasing work rate (25 watt/minute) until the subject reached maximal effort. During one of the two comparison tests, metabolic gases and Qc were assessed with the PPFS; metabolic gases and Qc were assessed with the Parvo and by echocardiography, respectively, during the other test. The order of the comparison tests was counterbalanced. VO2max and maximal work rate during the comparison tests were compared using t tests. Mixed-effects regression modeling was used to analyze submaximal data. RESULTS: All of the data were within normal physiological ranges. The PPFS-measured values for VO2max were 6% lower than values obtained with the Parvo (PPFS: 3.11 +/- 0.75 L/min; Parvo: 3.32 +/- 0.87 L/min; mean +/- standard deviation; P = 0.02); this difference is probably due to flow restriction imposed by the PPFS Qc accessories. Submaximal VO2 values were slightly lower when measured with the PPFS, although differences were not physiologically relevant. The PPFS-measured values of submaximal carbon dioxide production (VCO2) were lower than the data obtained from Parvo, which could be attributed to lower fractions of expired carbon dioxide measured by the PPFS. The PPFS Qc values tended to be lower than echocardiography-derived values. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the present study indicate a need to further examine the PPFS and to better quantify its reproducibility; however, none of the findings of the current evaluation indicate that the PPFS needs to be replaced or modified.

Portable Pulmonary Function System (PPFS)↗
NASA NTRS2016

Use of the NLP10x10 Sequential Quadratic Programming Algorithm To Solve Rotorcraft Hub Loads Minimisation Problems

Previous research and experimentation on the use of a non-linear programming constrained optimisation technique to define an optimal control vector for rotorcraft applications indicated that use of this methodology was feasible and desirable in many cases. In particular, use of non-linear programming methods that solve a sequence of related quadratic-programming sub-problems were used successfully to solve these problems. Accordingly, a licence for one of the latest versions of Professor Klaus Schittkowskis very successful Sequential Quadratic Programming NLPQLP software was obtained and used to experiment with and analyse typical optimisation problems of the type encountered in various rotorcraft wind tunnel and flight tests. This research resulted in the development of the general NLPQLP Computation System that could be used to solve problems of the type encountered in various rotorcraft applications where there is a linear dependence of the measurement vector on the control vector, and where equality andor inequality constraints might be imposed. This development was accomplished on a mainframe computer not part of actual wind tunnel andor flight-test experiment, but in a format which was transferable to wind tunnel lap-top computers. Emphasis was directed toward obtaining efficiency, robustness and speed in computation.The System was developed in support of the five-bladed SMART Rotor Active Flap Rotor Hub Loads analytical minimisation research. The design and development of the Computation System was tailored to address the particular requirements of the problem to minimise a performance metric function of measured hub load harmonic angular couple components by optimising the control vector harmonic flap angular couple components subject to constraints on the amplitudes of these control vector harmonic flap angular couple components. In addition, to facilitate real time wind tunnel experimentation, the ability to rapidly selectchange the particular hub load harmonic angular couple components andor the particular control vector harmonic angular couple components to be considered in the optimisation procedure was provided in the System. This capability allows the singling out of particular hub load frequencies andor particular flap angle frequencies to be analysed during testing operations. The System was used very successfully for the SMART Active Flap Rotor Hub minimisation problems considered in the study, the results of which were presented at the American Helicopter Society Fifth Decennial Aeromechanics Specialist Conference in January 2014. Excellent agreement between cases initiated with best guess starting estimates for the control vector elements and cases initiated with zero control vector starting element estimates resulted, indicating the robustness of the NLP10x10 algorithm.

Rotorcraft Hub Loads↗
NASA NTRS2019

Experimental Demonstration and System Analysis for Plasmonic Force Propulsion

This project developed a higher-fidelity model of a recently envisioned small spacecraft propulsion system for precision pointing and proximity control. Plasmonic force propulsion harnesses solar light focused onto plasmon reactive subwavelength nanostructures to accelerate and expel nanoparticle propellant via strong optical forces. The goal of the project was to show that plasmonic space propulsion can provide the level of proximity and attitude control envisioned for future NASA nano/picosatellite missions, a level that is better than state-of-the-art approaches. We achieved this goal by showing that plasmonic force thrusters are feasible for a range of advanced mission concepts requiring swarm formations in a deep space environment. We performed three case studies that evaluated the performance of the plasmonic force propulsion thruster in a deep space, microsatellite swarm formation. These case studies assumed the propulsion system could generate thrust at the level predicted from our Phase 1 study (1.6 μN). Through these cases we were able to analyze the concept within a mission specific context through detailed orbital dynamics calculations. Results indicate that, with the Phase 1 estimated thrust level, the approach is promising for providing attitude control to swarm formation spacecraft. Further, we achieved goals related to technology development. Specifically, we experimentally demonstrated nanoparticle acceleration due to plasmonic forces with asymmetric nanostructures excited by focused laser light. Additionally, we investigated the thrust sensitivity and nanoparticle propellant injection dependencies upon thermal effects. As a result of our study, plasmonic force propulsion is at an early TRL 3. Active research and design has been conducted analytically and in the laboratory. Furthermore, practical applications such as the three case studies have been identified for the scientific basic principles that were observed. Future efforts related to fundamental understanding of these techniques should focus on 1) developing a standalone array of asymmetric nanostructures that can effectively interact with a stream or reservoir of particles or 2) experimentally evaluate a dielectrophoretic injector for nanoparticle propellant. The main limitation discovered about plasmonic propulsion regards performance estimates significantly below the Phase 1 estimations. Specifically, original assumptions in the Phase 1 project (notably, a linear array of asymmetric nanostructures) is not a viable approach to achieving significant acceleration, high exhaust velocity, of nanoparticles. More specifically, we assumed in Phase 1 that nanoparticles would be accelerated in series by a long linear array of asymmetric nanostructures. That is, the acceleration of the nanoparticle would build and increase with the kick received by each subsequent nanostructure. This is fundamentally flawed. The potential profile of a single nanostructure is such that it prohibits this phenomenon. The potential energy associated with the plasmon-generated dielectrophoretic force is a potential well, which is good for trapping nanoparticles, but cannot provide significant acceleration of particles to expel them out and away from the nanostructure. Further, a nanoparticle expelled from the first nanostructure would need to overcome the potential barrier for entry into the next nanostructure accelerating stage. Fundamentally, this effect means that a linear array of nanostructures is not a viable accelerating structure. Correspondingly then, acceleration can, or should, only be provided by one nanostructure, and the net acceleration and thrust force of a single nanostructure is small (~cm/s exhaust velocities, sub-nN level thrust vs. the 100’s m/s, μN originally envisioned). While our experiments demonstrated acceleration and manipulation of a nanoparticle using laser light in aqueous environment, the achievable energy and momentum addition to the nanoparticle from a single nanostructure stage is too low for useful propulsion. In terms of thrust prediction, the estimated thrust of 1.6 μN in Phase 1 is reduced to a few nN of thrust with this new insight and understanding of the concept. This thrust level is too small to achieve attitude control of swarms as originally envisioned.

Plasmonic Force↗
NASA NTRS2020

Pattern Identification - A Foundation for Research in the Emphasis of Design Patterns in Systems Engineering and Knowledge Capture

Pattern Language describes the morphology and functionality of a system in the absence of design particulars. Harnessing this capability will provide the Systems Engineering discipline a means of managing the development of increasingly complex systems with increasingly distributed design teams while capturing and retaining knowledge for future generations. Pattern Language is a syntax for describing, and structurally relating, design patterns. Design patterns contextually describe the application of domain knowledge in the engineered solution to the force balance problem. The parallels between pattern recognition and application, as a fundamental stage of human learning, and pattern observation within a complex system, suggests pattern language may be a valuable tool in the capture and dissemination of knowledge. Pattern application has enjoyed considerable study over the last several decades, however much of this work has focused on the replication of design particulars. This work returns to the roots of Pattern Language and explores the utility of patterns as an architectural description and guide, and knowledge capture method, for complex system development beginning with the identification of a time proven design pattern.

Russell, Samuel P.↗
NASA NTRS2012

TPSAS-NF1676L-13680-DND

The International Space Station will require a continuous supply of replacement parts for ongoing maintenance and repair after the retirement of the Space Shuttle. These parts, existing line-replaceable items collectively called Orbital Replacement Units, include heavy and oversized items such as Control Moment Gyroscopes and stowed radiator arrays originally intended for delivery aboard the Space Shuttle. Current resupply spacecraft have limited to no capability to deliver these external logistics. In support of NASA?s Exploration Systems Architecture Study, a team at Langley Research Center designed an Unpressurized Cargo Delivery Vehicle to deliver bulk cargo to the Space Station. The Unpressurized Cargo Delivery Vehicle was required to deliver at least 13,200 lb of cargo mounted on at least 18 Flight Releasable Attachment Mechanisms. The baseline vehicle design developed here has a cargo capacity of 16,000 lbs mounted on up to 20 Flight Releasable Attachment Mechanisms. Major vehicle components are a 5.5m-diameter cargo module containing two detachable cargo pallets with the payload, a Service Module to provide propulsion and power, and an aerodynamic nose cone. To reduce cost and risk, the Service Module is identical to the one used for the Crew Exploration Vehicle design. The Crew Launch Vehicle design recommended in the Exploration Systems Architecture Study was used to launch one annual resupply flight to the International Space Station.

K Chauncey Wu↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Designing the Design Process for Early Problem Discovery for a Complex Aeronautics Systems Challenge

The earliest stage in the innovation lifecycle, problem formulation, is crucial for setting direction in an innovation effort. When faced with an interesting problem, engineers commonly assume the approximate solution area and focus on ideating innovative solutions. However, in this project, NASA and their contracted partner, Accenture, collaboratively conducted problem discovery to ensure that solutioning efforts were focused on the right problems, for the right users, and addressing the most critical needs—in this case, exploring weather tolerant operations (WTO) to further urban air mobility (UAM) – known as UAM WTO. The project team leveraged generative, qualitative methods to understand the ecosystem, players, and where challenges in the industry are inhibiting development. The complexity of the problem area required that the team constantly observe and iterate on problem discovery, effectively “designing the design process.” This report discusses the approach, methodologies, and selected results, including insights on the application of early-stage design methodologies to a complex, system-level problem.

Problem formulation↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Signal and Power Integrity Design Methodology for High-Performance Flight Computing Systems

Computing capabilities of space systems have in-creased onboard performance by orders of magnitude with the use of radiation-tolerant field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA)and processors. The incorporation of signal and power integrity analysis with printed circuit board (PCB) design in reliable computing architectures for space systems has become critical to enable future mission capabilities. Developers launch high-performance processors into a breadth of orbits and missions, running varying applications that create challenges for designing reliable computing hardware. Specifically, for these designs, academic and industry research has focused on component radiation performance, fault mitigation, and reliable architectures. How-ever, other design parameters including electromagnetic interference (EMI), PCB stackup, signal integrity (SI), voltage regulator module (VRM) design, and power distribution network (PDN)are often deprioritized or disregarded as the design matures. Since these characteristics are becoming more significant in high-performance processor designs, this research presents a hardware design and analysis methodology for high-performance, space-computing systems that focuses on a holistic design approach and PDN reliability. While these challenges exist across all space hardware, the reduced PCB dimensions imposed by SmallSats and CubeSats introduce additional hurdles, specifically to VRM and decoupling design. By examining the relationship between the PDN and radiation performance, an analytical relationship is developed that incorporates Total Ionizing Dose and Single-Event Transients to ensure reliability throughout the mission duration. The presented design methodology is applied to the SpaceCube v3.0 Mini, an FPGA-based on-board science data processing system developed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Advanced avionics↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Preliminary Design of a Downstream Processing System for Protein Production in Space

Biomanufacturing is a promising technology to convert in situ resources into essential products including enzymes, therapeutics, biopolymers and other chemicals required to support deep-space missions that may not be easily supplied or produced by alternative means. In addition to the biomass production operations, vital down-stream steps including biomass harvesting/concentration, cell lysis, protein capture and purification are needed to produce an application-ready product. Commercially available terrestrial processes commonly require complex, heavy equipment and highly trained operators, which are not practical in deep space environments. In this work, we aim to identify approaches required to produce an intracellular, His-tagged recombinant enzyme using E. coli at 1 L production scales within the constraints of a deep-space mission as a model use-case scenario. Based on extensive literature review and commercially available products, we identified candidate technologies and products that could be integrated for deep space biomanufacturing. Different preliminary designs were then compared in terms of total system impacts on up-mass, processing time, and consumables required. Our analysis indicated that a biomass concentrator would significantly reduce the processing time and consumables required for the overall system without a large increase in the total mass. We also identified viable technologies for other steps such as cell lysis and protein purification. Predictions from our trade study will be validated in the laboratory by testing the most promising products with the results used to optimize the design. This research will help transfer technology that is well developed on Earth to a space-ready format to produce biological products from a wide variety of microorganisms that can support deep-space missions.

Biomanufacturing↗
NASA NTRS2023

Psychophysiological Research Methods to Assess Airline Flight Crew Resilient Performance in High-Fidelity Flight Simulation Scenarios

New concepts in aviation system safety thinking have emerged to consider not only what may go wrong, but also what can be learned when things go right. This approach forms a more comprehensive approach to system safety thinking. A need exists for methods to enable a better understanding of human contributions to aviation safety and how they may inform Safety Management Systems (SMS). A high-fidelity 737-800 simulation study was conducted to study how current type-rated commercial airline flight crews anticipate, monitor, respond to, and learn from expected and unexpected disturbances during line operations. A number of dependent measures were collected that included traditional SMS data types, but also non-traditional safety data to include multiple psychophysiological metrics. This paper describes the psychophysiological measures results that evinced the capability of measures to help identify resilient flight crews. Implications for future research and design of future In-time Aviation Safety Management Systems are discussed.

Psychophysiology↗
NASA NTRS2023

Psychophysiological Research Methods to Assess Airline Flight Crew Resilient Performance in High-Fidelity Flight Simulation Scenarios

New concepts in aviation system safety thinking have emerged to consider not only what may go wrong, but also what can be learned when things go right. This approach forms a more comprehensive approach to system safety thinking. A need exists for methods to enable a better understanding of human contributions to aviation safety and how they may inform Safety Management Systems (SMS). A high-fidelity 737-800 simulation study was conducted to study how current type-rated commercial airline flight crews anticipate, monitor, respond to, and learn from expected and unexpected disturbances during line operations. A number of dependent measures were collected that included traditional SMS data types, but also non-traditional safety data to include multiple psychophysiological metrics. This paper describes the psychophysiological measures results that evinced the capability of measures to help identify resilient flight crews. Implications for future research and design of future In-time Aviation Safety Management Systems are discussed.

Psychophysiology↗
NASA NTRS2016

EDEN: A Novel Approach to Plant Growth in Space

The USU XHAB Eden Team has enjoyed the opportunity to participate in NASA’s X­HAB Challenge. Our project involved constructing a prototype to further investigate the complexities of growing plants in microgravity environments. Attached is the team’s report which covers the research and design of our prototype. Included is a summary of our design, drawings and schematics with an as built status, engineering process documents, and all other documentation necessary to satisfy the requirements of Utah State University’s Engineering Design Course (MAE 4810).

Timothy Taylor↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Fundamental Regolith Properties, Handling and Water Capture (FLEET) Project Update

The FLEET project, begun in FY21, was designed to research several concepts for components and subsystems needed for extracting water from planetary ice deposits. This is one of two approaches for providing water off-Earth for direct use and also for feedstock to manufacture spacecraft propellants. The other approach is to extract lattice-bound water and hydroxyl from the minerals that make up the solid grains of rock and regolith. The ultimate intent is to integrate the findings with other efforts, such as, in the creation of complete water-from-ice production systems for various down-stream uses. The project consists of several elements, now in various stages of completion. They are presented here in the approximate order they would generally be applied to a water-extraction system: Digging icy regolith, transporting it, capturing water vapor, and sealing chambers from the outer environment.

L Gertsch↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Fundamental Regolith Properties, Handling and Water Capture (FLEET) Update

The FLEET project, begun in FY21, was designed to research several concepts for components and subsystems needed for extracting water from planetary ice deposits. This is one of two approaches for providing water off-Earth for direct use and also for feedstock to manufacture spacecraft propellants. The other approach is to extract lattice-bound water and hydroxyl from the minerals that make up the solid grains of rock and regolith. The ultimate intent is to integrate the findings with other efforts, such as, in the creation of complete water-from-ice production systems for various down-stream uses. The project consists of several elements, now in various stages of completion. They are presented here in the approximate order they would generally be applied to a water-extraction system: Digging icy regolith, transporting it, capturing water vapor, and sealing chambers from the outer environment.

regolith excavation↗
NASA NTRS2024

Usability Evaluation of NASA TOPS Open Science 101

This report presents a usability evaluation of NASA’s Open Science 101 (OS101) interface. It offers design recommendations for improving the user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) of the initial self-paced OS101 release. The author initially conducted an independent heuristic evaluation, followed by an analysis of written user feedback to corroborate findings. Overall, the usability evaluation found that the OS101 interface offers a linear and interactive UX, with areas for improvement across five major, three minor, and two cosmetic aspects of usability.

Human-Computer Interaction↗
NASA NTRS2025

PSE-Based Aerodynamic Flow Transition Prediction Using Automated Unstructured CFD Integration

Accurate, robust, and efficient prediction of transition in viscous flows is a significant challenge in computational fluid dynamics. We present a coupled, high-fidelity, iterative approach that leverages the FUN3D flow solver and the LASTRAC stability code to predict transition in low-disturbance environments, initiated by the linear growth of boundary-layer instability modes. Our method integrates the ability of FUN3D to compute mixed laminar-transitional-turbulent mean flows via transition-sensitized Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations with the ability of LASTRAC to perform linear stability analysis, all within an automated framework that requires no intermediate user involvement. Unlike conventional frameworks that rely on classical stability theory or reduced-order metamodels, our approach employs the parabolized stability equations to provide more accurate and reliable estimates of disturbance growth for multiple instability mechanisms, including Tollmien-Schlichting, Kelvin-Helmholtz, and crossflow modes. By accounting for the effects of mean-flow nonparallelism as well as the surface curvature, this approach lays the foundation for improved N-factor correlations for transition onset prediction in a broad class of flows. We apply this method to three distinct flow configurations: 1) flow over a zero-pressure-gradient flat plate, 2) the NLF-0416 airfoil with both natural and separation-induced transitions, and 3) a 6:1 prolate spheroid, where transition is primarily driven by crossflow instability. For the two-dimensional cases, a formulated intermittency distribution is used to model the transition zone in between the laminar and fully turbulent flows. The results include comparisons with experimental measurements, similar numerical approaches, and transport-equations-based models, demonstrating good agreement in surface pressure coefficients, transition onset locations, and skin-friction coefficients for all three configurations. Besides contributing a couple of new insights into boundary-layer transition in these canonical cases, this study provides a powerful tool for transition modeling in both research and design applications in aerodynamics.

Transition Prediction↗
DOE OSTI2015

Progress on the Multiphysics Capabilities of the Parallel Electromagnetic ACE3P Simulation Suite

ACE3P is a 3D parallel simulation suite that is being developed at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Effectively utilizing supercomputer resources, ACE3P has become a key tool for the coupled electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical research and design of particle accelerators. Based on the existing finite-element infrastructure, a massively parallel eigensolver is developed for modal analysis of mechanical structures. It complements a set of the multiphysics tools in ACE3P and, in particular, can be used for the comprehensive study of microphonics in accelerating cavities ensuring the operational reliability of a particle accelerator.

Kononenko, Oleksiy↗